The odor in the room was becoming even fouler as the CSI team mingled about the room collecting evidence. Nick was hovering over the naked corpse, snapping pictures from every angle. The rotting flesh was sliding off the bone, attracting flies as the warm air accelerated its decomposition. This body had to have been dead for at least a week.
" Looks like a female. No entrance or exit wounds which rules out a shooting. No signs of strangulation." Nick began looking between fingers and toes for puncture marks of any kind.
" So he walks in with a dead body, poses it, and not one person notices it? Dude I think we've got a sick one." Warrick replied.
" A sick one that has Catherine. She had to have put up a fight. There is blood everywhere, but not enough to be fatal. He is keeping her alive, at least for now. I don't know why but he is."
" This blood has to belong to either her or the kidnapper, it looks as if this body has been dead for at least a week. I'll have Greg run it and see what we come up with." Warrick swabbed a locker to get a blood sample.
" Warrick?"
" Yea Nick?"
" I don't think that this woman was murdered." A puzzled look crossed his face.
" huh?" Warrick glanced up from what he was doing to focus on what Nick was saying.
" I don't think she was murdered. No puncture wounds to indicate that she was injected with any sort of drug, no evidence of strangulation. I mean it's hard to tell since the skin is sloughing off but it just doesn't look like a homicide. Looks like it'll be a job for Doc Robbins."
"So now our guy is digging up graves?"
" Hey! You guys, come over here for a sec." Sara ushered them over with one hand. She was pointing upwards to a vent cover in the shower area. A small piece of cloth was dangling from it.
" Looks like a piece of clothing to me."
" Way to state the obvious Warrick." Sara's cold, emotionless eyes shot him a look so frigid that it could kill.
"But how did it get up there. Whoever was in here didn't use the vents because the cover isn't forced off, it's still intact." Nick said with a hint of curiosity.
" Want to hear my theory?" she lifted the small piece of cloth off of the vent and placed it into a small plastic evidence bag.
"Shoot"
" You're right Nick. It's obvious that he didn't get in through the air ducts. I'm betting he walked in with the body, people would assume he was going to take it to the morgue, nothing unusual. Instead he brings the body in here and poses it against those lockers where I found it earlier. He put it there for a reason, he is certainly sending us a message."
" You're assuming that the kidnapper is a male?"
" I don't think that a woman would be strong enough to lift the body off of the cart and pose it. They would need help and this person is working alone."
" That's a fair assumption. Okay, keep going." his southern Texan drawl slurring the words a bit.
" I think that he .that he was still in here when I walked in. He was trying to open the vent cover when he heard me coming in. He had to hide, and in his haste he got caught and ripped a piece of his clothing." Her stammering was evident. The other two male CSI knew that she didn't like knowing that she had been in the same room as Catherine's kidnapper. She was wringing her hands and its seemed as if she could not look either of them in the face, her eyes darting around the room.
" But where does Catherine fit into all of this? What did he do with her?" asked a concerned Warrick as he knelt down to collect a fiber he spotted on the floor below the vent.
" He might have stashed her somewhere I am not really sure. I remember Grissom thought he saw someone in the parking lot. Maybe it was him . . All I know is that he wouldn't have been able to hide the both of them in case he was caught."
"Speaking of Grissom, where is he? He should have been here by now."
"Haven't seen him since the start of the shift" Sara had begun shifting back and forth, clearly worried. Ever since she had told them about the body she had become increasingly quiet; pushing people away and retreating inward. Where could Grissom be?
End Chapter Four
This chapter is longer, almost a thousand words, ahh I am so proud. *Hint Hint* the next chapter will be in Catherine's POV. Just thought I would leave you with that little tidbit.