Friday / Saturday

The waitress bent over farther than she really need to as she placed Nick's ice tea in front of him. Sitting to his left at the small square table, Rai noticed the obvious flirtation and looked to Sara, as if to say What the hell? Sara had noticed it too, and laid her hand out, palm open and facing up, fingers pointing in Nick's direction, the unspoken female communication saying, He's clueless.

Rai laughed out loud. "What?" Nick asked, coming out from behind his menu. "What'd I miss?"

"The Taj Mahal of breasts in your face." Rai told him pointing toward the retreating waitress.

"Really?" He turned in his seat, trying to find the owner of the breasts. "Wow." Turning back, he winked at Rai, a smile crinkling his face. Got ya.

Rai blinked, and pursed her lips, not believing she'd fallen for his little prank.

Sara laughed at the exchange. "I can't believe someone observant enough to solve a locked room murder didn't see those breasts in his face."

"He wasn't thinking about food when he solved..." it hit Rai what Sara had just said, she turned her head quickly to Nick "A genuine locked room murder? Like in mystery novels?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah, a janitor dropped a hammer on the victims head from the ceiling air duct" he explained.

"That's not in any of the books I've read" Rai muttered.

"Ya'll ready to order?" The waitress, her nametag read Wendy, reappeared at the table, on the empty side between Nick and Sara.

"Yeah," Nick said "Steak, medium. Baked and Caesar."

"And for you ma'am?" Wendy turned to Rai.

Ma'am? Rai thought. "Salmon please, with rice."

Sara spoke before she was asked. "Vegetable plate, and could you bring another bread basket."

"Sure thing." She smiled, directed more at Nick than the two women, and walked away to place the order.

"Vegetables." Rai muttered. She slid her eyes over to Nick, who shrugged.

"Don't start." Sara held up a hand in a stopping gesture.

"I have got to see one of those pig experiments." Rai muttered, referring to the experiments the CSI's ran from time to time to test the effects of various weapons or circumstances on flesh. Sara had sworn off meat after witnessing her first pig experiment.

"No you don't." Both Nick and Sara said in unison.

"Hey Nick, did you get the results on the car accident before you left this morning?" Sara changed the subject. Sort of.

He shook his head. "No, but we did find the drivers skin scrapings under the DOA passengers finger nails. Makes me think there's something else to this whole thing."

"That only proves that she scratched him, they were a couple, they could have sex just before getting in the car." Sara argued.

Rai glanced down at her hands, a faint blush creeping across her cheeks.

"Yeah, well, the driver? He's already lawyered up..."

"Hey-ay." Rai interrupted, getting their attention. They both looked at her a little stunned. "No crime talk at the dinner table."

Week Three

Wednesday / Thursday

Time, Fate and some creative scheduling had finally allowed for the nightshift team to be able to all sit down at the same time.

"Ok, so what do we know?" Grissom looked around the table, making eye contact with each of his team members. Silence answered him. No one wanted to be the first to speak.

"Victim, Jan Taylor, COD, strangulation, the lamp cord around her throat, autopsy confirms rape." Grissom laid out the basic facts to get them started.

"Two wine glasses set out, like she was expecting company" Greg jumped in, "And a broken wine bottle and paper towels with only the vics fingerprints in the trash."

"Well, she didn't have a date." Sara added, "Brass talked to the friend who found her" she consulted her notes, "Jerome Hodgkin's, he said that Jan didn't have a date that night, and...that she was a lesbian."

Nick and Warrick raised their eyebrows at the revelation. "Two wine glasses, and no date?" Nick asked no one in particular.

Catherine shrugged, "We may never know why there were two glasses."

"Did Brass check out this Hodgkin's?" Grissom asked.

"Yeah" Warrick answered, flipping open a file in front of him. "He was at work, at the casino, on camera at the time of the rape. And Brass checked out the vic's other male co-workers, they all have an alibi, expect for," he glanced at the file. "Bradford Crain, the eighty year old arthritic security guard" he pointed at Grissom "I know what you think about hunches, but I just don't think he did it." Grissom smiled a little at the jibe.

"All of them have an alibi?" Catherine asked, incredulous.

He nodded. "It's a small casino. Only twenty-five employees, fifteen of who are male, eight of them, including Hodgkin's, were at work and on film. The others, excluding Crain, have family or friends supporting their alibis."

"And no signs of forced entry on the doors or windows." Grissom said.

"She had to have known her attacker, a single female wouldn't let just anyone in her apartment." Sara told them.

"So, who do you let in to your apartment?" Grissom asked the table. All of them began to search their brains and memories, trying to come up with an answer. The room grew so silent; that the shrill ringing of Grissom's cell phone startled all of them. Sara jumped a little in her seat, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed.

Gil grabbed the phone and flipped it open before it could ring a second time. "Grissom" he answered. Everyone table watched as he listened, then slowly closed his eyes, grief coming over his face. "Uh huh. What's the address?" Catherine held out her pen, and Grissom took it, jotting down what he was being told. "Give us twenty." He clicked the phone shut with out waiting for a reply.

"That was Brass. We've got another victim."