Before Catherine and Greg could make it out to a department issued Denali to meet Warrick for the drive down to PD, Catherine's cell phone rang. She furrowed her brow as she saw Brass displayed on the caller ID. "Hey, Jim."
Greg and Warrick exchanged a glance knowing that if Brass was calling before they'd even left the parking lot that the chances were either Billy had confessed on the spot or there was something a bit more sinister at hand. Unfortunately, it seemed that fate was to deal the second of the two.
Catherine swore under her breath as she listened to Brass talk and as she repeated an address she glanced over at Greg and Warrick and shook her head. She finished the call and then addressed the two CSIs. "Apparently, Billy was unavailable to talk."
Warrick quirked a single brow and looked at her dubiously. "How unavailable?" He had a bad feeling about all of this.
"Permanently." Catherine confirmed what the other two had been thinking as she had been talking to Brass. "Single gun shot wound to the forehead." This little interrogation had just turned into a 419 and the circumstances were definitely suspicious. Clearly someone felt the need to take care of Billy then the fish that was on the other end of the line was a whale.
"Uncle Frank?" Greg was taking things to the most logical conclusion, but so far this case hadn't really been very logical; they still had yet to establish a motive for why Walter Bradley had been killed in the first place. Now it appeared that their hunch that Gunther had been a hired gun; or at least had a partner for the task was right on.
"Brass said he was confident we could probably get a warrant to look into him a little bit more deeply. Right now though, we have a scene to process." Catherine was tired; she and the guys had been working long hours for days and although Nick and Sara were back at work, Grissom had already put the three of them on another case and unless they could pull in someone from days as well, it looked like this might be another double shift.
"What kind of guy offs his own nephew?" Warrick found it hard to stomach this job at time; it was being able to go home and have a little solace from the evil he saw everyday that helped him get by.
"We don't know that he did." Catherine was trying to remain neutral, but she too like Uncle Frank for this; it would at least maybe make a little more sense and would be easier to wrap up the case.
"Follow the evidence." Greg repeated Grissom's mantra; you didn't have the liberty to assume you knew the truth until you had carefully examined the evidence and let it draw you to the proper conclusion. Sometimes it wasn't always the easiest one to accept given the brutality of what they saw on a daily basis.
With Warrick behind the wheel of the Denali they arrived at the new crime scene in short order and as they spilled out the SUV, all of them were relieved to see multiple black and whites and the Dodge Charger that Brass drove littered around the house which they assumed was the residence of Billy.
Brass met them outside the front door with a sardonic smile. "Looks like Billy wasn't our only vic." He was frustrated and although he rarely showed that sort of emotion on the job; it was telling around his eyes that this case in particular was quickly becoming a thorn in his side.
With disbelief in her voice, Catherine ventured a guess. "Uncle Frank?" This case was getting more bizarre by the moment.
"I'm afraid so." Brass glanced over at Greg and Warrick and smirked. "I hope you guys brought your lunch, I think you're going to be here for quite a while."
"Great." Warrick's tone was devoid of any enthusiasm; he was sure this would be a double shift and that was something Tina wouldn't like at all. She knew it went with the territory, but she'd let him know that she wasn't fond of the hours he spent at work especially since they were trying to rekindle the romance in their marriage.
Greg on the other hand was trying to figure out who could possibly be responsible since all of the potential suspects that they'd identified were now dead. Hopefully this scene would yield something that would identify the Big Kahuna; the head cheese so to speak. He followed Warrick into the house with kit in hand hoping that somehow he'd be the one to find the evidence.
Catherine remained outside and gave Brass a look; her brow was deeply furrowed. "What's your take on this?" Damn the evidence she wanted to know what twenty plus years doing police work told him.
Brass pursed his lips together and then a smirk unfolded across his features. "Beats me." He really was at a loss; if CSI didn't find something they just might be at a virtual dead end and then the Sheriff would be all over his ass about it. "Could be unrelated." The look of doubt on Catherine's face underscored his own feelings about the situation. "Ok, probably is related, but unless we can find something to implicate someone other than the dead bodies, we've got nothing." This was definitely not a place he enjoyed being.
"Ok, then I guess I'd better go help Warrick and Greg." Catherine smiled and picked up her own kit and headed into the house.
Warrick didn't even bother to glance up as he processed the doorknob. "No sign of forced entry, so either someone had a key or the door was unlocked." He hoped that one of the partials that he'd been able to lift would actually be in AFIS.
"With Billy's claim that Uncle Frank would kill him if he didn't return the gun I doubt that it was unlocked." Although Catherine briefly wondered if Uncle Frank had done just that; they'd have to wait of course until Doc Robbins had time to determine cause of death and hopefully there would be bullets from both bodies to compare to see if the same weapon was used.
Catherine quickly surveyed the scene where Billy's body lay and then moved towards the body they presumed was Uncle Frank sprawled out on the kitchen floor.
"You think murder suicide?" Greg was standing there staring at Billy's body thinking out loud with his camera paused mid-air as if he was trying to decide if he wanted another angle to shoot from.
Catherine shook her head. "Do you see a weapon anywhere near the bodies? This was definitely murder." And that one observation just made this case officially complicated.