Chapter 3: Doubly Shocked

Layout Room
Las Vegas Crime Lab
4:45 AM

Catherine walked into the large layout room to find Morgan Brody, Dawn Banks, and Henry Andrews standing around the large illuminated glass table. CSI Brody, who now also held the title of Night Shift's Assistant Supervisor under Greg Sanders, was a strikingly attractive 5'4 blue-eyed blonde in her mid-30's who was dressed in a white cotton turtleneck sweater, blue jeans, and black high-heeled boots.

Meanwhile, veteran CSI Dawn Banks was an older short-haired blonde criminalist in her late 40's who stood at a height of 5'7 and was dressed in a brown leather jacket with a gray tank top-style shirt underneath as well as a pair of black women's athletic pants and brown hiking boots. Dawn had recently rejoined the Las Vegas Crime Lab after spending roughly a year and half away due to an extended medical leave, which was then followed by a short-term period, during which she served as the Training Coordinator for the Washoe County Crime Lab.

Finally, Henry Andrews was a very likeable, intelligent, and versatile lab tech who did double duty as both the in-house toxicologist and DNA analyst. The short, dark-haired Henry was in his early 40's and stood at 5'9. He was clad in a navy-blue lab coat with a plain black cotton t-shirt underneath as well as black jeans and zippered black slip-on shoes.

"Okay guys", Catherine said, "What's so damn urgent this early in the morning?"

"I was doing my annual CODIS search to see if I could match any of our open cold-case files to any offenders whose DNA was more recently put through the database", Henry said. "CODIS" was an acronym for the national Combined DNA Index System. "I got back four hits", he added.

Morgan then set an official LVPD case file in front of Catherine. "The first was a Northtown liquor store robbery-homicide case from Two-Thousand-Three", she said.

Dawn then took her turn and set a second case file on the table. "Then there was that stranger rape case in the Arts District from Two-Thousand-Ten", she said before setting a third case file down right beside that one. "The third was the bludgeoning murder of that hiker on Mount Charleston back in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven", she continued.

Henry then set a final fourth case file down in front of Catherine. "Sorry to bury the lead, boss" he said with a rather compunctious tone in his voice, "But this is why I sent you such an urgent message."

Catherine was utterly floored as she read the label of that final folder. "You found a hit on the unknown sample from the knife that killed Stephanie Watson", she said once she regained her composure a few seconds later, "I've been looking for a new lead on this for thirteen years. Well, actually, I've been hoping that the killer would be found since the murder occurred on March Ninth, Nineteen-Eighty-Seven."

Morgan nodded. "We know", she replied, "I read in the case file that you and Warrick Brown re-opened the case file again in Two-Thousand-Two. You told me a while back that you and Stephanie used to dance together at the same gentlemen's club, right?"

"The French Palace", Catherine affirmatively said, "It used to be on D Street in the Alphabets. The original owner, Ted Morris, ran it for thirty years until he died in Twenty-Eleven. He was like a father figure to me. He convinced me to quit snorting coke back in the day, raise Lindsay right, you know? His son, Teddy Junior, ran it after his death for about two years before he sold it to purchase another club in Pahrump."

"The case file said that you guys found indication of some evidentiary tampering after opening it back up in Oh-Two", Dawn interjected, "A detective named Jimmy Tadero apparently planted some innocent guy's blood on a glove at the crime scene."

Catherine regrettably nodded. "Jimmy was a very old-school veteran detective with LVPD", she explained, "He ended up becoming my mentor, another fatherly figure. He convinced me to get off the pole for good, go to college, and become a CSI. He became obsessed with solving Stephanie's case, so much so that he beat the crap out of this guy named Mark Kelso. Kelso was a regular at the Palace who had a real thing for Stephanie. Jimmy removed the glove from the evidence warehouse, wiped Kelso's blood on it during the fight, and re-submitted it for testing at the lab. He was arrested for evidence tampering at was sentenced to ten years in Nevada State Prison. He was released three years ago, but as of yet, I have no idea where he ended up after that."

Henry nodded. "And then Kelso went to prison for another murder after that, right?" he inquired.

"Yeah", Catherine replied, "He shot a guy in Reno over some minor drug dispute and ended up getting a life sentence, but he died of stomach cancer after giving a televised statement to a reporter. He admitted to the Reno killing but recanted his prior confession regarding Stephanie. That's why I asked Warrick to help me re-open Stephanie's case."

"Which brings us up to today", Henry chimed in, "I retested the small sample of blood from the handle end of the knife that killed Stephanie Watson, which Greg had previously amplified using Polymerase Chain Reaction testing back in Oh-Two. It matches a now forty-nine-year-old white male wanted by the authorities in San Diego for jumping bail in a domestic assault case last year."

Catherine leaned forward with anticipation. "What's his name?" she asked.

"Isaac Matthew Serain", Henry said, "His birth date is January Seventh, Nineteen-Sixty-Six, making him twenty-one at the time of the murder."

"Where's he been all this time?" Catherine inquired.

"In anticipation of that question", Morgan said, "I did some background research. Serain served in the US Air Force from Nineteen-Eighty-Seven to Two-Thousand-Four. He was a Flight Officer at the Kunsan Air Base in South Korea from Eighty-Seven to Ninety-Seven. He then returned home here to Nevada where he served out his last seven years of service at Nellis Air Force Base before getting his Honorable Discharge in Oh-Four."

"I focused my research on Isaac's time after the Air Force", Dawn added, "He relocated to San Diego where he bounced around for a while, picking up shifts as a barback before getting a more permanent position as a server at a Choozy's Chicken restaurant. He lived with a girlfriend for about six years or so until he allegedly assaulted her during a pretty bad physical altercation in Two-Thousand-Fourteen."

Catherine inhaled deeply as she considered all this information, and she finally resumed talking about 40 seconds later. "Is Bobbi Flannery still working that burglary scene in North Vegas?" she asked.

"Actually", Morgan replied, "She just texted me a little bit ago and said that she's wrapping up the scene. She'll be back here shortly to submit her evidence and brief me and Greg on the case."

"Alright", Catherine said, "Call her back. Have her secure her evidence and come to my office as soon as she gets here. I want her helping you out with re-investigating Stephanie's case." She then turned to Dawn Banks. "Dawn", she continued, "I'd like you to assist me and Greg with the Hanson Lewick poisoning case."

Dawn nodded affirmatively while Morgan stepped out of the room to make that call to Bobbi Flannery as instructed.

As if on cue, Greg Sanders and Detective Aikers then entered the Layout Room. Greg had a very uneasy and determined look on his face. "Catherine", he said, "We need you in the AV lab. There's something you definitely need to see."

Catherine shot Greg a fleetingly bewildered look before walking across the hall with him and Detective Aikers to CSI's Audio/Visual laboratory. They went up to the bank of three high-definition computer monitors, each of which seemed to be streaming footage of various people dancing. "What is this?" Catherine asked.

"I sent a patrol officer to the Full Moon nightclub at the Eclipse and had him secure their surveillance footage from tonight", Aikers explained, "It would seem that our victim Hanson Lewick was actually a promoter for the Full Moon in addition to his Culinary Arts studies at UNLV."

Catherine smirked in response. "I guess I thought with the advent of the internet and social media that in-person club promoting went the way of the dinosaur", she candidly replied, "But hell, we are in Vegas after all."

Greg, sitting in a wheeled office chair in front of the center monitor, zoomed in to the center right of the main screen image, which highlighted the now late Hanson Lewick dancing with two very attractive looking women. Noting the presence of one specific woman, Catherine pointed as she looked over Greg's shoulder. "Wait a minute", she chimed in, "Greg, pause that, please. Then, zoom in tight on her face."

Greg did as he was told, pausing and highlighting the long-haired and blue-eyed brunette's face. "Holy shit", Catherine breathlessly explained as all the color drained from her face, "That's Jessica Trent!"

A confused Detective Aikers looked to Catherine. "Who's that?" he inquired.

"Catherine, Grissom, Warrick, and I helped put her away as a juvenile thirteen years ago", Greg explained without looking from the monitors, "At the age of eight and a half, she stabbed her eighty-year-old neighbor to death for not giving her and her sister one of her cats."

Aikers' mouth dropped as a lightbulb went off in his head. "Oh yeah", he said with realization, "I remember now. Isn't she Judge Janet Trent's daughter?"

Catherine nodded. "Yep", she replied, "Unfortunately, that's how I first met Janet. I'm willing to bet that every CSI in Vegas has testified in her courtroom in the years since then."

Aikers nodded as he took his cell phone. "I'm going to call the Sheriff", he said, "Looks like the shit's going to hit the fan with this one if we aren't careful."

Catherine nodded once again just before Aikers left the room to make his call. The past really was biting this time. And hard.