An interview with Cyndie and Daniel...and just for those who havent heard the song, Animalsis a very um...dirty song. It's our of character for Cyndie to be listening to is, but I guess I can't say much for Daniel, since he's not relly mine and I don't completely know how his mind works...

-------------------------------------------

The victim's sister, Cyndie apparently lived in a cozy home by the strip with her fiancé Daniel. According to the information Brass had dug up on her, she had lived on her own in a one bedroom apartment for a while, then money problems started rolling in and one thing led to another and she found herself homeless. Days later, she moved in with Daniel and the two of them had been sharing this nice little home ever since.

Beth couldn't help but get the feeling that this woman had quite a checkered past behind her, and wondered if it had all blown over by now...

Grissom and Beth rode in one car with the supervisor behind the wheel, and Brass followed behind them in his Taurus. During the entire ride, the car was filled with an awkward silence, fueled mostly by Beth's embarrassment on the whole Playboy incident earlier. She sat in the passenger seat, arms crossed over her upper abdominal area with feet flat on the car floor, and staring at the dashboard with an empty gaze.

The car stopped at the front of the well-kept lawn that rested in front of the McTavish house. Grissom turned to ask Beth if she was ready, but said nothing when he noticed her detached position.

"You act like some terrible secret's been revealed." He said to her in a gentle yet almost teasing manner.

"You know, people get fired when and if they come out of the closet in their workplace." Beth said in a low tone. "This isn't my last case, is it boss?"
Grissom simply shook his head.

"Are you firing me now? Before I get to finish the case?"

Another head shake.

Beth gave a small smile to her supervisor. "But...I'm-"

"Homophobia does exist in this world, unfortunately." He told her with a small shrug. "But we have more important things to worry about in this profession than sexuality of a person. I didn't hire you because I thought you were straight, I hired you because you have the skills required-and then some-to be a good, hardworking CSI."
Beth's smile widened. "You know, being a person who wants nothing more than acceptance (and love), that means a lot to me." She told him, practically beaming now. "Okay, let's solve this murder."

The two got out of the car and took a look at the front of the house. Instead of a cement path leading to the front steps, as is the case in most houses, there were several neatly placed stepping-stones. Smooth patches of gray stood out in the lush green grass and seemed all so inviting to visitors. Also scattered on the lawn were various toys suited for young children, maybe kids that had yet to reach their double digits?

Brass got out of his Taurus and met the two CSIs at the start of the stepping stone pathway. "Do you think the vic's husband already called in ahead to let them know what's happened?"

"Can't tell," Beth answered, looking at the house. It was nearing 10 PM, and through the darkness, only one window in the house seemed to be glowing with light. Looks like most of the house is asleep. If they knew by now, I doubt they'd be trying to get some shuteye."
As the trio approached the house, they could hear music faintly playing in the room with the light (a few windows to the left of the front door), and Beth took a few moments to try to recognize the tune.

"Nickelback's ' Animals ?' " She asked, sort of thinking out loud. "They probably don't know what's happened yet." Grissom looked over at her in question, but decided it was probably best not to ask.

Brass reached over and pressed the doorbell, and they waited as the sound of visitors traveled through he almost empty house. After a few seconds, the music stopped, and he pressed the doorbell again, just to be sure.

A couple of minutes passed, and the door slowly opened a crack. A single dark violet eye peered at the late night visitors before the door opened fully.

They were met with a woman who seemed to be the victim's sister-twin sister, in fact. She stood before everyone in a dark red bathrobe and bare feet. She had the same eyes (without the need for glasses), height, and hair color (shorter and, though naturally a bit messier, it was now more so than usual).
She paused a moment, leaning to the side and her left hand supporting her weight on the doorframe. "This had better be good," she said harshly. "My fiancé and I are...busy." She smirked, "Or rather...getting busy."

Beth grimaced at her comment as Grissom spoke out, "Miss, I'm Gill Grissom this is my partner Beth Aror and our associate Jim Brass." He explained to her. "May we have a word with you? Are you Cyndie?"

The woman nodded, then her eyes widened. "You're not the police, are you?"

Brass is an officer, my partner and I are Criminalists."

Cyndie looked worried, then turned inside the house. "Daniel! What the hell did you do this time?!"

Beth exchanged curious looks with Grissom. "Ma'am, has your husband ever been in trouble with the police before."

Cyndie turned back to the three; a small laugh escaped her lips. "We're not married just yet, Mr. Brass...and honestly, I don't know when we ever will be. But yes, he was arrested once for murder. The charges were dropped, though...since he did it to defend me. The man he killed raped me, and was planning to kill me. Probably would've succeeded too, if it weren't for Daniel"

Beth gave Cyndie a sympathetic look.

"Don't worry about it." She told her. "It's all in the past now. The guy can't bother me anymore, and Daniel treats Daichi like he was his own son." It didn't take much for the others to realize who Daichi's real father was.

Shaking her head, as if to start the conversation over, she asked, "Is there a reason why-" she stopped mid sentence, as somewhere within the house a phone rang.

"I'll get it!" A man's voice called out.

Cyndie smiled a bit, then said to Brass and the others, "Interruptions, interruptions...Now, why are there two criminalists and a cop on my front steps at ten at night?"

Beth stepped forward a bit. "Um...miss Cyndie. When was the last time you spoke with your sister."

The woman raised an eyebrow, wondering where this was leading. "Cherryl? I haven't seen her physically in two days, but we talked on the phone yesterday morning about plans for last night...oh shit"

There was a heavy 'clunk' within the house, like Daniel had forcefully hung up the phone.

Cyndie hardly even noticed the sound and kept her eyes glued on Grissom. "Oh, Hell...I just thought that something had come up at home. Did something happen to her? Please tell me she's okay!"

Beth paused, then slowly shook her head. "She was...murdered last night. Shot in the head."

"Sh-shit!"

"Cyndie?"

A man appeared behind Cyndie from inside the house. Her fiancé, Daniel was a tall handsome man with reddish orange hair and a rugged five o clock shadow. Clothed only in a pair of dark pajama pants, he reached over and placed a hand on Cyndie's shoulder lightly. "That was...Myo on the phone."

"Cherryl's...shit...she's dead?" Cyndie asked, shaking her head. "No...it's not true...who the hell would do something like that to her?" The tears wasted no time in falling from her dark violet eyes. Putting a hand on her mouth, she let out a small sob.

Daniel hugged Cyndie from behind, and she quickly spun around and held him close, crying into his shoulder.

"Um...we were told that you were the last one with your sister around the time of her murder." Beth explained once Cyndie had calmed down a bit. "You two went out for a few hours."

Cyndie turned to the CSIs, still clinging to Daniel as he gently rubbed her back a bit. "We were supposed to, but she never showed up. I just figured that something had come up at home." Her eyes suddenly went wide again and she turned completely to face the others. With one had holding onto her fiancé's, she said, "Oh, Hell! I didn't...you think that I killed her?!"

"We're considering you to be a suspect. Did Cherryl ever call you to cancel the outing?" Beth asked, and when the woman shook her head, she questioned with, "and you didn't find that to be odd?"

Cyndie shook her head again. "No. I mean, we had plans once and she never showed up. I called her the next day and it turned out that her son Henri was sick and forgot to call me. I just figured something like that happened again."

The woman's eyes were becoming red and puffy with all the tears. If they didn't know any better, the criminalists could swear she was being legitimately upset.

Still, that didn't rule her out as a suspect.

Like Beth had heard Grissom mention once before: 'People lie, but the evidence never does. If for no other reason than to confirm this woman's innocence, they'd have to find some proof.

"May we come in?" Grissom asked politely.

Cyndie paused, looked at Daniel a moment, then slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry," she told them "I really do want to help you catch the sick person who did this, but you're going to have to need a warrant first. Questions I'll answer, but as long as there out here. I just lost my sister, and I need some time to cope. You understand."

"We do, but this is a murder investigations. Time is one thing we can't afford to waste." Grissom pointed out, "It would really help if you would cooperate."

The teal haired woman glared at Grissom. Her already harsh eyes, though softened by tears, now looked pretty close to satanic. "I don't give a damn about what is or isn't flexible for you. Cherryl and I were close as could be since we were children. Whoever did this deserves whatever punishment the law here requires, but I'm not in the right mood to have strangers poke through my house. Besides, how do I know that you won't try to plant evidence or frame me or my family?"

Beth slowly shook her head. "We wouldn't do that to innocent people." She said calmly to Cyndie. Though Conrad Ecklie and the day shift tended to be rather sloppy at times and too quick to accuse, the graveyard shift was a lot more thorough and fair. She explained as much (minus the Ecklie bashing) but she still earned resistance.

"No warrant, no entry." Cyndie said. "That's final."

Daniel, however, seemed skeptical of Cyndie's decision. When his wife-to-be exited back into the house, he apologized. "Much as I'd like to help, though, I'd rather not get on Cyndie's bad side." He said with a rather sheepish grin. "She can get scary when she's pissed off...scary, not homicidal." He finished quickly when he noticed the odd looks he was getting. "I know how she and Cherryl cared for each other. They were like best friends."

"Sir, do either you or your fiancé own a gun?" Beth asked.

Daniel's eye widened. "Isthat how she was killed?

"Shot in the head. Sir, I thought Myo called you."

"He told me Cherryl was dead..." Daniel told her, shaking his head. "Broke down really quickly and didn't really go into the details." He sighed heavily. "Poor Cherryl...I can't believe it."

"Uh...Mr. McTavish, the gun?"

Daniel shrugged; the murder seemed to be getting to him at this point now too. "I don't own one...and as far as I know, neither does Cyndie. Look, I hope I've been helpful, but I need to go back inside..."

Beth nodded, then started to turn away, but stopped when she heard Daniel's voice again.

"I really hope you find who did this."

"So do we, sir. So do we."

Back at the lab, Greg Sanders was doing what he does best: Rockin' out to loud music while doing the other thing he does best, processing evidence. The young lab assistant was a wiz at comparing evidence, but from time to time he enjoyed goofing off when he could get away with it. Though most of the time Grissom would scold him for doing so, so he would rarely ever get away with it.

Ever since the park murder case started and Beth left the lab for the fieldwork, Greg had been spending his time getting to know the replacement girl over a 'steaming batch of DNA' as he called it. He got along with the early twenty-ish replacement quite well, and the two definitely had some-pardon the pun-chemistry together.
Emily Aror was five years younger than her now fieldworking sister, but stood at least two or three inches taller. Her Dark brown hair was cut short to give her a tomboyish appearance, and the black Metallica Tee and baggy jeans didn't seem to give her a feminine appearance to her either.

She and Greg were sitting side by side looking over DNA results as Beth and Grissom walked in.

"Em, please tell me you found something." Beth said, the pleading remark obviously directed towards her sister, but answered by Greg.

"Actually, we did." He said with a smile. "The hairs. The only positive ID we got off of your victim was-"

"Ta-da! You're victims!" Emily said joyously.

"It's a shame to see a Playboy model get iced. I actually have a couple of issues with your victim in-"

"Greg, the results." Grissom all but demanded.

Greg smiled sheepishly. "Right. Although we only identified DNA of your vic, the other two hairs are similar. One male one female, so they were quite possibly relatives."

Beth looked over at Grissom, "Did our vic have a brother?"

"Not sure." Grissom replied. "But I'll get Brass...no, Sara on it. She's not working on any cases right now and I'm sure she'll be more than happy to help out."

Beth smiled. Sara wasn't the only one who'd be happy with her help.