"So what do we know?" Catherine queried Warrick and Greg as they sat around a conference room table reviewing the evidence in the case they'd taken over when Sophia had been shot. Clearly they would have preferred something a little more open and shut, but it seemed to seldom be the case.
"He certainly was experienced. Ballistics matched the bullet to the bullets used in three other unsolved cases." Warrick pulled out the files from the unsolved cases and showed Catherine and Greg. "The only thing is that his MO was different in each one."
Greg had a furrowed brow. "Could be that the same gun was used by different people in each instance; only this guy was dumb enough to get caught."
Warrick quirked a brow. "I'm not sure dumb is the right word; Sophia's pretty damn lucky to be alive." He'd had some in depth conversations with Tina over the last several days, not only about their relationship that they were trying to get back on track, but about the case and Sophia's condition. He didn't want to worry the rest of the team, but if the bullet had gone even a hair one way or another she would most likely have bled out and died right there in the foyer of that house. He wanted to make for damn certain that they had explored every avenue before they assumed that the shooter had acted alone.
"Greg has a point." Catherine surveyed the files in the unsolved cases. "He could have gotten the gun from any number of places." She glanced up at Warrick and Greg. "Have we traced the serial number?" She had been running down leads and trying to be the go between on the internal investigation of the shooting, which seemed to be moving at a snail's pace, and this was the first time in over 24 hours that she'd had the opportunity to regroup with her team.
"Serial number was filed off; I've got trace trying to raise it to see if we can track down if it was even registered." Warrick didn't sound too hopeful; if someone had taken the time to get rid of the serial number, most of the time they were going to find out that the gun had been stolen some time before. Although, every once in a while, they got lucky when some dumb ass stole his father's gun; didn't take a rocket scientist to connect the dots on that one.
"Well the shooter has several known associates; and Brass indicated that there was a possible connection to Jimmy Collins, but nothing concrete." Catherine continued.
"Casino Jimmy Collins?" Greg looked both surprised and intrigued at the possibility that their homicide had been a hit.
"Don't look so thrilled; we can't prove it at this point and if it's true, we have a bigger issue on our hands." Catherine cautioned him. She didn't want to mention that if they could make that sort of connection they'd better make sure that everything was by the book; she'd learned that the hard way trying to take Sam Braun down for murder. She'd allowed her personal issues to cloud her judgment on a case that had far reaching implications on several other cases and she'd blown it. She was lucky she'd only been suspended.
"Point taken." Greg was eager, maybe too eager at times, but he was also passionate about getting justice for the victim of the original homicide and for Sophia as well. He'd been sent home twice now since he, Warrick, and Catherine had taken the case over with orders to get some sleep. Perhaps Sara's habit of working too much had rubbed off on him while she'd been mentoring him in the field; whatever it had been, it made him want to be seen as a valuable and equal member of the investigation team by everyone else.
Warrick sat back in his chair and surveyed the mound of evidence before them. His thought drifted to his colleagues; he wondered how they were doing and really wished that they could have had their help at this point. "How long until IAB gets around to talking to Nick and Sara?" Grissom had already been interviewed and as long as he stayed hands off the on the case he was able to remain at work. Nick and Sara on the other hand since they both had been involved would probably have to be cleared by the department shrink as well because of the shooting.
Catherine let out a tired smile; she had wondered the same thing. "Hopefully soon. They've been a little backlogged because of that officer involved shooting over in Henderson." Department cutbacks all over the region had caused several police departments to share resources and that included the internal affairs bureau. Since she had already taken a preliminary statement from each of them IAB had been comfortable waiting to interview them until they had cleared up the other case. Of course that had put a larger burden on the rest of the team and despite borrowing someone from Days, things were spread very thin.
"Oh, yeah; wasn't that gang related?" Greg had clearly been watching the news a little too much during his mandatory breaks.
Warrick smirked. "Sanders, that's speculation from the media. You should know better than to come to a conclusion without reviewing the evidence first." The original theory had been that there were possible gang ties in the shooting; but Warrick had also heard that it was a result of underage drinking in the wrong place at the wrong time; as if there was ever a right time and place for that. One of the kids had been dumb enough to take his brother's legally registered gun and flash it around in a public park after dark. A rookie cop on patrol had happened upon the scene and the result had been ugly; Warrick didn't envy their counterparts in Henderson at all.
Catherine nodded and then glanced over at Warrick; she could tell that the stress of the last several days was getting to him. "How is Sophia?" She wondered if there had been any news since she'd been by to interview her.
"She's been moved to a private room." Warrick smiled. "Tina says she's doing good; she may get out sooner than they'd originally thought." As much as Warrick was sad that Sophia had gotten shot; he was thankful beyond belief that it had given him a second chance with Tina and that they'd both realized that the real source of their conflict was pride; they'd both been too proud to be the one that picked up the phone to say sorry and they'd both been too proud to admit that they really did need each other. He was going to find some way to personally thank Sophia and he was sure that Tina would agree.
"How is Tina?" Catherine smiled; she was glad that her friend had begun the process of working things out with his wife. Despite her own feelings that she'd had for Warrick; she was his friend first and she knew the hell that a broken marriage could be and she didn't want that for anyone. If Warrick and Tina could work things out, she'd be right there in the front row of the cheering section.
Warrick couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. "She's good. We're good actually." They had told each other that they would take things slow and work on rebuilding trust. That slow thing had gone right out the window the first time they'd gotten together outside of the hospital; Tina had moved back into the house and they'd been making up for lost time. Yes, things were very good between Mr. and Mrs. Warrick Brown these days.
"Way to go, man." Greg grinned at his friend. If a happily married Warrick meant that he and everyone else wouldn't have to deal with grouchy-biting-everyone's-head's-off-Warrick, then he was definitely a fan of them working things out.
Just then, Jim Brass walked in with a conspiratorial smile. "We just got a break; we've got some guy running at the mouth down at the station that our shooter stole his gun and now he wants it back." Without another word, the CSIs got up knowing this was one interrogation they were going to want to listen in on.