Chapter 5

Monday, September 4th, 2006
3:45 AM

He passed Greg in the hall. Haunted look met haunted look. Nick didn't know the details of the homicide that had Greg and Grissom spinning for the past couple of days, but Greg had told him that the images weren't leaving his head. Nick could relate. For the past several hours, different images had been running through his head. Purplish blackish skin being slowly removed by a pair of tweezers. Other patches of dead grayish skin littered across the two bodies. Dermal tissue left raw and exposed. Nerve cells painfully visible. The woman had been burned alive…on top of a corpse. God it was sickening.

Few things could make him cringe. Growing up near large Texas ranches had exposed him to all sorts of sights, sights he liked to participate in as a young man. He'd helped slaughter neighbors cattle as a young boy. He'd butchered his own wild game after successful hunting excursions as a young man. He'd never been squeamish. And, living in Vegas he'd seen a lot. He'd sat through many autopsies. He'd seen burnt corpses before. Yet, the images of the past few hours were living in his mind, as though he was watching some avant-garde Italian film, tweezers going down, peeling away the dead skin, lifting and placing the tags in a tray, then starting over again, tag by tag; discolored skin by discolored skin, over and over and over. Their victim had been lit up, alive and burning on top of a corpse. Burning a lady alive was one thing, entirely horrifying in itself, but to burn a living, breathing lady with a corpse was sick. It was something his southern, gentlemanly upbringing couldn't handle.

Catherine was in the garage when he reached it. He walked in, standing next to her as she fingered each piece of wood she'd collected, her latex gloves blackened by all of the contact. He watched with interest as she moved the wood around. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to map out how the wood must have looked before it was lit up. It's hard when so much of the wood was reduced to almost nothing." He nodded, seeing her pattern and picked up a piece of wood, placing it on the mounting pile accumulating inside Catherine's roped off area. She handed him another piece of wood to place on top, directing him to where she thought it should be placed. "Did you check with DNA?"

"Wendy is still running the samples. Missing persons came up empty. She's trying CODIS now." He looked back down at the wood and back to Catherine. She was studying the pile. "What are you thinking?"

"We know that the killer built some sort of structure. I think he made it using lengths of small, round wood. I measured the outer rim of the wood at the crime scene. It was seven feet by four feet."

"So it would have fit into a pickup truck box if the truck was a long box?"

"Yes, but it would have been hard to handle for one person."

His eyes narrowed and he looked at her quizzically. "You're thinking it may have been more than one person?"

"It's possible."

Nick frowned. Somehow the thought of more than one person being involved in such a heinous crime made it all the more sickening. He didn't have long to dwell on the thought. His beeper went off and he picked it up. "Hodges has some results for us in trace." He pulled out his phone and sent off a message, instructing Hodges to bring the results too them. A few seconds later his phone beeped. He opened it and glanced at the message. "He'll be here in a few minutes with the results."

3:57 AM

To say that she was surprised that Nick had so easily gotten Hodges to leave his lab to bring the results to them would have been a massive understatement. When Hodges showed up with a file in his hand, she thought she'd keel over from the shock. Then, Hodges eyes darted around and a frown sprung to his face. "Where's Grissom?"

Her eyebrows raised on their own. She looked over to Nick. He merely glanced at Hodges before turning back to the pile of wood. "Not here anymore, but since you are, would you mind giving us the results?"

That sneaky buggar. Now she knew how he got Hodges to come to them. She stifled her chuckle and watched as Hodges glanced around again. "I should give them to Grissom."

"Look Hodges, I'm the lead on this. Grissom isn't even on this case. You can give the results to us."

"Why did you write that he wanted me to bring the results down then?"

"Hodges, I merely wrote that I thought Grissom wanted you to bring the results to us. And that's exactly what he would have wanted. He wouldn't want us leaving the evidence out to get them, and we both want to hear them, so give them up. What have you got?"

"You manipulated me."

"That's right and it worked. Get over it. Now, come on."

Hodges glanced at her with accusing eyes. She merely shrugged, suppressing her laughter and shaking her head. "Hey, don't blame me, but since you're here…"

"Grissom won't like hearing that you used his name to manipulate me."

"What are you going to tell him? That you wouldn't come unless it was he who beckoned? That won't fly with him, so go ahead, Hodges, tell him. He'll give it to you good."

"I won't fall for that again."

That time, she did laugh. Hodges looked back at her and she shook her head again. "Sorry." She waved her hand at him. "Results?"

Hodges's long sigh was enough to cause her to stifle another chuckle. He opened the file, gaining her full attention. "The wood you collected was larch, not native to Nevada but rather to the Northwest and to mountainous areas where the weather is cooler. Larch is known for its tough, waterproof qualities."

"Larch?"

Hodges rolled his eyes. "Yes, larch."

"Any accelerants?"

"There wasn't any trace on any of the samples you gave me."

"No accelerants at all?"

"No."

"Well, when you run all of these other samples, maybe you'll find one."

Catherine watched as Hodges eyed the piles of wood. "That's why you brought me down, so I could transport all of your evidence for you?"

"No, we're not done with it yet. Just letting you know what's in store for you."

"Great."

"Anything else for us?"

"Yeah, being the maestro that I am, I discovered the material used in the rope. It's jute."

"Jute? I never heard of it."

"Well, you've heard of burlap?"

"Of course."

"Burlap material comes from Jute. It's a natural fiber, one of the strongest natural fibers in existence, comes from the skins of the jute plant. It is cultivated mostly in India and Bangladesh. It has a high tensile strength and low extensibility, and it has some heat and fire resistance to it."

Catherine took the file from Hodges's hands. "Thank you, maestro." Hodges eyed her, then eyed the pile and turned, smirking as he left. Catherine eyed Nick as Hodges left. Nick shook his head. "He's lucky he's so good at his job."

"He's great at it." She paused and looked over the results from the file in her hands. "A strong natural fiber that can accommodate a great deal of tension without stretching out of shape, with some resistance to heat and fire?"

"Perfect for what we've just seen it used for."

She nodded. "I think the killer must have used it to tie the lengths of wood together and probably to tie our Jane Doe down to the fire as well."

"The fiber has some heat and fire resistance, probably enough to hold strong until our Jane Doe passed out from smoke inhalation."

"Right, so now, we look for places that would sell jute rope and hope the list isn't too long."

"I'll start an online search. We can check the locations tomorrow."

"I'll keep working on this pile and see if I can come up with anything."

Nick laughed at her. "Staring at a pile of wood, hoping it speaks to you, is so…Grissom."

"Or so Sara, but what can I say? You don't work with a man as long as I've worked with Grissom without something rubbing off on you." She paused and thought back to Hodges's face when he discovered Nick had tricked him. "Incidentally, I think I might use your little trick at manipulating Hodges."

Nick laughed. "You liked that?"

"Brilliant. The look on his face brightened up my morning."

"Mine too."

"Thanks Nicky."

"Any time. Now have fun with your pile of wood." Nick grinned and left. She turned back to the pile and let out a loud, long, large groan.

5:05 AM

Nick was on his way back to the garage when Wendy caught him in the hall. He stopped and turned to her, receiving news that wasn't unexpected, but also wasn't good. The search through CODIS came up empty. They'd have to find another way to id the bodies, and next on the list of ways to id two bodies burned beyond recognition was through the teeth. He did not look forward to going back to the morgue to get the X-rays and dental impressions that were required. Never-the-less, after letting out an awkward sound that could be described as something between a sigh and a groan, he thanked Wendy and changed his course to head to the morgue.

Doc Robbins opened the drawers and pulled out the bodies for him. Facial X-rays had already been taken, so all that was left was the dental impressions and an overall sketch of the teeth. Nick looked down at the bodies, not savoring the thought of having to manipulate the mouths. He pulled on his latex gloves and fixed one hand firmly to his John Doe's jaw. Opening the mouth, he created just enough space for Doc Robbins to get a mold inside. Forcing the jaw shut again, Nick created the impression, reopened the jaw and removed the mold. While Doc Robbins looked over the teeth, he labeled the mold, finding the need to remove his gloves and don a new pair after seeing that they were covered in a sticky, fluid matter.

The process was repeated on the Jane Doe. As soon as it was finished, Nick removed his gloves and sealed them in an evidence bag. He left the morgue with a quick thank you and headed to his office to plug in the particulars into the Dental Society Database.

Catherine was still working on her pile when he finally made it back into the garage. "CODIS didn't kick out any names."

"Still no id on our two victims?"

"No, but I went back to the morgue and took dental impressions. I posted the dental work on the Dental Society Database. Hopefully someone will respond and we'll figure out who our John Doe and Jane Doe are."

Catherine sighed. "So, more waiting."

"Yeah. I doubt anyone will respond tonight, so we'll have to check it tomorrow."

He watches as Catherine looked up from her work and wiped her brow. "Did you find any retailers for jute rope in the area?"

"Well, you can get it at a lot of boating supply stores, but I think the first place to check would be Crafta. It's on Nellis Blvd. They sell jute rope in large quantities. We'll have to check there tomorrow as well."

"So for now, we're at a standstill."

He nodded. "Nothing else we can do tonight."

"Well, I guess we head to our respective houses and get some rest. I'll let Grissom know that I'm leaving this," she indicated the piles of wood," out. I'll lock it up. Go home."

He sighed. "Yeah, okay. When do you want to meet tomorrow to head up our searches?"

"Noon? It'll give us a few hours of rest. I'll call Vega and let him know."

"Alright. I guess I'll see you around noon."

"Sweet dreams, Nicky."

Yeah right. He wasn't sure how much sleep he'd actually get with the avant-garde film still playing through his head. But, he would need the rest, so he might as well try. He sent Catherine a small smile and headed out of the garage.