Chapter Four: Just Business
A few days had passed and Greg still avoided talking to Sara about anything off-case and luckily she hadn't asked him about his not-so-secret love. He thought that she must've thought it was ridiculous and disgusting since it was none other than the goofiest and geekiest CSI on the scene. Recently, he brushed those thoughts off and just focused on the case before him.
They were still going back to the dormitory each day and again Rogers always worked with them. Sara seemed to not flirt as much this time, but subtly played along, which killed Greg more than her frankness. She would flirt during the times when she thought Greg was too busy working or examining pieces of evidence, little did she know that he more attentive to their conversations than to the evidence, but he would focus more meticulously later.
Lately, Greg kept to himself as they worked, rarely speaking unless spoken to first and even then he would only nod or grunt in agreement. He could tell that the silent, just business Greg was getting to Sara sort of. She would roll her eyes or huff after his precautious answers; sometimes she even laughed at his "immaturity."
Like all the times before, Sara and Greg took the same vehicle up to the college campus and today wasn't any different, except Greg was listening to his iPod instead of trying to strike up a conversation like he used to. He would periodically take a glance over at Sara, but then shut his eyes quickly and pretend like he was too into the music to know where he was looking at.
When they pulled up into their reserved parking space, Greg turned his gadget off and packed it into his kit and walked into the building a little ways ahead of Sara. As he reached the elevator, Greg would gentlemanly wait for Sara and hold the door if necessary for her, so they would be able to get up there at the same time.
"Thanks," Sara said quietly as she got on.
"Uh-huh," Greg responded as he too got onto the elevator.
An awkward silence soon followed and clumsily Sara tried to cut through it. "So I guess whoever is on duty today is already up there."
Greg only nodded his head in agreement and out of the corner of his eye he saw Sara roll her eyes. Seeing this made Greg want to smile, but he controlled himself not to because that would've made Sara go ballistic.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened, they were again on the eleventh floor and at their destination. Wild, college students with raging-hormones filled the hall like usual. Greg and Sara had interviewed most of them and all of them hadn't seen anything unusual the night of Johnson's death.
So far the case didn't have a single lead, except for the diary's unknown owner. They had only recovered prints that belonged to the print on the sheet so basically they had a case that missed the nail to shut the coffin; they needed to find the killer to actually close the case.
They walked through the rowdy hall and finally came to the room where they had been so many times this week, Johnson's dorm room.
Greg finally turned to Sara and actually spoke to her, "So who's on our List of Death today?"
"Wow, Greggo the Business Man, spoke." Sara joked sarcastically as she pulled her clipboard out of her bag. She looked over the names and then told Greg, "It looks like only six today."
"And those lucky six are," Greg asked pulling out his clipboard, too.
"They are Tina Lamphrey, Jonathan Horst, Thomas Fredricks, Diana Kline, Sarah Caps, and Steven Walts, to be exact." Sara said making special notes on the list of interviewees.
Greg nodded again and made little stars next to the people's names pretending to be writing important notes next to their names like Sara.
"Okay, you ready to start interviewing?" Sara asked as she clipped her pen to the board.
Greg smiled for the first time in what felt like weeks, "Yes."
Sara turned and then stopped abruptly. "Wait, we need a police escort."
"I'll go look for Rogers," Greg said breathless because he had almost walked straight into Sara when she stopped out of no where.
"Alright, I'll just wait here then, I guess." Sara said taking a seat in the computer chair.
Greg thought he should go downstairs and look for him near the lobby since he usually took his breaks there, but then common sense took over and Greg remembered that they didn't even start yet. So instead of going to one of his obvious hangouts, so to speak, Greg went towards the bathroom.
He wove around students in the hall still and nearly walked right into a male student as he pushed the bathroom door open.
"Oh sorry about that," Greg said embarrassedly.
"Hey you're the guy that ran into me the other day," the built student replied instantly.
Greg actually looked at him properly this time and saw that it was the guy. His black eye was less noticeable this time because it was healing rather quickly.
Greg finally found his voice again and spoke to the guy. "Yeah, I am. Sorry about that, too, by the way; I was in a hurry and in a bad mood."
"Yeah, that was obvious," he said smiling.
"Well, sorry again—" Greg was awaiting the college student's name.
"Steve," he replied quickly.
"Right, sorry Steve. I gotta get going so hopefully we'll run into each other sometime." Greg said as he pointed towards the stalls.
"Not literally I hope!" Steve joked as he walked out of the bathroom.
Greg laughed softly to himself as he leaned against a bleach white sink and turned on the faucet to freshen up.
"So how long are you till you get laid, Rogers?" A brusque voice called from one of the occupied stalls.
A raspy laugh echoed off the walls and Greg deduced it must be Rogers' laugh.
"What's the highest bid day so far?" Rogers asked.
Greg turned the tap off and slipped into a vacant stall near the back and listened; he didn't want Rogers to know he was eavesdropping.
"This Saturday, I think," said the brusque voice again.
"Well, I'm going to nail her before then!"
The unknown friend of Rogers burst out in laughter and one of their toilets flushed and a stall door creaked open. Greg peaked through the crack in his stall and saw that it was Rogers' partner Hudson.
"Wait! What's the chick's name again? You said she seems fast and easy, but I didn't remember her name."
Another toilet flushed and Rogers emerged from his stall. Greg's heart race had begun to beat rapidly ever since he had encountered their conversation.
"Sara, to be exact." Rogers said as he looked at himself in the mirror fixing any detail that made him seem imperfect.
Greg quickly began to feel a little light-headed right then.
"She's been laying off a little, but that's only because of her partner. I'll ask her out today when the guy's not around." Rogers rambled on as he leaned against the sink and waited for his partner to finish up.
"So you think she'll put out, then?" Hudson asked with a mischievous smile on his face.
Rogers waited for a second, trying to create a dramatic and tense pause. "Oh yeah!"
His partner laughed jovially as he headed for the door, Rogers right behind him, "I knew it; I want details when you do."
"Alright," Rogers responded and the bathroom door shut.
Greg let out a breath he had been holding unconsciously. Cold sweat emerged from his skin to cool him down. Rage was coursing its way through his veins; Rogers was only using Sara as a plaything, a bet. Every man she seemed to like always turned out to be a selfish jerk.
Greg rammed the stall door open and stalked out of the bathroom quickly. He didn't like what Rogers was doing, especially when it had to be towards Sara. Greg was going to confront Rogers about his "plan" so to speak.
He wove in and out of various students and headed straight for Johnson's room where Rogers was sure to be by now. Greg was just at the door when he heard laughter from within the room. He looked in the room from the doorframe to only see Rogers and Sara both laughing. Sara's smile was so bright and beautiful, only if she knew what was really behind Rogers' mask. Right then and there, Greg lost all of his nerve to confront the pompous officer.
Sara finally stopped laughing and looked up to see him. Her smile faded from her face, "Hey Greg."
Greg only smirked slightly, "Let's just do what we have to do and go home." He grabbed his clipboard and started to head off towards Tina Lamphrey's dorm room.
He stopped in front of K-5 and waited for Sara and her fake love interest, Rogers, to get there. When they finally did, Greg knocked on the door.
The very plain dorm door swung open a few seconds later and a very pretty blonde stood in the doorframe. "Can I help you?"
Greg smiled, trying to hide his anger. "Ah, yes! We're with the Crime Lab," he said pointing to himself and Sara, "and we're investigating the murder of Chris Johnson."
"Oh! I heard about that; I was freaked out coming back here." Tina said unconsciously shivering just thinking about the gruesome killing that happened only a few doors down.
Sara inched a little bit closer, "So you weren't actually here."
"What?" Tina asked looking at Sara now.
"You said, 'I heard about that,' if I'm not mistaken." Sara said now smiling at the young college student.
"You're not; I wasn't here, I was at a party." Tina said smiling back at Sara politely.
Sara looked back at Greg and then back at the girl. "D'you know of anybody who would have a bone to pick with Chris for any sort of reason."
Tina looked up at the ceiling in thought, "Nope, not that I know of." She looked at both of them now, "I wasn't friends with him."
"Well, if you hear of anything or remember something later, please holler." Sara said smiling.
"Okay, I will if I do." Tina said as she closed her dorm room door.
"Oh! Do you mind if we get your fingerprints?" Sara asked off-handedly, pretending as if she just remembered, but really she was intending for it to seem that way.
"No, I don't mind." Tina held out her hands and Sara fingerprinted her for a couple of minutes in her room as Greg and Rogers waited outside.
Sara came out of the room a few minutes later with her kit in her hands and looked over at Greg, smiling. "This case bites," Sara whispered.
Greg wanted to laugh, but he crushed the thought of wanting to. "Let's go interview the next person on the list," he said bitterly.
The interviews went on and on and still Greg and Sara didn't turn up any leads, new evidence, or the slightest twinge of hope of ending the case. So they came to the last person on the list and walked to K-20, Steven Walts' room.
Greg tiredly wrapped on the door and stood back waiting for the occupant to open up. Just a few seconds later the door swung open and Steve, the guy Greg ran into twice, was standing just inside of his room.
"Whoa! It's you again," Steve said jovially. "I hadn't expected to see you around for a while."
Greg laughed, "Me either. Hey- well- we're with the Crime Lab and we're investigating the Chris Johnson case. So we were wondering if you had a couple of minutes to be asked a few questions about it."
Steve looked like he was thinking deeply about it, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt."
"Right," Greg said with a smile on his face, "were you here the night of the murder?"
"Ah, yeah I was," Steve said vaguely.
Sara edged a little closer, "Could you tell us where exactly, please?"
"I was in my room, studying," Steve said shortly as he looked at his watch impatiently.
"Can anyone verify that for you?" Sara asked as she quickly glanced over his shoulder into his room.
Steve looked at her and saw her gaze was directed in his room so he sidestepped in that direction, cutting her view off. "No, actually; I was alone."
"Do you know of anyone who didn't like Chris or sent him threats, by any chance?" Sara asked, heading in a different direction. Greg could tell that she didn't want Steve to sweat or feel like he was a suspect, which he was now.
Steve looked down at his watch again and then back up at Sara. "Um, no."
"I'm sorry are we keeping you from somewhere?" Sara asked.
"Yeah, actually I have to go somewhere," Steve said grabbing his car keys and a soda can. "Are we finished here?"
Sara smiled and nodded, "Yes, if you say we're done."
"Well I do have to head off," Steve said looking back down at his watch.
"Then we're done. Um, thank you for you're time!" Sara said as she began to turn around, but stopped suddenly. "Oh, do you have anytime for us to take your fingerprints?"
"No, sorry!" Steve said closing his door behind him and locking it. "Maybe some other time, perhaps," and he was off down the hall only stopping to throw away his can.
Sara turned to Greg with a very happy smile on her face. "I think we have a suspect, Greggo!"
"I think we do, too!" Greg smiled brightly back. "Did you see his black eye? That shows that he was in a recent fight which means-"
"Which means that definitely makes him the suspect," Sara said. "Now we only need to get his fingerprints and if they match the fingerprints we get to haul him in and get a warrant to search his very protected room.
Greg started to think deeply, "Could we get his prints from his door knob or is that still considered his property?"
"That's a tight line to walk," Sara said biting her lip. "Wait a minute; he just threw away a soda can!" She walked quickly over to the trash can and took the lid off. She set her kit on the floor and opened it, put on gloves, and got out an evidence bag. Sara then stood up and picked the can up out of the garbage and gently dropped it into the bag and sealed it.
Greg stood next to her, "It looks like this case isn't so bad after all."
Author Notes:
Thanks so much for all of the awesome reviews! I love hearing from my readers and I'm so grateful for your compliments and eagerness. You all rock and I hope you all aren't too mad at me with my tardiness. Hopefully you all liked this chapter; if not just tell me. Thanks for reading and with any luck, I'll hear from you:)