In chapter 5, the CSIs interview Adam, the younger brother of the victim. And something SHOCKING is revealed! Yes! That's right! Beth LOVES soymilk!!

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Beth exhaled a rather deep, heavy sigh, then removed her glasses and gently massaged the bridge of her nose with her free hand. She and Grissom had been in the break room for at least a half an hour, taking advantage of the time they had to relax. As soon as the two had returned to CSI headquarters, Sara had just recently found that Cherryl had an eighteen-year-old brother named Adam who lived nearby. With that information, she volunteered to call the boy up for an interview. In the meantime the CSI supervisor and newcomer were taking the time to relax.

"This case is just...messed up" Beth said quietly. "I mean, murder is one thing, but when the only suspects we have are direct family?" She walked over to the counter and poured her self a cup of coffee, "Anyone we've met so far, the sister, her fiancé, hell, it could even be the husband!" She paused a moment to add some sugar to her hot drink. "But I'll tell you right now, if it was the husband who beat and murdered his own wife-!"

"You have a weak spot for that kind of thing, don't you?" Grissom asked, purposefully cutting Beth off before she lost her temper.

Beth nodded, "I just don't understand it...evidence points to the family, but why would someone murder their own flesh and blood?"

"Human's are capable of doing terrible things to their own kind, even when the same blood runs through their veins." Grissom told her, and Beth wondered if he had made that up on his own, or quoted someone like he usually did. "Sara should be coming back soon to let us know about the brother's interrogation."

Beth smiled cutely at the mention of Sara, but she quickly tried to hide it. "She seems like a nice person." She said, then looked at her coffee a moment and asked, "hey, we got any soymilk around here?"

Grissom pointed a thumb to the employee fridge, "might be some in there..." He said, acting as if he hasn't seen the smile. "Sara tends to get worked up on cases like this, involving battered women. I think you two would do well on this case together."

"Or completely break down part way through it." Beth pointed out jokingly while pouring some soymilk into her cup. "But I admit, I like your suggestion." She told him, smiling again.

"What suggestion?" Sara had walked in the break room just in time, a memo in her hand.

Beth gave Grissom a sort of pleading look, and took several consecutive sips of her coffee, making it impossible for her to say anything at the moment.
Grissom threw a quick look at Beth, then turned to Sara. "The suggestion that the two of you will continue on the case without me. I'm going to help out Nick and the others on their case."

Beth stopped sipping her beverage long enough to give her boss a thank you smile.

"Switching over? Grissom, you never do that?" Sara responded with disappointment. "Besides, if anyone, shouldn't Catherine be on the case? She works the cases with women who have...interesting pastimes." She suggested, her mouth forming a smirk that vanished so quickly, it could have been easily mistaken for a muscle twitch.

"Catherine's already on a case, Sara, and you're not." Grissom told her. "So I need you to take over for me."

Beth put her mug down on the counter and asked. "Sara, did you see about an interview with the brother, Adam?"

Sara kept her gaze on Grissom for a while. She wanted to argue that the new kid would probably need his help more than three level 3 CSIs would, but decided arguing with her boss would not be a smart move so she focused on her new partner. "Yes, but he refuses to come alone."

"A lawyer? Already?"

"He wanted to bring a friend."

Beth wondered why the boy would want to bring anyone else along, but decided she'd figure out soon enough. "No biggie, I guess. Who is it, a parent?"

Sara answered with a shrug. "I don't know who it is, but he's on his way over right now, so we'll find out eventually." "I...I just can't understand why anyone would want to hurt Cherryl, let alone kill her." Adam said quietly, staring at the interrogation table in front of him and obviously trying hard to hold back tears. He turned to look at the older man sitting beside him, his friend he had asked to bring, "I-I don't know if I can do this..."

Adam seemed like a very gentle boy. The fact that he felt he absolutely needed company for this suggested that he was either very attached to the victim, or very shy. Or both...

Probably both.

With this shoulder-length black hair and delicate appearance, he seemed to have a sort of feminine-like appearance to him. He did seem to be the emotionally sensitive type, the kind of person who would need emotional support at a time like this...and as much as possible. His body was quite slim and he wore black rimmed, rectangle-shaped glasses that framed his deep violet eyes. The boy also seemed to be a fan of the color black, as his clothing consisted of a black fleece hoodie, black jeans, and a pair of black boots.

"Adam, I know this has to be hard on you, but we do need to ask you some questions to help find out who did this."

Adam didn't respond, but he looked up at Beth after she had spoken to him, then at Sara next to her, then at Brass by the door, then back at Beth. He tried to look at each person in the eyes, but quickly looked away once he came close. Beth noticed that as he looked away from her the second time, he turned back to his friend and shook his head.

"Dischord...I-I just can't..."

Adam's friend also wore glasses, though his were much smaller frames, and oval shaped. He was bald, and Beth was having a hard time figuring out if it was natural, or shaved. Either way, the skin on his skull was perfectly smooth. He was dressed in casual clothes, a red, loose-fitting tee shirt and dark blue jeans with a pair of blue sneakers resting on his feet. He gave Adam a warm smile, and reached out to hold one of his hands and mouthed, "It's okay."

Beth and Sara exchanged knowing glances, neither of them saying anything for a few seconds. Then with a warm, gentle smile, Beth turned back to Adam.

"You know, I'm known to be a very sensitive person when it comes to my emotions." She told him, "I'm sure that if I were you, I would've wanted to bring along someone for emotional support, too." Here she paused, looked at Dischord, then said to Adam, "You're lucky to have found someone who loves you so much that he's willing to always be there for you, you know."

Adam gave the new CSI a rather surprised look, then smiled sadly while his eyes were getting ready to spill over with tears. "Yeah...I really don't know what I would do without him." He said quietly, then sighed heavily as Dischord muttered some soothing words to him. He then relaxed quite a bit and said. "Okay...I-I'm ready to answer your questions now."

Beth nodded, "Okay...we know that your sister was murdered around 8:00 the night she was found. Could you tell us where you were at this time?"

Adam thought about that a moment, "I spend pretty much all my time with Dischord. I'm not all that social and...he's the only one I really feel comfortable being around. I mean, besides my family...but I don't even socialize with them much either." He paused a moment to collect his thoughts. "That night though... I was out for a walk. I um...needed to clear my head of...certain things."

Beth noticed Dischord's eyes become heavy with concern.

"Around 8:00...I remember walking past that Karaoke bar, 'Sing!' "

"You're sure?"

Adam looked up at Beth, giving her an uncomfortable look. "Some drunks were yelling things like 'faggot' at me out the window. I kept looking at my watch to ignore them, and I remember it being a little past eight."

Beth nodded again. "Did you happen to run into your sister while you were on your walk?" She asked and Adam suddenly got nervous.

"Y-you think that I killed her, don't you?" He said in a panicked tone. "N-no, I never saw her on my walk! I was nowhere near wherever she was when she was killed, I swear!"

"Brass shook his head. "At this point we're trying to eliminate suspects. We don't point the finger until we find evidence that tells us who to suspect."

Adam calmed down a bit and nodded. "R-right, I'll do whatever it takes to help you find the killer. What do you need."

"Well, a swap of epithelial cells from your mouth would be a good start, and access to your home." Brass said. "However, we don't have a warrant for either thing, so..."

"You don't need them." Adam interrupted. "You can search through my house all you want...and anything else you need is all right with me."

Dischord nodded in agreement. "It's fine with me too." He said. "Anything to help clear Adam and find the real killer."

Beth found it to be a nice change of pace. Though his sister was hostile, at least he was being cooperative. The two of them sat back as Beth swabbed the inside of both men's mouths and stored them for DNA comparison for Greg before they headed out to Adam and Dischord's home. The inside of the house was quite neat and tidy. It was only a one-floor building, but still a considerably large one. There were two bedrooms, the master bedroom and a bedroom suited for a young girl, with bathrooms branching off of both rooms. A kitchen, a living room, all the usual rooms in a typical home could be found here, along with a music room with a drum set in a corner and a rather nice sound system.

Sara decided to start in the kitchen, and Beth took the master bedroom.

In the meantime, Adam, Dischord, and their young daughter Heather all waited outside.

The bedroom didn't really tell much, except Beth's ALS (alternate light source) did show that the two were an active couple.

She signed heavily and headed into the bathroom. Again nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe the boy's innocent... she thought to herself and turned to leave.

As she headed out, she smacked her hand hard against the bathroom sink and winced as she dropped her evidence case.

The case hit the floor and opened.

Beth swore under her breath as her luminol, fingerprint dust, and box of rubber gloves fell out of the case and she quickly bent over to pick everything up, bumping into the light fixture as she did so.

So now it was dark.

With irritation, Beth stood up to turn the light back on, but froze when something caught her eye.

Near what looked like a small rust stain, there was a small glowing dot where the luminol had dripped onto the floor under the sink.

She carefully put everything but he luminol back in her case and looked at the dot carefully. That rust stain, she realized, wasn't rust at all...

It was blood.

A lot of blood, she realized after spraying the room. It seemed to have pooled on the floor, with small drips on the edge of the sink.

With wide eyes, she dashed out of the bathroom. "Sara!" She yelled, poking her head out into the hallway. "I found blood! Alot of it!"

Within seconds, Sara was in the bathroom staring at the large glowing mass of what was once blood on the tiled bathroom floor. "No matter how much they wash, it always comes back to haunt us." She said, the looked up at her partner. "Well, I have more good news for you."

Beth looked at Sara and nodded. "What did you find?"

"Actually, nothing. But Greg called me a few minutes ago with his lab results. Adam's DNA matches one of the hairs found on our vic."

Beth stared in disbelief. "You're kidding me! He said he never saw her that night!"

"He lied, apparently."

"Apparently." Beth said, kneeling down to take a sample of the dried blood on the floor. Still, there was this feeling in the pit of her stomach...she was really hoping Adam was innocent. "We need to get a DNA profile of this blood, see if it matches who I think it matches."

"Yeah well, I'm starting to wonder about that boy..."

"Mm...me too..."