My newest chapter. Enjoy.
IronAngel 420.
Catherine stood on the left side of a metal slab that Doc Robbins had just pulled out of a refrigerated draw. Next to her stood Robbins and opposite Catherine on the other side was Vanessa Barett. On the slab was an undistinguished lump covered with a white sheet. Catherine looked up at Vanessa and said in a gentle voice, "Mrs. Barett, we know this is hard for you. But the sooner we I.D. this body, the sooner we can continue our investigation."
Vanessa's eyes were riveted on the slab. They almost seemed glazed over and she was clutching her purse to her chest. Her hair was dishevelled, as if she had not even used a brush when she tied it up. Her clothes were simple, but creased, and she had dark, bruise-like shadows under her eyes.
"Mrs. Barett?" coaxed Catherine.
Vanessa looked up; her eyes filled with what looked almost like hysteria. She swallowed and looked down at the slab, and said in a quiet voice, "I'm...I'm ready."
Catherine looked at the ME and he pulled back the sheet. The child lay pale and lifeless; her blonde hair still slightly damp. The sutures from the Y incision were barely visible beneath the sheet. Vanessa's hand flew to her mouth to stifle the sob that ripped itself from her throat. She squeezed her eyes closed and turned her head away. Catherine looked at Doc Robbins and he looked at her. Vanessa took a deep breath and looked back at the child, removing her hand from her mouth. She gave a shaky smile and reached out her hand to gently brush a lock of the girl's golden hair from her face. Vanessa shut her eyes again and her chin trembled. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks.
"Mrs. Barett?" asked Catherine, "Is this your daughter?"
Vanessa opened her eyes, nodded her head.
Catherine turned to Doc Robbins and she nodded her head for him to recover the body. Catherine ushered the distraught ADA out of the morgue.
Vanessa collapsed onto one of the benches lining the wall. She buried her face in her hands and began to cry with heavy sobs. Catherine sat down next to Vanessa and laid a hand on the crying woman's back. Vanessa cried for a while, then took a deep breath and looked up. She gave a wobbly smile and Catherine handed her a tissue.
"Thanks," she said.
"You're welcome," said Catherine.
Vanessa turned her head towards the door and said, "I never imagined myself ever having to do something like that. Seeing my child...my perfect ba...my perfect baby lying so still, so lifeless."
Catherine felt her heart break for the woman, "I really, truly am sorry," she said.
Turning to the criminalist Vanessa asked, "Do you have kids?"
Catherine gave a small smile and nodded her head saying, "A daughter, Lindsey, she's seven."
Vanessa glanced down at Catherine's hands, which were folded in her lap.
"You're not married?"
Catherine shook her head.
"Single mother? That must be tough," sympathised Vanessa.
Catherine shrugged and said, "You do what you can. Listen, have you been able to think of anyone who would want to hurt Kimmy? Anyone at all?"
Vanessa took a shaky breath, "No, I can't think of anyone."
Catherine took a deep breath and let her shoulders slump slightly.
CSICSICSICSI
Sara entered the break room where Griffin sat in a chair, her legs crossed at the ankles and resting on top of the table. She had a sketch pad in her lap, and her hand was flying over the paper.
"Hey," said Sara pausing in the doorway.
Griffin looked up from her pad and turned her head towards the door, "Hi there."
A delicious smell wafted from the room and Sara suddenly remembered that she had last eaten sometime last century.
"Is that food I smell?" asked Sara, her eyes zeroing in on the two pizza boxes stacked on top of each other on the table.
Griffin looked up and smiled, "Yeah. You know it was the weirdest thing. I ordered one, small pizza, and the pizza delivery guy delivered two, extra large pizzas."
"Really?" said Sara in a mocking tone.
Looking back down at her pad Griffin said, "Yeah, so please, help yourself. There is no way I'll be able to finish all of that. Left one is vegetarian."
"You know," said Sara as she opened the pizza box, selecting a real cheesy slice, "It's against the law to bribe a law enforcement officer."
Without looking up from her pad Griffin said absent-mindedly, "First time offenders get off easy."
Sara smiled, "How'd you know I was vegetarian?"
Griffin shrugged, "Lucky guess."
Just then Nick came in and said, "God! It smells like cheese and bacon in here."
Nick flopped into a chair next to Sara and she handed him the pizza box.
"New girl's trying to bribe us into liking her," said Sara good-naturedly. Griffin was still concentrating on her pad, but she smiled slightly.
"Really?" said Nick taking a mouth full of pizza.
Griffin looked up and asked, "Is it working?"
"Oh, most definitely," Nick said taking another piece of pizza from the box and held eye contact with her, grinning.
Warrick walked in looking beat and Griffin looked away from Nick. Warrick fell into a chair. Without saying a word Nick handed him the box. Warrick picked up a slice and took a bite.
"You look beat," said Sara.
Warrick just grunted and took another bite of his pizza. Griffin flipped her sketch pad closed, dropped it onto the table, got up and went to the fridge. She had just opened it when Catherine walked in.
Nick bent his head back and looked up at Catherine. Righting his head, he smiled and said, "Catherine, you look even worse than Rick over here."
Catherine slapped him gently over the back of his head as she walked around the room and at down with a huff on the couch.
Griffin looked up from the fridge at Catherine and said, "You look like you could use something a little stronger, but I'm afraid the only thing we have on tap is soda or fruit juice."
Catherine closed her eyes and said, "I'll take a soda."
"You want some of this?" Warrick asked offering Catherine the pizza box.
"Sure, why not?" said Catherine sitting up and taking a piece of pizza from the offered box.
"So, why do you look so down?" asked Nick.
"I just came from the morgue. Vanessa Barett positively I. the body as her daughter," said Catherine with a sigh.
Everyone fell silent. Griffin was the first to break the silence by saying, "Was there ever any doubt in any one of our minds that it wasn't Kimmy?"
Sara shook her head and said, "No, but it's still hard."
Griffin handed the soda to Catherine and took her seat again.
"Can you imagine losing a child like that?" asked Nick.
"I can," said Catherine soberly taking a sip of her soda. Griffin's watch beeped and she looked at the time. She stopped the alarm and opened her bag.
"We've got to catch this bastard," said Sara.
"How?" asked Warrick, "I don't know 'bout you guys, but I'm out of ideas."
"Maybe we missed something...?" Sara trailed off and frowned slightly as she saw Griffin take out a leather pack and produced a syringe filled with a clear liquid. The young woman then proceeded to locate a vein in her arm and injected the fluid in. Griffin shook her head, as if trying to shake off dizziness. She noticed that the room had gone silent and she looked up. Everyone was staring at her.
"What?" she asked as she pulled the needle from her arm, "Never seen a diabetic take insulin before?"
The team quickly averted their eyes and resumed their conversation. Except Sara, she was suddenly overcome with worry. Griffin seemed like such a strong woman, seeing this vulnerable aspect of her awoke a strange sense of protectiveness in Sara. She couldn't understand why though. Sara had never felt such a connection with anyone before. Not even Grissom.
As if summoned by Sara's thoughts, Grissom entered the break room and took in his team sitting with haggard faces and drooping eyes.
"How long have you all been here?" he asked.
"Not as long as you, Boss," said Warrick.
Grissom quirked an eyebrow at him and Catherine replied, "About twenty hours. We're all on the far side of a double."
Grissom sighed and dumped his file on the table, "Anyone in the middle of something?"
Everyone shook their heads except Griffin who said, "I'm waiting on DNA and AFIS."
Grissom nodded his head and said, "Okay, everyone, go home. Get some sleep, we will meet back here later and go over the evidence with fresh eyes. Maybe by then we will have something probative."
The team got up with weary sighs, said good night and left the break room. Griffin paused at the door when she saw Grissom sit down at the table.
"Aren't you leaving, Sir?" she asked.
"Griffin," Grissom said looking up at her, "You don't have to call me 'sir'. It makes me feel old. It's just Grissom."
The side of Griffin's mouth pulled up and she said, "Sign of respect."
Grissom smiled slightly and was just about to shoo her home when her phone rang.
"Griffin," she said answering the phone. She paused for a moment and her face went immediately blank. Grissom got the feeling that beneath this calm was a storm raging. Turning her back to him, Griffin said in a hard voice, "I told you not to call...I don't care, and it's not your decision to make...no, we cannot talk about it later...because there is nothing left to talk about...it's not about you...look I have to go, bye."
Griffin snapped her phone shut with a frustrated sigh.
"Ex-boyfriend?" asked Grissom.
Griffin smirked and said, "I wish. That would be a hell of a lot easier."
Griffin's phone rang again and she looked at the caller I.D. before she took a deep breath and answered it.
"Yeah, Captain, what's up?" she asked. Griffin listened for a few minutes then said, "Great I'll pick them up from you in a few minutes, thanks."
She once again snapped her phone shut, looked at Grissom and asked, "How terribly opposed are you to overtime?"
Grissom said, "Why, what's up?"
"Captain Brass just called. He said that he has the security footage from the DA's office; I was wondering if I could go over them?"
Grissom sighed and said, "Alright, but keep me in the loop."
Griffin grinned and said, "You got it."
CSICSICSICSI
Griffin was sitting in the darkened AV room going over the security footage from the DA's office.
"Let's start with the evening of November 23 from about 05:30 p.m." said Griffin to herself staring at the grainy images on the big screen in front of her. She tapped a few keys on the keyboard and she fast forwarded through the tape. She hit another key and the images slowed down to normal speed. Griffin watched about two and a half hours of Vanessa working hard, as usual. People gradually started to empty out of the offices and by 08:30 p.m. Vanessa was completely alone; until a man walked into the office.
Griffin sat up straighter and she narrowed her eyes as she watched the man knock on Vanessa's door and entered. Vanessa stood up with a frown and backed away from the man. The man continued to approach her, but Vanessa held out her hand to stop him. They continued to talk...then argue. The man then grabbed Vanessa and kissed her hard. Vanessa pushed him off and slapped him. Griffin frowned as she watched the man get more and more angry and Vanessa started to cry. The man slammed his fist into the wall and stormed out; Vanessa grabbed her purse and hurried out of her office. Griffin checked the time 08:45 p.m., approximately an hour and fifteen minutes before Michael was killed.
Griffin once again rewound the tape to where the man entered. She zoomed in on his shoes and came up with a pixelated shot. She tapped a few keys to clean up the image. Griffin smiled to herself. The man was wearing light blue jeans, a faded orange T-shirt, with a brown leather jacket...and leather, Doc Marten boots. Griffin's phone rang and she answered it, her eyes still on the screen.
"Told you I'd call."
"If you have something for me, Ian, I might even be glad that you did," she said still looking at the screen.
"I have a name to go with your print."
"Give!"
Ian chuckled and said, "Derrick Lander, he's been in jail for the past ten years for armed robbery."
"Does he have a last known address?" Griffin asked.
"He does," Ian gave Griffin the address and she hastily jotted it down on a piece of paper.
Griffin smiled and said, "Ian, I owe you one."
"I'll be back to collect."
Griffin smiled, shook her head, and snapped the phone shut.
CSICSICSICSI
Sara was startled from her sleep by her phone vibrating on the side table next to her bed. She shook her head, disorientated, then picked up her phone and answered, "Yeah, this is Sara."
"Sara? It's Archie."
Sara wiped a hand over her face and yawned, before she said, "Yeah, Archie, what's up?"
"That USB you brought in? Well, I just finished decoding it."
"Seriously?" asked Sara suddenly feeling very awake.
"Yep, but man, that Barett guy is one hell of a computer tech."
"You're the man, Archie," said Sara getting out of bed.
"Tell me something I don't know."
Sara snapped her phone shut and quickly got dressed.
Sara walked into the AV lab carrying two cups of coffee in her hand. Archie was sitting in his chair his fingers flying over his keyboard.
"Hey, Archie, you ready for a coffee break yet?" asked Sara.
Archie spun around in his chair and eyed the coffee hungrily. "Always," he said and Sara handed him a cup. Sara watched Archie over the rim of her cup; after the computer tech had taken a few sips Sara said, "Okay, show me what you've got."
Archie set his coffee cup down and tapped on a few keys. "It took a while," said Archie, "But I finally broke through and there were a couple of jpeg files." Archie opened up a file with pictures in it.
Sara's eyes grew wide as she looked at the photos.
"Looks like ADA Barett was involved in a few extra marital activities and they were not with her husband," said Archie.
"You're telling me," said Sara. The photos were of Vanessa and another man, in various sexual positions.
"And you found this in Mr. Barett's pocket?" asked Archie.
"Yeah. If it were Vanessa who had been killed I would have said that this was motive for the husband," said Sara.
"But it was the husband who was killed," said Archie.
Sara frowned as she looked at the stills.
"Something is wrong with these pictures," said Sara.
"What do you mean?" Archie asked.
"Vanessa looks...younger," said Sara.
"Hey, Sara!"
Sara looked over her shoulder and saw Griffin enter into the room carrying a file.
"Listen, I got a print off the tape and it came back to..." Griffin looked up and her eyebrows crashed together and Sara turned and just saw the screen with the photos on. Turning back to Griffin asked, "Something wrong?"
Griffin shook her head and said, "And the print came back to him," she pointed to the guy in photo.
"Him?" asked Sara.
"Yeah, where did you get those?" asked Griffin walking up next to Sara.
Sara turned her head towards Griffin and watched her face, "They were on the USB I found in Michael's pockets. Why?"
Pointing to the screen again Griffin said, "That guy showed up at Vanessa's office at around 08:30 p.m. the night of Michael's murder."
"No way," said Sara in disbelief.
Griffin nodded her head, she handed Sara a still she had isolated from the video surveillance and said, "He left about fifteen minutes later after having a serious argument with Vanessa."
"A lover's quarrel?" asked Archie.
Griffin shrugged and said, "I'm not sure, she seemed pretty pissed off when he kissed her."
"Do you know who he is?" asked Sara.
Griffin nodded and said, "Yeah, I do. You remember that print I got of the duct tape?"
Sara nodded.
"Ian ran it through AFIS, and it came back to one, Derrick Lander. He's a convicted felon. He was arrested eight years for armed robbery."
"How is he linked to Vanessa?" asked Sara.
"We will have to ask her that. I have found no link between Vanessa and Lander. One more thing," Griffin removed another still from her file, this one of an enlarged picture of the guy's shoes, "Check out his shoes."
Sara took the photo and looked over it. She looked at Griffin and said with a raised eyebrow, "Killer boots."
Griffin smiled and said, "Possibly."
Sara said, "You should fill Grissom in."
Griffin snapped the file shut and said, "That's my next stop."