A/N: Howdy :) New chapter time :) Thank you to those who have reviewed and left your thoughts. Much appreciated.

A huge thank you to my current Pat reon supporters – Nat, Mrs Crabby, Dbackfan, AliceC, ChristineS, DawnS, Jillian, IngridT, Tracer85, NiniZ and NancyB.

Always, thank you calim for the beta.

Chapter 15

The trio sat together in a quiet area of the cafeteria, Max handing everyone a coffee from the tray.

"How are you guys feeling?" she asked.

Sara, who was taking a sip from the drink, flicked her eyes towards Grissom who twitched his lips and gave a shrug.

"Maybe ask that in a few days?" he suggested. "When we hope by then we will have found something to help us with this case."

Looking at Max, Sara put the coffee down. She knew she wasn't talking about the case but she also knew just how much Grissom would talk about his personal feelings to anyone but her.

"It's good we have ID's for all the victims now," she replied. "Maybe we can get somewhere, possibly find some links."

Glancing over her shoulder, Max entwined her fingers on the table.

"Listen," she began. "Josh has a… theory. Something I think we need to keep very close to our vests."

Grissom's eyebrows rose as he and Sara exchanged eye contact.

"Oh?" he said.

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Up on the wall of a layout room, Penny began creating a map of footprints using photographs taken at the scene. Taking a pen, she marked each one to identify who it belonged to. So far, she'd identified a lot:

Prints coming out of the bathroom going to the front door belonged to the EMT's, first officers at the scene and the victim's mother. The same went for the prints found inside the bathroom. Except for one set.

Moving to her left, her eyes worked over the footprints going from the bathroom to the bedroom and then back again. Frowning, she moved to the table and picked up photographs of the bedroom floor. The floor looked clean.

Pulling out her cell, she pulled up Allie's number and hit call.

"Hey, Penny," Allie greeted. "What's up?"

Penny looked at the photographs again. "Just a quick question. In the bedroom did you find any blood or footprints on the carpet?"

"No, we didn't find anything like that. Not visible anyway. But they are still processing."

Biting on her lip, her frown returned. "Okay, thanks."

Letting out a confused sigh, Penny picked up the impression taken from the plaster cast of the shoe print found outside the bedroom window. Moving back to her map, she compared each print from inside to the one in her hand only to come up empty. Nothing matched to the one found outside.

And then she noticed something on the impression - a reasonably large void in the tread.

In many ways, shoe prints were just like fingerprints. The void in the tread possibly meant the base of the person's shoe or boot had a piece of the sole missing or it may be split or something along those lines. All they need to do now was match the shoe to the print and then the person who owned it.

Easier said than done and, at that point, she had no idea whether the print outside was linked to the murder or not. However, the print was good enough to probably determine the size and make of shoe.

As she moved back to the photos on the wall, the thing that really stuck her mind was the bloody shoe prints stopped at the bedroom door but there was nothing visible inside. It didn't make any sense.

She needed to go through all of it again just to make sure she wasn't losing her mind.

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Sara looked at Grissom after Max told them Josh's theory about someone within the LVPD, whether it was past or present, possibly being involved with the murders and had a vendetta against her husband. The look on his face was just blank as if he hadn't even heard what Max had said. He hadn't acknowledged the theory at all. Now she was worried again.

"Gil?"

Immediately, his head tipped her way. "Hmmm?"

"Are you okay?" she asked concerned.

"Fine," he replied immediately.

Eyes narrowing a little, Sara wished she could argue with that but she knew she couldn't.

Sighing, he shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm just not sure what to say," he admitted. "And considering the intricate details this killer has, we should suspect someone on the inside may be involved."

"You've been here a day," Max cut in. "Don't be throwing blame on yourself just yet."

Smirking, Grissom scratched his cheek. "But like you said, if someone is or was involved, it's going to be very difficult to find out who or how."

"Yeah," Max agreed. "We just need to be extra vigilant."

"Well.…" Grissom's eyes flicked back to his wife. "I'd like to think we're that anyway."

Sara's lips pursed at him and then she smiled.

"So," Max said as she clapped her hands together, "now that's out of the way, tell me about the body in the morgue."

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Waiting for the compound results from the mirror, Catherine began examining the paper clues they'd been left.

Staring at the crumpled drawing found inside the sex doll, a shudder hit her spine as flashes of Kevin Greer hit her mind's eye. His face wasn't one you would easily forget and neither were his teeth. Man he had such disgusting teeth. Unconsciously she ran her tongue over her own and made a mental note to brush when she got home.

Then the sound of a printer broke into her thoughts, and she looked towards the computer.

Letting the drawing fall back onto the table, she got up and headed toward the printer. Ah, her results. Picking up the papers, she peered through her glasses at the array of printed charts, chemical compounds and ingredients that were in her sample. Quickly scanning the information, a deep frown found her brow. One element, blood, wasn't the surprise. It was everything else.

Looking at the computer screen, she tapped a few keys, tallying the printed results with those on the computer just to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Nope, it was the same.

Taking off her glasses, she shook her head but a knock at the door interrupted her thoughts and she glanced over to see Penny entering.

"Hey, Catherine," the young CSI greeted. "I'm going to grab a coffee, do you want to join me?"

"Err, I'm fine thanks."

"Are you okay?" Penny asked as she drew close.

"Just a little confused," Catherine admitted.

Penny smiled. "Yeah. You and me both. What are you confused about?"

Catherine held up the results. "I just analyzed the lettering on the mirror and it has a rather unusual mix of components."

Looking at the paper, Penny shrugged. "Like what?"

"Well," Catherine began putting her glasses back on, she began reading from the list. "Blood, liquid latex, PVC, sodium sulfate, propylene glycol, triclosan, pantothenic acid, folic acid, niacin, antioxidants, carotenoid and … um, shrimp."

Penny coughed and then laughed. "That sure is, um, quite an unusual combination."

"You're telling me," Catherine agreed.

Then Catherine's brows rose as a look of what appeared to be an exploding lightbulb idea zipped across Penny's face. Taking Catherine totally by surprise, Penny grabbed her arm.

"Come with me."

Eyes widening as Penny just about dragged her from the room, Catherine laughed when the youngster eventually relented her grip halfway down the corridor.

"Hey, Penny. Where the hell is the fire?"

"Sorry," Penny apologised when they reached the room she'd been working in. "Just.…" She gestured her hand. "Come, I'll show you."

Although she looked totally confused, Catherine followed and Penny led her to the wall with the photographs.

"So… what are you showing me?" Catherine asked, her eyes scanning over the wall.

"Here." Penny pointed to the photograph of the bloody prints that went to the bedroom.

Catherine leaned in close and then stepped back. "Okay. I see bloody footprints. Why…?"

Now Penny pointed to the results still in Catherine's hand. "The components found in your test results, a lot of them are used in the manufacture of body wash."

Shaking her head, Catherine still didn't know where she was going with this.

Penny turned to the wall, drawing her finger along the trail leading from the bathroom.

"The footprints go from the bathroom to the bedroom and then stop. They then return the same way they came." She looked at Catherine. "No footprints were found in the bedroom."

"Okay …"

"I think," Penny continued and then took a breath. "Our killer went from the bathroom, with blood on their shoes, to the bedroom. They then removed their bloody shoes at the door before entering the room."

Now Catherine's mouth opened in realization. "If they came from the bathroom, they would likely have traces of body wash on their shoes from the floor."

"Exactly," Penny agreed. "And given your results, I'd say they wiped the blood from the soles of their shoes to write the message on the mirror. PVC is very common in shoe soles."

"If that's the case, no wonder we have such random traces on the mirror. I mean, they could have anything stuck to their shoes."

Penny gave a nod. "Even shrimp. Maybe they work in a fish market or had that for dinner."

Catherine's eye narrowed at her. "Could be anything and they were around all the trash cans. Food debris is quite common on the ground around those."

"Why would they take their shoes off to go into the bedroom, though?" Penny asked. "I mean, there was blood everywhere in the bathroom and they trailed it all down the corridor."

"I'm not sure," Catherine admitted.

"Maybe Doctor Grissom will know?" Penny suggested. "I mean… he seems… deeply connected to these cases. Right?"

Just as Penny said that, Sara, Grissom and Max walked passed the room and Catherine moved quickly, rushing to the window to bang on the glass.

The trio literally jumped out of their skin, throwing Catherine a rather unimpressed glare through the window.

Smiling, Catherine beckoned a hand. "Come in here for a second."

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Holding a hand to her heart, Sara blew out a breath. "I think Catherine is trying to give us a heart attack."

"No kidding," Max griped as she led the way towards the room.

Grissom just raised his eyebrows at Sara as they followed.

"What's up," Max asked.

Catherine led them towards the photo table.

"Here are the results on the lettering on the mirror," she said handing off the documents to Max then pointed at the wall. "Gil, can you think of a reason why our killer would not want to get blood on the floor of the bedroom?"

Finding a frown, Grissom stepped closer to look over the photographs, Sara looking over his shoulder.

"See the prints?" Catherine asked. "They go from the bathroom to the bedroom then back again. There's no blood on the carpet inside the room. Penny thinks the killer took off their shoes and used the blood from the soles to write the message. With what we don't know. Then they put them back on and left."

Slipping on his glasses, Grissom carefully inspected the prints before stepping back and looking at Penny.

"I think Penny is doing better than any of us at the moment," he complimented. She blushed earning a smile from Sara. "But it's pretty obvious."

"It is?" Catherine questioned as he faced her.

"Why would they lead us to the clue?" Grissom said. "Part of their game is us having to find them. If they left footprints we'd likely be led right to the mirror, and they wouldn't have the satisfaction of knowing we were running around in circles."

"Good point," Catherine mumbled.

Sara took the paper from Max as she held it out, Grissom watching as she read the results.

"So, what's in it?" he asked.

"A good old concoction," she said, starting to read off the list but when she read out 'liquid latex', Grissom's head shot up and she paused.

"Liquid latex?"

"Um.…" Sara's head rose and her eyes found her husband's. The look he held was quite unsettling. "What?" she asked confused.

Grissom's eyes worked in a circle, almost as if he'd been punched in the gut.

"I know what they wrote the message with."

A/N: Curious… :P