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Chapter 2

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They arrived at the courthouse to find a bailiff stabbed seven times, lying on the floor near the guilty chair. Written in blood on the wall behind the judge's seat were the words, "I'm back… Matt, 23 32 33."

"Why the bailiff?" Sara asked as the team got to work processing the scene.

"He looked like he was going to be sick when the crime scene photos were shown at Vivian's trial," Catherine explained. "He was so shocked, he broke Commandment number two…"

" 'Do not take the Lord's name in vain," they finished simultaneously.

Sara shook her head and heaved a sigh.

"What's wrong, Sara?" Catherine took her aside and touched her shoulder for comfort.

"Don't tell Grissom, he'll think I'm too emotionally involved… but I'm not sure how much more of this I can take… I thought I could handle it, but she's ruining lives. She knows all of us and how we work, and she's always a step ahead. She's twisted, Cath, and it's driving me crazy!"

"I know," Catherine replied, obviously sharing much of the same. "Look, why don't you follow the body back to Doc. Robbins. Find out the significance of the stabbings and look up the verse. That way you can help us figure her out when we get back to the lab with the evidence."

"If you find any."

Catherine cringed at the bitterness in Sara's voice. "There's always evidence," she reminded her stubborn colleague "and it never lies."

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"There's no doubt the stabs helped, but he died of asphyxiation."

Sara couldn't believe what she was hearing. She looked again at the body that lay on the slab in the morgue. They'd called Doctor Albert Robbins in early to see the body and it was clear graveyard's secret weapon would rather be back in bed, but he was curious to see what Vivian had done to this poor soul, after seeing the other victims.

"But you should have seen all the blood, Doc!" Sara cried. "He lost too much to have not died from exsanguination!"

"I'm sorry, Sara, but this man didn't bleed to death. He was suffocated, and then his heart exploded. He was stabbed first if that's any consolation, but he died from a lack of air. How did you say you found him?"

"Laying on his back, arms outstretched, in front of the guilty chair. Why?"

"Did you happen to notice where he was stabbed?"

Sara looked once again at the bailiff, studying each of the seven stab wounds. Realization dawned as she took in the whole picture. She ran out the door, yelling "Thanks, Doc!" as it swung shut behind her.

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"It's totally symbolic," she explained when the rest of the crew arrived in the break room. She spread the photos of the body out in front of them. "The bailiff took the Lord's name in vain, so Vivian suffocated him, drugged him so his heart would burst, and stabbed him with a round object in seven places. Obviously the stabbing and the drugging happened first, but she suffocated him just before his heart exploded. All these things happened in the same order as-"

"Hold it," Warrick interrupted. "Drugging and suffocation are not in the Bible."

"But crucifixion is," Sara pointed out. "He took the Lord's name in vain, so she reenacted a crucifixion."

"Why not just crucify him? Why go through the trouble of reenacting it?" Greg asked, clearly confused.

"Too much work," Nick cut in. "She's not strong enough to lift the guy and nail him to a chunk of wood."

"It's also psychological," Grissom continued the explanation. "She was probably thinking along the lines of the disciples. They wouldn't allow themselves to die as their Lord. If they were sentenced to crucifixion, they'd ask to be crucified upside down. They didn't think they were worthy to die on a cross. The bailiff may have been a believer, but he wasn't worthy of true crucifixion."

"Right, so Vivian totally controlled the death so that everything would point to a crucifixion, including the order of inflicting wounds," Sara finished. "She even took care to stab him in the same seven places as Christ was pierced. Like I said, it's totally symbolic."

"Okay, what about the verse?" Catherine probed.

Grissom reached for a Bible on the table near him, but Sara stopped him.

"I got that too," she said with a smile, clearly proud of herself. "Matthew 23:32-33. 'Go ahead. Finish what you started. Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of Hell?'"

"Kinda creepy." Greg shivered as he spoke.

"She's taking her anger at us out on others," Grissom observed. "I wonder if her pattern will hold."

"Sometimes I hate this job," Nick muttered, shaking his head.

"Sometimes we all do," Catherine agreed, remembering the last time Nick had said those very words on a case not so long ago.

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