PART SIX

"I don't understand. How can you lose my grandson's body?" James Peter Reason was a tall intimidating figure and presence of a man. Six feet and three inches tall, he had thick red hair with traces of white in his strong beard and broad chin. He didn't fit the image of a man who ran a multi-million dollar company that owned properties and businesses and donated money to the arts and antiquities. Except for his dark blue Italian suit and black tie, he looked more at home sitting in robes on a mountaintop and tossing off lightning bolts at people he didn't like when he wasn't sexually carousing with young beauties. His voice was very powerful and as full as that one might expect from a king of gods.

"Well, technically," Grissom looked up to J. Peter Reason and pulled off his glasses. "We haven't lost him, we just don't know where he is."

"His mother is going to be very upset." Reason grumbled a bit under breath with his large barrel chest filling with air. "He was her only son and she cared for him very much. She and her sisters are at my cousin's villa in Ontario. Do you want to tell me what I'm going to tell her?"

"We offer our blessings." Grissom asked.

"If you don't mind me asking…" Brass stood behind Grissom in a professional role as police liaison to the case. "How many children do you have?"

"Enough…" Reason exhaled deeply and intimidatingly. "I've been married twelve times and have children from young ladies I never shared in matrimony and my wife hates all her step-children. She gave my young son Harrison fits when he was younger and virtually drove Apollo's mother out of her home."

"Apollo…" Brass looked up. "The pop star? He's your son?"

"Yes," Reason beamed. "I'm very proud of him. He's having more success now than he ever did. He's right back on top where he should be."

"Apollo…" Grissom wasn't up on the New Wave scene, but he was more adept in other fields. "Named after the Greek god of inspiration… Jason's mother, Helen, named after the face that launched the Trojan War, and himself after the leader of the Argonauts." He paused very intrigued. "Your family seems very influenced by Greek myth, Mr. Reason." He paused and realized another parallel. "J. Peter Reason. Jupiter… Rhea's son…" He cocked his head and became even more fascinated.

"It's a family thing…" Reason pulled out an old-style antique pocket watch from his vest pocket inside his coat and checked the time. "I must really be going anyway. I've an appointment in Norway with Alfadur Odinson and I must be catching a flight. I'd fly myself, but…" Reason grinned at the humor of his next statement. "You'd be surprised how many things people mistake for flying saucers."

Dena Short sat in an accompanying conference room. Short, petite, brunette and attractive as a frail porcelain doll, she sipped a small Styrofoam cup of coffee across from Nick Stokes and Catherine Willows. She'd never been in the police station, much less met a police officer and when she was bright in to talk to the forensic criminologists, she didn't know what to think. She hadn't seen William in two weeks and she was scared to death they were going to setting her up to take a fall.

"When was the last time you saw William Braddock?" Nick asked.

"A week, two weeks ago maybe…" Dena reacted vulnerably childlike.

"Was your relationship with him…" Nick mulled around a bit. "Amicable?"

"I loved him." Dena confessed. "I wanted to marry him. He could be… oh, so exasperating, but he was the most sensitive guy I ever knew. It was almost as if…"

"He was in touch with his female side?" Catherine finished her thought.

"Yes…"

"Were you aware that he was a transvestite prior to your relationship?" Catherine asked the question.

"What?" Dena reacted as if this was news to her. "That's not funny. He wasn't gay!"

"Transvestites aren't homo sexuals, and before you beg to differ…" Nick opened his file on the case. "We found his… old wardrobe in storage in his house and talked to his sister in Wyoming. She confirmed it."

"He's got a sister?" The brunette ingénue reacted again. "He told me he was an only child!"

"Kind of makes you wonder what else he hasn't told you, doesn't it?" Catherine pointed out. "Do you have any idea where he is or where he could have gone?"

"I don't know." Dena tried thinking past the revelation she had just been hit with. "There's this Asian buffet I know he frequents… He once asked me to go on a trip to California."

"We'll check it out." Catherine looked to Nick briefly. "If he took a trip, he shouldn't have any suitcases in his house."

"I don't think he owned suitcases." Dena revealed.

"That makes it a bit harder." Catherine answered.