Brass looked up as Catherine entered his office. "What's up?

"I thought it might be worth while to have another chat with Robert Austin's father. See what else we can get him to compel his son to do."

"Sounds like a good time to me," Brass replied with a smirk.

**************

Catherine waited somewhat impatiently after Brass rang the Austin's doorbell. She really wanted to solve this case, so Grissom could have a little peace of mind. The man that opened the door looked at her & Brass with a rather resigned look on his face. "Have you come to arrest him?" he asked.

"Not at the moment Mr. Austin. This is Catherine Willows with the crime lab. Could we have a word with you?"

"Of course," the man replied, holding the door open for them. "Come on in. And please, call me David."

"David," Catherine began after they had all settled into the living room. "We were wondering if you could convince your son to let us take his fingerprints."

David stared at her for a moment. "You really think he killed them, don't you? I'll admit that my son can be a Grade A prick, no matter how much I've tried to get him to shape up. But I know my son, and he is not a killer."

Catherine took a moment to frame her reply. "If you're sure he didn't have anything to do with their deaths, then giving us his prints can help clear his name." She practically wanted to cross her fingers for luck as she watched David internally debating what he should do. She practically sighed in relief when he stood up and called for his son.

"What?" Robert asked sullenly, sauntering into the room. When he caught sight of Catherine and Brass, his expression turned even more sour. "Fuck no."

"Watch your mouth young man!" his father said sharply.

"What are you going to make me do now?" Robert groused.

"This woman is going to take your fingerprints."

Robert looked as his father in astonishment. "You've got to be fucking kidding me?!"

"Mouth!" David almost shouted. "And you know what you're options are Robert."

Robert grumbled something under his breath before turning to Catherine. Catherine stood and brought him over to the table where she could lay out her kit and carefully took his prints while he stood there glaring at his father.

"Thank you for your help, David" Catherine said as she put everything back into her kit.

"Yeah, thanks, dad," Robert said sarcastically before storming out of the room.

"I don't know what to do with him," his father sighed. "Please let me know what you find out."

"We'll be in touch," Brass replied before ushering Catherine out of the house.

****************

"Catherine!" Greg greeted the CSI as she walked into his lab. "What can I do for you this lovely evening?"

She handed him the fingerprint card. "I need you to run these against the prints taken from the MacDonald crime scene." She'd barely gotten the sentence out of her mouth before Greg had grabbed the card and started working his magic. "What's the verdict?" she asked when she heard the tell tale beeping of the computer.

Greg shook his head. "It's not a match."

Catherine sighed. "Damn it. Now we're back to where we were before, which is nowhere. I better go tell Grissom."

*************

Before she went looking for Grissom, she headed to the break room in search of Nick and Sara. "Hey guys, we're back to square one with the MacDonald case."

"It wasn't the neighbor kid?" Sara asked.

"Nope. His prints didn't match the ones you found. So I need you two to go back and re-canvas the neighborhood. See if you can find anybody who can remember anything strange or out of place they might have seen. Anything at all, because otherwise we've got nothing else to go on."

"We'll get right on it, Cath," Nick replied.

"Thanks guys. I've got to go talk to the bossman."

"Good luck," Nick said as he and Sara headed out.

"I'm certainly going to need it," Catherine mumbled to herself as she headed towards Grissom's office.

***********

"I brought coffee," she announced as she entered his office.

"Well that never bodes well," he replied, looking up from his paperwork.

She sighed. "I've become predictable."

"Predictable is the last word I would use to describe you," he said with a smirk.

She smiled briefly before turning serious. Deciding bluntness was the best choice she stated, "It wasn't Robert."

"Damn it!" Grissom cursed, pounding his fist on the desk. "You're sure?"

Catherine nodded. "Got his prints and they didn't match."

He couldn't believe. He had been so sure that little punk had done it. But the evidence doesn't like. "Now what?" he asked.

She hated the almost despair in his voice. She would give anything to be able to make it go away. "I have Nick and Sara re-canvasing the neighborhood. Maybe someone will think of something that they didn't before."

Grissom sighed and rubbed his temples. He could already feel the migraine coming on. They were nowhere. All they had left to work with was luck and Grissom didn't trust luck.

Catherine watched him and wished there was something more she could do. "Look, why don't you go home and catch up on some sleep. Jim and I can take care of things here and I know you have more personal time saved up then you know what to do with."

It was a sign of just how tired he was that he didn't even bother trying to argue with her. Not that he would have won anyway, but he did usually like to pretend that he wasn't completely incapable of winning an argument with her. Sighing he replied, "Sleep does sound pretty good right about now."

As he stood up and got ready to leave she walked over to him and took his face in her hands. "Gil, we will find who did this. I really believe that we will." She then wrapped her arms around him and was happy to feel him do the same.

"Thanks, Cath," he whispered in her ear. As he pulled back, he smiled slightly and said, "What would I do without you?"

She returned the smile and replied, "I have no idea. The thought is just too scary to imagine."