It was midday before the third fly emerged and Grissom was able to label the vials with the respective times of emergence. He could now go home and sleep for a few hours. It would be a day or two before the exoskeleton would harden enough for him to kill the flies and mount them on the evidence board.
Grissom slept fitfully. He dreamed that he was in the layout room, examining evidence spread out on the table. Vials of pupae lay next to clothing and a box of crackers he was examining. Sara came in wearing only a sleeveless tee and cotton panties. With no concern for the evidence, he took her in his arms, and made love to her on the table, the vials flung to the floor and the crackers crushed beneath them. He awoke in a state of arousal - and a sense of disaster.
His rational side said he needed to back off from his relationship with Sara. He had seen ample evidence to know the destruction that obsession with another human being could cause.
But his heart told him something entirely different. Grissom had never been in a real relationship before. He had dated some but those dates had been due to casual interest in the person or a need for sex. Nothing ever developed because his work had always been his first priority.
What he wanted from Sara was�more. This relationship was in its early stages. His preoccupation with her was probably normal. And when they were both immersed in work, it wasn�t a problem. The loss of concentration with the fly experiment was a fluke created by the familiar breakfast they had shared. The flies didn�t require his full concentration and so he was distracted. He would be sure to recognize similar situations and avoid them in the future.
He was anxious to get to the lab and see Sara. He knew he had hurt her with his abrupt demand for her to leave. They needed to talk about his fears and how they could deal with them.
Sara�s car was not in the parking lot when Grissom arrived. Disappointed, he went to his office and checked on the flies. Their exoskeletons were hardening nicely. He could probably mount them before shift tomorrow.
Catherine walked through his door, tentatively sniffing the air.
�Good. You went home to shower.� She plopped into a chair and propped up her feet. �I hope you got some sleep, too.�
�Yes, thank you. I slept for several hours prior to my shower. Did you just come in to assess my personal hygiene?� Grissom looked at Catherine over his glasses.
Catherine hesitated slightly. �I�ve been worried about you. You always get so involved with cases involving kids. But with this one, it�s even more intense. I think it�s because the insect collection didn�t yield the usual excellent specimens for evidentiary proceedings and you�re afraid it won�t stand up in court.�
Grissom thought he could see where this was going.
�Catherine, it�s not your fault the insects didn�t survive the rain and transport. I should have been there to collect them.�
�See, that�s what concerns me. Gil, you�ve been kicking yourself for two days because you were not there to collect the insects yourself.� Catherine leaned forward to look intently into Grissom�s eyes. �The problem is not that you didn�t collect them. It�s that you didn�t notify the team that you would be unreachable. If I had known you weren�t going to show, I would have had time to properly collect the specimens before the rain. In truth, I should have taken the precaution and gotten the samples anyway. It�s what a good investigator does. I�ve just become lazy relying on you all the time. So quit beating yourself up. And quit blaming Sara.�
Grissom was taken aback. Why did Catherine think Sara was involved in this? �Sara? I don�t blame Sara.�
�Then why did she insist I check on you instead of coming in herself? She said you yelled at her for distracting you.�
Grissom hung his head, acknowledging the truth of Catherine�s statement. �I did. I meant to apologize to her, but she wasn�t here yet when I arrived. I�ll go find her now.�
�You don�t have time now. You need to hand out assignments.�
As Grissom and Catherine headed into the break room, Sofia met them at the door.
�I�ve got some new evidence for you on the Lerner case.� Sofia handed Catherine an evidence bag containing what appeared to be a letter, much the worse for wear. �A neighbor of Mr. Kass found this against his fence when playing ball with his son. Since he was aware that Mr. Kass was under investigation, he turned it over to us. Considering the condition it�s in, I would say it�s been out in the elements for awhile. You�ll want to confirm, but it seems to me the trash pickup on that street is on Tuesdays, the same day that storm struck. This could have blown out of Kass�s trash during the storm.� Sofia turned and left.
�New evidence in the murder case,� called out Grissom as he entered the room. �Sara, work with Catherine on that. The fly timeline will be complete by Thursday. Hopefully, with this new evidence, we can get the DA to charge Mr. Kass with three counts of murder.�
�Greg and Nick, I�ve got a trick roll at the Tropicana for you. Quit moaning, Nick. I know you always seem to get the trick rolls. But I want Greg to learn from the best on this one. Warrick, a hit and run on Ventura. I�ll take the robbery at the Seven Eleven on Eldridge.�
The Tahoe was already stifling when Grissom climbed in. The drive to the Seven Eleven was short, which didn�t give the air time to cool the vehicle down before he arrived at his destination. As a result, his damp shirt clung to his back as he entered the store.
Brass was questioning the cashier, who had difficulty understanding English. Grissom surveyed the scene quickly, and put his case on the floor anticipating the need to print the cash register. Before beginning, he wanted to get the summary from Brass. There could be more to this than there appeared to be at first glance.
Continuing to scrutinize the scene, Grissom saw a ten gallon bucket near the cash register filled with carnations. He looked closer at the petals and saw speckling. Peering into the container, he saw a small caliber shell casing. Had shots been fired?
Brass finished with the victim and came over to Grissom. �Perp entered and went back to the soft drink case, where he opened the case and took out a Coke. Apparently, he demanded the money after the cashier opened the drawer. Unfortunately, the cashier just arrived from the motherland and is not very good with English. He didn�t understand what was going on. The perp pulled out a gun and fired it into the ceiling to make his point.� Both men looked up. The hole was just to the left of the bucket of carnations.
After printing the soft drink case and retrieving the bullet from the ceiling, Grissom headed back to the lab to run the prints and bullet. If they were lucky, either the perp or the gun was in the system, and this would be an open and shut case. The carnations were also tagged since they had GSR on them. The smell of flowers lingered in Grissom�s nose.
After logging in the evidence and depositing it with Jacqui and Bobby, Grissom checked on the evidence from two working cases that were tied up in testing. After updating the files, he went back to fingerprinting and found Jacqui with a suspect sheet in hand. Delbert Griffin had been arrested three times for robbery, but never served time. He called Brass to inform him and arrange for a warrant. More good news awaited him in ballistics when Bobby informed him the gun had been used in two other unsolved robberies.
Two hours later, Grissom and Brass were in interrogation with Delbert Griffin, who was so nervous, it took them only minutes to get a confession. The gun found in his car, registered to his brother, was soon determined to be the one used in all of the robberies.
Shift would be over shortly and he hadn�t seen Sara to apologize. He headed for the break room to get some coffee and heard laughter coming from that direction. Several laughs were discernable, but only one caught his attention. He�d recognize Sara�s laugh anywhere.
�But the real gem was when you asked him if he thought killing the kids proved that he was a good father. And then asked him what their mother thought about that. The look on his face was priceless!� There was bittersweet joy in Sara�s voice.
�So I guess we had a breakthrough on the Lerner case?� asked Grissom as he came into the room.
Catherine, Nick, Greg and Sara were gathered around the table. They all looked up at Grissom�s words with huge smiles on their faces.
�The letter that the neighbor found was from Gina Lerner,� began Catherine. �The rain and heat had faded the ink and deteriorated the paper considerably. Sara had to run it through several computer enhancements before we could make it all out. It seems Bob had been more than a friend to the family. He had assumed the duties of father and husband after the death of Mr. Lerner. Gina felt the connection was emotional, in the form of support to the family due to their loss. Bob wanted it to be more. When he made his intentions clear, Gina sent him this letter, indicating that although she loved him as a friend, she didn�t love him as a husband. She also feared that her kids might be forgetting their real father in their attachment to Kass. So she was breaking off all contact.�
Sara took up the narrative. �When we confronted him with this, he was strangely silent. Until I brought up the fact that Gina Lerner had been in contact with an old beau from high school in recent weeks. He arrogantly pointed out that the would-be suitor had ceased all contact with a simple call from him. At which time I pointed out that the phone call was a threat.�
Catherine received the narrative tag. �Kass became agitated and claimed the man was twice divorced and never saw his kids. He wouldn�t be a good father to Teddy and Lisa. I questioned his standing as a potential father since he was the one who killed them.�
�He broke down into tears. With your insect timeline, I don�t think the DA will have any qualms about prosecuting now.� The pride in Sara�s voice was apparent.
�I think we should all go out to breakfast to celebrate. We haven�t done that in a long while,� said Nick, clapping Sara on the shoulder.
Warrick came rushing into the room at that moment. �Grissom, Ecklie is looking for you. He�s pretty upset.�
�He�s always looking for me and he�s always upset,� said Grissom nonchalantly. He wanted to go to breakfast with Sara and the others. It would give him a chance to apologize to her. Sara had barely looked at him since he entered the room. Whatever Ecklie wanted, Grissom was certain it would interfere with breakfast plans. �We�re going to breakfast, Warrick. Let�s get out of here before he finds me.�
The crew left the break room and prepared to leave. As if on cue, Ecklie rounded the corner and called out.
�Grissom! I need you now!� Grissom stopped in his tracks. Ecklie really was mad.
�You are two weeks late with your budgetary report. The committee meets today! If you don�t want to lose any chance of additional funding, you had better have that report to me by 11:30!� Ecklie turned on his heels and stormed out.
�I guess you won�t be getting the tab for breakfast this morning,� said Catherine. She came closer and said in a low voice, �I told you not to keep putting off those reports. They�ll bite you in the ass every time.�
Sara never looked at him as the crew headed to the locker room to gather their belongings and head out to breakfast.