Jim Brass woke with the sun in his eyes, pounding head and little memory of the night before. The detective did not find this situation agreeable. Raising his arm to block the sun, he brushed the woman next to him in the bed. She shifted under the covers, brushing her bare leg against his thighs. Jim realized that he was nude.

It was obvious he was in a hotel room, a suite. He could see through the bedroom door into a sitting room. The pounding in his head began to worsen. Opening his eyes a litter wider made the pounding more intense. Slightly raising on his elbows he looked around the room. As the room came into focus, so did the night before. Clothing was scattered in the room and he could see piles of clothing on the sitting room floor. The upturned champagne bottle in the ice bucket and the empties on the side tables, defined the reason fro the headache, dry mouth and nausea. This sensation was one of the reasons he had stopped drinking years ago.

"Oh Shit" he murmured.

The woman rolled over and curled up next to him, her body warm. Jim looked over at the woman and recognized the dark head on the pillow next to him.

"Oh shit" he thought , "Not my greatest moment."

Raising father on his elbows he saw his holster and gun on a chair in the sitting room. There was another on the coffee table in front of the couch. With each new detail he saw, the days before flashed and became more clear in his brain.

A FEW DAYS BEFORE

Jim Brass walked into the convenience store.

"Okay, fill me in." Jim said to the first officer on the scene.

"The dead guy is a customer. We got a witness that saw everything from his car."

"I better see him first." Jim shook his head as he looked at the DB. "What a waste."

He strolled to the area the where the witness stood. It was a kid, a teenager. A skinny boy bout seventeen.

"What did you see." Brass asked almost whispering. This kid was in shock. Jim didn't want to spook him anymore than necessary.

"I was pulling up to get gas. I heard a gunshot and saw the guy come out the door with a women. He pointed the gun at me and pushed me down by the gas pumps. He got in my car. He was gonna shoot me but the woman started screaming and he just drove off. If she hadn't started screaming I'd be dead."

"Get the make and model of the car, put out an APB." Brass directed the officer with the kid. "And get someone here to check this kid out. He's in shock. Call his parents."

Jim waited knowing Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle would show up eventually. He made sure no one went into the convenience store. He hoped the APB would help, but the store clerk was probley dead already. He dialed the number on the door of the store. A hand written sign was taped to the door. "If I can be of any help call :" and a local number was listed with the name Cowboy Harvey, owner."

After a few rings a man answered.

"Howdy?"

"Well, Howdy partner. Are you the owner of the Cowboy Connivance Store out on 10?" Brass chuckled into the phone.

"That's me partner, how can I helped you?"

"Well we've had a little shoot out at your corral, I need you to come on down." Brass closed his phone.

Gil ,and to Jim's disappointment, Greg arrived. He had hoped Sara would be helping with this case.

"Did you know that other than a police officer, the most dangerous job in the United States was convenience store clerk?" Gil asked to no one in particular. Brass just grunted, used to Gils random musings.

The area around the gas pumps had been taped off, but the first place Gil headed was the building. He left Greg to the kid and the pumps. Greg took trace samples from the kids clothing and hair. He than began to photograph the pump area. This was grunt work and Greg knew it. He couldn't hurry his work, but he wanted to be inside with Grissom.

"We got any tape on this one?" Gil asked and Jim pointed to the security camera and shrugged.

"You know how these places are maybe, maybe not. I've called the owner. We can get tape then."

The body was in the aisle near the counter. One shot to the head at point blank range. The man didn't know what hit him. He had his wallet in one hand and a drink in the other. Jim picked up the wallet with a gloved hand.

Flipping it open " Walter Harris. 34. From Henderson. Picture of a women. Condom in the wallet. Looks like its been there a while. Fifty dollars. The perp didn't stop to rob him. He didn't kill the kid. I gonna bet you he wanted the woman."

Gil photographed the body and the scene around it. Greg walked in and Gil instructed him to dust for prints, especially the door handle , inside and out and the counter.

A rather large potbellied man in a cowboy hat cam barreling through the door. Brass stopped him before he violated the scene and walked him back outside.

"You must be the owner. We need to talk"

"What has happened her?" He looked from Brass to Gil to the body on the floor. " What can I do, where is Nancy?"

"The store clerk, Nancy. Tell me about her." Brass asked as Cowboy sat on a bench by the front door.

"She had switched shifts with the normal night shift clerk, David Curry." The man looked truly stricken.

"You got security tape? We need it, and if you can we need all the employees to come down to the station for fingerprinting."

"No problem, anything for Nancy. What happened?"

"The shooter kidnapped her, killed a bystander anything you can tell us will help find her." Brass held out little hope for this scenario.

"Can I post some sort of reward? Would that help?" The big man looked about to cry.

"Just get us the tape first"

As it turned out the convenience store had two tapes one over the counter and one in the back room. This would be of great value. Cowboy was watching the front for security and the back to make sure his employees would stay in line.

Brass's phone rang. It was a deputy from the sheriff's department. When he hung up he went into the store.

"Gil they've found the car. The women's body is near it. Another body was found, too, apparently the guy hijacked another vehicle. I'm gonna check it out. "

Gil opened his phone, "Sara I need you on a scene on 10 between Henderson and Las Vegas."

Brass drove to the new crime scene. The women was in the grass. She her clothes were torn and ripped. Brass knew a rape when he saw one. The other body was a man. Shot in the head , just like the man in the store.

Brass got on his radio and told dispatch to alert all units that an unknown man was on 10 headed east. Armed and dangerous. Three victims , approach with caution. He used his handkerchief to pull the wallet out of the man's pocket. Brass radioed the man's name to dispatch was able to get a description of the car to add to the APB.

Sara Sidle arrived on the scene. Brass came forward to help he with her heavy kit. Sara accepted his help without comment. She sniffed the air.

"Smell's like rain." she said

" I thought the same thing. We need to have the car hauled in then and I'll call for a wagon for the bodies."

"I'll work the scene until they get here."

" You had the night off? You okay being called in tonight?" Jim asked looking across the field toward the woman's body. He worried about Sara. She could be so tough and then turn on a dime and be fragile. He knew this case would throw her. The rape cases always did.

"Lot's of questions. I'm fine. I was at the movies." she smiled

"Hot Date?" He tried not to sound to interested

"Something like that." she knew she should let him know that she'd been out with Laura Hall a social worker she knew. It amused her to think he was so protective of her. She likes working cases with Brass. His "take names and ask questions later approach" was reassuring.

THE NEXT MORNING

Back at his office, Brass rubbed his chin. He needed a shave. Gazing at the folder in his hands he knew he would have to buy a plane ticket. Greg had lifted the prints that identified the murderer. Perry Hart was a drifter. He had started robbing stores in California, petty thief. Usually never stole more than five hundred dollars and he never killed anyone. He had one conviction for rape in Arizona, he served 16 months. The killing had started in Nevada. Perry was overwhelmed with the customer and the kid at the pump. The tape had clearly shown that .

Perry drug the woman out of the store, raped her and hijacked a car. The owner of the car had won big in Vegas there had been cash in the car. The car had been found abandoned at the airport. Perry had slipped though and had flown east. Airport security had records that indicate he had bought a ticket for New Orleans. Brass was very unhappy that Perry Hart had been so fortunate in his town.

Jim called the New Orleans PD and they had a rap sheet on Perry Hart. Mostly juvenile stuff, expunged when he had turned 18. He had a sister in the city. The NOPD agreed to help round him up and get him back to Vegas.

Brass walked to Gil's office.

"The convenience store perp? He's on the run. He's in New Orleans. I been on the horn with their guys. I'm on the next flight out. I need to take someone with me that knows the case. Can you spare Sara?"

"Fine, by me." Gil turned his attention to the paperwork on his desk .