Chappie four, for you enjoyment... PLEASE review... Please? I'll get on my knees and beg if I have too.
Chapter Four: Queen of Hearts
"You think I killed my own sister?" Kally Sandon was not happy to have the CSIs in her home, she was even less happy when they started asking her where she had been the nights the four kids had been killed. "Why would I kill the only family I have, that's not in prison?"
"People don't normally have a good reason for killing someone," Calleigh pointed out, and Nick nodded.
"You did some time, right?" Nick asked, "What for?"
"You already know the answer to that," said Kally, "But it was for beating the shit out of some kid."
"And what was you reason for that?" Calleigh inquired. Maybe the woman would prove their point for them.
"Because he tried to do the same thing to me on a daily basis," the young woman spat, "And I got fed up with it."
Calleigh didn't reply, she was looking at something propped against the wall. A two-foot long metal 'scepter' with a wide heart-shaped top, and a heart-shaped hole in the center. "Excuse me, but, what's that?" she pointed towards the thing. The other woman turned, "Oh, that's from a little club I work in, called Queen of Hearts. Every one of the girls has one, goes with the costume."
"Uh huh," said Nick, "And could you tell us where this club is? And you still haven't told us your whereabouts from over the weekend."
"It's just off the strip... I don't pay attention to the actual adress, since I know where it is, but here's the card," she pulled a small card out of her back pocket, and handed it to him, "As for where I was, I was at the club... Weekends is what I work, since that's when Val was always off with her friends on weekends."
"Well, we'll see," said Calleigh.
"Look," Kally snapped, "All I want is for whoever killed my baby sister to die, okay. That kid was everything to me, got it?"
---------------------------
This crime scene was much like the others.
Body of a fourteen year old. This one another girl. It was the parents who had found her. Catherine was shaking her head, "We've got to catch this guy, before every green-eyed fourteen year old in the city is dead...And so I can hit him... Hard."
"I wouldn't suggest you go through with that threat, Cath," Grissom warned, as he knelt, and collected a hair from the girl's clothes. He noticed that there was blood under her fingernails, as well as a few bits of skin. The girl had fought back. He collected the skin, and took a sample of the blood. He didn't know what the results from the blood and prints were yet, but any evidence helped.
"I'm afraid I have to agree with Catherine on this," said Horatio, kneeling on the other side of the body.
"then I give the same advice to you, Mr Caine... Don't follow through with it... We've got people breathing down our necks as it is. One wrong move and we all lose our jobs."
"Thought you gave up on giving a damn about the labs integrity?" Catherine said, with some amusement, "Thought Sara whipped that out of you."
"She did, until we had Summer," Grissom replied, taking more hairs from the girl's clothes. This was Anna Hall. "I do want Sara and I to have a job, so we can send her to a good school."
"I knew there was a father in you somewhere, Grissom," said Catherine, as she snapped photos of a footprint. Horatio admired their ability to carry on a banter while examing a crime scene, and he could see that they had obviously been friends for a very long time. They had to pause in the collection of evidence, when the coroner came for the body, during which time, more conversation ensued.
"So how about you, Horatio? " Catherine said.
"Pardon?"
"Well, I'm married, and have a daughter. Grissom and Sara have Summer. Nicky's married, and has twins, and Brass had a daughter. How about you? Wife? Kids?"
"I was married... Marisol, my wife, was murdered that same day." There was that uncomfortable silence he knew all too well. The silence that meant someone was sorry they'd asked, or in Grissom's case, sorry he'd heard. TThey were all saved from saying anything by the coroner, David, who called the over, to tell them they could resume their work.
----------------------------
Emily Brooks, thirteen, and about as rude as any kid Brass had ever met... His own daughter excluded.
"I dunno what what happened to Micheal, alright?" she sighed . Her friend had died, and she was all but refusing to talk, "One minute he was with me, while we were walking to my house, the next he was gone. Then later I found out what happened."
"Uh-huh, and where were you when Micheal disappeared?" Brass asked. Greg was handling the girl's parents.
"About two blocks from here, near the school. He stopped to look at something. I told him I wasn't going to wait for him, 'cause I had to be home soon. I figured he would catch up, like he always does. But when I turned around he was gone. "
"When was this?"
"When school let out... Around noon, I think. I figured I'd just gotten to far ahead of him, and he'd gone home..."
By the time he was done talking too her, Brass knew everything, except exactly where they'd been when Micheal went missing... Greg hadn't gotten much out of the parents, except that they hadn't liked their daughter's choice of a friend.
"Any motive for murder from the girl?" Greg asked, as they left.
"She's thirteen, Greg, how would she have killed them? She may have been a rude little brat, but she was comepletely smitten with Micheal. I don't think she'd have killed him, much less the other kids. How about from the parents?"
"Well, they didn't like the one kid, but they claim they'd never heard of the other four."
"We'll just have to see what everyone else found out."
--------------------------
'Lunch' time was when the group was finally all together at once, discussing their findings.
"Other than the club," said Warrick, "It looks like we're SOL when it comes to evidence pointing to who it might be."
"You mean shit outta luck?" Summer chimed in. As the only place she was allowed in was in the breakroom, they couldn't send her out.
"Girl, you are cruisin' for a bruisin'," said Nick, casting a glance at Sara, who was muttering something about being grounded for a very long time, and Grissom, whom was trying to hide a smile. "Ya'll raised her," he said with a shrug.
"And it was Sara that gave her that colorful vocabulary," Grissom pointed out.
"You've made your contributions, Daddy," Summer cheerfully informed the group, "I could list a few things..."
This, and a stern look from Sara made Grissom interupt, "Couldn't we just-"
His daughter interupted, "end this destructive conflict and rule the galaxy as father and daughter?"
There was a breif bought of laughter before Warrick finally brought the group back to being serious, "Smart ass ten-year-old. You're to young to even know that line, Kid... " he shook his head, "Now, back to the club, someone needs to check it out..."
"Wait a minute," said Calleigh, "I just realized something... Those girls were raped with something wooden... Our coroner didn't find anything like that in the two girls we found..."
"Maybe the woman had help, " Summer said, drawing something, "Was there anything that suggested there was another person there?"
"You know what..." said Brass, "Didn't you guys say there were two sets of footprints at those scenes? How about you two, Horatio, Calleigh?"
"We may have," said Calleigh... "I'll go call Eric and see if he can check the photos." She got up from the table, and left the room.
"We'll make a CSI out of this brat yet," said Greg. He got a ball of paper thrown at him for his comments. "okay, so you're not a brat."
Nick was going through the photos they had, "Yup, two sets of prints... One men's size ten, the other women's size eight... So we're looking for TWO people..."
"And one of those people happens to have a record," said a voice from the door way, this one Hodges, "Carlton Benson, thirty four, did time for assault in Miami a few years ago. The hair you found on Anna Hall was his, and the skin is still unidentified."
Calleigh reentered the room, "Well, that confirms it, Eric says that there was definately two people at our crime scenes."
"Okay," said Grissom, "Someone needs to go check out that club, and someone needs to go see Mr. Benson. "
"I'll take the Club, with Warrick, and Sofia," said Catherine, "Unless anyone has any objections?" No one did.
"I'll bring in Mr. Benson, with Horatio, and Brass, so long as no one has any objections," said Nick. Again, no one did.
"Alright," said Grissom, "Sara, you and Calleigh can help me go through the vics' clothing again. Greg, you help Hodges run the unidentified DNA against every other sample we have."
"Geez, give us something hard to do, why don't ya," Greg muttered sarcastically, as he, and Hodges left.
-----------------------------
The Queen of Hearts was a small club, to say the least, and the strippers weren't the only ones dancing. Most of the customers were too. But Warrick, Catherine, and Sofia weren't interested in the festivities. They were more interested in finding whoever was running the place. It took them awhile, but they eventually succeeded. And surprise of surprises, it was a woman that they found.
"Personell only," she said, notlooking up from a job application she was reviewing.
"I think you can make an exception for Las Vegas PD," said Sofia. When the woman looked up she said, "I'm Sofia Curtis, from Vegas PD. And this is Catherine and Warrick Brown, from the Crime Lab."
"I think I may be able to take a break..." said the woman, sitting back in her chair, she kept her right hand resting over her left arm, "I'm Katrina Welker, current manager of The Queen Of Hearts. What can I do for you?"
"You can tell us if anyone who works here missed a few days. In particular, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and earlier tonight.," said Warrick.
"Anyone who stayed away that long without and explanation as to their whereabouts would be fired, Mr. Brown... And I haven't fired anyone for months, why are you asking, anyway?"
"Surely you've heard about the murders, Miss Welker?" Catherine asked, "There's been one every night since Friday."
"I assure you, Mrs. Brown, I know," she stopped suddenly, and put her fingers to her lower lip. They came away bloody, "Shit... Fucking lip..." she grabbed a kleenex from the box on her desk and pressed it to her lip.
"Get into a fight, Miss Welker?" Sofia asked, somewhat smugly.
"No. Someone swung a door into my face," said Katrina, "Happened a few nights ago. Been splitting open since."
Warrick noticed something on the wall behind her desk, "Excuse me, but have you had anything stolen in the past couple of weeks?"
"Not in this club..." said Katrina, moving the tissue from her lip, "But the secondary one had a break in...
"What secondary one?" Catherine asked, also noting what Warrick had. The rack holding several of the metal heart-topped staves.
"The one the owner built in Miami, when he moved back there..." said the woman, "It's been there for several years now... Why?"
"The victims' brusing pattern shows a remarkable similiarity to your littlle heart scepters... The same in Miami. Would you mind if we borrowed one?"
"Go ahead..." said Katrina, "We've got more than we need." She got up, and grabbed one of them
"Warrick, I need your help... I'm going to find out where all the women were on the nights of the murders," said Sofia, "Catherine, can you take that back to the lab?" she pointed to the object Katrina was holding out.
"Sure thing. See you guys at work... Oh, and one more think, Miss Welker, where were you on those nights?"
"Here of course... Like I am every night..."
------------------------------
Going through the clothes wasn't a difficult thing, really. Just time consuming. Especially since they had to go through each and every square inch of the fabrics.
Valerie Sandon: blue jeans, that were now torn. The pockets were full of gum wrappers and slips of paper, most were notes from school, others had phone numbers scribbled on them. Her shirt was a simple t-shirt, black, to absorb heat in the cold weather, no pockets, no blood, on the outside anyway. Her undergarments were gone. They hadn't been on her when she'd been found, and they hadn't been at the crime scene. Someone had redressed her the quick and easy way. The hairs they were finding all seemed to belong to the vic. They couldn't be sure of the blood, but it was likely the girl's as well. Not coat, either, so the perp had taken that, too. Nothing amazing here...
Toby Evans: black jeans, pockets empty. Baggy black t-shirt to match the jeans, with the phrase "I don't have a license to kill... I have a learner's permit" written on the front. No pockets on this one, either. No blood on his clothes at all. Unlike Valerie, he hadn't been redressed. There'd never been a need to remove his in the first place... All the perp had to do was beat him. Again, no coat. There were a few gray and brown hairs on the shirt. Short, and easy to miss. They'd have to have those compared to the short hairs they'd found on Anna, and the longer ones they'd found on the other vics.
Before they could get started on the third set of clothing, Sara's phone rang. She answered is, as Calleigh and Grissom continued to go through clothes. When Sara hung up the phone, "Can you guys finish without me? Catherine says she's got something that could quite possibly be a duplicate of what was used to beat these kids... Guess I get to go beat something up."
As she walked by him, Grissom said, "Time to kick some poor dummy's ass then, huh?"
Sara smirked, "Yeah, guess so. If I get done in time, I'll be back to help out, but for now, I'll send Greg in here." she leaned forward a bit, kissed him, and then headed for the door, saying over her shoulder, "Later Calleigh."
-----------------------------
Yay for randomw Star Wars references, huh:P I couldn't resist that one.