A POET BY NATURE
Catherine Willows, Warrick Brown, and Sara Sidle found themselves on the long trip up into the mountains surrounding Las Vegas. They pulled into a rocky driveway off of which many large, beautiful homes were scattered. The area was completely deserted as Brass had sealed it off as part of the crime scene. I hate to ruin peoples' weekend, he'd said, to which Warrick had replied, That's the price of ruining somebody's life.
"I'll check the house again," Catherine said authoritatively. "Warrick, could you check the other houses in the area and see if you can find any evidence that might help us. Sara—"
"I'll check the premises around the house."
"Good."
The CSI's went about their separate jobs, each one heading in different directions. It was strangely quiet for a mid-afternoon. There were no birds singing, no animals nearby, and no cars passing on the driveway beyond the closed-in area. Catherine retraced her steps inside, hopelessly trying to find an explanation for the woman's death. Warrick too searched to no avail, walking tirelessly under the afternoon sun.
Sara, however, had found indents in the grass indicating footprints. She followed them precariously as she always did in the anticipation of finding another body. She didn't find another body, but something did catch her eye amidst the green stocks. Kneeling down in the prickly foliage as she removed her shades, she found a gold bracelet with a section of inscribed band. She put on some gloves and held it in her palm. The shiny gold glistened in the sunlight. The inscription read:
O Forever More
Shadow Velter
Sara stared at the bracelet, perplexed by is codical meaning. She looked up from her find and saw that she was standing on the edge of the ridge overlooking Las Vegas. It was a breathtaking sight to see the lively city in its entirety. It occurred to her that it must look phenomenal at nighttime. At that moment, her cell phone rang in her pocket. She jumped, the serenity of her surroundings abruptly disturbed.
"Yeah?" she answered.
"Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold," rang the baritone voice on the other end.
"Hey, Grissom," Sara replied wearily. "What's that from?"
"It's a poem, Sara. It's by Robert Frost, a great twentieth-century American poet. He wrote a lot about natural beauty and the things he saw around him. It turns out that our vic, Eve Romero, was an active environmentalist."
"How does that help the case?" Sara inquired.
"Las Vegas is no place for an environmentalist, Sara. It turns out that she was on a yearlong group assignment to help raise environmental awareness in the city. She and her husband bought the house, and the other houses in the area were purchased, or rented rather, by the other members of the same group."
"So," Sara paused to think, "Eve's neighbours all knew each other, and they all knew her. Were there any disagreements between any of the group members?"
"I don't know yet. Brass has brought a few of them in for interrogation. How are things on your end."
Sara let out a long sigh. "Dunno, Gris, Catherine seems pretty stressed out about this. Normally there's a when, a how, a who, and a why, but right now it seems we're fumbling with just a how."
"Talk to me back at the lab," Grissom said, and the connection ended.
She pocketed her cell phone, threw on her shades and continued to admire the vista. Warrick and Catherine wandered over just as soon as she could gather her thoughts. She turned around, surprised once again by the disruption in the tranquility.
"Find anything, you guys?" Sara asked as she folded her arms across her chest.
Warrick shifted his weight onto his right foot. "Well, it turns out that these people are all part of an environmentalist group called RES: Real Environmentalist Supporters. They're identified by small, tree-shaped stickers on their front doors. Looks like they're the real deal." He looked over at Catherine whose gaze was fixed on the object in Sara's hands.
"What'd you find?" she asked.
Sara had almost forgotten. She held out her gloved hand to her two fellow CSI's. "It's inscribed. I think it could be an anagram or a code."
Catherine observed the inscribed writing on the gold band. "Well, the letters in the top line can be rearranged to spell Eve Romero. As for the rest of it, well…" She looked over at Warrick who shrugged his shoulders.
Sara bagged the bracelet. "I'll get this to Archie."