Grissom was sitting in his office when Catherine and Sara poked their heads in. "We've got a serious problem," Catherine stated.
"Yeah, I know, that isn't the sheriff down in the interrogation room," Grissom retorted.
"We had a little chat with his wife. Apparently, she and the sheriff got separated about six months ago."
"That doesn't really tell us much by itself."
"How about the fact that she said he didn't seem like the man she married anymore. The day she left him, he pinned her to the wall. She says he had never even shown signs of being abusive before."
Grissom's eyebrows rose toward his hairline. "Six months?" he said to no one in particular, "this is one hell of a mess."
"There's more," Sara spoke.
Grissom glanced over toward her. "Ms. Atwater said that her husband kept having people over to the house. Apparently they were in the basement all hours of the night doing God knows what."
"Well, that might not be that suspicious."
"Ms. Atwater said that he hadn't been like that before either."
"We need to get over to that house to try and start sorting things out. Cath, get a warrant for the sheriff's house and see if the guys are done processing the sheriff's office. If they're done, take them and Greg and start processing the sheriff's house."
"Where are you going?" Catherine questioned.
"That guy and I are going to have a little chat," he spoke, getting up from behind his desk.
"What should I do?" Sara asked.
"Go get on the computer and see if any of the data in the sheriff's file has been changed. Just check and see if everything matches up, and if any of the departmental files have been tampered with. If you don't find anything there, start with any account activity in the sheriff's name. There has to be some trace of something."
They left Grissom's office and went their separate ways.
Grissom walked back into the interrogation room where Brass was still sitting with the man. "Jim, maybe you should start informing this man of the dangers of not providing us with some information," Grissom suggested.
"Your spiel isn't going to work on me," the man's voice changed.
Grissom raised an eyebrow. "So, you really do have a voice! And it definitely doesn't sound like the sheriff! Cut the crappy accent and start answering some questions."
"Crappy Mr. Grissom? I sure had a lot of you guys fooled for a long time."
"Oh, and how long was that?" Grissom countered.
"A while, that's all that matters."
"How about a name?" Brass interjected.
"You know I'm not the sheriff, what does it matter?"
Brass and Grissom gave him cold stares. "Evi," the man spoke, and Brass started writing on a paper, "Dence."
Brass threw the paper down and glared at the man. "Okay smart ass, I'm getting tired of this crap. If you don't start giving us some information, you're going to be going down for this whole thing, and I know that there is no possible way that you did all of this by yourself."
"If I tell you what I know, then I need protection."
"Yes, you'll be receiving the protection of a cell. Start giving me information, and we'll see what we can do."
The man nodded. "First of all, my name is Robert Lancaster."
"Okay Robert, why are you impersonating the sheriff?"
"This wasn't my idea. Everything got blown so out of proportion."
"Robert, start at the beginning."
"I was approached a while ago about impersonating the sheriff. The sheriff had quite the campaign running for mayor, and the mayor's people didn't like that very much. They wanted to replace the sheriff with me so I could ruin his chance for becoming mayor."
Jim nodded. "Who approached you?"
"I couldn't tell you. He was in disguise, and everything after that time I just spoke to a voice. I had some plastic surgery done, and I had to practice the sheriff's voice. It wasn't too hard to get a sample because he was in the media all of the time."
"Was?" Grissom started in.
"I didn't have anything to do with it, but the sheriff is dead. That wasn't supposed to happen, something went wrong. That's all I know."
Grissom rubbed his temple, feeling a migraine start to come on full force. "How long has this been going on?"
"Six, seven months maybe. I had to prepare and everything before that, but I took the sheriff's place about six or seven months ago."
"How was the switch supposed to take place?" Brass asked.
"All I had to do was show up to work that night. They were supposed to take care of all of the rest."
"Why you?"
"I used to be involved with the drug trade and things like that. I was getting kind of down on my luck, and I was looking for a gig to pick up some quick cash. I went to seek out work, and they found me."
"So you decided to impersonate an officer for six months?" Brass exclaimed.
"Five-hundred grand a week, I was more than willing to do it."
"What was your specific instruction?"
"I was to integrate myself into the police community, and make sure some key things happened here so lab performance would go down, and that the sheriff's career would go down with it."
"Do you naturally have a short temper, or was all of this just a game for you?" Grissom asked, referring to some of the pain he had caused.
Robert tried to defend himself. "It got to the point where if I didn't do what they said, they would have killed me like they killed him."
"The sheriff?" Brass asked.
"No."
"Who?" Grissom questioned.
After Catherine obtained a warrant and a dozen police officers, Catherine, Nick, Warrick, and Greg went to the sheriff's house. While the officers cleared the scene, the CSIs waited outside. "You CSIs better get down here," one of the officers called.
"Where?" Catherine yelled back.
"Basement. It's clear, but we've got two dbs."
"Warrick, come with me, Nick, Greg, start processing upstairs. Call David and get him down here."
If Nick and Greg were disappointed, they didn't show it. Warrick followed close behind Catherine until they got into the basement. It was extremely hot and humid in the basement, and the stench of death filled the air. "Ugh, it reeks in here," Warrick stated.
"Yeah, whoever it is must have been dead for a while," Catherine replied.
Catherine panned the flashlight around and it fell on one of the bodies. She walked closer and shined the light in the corpse's face. "Well, I found the sheriff," Catherine stated.
Warrick looked over her shoulder to confirm the fact for himself. "Where's the other db?" he stated.
Catherine swung her flashlight around until it captured a body leaning against the back wall. They walked closer and shot each other looks when they realized who it was.