Chapter 5

Point of View: Greg, Narrative

Help!

I was walking down the hall to give Tara a hair sample from Grissom's and my victim, and I saw the whole DNA lab filled with smoke. I scanned the image into my brain and saw a problem, the door was sealed shut with duct tape and a lock. Panicking for Tara's life, I thought of the quickest possible solution.

I broke the glass with my hand. Only later did I find out that I broke my finger and needed 24 stitches in different places on my hand, but at the time I was only focused on Tara, laying on the DNA lab floor, being dead.

I hurriedly checked her pulse by shoving my finger against her neck, like I had to do before we called the coroner, and her pulse was dangerously slow, and fading faster.

Grissom was coming down the hall investigating the source of the crash he had just heard when I broke through the glass, when he ran over to see what had happened. I screamed at him to call 911.

I tried to think of what to do, and I decided to roll her over. I gave her mouth to mouth to get oxygen into her and she opened her eyes.

"Greg, your here." She said hoarsely before she fell into another painful coughing fit. She still didn't have enough oxygen, actually she had less than before, because she used most of what she had up saying three short words. She fell unconscious again.

Part 2

Point of View: Narrative third person

Almost better...

"Tara, I am so sorry I didn't find you in time. I am sorry.", Greg said.

Tara was in the hospital and the whole CSI team was taking turns one at a time talking to her. The girls had tears in their eyes.

It was Sara's turn now.

"Tara? How are you feeling?" She asked.

"OK for a person who was almost killed."

"Tara, we don't know what happened, but we know it was a murder attempt. You couldn't see this, but the reason you couldn't get the door open was because someone had duct taped it shut and then locked it, witch would never had happened if it was an accidental lab problem. We will find them. Can you tell us anything that might help? Any one in the lab that was mad at you?"

"Hodges. He is the only one who has ever been mad at me here. He told me he was going to make me pay for being Grissom's favorite."

"What? Hodges thinks he is Grissom's favorite. I hate that guy, and so does everyone else, including Gil. He only responds to Grissom and he is such an ass kisser to him. Now, you get some rest."

"So what happened?" Grissom asked Sara when she left the hospital room.

"It was Hodges. He threatened her earlier that day. She was going to tell you after she found her evidence.", Sara replied.

"That doesn't mean he did it."

"He was the only one with a motive! How can you say he didn't do it?"

"I'll fingerprint the duct tape, and ask for an alibi now."

"Good."

Grissom walked over to the scene after he took a cab back from the hospital, and he looked around. He found nothing promising.

But then he looked closely at the sticky side of the tape. Something about these prints wasn't normal. There were clear prints on the tape, but with red dye in the grooves. He looked for anything suspiciously red in the lab and found just what he was looking for.

A used red smoke bomb, lying inside a jar in the open fume hood.

Grissom found Hodges in the break room.

"OK Hodges, I'll give you my full attention. Why did AFIS match your prints to the prints found on the smoke bomb and the duct tape in Tara's lab?"

"Huh?" he said as he looked around nervously." Um, Grissom, buddy, why would I do a thing like that?"

"First of all I am not your buddy. I am your boss, and you need to explain this, NOW."

"I, um, I... fine. You caught me.", he said with a creepy smirk,"I couldn't stand to have that 'Newbie' destroy something I worked so hard for. Favoritism.", he paused and threw his hands on the table as he stood up knocking his chair over. He screamed,"I was the best lab worker. I was your favorite. I knew that you thought she was better than me!"

"You are not my favorite at all. I hate you, and I can say that now that you have confessed to the premeditated attempt at murdering Tara Winters. You will be charged and later put into prison for 45 to life.", Grissom proudly said as he pulled a tape recorder out from under the table. "You are fired."