Here is chapter 2 of this story. Thank you Smartstar 247 for your review which I greatly appreciated. I hope you and others will like this chapter also.
Chapter 2
"Warrick, I want you to do a blood splatter analysis on these items of clothing after you've sent samples to DNA for testing."
"But that's Catherine's area of expertise." Warrick Brown protested. Then he looked at the name on the evidence labels, "Oh, I see. But hasn't Sam already confessed?"
Grissom ignored him as he turned to Nick Stokes and Greg Sanders, "I want you two to process the crime scene. Assume nothing and challenge everything."
"Warrick's right, Grissom. Isn't this a waste of our time and resources?" Nick asked.
Gil looked around the team, "When this case comes to court Sam Braun will have the best defence team money can buy. He has already walked away once from what should have been a certain murder conviction because of misjudgements by people in this lab. I don't want that to happen again so we'll proceed by the book. Before we go to court I want to know that all available evidence has been obtained, properly analysed and accurately recorded. He will not walk again because of something this lab did or failed to do …Sara, you're with me for the autopsy."
"Catherine?" Sara Sidle asked.
"Is to have nothing to do with this case. In fact, Ecklie's put her on a leave of absence until this is over."
"Actually, I was thinking about how she must be feeling right now." Sara responded, "She and Braun used to be close and he is her father. No matter what she may think of him now, it's certain to have affected her."
Grissom gave her a surprised look. "I'll go see her after the autopsy." he finally said.
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Warrick carefully prepared swatches from the bloody areas on Braun's clothing, bagged and sent them to DNA. He then hung up the items and studied the patterns formed by the blood. There were large stains on both pant legs, beginning at the knees and running down. These were easily explained if Sam had knelt beside his victim after he had bled out, perhaps to check if he were dead or to recover the knife.
Braun was right-handed so the stains on his right shirt cuff and jacket sleeve could have been caused by the act of stabbing the vic, as could the blood on his shirtfront. But something didn't look right. The vic had been stabbed repeatedly. Every time the knife was removed the blood should have spurted from the wound in a different direction and under different pressure. The knife should also have been covered with blood after the first wound and the act of stabbing, withdrawing and stabbing again should have sent blood droplets flying in all directions. While Warrick, wasn't a blood splatter expert like Catherine, the blood stains looked too regular, too evenly distributed for them to have been caused in that way.
Lacking Catherine's expertise Warrick realised the only way he would know for sure was through empirical experimentation.
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Grissom and Sara looked down at the naked body of the victim laid out on the table. The autopsy had been completed and Doctor Robbins was giving them the results.
"Vincent D'Arto, male Caucasian, aged 34. TOD - sometime between ten and eleven last night, Cause of Death – severing of the superior vena cava. There were a total of seven stab wounds but six of them, while likely to cause a lot of blood to fly around, wouldn't have been fatal. In fact, at least two were probably inflicted post-mortem."
Gil ran a practised eye over the body. "This looks like a frenzied attack Doc."
Robbins glanced down at the cadaver, the path of each stab wound neatly dissected, "I'd say so. Whoever did this …well to say they hated D'Arto is probably too small a word to use." He looked piercingly at Grissom, "The word around here is that Sam Braun has confessed?" At Grissom's nod he went on, "Funny, I wouldn't have thought him capable of killing this way. It seems too messy, too amateurish …There's something else, I sent a sample of D'Arto's blood to tox. He was high at the time he was killed. Diacetylmorphine."
"He was unconscious?" Sara asked.
Robbins shrugged, "It's difficult to say. His internal organs show signs consistent with long-term misuse. Addicts build up a tolerance so he may have been conscious but his functioning would have been seriously impaired."
"Braun never mentioned that in his confession." Sara noted.
"Perhaps he didn't realise." Grissom replied, but he sounded doubtful. After all, Braun's son had been a heroin addict. It seemed impossible that he hadn't recognised the tell-tale signs. "What have you done with D'Arto's clothing?" he asked.
"Sent them over to the lab for testing." Robbins responded.
"Thanks. Sara, I want you to go back and start testing the items for trace evidence. I'm going to see Catherine."
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"Not big on housekeeping was he?" Greg observed as he and Nick looked round the filthy, cluttered room.
"It's not exactly a junkie's highest priority." Nick replied.
Jim Brass strolled into the room, "Wits say Mr D'Arto was a very popular guy. He had a steady stream of visitors entering and leaving the apartment last night. The uniforms found a druggies dream in the bathroom, pot, heroin, crystal meth, everything you might need to reach pharmaceutical heaven, so he was probably a pusher. Nobody remembers Braun but as he was actually arrested here that's probably not important. If we could get evidence he took precautions against being seen the DA could argue premeditation."
"Can you talk us through what happened according to the witnesses Captain?" Nick asked.
"At about 10.30 neighbours heard raised voices coming from this apartment. They couldn't make out what was being said but they all agree both speakers were male. This was followed by a lot of crashing and banging." Brass pointed to an overturned chair and a broken vase lying against the far wall, "I'm guessing the argument turned into a fight. Anyway, one of the neighbours, Mrs Whittaker, was sufficiently alarmed to call 911. The uniforms arrived at 11.05. They found the vic lying there," he indicated a chalk outline on the floor, "…and Sam over there by the sink with a towel in his hands. They arrested him on suspicion of murder. Once he'd identified himself, they called me out. I contacted Grissom who processed the body so it could be moved. While they were waiting for us, the uniforms had a look round and found the drugs all neatly laid out on the toilet cistern."
"OK, thanks. Greg, start in the bathroom, bag and tag the drugs and do a full process of the scene. I'll work this room. When you've finished in there you can come, help me finish up in here." Nick said.
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Lindsey Willows scowled up at her mother with all the contempt and anger a teenager was capable of, "Sam's innocent. You cops have had it in for him ever since that other murder case collapsed. You're all framing him!"
"Honey, he confessed." Catherine explained for what seemed the hundredth time.
"Then he was beaten into saying that. I know what the police do, despite all that "Serve and Protect" crap your PR department churns out." With another angry look at her mother, Lindsey turned and marched into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
Catherine sighed with frustration and turned to her mother who had been a silent onlooker to the confrontation with Lindsey.
"Don't look at me like that Cat." Lily said, "Sam was kind and gentle with me but I always knew there was another side to his personality."
Before Catherine could ask her to explain further the doorbell rang. Catherine opened it to find Gil Grissom standing on the doorstep looking tense and ill-at-ease.
"Catherine. Hi." he said.
She looked at him, "Hi yourself."
They stood there, neither knowing what else to say. Then Grissom broke the silence,
"Can I come in?" he asked.