All For Nothing

Chapter Nine – It's the small things

Nick and Warrick watched through the glass as Louise poured over copious notes from her Three Little Birds case. Mr Parez had been on the run for a few months and she'd been reading through the case file every day and retesting all her evidence every few weeks, looking for something she had missed.

"She's not going to stop until she solves it, you know." Grissom said, walking behind them.
Warrick shook his head, "It's been weeks since we've found anything; this guy has vanished. This is going to end up being another fish board case."
"Already up there," Nick replied, "She stuck it up a few days ago."
"I'm worried about her," Warrick frowned
The three watched as Greg walked into the room with a results file and sat down next to her, "As long as Romeo over there keeps charming her, I think we'll be fine." Nick smiled.
"You really think that Greg is going to charm Louise?" Grissom repeated, "She knows the rules."
Warrick and Nick exchanged a look, "So does Greg…"

xxx

"Hey Lou," Greg said, handing her a manila envelope, "I reran all your evidence; nothing new." She buried her head in her hands. "I'm sorry."
"No, Greg, it's not your fault." She replied, adding his envelope to her ever-growing pile of the same results, every week. "I don't know why I keep expecting something new."
"Look, Louise," he moved a pile of case notes and sat down next to her, "We're going to catch these guys. Eventually Parez is going to slip up and we'll find him… You'll get justice for these girls."
She smiled slightly as he helped her re-box all the evidence, "You know, something that surprised me about this whole case is that we haven't found any new bodies. When they left us that Polaroid, I thought that they'd kill more of the girls."
"Are you sure they haven't?" Greg asked cautiously, signing the evidence log.
Louise shrugged, "Everyone down in the morgue is looking for the brand, so nothing that has passed through our doors is related, and I think they'll want us to find the bodies. They want to taunt us; rub it in that we have nothing."
"Isn't it a consolation that they're not killing the girls?"
Her head shook gravely, "I dread to think what hell they're being putting through. You saw the Parez girls and the injuries in the Polaroid… They must be going through the most unimaginable torture and for such a long period of their lives as well. Most of the missing girls were kidnapped in the 80s."
"You will find them." He replied confidently, "You will find Parez and the bastards behind this operation and save those girls."
"I hope you're right." She sighed, sadly.
He took her hand reassuringly, "I know I am. You're damn good at what you do and are such an asset to this team."
She blushed, "Thank you, Greg." Their hands will still intertwined and she looked down at them. "Greg… are we ever going to talk about what happened the night that Parez escaped?"
"What is there to talk about?" He replied, slipping his hand out of hers nervously.
She opened her mouth to reply when she was interrupted by their pagers, summoning them to the break room. "I'll see you in there," Louise said quickly, "I need to put this stuff back in the vault." Turning her back so that Greg wouldn't see the crushed look on her face, she waited until he'd left before letting out the breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

Greg frowned as he walked away from her, frustrated by his idiocy. In the one moment that he could've told her everything, he decided to play it 'Kappa Kool'. "Stupid fraternity instincts" he muttered under his breath. For almost a year, they'd been dancing around whatever it was that was going on. "Stupid Ecklie's rules" He added. While waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, he made a pot of Hawaiian Blue coffee, pouring two cups. Perhaps he could begin to redeem himself. Step one, make Louise coffee. It was the small things that put a smile on her face. The small things included coffee, when he picked her up for work, or when her prints got a hit in CODIS. Her 'small things' smile was the one that Greg loved the most about her; it was sweet and gentle but it lit up her entire face. As for the rest of the steps in this master plan… well, those were still pending. Louise was frowning when she turned up in the break room, closely followed by Warrick and Grissom. Greg sidled up next to her and slipped the coffee into her hands without a word. She stopped frowning, but didn't quite make it to a smile. Almost there.

"Warrick, Louise, you're with Catherine." Grissom said, handing them their slip, "Copy-cat killer at the university."
Louise read the slip over Warrick's shoulder, "As in a Mather's Copy-Cat? Catherine's stay of execution? The WLVU serial case from 15 years ago?"
"It would seem so…" Grissom replied, "Make sure that you read up on the case before you get to the scene, any inconsistencies could help you catch the killer."
"Got it," they chorused, Louise finishing her mug of coffee.
Grissom watched as she handed the mug back to the sandy-haired lab tech, their hands brushing slightly and the ceramic passed between them. He shook his head, "Nick, Sara and I are on the missing girl case; we've got to finish processing the pig-sty."
"Well, from Nick's photos," Louise commented, "I'm glad that I'm not at that house."
"I'll go grab some of Catherine's notes from the original cases," Warrick said, "I'll meet you in the Denali?"
Louise smiled, catching the keys that he threw, "Great, I get to drive?"
"Nice try, Blondie." He replied laughing and she folded her arms in mock annoyance as he walked away.
"One day, they'll let me drive." She muttered under her breath.
Grissom laughed, "I think your driving might be a little wild for Nick… He was looking green the last time you were behind the wheel of the Denali."
"It's a big car," Louise defended, "It's not like I'm breaking any speed limits. In any case, it was you who taught me to drive, Gil."
"And I take full responsibility for any damage that you might cause to the vehicle or your passengers."
She shook her head, "Bully… I will see you both later. Thanks for the coffee, Greggo." There was that little smile.

Louise paged through the documents on her knees as Warrick drove to the university. "Okay so, fifteen years ago WLVU security guard, John Mathers was convicted for the murder of student Charlene Roth. It matched the M.O for the other two co-eds. Sexually assaulted, cable ties on the wrists, dumped in trash bags, strangled. Apparently, all of the victims hands were covered in blue paint but they were never able to work out what that had to do with anything. Suspects included the first victim, Janet Kent's boyfriend but he was exonerated by pubic hairs on victim number three, Charlene Roth. We weren't using DNA back then, so they matched the hairs using microscopy. The DA never charged Mathers for the murders of Janet Kent and Marcia Reese because of the overwhelming evidence from Charlene."
"Anything we need to be on the lookout for?" Warrick asked, driving up to the scene. They could see Catherine bending over a black plastic bag with David looking over her shoulder.
"Yeah: Catherine." Louise said, softly, "If the mitochondrial DNA proves that Mathers didn't kill Charlene, then she's going to have to re-testify." As they pulled their kits from the back of the car, Louise looked up at Warrick, "You ever have a case go this far?"
He shook his head, "Nope, you?"
"I haven't had an execution conviction yet." Louise shuddered, ducking under the tape. "Hey Catherine," She was peering at a jar, frowning.
"Hey Lou, you know bugs right?" she asked, handing her the jar, "What is that?"
The blonde held up the evidence towards the light, "Too a degree. It looks like a casing, but you'd have to ask Grissom."
"That looks familiar." Warrick said grimly, pointing to the body.
Catherine followed his gaze, "Too familiar."

Xxx

"Greg" Louise smiled, walking into his lab, "Have you got my trace from the blue paint?"
"Yeah," he handed over the results, "Motor oil. It kept it from drying."
She frowned, "Well, that's weird." She noticed a report on his desk. "You might want to give the report from the Feds to Catherine; she might kill you in the process though."
Louise walked over to where Grissom was examining the railing that they'd brought in from the campus. "Results from the paint; WLVU Blue, oil based, mixed with motor oil, couldn't match it to a specific brand of paint. The motor oil messed with the composition. Stopped it from drying."
"Well, at least now we know what the blue paint was about." Grissom replied, running over the railing with a magnifying glass.
"Sara identified the black fibers found on your cicada. Generic black Chevy interior, she's getting me a list of anyone on campus with any of the matching models but given that the campus is so big… it could take me months to run down all those names."
"Keep at it. We'll have to catch this guy, sooner or later."
Louise passed Catherine her way out, "Slam dunk on Mathers…" she called to Grissom.

Xxx

After Mathers' execution and yet another dead-end, Nick took Louise and Sara out for breakfast.
"You know," Louise said, wrapping her hands around her warm coffee cup, "It kind of scares me that this guy has kept quiet for fifteen years."
"Means he's probably in prison." Nick replied absent-mindedly, consulting his menu card.
She allowed herself a moment to think, "What if it was intentional? What if he waited for fifteen years, just to be sure that there weren't any other copy cats? It makes me wonder about all of those cold, serial cases. What if they're just lying dormant? There could be thousands of psychos out there… and we've got one in our backyard. He kept Janet Kent's hair for fifteen years. It's just… creepy."
"Well, serial killers aren't exactly known for their warm, cuddly qualities." Sara replied.
Louise sighed, "This one is getting to Grissom. He thinks that this guy might be smarter than him and it makes him uncomfortable."
"Serial killers always make him uncomfortable. Remember Paul Millander?" Nick asked. Louise frowned, but Sara nodded.
"Who's Paul Millander?"
"Grissom didn't tell you about him?" After a confused look confirmed that, Nick continued, "He was some wacko about a year ago, who murdered people with the same birthday as him, in descending order. He staged the bodies so that it looked like suicide and managed to get hold of Grissom's prints. It was quite creepy because the guy turned up a few months later as a judge."
"Did you catch the guy?" Louise asked, resting her chin on her hand.
"No, he committed suicide before we could arrest him." Sara shuddered, remembering how much of a creep the guy was. "The case frustrated Grissom like you have no idea."
"I can imagine. I've had a look at some of the fish board cases… You can tell how much he looks at those files; the ink is rubbing off."
"He hates the ones that get away." Sara commented.
Louise sighed, muttering under her breath, "That makes two of us."

A.N. Hi there! Well, would you look at that? I finally finished and uploaded a chapter! My senior year has just finished, so I have an awful amount of time on my hands meaning I can finally go and update all of my stories. In my boredom, I started back at Season 1 of CSI (as well as every other show I've watched in my life) and have so many ideas! I'm so excited about getting back into this fic and all of the ideas that I have planned.

I figured, there is no point in actually going through any of the cases that have been featured (apart from the big ones) but just to have snippets of them to clarify the timeline.

Anyway, please review and I will hopefully update again soon. (After all, it has been about a year.)

~C.I

xoxo