It was going to end.

He knew it would end someday, he only hoped it wouldn't have to be this way. But it didn't matter anymore, it just had to finish.

He cocked an eyebrow looking at the lighted house before him. In the quiet suburban area the two storied house was alive with people, light and music. Nobody would notice him. Nobody would notice it. He chucked slowly and checked the gun in his leather gloved hands. This was going to stop tonight.

7:26 a.m. Sunday

Nick and Warrick walked slowly in the bright sunlight. It was already pretty hot for this time of the year, at least for early morning hours. They stopped a few yards away from the suburban house. What they saw was a really nice house with a disastrous atmospher all around it. There were empty bottles and garbage everywhere in the front yard. The carefully meowed grass was smashed along with various potted flowers.

Nick pushed his sunglasses up. "Some party, huh?"

"Don't you remember your college days?"

"Yeah, especially times that I studied till dawn."

"So, were you the guy in the lab, the one on the corner?"

"Ha ha. Let's see what the lady has to say about these college parties."

As they walked inside the house to see the corpse upstairs, through all the trash the party left behind, Nick and Warrick tried to imagine the scene of the party before it ended with blood.

The lady was lying naked on the bed with some sheets around but not covering the body. And a blood shattered pillow was on the ground with two holes on it.

"Don't you just love college parties?" Warrick took another picture of the bed from a different angle.

"I don't know, I don't remember any of this kind."

"Are you gonna look for semen?"

"You kidding me? Does the body imply another thing? Gimme the purple light."

With the body bagged and taken downstairs, they stopped on the bottom of the stairs and looked around. Seeing any kind of leftovers, which were possible evidence, first reaction came from Warrick. "We're gonna need some help here."

9:11 a.m. Sunday

Back at the CSI Headquarters, Grisham walked down on the main corridor with labs on boths sides. As Catherine got out of a lab with a bottle of some unidentified liquid in her hand she almost hit him.

Without even letting her apologize, Grisham waved Catherine the pages he held. "Are you busy? We're invited to a party. Come on."

9:35 a.m. Sunday

"Why the hell there's a sping break that they can kill each other?" Nick said while he looked for something, anything, in the garbage that could indicate with whom the girl had her own private party. "Christ, how many condoms are here?"

"That's why we should think about post-graduation!"

"Speak for yourself!"

Catherine showed up in the door frame and smiled down to the two kneeding men. "How's it going, guys?"

9:58 a.m. Sunday

Grisham blankly stared at the tossed brown haired, having-a-hangover eyed young man standing right outside of the door. "Do you remember how many people were around?"

"Christ, I have no idea. What do you ask, people that I invited, or the people they had brought along?"

"Give me a number just about."

"I'm not sure . . . but there wasn't any room to dance in the living room and the other parts were no better."

"When was the last time you checked the rooms upstairs?"

"Have you ever thrown a house party? There's no way to check each people and place. Besides, after everybody had some drinks, I didn't even go upstairs. You know, they'd be occupied anyway."

Grisham sighed. "Eric, besides the evidence we need your help. You have to tell us everything you remember about the party. Every detail. How many people you invited, who they were, everything you know about that girl, etc."

"The kid who threw the party doesn't remember much," Grisham said walking to Catherine who was constantly bagging some cigarette ends with her back turned to the door of the living room.

Catherine turned around. "I think I'm going to have hysterics."

"Where are Nick and Warrick?"

She tucked her hair under her ear. "Warrick is upstairs. And Nick must be in the kitchen."

Grisham looked around to get some ideas about how it could have happened. It must have been very crowded with different types of the people around the house; drinking, dancing, laughing, smoking, and . . . killing. But it should have happened later, according to the host, at a time when most people were far too drunk to realize what was going on.

"I'm going. If you call me, I'll be at the Central having a talk with the girl's parents."

"Okay. See you around."

Someone hit Grisham in front of the door while he was about to leave. The young man hurried inside without bothering to apologize. Grisham turned to take a look at the careless boy, then shook his head and left the house.

"Is it true that somebody was killed here last night?"

Catherine gave the curious boy an once-over. "Who are you? And who let you in?"

"So it is true." He grinned.

"Is there something funny about?" She raised an eyebrow.

"God, someone was murdered when I was around! When was it? How did it happen? Do you have any suspects? Why didn't I notice right away?"

"So you were here last night," she said when his excited speech finished.

"You're from CSI team, aren't you? Cool! What did you find? What are you looking for? Did you discover anything to lead you to the killer?"

"When did you arrive last night?" Catherine cut his words. "Are you a friend of Eric Gannon's, or did you just come by with somebody?"

"Of course I'm Eric's friend. I know him since the elementary school. Who was the victim?"

"Tracy Carpenter. Did you know her?" She added when he carelessly took a step back, "Watch your step. You're destroying my evidence."

"Sorry. It's just too cool. Do you guys take all these trash as evidence? Are you gonna analyze everything?"

Catherine chose to ignore him. "About Tracy Carpenter. Did you know her?"

"Didn't everybody? She was a cheerleader with legs up to her ears. Very popular girl."

"We're gonna get back to Tracy, but what exactly are you doing here at this hour?" She gave him the kind of her look that had the would-be suspects uneasy.

The boy didn't even bother with the hard look. "I live a couple houses down the street. I saw the blue suits coming and got curious. I wondered if something happened in the party and came to see if everything was okay. And wow!" He looked pleased.

Catherine again chose to ignore his more than improper behavior. Besides, he could be a good source of info with his talkativeness. "Your popular girl had a boy friend, didn't she?"

"Yeah, that basketball player, David something. Sure they were some couple."

"What about her close friends? Can you give me any names she used to hang out?"

Before he could have a chance to answer, her cell phone rang. Catherine signed him to wait and picked the phone. "Catherine Willows. Who? I'm on my way." She snapped her cell phone closed and turned to the boy. "We'll continue this talk later. Someone will be talking to you. Stay around here." Before she made to the door, she turned back and told him firmly, "Don't mess around."