Hi everyone. Thanks for the reviews.
Mma63: I'm glad you are surprised. I'm actually surprised myself. There is a lot of trouble coming for our favorite CSI's. I can't wait to share it. Thanks again for the review!
Faith Hope and Love: Thanks for your review. I'm glad you liked Leverage I was really happy with the way that one turned out. I had a few suggestions on improvement, and I hope that this story will be even better.
Crazy4tv: Thanks! I'm glad you noticed about the small review from Leverage. I wanted to kind of sum up what happened for those people who may not have read it. I'm glad I didn't go overboard. I hope everyone enjoys this story to. I plan on having a lot of suspense, action etc. and thanks about the writer comment it's really appreciated.
Happy-me-111: Well you rock too. Thanks for the review. Keep on rocking. -
Crystalphoenix: Yep I couldn't resist another Nick angst story. Hmmm…..
Chrissie0707: I'm glad I could give you some sunshine. I'm not to far from you just outside Chicago, but it was sunny all week. Only now (Sunday) it's finally raining. The first few chapters will be set up of course, then the rest will get into the action. I hope you enjoy. Thanks for the review.
Nicole101: Thanks..here it comes.
NickGilGreggonumber1fan: Sorry but I can't say just yet, what's going on, you are just going to have to read the story. I hope to update every other day depending on how busy I am, but maybe sooner than that. We will just have to see.
Onthnis: Thanks!
Angelic Little Devil: I always try to listen to the fans. Thanks for your review. Keep them coming.
Dumpandhappy: Thanks. I hope I keep you intrigued.
Tefla: You will just have to see. ;-)
And now Chapter 2….
The Grey GMC Yukon Denali carrying Catherine Willows, Warrick Brown, Sara Sidle and Greg Sanders pulled into the parking lot of Chuck's Bowling Alley. The parking lot was swarming with cops and badly dressed people wearing loud bowling shirts and very unstylish bowling shoes.
The four CSI's exited the Denali and retrieved their kits. They walked over then under the police line. As they crossed the line, Detective Vartann walked up to them.
Under normal circumstances Detective Vartann worked days, but he had been covering for Detective Jim Brass who's taking some personal time.
Detective Vartann was a seasoned homicide detective and had worked with each one of them many times, with the exception of Greg. Though he knew Greg from the lab, he didn't know what type of CSI he was yet, but he figured since he was learning from the best, he had a head start.
"Hey Vartann, what do we got?" Catherine asked taking the lead since she was the senior CSI.
"Catherine." He nodded at her then the other three in greeting while he kept talking. "Dispatch received a 911 call at 10:47pm that there were shots fired at this location. Two cars rolled on the call, when they got here; they found the building cleared out. The officers went into the building to investigate and found our two victims near one of the pool tables."
"Is everyone out of the building now?"
"Yes. We've been able to detain most of the people and get their names, but there may be a few who already left when this all went down."
"O.K. Thanks Vartann." She turned around to look at her teammates. "Greg you come with me. Warrick I want you to check the perimeter of the building. Sara I want you to start interviewing these people. See if you can find out if anyone saw anything."
"We're on it." Sara responded. Then Warrick headed towards the perimeter of the building, while Sara walked over to the group of people that were detained once the police arrived on scene.
Catherine looked over at Vartann. "Is the owner here? And do we know who our 911 caller is?"
Vartann skimmed through his notes. "The person is one in the same. The owner is Chuck Coleman. He's right over there." Vartann pointed towards a tall balding man who was smoking a cigarette.
"We're going to want to talk to him eventually. Don't let him leave." She said casually.
"Sure thing."
As the three of them walked into the bowling alley they noticed that it was well lit, but with all the cigarette smoke in the air it gave it a gloomy look. There was loud music playing over the loud speaker. As they walked in a display with various trophies was hanging from the wall. There were twenty bowling lanes, each lane had half empty drinks and filled cigarette trays.
Directly in front of the door was the check in/out desk. There were stacks of papers, and electronic devices that controlled the bowling lanes. There was also a loudspeaker system on the desk as well. This was where the music was coming from.
Catherine looked at Vartann and yelled over the music, "Is there anyway to get this music turned off?"
Vartann nodded and waved over an officer and asked him to have someone turn the music off. The officer nodded and went outside to find the owner.
Catherine and Greg followed Vartann into the pool room that housed four pool tables. Both victims were on either side of the farthest pool table. One was a male the other female. The male victim was lying on his back with blood splattered on his face, while the female was lying face down in a pool of blood with a large hole in her back. On the floor was a set of bloody shoeprints.
It appeared that the female was shot in close proximity and the blood spatter on the male victim's face was from the female, but they would have to prove that. The blood splatter was also all over one of the pool tables as well as two walls. The male victim had one single shot to the chest.
There were a number of pool sticks that were on the floor around the victims. Beer bottles and soda cans littered the area and the freestanding cigarette tray that stood in the corner was overflowing with cigarette butts.
Greg walked in first and started taking pictures of the crime scene. Catherine followed him in and took a quick look around the room. She noticed that a security camera was mounted on the north wall.
"Vartann, can you talk to the owner and see if we can get a copy of the security tape from that camera? In fact let's get them all. We may be able to identify the shooter or shooters." Catherine said as she squatted down next to the female victim.
"Sure I'll take care of that. According to her driver's license her name is Wendy Shewster, age 23 and the other victim is Josh Graden, 24."
Catherine looked over the female victim and noticed that there was some kind of oil stain on her left shoulder. Once the victim's clothes were collected she would have to investigate that further.
Greg completed his initial wave of photos, and joined both Catherine and Vartann. "Has the weapon by any chance been recovered?"
"Sorry Greg you guys aren't going to get that lucky with this one, but maybe those security tapes will help us out. Let me go talk to the owner. I'll be back in a few."
Just as Vartann walked out, Dave from the coroner's office walked in.
"Sorry I'm late, I was just over at Dunston Park with Grissom and Nick." Dave said as he pushed his glasses up on his nose and walked over to the male victim, being careful not to contaminate the evidence.
"Hey no problem, it's a busy night tonight." Catherine replied.
Dave bent over the male victim and took his thermometer out of his bag and pushed it into the victim's liver.
"97.9 he hasn't been dead long, maybe and hour to hour in a half." He got up and walked over to the female victim taking out a new thermometer and copied the procedure. "97.6, it looks like they both were killed around the same time." He stood up. "Let me know when you are finished and we will get them out of your way."
"I just need to take a few more pictures of the victim's then we should be good to go." Greg said pulling out his camera and taking more shots of the victims.
After a few minutes went by Catherine and Greg released the bodies to Dave. Dave was going to take the bodies to the County's Coroner Office which was in the basement of the Crime Lab.
"Greg, I'm going to go out and talk to the owner to see if he knows what went down."
"O.K. I'm going to start bagging the beer bottles and soda cans."
"I'm also going to see how Warrick and Sara are coming along."
Catherine left the room and exited out of the building and walked straight up to the owner he was still standing there smoking another cigarette.
"Excuse me sir, are you Chuck Coleman the owner."
"Yes I am."
Catherine held out her id for him to see. "I'm Catherine Willows with the crime lab. Would you mind answering a few questions?"
"I'm not sure what more I can you tell you guys. I already spoke with the Detective."
"We appreciate that sir, but sometimes if we re-question you, you may remember something you didn't before."
Chuck Coleman was fidgeting with his hands; his eyes had a nervous look, like he was hiding something. "I understand. Ask your questions." Catherine looked at his hands and noticed a brown oily substance on them. She put that to the back of her mind as she began her questioning.
"Can you tell me what happened?"
"Honestly not really. I was working at the front desk when I heard the gunshots go off. I was in Vietnam so I know what live fire sounds like. I automatically took cover behind the desk."
"Can you tell me how many shots you heard?"
"I'm not sure maybe five."
"Did you know either of the victims?"
"I knew Josh, he was a regular and the girl I didn't know."
"Do you remember seeing anyone else in the room with the victims around the time of the shooting?"
"Not really. Tonight's the bowling league so I'm pretty swamped. No one has to come up here to pay. The pool tables are pay and play."
"O.K. you said the Josh was a regular, did you know if he had any enemies or run in's with anyone here?"
"None that I know of."
"One more question Mr. Coleman that oily substance on your hands, what is that?"
Coleman looked at his hands then answered, "It's oil for the pin racks, we oil them every night so they don't get stuck. Why?"
"Just wondering, thanks Mr. Coleman. After we review your security tapes, we may need to ask you a few more questions. Will you be available?"
For a brief moment Catherine saw a flicker of fear in Mr. Coleman's eyes, then he answered. "Yes, I gave the detective all my contact information."
"Thanks Mr. Coleman, you've been very helpful." Catherine said as she pulled out a business card. "If you happen to think of anything else please give me a call at that number."
Catherine concluded her conversation with Mr. Coleman and walked over to Sara.
"Hey Sara, how are the interviews going?"
"Well so far I've interviewed ten people and they all said the same thing."
"Which is?"
"No one heard the shots. There was an announcement to evacuate the building."
"Hmm…. That's interesting how could anyone hear the announcement when the music was blaring over the loud speaker?"
Sara raised an eyebrow and said, "Catherine none of the people I interviewed said anything about any music playing. In fact no one knew why he or she were being evacuated. There was no physical evidence of anything going on, there were no fights or a fire."
Catherine turned and looked at Chuck Coleman with suspicious eyes. "It seems that Mr. Coleman has just became my number one suspect."
At that point Vartann walked over with four videotapes. He handed them to Catherine.
"Here you go. These tapes are from the entrance, the bar, one on all the lanes and one in the back by the pin racks near the back exit." Vartann explained.
"Great thanks!" She said as she grabbed the tapes from Vartann. "Vartann, can you run a background check on our Mr. Coleman over there. There are some holes in his story that don't add up."
"Sure I'll get right on it as soon as I get back to the station."
"Thanks. I appreciate it." She was just about to go and find Warrick when he walked up to her, with a smile on his face and a gleam in his eye.
"Guess what I found?" he asked while holding up four evidence bags, with the most prominent being a gun.
"You found the murder weapon. That's great. Where?" she asked.
"I found it in the dumpster behind the building. It looks like there's some blood on it. The person was in a real hurry to get rid of it. I also found these." He held up a pair of shoes and a bloody shirt and pants.
Catherine looked at them like she one the lottery. "Great work. Anything else?"
"I printed the back door inside and out, and found some fresh prints. The back door was unlocked I went it and wound up behind the pin racks." Warrick added.
"Good. Vartann was able to supply us with the videotapes. So hopefully our shooter we'll be on tape."
Catherine stopped for minute and had a thought. "Sara did anyone see Mr. Coleman come out right away?"
Sara glanced down at her notes. "None of the witnesses recalled Mr. Coleman coming out right away and if he did they didn't see him. What are you thinking?"
"Nothing just yet. Let's get the evidence back to the lab. If you guys are through here Greg needs some help inside."
"I still have a few more people to interview, after that I'm free." Sara responded.
"Let me lock this evidence in the truck and I will be right in to help Greg."
"Thanks Warrick."
Catherine walked back into the building with Warrick behind her. When they entered Greg was just finishing up collecting the bottles and soda cans. He looked up as they entered the room.
"Greg, how are you doing in here?"
"Just about through. I've bagged and tagged all the beer bottles and the soda cans. I took a sample of the blood on the walls, the pool table and on the floors. I was just going over to the cigarette tray and go through that."
"I'll take care of it." Catherine said.
"Greg did you get the shoeprints yet?" Warrick asked.
"No not yet Warrick. Would you mind?"
"Sure I'll take care of it."
With the three of them working the room, they were able to finish faster. After about fifteen minutes Sara joined them.
"Is there anything left to do?" she asked looking around the room.
"Nope, we are finished. Would you mind carrying this back to the truck?" Greg asked as he handed her a cardboard box filled with evidence.
"Sure no problem. Are we heading back to the lab to process this stuff?"
"Yep let's go."
The four of them left the scene and headed back with their evidence in tow. Catherine had a gut feeling that they had interviewed their shooter already tonight, but they were going to let the evidence speak for them.
Well there's Chapter 2, sorry there's no Nick in there, but he will be in the upcoming chapters. Please let me know your thoughts, and like I always say be honest. You won't hurt my feelings unless you say I totally suck, but honest critiques, suggestions and opinions are always welcome. Please review!