"Shit!" Nick cried, jumping back as Sara opened the door and the fresh blood rushed out onto the road.
"Is that…?" she asked.
"Hodges." Catherine gasped.
"Looks like our first suspect got the axe." Grissom muttered, pointing to the fire axe on the road outside the car.
"Is that one of ours?" Nick asked.
"The one for outside? Yes. But there's no CCTV camera on this side, with it being near the main door." Sara pushed a hand through her hair. "I can't believe no one saw this!" she growled out.
"This the new one?" They all turned to find David standing behind them.
"Yeah. David Hodges." Grissom said, stepping back to let David through to collect the body.
"Have you taken photos?" He asked.
"We have to wait for Sofia, until our names have been ruled out we can't help." Grissom explained. "Only Sofia can be vouched for." He added.
"I'm here." She called, dashing out to the car. "What a mess." She muttered, quickly snapping up some photos. "Greg and Catherine can help me. I saw both of them around the time of this." She said, stepping back to allow Catherine to get into the back seat while Greg looked in through the passenger side.
"O…kay." Greg said, getting everyone's attention. "I think this might be the same killer." He held out a letter to Sofia, it was the same envelope that the CSI lab used.
" 'I warn you all, you might want to post this. You'll all die if you continue like this.' " Sofia read out, frowning as she went through.
"Definitely the same killer." Sara said.
"Everybody tell Greg where you were around the time of Hodges death and he'll check it. Then we'll need everybody pulling double." Sofia demanded.
"Sure." Warrick agreed and they each made a statement back inside while Catherine checked the car and Sofia took prints from the axe. David was swift to move the body down into the morgue.
"They're all accounted for." Greg said, leading the team into a meeting room where Sofia and Catherine were set.
"I'll go down and see what Robbins has found out." Grissom said, walking off, away from the team.
"He's not taking it so well." Nick said.
"Greg, I want you to finish off our case. Okay?" Sofia asked.
"Sure." Greg nodded, again putting up no resistance.
"Do you think he's okay?" Sara asked, sitting opposite Sofia.
"He's lost a good friend. A few of us have." Nick whispered.
"You were friends with Archie?" Sofia asked.
"Not totally. We had a few drinks out at times, but Archie and Greg were really close. Great at 'joking it out'." Warrick explained, laughing slightly.
"But are you two going to be okay with this?" Catherine asked.
"Yeah." Nick said, Warrick nodding beside him.
"Okay, what do we have so far?" Sara asked, getting down to business.
"Okay what do we have so far?" Grissom asked, unknowingly repeating Sara's question.
"Top half of his face was taken clean off." Robbins explained. "That would mean a strong swing. Right through the teeth and in through the back of the skull." He pointed out the exit to the impact.
"Can you tell me anything else, any clues as to who could have done this?"
"Grissom. The way someone is killed is normally found, the who, that's your job."
"Thanks." Grissom answered, turning and stalking off.
"Is he okay?" David asked, stepping forward to clean the body.
"This is hitting his team hard, two down out of the lab techs, anyone could be next."
"Grissom? What's going on?" Bobby asked, stepping into Grissom's pace.
"Nothing as of yet Bobby." Grissom said, turning down a different corridor and leaving the lab tech standing at the junction, shaking his head.
"Prints?" Catherine asked, stepping in to the room.
"Too many." The lab tech said. "I've got yours, Nick's, Greg's, Warrick's, Grissoms's and half the lab techs round. Is this the axe from the front door?" she asked, turning back to the computer.
"Yeah, the one everyone touches as they stumble out of here." Catherine muttered glumly. "Any unknowns?"
"No, they're all accounted for."
"Thanks." Catherine said, taking the file back to the meeting room.
"We got nothing!" Warrick cried out as he followed Catherine into the room.
"Same here." Sara said, getting a chorus of shaking heads in return.
"I've got just about everyone's prints on the axe." Catherine said, slamming the file down.
"So we're back to, 'it could be anyone'." Nick growled, standing up from his chair.
"Hey, we're trying." Catherine barked back.
"Yeah and getting nothing, we've got to be missing something." He answered back.
"I don't see you coming up with anything." Catherine argued.
"Hey, we're trying as well." Sofia jumped in. "We're all just tired. Lets leave it till our next shift. This one's just about over." She continued.
"So we let another tech die!" Sara yelled, springing from her chair.
"Calm down!" Sofia barked back. "We're not getting anywhere!" she yelled back, also jumping from her chair. Slowly the whole room dissolved into verbal fights.
"Hey! Guys!" Greg stood in the doorway, trying to calm them down. "Shut up!" He screamed, finally getting their attention.
"Look at you lot. They best CSI's fighting." He said, pointing to them all. "Go home, and rest." He said quietly. "Before you get the whole lab in an uproar." He added, pointing to the crowd of lab techs behind him who had been leaving for the end of double shift.
"Fine." Nick snapped. One by one they trailed out of the room, none of them saying anything to the other.
Greg managed to get the lab techs to move on after them and was left alone in the doorway with a large headache for company.
"Good job with the Bolston case Greg." He swung his head up to see Grissom around the corner. The man slowly walked towards Greg. "And good job with this." He said, pointing to the meeting room where the argument had earlier kicked off.
"No problem." He said, turning to leave.
"Are you okay?" Grissom asked. "You coping well?"
"Its not me you should be asking." Greg started. "You should ask your team why they are fighting each other, or why you seem to be disappearing off and not keeping them up to date." he stated.
There was a silent pause in which Grissom had his head down, looking at some of the files but not reading them. "I guess…" he looked up, only to find Greg gone. "You're right." He finished quietly.
"Shut up back there." The person snapped, elbowing the tied man in the face. Blood spurted out of his nose, onto the tape across hismouth and onto the back of the car. "Great." He muttered sarcastically. "More blood to clean up. You know I've got something very special for you." He continued, slowly pulling the car out of the CSI lab.
"Grissom." He greeted as he drove out from the front door, getting a silent nod in return fromt he man, as was heading to his car.
"No one suspects." The man said, rolling his window up and drove out from the crime lab. "Lets have some fun David." He said, grinning slightly. "This will be for being so mean about everything about me." He laughed. David sat shivering in the back and thinking 'I'm next on that metal slab!' and the tears fell. 'Dr. Robbins won't be impressed.' And the car drove for the desert.
Well? Good, bad? Keep me going people!