A/N: Thanks, as always, for your comment on the previous chapter, icklebitodd! After this chapter, it's Sara and Patrick, all the way!

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Disclaimer: I do not own any part of CSI or its characters. That honor goes to the good folks over at CBS. And also, I really love Excalibur (the hotel). I think that that's why I used it!

Title: Excalibur: The Conclusion

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Interview Room A

Joan quietly crawled into Interview Room A, so as not to disturb anyone, waiting for the discussion between Zach Fisher, Sofia Curtis, and Nick Stokes, to actually begin. She was thrilled, moments later, as her human acquaintances all filed into the room.

Once Fisher was seated at the table, Sofia sat down across him, with Nick standing in the corner. "Again, do you care to explain your relationship with Susan Donald?" she immediately asked the suspect.

"We're friends," Fisher again repeated.

"Do you take all of your friends to the stalls where your other friends keep their horses?" Nick asked from the sidelines. "Because we found evidence of you and Ms. Donald in John Gead's horse's stall. Care to explain that?" he asked.

Zach ran a hand through his hair, sighing. "Susan and I were having an affair," he finally admitted. "She had been seeing John for months, but… I guess that things just weren't going so well between the two of them…" he trailed off.

"How so?" Sofia asked.

Fisher shrugged. "I don't know. He didn't know how to treat her like a princess, I guess. Yelled at her a lot, didn't take her anywhere nice, didn't give her what she needed."

"And… you were able to… give her what she needed?" Nick stood, arms across his chest, eyeing Fisher.

"Well… yeah…" he mumbled, running a hand through his hair, and slightly smiling. "You could say that. A little bit of this, a little bit of that… it didn't take much to make her… sing... if ya know what I mean!"

Nick frowned, looking over at Sofia. Sofia had a disgusted look on her face. "And so you killed John, to officially take his place with Susan?"

"NO!" Fisher shouted, holding his arms up in the universal sign of surrender. "No! I mean, I do love her, and I do want to be with her… but… I told her that we couldn't be together, until she broke it off with John! If she killed him, well… that's on her head," he informed Nick and Sofia, leaning back in his chair.

"So… she was the one who killed him, just to be clear?" Sofia questioned him.

"I didn't say that," he angrily mumbled. "I just said that I didn't, and if she did, then it's her fault… not mine."

"We'll be back, Mr. Fisher," Sofia told him, leaving the room, with Nick trailing along behind her.

"What do you think?" Nick asked Sofia, once they were both out in the hallway.

"I'm not sure yet… let's talk to Susan Donald, and see what she has to say," Sofia shrugged, walking into the interrogation room just next door.

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Interview Room B

"Hello, Ms. Donald," Sofia greeted the other woman with a small smile. "I'm Detective Curtis, and this is CSI Stokes. We have some questions for you about your boyfriend."

"My… boyfriend?" Susan asked. "I don't know what happened to John… really…"

Nick nodded. "That might be, Ma'am, but we just want to figure out the timeline."

"Okay," Susan quietly replied.

"So just before the show," Sofia began again, "You were…?"

"Getting dressed and set to go. My make-up takes a little while to put on," she explained. "So I usually get to the arena maybe two and a half hours ahead of go-time?"

"Can anyone corroborate your story?" Sofia asked.

"Well…" Susan hesitated. "I wasn't really alone on this particular night…"

Nick raised an eyebrow. "And who were you with, Ma'am?"

"Zach Fisher. We were having an affair," she bit her lip, looking down at her nails.

Sofia glanced over at Nick for a moment. "And you were with him just before the show began?"

"Uh-huh. We decided to… well… you know," she winked. "In one of the stall's. John's stall, as a matter of fact."

Nick ran a hand through his hair. "Uh… Ma'am," he cleared his throat. "About what time was this?" he asked.

"About two hours and 15 minutes before the show was scheduled to start. And no, Johnny wasn't around at the time," she added with a smile.

So about a half hour before Gead was found dead, Sofia thought to herself.

"Ma'am," Nick tried again. "You were seeing both men? At the same time…?"

"Well, technically," Susan shrugged. "But I told Zach that I would only be with him, if he took care of Johnny."

Nick frowned. But Zach said that he told Susan to break it off. Someone is definitely lying here. "Are you sure about that, Ma'am?" he politely asked. "Because Zach Fisher is saying that he told you to talk to John."

"No… I definitely told him to go fight it out over me," Susan chuckled. "I like it when men fight over me," she added.

Uh-huh. What was this, a playground brawl? Nick thought to himself. "And did they, Ma'am? Fight it out over you?"

"I don't know. You'd have to ask Zach that," Susan again shrugged, once again looking at her nails.

"Thank you. We'll be back shortly," Sofia muttered, getting out of her chair and exiting the room.

Okay, I'm here! You can start now! Joan announced to the room full of… well, no one. Huh? Where did everyone go…? she sighed, glancing out into the hallway. "Nicky? Sofia? What's going on?" she muttered, turning around, and heading out into the hallway.

"You've got to be kidding me," Nick sighed, following Sofia out into the hall. "She told them to actually fight over her?" he asked, an incredulous expression on his face. "This isn't actually the Middle Ages," he frowned.

"So let's go talk to Zach Fisher again," Sofia simply commented, once again walking into Fisher's interrogation room.

"HEY! WAIT FOR ME!" Joan yelled.

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Interview Room A

"Mr. Fisher, I need some help," Nick told the other man, sitting down next to Sofia. "Sir, we just finished speaking with Susan, and—"

"Wait, she's here?" Zach asked, perking up. "Did she say anything about me?" he eagerly asked the detective and the CSI.

"Yes, Sir. What were you doing just before the show started?" Nick asked, ignoring his implied question of, 'what did she actually say?'

"Susan."

"You were… doing Susan?" he repeated, a little bit uncomfortable. "Okay. About when was that, Sir?"

"Maybe two hours before the show was scheduled to start?" he replied, shrugging.

Nick nodded.

"And what happened after that?" Sofia then asked.

"Well… that's when we had the relationship conversation. I told her to go break it off with John."

"That's not what she's telling us, Sir," Sofia informed him. "She's telling us that she told you to go fight over her."

Zach sighed, staring down at the table. "It might have gone down like she says," he frowned.

"And what did you interpret her words to actually mean?" Sofia asked him.

"Look. I just went to talk to the man, okay? I told him how it was, that I was in love with Susan, and that she was in love with me. He took a swing at me, and I swung back. That's all," Zach said. "I swear."

Nick nodded, it all becoming clear to him. "Thank you, Mr. Fisher," he told the man, pushing back his chair and leaving the room.

"What is it, Nick?" Sofia asked, following him. "Aren't we cutting the interview a little bit short…?"

"No," he shook his head. "Because I know exactly what happened," he told her.

"I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!" Greg shouted, rushing up to his colleagues just at that moment.

"Go ahead, man," Nick chuckled. "Lay it out for us."

"Okay," Greg grinned. "It goes a little something like this:

"John Gead is the King in one of the most well-known dinner shows in Las Vegas. He loves his job. He gets to take a queen during every single show, and he gets to play boss to a room full of knights and princesses. What better job can there be?

"Besides that, the woman whom he loves has a role in the show. Susan Donald. The woman whom he someday wants to marry… if she'll have him. Susan is a wild woman. She likes to do it in dangerous places—especially where there is the risk of people catching her in the act—and she is the perfect yin to John's yang.

"Until, that is, Zach Fisher enters the picture. Zach is a wild man himself, having done time for drug trafficking. He is boisterous, he is outgoing, and over time, he falls head over heels in love with Susan.

"Susan, aware of her situation, gives Zach an ultimatum. Take care of John, and he can have her all to himself. Zach agrees, and goes to 'talk' to the other man. He explains that he is in love with Susan, and that Susan is in love with him; that John needs to leave the picture.

"They argue back and forth, their words becoming more heated. John picks up a stray post, and tries to hit Zach with it, who parlays the blow, only to connect his own fist with John's temple. The two men continue to fight, until John's head hits the wall of the stall. He bleeds out, and dies."

Nick grinned at his younger colleague. "And you know this how, Greg?" he asked.

Greg simply smiled, fanning the fingerprint and blood DNA results, in addition to pictures of the stall itself, and the results from trace evidence. "Let's just say that I created a timeline, and that there is no doubt in my mind as to what happened," he concluded, grinning. "After all, the evidence never lies," he added.

Okay, I'm ready! Joan grinned, nearing Interview Room A. Wait a minute… why is

everyone standing out in the hallway…? Did you… solve the case already? Tell me that you didn't solve the case…

"So this had nothing to do with drugs?" Sofia asked, puzzled, sure that the prior record was going to come into play somehow.

"Nope," Greg replied. "It was all for the love of a woman," he told Sofia, as Nick slapped him on the back.

You… solved the case without me…? Thanks… so kind of you! Nice job, but next time, wait for me! I mean it! Don't make me bite you! And just in case you're thinking that I won't do it, I will... don't test me! she added. "I mean business, buddies..."

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TO BE CONTINUED 