"Let's start out with a name," Brass spoke, looking at the man across the table.
"Jason Taylor," the man spoke, "but you know that already. You asked a million questions before at city hall."
"Would you mind actually answering them now?" Brass asked.
All Brass received was silence. "Mr. Taylor," Brass spoke, "would you like to explain what you were doing in a back alley with a freezer?"
"Listen to me, I had nothing to do with that! They sent me back out there to cover their tracks."
"They who?"
"One of the mayor's assistants."
"Could you identify this person?"
"No, I probably met whoever it is in the office, but I never met him in person to do business. Everything was done over the phone."
Brass sighed, and Grissom changed the direction of the conversation. "Mr. Taylor, why were you depositing sums of five-hundred thousand dollars a week into your account?" Grissom asked.
"How do you know about that?" Mr. Taylor revealed himself.
"It's my job. Where was the money coming from?"
"The mayor. The money was being wired directly to my account."
Grissom sighed, realizing that they weren't going to be able to follow a paper trail; a wire trail, yes, but it was easier to stay disguised that way. Brass regained control of the interrogation. "What was your job within this whole circus?" Brass asked.
"I was to keep track of that freezer in the alley and make sure no one got suspicious."
"You didn't think people were going to get suspicious of a freezer in an alley? What were you thinking?"
"There aren't many people setting foot in that alley. We hadn't had any problems until you stepped in."
"I guess I rained on your parade. What sort of involvement did you have with the plot to destroy the sheriff's career?"
"The only thing I had to do was make sure that no one found this freezer."
"What was the freezer being used for?"
"Storing bodies."
"Whose bodies?"
"The sheriff's, then Ecklie's, then Thompson's."
"Who is Thompson?"
"Elias Thompson. He's the guy who was posing as Ecklie. He was an idiot, posed a major threat to all of us."
"How?"
"He was raping and killing all of those women. When the police killed him, we had to clear everything up."
"And just how did that happen?"
"Someone was supposed to get the body from the funeral home and drop it in the freezer. I was supposed to watch over the freezer, check it each day to make sure the body was still in there and that nothing was disturbed."
"Why were you there when we got there?"
"I was told to go in and get the body."
"When?"
"Right after the mayor resigned."
"What were you supposed to do with it?"
"Keep it in my car until I received further instructions."
"What happened when you got there?"
"I opened the freezer and it was empty. They will kill me if they find out that I messed up."
"Do you have any idea what happened to the body?"
"No, no idea. Listen, I didn't kill nobody, I'm not going down for this!" Mr. Taylor yelled.
Grissom refrained from pointing out the implication of the man's double negative. "Calm down Mr. Taylor," Brass spoke, "can you tell us anything about the sheriff and Mr. Ecklie?"
"They killed the sheriff when something went wrong."
"Who killed him?"
"I don't know. All I know is that they set up the freezer after they killed the sheriff. That's when I was called out to start watching the freezer."
"When did they bring Ecklie in?"
"About two weeks later."
"When were the bodies removed from the freezer?"
"Four days ago."
Grissom looked at Brass, silently relaying that the timing would match up perfectly for moving the bodies from the freezer to the sheriff's house. "Did anyone ever visit you while you were at the freezer?" Brass asked.
"Mr. Brass, I told you that I didn't know who was giving me the orders. Plus, all I did was park, get out of my car, check the freezer, get back in my car, and leave. There wasn't ever any time where someone could have talked to me."
Brass nodded. "Why were you doing this? What was in it for you?"
"Five-hundred thousand a week is quite an incentive Mr. Brass. Plus, I would be guaranteed another four years of employment with the mayor."
"With five-hundred thousand a week you wouldn't need to work another day in your life. There has to be another reason."
"The man said he would dispose of me if I didn't agree to help. Seeing who's been gotten rid of already, I'm glad I didn't test that."
"No, you're just going to be in jail for a long time instead."
Grissom reentered the lab and tried to get the team together. "Greg, finish up what you're working on and meet me in trace," Grissom spoke, sticking his head into the DNA lab, and then continuing down the hall.
Grissom walked into the trace lab and waited for Greg to enter. "Okay," Grissom spoke once Greg had entered the trace lab, "where do we stand right now?"
"There are only two people's prints on that freezer. Eric Miller's and your new suspect's," Nick spoke.
"The new suspect is Jason Taylor. He says it was his job to make sure no one messed with the freezer in the alley. He states that the sheriff's and Ecklie's bodies were in there until four days ago. He also says that he was sent to retrieve Ecklie's impersonator's body just after the mayor resigned, but it was already gone."
"Did he have any idea who Ecklie's impersonator was?" Warrick asked.
"Yes. He said that his name was Elias Thompson, and he confirms that they had no idea that he was raping and killing all of those women."
"We finished all of the prints Griss, that's all we've got for you," Nick stated.
"Greg, how are you doing with the samples from inside of the freezer?"
"I extracted DNA from the blood samples you had, and I was able to get a follicular tag off of the hair. It's running, but you know it's going to take time," Greg replied.
"Yes, Greg, I know. Nick, I want you to start looking into Elias Thompson and pull up everything you can find on him," Grissom instructed, "Warrick, Mr. Taylor says that his five-hundred thousand a month was being wired directly into his account. I want you to try and find out where the money was coming from."
Warrick and Nick left the room, and Greg stared at Grissom. "What do you want me to do?" Greg asked.
"Put a list together of all of the mayor's top employees. I want to know who else could have been involved in this, and I want to go question them all again."
Greg nodded, and he too left the room. Grissom decided to walk down to his office and see how Sara was doing.
When Grissom entered his office, he panicked when he didn't see Sara laying on the couch. "Sara?" Grissom called.
"Over here," Sara called, waving her hand from behind his desk.
He walked over and found her leaning against the drawers of his desk. "What are you doing down there?" Grissom asked, reaching down to help her up.
Sara didn't take his hand. "I couldn't sleep," she spoke, "I thought I would sit down at your desk and organize my thoughts, but I got really dizzy, hit my head on your desk, and ended up here."
Grissom knelt down in front of her and felt the back of her head. "Well, that's some knot you have there. What was your plan, sit on the floor the rest of the night," Grissom joked, slightly annoyed that she hadn't called him.
"No, I was going to get up as soon as I felt strong enough," Sara defended herself.
"Come on," Grissom spoke, standing up and taking both of her hands, "I'll go slow, let's get you up."
Grissom carefully helped Sara get off of the floor and led her to the couch. "How's your head?" Grissom asked when he heard her moan and clutch her head.
"It'll be okay," she spoke, slowly taking her hand away from her head, "do you have something for me to do?"
"No, not really."
"Is there something I can help with? I just want to do something."
"Greg is working on a list of people who worked under the sheriff that might be involved in this."
"Alright, I'll go catch up with him and see what I can do."
Grissom took her hands in his before she could get up. "Sara, please take it easy. You know your body is in a whirlwind right now, and I just don't want you causing any more damage."
Sara squeezed his hands back. "I'm just going down to Greg. Believe me, I'm not going anywhere else."
Grissom smiled. "Maybe we'll be able to get out of here sometime soon if some of these leads pan out."
"That's what we've been saying for the past couple of days," Sara smiled.
Sara got up and made her way to the door. "Sara, if you have any problems, call me, please."
Sara turned around at his statement. "Sure Gil. Remember, that always goes both ways," Sara smiled and left the room.
Grissom shook his head and left to go meet with Brass again.