Grandmas & Crime Labs

Part Three

A short while later, everyone began wrapping up the scene, and the CSIs all gathered around Lt. Caine after gathering all the evidence they could find. Alexx had already left with the body and was on her way back to the lab to perform the autopsy, and the others had finished placing the evidence in the Hummers to go to the lab.

Delko spoke up first. "So what do you think H? Any ideas yet?"

Horatio did a last, quick visual sweep of the scene before replying. "I have some ideas Eric, but I want to keep them to myself for right now. I want to wait for the evidence to be processed first before coming to any possible conclusions. When I eventually tell you what I am starting to think happened, all of you may look at me with facial expressions that would probably say 'You're kidding me, right?' Thus if my suspicions are right, I want to have the evidence to back them up.

Horatio filled them in on his interview with the victim's husband & grandson, Nicolas and Ricardo Sanchez, and sure enough, they all raised their eyebrows that clearly indicated how skeptical they were about what the grandson told Horatio. "Alright, here's the plan. Ryan, take the hair & fur samples and the piece of metal to Trace, and have Valera & Natalia work on it and see what they come up with; then go find Alexx and see if she is ready for you to make plaster casts of the marks on her body. Eric, I want you and Frank to first go over and process the vic's house. Pay particular attention to any medication prescriptions you might find that may tell us what our victim may have been on her way to retrieve. Then I want you both to go to the grandson's family's home. Try and interview any family members that are there, see if you can find out any additional information that might be of use to the investigation. Calleigh, I would like you to analyze the leather whip we found, see if you can find any prints or trace evidence."

"I'll try Horatio, but with it having been lying in the snow like this for who knows how long, I don't know how much will be viable."

"I understand Calleigh. Give it your best shot anyway, ok?"

Calleigh nodded, and everyone then got in their Hummers and headed back to the lab.

After dropping off the hair & fur samples and the piece of metal with Natalia & Valera, Ryan made his way to the morgue and found Alexx wrapping up the autopsy on Esther Sanchez. "Hey Alexx", looking down at the body, "Can you tell us what killed our vic here?"

Looking at her report, she said, "Cause of death is a combination of blunt force trauma to the head and severe hypothermia from her body having frozen to death due to laying in the same position for hours."

Ryan thought a moment, "Hmm, as if the blunt force trauma was hard enough to knock her unconscious, and as a result, she lay in the same position, unmoving, for several hours, long enough for her body to shut down and become frozen."

"It sure seems that way," Alexx replied.

Ryan nodded. "Any better idea as to what might have caused those impressions on her head and the claw marks on her back?"

Alexx shook her head, "No clue about her forehead, but take a look at the claw marks on her back for a second." She turned the body over and indicated to Ryan, "Whatever made those marks was rough, uneven, jagged sharp on the edge. I'm thinking of that piece of metal you pulled out her forehead perhaps."

"I have Valera & Natalia going over it now, as well as the samples you pulled from under the victim's fingernails."

"Horatio told me that you wanted to make plaster casts of the indentations on her forehead and on her back. I'm pretty much done for now, so you can go ahead, do what you need to do."

The next while was spent getting the needed supplies, placing the mixture over the body (starting with the forehead and then her back), and once the plaster was dry, Ryan took the now hardened cast impressions and scanned them into the computer. He had the computer run the scans through various animal wildlife and veterinarian databases, and began cleaning up the lab as the search was still going. He had just finished putting away the last of the supplies when he heard the telltale beep that the system had found a match. When he saw what animal it was that made the impressions, his eyes went wide. 'H is going to love this', he thought sarcastically, as he printed out the report and left to go find Horatio.

Meanwhile, Calleigh took out the whip from the evidence bag and began closely examining the whip. It didn't seem to have any distinguishing markings or other characteristics, and since most of the moisture had appeared to dry off, she hoped to pull something off the whip that could prove useful. After a while, she eventually found what turned out to be a fingerprint, one that she was frankly surprised to find, considering the conditions of the scene when they found it in the first place. She took the print and started to run it, but almost immediately it beeped back. However, right after it said 'Positive Match', the screen changed to read 'Access restricted by order of the Federal Bureau of Investigation—please enter authorization code."

Calleigh's eyebrows went up. 'This is an unexpected development' she thought, picking up the phone. "Horatio, can you come meet me in the fingerprint lab? I had managed to pull a print off the handle of the whip, but there is something you have to see."

When Lt. Caine arrived a few moments later, Calleigh simply turned and pointed to the computer screen where the same message from before was still displayed.

"I haven't even attempted to try and access this one H. That's why I called you right away."

Horatio tried using his own authorization codes, but they did not work either. He frowned, again not liking where this case was going. He rarely liked to go by hunches alone, but this time he had a strange feeling that this case was about to south, and in a hurry no less. "Calleigh, I need you to forward all of this to my computer in my office, and then come meet me there, ok? I think we are about to receive a 'friendly' visit from the FBI." Calleigh nodded to show she understood as she went to work while Horatio left to go to his office.

Some time later, Horatio and Calleigh were in his office when Ryan came in. Horatio sensed immediately that something was troubling the young CSI, but he waited for Mr. Wolfe to begin.

Acknowledging Calleigh with a nod, he turned to Horatio, holding up a file. "I just left the morgue, and Alexx confirms that COD was a combination of blunt force trauma to the head, which led to unconsciousness, which in turn led to hypothermia."

"She froze to death?" Calleigh exclaimed.

"Basically yes," Ryan replied. "But that's not all. I took the plaster casts of the marks on her forehead and her back and ran them through the database. When I got the results back, at first I was surprised. Considering our vic was standing upright when she was walking home, and considering the angle of the impressions and the claw marks, at first I couldn't believe it, but as you always say Horatio, the evidence doesn't lie."

"What kind of animal exactly are we dealing with Mr. Wolfe?" asked Horatio.

"The animal that attacked our victim is a 'Rangifer tarandus'.

"Speak English please, Mr. Wolfe."

"Grandma got run over by a Reindeer."