by Insane Englishwoman

Disclaimers: Disclaimers: See Part 1.

Feedback is always welcome: insanebrit@e-scribblers.com. Copyright © 2009 by Insane Englishwoman. All Rights Reserved.

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Catherine slowly walked the scene. There was so much garbage in the alley it was going to be a nightmare sifting through in the hope of finding something of significance. Her attention was drawn to a shadow partially visible behind a dumpster. Closer inspection revealed it to be a backpack. Catherine pulled out a pair of latex gloves and quickly donned them. She tugged gently on one of the straps and eased the bag towards her. It contained garments.

“Sara, got the vic’s clothes here.” She checked further. “Shirt; pants; belt; shoes; bra.... no panties. And oh God....I think...I think this is a part of her. I think I’ve found her womb.” Receiving no answer she glanced at her colleague, expecting to see Sara totally immersed in photographing the body. What she saw had her by Sara’s side in an instant.

Sara was standing, camera forgotten and dangling from her hand as she stared at the mutilated remains of the victim. “He raped her, gutted her, killed her and...and he carved his initials on her. He carved his fucking name and underlined it.” Sara’s voice was low and full of rage.

“Easy Sara, easy.” Catherine held up a hand to ward of her colleague’s glare. “Our best revenge is justice for her. We need to keep cool. Both of us. Sara, she needs the best we can give her.” She grasped Sara’s unoccupied hand. It was icy cold and clasped into a fist so tight she needed both of her own hands to uncurl Sara’s fingers. Catherine kept talking, hoping to break through Sara’s anger. “Sara, Sara honey. It’s ok. We’ll get him. We’re the best team on the best shift in the best lab, we’ll get him.”

Sara relaxed slightly. “Thanks, Cath. I’m ok. Sorry, didn’t mean to go out on you like that. You’re right. Let’s nail this bastard.” Sara began to take photographs and the click of the camera shutter was the only sound heard until the arrival of the assistant coroner some ten minutes later.

“Hey David.” Catherine greeted him. “Female murder vic, we’ll need a rape kit done. She’s been eviscerated and her intestines were piled beside her. Her womb was removed and dumped in the trash. Oh, and you won’t be able to take a temperature from her liver.”

She waited a beat for his glance of enquiry before delivering the punch-line. “We can’t find it.”

It did indeed take them the entire shift to find, document and bag all the evidence. David had completed his on-site preliminary inspection and removed the body several hours before Catherine finally called a halt. Rising from her crouching position she stretched her spine. “Man, I’m getting too old for this.”

Sara snorted in disbelief as she too stood. “You’ll never be too old,”

“Yeah. Right. Well. I think we’ve done all we can here. Shift ended ten minutes ago. Let’s head back to the lab, see if the autopsy’s finished and call it a night.”

The autopsy hadn’t even begun. Warrick and Nick had been called to a gang-related drive-by shooting and their three dead bodies had arrived on the coroner’s table first. Doc Robbins promised Catherine that theirs would be next.

Neither of the two women was surprised to find Grissom still in his office.

“How’s the DB coming along?”

“Gil, we’ve got so much to process it seems that Christmas has come early. We’ve got pubic hair; fingerprints; semen. It’s unbelievable. We should get Brass to issue him a citation for littering. But, shift is over, the autopsy results won’t be ready until next shift and I have a daughter who will forget who I am soon. I’m beat. We’ll log everything and then we’re out of here.”

“Ok. Good.” Grissom was barely paying attention.

Catherine shook her head. She wasn’t sure quite what it was in the palm of his hand that he was studying so intently but she was positive she had no desire to investigate. It seemed to have at least six legs more than she considered necessary – or attractive.

“G’night, Gil.” She turned to Sara. “Let’s go home.”

Chapter Four

Catherine walked into the break room half-an-hour before the shift was due to start hoping to catch Sara. She was slightly surprised to find it empty. There was no coffee and the pot was cold. Refusing to believe that Sara wasn’t at work yet she set off to find her colleague.

A short search revealed a very rumpled looking Sara poring over a ‘scope in one of the labs. In fact Catherine realised Sara was wearing the same clothes that she had last seen her in, close to twelve hours earlier.

“Sara.” Catherine spoke fairly quietly not wanting to startle the other woman. There was no sign that she had been heard. “Sara!” Louder this time. For all the impact it had Catherine decided she could have beaten three large cymbals and a kettle-drum and still not been noticed.

“SARA!”

Sara jumped. “God Cath, are you trying to give me a heart attack.

“Sorry, but I did call several times.”

“Cath why... what time is it?” Sara scrubbed at her face with both hands.

“Twenty minutes before shift. Sara have you been at the lab all this time?” Sara shuffled her feet slightly and Catherine shifted into fully-fledged ‘mom’ mode. “You didn’t go home? Sara, you can’t carry on like this. You need to sleep sometimes. You’ll burn out if you keep doing this. Please tell me you at least ate?”

Sara glared indignantly. “Of course I ate. Breakfast with you. Surely you remember. I know I’m not someone important like... oh ... I don’t know... just about any man still breathing, but you do remember eating breakfast with me?”

Stung by the unexpected venom in Sara’s voice Catherine took a step back and held up her hands. “Whoa there! Where the hell did that come from? I was concerned about you, that’s all. I won’t make that mistake again. Oh and Sara, for your information... breakfast with you, which I enjoyed very much and hoped until just this minute to have a chance to repeat. Well that was over 36 hours ago.” Catherine turned on her heel and stomped angrily away.

“Oh shit, Cath wait I didn’t mean..” Sara stopped. It was too late. She dropped her head into her hands briefly. “Fuck.” Shaking her head she carefully returned the evidence she’d been studying to its container and locked it securely away before following Catherine.

“Of all the rude, ignorant, arrogant, ungrateful, insufferable...aarrgh!” Catherine hurtled into the break room almost colliding with Nick.

“Hi Catherine, what’s she done now?”

“Gah! It’s just Sara being Sara... how did you know it was Sara I was mad at anyway?”

“Hey, I’m a trained investigator. Besides, only three people make you angry. Ecklie’s not in today that left me with a fifty-fifty chance of it being Sara or Grissom. Grissom frustrates you sometimes but only Sara makes you that angry. Simple.”

Feeling her mood lightening once more Catherine smiled. “Thanks, Nicky. Is Greg in yet?”

“Need coffee? Yep, Greg’s in and there’s a fiiine brew here.”

“Thank God!” Catherine helped herself to a large mug of what was undoubtedly a very expensive blend of coffee. She took her first sip, confirming Nick’s assessment; it was indeed a fine brew. She opened her mouth, intending to say exactly that when Sara walked in.

“Look, Catherine, I’m sor...”

“Assignment.” Grissom interrupted. “Nick, find Warrick, you have a robbery at the Wal-Mart on North Rainbow Boulevard. Sara, Catherine, nothing new, carry on with your DB from last night.” Oblivious to the tension between them Grissom left the room.

“Sometimes I wish that man would learn to see further than his damned bugs.” Catherine murmured. “Sara, you were saying something?”

“Doesn’t matter. Come on, the Doc should be starting on our vic, I’ll fill you in on what I’ve found...or rather haven’t found, on the way.”

Doc Robbins’ domain was as usual quiet, sterile and chilly enough to be only just this side of really cold. The Doc was resting back against one of the tables.

“Ah my two favourite CSIs. Welcome ladies. Perfect timing. I’ve just finished the preliminary on your rape/murder from last night. I’ll get the completed report to you asap but for now, I expect you’d like to hear what I have so far.” Receiving twin nods, he continued. “If you don’t mind I’ll sit, these old bones are complaining today.”

“Go right ahead, Doc, but you’re only as old as you feel.” Sara grinned.

“That would be around two-hundred and fifty.” He said, lowering himself into a chair. “You know, as long as I have been doing this job you would think I’d seen everything and be immune to any emotion. But sometimes, maybe it simply caught me on a bad moment, sometimes even I can be amazed. The preliminary autopsy results would seem to suggest that your victim was alive and conscious when her uterus was removed.”

Chapter Five

As Catherine’s shock wore off she became aware of the fact that Sara was cursing softly and had been so doing steadily. When had Sara begun to swear so much? Why had she never noticed before? Though, thinking about it, Sara only resorted to profanity over certain cases. Those involving the abuse, rape or torture of women or children. Catherine made a mental note to ask Sara about it someday. But not now.

Wanting only to ease Sara’s distress, without conscious thought, Catherine reached over and caught the younger woman’s hand in both of her own. “We’ll get him, hon, no matter how long it takes us. We’ll get him.” She whispered. Sara stopped swearing although her tension didn’t ease one jot.

“Yeah.” It wasn't speech so much a low growl.

Feeling that he had allowed sufficient time for the two women to absorb the horror the coroner resumed his report. “You’ll have to wait for the tox screen to come back but I would hazard a guess that she was drugged. There are no signs present that she was aware of what was happening. The changes one would expect in brain chemistry and appearance that would normally be present if the victim had been in pain or shock absent. Indications are that she was raped, her uterus was cut out and then her throat was cut. She died from the blood loss associated with these two traumas. Her intestines were removed post-mortem as was her liver.

“There was no bleeding from the wounds caused when the letters were carved into her chest so I would be confident that this injury was also post-mortem. There is some damage caused by the barbecue apparatus which makes the first letter indistinct but it appears to be an A. The second, carved separately and also upper-case is an E; it’s slightly unusual in formation and might be distinctive to the killer. The third is a capital C.

“You’re looking for a serrated edge, possibly a hunting or Bowie knife. One of the serrations is damaged; it left a curious tear on both the uterine wall and the intestines. Find me the knife and I’ll be able to match it.

“I’ll have the full report on your desk by end-of-shift, Catherine. I wish I could do more.”

“Thanks Doc. I hope you’re right and she didn’t suffer.” Catherine stood and rested her hand on his shoulder for a moment. “Sara, you ready?”

“Right behind you. Thanks Doc.”

Catherine steered Sara towards the break room where she poured them both a coffee.

“Here, you look like you need this.”

“Thanks, Catherine. Look, I’m really sorry I snapped at you earlier. It’s just...” Sara trailed off as Catherine placed a finger across her lips. It was only a gentle pressure but for some reason it robbed her of the power of thought. She started to analyse her reactions but decided she was too tired to even try. ‘I’ll think about it tomorrow.’

Removing her finger from Sara’s face now that she’d stopped talking Catherine replied. “It’s ok Sara, you were tired and I had no right to start mothering you. You’re not my child.” ‘Thank God for that considering the feelings I’m starting to have for you. But now is not the time for that.’

“I wish I knew why these sorts of cases affect you this much. Ah-ah.” Catherine held up a hand. “I’m not asking, I’m not prying, I’m just wishing.” She smiled to take the sting out of her words and was relieved when Sara smiled a very small smile in return.

“Now, you were going to fill me in on the case?”

“Right.” Grateful that Catherine was willing to let sleeping dogs lie, Sara opened the folder she was carrying and passed a sheet of paper to her colleague. “Hodges is running a trace analysis and a tox screen for me and I got Greg to start running a dna on the sperm and hair samples and check out a flower petal that was inside the vic’s left shoe.... lab-rats were a bit scarce earlier when I needed them” She smiled again. I had to promise Greg I’d go to breakfast with him at some unspecified time in the future to get him to come in early to start running tests and I think I promised Hodges my firstborn.

“I ran the print from the vic’s belt. It didn’t belong to the vic or the vagrant who stumbled on the body. I couldn’t find a match anywhere.”

“No hits at all? This can’t be his first offence. Not this vicious.” Catherine was astonished.

“Not one. Not in any database. Not local; not gaming; not federal government; not CODIS; not FBI; no records at all. Whoever the killer is he has never been printed for anything, anywhere.”

To Be Continued....

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