The Real Estate Giveaway
Disclaimer: I do not own in any capacity any part of CSI or the characters much to my dismay. If I did, Grissom would be shacking up with Sara every night. I do admit to having an active imagination…
Chapter 10
Dr. Albert Robbins arrived at his office ten minutes before shift started. The morgue was dark until he reached a bit left and hit the light switch. Clean and clinical, it had a calming effect on him. He strolled across the room, and deposited his "lunch" in the mini-refrigerator beside his desk in a cubicle to the right. The in-box had several folders waiting for him.
He sighed. Opening his desk, he grabbed a ziploc bag of coffee that his wife had made special for him a few nights ago and headed for the kitchenette. Soon the smell of rich, dark coffee permeated the quiet and found its way into a tall mug. Al took a tentative sip and gave a soft nod, lost in thought.
Sitting at his desk, Al pulled the folders down from the box and perched his reading glasses on his nose as he began to go over the cases he would begin examining this evening.
Petrov Stojanovich, Russian native on vacation, killed on the Strip near the fountain. Doris Rathers, a coffee-shop attendant, shot at point-blank range behind a convenience store. Jane Doe, killed in a vacant house for sale….
Something caught his eye – a familiar name. He leaned back and took another sip of coffee and studied the file a bit closer.
Jane had been killed execution style in a house on the market. The detective noted that a real estate agent and a couple were there to view the house and instead viewed a dead person. The first statement was given by Gilbert Grissom. Surely there wasn't another one.
Second statement by Sara S Grissom – the coffee cup met the desk with a clunk. The house was being viewed by a couple, wasn't that what the report had earlier? He flipped back to the previous page to confirm. Al looked up and a smile crept across his face as he contemplated what that name meant. Sara Grissom. Had something been going on that he had missed?
He thought back to the previous week when Sara had been leaning over a body with him and a necklace slipped from her neckline. A thin, intricate gold chain with a loop of diamonds encased in gold threaded on it loomed over his victim. Sara had quickly scooped it up, but not before a flash of brilliance sent a rainbow of colors sparkling in the night air. Al hadn't thought a lot of it, assuming that it was something personal to her. But upon reflection, it did hold a lot of similarities to the ring he'd given Simone on their 25th anniversary, a circle of diamonds called an anniversary ring.
She had blushed as she returned the necklace to its hiding place, and ever a gentleman, Al had not asked about it. He had been curious as he'd never thought of Sara as a jewelry kind of woman, but had let it go in thought at that.
Now, he began to wonder.
He returned to his coffee, drinking greedily to lodge the fog from his brain. And he set forth to pull the bodies and discover their secrets, all the while planning a little conversation with Gil when the opportunity arose.