Summary: Strange events in the form of murder leave nothing, but trouble and confusion. Nick and Warrick are pulled into a world they were not ready for. It threatens not only their lives, but their sanity.
Disclaimer: This is all written in fun and trial for something new. Everything CSI is not mine and never will be. It belongs to the creative talent of the actors, the writers, the directors, and producers. I am not making any money off of this. Only meant to offer something new on something already so great. No reason to sue.
Author's Note: Seems to me that people like smores! Not me though, too sweet. Well, in honor of my baby brother's 21st birthday today, I got the urge to give you all a new chapter after only two days. And I watched my first CSI Miami last night! Man, did I miss the Vegas guys. Can't have a CSI without Nick, Warrick, Greg,or Grissom. Just not right! Don't get me wrong, it was okay, just…missing the guys! Ah well. Thanks again for reading and letting me know what you think. Enjoy this new chapter with the ever under appreciated (by the show's producers!) lab help. See ya all….oh I dunno….Friday maybe. Bye!
Title: Poisonous Fear
By: duffshel
#3
A young boy lay still on the steel table. Several lights blasted down upon him. The pale skin was lit up blue on the television screen hanging from the ceiling. All remaining cloths had been removed and bagged. The body was rearranged so it was back the way it should be.
The charred woman was composed on the other table in the room. Her black, melted face covered the entire screen above her table. The left arm was lying on the side of the body where it should have been attached. Nothing had been bagged from this victim. Clothes were mixed too thickly in with the ash and flesh.
Doc Albert Robbins stood between the two and starred blankly down at the floor in front of him. Like everyone else, he had seen some things in his days, but this was something new. Taking a deep breath, he moved back over to the burn victim. He had managed to get a needle through the tough hide of the chest and was able to pull out a vial of blood from the now still heart. There was nothing left on the hands for finger prints. He was going to work on getting dental impressions now. Somehow they were going to have to identify this woman.
The doctor was hard at work with the paste when Nick and Warrick walked into the room. They both were wearing the blue protective gowns and latex gloves. These two cases were sensitive and they couldn't afford any mess ups with any step.
Nick walked over to the young boy. He hadn't heard much about Grissom's and Catherine's case. It was scary and fascinating to see. He had never seen anyone damaged as much as that. From the size and stature of the body, it was a young kid, no more than fourteen, fifteen years old.
"Anything Doc?" Warrick asked when he noticed Nick's attention was not of the older man in the room, but the boy on the table.
"I am trying to get something for you to use off dental records. There is nothing for identification on the body and I have no way of removing the clothes. I managed to get some blood out and I have sent it to Mia for processing along with the boy. But from what I have started, I can tell you she was probably what started the fire. We have an approximately thirty-five year old woman who was covered in some sort of fluid, from the smell; I would say a lighter fluid."
"Okay, what's up on the boy?"
Doc Robbins raised an eyebrow, "I thought that wasn't your case?"
"Just curious," Nick didn't look up.
Warrick exchanged a look with Robbins and walked up to stand next to his partner. The boy was a mess and it would mess with anyone's head. Warrick wanted to get Nick away from his as soon as possible. Kids, no matter the age, always stuck in Nick's head for weeks after the case. As little contact he could manage would be the best.
"Come on, bro. Let's go check up with Mia and see if she has anything. If not, we can harass her until she does something."
Nick didn't resist as Warrick took his arm and pulled him from the examination room. The Texan's footsteps were heavy, but he was able to keep up with the taller man with little problem. The path through the lab was clear. Mia was alone in her DNA lab.
The attractive, black woman was bent over a microscope and was tapping her foot to a beat only she could hear on the floor. She heard the men enter the room, but didn't bother to look up at them.
"So Mia, what do you have on our vic?"
"Nothing yet. I just got the blood samples from Robbins five minutes ago. You are going to have to give me some time. Catherine demanded to go first and I am not about to argue with her. Go check with Hodges first. I am sure he has something done."
"What does he have?"
"Robbins sent him a sample of the clothes/skin from the girl to figure out what was used to start the fire."
Neither said anymore, but nodded. Hodges lab was kiddy corner to Mia's so it didn't take much to get to it. Neither man just didn't want to deal with the other man. He was unusual at best. The three all had conflicts of some sort.
David Hodges didn't bother looking up as the two CSI's walked into his lab. He wore his usual bored smirk as he continued his work. There were not a lot of cases at that time so he had been helping out the day shift with some of their overload and late work. But he had gotten his stuff for the graveyard done first.
"Hey Hodges, we were wondering if…"
"If I was able to take a look at the sample that Robbins sent to me. Yes I have."
Warrick looked expectantly at the shorter man. He had never been terribly fond of the tech, but had to admit the guy did do good work. Greg had been something has a DNA tech., but Hodges was something completely different than even that with trace. Warrick felt his impatience rise as the man ignored both him and Nick.
"And?"
"Oh. Yeah. Well, it seems that the body was doused in a lighter fluid. According to the database, it is Kingsford charcoal lighter fluid. It is manufactured by the Clorox Company. It can be purchased in boxes of twelve, but I would say two or three would have been enough to light a body on fire. Your vic is lucky they just didn't let her suffocate from it or poison her with it. The hydrocarbons that make up that stuff would knock a wrestler off his feet in no time."
"Well, that gives more proof that the fire started with our D.B.," Nick said quietly as he took in the new information, "Anything else?"
"No, that was all I had been asked to with it. If there is more, you will have to tell me, but it will take me some time do get to it."
The brown haired man went back to his sample and efficiently ended the conversation. Warrick said nothing as he turned and stomped out of the room. It helped, but it wasn't a case breaker. Someone had set a woman on fire. They needed to know who she was.
Greg ran up to Warrick once he saw him leaving the lab room. His eyes were bright and his step was light. A piece of paper waved in his hand.
"I got the papers on the house. It belonged to one Ralph White and his wife, Sherie. My bet, the victim is the wife."
"Do we know where Mr. White is?" Nick questioned once he was at Warrick's side.
"No, but I can call Brass and see if he can find him."
Warrick and Nick nodded at the same time. There was no answer from Greg other than the sound of his shoes on the tile as he ran off to find his phone. Now that was a case breaker. The husband would certainly be a suspect in all of this even if the woman turned out to not be his wife. They now had someone to try to match the DNA to.
"I'll see if I can get any medical records for Mrs. White so that Mia will have something to compare to as she does her thing."
"Alright Nicky. I'll see if I can dig up anything on the couple to see if there is any motive that would lead to the death of his wife. Leave your phone on. Mia should call us as soon as she has something."
The men nodded and banged together a closed fist. Finally there was something to run with and both were excited to follow the lead. They both just hoped they were heading in the right direction with the body.
!#$&()!#$&()!#$&()+
Catherine stood stiffly next to the table holding the boy. She was waiting for the good Doc to give her the rundown on the victim. Grissom had already come in and collected the remains of clothing. He had left the autopsy work to her on this one. She had a feeling he really didn't know what to do with this body and the cruel death.
The older doctor made his way slowly over to her side. He had been working a little more on the burnt woman on the other table. Catherine couldn't look at that one for long. As bad as it sounded, she was glad she had the mauling as her case. Let the boys deal with the ashes.
"Hello Catherine. I hope you are doing well."
"As well as I can under the circumstances. So what can you tell me about our D.B. here?"
"Well, C.O.D. is obvious with the bite marks and the large loss of blood. The body drained itself through all the wounds. My guess," Robbins pointed to the upper left torso, "Is that is the bite that finished the poor boy off. Several bones are broken and a great deal of skin and muscle is missing from the body. Whatever attacked him, took pieces with it."
"Do you have any ideas on what bite him?"
"From the size and shape of the bite marks on his upper arms and legs, I would have to say canine. I really don't know what type, but something large with a narrower jaw. And from the damage, I would say there was probably more than one."
"Is it possible to get a cast of any of the teeth marks?"
"Already done, drying as we speak," the cane clanked on the ground as the doctor turned and walked towards a shelving unit to his left, "I also found this."
Catherine held out her hand when the small plastic bag was held out to her. Doc Robbins dropped it into the waiting limb. She pulled it closer to her face and shifted the plastic around in her hand to see the object inside clearly. It was small and pointed. It was a tooth.
"Where was this?"
"I found it lodged in the right femur, just above the knee. I took a few photos of it for your records before I removed it. It should help lead you to a species as well as any casts I can get."
"Thanks. Anything else?"
"I didn't find any identification on the body, but Grissom took the clothes and a few hair samples. I also sent a blood sample to the lab for processing. Something might come up with it."
Catherine smiled at the coroner before she left. She ignored the burnt body completely, almost running past it to get out. Her direction was to find Grissom and see what he had. If they could get a hit on CODIS or missing persons, they would have a name. Then they could find out the motive to why the boy had been killed.
The tooth felt heavy in her hand. She wanted to get to work on that as soon as possible. If it was canine, she wanted to know the size and breed. Dogs were never her favorite pet option and she didn't relish the idea of having to hunt down a couple of killer ones.
Grissom was bent over a table, a piece of evidence tape in his hand. He was pressing down on the clothes spread out in front of him looking for anything that shouldn't be on them. Already several hairs lifted from the pants. From initial looks, they were not human. It wasn't too surprising.
He heard Catherine walk into the room, "So?"
"Robbins found a tooth in his leg. Nothing as to who he is though."
"Yeah, I double checked the clothes and didn't find anything. I checked in with Mia and she was getting to work on the blood she got. She will page me once she gets something."
"Do you need help with anything?"
"Not here. Maybe you should start with that tooth and see if you can find our weapon."
"Right on it," Catherine turned to the computer that was on the other side of the room. She pulled on a pair of latex gloves and opened the baggie. The tooth fell out onto the steel. Reaching into a drawer she pulled open, Catherine grabbed a ruler. Quickly she took down a few measurements. The computer accepted the length, width, and depth with no problems.
It took a couple of seconds and a list popped up on the screen. There were four breeds of dogs that could have teeth the size of the one sitting in front of her. They were all large dogs. Doberman Pincher, German Shepard, Dalmatian, and Husky were on the list. Only one stuck out at Catherine. The Pincher was said to possibly have a bad side that a person could use to train it into a very bad dog.
"Hey Grissom, I have four dogs here that could be the tool."
The lead CSI looked up from the remains of a tennis shoe, "Well, the hairs I lifted were dark. Some where brown, other black."
"Well, that would remove Spot. The Husky would be unlikely as well unless it had dark fur. I would say we should look into the Pincher and the Shepard."
Catherine quickly hit a few more keys and entered the animal registry for Las Vegas. It was several long minutes before another list popped up. This was a list of all the registered dogs in the area and there owners. It seemed that people liked those two breeds immensely.
"I have twelve hits on the Pinchers and thirty-two for the Shepard. But only twenty have multiple dogs of either. Robbins said it had to be more than one by the looks of the teeth marks in the bones."
"We should call Vega and have him start the footwork on this one. We need each of these owners checked out. Have him take a vet with him to look over the dogs. And tell him to be careful."
The blonde woman grabbed her phone and hit the speed dial for Vega's phone. He picked up in three rings and was ready to listen. The information was relayed to the detective and he promised to have a couple of officers start on the list. He was also going to do a double check and make sure none of the owners were missed. Of course there was the risk that the dogs weren't registered, but neither wanted to look at that downside quite yet.
She hung up her phone and turned to talk to Grissom, but was beat by the ringing of the man's phone stopped her, "Grissom."
It was a tense moment as she tried to read the other's facial expression. He was a blank canvas and Catherine quickly gave up. Only the slight widening of his eyes told her something was up. Her ears were wide open as he flipped his phone shut.
"That was Mia. She wants us in her lab right away."
Quickly they both packed up their evidence and placed it out of the way to ensure no one messed anything up. Once things were safe and in place, they left the room, heading straight for the DNA lab. Grissom raised his eyebrows as they were joined by Nick and Warrick on the way. No one said anything to the other as they all walked through the same doorway together.
Mia looked up from the paperwork in her hands. She took in the four CSI's in front of her and sighed softly. This was going to be interesting to tell them all.
"I have worked through both samples from each of your victims. Once I have something to run the DNA against, I should have the identities of each, but that isn't why I called all of you in here."
She turned away from them and grabbed a new sheet of paper that had been sitting on her desk, "I found something interesting in each sample. It was so interesting I had to call Doc to make sure he didn't make any mistakes in his sample taking. He even sent up new vials for retesting just in case. But it was the same."
Grissom looked impatient, but his voice was even, "And what did you find?"
"Both were drugged with the same substance. It was hard to determine since it is organic in nature and rare, but I was able to figure it out with the database. It there had been more time for it to set in, they would have died from it instead of whatever really happened to them."
"And what was it?" Nick jumped in.
"It is a form of Batrachotoxins found in the species Phyllobates terriblis."
Warrick's eyes widened, "In what?"
"It's a species of tropical frog, the yellow dart-poison frog to be precise. Or what some people call the "true" poison-dart frog. It is the most poisonous of its family. The ranges of the toxicity vary between frogs, but a single frog can have enough to take out as many as 20,000 mice. From the small dosage I found in the sample of blood, I would say the same one was milked for awhile," Mia looked down at the papers in her hands, "But anyways, these toxins are used to block off sodium channels within muscle fibers which blocks off nerve signals. The victim shuts down slowly and eventually, the heart fails."
"But where in the hell would they get these frogs?" Warrick was shocked with the information.
Nick coughed softly, "You are able to purchase a range of dart frogs off the internet or through a rare pet store. They are not that hard to get a hold of. It isn't exactly the frog itself that is poisonous. It is actually what it eats that makes it so deadly. There are certain insects they eat in the tropics and that are what increases the toxins in their systems which makes them so deadly. If you keep them on another food source such as crickets or fruit flies, they are harmless."
Several pairs of eyes drilled right into the Texan's head. He blushed slightly at the full attention of his coworkers. Nick really hadn't meant to say as much as he had, but it just kept coming from his mouth. Animal Planet was getting into his head way too easily.
Grissom smirked suddenly, "I am impressed Nick. That is a lot of information a lot of people would never know. And I have to concur that you are right. It depends on the region, but it is insect species that they eat that change the toxins in their bodies. Most tropical areas in South and Central America are homes to ranges of ants and other insects that contain their own toxicity. The frogs use it as their own once it enters their bodies."
"So, both our victims have the same poison in their blood. What are the odds of that one happening?" Catherine asked in general.
No one had an answer. It did seem odd. Both bodies were found in different areas and there was nothing to connect them yet. And the causes of death were extremely different. They needed names and addressed on them. Something from their living time on earth may give them insight into why both were given these toxins and then murdered brutally.
Nick jumped when his phone beeped with the new incoming text message. He reached for it and flipped it open to take a look at the message. Vega needed him at that station, now. Looking up at Grissom's knowing smile, he nodded and walked away without a word.
TBC…hmmm, interesting…