15
KITTIES HAVE FEELINGS, TOO
"…and truthfully, I feel it was in the best interest of the lab to demote Sofia. She and Grissom work very well together." Ecklie said as he searched for his car keys in his coat pockets. Warrick and Nick walked on either side of Ecklie towards his car. They were trying, in vain, to put their old team back together. But Ecklie was stubbornly sticking to his guns.
"Yeah, but did you stop to think that the other CSIs and myself work better with Grissom as our supervisor?"
"Warrick, this lab was headed for a serious downfall. If I had let Grissom stay on, it would have compromised the integrity of the lab and everyone would have suffered. Now, if you would excuse me…" He pulled his keys and was about to unlock the door when a loud BOOM! shook the entire parking lot. Ecklie went stiff as a board and fell backwards with a bloodstain growing larger and larger on his chest.
"Ecklie's been shot! Ecklie's been shot!" Warrick screamed as he pressed his hand over the wound. "Ecklie! Talk to me!" He began to perform CPR on the bloody Ecklie, who remained unresponsive to the goings on.
"I need medical assistance here at the Pavilion now! A CSI director has been shot! Send help immediately!" Nick yelled into his cell phone before rushing off with his gun drawn to look for the mysterious shooter.
"One, two, three, four..." Warrick continued pushing on Ecklie's chest. "Where's the damn ambulance!" He screamed as he continued his CPR.
"How is he?" Grissom spoke with a hushed voice outside Ecklie's hospital room. He had come over as soon as he received the page.
"He's all right. The doctor said the bullet missed his major artery and barely missed his heart. Other than that, he'll recover." Warrick sighed as he rubbed his head in his hands. "A lot of people on this already?"
"Well, Catherine and Abby are processing the parking lot now and Nick and Greg are working with Brass to find where the shooter shot Ecklie from."
"All right. Let me go home and get cleaned up. I'll be back at the lab in bit." Warrick stood up and sighed again. He and Grissom walked towards the front doors.
"All right, Warrick. When you come back to the lab, you'll be working with Sofia." Grissom climbed in his car and put the key in the ignition.
"What are you going to be doing?" Warrick leaned over the car. Grissom produced a laminated badge and showed it to Warrick.
"As of last night, I have just been promoted to head of the lab. I'm giving you guys whatever you need to figure this out."
"Thanks Gris." Warrick backed away from the car and walked towards his own as Grissom drove away.
When Grissom got to his office, he was startled to see a young woman standing in it, examining his insects.
"Um, may I help you?" He stepped in to his office to get a good look at the intruder.
"Mr. Grissom." She extended her hand towards him. "Gil Grissom, your reputation precedes you."
Grissom shook her hand and raised an eyebrow. "How do you mean?"
"Your admiration for insects is evident from your office. They're everywhere. May I?" She picked up an insect board and read the sticker on the top. "Order, Diptera. Family name, Asilidae. Aka the 'Robber Fly'." She studied the board slowly, apparently fascinated with the contents pinned to it. "Robber flies are capable of immobilizing bees, wasps and other insects larger than itself. Robber flies can even catch their prey in mid air. And, as with other aerial predators, robber flies have excellent vision, characterized by two conspicuous compound eyes. The mouthparts of this family have been modified to a stabbing proboscis."
Grissom stood in awe at this woman's knowledge.
She turned to him and chuckled softly. "You look surprised at my knowledge, Mr. Grissom."
Grissom quickly searched for the right words before finally speaking. "I'm surprised when anyone is fascinated with an insect…" He moved past her towards his desk.
She stepped over to a chair with a briefcase in it and set it on the floor, sitting down and crossing her legs. As she leaned forward to get something from the case, Grissom caught himself looking at her features. Her long, dark hair shined under his office lights, swaying as if caught in a gentle breeze. Her dark brown eyes shone with an intensity Grissom hadn't seen in a long time.
"I just realized, Mr. Grissom, that I didn't introduce myself when I shook your hand." She said as her face turned a deep shade of pink. "My name is Natalie Adams. I'm here to supervise your team and how they handle this situation."
Grissom's face set to stone. "All of the CSIs are capable of fulfilling their duties to the best of their abilities. There's no need to supervise anyone." His jaw tensed up a bit as the thought of having someone looking over his or his people's shoulders filled his mind.
"I know how this lab works, Mr. Grissom…" Natalie said defensively.
"Call me Gil, Miss Adams."
"Call me Natalie," she smiled. "Look, I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers, Gil," Natalie held up her hand in defense. "It's just that…this is a very sensitive situation. Some of my superiors have reason to believe one of your CSIs may be behind the shooting."
As Nick, Greg, and Brass checked yet another room in the abandoned office building across from the CSI parking lot where Ecklie was shot, they blew dust from their faces as they walked.
"I guess the maid quit a long time ago, huh?" Greg said as he coughed his way through cobweb after cobweb, taking picture after picture of the room. "No wonder no one's bought this building." He took a picture of the entire room, including the floor. "The maid system sucks."
"Well, Greg, no one said being a CSI was a clean job." Nick said, pushing aside a cobweb. "Do you see anything over there?" He kept processing behind Greg, picking up as much evidence as he could.
"Besides more dust and cobwebs?" Greg took another step, which sent more dust into the air. He coughed a little harder and looked Nick's way when he didn't hear a response. "Seriously, the shooter would have to had lungs of steel to be up here. I'm taking hundreds of pictures of the hundreds of footprints in this building, most likely from squatters. And top of that, I know this is going to sound totally selfish, but I had a hot date tonight with a girl I met at a club last week."
"Yeah, you're right. That did sound selfish." Nick chuckled as he looked out the window. "I know none of us liked Ecklie..." Nick said as he crouched down and examined the ledge. "But that was no reason to shoot him." Noticing a large dot, he called Greg over. "Take a picture of the floor, Greg. Make sure you get every print." He stepped aside to let Greg take pictures of the floor under the ledge.
Putting on his gloves, he took a swab from his kit and rubbed it on the spot, making sure the tip was covered. He took his Luminol bottle and sprayed the tip. "Brass! Greg! I got blood!"
Brass came running in from another room. "You found some blood?"
"Yeah." Nick closed the swab's container and kept checking the entire ledge. "There's a drop here on the ledge. Guess the shooter hurt himself shooting Ecklie."
Greg sung to himself while he waited for the printout of the blood Nick found on the ledge.
Here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone
And I've made up my mind
I ain't wasting no more time
Mia looked up from the microscope she was bent over and stared at Greg. "Greg? Stop."
Greg crossed his arms and cleared his throat. "Sorry."
"Okay," Mia started as she grabbed the finished DNA printout from the printer. "Well, since I don't have anything to compare it to, all I can tell you is that the shooter is O negative."
"Thanks Mia," Greg bashfully smiled as he took the printout from her. "Besides the many shoe prints, this is something."
"This is it," Catherine said as she and Sara walked up to Ecklie's next-door neighbor, Melanie Reynolds. She knocked on the door with the cat-shaped knocker and pushed her sunglasses up on her nose. Catherine waited a few more seconds before knocking again, flipping her strawberry-blonde hair over her shoulder.
"Just a minute!" A woman called from inside. A few seconds later, a dark haired woman answered the door. "May I help you?" She said, shoving her hands in her pockets.
"Melanie Reynolds?" Catherine looked at the papers she held in her hand.
"Yes, that's right." Melanie said, looking at Catherine and Sara warily. "May I help you?"
"We're investigating what happened to your neighbor, Conrad Ecklie," Catherine smiled politely. "We're wondering if you ever noticed Ecklie…Conrad in any arguments with anyone or if he seemed particularly agitated with anyone."
"Well, Conrad wasn't exactly the best neighbor, but I pretty much ignored him." Melanie said as she shifted her weight to another foot.
"Do you remember seeing anyone new in the neighborhood?" Sara chimed in. "Perhaps a strange car parked on the street or driving past Conrad's house?"
Melanie shook her head and crossed her arms. "Everyone in the neighborhood knows everyone. That's what makes this a safe place to live, you know?"
Sara noticed a band-aid on Melanie's hand. "May I ask how you got that wound?"
"Oh, this?" Melanie held up her hand, showing both Sara and Catherine the bandage. "My cat, Marbles, got a little too frisky and scratched me." She laughed as she put her hands back in her pockets.
"That's probably why I'm more of a dog person," Catherine said with a chuckle.
"Marbles is really a sweetie," Melanie chuckled. "He has his moments just like anyone else." She rolled her eyes and leaned against the doorframe. "So is Conrad all right?"
"Yeah, he's in stable condition at Las Vegas Memorial." Catherine flipped her hair over her shoulder and pushed her sunglasses up her nose again.
"Oh, so Conrad is still alive then?" Melanie asked Catherine. "That's a relief to hear."
Just then, Catherine's beeper went off. Seeing it was from Grissom, she motioned to Sara that they had to leave. "Thank you for your time, Ms. Reynolds."
Catherine and Sara both smiled politely and walked towards their car, driving towards the CSI lab.
"Grissom, what was the page for? Sara and I were in the middle of talking with Ecklie's neighbors." Catherine said as she and Sara came walking into the break room. Both she and Sara looked Natalie up and down before having a seat.
"I'll tell you when everyone gets here," was Grissom's reply.
Soon, Nick and Warrick came into the break room just as confused as Catherine and Sara were. Sofia soon followed.
Greg was the last to show up. "What's up, Gris? I was in the lab looking over the shoe prints when I got your page." He looked around at everyone's faces. "All right, look. Don't believe a word Hodges said. I wasn't mocking Grissom behind his back. He's a lying bastard," Greg said defensively. "Hodges is the lying bastard…not Grissom."
"Sit down, Greg. I have something to tell all of you." Grissom took a breath before spilling the news. "This," gesturing towards Natalie, "is Natalie Adams. She's here to investigate the lab and the staff about Ecklie's shooting."
Natalie gave a thin-lipped smile as she received looks of shock and disbelief.
"We're being investigated!" Warrick growled. "I don't believe this crap!" He bit his lower lip in anger.
"Why are we being investigated?" Nick leaned forward in his chair. "For what reasons?"
"Well," Natalie started tentatively. "My superiors felt an investigation was needed with the shooting of Lab Director Conrad Ecklie due to, what they felt, was a hostile work environment towards Director Ecklie." Natalie paused to take a breath. After checking out the backgrounds of both day and midnight shift, she didn't figure any of them for the shooter, let alone any of them being involved.
"Are you saying we're being investigated because we were mean towards Ecklie?" Greg asked, hiding a smirk.
"I'm saying my superiors felt it necessary to check all of you out to rule you out as potential suspects." Natalie felt her stomach jump.
"So we're our own suspects?" Sara sat with her arms crossed over her chest, tapping her foot angrily on the floor. "I don't believe this."
Feeling sorry for Natalie, Grissom jumped in. "Natalie's superiors feel that we had pretty good motives to hurt Ecklie. So now, she's here to make sure none of us went berserk. That's all she's saying." He nodded and gave a small smile at her.
"So, what? She's here to check out our backgrounds?" Nick scratched his head, trying to figure out everything that was being said.
"All I'm going to do is check out your backgrounds, any reports Ecklie made against you, and any psych evals."
"And then what?" Sofia finally spoke.
"And then, the person responsible will be immediately given to the police." Natalie picked up a file that was behind her. "I'll just get back to my job." She walked out and disappeared down the hall.
"Grissom, you've got to be kidding me," Nick said as he rubbed his forehead.
"Well, Nick, obviously there are people who think we hated Conrad so much, we'd shoot him." Grissom stroked his beard and sighed. "So, instead of sitting here, let's do our jobs. Tell me what you all have been doing."
As the tension in the room eased a bit, all the CSIs began relating their progress in the case.
In one area of the lab, Sofia and Warrick were with Greg as he sorted the hundreds of shoe prints from the abandoned building on a computer.
"I can't believe that woman called us suspects!" Warrick vented as he paced back and forth.
"Warrick, she didn't call us suspects," Sofia sighed. "She simply said we were being checked out. No reason to get all upset."
"Damn close, though!" Greg said as he clicked the mouse intensely.
"Well, if you think about it, we all have some grudge against Ecklie," Sofia said, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm still upset he demoted me. Doesn't mean I would have shot him, though."
"We all didn't like Ecklie, but I'll be damned if I'm going to be investigated like a perp." Warrick stalked off, leaving Sofia and Greg alone.
"Hey Catherine!" Sara called as she ran towards Catherine.
"What's up, Sara?" Catherine stopped and turned, allowing Sara to catch up.
"Do you remember a Melanie Reynolds? She was the last person we talked before we found out we were being investigated."
Catherine sighed and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, what about her?"
"Well, I just came from talking with a few more neighbors and they said that she and Ecklie had an argument a week before his shooting."
"Really?" Catherine said with surprise. "Funny how she failed to mention that."
"I say we pay another visit to Ms. Reynolds." Sara said as she jingled some car keys. They walked to the car, with Sara filling Catherine in about Melanie.
Arriving at Melanie's home once again, Sara and Catherine saw Melanie hauling two plastic bags to the trash. Stopping near the garbage can, they got out and walked towards Melanie, who hurried to put the trash in the can. She quickly put the top on and smiled at Sara and Catherine.
"Hi Ms. Reynolds," Catherine politely smiled. "Taking out the trash?"
"Yeah," Melanie said as rubbed her hands on her jeans. "I'm cleaning the house and I just discovered I'm a bit of a pack rat," she laughed.
"Yeah, I'm like that, too." Catherine returned the same laugh. "I still have things from early high school."
"Um, did you want to talk to me about something?" Melanie gave a quick glance at Sara and turned her attention back to Catherine.
"Yeah," Sara cocked her head to the side. "We were wondering why you didn't mention your argument with Ecklie to us earlier."
"My argument with Ecklie?" Melanie repeated. "We didn't argue."
"Well," Sara confronted Melanie with an arched eyebrow. "According to some neighbors, you both had a pretty heated argument on his lawn. Care to let us know what about?"
"Conrad and I weren't arguing," Melanie crossed her arms. "I simply went to talk to him."
"About?" Catherine said as she flipped her hair behind her shoulder.
"About," Melanie replied, searching for the right words. "Me letting my cat roam outside. He didn't like Marbles coming on his property, even though I always told him Marbles stayed on this side of the fence."
Before she could be questioned any further, Melanie turned towards her house. "If we're done here, I have to go feed Marbles." Without so much as a goodbye, Melanie walked back up the walk and went inside her house.
"Damn," Catherine snorted.
"She's lying." Sara said, adjusting her sunglasses. "There's more to the story than she's telling us."
"I agree," Catherine said with her hands on her hips. "But we need a warrant to search her house."
Sara glanced at Melanie's garbage can. "Not necessarily," she smirked.
Catherine looked at Sara, frowning. Then she followed Sara's gaze and smiled. "It's on the street. It's ours." She took off the top and grabbed the top bag while Sara grabbed the bottom one. Hauling their treasure, Catherine opened the trunk and they stuffed both bags in the back. Getting in the car with clever smiles on their faces, they drove back to the lab.
As Catherine and Sara sifted through the trash they brought back from Melanie's house, Nick stopped by to check on them.
"How's your trash search doing?" Nick walked up and stood next to Sara, who was reading stained receipts.
"We're two seconds from finishing," Sara smiled, putting the sorted trash back in the bag. "Though Catherine is a bit upset that she got the bag with the cat litter in it." She chuckled as Catherine shot a dirty look her way.
"Ugh!" Catherine said, wrinkling her nose and pushing aside more chunks of cat litter. "Greg is so lucky we promised not to have a hazing ritual."
"Well, he's still a little paranoid about a CSI hazing happening to him," Nick laughed.
"This would be too easy a hazing anyway," Catherine said as she continued making her way through the trash and litter. "Where is everyone?"
"Warrick and Sofia are talking with Bullet Bobby, Greg is still working on the shoe prints, and Grissom is visiting Ecklie with that Natalie chick."
"This woman is throwing out a lot of clothes…what's this?" Sara said as she pulled a dirty towel from the trash. She moved to a cleaner part of the table and stretched the towel out. "There's blood on it."
Nick and Catherine moved to either side of Sara and looked at the towel.
"Seems like your suspect has a lot of explaining to do," Nick said.
"Yeah," Catherine took off her gloves and went over to her bag, grabbed her camera and took several pictures of the towel.
"We've got enough for a search warrant if this matches the blood you found, Nick." Sara said with a slight smile. She grabbed the towel and went over the DNA lab to give it to Mia.
Catherine looked at the trash on the table. "Nick…" she said sweetly. "Want to help me clean up?"
Nick looked at Catherine and held up his hands. "I forgot my gloves," he said, giving a little chuckle.
Unfazed, Catherine pulled some clean pair of gloves from her pocket and tossed them to him. "There you go. Start on that side of the pile and I'll be on this side of the pile," she said, pulling on a fresh pair of gloves herself.
Pulling on the gloves, Nick sighed and dug in, grimacing all the way through.
"Well, you were right," Mia said as she swiveled to face Sara, Catherine, and Nick. "This is a match to the blood Nick found in the building across the street."
"Okay, Sara, call Brass and tell him to get a search warrant for Melanie Reynolds's house." Catherine started punching in Grissom's cell phone number. "I'll tell Grissom we're searching Melanie's house. Nick, get Warrick, Sofia, and Greg, and tell them to go to Melanie's house. They're gonna help us search."
As Sara and Nick left to perform their assigned duties, Catherine left a message on Grissom's voicemail with the update.
Boom, boom, boom!
"Las Vegas P.D.! Open up!" Brass called out as he banged on Melanie's door. He was about to bang again, but Melanie opened the door.
"What the hell?" Melanie said with her hand on her hip. "Who are you?"
"Name's Jim Brass," Brass said as he flashed her his badge. "And we're here to search your house."
"What?" Melanie looked at all of the CSIs's faces. "You can't come in here."
"This," Brass produced the search warrant, "says we can." He handed her the warrant and grabbed her elbow. "You'll have to wait out here, Ms. Reynolds. Officer Keller will take care of you.
"All right, guys," Catherine said as they stood in the doorway. "Nick, you and Greg check upstairs. Sara and I will check the first floor. Warrick and Sofia, check the backyard and the garage."
Kits in hand, everyone split with their designated buddy and left to carry out their assignments.
After they finished checking the spare bedroom and closet, Nick and Greg came to Melanie's bedroom.
"Check the master bedroom while I check out the master bathroom." Nick went in the bathroom, leaving Greg standing near the door.
"All righty." Greg set his kit down and checked out the dressers. Finding nothing, he went over to the closet and opened it, tugging on a cord to turn on the light. He searched through the clothes hanging on wire hangers.
"No…more…wire…HANGERS!" Greg said in his best Mommy Dearest voice.
"Greg!" Nick called from the bathroom.
"Sorry!" Greg called back. He continued his search, finally coming across a pair of dusty shoes. "Hey Nick! Come check this out."
"Yeah?" Nick came from the bathroom and stood next to Greg.
"See the shoes?" Greg nodded his head towards the shoes.
"Yeah. Either she never wore those before in her life…" Nick said, looking at Greg.
"Or her maid service sucks, too." Greg finished, bagging the shoes as evidence.
"What's that?" Nick pointed to a duffel bag near the shoes.
Greg leaned over and pulled the bag out of the closet, unzipping it and opening it to reveal a high-powered rifle and ammunition. "Whoa."
"Damn." Nick zipped up the bag. "Go tell Brass to make the arrest."
Greg ran downstairs and told Brass about the rifle. Smirking, Brass went outside where Melanie was still standing with Officer Keller. "Ms. Reynolds, would you care to explain why a high-powered rifle is in your home?"
Melanie's face drained as she searched for a reason.
"Uh huh…" Brass turned Melanie around and clicked his handcuffs on her wrists. "You can tell me all about it when we get downtown." And with that, he read Melanie her rights and both he and Officer Keller escorted Melanie to the squad car and put her in the back.
Nick and Greg placed the tagged duffel bag on the table and unzipped it in front of Bobby, who peered inside.
"Wow!" Bobby exclaimed as he took the rifle out of the bag and carefully handled it. "Sorry to ask, but is it unloaded?"
"Yeah," Nick said. "There's extra ammunition in the bag. We need to know if it's the same bullet retrieved from Ecklie."
"Why'd you think we'd give you loaded gun?" Greg asked.
"Just residual paranoia that a gun I assumed is empty when it's really not is going to go off again." Bobby sheepishly shrugged. "No problem, guys. I'll page you when I'm done." Bobby said, still looking at the gun in his hands.
Less than an hour later, Nick and Greg received the long-awaited page from Bobby. "Well, what's the verdict, Bobby?" Nick asked soon as he and Greg entered the ballistics room.
"See for yourselves." Bobby nodded to a microscope where he had set up both bullets side-by-side.
Greg peered in the microscope and looked at Nick. "They're the same."
"Yeah," Bobby bit his lower lip.
"Mia should have those epithelials we found on the gun analyzed by now." Nick said, nodding his head. "Thanks Bobby." He and Greg left to see Mia.
"Knock, knock," Natalie said as she stood in Grissom's doorway.
Grissom looked up from his shelves. "Hi, Natalie. Come on in."
"Thanks." She came in and stood next to him, looking at butterfly collection. "I wanted to tell you that I've finished my report regarding the staff and the lab."
"Oh," Grissom replied, nodding. "And what's the verdict?"
"That the staff are professional and were not the ones who shot Director Ecklie…" she smiled. "Even though none of you really liked him."
Grissom gave a slight smile and sighed. "Conrad is…unlikable at times," he agreed.
"Gil," Natalie said with a chuckle. "I know Conrad Ecklie personally. Let's be completely honest, he's an major ass towards underlings and a major ass-kisser with the higher ups."
Grissom looked at Natalie with raised eyebrows and said nothing.
"But, there's no need to trash the man," she said, taking a step back towards the door. "Even if you don't care for him."
"Too bad you couldn't have stayed longer." Grissom took a step closer to Natalie. "You could have gotten to know everyone better."
Natalie smiled. "Yeah," she said thoughtfully.
Grissom studied her features, sighing as wishful thinking filled his mind. He was about to ask her to dinner when Natalie spoke up.
"Well, I have to go. I have some more work to finish up on." She stepped out of the office and into the hallway, with Grissom right behind her. She turned smiling, sticking out her hand. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Gil."
Grasping her hand, Gil smiled. "It was a pleasure to meet you, too, Natalie."
They stood staring into each other's eyes for a moment, both wanting to pause time and stay in each other's company for a bit longer.
"Goodbye," Natalie finally said, taking her hand back. "I'll send you a copy of my report."
"All right. Goodbye." Grissom smiled.
Natalie gave Grissom one last smile and walked away.
Catherine came into the interrogation room and sat on one side of the table and opened a file. "Melanie, we tested the bullet we got from Ecklie with a bullet from the rifle we got from your bedroom closet," Catherine arched an eyebrow as she showed Melanie the ballistics printout. "They were a match."
"We also tested the skin cells we found on the gun. They, too, were a match to you." Catherine showed Melanie the DNA printout.
As Melanie looked at the printouts in front of her, she shifted in her seat and cleared her throat.
Catherine shook her head. "Melanie, why did you shoot Conrad?"
Melanie closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. "Marbles."
"Marbles?" Catherine sat in disbelief. "Y…you shot Conrad because of your cat?"
"He killed Marbles," sniffed Melanie. "Ran him over and then gave me some half-assed apology." Melanie said as she wiped away a tear. "When I confronted him, he blamed me. Said I should have been more careful with letting him roam outside." Melanie's lower lip quivered as she fought back tears. "That heartless bastard took away my baby. He had to pay."
Shaking her head in disbelief, Catherine gestured to Officer Keller to take Melanie away.
Melanie stood up and as she was being handcuffed, she laughed. "It's funny, you know? The only reason that son-of-a-bitch is still alive is because I sneezed. I sneezed and accidentally pulled the trigger. But I saw him go down and thought I killed him." She continued laughing. "So when you see Conrad, tell him that his life was saved by dust." With her arm firmly grasped, Officer Keller led her out the interrogation room.
With Melanie being led down the hall, Catherine stood in the doorway shaking her head. She noticed Grissom standing next to her, who stopped and watched Melanie being led away.
"She shot Ecklie over a cat," Catherine gave a slight chuckle. "A damn cat."
"Ecklie killed something she loved more than anything in the world," Grissom said. "It was only natural she'd want revenge."
"Yeah, well," Catherine said as she turned and walked towards her office. "Ecklie still got shot over a damn cat."
"Yeah, but stranger things have happened." Grissom straightened up and walked back to his insect-filled office to listen to classical music.
The End.
