Chapter Twenty-Four
Nick opened the door to see Catherine and Grissom on the other side. "Hey." He said.
"Hey, Nicky." The duo replied as he let them inside.
"Where are Dawn and Greg?" Grissom asked.
"They went out. I'm babysitting."
"Oh."
"And where are those cutie pies?" Catherine asked.
"They should be waking up from their nap shortly. You can go in and check if you want, Cath." Nicky told her.
"Okay, I'll do that. Gil can fill you in on the news, right, Gil?"
"Of course." Gil replied. Cath patted Nick's shoulder before walking down the hallway to the nursery.
"What's going on?" Nick asked his boss.
"We just came by to let you know that we solved Malina's case."
"Oh."
"We got her killer and she's in jail."
"She?"
"Yes, it was a woman who killed her."
"Did she say why?"
"She said that Malina destroyed her marriage."
"What? How so?"
"Well, the woman's husband didn't come in with her on the intial visit. He came by later on his own. He was late getting to the appointment. When he came to talk to Malina, she told him what his wife's conception date was. He knew that was a day when he was out of town at business conference. So, he knew she had cheated on him and that the unborn child was not his. He left her, backed his bags up and moved out. Said he was going to sue for custody. She'd had some drug problems in the past and he was completely clean, very successful and had friends in high places. She knew he'd get custody. She played Malina for causing her to lose her family." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Nicky."
"Thanks for coming over to let me know, Grissom."
"How are you holding up?"
"I'm okay. Being here helps. If I had stayed alone at my place, I wouldn't be doing too well right now. But, it's helps to be here with Dawn, Greg and the twins."
"Listen Nicky, if you ever need anything..."
"All I have to do is call. Yeah, I know. Thanks, Griss."
"Any time, Nicky."
"Yeah."
~ ~ ~
A young girl in her late teens to early twenties was having a get together at her house with friends and her mother. The girl heard a noise outside. She got up from the couch and looked outside, seeing the shadow of a man. She grabbed her friends and her mother and led them to the panic room where she locked all of them (as well as herself) inside, using her cell phone to call the police (just before shutting the door). Looking around the room, she noticed two of her friends were missing.
"Where are Natalie and Jason?" She asked.
"They went into one of the bedrooms for some alone time." Jason's best friend Derick winked. "What's going on, Melanie?"
"I saw someone outside trying to break in. And now Nat and Jay are trapped out there and we are trapped in here." She said in a panic.
By the time the police got there, they found Natalie and Jason both dead. They called in the CSIs. Nick, Dawn and Greg pulled up to the house and got out of the vehicle, kits in hand. They went inside the house to start processing.
"Hey, guys..." Greg said.
"Yeah?" Nick asked as both he and his sister looked up at Greg.
"I think we may have some witnesses."
"What?"
Greg pointed. "I think there's a panic room."
Once the door to the panic room was opened, the three CSIs saw the people inside. "Are any of you hurt?" Dawn asked.
"No." Melanie answered.
"Did you witness anything?" Nick inquired.
"No, we didn't." Melanie's mother answered.
"I just heard a noise, looked outside and saw the shadow of a person trying to break in. So, I called the police and then gathered everyone up and locked us in the panic room." Melanie explained.
"It wasn't until we closed the door that we realized that Jay and Nat weren't with us." Derick added. "I saw them headed to a bedroom earlier. I guess they were going to go make out or something. I forgot about it until we got in here."
"Are they okay?" Melanie asked.
"I'm afraid not." Greg said. "They were killed."
"Oh, God!" She and the other women cried. Derick looked distraught, but shed no tears.
~ ~ ~
A shoe print was found, along with a business card that fell to the ground. It was checked for prints, coming up with two fingerprints. The first belonging to the person whose name was on the card. He had a solid alibi, so he was ruled out as a suspect. The other fingerprint got a hit.
"Okay, your second print belongs to a Roger Nathaniel Harper, age thirty-three." Mandy said. "Long criminal history since he was a juvenile. Nothing on his record for anything as serious as murder. It's all B&E, petty theft, drugs, stuff like that."
"We'll have Vartann pick him up." Nick said. "Thanks, Mandy."
"No problem."
To be continued...
Authors Note: Sorry if this chapter seemed rushed. It was. I was rushing to get it done before Miami came on and I kept getting interrupted. I was going to wrap up the case right there and have them arrest the guy, but I decided on a different tactic that will maybe have a little more suspense. Strangely enough, the case idea came from a dream I had (weird dream, I know) and in the dream, it didn't show which CSI team was processing. :lol: So, I didn't know which fic I would use it in. I ultimately decided to use it on this one.