Chapter 18

Nick and Sara had their coveralls on, working on the black Ford Taurus they had brought into the lab garage to examine for further evidence. Nick was closely examining the windshield when he noticed some blood still left in between the cracks of the glass.

"Got blood on the windshield. Looks like the car washer did not get it all." He took out a swab and got a sample of it. "I'm going to take this to Wendy right away and have her get working on it to see if it is a match to Eve's."

"Okay, I am going to finish dusting for prints, then vacuum the inside and see if the driver left anything behind for us."

Sara went to work on the car. She had dusted the steering wheel and found nothing and the whole center counsel. Mostly she found wipe marks all over the car. Someone did a thorough cleaning of it.

The vacuum did not come up with much either. No hairs or fibers of anything to help figure out who drove that car. She dusted the door handle on the driver's side and found nothing, but when she got to the passenger's side, she found one. She smiled to herself and lifted the print.

She wrote down the VIN number from the car and took that and the print she lifted into the lab. She gave the print to Mandy and then went to work on the VIN number herself.

Nick came in to and saw Sara at the computer. "Wendy got a match to Eve's blood on the windshield, so that is definitely the car. Did you get something from it?"

"I found a print on the passenger side door handle that Mandy is running now. I am running the VIN number on the car now to see who it is registered to."

The computer was running the numbers and came across the owner's information.

"Hmmm, it looks like it is a stolen car. It belonged to a Kurt A. Jones in Boulder City. Seems it was reported stolen over a month ago. Perhaps we should give him a call and ask him some questions."

Nick smiled. "What's the phone number?"

After Wendy gave them a positive match on blood results from the windshield belonging to Eve and talking with Kurt Jones, they went into Grissom's office for an update.

Grissom was sitting behind his desk with his reading glasses on, looking through some paperwork. His eyes glanced upward, looking over the top of his glasses at Sara and Nick entering his office.

"We got a positive match that the car found is indeed the car that hit Eve. It is a car that was stolen about a month ago. We talked to the owner just to make sure the car did not have the damages it has now."

"I found a fingerprint on the passenger side door. We are still waiting for Mandy to get us a match on that," Sara said as she stood next to Nick.

"How did it go with Aaron James?" Nick had been eager to find out how he reacted.

"Well, we caught him in a lie and then he demanded a lawyer." Grissom went on to give them more details about what Aaron James said.

"He's sounding more and more guilty." Nick replied after hearing the details.

"Yes he is, but we still do not have anything positively connecting him to the hit and run," Sara pointed out.

Grissom nodded in agreement with her. "Yes, so far we do not really have anything to hold him on. Greg has to press charges against him for us to really hold him longer."

Mandy walked into Grissom's office. "I got a print match from the door handle. It belongs to a Derrick Greene. He has priors for car theft and armed robbery. Most recently he got out of jail in February. Here's his sheet." She handed Grissom the sheet of paper.

"Thanks Mandy." Grissom studied the sheet. "Let's pay Mr. Greene a visit."

Derrick Greene lived in a North Las Vegas neighborhood. Brass, Nick and a uniformed officer made the trip to the place of his residence. It was an older neighborhood with some rough surroundings.

They pulled up in front of the house. The uniformed officer and Brass led the way, with Nick right behind them.

The house's screen door was open making them able to see inside. All three of the men had their hands on their guns.

Brass knocked on the paint-chopped doorframe. "Derrick Greene, this is Capt. Jim Brass of the Las Vegas PD. We need to ask you some questions."

Suddenly they saw a figure dart out of a room and cross the house.

"He's heading out the backdoor," the uniformed officer yelled before taking off on foot after him. Brass and Nick both drew their weapons and went around the back of the house.

Nick caught up with the officer, who spotted the suspect running into the next yard. The officer had about the same build as Nick and was making good time on the suspect.

"Police, freeze. Put your hands behind your head." The officer yelled as the suspect tried to leap over a fence. The suspect stopped and obeyed the officer. Nick kept his gun drawn as the uniformed officer got out his handcuffs to cuff the suspect.

Brass came up to the suspect after he was read his rights and cuffed.

"Derrick, you must be guilty of something seeing as you were running away. I wonder if you are familiar with a 2003 Ford Taurus?" Brass knew it was Derrick Greene from his mug shot on file.

Derrick grunted. "I don't know whatcha talking about."

Well maybe the trip to the station will refresh your memory." Brass nodded to the officer to go on ahead and take in to LVPD.

Brass smiled at Nick. "Looks like things might be coming together on this."

Greg stared at Eve, who was now breathing on her own. It relieved him a lot that she was finally showing some signs of improvement.

Chad and he had been taking turns sitting with Eve. It was refreshing having Chad to talk with. He would tell Greg stories from their childhood and gave him even more insight to Eve. He told him about how strong she was when they got the news about their mother being killed in the line of duty.

Her brother held her same positive attitude and assured Greg she would be fine.

Chad came in the room. "Hey Greg," he said in a hushed tone. Greg acknowledged him and got up and met with him outside the room.

"Anything new since my last visit," Chad asked Greg.

"No, no change since you left. Did you catch some z's?"

"Yes, so now it is your turn. Go home and take it easy. I will call you if her condition changes at all."

"Thanks Chad. Glad you are here now, makes me feel better about leaving her with you around."

"It is no problem. She is my sister after all." Chad smiled.

Greg said goodbye to Eve before he left. He kissed her forehead, brushing away her hair to the side. "I love you. Come back to me soon."

He headed out and went back to his apartment for a few hours of rest.

Meanwhile, back at LVPD, Nick sat in with Brass on this interrogation of Derrick Greene.

When Derrick Greene found out that they had evidence that he had stolen the car, he clamed up until his lawyer was present. So now that he had his lawyer, the questioning could continue.

"Derrick, you have already spent sometime in jail and first thing you do when you get out is steal another car. But then you take the next step and are involved with a hit and run." Brass watched the young man's expression stay stone cold.

"Do you have a witness that places my client as the driver of that car that night of the hit and run," Greene's lawyer asked, while making notes on a legal pad.

"Well we have his fingerprints on the passenger side door of said vehicle. We also know the driver of the car was black," Nick pointed out the evidence.

"That still does not mean he was driving the car that night," the lawyer responded.

"Why doesn't your client tell us who else had access to the car, then." Brass retorted.

"Look, I don't know nothing about no hit and run. The car was not in my possession all the time. Maybe someone else borrowed it that night," Derrick responded.

"So you just let your friends drive around in a car you stole?"

Derrick Greene just shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not saying anything more."

Brass smiled now. "While you were waiting for your lawyer to get here, we got a search warrant for your place."

Nick produced a photo that had found at Derrick's house. "It seems you were friends with Demetrius James."

The photo showed Derrick with Demetrius and another guy, posing for the camera.

Derrick looked down at the photo with recognition. "Yeah, so?"

"So the victim of the hit and run happens to be the girlfriend of Greg Sanders, the man who accidentally killed Demetrius in self-defense."

"That was no accident. He purposely ran him down. He deserves whatever he gets," Derrick Greene yelled. His lawyer just looked at him with shock.

"Don't say another work, Derrick," his lawyer warned him.

Derrick just huffed at him. "These pigs think they can get away with anything."

"Shut up now, Derrick," his lawyer demanded. "I need a moment alone with my client."

Brass and Nick just grinned. "Sure we'll give you a couple minutes alone." Brass said as he stood up.

Outside the interrogation room, Nick asked Brass if he thought that Derrick was their guy.

"It does look like it, doesn't it?"

Sara came down the hallway to them. "Hey guys. We got a visual match to a jacket found at Derrick Greene's house to the one worn by the driver in the surveillance video." Sara showed them the two photos. One was of a dark blue athletic jacket with a small Addias symbol over the left chest. The other was a close up of the jacket worn by the suspect in the car. It had the same symbol on it.

"One step closer," Nick smiled.

Brass' phone rang. He took the call, while Nick caught Sara up with the interrogation of Derrick Greene.

"So Derrick Greene looks to be the one who ran Eve down. Guess it was not Aaron James after all."

Nick frowned. "It still bugs me about him though, stalking Greg."

Brass came back to them. "Looks like Aaron James' lawyer freed him for now, since we can't hold him on anything.

"I'm planning on seeing Greg later on, I will ask him about pressing charges or not."

"Good, then let's see if Mr. Greene's lawyer is ready for us yet," Brass grinned.

"I'll catch you later." Sara left Nick and Brass back to their questioning duties.