Sofia was still steaming at her desk when Greg appeared at her elbow, "Sara said you wanted all the files on the Jessop case..."

Without looking away from her reading, Sofia waved an arm in the general direction of the desk, "Just put them down."

"She said you flipped out at a Fed."

Sofia looked up and snapped, "She should keep her damn mouth shut." she then slammed her chair back from the desk and stared at Greg – daring him to say something.

"Oookay..." Greg decided he had something very important to do somewhere else and left the detective to it. He passed Brass heading towards Sofia and warned him, "You need a chair and a whip if you're going over there."

Brass stopped and watched the young woman flipping through case notes, "I'll take my chances."

Annie Kramer was at that moment, biting her tongue. As his former superior, she felt like she should be ripping Jake a new one for how he behaved. As his friend, she knew it was probably best if she just let the two of them work it out. Unfortunately, she couldn't resist giving her two cents. "You shouldn't have done that."

Jake glanced across to the passenger seat, "You said go left..." he replied innocently.

Kramer rolled her eyes, "That's not what I meant. You need to work with Sofia."

"Why?"

"Why?! Because she deserves to be involved. It was her case too."

Jake snorted a laugh, "After the last time? You'll forgive me if I want to keep my distance..."

"LAPD's still redecorating." she said under her breath, but not quietly enough.

Laughing, Jake relented, "Fine. I'll let her sit in on the interviews. Happy?"

Kramer suddenly understood what he was doing, "You're keeping her out of the field. That's it, isn't it?"

Jake interrupted, "We're here."

"What's going on Jake..."

"Leave it."

Kramer said no more, getting out and leaning on the roof of the car. She had a pretty good idea what was going on, and it wasn't FBI grandstanding in front of the locals. The Captain was left with the same feeling she used to get when Jake and Sofia were rookie detectives at LAPD, "It's never easy..."

Brass, Grissom and Kramer were sat in Brass's office. Each had a drink in their hand and looked like they needed it.

"Marc Nolan was a dead end. He works on a construction site so anyone could have used his tape. He's got no connection to the original case."

"Physical findings from the coroner are still pending."

"So we're back to square one?" Brass asked his friends.

"We're still processing evidence. All we've got is your gut saying it's this Juanito that's responsible for Sally Jessop's murder."

"Not just my gut," Kramer replied to the scientist, "Something has got Jake spooked."

"Grissom's right, Annie. Your gut and a jumpy fed isn't enough."

"We need to see what the evidence says. Then we'll make our next move." The two police officers suppressed the eye roll that should have accompanied Grissom's comment; both of them knew that the evidence at the body dump had given them precisely zip, so far. The only way they were getting anymore evidence was from probable cause – and that came from good old-fashioned police work.

Kramer shook her head and finished her drink, "We need Jake and Sofia to grow up and start working together."

"What the hell's with those two?"

"They don't get along." Kramer shrugged.

"No kidding." Brass replied with a look.

Grissom's pager took that moment to go berserk, and he made his excuses, leaving to deal with the latest crisis.

Brass watched him go and then fixed his gaze on his old friend. "So, Annie. There's a lot more going on here...Why don't you tell me about the part you're not telling me?"

Sofia was outside PD, she needed a break from the dead ends she kept running into. She'd spent the night before, and most of the morning, trying to trace Juanito after his break out. Brass found her lying on a bench with one arm draped over her eyes.

"Keep it up and someone'll throw you in the drunk tank." he smiled.

"I'm not in the mood, Jim." she mumbled from under her jacket.

"I got Annie drunk last night – she spilled her guts."

Sofia raised her arm up enough to shift her jacket and squint at the detective. After studying him for a while, she sat up and rubbed the exhaustion from her face.

"It gets worse every time – that's why we haven't spoken for ten years. The last time we went after this guy...we lost everything. Jake lost his best friend. Our lives just started unraveling. You know that's the reason I got bumped to CSI? Sheriff didn't want to have a broken cop. I thought coming to Las Vegas, I could forget about him."

Brass watched his young colleague and then nodded, "Are we talking about Juanito or..."

Sofia grimaced. "She told you about that too, huh?"

Grissom had a headache, literally and figuratively. His team and most of the lab staff had been commandeered by the Sheriff to 'help our friends at the Bureau in any way we can', his shift currently consisted of all the people Ecklie didn't like. Apparently, Warrick Brown and Sara were the only current occupants of that list. Grissom put the phone back to his ear as he sensed the lab director ending his speech.

"...I just don't have a bottomless pit of CSIs, Gil. The Sheriff took Greg, Nick and Catherine. You've still got half your team. If you need evidence processed faster then you'll just have to do it yourself."

"Gee...thanks, Conrad." Grissom didn't get quite the satisfaction he wanted when he jabbed a finger at the cellphone to end the call. It made him wish he'd used the phone on his desk. Apparently, the promise that everyone's case load would be handed over to Days had been a figment of his imagination.

A probable serial killer on the loose and half my team to cover Vegas on a Friday night...I should have gone into academia.

"So what exactly do we have?"

Greg looked around the table at his colleagues before realising that Barret was talking to him. The FBI agent had asked to be briefed on the evidence CSI had collected with Sally Jessop's body.

"What's this?"

Greg saw that he'd picked up the LAPD card. "We found that under the victim. That's why the Sheriff contacted Captain Kramer." He pointed out her name on the card and then took it from Jake and turned it over, "That's why he's got a stick up his ass – he's up for re-election and he really doesn't need a serial killer on the loose," he lowered his voice and whispered, "It's bad for votes."

Nick Stokes smirked at his friend's joke. No matter how good a Sheriff was, they were always worried about what the voters would think.

Jake didn't appear to have heard the CSI; his attention was focused on the message scribbled on the back of the card. He pulled the evidence sheet across the desk and signed it before stuffing the card into his jacket pocket. "You don't tell a soul about this card, okay? No colleagues or police officers, not even if they're working this case."

Catherine Willows made a grab for the sheet as the FBI man left without another word. "You're welcome." She looked at the sheet and sighed, "At least he signed for it properly, and we have a copy on the computer system."

The Las Vegas Field Office wasn't as busy as it used to be. Jake surprised himself as he crept into his office. He shook himself out of his paranoia and sat down at his desk and started on the phone calls he needed to make. Kramer answered her phone on the third ring. "Skipper? Have you seen this card they found with the body?...What do you think?...Meck and Lopez...yeah, me too. Okay, thanks." Jake let out a breath and unlocked the drawer on his right. He found the letter he was looking for and then called up a file on his laptop. He scanned the letter and the card before making his final call.

"Billy Makepeace."

"Billy. I'm sending you three files. I want you to compare them for me."

There was silence for a moment as Makepeace waited for the files to transfer. "There's no casefile number on these, Jake. What's it for?"

"This is on the QT, Billy. It's unofficial. I want the results to come to me only."

Another pause followed as Makepeace considered what he was being asked to do. "You just want a professional opinion from a friend?"

Jake was relieved that his friend was willing to bend the rules for him. "Something like that, yeah."

"I'll see what I can do."