Night Shift
Part 5
I've finally started reading the CSI novels, which come in very handy when I'm looking for terms and such
BTW: I know it says in the last chapter that there are sexual scenes, if your really interested to know all the stuff in it then go to I go under the name of Psycho D-Girl. This chapter is also a little different over there.
(Day after NS, pt 4)
Thirty minutes before we were supposed to be back to work that night we were both rushing to get dressed. I yanked on my jeans and zipped them up quickly and then looked around.
"Where's my t-shirt?" I asked. He stopped buttoning his shirt long enough to look around for a second and then he shrugged.
"Borrow a t-shirt," he pointed to a pile on a chair nearby. I pulled on the one from the top of the pile.
"Do we have time for breakfast?" I asked.
"We've only got thirty minutes to get in there. We could always pick something up on the way. You hungry?" He said.
"Yeah, for some unknown reason I'm starving," I replied, confused by the question.
"Unknown reason? You're reason is what we were doing all night," Nick laughed.
"Hmm, sounds like a good enough one to me," I smiled at him.
I went straight to the break room, a large breakfast roll in one hand and a cup of coffee in another. Grissom looked up as I came in, but said nothing. His response was the same when Nick followed me in three minutes later. Grissom started handing out assignment slips. I almost did a double take when I saw my one.
"I'm working alone?" I asked. Grissoms mouth twitched in a half smile as he looked at me.
"I thought it was about time," was all he said. I stood up, stuffing the last of the breakfast roll in my mouth and went off to get my case.
I stuck the keys in the ignition and was about to turn them when someone tapped on the window. I rolled it down and glared at the person.
"Jeez, give me a heart attack why don't you?" I said sarcastically. Nick smiled and shrugged.
"Sorry," he said.
"Just wanted to tell you to be careful out there."
"I'm always careful," I told him.
"You know what I mean," he said.
"There was something I wanted to ask you," he paused.
"Which is?" I prodded.
"I wanted to ask you to move in with me," he saw the look on my face.
"I know we haven't been together that long, but I got a feeling about this and you know…" he shrugged. It took me a moment to realise he was actually serious.
"Jesus, Nick…" I sighed.
"You gotta ask me that question right now?"
"You don't want to?" His mouth turned down at the corners.
"No, I didn't say that. You just caught me by surprise, that's all. Give me some time to think about it, okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, of course," he leaned in through the window and kissed me, before jogging over to the Tahoe he and Warrick were driving to a Casino.
I got out of the Tahoe outside the old and seedy looking apartment building on Paradise Road.
"So what happened here?" I asked O'Riley as I got out of the Tahoe.
"Ground floor apartment, twenty seven year old female," he told me leading the way into the flat.
"Anything else?" I asked. His smile was slightly patronizing.
"That's why you're here," he said, leaving me alone to my work. I took out a recorder, preparing to record everything I saw here. Something Catherine had suggested I do, especially for my first few solo cases.
"Female victim; Flora Mason in bathtub, hands are tied at the wrists behind her back. She has been gagged and blindfolded." I leaned over to look at her back.
"It looks like she was hit on the back of the head. Unknown at this time when this was done," I set down the recorder on the toilet and took out the tools of my trade.
"A hair found on the gag stuffed in her mouth," I picked up the hair with a tweezers and looked at it closely.
"hair strand found at the scene does not match the victim who is a brunette. There also appears to be some blood on the gag," I swabbed said blood.
"Blood found on floor next to bathtub," I swabbed that as well. I went over every inch of the bathroom with a fine tooth comb; I didn't want to screw up my first time out. I found nothing else and I went outside to get the coroner to collect the body. O'Riley was still there and he gestured me over.
"What's up?" I asked as I approached him.
"We got another one near here," he replied.
"Another one what?" I asked.
"Same as what's in there, fits the MO. Female found in bathtub; Nancy Horton tied up in the same way. want to go check it out?" He asked.
"Let's see what Grissom has to say," I said. I quickly dialled Grissoms number on my mobile phone and he gave me the go ahead.
"Need a ride?" I asked the burly detective. He shook his head pointing to his Taurus parked nearby.
I went through almost the same thing at the next address. Victim found in bathtub, gagged, blindfolded, hands tied behind back, an apparent blow to the back of the head and she was also twenty seven. I collected all the evidence I could find and got back to CSI HQ.
"So the blood on victim number two's gag matches victim number one?" I asked, just a little confused by Greg's technical way of explaining things. He nodded, seemingly pleased that I had finally gotten it.
"Exactly, and take a look at this," he gestured to his pet microscope. I looked through the eyepieces and then back up at him.
"What's up, doc?" I asked coming into the morgue.
"That makes me feel like Bugs Bunny," he said. I gave him a confused look and then caught on; I hadn't actually intended to make it sound like that.
"Sorry," I muttered. Robbins nodded once and led me over between two slabs where the bodies of both victims lay.
"Both victims where struck once on the base of the skull, knocked them both out. But that isn't what killed them, take a look at this," he pointed and I followed his instructions.
"They died of frostbite?" I asked.
"More specifically they died of the cold. Their hair was damp when they came in here, know why that was?" He said.
"They were left in the bathtub; apparently the cold water was left running over them." I replied.
"Right, just enough that they couldn't get warm. After an hour, maybe less, depending on how cold the water was the blood stopped going to their extremities. Eventually the blood was only being sent to vital organs and then…" Robbins broke of shrugging.
"So…" I paused thinking.
"Whoever did this didn't want these women to die straightaway," I murmured almost to myself.
"That's what it looks like to me,"
"I also found these in both victims' ears," Robbins gave me two small evidence bags with earplugs in them. Then he went back to work and so did I.
"Same thing?" I asked O'Riley.
"Looks that way," he replied.
I went into the bathroom of the house owned by one Nora Talbot. She sat in her bathtub. Once again I set about collecting evidence and came back out gesturing to the coroner to take her away.
"Same thing?" O'Riley asked me.
"Looks that way," I said, echoing his reply to the same question earlier.
"You know what they say; until the verdict comes in don't do anything."
"You get anything from the evidence you got earlier?" He asked.
"Not yet, but I'm still not finished," I told him, climbing into the Tahoe and heading back in.
I was the second in the room for the end of shift briefing. Grissom was already there, he waved in my direction as I shut the door behind me. Then he looked right at me.
"Is that the same t-shirt that Nick wore yesterday?" He asked, as Warrick and Nick came in. I looked down at it. Shit, I thought, I hadn't even noticed that it was. CSI my ass…
Sara and Catherine entered, the party was about to start.
"We tied it up all nice and neatly, Gil," Catherine told him.
"What about you two?" Grissom glanced at Nick and Warrick.
"Trick roll," Warrick stated, he shrugged as if to say 'no biggie'. Grissom stared at him.
"Which has been sorted out, we found what they were using and put a stop to it, Gris,"
"How's your first going?" Grissom looked at me.
"It isn't," I rubbed my eyes tiredly.
"Three victims found in their respective bathtubs. Blood found on victim number one's gag matches victim number three, victim number two's gag matches victim number one and blood on victim number three matches victim number two. Blood found on floor of bathroom matches whoever's bathroom it was. All three died from the cold, water was left running, and their bodies couldn't keep warm. They were gagged, blindfolded, tied up and they had earplugs in their ears." I sighed loudly.
"Any other evidence?" He asked. Everyone was looking at me and I blushed a bright red.
"No fingerprints no blood other than the vic's, whole lot of no…" I trailed off as something struck me.
"What is it?" Grissom asked.
"See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil." I whispered.
"Excuse me?" Nick asked.
"The murderer blindfolded, gagged and used earplugs on the victims. See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil." I looked at Grissom. My mobile phone rang and I answered it.
"Matthews," I said into it.
"The tests on those hairs you gave me came back and you're not going to believe who they belong to. You want to try guessing whose it is?" Greg asked.
"Jack the Ripper," I said.
"BEEP! Wrong answer. Try again," he said.
"Just tell me who they are, Greg," I told him. After a moment he did.
"Run them again," I instructed him.
"I did, Phoenix. Three times each, they all came back the same." He said.
"I'll be right over," I pulled open the break room door and hurried across to Greg's lab.
"Show me," I held out my hand and he gave me the printouts, I looked over them to make sure he was right.
"Oh, shit," I muttered.
"Yeah, I know," he said.
"I need you to get me employment records; time and date when they were hired?" I asked. He gave me another folder.
"Way ahead of you. Sorry Phoenix, wish I had better news."
"Tell me about it, I gotta get back in there,"
"There might be a small problem," I said quietly when I came back into the break room.
"What kind of problem?" Grissom urged.
"Greg just finished analyzing the hairs found on the three victims…" I glanced at Grissom uneasily before continuing.
"The hair on Flora Mason is an exact match to Gil Grissom," I sat down. All CSI's DNA was kept on file, just in case.
"That's bullshit!" Warrick exclaimed. I stared at him for a long moment.
"You don't think I know that already?" I asked sarcastically.
"Obviously it's planted,"
"How can you be so sure? I must be considered a suspect, the evidence never lies." Grissom said. I cleared my throat.
"Am to consider everyone whose DNA was found on the victims to be a suspect?" I asked. Grissom shrugged once.
"Yes," he said.
"Then there's going to be a problem," I paused again.
"On the second victim; Nancy Horton I found a hair matching Catherine's and on victim number three we have a hair matching Warrick Brown. That's how I know your hair was planted, unless it's some kind of conspiracy that I'm not in on." I gave Grissom the folder. For what was probably the first time in his life Grissom was lost for words. I also noticed that I now had the undivided attention of every CSI in the room.
"Greg pulled records on everyone for me. If I'm right then it's gonna go in rotation. He's coming after us, Nick's gonna be next, then Sara and then me," my mobile phone rang again.
"Matthews," I said into it. I looked at Grissom and briefly covered the phone with my hand.
"They have another woman in her apartment, Gris. Stay or go?" I asked him. he nodded which I took as a yes.
"I'll be right down, O'Riley," I hung up the phone.
"If it goes the way you said then this woman has Nick's hair on her. Take Sara with you," Grissom ordered.
"Woman's inside on the bed," O'Riley informed us as soon as Sara and I arrived on the scene. I glanced at Sara and then back at O'Riley.
"Then why call us? I already got three dead vics who I'm still working on. Why not call Ecklie?" I asked. O'Riley shrugged.
"I was told that this one might interest you," he said.
"Interest me how?"
"Take a look for yourself," he gestured us towards the apartment building. Sara and I made our way up the front walk together.
"So what is it that would interest you?" She asked.
"A lot of things catch my interest," I said.
"Like Nick?" She quirked a smile at me as she went in the door I held open.
"Just like Nick," I responded. We both went to the bathroom and looked at each other confused.
"Where the hells the body?" She asked.
"Right here," I stood in the connecting doorway to the bedroom. Sara took out the camera and started taking pictures of the body on the bed.
"Looks like the gag and blindfold came from the same kind of cloth that was used on the others," I said.
"And the same rope used on her wrists,"
While Sara was taking pictures I collected all the evidence.
"I hate when they do this," Sara said.
"Do what?" I asked her.
"Aside from it looking like the same blindfold, gag and rope we have nothing to link it to the other murders. They should have called Ecklie and his cronies," she said.
"No link yet. Greg tested the fibers in the other ones, they might be made of cotton, but they're at least twenty years old. If this is the same cloth then that's all the link we need."
"Let's go annoy Greg," Sara said almost as soon as I came in that night.
"Now that sounds like fun," I smiled at her, chewing the last of my vending machine Danish. I had given my answer to Nick at the end of shift yesterday. He seemed as happy as I was by my answer.
"As always it's such a pleasure to entertain such beautiful ladies," Greg said when we came into his lab. Sara rolled her eyes at me.
"How about I hold him down and you get him with a killer martial arts move?" She asked.
"Won't work all I know is origami. I could give him a vicious paper cut if that's okay," I said shaking my head and smiling.
"Would you like the results before or after you do that?" Greg asked. Sara looked at me and I shrugged.
"Tell us what you have and we might let you off this time," she said.
"Alrighty then. The fibers do indeed match the ones on the other victims and as you expected the blood and hair found on the gag matches Nicks. But I found something else on that sample of the blindfold you gave me, anyone want to take a guess?" He asked.
"No," Sara and I said together.
"Fine. It's pretty hard to tell but I was able to get some DNA off it, really old DNA and you're never going to guess who it belongs to." He stopped again.
"Do you want to kill him or will I?" Sara asked.
"You two are no fun. The DNA sample is saliva from one Phoenix Matthews," Greg said.
"Phoenix?" Sara asked.
"Me!" I asked at the same time.
"Yep, you have a problem, ladies." Greg said. He went back to his tests, a moment later he looked up at me.
"Grissom wants to see you, by the way,"
"Looks like you're on your own, Sara," I said.
"CSI Phoenix Matthews?" A male voice asked. I turned and saw a man in a suit; he looked like a fed.
"Yes?" I said.
"Agent Rick Culpepper. I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment." He said.
"Trying to steal our cases off us?" Sara asked calmly. I could tell by her expression that she didn't like this guy. Culpepper ignored her.
"What about?" I asked him.
"In private," he said. I looked at Sara, she shrugged.
"I'll catch up to you," I said. I headed back to the break room, trusting that Culpepper would follow me. I sat down in the couch near one window and waited for him to say his piece.
"We need your help," he said, sat down, folding his hands on the table.
"I'm working on a case right now, what do you need help with?" I asked.
"The case you're working on. You may have noticed that your DNA showed up on a murder victim recently." He said.
"I may have. So what?"
"We think we might know who's committing these murders and we need your help to bring him in."
"Sorry, you'll have to talk to my supervisor; Gil Grissom about that,"
"I did. That's why I'm talking to you, Mr Grissom didn't seem all that…fond of the idea when I voiced it to him."
"Well then you have your answer. What do you need me for?" I stood up and had my hand on the door handle, but I was looking back at him.
"Does the name Darren Benning mean anything to you?" He asked. I froze dead in my tracks.
"The fact that you bring his name up tells me that you know what my answer is already," I said.
"He's the one who's doing all the killing and we need you to help us find him," his smile was wide.
"No," I opened the door and was about to leave.
"If you don't do this then he's going to keep on killing and every one of those deaths could be prevented if you just help us. This is your responsibility." He leaned back in his chair, the smile growing wider. It was almost as if the son of a bitch was enjoying this. I let go off the door and walked back to the table, barely managing to keep my temper in check.
"You people were supposed to let me know as soon as he got out and you didn't. I didn't screw up here; you did. This is your responsibility, not mine." I stalked out the door and went right to Grissoms office. Nick and Warrick were inside talking to him. I opened the door without even knocking.
"Why didn't you tell me!" My voice was loud and it was angry. Warrick and Nick turned at my entrance, slight surprise on his face. Grissom finally deigned to look at me.
"Nick, Warrick give us a moment," he said. Nick looked at me once more, his eyes asking me if I was alright. I ignored him.
"Take a seat," Grissom said to me as soon as the door was closed behind Nick and Warrick.
"I don't want to take a fucking seat. I want you to explain to me why you didn't tell me!" I snapped at him. Grissom took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
"Culpepper told you," it was a statement of fact, not a question.
"Damn right he told me. Why is he the one? Why not you?" My voice lowered to a deadly calm.
"I told Culpepper not to tell you anything. It seems that Agent Culpepper likes to stick his nose where it really isn't needed." His voice sounded tired.
"I may not know him. I may not even like him. But at least he told me the truth. What!" I snapped.
"You decided to keep that little bit of information to yourself! How long have you known!" I screamed the last part at him.
"Culpepper only decided to inform me when he came to pay me a visit." He looked at me.
"I told Greg to tell you I wanted to speak to you."
"And that was when I met Culpepper. Did he tell you what he wants me to do?"
"Play bait for bringing back in your father,"
"Well he can go to hell. I've done that often enough already and I'm not doing it any more!"
"That's what I told him," Grissom sighed.
"You're off the case."
"What! Why!" I exploded.
"I'm changing you and Sara with Nick and Warrick. You're both working the Tilson murder." Grissom said calmly.
"I think I have enough professionalism to not take this personally!"
"You're not, but he is," Grissom put his glasses back on and watched me as I paced back and forth in front of his desk.
"I know you'd do the job, you'd present the evidence as found. You'd play things by the book. But he's gone far beyond playing nicely. He has a problem with you and he's killing people to prove his point. I don't know what it is that he wants from you, but he's obviously trying to get at you through your work and I can't let that happen." Grissom stared at me making sure that his point was understood. I understood alright, I just didn't like it.
"Fine, but I want to know what happens on this one." I went to the door, but turned to look back over my shoulder at him.
"I would have thought that at the very least you would have given me some warning that he was out, Gil."
"I'll see the four of you in the break room in five minutes," he said. I closed the door quietly behind me.
(Second person POV)
Dammit, Grissom thought. He had specifically told Culpepper not to say anything to her and now the agent had done the exact opposite. He supposes he shouldn't have been surprised, Culpepper excelled at pissing off his whole staff. But this time he had really done it and Grissom was pissed off. Grissom had wanted to tell her himself. Take her aside and tell her in private. He had known she was going to be upset; if he was in her shoes he would be to. He stood up and headed for the break room.
I leaned up against he counter in the break room, Sara sat at the table.
"Did Grissom say anything about what he wanted us for?" Sara asked me. Warrick came in with Nick. Nick came over to me.
"You okay?" He asked. I ignored him as well and just continued to stare at the floor until Grissom came in.
"Take a seat," he said.
"Nick, Warrick you're changing cases with Sara and Phoenix. Here's the evidence collected so far. Sara, you and Phoenix are working on the Tilson case. An hour ago I received a visit from Rick Culpepper who told me who gave me the name of the suspect."
"Wait a minute. Why are you changin us around, Gris?" Warrick asked.
"The suspects name as given to me by agent Culpepper is Darren Benning. He was released from jail just over two months ago." Grissom said.
"What was he-?" Warrick asked.
"Can we go now?" I interrupted abruptly.
"Two separate crimes. Murder was one," Grissom replied to Warricks question, ignoring me.
"And the second?" Warrick asked.
"The second reason for his imprisonment is sealed. Currently it has no connection to these murders," Grissom said.
"What if it becomes important to this investigation?" Warrick asked. I moved forward and literally yanked the folder on the Tilson murders right out of Grissoms hands.
"Come on, Sara," I snapped. Warrick was like a dog with a bone. Nick was the only one who knew my deep, dark secret and I wanted to stay that way. The reason my father had been imprisoned was not sealed and I knew that Grissom was just trying to protect me, but with Warrick digging around for more information he might have no choice but to talk about it and if that happened I didn't want to be here for it.
"What's the rush?" Sara asked following me out.
"Might as well get to work on this as soon as," I said. She shrugged, seeming to accept my answer.
"Let me go get my stuff and I'll be right with you," she said.
"I'll be in the locker room," I told her and we both went our separate ways.
"You know that locker didn't do anything to you," Nick's voice. I stopped beating the shit out of the locker in question and turned to face him.
"Is there something I can do for you?" I asked my voice overly sweet.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Just want to get to work is all; the sooner we start the sooner we can start putting evidence together." I replied.
"I would believe that except for the fact that you look like you want to kill someone," he watched me closely.
"Then maybe I'm just having a bad day, not a lot of sleep recently, know what I mean?" I asked.
"Yeah, but that isn't the real reason."
"What are you, psychic? You wouldn't understand," I muttered.
"I'm just going to pretend you didn't say that and then you're going to tell me what's really wrong." He said calmly. I instantly felt ashamed, but instead of apologising I turned and kicked the locker, it rocked a few times and then settled back to the floor.
"Stop, Phoenix," he grabbed me from behind and pulled me away from the lockers. I dropped to the bench like some defeated child.
"You sure you want to know? You might find out something you don't like," I said eventually.
"I wouldn't ask if I wasn't," he sat on the opposite bench.
"Does it have something to do with Darren Benning?"
"It has everything to do with him," I lifted my head enough that I could see his concerned face through the hair that had fallen in my face.
"He's your father," Nick reached out and took my hand. For a moment I stared at our interlocked fingers and I nodded.
"That's him," I sighed.
"Grissom thinks that he's come to Vegas looking for me, trying to get my attention with the murders. Greg found my DNA on the last victims gag. I think he may be using my blanky," I told him.
"Blanky?" He asked.
"A small towel that I had when I was a child, I called it my blanky and he's using it to gag and blindfold these women. I chewed on it all the time," I explained.
"Then Grissom's right," Nick said.
"I know he's right. It's not Grissom I'm angry with. I just…" I shrugged helplessly and Nick moved over to sit next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders.
"I always thought that I'd never see him again, that he'd never find me. That was just stupid, how many people you know who are called Phoenix?"
"It's not stupid," Nick assured me.
"You wanted a normal life, away from him and now that you're actually starting to live that life he comes back into it."
"It's like he's controlling me again. Culpepper told me it was him and since then I keep half expecting him to come walking right in here like he never did anything to me. I don't know if I can handle him and that's what scares the hell out of me." I shrugged. His arm tightened around me.
"I wouldn't say that. You're stronger than you think you are," he said.
"Besides me and Warrick are working this now, he can't get to you through the case,"
I looked at him a little sceptically and he smiled down at me.
"You think I'm lyin?" He asked jokingly.
"I wouldn't dream of it, Nick," I said in a mock serious voice. I felt better already.
"You ready to go?" Sara came in the door.
"Yeah," I leaned down and kissed him.
"Thanks, Nick,"
"All comes as part of the package," he winked at me as I left.