Chpt 2
"Hey Sidle, weren't there seventeen suspects? Cause there's only sixteen here… hope you didn't overwork yourself into forgetting one…" Greg pondered.
"Actually, number seventeen, Ron Helmington, moved away. So it's your job to do the DNA and our job to find him." Sara explained.
"Nice cover…" Greg admitted, brushing his hand across his head, "better get to work then", leaving the conversation with a brief sigh.
Nick and Sara were left to finish it.
"So Sara?"
"Yep?"
"Do you know when Warrick'll be back from va-ca?"
"Why, do you miss him?" Sara couldn't help but smile.
"Don't you?"
"Well I guess I do but were doing fine on this case … and the answer to your question… next Thursday… and today is Wednesday."
"Okay thanks so about Ron…"
"I have an idea… let's go to my office."
"Sara! Not at work!"
"I meant for my computer, Nick."
"Oh, humph, well… that's good too."
They both laughed it off before leaving the DNA lab… just incase someone asked what they were laughing about…
Sara entered her office, followed by Nick right behind her.
"So I was thinking we could find out about who took a plane trip since the day of the murder… leaving Las Vegas."
"That leaves… 5 nights because his roomy said he was there Saturday morning and caught lunch before there weekly study class, which he attended." Nick told Sara.
"When did you ask his "roomy" this, Nick?" Sara disappointed she wasn't told earlier.
"Geoff Flick, one of sixteen, the kid actually came up to me and told me he saw Ron the day before the murder."
"Well thanks for telling me."
"Meant to but the time wasn't right."
"Sure… so when did study group end?" Sara pondered.
"Well… were back to UNLV to give Geoff a little visit?"
"And once we know that we'll know how what times he could've taken his flight at." Sara was mainly just reminding herself out loud.
"That's Right."
Taking the black Tahoe again they drove back to the university, Nick thinking about Sara, and Sara thinking about… (Hah, thought I was going to say Nick did you? Well she wasn't …) Sara was thinking through the case.
Once they got there they went straight to the secretary's office completely avoiding Mr. Starsh's office.
"Hello again. Mrs. Volvank, we need to see Geoff Flink once more. Just a few questions." Sara casually said.
"Ooooooohhhh Oh, yes yes, dis I CAN do foe you… one momint please."
And she called him down using the intercom.
This time there was a longer wait. But fifteen minutes later Geoff came running down the halls. Wearing a jean jacket and dark blue jeans, hair shaggy, similar to Sanders, he looked like he was scared. Sara recognized this guy from their last encounter.
"Hi, I'm really sorry for the wait." He apologized sympathetically and meaning it.
"Don't mean to be rude, but what took you so long?" Nick questioned.
"Nothing, I just woke up late today, thought my teacher came down to yell at me. I wasn't dressed."
"I see," Sara taking lead now, "Do you mind if we ask you a few questions about the case?"
"Sure, shoot." Geoff seemed awkwardly co-operative and involved. His hands were casually in his pockets.
"Where were you the night of the murder?"
"I was probably in my dorm room studying. The study group ends at four but me and Jon keep going til we lose our concentration. You know how it is… when your reading and you just forget to pay attention to what you're reading and it doesn't do much good. Why?" She moved on, ignoring his question.
"I understand you have a study group meeting?"
"Yes, we do, I mean, me, Ron, and a few others."
"Be specific," Nick kept him going.
"Me, Ron, a kid named Jon Kieth, a kid named Shawn Lee, and a kid named Paul Rearer."
"What days is it, and from 'x' time to 'x' time?" Sara said continuing her interrogation.
"Saturday from 12 till' 4."
"What do you usually study?"
"How is this relevant to your case?"
"Ya never know," Nick explained.
"Sorry, umm… usually upcoming tests."
"Which were what, last Saturday?"
"For me, Jon, and Ron, we had English, and for the rest, no idea."
"Alright, and do you have any proof that Ron was there besides your word?"
"Well… ahhh… oh! He always puts his name, date, and class on the top right; on every thing he does, so I suppose you could see that, if that's enough."
"You have his work?"
"Well we all keep our stuff in my dorm."
"We'll need it."
"No problem, be right back."
"Mind if we come?" Nick said to Geoff so he couldn't just write it on himself.
"Sure, you can look around if you want."
"Okay," Nick and Sara both said at the same time.
It took Geoff a second to reach into his jacket pocket to get out his key, which was pink, and opened the door to a COMPLETELY tidy room. Very surprising for a guy.
"Nice place." Sara commented.
"Thanks, and here's your stuff."
"Okay and we need everyone's work if it's okay with you."
"I guess so, but if they get mad, I'm telling them it was you guys."
"Alright." Sara turned and faced Nick and rolled her eyes.
Sara and Nick looked around and Nick without a blink saw a few drops of blood.
"What's this Geoff?" but only Sara acknowledged him by walking over.
"What's what," he said, not even bothering to turn around, too pre-occupied making something in the kitchen.
"Come here and see."
Geoff came in and said, "Oh, just nothing…" and by the looks of their faces he realized that excuse wasn't good enough so he continued, "Nose bleed."
"We haven't heard that before." Sara seriously joked as she watched Nick bag a sample of the blood.
"Hah. I understand but seriously, I had Jon over here yesterday, we wrestle all the time. I'll call him over."
"I was just gunna ask," Nick said, "if you would," as he was finishing up bagging the evidence.
Since he was the dorm room right beside Geoff it only took him a second.
"Jon, we played…"
He was cut off by Sara.
"What did you do at Geoff's yesterday?"
"We studied, made some delissio pizza, watched some wrestling, and then had some one-on-one… uh... wrestling."
"Thanks, you can leave now Jon." Geoff walked him out.
Sara and Nick kept looking but found nothing else so they got in the Tahoe with their evidence in a bag and in less than 6 minutes they were back to HQ.
Greg was done the DNA for the sixteen suspects and left only two suspects. Sara and Nick walked in and he told them.
"That's great news Greg, thanks, so it's Ron, or Geoff, huh. Well as soon as we find Ron, the sooner we'll be able to see if he did it, and Geoff matched the jackets DNA of the zipper prints. Well here Greg," she handed him the evidence bag with the work, and the sample of the blood spatter. "Keep this with the DNA samples. I already checked for fingerprints and I found Geoff's on all the papers, cause we saw him handle them all, and four others. They were the four who were with the study group with Geoff, and like he said, Ron did write his name, etc, in the top right. But you can go ahead and find out whose DNA the blood is so we can clarify Geoff's wrestling story."
Greg reminded them, "And the liquid on the jacket was spit, and guess whose?"
"Just tell us, Greg." Nick forced.
"Fine, fine, it was the janitors."
Sara surprised said, "That wasn't expected."
Nick kept the conversation going, "and the timeline for the plane is four on Saturday to ten this morning."
"Right," Sara confirmed.
That's when Catherine and Gil came in looking REALLY happy. (I wonder why!)
"Hey guys, where were you?" Catherine started.
Nick, Sara, and Greg filled them in.
"So I guess it's only fair for me and Gil to go back to UNLV this time to find out why Geoff's DNA is on the jacket. And Sara, you pointed out that today Geoff was wearing a similar jacket, if not identical. We'll see about that too."
So Catherine and Gil were off, this time they drove the Tahoe that Nick and Sara were driving, while Nick and Sara looked up a number for the airlines to fine out if Ron in fact took a flight. That's when they thought of the obvious other transportation he could have used… his car… and they felt stupid because this is was now the second trip to UNLV since they found out he had in fact left and they hadn't yet questioned about it. So Sara called Catherine and made sure they checked that out too when they got there.
And that's the end of chapter 2. Don't forget to review.