DISCLAIMER: I do not own CSI. Also, looking forward to your reviews. Oh, I forgot to mention: this story is inspired by a real case.

Chapter 02, With Blood comes the Mess

WHEN Sara reached the apartment, almost the same image she saw in the car was there: crayons, papers, junk food, clothes, toys and diapers everywhere. It was a serious mess. If it wasn't a crime scene, she'd have the urge to take a broom and start cleaning and organizing it all. She couldn't live with mess.

Grissom, who was at the living room, just a few steps from the door, looked at her, and - as if he knew what she was thinking, stated:
"Small apartment with three kids."

She nodded and started looking around. No sign of forced entry on the door. There were bags on the floor, consistent with the trip story. Looking closely, she found drops of blood close to the door and, looking better, some others made a trail til the sofa. Now, that was starting to tell a story. Blood drops at the car, inside the apartment and one dead body: this couldn't be a coincidence.

Grissom was quieter than usual looking around, like he was thinking about buying the apartment, which gave her the chills. So she rested her kit on the floor, opened it and started to wear her gloves. Only when the swab touched the floor, he turned in his heels.

"Found something?"

"Some blood drops on the floor from here to there." Grissom looked at the place she was pointing to. "I think I saw some in the car as well, but it was so dark I can't tell you for sure. But no blood drops from the car till here. Floors, elevators, nothing"

After taking care of the blood drop found, Sara got up. "I'm going to check the door for prints, but at first looks, there's no sign of forced–"

Sara was interrupted by the sounds of a woman screaming and crying at the same time in the hall. It was getting closer and closer, Brass's voice was trying to calm her down with no success. Some other crying voices joined them not long after. Some doors along the corridor opened.

"BEN!", the crying woman shouted.

"I'm so so sorry, Jess, so sorry, she is- she was- everything to us", a man said.

"Guess we're going to meet the parents", Grissom had magically appeared by her side, his shoulder touching her back, while whispering the words next to her ear, forming goosebumps in her skin at a very inappropriate time.

"I'm afraid you can't come in", Brass told them as they reached the door.

"But it's our home!", the man shouted back so loud, that made the police officer grab his arm.

"I understand it. But it's a crime scene, CSIs need to process it in order to catch who did this to your daughter, right?", Brass told him. "You could enlighten us by telling us what happened when you got home".

"I told the officer already", Ben Cornwell said.

Grissom stepped in. "We know, and we're sorry, we understand it's a very difficult time, but it'd be good for our investigation to put some context on it. My name is Gil Grissom and this is Sara Sidle, we're going to handle the investigation."

The man was tall, with a head full of dark straight hair, his skin was sweaty, even though it was a cold night. He had a lost look on his face, like he was drugged. The two women could easily be two characters from cheap soup opera, Sara realized. Their phisiqué looked almost the same, just a little difference in height and the obvious difference in the hair color: the biological mother had dark blonde hair, the step-mother a deep dark hair.

But the rest… They could be related or sisters for all Sara knows. She wondered if everybody had a type, after all. She sure didn't - or so she thought. Of course, it was way too soon to even think both women were so similar to each other, but it was impressive: even the way both wore their jackets was almost the same.

"Now, could you tell us what happened tonight?" Grissom asked politely after a few moments of silence. Sara noticed that his calm voice was able to calm down the man, who runned his hands through his hair before answering.

"We made a family trip with my wife, Virginia, our two kids and my daughter, Neave. We got back today, my daughter was already asleep, so I carried her upstairs, while my wife was organizing the things in the car. I put Neave on the bed and came back to the car—"

"You left my daughter alone?!", the crying woman shouted.

"What was he supposed to do? I was alone downstairs, with two babies and a lot of baggage, it's a safe building", Virginia, the wife, shouted back.

"I'm sorry, you're the biological mother, right? What's your name?", Brass asked.

"Jessica Harris, people call me Jess", she sobbed. "It was a safe building till now!"

Sara knew she was supposed to be objective on every case, but she couldn't help but feel empathy for this woman. One thing she'd learned in life is that everything is okay until it isn't anymore. When she was a kid, she was having a quiet night, when, suddenly, her mother had stabbed her father. Her life changed completely after that.

"So… I came back to the car, to help out my wife and kids, leaving her here safely, Neave was safe, I swear", he said looking at Jessica, "and I came back alone again to take the baggage. That's when it happened. It was so fast…"

"Sorry, where were you?", Sara asked

"I was in the laundry, it's near our kitchen, I was taking the clothes out of the bags, I–I heard a noise of something falling on the floor, someone running, when I looked behind, a shadow passed…"

"Did you hear the same noises?" Grissom asked Virginia.

The woman was pale, looking at her shoes all the time. When Grissom addressed her the question, she was taken aback a little bit.

"Yes, sir, I did. But I was with my kids, I thought Ben had dropped something, I'd never thought—"

Grissom nodded.

"So, after the shadow passed…? What did you do?" Sara asked Ben.

"I went after it. Our front door was open, I thought I saw someone in the hallway, but it was dark, I wasn't with my glasses on, so I closed it, locked it, and started to look around. That's when I noticed Neave wasn't here anywhere. We called for her over and over, you know, hide and seek, but… but…", Ben sobbed hard, shaking his shoulders, a very tall man almost bent shaking. Jessica and Virginia both stepped closer and hugged him tightly.

They already knew the end of that story.

TBC