"Gil, what's going on?" Sara asked, emerging from the bedroom.
Sara had heard the phone ring a couple of times and felt she should at least know what the racket was all about. When Grissom lifted his head up, he had a weary look on his face. "Sit down Sara," Grissom gestured to an empty space on the couch next to him.
Sara stayed when she was. "Gil, just tell me. What is it?"
"Please sit," Grissom said, tugging at her waist so she would sit next to him.
Sara was starting to get antsy. "Who was on the phone Gil?"
"Warrick."
"Did he get prints off of my watch?"
"Yes."
"But?" Sara waited for the other shoe to drop.
"They match the guy who's sitting in the sheriff's office."
A puzzled look crossed Sara's face. "The sheriff," Sara inferred, "that's good isn't it?"
"We have reason to believe that the guy sitting in the sheriff's office isn't the sheriff."
"That's nonsense," Sara stated, "are you kidding me?"
Grissom rested a hand on her arm. "Sara, the prints from your watch match the prints from the guy in the sheriff's office, but they don't match the prints on record for the sheriff."
"You have got to be kidding me," Sara said, exasperated, "could this situation get any worse?"
"Sara, I can't quite understand it either. Why try to impersonate the sheriff?"
Sara stared at Grissom like there were obvious reasons why someone would try to impersonate an officer of the law. "How did we not realize this?"
"There were lots of other things going on, the sheriff just seemed to be acting on political motivations."
"But why would he ever go to such trouble to try and purposefully ruin our careers and our lives? We should have noticed this before! The real sheriff was politically minded, but what he did doesn't make any sense for his career. He had to have known that assaulting a CSI was career suicide, the real sheriff would never sacrifice his standing in the department!"
Although Sara was starting to get angry, Grissom still appeared to be calm and collected on the outside. "Sara, I'm not denying that we should have noticed this earlier, I'm just saying that there were other factors that may have influenced us with this."
"We let our emotions run our thought processes, and now we're getting a swift kick in the ass!" Sara growled.
"Sara, we can yell about this all day long, and it still won't change a thing. I need to go back into the lab and try to get a handle on what is going on."
"Don't think you're leaving me here, I want in on this too."
"Sara," Grissom warned.
"I know, you're going to say I just came back from the hospital, and I've got a messed up wrist, and I can't touch any of the evidence. That doesn't mean I can't watch from behind a mirror and do searches on the computer," Sara reasoned.
Sara got up from the couch and disappeared into the bedroom. Grissom sighed and ran his hand through his beard, contemplating what was actually going on with the situation. Sara returned to the living room a few minutes later, fresh clothes on and ready to go. Grissom shook his head, and they both left for the lab.
When Sara entered the lab, she rounded everyone into the break room. "What do we have so far on all of this?" Grissom asked the team.
"You already know about how the prints match, but don't," Warrick stated, "we've got a warrant coming for a DNA sample to check that out."
Grissom nodded. "I called his wife to get her to come in and talk to us. If anyone noticed any changes, it had to have been her," Catherine spoke.
"Is that all we have right now?" Grissom questioned.
"Yeah, but Brass has got him in an interrogation room now," Nick added, "he's denying everything all the way, and he's not saying much."
Grissom seemed to be processing the information. "Warrick, Nick, go search his office, see if you can find anything suspicious in there."
The two of them nodded and headed out of the break room. "Greg, as soon as the warrant comes through, I want you processing that DNA sample. Catherine, wait for the sheriff's wife to get in here and take Sara with you to talk to her."
"Where are you going?" Catherine asked.
"To go sit in with Brass," Grissom stated, exiting the break room.
"Now I'm going to ask you again," Brass started once Grissom entered the room, "who are you?"
"You're a broken record Detective Brass. I'm not going to tell you again, my name is Rory Atwater."
"Right, and how would you like to explain how your prints are different than the sheriff's prints in the computer?"
"I am the sheriff!" he yelled.
"You know, impersonation of a law enforcement official is quite a crime, as is assault of a CSI, and whatever other laws you've broken in the process of this charade."
The man went silent, staring off into space once again. "With evidence," Grissom stated, "we are going to find out who you are, and what is really going on here. It might be in your best interest to speak up."
The man still didn't speak, and Grissom, not having the patience to wait for the man to talk, headed back to the lab to start searching for any leads.
When Ms. Atwater arrived at the station around seven in the morning, they led her into an interrogation room so they could talk quietly without being interrupted.
"Ms. Atwater, we'd like to ask a few questions about your husband," Catherine stated.
"Sure, why not?" Ms. Atwater spoke, "Please call me Lori."
"Okay, Lori," Catherine paused, "did you notice anything different about your husband lately?"
"Rory and I are separated, I can't say that I've talked to him in a while."
Sara's eyes widened with the information. "When did you separate?" Catherine asked.
"About six months ago. Rory started to change, and he just wasn't the man I married anymore."
The same thoughts crossed through both Catherine and Sara's minds. This has been going on for six months? Catherine figured that they shouldn't jump to any conclusions. "Lori, can you tell us some of the specific things that started happening before the two of you separated?"
Ms. Atwater appeared puzzled by Catherine's question. "Ms. Willows, is this really necessary?"
"I assure you Lori, any information you can provide regarding your husband's behavior can be an enormous help to us."
Ms. Atwater sighed and a distant look appeared on her face. "Shortly after our anniversary, Rory started acting weird. At first I thought it might have been from the stress of his job, but then he totally changed. He would argue with me on just about every decision, and he started to become verbally abusive. He started to have people at the house all of the time, and I didn't like the way he acted with them. They'd always go into the basement and discuss things through all hours of the night. One day when I asked what they had been doing down there, he pinned me up against the wall and said it was none of my business. I packed my bags and left within an hour. I don't know what was happening to Rory, but what he was turning into sure wasn't the man I married."
"Lori, had he ever abused you before?" Catherine asked.
"Heavens no!" Lori exclaimed, "I am not a victim. I got myself out of there as soon as he laid an arm on me."
"Why not press charges?"
"He left me alone, and I didn't think it was necessary if I was away from him. I just wanted to move on and start anew."
"Why not get a divorce? That would give you the ultimate closure."
"Deep inside I hoped that Rory would pull himself back together. I loved him so much, and I couldn't for the life of me understand why he was acting so out of character."
"Did your husband try to coax you back to the house?" Catherine asked, trying to set some things straight in her mind.
"That was the odd thing," Ms. Atwater started, "after I hadn't heard from him in a few days, I called him to see if he was okay. I must have called him ten times in two days, but he never called me back. I haven't spoken to him since I left."
Catherine made eye contact with Sara, both of them in disbelief about the information they had just received. "Lori, do you think you can stay here at the lab for a little while in case we have any more questions?"
"Sure, anything to help. What is this about anyway?"
"We think someone has been impersonating your husband," Sara spoke, exiting the interrogation room.
After reassuring Ms. Atwater that they would be back to talk to her soon, Catherine exited the interrogation room and followed Sara back into the lab.