"I need to take Monte out" she said, sitting up from his embrace. Looking around them, she found her shirt and slipped into it. He watched her, from his place on the living room floor, one arm bent and under his head, a lazy smile on his face. He hadn't known if was possible to feel so spent and so exhilarated at the same time.

"Want me to go with you?" He asked, but didn't move.

"Nah" she stepped into her shorts and pulled them up. "He never takes long. Besides. . .." Plopping herself back down on to the floor on her knees, she bent over, her face just above his, hair hanging down like drapes. "I kind of like the idea of you lying here, naked on my floor." She kissed him quickly, pulling herself away and back up onto her feet before things got carried away again. He watched her move down the hall, a devious grin on his face.

Week Two

Wednesday / Thursday

Everything around him was in shades of black and gray. Occasionally a sprout of orange or red would pop into his line of sight, as if crying for attention, proud of themselves for successfully hiding from the fire that had raged everything else in the house.

Warrick stepped over a pile of ashes and burnt debris the fire department had left in the middle of the room and looked around him. Several long triangles of fabric hung, barely pinned to the wall, two couches, or what used to be couches, crowded the living room, and there were beer cans everywhere. "What the hell was this place?" He asked the fire chief, who was two steps ahead of him.

"Make shift frat house. Several buddies going to the UNLV rent it out together." The destination reached, he stopped just to the side of what used to be one of the sofas and looked down. "They were behind the couch, we didn't find them until after the fire was out."

Catching up, Warrick took one step past him and crouched next to the two bodies. The couch had taken the brunt of the fire, leaving the two girls virtually unburned. Shoot smudged on their faces and there were ashes all over their clothes, but the fire itself had barely touched them.

They were laid out head to head, one with long blonde hair, the other, shoulder length brunette. Each wore jeans, the blonde with a sweater, the other a tee shirt. Warrick guessed they were about seventeen. He shook his head. "What a waste."

He collected what he could on the bodies, and waved in the corners office before he began to scrutinize the rest of the house. His flashlight sent sweeping illuminating circles around the room, skimming from one spot to another, he heard footsteps behind him and turned to find Detective O'Reilly standing there. "Showed pictures of the vics to the boys," he looked at his notebook "Ben Casing, Steven Hollingsworth and Sedrick Smart. They say they don't know them."

"But you don't believe them?"

The big cop shrugged, "Doesn't make sense. There's only three of them out there, they say they went to Reno for the weekend, got bored, came back early to find the fire department in their driveway and their house on fire."

Warrick continued sending the flashlight beam around the room. "What are you looking for anyway?" O'Reilly asked.

"Know it when I find it." Warrick replied as he found it. The flashlight beam landed on a piece of carpeting, a half inch sized circle of the carpet pile was depressed, as if something heavy had been sitting there for a while. Stepping closer, he shone the light to either side of the dent and found three other dents just like it. If he'd been playing connect the dots, he'd have a rectangle, about two feet across one foot deep. "What the hell was here?" He whispered to himself.

"Hey Warrick!" He stopped mid stride and turned half around at the sound of his name, Catherine was half way down the lab hall, catching up to him with long jogging strides. "Hey" she said arriving at his side a little out of breath.

"Hey."

"I ran the prints from our B&E, no matches."

"Huh." Warrick sighed, it'd happened before. "Do me a favor" he changed subjects, and opened up the manila folder in his hands, handing Catherine pictures of the dented carpet from the fire scene. "What does this look like to you?"

Catherine tucked her hair behind her ear and cocked her head, scrutinizing the photos. "These from your fire?" Warrick nodded. She shook her head, "Coffee table? No, to short; bookcase maybe?" She guessed again.

"Well, whatever it is..."

"Warrick!" The sound of his name stopped him in mid sentence, both he and Catherine looked up to find David, assistant coroner poking his head around the corner. "Your fire victims are up. You coming?"

"Already?" Warrick asked, surprised.

David shrugged. "You caught me on a good day. Looking a gift horse in the mouth?"

"Hell no." He started after David, "Thanks" he called back to Catherine over his shoulder.

"Victim one, Claudia Hollingsworth, broken neck. Victim two, Denise Grant" the two men moved to the other table where the brunette lay. "Gun shot wound to the chest."

"No smoke or ash in their lungs?"

"None. They were dead before the fire began."

"Got the bullet?" Warrick asked and watched as David extracted it from the brunette's chest. Pieces of tissue attached to the slug strung out like melted cheese, then sprung back to the wound with a sickening snap. So much for pizza for dinner Warrick thought to himself as he held open an evidence envelope for David to slip the cartridge into. "Thanks man."