Spoilers: What's Eating Gilbert Grissom...and any other episode with The Blue Paint Killer...my internet won't let me on the site to find the actual episode names...sorry...(shrugs) hey, we've all seen like EVERY episode of CSI anyway or we wouldn't all be pathetic and bored enough to write fan fiction about it...DAMN YOU CSI! YOU'VE CAPTURED ME AND NOW WE'RE ALL WAITING LIKE A BUNCH OF STARVED ARTISTS FOR SEASON 7!
Chapter 24
(Three days later—if you're keeping count that means this is Wednesday July, 2 2006)
Nick sighed and rolled over in his bed, trying to fall asleep, but having no such luck. He had gathered all of Riley's things and placed them in a box by his front door to give to her if she came by...that hurt more than the actual break up itself...this made it all the more real. He felt the sting of tears in his eyes and he gulped them back, causing a burning sensation in his throat. He released a sob and internally berated himself for crying again...he'd been doing this almost nonstop.
They always say you don't know what you have until it's gone...but that just wasn't true...he knew what he had...he was just stupid enough to push it away. He covered his face with his hand and slowly wiped away the tears on his face and sighed. He threw the covers off his body and stood up, his bare feet hitting the unusually cold floors, sending chills throughout his body. He slid his feet into his slippers and frowned when something at the tip of his slippers kept his feet from going in. He bent down and pulled the slipper off his foot, and reached in to pull out a bundled up female sock.
He sighed when he recognized it as Riley's and chuckled when he remembered him playfully scolding her for always stealing his slippers and keeping her socks in them because she refused to wear slippers without socks...something he said was silly but she had merely shrugged and smiled, making him accept the silly quirk. He caught himself smiling and he sighed and threw the socks into the box by the door to give to Riley.
This had to stop...weekend or not, he had to stop obsessing over loosing her...what was done was done. He had to stop moping, he was going into work until he reached the 'healthy & stable' phase of a break up...hopefully that'd be soon.
--The Universal House—Living Room—1:34 p.m.--
"Yeah well...at least she got out with more than the dog and a bad case of crabs." Shaun recalled a bad date his friend had once told him about, and everyone laughed besides Riley. She had been trying to join in the conversation, but found herself constantly looking over at Deven nervously. She was sure everyone could tell they'd had sex only three nights before...
"Ry?"
"Huh!" She jumped and Kiersten smiled.
"You okay Chica...?"
"Uh..." She stole a quick, subtle glance at Deven and nodded. "Yeah, just thinkin about that paper that I need to get done..." She drawled
"I thought you did that days ago...?"
"I did, but the power went out and erased all my work...so I'm behind." She stood up and went towards the stairs. "I gotta get it done...if anyone needs me I'll be at The Rio..."
"Damn...don't go to such a sleazy hotel Ry, you're writing a paper for work, class it up." Jabari replied sarcastically.
Riley smiled. "Well, y'all won't give me any peace whatsoever...and I'm more than likely gonna fall asleep doin it so...why not a nice hotel?" She sighed, "Anyway, I'll see y'all tomorrow." She jogged up the stairs to pack an over night bag, then grab her lap top, and head back down the stairs and out the front door.
--CSI Crime Lab—Conference Room—6:12 p.m.--
"Alright...so where are we?" Grissom asked while laying down the case file of the latest victim of the Pin-up Rapist...victim #9. Two more women had been killed since Friday, a very unusual pattern for the serial rapist/murderer. Both women followed the same patterns as before, including the evident escalation prominent in the seventh victim.
"Victim #8, Gracelynn Kesters, 20, lives with her boyfriend Mark Owers. Works at Alejandro's just off of Jeffy Street, he manages the restaurant, she waitresses there...same pattern as before...same torture plan...same everything." Warrick replied tossing the other case file onto the table.
"The only difference in this guy's recent pattern is that he's killing more frequently." Catherine stated.
"He had no original pattern, no set one anyway. The killings were at random." Nick replied.
"Not necessarily, arbitrary has often been classified as a pattern all its own. Without random killings, there could be no sequential killings." Grissom stated and Nick held up his hands in surrender.
"I stand corrected..."
"But that still doesn't get us any farther." Sara pointed out.
"Yeah, we don't know his reasons for escalating and starting a new 'pattern' so to speak." Greg added.
"So start with what we do know." Grissom directed. "Any similarities in the victim's lives?"
"Besides the fact that they were both killed by the Pin-up and fit the profile...no." Warrick informed him and sat back sighing.
"Well, their profiles give us clues to their lifestyle...if they were in shape they probably went to the gym, had diets, or if they were young maybe they were in college...we know the seventh victim, uh..." Nick sifted through the papers in front of him. "Kendra Blake was attending WLVU...and by the looks of it so were a few of the other victims...I'd have to dig back to see about the other girls." Nick replied and Grissom nodded.
"WLVU...that's the same campus that The BPK struck?" Sara asked and everyone nodded. "Man...that place has gotta be cursed or somethin..." She shook her head and began flipping through a case file.
"Well...at least now we know where to start..." Grissom said, being mildly optimistic.
--Rio Hotel—Third Floor—Room 2B—7:13 p.m.--
Riley sighed and reclined against the bed, only to have the ring of her cell phone make her bolt upright. She had forgotten that she had brought that with her (she often lost it or left it at her house whenever she went somewhere) and sighed as she swung her legs around the side of the bed and walked to the desk to answer the phone.
She sighed and opened the flip phone and brought it to her ear. "Hello."
"Riley?"
"Deven?"
"Where are you?"
"Why?"
"Would you quit answering my questions with questions?"
She sighed. "I'm at the Rio Hotel...I told y'all that's where I was goin. Why?"
"What room?"
"Why?"
"Ry..."
She sighed. "Third floor, 2B...why?" She repeated.
She was answered by a knock on her door and she furred her brow and went to the door of the suite's room to open the door and drop her jaw when she saw who was there.
"Had to pick the nicest suite that was closest to the ground, huh Ry?" Deven asked, a smirk on his face and she shook her head.
"What're you doin here?" She asked into the phone even though he was standing in front of her.
He took the cell phone away from her ear and flipped it shut as he had done with his. "I came to see you..." He said and slowly backed her into the room, and enveloping her in a passionate kiss as he closed the door behind him.
--CSI Crime Lab—A/V Lab—8:02 p.m.--
"Archie, I need you to do me a favor..." Nick began as he walked into the A/V Lab. Archie turned slightly and nodded. "I need you to run this and find me unusual activity in the parking lot of WLVU..." Nick handed the lab tech the tape that the school dean had given him.
"Alright." He popped the tape in and began running.
"I need the footage from 4:15 p.m. to about 10:20 p.m." Nick replied as his phone began to ring. He opened it and looked at the display. The little symbol informing him that he had received a text message popped up and he looked back at Archie. "Page me when you're done Arch?"
Archie nodded. "Got it..."
Nick walked into the hallway and opened the message from Sara.
Nick, got a lead. Meet me in Lay Out Room in 10.
Nick smiled and flipped the phone shut. "Finally...we're getting somewhere."
--Layout Room—8:15 p.m.--
"Sara? Whacha got?" He asked eagerly and a sly smile spread across her face.
"Security Guard at WLVU, Mr. Allen Thomas." She handed him a paper. "When Brass and I questioned him earlier and asked him of his whereabouts at the time that Kendra Blake was murdered..."
"He didn't have an alibi."
She shook her head. "No, he did. Said he was working at his second job as part of Room Service at the Rio."
"So..."
"So, I asked him where he was when Gracelynn Kesters was murdered..."
"No alibi?"
"No...same one."
Nick's face fell and he shook his head. "Uh...I'm not seeing how this is so important..."
Sara smiled wider. "Remember those unidentified fibers we found in the victims' throats...?"
Nick nodded. "The white ones...the untraceable white fibers."
"Yes, well, Doc found maroon and gold fibers, 95 percent Polyester, 5 percent Spandex..." She stopped as he grin grew impossibly large. Nick sighed in annoyance and gestured for her to move it along.
"C'mon Sar, you're as bad as Sanders right now..."
She chuckled and looked back to the paper. "Hodges identified them as signature fibers, used in towels and embroidery in clothes...such as hotel towels and wash cloths..." Nick smiled slightly. "Bet you'll never guess where the towels came from..."
"The Rio..."
Sara nodded. "The security guard's alibi..."
Nick smiled. "Let's go check it out."
"I can't. I've still got some stuff to do here. But I told Gil and he said for you to take Greg." Sara replied unknowingly calling Grissom by his first name. Nick's grin grew for a completely different reason as he waited for his friend to realize what she had said.
A few seconds later in dawned on her and she blushed and looked at Nick. "I uh...I mean...Griss..." She stuttered and Nick laughed for the first time in weeks...
He held up a hand to silence her as he laughed. "It's okay Sara...I already know."
"Know what?" She played dumb and Nick shot her a look.
"I know about you and Grissom...I have for a while."
She dropped her jaw, but quickly picked it up and looked away. "He kinda let it slip about four months back...what confuses me is how y'all managed to keep it secret from a bunch of detectives and investigators for a year..."
Sara's eyes bulged. "Has it really been a year?" She asked in shock and Nick laughed at the fact that he remembered his two friend's anniversary when even they didn't...he always kept track of silly things like that.
"Yeah...yes Sara, y'all have been dating for about a year now...since uh, since the uh, the box right?" Nick stuttered nervously, trying to keep the horrible thoughts and memories from resurfacing. Sara nodded and looked away slightly.
"Yeah...well, explains why you never ask me to hang out anymore...I'm taken." She joked and Nick laughed.
"Yeah, don't wanna run the risk of getting fired..." Or, at the time, running the risk of having my girlfriend kick my ass...then sicking her friends on me. Nick thought, but shook the mental comments away. "So...Greggo's with me?"
She nodded. "Yeah, Grissom said to have the both of you report back with whatever you found." She smirked at the emphasis she put on Grissom's name to show that she didn't slip up again. Nick chuckled and walked out the door.
"Will do Sara...tell Gil I said hi when you see him." Nick teased and she pursed her lips to suppress a grin and buried her head in the file to hide her blush.
--Rio Hotel—Manager's Office—11:48 p.m.--
"So...you can't give me any information on Allen Thomas?" Nick asked and the manager shook his head and shrugged as he folded his hands in front of him.
"I'm sorry Mr. Stokes, there's nothing I can do. We work under confidentiality."
"We can get a warrant, then come back later...shut your hotel down." Greg replied and the manager sighed.
"Then go ahead...I'm not doing this to be difficult...I'm doing it to protect my staff."
"One of your staff members is a suspect in a high profile serial murder investigation...and you want to protect him?"
The manager shot Nick a helpless look and sighed. "If I let you investigate without a warrant I'll betray the trust of my fellow employees...I'm sorry, I just can't risk that...I'll need a court order." He stood up and Nick and Greg followed. "Good day Gentlemen...I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."
He held his open palm face up towards the door and Nick sighed and nodded. "Thank you anyway Mr. Holst...we appreciate your time." Nick replied as they walked out the door. Greg sighed and shook his head.
"So...what now?"
Nick didn't answer for a minute as he thought about it. "We report to Grissom." He replied as they walked into the lobby. Nick looked around absently and almost stopped dead in his tracks as he spotted a familiar looking red head at the front lobby waiting area. Her face was buried in a magazine, abstracting Nick from positively identifying her as the woman that had unknowingly broken his heart and he squinted to get a better view.
Nick sighed in slight frustration as they exited the hotel, never getting a good look at her. Stop it Nick, you've hallucinated her before...besides, it's probably just some red head and your mind is playing tricks on you...
Nick tried to convince himself and it took every fiber of his being not to turn around and run back in there to see if it was her. He and Greg climbed into the Tahoe and buckled in as Nick drove off, trying to distract himself, he allowed Greg to turn on his rock music. "Are you feeling okay Nick?" Greg asked and Nick nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Well...you hate my music...and you never let me listen to it in your car..."
Nick shrugged. "I need a change of pace." Nick replied and Greg shrugged and slid in his CD. Nick grimaced slightly at the loud music blaring from his stereo, but dropped his jaw when he heard the song.
Drink down that Gin and Kerosene,
And come spit on bridges with me,
Just to keep us warm.
Light a match to leave me be.
Light a match to leave me be.
I keep my jealousy close,
'Cause it's all mine.
And if you say this makes you happy,
Then I'm not the only one lying.
Keep quiet,
Nothing comes as easy as you.
Can I lay in your bed all day?
I'll be your best kept secret
And your biggest mistake.
The hand behind this pen relives a failure every day.
I keep my jealousy close,
'Cause it's all mine.
And if you say this makes you happy,
Then I'm not the only one lying.
Nick groaned in horror and pushed his body into the seat and wished himself away...so far away...maybe six feet under.
--End of Chapter--
Yeah...alright...I'm evil. I KNOW! And BTW, I don't own the song (Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner by Fall Out Boy) or any of the CSI characters...this is done merely to amuse myself and a few other Chemistry patrons...(wink wink)
LOL...so, review and let me know how horrible I am, or how much y'all wished I'd make them make-up...(grins) or just to say hi! XD JK JK.
-Futuremisscsi60