Hi everyone. O.K. I have to say it and loud and proud. We won the World Series. Woo! Hoo! GO SOX! Gee a little hint to where I live. ;-)
Thanks for the continued encouragement and reviews. I really appreciate it.
Sugar230: Thanks for your reviews. I hope you enjoy the story. I'm getting excited more and more excited about the story.
Kadyann: Thanks. Here comes another chapter.
Chrissie0707: More setup, but it's only going to get better.
Tefla: More angst and hurt for Nick and ? Maybe, probably, but who? Hmmm……
Rozzy07: Thanks again for your review. Keep them coming.
Faith Hope and Love: Thanks! I appreciate the compliment. I have you continue to enjoy the story.
Mma63: Oh yea, lots of action and drama coming soon to a theatre near you. Well maybe not a theatre. ;-)
Snowangel-983: I can't wait to share what Brent has in store for our lovable Nick and perhaps someone else.
Greg was just finishing up the swabbing and fingerprinting of the beer bottles and beginning the soda cans when Sara walked in.
He looked up at her from his crouched position over the table, "So what did you find with the shoe prints?" he asked as he swabbed the soda can opening.
"Men's size eleven, the shoe print matched the pair that Warrick found in the dumpster at the crime scene."
"Well that's good, what about the blood?"
"The blood on the shoes matches that of the victim Wendy Shewster. So how are you doing here? Would you like some help?"
"Slow going, but yea I could use the help. Thanks."
"Oh I didn't mean me. I'll see if Nick is available."
Greg looked disappointed. "Oh. O.K"
"Geez Greg, lighten up. I'm just joking. What do you still need to do?" she asked smiling.
Greg's eye lit up, "Well I just finished printing and swabbing the beer bottles, I'm just starting on the soda cans. Would you mind handling the cigarette butts?"
"Sure Greg." She grabbed the bag of collected cigarette butts and began working on them.
Warrick was still working in trace. He had been able to lift prints off of the 9mm. He ran them thru AFIS and pulled up Chuck Coleman. So far Catherine's hunch was right.
He heard the door open to see Nick peek in.
"Is it safe to come in?" Nick asked jokingly.
Warrick laughed, "Yea man its safe."
Nick laughed, walked in and sat across from Warrick at the table. Warrick had the clothes from the dumpster spread out on the table as well as the gun over to the side.
"So how goes the evidence?"
"Pretty good actually. So far I've lifted the prints off of the gun and ran them through AFIS and got a match on our main suspect. I was also able to match the blood of one of our victim's from the gun."
"What do you have left?" Nick asked.
"I still have to see if the blood from the victim is the same blood on these clothes from the dumpster. I also need to retrieve the victim's clothes, plus the bullets from the Doc.I have to drop the gun and the bullets off in ballisticsand have Bobby compare, and hopefully match."
"Well Grissom told me to help you guys out after I closed out my case. My case is closed. Do you want me to work on your vic's clothes here or go down to see the Doc?"
"You know what I'm in the groove here, would you mind dropping the gun off in ballistics?" He handed the bagged gun to Nick. "Then if you could go down to the morgue and get both the victim's clothes and the bullets. I would greatly appreciate it."
"No problem. On the way back up I'm going to leave the bullets with Bobby to match against what's in the 9mm. I'll meet you back here."
"O.K. see you in a few."
Nick took the gun with him and walked out of trace, he headed down the hall and made left into the ballistics lab. Bobby Dawson was standing next to a table placing another gun he just tested into an evidence bag.
"Hey Bobby what's the word?" Nick asked.
"Nick. How have you been?"
"Can't complain. Thanks for asking."
Bobby noticed the evidence bag in Nick's hand. "Is that for me?"
"Yep I come bearing gifts." He said as he handed the gun to Bobby. "We believe this weapon was used in a double homicide this evening. I'm on my way down to the morgue to get the bullets from the victims for you to compare the unspent rounds on. I'll be back in a few."
"I'll be waiting." He took the gun from Nick and locked in a cabinet until Nick returned.
Catherine had just returned to the Crime Lab from Detective Vartann's office. They located some background information on Chuck Coleman that proved he was registered for a 9mm gun. She had the serial number to the gun, plus his prints on file. Once she caught up with the rest of the team they could compare notes.
There was one thing that was nagging her though. She seemed to think that this was a little too easy. That maybe this was some sort of setup or cover up. Why would a suspect go through so much trouble to clear out the bowling alley to commit the murders only to leave incriminating evidence behind? She still had to look at the security tapes from the crime scene to see if the had the actual homicide was recorded along with the murderer. Perhaps once she viewed the tapes all her questions would be answered.
She headed over to the A/V lab to drop the tapes off, before going off in search of her teammates. When she walked in there was a young Asian man, sitting in front of a terminal playing a digitally enhanced tape. He was wearing headphones and didn't hear her walk in. She tapped him gently on the shoulder and he turned.
"Hi Archie. I hope I didn't scare you." Catherine said.
"No you didn't I saw your reflection in the screen. What can I do for you?" he asked.
She handed him the tapes. "These are the security tapes from Chuck's Bowling Alley. There was a double homicide this evening over there and I would like you to take a look at these tapes."
"Gotcha, you want me to see if the homicide and murderer are on tape."
"You betcha. I'm going to go follow-up with Greg, Warrick and Sara to see where they are on their evidence. I'll be back." Catherine said as she turned to walk out.
"O.K. hopefully I'll have something for you when you get back."
"Thanks Archie."
Nick entered the lower hallways of the morgue for the second time that evening, the first being the accidental overdose. Now he was helping Warrick on his case. He walked up to the autopsy room, grabbed a blue lab coat, put it on and walked into the room.
Doc Robbins looked up, "Wow Nick twice in one night. To what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye.
"Hey Doc….Warrick asked me to come down and collect the evidence for his case. It was a double homicide. The victims were male and female."
"Oh yes, I just finished them up."
"So what can you tell me?"
"Well the female victim died immediately from a close range shot to the back. It completely severed her spine. The male died of a single shot to the heart. It looks like the male tried to protect himself. Though it would be hard with a gun. He put his right hand up and the bullet passed through the hand and went into the chest." The doctor walked over to a table where there were two bags of clothes and two bags of shoes, he grabbed the bags and handed them to Nick. He grabbed another small bag on the table that had two bullets in it.
"Here you go." He handed them to Nick.
Nick took all the evidence from the Doc.
"Thanks Doc. Not that it's not nice to see you, but I hope I don't have to see you anymore tonight."
"I understand Nick."
Nick took his evidence and walked out of the morgue for the last time that evening he hoped. He made his way back upstairs to the ballistics lab.
"Did you miss me?" he asked Bobby as he walked in.
"Extremely. I thought you'd never get back." Bobby replied smiling.
"Here are the bullets that Doc extracted from the victims." He handed Bobby the bag.
"O.K. Thanks. I'll do my magic and come and find you."
"Thanks Bobby. I should be in trace when you get your results."
Nick turned around and left the room, and headed back over to Warrick. He walked in to see Warrick running the DNA through CODIS. He looked up when Nick walked in.
"Looks like the blood matches the victim. Whoever killed Wendy Shewster was wearing these clothes."
Nick looked over the clothes that were spread out over the table. Something didn't seem right with the bloodon the shirt.
"Hey Warrick did you happen to notice the blood splatter on the shirt? There isn't any."
Warrick stepped up to look; normally Warrick would have caught that, but with preparing for the court case and working he was getting burned out. "You're right. I can't believe I missed that."
"Fresh eyes my friend." He said examining the clothes more closely. "This shirt and pants look like they were dipped in the blood after the fact. If the perp shot the victim at close range then there definitely would be some blood splatter."
At that point Catherine walked into the room.
"Hi guys, so what do we have so far?"
"Hi Catherine…we've got plenty." Warrick answered.
"Well…don't leave me hanging." She said with a smile.
"I was able to lift some prints off of the 9mm, I ran the prints through AFIS and came up with a match."
"Let me guess…Chuck Coleman."
"That's right." Warrick and Nick looked at each other in surprise.
Catherine saw the look from them. "Background check on Coleman said that he had a permit for a 9mm. I have the serial number here."
"Oh O.K. and here I thought you were psychic." Warrick joked. "I was able to match the blood on the barrel of the gun to Wendy Shewster. Right now the gun is in ballistics. Bobby is going to compare the unspent rounds with the bullets that were pulled from the victims."
"Sounds good what else?"
"Well I'm not sure that you are going to like what Nick found."
Catherine raised her eyebrows in concern. "What did Nick find?"
Nick answered, "In examining the clothes from the dumpster it looks like they weren't initially worn during the killing, but dunked into the blood after the fact. There is no blood splatter. If the victim was shot in close proximity blood would be everywhere."
Catherine walked up to the table to look at the clothes herself. "Yep that's what it looks like here. Have you guys checked over the victims clothes yet?"
"No…we were just about to begin." Warrick replied.
"O.K. good work guys. I'm going to go and follow up with Sara and Greg and then head back over the A/V lab to see if Archie found anything of use on those tapes."
Catherine walked out of the trace lab and made her way over to Sara and Greg.
"Hey there. So how you two coming along?"
Greg and Sara both glanced up from their prospective stations when Catherine walked in. Sara got up from her seat to join Greg.
Greg answered, "Well I was able to print and swab both the beer bottles and soda cans. I was able to match up one print, but two hits in CODIS on DNA."
"Yea and who were you able to pull up?"
"Well...I found a print match on the one of the beer bottles in the room, the prints belong to Chuck Coleman. His DNA came up on this beer bottle." Greg picked up the beer bottle from the table. "The DNA from the second beer bottle wasn't an exact match, but I was able to match eight epithelial to Chuck Coleman. Now to me this would indicate a child.
"According to Coleman's background check he does have a daughter around the age of 24." Catherine added. "What about the third bottle?"
"The DNA from the third bottle matched our male victim, Josh Graden. Now I was also able to match one soda can with the female victim, Wendy Shewster. So at some point all four of those people were in that room and we are still working on the cigarette butts."
"O.K. What about the shoe print?"
It was Sara's turn to answer. "Men's size eleven, the shoe print matched the pair that Warrick found in the dumpster at the crime scene."
Catherine took in all of the information "This keeps getting more and more interesting."
Well there you have it Chapter 4. Sorry more homicide investigating. I only have two other things to say:
1 – THE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS - THE CHICAGO WHITE SOX!
2 – PLEASE REVIEW!
I appreciate the continuing support and reviews. I hope you all stay interested. Take care!