When they rolled up at the house, the flash of police lights and the fluttering crime scene tape had attracted their usual crowd of onlookers. They were met at the edge of the driveway by Captain Brass, who gave them the sympathetic look of a fellow night worker.

'The coroner arrived yet?' asked Sara.

'Not yet. David should be on his way, though. Probably hit traffic.'

'This lot'll be waiting a while then,' murmured Greg. Brass nodded in agreement.

'Always stay until the body's gone,' muttered Sara as they moved to enter the house.

'Right,' said Brass, retrieving his notes. 'The vic's name is Jonathan Marshall. Wife, Sandra, found him lying at the bottom of the stairs, called the emergency services, but by the time they arrived…' he gestured toward the body.

'You know it's bad feng shui to have your stairs facing the front door,' quipped Sara as she scoped out the room.

'Now guys,' said Brass, lowering his voice, 'I think we'd better take this somewhere a bit more private.' He ushered Sara and Greg into a small reception room adjoining the hallway, and continued, 'I've got a bad feeling about this one.'

'Uhuh?'

'Yeah. An issue of tense on the part of our grieving widow out there.'

'Tense?' asked Greg.

Brass looked over his notes. 'She said, and I quote, 'He was such a wonderful man. I can't believe this has happened'.'

'What he means is that surviving spouses in cases of genuine accidental death almost always use the present tense when referring to their partners in the immediate aftermath of an incident,' supplied Sara.

Brass nodded. 'Which is why I called out you guys. Shall we take a look?'

By the time the trio emerged, David Philips was crouched down on the hallway floor examining the body. The coroner's assistant looked up and gave them a wave.

'So, how's it looking?' asked Sara as they approached.

'Not all that good for the wife,' David replied. 'See this contusion here?' He turned the victim's head to one side. 'Well, you know they say the first hit's for free, but falling down the stairs isn't a one-hit affair. This kind of wound sustained ante-mortem should have bled out to a much greater degree than we see here.'

'So he might have been dead before he fell?' conjectured Greg.

'Seems to point that way. As for actual cause of death I really can't be certain at this stage; there don't seem to be any particularly incongruous wounds, so you don't have a stabbing or anything, but I can't do much more for you at the moment. I think he's all yours.'

'Thanks a lot, Dave,' said Sara, 'You've been really helpful.'

The coroner blushed and stepped away quickly to fill in his on-scene paperwork.

'He has the hots for you, doesn't he?' whispered Greg mischievously as they opened their kits.

Sara glanced sideways at her colleague. 'He made a pass at me once in the morgue when I first came to Vegas. Since then it's been pretty much okay.' She glanced at David for a moment, then continued with her work. 'It's a shame; he's a really lovely guy...'

'Just not the guy for you, huh?' supplied Greg. 'I bet that's what you say to all of us.'

'Hey, I never…' began Sara, but with a half-hearted wink Greg was gone.