Chapter 22

"What if it wasn't her?" Ecklie said as the group of two women and five men walked to the other side of the motel. "Ya know, there's a very good possibility that it might be our serial killer out to stop Grissom in his tracks."

"What tracks?" Greg blurted out. "They were "my" tracks that she barged in on and tried to slice and dice!"

"Which reminds me!" Ecklie stopped so quickly that Nick walked into his back.

"Watch it, Conrad!" Nick complained. "It's a good thing I wasn't carrying my gun or anything—I would've damn near shot your ass off!"

"Shut up," Ecklie said with a roll of his eyes then looked at Grissom. "Just what were you doing with Greg in your room?"

"He. . .uh. . .we. . .um. . ." Grissom tried but nothing seemed to want to come out.

"He. . .we. . .," Greg started in an attempt to help but couldn't seem to think of anything either. "My shower didn't work!"

"So you went to Grissom's to use his?" Ecklie asked.

"Uh—yeah," Greg told him. "I was going to ask to use yours but Grissom was out at the truck getting . . ."

" A forensics journal," Sara spoke up.

"A forensics journal," Ecklie said dully. "And just how would you know this?"

"Because I. . .was. . .," Sara tried.

"Out smoking a cigarette," Grissom threw in and when Sara looked at him he gave a sickly expression, showing the weakness of his comment. "Filthy habit."

"You were both outside and you didn't see who went into your room after Greg?"

"No. We weren't outside," Sara told him after another dirty look in Grissom's direction. "Grissom was so disturbed at finding me smoking again that he came into my room and took all my cigarettes I had left. He flushed them down the toilet. Can I bring up a grievance against him for doing that?"

"I. . .I'm not sure." Ecklie turned and looked at Grissom. "You shouldn't have flushed her cigarettes, Grissom. If she wants to smoke, she's entitled to a cigarette now and then, especially after all the work the two of you have been putting into this case."

"Yeah, I'd like to have a reward for putting as much work into the case as "they've" been putting into it," Greg sneered but received a jab from Sara.

"Okay, back to what I was getting at." Ecklie started walking toward Sophia's room again. "We don't know for sure it was Sophia. For all we know, the woman got into Sophia's room with her as well."

"Well, it's not as if anyone would actually miss her," Catherine said quietly, bringing a chuckle from Nick.

"That was entirely uncalled for," Ecklie reprimanded. "Now what are you going to do if we get down there and find out she's been mutilated and is lying in pieces on her floor?"

"I'm not cleaning it up!" Greg said. "Let one of the other guys do it."

"Don't look at me," Warrick told them as he walked next to Catherine. "Let Grissom do it. She had a thing for him—not me."

"No one is going to have to clean up pieces of Sophia," Ecklie said. "Once the evidence is collected, the coroner can pick up the pieces and the manager and his wife can clean the rest."

"I'm glad everyone is so concerned about her," Grissom said.

"Yeah, like anyone would've had a chance against that Amazon!" Greg told him.

The small crowd slowly approached the porch to Room #22 and stopped suddenly when they noticed that the door was slightly ajar. Looks of concern were passed amongst them as Ecklie quietly moved across the wooden floor. The door swung open easily and they heard the small motor running, turning Catherine's and Sara's attention to one another with expressions voicing their disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding!" Sara said as she looked back at Grissom and he merely shrugged his shoulders.

"What is it?" Warrick whispered.

"The Powerful Purple Pounding Machine!" Sara told him, bringing a giggle from Catherine.

"Why would anyone leave their door partway open while they were servicing themselves?" Catherine asked as she slowly took a step inside the darkened room with Sara closely following her.

"Hey!" Greg called in a hushed tone from the back of the group of men still on the porch. "If you're going in to see it—so am I!"

"Greg!" Ecklie gave him a look of disapproval. "We're "all" staying out here until Catherine and Sara check it out."

"That's not fair," Greg moped.

"Yeah," Nick said with disgust, "like I'd like to walk in and see that! You're a pervert, Greg."

"I'm not a pervert," he said, more sullen than ever, then looked over at Warrick who was silently watching them. "I'm not."

"Pervert," Warrick accused then looked back toward the room where the girls were slowly approaching the bathing area with their guns drawn.

Finally the women arrived at their destination as they pointed their weapons and jumped around the small wall separating them from the noise coming from the other side. Screams filled the air then Catherine and Sara were hurrying back out through the room with an enraged Sophia following them. Grissom reached inside and turned on the light to the bedroom area and the women stopped as the men went inside with them.

"What are you doing!" Sophia screeched at them with what appeared to be a mouthful of toothpaste spilling from her lips and an electric toothbrush in her hand.

"Someone attacked Greg," Grissom told her as Sara and Catherine put their guns away.

"Oh," Sophia said sweetly, "You were concerned."

"Yeah!" Greg spoke up as he stood halfway behind Warrick and looked at the blonde woman. "We were concerned that "you" were the one who attacked me!"

"Oh—right!" Sophia looked at him angrily. "In your dreams—pervert!"

"Why does everyone say "I'm" the pervert here?" Greg asked. "I'm not the one you thought was inside with her little lavender love-stick!"

"You don't know how glad I am that "that" wasn't what she was using," Catherine assured him.

"You thought I was. . ." Sophia was aghast as she looked at them. "And you still came barging in on me like that! I was brushing my damned teeth!"

"Well, how were we supposed to know?" Sara asked. "You're the one with the substitute boy-toy you like waving under everyone's noses! Well, not figuratively, but. . .you know what I mean."

"Can we all forget about Sophia's fetishes?" Warrick said quietly. "Frankly the thought of her with her utensil turns my stomach."

"Shut up!" Sophia turned her ire on him.

"You shut up," Catherine ordered. "He didn't do anything. The thought of actually seeing you with it turns my stomach too!"

"Yeah, mine too," Nick agreed quietly.

"Would everyone "please" forget about this subject!" Ecklie spoke up as he turned toward Grissom who was now leaning back against the door jam, watching everyone. "Do you "always" put up with this kind of behavior?"

"It's not every day that someone tries to kill one of my CSIs with a butcher knife," Grissom told him. "I think they've got good cause to be a little ruffled."

"Why would anyone want to kill Sanders?" Sophia asked with toothpaste still dripping from her mouth. "It's not like he's a danger to anyone. He's about as insignificant as they come."

"Yeah, well at least I don't. . ." Greg started.

"Don't!" Ecklie warned.

"Well, why was she in here brushing her teeth with her door wide open? She was waiting for Grissom to come and compete with her little. . ."

"Greg!"

"Was it little?" Catherine asked Sara with a raised brow. "Hardly seems worthwhile if it was little."

"Nah," Sara said quietly to her. "It was about the size of a baseball bat."

"Wow! That's impressive, Sophia!" Catherine told her.

"It is not!" Sophia raised her voice at Catherine then turned back to Sara. "You mind your own damned business! I'd like to get a look into "your" top dresser drawer! You've probably got a wide assortment of accessories!"

"I don't need accessories, stupid! I've got the real thing!" Sara took a step toward the blonde.

"Yeah!" Sophia hissed back at her. "Hangin' between your legs!"

"Oh, you bitch!" Sara took a swing toward Sophia but was jerked back by her belt loops when Grissom grabbed her and pulled her until she was leaning back against him.

"Keep her under control," Ecklie told Grissom then turned back toward Sophia, not seeing the big grin Sara sent Sophia's way, clearing rubbing it into the blonde woman's face that she was in Grissom's arms while the other woman was not.

"You think you're so goddamned. . ." Sophia started as she stepped toward her, but Ecklie put his hand on her shoulder and pushed her back.

"Got a problem, So-phi-a?" Sara asked as she slid her hands up over Grissom's hands in a gentle caress that no one else apparently saw except maybe Greg, as the rest of them were watching Ecklie and Sophia.

"Would you look at them!" Sophia said with huge eyes as she pointed to Grissom and Sara but when Ecklie turned around Sara was looking at him through a face of pure innocence and Grissom wasn't doing much different as he looked at his superior with a questioning gaze.

"You told me to keep her under control," Grissom said.

"I "told" him to keep her under control," Ecklie agreed as he turned back to Sophia. "Now, like Greg said, what were you doing in here with your door wide open? There's a serial killer on the loose and you're more worried about enticing your supervisor into your room than your own safety?"

Although Ecklie was very serious, this remark brought smirks from Nick and Warrick.

"I didn't have my door open," Sophia turned her eyes from the other two men back to Ecklie. "I closed it after Officer. . ." Sophia struggled for the man's last name. "Jeremy left."

"When did he leave?" Ecklie asked.

"None of your business." Sophia looked at him indignantly.

"Sophia, we need to know if Officer. . ." Ecklie looked around at the other members of the crew. "Does "anyone" know his last name?"

"It isn't "officer," Grissom told him. "It's "deputy," Deputy Higgins."

"We need to know if he's alright. He may have had a run-in with the woman who tried to kill Greg."

"It was a woman?" Sophia laughed as she looked at Greg. "What's wrong, nerd-boy? Couldn't satisfy your little lady, so she came after ya?"

"Yeah, listen to you!" Greg sneered. "If you want to talk about "satisfaction," let's discuss your need for . . ."

"Sanders!" Ecklie scolded. "Let it be."

"Well, she's such a bitch," Greg told him.

"I'm not a bitch," she glared at him.

"Yeah," Nick said quietly as he looked at Warrick who was nodding his head in agreement with Nick and Greg. "She's a bitch."

"See!" Sophia turned toward Ecklie and threw herself against him with her arms around his neck as she tried for some sympathy. "See how they talk about me!"

"Sophia," Ecklie said with a grimace as he patted her back twice, then put his hands on her upper arms and pushed her gently away. "Don't do that. You got your toothpaste all over my shirt."

He took a few steps back as he wiped at the white substance on the shoulder of his tee-shirt before looking back at Grissom. "I think we better check in on our local deputy to make sure he made it home safely."

"Warrick—Nick, go to my room and start printing. Catherine, Greg, check the area around here. If the woman was trying to get in at Sophia, she could have left prints here as well." Grissom watched as Nick and Warrick started out of the room, followed by Ecklie, then Catherine and Greg.

"I'm going back to the sheriff's office to check on the whereabouts of Deputy Higgens." Ecklie stepped down off the porch and started across the parking lot. "Sophia," he called over his shoulder. "Get dressed and you can join me. I'll be waiting outside my room."

Sara looked at Sophia who was watching everyone else leave her room, then when the blonde looked back at Grissom and Sara, Sara slowly raised Grissom's hand where she inserted his finger into her mouth and ran her lips and tongue down over it, eliciting a screech from the other woman as she ran toward them.

"Ecklie!" Sara yelled, stopping Sophia in her tracks. "Sophia's trying to hit me again!"

"Sophia!" Ecklie turned and looked at the blonde's wide eyes as she stood in the middle of her room still holding her toothbrush in one hand. "Leave Sara the hell alone! She's only doing her job!"

"But. . ." Sophia tried but Ecklie turned and went on his way again.

"In front of my room—in five minutes!"

Sara looked at Sophia and smiled as she started out of the room with Grissom, receiving a warning from the man.

"Stop it."

"She deserves it," Sara said as they walked across the parking lot toward Sara's side of the building.

"I said stop it."