Chapter 7
"So Marcus, can you explain why we found a Crime Lab supervisor's blood in the back of your truck?" Brass asked the man seated across the table from him. Sometimes the direct approach worked best, especially with this type of wise guy who'd given them nothing but lip thus far.
"Maybe your lab made a mistake. They do that all the time," he sneered.
Marcus had the build of a former athlete who'd imbibed one beer too many over the past years, his once well-muscled physique was becoming slack. Most likely he'd never gotten very far in sports with his disrespectful attitude. Brass wondered how he survived his short stint with the military. Perhaps prison had refined his cruder attributes.
"Yeah? You think that's funny? Well, this mistake could have you going back to prison. Not so funny now, huh?" Brass replied dryly.
He wasn't bothered in the least. "You don't have anything on me."
Unfortunately, there was some truth to that. Although the duct tape and blanket were conclusively linked to his truck and to the crime scene, and the blood evidence was credible, they'd need more to build a case and convince a jury.
However, that wasn't their main priority at the moment. Right now they urgently needed to learn why Gil Grissom had been in the back of his truck, and his current location. He'd been missing for over twenty-four hours. Was he alive? Or, God forbid, where had his body been dumped? They couldn't afford to play these maddening games much longer.
Nick was silently fuming, ready to throttle this arrogant man. He was desperate to pry some information out of him; he was more than willing to use his fists if he had too, to hell with the rules and regulations. Marcus's innocent act had worn thin very quickly. Yet Brass sensed Nick's impatience and he silently reassured him with a glance to keep his cool.
"You do realize that possession of a weapon violates your parole agreement? Unless you can help us out with this…unpleasantness, then maybe we can work something out." Brass offered, seeing if he would jump at the bait.
"Not interested."
It seemed as if they'd reached an impasse, Marcus sitting with his self-satisfied smirk while Grissom's life could potentially be hanging on every wasted moment. Nick tightened his fists with frustration.
Just then, the door to the room was flung open. Warrick dashed over, panting since he ran down the hallway. He handed a folder over to Nick and Brass, which they eagerly opened and scanned.
Brass looked up at Marcus and grinned. "You wouldn't know anything about Isaac Hayes, your cousin, would you?"
There was a flicker in his impenetrable façade. "Haven't seen him."
"Try it again buddy, we have videotape of you picking him up for his release from a Nevada correctional facility just last week. What was he in for? Multiple homicides?"
His arrogant front was weakening. "That's what you people claimed. You set him up. His lawyers finally fixed your mistakes."
Brass was almost pleased to remind him. "You know the time for assault and assisting with a kidnapping or even murder is significantly more then a parole violation. Especially if the victims are affiliated with the Las Vegas Police Department."
Nick and Brass exchanged triumphant looks as they noticed beads of sweat forming on Marcus's forehead. They'd get what they needed after all.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Who is Isaac Hayes? Inquiring minds are dying to know," Greg asked as Catherine floored the accelerator on the Denali, taking the sharp turns on the country road to the Hayes family's crude mountain cabin as smoothly as any Nascar driver.
Although the presence of the entire night shift technically wasn't required, no one wanted to be stuck anxiously waiting around the lab for spotty updates. Their supervisor's life could be in serious jeopardy so they had to be there to help in whatever manner they could. Catherine, Warrick, Nick and Greg all climbed into one vehicle and took off shortly after Brass and several other uniformed officers raced ahead. A special hostage negotiation team was being relayed via helicopter, along with paramedics, to a landing pad in the vicinity of the site, though not too close, they didn't want to attract Isaac's attention and lose the element of surprise.
Even though he claimed he played a relatively minor role in the incident, once Marcus realized that the evidence clearly tied him into the crime and that continuing to protect his cousin would have dire repercussions for him, he wised up. While he was halting with the details, he gave the investigators sufficient information to quickly convey the basic idea as to what had happened that evening at the convenience store.
Sensing he was in for serious time, his strong instinct for self-preservation lead him to uncharacteristically offer his full cooperation in exchange for leniency in his sentencing. He even proposed to negotiate with his cousin to release Grissom, an offer that the police felt leery about considering. Yet they'd brought him along, just in case.
"Marcus is a choir boy compared to Isaac. Isaac, now he was a piece of work," Catherine shuddered. It hadn't even been her case but she remembered those soul-less green eyes.
"Yeah, he was a true sociopath. It was our case. Grissom and I investigated him, but it was several years ago, so Grissom took the lead. I don't understand why this guy should be back out in society, he was one disturbing character," Warrick recalled.
"The recent update in his file indicated that his lawyers finally got him off on a minor legal technicality. It figures," Nick relayed with disgust.
"This guy was convinced that we'd rigged the evidence to set him up. He was hostile towards us during the investigation, he even threatened Grissom in the hallway at the courthouse." Warrick shook his head. "No way in hell we'd do that. Our work was solid. Any jury in the country would've convicted him based on that evidence."
A bit apprehensively, Greg asked, "What exactly did he do?"
"Let's just say that people, such as former employers or rivals who got in his way, somehow managed to mysteriously disappear. A few body parts washing up down the river prompted the investigation," Warrick remembered.
"I can't believe he's out on the street," Nick was dismayed. "What does this say about our justice system?"
No one particularly cared to answer the question. They all were preoccupied, wondering what this violent man had done to Grissom, but they were loath to put those fears into words. It wouldn't change anything either so they bravely sought to keep those feelings safely bottled up. Besides, they needed to maintain their professional objectivity to be effective, to do their jobs.
Greg was brimming with questions for he wasn't around during the original case. He wanted to be able to prepare himself mentally for whatever atrocity they might be facing. Yet he also sensed the reluctance of the group so he attempted to slightly change the focus. "Do we know if Marcus and Isaac planned this caper or was it a spur of the moment type thing?"
Nick commented, "Purely dumb luck if you ask me."
"So what actually happened that night?" Greg couldn't let it go. He needed to put the pieces together. He hadn't been in the interrogation room or behind the observation glass when Marcus confessed. He was missing vital information.
Nick took a breath and explained, "Grissom was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Marcus and Isaac pulled into the convenience store parking lot and just happened to recognize him. After Issac had been stewing in his own juices in maximum-security prison, so-called wrongly accused, for over seven years, seeing Grissom triggered an almost instantaneous visceral response in him. He wanted revenge. It wasn't hard to talk his wayward cousin into helping him. They were armed so they subdued him, and then used duct tape from the back of the pickup truck to bind his feet and hands. Then they shoved him in the back of the truck and took off. Grissom must've hit his head when he contacted the truck bed, we think that's where his blood came from."
"So how does Sara's assault fit in? How did you connect it with Grissom's abduction? Call me stupid but if those two are really dating, how could we all miss that?" Greg was still confused.
Catherine took exception with his statement. "I didn't. But, I wasn't completely sure. They're such private people, of course they'd be discrete, and they wouldn't want to flaunt it."
"But how did you know? You knew even before I told you about Grissom's blood in Marcus's truck," Nick realized.
"It wasn't easy. I suspected but I didn't want to be wrong. I had to be sure. That's why I waited. I hope I didn't…" She swallowed hard then continued, "His car was all I needed. It had both of their suitcases, and her wallet."
Nick mused, "I don't get it. What happened? If Grissom and Sara were going away together, why did they stop so close to home? It doesn't make any sense."
"Unless they forgot something," Warrick suggested.
"I found out what she bought. It was in a bag with the receipt in Gil's car. Tampons. And one was missing from the box." Catherine pointed out.
"Okay…" Nick wasn't following her reasoning.
She spelled it out for him. "If you were going away with your girlfriend on a romantic week long vacation, how would you feel if she got her period?"
Now it made sense to Nick. "Not so hot."
"That's why she was upset!" Greg finally understood.
Catherine continued to illuminate the male members of her party. "And that's why Grissom went in the store with her. She forgot her wallet in the car, so he paid for the tampons. Then she probably went to the ladies room on the side of the store afterwards and Gil waited outside of the car for her, rather than in the car, since she was so upset."
Greg filled in the blanks, "Then when the Hayes brothers pull up, they happen to see Grissom, just by accident."
"Sure, that's what Marcus told us," Nick confirmed.
"And in the process of subduing Grissom, Sara walks out of the bathroom," Greg continued.
"So they quickly eliminate the witness and hide her body. Although Marcus conveniently neglected to mention it, my analysis indicates that they hit Sara in the face with a rifle butt, possibly a semi-automatic weapon. And that rifle is most likely still in the possession of Isaac Hayes," Warrick grimly noted.
TBC