AN: We're back to some crime scene investigating in this one – there's still a serial killer case to close, after all! Hope you like

Disclaimer: I don't own anything relating to CSI

Chapter 34

Conrad's on the phone when Grissom gets there, but he holds up a finger to indicate he'll be done soon, so he leans against the doorframe to wait.

"Sorry," Conrad apologizes a minute or so later, after hanging up. "Come on in."

Grissom does, closing the door behind him and sitting down in one of the visitors' chairs. With slight amusement, he notes the setup puts the other man a few inches higher, a subtle power play he's never really understood.

"Considering there are no high-profile cases that I'm not up to date on at the moment, I assume this meeting is of a more… personal nature," the other man says after a moment.

"Yes," Grissom confirms, seeing no reason to string things along. Amusing as it can be, he doesn't actually want to incense the other man at the moment. "Sara told me what you said to her on her first day back, so we agreed I would discuss the… situation with you."

Conrad shakes his head, but there's an amused expression on his face. "I have to say, if I found out I had a three-year-old kid I didn't even know about, I don't think I would be quite so quick to forgive."

Grissom doesn't think it's meant in an offensive way, so he chooses not to take it as such. "I guess that's one of many differences between you and me, Conrad."

"I guess so. Right. I knew this was coming, so I've already cleared things with the sheriff. He's not entirely happy, but we agree that the best interest of the lab is our main priority, so this is what's going to happen – I'm not making one of you switch shifts, which, as I'm sure you're aware, is normally enforced. Catherine will be promoted to assistant supervisor – I know she's been more or less acting as it for years – and will handle Sara's future evaluations, as well as any other administrative duties you need help with. I'll send her an email." He pauses, frowning a little. "I'm not entirely sure about the two of you working in the field together – we have rules against that for a reason – but I'm prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt on a probationary basis. I will be monitoring the situation closely, however, and following up with the other members of the team if I find it necessary."

He stops talking and looks at Grissom expectantly, but he's still trying to catch up with the conversation – it's basically exactly what they were hoping for, but he thought he'd have to fight for it at least a little. Maybe not threaten to leave, but certainly point out that he and his team are the main reason the lab performs as well as it does.

"That sounds very reasonable," he finally manages, and Conrad smiles.

"I am human, you know," he points out. "And not completely blind. I know Sidle and I have had our… differences in the past, but I think we've both grown, and I can recognize that she's an integral part of the team."

"She is," Grissom hurries to agree. "Dennis was a good CSI, but the team never quite… settled while he was here. And I take some responsibility for that, I know I wasn't… at my best for a while there."

To his surprise, Conrad laughs. "Yes, I think we all noticed that. But it seems like that's behind us now, and I think the team has come together well in the last few weeks – let's just hope it continues."

There's a hint of… expectation in his voice, and Grissom nods. "I'll make sure of it."

"Good. I'll let you know if I feel there's something we need to discuss further, but for now, keep up the good work."

"We will," he assures the man as he stands. "Is that all?"

"Unless there's something else on your mind?"

"No, no."

"Good." Conrad picks up a bunch of folders from the desk. "These came in a while ago – about three dozen unsolved murders from Ohio, Colorado, and Minnesota. None match the exact M.O. of our serial, but the victims are in the right age range and have similar features, and the time frames work, so maybe he's evolved?"

Grissom takes the folders, opening the top one to a photo of a young brunette. "It's possible."

"There are no mentions of missing jewelry, but I figured we can reach out to the local police or relatives if any of the cases seem promising."

"We can do that. And if nothing turns up, we can expand the search parameters."

"Good. And tonight's assignments – it's slow so far, a suspicious car crash and a handful of dogs taken from a pet store shelter, so maybe put a couple of people on going through those open cases."

He accepts the assignment slips and quickly skims the details on them. "Who breaks into an animal shelter?"

"Unfortunately, I would say we're probably dealing with a dog fighting ring," Conrad says with a grimace. "Pit bulls."

Grissom sighs. "I will never understand how some people think it's OK to mistreat animals for their own entertainment."

"Me neither. OK, I need to get back to this if I want to get out of here today. Keep me posted if anything probative turns up in the serial case."

"Will do."

Grissom leaves the office with a sense of both confusion and gratitude. He really had been expecting at least a bit of a discussion, he had his arguments all ready, and isn't quite sure what to make of this understanding and accommodating Conrad Ecklie. It almost feels like a trap, but… why? There's no reasonable explanation for that option either.

Apparently, the confusion is still obvious when he gets to his own office, where Sara's waiting, leaning against the desk, probably eager to learn what happened. "What's wrong?" she immediately asks when she spots him, eyebrows furrowing.

"Nothing," he tells her truthfully. "I'm just a little… confused."

"Why?"

He leans against his desk, careful to keep a few feet of space between them – they're at work and need to remain professional. "Apparently, he saw it coming. He's already talked to the sheriff, I didn't need to use any of my arguments, he suggested exactly what we were talking about – Catherine will handle your evaluations, she's even getting an official promotion to assistant supervisor, which I'm sure she'll be thrilled about. He did say we're on 'probation'," he makes air quotes, "when it comes to working cases in the field together, but we both know he won't find anything to complain about, so it should just be a formality."

The look he's sure was on his face as he left Conrad's office appears on Sara's. "Huh. I mean, I did notice he's not as… belligerent as he used to be, but I still wasn't expecting him to… not even agree, but to suggest it."

"I know. Let's not question it, though – he might change his mind."

She laughs. "Yeah, let's not give him a reason to do that. Come on, shift's about to start."

Everyone's in the break room by the time they get there, and Sara quickly takes a seat between Greg and Warrick. Judging by the smirk Greg gives her, she has no doubt Catherine has already spilled the beans, but she resolutely ignores him.

"OK, people." Grissom's voice pulls everyone's attention. "We've got a car crash with suspicious circs in Spring Valley – driver claims he fell asleep behind the wheel, but he crashed into his soon-to-be ex-wife's bedroom, so we're treating it as attempted murder at the moment, even though she wasn't hurt – and a break-in at a pet store in Twin Lakes."

"Who robs a pet store?" Warrick asks incredulously.

"Possibly dog fighters," Grissom replies with a sigh.

"No!" Catherine looks disgusted.

"Only thing taken were five pit bulls that were up for adoption at the adjoining shelter."

"Man, that's just…" Apparently, Nick can't find words, just shakes his head, and Sara understands exactly what he's feeling.

"Agreed," Grissom says, putting down a stack of folders on the table along with the two assignment slips. "And we've got several case files from Ohio, Colorado, and Minnesota, hopefully we can match some of them to the jewelry we found in Pritchard's semi. I'll be working on that here, unless something else comes in, and I wouldn't mind some company."

For a moment, Sara considers volunteering, but there's obvious and then there's obvious. Besides, she really wants to go after the bastards that steal dogs to make them fight…

"I can stay," Catherine offers, opening the top folder.

Sara reaches for one of the slips. "I'll take the dog case – I'm sick of these people thinking they can get away with this."

"Good," Grissom agrees, giving her a smile. "Take Greg."

"I guess that leaves us with the stupid husband," Nick says, grabbing the second slip.

"Should be interesting," Warrick notes, as the four heading out into the field get to their feet.

"We'll be working in my office," Grissom says before they leave the room. "If anyone's back early, feel free to join us."

Sara's expecting comments and teasing as she and the boys grab their kits and leave the building, but Nick and Warrick head off to their car without so much as a word, and Greg waits until they've left the parking lot.

"Sooo…" he starts.

"Nope," she interrupts him before he can get further.

Greg chuckles. "Fine, message received, loud and clear. Just… you couldn't have waited just a few days? I had next month!"

They stop at a red light, and she gives him a withering look that makes him shrink back a little, but doesn't wipe the grin off his face. She's losing her touch. "I don't think you want to talk about your little bet," she warns him. "I still haven't ruled out killing you. And you know I can get away with it."

"Aw, come on, it was just some harmless fun!" he says. "And is it our fault you two are completely obvious?"

Sara just rolls her eyes and focuses on the road.

Their scene is about as uncomplicated as they get – the shelter is at the back of the pet store and the door to the outside has been broken open, but there are no signs the thieves got into the rest of the store. The shelter is divided into two areas, one for cats and one for dogs, and the door to the cat section is still locked with no signs of a break-in, so they focus on the reception area and dog section.

Half of the cages in the dog section are empty – presumably previously occupied by the stolen pit bulls. The remaining cages contain a large dog Sara thinks must be some sort of retriever or Labrador mix, two small ones that look to be at least part chihuahua, a husky mix, and a beagle puppy that's much too adorable. It comes up to the chain link fence when she passes it, its little tail whipping excitedly from side to side, and she just has to stop and lean into the cage.

"Hi there, buddy," she mumbles, pulling off her vinyl gloves to let the dog sniff her fingers. It whines a little and then gives her hand a happy lick.

"Thinking of getting Shelby a puppy?" Greg asks amusedly, and she gives the puppy a scratch on the head before standing up.

"Not with my schedule," she replies, a little reluctantly. She wouldn't mind a dog… maybe when Shelby's a little older.

They get to work, dusting the busted gates for fingerprints, lifting footprints from the floor, and collecting some sort of fiber that must have caught on the chain link fence of one cage. They already photographed tire tracks out back and collected fingerprints from the reception area and the forced doors, and by the time they're packing up, the total number of prints has risen into the hundreds. Hopefully, they'll be able to rule out most of them as belonging to the staff.

It's slow going, but by five in the morning, they've done everything they can for the moment.

"Man, my eyes are crossing," Greg complains, leaning back in his chair. "I need coffee if we're joining the search for serial victims. Want some?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Sara agrees, closing up the box of evidence. "You want to grab some for all of us while I log this, meet in Grissom's office?"

"Sure."

She gets the box logged into the evidence locker and then heads to the office. "Any luck?"

Grissom just glances up and offers her a quick smile before focusing on the file he's studying again, but Catherine straightens up, cracks her neck.

"One pretty much confirmed, three possibles," she reports. "How's the dog case going?"

"We've got a tire track belonging to a 2004 pickup, not sure which brand, two different footprints – one size eleven and one size thirteen – that don't belong to anyone on staff according to the one guy working. We've ruled out about a quarter of the fingerprints, but we've only got the one employee so far, the rest are coming in later to get printed. Mandy's running all the unidentified through AFIS, no hits yet. We also have gray cotton fibers, most likely from a piece of clothing, nothing we can really use unless we have something to compare it to," she rattles off. "But we do have the chip IDs for the stolen dogs, so if anyone scans one of them, we'll get an alert. Can't do much more at the moment."

Grissom pushes a small stack of folders across his desk. "Have a look at these. The top one we're almost certain about – she's wearing one of the necklaces recovered from the semi in the photo – the other three are possibilities."

Sara sits down in the free chair and opens the top folder, taking out a photo of a young, smiling woman. She's wearing a necklace that looks vaguely familiar. "Do we have the trophies we got from the trucker?"

Catherine rummages around under a couple of folders and produces an evidence bag containing a silver chain with a pendant shaped like half a heart with the name 'CODY'. "Boyfriend," she says, before Sara can ask. "Presumably, he had the other half with her name."

"Lacy Trenton, eighteen," she reads the name from the file. "Found at a rest area along the I-71 just north of Columbus in May of ninety-five. We thinking this is his first victim?"

"At least the first one he kept a souvenir from," Grissom replies. "Possibly the first one he killed. But raping and killing out of nowhere is extremely rare, I wouldn't be surprised if there are sex crimes in his background, even if he's never been convicted of anything."

Sara flips through the file, scrutinizing the crime scene photos, reading the autopsy report. "This girl was found redressed in the trunk of her own car," she says after a moment. "Raped, beaten, and strangled. Apart from C.O.D. and the victim type, there's nothing linking this girl to the ones here, and it's not like strangulation is that uncommon, especially not in conjunction with sexual assault. And there was no DNA found… or maybe they didn't collect any, DNA wasn't very advanced in the mid-nineties. Apart from the necklace, there's really nothing indicating this is the work of our guy."

"There's a note saying DNA was collected, but it's not in the system – even though CODIS was established in the early nineties, it wasn't widely used until much later and a lot of the smaller police departments are still working on logging old evidence, or just haven't bothered. I've sent an email to the local sheriff, hopefully the DNA will be in proper storage, in which case we might be able to get a match," Grissom supplies. "We're thinking he evolved, or maybe changed his M.O. deliberately. It's not common, but not unheard of. Have a look at the other three cases – all from Colorado, spanning a week. If we can confirm these, I think we can confirm that theory."

Sara skims through the three folders – Amy Meadows, sixteen, Yolanda Ibarra, sixteen, and Liz Brandon, seventeen, all slim brunettes. All raped, strangled, and found naked on benches in three different parks in Denver, duct tape binding their hands as well as their feet together, and covering their eyes and mouths.

"These are clearly the work of the same perp," she notes. "And there are a lot of similarities to the cases here. But nothing about the jewelry."

"We were thinking this might be Amy's," Catherine says, holding up another evidence bag with a thin, gold link with an 'A' pendant. "As for the others… we'll have to talk to local PD or maybe family."

"What'd I miss?" All three of them look up to find Greg in the doorway, four mugs in one hand and a coffee pot in the other. "We figured you two might want some coffee too."

"Yes, please," Catherine says immediately, and Greg hands out mugs before pouring everyone some coffee.

"If we're right, we're looking for two victims from Minnesota," Grissom says after a sip. "We haven't been able to find two that seem connected, but maybe you'll have better luck."

He pushes a stack of folders across the desk as Greg pulls up a chair, and he grins at Sara as he grabs half of them. "Race you."

AN: The conversation between Grissom and Ecklie in this chapter is vaguely inspired by a personal experience – a bunch of years ago, I had trouble with my phone and internet provider, and had to call them up. I was all prepared to have to argue to get them to admit to being wrong, but they just came right out and took the blame, apologized and let me get out of my contract earlier than I originally was supposed to. It was nice but a little anticlimactic, and left me a little confused…