Chapter 3:
The next morning Grissom stood before his class.
"Over the next few weeks we are going to cover the subject of 'Cold Cases'. What are they? Why do they go cold? Are they ever solved? Miss Dunn, will you please come to the front and write a few things on the board?" he said.
Casey pulled a bottle of water from her bag and handed it to him. Grissom thanked her, opened his desk drawer and pulled out his medicine bottle. She wrote as he spoke.
"A cold case is a crime or an accident that has not yet been fully solved and is not the subject of a recent criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, retained material evidence, as well as fresh activities of the suspect." he said.
"Thank you, Miss Dunn. You may take your seat."
From the back of the class Grissom heard whispering and giggling.
"What is so funny, Mr. Heart?" he asked one of the boys.
"Well sir," he said, embarrassed because he got caught, "The fact that you still write everything down. I mean most of us don't take notes, we use recorders."
"I see. Well I guess I am just old fashion, I like to be able to see something's," Grissom said, "Now if you don't mind my I continue?"
Everyone laughed.
"Experiences and education are the most important aspects that investigators need to close more cases," Grissom said, "And that is what I am going to try and do - educate you."
"What are all those boxes?" one of the girls asked.
"Thought no one noticed," he said, with a slight chuckle in his voice.
"I was able to get an actual cold case for us to check into," Grissom said.
He told them about the case, "Three years ago there was a string of robberies. All fast food or street venders. There was several a week. After about six months they stopped, law enforcement was never able to solve this one so it was put into the Cold Vault where it has been sitting all this time."
"So we are going to solve it?" one of the boys asked.
Grissom smiled, "We are going to use it to educate ourselves. It is highly unlikely that we will solve it."
The boy laughed, "You never know."
Grissom just shook his head. The class set about opening the boxes and spreading all the material on several tables. As they started to read one of the girls made a gasping sound.
"Are you OK Holly?" Casey asked.
"Yeah," she said, handing Casey one of the files, "The person that got hurt during this robbery was my younger brother. Freddy and a bunch of his friends stopped at Barney's Burger Barn after ball practice when the place was robbed. He was shot."
"You can be excused from this one if you want, Miss Rose," Grissom said.
"Thank you, Dr. Grissom. I'll be OK. Freddy was in the hospital for a while but he's alright. Any way, if we can help in anyway it's cool to know that I helped," she said.
Grissom divided the kids into groups, some were asked to interview the witness again, some the officers involved and some were to talk to Nick to cover the forensic of the cases.
"Instead of coming to class tomorrow I want you to go to your assigned areas," Grissom said.
"Professor," Holly said, "I was reading the interview with the suspect and something is not right."
"Go on," he said.
"Carl Hall. He has the same last name of the lead detective," she said.
"Yeah," one of the others said, "It says here that because 'HALL' is such a common name no one questioned it."
"Carl Hall is the older brother of James Hall, my roommates boyfriend," Holly said, "Last night James was bragging how his uncle, former Detective Andrew Hall, was able to get him out of a speeding ticket."
Grissom looked at the report, the lead detective was Andrew Hall.
"It looks like you may have uncovered something," Grissom said, "I think you know where to start."