Chapter 2

Autopsy

Warrick noticed a new face in the hallway, wondering whether it was a visitor or the new guy that Grissom told him about, he approached the new guy with open arms. 'Hey there.' He said.

Reiji turned around with a confused and annoyed look on his face. 'Yoz…' he muttered. 'I…' he hated admitting to something when he was the main fault. 'I'm kinda lost. I was heading to the morgue when something caught my eye… then I found myself here… lost.'

'Ah…' sighed Warrick. 'Then you must be the new guy. Welcome to the lab, name's Warrick Brown, and who might you be?'

'R… er… I'm Zephyr…' Reiji mumbled still in a sour mood as he sifted his fingers through his hair. 'Do you know where the morgue could be, Warrick?'

'I was headed there myself, why don't you come along.' They began to walk, Reiji trailed behind but followed, not wanting to get lost anymore. 'Why are you headed there anyway?'

'Grissom assigned me… well not "assigned" actually. He asked me to check the body for him. You're assigned to the same case, right?'

'You didn't really mention what body you're going to look at.' Warrick said.

'Oh, sorry… it was the body with the button spider.'

'Then we're dealing with the same case then. While we're headed there, why don't I brief you?' asked Warrick, Reiji simply nodded. 'A body was found out in the desert, if you asked me it looked like a cult had something to do with it. I'll show you the pictures later. We lifted a few footprints from the desert ground, we can't actually verify if the footprints were there since or if they're fresh. But one thing's down, the body was clearly moved.'

'I'll just look at the pictures later…' mumbled Reiji with no gratitude.

XXX

'Here's the tape.' Greg said as he jumped down from the ladder holding a black tape in his hands. 'Oh crap…' he mumbled. 'Don't you move, Nick.' Greg slowly backed away. His hands were held infront of him in a defensive gesture.

Nick furrowed a brow and slowly he raised both his hands in the air in caution. 'What's wrong?' he mouthed to Greg. His heart was pounding franticly in his chest, he could feel something brush against his shoulder.

'Put your hands down, slowly that is.'

Nick did what he was told but he couldn't stop being worried. 'Why?' he whispered. He could imagine the barrel of a gun aimed straight at his head.

'There's a big spider on your shoulder, don't make any sudden moves, cuz' I don't know if it's poisonous or not. Stand still, I'll call Gris.' Greg took out his cellphone and called Grissom, Nick could see the gigantic spider on his let shoulder, he had to hold in the urge to smack it away.

Seconds seemed like hours as Nick stood completely still, waiting for Greg to finish the call. Greg put down his cellphone and looked at Nick laughingly. 'It's not that venomous, but don't get it on your skin or it'll give you a rash.' Said Greg. 'It's either a wolf spider or a jumping spider, both aren't lethal. Grissom wants to check out the scene later, in case some other bugs are loose.'

Nick gave a sigh of relief as Greg placed the spider in a small plastic container.

A middle-aged man approached them with a curious glint in his eyes, 'So, did you find out yet what happened to Mateo? Or where he could have gone?' he asked them in a Philippine accent.

'Sorry,' said Nick as he brushed dirt off his shoulder, 'we can't give you such information yet.' He noticed a spot of blood on the middle-aged man's shoe, 'Er…you think we can borrow your shoes for a while?'

The man raised a brow and sighed, 'If it helps in finding and knowing what happened to Mateo…' he removed his shoes and handed it to Greg. '…alright. But please try to hasten things up a bit, I promised his father that I would look after him, and I feel guilty right now that I let this happen.'

'We will, Mr. Saclolo, we will.' The old man walked away with only socks covering his feet. Greg looked at the soles and noticed some small shards of glass between the treads. 'The soles look strangely familiar.' Mumbled Greg. He handed the shoes to Nick and took out the lifted print, 'One and the same… and he's the landlord, he has the keys.'

'We still don't have a motive, and a body, maybe the footprint was there days ago.'

'Yeah, well it is just a theory…' said Greg as he placed the shoes in the evidence bag.

XXX

'I found glass shards near the wound in his head. There were several lacerations on his body, defensive wounds on the arms and legs.' The coroner said as he pointed to each wound on the John Doe. He lifted the right arm of the victim and pointed to the palm, 'There were several cuts on the palm, repeatedly stabbed, I could see traces of tattooing on the palm.'

'Mauled by a wild animal?' asked Warrick. 'I didn't exactly find any trace of animal fibers on his clothing.'

'That's what I thought too…' said the coroner. 'Until I found this', he pointed to three stab wounds at his chest. 'Each stab wound is separated exactly by one centimeter. I already took a mould the wound about three centimeters deep. Animals don't stab their prey with claws.' The coroner said as he moved to the neck region, 'Have you ever heard of the Hanover Vampire?'

'The serial killer who suffocated his victims…' said Reiji, '…by biting their necks. So you're saying that this guy died being asphyxiated because he was bitten on the neck?'

'Well, yes. The bite marks aren't of human origin. Don't worry I already took moulds. And I found some oil instead of saliva near the bite marks. I don't know how it got there but, that's why you're here right?'

'I thought you handled that too.' joked Warrick as he took the moulds and oil samples from the coroner.

Before they were about to leave the morgue they were cut off by Sara. 'I found who your John Doe is, by your request.' Said Sara. Reiji was stricken by surprise, his hearted almost jumped to his throat.

So she is here, he thought.

'A guy named Mateo Catacutan, a native from the Philippines. He was missing two days ago and a family friend filed the report. Nick and Greg are working on the same thing… you have the body and they have the crime scene.'

XXX

Grissom entered the crime scene with his forensics case in hand. Greg and Nick returned to the lab to analyze the evidence they found. Grissom looked at all the shattered cases, and the black button spider case caught his eye. He now knew where the spider came from, but others are still about. More than a dozen arachnids and insects are set loose and Grissom was up to the task to find them all.

Ssssssssssssssssssssss

Really sorry that this took long. So much stuff and school work is eating up my time. I'm sorry that it is short too. It's hard… honestly… but thanks for the support! The third chapter will take some time to write too… really sorry.