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CSICSICSI

Brass walked into the break room and felt the temperature drop.

"Am I persona non gratis?" he asked carefully, Catherine glared at him.

"I don't know, have you apologised to Greg yet?"

"I will as soon as I find him… hold the visual homicide guys," he said quickly whenit looked like he was going to receive more ice daggers.

"I've been burning some shoe leather, I found one of the girls that Greg's been seeing – she was in the audience. She thinks that maybe she made a mistake in dumping him…"

"So you're snooping around our friend- that's a really not a good way to get back into out good books,"

"Yeah well, our friend is hiding something and you know what that does to me," Brass defended. Warrick sighed.

"Yeah man, we just don't want to be digging around in the past of someone we know – everyone has skeletons, know what I'm sayin'?"

"I understand Rick, but the kid is hiding something and given his past – I just want to make sure whatever it is he's hiding isn't going to bite him in the ass," he sighed, Catherine melted a little.

"Okay, but we need to follow other leads as well. Maybe he's not scared; maybe he just doesn't want us to know,"

"You could be right, but if the kid winds up killed because we, because I didn't dig deep enough…." Brass shook his head. He didn't even want to go there, even hypothetically.

"Don't worry man, it won't so you can stop digging," Nick said strolling in and grabbing coffee. Sara stared at him.

"Weren't you wearing those clothes yesterday?" she asked, Nick swallowed heavily.

"Yeah, I was at the clinic – Greg was upset so I ended up staying the night" he said hoping he sounded casual, after all it was true. She nodded but unfortunately Warrick wasn't satisfied.

"You went to see Greg or did you go to see Arissa?" he asked.

"What's it to you Rick? Anyway what I was saying is that we need to look away from the twins," he said casually.

"The twins? They're a collective now?" Gris said, Nick cringed internally at the slip.

"Yeah, Greg and Arissa – the twins," he said trying to sound casual, Grissom raised an eyebrow not buying it for a minute but didn't say anything else.

"Okay so if we take the twins," he looked pointedly at Nick, "out, who's left?"

"Well, the rest of the band, Katherine Hampton, Dan Langston, Gary Culitan, Desdemona Singh, Conner Athens, Winston Delfine, Sheeraz Yusaf and Lisa Gilbert – the last four being our corpses. The band manager who calls himself Bret Reynolds and their lawyer the acidic, Mr Michael Hampton," Catherine listed.

"Okay, let's start with the Hamptons, does anyone have a motive?"

"Michael is one of the best defence lawyers in town – the band is a side line, he only works for the very rich and is the only one who has ever come up against your evidence and testimony and won, Gil. As for the wife – she has a somewhat abrasive personality according to Catherine," Brass informed them.

"Nah, she's just protective of her kids," Nick defended. Brass' phone started ringing so he left without reply to take the call.

"Okay – let's see if there are any unsatisfied clients in Hampton's past and if so where they are now…"

"There is something else - the band were going to be offered a record deal with a high end production company, but it was conditional – they wanted Greg not Johnny Lloyds as lead guitar," Nick said remembering the conversation he had with the representative last shift.

"Really? That would give Johnny a motive to want Greg out of the way maybe revenge on the rest of the band if they chose Greg over him," Grissom conceded as Brass walked back in.

"Nick, where exactly were you last night?" he asked directly, Nick squirmed wondering if his sleeping arrangements had been reported.

"I was with Greg," he settled on.

"Okay let me rephrase – where is Greg? His guard seems to have lost him – and surprisingly so has Arissa's,"

"What? How?" Grissom growled looking at Brass.

"Why didn't you guys keep track of them?"

"Because they left the clinic and didn't bother to say they where going," Brass aid getting defensive.

"That's a lie, your guys were nowhere in sight when we left – by the front door after signing out and it took half an hour to get through the paperwork Brass and I didn't see another cop the entire time I was there. In fact it slipped my mind that they should have been there," Nick defended.

Brass glared at him

"You sure about this?"

"Positive; the twins didn't leave my sight then entire time," he insisted

"Right, I'll have those jokers. Do you know where the Sanders two are now?"

"Sure they're at the… uh… Greg's apartment," Nick said still swigging coffee. Brass nodded and went to make another call.

Hodges past him on the way.

"Good, you're all here, I got a result on the trace you pulled from Greg's neck," he announced.

"Well?" Grissom prompted

"It's calcium carbonate imbedded on a linen thread,"

"Chalk? How did chalk get in a neck wound?"

"It's not just chalk, given how important this case is to you….us, I did a little more digging –it's plaster of Paris adhered to the fibre – like hospitals use to cast broken limbs. I sent it to DNA," he concluded, Grissom raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"I figured there might be epithelia's on it after all it did come from a broken limb," he snapped before leaving. Catherine sighed, how ever much she hated Hodges as a human being he was a damn good tech – the best while Greg as out of action.

"I'll go see what Bryson found, if anything," she muttered the last bit a she left the break room.

"I'm going to see if Reynolds has anymore to say," Grissom said leaving with Brass following him.

"I'll go see if the doctor found anything from the Y-cuts," Sara added also leaving. Nick was the focus of Warrick's gaze. After a few minutes when it became clear that 'Rick was not going to start the conversation Nick spoke.

"What's on you mind man?"

"Just wondering if Greg knows you're hitting on his sister,"

"Yeah, he does,"

"And?"

"And what? Look what's the problem? Greg's cool with it, why aren't you?" he asked angrily. Warrick raised his hands in surrender.

"Look man, I'm just looking out for Greg, he's been through enough without having to deal with a friend and his sister getting down without him knowing," he defended. Nick sighed.

"Okay. Look man, what did happen – Gris is playing the actual details of Greg's attack quiet," Nick asked, still wondering about Arissa's reaction whes she saw Greg. Warrick looked at him for a long moment.

"The bastard didn't just beat him up…"

"What does that mean?"

"We found a stain on his shirt – semen mixed with Greg's saliva – do the math and add in his injuries and however you calculate it the answers not pretty," 'Rick dumped the rest of his coffee down the sink and left Nick alone in the room.

"Bryson, you get anything from the sample Hodges bounced over here?"

"We're in luck – XY, not Greg but matched one of the unknowns from under his nails. None of the samples match the other victims or have any more then three loci in common with Greg." He said proudly.

Catherine sighed.

"We have a suspect," she said feeling like they were finally getting somewhere

"Just give me something to compare it too," he said confidently

"We will, don't worry," she affirmed, walking out with a new sense of determination.