By the time Grissom and Catherine reached the office of the school's elementary math specialist, Grissom was feeling physically ill. Reliving the nightmare was one part of it, but the way things were heading in evidence collection, it seemed so much worse to him. It seemed that the people he had trusted with his daughter's education could have possibly been involved in her murder and now the murder of this other little girl. What was worse to him was that he could do nothing to help, nothing to save her. She was only 6 years old and Katey 9.
Catherine knocked on the door of Mr. Wilcewicz's office. Through opaque glass she could see him there, but he made no effort to get up. He apparently had his back to the door, facing the screen of a computer working an online Sudoku puzzle. It was then that Grissom noticed a door bell outside the office door. He pushed it and the office overhead light flickered. There was the sound a chair squeaking. A handsome, young, well built gentleman about the same height as Grissom opened the door. "Stan Wilcewicz?" inquired Catherine. At this, he pointed to his ears and shook his head. He turned to reach for a pad an pen but before he could, Grissom tapped him on the shoulder and signed, "Hi, we're from the LVPD and we wanted to ask you some questions, if we could." Visibly impressed, the young math teacher signed in ASL "WOW, surprise-me police sign." Grissom stammered to get through the reverse translation because the grammar of ASL is so different from English.
From this point on, Grissom worked in the role of interpreter for Catherine who was asking questions about Katey and the trouble she'd been having. The teacher reported that it was rather odd to him that she had been having that kind of trouble because she was quite popular with all the kids in her classes. When Jaxon Willard came to the school, all this changed. He was a student who'd been moved out of another school for the deaf for his violent outbursts. He had more than deafness as a source of challenge in his life. He had been one of the first students at the school to receive a cochlear implant which afforded him the honor of being a 'spokesperson' for official school business when he was on good behavior. When he came to LVCSD many of the kids liked him immediately. A turning point had been when he'd learned to focus on Katey as the butt of his jokes. He teased her mercilessly.
"Why didn't you stop it, Mr. Wilcewicz?" Grissom wanted to know. "It seems to me if my child were having to deal with that kind of torture from classmates, that I could feel assured that her teachers would at least deal with him." Wilcewicz explained that while he was quite vigilant in Katey's time of need, that he wasn't able to see everything that went on. That apparently, Jaxon limited teasing Katey to times outside of his class.
"Where can we find this boy," asked Catherine, Gil interpreting. "Almost time for school social so the students should be gathered in the main hall" Catherine thanked Mr. Wilcewicz for his time and headed out the door, Grissom not far behind.
"This is really a puzzle to me, Gil," the red-headed CSI finally let out. "I mean, how is it that a school campus as close knit as this one has so many secrets, so many untold stories?" Grissom shrugged his shoulders, looked at his watch and said, "It's getting to be dinner time, you hungry?" She was and glad he mentioned it. "Why don't we go to In-N-Out Burger on S. Eastern," Grissom suggested. "Anything sounds good at this point," she replied, "I'm famished."