Privacy by SLynn
Disclaimer: It's all mine, because yeah, this is what I'd do with my free time if I actually owned these characters.
Notes: Yeah, I promised a new chapter for 'The Body' but since this really is winding down now, I had to continue.
Chapter 28: New Information
Greg and Sara were almost late to work that night.
Greg wanted nothing more then to stay in bed with Sara until day broke but saw reason. It was probably tempting fate to be late on his first night back after being reinstated. They'd made it to the break room with three minutes to spare.
"Welcome back," Catherine greeted him with a warm smile.
Greg grinned sheepishly at her. He felt strange about this. He'd only been gone a week but it felt like so much longer. Plus, it wasn't exactly a triumphant return. He genuinely felt stupid about quitting in the first place. Before anyone else could join Catherine in the greetings, Grissom arrived.
"I trust you all remember Greg," he said with a smile but was still obviously in more of hurry then what was usual and began right away, "Okay, we've got three hot items. One, Jason Warner is back in town. Brass is on his way here now to escort Warrick and Sara to pick him for questioning. Nick and Greg, there's a homicide north of Henderson that needs attention. Looks like a body dump, at least three days old according to David. He's already cleared the scene for processing. Catherine and I will be here at the lab working on other developments."
"What other developments?" Catherine asked as confused as the rest of them.
Grissom gave her a look and then continued on with his explanation. One he hadn't wanted to make.
"We may have something new on the break in."
"What'd you get?" Nick asked.
"Later," Grissom promised before ushering them all out the door.
Greg and Nick didn't waste time getting directions or their things.
"Hey," Greg asked before they'd gotten out of the locker room, "Did you and Amy ride in together tonight?"
"No, why?"
"She asked me to have you stop by and see her before you left."
"Did she say what for?" Nick asked now sounding concerned.
"No, there wasn't time but it sounded urgent. Sara and I were already late, sorry."
Nick nodded and turned to go without another word. He made his way to the DNA lab quickly, worried something might really be wrong. Amy and he had been doing very good lately. He'd helped her move in to her new place, they'd talked everything out, and it was working between them again. He couldn't imagine what was wrong now.
He turned the corner and entered the lab only to find her extracting samples. She looked up at him with a quick smile but then turned her attention back to the task at hand. Nick waited.
"Hi," she said once she'd finished.
"Hi," he returned, still waiting.
She smiled at him again, but this time it looked odd.
"Don't you have a case or something?" she asked.
"Yeah," he answered with a nod, his own smile growing strained. "I'm kind of in a hurry."
"Okay."
"That's it?" he asked.
Amy laughed and looked at him, really puzzled now.
"Didn't you want to see me?" he asked growing frustrated.
"Well, I always want to see you."
"You didn't ask Greg to have me stop by?"
"No," she said shaking her head with a laugh.
Nick smile grew into understanding. He said a quick goodbye to Amy, who was still confused but not questioning it, before hurrying out the door to the garage.
He knew what he'd find and sure enough there he was. Greg was sitting in the driver's seat of the SUV, engine started and waiting for him at the entrance wearing a smile.
"That wasn't funny," Nick said climbing into the passenger's side.
"But it worked," Greg said laughing.
"Yeah, yeah. Just don't expect me to fall for it again."
Greg's driving wasn't exactly tame. Nick's refusal to let him drive up until now had nothing to do with seniority. He did his best not to become panic stricken as Greg cut off two or three cars trying to exit I-15 from the far left lane. They barreled down the highway and then the subsequent dirt road to where they'd been told the victim lay. The SUV came to a screeching halt next to the only cruiser there and Nick had never been more relieved to exit a vehicle.
"Never again," Nick muttered causing Greg to laugh.
"You're no fun."
"You drove all the way to San Francisco with Sara like that?"
"No," he answered seriously, "we went much faster."
Nick pulled out his case and headed toward the officer on duty.
"Where is everyone?" he asked seeing only Jensen.
"Just got called away," Officer Eric Jensen answered, "major pile up on I-15."
"I hope you didn't cause that," Nick directed at Greg who had just joined them.
Greg chuckled and shrugged it off.
"Victims this way," Jensen offered, heading down a hill forcing them to use their flashlights.
Nick and Greg followed him down a steep slope.
"Who found her?" Greg asked growing somber as they approached the woman.
"Anonymous tip."
Nick nodded, his throat felt tight.
"What is she" Greg asked out loud to no one, "fifteen, sixteen maybe?"
"At best," Nick agreed.
Greg already had out the camera and snapped off a few initial pictures. Officer Jensen stood a respectable distance back.
"Is she…" Greg really didn't want to say it.
"Posed?" Nick finished for him, knowing why he'd hesitated. "I don't think so. Looks like she might have just been rolled down that hill. Killer didn't want to bother dragging her all this way, just pushed her from the top."
Greg looked up to where he'd pointed and nodded once. There weren't any signs she'd been dragged but that didn't mean she wasn't killed here on the spot.
"She was strangled," Nick said, leaning in closer to the victim. She was face down but her head was at odd angle, partially visible, eyes open. "Possibly raped."
Her skirt was hiked up, but it could have been from the fall. The bruises however, visibly formed on her thighs, did not happen that way.
Greg didn't hear that part, he was distracted. Her eyes, he couldn't help but stare into them. They were already clouded over; she'd been dead for days.
"You okay?" Nick asked, looking more at Greg now then their db.
"Fine," Greg answered, starting to get up from where he'd been but stopping suddenly, "Wait. I think there's something…"
Greg stopped talking and took a few more pictures.
"What?" Nick asked squatting beside him now.
"There's something in her mouth."
Before Greg or Nick could remove the item Jensen approached them.
"Uh guys," he interrupted, "I just got a call. They need me for a robbery nearby. Are you two going to be okay if I leave?"
"Yeah," Nick assured him, "We're both armed. We'll be fine."
Jensen looked hesitant for a moment but nodded and left.
"How exactly do we go about this?" Greg asked, now wondering if they should just wait for Doc Robbins to remove what looked like evidence.
"It's easy enough. You've already photographed the body, got a close up of the object?"
Greg nodded.
"Okay," Nick continued obviously pleased, "I'm going to open her jaw by pressing on her chin, take a couple more shots to prove where it was found. Then remove and bag it."
Greg did exactly as he was told but not without some uneasiness. Once Nick had gotten her mouth open and he'd seen what was inside, it gave him pause. His heart felt like it had momentarily stopped. Nick didn't say anything about it, but he felt it too; they just collected it and moved on.
Warrick and Sara were having some extremely good luck.
They'd picked up Jason Warner and brought him in with Brass. They had nothing solid connecting him to either scene, at least not yet. At Robert Eriksson's house Greg and Sara had collected a few unknown prints. They got Warner, who'd refused a lawyer, to agree to having his prints taken, and while they talked about his restaurant and his new found wealth, Jacqui was busy comparing them.
As it turns out, Jason Warner didn't have much to gain from his father's death, having been newly cut out of his will, but there was a loophole. If his father and his new wife both perished, he'd become the executer and guardian to Allyson Warner's fortune. In short, over twenty-three million dollars would be his to 'invest' on her behalf until she reached an age to oversee it and that age was to be determined by none other then Jason Warner.
It wasn't a shock to find that his prints had matched.
Confronted with their version of events, he all but caved. He'd hired Robert Eriksson to actually commit the murders. They had evidence that money, large quantities of money, had been transferred into Bobby Eriksson's account days before the murders. What Jason Warner hadn't counted on was that Bobby, his father's gardener and part time waiter at his restaurant, had a girlfriend, Danielle Carson the nanny. The original plan was to kill everyone, Danielle and Allyson included, but Bobby got her involved in it. He didn't want her dead. He'd had her put the poison in the dressing, telling her that it would only make everyone sick. That it was in fact just a joke. After everyone died she panicked. So did Bobby. Bobby tried to return the money, told Jason Warner about Danielle and that's when they'd both ended up dead.
After that Jason Warner did what few suspects ever did. He confessed. Not only confessed, broke down and wept at what he'd done. He'd needed the money because his business was falling apart. He thought it was his only option. Sara and Warrick were glad to be rid of him and back at the lab.
Walking down the corridor they saw Catherine and Grissom having what looked like an intense conversation with Amy. They joined them at Grissom's request. Once there, he did something uncharacteristic, Grissom shut the door. Equally uncharacteristic, he didn't ask them how the interview had gone. Just dove right in.
"We've got a suspect," he said cryptically to them both.
"The guy who attacked Greg?" Sara asked sounding hopeful.
"How'd you find him?" Warrick asked.
"After I went back over the events of that night with Greg we realized he'd been moved. He'd gone into the bedroom facing one way and woken up facing the other. So I had Amy test the shirt he'd been wearing for epidermal residue and she found it."
They turned to her now and she was clearly caught off guard. She'd assumed they'd tell the whole story, at least what she'd already relayed so far. Of course they'd assumed she was just like Greg who had always wanted to relate this part. DNA had been his story to tell and now it was hers. Nervous, despite her audience, she picked it up where they'd left off.
"I checked the only place I thought there would be contact, under the arms. If someone picked him up and moved him, it would be the easiest way. I found it and ran it, it was male. I got the sample but had no luck getting CODIS to hit."
Warrick and Sara nodded, following her completely.
"Just to be thorough, I rechecked the entire shirt and…"
She faltered here at Sara's stare. Amy didn't want to see her get mad and this was going to do it. Amy was still mad herself, but it would be nothing next to Sara's anger.
"And?" Warrick asked.
"Spit. I found spit on the back of the shirt."
Sara said nothing. She didn't have too. Her lips drew into a tight line and she managed a small nod. Her feelings were evident.
"It was female and again, no hit in CODIS. But considering Grissom and Catherine both thought that the assailant came from within, I ran both samples against our own lab and police databases."
"The male sample still came up without a match, but I did match the woman's."
"Who?" Sara asked staring almost through her.
They were all watching her now. Grissom and Catherine hadn't gotten to this yet, it was new information all around.
"Diane Ortega."