Chapter 2 – No evidence, just a videotape

The warehouse was a dark small and a dilapidated building. There were two cars parked. One was a police car, from the officers who attended the call. The other one was Brass' unmarked car who was leaning against the door waiting for them.

Sara, usually the first to arrive, did not make an exception, that day. She didn't understood what took the others so much time to drive to a crime scene, much less when Warrick and Catherine were native from Las Vegas.

David's coroner van was missing too, allegedly held up in the traffic that had hindered Warrick and Catherine's arrive.

Brass was examining something in his shoe, when he glanced up as Sara's Tahoe came to a halt and she jumped out sliding her sunglasses over her eyes as she approached him.

"Hey Sara" He called amiably, straightening from his vehicle. "Where are the others?" "I hope your not working solo again, because you are gonna need some help in there" He said pointing to the building.

She shrugged her shoulders as an answer, flashing him a brief smile in greeting. "Who knows? It was a quick journey, but you know how they are, maybe the traffic…"

She was interrupted by the arriving of another vehicle, which was Warrick's Tahoe. He stopped the engine meanwhile Catherine was opening the passenger door and heading to the back of the vehicle to take their kits.

"Right on time, don't you think?" Brass said nodding to the new arrived CSIs.

"Dammit girl, how did you manage? You were the last one to head up here!" Warrick said shaking his head.

"Hey, what happened to you? You are so late!"

"We are late?!" Warrick and Catherine's reply both at the same time in disbelieve.

"Ok, guys, let's go to work, ok?" Brass said to the CSIs

"Ok, what have we got?" Said Catherine taking charge of the situation.

Brass nodded to the dilapidated building, where the two arriving officers emerged, features distinctly ashen. One retreated hastily to one side, the unmistakable sounds of him throwing up immediately reaching their ears.

The three CSI looked back at Brass expecting his explanation.

"Got a call from an anonymous at 04:50 pm saying there was a dead body in there" He said pointing the warehouse. "Officers Keener and Jackson arrive at the scene at 05:04pm and examined the building. What they found you will see"

"Ok. Well, let's go check it out" Catherine said heading to the warehouse

"I need to warn you" Brass said looking especially to Sara and Catherine "It's pretty messy in there"

Sara and Catherine nodded, letting him know they could handle it, even as their minds anticipate his grim warning.

"Sara take the perimeter, Warrick and I are going to see what creepy thing we can found in there. Join us when you'll finish"

A sigh of frustration escaped from Sara's lips. With her…always the perimeter…I can't believe this…Does she think I can't handle what we find or is it just to piss me off? She was looking to Catherine intensely showing her discomfort.

"Is there any problem?"

"Nope, no problem at all" She wasn't to pick up a fight over something like this. So she went to make the perimeter.

Meanwhile, Warrick and Catherine entered the building, turning on their flashlights.

What they saw took their breaths away. Warrick studied the area with clinical eye, while Catherine couldn't apart her eyes from the body.

"Ok, let's check first the warehouse; see if we can find something to nail that bastard" she sighed "What do you want, left or right?"

"Left" said Warrick in a serious tone. "This would give some time to David to arrive. I heard him said he was trapped in traffic"

"Yeah. He could give us a hand to bring him down".

After a moment of silence and without any evidence found, they reach the body. They were considering how to pull down the body, Warrick looked at Catherine seriously. He didn't' know how to approach the 'Sara' topic doing the perimeter, so he took the direct way.

Sensing there was something, Catherine, directed her attention to Warrick. After a moment she asked "What?"

"You know, you pissed off Sara, telling her to do the perimeter"

"Someone needs to do it, and I tell you something…Brass was right about this crime scene, I don't know if she is prepared after Cammie's death" She said with a little concerned in her voice.

"I appreciate your concern Catherine, but I'm fine" None of them had sensed Sara approaching to them. She wasn't looking at them but at the body

"Sara…" Started to say Catherine but was interrupted by Sara's question

"The perimeter is as clean as we can expect from a place like this" Looking up to the body she said "How are we going to pull him down? I don't see anything to climb up there." She said indifferently to Catherine and Warrick.

Warrick sensed the discomfort in Sara about Catherine's concern and that she didn't want to talk about it as she studied the body. Suddenly and idea came up to him.

"The body is tied up to the beam with a single loop. There's an empty pulley up there"

Sara directed her torch to the pulley. "We could lower him down with that"

"Maybe that's how the killer pulled him up" Catherine said looking around searching for a stair or something to help them.

"First things first" Sara said seriously. "First we need to pull him down" That wasn't passed by Catherine who directed her a wild look.

At this right moment David make his appearance with a worry expression.

"Sorry guys, but the traffic…:" He said to apologize. Sensing the tensed situation, between the two women, he directed a look to Warrick who shrugged his shoulders.

"We need your help David!"

After the body was disposed on the floor Sara started to inspect the body, while David was taking the liver temperature. She noticed the videotape on the neck of the victim. "This is addressed to LVPD. The killer wants us to watch it" After a pause, she added "Archie will be gratefult to process something after all" Taking an evidence bag she deposited there and marked with her initials.

"He is only wearing his underwear, and by the smell I think he was very wet…." Warrick said examining the clothes of the victim.

"Liver temperature indicates that he's been for about 4 hours. At first sight, seems like he killed himself" He said pointing to the two "T" in his arms.

"And how do you explain he ended up there?" Catherine remarked with a smile on her lips.

David looked up to Catherine thinking about it, but dismissed any further answer because she was right. "This isn't only a suicide. It's a murder with its entire letters." Added Catherine looking to the eye of the young coroner

"Talking about letters, guys, you need to see this" Warrick said pointing to the chest of the dead body, while Sara was taking photographs.

"The blood trespassed the undershirt" With a sigh, Catherine directed to her partners. "I think we are going to see what was written when Dr. Robbins do the autopsy. It will easier to process his clothes and him there than here at a crime scene "

After a while of processing the body and the two planks that kept him like Jesus Christ, and wrapping all possible evidence, the team was heading to Lab to process.

"Ok, I'm…I'm going to take the body with me if it's all right with all of you"

"It's ok David, we have all we need" Catherine said to the young coroner.

"I'm going to take this videotape to Archie to see what the killer left us. Right now I think that it's the only thing we can examine properly" with that Sara headed to her Tahoe without another word to her companions.

Catherine and Warrick contemplated her leaving in a tensed silence. Once she was out of sight Warrick spoke to Catherine. "You really pissed her off…"

TBC