A/N: Sorry for the delay again. It was our summer break and one of us had a computer but never had time to get together with the other one to write the story and post it, and the other one didn't have an internet working computer…she had dial up.
(Man, these commercial breaks just keep getting longer and longer and longer…the energizer bunny has nothing on us.)
Earlier that day…night?...shift, ….yeah, shift.
Nick and Warrick pulled up in front of the residence house. They walked to the front door, kits in tow, and approached Detective Vega.
"What do we have here, Vega?" Nick asked. Vega flipped out his notebook and read the list off to the CSIs.
"Female DB, Hayley Brooks, apparent drowning…let's go have look."
They followed Vega through the house to the back porch.
"Ten says it's a murder." Nick said to Warrick.
"Well, my friend Johnson says it's a suicide."
Nick grinned. "I'll take that bet."
They stopped walking and looked down at the hot tub. A woman, black hair, petite figure, was lying face down in the hot tub. Warrick sat down his kit and pulled out his camera. As he went around the hot tub shooting her from different angles, Nick went about prowling for evidence. Vega stood by the end of the tub.
"Neighbors were coming home, saw her and called 911."
"They didn't leave their yard and come over here did they?" Nick asked while he scoped out the exterior of the tub.
"Nah, they watch those forensic shows."
Both Nick and Warrick looked over at him with perplexed looks on their faces. Vega just shrugged. They then continued examining the scene. Warrick started taking photos of the woman's body. He zoomed in on her hands. He spotted some trace under her fingernails. After snapping off pictures, he collected the evidence under her nails.
"Looks like we have blood and hair under her nails."
"Could be the killer's." Nick stated as he finished searching the area. "Hey Warrick?"
"Yeah?"
"How come there are no footprints?"
Warrick lowered his camera and looked over at Nick, puzzled. "Maybe there's some out front. I mean it rained earlier today, so there should be muddy footprints somewhere."
Warrick and Nick then took their kits inside the house.
"I got the front," Warrick said. Nick smirked at him as he headed to the front of the house. Nick headed into the bedroom. Chaos greeted him. Clothes were strewn about, chairs were overturned, a dresser faced down on the ground and the sheets on the bed had been ripped off.
"Whoa!" Nick cried, looking around in disbelief. He took out his camera and began snapping the room.
"Hey, Nicky! I got a mess out here!" Warrick's voice rang out from the front of the house.
"I heard that," Nick yelled back as he began snooping around the room.
Nick shot pictures of the dresser and the bed. He shot the desk and the trashcan next to it. The trashcan had angrily crumpled paper balls in it. Nick reached in the trashcan and pulled out the crumpled pieces of paper and laid them out on the desk. He read them over as he took pictures of each of them.
"Hey Warrick, come look at this!" Nick yelled down the hall.
Warrick came down the hall. "Found no footprints. This is getting weird, man."
"Yeah, and it keeps getting weirder. Look at these." Nick pointed to the papers.
The two papers were typed and each one had a different message, but seemed to be addressed to the same person.
"They look like love letters to me." Warrick replied. "Who's Honey Bee?"
Nick ducked behind his hand hiding a laugh from Warrick. Warrick shot him a dirty look and proceeded to read through the notes.
Nick turned away and continued to explore the room. He opened the closet and was greeted by a UPD officer's uniform. He smiled as he clicked a picture of the name badge: Mathers…