It's your own God damn fault. Nick thought to himself, always attracted to the girls who wind up suspects.
In his peripheral vision, Nick saw Sara sneak a look at him over her shoulder. "What's up?" he forced his voice to sound congenial, but didn't look at her, busying himself with tightening an already tight lid on the fingerprint powder.
Sara shook her head and shrugged. "You grunted. Thought you found something."
He knew she was waiting for an explanation, but didn't offer one, changing the subject instead. "Any luck with that?"
Carly's laptop had been sitting on a table in the corner. Sara had immediately sprung on it, poking at the keys with gloved fingers. "No luck, password locked." She snapped the laptop shut and slid it into a clear plastic bag. "Archie'll find something for us. But I did get her appointment book." Sara held up a squat black book that was stuffed to the brim and had corners of paper sticking out.
Nick made a noise of distraction as he bent to pick up the small trash can under the make up table. Sara watched him dig for a moment as she sealed the bag closed with evidence tape. Opening her mouth, to ask about the girl, Susan, who was at that very moment being interviewed by Brass, and was obviously the cause of Nick's foul mood, she watched as his actions stopped, his arms hovering inches over the edge of the trash can, his back muscles tense, and she could swear he was holding his breath.
"What'd you find?" She asked, anxiously, across the room and at his side even before the last syllable passed her lips.
Nick grabbed a pair of long tweezers from his kit and reached in to the trash can, pulling out an amber colored plastic pill bottle. Three white slashes of torn sticky paper were all that was left of the label. He twisted his wrist, looking at the new find from all sides, and moved it closer for Sara to inspect as well. "You see that?"
"Yeah" Sara said with sequestered excitement. "Are those…?"
Nick nodded "Teeth marks."
"And where there're teeth marks…"
"There's saliva."
Catherine stood at the reception desk, checking off the last box of a FedEx shipping form. Tearing off her copy and shoving it in her pants pocket, she slid the others into the allotted plastic slot and handed the padded square envelope to Judy behind the desk. "Make sure this goes out tonight please." And don't let Grissom see it. She cut herself off before she could utter the words that would rouse Judy's suspicion and could end her own career.
"Sure" Judy smiled and glanced over the form, checking for anything that might hinder delivery. "Wow. FBI lab in Quantico. We don't do that very often."
Forcing herself to smile, Catherine answered "Big case" before she turned on her heel and headed down the hall to the break room.
A few hours before, just after her argument with Grissom, Catherine had been on the verge of drugging Warrick to make him sleep, when two things happened. First, she realized the morbid coincidence to her train of thought, and secondly, Warrick had somehow fallen asleep on his own. She'd stormed down the hall after leaving Grissom's office, headed toward the coffee and a few minutes of sitting quietly in her office when she's come across the soundly sleeping, lightly snoring Warrick on the break room couch. She'd tip-toed out of the room, almost cartoonishly, shutting the door softly behind her. And now, leaving Judy and a FedEx shipment that was sure to cause all hell to break loose, behind her, Catherine found herself at that same closed door.
It was odd to see the door closed, like seeing a house you've lived in for years empty when you move out. She opened the door; simultaneously removing the hand printed Do Not Disturb sign she'd taped up. The snoring was a little louder this time, and when she bent over him, he looked more peaceful than he'd had in she couldn't remember how long. Waking him was the last thing she wanted to do, but did anyway. "Warrick…" she whispered his name, lightly shaking his shoulder.
He woke quickly, as she'd known he would, staring up at her with wide, confused eyes, as if he thought he might still be asleep and dreaming. "Hey." His voice was honey thick with sleep.
"Hey yourself." Catherine smiled sweetly at him. "Want some coffee?"
"Yeah. Please." He swung his legs off the couch, putting his feet on the floor and looked at his watch. "Where's Ginger?"
Catherine, her back to him, smiled at the coffee cup as the liquid poured from the pot. She should have known Ginger would be his first priority. Fatherly love she thought, then quickly admonished herself, don't know that, yet.
"I sent her home a couple hours ago." She turned and started toward him, a coffee mug in each hand. "Peter went with her."
"Where's the case at?"
"Well…" she handed him a bright blue mug with the LVPD logo emblazoned in faded gold toned lettering. He took it with both hands, and blew on the hot liquid sending up a wave of steam. "Nick and Sara came back from the theater with Carly's appointment book, which she seemed to have treated as a lifeline, considering all the things she's got stashed in there, Sara's sorting through it now. They also found her laptop, which Archie is working on, and" she paused to make sure she had his attention "a prescription pill bottle of what turns out to be Ambien."
Coffee slashed over the rim of the cup, stinging the back of Warrick's hand, as he stood up quickly. Catherine held up a hand, pressing it against his shoulder, stopping him. "Hold on there." She waited a moment for him to calm down and recenter his focus. When she knew she had his attention, she continued. "Brass has Susan Renwald in the interrogation room, that girl who was flirting with Nicky the other night. Brought her in when they found the murder weapon in the trash can in the make-up room. Nick found teeth marks on the bottle, like someone had trouble with the child proof cap…"
"And used their teeth as leverage." Warrick finished for her.
"Right. Nick's swabbed the cap, and taking a mold of the impressions, but it won't do much good in IDing the killer, plastic gave easily, so there's no definite impressions."
"But there's DNA." He said, confirming.
She nodded. "Yep. Mia has it now."
"I could help Sara with the appointment book." Warrick offered, somewhat hopefully.
Catherine offered him half a smile, "Have a seat Warrick."
He held in a sigh of resignation and did as he was asked. She took a seat next to him on the couch, staring at the coffee cup in her hands as she decided on the words to use.
"I think you need to recuse yourself from the case."
"That's Gris talking."
"No." She told him, her firm supervisor voice underlying her words. "It's all me." She paused a moment, searching again for the right words. "When Eddie died…"
"When Eddie died you were all up Sara's ass." Warrick stood up abruptly. "You wanna take me off this case, then you're gonna have to order me." He stood over her, staring down at her, daring her to do it.
After a moment, she blinked, looked away. Knowing he'd won, he gave her a short nod and left the room.
"Tell me about Carly." Brass used his fatherly voice.
Gypsy/Susan picked a final piece of loose nail polish off her thumb nail and lifted her chin to look at Brass. He was sitting with his back to the mirror, so when she looked up, she caught her own reflection. Dark circles had formed under her eyes, and she'd left the house upon hearing the news of Carly's accident, sans makeup. She took in her own appearance in a quick glance, ran her tongue over her teeth, then asked, "What would you like to know?"
"Did you like working for her?"
She smiled for the first time in what felt like days. "Yeah. I really did." She went on, telling Brass short anecdotes. Behind the mirror, Nick stood with his arms folded across his chest, not really listening to the words, focusing his attention on her face as she spoke. Her eyes lit up when she spoke about Carly, her hands and fingers becoming animated, the sad smile on her face seemed genuine to him.
The door handle clicked, and Nick glanced to the reflected door just in time to see Warrick slide in. The two CSIs eyes met with the others reflection. Nick raised his chin a little in greeting. "Hey man."
"Hey." Warrick's voice was quiet as he approached the mirror and looked into the other room. "Oh, your girlfriend," he teased recognizing Gypsy.
Nick smiled wanly, shook his head. "Don't go there man."
"What's she saying?"
"Brass hasn't really asked her anything, I don't know if she realizes she's a suspect."
"Her fingerprints on the water bottle, empty pill bottle in her trash can…" Warrick listed the two major pieces of evidence they'd collected so far, both pointed to the girl in the next room being a murderer.
They listened in silence for a few minutes, each waiting for Brass to spring the question on the suspect. "Catherine wants me to recuse myself." Warrick stated simply, sounding like he didn't want Nick opinion, just wanted to get it off his chest, avoiding Nick's reflected gaze.
Not willing to take a side, Nick asked, "What'd you tell her?"
"I told her no."
Nick twitched a quick smile. "Ok then."
Brass's fatherly voice gained a touch of menace "So, Susan-"
"Gypsy." She corrected him.
He nodded, as if he agreed with her choice in changing her name. "Susan," he began again, deliberately, "why'd we find an empty pill bottle in your trash can at the makeup table?"
No one but the CSI's and a few of the detectives had been told Carly's true cause of death, everyone believed it was the car accident, so the mention of pills had no shocking effect on Gypsy's expression. She shrugged and shook her head at the same time, saying the words that Brass had heard so often, if he had a dime for each one, he could give Bill Gates a run for his money. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Carly didn't die from the accident. She was poisoned." He paused a moment, letting her mind get around that fact before he continued. "There were traces of sleeping pills in the water bottle she was drinking from, a bottle that had your fingerprints on it, and" she opened her mouth to protest, or perhaps explain, but he cut her off before she could utter a sound, "the empty pill bottle was found in the trash can at your make up table."
She was quiet, staring wide eyed, and Brass could literally see the weight of all that information sink into her as her body crumbled, dropping lower and lower in the chair. "We found traces of saliva, which means DNA, on the bottle. Is there anything you'd like to tell me before we get the results back?"
In the other room Warrick turned to Nick. "What's Mia's ETA on the DNA?"
Nick looked at his watch. "Supposed to be a priority, could be anytime now."
Gypsy seemed to realize she was being accused, her back straightened, her shoulders squared, she looked Brass straight in the eye and uttered the other sentence he'd heard almost every day of his career. "I didn't do it."
He nodded once, cleared his throatthinking: Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say. "So how'd the bottle get in your trash?"
Rolling her eyes, she snorted. "Anyone could have put it there. It's not like the door gets locked."
"Ok" Brass began, trying a different tactic. "What about your fingerprints on the water bottle?"
"What about them? I gave her a bottle of water."
"Where'd you get it from?"
"Fridge in the dressing room."
"There was a refrigerator in the dressing room? Isn't that a little excessive?"
She shrugged again. "Not really. Most of the stars have things like that in their contract."
Brass's eyes narrowed at the subject of Carly's contract. "Yeah, about that contract. We heard Barney Falade was pissed about it."
Gypsy sparked up, eager to have the spotlight off her. She sat up straight, putting both arms on to the table and leaned in. "Carly never wanted any of that stuff. Tommy's the one that did it. Said it gave her 'star power'." She flayed her fingers in an exaggeration. "Carly just liked to sing, she'd have been just as happy with just a microphone and an audience to sing to."
Nick turned his head, observing Warrick's expression. To a casual observer, Warrick's countenance hadn't changed, but his best friend saw a flicker of pride.
"Ok, so you gave her the poison…"
"I didn't know it was poisoned!"
"Ok, ok" Brass held his hands out, calming her "you gave her the water…"
Gypsy's eyes took on a distant look as she remembered the previous night. "Carly was so happy. She said it was good to be home again, and Ginger surprised her, and seeing her friend from high school…" a tear slipped down her cheek, remembering Carly like that, just an hour before her death.
Again, Nick took a glance over at Warrick. And this time, even he couldn't read his best friends expression.
"She was in such a good mood. Not even Tommy's bullshit could bring her down."
"What bullshit is that?"
Gypsy looked Brass straight in the eye, wiping away the tear with the back of her hand. "Tommy Bryans is an arrogant asshole. Treated Carly like a child, never really cared what she wanted. That contract is a good example, all the extra stuff, that was for him, Carly never wanted any of that."
"What happened last night?"
She took a deep breath. "After her friends left, I walked her back stage to take down her hair and take off her makeup. She just kept giggling, laughing at every silly thing; she was in such a good mood. She was going on and on about Ginger and her friend... I was gonna ask her about that really good looking guy I'd seen her with," Gypsy leaned in to the table and whispered, having no idea she was being observed through the glass, particularly by the really good looking guy she was talking about. "I was hoping she could hook me up."
It was Warrick's turn to glance at Nick, "Is being a suspect a prerequisite before you'll date a chick?" Nick ignored him.
"Yeah, well…" Brass restrained himself from turning in his chair and casting a glance though the mirror. From Nick's expression on the stage, it wasn't hard for the detective to figure out which CSI she was talking about.
"So, Tommy comes in, starts discussing the problems with that nights show. Lighting, sounds cues that kind of stuff. Carly blew him off. Said she'd talk to him this morning." Gypsy made a motion with her hand like she was shooing away a fly.
"When'd you give her the water?"
She thought about it. "Not long after that." She tilted her head, remembering something.
"What?" Brass asked.
"There was only one water. The one I gave her was the last one."
"That's unusual?"
"Well, I remember thinking that someone wasn't doing their job. It's always stocked, especially right after a show."
"Alright. So you gave her the last bottle of water, did she open it?"
Gypsy thought hard. "No. No, I remember, we brushed out her hair, and I was about to put it into a ponytail for her, when Tommy came back in, and demanded she come with him to his office."
"Demanded?"
"Yeah. He was being a huge di- … jerk."
Warrick snorted out a laugh despite himself "Man, you sure can pick 'em."
"And then what?" Brass asked.
Gypsy shrugged and teared up, "She made a few notes in her date book, followed him to his office. That was the last I saw her."
"Alright." Brass rose from the chair. "Stay here. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Nick kept his eyes on Gypsy as Brass left, Warrick watched the captain leave the room in front of him, to be followed seconds later by the reflection of Brass entering the room behind him.
"What're you thinking?" Warrick asked the reflected Brass.
The captain walked up to the mirror and joined the CSI's studying the suspect. He thought about the question for a moment.
"I think we need to wait for the DNA, but my gut says it's not her."
a/n: HUGE HUGE HUGE Thank yous to alwayswrite005 for her shout out. And so I will return the favor. If you're looking for a really good story, your search is over: go read Kiss Kiss YoBang one of the best Warrick/Catherine stories out there.
Many thanks to Ruzila and Constance Sanders for their kind reviews. Does a heart good to hear.