Behind The Scenes
By: supercsi4
Chapter 24 – Post Mortem
SARA:
Our latest case involved a murder victim, Penny Garden, where a miniature crime scene was created and left after the crime occurred. This has to be related to the first victim, Izzy Delancy. Grissom was sharing his findings with me in his office as I was seated across from him. "Penny Garden was poisoned with nicotine."
"Well, that's not exactly a surprise -- the woman smoked liked a chimney."
"She didn't smoke it. She drank it. Liquid nicotine. Truman Capote used it as a murder weapon in his story, 'Hand-Carved Coffins,' and our killer put it in Aunt Penny's liqueur bottle. A cigarette introduces approximately one milligram of nicotine into the body. The liqueur contained over 60. A dose that massive can induce severe convulsions…and evidently, mess up a meticulously crafted murder. That's why the miniature wasn't at the crime scene. The killer was compelled to fix it, so that it would match what actually happened."
"Liquid nicotine is in a lot of smoking cessation products."
"Yeah. Commonly available to just about anyone. Any luck with the vic's calls?"
"Kind of. I data-mined the home phone numbers of Izzy Delancy and Penny Garden. They actually had ten numbers in common. Information, couple of mail-order catalogs, power company, Moviefone. There's one other number which turned out to be an untraceable disposable cell phone – suggests someone who doesn't want to be found."
Greg appears in the doorway. "Hey, boss, unless you need me for something, I'm gonna take off."
"Yeah. Take off that suit, too." I shoot Grissom a death glare. We had just talked about how he needed to be a little nicer to Greg, especially with all that he is going thru. Greg turns to leave, Grissom stops him.
"And Greg…you did a good job."
"I'm glad you think so." Greg turns and leaves. I turn to look at Grissom, I love when he listens to me.
GRISSOM:
I was sharing my findings with Sara seated across from me in my office. It's the second victim of our newly named 'Miniature Crime Scene Killer,' "Penny Garden was poisoned with nicotine."
"Well, that's not exactly a surprise -- the woman smoked liked a chimney."
"She didn't smoke it. She drank it. Liquid nicotine. Truman Capote used it as a murder weapon in his story, 'Hand-Carved Coffins,' and our killer put it in Aunt Penny's liqueur bottle. A cigarette introduces approximately one milligram of nicotine into the body. The liqueur contained over 60. A dose that massive can induce severe convulsions…and evidently, mess up a meticulously crafted murder. That's why the miniature wasn't at the crime scene. The killer was compelled to fix it, so that it would match what actually happened."
"Liquid nicotine is in a lot of smoking cessation products."
"Yeah. Commonly available to just about anyone. Any luck with the vic's calls?"
"Kind of. I data-mined the home phone numbers of Izzy Delancy and Penny Garden. They actually had ten numbers in common. Information, couple of mail-order catalogs, power company, Moviefone. There's one other number which turned out to be an untraceable disposable cell phone – suggests someone who doesn't want to be found."
Greg appears in the doorway. "Hey, boss, unless you need me for something, I'm gonna take off."
"Yeah. Take off that suit, too." Stop it Grissom. Be a nicer to Greg. Isn't that what Sara and I were just arguing about? Greg turns to leave, but I stop him on the way to shocking myself and quite possibly Greg and Sara also. "And Greg…you did a good job."
"I'm glad you think so." Does it really matter that much to him what I think? Greg leaves and I look back at Sara with a 'see I'm trying' look on my face.