"Well, guys, I have lots of good information for you," Greg stormed into the room with a handful of papers.
"Did you find the results on the fingerprints?" Grissom inquired.
"Indeed I did, and much more! The fingerprints on the door are from our victim, so they are of no help to us, unfortunately. The only thing they tell us is that the victim was the last person to touch the doorknob, meaning that the door was likely open at the time of the crime. This brings me to the next discovery, the bullet. Based on ballistics' analysis of the body and the bullet, your bullet was shot from fifteen to seventeen feet away, and our body was found sixteen feet from the doorway. We are still looking for the gun, it could be anywhere in Vegas, but it's doubtful we'll ever find it without finding the killer first. On the bright side, however, I did run a search on Mrs. Taylor's records and found some information that you might find very interesting…"
"What's that, Greg," Grissom said, looking very tired with the direction the evidence was going.
"Well, it seems that Mrs. Taylor has a dirty little past of her own. She was enrolled in Illinois State University years ago, but her official record states that she was forced to leave the University due to an honor court hearing where she was found guilty of having adult relations with her professor in order to raise her grades."
"But that's the same thing she accused her daughter of doing!" Sara gasped.
"Like mother like daughter," Grissom responded.
"So, Mrs. Taylor, tell us about your time at Illinois State University," Sara began, sitting down at the table next to Grissom and across from Mrs. Taylor.
"I guess you checked my file. I figured that would come up at some point. I was having trouble with chemistry during my junior year and my professor offered to push my grade to an A if I would keep him sexually satisfied throughout the semester. I didn't have a boyfriend at the time, and I needed that A, so I took him up on the offer. It was his idea, not mine, and the sex was mediocre. But my roommate, who was not an attractive girl, was jealous that I was making an A in that class so easily, so she followed me one night and turned me in. I was found guilty and had to leave the school. So I guess it wasn't really worth it."
Grissom continued, "Well this is an interesting twist on our case, Mrs. Taylor. I bet it made you angry when you found out that your daughter might be doing the same thing you did. I bet you were concerned that she'd get kicked out of school, just like you did. You might have even been mad enough to take care of the situation yourself –"
"No! I would never do that! I was angry with Danielle, but I would never kill anyone over this! I am not a murderer! Besides, I had no proof that anything was going on. That's why I arrived a little early this afternoon, to see if I could catch them in the act. But Mrs. Pritchard found him dead before I even made it to the classroom!"
"So you won't mind if we test your hands for gunshot residue," Sara asked.
"Go ahead," Mrs. Taylor cried, "You won't find anything, so go ahead." She shoved her hands out. Grissom sprayed them, and nothing happened.
"Alright, Mrs. Taylor, it looks like you haven't shot any guns today. At least, not before you could go wash your hands. You are free to go for now." Grissom walked her to the door. Sara looked at him.
"This is weird," she said, "That girl having sex with her teacher would be like, well, me having sex with you or something."
Grissom looked at her, puzzled. "Oh great," she though, "I can't believe I just said that. He probably thinks I've been fantasizing about him or something. Or worse, he could think I find him repulsive! No! That's not what I want!"
"Not that having sex with you would be gross or weird or something. I don't mean it like that," she stopped herself. She was saying too much. Why couldn't she just shut up and let it go? He was so much better with words than she was. And if he had any feelings, he was better at controlling them. Sara had been a mess recently, and blurting out inappropriate comments to her boss was something she didn't used to do. Luckily, their strange conversation was interrupted by Greg, who barged into the room.
"Hey guys, what's shakin'?" he said, winking at Sara and giving her a big grin.
"Hey Greg, we just finished talking to Mrs. Taylor. She doesn't have any GSR on her hands, but that doesn't rule her out quite yet. She could have washed her hands since the murder. But my suspicion is falling on the Danielle. Something isn't right there, and I don't quite know what it is."
"Well, maybe this will be some good news for you. The police searched the trashcans at the school looking for the gun, thinking the murderer might have stashed it in the trash in order to avoid being caught. They didn't find a gun, but they did find two freshly used condoms, one in the upstairs girl's restroom and one in the downstairs boy's restroom. In a normal high school bathroom this might be overlooked, but considering the sexual nature of our two suspects, I knew it might be of interest. DNA is processing the condoms and comparing them with swabs from out two suspects and the victims right now."
"Two condoms in such different locations? That does sound a little fishy. Maybe we can find out exactly what's been going on between Danielle and Mr. Mason," Grissom pointed out. He got up and walked out of the examining room to go get a cup of coffee. Sara and Greg were hot on his toes.
