Once again thanks to Smartstar247 for reviewing my story. I hope you continue to enjoy it. How about anyone else. Do you have any views on it. Like it, hate it? (If the latter, constructive critisism only please!)
Anyway, here is the new chapter!
Chapter 3
"Lindsey's taking it hard." Catherine said as she handed Gil a cup of coffee, "She refuses to believe Sam's guilty."
"Oh." A slight look of panic crossed Grissom's face.
Catherine gave him an ironic smile, "Don't worry, Gil. I'm not going to ask you to talk to her. Once she hears the evidence, she'll find out the kind of person Sam Braun really is. It's just a pity she has to find out the hard way, like I did."
"No dear," her mother disagreed, "you really don't know Sam at all. Before you only saw his good side, now you only see the bad. You will never really understand him unless you accept what a complex and contradictory man he really is."
Catherine ignored her mother. She turned back to Grissom, "I need to be with Lindsey to help her through this but that doesn't mean I agree with the leave of absence. It looks like Ecklie and the LVPD don't trust me. How will I be able to exercise authority as a supervisor after this?"
"Catherine, this is one decision of Ecklie's I agree with one hundred percent. This isn't about trust; it's about protecting the Department and you. After what happened last time, you can't even be present while evidence in the case is being analysed. There's too much danger that the defence could use you to muddy the waters." Grissom replied.
"But there won't be a trial. He confessed!"
"Yes. Doesn't that seem out of character to you?" Gil asked.
It was Lily who replied, "Sam's always been a fighter. He won't go down without a struggle."
"Exactly," Grissom agreed, "so what is he planning?"
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Jim Brass was a happy man as he drove into the LVPD Headquarters parking lot. The thought of Sam Braun sitting in a cell dressed in jail uniform gave him a warm contended feeling all over, especially since it seemed guaranteed that his residence in similar surroundings would soon become permanent.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. I wonder if they'll put him in with his son? he thought.
His good mood vanished when he noted the TV cameras and reporters mobbing the entrance to the building, I suppose it was too much to expect we could keep this out of the news for long.
He sighed, got out of his car, walked towards the crowd and was immediately surrounded.
"Captain Brass, can you confirm you've arrested Sam Braun?"
"Is it true he's confessed?"
"Captain, has he said why he did it?"
Brass forced his way through the mob, muttering "No comment" at regular intervals. Finally he reached the refuge of the entrance hall and spoke to the desk officer,
"Sally, send a couple of uniforms over to Ms Willows house before these jackals move on to her."
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"OK. So what do we know so far?"
It was late evening and Grissom had called a meeting to review progress.
"Greg and I have finished processing the scene." reported Nick, "there were masses of fingerprints. We're running them through AFIS now but so far the only matches we've got are for Braun and the vic himself."
"Yeah," added Greg, "Brass was right about D'Arto being a pusher. He was released from prison in Wyoming eight months ago after serving a sentence for dealing. He must have moved here and re-opened his business. Some of the fingerprints we found look like they belong to adolescents so he was selling to minors."
"What about the broken vase and the murder weapon?"
"Two sets on the vase, one was D'Arto's and the other was a partial of one finger. There's not enough to get a match but it looks too small to belong to Braun. The only prints on the knife were Sam's." Nick replied.
Grissom leaned back and considered, "That's interesting. According to Braun, it was on the table when he first saw it. So how did it get there without someone handling it? Either D'Arto or someone else wiped their prints off it before putting it on the table or Braun was lying and brought it with him. It was a carving knife. Greg, I want you to go back and check to see if the rest of the set is in the apartment. That way, we'll at least know if the knife belonged there or was brought in from outside."
Greg nodded and Grissom turned to the next member of the team, "Sara?"
"There were traces of drugs on D'Arto's clothing. Not surprising given his 'profession'. I also got a lot of different hairs. Some of them look like they belong to women or are the wrong colour for Braun but I've found a couple that might be his. If we could get a sample of his hair, Nick could do a comparison."
"What about the DNA?"
Chandra Moore spoke, "All the blood swatches off Sam Braun's clothing are a match for the victim."
"OK. What about the blood splatter analysis Warrick?"
"I created a computer simulation using information from the autopsy report on the number, direction and depth of the stab wounds and the height and weight of D'Arto. I got the same information on Sam Braun from his booking slip and, Griss …something isn't right. I've run a number of different scenarios and they all agree. With the exception of the pants, the blood should have been irregularly splattered all over Sam's clothing. There is no way it would have pooled into large stain patterns like it has."
"If Braun leaned over D'Arto to check whether or not he was dead, could the splatter caused by the stabbing have been covered up by him bleeding out on Braun's clothing?" Grissom asked.
"I guess so. But there's no way we can prove that. There is one thing. According to the simulations, there's a fifty, fifty chance that some blood would have gotten into the assailants hair so, if we find D'Arto's blood in Sam's hair we can prove he did the stabbing. Even if we don't, it still doesn't exclude him as the killer."
Grissom summed up, "So, we want samples of Sam's hair for testing and we need him to expand on his prior statement. I'll get in touch with Brass about a further interview with Braun and I'll ask him to provide hair samples at the same time."
"What if he refuses?" asked Sara.
Gil smiled as he responded, "Well, I was going to get a warrant anyway, just in case!"
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Brass was at his desk reading reports when the phone rang.
"Oh, hi Gil," he said, when the caller identified himself. "I was going to call you to say the Sheriff and DA are holding a joint press conference first thing tomorrow morning to announce that we've got Sam Braun dead to rights this time. They're planning on arraigning him later in the morning and going for an early sentencing hearing."
He listened to the response with mounting annoyance. "What do you mean you think it's premature? He signed a confession for God's sake! Have you found anything to contradict that? …"OK, OK. You always need more time and more evidence. I'll get you in to see Sam but I won't be able to stop the press conference. The media are all over us here and the Sheriff's like a dog with two tails at the thought of Sam Braun going down during his term of office. He and the DA are probably going to make that the central plank of their re-election campaigns!" He paused then added, "Gil, you know the media are camped out outside Catherine's house as well? I've sent uniforms to try to keep them away from her and Lindsey."
As he put down the phone the expression on his face showed that he hadn't liked Grissom's response to that last piece of information.
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The gate slammed shut behind Grissom as the guard escorted him down the corridor. Heavy steel doors were set into the walls at regular intervals on either side. They were made of solid metal; the only interruptions in their surface were small observation windows at eye level and a narrow slot at waist height. He noted that the LVPD weren't taking any risks with their VIP prisoner. He'd been placed in the maximum security section where he would be under close observation. The guard drew to a halt outside a cell and glanced in. He drew back and allowed Grissom to look. Sam Braun was sitting on his bunk, apparently relaxed and reading a paperback.
The guard drew out his keys and unlocked the door, "Visitor for you." he announced, then stood back so Gil could enter the cell.
Braun glanced towards Grissom but made no move to get up or otherwise acknowledge his presence.
"Hi, Sam." Grissom nodded towards the book. "I see you're making yourself at home. Since you've been so co-operative I was hoping you'd help out again and let me take some hair samples."
Sam appeared to consider this and then shrugged, "Why not? After all, if I refused, you'd get a court order anyway."
Grissom grinned at him and produced a paper from his pocket. "I already did, just in case."
He put his case down on the bunk and opened it, producing a small pair of scissors and several evidence bags. He reached over and snipped a sample of hair, bagged it, then selected another section and began snipping there.
As he worked he asked, "By the way, you never said specifically in your statement but did you kneel over D'Arto or hold him at any point after you stabbed him?"
Braun gave him an enigmatic look, "You have my confession and that's all I intend to say about the case. What's worrying you Grissom? Afraid, I'll change my mind and plead innocent at the Arraignment? Don't worry, I won't."
Grissom finished collecting his samples, packed up and was leaving when a question from Braun stopped him at the doorway.
"How are Catherine and Lindsey?" he asked, "Are they OK?"
Grissom turned and looked at the man in jail clothing still sitting on his bunk, "As well as anyone can be when they have a murderer for a father and grandfather."
The door slammed behind him before he could see Braun's reaction. When he looked through the observation window, Braun, once again, appeared engrossed in his book.
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Lindsey sat on her bed. Her stereo was turned up as loud as it would go and she was hugging Mr Cuddles. He was somewhat the worse for wear, having been Sam's fifth birthday present and her favourite bear as a child. She had sat there all day and night, ignoring both her mother and grandmother's entreaties to come out and eat, until finally, they had given up and left her to come out of her own accord. She had watched from her window as the TV trucks had arrived and set up their cameras. She glanced at her watch; it was time for the morning News Bulletin. There was bound to be something about Sam on that. She turned off the stereo and reached for the television remote. Sure enough it was the lead story. She watched as the cameras went live to a press conference by the Sheriff and District Attorney.
The sheriff was at the podium, "Thanks to the improved response times I have introduced since my election, Mr Braun was arrested at the scene by officers from this Department before he could dispose of the evidence incriminating him. As a result he had no option but to confess to his crime. I have copies of his signed statement here, which will be distributed to you ladies and gentlemen at the end of the conference."
He stepped down to be replaced by the DA, "Sam Braun is the last remnant of the type of people who have no place in modern Las Vegas. He will be arraigned for the murder of Mr Vincent D'Arto at the Clark County Courthouse at 11 am this morning. Because of the seriousness of the crime and Mr Braun's reputation, I will be opposing bail and pressing for an early sentencing date, where I shall be requesting the maximum penalty allowed for this crime – life imprisonment without the possibility of parole."
Lindsey looked down and saw she was clutching Mr Cuddles tightly to her. She threw him away forcefully. She was fourteen going on fifteen, almost an adult. She shouldn't be seeking comfort in stuffed toys at her age.
Sam was innocent. She knew that for an absolute certainty. She had to speak to him!
She opened her door a slit and looked out. Her mother and grandmother were watching the news. Closing it again quietly, she looked out the window and saw that the back of the house was clear. She climbed out carefully and took off at a run across the neighbours back yards.
TBC