Chapter Seven: Let's All Try To Get Along

'Why the hell do we need outside CSIs on our case?' Catherine demanded of Grissom as they walked to the reception to meet the newcomers. 'Is this a hint that the powers that be think we're not up to dealing with this case?'

'It's a big case,' Grissom said mildly. 'And we need all the help we can get.'

'I still think we can handle this ourselves!' she said.

'I agree,' Sara put in. Warrick nodded.

Grissom sighed, clearly exasperated by his team's anger. 'Will you guys think about how you all sound? This isn't a turf thing – we're all CSIs and we're all trying to catch a serial killer. Think about that, will you?' He gave them all an admonishing looking and looked back towards the reception.

'They don't look happy to see us,' Ryan said in an undertone.

'No, they don't,' Calleigh agreed.

'Hello,' Grissom said, smiling slightly in greeting. 'You would be the CSIs from Miami, yes?'

'We are,' Calleigh said. 'You would be Gil Grissom?'

'I am.' He motioned to the woman behind him. 'This is – '

'Willows, right?' Calleigh said, polite and with her usual sunny smile. 'You came to Miami on that serial case?'

'Oh, yeah,' Catherine said, adding grudgingly, 'You were a lot of help. Calleigh, right? Who's your friend?'

'Ryan Wolfe,' he said shortly, just short of being rude. Calleigh cast him a warning look.

There was a small group of people outside, probably the rest of the team.

Grissom continued, 'That's Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown and Sara Sidle. You've already met Jim Brass, I take it? Good. That's everyone except Greg.' He looked apologetic. 'Greg Saunders is a member of our team, but unfortunately he's off this case right now. He used to be technician in our DNA lab but since our current technician is off ill right now, he's been pushed back in the lab. You'll meet him later.'

'Pleased to meet you all,' Calleigh said, Ryan echoing the sentiment.

'I think it might be time for us to talk about this case,' Grissom continued. 'We've already received information from our own evidence, but we'd like to hear about this case from its beginning. We'll got into the briefing room. Did you bring case files?'

'The murders started in Miami approximately three months ago,' Calleigh said. 'One every two weeks.'

'Roughly,' Ryan said. 'We figured that he's clever – if circumstances don't fit exactly, he leaves off. Tries again the next night, a couple of nights later.'

Calleigh nodded. 'We've found no links between any of the victims. No similarities that stick out, he picks victims at random, it seems. They don't match in any way. He's murdered six women so far, and there's little similarity between any of them.' She opened one case file. 'This is the first victim. Lousie Mathers, twenty five years old, a nightclub singer. Second victim, Alexandra Kleine, thirty two, lawyer at a top law firm in Miami. Third victim, Charlotte Anderson, forty-five, a manager of a restaurant in Miami. Fourth victim, Mandy Chambers, twenty, a model. Fifth victim, Jane Holby, thirty two, school teacher. Latest victim, Maria Hillman, thirty, a waitress. No jobs, no mutual hobbies linking them. He seems to pick them at random.' She placed the photographs on the table.

'His method of murder remains the same,' Ryan said. 'Knocks them out, cuts their throat before they can struggle, or kills them whilst they're asleep. Kills as quickly as possible, it seems.'

'He knocks them out?' Warrick said. 'Before he kills them?'

'Yeah,' Ryan said with extreme irony. 'We have a humane serial killer.'

'You think he knocks them out and kills them before they come round?' Sara asked, repeating the statement as if she couldn't quite believe it.

Ryan nodded. 'They aren't tied up, not restrained in any way. Not gagged, either. Since no one ever hears anything when the murders are committed, that suggests he makes sure they're out cold before he kills them.'

'Our M.E. found signs of bruising on the heads of each woman,' Calleigh explained further. 'Not severe, but enough to stun them, maybe knock them out.'

'This is getting weirder and weirder,' Sara muttered.

'What else?' Grissom asked.

'At the last scene, we found a potential witness,' Ryan said. 'A girl, daughter of the victim, Maria Hillman. There's no indication that the killer even knew she was there, she hid before he could find out.'

'That's rough on the kid,' Sara said with compassion.

'Yeah,' Ryan said flatly.

'We've got little useable evidence from any of the scenes,' Calleigh continued. 'He cleans up every time, so thoroughly that we can't get any useable prints or DNA. The cleaning fluids he uses degrades DNA and he hasn't raped any of them, not yet, so we can't get any evidence there. No neighbours have ever seen or heard anything suspicious and our only witness, the daughter, is suffering from trauma and although she has provided our only description, it's not entirely reliable. Or rather, it won't stand up in a court of law.' She looked at Ryan. You want to explain?'

'It's a drawing by the daughter,' he explained. 'We think that the male figure in the picture might be the man who killed her mother, since her father is dead and none of the other pictures she's drawn since the incident or others we've compared at the scene contain a man who looks like this. We think she drew him, although it's not a reliable description, and a very general one, at the moment it's all we've got to work on.' He pushed a copy of the drawing across the table.

'Please tell us you guys have something more,' Calleigh said.

'Right now, you have more than we do,' Grissom said with obvious regret.

'You don't have anything at all?' Ryan asked.

Catherine glared at him. 'You don't have much more than we do and we've only had the one case so far!'

Realising what his tone might have implied, Ryan said quickly, 'I didn't mean it like that. We were hoping you might have picked up something, maybe something he'd forgotten or overlooked that he hasn't in Miami.'

Catherine relaxed. 'No,' she said. 'Nothing.'

'Any theories on why he's come here?' Calleigh asked.

The Vegas team all shook their heads.

'So we're all still in the dark,' Grissom said ruefully.

'Fraid so,' Ryan said regretfully.

'Right,' Grissom said, leaning back. 'We're going to crack this case, everyone. We're all on overtime and pulling however many shifts we need to get this guy. And we're all going try and get along, all right?' He got up. 'Now I have to go and persuade various people in positions that they imagine makes them qualified to tell us how to do our jobs that we are doing our jobs. What I want you all to do is keeping going over evidence, comparing notes and so on, see if we can come up with anything new.'

He left.

The Vegas and Miami CSIs exchanged dubious glances.