See Chapter One for Disclaimer and Other Notes
NOTES: Weekly CSIPrompts Challenge 8: Must Start With: She watched as he walked between headstones, until he stopped and bowed his head before pushing into the ground a small American flag. Topic: Memorial Day. Random Prompts: 21 gun salute, salute, flags, picnic.
A/N 2: Thank you to CSIGeekFan for the prompts. And I cheated a little bit with this chapter, I wrote the majority of it before receiving the prompts. And fitting in the prompts proved to be slightly difficult. The christening scene is from my memory, so sorry, if it's not exactly word for word.
A/N 3: It was fun, but it's really time to end this story. Hope you enjoyed it. I'll start a new story next week with the new prompts.
Chapter 8
She watched as he walked between headstones, until he stopped and bowed his head before pushing into the ground a small American flag, then she watched as the credits to the movie were replaced by another ad for the next movie in the 'Memorial Day Marathon': A 21 gun salute over a casket as the band played 'Taps', flags flying at half-mast for the fallen heroes who lost their lives so that Americans could remain free.
Sara snuggled in closer to her husband, believing he was asleep, however his nibble fingers began to play with her exposed skin between her sleeping pants and the cropped top she wore.
"Hey!" She said brightly when his hand moved higher.
He stopped his movements and sighed. "Sara…" he began, removing his hand and then running the same hand over the texture of his beard.
"No, Gil I didn't mean for you to stop. I was surprised you were awake, I thought you nodded off during 'Saving Private Ryan'." Sara reached for his hand and placed it on her hip.
"No, I couldn't sleep through that movie. Did I ever tell you that my father fought there at Normandy beach on D-Day?"
"I don't believe you did," she snuggled in closer.
"I was named after one of his war buddies, Gilbert Arthur, from Chicago. My dad was slightly older than most of the recruits and he and Gilbert shared a pup tent at Camp Shelby in Mississippi before being deployed to England to await the Invasion. Gilbert met a WAC there at Camp Shelby, where some Women's Army Corp were trained also. He fell madly in love. Before they were deployed, Gilbert and the woman married; my father was their best man. It was the winter of 1943. Gilbert and Anna Belle only shared one night together, but they stayed in contact as well as a couple could during wartime."
Grissom paused.
Sara was entranced.
"So, then came D-Day and Gilbert was killed by German artillery fire. My father lost his best and only friend that beach in France. He told me later, it was the only time he'd ever cried as an adult."
Sara, herself, was beginning to feel tear drops roll down her face.
"My father survived Normandy and the Invasion of Germany, made it through the War alive, and returned to his home in Los Angeles. He went back to school on the GI bill and got a degree in teaching, then taught high school Botany. In 1950, he went to Chicago to talk to Gilbert Arthur's family, where he found much to his surprise, Anna Belle, Gilbert's widow, living with his family."
Sara reached for the remote control to the TV and switched it off. She also listened for a time to the baby monitor, but the baby still slept, but she never lost track of the story Gil was telling her.
"Anna Belle had gotten pregnant the only night they'd shared together and thought it best to raise the child with his father's family in Chicago, because her family never truly believed she'd married a soldier and soon after became a widow. The boy was now a six and a half year old and the spitting image of his father."
"My dad then met the younger sister of his best friend, Melanie, an artist, who became my mother. They quickly married in Chicago and moved together to Marina Del Rey where my father continued teaching and my mother an artistic housewife."
He breathed a sigh, before continuing, "They were so good together and when I came along, there was no question as to my name."
"We lived together for a few years, before my father died watching a baseball game on the television of a heart attack. I was playing with some beetle on the floor beside the couch when he died. I never understood why…." Tears flowed easily down his face.
Sara pulled him closer and began kissing each tear that fell. They stayed together, wrapped in each other's arms for most of that day. Moving only when Gil Jr. awoke and made his presence known.
Viola Barnette was arrested the next day on a charge of prostitution by an undercover vice officer near the skate shop.
While in custody, she exchanged some incriminating information to a cell mate, named Tananda Richardson, 19, also up on a charge of prostitution.
Richardson told 'V' confidentially that being "being a teenage 'ho in 'Vegas wasn't no picnic at the park" and "if you didn't use a pimp, then you probably wouldn't last too long, and if you wanted to go big time you needed to work at the Kitty Ranch, but then you had to be 21 to work at there. But the best place to get johns was always on the strip."
In exchange for Tananda's information, 'V' told her something that left the slightly older working girl with a new advantage. If Richardson was shocked by what the other had confessed, she didn't show it, but later she thought it might be beneficial for her to report it to her public defender who used to info to persuade the judge to allow Tananda to plead to a lesser charge of solicitation.
Soon, the same public defender had more than he could handle with two charges of murder in the first degree. He had barely passed the bar exam and happily defended whore and drunks, murder was way over his head. He passed the case on to another public defender who made a practice to defend murderers: Adam Novak.
Viola sat unruffled beside her attorney. Grissom walked in with Brass.
"Evening, Detective Brass and Dr. Grissom." Novak said. "I must ask, is CSI Willows associated in any way with this investigation?" Clearly directing his question to Grissom.
"No."
"Then we may proceed."
Brass threw two case files on the opaque table, sliding toward the suspect. He then sat down and his fingers interlacing as his elbows hit the table and looked at the young woman in question.
Viola stared at Grissom, trying to recall where she'd seen him before. She elbowed her lawyer, whispering but somewhat loudly. "Who's Willows and I've seen him somewhere before," pointing to Grissom.
"Willows is a CSI that works for him and I've had some dealings with her: some good, some not so good. And Supervisor Grissom is on the television frequently doing press conferences and the like for cases the Las Vegas Crime Lab and the Clark County Sheriff's Department have handled. You might know him from that." Novak's voice could only be heard by the accused.
"No," she practically shouted, "I've seen him this week at the skate park, but I think he was carrying a baby around."
"That's right, Miss Barnette, my wife and I were investigating the death of Duncan Green. He was last seen alive at the skate park on State Highway 573 on April the ninth. His body was found three days later in Lake Mead. My wife was the lead CSI on the case; however she is now on Family Medical Leave and the two of us where at the skate park talking to our friend, Cody Johnson. I do believe you were especially rude to my wife that day." Grissom looked over his rectangular glasses at the girl.
"She was such a bitch, asking me about my t-shirt. She didn't say she was a cop. Isn't that against the law? She looked at Novak, who looked at Grissom then Brass. Viola ran her purple nail tips through her shoulder length auburn hair.
"What were the circumstances? Did Mrs. Grissom attempt to interrogate you without an adult present?"
"All she said was 'Are you from Florida?' and 'Where did you get that shirt?' But I blew her off like she was nothing and daddy boy there stood watchin' the whole thing." She threw an angry look toward Grissom.
"Did you answer any of their questions?" Adam prodded his client.
"No, I blew the bitch off." Viola said triumphal.
"Let's get back to the matter at hand. CSI's Grissom and Grissom didn't find out any substantial information at the skate park that day, but your cell mate ratted you out. Said you killed two guys, Duncan Green and John Coltrane. The CSI's got a warrant for your vehicle and found blood evidence that matched the two dead boys in your trunk." Brass looked in the girl's eyes the entire time he spoke.
"I don't own a car." She said.
"The car is listed as owned by one Charles Barnette, your brother. And your fingerprints all over the interior and exterior of the 1992 Honda Accord, especially on the steering wheel. There are also fingerprints belonging to Eric Sinclair. His prints are limited to the passenger side and two prints in the trunk where the blood evidence was found."
"I didn't kill Dunc." She said.
Adam Novak suddenly broke in, "What else do you have?"
"We have a bloody skateboard that was in trunk that was confiscated from Eric Sinclair when he was brought in for questioning several weeks ago. The blood matched Green's, so we believe the deceased was struck over the head with the skateboard and he died from blunt force trauma to his skull. Then we think Sinclair and Miss Barnette dumped the body in Lake Mead." Grissom read from the file.
He began again, "Coltrane's body was discovered and ruled a hit and run. CSI's Sanders and Stokes were on that case and Coltrane's DNA and blood was found on the right bumper of the Accord with Miss Barnette's fingerprints. Also Sanders and Stokes matched the broken head light on the Accord to glass found in the victim's wounds."
Viola looked at Novak, "Can I tell ya'll what really happened?"
Novak nodded. "Can she plea bargain?"
Brass replied, "That'll be up to Mattie, she's the DA on this one."
"I'm sure she'll be happy to accommodate us." Adam nodded to his client and she looked at the table during her confession.
"Okay, Eric killed Duncan. Hit him upside the head with his skateboard. Eric thinks he's in love with me but I like his friend Nick who likes Mia. So Duncan had almost talked me into going home to my folks. Dunc said that I could catch a ride home with him and his ole man. But Eric said he wasn't letting me go. Well, I was kinda messed up on some meth, can I say that without getting in trouble?" She looked at Novak.
"You already did, kiddo," with a slight smirk. Adam shook his head.
"Did Nick Wrigley have anything to do with Duncan's death?" Grissom asked the girl and she continued to comb her dark lavender nails through her hair.
"No, Nick don't have much to do with us. I like him, but he's already got a chick-on-his-stick. I tried, I really did, but he just didn't like me," she reported sadly.
Brass injected, "Can we get back to the story, please?"
Novak sent a dirty look in Brass' direction, but Viola returned to her story.
"Anyways, Eric clunked him over the head and Dunc was dead. We was at the McDonald's there close to the park when it happened. Don't guess anybody paid any attention to us. So then, me and Eric hauled him into the trunk and I drove out to Overton Beach. It was cloudy and rainy that day, so no one was there. Then, we hauled Dunc's body to the water and it just sort of lays there, you know? I thought the tide would take it out, but then Lake Mead's tide isn't as strong as the Gulf of Mexico either." She paused for a breath.
"Then Eric found this boat up the beach from where we were and we put Dunc in. Eric drove the motorboat and then we dumped the body over the side 'Tony Soprano' style."
Brass and Novak shared a laugh at the illusion, but Grissom was clueless.
"Now, the Coltrane dude was all accident. I was messing with him. He said he wanted to buy…" she looked at Novak, again with a questioning look, "some stuff from me, but then he got it, got his rocks off then he didn't pay for it. So I revved up my engine and thought I'd scare him a bit, like I was gonna run over his ass, but instead of revving, the car shot forward and I did run over him, then I got out of the car and went to him, but he was dead. I opened the trunk and threw out some of his stuff that he'd asked me to put in my trunk. I was scared and so, I drove off."
The public defender, the homicide detective and CSI all eyed the girl.
"Well, what was I supposed to do? I just killed him by mistake and if I called the cops, then I woulda gone straight to jail."
"If it were an accident like you said, then it was accident. But leaving the scene of a crime is against the law. Hit and Run is against the law." Grissom replied.
The uniformed officer cuffed the girl and lead her out of the room.
Adam looked at Grissom, "Catherine told me about the baby, congratulations."
"Thank you. You and Catherine are invited to the christening. Jim, I'll see you at St. Joseph's, later. Don't be late."
Brass saluted Grissom in a gesture clearly indicating that he would follow orders as he left the room to attempt to find Eric Sinclair. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, dialing his favorite judge for a warrant.
Novak left the interrogation room headed out to look for his favorite CSI.
And Grissom rounded the corner to the recessed area where someone could watch an interrogation without being seen from inside to slide into his wife's arms.
"Well, we will have justice for Duncan Green. Poor boy, never got to live his life and a short misspent life it was." Sara murmurred into his shoulder.
Sara and Gil Grissom held in his namesake and namesake of his uncle dressed in a white belted romper while the priest anointed him.
They had considered and debated whether their son's faith could be controlled and directed by them. Sara didn't feel the ceremony was necessary, but Gil had insisted. He believed that parents can "dedicate" a child to "Christendom", but the infant as an adult is a unique soul of the person's own faith and decisions independent of their parents and others, that faith was a strictly personal decision.
"What name have you chosen for this child." The old priest intoned.
"Gilbert Arthur Grissom, Jr." Sara proudly announced as she stared first into her husband's eyes, then the child that had captured her heart from the beginning and finally to the priest's tired eyes.
"So be it. We christen thee Gilbert Arthur Grissom, Jr., in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I christen you that you may know the pure and holy spirit of God, your eternal source of faith. May you come to know God within your heart all the days of your life and express your highest potential in Christian service."
Gil and Sara, as Parents of this child, will you teach Gilbert Arthur Grissom, Jr., the truth that from this moment that he may realize his unity with God and of Christian doctrine, the gospel ministry and of the salvation by grace through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Will you try to conduct your own life so that by both word and example, Gil, Jr., may learn to live joyously and harmoniously with Christian principle and the assurance of salvation - will you strive to do this to the best of your ability?"
They answered together, "We do."
"Jim and Catherine, as Godparents to Gilbert Arthur Grissom, Jr., God will give you the wisdom and ability to hold within your heart forever the spiritual welfare of this child. You are charged with the responsibility of seeing to the spiritual welfare of this child should the need arise and it is you who stands as spiritual counselors. Do you accept this duty and charge?"
Brass and Willows answered as one, "We do."
"Do you promise to love, honor, support and encourage the child throughout his life?"
"We do," again they answered as one, smiling at the proud parents of said child.
After the ceremony, Catherine and Adam Novak disappeared with Lindsey. Wendy and Hodges actually walked out holding hands. Mandy and Nick tried not to let the others notice the longing looks and sexual tension between them. Brass left with remaining crew CSI's and lab rats from the night-shift to share an over-due dinner at the diner. Sheriff Atwater and family headed to the country club and the Grissom's went home together.
THE END
Author's Final Note: All my love goes out to 94 year old Luther Lee for allowing me to use parts of his life story: he was the model for Grissom's dad and a veteran of D-Day Invasion and the European battles in WWII. Luther said the most realistic movies about the war was 'Saving Private Ryan' and the mini-series 'Band of Brothers'. Thank you Luther!