"Case number: one, zero, zero, zero, two, five, eight, five," Doc Robbins began talking into the audio recorder having concluded his autopsy, "Name of deceased: Lomar Carlos Valdez. Medical Examiner: Albert Robbins. Employee Number: two, two, eight, three, six, nine. Date of post-mortem examination: o-seven, o-nine, eleven." It was the same routine over and over again; in fact he'd learnt the routine by heart within just three autopsies. It was one of the most tedious aspects of the jobs but it was necessary when there were no CSIs to relay the information to.

"Preliminary external examination: trace fibres found in nasal passages, materials forwarded to trace. Extensive lacerations and wounds embedded by glass, histopathic analysis of the tissue reveals that mast cells have not degranulated, which implies these wounds occurred post-mortem. No visible wounds elsewhere on the body, nor were there any defensive wounds. Lubricant found on the genitals implies that he was involved in recent sexual activity."

Doc Robbins then moved across the morgue to where his notes from the internal examination lay. He flicked through a few pages until he came to his last entry and began speaking into the recorder again: "Internally, all organs intact, healthy and in the correct place. Likewise, no haematomas or haemorrhaging found in the brain..." he was suddenly cut off by someone entering the morgue. He switched off the recorder and growled frustratingly, "David, what have I told you before about interrupting autopsy recordings."

"Sorry Doc," David responded with a terrified look on his face, speaking hurriedly, "I just came in to find my lunch I don't know if you've seen it but if you do could you..."

"Yes, you left it in one of the freezers, I placed it on your desk," Doc Robbins replied calmly.

"Thanks boss," he smiled sheepishly and scuttled out of the morgue in search for his lunch.

Doc Robbins muttered to himself disapprovingly and went back to recording his findings. "Stomach contents revealed to contain fries, from a fast food restaurant, beer and trace amounts of red wine. Blood was withdrawn from the heart, preliminary toxicology results came up negative, a sample has been sent to tox for full analysis. Partial pressure within the blood exceeded fifty millimetres HG, implying that the victim suffered type two respiratory failure leading to hypoxaemia and eventual death."

Doc Robbins shut his notes and gave his final verdict, "TOD: o-seven, o-eight, eleven, around twenty-two hundred hours. COD: type two respiratory failure due to unknown circumstances, pending full toxicology results. Albert Robbins, M.E., employee number: two, two, eight, three, six, nine."

He switched off the recorder and signed his report made following the autopsy. With a bit of effort he was able to place the body in one of the cooling vaults and placed a toe tag on the big toe of the victim. With a small grunt, he slammed the drawer into the vault and shut the door, sealing Lomar Valdez into his temporary casket.

"Hey Archie, I got your page," Nick told the AV tech as he entered into his lab. "What have you got to show me?"

"Well I can prove that your victim's girlfriend is a liar," Archie replied rewinding footage of the seventeenth floor, "luckily for us, room seventeen-thirty-five happens to be right in the pathway of this camera. Right, at nine sixteen pm, Lomar Valdez enters the room. Nine minutes later at nine twenty-five, the girlfriend, Lorena Melua enters the room."

"Well she was telling the truth about one thing," Nick remarked, "she'd ditched her BFFs."

"Right. Around sixteen minutes later at nine forty-one, she's seen leaving the room again."

"Okay, well the victim died at around nine thirty, possibly ten so we definitely have her in the room around the time that the murder was committed."

"I don't think she was alone either, have a look at this." Archie fast forwarded the footage to eleven twenty-seven pm, "here we see Lorena Melua goes back to the room. Now she leaves the room two minutes later looking seriously flustered." The figure on the footage clearly looked agitated and distressed as she stormed along the corridor. "Have a look at the footage of her in the elevator shortly afterwards," he switched the screen to show Lorena Melua pacing around in the elevator and looking to be in tears.

"She looks awfully distressed for someone who knows they've just killed their boyfriend," Nick commented.

"Or she may know where the cameras are and acting up to them," Archie correctly pointed out, "or maybe she could be regretting her decision. But I have one last thing to show you, have a look around half an hour later at two minutes past midnight." Archie changed the screen back to the surveillance of the seventeenth floor corridor. "Here." He points to a second figure who is seen escorting Lorena back to the room where Lomar Valdez lies dead.

"That makes sense," Nick nodded, "I doubt Lorena would be able to throw the body out the window on her own. We've also got him for an accessory to covering up a murder. We'll bring in Lorena and see if she's willing to rat out her accomplice. Thanks Archie!"

"No problem at all, it's what I get paid to do," Archie chuckled as Nick left to answer a page he'd received from Ray.

On the way to the layout room, he was ambushed by a now clean and lavender-smelling Hodges. "Stokes, I identified the fibres found in the victim's nose."

Nick looked at him confused, "Fibres?"

"Don't tell me you haven't read the autopsy report," Hodges replied sardonically. Nick realised that he hadn't and mentally made sure he read it quickly as he hated being left behind on a case, "so the fibres I found came from a sheep, my guess, wool from a pillow."

"Smothered by a pillow?"

"I knew you hadn't read the report," he replied snidely as he retreated back into the trace lab.

Nick walked into the layout room to find Ray prying over certain bits of evidence found from the dumpster of the Emerald Eyes casino, "Hey have you seen the autopsy report for Lomar Valdez anywhere?"

"I have," Ray replied, "I read it and filed it away as protocol."

"Damn it," Nick muttered, "okay tell me how he died."

"The report said respiratory failure due to unknown circumstances, pending full toxicology panel."

"Speaking of which," Henry smiled to himself as he handed the results over to Nick, "I have them right here."

Nick looked at the results given to him, "Blood alcohol, point two, six. Diazepam levels are through the roof."

"Diazepam plus alcohol equals goodnight Mr Valdez," Henry commented.

"Hey Ray, didn't you say you found an empty tub of diazepam from the dumpster?"

"I did," Ray looked up at him for the first time, "I got some prints off it and gave it to Mandy to process. I also found a used condom which is currently in DNA. Selma confirmed that the bottle of beer found on the bedside table was consumed by the victim so it looks like someone might have spiked his drink."

"James Bond style," Henry said, in a manner which made him sound like he was trying to be cool which prompted an awkward silence in the room, "sorry," he muttered and quickly hurried out the room.

"So what else did you find, Raymundo?"

"Didn't get anything on his clothes, a bunch of old wrappers which came back with nothing, but I did find this which seemed suspicious," Ray held up what looked to be a pebble of some sort, "I found trace on the underside of it which I sent to Hodges, but I'm also gonna fume this for prints along with the plastic lining, I think our killer may have used this grind up the diazepam to put in the beer."

"Good job Raymundo," Nick replied.

"Please, don't call me that," Ray muttered back.

"Aww, I quite like it," Nick laughed, Ray appeared not to share the same enthusiasm, "what's the matter Ray? Something doesn't look too right with you this week."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Ray protested, "I've just got a bit of a... stomach ache."

"Well take it easy big guy. Anyway, this is looking to be an easy slam-dunk, we got the girlfriend and one other on surveillance heading into the room around the time of death and the time the body got chucked out the window."

"And you're bringing them in?"

"Well, Vega's gone to get her, we're hoping we can make a deal to get the other guy but we might as well wait until we get all the results back to speak to her."

"Yeah, she's probably lawyered up and there's nothing more satisfying than seeing their defence attorneys crumble."

Ray then took the lining and the pebble-like feature and placed them the fume cupboard, leaving them to try and bring up any prints he could pass on to Mandy. Nick heard his phone ringing and answered it to find out that Vega had found something to indict the girlfriend even more.

"Hey Nick," he spoke down the phone, "yesterday morning, your victim, Lomar Valdez took out a five hundred K life insurance policy on himself."

"Let me guess, the girlfriend is the recipient in the event that her dearly beloved dies?"

"Well how did you know that?" Vega replied sarcastically, "anyway, I've got her in the back of the car, she's not saying anything about her little helper but I think with a bit of persuasion we can get him in as well."

"Okay, well we're gonna wait a little until some of the evidence is interpreted before we speak to her, the lab's been a little backlogged today."

"No problem, call when you're ready to speak to her."

Sara pulled up to a large apartment complex in North Las Vegas to the address which Detective Monaghan had provided her. She immediately saw a figure who looked to be the detective in distress begin running towards the Denali, obviously recognising that the Crime scene use them. Sara noted she was young, very young for a detective; she couldn't have been any older than twenty-five. Her hair was long, brown and straight and she looked to be a very attractive person, relatively skinny with a very distinctive bosom. Her first impression was that maybe this detective had managed to charm herself into the police force.

When she got closer, Sara wound down the window and began talking to the woman, "are you Detective Monaghan?" The woman nodded frantically, trying to catch her breath having run to the vehicle as quickly as possible, "I'm Sara Side, and I'm here to rescue you. Hop in."

Detective Monaghan quickly rushed round to the passenger's side and quickly got in; she extended her hand out to Sara to introduce herself properly, "Kayleigh Monaghan, nice to meet you Sara." There was a small awkward pause between the two of them until Monaghan spoke up excitingly, "I thought to make up for you having to come all the way out here, I did some small background research into your victim, her husband was killed in a car crash two years ago..."

"Yeah we know about that," Sara said, trying not to seem too rude but deep down she knew that her low tolerance towards young, chatty people wasn't going to portray a friendly first impression.

"Okay, well did you know that she filed two police reports regarding break-ins at her home?" Monaghan quickly piped up.

Sara suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and burst out with, "tell me more."

"Okay," Monaghan quickly reached into her case and pulled out a few notes regarding the break-ins. "The first incident occurred on Friday, June twenty-fourth, she reported that someone had knocked over a vase and had stolen a silver broach. Perpetrator was never apprehended."

"Okay and what about the second incident?"

"The second incident occurred on Friday, July first and this time she reported a pair of earrings and her dead husband's watch were stolen. Police found these items in a pawn shop and described the person who sold them as a young kid, approximately eighteen years old, short brown hair, scruffy clothes."

"Well our victim died on Friday night, maybe our home invader came back to take something else, but Claudia Blanchard got in the way. Maybe it was a crime of opportunity? Where did Claudia say she was on the previous two Fridays?"

"She said she'd do her weekend grocery shop on a Friday evening," Monaghan read from her notes.

"But this Friday, her daughter and grandchildren did that instead. We need to go back to the house, initially I didn't find anything around the perimeter but I don't know I may have missed something," she pulled out her phone and began dialling a number. The person on the other end picked it up on the second ring, "Greg, it's Sara; I'm going back to the scene on a hunch. You got anything from the paramedic?"

"She claimed the victim swiped at her when she responded to a call out," Greg told her, "apparently the victim had cut her own finger off. That explains the blood on the knife and the trace amount of spatter on one of the counters."

"Okay, what about the fridge?"

"Quite a few prints both on top, on the handle and behind the fridge. I'm particularly interested in the ones behind the thing. Oh and also there are a few dust voids on top of the fridge. Did we get any small boxes or possibly books at the scene?"

Sara thought back for a moment, "I don't recall there being any."

"Okay, I also had a look at the contents. The cherry flavoured yoghurt was tasty."

"Greg!" she screeched down the phone, "stop eating the evidence!"

"I'm only pulling your leg. It was pretty empty except for a few bits of veg at the bottom, but that was it."

"Okay, well I'll speak with you later." She hung up the phone, put the car into drive and headed towards the residence of Claudia Blanchard.

Claudia Blanchard's house still hadn't been released by the time to two of them had got there. The daughter and her children had been put into a motel for the night and Sara could see that the sun was starting to rise now and they needed to get as much as possible before they got into a dispute with the relatives.

"Okay, I checked all the doors, no signs of forced entry on any of them and I looked around back and I did manage to find a shoe impression," Sara told the detective, "but... I didn't check the windows."

Detective Monaghan followed the CSI as she put on her latex gloves and began wondering around and trying to pull up the windows in her reach. The first four she tried were either locked or didn't open far enough to allow anyone to crawl through. On her fifth attempt however, a window located near the back of the house opened easily enough so that even Nick would be able to fit through it. She let go of it satisfied and quickly withdrew her hand as it slammed down, almost severing her fingers.

"Snappy little sucker," Detective Monaghan noted.

Sara handed her a pair of latex gloves, "Could you put these on? I'm feeling if our intruder was caught unaware of the window, he may have left a piece of him behind."

Monaghan nodded and held up the window, allowing Sara to process the sill beneath it as well as the frame. She saw Sara extract a spray can from her kit, "so what you testing for?" She asked inquisitively.

"This is hydrogen peroxide. Usually I'd use luminal but the light conditions are unfavourable. Anyway, this stuff will begin foaming up when it makes contact with any blood, confirming its presence," she began spraying around the window frame although there was no reaction to be seen, "okay, so out guy was pretty careful with the window, I'll go and dust for fingerprints, you keep that window steady now."

Monaghan simply nodded as she watched Sara begin dusting away around the window-frame. "Sara," Monaghan said quietly as she continued collecting the prints, "I need to swap arms."

"Hold on a minute," Sara noted as she quickly collected four prints with some adhesive tape, "okay, you can drop it now."

With a huge sigh of relief, Monaghan let the window drop and winced as it slammed onto the windowsill, making a loud slamming noise. Sara gave her a look of concern mixed with one of mild disapproval. Monaghan knew herself that her skills as a detective were... satisfactory. Whilst she had excelled with knowing the law and understanding basic principles, she was let down by her reluctance to partake in the field and particularly when it came to chasing suspects down. She'd only been in the job for a year though so at least she was comforted by the fact there was plenty of room for improvement.

She followed Sara into the house and into the kitchen to which Sara was looking around. "What exactly are you looking for?" Monaghan asked innocently.

Sara turned to her and shrugged her shoulders, "I have no idea, but I have a strange feeling that we're missing something." Monaghan watched as Sara searched through cupboards, on the window, under the table and the cabinets until she found something she was looking for. "Well, what do we have here?" She reached behind a cabinet, the one adjacent to where the fridge had been placed and pulled out a photo of what looked to be Claudia Blanchard, carrying a baby in each arm.

"What are you hoping to prove with that?"

God, she sure asks a lot of questions, Sara thought to herself but she refrained from expressing her thoughts outside her head. "I'm sure it can prove something."

As the two of them left the scene to head back to the lab, Sara heard what looked like to be a small disruption between a woman and the uniformed officers standing outside their door.

"What do you mean I can't come in? It's my mother's house, no, it's my house!" The daughter of the victim screamed at the officer.

"Ma'am, I'm gonna need you to step back, this is still a crime scene," Officer Mitchell calmly told her.

"I can't believe this..." she began screaming again but Monaghan intervened and cut her off.

"Mrs Blanchard..."

"Mrs Dorrin actually, Joanne Dorin," Joanna snapped back.

"Well Joanna, if you don't listen to this man I have no choice but to take you downtown and we wouldn't want to have to send your kids to child services," she reasoned with the furious woman who appeared to calm down a little under the threat of losing her children.

"I have a couple of questions for you, Joanna," Sara spoke to her softly; Joanna simply nodded in acknowledgement and took a quick breather, "are you aware that your mother's house was broken into twice in the past two weeks?"

Joanna's eyes widened with surprise and she began shaking her head, "no, she never mentioned anything about it. The only thing suspicious was that she... was moving her jewellery around."

"Where did she move it to?"

"She put it above... the fridge. But then she was moving it again before we left... I don't know where though." Greg had said there was a dust void, shaped like a small box or a book, maybe it was a jewellery box, Sara began thinking to herself.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because," she said sadly, "I didn't think it was relevant."

"Mrs Dorrin, everything is relevant in a murder investigation."

"Hey Nick," Mandy called out as he passed the fingerprints lab, "I finally got a hit with the prints on your bottle of diazepam."

"Oh good, I was just on my way down to interrogation, what do you have?" Nick smiled at her cheekily.

"Two hits in AFIS. One was your victim which is understandable considering the pills are his," Mandy said, "but the other donor is the victim's girlfriend, Lorena Melua."

Nick smiled as she handed him the results of the prints, "Brilliant, Selma was also able to identify her DNA from the outside of the condom. We've got this case in the bag."

"You still want me to do the pebble and the bin lining?" Mandy required.

"Sure, the more evidence the better," Nick responded cheerfully as he walked down the corridor thinking they pretty much had this evidence in the bag. He heard his cell phone ring to which he answered it merrily, "Stokes."

"Hey Nick, it's Vega," his gruff voice sounded rather irritated on the other end. "We have a problem, the victim lawyered up."

"Nothing to worry about we've got plenty of evidence to convict..."

"She's saying she didn't commit the murder, she's saying her boyfriend committed suicide."

Nick couldn't believe what he was hearing, "what? What the hell is making you be so concerned about it, the evidence is implying that she done the deed and her friend helped her dispose of the body."

"Nick, listen." Vega barked, raising his voice, "she gave us a note. We've sent it for analysis, and it's authentic."

A/N: I 'stole' the line "Snappy little sucker" from the episode Chaos Theory where Catherine almost gets her hand shut in a garbage chute. I thought it would be rather relevant here. :P

The fourth and final part of the story will be up sometime tomorrow. Be sure to tell me what you think of this one! :)