Chapter 40

JJ and Nick were shocked at just how much more gruesome and disgusting this scene was. Grissom and Catherine, who had been around a lot longer, were currently trying to keep their stomachs from dispelling whatever was inside of them, which should tell you just how bloody and gross this scene was. JJ was leaning against the SUV that she and Nick had arrived in together. JJ looked around for their old friends signature that he had clearly left behind, something that hadn't been picked up until recently. JJ saw it quickly, but she also saw that it was somewhere she couldn't get anywhere near, which meant that he had to have been able to get it there with something special, and that had to be a way that they could track him down. JJ was getting more and more concerned that they wouldn't be able to track him and find him, they had a picture of what he used to look like but no one knew what he looked like now. He could have had surgery and changed his image, he could look like someone else and even using the software that could age his childhood photo, won't guarantee that they know what he looks like today, which could mean they wouldn't have the right warnings out there for possible victims, and all they would be doing was letting him know that they were on to him.

"What are you thinking about?" Nick asked as he stood next to his wife. He could tell that her mind was spinning and she was thinking and trying to prioritize things and figure out what their next move should be to find their old friend and how they should proceed with the scene in front of them.

"I am just wondering if putting his childhood photo and the aged photo that the computer put together is even a good idea." JJ said softly. "What if he had surgery and putting the photo out only lets him know that we made him? It could do nothing but piss him off so much more that he goes on a major killing spree and gets out of control."

"We don't have a choice. If we don't let the public know that we identified a suspect, and he does look like the computer printout, then he could kill a lot more innocent and unsuspecting women. We remember how quickly he got people to trust him before." Nick said as he laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I know, I remember everything about him. I remember the day he told me that he had this crush on me, and I told him, I told him that I didn't feel that way about him because I had a…" JJ closed her eyes as she realized what was going on and what this could be about. "Nick, he was so hurt and angry when I wouldn't give him a chance. He knew that you didn't love me or see me like that, and when I said I couldn't see myself with anyone but you, he actually screamed at me for the first time and told me that I would live to regret it, and I think this is what he meant."

"If he is this angry because as a child you wouldn't go out with him, then he was never mentally stable, JJ." Nick said softly.

"What if I am wrong? What if it's not him but someone else that we didn't notice as a child? What if I put the wrong picture out there? I mean we have no evidence that this guy is our guy, we can't even put the word suspect in front of his name." JJ pointed out.

"True." Nick sighed as he realized that even though they were both pretty sure it was this guy, they couldn't prove it yet.

Grissom could tell that all of his people and the police officers were struggling with the scene in front of them. They couldn't even tell if all the body parts were there, the body was so badly mutilated that they didn't even know if it was a female. All Grissom knew was that there was a human being that had been killed and torn to sheds, he didn't even think there had been a scene where an animal had attacked a human that looked as bad as this, this guy had really done a number on this victim.

"The victim was alive when the mutilation started, maybe even conscious." The coroner that was helping out on this night stated softly. "This victim may have felt every single thing that happened to them. The victim appears to be a female."

"Anyway to identify the body?" Grissom asked as he squatted down next to the body, keeping away from the blood pools.

"Dental records might be helpful and DNA. I am not sure if we can use the skull to rebuild the face on this one." Sarah spoke up from the other side of the coroner.

"Yeah, I don't see the hands so fingerprints are out." Catherine spoke up.

Catherine was supposed to have some time off to help Warrick recover and keep his mind off things. She was also supposed to help take care of Ella and at the same time get some time with Lindsay, and she planned to go straight from the scene back to her home and not process any evidence, which was why her kit wasn't at the scene. She wasn't going to touch anything but if she noticed something with her experience and her talent and skill. She was going to make sure there was nothing left behind, something all of the CSI's at the scene were all being extra careful about.

"Well, he crushed the skull a bit and it actually looks like he made sure it was deformed, and there was no way to put it back together correctly to make the rebuild of the face." Sarah said with a sigh as she studied the skull bone.

"How could he be so good?" Catherine asked shaking her head in complete and total shock at the moment.

"He has to have been trained in some way. Think about how everything went down with JJ and Nick, Ella's birth and everything. This guy had to have a medical background of some sort." Grissom pointed out with a bigger frown on his face. "This guy may even be practicing medicine somewhere and could be choosing his victims that way or gaining their trust and if that is the case, then we are going to have a lot of panicked people on our hands. We need to look at all the people in every victims life, including people they saw every day or went to see for anything they needed."

"I agree. The skills this guy has, they are really starting to get under my skin." Sarah said as she closed her eyes against the image of the bloody mess in front of her.

He wasn't sure what they were all thinking or what was going on around the area but it was clear that they had called in everyone to work this scene, and that meant that what he had planned on doing he had actually done. He was watching as JJ and Nick stood back and watched everyone else work and it was clear the two of them were whispering to each other about something, and it was obvious that they had something on their minds and weren't sure where to go from there. He wasn't sure how close they were to figuring things out, but he knew that no matter what, they didn't know what he looked like at the moment and there was no way they would figure it all out, because he had made sure of it.

"JJ and Nick, it won't be long before everything comes out, and when it does, you will be on your death beds!" He snapped, he didn't know why he was so angry but he was.

JJ and Nick had decided that they couldn't touch the evidence at the scene because they were worried what a defense lawyer might do with that information. There might be a chance, because JJ had been a victim of his, that they might get the evidence that they touched thrown out, but the evidence from before all of that might be all right. JJ and Nick had looked at the scene, walked through the scene and had gotten everyone to promise to forward pictures of all of the evidence to their phones so they could go through it and add it to what they already had and what they already knew. JJ knew that it was killing Nick to walk away from the scene, but they weren't the only ones leaving, Catherine was already heading towards her vehicle to head back to her house where Ella was with Lindsey and Catherine's mother as well as her police guards.

"Hey." Nick said as they pulled into their driveway and JJ didn't even move to undo her seatbelt. It was clear that she hadn't even noticed that they were home.

"Huh?" JJ snapped out of her thoughts and looked around. Wincing she unhooked her seatbelt and then got out of the car. She unsnapped her holster and pulled out her gun, waiting for Nick and then the two of them did a police clear of their house, making sure that they went room to room and making sure there was nothing new or out of the ordinary in any of the rooms.

"Where were you?" Nick asked as they took a seat at the table after resetting their alarm and making sure everything was locked down.

"Just thinking. I must have done something really horrible to this guy for him to get this out of hand and mutilate women like this. How could anyone go this far just because of a crush? It had to be because of something else. I just don't know what else I could have done that would have set someone off." JJ said frustrated that she couldn't figure out what this was all about.

"JJ, this isn't really about you. Anyone could have set this guy off at any point, anyone could have caused this and he just focused in on us." Nick said softly, seeing that his wife was really on the edge.

"I hope that you're right." JJ said as she sighed and started to look at all the files on their table and she took out her phone and started looking at the pictures coming into her phone.

Grissom could tell that there was something really different about the way this scene was staged. This guy was trying to really get a shock value in, but it was more than that, he really wanted to scare the people of Las Vegas, he wanted to get under the skin of all of the really professional cops and crime scene investigators with this scene, and Grissom knew that in order to get under the killers skin, they had to pretend that this was nothing unique or special. The word was spread to be nonchalant and pretend to be unaffected, it was hard for a lot of the cops and rookie cops were sent away because everyone knew it was going to be way too hard for a rookie to keep his cool and seem unaffected by this type of a scene.

"I think you are right about this one, Grissom." Sarah said softly.

"I know it."Grissom said as they watched the coroner van leave with the human remains that the coroner could make out.

"So any other remains that we find we have to separate and call the coroner back or what?" Sarah asked as she looked around at the scene.

"If it's not found here but at the lab then it won't be a problem. Chances are that the other remains are hidden within the evidence at the scene, and that means we won't find it right away. There is also a chance that he didn't stash it all here, which means there will be a secondary dump site." Grissom pointed out.

"We need to let all cops know to keep their eyes peeled." Sarah said as she motioned for the officer in charge to start spreading the word.

"Yeah, and that just means there could be a few busy nights coming up." Grissom pointed out.

"It could mean trouble, because he could make the next dump site, very public." Sarah pointed out and everyone there winced knowing things were starting to get much worse and could get more difficult and messier than they thought.