Chapter 3

Guns and Poisoning

By: Silver Hair Fox

Sara got out of her Denali, as she got out she grabbed her flashlight, her latex gloves as well as a small amount of evidence bags. While she headed towards the crime scene an officer met her by the side of the door, "Every thing is still secure, Miss Sidle." He said staying in his spot. Both Sara and Catherine had needed a break from the window puzzle, and Sara, workaholic that she was, had gone back to the crime scene.

"Thanks," Sara said as she finished her way to the place where the eight civilians were murdered. She wasn't certain why she was inspecting the crime scene a second time nevertheless something drew her over to the remote corner. Where Nick as well as Maddy checked over the last time she was there. Sighing she got down on her knees. She pulled out her flashlight, turned the power on, and started sweeping the area with her flashlight. The light bounced off the walls then over the carpet, Sara became aware that the carpet was pulled up a bit. Moving closer she pulled it up and looked beneath the carpet. The light from her flashlight shinned on a gold 7.62mm shell casing, "I should get this to Natasha," Sara mumbled as she picked it up with her left hand. Holding it up she shinned the flashlight on it, she pulled out an evidence bag and placed the shell casing in the bag, and marked on it where she had found it. The noticed that the carpet was not nailed down or held down as a result she pulled the carpet back farther. And after she was finished she collected 48 shell casings. Placing the carpet back down she swept the room by way of her flashlight for a second time, picking up the 48 small evidence bags she stood up. She walked back to her Denali and opened the back; placing the evidence bags in her kit she closed the door. As she pulled her brown back she thought of what to do next.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" the officer asked, noticed that Sara pulled out her cell phone.

"No just stay here," Sara said, and dialed Catherine's phone number.

"Willows," Catherine responded.

"Catherine, are you back on the window?" Natasha asked.

"No, why?"

"Can you send Tasha and maybe Warrick back to the scene to check this out?"

"Your there?"

"Yes, and I found something quit interesting, but I'm to have Tasha going check it out." Sara replied.

"What would that be?"

"Shell casings."

"I'll send her down there." Catherine said as she hung up the phone.

"Great," Sara said as she put her cell phone back in her pocket. They had eight deceased, plus currently 48 shell casings.

It was going to be a time-consuming night for Natasha, trying to match the shell casings from the crime scene to the recorded casings in NIBIN, the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network and AFT. Being the second Ballistics expert in the CSI lab, Natasha worked on all the cases to do with Ballistics under Grissom, the other worked on all under Ecklie.

"Warrick, Tash," Catherine said walking into the break room finding them there, along with Brass; Nick who'd just gotten back from checking on Pam. Maddy was still in her lab.

"Yo," Warrick said looking up from the crime scene notes.

"Sara needs you to go to the crime scene," Catherine said walking over to the small refrigerator, "She found shell casings, but she's coming to help me with the window. She said she'd leave the casings for you."

Nick's eyes went wide for a second, "How many?"

"Not sure." Catherine said placing herself in a small black chair that was at the table.

"We'll head over there." Tasha said cheerfully as she left with Warrick.

Leaving only Nick, Catherine and Brass in the room that had glass walls Brass was the next to speak, "Guess it's going to be a long night."

"Yeah for her," Catherine said opening the small bottle of water.

"Is there something going on between you and Tasha?" Nick asked.

"No why?" Catherine answered.

"You seem a little pissed off with her," Nick pushed on.

"I'm not, believe me."

"If you say so," Brass said as he got up and left the room leaving Nick and Catherine alone together.

"Catherine what is your problem with her," Nick asked.

"PDA" Catherine answered then took a drink of her water.

"PDA?"

"Public Displays of Affection."

"With Brass."

"Didn't you see it when we were at the crime scene?"

"I was listening to what Grissom was saying, not watching other people."

"They were googing at each other."

"So, it's not like… you like Brass." Nick said, smiling.

"I do not."

"You do so, other wise you would have mind."

"I don't like Brass, it's just that I wasn't allowed to date Warrick but now she can date him. If you ask me, that's more than a little unfair."

"Okay," Nick said with a smile and a roll of his eyes.

"What?" Grissom asked walking in with an empty cup in hand.

"Nothing Gil." Catherine said to him then turned to Nick, "I don't like him," she said in a stern tone and left the break room.

"What's with her?" Grissom asked pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"PMS." Nick said then turned his attention to a forensics magazine. Grissom sat down at the table and looked at him. Nick took his attention back off the magazine and looked at him, "Find anything interesting about the case yet?" she asked.

"Just that I may have found the poison." He answered.

"The tox screen was negative, Grissom." Nick answered, "News travels fast."

"Some poisons are untraceable," Grissom added, and took his glasses off.

"So what do you think it is?"

"Curare."

Flipside of the CSIs Natasha was on her cell phone, "Maddy did you find anything?" Natasha asked as she sat in the comfort of her new silver Hummer.

"Just an ID on all eight vics, but nothing on the DNA I found on the wine glass," Maddy said as she spun around in her chair.

"Madds quit spinning or your going to get motion sick." Natasha said with a sunny smile.

Maddy stopped and looked around, "You don't have camera's watching me do you?"

"No, but when ever I get back I'll fingerprint the shell casings and if I have anything we can run them through AFIS and then see if we get a hit."

"Sounds good, in the mean time what am I supposed to do?" Maddy asked.

"Bug Greg." Natasha said as she let the call dye. Natasha opened the door of her Hummer and got out she placed her hands on her hips. Her gun and ID was visible on her the belt of her low riders. She still had her latex gloves on. She looked around, wishing that she had Pamela and Maddy with her as well to help her look. Natasha turned the power on her flashlight and started looking around the building, hoping to find the weapon that was used. Warrick had already gone inside. As she looked around she stepped in a small hole that made her trip, pulling her left leg out she rubbed it, "What the hell was that?" she asked herself out loud.

"What was what?" Warrick asked walking up behind her.

Natasha jumped and held her breath as she turned around her hair landing on her left shoulder, "Damn it Warrick, you scared me," Natasha answered flipping her hair back.

"Sorry," Warrick said helping her up, "You still didn't answer my question though."

"I stepped in a hole, and I think something was at the bottom of it." Natasha said as she pulled out her flashlight again and turned it on.

"Why don't we have a look then." Warrick said as he knelt down to have a look at what was in it. To his shock he grabbed his latex gloves and pulled them on then reached down the hole to pull out a smallish silver-plated revolver, "Guess what I found."

"Something interesting I would guess." Natasha answered. Warrick pushed himself up with his free hand and passed the revolver over to Natasha. Natasha smiled dreamily as she held it up, "Warrick, you know how to turn a girl's head."

"Tell me what it is." Warrick said.

"A gun," Natasha joked.

"I was looking more of a specific answer Tasha." Warrick said with a half of a smile, "Since it is your department."

Natasha balanced the revolver in her left hand and with the other shinned the light from her flashlight. It was now around 11 at night and with the streetlight in the distance it didn't give much light. With better light, Warrick could see the pistol better now: a silver plated snub nose revolver with a white handle, the word Valor in black within double black circles on the left side of the grip. Cal 32 S and a funky letter W lg had been stamped on the left side of the barrel. Plus a made in Germany – and the scraped –off place where the serial numbers would have been – were apparent on the right side. Fondly, Natasha said, "Gertsenberger and Eberwein, Gersetten-Gussenstabt."

Warrick stared at her then said, "Gesundheit."

Cheerfully ignoring the statement she went on: "It's a Valor. A six-shot revolver that fires, just like it says on the barrel, thirty-two caliber Smith and Wesson cartridges, long."

"That's one I've never heard of." Warrick admitted.

"No reason you should have," Natasha said with a shrug that let him off the hook, "These were originally twenty-twos, starter pistols."

"Starter pistols?"

She nodded; her resonantly put up ponytail swinging, "Yup, then they were modified. In the mid-sixties, these little angels were imported over here form Germany and sold as Valor's… but they were outlawed by the 1968 Gun Control Act. Our find doesn't look like it has been down there since the 1968… so its safe to say that this little one was sold in Europe."

"And smuggled into this country."

Natasha nodded cannily, "And smuggled into this country."

"How do you even know this stuff? The thing's been illegal in the U.S for thirty-five years, before you were even born, I have never heard of them, let alone seen one, and you know everything about it."

She gave him a compassionate smile, "It was only a year before I was born. And it's what I do."

"Well, that explains everything."

"Of course." Natasha smiled, "let's get this back to the lab so I can take a closer look at it."

"What ever you say." Warrick answered slightly shaking his head, "You are going to have to tell every one who asks that little speech ain't you?"

"Most likely." Natasha said holding the gun in her left hand as they made their way back to her Hummer and his SUV.

Once they got there Warrick just had to ask, "Why a Hummer?"

"I like them, they are also charming," Natasha said with a beamy smile.

"And big."

"Be nice."

Once they got to the lab, "Do you need help?" Warrick asked, seeing Natasha holding the Valor in one arm now in a bag and the other caring the 48 shell casings.

"Nope, I'll be in the lab." Natasha said as she handed him the Valor, "Oh… Can you check for prints on this?"

"Sure," Warrick answered as he took the pistol. They parted ways.

If the walls of the crime lab were meant to be reassuring, they did not comprise whichever of that result on Natasha. Fact believed she was oblivious of her surrounding, lost in her occupation plus music that played through the headphones she was neither annoyed nor worried, although her frown of concentration might make the casual observer think otherwise. Balanced on the end of her chair in front of her computer, with her long brown hair with blonde streaks pulled back in a loose bun, Natasha was hard at work trying to match the shell casings she had found at the crime scene to AK-47 casings in NIBIN. She was hoping to hit pay dirt with the AFT database. She had plenty of shell casings to enter, 48 to be exact. All of that had to be entered before she could even begin to address the thirty-two-caliber Valor revolver that Warrick had pulled out of the hole, by the crime scene. That gun now with Warrick for fingerprinting. She hadn't heard the door open, but she sensed something and looked up to see Grissom standing there. Natasha pulled off her headphones.

"How're you doing?" Grissom asked with a small smile that managed to convoy so much as an apology for interrupting; pride in her work; and natural curiosity.

She gave him a less complex smile and said, "Let's just say it's going to be a long shift."

"But your making progress with the shell casings right?"

"Slowly, news travels fast I take it?"

"Warrick told me, but keep at it." Grissom said and left the room. Natasha shook her head and went back at her work.