Chapter X
Third Times the Charm
Professor Helen Colter lead her Biology 239 class along the trail. "The ecology of the desert is, of course, very scant during the day, which is why we're here at night. Keep your eyes open for animal life, and of course, insects. This far from the city we may even find coyotes." Her eyes caught a lump in the dirt and sand. "Come this way, guys, it looks like we might have something over here." She knew this trail area well, she hiked it all the time and that lump was not a rock, but it was too big to be a coyote. When her flashlight beam fell on a human hand, she screamed.
Sofia watched the class of college statements talking to the uniforms. This was the third case she'd caught like this. The COD was not apparent, but she would bet a month's pay that the man had died of neon gas poisoning. The cadets and scent dogs were out and this case was being treated as a high priority case. Along with Sara and Warrick were Greg and Catherine. Sara had rolled her eyes at her as she passed, it didn't matter how many pairs of eyes there were, if the evidence wasn't there, it wasn't there. That, of course, didn't stop Catherine Willows from strutting around the crime scene like she owned it...of course in Catherine's little world, she probably did. Sofia shook her head, now was not the time to let old prejudices rear their head. Catherine was a CSI and Sofia was a detective. They had to work together to do their jobs, it didn't mean either of them had to like it. This time, the body was almost immediately identified.
His face had been all over the news. Horace Kent was a Vegas success story. He'd rose from a poor family to go on to play his way through college and he worked his way through Law School. He was a role model, especially for the minority groups of the city. If a poor black boy could make it, any one could. He had also just been promoted to the Narcotics Division ADA. This was a very high profile case, to be sure. She already had the sheriff and Narco breathing down her neck. It made her wish Jim was here.
Sofia wondered, vaguely, if this could be a copy-cat killer. There hadn't been all that much media coverage on the first two victims, but if someone wanted to knock off an ADA and get away with it, what better way to do it then try to include him in a serial's line up... It wouldn't be the first time it had been tried, and frankly that theory made much more sense then the idea that their killer just wantonly jumped around, killing anyone, no matter their gender or race.
Sara once again took molds of the tire tracks. They were faint, but she already recognized the familiar pattern. She looked around and did some quick calculations in her head, they were about one mile from where Wendell had been found, and about four from where Taylor had been found. As far as Sara could figure, there was no rhyme or reason to where the bodies were dumped. ADA Kent had a lot of defensive wounds on him, he had put up one hell of a fight. Sara didn't doubt that he had. She'd worked with the man a few times while he'd served with the Family Courts system. He had been a good man, a good lawyer. David had put his death at approximately ten hours ago, so two in the afternoon. The insect life that had already moved in showed that he, unlike the last two victims, had been left there for almost all of those hours. Sara frowned. It could be a copy cat, or the killer could be accelerating...or...she didn't know. She wasn't a Criminal Psychologist or a Profiler, she was a CSI and she only knew what the evidence told her.
Greg watched the others as they all worked. Catherine stalked around the site, burning shoe leather and getting a feel for the scene. She sketched it out, making note of the body position, hiking trail and tire tracks. Warrick was with David at the body. He, himself, was on perimeter and Sara was working with the cadets, running the search, occasionally flagging things that might be evidence, or jogging behind the scent dogs. The only one of them that was not bustling was Detective Curtis, Sofia. She was leaning against one of the SUVs, talking to herself. Some people might have thought she was lazy, but Greg knew that Sofia was working in her own quirky way.
This was, what appeared to be the third murder in a confusing string of unsolved cases. This was the first one he'd been on, but he was already hoping that the third time would be the charm.
