The crash
Catherine Willows; the blonde bombshell of the Las Vegas crime lab, thundered down to her crime scene. Her classy attitude shone through and her shoulder length sun-kissed blonde hair trailed behind her.
Catherine was loving her new CSI (crime scene investigator) job because she was now head of swing shift. It meant she could spend more time with her twelve-year-old daughter Lindsey and take any case she wanted. Catherine used to be part of the graveyard shift along with the rest of her team; her gorgeous boys Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown. The graveyard shift now consisted of the head Gil Grissom; he preferred to be known as Grissom and was on of only twelve entomologists in the country. Sara Sidle; one of the best in her league, and Greg Sanders; the cheekiest CSI ever.
The crime scene got closer. There weren't many details when Catherine got the call. All she knew was that a large black car had crashed in the dessert and that three victims had extraordinarily found their way to the hospital before alerting the police. Amazingly all three got away with relatively minor injuries.
As Catherine neared the car she started to see some familiarities. She caught a glimpse of the make. Toho. "Now why would a black Toho be in the middle of the dessert?" she muttered to herself. Captain Brass; the head of the police department, walked up to Catherine.
"No one's touched the car," he said to her, "we were waiting for you."
"Ok," Catherine replied, "let's pop the trunk." An officer came and picked the lock until the trunk popped open. Catherine was shocked at what she found inside. If it had of been a body she might have been prepared, but not this. Three silver cases stared back at her. Catherine opened the one nearest her .A forensics kit was neatly laying inside. "Oh… my… god," Catherine exclaimed, "get onto the hospital and find out if we have an ID on the victims yet," she told Brass, but he was already onto it.
Getting in touch with the hospital seemed to take forever. Something was telling Catherine that the kits belonged to Grissom, Sara and Greg though she didn't want to believe it. Finally Brass ran over to Catherine and crushed her hopes of it not being her former colleagues. She immediately pulled out her phone and dialled Nick's number.
"Stokes," a voice at the other end bellowed.
"Nick? Catherine. Grab Warrick and get down to the hospital. I'll meet you there."
When Nick and Warrick got to the hospital Catherine hurried up to them. "I hope your prepared guys. This ones personal," she said to them. Nick and Warrick were slightly confused but Catherine explained on the way. It was a huge thing to take in all at once but the guys knew this was neither the time nor the place to start breaking-down. They had to find out what happened to their friends. She led them to a small room and there lying on the bed looking both bored and in pain was Greg.
"Hey buddy," Nick said.
"How ya doin' Greg," asked Warrick. Greg was doing his usual "I'm cool. Nothing wrong with me" routine. It made Catherine smile knowing that Greg hadn't lost his sense of humour. "Down to the nitty-gritty I'm afraid Greg," Catherine said
"What exactly do you remember?" Greg prepared himself.
"This is going to be tough," he thought.
Greg told Catherine Nick and Warrick what he remembered. It wasn't a lot to go on though, as his memory was a bit rusty. In fact all he could really tell them was who was sitting where in the car. He didn't even remember what they were doing there.
The three CSIs stayed with Greg for about another hour; as friends rather than CSIs but occasionally slipping something into the conversation that might jog Greg's memory. Eventually a nurse came and told them that 'Greg needed his rest.' They didn't need to be told twice; having CSIs in the hospital made the staff there feel uncomfortable because CSIs never leave until they have their information.
Sara and Grissom were still unconscious so Catherine decided that it was time for her team to process the scene. The team sighed at the sight of the damaged Toho and Warrick caught a glimpse of the three forensics kits in the back.
"They were either coming to a scene or just leaving it," he muttered to himself.
"I know," Catherine sighed, "and it was Greg's final proficiency."
Processing the scene was the hardest thing the team had ever done. At one point or another they had all travelled in the car with Grissom whether it was to a scene or just out and about around Vegas or even just a lift home. There were just too many memories. The tension was so strong it was almost tangible. Catherine worked on the car whilst Warrick and Nick processed the surrounding area. There was just one problem though; no evidence could be found. There was no sign of fowl play nor was there anything to suggest that somebody else who shouldn't have had been there.
"Catherine!" a familiar voice broke the CSI's thoughts. She rushed over to where Nick and Warrick were kneeling over something.
"What is it?" she asked. The guys moved aside. What they'd found had just blown the case wide open. Sticking out of the sand was a scrap of paper with writing on it. "Gil Grissom, Sara Sidle, Greg Sanders Las Vegas crime lab. Make sure they're dead," Catherine read out.
"Get Ecklie here now," she said to Warrick then she turned to Nick,
"Get Brass back here too" she told him. Brass had gone to check up at the hospital.
Within thirty minutes Conrad Ecklie; the deputy head of the crime lab who everyone hated was there.
"This better be good Catherine," he yelled
"I'm afraid not," Catherine said. She presented Ecklie with the now bagged and tagged piece of paper.
"Someone wants graveyard dead," she told him trying to sound sympathetic. Ecklie glared at her as if to say 'I can see that.'
"Get me a suspect and fast," Ecklie told Catherine,
"Or you're fired,"
Catherine turned away and rejoined her team quickly.
Minutes later another car pulled up near the crime scene. It was Brass' squad car.
"I've got uniforms all over the hospital," he informed Catherine. Ecklie came butting in to find out what Brass had just told Catherine; not wanting to be left out.
"I'm in charge," he said in an ignorant fashion "therefore I am the first to know." Brass opened his mouth to comment but then quickly changed his mind. A moment later Brass' radio went off; he walked away to answer it before quickly turning back to Catherine.
"Sara's just come round," he told her. "She wants to see whoever's in charge of the case and fast."
Catherine ran towards her car.
"Nick, Warrick I'm going back to the hospital," she shouted before getting into her car.
"Meet you back at the lab," Nick shouted after her.
As Catherine sped along the road the only thought that was running through her head was that she had to solve this case no matter what. This was the labs number one priority.
The hospital neared and Catherine started to focus on the task in hand again. As Catherine approached Sara's room she noticed that there wasn't one corner of the hospital where a uniformed officer wasn't present, Brass was right, there was uniforms all over this place. Catherine knocked on the door and waited.
"Come in," a surprisingly confident voice called. Catherine opened the door and saw Sara walking about the room like she was looking for some kind of escape.
"Lost something?" Catherine asked. Sara looked at her and smiled.
"Thank god it's not day shift taking the case," she said. Catherine smiled back knowing exactly what Sara meant. The thing about dayshift was that Ecklie used to be in charge so Grissom and Ecklie were always in competition; graveyard and dayshift hated each other. Dayshift wouldn't have cared less whether the case was solved or not.
"So what did you lose?" Catherine asked again in a very casual way.
"A piece of paper," Sara said preoccupied with looking for it. "We found it in the car just before we crashed. It had something quite disturbing written on it." Just then Catherine remembered the piece of paper that Nick and Warrick had found at the crash sight. She pulled the bag it was in out of her case.
"It wasn't this piece of paper was it Sara?" she asked handing it to Sara. Sara examined at it. She sighed and nodded before handing it back to Catherine. Catherine sat down in a near by chair wanting to question Sara about what she remembered and Sara appeared to read her mind.
"We were driving back to the lab after finishing up at a scene," she began; without Catherine even having to ask what she remembered,
"Greg found a small piece of paper on the floor of Grissom's car. You know how tidy Grissom keeps his car so it kinda looked outta place." Catherine laughed remembering the numerous times Grissom had cleaned out his car at work.
"Anyway," Sara continued, "as Greg was bending down to pick up the piece of paper the brakes started going all funny and the suspension on the car went and we crashed." Catherine closed her eyes and sighed.
"The car was sabotaged," she said.
"So…" Sara said continuing on from Catherine "we got out the car and saw how much blood there was so we decided first priority was to get to the hospital."
Catherine told Sara that Greg was conscious and told her about his memory when her phone rang.
"Willows," she answered; this was her usual telephone manner.
"Catherine it's Greg I remembered what happened!" Greg was talking so fast that Catherine could only just make out the words.
"Whoa Greg slow down… and breath for gods sake." Sara laughed guessing what Catherine was hearing at the other end of the line.
"Now tell me exactly what you remember," Catherine told him in a calm manner hoping that it might calm down the extraordinarily hyper Greg.
The now calmer Greg told Catherine the exact same thing that Sara had just told her.
"Oh by the way Greg, Sara's come round if you want someone other than the nurses to annoy," Catherine told Greg whilst watching Sara suddenly stop in her steps at the words Greg, Sara and annoy. Within about thirty seconds there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Sara called trying to sound as if she had no idea that Greg was coming. Right on cue in walked Greg with his cheeky smile and funky spiked up hair. Catherine made up a really lame excuse to leave and made her way back to the lab.
She met Nick and Warrick in the garage where the car had been towed in.
"So, where do we begin?" Nick asked,
"brakes and suspension," Catherine answered and Nick and Warrick exchanged perplexed expressions. Catherine took off her jacket and quickly tied her hair back.
"Chop chop boys we've got a car to process," Catherine said noticing that the guys hadn't moved from their confused positions.
Nick wheeled out from under the car and confirmed that the brakes and suspension had been tampered with.
"Completely useless," was the phrase that he used. Before he had a chance to get up off the floor Catherine passed Nick some print dust and a brush. Nick sighed and went back under the car.
"I love my job," Catherine said to Warrick and he just laughed. A voice came out from under the car.
"Pass me a tape lift," it said. Warrick passed a tape lift under the car and a few seconds later Nick emerged with a beauty of a fingerprint.
"I'll go run this through AFIS," Catherine said taking the print out of Nick's hand and hurrying out of the garage.
Catherine sat staring at the computer screen waiting for AFIS to give her a match to the fingerprint when there was a knock at the door. Catherine turned and saw Greg and Sara staring back at her.
"Back at work so soon?" she asked in a rather confused manner.
"Well," said Greg "we got discharged from hospital, went home and got bored after about…"
"An hour," Sara finished.
Suddenly the computer bleeped. Catherine turned back.
"We've got a perfect match," she said. "Let's see who it is." Catherine couldn't believe it.
"Who is it?" Sara asked taking note of Catherine's shocked expression.
"Conrad Ecklie," Catherine said before turning to Sara and Greg and meeting their shocked expressions.
Very soon Catherine, Warrick and Brass were in the interrogation room with the now arrested Conrad Ecklie.
"Are you going to tell us why," Catherine started "or are we going to play games."
Ecklie made out that he had no idea what Catherine was going on about but she knew that he knew exactly what was going on.
"Let's start from the beginning then," Catherine said; her voice was so patronising it was like she was talking to a child.
"Gil Grissom, Sara Sidle, and Greg Sanders had an accident in the middle of the desert. We found this scrap of paper near by," Catherine said whilst presenting Ecklie with a copy of the note.
"You threatened me with my job saying if I didn't find a suspect I'd lose it. I guess it's safe now." Ecklie smirked. Catherine could feel the fury building up inside of her.
"I spoke to the victims they told me that the suspension went and the brakes failed so naturally my colleagues and I checked them out, completely useless I believe the phrase was." Catherine turned to Warrick who confirmed that "completely useless" was the right phrase. "Your print was on the useless brake," Catherine told Ecklie whilst sliding a picture across the table. On the left was the print they'd found on the brake and on the right was the print that was on file.
"After this I then went back to the note. The lab confirmed that the writing was yours." Ecklie just stared at Catherine and Catherine stared back. Brass broke the silence.
"Conrad Ecklie, you're under arrest for the attempted murder of Gil Grissom, Sara Sidle and Greg Sanders lets go." Ecklie was cuffed and just before he was taken away he whispered in Catherine's ear.
"Be thankful you got me now because you were next."
As Ecklie was led away Catherine's phone rang. Grissom had come round. Very soon Catherine, Nick, Warrick, Sara, and Greg were all at Grissom's bedside telling him about what had happened. He was shocked that it was Ecklie that had tried to kill them but glad that he was now behind bars. Catherine looked around and smiled. It was like a school reunion, the old team were all together again and for one Catherine didn't mind that Grissom was in charge.