Title: Goodbye, Mr. Grissom - Chapter 9
Disclaimer: These guys don't belong to me.
Spoiler(s): Officer David Fromansky from All for Our Country and Paper or Plastic makes an appearance just because I like him.
"You the arresting officer?" Warrick inquired of David Fromansky who was leaning against the wall across from the Interrogation room.
"Yeah."
"Off-duty?"
"Grissom could have hung me out to dry but he didn't. I can't honestly say I would have done the same thing, had the shoe been on the other foot, so I put in a little of my own time to try and help him out. You got a problem with that?"
"No, and……..Thank you from everybody at the Crime Lab." Warrick evenly replied. Brass felt an instance of chagrin, Fromansky's belligerent attitude got under his skin. He wasn't sure he could have been so nice.
"Hey, if this is about that case of soda, I'll return it or pay for it. I thought it was trash, ya know, expired or something." Darryl Henson began when Brass and Warrick entered the room. Brass ignored him until he and Warrick were seated then carefully schooled his features and began the interrogation.
"Mr. Henson, can you explain how your fingerprints were found inside the Personnel Vault?"
"Where?"
"The room across the hall from Sheriff Atwater's office. The one with the keypad? You don't have access to that room as a Janitor."
"Oh, well, I was in there a couple of weeks ago. Somebody spilt coffee on the floor. A guard called me to clean it up."
"Do you clean Assistant Director Ecklie's office?" Warrick asked, quickly changing direction.
"Yes."
"When was the last time you cleaned it?"
"I clean it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, after business hours. I work here at the station during the day and I pick up some overtime in the lab on those days."
"Did you clean it last Friday?"
"Uh, no. He was already gone and it was locked."
"You didn't have a pass key?"
"Sure, but he was gone for the day."
"How are you so sure?"
"I'm not, but I saw him leave. It was Friday afternoon before a long weekend and he had his brief case and sunglasses on. I figured he was gone 'til next week. Look, I pick up double time on a Monday holiday instead of time and a half………so, I figured, let it wait. He'd never know."
"What if I told you someone saw you enter his office with a pass key?"
"They're lyin'. I didn't go in there."
"You're sure?"
"Yes!"
"You didn't put a CD in his laptop and execute it?"
"I told you! I didn't go in his office." Beads of sweat were forming on Henson's upper lip, so Warrick relented for the moment.
"You said someone spilled coffee on the floor of the Personnel Vault. Did you access any of the files while you were in there?" Brass immediately picked up the line of questioning.
"What?"
"Did you open any of the file drawers?"
"No."
"Then, how did your fingerprints get on Dr. Grissom's Personnel file?"
"What?"
"Your fingerprints were on Dr. Grissom's Personnel file, as well as on the file cabinet where it is stored. How did your prints get there?"
"I don't know. Look, this is a setup!"
"You're right, it is a setup." Warrick fired, paused, then continued. "You and somebody set Gil Grissom up. We have surveillance video of you entering Assistant Director Ecklie's office, two minutes after he left for the weekend, ten minutes after his laptop went into power save mode and five minutes before it would have locked up. Only his password or rebooting, would have allowed access to it then. You were the only one there. You put a CD in and executed it, which altered the AFIS database. We also have earlier video showing you entering the Vault. The guard was busy flirting with the receptionist. He wasn't paying any attention to what you were doing. That's when you swapped Grissom's employee card for the one with Timothy Afton's prints on it."
"There ain't no cameras around either one of those places."
"Ah, but there are. One of the cameras in the foyer of Crime Lab is directed so that it has a partial view of the lab hall and it has a clear shot of Assistant Director Ecklie's office door. There are two cameras at the entrance of the Police Headquarters building. One of them is pointed at the reception area and the door to the vault."
"Okay, look they paid me to do those things. I didn't know they were gonna kill Grissom."
"You're saying he's dead?"
"Yeah, last night, at that convenience store. That was Grissom, right?"
"Actually, no, it wasn't. So who paid you?" Brass took up the line of questioning again.
"A couple of guys."
"How much?"
"Ten thousand."
"What'd you do with it?"
"It's in a safe place."
"You don't know who they are?"
"No, I told you that. They said they were pulling a joke on the Crime Lab. One of'em worked there for awhile but I don't know what he did or his name. I thought they were gonna plant fingerprints to nail Grissom for some kind of silly crime. You know, to embarrass him."
"You don't like Dr. Grissom?" Warrick asked.
"I got no love for him. Hey, he jumped my ass one night. I was just sweepin' up his office. How was I supposed to know that was evidence on the floor? I mean his office looks like a Tornado hit it, what with bugs, spiders and shit floatin' in jars. Nasty! Gives me the willies to go in there."
"Okay, let's talk about something else. How did your fingerprints end up in Timothy Afton's truck?" Brass interjected.
"Who?"
"Timothy Afton, you don't know him?"
"Never heard of him."
"Really?"
"I told ya, I don't know him."
"Rick, you want to show him the truck and all the places his prints were found?"
"Your prints were found on steering wheel, the passenger side door, the passenger seat belt, the tail gate, etc. You sure you don't recognize this truck?" Warrick laid a photo of the truck down along with a diagram of Henson's prints.
"Ah, Man, that's Shooter's truck. I never knew his real name. Sure, I been in that truck."
"Shooter?"
"Yeah, he likes shots of basically any hard liquor so he got the nickname Shooter."
"Can you explain how your thumb print got on this roll of duct tape?"
"Musta taped something up." Henson replied after squinting at the photo of the duct tape.
"Like Dr. Grissom?" Brass inquired.
"No way."
"Dr. Grissom's hand print was found on this window."
"I didn't know Shooter was involved in that stuff."
"Well, let me clue you into a couple of things. First, Timothy Afton, aka Shooter, was the one shot in the alley of the convenience store. He had on Gil Grissom's leather jacket, which had Grissom's cell phone and wallet in the pockets. We got Grissom's handprint in the back of the truck and we got your prints everywhere else. We got you tampering with stuff in Police Headquarters and the Crime Lab. Basically, we got you - for Murder One. That's the needle, pal."
"Whoa, wait a minute here." Sweat popped out on Darryl Henson's forehead.
"Time is getting short Darryl. If you know something, I think you better start talking."
"All right, Okay. He made me do it!" Sweat had begun trickling down the sides of his face and he swiped at it with a forearm.
"Who?"
"Kyle Davenport."
TBC