Shadow Play

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own no part of CSI and am making absolutely nothing from this story.

Pulling the black Denali to a halt behind one of the LVPD patrol cars, Gil Grissom eyed the gathering crowd of onlookers already jostling for position at the long length of crime scene tape that ran across the front of the lot. He shook his head in amazement.

"Where the hell do they all come from?" Shoving the SUV into park, he turned the vehicle off and pulled the keys from the ignition. "It doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, rent-a-crowd always manages to beat us to the scene."

"From the look of it, most of them are working girls." Sara pointed out as she too, scanned the group. "With all the flashing lights and uniforms in the area I imagine business has pretty much ground to halt for them tonight. They've probably got nothing else to do."

"Not to mention that they may have a vested interest if the victim turns out to be one of their colleagues." Greg added from the backseat.

"She will be." Pushing open the driver's door, Grissom climbed out and headed towards the rear of the SUV. Joined seconds later by his two companions, he opened up the tailgate and allowed them to collect their kits before hauling out his own.

"How do you know she's a prostitute?" Greg asked as he eyed his boss curiously. "I saw the slip Judy gave you; all it said was a 419 at this address."

"That's right it did." Grissom agreed as he headed towards the scene. "And, believe me; I'd like nothing more than to be proven wrong because if she is a prostitute and we find what I think we're going to find-"

"Solving crime not enough for you now, Gil?" The familiar voice of Jim Brass cut Grissom off in mid-sentence. "You've started predicting it as well."

"I wasn't expecting you to be here, Jim; I thought you were handling Catherine and Warrick's murder/suicide?"

"I was." Brass admitted as he came to a halt in front of the three CSIs. "But, when I heard a call come over that sounded remarkably like something a certain night shift supervisor warned me about three days ago then you better believe I'm going to take it. The other scene's only a couple of blocks away anyway so I called Vartann in to cover for me and high-tailed it over here."

"A couple of blocks?" Sara asked, her interest piqued by the close proximity. "Any chance the two crimes are related?"

"I doubt it." Jim responded as he began to lead the group towards the front of the gas station. "That one is a definite domestic gone wrong but this one... well you'll see for yourselves."

"Let me guess." Grissom sighed. "Her throat's been cut and she has knife wounds to the abdomen?"

Grabbing hold of the crime scene tape, Brass held it up as he returned Grissom's stare. "Do I need to ask about your whereabouts tonight, Gil?"

"I've been in the lab since the start of shift." Grissom tried and failed to smother the amusement in his voice as he ducked underneath the yellow tape. "With plenty of witnesses to back that up I might add."

"You won't be offended if I check with them, will you?" Jim gave an almost embarrassed shrug. "You've got to admit this new talent of yours is a bit weird."

Without waiting for a reply, Brass led the three CSIs along the side of the building then rounded the corner into a small, paved area at the rear of the premises. He gestured towards the unmistakable shape of a body lying on the ground beside the back door just a few feet away.

"Well, there she is."

Placing his kit on the ground not far from the fence, Grissom pulled his flashlight from his vest pocket and swept it quickly around the area before moving closer and squatting down. His first look at the victim and her wounds confirmed his worst fears.

She appeared to be around fifty although, as Grissom knew, life on the streets of Las Vegas had a habit of prematurely aging a person. Lying face up on the concrete, over-dyed platinum blonde hair fanned out around her head, the victim was completely naked. Her clothing was scattered around her; a short leather skirt and what appeared to be a halter top, once white but now stained a deep, dark red from the blood that now saturated it. The only visible piece of jewelry was a small gold sleeper in her right earlobe; the left torn and bloody where the matching hoop had been viciously pulled out.

Sensing movement behind him, Grissom glanced back to see both Greg and Sara moving in for a closer look.

"Man, what a mess." Greg exclaimed as he looked down at the body in front of him. "It looks like whoever did this decided to start the autopsy without us."

Turning back to the victim, Grissom silently agreed.

Her throat had been cut twice, both incisions running straight across from ear to ear. Although unable to touch the body until it had been cleared, he had no doubts that at least one of the wounds would have severed the carotid artery. Moving the Maglite's beam further down, he illuminated the rest of the damage.

A deep, jagged tear ripped across her abdomen an inch or so above the pubic line while several neat incisions ran almost parallel to it and four similarly precise cuts ran vertically down her right side.

Sara sighed aloud as she took in the extent of the carnage. "Looks like overkill to me."

"Unfortunately it's not though." Grissom winced slightly as he got back to his feet. "It's exactly as it's meant to be; a perfect reproduction."

"Of what though?" Brass watched as Grissom stood, backing away from the victim to take in the scene as a whole before turning to address his colleagues.

"Sara, you and I will take the actual scene. Greg, I want you to start with the perimeters and work your way in." He glanced around the small yard. "It might pay to check the neighboring lots too; just make sure you take one of the uniforms with you when you go, alright?"

"I'm on it." Picking up his case, Greg started towards the front of the building but turned back when he heard Grissom call out.

"Oh and Greg? We're playing to an audience here so you know what that means don't you?"

"I'll get as many shots of the crowd as I can; if the killer's come back to watch the after-show, we're going to have his photo." Eager to get a start, the younger CSI turned and almost collided with David Phillips as the Assistant Coroner and his attendant made their way towards the scene.

Brass moved out of the way as David quickly maneuvered his gurney into the yard and lifted a small medical bag from it before approaching the body.

"Sorry we're late." He shot Grissom an apologetic smile as he dropped to his knees beside the victim. "I wanted to take Catherine and Warrick's victims back to the morgue before I came for this one."

"I don't think she's been dead too long, David, a lot of the blood around her is still wet." Grissom commented as he watched the younger man open up his bag.

"Liver temperature will tell us." David replied as he expertly slid the long metal probe between through the skin and into the organ. While he waited for the reading he leant in for a closer look at the throat wounds. "I think it's safe to say that cause of death is probably going to be exsanguination." He carefully opened one of the incisions with his gloved fingers. "If this was any deeper she would have been decapitated."

"Check that gash in her stomach for me, will you?" Grissom asked as he looked on. "Make sure nothing's missing."

After a puzzled glance towards Sara, David did as asked. "Everything looks okay but I guess we won't know for sure until the autopsy." Removing the thermometer, he made a note of the reading. "Given the ambient temperature and the fact that there are no signs of rigor mortis, I'd estimate that she's only been dead and hour or so."

Grissom checked his watch. "It's almost five o'clock now so the time fits." Oblivious to the strange looks his comment had drawn, he appeared to be deep in thought. Suddenly he frowned. "Al's off tonight, isn't he David?"

"That's right." Pulling out an alcohol wipe, David quickly cleaned off the thermometer before slipping it back in his bag. "Dr. Avery's covering for him."

"I've got nothing against Avery but I want Robbins to handle this one." Moving back towards the body, Grissom watched as Sara began taking close up photographs of the victim.

"When you get back to the morgue David, log her in and then wait for me; I'd like to be there when you process her. As soon as we've done that I'll give Al a call and see if he'll come in some time this afternoon to do the post." He swung back to address Sara. "Make sure that the rest of the team knows that I'm scheduling a meeting for 7:30pm in the layout room; that should give me enough time to get everything together so that I can bring you all up to speed before the start of shift."

Tired of being ignored and feeling very much as though he was being kept out of the loop, Brass decided he'd had enough.

"What the hell is going on here, Grissom? First you predict this murder and now you're orchestrating the whole investigation as though the lead detective doesn't even exist. You want to bring everybody up to speed? How about starting with me?"

"I'm sorry Jim; I honestly didn't realize I was doing that." Grissom's contrition was genuine. "What do you want to know?"

Bemused, Brass gestured around the scene. "Well, what it is we're looking at here would be nice; after all, you seem to know all about it."

"What we're looking at is the work of a serial killer." Leaning back against the wire cyclone fence that enclosed the yard, Grissom revised his statement. "Actually, it's more like two serial killers but only the second one is really of interest to us."

"A copy-cat!" Brass stated as realization dawned.

"That's right." Grissom nodded. "Back in April, the body of a prostitute was found dumped in some bushes on Lake Mead Boulevard."

Jim thought for a moment but couldn't place the case. "Did you handle it?"

"No, Days caught it." Grissom told him. "She had massive head wounds and appeared to have been the victim of an object rape although they never discovered what was used or, for that matter, any other evidence. There was no trace, no prints, no DNA; nothing at all to go on."

"Witnesses?"

"They never found any." Gil told him. "The other girls that worked that area had seen her about earlier that night but couldn't remember seeing her talking to anyone or getting into any cars; in fact, they couldn't even say for certain when they last saw her at all."

"Always helpful." Jim commented facetiously.

"Yeah." Grissom agreed. "The case was reviewed at the end of month supervisor's meeting, which is how I came to hear about it, but with nothing to go there wasn't much point in continuing the investigation unless new evidence came to light."

"But it wasn't new evidence that turned up, was it?" Brass guessed. "It was victim number two."

"Do you remember the victim earlier this month with multiple stab wounds?"

"If by multiple you mean forty then sure, I'm not about to forget that."

"It was thirty-nine actually." Grissom automatically corrected him. "Nick and Catherine handled that one and, once again, there was no evidence and no witnesses."

"Hang on, that one was about four weeks ago." Jim broke in. "If the two cases were connected, why am I only hearing about it now?"

"Because I only noticed the link a few days ago." Gil replied. "I was reviewing the open cases for the month when I noticed that the stabbing victim was missing an earring, it had been torn from her left earlobe but it was never found at the scene; then I remembered that the same thing happened to the April victim."

"And that lead you to connect the two cases?"

"It made me look closer and when I did, I realized that both crimes sounded familiar."

The conversation paused as both men watched David and his assistant carefully lift the victim into a body-bag before zipping it up and moving her to the gurney. As the trolley was guided back around the corner, Grissom resumed talking.

"I'd read very similar case files before; both victims then were prostitutes and they died in a very similar manner to our two vics."

Brass frowned. "How similar?"

"Almost identical." Gil gave a quick shrug. "The only real difference is that the original first victim didn't die until two days after she was attacked."

"But that was an object rape too?"

"Yes, the investigators in that case never found out what was used either but the force exerted was enough to rupture her peritoneum; that was her COD. When I checked back to those original murders I also noticed that the dates were the same too; well, the days and months anyway."

Brass ran his hand across his mouth as his gaze turned from Grissom to the large blood stain that marred the concrete where their own victim had lain.

"So, that's how you knew what was going to happen tonight." It was more a statement than a question. "How you knew what we'd find."

"I suspected, Jim, I didn't know for sure." Gil pointed out. "If I had I would have brought it to your attention before now."

"Did they catch the original killer?" Jim's gaze followed Sara as she moved to her kit and replaced her camera with a handful of swabs.

"No." Grissom shifted uncomfortably, anxious to get on with helping Sara process the scene. "He's suspected of being responsible for at least five and possibly as many as eleven murders although some people believe the number could be even higher than that."

"Oh great, that's just what we need." Brass rolled his eyes at the new information. "So we've got another eight of these to look forward to."

"Unless we get lucky and catch him beforehand." Grissom pointed out as he pushed himself off the wire fencing. "Of course, if we don't stop him before he hits that number he might just decide to keep adding to the list."

Crossing to where he'd left his own kit he quickly picked it up, hoping that Brass would take the hint and let him do his job but Jim wasn't finished yet.

"Well, if they never caught this guy what makes you think we're dealing with an imitator?"

"If this is the work of the original murderer we've got a much bigger mystery on our hands than where the next body is likely to turn up."

"Why's that?"

"It's simple, Jim." Grissom smiled, knowing that with his next words Brass would be silenced and he could, finally, get on with things. "The original killer was Jack the Ripper."

TBC