Closer

Chapter One


Greg Sanders stared at the body, his mind reeling. The body lay in a familiar pose, her arms placed on her chest as if she were praying. She had been strangled, just like the other two victims, the killer taking his instrument of death with him.

“Time of death?” Sara asked David as he wrote something down on his clipboard.

“Six o’ clock,” was the answer.

Just like the others, Greg thought as he took some pictures. The other two victims were killed around 6pm and always found five hours later. It was almost uncanny. He was beginning to think the killer paid someone to walk around the area and “find” the body at exactly 11pm.

“And I bet he didn’t leave anything behind for us to tag him with,” Greg said as he scanned the surrounding area with his flashlight. He hoped he was wrong, though. Criminals always slipped up eventually. He wanted this to be that time.

“They always leave something behind, Greg,” Sara said as David took the body away. “You have to know where to look.”

Greg rolled his eyes, but he didn’t mind Sara continuing to try to mentor him. He liked the idea that she was keeping an eye out for him, just like he kept an eye out for her. Even though they had been going out for three weeks, it still felt as if they were just starting.

Maybe it was the fact they continued to banter as if nothing was going on between them. They would always laugh about it on their way to dinner, how they continued to get looks from the others that said “Get together already.” It only made them flirt harder just to annoy Grissom and the others.

“I think I found something,” Sara said, bringing Greg out of his thoughts.

He pointed his flashlight in her direction as she crawled on the ground toward an object. A very small object. He strode over toward her and joined her on the ground. He stared at the object, wondering if it really had anything to do with their case.

“What is it?” Greg asked as Sara picked it up in her gloved hand.

She shined her flashlight on it, both of them staring at it in curiosity. It was a doll, its blonde hair cut short and its clothes missing. It resembled the victims they had found and Greg shivered at the notion.

“A calling card?” He asked softly.

“Maybe. There weren’t any dolls found at the other scenes.”

Sara shrugged and bagged the doll. Better safe than sorry. For all they knew, there might have been dolls at the other scenes, but someone thought they were trash and threw them away.

They returned to the lab thirty minutes later, Sara dropping the doll at trace before heading into the break room.

Greg plopped into a chair and ran his hands over his face. He had never been so tired in his life. They should have caught this guy by now, but the evidence wasn’t forthcoming. Anything they had found led them to a dead end. He was frustrated and wished a break in the case would come soon.

“Coffee?” Sara asked, getting his attention.

“Thanks,” he said as she set the cup in front of him. He took a long sip, not caring that it was hot.

He closed his eyes and let the warmth of the drink wash over him, giving him the energy he needed. He opened his eyes and looked over at Sara, who smiled.

“If coffee makes you look like that, I think I’ll bath in it and let you have your way with me.”

Greg laughed as the image of Sara covered in coffee formed in his mind. He shook his head, but only laughed harder.

“I think we’d both be up for the rest of the night if you did that,” he said.

“Couldn’t hurt with this case.”

He sobered then and stared into his coffee. This case had been hard on both of them. It had kept them up well into the early morning, trying to figure out who was doing this. They had both been pulling double shifts and Ecklie was getting on their butts about it. Of course, he always coated it by saying they were working too hard and were about to crash.

“Maybe the doll will tell us something,” he offered as he glanced at her.

“Let’s hope,” she said as she placed a hand over his. She squeezed it and he smiled at her, feeling the tension this case caused to fade away.

“I don’t care how you did it in your lab back in Miami,” Mia’s voice came to them. “We do things differently here. We have a system.”

Greg and Sara turned to the interruption as Mia and another woman came into the break room. They stared in fascination and the two argued as if no one else was in the room.

“I’m taking over days,” the dark-haired woman said. “I can have the lab set up anyway I like it.”

“It’s my lab in the evenings,” Mia remarked. “I like it a certain way and I want it kept that way. I don’t want to rearrange anything when I step into the lab.”

The dark-haired woman rolled her eyes and went to the coffee maker. She poured herself a cup of coffee then turned around. Her eyes widened as she finally saw they were not alone in the room.

“Hi,” Greg said was he waved at her. “You’re new here, aren’t you?”

“What gave you that idea?” The woman said, but her voice clearly showed her embarrassment.

Greg smiled at her and stood, “I’m Greg Sanders, night shift CSI. This is Sara Sidle.”

“Maxine Valera,” the woman said as she shook Greg’s hand. “DNA.”

“I used to work in DNA,” he said. “You might want to put in a request for swing or evening shift. I hear days is a pain in the butt to deal with. They walk all over you, telling you they want their results now.”

“Night shift was like that too, Greg, or did you forget already?” Sara said, bringing a smile to his lips.

He turned toward her, giving her his best flirtatious smile. “But I always gave you the results when you wanted them, Sara. Or have you forgotten that?”

His smile grew when he saw her blush. He loved to make her blush and took every opportunity to do so. He turned back to Valera, who had been watching the exchange between them.

“We do this all the time,” Greg said. “You’ll get used to it.”

Valera nodded as she took a sip of her coffee. Her expression was far away and he wondered what was going through her mind.

“We need to get back to work,” Mia said.

“Right. See you around.”

Valera nodded again and followed Mia out of the room. Greg sat next to Sara and she smacked him against the arm.

“What was that for?”

“Flirting with me in front of the newbie,” she said, her voice filled with mirth. “She’ll think we’re a lax operation around here and allow dating.”

Greg rolled his eyes, “We do. How else would you explain Catherine and Warrick? Not to mention us.”

Sara laughed and shook her head.