"What were you doing at the scene?" Brass asked.
"That was my house too," the mayor's wife spoke.
"Why were you holding the murder weapon?"
"Because I had just shot my husband," she responded coldly.
"Do you realize that that is murder?"
"Yeah, but I didn't have much of a life to live anyway."
"I advise you not to answer any more questions," her attorney suggested.
"I don't care what happens to me," she yelled, "would you get out of here, I don't want to be paying you anything!"
The attorney left the room, and Brass continued on. "Why did you kill your husband?" Brass asked.
"Have you not watched the news? My husband was having affairs with God knows how many women. That plus the fact that he was involved in this whole mess with the sheriff."
"Do you have any evidence to back up the fact that he participated in the conspiracy?"
"No, but it's obvious he did something."
"Why kill your husband instead of reconciling?"
"Did my husband appear to be the reconcilable type? This has been going on for years, I finally put an end to it. Sentence me and put me in jail, I really don't care anymore."
Deciding the interrogation was over, Brass and Grissom exited the room. "Quite a cheery woman," Brass deadpanned.
"Yeah," Grissom replied, "do you still have the mayor's secretary in custody?"
"Yeah, we just haven't questioned her yet. The homicide was slightly more pertinent."
"Let's go talk to her now, I want to see if we can get any more information."
Brass nodded, and they headed to get the secretary from lockup.
"Warrick, you really should go home," Catherine's sister stated.
"No, I want to be here when she wakes up," Warrick replied.
"Warrick, it could be days, you know that. Go home and get some sleep."
Warrick looked to the left where Lindsey was leaning against his shoulder. She had finally calmed down enough to fall asleep. "I don't want to wake her," Warrick gestured, "and you shouldn't have to wait here by yourself. I want to be here if they have more news or if she wakes up."
Catherine's sister nodded. "You're going to need to get some sleep sometime, so if you don't go now, you've got to go in a little while."
"Yes mother," Warrick gave her a small smile, "I'll wait until the morning to see if the doctor has anything new to report. Then I'll head home to catch a few hours sleep."
They silently agreed, and Warrick tried to get comfortable in his chair once again.
When Nick, Greg, and Sara got back to the lab, Nick went into the break room, Greg went to the trace lab, and Sara walked down to Grissom's office. Nick pulled his cell phone off of his belt and speed dialed Grissom. "Grissom," he picked up.
"Griss, I wanted to tell you that we just got back from the scene. We've got the evidence to convict the mayor's wife, but we didn't find anything to connect the mayor to any of the other crimes."
"Yeah, that's what Sara was referring to before. Brass and I finished talking to his wife, and she admits that she killed her husband. She said that she found out about his infidelities and gave him what he deserved."
"Well, that gets rid of another person to talk to," Nick stated, "there aren't very many leads left."
"I know, we're going to talk to his secretary, but then all of the leads are pretty much exhausted."
"I turned up an address for Elias Thompson. We can still check that out."
"Not this shift. When this shift ends everyone is going home."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about Griss. Sara might tell you that she is okay, and she's handling everything well, but she didn't look so good out at the scene. She's pretty pale, and she looks like she's about to drop from exhaustion. Plus, her wrist is really bothering her, and she can't take anything for it."
I told her to call me and tell me if she wasn't feeling well, and she didn't. I shouldn't be surprised, that's typical Sara style. Grissom looked at his watch and noted there were only about two hours left of shift. "Nick, please take Sara home, and then you can go home. Tell her that I'll be there at the end of shift."
"She's going to want to see Cath."
Grissom sighed. "Nick, if she really doesn't feel well, she shouldn't be going to see Cath, it's just going to make her upset. However, she'll be just as bad if she doesn't see her. Take a swing by the hospital before you take her home."
"Okay Griss, thanks."
"Nick," Grissom stated, "please drive carefully."
Nick closed his cell phone and went to find Sara.
"Sara," Nick spoke, walking into Grissom's office.
Sara was sitting on the couch with her head in her hands, trying to calm her queasy stomach. "What Nick?" Sara said, not looking up.
"I'm taking you home," Nick stated, sitting next to her on the couch.
"Nick, there's still two hours left of shift."
"Not for us. Griss told me to take you home and then go home."
"Wonderful, he thinks I can't do my job."
"No, there isn't anything to work with right now. We've hit a whole bunch of dead ends, and all of us have been working entirely too long. He just wants me to make sure you get home safely."
Sara sat up and squeezed Nick's hand. "Can we go see Cath?" Sara asked.
Nick smiled. "I knew you were going to ask that. Griss said it would be fine as long as I took you straight home afterward."
"And when did Griss say he was coming home?"
"When shift is done. He and Brass have another suspect to talk to."
Sara nodded and got up from the couch. "Okay, let's get going."
Sara and Nick left the lab and headed toward Desert Palm.
"Ms. Freeman, why were you transferring five-hundred thousand dollars a week to Jason Taylor?" Brass asked.
"What?" Ms. Freeman exclaimed, "I wasn't transferring money to anyone."
"This account statement says you were," Brass pushed the statement in front of her.
"This isn't me," Ms. Freeman stated, "my name is Cindy with a y, not Cindi with an i. I think you are mistaken."
Brass looked at Grissom and shook his head. "Mr. Brass," Ms. Freeman continued, "I have only been working for the mayor for about eight months. He didn't like me, but he wouldn't get rid of me. The only reason I didn't quit was because I needed a steady paycheck."
"Do you know Jason Taylor?"
"I know that he worked for the mayor, but that's all I know about him. It's not like I ever talked to him or anything."
"Thank you Ms. Freeman, we will be releasing you soon," Brass stated.
Brass and Grissom exited the room. "Someone set up the account in her name to try and disguise the activity. With her working there, they would have had all of her personal information, and it wouldn't have been hard to set up an account in her name," Brass said.
"Yeah. They made a mistake, but we can't connect it to anyone now. The people we have in custody don't know, and the people who aren't aren't talking. Plus, the one man that could have told us everything is now dead. The only lead we have left is to check Elias Thompson's house. If there's nothing there, this case is cold," Grissom stated.
"And that can all wait until next shift. It's Christmas Eve, I'd like to get home."
Grissom nodded and headed back to his office.
When Nick and Sara entered the ICU, they found Warrick and Lindsey in the waiting room. "Hey," Warrick spoke, seeing the two walk in.
"Hey. We just stopped by to see how Cath is doing," Nick stated.
"You can go see her," Warrick said, "she's still unconscious though. Cath's sister just stepped out, I'll tell her you're here."
"Is there anything new?" Sara asked.
"No, the doctor hasn't come back to speak with us yet."
Nick nodded and led Sara down the hallway to Catherine's room. They entered and sat on either side of her bed. "Everyone's worried about you Cath," Sara spoke, "we all want you to wake up and get better."
"Yeah, Warrick's going crazy out there in the waiting room. We just want to see you wake up."
After spending a few minutes with Catherine, they walked back out to the waiting room, said goodbye to Warrick, and headed for Sara's house.
When Grissom arrived home, all was quiet. It didn't take long for him to find Sara in the bedroom, fast asleep under the covers. Grissom got undressed and slid into bed next to her. He carefully wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. Before he fell asleep, his eyes drifted to the dresser drawer where his gifts were enclosed. Some Christmas this is going to be, there's no way I can give her those. Maybe we can just spend some time together. Everything is a disaster.