Chapter 3- Working the night shift
"All done with my homework. What am I supposed to do now?" It was almost one o'clock in the morning. Hailey had been stuck in her uncle's office for the entire two hours of graveyard shift. Until now, she had her homework to occupy her, but there was only so much chemistry she could study before her brain imploded.
"I don't suppose sitting quietly in the corner and minding your own business is an option?" He knew it wasn't, but said it anyway.
"Ha, ha. Your so funny, Uncle Jimmy. So very, very funny."
"Glad to know someone appreciates my finely honed wit," Brass remarked sarcastically. "Alright, here are the ground rules. You stay in this building. You do not bother people. Stay away from lock up."
"I promise." Hailey jumped up from her chair and leaned over to kiss his cheek, intent on leaving the office before he could change his mind.
"Hailey." She froze with her hand on the doorknob and looked over her shoulder.
"Don't forget, before you do anything; there are surveillance cameras all over this building, and the guys in security work for me."
"Damn, there goes my plan to get Nick and Warrick to buy me a six pack."
"Just get out of here, brat."
"Try not to miss me too much." With that, Hailey disappeared down the hallway.
She went to the DNA lab first, hoping for another conversation with Greg, a cup of coffee, or both. It was empty, and so was the coffee pot. So much for that idea. Hailey wandered the halls, looking for any of the people she had met the other night. No Nick, Warrick, or Sara. No Catherine, who she was hoping to pester for details about her daughter. Lindsey, she thought, had definite potential.
Hailey spent an hour wandering around the different labs, making small talk with the techs. Jacquie took her fingerprints and ran them through AFIS, teaching her about the process as she went. Bobby was comparing shell casings, and let her examine the evidence. The lines and grooves matched. The AV lab was her favorite. Archie showed her how to manipulate photos.
They started with her uncle's ID photo, and by the time they were done he had a goatee, a uni-brow, and an afro.
"Thanks, Archie." Hailey left the lab, carrying a printout of the altered photo.
"Don't let your uncle see that. If he does, you didn't get it here, 'k?"
"No worries. I'll put it in my school locker."
Hailey had already been in all but one of the labs. She snuck past the last one, having been warned by her uncle that Hodges was one of the few people on night shift she might want to avoid. She had almost made up her mind to make her way back to the police side of the building when she smelled the enticing aroma of coffee. Following her nose, Hailey found herself standing in the doorway to what must be a break room. A table surrounded by chairs, sofa, mini fridge and microwave were all crowded into the room. More importantly, a coffee pot sat on the counter, and it was almost full. Surely no one would mind if she helped herself to a cup.
"Sugar, sugar, where is the sugar?" She muttered to herself as she opened cabinets. There had to be sugar around here somewhere.
"It's in the cupboard above the fridge, right next to the sign that says employees only."
The voice startled Hailey, and she almost dropped the mug. Turning around, she was faced with one of the people she had yet to meet. Just under six feet tall, salt and pepper hair, beard, and blue eyes. Only one person this could be.
"You must be the Bugman."
"What?" A single eyebrow shot up in question.
"Dr. Gil Grissom, PhD in entomology, supervisor for the graveyard shift of CSI. That's you right?" Hailey was enjoying her brief moment of holding the upper hand. From stories her uncle told her, it was rare to have more knowledge then the renowned doctor.
"Now that we've established who I am, how about answering the question of who you are."
"Come on, Dr. Grissom. If I told you that, it would be depriving you of an interesting puzzle. You wouldn't want me to do that, would you?" She was taking a risk, not sure if her teasing would intrigue or alienate this man her uncle counted as a friend.
Grissom slowly looked over the teenager who had infiltrated his domain. She exuded confidence, and he had known at first glance that she wasn't a victim. At the same time, even if he wasn't aware of every case being investigated, he would still be sure she wasn't a suspect either. She smiled at him, and something in the cocky expression struck him as being familiar. It was like she had a secret, and was waiting for just the right moment to bring it out. Where had he seen that self-pleased look before?
"Still stumped, Grissom?"
There it was. That tone in her voice when she said his name. "Brass," he nodded, pleased to have figured it out. "You have to be Jim Brass's niece."
"You're too good. I was sure you'd need at least one clue. Did Uncle J tell you I was coming?"
"No, but I heard a couple of my guys talking before assignments."
"Oh, was it Greg?" Hailey asked hopefully. She wasn't ashamed to admit that she had a bit of a crush on the spiky haired lab tech-CSI.
"I think it was Nick, maybe Warrick." He hadn't really been paying attention to the idle chit chat before shift started. Sara had been a few minutes late, and his mind was occupied with alternately making up worse case scenarios for her tardiness and rationalizing how they couldn't be true.
"My name's Hailey, by the way." She switched the coffee mug to her left hand before stick out her right hand in greeting.
Grissom accepted the hand, shaking it with his own. He couldn't decide if he should be amused or impressed by this relative of Jim's. Maybe a combination of both. She reminded him of a younger Greg, with the wild hair, strange clothing and the obvious intelligence. More self assured then Greg usually was, at least around him. Speaking of Greg...
"Hey Griss, I just talked to Jacquie. CODIS found a match to the prints on the knife." Greg walked into the room.
"Anyone we know?" Grissom asked, immediately putting all of his attention on the case.
"Yeah, the victim's brother."
"Sounds like sibling rivalry taken one step too far," Hailey joked.
"Wait until the evidence is in before theorizing," Grissom remarked before he realized who had done the talking.
"Yes sir, boss." She winked at Greg behind Grissom's back, and Greg grinned back at her.
Grissom hastily left the room, muttering something about being outnumbered.
"So, brother's prints on the knife. Are you sure it's the murder weapon?" Hailey questioned Greg between sips of coffee.
Greg took a moment to read the System of a Down lyrics on Hailey's shirt before answering. Really, he was trying to decide what to tell her. Blood, murderer, and evidence collection were not things he usually discussed with teenagers.
Hailey seemed to sense his reticence. "If your worried about giving me too many details, don't. Uncle Jimmy always tells me about his most interesting cases. His stories about investigating murders were always my favorite bedtime stories." She worried that she was sounding a little callous, and maybe too morbid. "Not that murder is, like, good. But Uncle Jimmy can spin a story like no other."
Her words reassured Greg, though he was still a little weirded out by the whole 'Uncle Jimmy' thing. He tried to picture the captain tucking a younger Hailey into bed, regaling her with stories if his day. He couldn't.
"I need to make castings of the wound, for comparison, before I can be sure that it's the weapon. Chances are good, though, because the DNA matches," Greg explained.
"Can I watch?" Hanging out with Greg, observing him work sounded like the most interesting thing to do at two thirty in the morning.
"Can you watch me make the molds? No. Doc Robbins has this rule about no kids in the morgue. You can wait here for me, though, and I'll show you the results."
"I'm not a kid," Hailey groused. "Nothing in the morgue but dead bodies, and it isn't like I haven't seen one of those before." Shit. She shouldn't have said that out loud. Now Greg was giving her a look.
"You'll be in the layout room, after?" she asked. She waited for him to nod, then turned and left the room before he could ask any questions.
"So you can see the shape of the knife and the mold of the wound match. That, plus the victim's blood, tells us that this is the murder weapon." For Hailey's benefit, Greg spoke out loud as he measured. He had made the mold, but one thing led to another and it was almost the end of shift before he found Hailey again.
"Look at this, Warrick. Still a trainee and he's already teaching his own classes." Nick teased as he and Warrick walked into the room.
"Where can we sign up?" Warrick jested. "CSI, Sander's style. I'm in, as long as it doesn't involve wearing latex gloves on our heads or dancing in the halls."
"You guys here for a reason, or just popping in to make fun of me?" Greg tried to sound annoyed, but failed.
"We have a reason. The teasing is just a perk, Greggo." Hailey had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at Nick's response.
"Yeah. Shift's over in twenty, and we wanted to see if you were up for breakfast afterwards," Warrick explained.
Hailey clapped down harder on her lip. 'Can I come, can I come?' she wanted to ask.
"Sure, who else is going?" Greg asked Nick.
"The two of us, so far. Sara said no and Catherine has to go straight home. Something about Lindsey being grounded. Griss wasn't in his office, so we haven't asked him. We still have to find Brass, to see if he and Hailey can come."
"Really? Me?" Hailey couldn't help exclaiming. Breakfast with the guys, could there be a better way to start the day?
"Yeah, you. We invite all the cool people, builds up our reps." Warrick's green eyes were twinkling with humor.
"Can I go ask him, now?" It took her a moment to formulate the question, temporarily mesmerized by the man staring at her. He really should be performing on a stage somewhere. Warrick was so cool looking; it wouldn't even matter if he could sing.
"Sure. I'll come with you."
There was an extra bounce in Hailey's step as she walked down the hallway next to Warrick.
To be continued...