Okay this is my second story I have started writing based on CSI. It is going to be a darker story than my last one. Enjoy!
He looked on admirably at their work before leaving the room. Tonight had been such a rush for him. It left him feeling powerful and also left him wanting to do it again. He gazed over at his girl, who in her blood stained shirt and jeans, made him even more excited.
"We better get going. Make sure you have everything. It is going to be sunrise soon," he said to his girl. Her glassy eyes glanced down at the duffle bag she held. She looked at her boyfriend.
"It's all here. I already double-checked." She sauntered over to him, grabbing him by his waistband on his jeans and drawing him in for a kiss.
"When can we do it again," she breathed into his ear.
"Soon, my love. Soon."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It felt like a never-ending shift. She stifled a yawn as she walked into the break room to find him huddled over some paperwork.
"Hey Greg, we got a double homicide out near Searchlight." The former lab rat turned CSI turned his head to face her.
"Really? Why can't the dayshift take it," he moaned.
Catherine came over to sit in the chair next to him. "Did you forget they are shorthanded and since Grissom and Warrick are at the seminar in LA, so are we?"
Greg sighed. "So much for ever getting caught up on some sleep."
"You know what they say, no rest for the weary." Greg rolled his eyes.
"Come on, let's get going. We have a bit of a drive ahead of us. It's off of Highway 164."
Greg gathered up his paperwork and filed it before heading to his locker to grab his case and then meeting Catherine out at the Denali. He put their cases in the back and then took his place in the passenger seat next to Catherine, who always insisted on driving.
He glanced over at Catherine, whose strawberry blonde hair was straight again today. She went back and forth between the straight and the curly look, although Greg preferred the curly look, but would never tell her that aloud. She was always dressed nice and today was no exception. She wore black slacks with a form fitting reddish brown shirt.
"So you got any details on what we are going to besides it being a double murder," he asked her.
"A housekeeper called it in. It's at the Cactus Tree Motel. She came in and found a bloody mess and a couple bodies from what I was told. A local sheriff deputy will meet us at the scene."
"So let me guess, probably some sort of roach motel," he grinned.
She glanced his way, smirking. "Our favorite kind."
"Yeah I can see it already, fingerprints everywhere from the last 20 guests. I cannot wait."
Catherine smirked at his sarcastic tone. She was glad that his humor had been returning more recently. After the rough year he had, she could not blame him for being more serious about everything, but she had missed the goofy, crazy haired DNA tech Greg she remembered. Since he became a CSI he had changed and matured so much. She admired how well he handled himself during the Demetrius James situation and now that it was finally wrapped up he seemed to be returning more to his old self.
After about an hour and a half drive, they pulled up to the Cactus Tree Motel on the left side of the road. She pulled into the small parking lot, next to the patrol car. The crime scene tape had been stretched across room 21, as the door sign read.
It was a small roadside motel of about 30 rooms. The parking lot was empty now, except for the patrol car, a white Lincoln parked near the front desk area, and a red 90's model Mustang, that was included in the taped off area.
Greg followed with their two metal cases in his hands, after Catherine who was approaching Sheriff Deputy Harrison guarding the scene.
"So what exactly do we have here," she asked after introducing herself and Greg.The fair-haired deputy with blue eyes and a friendly face looked grimly at her. "It's pretty bad. There is blood everywhere. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. The two bodies are slashed all over. The housekeeper is at the Front Desk, being consoled by the manager of the place. I think the scene traumatized her."
"Do you know the victims' names," Greg asked him.
Sheriff Deputy Harrison pulled out a notepad. "Yeah, James and Tessa Williams. Both were 28 years old and newly married, according to the manager, who checked them in."
Catherine gave Greg a grim look. "You ready to go in?" Greg handed her the case as if saying he was ready to go.
They put on their latex gloves and opened the door to the bloody scene. Catherine made a low whistle at the scene before her. Blood was splattered all over the room; walls, furniture, and carpeting all covered. The A/C unit had kept the room cold so the smell was not too terrible yet.
Greg just stared in wonder at the scene. "Where do we start?"
Catherine pointed to the two bloody, naked bodies on the bed. "We'll start with taking photos of the room and the bodies. The coroner should be here soon for the bodies."
Catherine started with the bed and the two victims laying on it. Greg went over to the bathroom to take photos.
The bathroom did not have much blood in it, only little drops on the vinyl flooring. He smelled bleach fairly strongly coming from the sink and bathtub area.
"Looks like the killer cleaned up some in here with bleach. The sink and bathtub look spotless, but there are some blood drops on the flooring. I'll swab them."
Catherine looked more closely at the two victims. James Williams was lying face down; while Tessa lay next to him, face up. "Their necks are slashed." She looked more over the bodies. Long bloody slashes covered much of the back of the man. "The man has long lacerations along his back. Perhaps the killer cleaned his knife in the bathroom, hence the bleach smell."
Greg came back out and went on the other side of the bed. The girl's face was bruised along with a cut going down the left side from her ear to her chin. More cuts over her body and two huge stab wounds in her chest. The ones that ended her life, he guessed.
Greg looked at Catherine, grimly. "Looks like they were put through hell before dying."
Catherine returned the grim look. "Yeah, there is some sick bastard out there on the loose who did this."
Greg just nodded his head in agreement and started walking around the room again, taking more photos and collecting evidence. Greg was right about there being tons of fingerprints in the room. He took several different ones from the dresser and nightstand. He had found very few in the bathroom, which they now pretty much concluded that the killer had used to clean up after himself. There were even more on the room door.
David Phillips, the assistant coroner for Clark County finally arrived on the scene. "Nice to see you, Dave. What took you so long," Catherine asked him.
"Sorry, we had to take care of one for day shift. Got here as soon as we could." He looked around the room. "Dang, this is bloody mess."
Greg cocked an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, tell us about it."
David got to work with Tessa Williams first, taking her body temp via her liver. "I'd place time of death at about 7 hours ago, about 3am." He next went to the man and gave the same results.
His assistant came in and helped him take the bodies out. Greg and Catherine went to work on bagging the bedding and taking the ALS and using it on the mattress and the rest of the room.
Besides the blood on the walls and carpeting, they also discovered bodily fluids on them. It was not that unusual for the carpeting but on the walls it was a bit more obscure. Greg just looked around at the spots lighting up on the ALS.
"What the hell went on in here?"
Catherine shook her head. "I don't know, but we are going to find out."
Catherine left Greg in the room to finish processing it, while she went with Deputy Harrison to question the housekeeper and the motel manager.
The housekeeper was a young woman of Mexican decent. She did seem horrified and Catherine could not really blame her. The scene was pretty gruesome even by her standards.
The housekeeper did not provide much information. She had not noticed anything prior to opening their door and then once she saw the blood everywhere, she ran over to the front desk and called 911 from there.
Catherine had more questions for the manager of the motel. His name was Harold Adams and he was a balding man in his late 50's, with squinty brown eyes.
"Mr. Adams, you checked in the Williams couple?"
"Yes, they came in at about 7 pm, last night. They were very happy, saying they were on some sort of road trip honeymoon. They paid cash for their one night stay. That red mustang in the lot is theirs."
"Did you see any suspicious looking people around last night," Catherine continued on.
"Well, I lock up the desk here at midnight and just have the on call button in use, since I live behind the place here. I did not see or hear anything last night that was unusual."
"Okay, well if you think of anything that can help us, give us a call."
She went back into room 21 to find Greg. "Hey, how's it going?"
He got up from his squatting position after bagging a few more strands of hair. "It's going to take forever for all of this stuff to be processed." He sighed. He looked just about as tired as she felt.
"Yeah I know. At least we are getting the car towed back to the lab. We can get to that there."
Catherine helped Greg finish gathering up everything they could find that might help them find their killer. Then they put everything into the Denali and started heading back to the lab.