Disclaimer: I do not own Law and Order: CI and I am not making money off this story. Just borrowing the characters for a little fun. I hope you enjoy!

Sins of the Father

Chapter Three: Death by Scrapbooking

"Grace, that's your fourth cup of coffee."

Grace looked over at Dr. Rodgers, who regarded her with a strange but amused grin. What she said was true. This was her fourth cup. Grace could barely open the sugar packet her hands were shaking so much from the caffeine rush.

"Didn't get much sleep last night," Grace answered and dumped two packets of sugar that she finally got open into the dark liquid. "Got to stay on my toes."

"Ah, that's right. Goren and Eames are coming in the morning for the tox screen. You have to be on your toes around them."

Grace could hear the smile in Rodgers voice and wondered why it is there. She knew Rodgers lived on the other side of town so she couldn't have seen Grace and Goren sitting at a bar together and mistook it as a date. Maybe she heard about the clipboard incident. Grace groaned and hoped she wasn't going to be reprimanded for that action.

Rodger's eyebrows shot up. "What was that groan for?"

Grace rubbed her forehead. "You didn't happen to hear about my meeting with the Detectives yesterday, did you?"

"No, nothing in particular," Rodgers put her hands in her coat pockets. "Only that you did something many of us feel like doing when Detective Goren starts looking at the body."

"I already apologized to him."

"That's fine, I wasn't going to say anything. But I am curious, why did you hit him?"

Grace took a sip of her coffee. If she told Rodgers why she had smacked Goren's wrist she might be removed from the case. However, if she lied about it she could be permanently removed from the morgue. But Rodgers needed and deserved an answer.

"The case just...struck a little close to home. That was all."

Rodgers became very quiet. When she spoke all humor had left her voice and was replace by compassion. "Your mother?"

Grace only nodded her head.

"Well, once the tox screen is given and you tell them you theories you can put it behind you. If I had known I would have reassigned you."

"It's ok. It was twenty-five years ago. It shouldn't bother me anymore."

Rodgers opened her mouth to say something when another ME stopped at the break room door.

"There you are," he announced. "Grace, Detectives Goren and Eames are waiting for you in trace."

Grace, thankful she didn't have to hear Rodgers pity, nodded to the ME and Rodgers on her way out. She didn't want to admit it but twenty-five years wasn't nearly enough time to get over what she had found in her own bathroom.

"Getting the exam in before she gets here?"

"Trying to."

Eames watched her partner go over Sophie Kapirelli's body with precision, every once in awhile looking up at the doors to see when Dr. Harris would come through. It still puzzled her that he allowed the doctor, who was half his size, bully him the way she had.

"What?"

Eames snapped out of her thoughts to find Goren giving her a curious look. "What?"

"You're looking very perplexed." He lifted up the lacerated wrist and gave it a hard stare. "What were you thinking about?"

She hated it when he was so observant but that was what made him such a good detective. She chanced a glace at the doors herself before speaking. "Just wondering why you're letting yourself be intimidated by five foot five skinny red-head."

His head shot up and he let the wrist fall back to the metal table. "I'm not intimidated."

The door to trace swung open and Grace walked into the room Eames noticed Goren step back from the body and she allowed herself a smug smile. He caught it and she mouthed the word "Right" towards him. He merely frowned slightly and looked back the ME.

"The tox screen came back with some very interesting results," Grace told them, handing Eames the folder since Goren still had latex gloves on his hands. Eames opened the folder.

"High levels of cocaine and meth," she read out loud.

"But not enough to O.D. on," Goren noted.

"My theory is this," Grace moved over to the body. "She was using and took too much. The combination and levels lead me to believe that she became violently ill. She rushed to the bathroom to vomit but when she brought her head down, she banged it on the porcelain." Grace pulled some of the hair off the body's forehead to reveal a bruise. "She knocked herself out and since she was already kneeling over the toilet, her head fell into the water. That was how she drowned. The water I found in her lungs had a high chlorine concentration in it which matched the water in the toilet."

Eames had to hand to it the ME, it made sense and had the physical evidence to back it up. But it still left one major question. "So how did she end up in the tub with her wrists slashed?"

Grace shrugged. "That I don't know. But I can tell you for certain that she did not commit suicide. At least, not on purpose."

Eames gave the body one last look over and briefly skimmed over the report. "Well, I guess that concludes our trip to the morgue."

"I'll be releasing the body to her husband this afternoon but I'm going to be keeping a blood, tissue, and hair sample. Also, I have the water found in her lungs, toilet and bathtub saved as well. Is there anything else you would want me to keep on file for you?"

Eames ran through a mental check list and came up with nothing. She saw Goren shake his head in a negative too.

"Okay then," Grace nodded. "My information is on the file I just gave you if have any questions."

Eames watched her leave the room and turned to find Goren with his fingers down the body's throat. She quickly looked away, not sure she would ever get used to his examining habits.

"Warn me before you do that."

"Sorry," he mumbled. She heard him inhale and then strip the gloves off. "Dr. Harris was right, it was toilet water in her lungs. So she did drown before being put in the tub. The cuts on her wrists," he held up the dead woman's arm for Eames to see, "were made with a very narrow, clean blade."

"Razor blade then?"

Goren gave the cut another look and shook his head. "No, even a razor blade would be too wide. This was made with a very fine, detail blade."

"Back to the crime scene then."

"Maybe not, look." Goren lifted the dead woman's hands. He pointed to some very faded stains that looked like ink on the white fingers. "If she was in the tub for as long as the report said, any normal ink would have worn off. But there's a specialty ink that scrapbookers use, it's a permanent ink and wouldn't wash off until a few days later."

Eames gave him a slightly confused look. "I don't see how it's important that she did scrapbooking."

"One of the basic needs listed for scrapbooking tools is a craft knife. It's like an exacto knife only thinner for detail work."

"We find the craft knife, we find the murder weapon."

"Exactly."

Eames handed the autopsy report to Goren who slid it into his binder. "Death by scrapbooking. That's definitely a new one."

It was a Friday night and Robert Goren could have thought of half a dozen things he would rather be doing than what currently occupied his time. He'd even be willing to do paperwork at this point. A groan from his left caused him to turn and see Eames waist high is garbage bags.

"If we don't find this knife Goren, you're going to owe me a new suit."

"Deal." He pulled another bag out of the dumpster and ripped it open. Pulling out coffee grinds, banana peels and junk mail he came to what looked like a brand new hand towel. "What have we here?" He unfolded the terrycloth to reveal a small craft knife.

"Is there any sign of blood on it?" Eames asked.

Goren held it up to the streetlamp. "Not that I can tell but that doesn't mean there isn't. Let's call Dr. Harris and see if she can find any blood to match Kapirelli's."

Eames nodded and started throwing the bags back into the dumpster. Goren bagged the knife and helped his partner clean up the mess they had made rummaging through the trash.

"Maybe you should call her," Eames said with a smirk, "You two seemed to get along better today."

"She apologized to me last night."

Eames threw a small grocery bag full of paper and almost missed the dumpster. "What? Last night?"

Goren realized he shouldn't have said anything. But there was no taking it back so he told Eames about his chance meeting with Dr. Harris at the bar. She watched him with those upraised eyebrows. He sighed and threw his gloves into the dumpster as she did the same.

"It wasn't planned," he told her on their walk back to the car.

"So you've said, twice."

Goren pulled the autopsy file out of his binder when they reached the car. He dialed her cell phone number since she wouldn't be in her office at six p.m.. Two rings later, she picked up.

"Dr. Harris, this is Detective Goren."

"Yes. What can I do for you?"

"We think we found the murder weapon. We need you to run tests to confirm it."

"Alright. I'm out right now, running an...errand. I can meet you at the ME's office in about an hour. Is that ok?"

"Sure. We'll see you then."

Eames started the car as Goren slid into the passenger seat. "Well?"

"She's not at the office right now but will be in an hour. I told her we would meet her there."

"An hour?" Eames looked at her watch. "I promised to watch my nephew tonight so my sister and brother-in-law could go see a movie."

"When do you need to be there?"

"7:30."

"Drop me by the ME's and you can drive out to your sisters and still make it there by 7:30."

Eames smiled wickedly. "Another night alone with the ME?"

"It's nothing. I'll call you when we get results back from the lab."