When Robert didn't reply right away, Grissom asked his question once again. "Who did they kill?"
"Ecklie."
Grissom's eyes almost bugged out of his head. "Gil, let's talk outside," Brass gestured, pointing toward the door.
They both walked outside, and Grissom's mind was still reeling when Brass started talking. "I think someone threw us in the loony bin."
Grissom rubbed his hand across his forehead and leaned against the wall. "What the hell is going on in this department? Someone was posing as Ecklie too? How did we not pick this up before? His DNA would have been analyzed before the body was released for burial."
Brass was about to answer when his cell phone rang. "Brass," he answered.
"Jim, can you put Gil on?" Catherine asked.
Brass handed the phone over. "Grissom," he spoke.
"Gil, we found two dbs down here."
"Our missing sheriff?"
"Yeah, and Ecklie."
Grissom sighed. "The guy we have here is Robert Lancaster. He says he was approached on the street to pose as the sheriff, and he never met his employers in person after that. The whole thing was apparently set up to try and make sure that the sheriff wouldn't become the mayor. He confirms that he went into the lab about six or seven months ago, and he just told us that he didn't want to end up dead like Ecklie did."
Catherine sighed. "What do you want me to do Gil? This is a mess."
"Process the whole scene and keep it away from the media. We're going to try to get some more information out of our new friend Robert," Grissom groaned.
"Warrick and I have the basement, I've got Nick and Greg upstairs. This is going to take a while."
"Well, the whole scheme took a while to put together. It's like an onion, it's going to take a while to peel back the layers and take it apart."
"Gil, how did they get away with this?"
"They're not getting away, there's no way in hell I'm allowing that."
"Okay," Catherine said, ending the call.
Grissom closed the phone and handed it back to Brass. "We've got a whole lot more questions to ask," Grissom stated.
They walked back into the interrogation room and sat across from Robert, their current fountain of information.
Sara sat in the empty DNA lab, looking on the computer for any recent transactions in the sheriff's name. When she didn't find anything, she started looking through his phone records and tried pinpointing where the calls were made from. Sara was extremely tired, and the persistent pain returned to her stomach. When Sara began to feel sick once again, she made it to the sink just in time to expel all of the liquids she had consumed. Closing the few windows open on the computer, Sara walked down to the break room to sit for a few minutes.
Sara pulled her cell phone from her belt and decided to try and get an update from Catherine. "Willows," Catherine picked up.
"Cath, did you guys find anything?" Sara questioned.
"Yeah, we've got two dbs in the basement. Warrick and I are processing right now."
"Was it the sheriff?"
"Yeah, if we can trust our looks for now. We can find out for sure later when David gets him back to the lab."
"Who else?"
"Sara, this is kind of alarming," Catherine tried to warn her.
"Cath, I've delt with enough, just give it to me," Sara said, devoid of emotion.
"It's Ecklie."
"Hell has frozen over," Sara deadpanned.
"Sara, I know this is difficult to process right now, we're all trying to figure out how this has been going on for so long."
Sara tried to suppress a moan when she felt a pain shoot across her stomach again. "Cath, everything is just crazy."
"Sara, are you okay? You sound kind of funny."
"I'm fine, just tired," Sara averted the question, "Cath, I should let you keep processing, bye."
Sara closed her cell phone before Catherine could reply or ask any more questions. After Sara had a few minutes to recuperate, she realized that she hadn't returned to talk to Ms. Atwater. After stopping in Grissom's office to pick up and reassemble his broken phone, she grabbed a bottle of water and headed back to the interrogation room.
"Looks like he pretty much moved himself in," Greg spoke, looking around the sheriff's bedroom.
"This whole case is just messed up."
"It's twisted," Greg stated.
"I can't believe no one noticed this."
"Well, I know I didn't have too many dealings with the sheriff."
"Me neither, but I'm surprised that Grissom didn't notice."
"I think it bugs him," Nick noted.
"Who do you think they found downstairs?" Greg asked, his curiosity intriguing him.
"My bet, the sheriff," Nick stated.
"Yeah, I figured that. How about the other one?"
"I have no idea Greg, let's just wait until someone tells us."
As if on cue, Nick's cell phone rang on his belt. "Stokes," he picked up.
"Nick, it's an absolute mess down here," Catherine stated.
"What did you find?"
"We've got Atwater down here, and our good old pal Ecklie."
"Ecklie!" Nick raised his voice, "he has a double too?"
"Nick, I don't know what to tell you anymore. Nothing is what it seems, and apparently this whole department has been messed up."
"Anything else down there?"
"We don't know yet. It's really stuffy and hot down here, and the stench is unreal. David's working on loading the bodies up, and we're just trying to see if there's any evidence we can catch in the process."
"Greg and I are processing the bedroom right now. We've got three sets of prints, basically proves that the sheriff, his wife, and our imposter have been through here. Whenever we finally get back to the lab, we can run the prints to make sure."
"Yeah. I called Gil, he said that they got the guy to confess to posing as the sheriff. His name is Robert Lancaster, and this whole thing is affiliated with the mayoral race."
"Wonderful. If you need help down there, just ring me and I'll send Greg."
"Okay."
Nick closed his cell phone and returned to processing the bedroom.
"Robert, how was Ecklie involved in this?" Brass asked.
"He wasn't supposed to be. At first, I was the only one in the lab and everything was going fine."
"Then what happened?"
"Ecklie had been promoted just before I took the sheriff's place. He kept coming to me and asking me a lot of questions, and he started to get suspicious. I apparently wasn't giving the right answers. My employer thought that Ecklie was a security threat to the ultimate plan. The next day I came in, he had been replaced."
"How did you know?"
"He came to talk to me, and my employer told me."
"Were you aware that he was raping and killing all of those women?" Grissom asked, barely containing his anger.
"I had no idea, neither did my employer. When he ended up getting himself caught and killed, my employer was livid. He said if I ever tried anything so stupid, he'd dispose of me in an instant. They had to go to a lot of trouble to cover that up."
"Like what?" Brass asked.
"You guys check their DNA and stuff before they can be buried. They had to switch the DNA sample out so you wouldn't find out."
Grissom's eyes widened at the prospect that someone had compromised his lab. "Who went in the lab?" Grissom asked.
"I did. I received a sample with my payment, and I was to switch them out."
"How the hell did you do that?"
"I went to talk to Sanders and I switched the samples. I'm a con artist, I know many ways of doing what I want."
"Oh, that is just wonderful," Grissom started to lose his cool, "now you can add that to your list of charges."
Brass tried to get the conversation back under control. "Robert, you told us that you didn't have anything to do with either killing. However, the police found both bodies in the basement of the sheriff's house where you just happened to be staying. Would you care to explain?" Brass asked.
"I haven't been down there in a while. In the beginning, my employer sent some men to help me prepare for becoming the sheriff."
"Is that when Ms. Atwater left?" Grissom asked.
"Yeah, that was pretty much the idea. Like I said, the whole thing was supposed to be peaceful to begin with. They wanted to get Ms. Atwater out of the house so she wouldn't keep asking questions."
"So you pinned her against the wall and scared her out of the house?" Grissom said with disgust.
"I had to, they would have killed me if I didn't abide by their decisions."
"Sure," Brass stated, "you're the innocent one in this."
"Keep in mind Detective Brass, that I am the one who is cooperating here. One little flick of a switch, and my mouth turns off."
"Did you notice any smell in the house?" Grissom asked.
"A slightly musty smell. I went around the house trying to figure out what it was."
"Well Robert, I'll be happy to inform you that it was two decaying bodies in the basement."
Sara sat across from Ms. Atwater and set her bottle of water down on the table. "Sorry this has taken so long Lori," Sara stated, "we've had a lot of developments come up in the case."
Ms. Atwater looked slightly distraught. "Did you find him?"
"We believe we did, but we will not be sure until fingerprinting and DNA testing is completed."
"How long is that going to take?"
"Up to two weeks."
"I can't believe I left an imposter in my house," Ms. Atwater's voice cracked.
"In all fairness Lori, none of us realized that someone had replaced your husband."
"I realized that something was different. And what did I do? I left him. Some 'til death to us part," Ms. Atwater's words stung, "he's dead isn't he?"
Sara didn't think the woman would appreciate a softened blow. "Yes, I'm sorry."
"Get the man that is behind this. I won't be able to sleep at night until I know that all of this is sorted out."
Sara nodded. "We'll do what we can Lori."
Ms. Atwater nodded. "Can I go home now?" she asked.
"Yes, we'll give you a call if we have any more questions."
Ms. Atwater left the room and was escorted by an officer out the front doors of the building. Sara was left alone, still sitting in the interrogation room. When her stomach started to protest again, she started to slowly sip some of her water. Sara pulled her cell phone off of her belt. I've got to do something about this.
"Hello," the receptionist picked up.
"Hello, this is Sara Sidle. I'm wondering if it is possible to squeeze in an appointment tomorrow morning."
"Ms. Sidle, what seems to be the problem?"
"I've been quite nauseous lately, and I've had this aching pain in my stomach."
"Okay, I'll have that marked on your chart. If you come in tomorrow morning at 8:45, she should be able to squeeze you in before her other patients."
"Thank you."
Sara closed her phone and attached it back to her belt. Now to figure out what is going on with this case.
Sara poked her head into the other interrogation room while Grissom and Brass were talking to the man. "Gil, can I talk to you for a minute?" Sara asked.
Grissom got up from the table and joined her outside of the door. "What's going on?" he asked.
"That's what I came to ask you. I figured I should get up to date on the case. I also reassembled your cell phone."
Grissom took the cell phone from her and clipped it to his belt. "Thanks Sara," he spoke, thinking back to the case, "Well, we've found out that Ecklie had a double too, and that all of this is part of some political crap. Someone with the mayor's campaign tracked down Robert Lancaster in there to impersonate the sheriff. The idea was to have him stir up some trouble here at the lab so the sheriff wouldn't have a chance at a run for mayor. He switched out the DNA sample from the guy we thought was Ecklie right under Greg's nose."
Sara groaned. "This is absolute insanity, I can't believe Greg didn't notice."
"Well, Greg didn't expect the sheriff to be messing with the evidence," Grissom said, trying to maintain his cool, "Did you find anything?"
"No, nothing was obviously odd about any transactions. I went through the phone log, and there were a whole lot of calls from one number. However, the number was unlisted, and I can't trace it."
"Everyone else is still out at the sheriff's house. They're going to be there for a while."
Grissom watched as Sara stifled a yawn. "How does your wrist feel?" he asked, taking her hand.
With all of the nausea and pain in her stomach, Sara had managed to block out any pain that may have emanated from her wrist. "It's okay," Sara gave him a half smile.
"Why don't you go down into my office and try to catch a little bit of sleep. When the team comes back from the scene there will be a lot of evidence to process, and it would help if you were more alert."
"Okay," Sara said, deciding that catching a little bit of sleep wouldn't be that bad, "come get me if you need me."
Grissom nodded and allowed her to start walking back to the lab. As she trailed away, Grissom couldn't stop thoughts from swimming through his mind. Something is bothering her, and I don't think it's just the present situation.
"I swear," Robert stated, "I didn't kill them."
"Well, could you give us any leads as to who did?" Brass asked.
"I told you this already, I never saw my employer."
"How about the men that kept coming to the house?"
"I was always to be in the basement when they came in, and all of the lights were turned out. Once they were downstairs they covered their faces. If anyone saw them, it would have been Ms. Atwater."
"How about their voices?"
"They changed them, I assure you, and all they ever said was yes or no. I would sit in the basement practicing Atwater's voice, and they would critique my progress."
"Were they playing his voice? How did they know his voice so well?"
"No, they didn't have a tape or anything. I assume they knew the sheriff or something."
"How did you get paid?"
"Dead drop."
"Where'd you put the money?"
"In my account."
"All of that money didn't raise any suspicion?"
"This is Vegas, Detective Brass."
"Did it come in envelopes or something?" Grissom asked.
"Yeah."
"Where are those envelopes?"
"At the sheriff's house."
Grissom walked out the door of the interrogation room and pulled his cell phone off of his belt. As he was about to speed dial Nick, his beeper sounded. '2 dbs - morgue.'
Grissom put the page off for a minute and called Nick. "Stokes," he answered.
"Nick, I need you to look for some envelopes. The suspect says he received all payments in envelopes, they could have some important prints on them."
"Okay, we haven't found any envelopes yet, but we'll keep looking."
"What have you found?"
"Evidence of three people in the house. Not much else yet."
"Okay. Dr. Robbins just paged me to say they got the bodies into the morgue. I need to know if you guys find anything substantial."
"Okay, will do Griss."
Grissom closed his cell phone and found his way to the morgue.
"I thought you'd want to take their prints right away," Dr. Robbins spoke when Grissom entered.
"Yes, I would like to. We need to find some sort of starting point in this mess."
"Well, I'll have to do further analysis, but COD appears to be a shot through the heart in both of them."
"Bullet recovery?"
"Nope, through and through."
Grissom worked slowly and soon had two ten cards of fingerprints. "I'll need those clothes as soon as you're done with them."
"Sure enough. David will be in in a minute, and then we'll get started."
Grissom exited the morgue and headed to the lab to process the fingerprints.
"Warrick, there's not nearly enough blood here for those bullet wounds," Catherine stated, conducting a search of the basement.
"Yeah, they definitely were dropped here," Warrick said, continuing to look on the other side of the basement.
Warrick picked up a pamphlet with his gloved hands. "Cath, look what I have," Warrick stated.
Catherine looked up and shook her head. "Saving the mayor? It's like he's got himself a whole entourage. Brass better get him picked up before he skips town or something."
"Yeah, him and his whole batch of cronies. You know full well this is an inside job."
Warrick opened up the pamphlet to reveal detailed instructions inside. "There's a whole code of honor inside this thing. How to conduct business, what to do if you're caught," Warrick flipped a few more pages, "and there's instructions in the back about how to impersonate the sheriff. Seems to be more worn than the other pages."
"I can't imagine why," Catherine deadpanned, "no wonder they didn't want Ms. Atwater in the basement."
Warrick put the pamphlet inside of a bag and continued his search.
Grissom scanned the fingerprints into the computer and came up with a match for the sheriff. After another few clicks, Grissom came up with a match for Ecklie. Well, we found the real ones. How did we not discover that it was someone else who captured Sara?
Grissom pulled up the case file for the serial rape case and started to review the notes. The hair had been matched to Ecklie through the police database. It certainly looked like Ecklie, and then the DNA got switched out. We need to exhume that body.
Grissom's thought process halted when his cell phone rang. "Grissom," he spoke.
"Griss, we found some envelopes in the dining room. Greg is bringing them and some pamphlets that Warrick found back right now. There are also a lot of prints that we gathered."
"Okay Nick."
"The rest of us are staying at the scene, we're nowheres near done yet. I just wanted to give you the heads up so you could get Sara to help him out."
"Alright Nick, let me know if you get anything else."
Grissom closed his phone and headed to his office.
When Grissom opened his office door he found Sara stretched out on the couch. He hated to wake her, but knew that her help was needed. After closing his office door, he walked over to her, and knelt down in front of the couch. "Sara," he spoke, lightly shaking her shoulder.
Sara's eyes slowly opened, and her hands drifted to her still aching stomach. "Hey Griss," she mumbled.
Grissom placed his hands over one of hers. "Your stomach is still bothering you?" Grissom noted, concerned.
"A little bit. I guess it doesn't like the stress of having to process so much shocking information at once."
Grissom gave her a small smile. "Have you eaten anything?"
"No," Sara admitted.
"Go acquaint yourself with the vending machine and at least try to eat something, it might help you feel better. When Greg gets back I need you to help him start processing the evidence that came from the sheriff's house."
Sara slowly sat up on the couch and yawned. "Where are you off to?"
"I have to get a warrant to dig up Ecklie's grave. Since we buried the imposter, we're going to need to dig him up to get any evidence."
"Yeah, I guess so."
Grissom gave her good hand a tight squeeze before leading her down to the break room. He said his goodbyes and went to go find a judge.
When Brass' cell phone rang in the interrogation room, he stepped outside of the interrogation room and allowed one of the other officers to watch Robert. "Brass," he answered.
"We have the mayor and all of his staff detained at city hall," an officer informed him, "it was a good idea to go in right before five so the employees would still be in the building."
"I'll be right down, we're going to question them all right there," Brass stated.
After informing the officer that he was going to be leaving for a while, Brass left for city hall.
"Sara, I've got prints," Greg stated, swinging multiple paper bags in the doorway.
Sara got up from the break room couch and followed him down the hallway to an empty lab. "What was the house like?" Sara asked once they had gotten into the room.
"Catherine said it smelt pretty bad down in the basement. It was pretty simple upstairs where Nick and I were."
Sara nodded and they both started the tedious process of scanning fingerprints. As her stomach started to digest the small amount of food she had eaten, she began to feel queasy once again. Sara tried to grin and suppress the gag reflex, but she found herself turning toward the sink once again, losing the small amount of food she had eaten. Greg walked over near the counter, but stayed a good distance away. "If you're going to scare the crap out of me again, could you at least give me a little warning this time?" Greg joked, trying to make sure Sara was okay.
Sara groaned and washed her mouth out with water. When she picked her head up, she shot a death glance at Greg, but he wasn't fazed. "Are you okay?" Greg asked.
"Yeah, the stress is just getting to me, that's all," Sara provided.
"Stress bothering the great Sara Sidle? Since when?"
"Drop it Greg, I'm fine."
Greg pushed on. "I think what's bothering you has two arms, two legs, and cries a lot."
Sara put her head over the sink just in time to throw up again. After she had washed out her mouth yet again, she glared at Greg. "I think you should keep your assumptions to yourself and get back to work."
"Sara..." Greg started.
"Get back to work!" she raised her voice.
Greg went back to processing some of the fingerprints, and shortly after, Sara went back to the other side of the table to continue processing the fingerprints that she had. They both worked in an extremely eerie silence. Sara couldn't stop one thought from circling through her head. What if I am pregnant?
After Grissom obtained a warrant to exhume the body in Ecklie's grave, he gathered some police officers to go out to the scene. Since both coroners were back at the lab doing autopsies, Grissom would have to accompany the body, coffin and all, back to the lab. After the cemetery workers used the backhoe to dig up the ground, they donned shovels and dug out the grave. They finally freed the coffin and were able to pull it out of the grave. The cemetery workers placed the coffin in the back of the hearse, and one of them drove with Grissom and a police officer back to the lab. Once the coffin was unloaded into the garage, Grissom got the necessary tools to pry it open.
Twenty minutes later, Grissom had the coffin open, and he peered inside. What met him definitely wasn't normal. The white satiny sheen of the lining of the coffin was all that was visible; no body inhabited the coffin.
"Mr. Mayor, we need to ask you some questions," Brass said, looking at the man sitting in a chair behind a desk.
"I really don't see why this is necessary. You are detaining all of my employees without cause," the mayor said.
"Well, you see, we do need to talk to you, and unless you want me to go tell the media what you've been doing, you're going to answer some questions."
"That's blackmail, you don't have any facts."
"I don't think the media cares."
The mayor went quiet for a minute, and Brass started asking his questions. "Are you running for reelection?" Brass asked.
"Have you been watching the media lately?"
"Answer the question."
"Yes Detective Brass."
"Were you aware that Sheriff Atwater would be running against you?"
"Yes."
"Did you take part in a conspiracy to remove the sheriff from office and destroy his career?"
"Excuse me? I think this conversation is over. I want my lawyer."
"Take him down to the station," Brass stated.
"You can't arrest me!"
"Who said we were arresting you? You're wanted for questioning in connection with a case, and we are taking you down to the station."
When they brought the mayor out to the police car, there were reporters everywhere. While some of the police officers kept the crowd back, Brass and another officer led the mayor to the car. "I will have you job for this," the mayor growled, "and anyone else's who was in involved in this travesty!"
Brass pushed him into the back of the car, and they drove toward the police station.
By eight thirty the next morning, Nick, Warrick, and Catherine had finally finished processing the sheriff's house, Grissom and Brass had talked to the sheriff, and Greg and Sara had processed all of the fingerprints from the scene. Grissom and Brass went to go talk to all of the mayor's employees again, and Catherine had the rest of the team in the break room so they could share all of the information they had gathered. After their impromptu meeting, she addressed the group once more. "You've got two hours, go do what you need to and be ready to start working another double when you get back."
The group nodded and dispersed.
From the lab, Sara raced to the doctor's office and got there just in time. Her doctor ushered her back to an examination room and had her change into a gown. "Sara, you've been having some nausea and stomach pain?" her doctor asked.
"Yes, it's been going on for a couple of days now. When it wouldn't go away and the pain persisted, I called you."
The doctor nodded. "Is there any possibility that you could be pregnant?"
"Technically yes I suppose," Sara stated.
The doctor raised an eyebrow. "Care to explain?"
"We used protection, but that's failed before," Sara muttered.
"Well, let's do a pregnancy test first, and then we'll go from there."
Sara nodded, and the doctor left her alone with a specimen cup.
During the ten minutes that Sara had to wait for the results, a barrage of thoughts flew through her mind. Although she and Grissom had talked about having children a lot, they had come to the decision that it probably wasn't the right time. However, their conversation not too many weeks ago had reminded her about her constantly ticking biological clock and the fact that she really did want to have children. Sara was interrupted from her reverie when the doctor came back into the examination room. "Well, you're not pregnant," the doctor informed her.
Sara had spent so much time building herself up for the news that she felt slightly disappointed that she wasn't pregnant. However, she didn't let her disappointment show. "What then?"
"Let me get you to lay back," the doctor instructed.
Sara laid down, and the doctor lifted up her gown, covering her legs with a blanket. "I'm just going to palpate a few areas, I just want you to tell me if anything hurts."
Sara nodded. The doctor pushed on a few areas of her stomach, and Sara moaned when she pushed just under her breastbone. "That hurts there," Sara stated.
After a another minute, the doctor covered her back up and helped her to sit up. "Have you been under a lot of stress lately?" the doctor asked.
"I'm working on a very hard case at work."
"When is the pain the worst?"
"A little while after I eat something, or when I haven't eaten anything for a while."
The doctor seemed to consider the information that Sara gave. "I would like to do one more test," the doctor spoke, "I just need to do a finger prick."
After the doctor took a sample, she allowed the near-patient device to analyze the results. Within a few minutes, the doctor was looking at a print out. "So, do tell, what am I dealing with?" Sara asked, slightly impatient.
"You have a helicobacter pylori infection."
"English?"
"Most likely a peptic ulcer in your stomach."
Sara sighed. "Wonderful," she spoke, "just what I needed."
"Sara, although an ulcer is not caused by stress, it can certainly be exacerbated by stress. Certain foods can make the symptoms worse, and pain medications can irritate the stomach."
"How can I get rid of it?"
"I can prescribe you an antibiotic that will fight the infection and get rid of the ulcer. However, I would like you to have a barium x-ray done to make sure there isn't anything more serious going on, and to confirm the diagnosis."
"I don't have a lot of time," Sara stated.
"I know, but this is important. You are going to have to lower your stress level some so your body can fight the infection."
Sara sighed again. "When do I need to have it done?"
"I can set it up for you tomorrow at Desert Palm. It is very important that you don't eat anything after midnight, and you are going to need to eat a lot of foods high in fiber and drink a lot of water after the procedure."
"How long is it going to take?"
"Probably about an hour."
"Okay, I might be able to swing getting off for a little while then."
The doctor started to close up the files, and she turned back to Sara. "Sara, I'm serious, you need to lower your stress level some. Stress can cause a number of other health problems."
"I know, but right now, work is a mess. I have to get things straightened out there before my stress will go down."
The doctor gave a slight nod. "Okay, you can get changed. I'll have my secretary call you with the time for the barium x-ray tomorrow."
"Thank you."
After putting her clothes back on, Sara went home and took a quick shower. She donned clean clothes and headed back to the lab. Right, lower my stress. If idiots didn't do stupid things in the first place, stress wouldn't be an issue.