Danny couldn't believe it. Montana had actually managed to prove him wrong. He shook his head and laughed. This crime didn't ask to be solved, it asked for revenge.
THE NEXT MORNING
Danny chuckled to himself as he tied the last loose end on his rather elaborate rig. He stepped back to admire his craftsmanship, but his one glaring error instantly jumped out at him. "Crap!" he muttered. "She'll see it in a second!" Even though his daring plan was ingenious, it was extremely obvious. Danny had tied a tablet of food coloring to each of the taps in Lindsay's lab (in NYC, each CSI has his/her own lab these days). When she turned on a faucet, the water would turn blue, pink, green, or yellow, depending on the sink. Unfortunately for Danny, the string and wires wrapped around each spigot were a dead giveaway. He sat down to think, knowing that Lindsay would arrive in about half an hour. Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind. What if he could unscrew the ends of each of the faucets, place the colored tablets in the ends, and then screw them back on? Yes! That would work perfectly! Quickly, he got to work. He finished with a few minutes to spare. Glancing around one last time at his handiwork, he silently slipped out the door of the lab and walked purposefully down the hall. "Mornin', Montana," he said as he passed Lindsay. She wondered how long it would take before she discovered his prank and how long it would take her to figure out that he was the culprit. He smiled to himself, thinking of her confused reaction.
LATER THAT DAY
Lindsay looked over her To-do list for the day. Various pieces of evidence cried to her, "Test me first! Not that thing, me!" Looming stacks of paperwork also beckoned from her desk. Lindsay decided to deal with the various tests first; she found paperwork easier if she didn't have evidence waiting to be tested. Just as she always did, Lindsay prepared to wash her hands before she tested anything. Going over to a sink, she turned on the cold water. Pumping some soap into her hand, she was about to get her hands wet when she noticed that the water seemed… different. It seemed bluer than usual. "Come on, Linds. Either it's a little too early, or you're just imagining things," she told herself. But now the water was definitely not clear, as it should have been; it was the color of a robin's egg. That reminded her of all the bird watching expeditions she had taken with her dad and sister as a child. By the time she returned her attention to her multicolored water, the stream had turned neon blue and was rapidly approaching a deep navy. Shaking her head, she turned off the water, moved to a different sink, and made a mental note to investigate.
Lindsay turned on the water in a different sink. At first, the water was clear. "So far, so good," she said out loud. She crossed the lab to get some soap. When she turned back to face the sink, she saw with dismay that the water was now a bright magenta. "Whoever did this must have put phenolphthalein in the faucet," she groaned inwardly. This was starting to remind her of that case with the body in the water tank, when all the water turned red. She frowned and stalked to the other two sinks and turned them on. The water coming from each turned neon green and yellow, respectively. Lindsay sighed and turned all the faucets off. By now, she had a pretty good idea about the identity of the prankster; she had noticed Danny watching her try all the faucets and grinning from his adjacent lab. "I'll get my revenge, Messer," she muttered angrily, staring at Danny's innocently turned back.