Chapter 8:
Catherine lay sleeping, face down on her bed until she was rudely awakened by an annoying ringing. She slapped at her alarm clock, but that didn't work. So, she reached in the drawer just beneath it and pulled out her cell.
"Willows…What…you have got to be kidding Gil. It's…" She looked at her clock. "…not even after noon. Don't you ever sleep?"
She suddenly sat up in bed, wide awake at what he said next. "I'll be there ASAP."
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Tasha made her way down the rocky embankment. The dry streambed shimmered as the hot Nevada sun threw down wave upon wave of heat. She slipped on a pair of dark sunglasses as she came to stand next to Shannon.
"You just have all the luck, don't you?"
Shannon made a face. She'd gone out to get breakfast with Greg for the rest of the crew minus Catherine and Warrick, who'd gone home long ago, when the call had come in about a dead body just outside of town. The description of the body caught their attention and she and Greg were close to the area specified and sped through traffic to contain the scene. It wasn't hard to find. They just had to follow the buzzards.
Tasha handed a manila folder that she'd brought with her to Greg, who was on the phone calling in the rest of the swing shift as per Grissom's orders.
Sara was bent over the body, studying the small, perfectly round hole that now graced John Anthony's forehead. Assistant Coroner David Phillips crouched on the other side of the body, pawed through what the vultures had left of his innards, and stuck a thermometer in the dead man's liver.
"Temperature say's he's been dead for about eight hours, give or take a few with this heat. Can't be sure, but rigor and lividity correspond." The bespectacled young man said.
Olivia rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and wiped the perspiration off her face. "This is ridiculous. It's the first week of March and it's almost 90 degrees out here."
Grissom gave her a puzzled look after glancing at his own long-sleeved black shirt and pants. Then he smiled slightly.
"Sorry. I forgot you New Yorkers don't get weather like this till mid-summer." He turned to David and Sara. "Help me roll him over. If he's like the others, there should be a bullet."
Greg and Shannon had secured the scene about half-an-hour ago and had searched a five meter radius around the body for anything incriminating and found nothing other than rocks, wilted plant life, and more rocks.
Catherine arrived on scene just in time to see Grissom hold up bloody bullet in a pair of tweezers that he pulled from the gravel under the corpse's head. She knelt next to the older man.
"He like the others?"
Grissom nodded silently as Sara swiped the folder from Greg and sat back on her heels. "Says here he was released from Las Vegas Correctional Facility just last week. Convicted murderer. Multiple rapes on his rap sheet. Got a child abuse charge too. I'd say we've got another one."
"Wonderful." Jen said as she came up behind Tasha and peered over the shorter woman's shoulder.
She sniffed the air and looked north towards the mountains. "Can we wrap this up soon? It's gonna rain quick-like."
"It's not supposed to rain. Weather channel said it's supposed to be sunny and a high of 94 today." Came Shannon's 'all-knowing' voice.
"Tell that to Mother Nature. There's a huge front rollin' in fast from the north and you can smell the ozone in the air. I'd just like to finish up before the rain ruins the scene." Was Jen's only reply.
Olivia looked north as a downdraft whipped through her short locks. "There's nothing else here, right?"
Shannon, Greg, Grissom, and Sara all shook their heads.
"Then I suggest we take Jen's advice before we drown." Olivia said as fat wet drops began to splatter around the team.
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Warrick scrubbed the water from his hair as he descended the steps to the basement. In Vegas, when it rained, which wasn't very often, it poured. Almost everyone was seated at the table as Grissom added the name John Anthony to the list on the grease board.
Warrick threw his drenched jacket on the ping-pong table along with everyone else's as he sprawled in his seat. "So, what're we waiting for?"
"Sara went to go get Elliot, Sam, and Nick. They were all taking a nap in the crib." Came Greg's reply.
Olivia stretched and grinned. "No sleep for us wicked people."
No sooner had she said this, Ecklie stormed down the stairs from the CSI wing and threw a handful of papers on the table. "What's taking you so long? You should have this guy behind bars with all of you here!"
Grissom calmly folded his hands over his stomach and looked over the top of his glasses. "What would you have me do Conrad? Send a message to the killer asking him to kindly turn himself in so Sheriff Atwater will get off your back. We can only do so much with what little he's left us."
Greg snickered but quickly covered it up when Ecklie glared at him as Elliot and Sara descended the stairs.
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A few minutes earlier…
Sam, Elliot, and Nick accompanied Sara through the bullpen to the stairs that led to the basement, all three barely awake yet.
Elliot stuck his hands on the middle of his back and leaned back to stretch it out. "Three hours just ain't gonna cut it. This better be important."
"We've got another body." Was all Sara said as she stuck her hands in her pockets and strolled along.
Sam walked a bit behind them with Nick as he regaled her with a story about the Assistant Director of the CSU.
"So, get this. Ecklie decides to show up at this raid cause the press are swarmin' like flies. I was there with Sara so we could search the place after the Narcotic's cops cleaned it out. As they're leadin' Valejo out with his goons this bloodhound goes nuts and escapes from his owner and body slams Ecklie. And Ecklie has already got this huge fear of dogs."
Sam shook her head trying not to laugh. "Did it try to go to town on his leg?"
"Naw. It just knocked him down and stood on his chest barkin' like crazy. I guess it didn't like his cologne."
Sam couldn't hold it in any longer and snorted out a laugh. They were halfway down the stairs when they heard Ecklie's tirade. She made a great show of patting her jeans pockets down and turned to head back up the stairs.
"I think I left my keys back in the crib. Tell everyone to wait fer me."
Elliot and Sara nodded to her and made their way down the rest of the way to the basement. Nick stayed behind though and went to head upstairs. Sam didn't follow.
"Don't you need to go back to the crib for your keys?"
She smiled evilly and pulled her keys out of her pants. "Actually, I got 'em right here. I just needed to get rid of y'all. You should get down there too. I don't wanna get you in trouble if I get caught."
Nick frowned at her. Sam sighed.
"Don't say I didn't warn ya. Just…stay outta sight."
Nick nodded silently and stayed behind Sam as she crept down the stairs so she was just in the shadows but could see everyone at the table. She leaned close to Nick to whisper to him.
"When I give you the signal run down there and tell everyone that the dogs are loose."
Nick's smile held just a hint of mischief as Sam cupped her hands around her mouth.
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As Ecklie was about to rip into Greg a loud bark came from the direction of the stairs leading to the police bullpen. Ecklie's eyes widened as a second and third bark issued forth. Nick came rushing down the stairs not but a second later.
"The dogs got out of their cages! Did you guys see any of them come through here?"
Everyone shook their heads as another loud bark, closer this time, came from what sounded like the bullpen as Ecklie edged towards the stairs at the other end of the basement.
"Go! Hurry up and catch them. I, um…I have to go talk to the lab. See if they've found anything."
Catherine sat forward in her chair. "Since when did you get so interested in our cases?"
Ecklie scowled at her and made a mad dash up the stairs at the far end.
A moment later Sam came down the stairs at the PD's end of the basement, her hands in her pockets jangling her change.
"Did you get stopped by the dogs?" Sara asked.
"What dogs?" She said innocently.
"The narcotic's dogs got loose up in the bullpen. Didn't you hear them?"
"There was nothin' loose in the bullpen. Are y'all sure yer not hearin' things?"
Warrick looked from her to the stairs to her to the stairs. "Then where're you hidin' that Rottweiler, girl? In that hat of yours?"
Sam just smiled and swept her cowboy hat off her head. She took a bow and plopped in the seat next to Nick. Both smiled maliciously. They'd never tell.
Everyone looked at the two coconspirators and then each other before breaking into gales of laughter.