Chapter 11
Greg could not believe how the last 24 hours had turned out. As he drove into work he reflected on the previous day. He had won the civil case, which was a big relief, but it was his night with Eve that had really turned out well.
When he had woken up earlier that day in bed next to Eve, he had realized he was falling in love. Somehow things had gotten serious and they ended up sleeping together. He still could picture how beautiful she was lying next to him in bed.
He tried to think back to when he had felt this way about a woman before so soon, but could not recall it. The greatest thing about it was he knew she cared about him too. Overall it looked like his life was getting back on track again.
He walked into the Las Vegas Crime Lab, into the locker room where he saw Nick. "Hey Nick! Any hot cases going on right now?"
"Yeah, got a 419 just called in. Grissom tagged Warrick and me on it. Catherine is already on her way there. Warrick just called and is stuck in traffic, so I am waiting on him to get here."
"Cool, I guess I'll just go to Grissom and see what he wants me on." Nick noticed that Greg seemed extremely energized and more back to his normal self.
Greg was just about to leave the locker room when Nick spoke up again. "So you look extremely happy. What happened last night?"
Greg spun around with a big grin on his face. "Am I that obvious, huh?" Nick chuckled. "You have not stopped smiling since you came in here."
Greg's eyes were wide with excitement. "Nick, this girl is amazing. I seriously think I am falling in love with her."
Nick smiled at his friend, slightly envious. "That's great, G. At least someone around here is able to find a someone."
"I'm sure you'll be next, Nick. You always got ladies coming after you." Greg tried to encourage his friend. "It's making the time to be with someone that is tough. I probably won't be able to see Eve for a few days again. With her working days and me on nights it really is going to suck. I just got lucky having these past couple of evenings off."
"Yeah, we do work some crazy hours here. But I am happy for you, man. Hope it all works out."
"Thanks, I hope so too." Warrick walked in signaling to Nick as Greg finished speaking.
"Hey sorry about being late. Damn strip traffic was a nightmare. Hey Greg," he said acknowledging him with a nod.
"Hey 'Rick. Well, I got to go check in with Grissom. Enjoy your 419 guys." He grinned and was gone down the hall.
Warrick looked questioningly at Nick. "What's up with him? He seemed more like DNA boy again." Nick laughed. "He thinks he is falling in love with his new girl."
"He has a new girlfriend? Where have I been?" Nick smiled at Warrick. "He only met her a few days ago."
"A few days ago and he already thinks he's in love? Well I guess we are talking about Greg here." Warrick smirked. Nick laughed with him. "Yep, we are."
Greg walked into Grissom going down the hallway. "Greg, just the person I was looking for. We have another crime scene in Henderson. A young male found beaten to death in his backyard. Sara will meet us there." Greg nodded his head and followed Grissom out.
As usual, the ride out to the crime scene was quiet with Grissom. Greg was glad once they got to the scene to see Sara and Brass there. Greg walked over by Sara and David, who were checking the body.
As he got a closer look at the young man's beaten face, he felt a slight tremor run through his body recalling his own beating that he was lucky enough to survive.
Sara noticed that Greg seemed to be in some kind of trance staring at the victim. "Greg, are you okay," she asked with concern in her brown eyes.
Greg shook himself out of it. "Yeah, yeah. I am fine." He looked sheepishly at Sara.
Grissom came around and asked David what the TOD was. He told them he had been dead about 3 hours.
"Sara, get some casts made of the shoe prints out here. Greg, you go inside the house and collect evidence from his bedroom. I'm going to be with Brass questioning the victim's roommate."
Greg entered the victim's bedroom. He had posters on the walls of scantily clad women leaning against high performance cars. There was a twin-sized bed, a dresser and a desk with a computer and several books on it. Greg noticed the computer's wallpaper showed a shot of the UNLV campus. Looking around and photographing the things he had, Greg came to the conclusion that the victim was an UNLV student.
He came across his student ID while going through the items on his desk. "Mark Thomas. Student since 2004. So he was in his 3rd year," Greg surmised.
He pulled back the bed sheets and did the usual search with the ALS. He had found some semen stains, which would not have been unusual for a college guy. He found no trace of blood anywhere in the bedroom, so the beating definitely did not start in his room.
Grissom came into the room. "You got anything?"
"So far he seems like your average college junior. Found semen stains on the bed sheets, but no blood anywhere. What did his roommate have to say?"
"He says he came home around midnight from work and found the light on in the backyard. So he went out to see why it was on and saw Mark Thomas as we found him. But for now, I need you to come and help question some of the neighbors. We know with the fence around the backyard, most likely no one saw anything, but they may have heard something."
"Sure, just point me in the right direction." Greg followed Grissom out of the house to question the neighbors.
About another couple hours passed before they headed back to the lab to start processing the evidence they collected.
Before he knew it, the shift was over and the only things they had to go on were the DNA results waiting to come back from fingernail scrapings they had found under Mark Thomas' nails. If they got a hit on CODIS then they had their killer, most likely.
On his drive home, Greg thought about how he had scratched one of his attackers but there was no hit on CODIS. Luckily they had a lot of other leads, which led them to the gang who beat him up along with the three other victims.
A few days had passed. The Mark Thomas case had been closed when DNA matched a Tucker Reynolds. It turned out Mark had been sleeping with Tucker's girlfriend and on that particular night, a drunk Tucker Reynolds came over to confront Mark and ended up beating him to death.
Tucker was a big, burly guy who had been arrested for battery and assault once before. His knuckles were still bruised from the beating of Mark Thomas.
Greg had not been able to see Eve since he had been so busy with work. They still managed to talk on the phone a few times. She told him she was trying to see if she could change to the evening shift, that way they might have more time to spend together. She said she liked the evening shifts actually, so the move would not bother her.
When Greg's day off came again, Eve still had to work during the day, but her evening would be free. They decided on dinner and a movie again. Greg once again offered to pick her up at her place.
It was close to midnight when they were walking out to his car in the theater parking lot. Eve was busy talking about the movie when Greg caught out of the corner of his eye Aaron James, staring at them. He was standing against a light post just outside the movie theater, making sure Greg spotted him.
Greg wanted to stop and go over to him and ask him what his problem was, but knew that was asking for a ton of trouble.
Eve noticed Greg looking at something. "Greg, what's wrong?" Greg quickly turned his attention back to Eve, not wanting her to notice Aaron James.
"Oh, it's nothing. I just thought I saw an old friend but I was wrong." He hated lying but he had to. He did not want to worry her. When he turned back around quickly to see if he was still there, but he was gone. Greg had a real uneasy feeling going through him.
"Greg!" Eve shouted. He was so consumed in his thoughts he had not heard Eve tell him they were at his car. "I'm sorry," he said still looking around.
"Is something else going on you are not telling me?" Her expression showed concern. He tried to force himself to look relaxed.
"Yeah, I am fine. The guy just looked so much like him, but he's gone now anyway. Let's just head home."
Eve was still slightly suspicious about his reaction but she let it drop. They went back to her place and spent the night together again.
