"Most of our evidence is ruined!" Sara said, throwing back a picture frame that had at least three bullet holes, back to the ground.
"Which won't be a big problem if the father really did it... But I found evidence that suggests he didn't commit suicide..." Ray replied.
"So somebody else must've been in the house after the family was murdered..."
Back at the lab, Greg was trying to reconstruct the crime scene on the computer when he got an email.
"Catherine!" he yelled from inside the computer room, waving at her. "You need to see this!"
"What is it?" she went in, looking at the screen.
"Someone just sent me this email with pictures of our crime scene... BEFORE the house was pierced through by a few dozen bullets." he clicked the pictures open.
Catherine just stared at the pictures. "Archie needs to find out where that email came from..." she called him to get over here quick.
"Why would this guy send this email to you?" Catherine looked at Greg. She figured that if he wanted to send these pictures to the police he'd rather send it to Brass or maybe her, since she was the supervisor. But why would he send it to a normal CSI?
"I... I don't know. I don't use this address for personal matters, I have no idea how he got it!"
"Well..." Catherine sighed. "That's not important now, first we need to find out WHO he is."
As she went out, Greg couldn't help but think she was kind of angry with him, as if it was his fault this guy somehow got his department email address.
The CSIs all gathered in the break room to discuss the case.
"So Archie said he can't find out who sent this email to Greg. This guy obviously knows his way around a computer. Archie will do what he can, but he doesn't think he'll ever find out..." Ray said, looking at the printed email. „Greg, when was the last time you used this email address? Who knows this address?"
"I swear I didn't use it for personal stuff! I hardly ever use it, how often do we need to give our email address in our job?" Greg replied, almost as if he had to defend himself.
Sara wasn't sure this was about Greg. "Let's not forget... Our department email addresses are our names and we all have the same domain. If someone knows our name, they also know the email address. It might be just a coincidence he picked Greg, you know."
"Maybe he's someone you met while working on a case." Nick suggested "And because he remembered your name, he thought he'd email you."
"Well if that's the case... We're not in luck. I met dozens of people alone in the last week!"
"Greg's right. Even if we went through all the cases he's been working on the last weeks, we still don't know if that's how he got to his email address. I think we need another way to find this guy." Catherine said with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Hey Bobby" Nick said, walking into ballistics. „Is our gun ready?"
"Yepp" Bobby replied „But it's not the gun that shot the bullets through the house" He handed Nick his report.
"What?"
"Yeah... I know, I thought it would match, too. It's a similar gun, but not THAT gun."
They found the gun at the tree house. Why would the shooter leave a gun at that tree house he didn't use? Nick thought he played with them. „Alright, thanks man..."
"Hey Nick" Greg said, passing Nick while he was coming out of ballistics.
"Greg, what's wrong?" he couldn't help but notice the mad tone in Greg's voice.
"Nothing... Well, the mechanic called again. He said someone tampered with my car's engine!" Greg was clearly angry. He had a hard time understanding why someone would wreck his car for fun.
"Probably some teenagers with a wicked sense of humor." Nick said, patting Greg on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it."
"I know.. It's just... It's not about the money, I just don't get what kind of person would do that!" Greg just went on with his rant, not acting weird about Nick touching his shoulder. This moment made Nick really happy, he was sure Greg was finally overcoming his emotional trauma.
"I know it's inconvenient and troublesome that you don't have a car, but if you want to I can give you a ride until your car is ready, you know." Nick kindly offered.
Greg finally stopped his rant and smiled at Nick. "Thanks, Nick..."
"Doc Robbins confirmed, the father didn't hang himself." Ray said, handing the autopsy report to Nick. Again they all gathered in the break room to discuss the case.
"So somebody had to be at the crime scene... It's very likely he killed the whole family" Nick said.
"Let's not get ahead of the evidence here, Nicky. He could still be the one who murdered the family. For all we know, the aunt could've found the bodies and killed him." Catherine didn't believe in that theory, but they had not enough evidence yet to prove either one right or wrong.
"But I think it's very likely that the one who sent me these pictures is the one who killed the father." Greg added.
"Here's what we know so far. The mother was the first victim. She was smothered with a pillow from her bedroom. The older daughter was the second victim, being shot in the back while taking a shower... The little daughter was probably the third victim. Judging from the direction her body was lying, she probably was about to hide underneath her bed when she was shot..." he paused there for a second. "Then he shot the son and his girlfriend. It looks like they were running to the door when they were shot from behind. They probably wanted to check upstairs when the shooter came down to them. And finally... The father was strangled and hung up."
"Why would the killer strangle him instead of shoot him? Doesn't really make any sense..." Nick wondered.
"Maybe he thought it looked more real to hang him?" Sara suggested.
"Was there any gunshot residue on his hands?" Catherine asked, looking at the autopsy report.
"No. I don't even think he held the gun. We checked it for prints. It's wiped clean."
"Okay... It really does look like he didn't commit those murders..." Catherine acknowledged. "Let's try to find any traces of the shooter, maybe this way we'll find out who's threatening us..."
