A Kiss of Death

Scene 1:

Daylight was fading quickly, but that only meant Catherine Willows’ shift was about to begin. Being at the lab hours before her shift even began wasn’t unusual. She sat at her desk, going through the paper work. It was the part of the job she didn’t care much for. No one ever did, but it had to be done whether she enjoyed it or not. Catherine let out a sigh of boredom. Grissom had left with Sara and Greg on a bizarre murder case. Warrick had his own case too, and Nick was at another forensic convention in Atlanta. This left Catherine with nothing to do but paper work. A couple hours had passed, Catherine resting her head on her hand, and she couldn’t bear staring at all the paper around her. Trying to get things organized felt impossible at this point. It began to feel like she had been in her office all night. She looked at the bland clock on the bare wall. 11:36pm. Catherine let out another sigh. She would rather be solving a crime then sitting here, but she took it as a good sign that no one was being murdered, robbed, and so on. She decided she needed some coffee to stay awake. It was definitely time to hit the break room. It is going to be a long night, she thought to herself.

Upon entering the break room, several people passed her. They all looked like they had something important they were attending to. In a way she was jealous. The excitement of solving a puzzle of crime was more exciting then locked up in lab, doing the dirty work. Walking into the unoccupied break room, Catherine headed straight for the coffee machine. She grabbed a cup from the counter and poured the coffee into it. Catherine took a sip, and realized her mistake right away. She spat the coffee out in the sink. “Dayshift coffee…” she grumbled to herself pouring the coffee from the coffee pot down the drain too. She made another pot, and sat down and waited. She skimmed through some old magazines, when her cell phone went off. She flipped open her cell phone, “Willows…”

“It’s O’Riley. We got a 4-19, you busy?” Sergeant O’Riley said.

“You’re a life savor…” Catherine replied with a bit of happiness walking out of the break room forgetting all about the coffee.

“Paper work?” he asked.

“Yup,” she smirked, “Where are you?”

“20 miles north out of the city.” O’Riley answered.

“The desert huh?” She said to herself. “Okay, well I will be there shortly.” She closed her cell phone and headed towards one of the crime lab Tahoe’s.

The drive was fairly short. Shorter than she expected it to be. She started to see the red and blue flashing lights of the patrol vehicles. Catherine pulled up beside one of the patrol vehicles, and got out. She walked to the back of the Tahoe and opened the trunk to grab her field kit, as O’Riley approached her. She gave him a smile, closing the trunk, and grabbing the field kit from the ground, “What do you have for me Sergeant?”

“Rescue helicopter was doing their rounds, and saw the vehicle. The called it in, but never landed, they circled the area until a near by patrol car arrived. The officer checked out the car, and the trunk was already open. He looked inside saw the body and called me in, nothing was touched.

“Good to hear” Catherine said ducking under the crime scene tape that was set up while O’Riley stayed behind it giving her space to do her thing. She approached the trunk first, since that was were the body was. Looking into the trunk her eyes met with a pair of dead cold eyes. They looked scared. The eye’s belonged to a female, around 24 years old; she had long blond hair, and a body like a model. She wasn’t dressed like a model though. Jeans and a long sleeved black shirt. Her wrists were tied together, as were her feet. She had duct tape covering her mouth and her nose. “A kidnapping gone wrong maybe?” Catherine said to herself. She took a couple notes about the trunk. She stepped around to the front of the car. She took out her flashlight and flashed it on the windshield. A bug was smashed on the windshield. Catherine wasn’t an entomologist though, that was Grissom’s specialty. She grabbed her cell phone out, and quick dialed Grissom. “Hey, I need your advice on your little friends……Well I have a DB in the desert, some sort of moth on the windshield, do you mind heading this way? …..Thanks” She said into her phone then pushed the OFF button.

After an hour of working the scene, Grissom had shown up. Walking to Catherine he said, “Where do you need me?”

Catherine pointed to the windshield, “Bottom left hand corner…Any ideas?”

Grissom walked to the windshield and flashed his own flashlight on the moth. He stared with such interest, then said, “Do you know that there is 10,500 identified moths in the state of Nevada?

“Oh great, so you don’t have a clue is what your saying?” Catherine looked up from the trunk.

Grissom smiled, “I never said that. This is a Hemilevca Nevadensis, also known as a Nevada Buckmoth, from the Saturnidae family. This moth snapped hard against this windshield, leaving this gray dusty substance on the glass…A little kiss of death.” He walked over to wear Catherine was kneeling. “There is only one problem, Nevada buckmoth’s don’t live in this area of desert.”

“So, we either have a secondary crime scene, or the vic/killer lives in an area where those buckmoths live.” She let out a sigh. “Well I was right about one thing.”

Grissom held out his hand, “What’s that?”

As she grabbed his hand and lifted herself up from the ground she replied, “It’s going to be a long night.”

Scene 2:

The morgue was one of the few places in Sin City that was quiet. Catherine liked that about it. Walking along side with Grissom, she felt uneasy. The autopsy was not one of her favorites, especially when Dr. Al Robbins would begin the internal examination of the body. Though she did find it fascinating to see in a scientific point of view, but deep down she hated looking at a body of a human being cut up for examination. Grissom held the door open for Catherine as she walked by him. They both smiled as he followed her in. The room always smelt like some sort of sanitizing cleaner. Catherine always thought they should have a better fragrance than the one she smelled now. Dr. Albert Robbins looked up from the body. “Hey Doc, did we get a name on vic yet?” Catherine said with an welcoming smile.

“A one Georgia Miles.” Robbins answered not returning the smile. “Just finished the external examination. “ She has a noticeable laceration on the right side of her midsection. She’s 5’6” give or take an inch. On her right shoulder blade she has two flowers tattooed.” Dr. Robbins carefully lifted the body, to let the criminalists have a look.

“Iris…” Catherine softly spoke. She could feel Grissom staring at her. “Iris is a flower. Don’t ask.”

Grissom raised the curious eye brow that everyone knew meant he was pondering something. “What else can you tell us about the wound?”

Dr. Robbins easing the body back on to the table, he moved towards the stomach. “The wound moves in on an angle upwards. The choice of weapon is maybe a small dagger. That’s just my preliminary guessing. I sent a blood sample to tox. I won’t know more than that until I get the results. I’m about to start the internal examination if you two want to stick around.”

“Ahh... My favorite…” Catherine said sarcastically.

“Next time Doc, we have to find out who our DB was before she died.” Grissom said as he turned for the exit doors.

As the two exited the doors, Catherine muttered, “Why do kids have to pierce everything on their bodies?” She looked over at Grissom as they walked down the hall. He didn’t reply. “Our vic had a belly ring.” Catherine shook her head, “Lindsey told me the other day that she wanted to get one. She’s not even a teenager and wants a piercing. She told me that other kids were getting one, and she thinks they look cool. A ten year old saying belly rings are cool. What ever happened to thinking Barbie’s were cool?”

“What was your response when she asked?” Grissom inquired

“Over my dead body…” Catherine smirked finally realizing the pun.

Scene 3:

As the days passed there were very few things that were accomplished. The Jane Doe still had no name. There was no missing person’s report that matched her Doe. Catherine wondered if the woman had anyone. She felt sick with sorrow for the girl. Images of the cold frightened eyes of the dead woman, flashed in her mind repeatedly. Catherine sat in her office staring into space just waiting for the woman’s prints to come back with a name. What was going on through Catherine’s mind, even she didn’t know. She usually played it pretty straight, not personalizing a case. “Follow the Evidence” Grissom always told his CSI staff, and that is exactly what she did. She never pushed evidence to make it work. There was a knock on the door, Catherine glanced up. In the door way stood a man no older than 25, with blonde shaggy hair, hazel eyes, and a skinny build. He seemed awfully young to be working here Catherine thought.

“Are you Catherine Willows?” said the stranger. He looked nervous.

“Yah” Catherine replied, “New trainee?”

“Uhh… Matt. Well Matthew but everyone just calls me Matt. You don’t have to if you don’t want to though, Mrs. Willows”

“Ms. Willows, but you can call me Catherine. What do you have for me?” pointing at the folders in Matt’s hand.

“I don’t know, I was just told to give this to you, I didn’t look inside.” He replied passing her the documents. “I just started here, I don’t want to get in to any trouble just yet” He flashed a smile. “Anyways, I gotta get back to work.” Matt turned and walked out of the office leaving Catherine with the unopened file.

Catherine opened it. On the right there was a photo of a young woman. Her blond hair was in curls, it looked like she was just Graduating University in the photograph. She looked happy, which was a better sight than what Catherine saw in the trunk. She looked at the report that was underneath. The girl’s name was Georgia Miles. Reported missing the day they found her. Her best friend reported her missing after she didn’t show up for work that morning. It said that the friend tried to reach her, but when she couldn’t she went to the police. Georgia worked at Rodeo Stock Brokers Inc. Catherine then looked at a post-it attached to the file, it read:

Let me know where you want to start.
O’Riley.

Scene 4:

Catherine found Grissom and asked if he wanted to check out their victim’s work, but he declined. He said that Doc Robbins had got the tox report back, and that he was going to check it out. He told her he would call her as soon as he was done. So Catherine and O’Riley drove up to the Rodeo Stock Brokers Inc. It didn’t look like much on the outside, and walking into the building Catherine changed her mind. The Rodeo was filled with people running back and forth, yelling into phones and each other. All the cubicles had top of the line computers with fancy chairs. They walked up to the front desk where a brunette sat typing on her computer.

“Who’s in charge here?” O’Riley said sternly.

“That would be Mr. Weightman, but you can’t see him. He is with some clients, and I was told not to bother him.” The brunette retorted barely acknowledging their presence.

O’Riley put his badge on her desk and gave her a look. Before he could say anything Catherine interrupted. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, this is important. We need to ask him a few questions.”

The brunette secretary looked at them for a few moments, than picked up the phone. “I swear to God, you better not get me fired” she hissed to Catherine and O’Riley before the other line picked up. “Yes, I’m sorry sir, but there are a couple cops here. They say they want to ask you some questions…No sir, I don’t know what it’s about. Okay hold on” She looked up at Catherine. “What’s it about?”

O’Riley spoke up, “It’s about his dead employee.”

The brunette repeated the words in the phone than hung up. “He will be right with you…Oh hey… Is the dead person Georgia? She hasn’t been in for like almost a week”

“Umm… Yeah, were you two friends?” Catherine inquired.

“Oh COOL!” She paused. “Well…no we didn’t get along very well. She was kind of a bitch. She thought she was all high and mighty if you ask me.”

Catherine rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to respond, because what she wanted to say would have been the wrong thing to do.

That didn’t stop O’Riley though. “Yeah, being killed is really fun lady; you should try it some time.” He said annoyed with the woman. Just before the woman could reply a man walked over. “Mr. Weightman?” O’Riley assumed.

“Yes, how can I help you?” He said as though Catherine and O’Riley were costumers.

“We would like to ask you a few questions about Georgia Miles.” O’Riley stated.

“Right this way…” Weightman said still sounding like we were trying to sell them some bonds. “The name is Conner. No need for the formal names.”

As the quite young male lead Catherine and O’Riley to his office Catherine observed the surroundings of the building. Everyone seems to glance up and look at them as they passed. Then quickly went back to work. It felt kind of strange, but Catherine figured that everyone knew who they were and wanted to catch a glimpse of the action. Connor Weightman opened the last door on the right, and held the door open to let Catherine and O’Riley inside. Both Catherine and O’Riley sat in leather chairs facing the Connors black desk. Catherine smiled as he sat down.

There was a moment of silence before Connor broke it. “Now, what is this about?” Trying to sound a bit confused why they wanted to talk to him, which they saw right through.

“Georgia Miles. Did you know her?” O’Riley asked.

“Of course, I make sure I know everyone here by heart. Everything down to what kind of coffee they drink.” Connor answered with a smirk of satisfaction as if he accomplished something great.

“Well then, you must have noticed that Georgia hasn’t been at work for the past week or so. Did you try to get into contact with her? You know, to see if she was ok?” O’Riley questioned.

“Yes, of course. There was no answer at her place. I…erm… I mean we just figured that she had quit and was screening our calls. There was no reason to suspect that she was dead or something. I mean this is Vegas, maybe she won the jackpot and didn’t bother to tell us to go shove it up our ass, so to speak.” Connor replied with the same dumb smirk that made Catherine just want to slap it off him.

“Well Mr. Weightman. Do you know if anyone had any issues with Georgia? Any fights occur? Stock broking can be stressful I bet.” Catherine said.

“In a way we are a family here, but the reality is it’s a dog eat dog world. Everyone tries to out beat the other person hoping for a promotion or success.” He paused. “Well there was a bit of an argument between Ms. Miles and another associate a couple days before she disappeared. If memory serves me right, it was about clients. Apparently Ms. Miles had acquired some clients that were from another brokers firm. The guy came in here yelling and screaming saying vulgar words towards Ms. Miles. He said he was going to kill her…” He paused again. “You don’t think he did it do you?”

“Do you have the name of the guy?” Catherine asked while glancing over towards O’Riley.

Connor Weightman grabbed his letter opener and leaned back in his chair. He fidgeted with the opener trying to look like he was trying to remember something. He sighed effortlessly, “Nope, don’t remember. We get that a lot though. Don’t think much of it either. It hasn’t been the first time someone has come in here swearing death threats to our brokers. That’s why we have Bill.”

“Bill?” O’Riley repeated.

“Yeah, 6’5”, 290Lbs. He is security. No one has been brave enough to take him on. Hell I don’t think anyone will either. He is a pretty scary guy.” He pointed with the opener.

Catherine looked over her shoulder. A giant beefy man walked passed the glass wall with a cup of coffee in his hand. He was wearing a black t-shirt that said “SECURITY” on the back of it, with blue jeans. Catherine looked back at Connor. “Right….Do you have any security cameras anywhere?”

“No. We’re not a bank; we are stock brokers Mrs. Willows.” He looked her up and down. “Say aren’t you a little young to be a cop?”

O’Riley didn’t look impressed by Connor’s question. Catherine still answered, “It’s Ms. Willows, and I’m not a cop. I’m a criminalist. I analyze crime scenes.”

Connor looked a bit confused, but he flashed a “warm” smile and said, “Well there is no crime here to be analyzed, so if you wouldn’t mind I have a lot of work to do.”

Catherine rolled her eyes yet again, and walked out of the office with O’Riley. Once they left the building Catherine said, “Hopefully Grissom’s got something to go on.”

Scene 5:

Strolling into Grissom’s office Catherine looked at her boss with a cocked eyebrow. “Where’s my phone call?”

Grissom squinted finally remembering. “I’m sorry. I forgot”

Catherine smiled, “I thought you would. What did Robbins have to say?”

He looked up at her. “Bone growth is like tree rings. If there is poison in the bones, you know it’s been going on for a while.” Grissom recited a little amused with himself.

“The words of wisdom by Gil Grissom?” Catherine joked.

“Faye Kellerman actually. There were traces of Promethazine Hydrochloride in her blood and bones. Usually Promethazine Hydrochloride occurs as a white to faint yellow substance, practically odorless. This slowly oxidizes and turns blue on prolonged exposure to air. It’s soluble in water or alcohol. Few people actually die from the antihistamine overdose.” Grissom informed.

“And she was one of the few that died from it?” Catherine wondered.

“No.” Grissom simply said not revealing anything else.

“Cause of death?” Catherine questioned her supervisor. She felt like she was playing 20 questions with him sometimes.

Grissom reached for a can, which contained his chocolate covered grasshoppers. “Want one?” He asked.

“No, do you wanna tell me something that can help me or just piss me off some more?” Catherine hissed grinding her teeth.

“Okay. Aside from the poison which only tells us that the killer or whoever was trying to poison her didn’t realize that they weren’t using enough to kill her. Or they knew that it would only make her sick. Putting that to the side, she suffered the stab wound. Which is roughly 4 inches in length. No signs of sexual assault. Just the stab wound. Though Doc Robbins says that was not the cause of death. The COD was asphyxiation by duct tape.” Grissom finally gave in not wanting her to get angry with him, like Sara had earlier that week.

MORE TO COME!!

A Kiss of Death


*Scene 1:* Daylight was fading quickly, but that only meant Catherine Willows’ shift was about to begin. Being at the lab hours before her shift even began wasn’t unusual. She sat at her desk, going through the paper work. It was the part of the job she didn’t care much for. No one ever did, but it had to be done whether she enjoyed it or not. Catherine let out a sigh of boredom. Grissom had left with Sara and Greg on a bizarre murder case. Warrick had his own case too, and Nick was at another forensic convention in Atlanta. This left Catherine with nothing to do but paper work. A couple hours had passed, Catherine resting her head on her hand, and she couldn’t bear staring at all the paper around her. Trying to get things organized felt impossible at this point. It began to feel like she had been in her office all night. She looked at the bland clock on the bare wall. 11:36pm. Catherine let out another sigh. She would rather be solving a crime then sitting here, but she took it as a good sign that no one was being murdered, robbed, and so on. She decided she needed some coffee to stay awake. It was definitely time to hit the break room. It is going to be a long night, she thought to herself. Upon entering the break room, several people passed her. They all looked like they had something important they were attending to. In a way she was jealous. The excitement of solving a puzzle of crime was more exciting then locked up in lab, doing the dirty work. Walking into the unoccupied break room, Catherine headed straight for the coffee machine. She grabbed a cup from the counter and poured the coffee into it. Catherine took a sip, and realized her mistake right away. She spat the coffee out in the sink. “Dayshift coffee…” she grumbled to herself pouring the coffee from the coffee pot down the drain too. She made another pot, and sat down and waited. She skimmed through some old magazines, when her cell phone went off. She flipped open her cell phone, “Willows…” “It’s O’Riley. We got a 4-19, you busy?” Sergeant O’Riley said. “You’re a life savor…” Catherine replied with a bit of happiness walking out of the break room forgetting all about the coffee. “Paper work?” he asked. “Yup,” she smirked, “Where are you?” “20 miles north out of the city.” O’Riley answered. “The desert huh?” She said to herself. “Okay, well I will be there shortly.” She closed her cell phone and headed towards one of the crime lab Tahoe’s. The drive was fairly short. Shorter than she expected it to be. She started to see the red and blue flashing lights of the patrol vehicles. Catherine pulled up beside one of the patrol vehicles, and got out. She walked to the back of the Tahoe and opened the trunk to grab her field kit, as O’Riley approached her. She gave him a smile, closing the trunk, and grabbing the field kit from the ground, “What do you have for me Sergeant?” “Rescue helicopter was doing their rounds, and saw the vehicle. The called it in, but never landed, they circled the area until a near by patrol car arrived. The officer checked out the car, and the trunk was already open. He looked inside saw the body and called me in, nothing was touched. “Good to hear” Catherine said ducking under the crime scene tape that was set up while O’Riley stayed behind it giving her space to do her thing. She approached the trunk first, since that was were the body was. Looking into the trunk her eyes met with a pair of dead cold eyes. They looked scared. The eye’s belonged to a female, around 24 years old; she had long blond hair, and a body like a model. She wasn’t dressed like a model though. Jeans and a long sleeved black shirt. Her wrists were tied together, as were her feet. She had duct tape covering her mouth and her nose. “A kidnapping gone wrong maybe?” Catherine said to herself. She took a couple notes about the trunk. She stepped around to the front of the car. She took out her flashlight and flashed it on the windshield. A bug was smashed on the windshield. Catherine wasn’t an entomologist though, that was Grissom’s specialty. She grabbed her cell phone out, and quick dialed Grissom. “Hey, I need your advice on your little friends……Well I have a DB in the desert, some sort of moth on the windshield, do you mind heading this way? …..Thanks” She said into her phone then pushed the OFF button. After an hour of working the scene, Grissom had shown up. Walking to Catherine he said, “Where do you need me?” Catherine pointed to the windshield, “Bottom left hand corner…Any ideas?” Grissom walked to the windshield and flashed his own flashlight on the moth. He stared with such interest, then said, “Do you know that there is 10,500 identified moths in the state of Nevada? “Oh great, so you don’t have a clue is what your saying?” Catherine looked up from the trunk. Grissom smiled, “I never said that. This is a Hemilevca Nevadensis, also known as a Nevada Buckmoth, from the Saturnidae family. This moth snapped hard against this windshield, leaving this gray dusty substance on the glass…A little kiss of death.” He walked over to wear Catherine was kneeling. “There is only one problem, Nevada buckmoth’s don’t live in this area of desert.” “So, we either have a secondary crime scene, or the vic/killer lives in an area where those buckmoths live.” She let out a sigh. “Well I was right about one thing.” Grissom held out his hand, “What’s that?” As she grabbed his hand and lifted herself up from the ground she replied, “It’s going to be a long night.” *Scene 2:* The morgue was one of the few places in Sin City that was quiet. Catherine liked that about it. Walking along side with Grissom, she felt uneasy. The autopsy was not one of her favorites, especially when Dr. Al Robbins would begin the internal examination of the body. Though she did find it fascinating to see in a scientific point of view, but deep down she hated looking at a body of a human being cut up for examination. Grissom held the door open for Catherine as she walked by him. They both smiled as he followed her in. The room always smelt like some sort of sanitizing cleaner. Catherine always thought they should have a better fragrance than the one she smelled now. Dr. Albert Robbins looked up from the body. “Hey Doc, did we get a name on vic yet?” Catherine said with an welcoming smile. “A one Georgia Miles.” Robbins answered not returning the smile. “Just finished the external examination. “ She has a noticeable laceration on the right side of her midsection. She’s 5’6” give or take an inch. On her right shoulder blade she has two flowers tattooed.” Dr. Robbins carefully lifted the body, to let the criminalists have a look. “Iris…” Catherine softly spoke. She could feel Grissom staring at her. “Iris is a flower. Don’t ask.” Grissom raised the curious eye brow that everyone knew meant he was pondering something. “What else can you tell us about the wound?” Dr. Robbins easing the body back on to the table, he moved towards the stomach. “The wound moves in on an angle upwards. The choice of weapon is maybe a small dagger. That’s just my preliminary guessing. I sent a blood sample to tox. I won’t know more than that until I get the results. I’m about to start the internal examination if you two want to stick around.” “Ahh... My favorite…” Catherine said sarcastically. “Next time Doc, we have to find out who our DB was before she died.” Grissom said as he turned for the exit doors. As the two exited the doors, Catherine muttered, “Why do kids have to pierce everything on their bodies?” She looked over at Grissom as they walked down the hall. He didn’t reply. “Our vic had a belly ring.” Catherine shook her head, “Lindsey told me the other day that she wanted to get one. She’s not even a teenager and wants a piercing. She told me that other kids were getting one, and she thinks they look cool. A ten year old saying belly rings are cool. What ever happened to thinking Barbie’s were cool?” “What was your response when she asked?” Grissom inquired “Over my dead body…” Catherine smirked finally realizing the pun. *Scene 3:* As the days passed there were very few things that were accomplished. The Jane Doe still had no name. There was no missing person’s report that matched her Doe. Catherine wondered if the woman had anyone. She felt sick with sorrow for the girl. Images of the cold frightened eyes of the dead woman, flashed in her mind repeatedly. Catherine sat in her office staring into space just waiting for the woman’s prints to come back with a name. What was going on through Catherine’s mind, even she didn’t know. She usually played it pretty straight, not personalizing a case. “Follow the Evidence” Grissom always told his CSI staff, and that is exactly what she did. She never pushed evidence to make it work. There was a knock on the door, Catherine glanced up. In the door way stood a man no older than 25, with blonde shaggy hair, hazel eyes, and a skinny build. He seemed awfully young to be working here Catherine thought. “Are you Catherine Willows?” said the stranger. He looked nervous. “Yah” Catherine replied, “New trainee?” “Uhh… Matt. Well Matthew but everyone just calls me Matt. You don’t have to if you don’t want to though, Mrs. Willows” “Ms. Willows, but you can call me Catherine. What do you have for me?” pointing at the folders in Matt’s hand. “I don’t know, I was just told to give this to you, I didn’t look inside.” He replied passing her the documents. “I just started here, I don’t want to get in to any trouble just yet” He flashed a smile. “Anyways, I gotta get back to work.” Matt turned and walked out of the office leaving Catherine with the unopened file. Catherine opened it. On the right there was a photo of a young woman. Her blond hair was in curls, it looked like she was just Graduating University in the photograph. She looked happy, which was a better sight than what Catherine saw in the trunk. She looked at the report that was underneath. The girl’s name was Georgia Miles. Reported missing the day they found her. Her best friend reported her missing after she didn’t show up for work that morning. It said that the friend tried to reach her, but when she couldn’t she went to the police. Georgia worked at Rodeo Stock Brokers Inc. Catherine then looked at a post-it attached to the file, it read: Let me know where you want to start. O’Riley. *Scene 4:* Catherine found Grissom and asked if he wanted to check out their victim’s work, but he declined. He said that Doc Robbins had got the tox report back, and that he was going to check it out. He told her he would call her as soon as he was done. So Catherine and O’Riley drove up to the Rodeo Stock Brokers Inc. It didn’t look like much on the outside, and walking into the building Catherine changed her mind. The Rodeo was filled with people running back and forth, yelling into phones and each other. All the cubicles had top of the line computers with fancy chairs. They walked up to the front desk where a brunette sat typing on her computer. “Who’s in charge here?” O’Riley said sternly. “That would be Mr. Weightman, but you can’t see him. He is with some clients, and I was told not to bother him.” The brunette retorted barely acknowledging their presence. O’Riley put his badge on her desk and gave her a look. Before he could say anything Catherine interrupted. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, this is important. We need to ask him a few questions.” The brunette secretary looked at them for a few moments, than picked up the phone. “I swear to God, you better not get me fired” she hissed to Catherine and O’Riley before the other line picked up. “Yes, I’m sorry sir, but there are a couple cops here. They say they want to ask you some questions…No sir, I don’t know what it’s about. Okay hold on” She looked up at Catherine. “What’s it about?” O’Riley spoke up, “It’s about his dead employee.” The brunette repeated the words in the phone than hung up. “He will be right with you…Oh hey… Is the dead person Georgia? She hasn’t been in for like almost a week” “Umm… Yeah, were you two friends?” Catherine inquired. “Oh COOL!” She paused. “Well…no we didn’t get along very well. She was kind of a bitch. She thought she was all high and mighty if you ask me.” Catherine rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to respond, because what she wanted to say would have been the wrong thing to do. That didn’t stop O’Riley though. “Yeah, being killed is really fun lady; you should try it some time.” He said annoyed with the woman. Just before the woman could reply a man walked over. “Mr. Weightman?” O’Riley assumed. “Yes, how can I help you?” He said as though Catherine and O’Riley were costumers. “We would like to ask you a few questions about Georgia Miles.” O’Riley stated. “Right this way…” Weightman said still sounding like we were trying to sell them some bonds. “The name is Conner. No need for the formal names.” As the quite young male lead Catherine and O’Riley to his office Catherine observed the surroundings of the building. Everyone seems to glance up and look at them as they passed. Then quickly went back to work. It felt kind of strange, but Catherine figured that everyone knew who they were and wanted to catch a glimpse of the action. Connor Weightman opened the last door on the right, and held the door open to let Catherine and O’Riley inside. Both Catherine and O’Riley sat in leather chairs facing the Connors black desk. Catherine smiled as he sat down. There was a moment of silence before Connor broke it. “Now, what is this about?” Trying to sound a bit confused why they wanted to talk to him, which they saw right through. “Georgia Miles. Did you know her?” O’Riley asked. “Of course, I make sure I know everyone here by heart. Everything down to what kind of coffee they drink.” Connor answered with a smirk of satisfaction as if he accomplished something great. “Well then, you must have noticed that Georgia hasn’t been at work for the past week or so. Did you try to get into contact with her? You know, to see if she was ok?” O’Riley questioned. “Yes, of course. There was no answer at her place. I…erm… I mean we just figured that she had quit and was screening our calls. There was no reason to suspect that she was dead or something. I mean this is Vegas, maybe she won the jackpot and didn’t bother to tell us to go shove it up our ass, so to speak.” Connor replied with the same dumb smirk that made Catherine just want to slap it off him. “Well Mr. Weightman. Do you know if anyone had any issues with Georgia? Any fights occur? Stock broking can be stressful I bet.” Catherine said. “In a way we are a family here, but the reality is it’s a dog eat dog world. Everyone tries to out beat the other person hoping for a promotion or success.” He paused. “Well there was a bit of an argument between Ms. Miles and another associate a couple days before she disappeared. If memory serves me right, it was about clients. Apparently Ms. Miles had acquired some clients that were from another brokers firm. The guy came in here yelling and screaming saying vulgar words towards Ms. Miles. He said he was going to kill her…” He paused again. “You don’t think he did it do you?” “Do you have the name of the guy?” Catherine asked while glancing over towards O’Riley. Connor Weightman grabbed his letter opener and leaned back in his chair. He fidgeted with the opener trying to look like he was trying to remember something. He sighed effortlessly, “Nope, don’t remember. We get that a lot though. Don’t think much of it either. It hasn’t been the first time someone has come in here swearing death threats to our brokers. That’s why we have Bill.” “Bill?” O’Riley repeated. “Yeah, 6’5”, 290Lbs. He is security. No one has been brave enough to take him on. Hell I don’t think anyone will either. He is a pretty scary guy.” He pointed with the opener. Catherine looked over her shoulder. A giant beefy man walked passed the glass wall with a cup of coffee in his hand. He was wearing a black t-shirt that said “SECURITY” on the back of it, with blue jeans. Catherine looked back at Connor. “Right….Do you have any security cameras anywhere?” “No. We’re not a bank; we are stock brokers Mrs. Willows.” He looked her up and down. “Say aren’t you a little young to be a cop?” O’Riley didn’t look impressed by Connor’s question. Catherine still answered, “It’s Ms. Willows, and I’m not a cop. I’m a criminalist. I analyze crime scenes.” Connor looked a bit confused, but he flashed a “warm” smile and said, “Well there is no crime here to be analyzed, so if you wouldn’t mind I have a lot of work to do.” Catherine rolled her eyes yet again, and walked out of the office with O’Riley. Once they left the building Catherine said, “Hopefully Grissom’s got something to go on.” *Scene 5:* Strolling into Grissom’s office Catherine looked at her boss with a cocked eyebrow. “Where’s my phone call?” Grissom squinted finally remembering. “I’m sorry. I forgot” Catherine smiled, “I thought you would. What did Robbins have to say?” He looked up at her. “Bone growth is like tree rings. If there is poison in the bones, you know it’s been going on for a while.” Grissom recited a little amused with himself. “The words of wisdom by Gil Grissom?” Catherine joked. “Faye Kellerman actually. There were traces of Promethazine Hydrochloride in her blood and bones. Usually Promethazine Hydrochloride occurs as a white to faint yellow substance, practically odorless. This slowly oxidizes and turns blue on prolonged exposure to air. It’s soluble in water or alcohol. Few people actually die from the antihistamine overdose.” Grissom informed. “And she was one of the few that died from it?” Catherine wondered. “No.” Grissom simply said not revealing anything else. “Cause of death?” Catherine questioned her supervisor. She felt like she was playing 20 questions with him sometimes. Grissom reached for a can, which contained his chocolate covered grasshoppers. “Want one?” He asked. “No, do you wanna tell me something that can help me or just piss me off some more?” Catherine hissed grinding her teeth. “Okay. Aside from the poison which only tells us that the killer or whoever was trying to poison her didn’t realize that they weren’t using enough to kill her. Or they knew that it would only make her sick. Putting that to the side, she suffered the stab wound. Which is roughly 4 inches in length. No signs of sexual assault. Just the stab wound. Though Doc Robbins says that was not the cause of death. The COD was asphyxiation by duct tape.” Grissom finally gave in not wanting her to get angry with him, like Sara had earlier that week. MORE TO COME!!

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