A/N: Hey guys. Thought I'd drop another chapter before Xmas. I hope you are enjoying the story. I really am enjoying writing it. Best wishes to one and all for the festive season.
A huge thank you to my current Pat reon supporters, I will post you guys chapter 13 this weekend :D – Nat, Mrs Crabby, Dbackfan, AliceC, ChristineS, DawnS, Jillian, IngridT, Tracer85, NiniZ and NancyB. You guys rock!
As always, thank you to calim for the support, beta and suggestions.
Chapter 10
Walking around the outside of the house, Catherine, Max, Josh and Serena approached the gate to the fence encircling the back garden.
"Let me go first," Serena said as Catherine unhooked the latch, pulling her gun from its holster.
"Sure," Catherine replied, stepping aside to let the detective go in front. "But I doubt our suspect has been camping in the alley for the last week or so."
Not reacting to the comment, Serena pushed open the wooden gate and stepped out into the alley. As everyone followed, they were immediately hit by flies. Attempting to bat them away from their faces, they looked up and down the long line of trash cans stretched along the path.
"Well, the flies certainly aren't a good sign," Max remarked, heading for the area that appeared to have the largest swarm hovering around.
Composing herself, especially after what Grissom had said, Max lifted the lid and pulled it off, all four of them jumping back as a huge wave of flies piled out the trash can.
"Jesus Christ," Catherine gasped, holding a hand to her heart. "Did not expect that."
Josh pointed to a hole in the trash can. "Easy access," he said, "even if stuff is sealed in there."
And, as the group peered into the now open trash can, sealed was exactly the word.
Clearing her throat, Catherine screwed up her nose. The killer hadn't even tried to hide their devastation or clean up after themselves. Numerous clear, sealed plastic bags full of blood and most likely body parts of some kind sat on top of the trash, the bags themselves covered in blood. No doubt that's what had attracted the flies.
"Doctor Grissom wasn't kidding, was he?" Josh said a little shocked.
Biting down on her lip, Catherine looked to her right and then her left.
"We need to check all the trash cans. Last time the killer spread parts all over the place."
Serena took out her radio. "I'll get this entire alleyway sealed off and find out if anyone has any CCTV in this area."
Max nodded as the detective stepped away then sighed. "Where the hell do we start?"
CSICSICSICSICSICSICSI
As Allie began processing the hallway, Grissom and Sara returned to the bathroom. Sara placed her kit down then watched her husband look around, his fingers of both gloved hands flexing in and out. He then turned to Penny noticing she was looking a bit intimidated by the scene before her.
"Come on in," Grissom encouraged.
Taking a breath, Penny stepped forwards.
"Why don't you tell us what you see?" he said as he held out his arms.
Eyes widening a little, Penny looked surprised. "You want me to tell you what I think?"
Sara smiled as her husband's eyes flicked to her, adoring his mentoring of the young CSI. It reminded her of a time, all those years ago, when he would request she talk out the scene then tell him what she thought had happened. Plus, he wasn't letting the fact of this particular crime scene hitting such a personal note deter him from doing his job. Not yet anyway but it was very early in the investigation so she wouldn't count her chickens just yet.
Then again, this was Gil Grissom. Professional through and through.
Usually.
"Sure," he replied to Penny. "Tell us what you think."
"Oh... um… okay."
Penny put her kit down and moved further into the bathroom, watching where she walked. First, she looked up to the ceiling then around the walls. The floor was next then the tub before settling her attention on the victim on the floor of the shower.
"Well," she began, looking back at the bathtub, "there's a lot of blood." Walking a little closer to the shower door, she peered inside. "Spatter on the glass and walls, so I'd say she was killed here considering how much blood there is around her and on the floor. Likely killed facing away from the shower door."
Grissom nodded. "Okay. What else?"
Frowning, Penny pointed to the bathtub. "If she was killed in the shower why is there so much blood in there?" She looked at the floor. "And there's no blood trail from the tub to the shower so she wasn't dragged unless someone just cleaned up this small area which I really don't see happening…"
"So?" Grissom encouraged.
"I would say the blood in the tub… isn't hers?"
Smiling, Grissom took a swab from Sara as she held it out. "I would agree with you," he said.
Penny smiled, feeling pride at his comment.
Grissom held out the swab to her. "I see some blood on the shower door handle. Would you get a sample?"
"Sure," she agreed taking the swab from him as Max stepped in.
"Hey. How we doing?" she asked, sounding a little breathless.
"Just getting started," Sara told her. "Did you find anything out back?"
Max's eyebrows lifted. "Oh, yes. Body parts all over the place. It's… a mess. Catherine says it's just like what you found in 2004."
Grissom and Sara exchanged a look and Grissom puffed out his cheeks.
"Okay," he whispered. "Male victim?"
Max shrugged her shoulders. "To be honest we're not sure yet. There's blood everywhere and it's hard to define what's in the plastic bags. ID will have to wait until the, um, bits come back to the lab. Serena is going to speak to the mother again though to see if there is a boyfriend or girlfriend."
"Where is the mother?" Sara asked.
"Neighbor's house," Max told them. "Paramedics needed to calm her down a little but she wouldn't go to the hospital."
Sara let out a long breath. "Hard to see your daughter like this, I'm sure."
"I think for most people," Grissom added, "it's hard seeing anyone like this."
"Good point," Sara agreed.
Max took a notebook from her pocket. "We have the victim's name. Meryl Jones, 34 years old, worked as a…"
"Nurse," Grissom cut in.
Blinking, Max looked up from the notebook. "How did you know that?"
With a light shrug, Grissom let out a sigh. "Same profession as the original victim."
"Oh."
"Did she work at Desert Palms?" he asked.
"No," Max continued. "Mother said she'd started a new job at," she looked back to the information in her hand, "Summerlin hospital. About three months ago."
Chewing on his lip, Grissom thought for a second. "And where did she work before that?"
Max shook her head. "Not sure."
"Can we find out?" he asked.
"Of course, I'll get Serena to ask."
Grissom nodded. "Thanks."
"The coroner is here," Max then advised. "Do you think you can process the body as priority so we can get her down to the lab? Quicker we can get started with that the better as I think the body outside is going to need a lot more attention."
"No problem, Max," Sara said. "We'll get right on it."
CSICSICSICSICSICSICSICSI
One hour later
As Penny worked on more samples from the bathtub and sink area, Grissom and Sara helped the coroner with the body. Considering its decomposing condition, it was hard to get a time of death. That would have to wait until autopsy although the coroner gave a rough estimate of death as 7 to 10 days. She'd certainly been there a while.
Grissom and Sara inspected the victim for any immediate clues but hadn't found a great deal that was helpful. One smooth motion had evidently caused the slice to her throat as it was clean and deep, so a very sharp knife of some sort was the likely murder weapon. And, there were no defensive marks visible to the eye which meant she had probably been taken by surprise. Or, she knew her attacker.
They'd tried to inspect the victims throat in search of a clue which they assumed would be there but couldn't see anything. It was just too messy to try and dig any deeper. They'd send word with the coroner to request Sonya let them know as soon as she found one. If, of course, she found one.
As the body was wheeled out, Sara flicked through the photographs on her camera of the victim she had taken while Grissom circled around the shower room, his eyes fixed on the floor. When she looked up, she noticed he'd stopped and was staring blankly at the blood-stained tiles looking a bit phased out. She suspected he was doing a little too well with his emotions unless it was something else. Or even both.
Her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Looking over her shoulder, she watched as Penny began printing the sink with powder, taking the opportunity to move closer to her husband.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, doing her best to keep the conversation between them.
When he didn't answer and just continued to stare at the floor, she touched his shoulder. Now he looked at her and she tried to smile and hide the worry that was brewing again. He blinked hard and that made Sara's nerves spike all the more.
"Sorry?" he asked.
She studied him, head tipping a little to the right.
"I asked if you were okay," she repeated the concern in her voice more evident now.
"Oh," his head shook a little. "Um… yeah. Fine."
He avoided looking at her which made her eyes narrow.
"Why don't we go and get a little air? Clear our senses for a minute." He looked at her again and her expression softened. "Please, Gil. You're looking a little pale."
Biting on his lip, he took a moment before eventually nodding.
"Penny will you be okay for a minute?" Sara asked her, hanging the camera over her shoulder.
Looking up from her task, Penny nodded. "Sure, I'll be fine."
Nodding, she took Grissom's arm. "Come on."
He didn't argue and allowed her to lead him towards the door but they both stopped when an unfamiliar man suddenly appeared.
"Oh, hey," he said. "You must be Sara and Doctor Grissom?"
Grissom and Sara looked at each other and then Sara's eyes caught the name on his CSI vest. Fernando.
"That's right," Sara replied. "You must be Beau?"
Beau gave an energetic nod and smile. "That's right. How did you know?"
Sara smiled back at him. "Max mentioned you earlier. Said you were stuck in traffic."
"Yeah," he admitted. "Bad accident. Backed up for miles. It's great to meet you both. I've been told a lot about you." His glance shifted to Grissom. "I'm a big fan of your work. Past and present."
Grissom tried his best to look grateful for the comment. "Thanks."
Looking over them, Beau peered into the bathroom, Penny throwing him a wave which he returned.
"Jeez I heard it was a mess but.…"
"Yeah, it's a challenge for sure," Sara finished for him.
"Are you guys okay in here? Max asked me to check in with you before I started looking around the rest of the house."
Noticing Grissom blink hard again, Sara tried to speed things along so she could get him outside.
"Errr, well, the body just got removed. You could start getting photos of the floor and shower room?" she said as she took the camera from her shoulder and held it out to him.
"Sure, I can do that," Beau replied confidently, taking the camera.
"We're just going outside for a few minutes, okay?" Sara then told him. "We won't be long."
"You got it," Beau said, stepping aside so they could pass him.
Sara threw him a smile as he did so, then turned her attention to getting Grissom out of the house.
Luckily Allie had worked past the bathroom and was behind them as they walked down the corridor towards the front door. Sara was thankful for the lack of any more interruptions.
Once they were outside, she walked them into the garden a bit and urged Grissom to sit down on the wall, crouching in front of him. Looking around and confident they were alone she took his hand.
"Talk to me, Gil. What's going on?"
Puffing out his cheeks, he closed his eyes.
"I'm okay," he replied sucking in a deep breath. "Just felt a little light headed."
Searching his eyes with her own as he opened them, she wasn't entirely believing he was okay but at least she had a little information to go off.
"Do you think it's your illness?"
With a light shrug, he looked around. "I don't know," he said quietly. "We didn't have breakfast so maybe it's a minor thing."
Shit, no, Sara thought to herself. They didn't have breakfast. Catherine's call had sent that thought far, far away. But with his meds the lack of food in his system could certainly affect him.
"It might be a good idea if we grabbed something now," she suggested.
Clearing his throat, he looked at her, giving her that smile that meant he wasn't really smiling it was more just for show.
"I can't say I'm really that hungry."
What did she do? She couldn't exactly blame him for that.
Straightening up, she glanced around the street behind them, way past the crime scene tape and noticed a food van, a line of cops all queuing for their snacks. Her head shook a bit. Brutal murder scene and you could get a burger and soda. Then again, murders made for long days and people had to take a break. Wasn't really all that crazy someone would make money off of it.
"I have some granola bars in the car. How about I grab them, get us a coffee and we take a little break? The scene isn't going anywhere."
As she looked down at him, their eyes collided again and she smiled at him lovingly when he nodded. Reaching out, she softly squeezed his shoulder.
"I'll be right back, okay? If you need me, just holler."
A/N: Much love, stay safe x