This Ain't A Scene
"Have a good night off?"
Grissom nodded slightly before stalking off to his office, case file in hand. The miniature killer had struck yet again and all he could do was smile. The media and lab had given him a nice name.
Miniature Killer.
It had such a nice ring to it.
Flipping through the papers in the file, he smiled on the inside. Not a single clue in sight. He could have sworn with such a messy job he did they would find at least something. In fact he was surprised that they even found Ms. Simmons so early. He was instantly alarmed but cool on the exterior. Sara couldn't see it and no one at the lab could. Brass, who could read him better than anyone, simply brushed it off as another tick Grissom seemed to have developed when the killings first started.
He knew Ms. Simmons was the one when he saw her at the supermarket. Grissom only needed a few ingredients for the night's supper with Sara when curiosity got the best of him. He walked casually to the fifth aisle where the cleaning supplies were and saw her. She was skimming through all the shelves when she finally saw what she was looking for.
Bleach.
She picked it up and left with a certain CSI following her.
Grissom smiled at the memory but quickly covered it with concern as Catherine walked in.
"Warrick and I are going to the scene. Care to tag along?" She asked. Grissom pursued his lips.
"Of course."
The crime scene. In all it's glory, and death, Grissom watched carefully as Catherine and Warrick looked for evidence. Luckily, since he was the supervisor, nothing was suspected. Due to his great interest in the case, and sleepless nights of doing absolutely nothing, but the occasional fix ups, the mistakes he made on his models, people automatically assumed Gil Grissom's interest was finding the killer, not being him.
The thought was assuring. Grissom made a name for himself. He did it purposely, of course, no one could suspect a workaholic, entomology, Shakespeare loving CSI. Especially with all the good he had done for the Las Vegas Crime Lab. They were top notch, 2nd in the country, and he was working right under their noses. It was so obvious that it was him, but they surprised him yet again with their foolishness. A lab tech figured out his tick before one of his own could, and they worked day and night on each of his projects. He was proud yet petrified at the same time.
"Nothing. Nothing he didn't put in his model." Catherine said, exhausted.
"Damn!" Warrick breathed punching his car.
The wind blew tumbleweeds and sand in all different directions as Gil Grissom hid a genuine smile.
"I found nothing."
"That's it? Nothing else? What happened to the intros and useless information?"
David Hodges looked at the confused Greg Sanders with a grim expression.
"It wasn't there."
"What wasn't? The bleach?"
Hodges nodded.
"Maybe you were wrong or we just haven't found out where it's hidden." Greg smiled slightly.
"Don't worry."
And Hodges and Greg went back to work.
"The scene was created exactly like the model."
"That's a shocker." Sara replied sarcastically.
Nick nodded and looked over the report again.
"Any mistakes?" Nick looked at Sara.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"Well, he has been known to make a mistake. Penny Garden was killed and then thrown on the window. The killer didn't expect that yet he changed the model anyways instead of leaving it."
Nick looked skeptical even though he got up from the conference table to look at the model.
"It doesn't look like anything was done and in Garden's case he kept the model and then sent it to us, but this model was at the crime scene."
Sara nodded and sat back in her chair.
"We have nothing."
"We have nothing."
It was sweet music to Grissom's ears and it made it even better that Sara had said it and not Nick. Then he wouldn't have to worry when he was home alone with her. He didn't want to do anything he regretted, especially with her. He could remember when he spent his time on a case a while back, before Sara and he ever existed. Debbie Marlin, woman obsessed with butterflies, was a case Grissom worked on, obsessed with Sara. He could feel himself flinch like he did when he found out what was used to clean up Debbie's blood.
Bleach.
He could remember sending Sara down to investigate the pipes to collect the blood and bleach. He shivered slightly. How could he let Sara anywhere near that house when a woman just like her had been killed.
It was then he noticed Nick and Sara talking. Nick was using his charm to make Sara happy, like a big brother would do, but Grissom was instantly jealous. He wanted to scream at Sara and Nick. If it wasn't for Sara he wouldn't have killed Kelly Simmons. He would have just forgotten about the woman who bought bleach and walked on and killed another male as he originally planned. But it was times like this that made him want to kill Sara in his own sweet way. But he couldn't. After all, he did love her despite the men at this place.
"Sara, what's wrong?"
Grissom snapped back into their conversation when he saw that Sara was looking over the crime scene photos for the first time. She gulped and let her eyes harden and laid the file back on the table, sliding it over to Nick. He took the photos and a look of realization crossed his features.
"She looks just like you, Sara."