Author's notes: Sorry about the delay, blame vacation and a hospitalized father. The next few chapters might have a lag in updating, I started back to work last week and I'm scrambling getting my classroom ready. A big thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. Here it is.
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Nick had finished with his job in the room and went into the bathroom to process any evidence he would find. Looking around the shower and the sink area, he couldn't see anything that looked promising. Pulling out the luminol, he sprayed the sink area and hit the black light. There, glowing under the light was evidence that there had been blood in and around the sink.
"Hey, Cat." Nick called out to the other room. "Grab your cameral and come in here please."
Stepping into the bathroom, Catherine inquired. "What do you have?"
"Blood in and around the sink. Could be someone tried to clean up."
Catherine snapped off several shots and then looked at her partner. "Anything else?"
"I didn't see anything. You?"
"No. I think we've got it all. Should we head back and see if anything else has come back before we call it a day?"
Nick smiled and looked at his watch. "Sounds good. I'm about ready to call it a night."
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Colby and Don walked out of the police department just after nine that morning. When Detective Brass had returned to the room, he had asked several additional questions and then had told the two men that they could go.
"I don't think I need to tell you to stay in town." Brass had looked at them with a steely glaze.
Indicating that they understood, Don had hustled Colby from the building and had called for a taxi. Now they headed back to the hotel.
Don looked over at his friend and noticed that Colby was nodding off as they rode along. The taxi hit a small bump and Colby jerked awake.
"Sorry. Can't seem to stay awake."
"Don't worry Colby. I'm ready to get some sleep too."
"I feel like I should stay awake and do something."
"Right now the important thing is to get some sleep. I'll have David get started on running down what ever leads we have."
"What leads? I don't know anything about Michelle." Colby's voice was tired.
"We'll find something and get to the bottom ot this. Don't worry Colby." Don's tone was convincing, even though he was very concerned about the lack of information to go by.
When they arrived at the hotel, both men hurried to the elevator. The press had left, but as they stood inside the elevator car, Don had noticed that the front page of the Las Vegas paper carried a picture of Colby and the headline "Police Question FBI Agent in Murder".
Don glanced over at Colby and was relieved to see that his attention was elsewhere. The elevator stopped and the man with the paper exited. Don mentally thanked God that Colby hadn't seen, although Don knew they would eventually have to deal with Colby's reaction to the paper.
Crime scene tape crossed the door to Colby's room aa the men walked to the next room. Don pulled out his room key and slid the card into the slot. A clicking and the green light indicated that the door was now unlocked. Opening the door, Don motioned for Colby to enter. "Take my bed."
Being too tired to argue, Colby pulled back the covers and lay down. As soon as his head hit the pillow he was out. Don stripped down to his boxers and climbed in beside Charlie.
"Don?" Charlie's voice was gravelly from sleep.
"Just getting back from the police station. Colby is with me. Lets get some sleep and then we will figure out what we're going to do."
" 'kay." Charlie rolled back over and was asleep again.
Don closed his own eyes and soon joined the other two.
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Having found that there was no new information waiting for them back at the crime lab, both Nick and Catherine had decided to clock out and go home. The case was not one that demanded that they stay and keep hammering at it. They could go home and get some sleep and come back at it later.
Lost in thought on the way home, Nick almost missed the driveway for his house. Chiding himself, he parked and headed into the house. Popping off the cap on a bottle of beer, he glanced at the paper's morning headline. "Slow news day if a murder makes above the fold.", he thought. Scanning the article, he could see that the paper was implying that this was a case of a casual hookup gone bad.
Grabbing a fast shower, he again started thinking about the case he had just been working on. The look of confussion that had been on Agent Granger's face had mirrored the same feelings that Nick had felt when he had pulled up outside of Kristy's house and had found out that she was dead.
Toweling off and then brushing his teeth, Nick finished in the bathroom and headed into his bedroom. The blackout shades keep the midmorning sun from coming in. Pulling back the bedspread, the lanky Texan lay down on the cool cotton sheets and closed his eyes. Soon sleep came and with them dreams.
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Catherine had been walking towards the door when Gil had caught up with her. "How's your case with the FBI agent going?"
"Found some trace in the bathroom and the murder weapon was located."
"Good. The paper has picked up on this case already. So, be prepared for some pressure from above to get it solved quickly." Gil held open the door for her. "Would you like to grab a bite to eat?"
"Sure." Catherine smiled. It's nothing she told herself, just two friends having a meal together.
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Brass was putting the finishing touches on is preliminary report. Unless the CSI's had something that would prove the innocence of Granger, it looked like an open and shut case. The information on Granger's past was enough to make the possibility of him snapping and killing the girl an easy assumption.
He frowned as he thought about Eppes. That guy was going to be a problem every step of the way. Feds always get hard to work with when they are protecting their own. If Granger was guilty, he sure the hell wasn't going to get away with it here.
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He had awakened feeling like he had run a marathon. The sheets were damp and twisted and the pillows were scattered on the floor. Looking at them he knew that he had been dreaming again. The funny thing was that he couldn't remember what he had been dreaming about.
Looking at the clock he decided that it was no use going back to sleep. Heading back into the bathroom and turning the shower on was always a cue for the phone to ring.
Listening to the answering machine pick up, the voice of Gil Grissom soon played through the house. "Sorry to bother you Nicky, but I need you to come in and get working on the murder from last night. We are getting the pressure from the district attorney's office." Nick had planned on coming in early, however he wasn't surprised that he had received a call.
"Looks like it's going to be a long day." Nick thought as he stepped into the steamy shower.
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The cell phone on his nightstand rang and his hand immediately closed around it to acknowledge the call. "Yeah, Sinclair here."
Several minutes later there was a muffled knock on the door. "Hey boss." David greeted Don. "How's Colby?"
"Sleeping. Charlie's in the shower and I wanted to talk to you quick before I go back to the police department. I want you to work with the CSI's if you can. Gil Grissom is the head of the night shift, so talk to him about it. I don't want them trying to railroad Colby."
"Any ideas about what happened?"
"None, I've been racking my brain about what could have happened."
"You guys have been planning this trip for several months, could someone gotten word about it and set Colby up?"
"For what purpose?"
"I don't want to point out the obvious, but the girl was Asian. Could the Chinese be trying to get back at him?"
"It's something to consider. Keep that in mind as you see what they find in their investigation." Don stood up and headed to the door. "Call me if you find anything."
"Sure thing."
Don headed back to the room and waited for his brother to finish in the shower. Several minutes later Charlie emerged from the bathroom toweling off his mop of hair.
"Charlie," Don wasted no time in bringing his brother up to speed. "I need you to get into Colby's computer and see if you can find out if anyone's been accessing it."
"No problem. I brought my laptop and I should be able to find out something for you. I'll see if there's a conference room available so I can spread out a little more."
"Thanks Charlie." Don moved to the bed where Colby was sleeping. "I've got to go to the police department, do you think you can stay here until he wakes up? I don't want him left alone or talk to anyone."
"No problem." Charlie pulled his computer out of it's case.
"One question, why did you bring a computer to a bachelor party?"
"I wanted to enter information on my gambling observations."
"I guess it's good for us."
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Lifting a bag containing the indistinguishable stomach contents of his patient, Doctor Robbins placed it on the scale. "1 pound and 2 ounces of partially digested food, including shrimp and rice." He lifted it off and set it to the side. Picking up his crutch, he made his way back to the autopsy table.
"Hey Doc. What's the story."
Robbins turned. "Good afternoon Nick." He turned back to the young woman on the table. Pointing at a wound on the woman's upper arm, "This is what killed her. The knife got her brachial artery and she bled out. There are also ten wounds on the upper body and defensive wounds on her hands. Some of them were deep and would have killed her in time, but hose were more of a stabbing injury, the artery was slashed."
"Could be that she threw up her arm to protect herself." Nick speculated. "Anything else of interest?"
"Blood came back with alcohol and cocaine."
Nick looked at the information that he had received earlier from the police. "What time did you place time of death at?"
"Sometime between 3 and 4 a.m."
"So, they drink, have sex and then he stabs her to death. Doesn't seem to make sense."
"Nick, when has murder ever made sense?" Robbins turned back to the table. "Whoever killed this young woman had considerable strength, at least one of her ribs were snapped by the force of the knife."
"Thanks Doc." Nick left autopsy and headed for the lab. He wasn't surprised to see Catherine already at work.
"What are you working on?"
"I've just started running his blood samples and I was going to start looking at the blood splatter photos." Catherine had pulled out the copies of the pictures she had taken.
"I just spoke with Doc Robbins. The brachial artery was slashed. I'm thinking that the killer might have slashed at her and got it accidentally, not that the other wounds were accidental."
"It was an accident officer, I was cleaning my knife and it went off."
"Why Catherine, you made a joke!" Nick teased. "What did you do after we got off that put you in such a good mood?"
"None of your business." She stopped talking as Gil and another man made their way towards the pair.
"Catherine, Nick." Gil paused a moment. "I don't know if you met already or not, but this is Agent David Sinclair. He's a member of Agent Eppes team and would like to offer any help he can provide with the investigation." He stressed the word investigation. "I told him he could help but would not be allowed to handle any evidence personally."
Nick smiled and reached out his hand. "We met this morning. How's your friend doing?"
David's face was serious as he thought about Colby. "Still sleeping when I left. Have you found anything?"
A beeping machine caused Catherine to turn and move to look at the readout. "It looks like we might have a break."