CHAPTER FOUR
Grissom and Iris arrived to the crime scene, which was at a seedy hotel in one of Vegas's more low-income areas. Detective Vega met them to give them an overview of what had been found thus far. There were two victims, one male and one female, found shot to death inside the hotel room. They were registered as a married couple, but the male victim's actual wife had reported him missing the night before. The detective mentioned possible motives of crime of passion, jilted wife or boyfriend. The hotel night clerk had heard shots and upon running into the parking lot only got a glance at a dark car speeding from the parking lot at around 1:30 AM. He let himself into the room and discovered the victims and then called 911. It turned out that the couple used this particular hotel often for their trysts.
"The classic triangle," Grissom stated. He then thought of what he'd said, "Iris, sorry about that."
"Grissom, no worries, to the task at hand and where do I start?" Iris said with kit in hand and ready to concentrate on what was before them.
"Start with photos while I work the room perimeter and look sharp," Grissom said as they made their way into the room.
The female victim lay nude sideways on the floor near the bathroom. Iris noted the body position suggested she was trying to flee their assailant to run to the bathroom. A single gunshot wound to the back of the head was present. The male victim was in the bed lying on his back but shot twice, once in the face and once in the genital region. Focusing the camera, Iris took several sequential shots of the bodies as well as the rest of the hotel room.
"Wow, I'd say someone was PO'd about this rendezvous and took it extra personal," Iris commented when she'd finished with the photos. "Oh, did you remember to ask for the security camera films for review?"
Gil replied, "Standard protocol to get the films but good thinking to remember asking. So much for their plans for a night out…it ended up costing them their lives for a few moments of pleasure."
Grissom had located spent shell casings on the floor, three in number, possibly from a .38 caliber pistol that he carefully enveloped. They now waited for the ME crew to remove the bodies so they could continue processing the bed for additional evidence. Gil swept the bed with the UV light noting several apparent seminal stains, which Iris carefully swabbed and capped, along with other unidentified stain sites. After taking additional photos of the bed, Iris dusted for prints, coming up with a variety that were complete, partial or smudged. This is a busy room she thought to herself. Upon checking the rest of the furniture, walls and carpeting for additional trace evidence, they finished their preliminary sweep and returned to the Tahoe to head back to the lab.
