Upon leaving the headmaster's office, Catherine made a little detour and looked around the campus for Grissom. She found him in the courtyard, in conversation with an elderly deaf man. Grissom spotted her out of the corner of his eye but didn't turn to face her, as was his custom. At this she grumbled internally, but decided to let it go. Finally the man turned to her and made a sign that looked like he was scratching at his lip then pointed to Catherine. At that point, Grissom turned to her and said, "Hey Catherine, this is Hudson Whitlock. He was the science teacher for the school many years go." Grissom turned to the white-haired gentleman and introduced Catherine in sign language. Catherine mouthed deliberately the words, "nice to meet you."
Hudson had been like a father to Grissom through the loss of Anna. It was so good for Grissom to see him again, especially since the deeply buried emotions had resurfaced early this morning. "So, what brings you back to the old school?" Hudson signed, Grissom reverse-interpreting for Catherine.
"Well," Grissom began "I suppose you've heard about the missing girl, Katey Blanchard," he signed and spoke at the same time which adversely affected the speed at which he did either. "Yes," he replied, "that was awful for someone to do that to a little girl."
"We found her body this morning. She is dead and we're looking around for evidence that might lead us to her kidnapper and murderer." At this, the old man seemed to blanch. "You mean, she was found dead? That's just awful."
"Do you know anyone who might have wanted to do this to her, anything that seemed suspicious Mr. Whitlock?" asked Catherine, while Grissom interpreted. "No, I don't. It really bothers me that someone would even want to hurt a child, much less a deaf child who probably could not communicate with her kidnapper so he had complete control over her."
"Thank you for you time, Mr. Whitlock. It was nice to meet you," said Catherine "We're needing to meet Ms. Swain, the speech teacher right now, so I hope you will excuse us." He turned to Grissom and said, "please call me and let me know how things are going with you." He reached into his briefcase, pulled out a business card, and handed it to Grissom. "Take care yourself," he signed in ASL, American Sign Language.
As they turned from Hudson Whitlock, Catherine murmured under her breath, "I don't trust that guy, Gil. He seemed to know more than he let on. I think we need to talk to him more." Grissom was a little surprised at her comment but seemed to agree that something didn't seem quite right with Hudson. He was always so laid back. Today he seemed downright jumpy.
Grissom went deep into the recesses of his mind remembering again the days and weeks surrounding Anna's disappearance and death. He remembered long nights talking with Hudson about forensics and how science was instrumental in catching criminals. Hudson had always asked such pointed questions about evidence collecting.
Before he knew it, Grissom and Catherine had reached the office of one Ms. Laura Swain. She appeared to have a student in session, so they waited just outside the door. Not long after they arrived, a young African-American woman came to sit on the chair just outside Ms. Swain's office. She was apparently the mother of the child in session at the moment. She took the opportunity to ask if they were parents of a deaf child looking for a speech teacher. She said that Ms. Swain was the best she'd seen and that they had been through several teachers trying to find the right mix for her son, Jeffrey. "Actually, ma'am," Grissom started, "my daughter had been a student of hers a long time ago. And yes, she is quite a teacher." Finally, the door opened and Jeffrey bounded out showing off a large sticker he'd earned for his exceptional progress this week. "Look mama, I was good!" he said, relatively clearly. He was followed by Ms. Swain, "Jeffery did a masterful job on consonant blends," she said. "Keep up the good work at home. Remember to practice /th/ and /sh/ for next meeting." He signed "thank you" after a not so subtle nudge from his mother.
As the mother and son made their exit, Ms. Swain turned to Catherine and Grissom, "Is there something I can help you with?" she asked. "Hi. I am Catherine Willows from the Las Vegas Crime Lab. I wondered if we could as a few questions. The speech teacher was looking intently at Grissom. Finally she said, "Gil? Is that you?" She reached to hug him. "How are you? It's been ages." He grinned as though glad to see her but didn't gush with emotion as was his custom. "Doing fine, but here on business with Ms. Willows."
"How can I help?" she asked. Catherine broke in, "Ms. Swain, the headmaster told us that you recently returned to Las Vegas to join the faculty here again after a very long time." "Yes, that is correct," the woman replied. "Has he told you that Katey's body had been found early this morning? Can you tell us about Katey Blanchard? Did she seem troubled prior to her disappearance?" Catherine asked.
"You know, Mrs. Willows," replied that speech teacher in a rather curt manner, "I've really already answered this question over and over. Maybe you and the other 15 people who've asked me could get together on the information that's already known rather than continue to beat the same bushes. Perhaps that'd leave more time for you to catch the person who did this to Katey." At this, Grissom interjected, "Laura, we're just trying to see if there's anything, anything at all we missed."
"I know, I'm sorry," she said, "it's just that these kids are like my own kids. When they hurt, I hurt. I want so for them to be able to grow up and become productive citizens that when something interrupts that process, I feel it as intensely as a mother hen looking out for her baby chicks."
"That's exactly why we must talk to you," Catherine iterated. "These children have a connection to you that they might not have with other adults. They trust you and know that you love them and are looking out for them. So, did you notice anything strange about Katey's behavior prior to the disappearance?"
The speech teacher looked away but was visibly cogitating and ruminating on the question at hand. "You know, come to think of it, she did seem a little edgy. She had been my star of the month, which meant that she was allowed a day pass with me to get ice cream and watch a closed captioned movie at my apartment. It's an arrangement the parents and I have had over the years to recognize excellence. It seems that she had been having some trouble in Mr. Wilcewicz's class. One of the other students had been bothering her. It was that which clinched the decision to make Katey the star of the month. She was making excellent progress but also a little trouble. I felt she needed a pick-me-up."
While Catherine questioned further about this student Katey had been having trouble with, Grissom was far away, lost in thought. Anna had been Ms. Swain's star of the month. Corinne had practiced and practiced with her to get the /s/ sound in the middle of words. She was so proud of herself when she had finally mastered it. What was more, she was chosen to be star of the month because of it. Grissom wondered if she had needed a 'pick-me-up' as well. Not long after that ice cream and movie date with Ms. Swain, Anna seemed to be moodier. She started acting out in classes. On speech days, she'd feign illnesses of every kind. What had happened to so alter this otherwise happy child's mood?
Grissom was brought back to reality with an elbow to the side. "Grissom?" Catherine was standing beside Ms. Swain and it appeared that they'd wrapped up the discussion without him. He stood, nodded to the speech teacher and walked out with Catherine. "Still out there, huh?" she asked, knowing he was lost in thought, that he was more fragile than she could have ever imagined him to be. "I think we need to pay a visit to Mr. Wilcewicz," she added definitively.