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Greg had insisted on driving over to the lab and telling Russell about Nick's dream instantly, despite both of them being in desperate need of sleep. Much to Greg's surprise, though, the supervisor wasn't as thrilled about this dream as he was. Instead of saying anything, he just leaned back in his chair rather thoughtful.
"So?" Greg asked excited as they were all sitting in Russell's office.
Russell turned to Nick. "What do you think about it?"
"I don't know." Nick shrugged. "I already told Greg, it could've been just a dream."
"But a dream realistic enough to cause you to wake me up, right?" Greg added.
Nick nodded. "It felt real, that's for sure. But why should Astin want to shoot me on purpose?"
"Nick's right, I think his mind's mixing reality with fiction here. It felt real because it more or less happened, but not quite exactly."
"Alright, then. Let's head back home." Nick slowly got off his seat. "You coming?"
"...In a minute," Greg replied. He only went on when Nick was out of the door. "There's a scenario where it's possible that Astin shot Nick on purpose, you know."
Russell looked a bit wary. "And what would that be?"
"If he's the one who shot the people in the diner."
The supervisor gave him a surprised look. "What makes you think that?"
"I don't know..." Greg shrugged. "Nick's dream just got me thinking. It was a coincidence Astin was at the diner. His partner was on break but he wasn't. What was he doing there?"
"Greg, we can't just voice accusations like that without any evidence, you know that."
"I'm just saying it's a possibility. If he wasn't a cop, he'd be a suspect and you know that."
Russell nodded rather thoughtful. "You're not wrong about that. But what do you suggest we do?"
"Just tell swing shift what they have to look for. If there's any trace of him, they might not think about it as trace a suspect left behind but rather trace a cop left behind, right?"
"Swing shift's not on the case anymore. After Gunn's involvement, they passed it on to day shift. They even think about getting CSIs from out of town."
"Well then tell day shift before it's too late." Greg noticed hesitation on the supervisor's part. "...What is it?"
"I'm sorry, I can't help but wonder if this has anything to do with your arrest."
"What?! Of course not! If anything, it should give you more reason to believe me! Something's not right with this guy."
It wasn't that Russell didn't believe Greg, he was just more careful with the accusations. He was more experienced in the politics of law enforcement. He did tell day shift about Greg's theory but wasn't all that surprised when they laughed it off. No CSI wanted to believe that a cop would be capable of murder, but the graveyard shift didn't really have a choice. They just didn't know what to do with it. But word had spread around the lab, as well at the station and even over at the police department Astin worked in.
Greg just walked out of his apartment building after getting some stuff out of his apartment he needed over at Nick's when he was aproached by Astin and his partner Morton. "Sanders."
Greg turned around to them. "...What the hell are you doing here?"
"Thanks a lot for getting me suspended!" Astin said in an aggressive manner.
Greg hadn't even heard about this, yet. "Suspended?" He couldn't help but smile a little.
"What, this is funny?" Morton asked annoyed. Both men were not wearing their uniforms.
"How else did you expect me to react?" Greg rolled his eyes as he turned around and started to walk away from them.
They followed him. "You think you're super smart, right?" Astin chuckled. "Try to take the focus off of your friend by blaming me. But I didn't kill those people."
Greg tried to ignore them, despite being really annoyed by them. Having these two follow him didn't feel too good, either.
"You'll feel bad about that once the real killer kills again. Instead of looking for him they spend their time proving that I didn't do it."
Greg finally reached his car. He wanted to open the door, but Morton kicked it shut again. "...Hey! What the hell's your problem?!"
"I think this one's a little too big for you, champ." Astin walked up closer to Greg in a threatening manner. "Going up against a police officer is a bad idea, mark my words."
"I'm just protecting my partner like you would yours." The intimidation was working on Greg. He was getting defensive. It even showed in his body language.
He grabbed Greg's neck. "But I wouldn't sacrifice another law enforcer's carreer while doing it, alright?"
Greg nodded while looking rather helpless to an officer walking up to them.
"Everything alright over here?" the officer asked.
Greg didn't dare say a word, but Astin did. "Hey Roth," he said with a mean grin while looking at Greg, "Everything's fine. Right, Sanders?"
Greg had understood the point Astin was trying to get across. It was one CSI against a whole police department. Astin got support from all his colleagues. Even his supervisor didn't want to suspend him, but she felt like she had no choice. In a situation like that, this was procedure to protect the department as good as possible.
Russell walked in to get some coffee, but couldn't help but notice the defeated and depressed look on his colleague's face. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Greg replied, failing at trying to sound convincing.
He sat down opposite him. "Come on, I can see it in your face. Something's bothering you."
"No, I... I'm done, you know? I can't win against Astin. He'll get away with it."
"...What are you talking about?"
"Well, he's got friends everywhere, it..." Greg got interrupted by officer Roth, the one who just ran into Greg and Astin, walking in.
"CSI Russell?"
"Yeah?" Russell asked while Greg stared at the officer in shocked disbelief.
"There's something I need to talk to you about your case." Him and Russell walked out while Roth gave Greg a look to make him understand that Astin really had friends everywhere.
A few minutes later, Russell walked back in. "Sorry for the interruption. You were saying?"
"...Nothing. Is IA making any progress in the investigation?"
"No. No one's talking so they're trying to get a court order to search the CSI's homes..." Greg looked a little lost in his thoughts as Russell kept on explaining. "...Are you even listening?"
"Sorry, no... Who's working on the murder case... The guy who tried to kill Nick in the hospital?"
"Swing shift was on that case, too, but day shift got the case when they took over the diner shooting, since they could be related..."
"Russell, we've been doing this wrong all along!"
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't think we'll find anything useful in the diner. Swing shift had their hands on it for too long."
"Greg, you don't know yet that they..."
He interrupted his supervisor. "Day shift needs to solve the murder case of the guy in the hospital, it'll lead them to the shooter!"
"...What?"
Greg jumped off his seat and walked outside. Russell sat there for a moment in confusion until he followed him.
"Come on, Maggie!" Greg exclaimed annoyed as Russell walked into the evidence room. The young CSI was talking to CSI Mazello from day shift.
"I just got here, Greg. You could've at least waited for me to have my coffee before asking me something like this," she replied without looking up from the piece of evidence she was just starting on to process.
"What's going on?" Russell looked rather lost.
"He wants me to compare two pieces of evidence from two different cases that are in no way related."
"Which one?"
"Sara and I found footprints at the scene!" Greg exclaimed exicted.
This didn't help solve any confusion at all. "What are you talking about?"
"At the scene! The guy in the hospital. We had found footprints we were about to process but didn't get the chance anymore."
"He wants me to compare them to officer Astin's boots." She gave Greg a look.
"...Astin? Are you out of your mind?!" Russell was getting angry.
"...Why? Russell, if they match I..."
Russell grabbed Greg's arm to pull him out of the evidence room. "You can't ask her to do that!"
"Why not?"
"Because the whole swing shift is under investigation! Day shift might as well be in on it, too!"
Greg raised his eyebrows. "I didn't peg you for the conspiracy theory guy..."
"Greg, we can't know who we can trust. She might be trustworthy, but what if not?"
"Well... I'm willing to take that risk."
"You know you're risking your carreer, too, do you?"
Greg didn't answer. He kind of did know that, but was always one to think positively. He didn't believe there was a real chance he could hurt his carreer with this case, but the fear was always in the back of his head. "I need to help Nick."
"We will, but not like this." Russell walked back inside. "Mazello, got any leads on that case yet?"
Maggie looked up from her work. "We're swamped in work, a dead junky isn't exactly on top of our to-do list."
Russell raised an eyebrow. "Did you even start?"
"Not really. I tried to find relatives of our John Doe, but so far no one's missing him, so..."