and now back to our amazing murder mystery-

I.

Grissom and Catherine went down to the morgue while Sara and Nick looked for evidence in Ecklie's office. Greg and Warrick, with virtually nothing to do and annoyed at their lack of screen time, started dancing around the lab to show off Warrick's muscled arms and Greg's new blue hair. Eventually this got old and they decided to go bowling.

Sofia, also annoyed about her utter absence from getting any fun, tried to go with Warrick and Greg but they denied her, telling her that she was trying to steal Grissom away from Sara and Sara had enough problems trying to get Grissom's attention as it was. Throwing in an intelligent, good looking blonde who just happens to talk to herself at crime scenes so that Grissom would be intrigued and relate her quirkiness. . .well, that was just cheap. Sofia went off to sulk in the locker room. The audience cheered.

"No murder weapon," Sara told Nick, looking around the room. "Looks like the killer took it with him."

"It's too bad he didn't clean up afterwards," Nick said. "I've got some more Ecklie-brain over here."

"Ew," Sara said. "Anything else?"

"Some fingerprints," Nick said, "and a couple of hairs. Might be probative. Then again, might not. Who cares? Ecklie's a schmuck."

"You don't have to tell me," Sara said. "He tried to get me fired."

"Yeah?" Nick said. "Well, he tried to get me arrested for murder."

Sara paused. "Yeah," she said, "you win." She looked under Ecklie's desk and was surprised to see a piece of paper lying on the ground. "Hey, Nick," she called to him. "Check this out."

Nick came over to stand next to her to her and looked at the paper in her hands. It read:

DEAR CSIs

I SAW THE WHOLE THING HAPPEN

I KNOW WHO KILLED ECKLIE

THE SCHMUCK

IT WAS ONE OF YOUR OWN

ONE OF YOU WHO WORK IN THE LAB-YOU KILLED ECKLIE

I SAW IT ALL

END OF NOTE

Nick looked at Sara. "You notice how this guy completely didn't use periods or commas or anything?

"Yeah," Sara said. "He's obviously not very smart. So, we have a witness. One who prefers to remain anonymous and write dumb letters in a supposedly threatening manner."

"Or," Nick said, "the murderer is trying to throw us off track."

"That's possible," Sara admitted, "but the killer probably is one of us."

"Why do you say that?" Nick asked.

"Well, think about it," Sara said. "Everybody in this building wanted to kill Ecklie for one reason or another. We all have easy access to this location. We all have guns. It would only make sense for one of us to be the killer. Besides, it wouldn't be a very effective parody if some random strange just decided to kill Ecklie for no apparent reason at all, would it?"

"True," Nick said and stroked his chin speculatively, which would probably have made him look more intelligent if he had a beard or, you know, hair. "Well, there's no avoiding it. The sender of the annoying note is right. One of us killed Ecklie. It could have been anyone of us."

Nick and Sara looked around, paranoid, while Greg popped up to say, "Da da DUM!" and went back to bowling.

II.

Meanwhile, in the morgue, Grissom, Catherine, and Doc Robbins stood looking at the dead body of Conrad Ecklie.

"It's a shame," Doc Robbins said. "A terrible shame. I'd have paid good money to see it happen. Oh well. Entry hole is in the middle of the forehead; no exit hole. Shooter couldn't have been very far away from him. The bullet was lodged in what you might call Ecklie's brain. I've retrieved it for you."

"I might keep it as a souvenir," Grissom said thoughtfully. "I don't think I have a bullet that killed my dickhead boss yet."

"Screw that," Catherine said. "We should put it on E-Bay."

"Hmm," Grissom said. He looked at the doc. "Anything else?"

"One other thing," Doc said. "I don't know if it's probative. . .which means everyone pay attention, this is the KEY TO THE ENTIRE MYSTERY because anytime I say 'not sure if it's probative' it always, always is. . .but there is a small smudge of green dye on his right forearm. That's all."

"Hmmm," Grissom said again. "Now we're ready for the next step."

"Get Chinese?" Catherine asked.

"No," Grissom said. "Now we have to analyze the evidence that Nick and Sara found, as well as interview suspects. With every piece of evidence, we're one step closer to the killer."

"Da da DUM!" Greg and Warrick sang suddenly, popping out of nowhere, and promptly running away again.