Chapter 5
Saturday September 11th, 2004
11:08 pm.
Las Vegas Storm Drain
"Who found him?" Catherine asked as she looked around the storm drain where Grissom was snapping pictures of their victim.
"The police were sweeping the area looking for vagrants, trying to keep 'em above water," he began before pointing at the body. "Take a look at his nose. Same thing with his chin, his elbows, and his knees. He lost all his points."
"Like a rock in a tumbler," Catherine continued as David made his way into the storm drain.
"I'm sorry I'm late. Stopped to get my waders," he explained before checking over the body, starting from the lower legs and working his way up. "No wallet," he began before finding something. "Oh, wait a sec." He dug into the pants pockets and found a small container of white powder. "What do you think?" he asked as he handed it to Catherine.
"I'll get it to narcotics," she replied after a moment.
"Take a look," Grissom began getting their attention and directing it to a sharp piece of wood impaled through the man's neck.
"Cause of death?"
"Water pressure could have done it," Grissom surmised.
"Or a person," Catherine added as Grissom took a picture. David in turn went back to the body as Warrick made his way into the storm drain.
"Hey. Whoo! It's a mess. I've talked to every resident in the area. No one knows this guy. No unaccounted-for vehicles. I don't know what to tell you."
"Well, at least we know where he came from," Grissom replied as he shined his flashlight into the darkness of the storm drain. Warrick turned to look as Catherine grimaced.
"Aren't we at least gonna draw straws?" she asked hopeful
"No," Grissom replied.
"We must be under the freeway by now," Warrick mused as he and Catherine looked up at the storm drain above them, hearing cars moving by.
"Hey. Did I ever tell you that the city paid me a dollar a square foot to rip out my lawn and replace it with rocks because we're in a drought?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"No."
"This city was not made for rain," Warrick answered as they continued to walk through the storm drain. Stepping out of the tunnel, they found themselves in a juncture; walls painted with graffiti. Searching around they found a body sprawled on the floor, its clothes drenched from the rain. "Catherine."
Walking up the body Catherine took out her radio." Grissom. We got another body," she began before the body woke up startling both CSIs.
"I was taking a nap.
"I'm real tired, okay? I just want to get some sleep," the homeless man explained to Warrick.
"I understand, I understand. Listen, I need to ask you a question. Have you ever seen this guy right here?" Warrick asked showing him the Polaroid of the victim in a plastic bag.
The man looked at it for a moment. "No."
"You don't know him?"
"No, someone comes down here that don't belong, I mean, bad stuff can happen, okay? I-I-I just want to go home, okay? A-a-and you can't make me leave my house."
"Nobody's making you do anything, okay? Now, you like coffee?"
"Well, yeah, as long as it's a decaf, one sugar, two creams, no skim, and hot, your lawsuit hot."
"Okay, you go with that officer over there. He'll get you a nice cup of coffee, all right?" Warrick instructed before turning and going to look for Catherine.
Meanwhile, Catherine had been looking around the area when she heard water movement from around the corner behind her. Glancing back she didn't see anything. "Is that you, Warrick?" she called before waiting for a moment, debating if she should reach for her weapon. Then Warrick appeared.
"There you are," he spoke with a smile.
"Phew," she sighed before turning and finding something caught in the tree branches.
"Is that a sneaker?" he asked as she picked it up.
"Looks like an aquasock."
"Yeah."
"Here's its mate," she continued picking up the other side and they looked at it for a moment, considering the evidence. "Kind of upscale for a tunnel rat. So the vic was barefoot. The tunnel's full of murder weapons. Bum kills him, or finds the body and takes the socks? What was the guy doing here in the first place?"
"Well, maybe the vic was some punk, uh...with an attitude. Decided to take it out on some homeless guy. You never know."
"The way the body was ground down means that the water took him for a pretty long ride."
"Well, we're already wet, so..." Warrick shrugged.
Catherine sighed before they continued to make their way through the tunnels. Some time later they reach a drain grate and Catherine looked up, smiling slightly when she saw a man sitting on the bus bench reading a paper. "Excuse me! Down here!"
"Oh," he began finally spotting her. "What's your problem, Sweetie?"
"Uh, no problem, Sir. I'm just wanting to know what street I'm on. Under."
"Oh, it's, uh, Industrial. You're just South of Tropicana."
"Thank you."
"And I'm not holding the bus."
"Don't bother," Catherine replied before looking at Warrick. "All right, so we're about a mile south of where we started."
"Well, there's 300 miles of storm drains in Clark County, so we only have 299 left."
"What, do we, uh, eenie-meenie-minie-mo it? Split up? What do we do?"
Glancing down the tunnel to their right Warrick shook his head. "No, that's a dead end." At the juncture he found something floating in the water caught on some tree branches. "Sunscreen on a lanyard."
"Fits with the aquasocks."
Turning to look at the tunnel to the left, Warrick continued. "I say we keep going upstream."
"I knew you were gonna say that," she sighed before heading forward into the tunnel. Ducking under the low ceiling dips. "Watch your head."
Some time later Catherine and Warrick finally found the storm drain entrance. "Daylight. Finally."
"We gotta be into some golden time by now, right?" Catherine asked
"Oh, yeah," Warrick agreed as they looked around the things in the entrance. The water had completely drained away, leaving some shrubs and leaves from trees.
"What do we have here?" Catherine asked as she picked up a helmet. "Brain bucket," she continued before looking inside. "There's something in the lid," she continued as Warrick looked at the wall, seeing something caught inside. Taking out a slip of paper Catherine handed the helmet to Warrick "Hang on to that," she instructed before looking at the Employee ID lanyard. "Hey, it's our dead guy."
"No way."
"Calvin Berkowitz. Worked at the Tangiers. Lifeguard. So what's Calvin doing down here?"
Warrick looked back at the wall and took out the large thick rubber tube that had caught his attention. "It's an inner tube.
"Yeah?"
"Guy gets the day off and decides to go surfing...Vegas style."
Catherine nodded. "Oh, I heard about that. He grabs an inner tube, a helmet, jumps into the channel."
"Hits his head on something, drowns."
"Current takes him down."
"That would account for all that body trauma."
"This isn't about drugs or beating up homeless dudes. It's just plain stupidity."
Warrick snorts in agreement before they head out of the drain. "Well, that's what happens when you don't have a decent beach in Vegas."
"Hey, you know something? This is, uh, right around where I found Lindsay," Catherine realized.
"Really?"
"Yeah, when Eddie's car went off the road," she replied before sighing and shaking her head. She wasn't going to go there... "Ugh...let's just get out of here. Can you take that?" she asked as she handed the helmet to Warrick before starting the steep climb out.
"Watch your step," Catherine began to climb, before slipping and falling backwards, right into Warrick's arms.
"Hey. Oh," she spoke before laughing.
"You all right?"
"Yeah, I think."
"Whoa," Warrick smiled before the laughter died and they simply stared at each other.
"Hey!" someone called destroying the moment. Catherine and Warrick looked up to find a Sewage Worker standing at the edge of the channel looking down at them. "You guys CSI?" he continued as Warrick let Catherine go.
"Yeah." Warrick answered
Sunday September 12th, 2004
10:29 a.m.
CSI Forensic Autopsy
Grissom watched as Robbins started on the body from the drain, the other man began with the normal Y-incision down the torso. A distance from the table Greg stood to watch his first autopsy, the younger man glancing away when the first cut was made.
Grissom watched Greg's reaction as Al finished the cut and pulled the skin open, immediately Greg's eyes widened at the sight before Al turned to Grissom. "I'm gonna need the drain pan." Grissom handed the pan to Al, who put it on the tray next to him, as water started to drip from the roof into the pan. "This town isn't built for rain, hmm?"
Grabbing the handsaw and turning it on Al glanced up at Greg, who put his fingers in his ears as Robbins began to cut the rib cage open. Once done he turned the saw off and set it aside, Grissom watched Greg as Greg looked at Grissom. Meanwhile Al grabbed the rib cage piece and pulled it out before setting it aside. "Come on, don't be shy. Take a good look. In the end, it's all we really are," Al spoke before continuing to work. Greg watched, his eyes huge. Glancing at the victim's face and then back down to the feet he appeared thoughtful to Grissom.
"If you're gonna be sick, Greg, do it in the sink."
"Not in the drain pan," Al chipped in.
"I don't feel sick."
"Take a look at the trachea. What do you see?" Grissom motioned a few moments later.
"Foam. Like the head of a beer," Greg began before looking self-consciously at Grissom. "Sorry."
"No. It's a good analogy."
"Pulmonary edema, fluids in the air passages," Al spoke up
"So he drowned?" Greg asked
"Well, doesn't prove it. Same thing happens with, uh, heart failure or drug overdose."
"But the fact that the heart of the victim was a normal size..." Al continued as he held up the heart and Greg looked at it. "And assuming tox doesn't show drug overdose, C.O.D. is most likely drowning, but I'm not gonna rule out blunt-force trauma." Picking up the saw again Al turned it on as Greg took a couple cautious steps away from the body.
Sunday September 12th, 2004
1:15 p.m.
CSI Lab
Greg took a sample off the bone, putting it between a folded piece of paper then smashed it. Once done, he poured the pieces into a dish as Jessica walked in and sat at the table.
"I heard you finally lost your virginity." Greg glanced at her before she smiled. "First autopsy," she clarified. "How was it?"
"It was fine. How was your first time? How did you react?"
"I puked," she answered with a shrug. "So did Sara."
"I didn't puke."
"Way to go, tough guy."
"It was weird, seeing a body laying on a table like that. Doc Robbins just pulling out his insides until it was all empty."
"Were you expecting a ball of light?"
"Doc Robbins said, "That's all we really are."
"It's what you do with it that counts," Jessica replied, Greg looked at her before she got up and left.
Sunday September 12th, 2004
2:30 p.m.
Durbin Residence
"I mean, since we don't have a solid time frame, it's kind of tough to jog memories. But nobody saw anybody throw anything like a body down that manhole. But several people suggested we talk to his high school kid, Owen Durbin." Brass explained to Warrick and Jessica. It had been a number of hours since Warrick and Catherine had found the body, and now they had very few details to work with for the time being. Turning he led them to the house. "Now, he's a neighborhood bully. He likes to throw cherry bombs in there and hear 'em go boom."
"Uh, guys, how are we supposed to get through the door? There's no evidence linking this kid to the bones," Jessica pointed out.
Brass pulled a warrant out of his pocket. "We're not looking for bones," he explained before heading up and knocking on the door, after introducing himself and the two CSIs, Brass handed the warrant over to Roger Durbin.
"Illegal use of fireworks? This is crap," Roger read the warrant aloud before commenting.
"We've had several complaints from your neighbors, Sir," Brass replied.
"No one's complained to me."
"Well," Jim chuckled. "This is gonna happen, so please step outside. Ask your family to come with you. Thank you."
"Come on, guys. Let's go," Roger spoke before his son and wife stepped out of the house. "Anything happens in here, it's your fault," he continued to Jim before leaving.
Jim sighed. "Okay." Stepping into the house, Warrick shut the door behind them before the three started to look around the place. Jim immediately found a stash of ammunition. "Whoa. Lot of ammo here, all different caliber. Means multiple weapons are present...somewhere."
"I got a shotgun under the couch," Warrick called as he picked up the gun. "Oh, yeah," he checked it. "Loaded. Sounds like we got some nasty dogs out back," he continued as Jessica checked out the animals on the walls.
"I think I got blood," Jessica called as she found some blood drops on the wood of the stairs. The other two stopped and walked over as she checked it, "Confirmed," she continued when the swab turned pink.
"Okay. I'm gonna get the warrant amended for blood evidence collection. Until then..." Jim trailed off.
"We stop searching," Jessica replied.
"Won't take long, so hang loose," Jim instructed before turning and heading out the door. "And I'll get the animal control to get these mutts out of here," he called back before the door closed behind him and Jessica stood up.
"So, uh, no searching."
Warrick scoffed. "Yeah, right." Turning they continued up to the second floor, checking the stairs as they moved. Continuing to check the carpet, Jessica stopped in front of the closet. Reaching up and opening the door, she continued to check the floor while Warrick checked the floor behind her near the stair railing. Glancing up he did a double take at the contents of the closet. "That closet's well stocked, huh?"
Jessica continued to check the floor, slowly making her way into the closet as Warrick checked out the contents, glancing at the shot gun he looked up higher, and saw a completed pipe bomb resting precariously on a fishing kit. Leaning in close to ensure that he was seeing what he was seeing he simply couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Jessica?" he began, she was still checking out the floor.
"I'm not touching anything," she replied as Warrick continued to stare at the bomb.
"No. Put your stuff down and step away from the closet," Warrick replied deliberately.
"What?" she asked glancing up at him confused.
"Put down your stuff and step away from the closet," he continued insistently before reaching down and grabbing the back of her vest to pull her back. Jessica glanced up at Warrick once more before following his gaze into the closet, seeing the bomb and then four more higher up.
Jessica slowly backed away before standing up. "Those are pipe bombs," she spoke pointing out the obvious.
"Yeah," he replied before reaching for his radio. As he spoke Jessica realized something and quickly knelt down and opened her kit looking for something. "Dispatch, this is CSI Brown. We're at the Durbin residence. We have explosives on the scene. Roll out bomb squad immediately. Roll out bomb squad," looking down at Jessica as she took out a tool and knelt inside the closet. "What are you doing?"
"There's blood evidence on the door. If the bomb squad detonates the place, it's gone."
"Jessica," Warrick warned.
"It'll only take a second," she replied before using the wrench to take the bolt off the door hinge. The first one came loose and fell to the floor with a solid 'thud', glancing up nervously she watched the pipe bomb rock in place. Standing up to get the bolt off the top of the door, she was surprised when Warrick handed her an electric screwdriver from his own kit.
"Here, try this."
Using the electric screwdriver Jessica got the first screw off the door's hinge plate and it fell to the floor. She turned and looked at the bomb, thankfully it didn't move. "Nice." Removing the remaining screws, she set the screwdriver back in his kit as Warrick tried to get the door off. When it didn't move, both he and Jessica rattled the door lightly to try to take it off.
"It's stuck," Warrick surmised.
"I think we're gonna need a little push."
Warrick took a deep breath. "All right. On three," he began before they glanced at each other then the bomb. "One... two... three…" Pulling the door off the closet they both looked up at the bomb immediately. It didn't move. "Can we get the hell out of Dodge now?"
Sunday September 12th, 2004
3:00 p.m.
Durbin Residence
The Bomb Squad had arrived, and Warrick was reporting his findings to Lieutenant Rick Dysart.
"Let's go over again what you found on the scene," Dysart began.
"Six pipe bombs," Warrick said.
"Anything else?"
"Not that we know of."
"Give me another fifty yards, okay!" Dysart shouted to his team before turning back to Warrick. "That includes you."
"You got it," Warrick answered as the officers pushed the line and the small crowd of observers back even further.
Sunday September 12th, 2004
3:40 p.m.
CSI Lab
"So what were you trying to prove with this door?" Grissom asked after a few minutes of watching Jessica work on the door from the Durbin house.
"I was just collecting evidence," she replied.
"Well, Greg couldn't pull any DNA from the bones, so there's nothing to connect the victim to this anyway."
"Not yet," she answered as she took a swab of the blood on the door. "I don't have a death wish, in case you were worried."
"I'm not worried," Grissom replied before waiting a beat. "I'm concerned," he continued before turning and walking away towards his own experiment as a small smile played around her lips.
"Isn't that kind of the same thing?" Grissom paused, but didn't answer; instead, he opened the cover off the experiment container. Immediately, the smell was noticeable. "Oh..." Jessica spoke as he took the dead pig fetus from the container.
"I'm not worried, I'm concerned about how to tell Sara you got injured collecting evidence when she does return," Grissom spoke glancing over at her. Jessica frowned before turning her attention back to her own work.
Sunday September 12th, 2004
4:40 p.m.
Durbin Residence
"Are we clear to get back in there?" Jessica asked after the Bomb Squad had placed a single pipe bomb in the secure container set up in the middle of the road.
Dysart shook his head. "We're not through. We swept the house for booby traps. It was clean, but we still haven't done a full search yet."
"Well, why don't you clear an area and we'll process behind you," Catherine suggested
"Scene will still be under my authority."
"I don't have a problem with authority," Catherine replied
"Fire in the hole!" an officer yelled before the bomb exploded.
Once inside the house, Jessica and Catherine examined the blood splatter on the wall.
"Medium-velocity spatter," Jessica observed.
"This looks like the point of origin," Catherine added before looking down the stairs. Taking out her phone she dialed a familiar number. "Yeah, this is Catherine Willows for Captain Brass," she began as she looked at the blood splatter, measuring it.
"Animal control said the Durbins' pit bulls showed no signs of recent injury. Dogs heal fast. I guess I'll go back to the lab and get a hematrace," Jessica spoke up
"Don't bother," Catherine sighed. "The lowest point of spatter is 46 inches above the ground with a downward angle. Even if those dogs could walk upright, they couldn't have done this. Kid's a liar."
Warrick walked around the side of the building with his camera looking for evidence; stopping when he saw a pick leaning against the wall he took a picture. Moving on, he moved the trash bag away and took a photo of something flat and furry. Continuing on, he found a metal barrel filled with ashes, it was the kind of barrel used to burn things in, and had been used based on the evidence. Sifting through the ashes he found a pair of shoes and some clothing, placing the folded clothing next to the shoes he snapped photos of them both before heading towards the garage.
Meanwhile, Jessica had left Catherine with her work and was making her way through the hallway into Owen's bedroom. Opening the door she stepped inside and looked around. On the walls, just as he did outside on the door, he had cut outs from magazines taped and pinned to the walls. Above his bed there was a poster of a pinhead, elsewhere in the room was a fish tank, with dead fish. Continuing to look around, she found a box of unlabeled video tapes under the bed.
Grissom stepped into the garage where he found Dysart going through some to the gadgets and things on the worktable. "We're not done yet."
"Take your time," Grissom answered.
"Got some det cord here," Dysart continued as he tossed it back on the work table.
"Isn't that high explosive?"
"Stuff designed to be humped around by grunts. You gotta want it go off. Only one thing you need to worry about," he looked at Grissom. "Ever see me running, make sure you keep up."
"Got it," Grissom replied as he spotted blood splatter on the floor. "Hey, Rick, watch your step. This could be blood evidence on the floor," he continued before snapping photos
"Okay," Warrick began as he walked into the garage. "Grissom, I located some burnt clothes in a barrel out in the back. I'm thinking he was killed in the house, dragged out back and then dumped."
"He might have been dragged in here. Make sure you bag that stuff," Grissom replied.
"Yeah, I'm all over it," Warrick answered before turning to leave the garage.
Grissom followed the blood drops to the back of the refrigerator, looking behind the fridge he saw a knife hidden in a box with the handle exposed. Grabbing a latex glove Grissom tried to get the knife from behind the fridge as Dysart opened the fridge to check it out, what he saw made his blood run cold.
Several bottles on both racks filled with various different color liquids.
"Don't touch a thing," Dysart began stiffly. "Get out now," he ordered.
"Uh, I think I have some evidence back here."
"Clear out now," Dysart replied firmly.
"Hey!" Grissom shouted as he ran up the stairs. "The garage is packed with liquid explosives. They're gonna detonate in place," he continued as he passed Catherine who couldn't believe what he had said. "So grab what's important and get out now! That means you, too, Jessica! Right now!"
Jessica started dumping things in to the open evidence bag on the floor grabbing it she began grabbing the other packages. Arms filled with evidence packages she ran out of the bedroom.
Meanwhile Catherine quickly grabbed her evidence bags off the floor before clearing out with her bags of evidence.
Elsewhere Warrick gathered his bags and packages grabbing what he could and headed towards the garage.
The Bomb Squad in protective gear put some plastique in the center of the refrigerator as the four CSIs ran out of the house. Running a line out from the garage the Bomb Squad attached the line to the detonator.
"Fire in the hole!" one man shouted
"Fire in the hole!" another echoed as he pressed the detonator button, seconds later the garage exploded.
Sunday September 12th, 2004
6:08 p.m.
CSI Lounge
"Well, I think at this point we can agree that the murder weapon was a knife. These are pictures of a box of knives that I was unable to recover from the Durbin Garage," Grissom spoke as he handed out the photos of the box of knives. "So how about the tool marks?"
"I cast the stab marks in the victim's ribs. Bone deterioration removed all the individual characteristics. The best we can do is rule out the serrated blade," Catherine replied before turning to look at Jessica. "Hey, what about the kid's videos?"
"Uh, no tape of the murder or body he dumped so far. I'm not holding my breath. Videos cover several years. Kid running around the house. Backyard barbecue kind of stuff. You know, home movies."
"A teenage boy with a shoe box full of home movies under his bed?"
"It's weird, I know. I'm still looking." Jessica shrugged agreeing with Catherine
"Well, we know Owen went to school with Travis Giles, right?" Nick asked
"Well, that was a few years back, and we still can't place Travis at the house," Warrick countered as he passed around the photos of the clothes and shoes. "With all the fire damage, the clothes are the right size, but I couldn't get any blood evidence off of it."
"Even if we had that, we still don't have a blood standard for Travis. I mean, we can't even positively ID the victim."
Sunday September 12th, 2004
11:40 p.m.
Grissom's Office
The case was over, the arrests made and now Brass found himself in Grissom's office with a drink as they talked about the weird case. "Well, the kid gets murder, mom's an accessory, and dad gets felony explosives. It's a family-value pack."
"Well, it's appropriate. One way or another, they each had a hand in it. Violent environment, oblivious mother, disturbed child."
"But you know, no matter how bad your kid turns out, it never changes how you feel about him."
"Unconditional love between parents and offspring is biological, perpetuates the species."
Brass nodded in agreement as he sat back.
Wednesday September 15th, 2004
12:43 p.m.
Hanks Residence
"New girl," Warrick announced as Grissom and the others entered the house. "Christina Hanks, twenty-nine, works as a secretary at a computer company up town," he continued as he rose from his spot on the floor.
"Damn," Nick muttered.
"Bible on the bathroom counter too," Warrick added as Grissom and Jessica headed that way.
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails," Grissom read from the room.
"Any clue what the hell this jerk is trying to say?" Nick asked as he looked around before starting to take pictures.
"Beats the hell out of me."
A/N : Exerts taken from Proverbs 19:21 Women's Devotional Bible, NIV copyright 1990