A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews, everybody!
Chapter 10:
The call came in around eleven o'clock that evening, Night Shift Supervisor Harlyn Reno was on call. As she walked through the doors of Mizumi, the Japanese restaurant located within the Wynn Hotel, passing the yellow tape, she found Detective Sofia Curtis chatting with Deputy Metcalf when she spotted her coming her way.
"I thought you'd be up at Lake Tahoe—" Sofia stopped herself when she caught her glare, then said, "Oh, your weekend got canceled because of this Hannibal Lecter thing, didn't it?"
"All I'm gonna say is that Grissom better find the psycho, 'cause if he doesn't, I will. What'd we got?" she asked as she looked around the restaurant.
There were abandoned plates and glasses all over the tables, turned over chairs and someone dropped an entire tray full of drinks over the floor. The moment the dead body was found, the place had been emptied out as the police were called.
"Dead body found in the men's restroom. I checked and found no wallet on the victim," Sofia said as they passed the deserted bar and stopped at the entrance to the men's restroom.
Before they entered, Harlyn took a moment to slip on some booties over her shoes. Sofia already had a pair on. Several things were noticed immediately once she walked in. There were two urinals with one being clogged using toilet paper and paper towels, which was odd for several obvious reasons. What man used TP at a urinal? And only a child might play in a public restroom, except Mizumi wasn't a place most people brought kids. It was a very high-end and expensive restaurant that catered to formal dates or business meetings. The clogging of the urinal appeared intentional.
"Clogging one urinal and standing at the other forces the victim into a stall," Harlyn said as she turned to face the dead body.
The call was for a 419, but she immediately knew that it would be changed to a 420. Homicide. Blood from a cut throat soaked the front of the man's clothes; his jacket, shirt, pants and dripped into the toilet. Splatter was on the wall above the body.
"Who found the body?" she asked Sofia as she sat the field kit down and then pulled out a pair of gloves.
"A customer, Damien Merriweather."
At the last name, she had to ask, "Any relation—"
"To Floyd Merriweather?" Sofia said, cutting her off. "If there is, he's not saying."
"I wouldn't be surprised if there was. Has anyone from the M.E.'s office been here yet?" As soon as she spoke the words she heard a commotion outside in the hallway. Then she saw the Assistant Coroner Ben Williams, Dr. Jenna Williams, the Day Shift Coroner's, son entering the room. He had a fresh new fade and goat-tee. "Looking good, Ben. New girl?"
He smirked as he dropped his bag on the floor. "Had a date scheduled for this evening, that was until Super Dave called me up and said he needed me to fill in. I guess his fiancée's sick."
Ever since Nick Stokes started calling David Philips "Super Dave" it quickly made the rounds and now everyone in the coroner's office used the nickname for the other Assistant Coroner. Harlyn frowned as she said, "I never had a boyfriend call off work to take care of me when I was sick."
"I have," Sofia said, "but neither of us were actually sick."
Ben's eyes shot up as he said, "You think Dave's…playing hooky?"
Sofia shrugged and said, "I wouldn't put past him, or anyone. Hell, the guy is getting married soon."
As she watched as Ben crouched down and started examining the body, Harlyn asked Sofia, "Did Mr. Merriweather say whether or not the stall door was shut and locked?"
"He said it was open when he walked in. I know what you're thinking," Sofia said. "The stall door had to have been closed. Given the amount of blood, the fact that it's dry on the wall...Time of death was hours ago. He's slumped on the toilet with the blood going down into the bowl instead of over the floor—"
"The killer didn't want the body to be found immediately after the kill. He wanted time."
"To escape?" Sofia asked.
Harlyn shrugged, but it was the most important question other than who this man was and why he was killed.
Ben took liver temp and said, "You're right, the victim died about four hours ago. All right, ladies, have at it. Once you're done, let me know."
Once he was out of the room, Sofia told her, "I already notified security to collect all the video surveillance. Once they're done, I'll get it to Archie."
"Have I told you that I love the fact that you not only stayed with the department, but that you turned detective? I think all cops should do a stint with the crime lab before getting their badges, save all of us the hassle."
"I can't argue with that. And thanks. I'm glad I stuck around too."
Harlyn watched Sofia leave before letting out a breath, grabbing the camera, and then started in on processing the scene. It was going to be a long ass night.
The FBI had a car waiting for them as they arrived back in Las Vegas. He had driven Sara with him to the airport, so she had taken his car when she'd gotten back the day before. When he talked to Sara last night, she had told him that they were on rotating hours to ensure everyone got some sleep. Then they'd all be in at the usual time shift started, or if something happened, at the ready to get to the scene.
He checked the time on his watch and knew that this was when Sara would be home. He felt like calling her but thought not to. She might be asleep and he didn't want to wake her. That thought left him as they pulled up to his house and he saw both of their cars in the driveway. As he got out of the car, he pulled out his cell phone and called Sara.
As soon as she answered, he said, "You're at my house?"
"I thought I'll have breakfast waiting—"
"I see. We have company, so…I hope you're not in a compromising position," he said, teasingly. It wouldn't be the first time he'd arrived home to find Sara already in his bed. Naked.
"I, um…"
"Yeah. And there's a dog."
"A dog?"
"See you in a few minutes, dear." He flipped the phone shut as he imagined Sara frantically dressing. It brought a smirk to his face.
Kevin caught it and asked as he got his dog out of the back of the car, "What're you smiling about?"
Slinging his overnight bag over his shoulder, he told him, "Sara's going to make us breakfast." Then he grabbed the plastic grocery bags out of the car.
"Is that why you stopped at the store?" Kevin asked as he grabbed hold of the dog leash and his bag then followed him up to the house.
He unlocked the door and walked inside just as Sara was coming down the steps from his bedroom. "Mornin', dear." He gave her a kiss on the lips before dropping his overnight bag to the floor.
She looked around him and said, "Agent Collins, you're staying here?"
"Yeah," Kevin said as he looked to him and then asked, "Where—"
"There's a guest room downstairs. I'll show you." Glancing at Sara over his shoulder as sat the grocery bag on the counter as he started towards the hallway, he said, "I thought you were making breakfast?"
She nearly blushed as she shook her head and went into the kitchen.
Kevin let his dog roam around as he showed him around. It was a tri-level townhouse. Downstairs had a guest room, bathroom, and his office. Main floor was the kitchen and living room, and upstairs was his bedroom and bathroom.
Sara was putting a casserole dish into the oven as he walked in and grabbed a coffee cup. She turned around, holding a mug in both hands, a tea bag dangling over the side. "When did you tell him about us?"
"I didn't. He's a pretty good profiler. Figured it out for himself."
She sipped the tea then said, "You're okay with him staying here?"
He had yet to tell her who Kevin was, preferring to do it in person instead of over the phone. He could have told her already, but wanted to be on better terms with Kevin before making that decision. Kevin walked into the kitchen and he moved aside so he could pour himself a cup of coffee.
"Sara, um…Remember I told you that I'd been married and that she had a son?" When she gave a nod, he told her, "Kevin's her son. My son."
Sara's eyes widened in surprise as she looked over at Kevin. "Oh."
Kevin leaned back against the counter and smiled. "This ain't awkward."
The dog wandered over to both of them, sniffing at their legs. He was a big black lab mixed with a boxer. Powerful legs, heavy body, and cunning and smart as hell according to Kevin.
"What's the, um, dog's name?" She asked.
As he went to tell her, Kevin cut him off, saying, "You can call him Jack."
He sat the coffee down and picked up the grocery bag that was still on the counter. He pulled out a pan from the bottom cabinet and placed it on the stove. Pulling out the bacon and sausage, he turned on the burner and went to open it when he caught the frown on Sara's face.
"What?"
"Pork?" she asked.
"It's not for you—"
"You're eating it?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Gil, you cut pork out of your diet six months ago."
He stared at her as he heard Kevin ask in concern, "How does he take his steak?"
"Medium-rare," Sara answered. "Why?"
Gil felt his stomach turn as he realized that he'd changed his eating habits.
Kevin was putting the steaks on the grill as he asked him, "How'd you like your steak?"
"Rare," he said without thinking. "Cook it until the internal temp is 115 degrees then let it sit for five minutes until it reaches 120."
"Ain't that like extra rare?" Kevin asked.
Pork, rare steak…Anger shot through his body as he grabbed the package of pork bacon and sausage and threw it into the trash.
"Hey," Kevin said. "I eat bacon—"
"Buy your own." He pulled the trash bag out of the bin and started for the garage door. He could have been overreacting, probably was, it was just food, but, symbolically, he didn't want it in his house.
Kevin and Sara both watched him go. He said, "He ate pork yesterday. Asked for his steak to be rare last night." He saw Sara's concern and asked, "You've never seen him like that, have you?"
"Like that? Yes. Confusing his eating preferences with someone else's? Never."
"Do me a favor? Watch him. Watch his drinking habits. I know he still drinks beer, the occasional whiskey, if anything changes…" He touched her arm, "If he starts to get angry, or violent—"
"Violent?"
"Aggressive," Kevin corrected. "You let me know."
Sara didn't know how to respond to that. She'd never seen Gil get violent. She didn't know if Kevin was overreacting or being overly protective, but either way she told him, "If he gets that way with me, I won't have to come to you." She would kick his ass herself. "It won't come to that. He'll be fine."
Kevin didn't think she understood his concern, and he hoped she never would.
They didn't say anything else about it once Gil was back in the house. He went up to his bedroom for a while and Sara didn't follow. She knew when to give him his space. But they would have to talk about it.
Gil had felt the looks and the tension in the air that he couldn't ignore, though he tried. He knew they had questions, but he had no answers. This wasn't anything new. He's done all this before. He shut the bedroom door and sat down on his bed, head in his hands as thoughts invaded his head. Memories that threatened to break his well-constructed wall he'd put up to stop them from ripping his mind open and pulling him right back down into the depths of the darkness.
The last time, when Dolarhyde had been so close to him as Hannibal was to him now, he stopped being able to look his wife in the eyes. He stopped being able to look himself in the eyes, in a mirror, without seeing the shreds of glass, the reflection of light in the eyes, the crooked teeth, and the wings that protruded from his own back.
It started in the Leeds bedroom as he went through the initial police report and case file. He ran it over in his head, saw the blood on the floor, the walls, and in the bed. Took a break to down a migraine pill before leaving. But he didn't leave. The phone rang in the quiet, making him jump at the sound of the intruding noise in his head. And then her voice.
He heard the dead woman's voice. Mrs. Leeds on the tape recording asking the caller to leave a message. Then he glanced into the bathroom mirror and saw it for the first time. The shadow figure of the killer. Blackness from the inside out. Black clothes covering its body and its face was distorted before part of it became clear. A disfigurement in the broken glass. Disfigurement because that was how he saw himself. It was how he was. Something about his appearance he didn't like. A scar, maybe? And in his mind's eye a scar that ran from the top right edge of the nose to the right cheek appeared on the face. The monster's eyes and head were covered with a black mask of sorts, homemade.
Later, in the Birmingham police station, as the coroner went over the bite marks. "This is what the suspect's teeth look like," the man had said. He stood in the back of the room, watching, thinking, and in his mind's eyes dreaming. He was in darkness. Darkness all around him as he floated in the air. Weightless and descending further down, as if he was being lowered from a rafter but there was no harness to stop him, no net to catch him, as he fell. Appearing under him was a woman. A woman clothed in white, like an angel appearing out of the dark.
Opening his mouth, his teeth as crooked as his thoughts, he bit into her. Her eyes opened. It was Mrs. Leeds lying under him, bitten and torn, mirrored eyes and the blood. The blood looked like a pair of glasses around her eyes and down to her ears. He bit her again as he felt a shift inside. A change. Something was growing inside of him. Powerful. Desirable. Wanted.
Everywhere he went, every mirror he peered into and every glimpse of his own reflection that he caught sight of he saw it. The becoming of a man morphing into something else entirely. The symbol on the tree behind the Leeds house. The symbol of the Red Dragon. He was sitting in his hotel room, staring at the symbol, wondering where he had heard that before? Not heard. He'd seen it. He'd seen those words before...The darkness swallowed him whole as it engulfed the room. He was standing, staring into darkness. Then he heard laughter followed by a "shhh" to silence it. Hand-in-hand, round and round, through the halls of his mind that turned into the halls of a museum. School children were laughing, holding hands, as a teacher led them past the paintings, the sculptures, and standing, staring at a painting was a boy.
The boy had curly dark hair. His eyes were soaking in the image of a beast and under the beast was a woman. She was clothed in white, like an angel. Standing beside the boy, he tilted his head in the exact same manner as he viewed the piece of art. The plague read: "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun".
Opening his eyes, he felt the breath on the back of his neck for the first time. He knew if he turned around that he would see, standing there before him, the Dragon with glass eyes, crooked teeth, and the scar on its face. Breathing started to hurt, his vision blurred, and he had to down half a bottle of whiskey before he could sleep.
It wasn't long after that when he felt it in his own mind, his own hands, as he sat at the table in the cabin with Molly and Kevin outside playing catch while he read the newspaper, the National Tattler, that the killer was doing the same at that exact same moment. He threw the paper down and went outside, grabbed up a fishing pole, and headed to the lake with Kevin running after him, tossing the glove back to his mother. Sitting on the boat, Kevin beside him in the silence, he peered over the water and saw the Dragon watching them from the shoreline. Waiting.
Then later that evening, after telling Molly to go to her father's place in Montana, he walked out onto the porch, glass of whiskey in hand, and saw the Dragon in the yard. It was staring at the cabin, into the windows where Molly and Kevin slept, watching and waiting. It smiled at him. He saw the blood on its crooked teeth. He took a drink of the whiskey and it disappeared.
He re-entered Mrs. Leeds' bedroom. Standing before the bed as he fully understood the killer's fantasy. He didn't even need to close his eyes to see it. The white walls of blood disappeared, the darkness brightened with the light that shined out of her mirrored eyes, and her mouth. Her hand reaching out to him in want and desire. Acceptance. Her presence a bloom, opening up for him, lighting up like the sun breaking through the night, replacing the moon. He had to have her.
In the corner of the room was the Dragon, he saw him watching, waiting, and then smiling as he suddenly charged towards the bed, straddled the woman, and bit her hard on the shoulder before killing her. Her blood on his hands, his body, as he left the house and went out into the backyard naked, hit his knees as the moonlight shined down on him, the red blood appearing black, and out from his back the wings broke through. He yelled. The becoming was complete.
He stood, watching the Dragon as it got to its feet, and waited.
He waited until he saw the photocopy of the driver's license. Tall, blond, disfigurement on the upper lip..."That's him," he'd said. He knew it. Francis Dolarhyde.
He waited as the moon shined down on the house. The Dragon inside of him as he knew exactly what Dolarhyde was about to do. He had a woman in his house. His next victim, and he had to stop him. He stopped waiting, charged towards the house, and then killed the Dragon.
He left with his own face scarred. It went from the top right of his nose to his right cheek. And the thoughts in his mind were those of the Dragon that he'd created. It filled his head, his chest, breathed his air, and it waited.
He took another drink of whiskey to drowned it.
It took Gil an hour to walk out of his bedroom. Sara and Kevin didn't say anything to him as he ate breakfast, and then once Kevin got his dog used to his house, they all left. Sara got into her car after kissing him goodbye. There was a lot of worry and hesitation in her eyes, and he tried to reassure her as he said, "I'll be fine. I have you."
She smiled through tears, gave a nod, and then said, "Don't forget that," before getting into her car to leave.
He got into his personal car and drove towards the lab with Kevin following behind him.
He'd already made up his mind how he was going to play this out. He wasn't going to change anything. He would stay in his house, drive his own car, and do all the things he would normally do. Lecter would expect nothing less, and he was going to give him exactly what he wanted.
It made it easy for Lecter to find him since he wasn't hiding, but it also made it easy for him to control his environment, the people in it, and the situation. Everyone was being watched, protected, and on-the-lookout. Trying to get to any of them wasn't going to be easy. And putting himself in plain sight was also in itself a trap for Lecter. Lecter wasn't looking to sniper him from a rooftop.
It'd force him to have to do something drastic if he wanted to get him alone to have time with him. He wanted intimacy. The only possible way he saw that happening was Lecter would have to take Sara and force him to go alone somewhere to get her. Lure him into isolation. Or, get him to lure Sara into isolation. Either way, he and Sara were Lecter's main targets. Everyone else was just in Lecter's way.
Going after other people in his life was Lecter having fun. Teasing him with ineptness. Daring him to "smell himself" in order to stop him. Forcing him to give into his rage to make him angry enough to kill.
Pulling into the parking lot of the lab, Gil spotted a delivery truck idling by the entrance. The name on the side of the truck was SWD. SunWest Deliveries. He got out of his car and headed towards the entrance as the delivery man was walking out. They brushed by one another and he saw the young kid under the hat glance his way briefly before climbing into the driver's seat. The name on the jacket was Todd.
Todd also had an earring in his left ear and tattoo on the back of his left hand. When he picked up the clipboard while sitting in the driver's seat, he grabbed the pen with his left hand and started writing. He glanced into the back of the truck, said something, and then put the clipboard down and shifted the truck into drive.
He entered the building as the truck left the parking lot. Judy was at the reception desk and smiled at him as she held out slips for him. All the missed phone calls over the past two days. He felt like throwing them all in the trash but held back as he stuffed the slips into his pants pocket.
"Oh, and this was delivered to you," Judy told him as she went to hand him the package that was on the counter.
He stopped and stared at the package on the counter. There was no return address, no stamps, and his name was hand written on the package without the lab's address. "Stop, Judy. Don't touch it." She yanked her hands back as he asked, "It was dropped off just now?"
Judy was nodding. "You missed him walking out."
He pulled out his phone and flipped it open as he told Judy, "Don't let anyone touch it," as he gestured to the package.
Walking to the entrance, he placed his phone to his ear as he walked out the front door. Glancing up and down the street, he didn't see the delivery truck, but he saw Kevin's car pull into a parking space.
"Brass."
"Hold on, Jim," he spoke into the phone as he rounded Kevin's car and tapped on the window. Once the window was rolled down, he told both of them, "I just got a package delivered from SunWest Deliveries. No forward or return address; no postage stamps. He just left." His mind raced back to when the truck was pulling out of the lot. The tires turned to the right. "The truck turned east out of the parking lot. Driver's name is Todd."
"I'm on it," Kevin said as he put the car in reverse while using the car phone to make a call.
"Brass?" he spoke into the phone.
"I heard you. All cars in the area will be on the lookout for the truck."
"Thanks." He ended the call and went back into the building.
Judy was nervously waiting behind the counter as she made sure no one touched the package. "I alerted security, Dr. Grissom," she told him.
He smiled at her as he said, "You can relax." She let out a breath and gave a nod as a couple of deputies, Davis and Hirsi, rounded the corner. "Get the security camera footage of the last hour for the lobby and take it to Archie in the A/V lab. Tell him to que it up when the SunWest Delivery driver enters the building," he told one of the deputies. "I need a pair of gloves," he told the other.
As both of them left, he eyed the package as he waited. The handwriting was Hannibal Lecter's. He pushed out a breath as he wondered what in the hell was in the box. It looked to be a 12 by 8 by 10 inch box. There was a tension growing in his chest, a twitch in his hand, as he feared the contents. Lecter wouldn't be sending him flowers. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be good.
Deputy Hirsi brought him the latex gloves. He blew into them then slipped them on before picking the box up. He took it to an empty draft free examination room, pulled on a lab coat, and then went through the process of opening it up. Catherine walked in with gloves on, lab coat, and her hair pulled up to help.
Once the box was open, he peered inside and saw the top of another box. It was white with a biohazard sign on it. "Bio-medical transport cooler." He removed it from the box and slid the outer cardboard box over to Catherine. "Go over it for any trace then fume it for prints."
"I've done this before, Grissom."
He glanced at her before returning his attention back to the medical cooler. It was the tension in his gut, the fear in his head, that made him overly controlling.
As she took the cardboard box over to another table to start processing, he went over to a cabinet and grabbed a fingerprinting kit, twisters, pen and labels before continuing processing. After thoroughly searching the outside of it for any trace, he fingerprinted it and found prints all over the sides, the bottom, and the top lid and handle. He lifted them all, marked them all with his initials, case number, time, and date. Then he took a breath and went to open the cooler.
Catherine had left the room to fume the cardboard and was walking back in as he started to open it up. She was next to his side as the lid came off. She gapped before saying, "What the hell?"
He stared down at the colonoscopy and biohazard bag and felt his jaw twitch. Lecter's sense of humor. Both were full of bodily fluids and waste. Catherine handed him a camera and he took pictures before removing the bags. The biohazard bag was still lukewarm.
"Stomach contents, and it's fresh," he told her as he sat the bag down on the table.
They processed the bags, collected samples, and then he headed out of the room with all the evidence. Fingerprints went to one of the Swing Shift techs who often moonlighted for Nights: Mandy Webster.
"When's Jacqui going to retire so I can take over nights full time?" Mandy asked him as he was leaving the room.
"I saw that. Maybe you can convince her to switch with you. Try asking her to sing for you."
Mandy nearly blushed as she said, "You heard about that?"
"How'd you find out that Nick could sing?" He asked as he started to leave the room.
"I, uh, heard rumors," she said as her blush deepened.
"Huh…Funny, I never heard that one."
"I didn't know you cared—"
"Just because I don't care about rumors, doesn't mean I don't hear them," he said before turning and nearly running into Harlyn who was waiting to enter the lab room.
"How was South Carolina?" she asked while walking in.
"Sweaty," he told her as he walked out and continued down the hallway.
Further down the hall, he saw Henry Andrews in the DNA lab. "Henry," he said as he walked in and deposited the swabs and containers. "I need results as soon as possible."
Henry was still relatively new and barely spoke around him, so he gave a nod and got to work. Then surprised him by saying, "I usually work in toxicology. I'm the resident expert on toxins."
He stopped at the door and faced him. "Okay. Do a tox screen as well."
Henry gave a nod as he stammered out, "O-oh-kay."
His last stop was the trace lab where he saw Charlotte Meridian working on some samples. Tapping on the door as he passed through it, he said, "I heard you transferred to trace."
Charlotte lifted her head as she smiled at him. "Hello, stranger. I haven't seen you in a while."
"Likewise." He glanced down at her legs and said, "I see you're still wearing your cowboy boots under your lab coat."
She just smiled. "Whatcha got for me, Gil?"
"I'm going to need you to start processing these as soon as possible," he said as he sat the bags and containers down.
"Is this about the serial killer Hannibal Lecter?"
"Possibly," he said as he started for the door. "And Charlotte?" Once he got her attention, he told her, "I miss you on Nights."
"Working days is better for my health. And sex life."
"You've found someone to pin you to a wall?"
She started laughing. "How about you? Are ya back in the saddle?"
"If I was, you'll never know it," he called back at her as he headed to the A/V lab.
Archie turned in his chair as he walked in and said, "Security footage of the lobby is up on 2."
"Do you ever go home, Archie? It's Day Shift." He checked the time and saw it was after three o'clock. "Actually, Swing Shift now."
"It is?" he asked, confused. "You know they don't let me out of here. I've got a cot in the back."
He chuckled as he sat down in the chair in front of workstation 2 and went over the footage. Todd the delivery driver entered the lab at 14:33:49. It should have taken Todd no time at all to drop off the package on the counter and then leave. Instead, he waited around. Todd stood in the lobby and watched the television, chatted with Judy for a while. At 14:48:12, Todd answered his cell phone. At that time, he finally turned and left the building, brushing up against him as he was nearing the door.
He reversed and watched it again from the time Todd got the phone call. Todd glanced over his shoulder, towards the door, and then hung up the phone and left. Todd had been waiting for him to arrive before leaving.
Waiting for him…
Sitting in the driver's seat of the delivery truck, Todd glanced over his shoulder, spoke to someone in the back of the truck, and then put the clipboard down so he could shift the truck into drive.
"Someone was in the back of the delivery truck. When I pulled up, Todd received a call to let him know that I was there."
"What?" he heard Archie ask.
"I said to go home, Archie. Get some sleep," he said as he made a copy of the footage and saved it to a flash drive. As he was leaving the room, Harlyn was once again blocking his path. Smirking, he told her, "We have to stop meeting like this."
She lowered the cell phone that was pressed to her ear and said, "My 420 might be connected to your case. I'll let you know," before walking into the A/V lab.
As she started talking to Archie, he took the flash drive to his office. He dropped it on his desk and picked up the awaiting reports to be filed. He took them with him as he headed to check in with Henry. Flipping the first file open, he saw a purchase for the wine from a store in Buenos Aires, Argentina by D'Angelo Bello. The purchase was dated May 30th. Sent by courier to a P.O. Box in Las Vegas.
A note from Brass stating that they checked the P.O. Box, and talked to the employees who confirmed that it was used several times over the course of the last four weeks and then closed out. The name that had been used for the P.O. Box was Red James. Brass had checked DMV records, birth certificates, everything. Nothing. It was an alias.
Before he got to the DNA lab, he spotted Nick and Greg heading his way from the break room. "You two are on Swing hours?"
"Yeah," Nick said with a nod. "Cath took days. We took Swings. Everyone else will be here on Nights. What's going on?"
"That depends. How good are you two at playing six degrees of separation?"
Greg shrugged, saying, "Is that the same as six degrees of Kevin Bacon?"
"What?" Gil asked as Nick stifled a laugh.
"Nothin'," Greg said as they stopped outside of the DNA lab.
"Red James. Possible connections are gourmet cuisines, art, birds, medieval history, Europe…Argentina. What does it mean?" Gil asked as he walked into the DNA lab. "I expect your answer when I get back to my office."
"You're serious?" Nick asked.
He stopped and turned to face him, saying, "Yeah. You have about ten minutes. Better think fast."
Henry handed him a printout sheet as he turned around to face him. "No hit on DNA, but I can tell you it's female. XX." The printer started beeping as it printed another page. He grabbed the sheet and handed it to him without a word.
Reading it over, Gil saw it was negative for xylazine, which was what had been in Hayashi's wine bottle.
"I ran it for xylazine first. The rest will take time."
"Thanks, Henry." He left the DNA lab and headed down the hall to fingerprints.
Mandy told him, "Prints match those on file for Hannibal Lecter as well as an ex-con named Lincoln Fischer."
"Middle name "Todd", by any chance?"
She shook her head. "No. Why?"
"Just curious. Thanks, Mandy."
Once again his last stop was the trace lab where Charlotte was bent over a microscope. Leaning on the counter beside her, he said, "I knew one day I'd get you to bend over a counter for me."
She smiled. "Do you just enjoy flirting with me?"
"Yes. You know not to take it seriously."
"Ah, so if I were to turn around and kiss ya?"
"You want to kiss me?" he teased as he looked over the evidence she was examining.
"Like I want to kiss my brother."
He frowned as he said, "Gross."
"Exactly," she said as she made a notation on the form next to the microscope on the counter.
All the teasing was gone as he sobered up real fast, asking, "What do you got?"
Lifting her head, she turned to face him and said, "I found edible leather and latex in the stomach along with steak, red wine, and….uh…" She was looking pale around the edges. "Human tissue. Skin. Hair. It wasn't cooked. Not fully digested either." Tapping the microscope, she asked, "Want to take a look?"
Giving Charlotte a weak smile, he shook his head. "I trust you."
"Don't be a stranger, stranger," she told him as he went to leave the room.
Letting out a breath, he left the trace lab. Then, he felt himself smile. Despite some things changing, most everything else stayed the exact same. Including the lab and the people in it. He hadn't known what to expect coming back after everyone found out that he'd been someone else entirely before moving to Las Vegas. No one was acting differently, or thinking they had to treat him any differently. He was still Grissom. As it should be.
Coming down the hallway was Harlyn. In her hand was a photocopy of a screenshot; she didn't look happy. "Got a minute?"
"I'm assuming this is about the connection to my case."
"My John Doe is Jerome Kessler. Ex-husband of Heather Kessler."
He frowned as he read over the sheet. "He's your victim?"
"Murdered last night in a restaurant restroom at the Wynn. Now, I know you have history with the ex-wife—"
"Have you contacted Heather?"
"Detective Curtis tried. Gil," she said as they stopped at the entrance to his office. "Heather Kessler is presumed missing and in danger. Archie's been running through surveillance video from the hotel all night. She was there with Mr. Kessler before he left the table. Then, another man sits down a few minutes later. Our suspect. A credit card in the name of D'Angelo Bello was used to purchase a ten thousand dollar bottle of red wine. She left with him."
She handed him the photo and he saw the still image of Heather leaving the restaurant with a man. He wore a suit, hat, a fedora type, and kept his head down. He knew immediately that it had to be Hannibal Lecter. Charlotte's words entered his head. Flesh, edible leather, and latex. Lecter had her. And then sent him her stomach contents.
Harlyn's voice was full of concern as she asked, "It's him, isn't it? Lecter."
"Yeah."
She gave a nod and started to walk away, saying, "I'll get everything I have and get it to you asap. You should be expecting a call from Detective Curtis soon."
"Thanks." As he walked into his office, he asked both Nick and Greg who were waiting on him, "Do either of you have an answer for me?" as he felt a sinking stone in the pit of his stomach at the thought of what Hannibal did to Heather. Hopefully she was still alive.
Nick waited for him to sit down behind his desk before answering, "Flamingo."
"How…?" he asked, confused.
Nick crossed his arms over his chest as he told him, "Red James. Red led me to crimson. Crimson is the color of red feathers. Red bird, which took me to "flame-colored", flamengo, which is Spanish for flamingo. Crimson James reversed is James Crimson. James's flamingo, Phoenicoparrus jamesi, is a species of flamingo that lives at high altitudes in South America, specifically in the Andean plateaus which extend into Argentina."
There were times when Nick impressed Gil, this was one of those times. "Now we can call you a genius when you talk about birds."
Nick smirked, saying, "Greg had no idea."
Greg, who was sitting in the chair, defended himself as he said, "My wrong answers lead you to the right one. That helped, didn't it?" Then he said, "We're thinking it's a reference to the Flamingo Hotel and Casino."
"Yeah," Gil said as he picked up the phone off his desk and made a call.
He needed a list of all the current guests at that hotel. Starting with D'Angelo Bello and ending with Heather Kessler. He got a hit immediately. D'Angelo Bello had a room booked. As he was leaving his office, his cell rang. It was Sofia.
Before she could say anything other than hello, he told her, "D'Angelo Bello has a room at the Flamingo. We suspect that's where Heather Kessler's being kept."
"Okay, but why did Harlyn reassign you the case?"
"Because Hannibal Lecter is D'Angelo Bello," he told her as Nick headed off to check out a department vehicle for them to use.
"I'll meet you there," Sofia told him before hanging up.
He and Greg grabbed their field kits and Nick's from the locker room before meeting him in the motor pool. Once they had their gear into the back of the truck, they headed for the Flamingo Hotel and Casino with lights and sirens blaring.
TBC…
PS: As you can tell, I'm loving writing for characters that we either didn't see too much of on the show, or not at all. To think that Grissom's team was the only one working the night shift isn't real life, but, with the show, they only focused on one team with the same recurring characters. I always wanted to see an episode that involved all the other people working in the lab, etc. So it's been fun coming up with new characters, giving them their own personalities, etc. And for those who don't remember, Dr. Jenna Williams was the coroner early in season one before Doc Robbins. She's the one who said, "Gruesome Grissom. Tin Man with a heart."