Disclaimer: still not mine

Warning: More Blood and Guts type stuff

Snowed Inn

Mac sent Flack to go find a leaf blower and someplace to plug it in. Don returned a few minutes later, having found a generator and leaf blower in the little shed a few yards away from the crime scene. Mac then acknowledged the odd looks he was getting from the Vega and Miami teams.

"I take you haven't processed crime scenes in snow before. Guess you'll learn something new, after all. Watch." He plugged the leaf blower in and used it to uncover a shoeprint. "The snow preserves our evidence very well. We just need to unbury it first." Mac handed Danny the leaf blower and grabbed a can of spray paint out of his kit. Lindsay was already heating the sulfur on a portable stove.

Mac used the bright blue spray paint on the print he revealed. He then photographed it. Danny was all ready uncovering the next print. Mac followed him with the paint, and Lindsay was right behind him with the sulfur. "We use the paint to make the prints more visible, and the sulfur will give us great shoeprints for comparison." Mac explained what they were doing.

"Makes sense," Grissom remarked, watching them.

"That sulfur reeks, though." Greg complained. The other CSI teams began to look for anything that could be related to the crime.

"Hey H, check this out. Looks like a room key."

"The manager can tell us which room it's from, and more importantly, who is staying in it. It could belong to killer or the vic."

The Vegas team focused on the body. Catherine and Grissom took a closer look at the man's injuries. Catherine took photos, as Gil examined were the killer had cut into the victim. "He seems to be missing most of his organs," he noted.

"This guy also took one hell of a beating." Catherine said. That was a bit of an understatement, considering the damage to the poor guy's face. "I don't think bare fists could do this kind of damage."

Greg found a wallet in the victim's pant pocket. "Got a wallet." He opened it. Victim's name is William Baxter." He also found an ID badge in his pocket. "He worked for the hotel."

Meanwhile, Horatio had found a small, bloody Swiss Army knife in the snow. "Bet our guy used this to cut into Mr. Baxter." He noticed some black fibers on the handle. "Killer was wearing gloves." He bagged the fibers.

They didn't find much else at the scene. Mac called the hotel manager to let him know they needed to get the body into the hotel's freezer until the roads were cleared. The man said he would need to move a few things around but didn't protest much. He seemed to know arguing would get him nowhere. He also told him who the DB was. Sam Griffin said all he knew was Bill left work on Friday and wasn't supposed to be back until Tuesday. He had watched Bill walk out of the hotel, and that was it. Sam also didn't know anybody with a grudge against William Baxter.

Actually, Sam's cooperation was starting to make Danny a little suspicious. Usually even innocent people fought him tooth and nail just to get evidence that cleared them anyway. Danny found Sam's behavior odd, but as he had no evidence against him at the moment he ignored the feeling that Sam was TOO eager to help out, but he knew they couldn't just take instinct to court and get the jury to prosecute. Mac had told him that often enough, anyway. He kept his opinion to himself and focused on processing evidence.

Flack went back into the shed and came out with a very large toboggan. They used it to get the body into the hotel freezer until the ME could get there. Sam had cleared a place near the front of the freezer to put the body in. He hurried them out of the freezer and the hotel kitchen. He also told them the key Eric found was from an empty upstairs room.

The team had a quick breakfast before deciding Danny, Mac and Horatio would check out the empty hotel room while the others processed what they had so far.

A/N: This chapter is a little short. Just plot type stuff here. There will be lots of action in the next chapter, as well as plenty of Danny abuse. Why do we all pick on him, anyway? ;) Please Read & Review thanks to everybody