Disclaimer: All rights reserved for CBS.

A/n: I really wanted this chapter to be longer, but as a wise woman said, 'I don't believe in writing more for the sake of having length. Quality over quantity, right?' So, it's not as long as I envisioned, but I think there is a lot of meat to it. I hope you enjoy it. :D:D Thanks Chelles!

Chapter 18

Grissom sighed and knelt beside the body.

Catherine looked up from where she was on the other side of the woman. "He was interrupted."

Grissom nodded, "Are we sure it's not another copycat?" he said as he looked down at the woman's face, blemish free and intact.

Catherine pointed towards the woman's chest. "The heart was removed and placed in her hand. The killer started to eviscerate her, but got no further than the initial incision." She looked up at Grissom. "It's our guy, all right, only this time he was interrupted." She nodded toward Brass who was talking to a young man in a bright red uniform. "Tyler Gantt, manager of Desert Palace mini golf. He may have gotten a look at the killer's car."

Grissom reached out a gloved hand and picked up a surgical glove lying beside the body. He squinted at the index finger. "Do you see this?"

Catherine leaned closer and looked at where he indicated. "Is that a hole?"

Grissom nodded silently and looked towards Tyler Gantt. "I think the killer got quite a shock when he heard Mr. Gantt arrive, and maybe he got sloppy."

Jim Brass grimaced as he looked at their witness, his stomach roiling. He knew he shouldn't have eaten that breakfast burrito out of the vending machine. "So, Mr. Gantt, tell us everything and start from the beginning."

Tyler looked at the detective and his mouth went dry. If this is how the guy looked when he questioned a witness, he sure wouldn't want to be a suspect. "Well, I started opening up as usual; I normally start by cleaning the course. Everything was normal until I reached the end…"

"There was nothing wrong with the lock on the gate?" Brass cut in.

"Uh, no, no it was locked as normal. Like I said, everything was like it always is." He nodded his head for emphasis.

"And you discovered the body when you reached the end of the course?" Greg asked from his position next to Brass.

"Yeah, say, I'm sorry that I yakked near the body. I-I couldn't help it. Worse thing I've ever found on the course before were some used condoms." Tyler dug his hands in his pockets. "That was gross, but this was way worse."

At the mention of yakking Brass's stomach lurched. He swallowed the taste of bile and continued with the questioning. "Did you ever find out who left the condoms?"

Tyler scrunched his eyebrows, not seeing what that had to do with anything. "Uh, no, I just threw them away, why?"

"Well, obviously there's a weak point in your security. Did you report the incident?" Brass asked.

Tyler blushed, he was sure the detective was about to arrest him for withholding information or something. He watched the cop shows, he knew that you could get into trouble for not telling the cops everything. "I sw-swear, I- I didn't think it was important, just a couple of kids out for a wild night. I figured they climbed the fence, we're not exactly high security around here."

"Okay, so, what happened after you saw the body?" Brass crossed his arms in a move he hoped looked authoritative, but was really to hold his angry stomach.

"Well, I yakked, you know that…"

"Yes, yes, we know that. What happened after that?" Brass cut him off before he described the aforementioned yakking.

Tyler shrugged. "I took out my phone and called you guys."

"Did you hear anything?" Greg asked, noticing that Brass wasn't looking his normal chipper self.

Tyler closed his eyes and thought back. "Yeah, yeah I heard a car door slam, and then a car peeling out. I looked up, but only saw a bit of the car as it squealed out of the lot."

Greg smiled. "Hey, man, that's good. Even a color could help us."

Tyler grinned, feeling better talking to the sandy haired man. He was certainly someone he could identify with. "Yeah, yeah I did see the color, man, it was red." He nodded.

"That's good. That can help us. Is there anything else you remember?" Greg pressed.

"Well, it looked weird, not like a regular car," he shrugged.

"Could you describe it?"

"I don't know man, it was really quick. I just know it looked weird." Tyler shook his head, sorry that he couldn't help more.

"You've been a big help." Greg assured him. "I'll tell you what, if you don't mind, maybe you could look at a few pictures, see if you can find a car that looks similar to the car you saw."

"Sure, sure, I can do that." Tyler nodded, grateful that he might still be able to help. He kept seeing the look in that woman's eyes. He'd never felt like he could make a difference, had figured he'd work in one dead end job after another. Now he felt the need to do more, and he decided then and there to do all he could to help find that poor woman's killer.

"Okay, for now why don't you go home? We'll give you a call when we're ready for you to look through those car books," Greg advised.

Tyler shook his head. "I can't do that. My boss is on his way and I have to wait to find out what he has to say before I take off."

Brass gave a dry laugh. "Well there won't be any work to do today. This place will be closed down for a couple days at least." His face had taken on a green cast.

"Hey, are you feeling all right, Man?" Tyler asked.

"Hey, kid, why don't you go worry about yourself? I think your boss just showed up." Brass nodded towards a man at the entrance who was waving his arms around.

"Oh, yeah, I'd better go talk to him." He nodded to them and took off.

Once he was gone Greg looked at Brass. "Hey, Jim, are you sure you're okay?"

"No, look, I'm going to find a bathroom somewhere away from the scene. You go look for where the killer might have gone over the fence. Maybe he left us a good bit of torn shirt, or something. Nick's searching the parking lot, maybe you should start at the closest place to where he's determined the car was parked."

Greg nodded, but Brass was gone before he could finish one bob of his head. Greg bit back a grin; it wouldn't do to laugh at a guy in that situation. It was inviting trouble.

Doc Robbins limped onto the mini-golf course and made his way towards the covered body at the end. "Sorry I'm late," he said as he stepped up next to Grissom. "I had a bit of trouble getting here." At Grissom's silent look he explained. "David and I felt that it might be best if I covered this one." He handed his bag to Grissom and braced himself with his crutch as he knelt down slowly.

Taking the bag from Grissom, he opened it and went about getting a liver temp. He sighed as he leaned back, looking at the temperature probe. "It's hard to be exact, if, as I believe, she's been bled, but she's been dead about twenty-four hours, long before these cuts were made."

Grissom nodded. "Yeah, we've learned something about our killer. He does the dissecting at the scene, not before. I suspected it after the last murder, but this proves it."

Doc sighed, "Well, if you don't need her anymore, we'll get her to my office, see what killed her." He gazed down at the woman. "At least she got to keep her face, her family and friends will be able to say goodbye properly."

Grissom nodded. "Yes, you can take her. We've gotten all we can from here. Check her wrists and ankles when you get there. I think there is bruising there, it's hard to tell, but she might have been tied up."

Doc scratched his chin. "That would be different." He nodded to the coroner attendants with the gurney and heaved himself up. "Well, I'll get the results to you as soon as possible. I just hope we can find something that can lead us to the killer. I don't want another one of his victims on my table."

Greg walked along the fence, looking for any sign of disturbance. "I'm not finding anything. You'd think that he'd tear something jumping over this fence, with the hurry he was in."

Nick looked up from where he knelt in the car park. "Maybe he's some kind of athlete, and was able to jump over easily." He continued to run his flashlight over the asphalt.

Greg straightened from where he had been bending, looking at a scuff in the rocks by the fence. "Someone might have jumped over here, I can't really tell though. The rocks are moved around, but that could have been done before and have nothing to do with this incident." As he stood, he looked at the fence. The top, lined with a pipe that would have offered a smooth grip to anyone climbing over. "You'd think they'd at least leave the top bare, with the sharp ends of the fencing, if not using barbed wire," he murmured, examining the chain links.

Nick barely hard him as he crept forward, sweeping his flashlight ahead of him. He'd hoped to find a clump of soil, or a suspicious oil stain, but so far, he'd found nothing. He squinted as his light swept over something. Moving forward quickly, he shouted, "I think I found something!"

Greg looked up and watched as Nick picked up something short and pointy. "What is it?" he called.

"It's an ink pen," Nick called back. He turned the pen over, reading the writing on the side. "Dublin Pharmaceuticals," he whispered. "That can't be a coincidence." He raised his voice and called, "It's a pen for a pharmaceutical company." He stood up, bagging it. "I think I might have found the case breaker."

Greg's smile faltered as his eye caught on something on the fence. He took out a swab and wiped it over the red smear. A couple of drips later and his smile had bloomed again, bigger than before. "I think I can trump that. I've got blood," he called.

Nick looked up from where he was continuing to search the area where the pen had been. "Well maybe this is our lucky day."

"Okay, guys, it's been two days. What info do we have on the Cameron scene?" Grissom asked as he looked around the layout table.

They'd identified the victim as Doreen Cameron. She was sales rep for Dublin Pharmaceuticals. She fit the profile of the other victims; brunette, brown eyes and single. Aside from her unfinished mutilation, there was one other difference between her and the other victims; she had a large family back in her home town, she lived in Las Angles, and they were now camped out in the lobby of the police station, really putting the pressure on to find the killer.

Nick cleared his throat, "We did get a bit of good news. The only hospital, locally, that Dublin Pharmaceuticals dealt with was Desert Palm, so that cuts down our search area considerably. It has to be someone connected with the hospital."

Catherine nodded. "And, considering that she was a pharmaceutical rep, it's fairly clear where our next stop is; Nick and I have another appointment with Mr. Bell tomorrow, and this time he's going to answer our questions more thoroughly."

Grissom nodded, "And how about that blood drop," he asked, turning to Greg and Wendy.

Wendy swallowed, "Um, here's the thing… remember those semen samples? The ones in the soil? Well, the blood matched to one of them, but, um, but we still don't have an ID."

"So our killer is one of those men," Grissom murmured. "But who did the other semen belong to?"

They gave a collective shrug. Greg spoke up, "Maybe it's a group of guys doing this. Taking turns, but making it look like one guy."

Grissom shook his head. "No, our killer doesn't want to share. I'm not a profiler, but, I think our guy likes to keep these women to himself, punishing them for… something. Keeping them alive, torturing them…"

"Well, I can confirm that," Doc spoke up. He opened the file in front of him. "Doreen Cameron was, held hostage for some time. She had been repeatedly raped with what could be a foreign object; I found no sign of lubricant, or spermicidal agent. I can tell you that she was brutalized, and some of it took place after death. Unlike her predecessors she had ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and several bruises on her body, in various stages of healing. Her last days were not pleasant."

His words were followed by silence. Finally, Catherine cleared her throat and asked, "Was COD the same?"

"Same as the first two, asphyxiation, probably suffocated with a pillow." Doc closed his file.

Grissom rubbed his head, "Wendy, did you find out anything about that hair?"

Wendy shook her head. "It was a cat hair, so I sent it to Hodges. I don't know what he found out. He's off today, but I'm sure you can reach him at home."

Shaking his head, Grissom sighed, "No, we've got enough to look into right now. It can wait until he gets back." He was disappointed that it wasn't the killer's hair. Every time they thought they had something, it came up as nothing. He turned to Nick. "What about that oil you found?"

Aside from the pen, Nick had found a spot near it with drips of oil. "According to Hodges, and he assures me he's never wrong, it's the same type as the other sample; a mixture of two synthetic oils."

Grissom turned to Brass. "Has our witness identified the type of car yet?"

"No, not yet, but he's determined to find it. He's still got a few books to go through," he said with a shrug.

Grissom sighed. "Okay, Catherine, you and Nick get as much as you can from Mr. Bell. He has to at least have known the rep. Maybe she told him about her plans for while she was in town." He looked to Nick with a sigh. "Greg, take over the car angle. Get with Mr. Gantt and maybe if he can't find a match for that car he can give you a general description. A sketch would be better than nothing."

Catherine flipped a page in her file. "What about that glove you found?"

Grissom shook his head. "The only blood on the glove belonged to the vic. The cut in the latex was clean, leading me to believe that the killer double gloves. I'm not even sure that it was an accident that the glove was left behind. We didn't find any other medical implements, and I have to believe that the killer brings it with him when he drops off the body. So maybe the glove is misdirection."

Everyone remained silent, thinking. Finally, Greg spoke. "Well, whatever the reason, I believe that cut was accidental, there's no reason to fake it."

Grissom nodded. "I agree. Anyway, get out there and get busy. We've got a family waiting for answers."

Catherine met Nick at the elevators labeled 'D' at the very end of the hall. "Why does it feel like I spend half my time at hospitals?"

"Because in the last few months we've questioned dozens of hospital personal and we had to go to hospitals to find them?" he answered.

"And, because in our job, it's actually better if you need to visit the hospital, rather than the morgue."

They stepped onto the elevator and it took them swiftly to the correct floor.

"So, what is this guy like?" Nick asked as the doors opened.

"Let's just say I hope your shoes are clean," Catherine said with a smile.

With a confused smile Nick started across the lobby. By the time he reached the reception desk his face had cleared and he gave the receptionist a charming smile. "Good morning, Ma'am, we have an appointment with Mr. Bell."

Gina looked up and frowned. "Mr. Bell isn't here today, are you sure you have an appointment?" she asked, fairly scowling.

Catherine was frowning now. "I called him yesterday; he knew he had an appointment with us."

Gina looked down at her book and shook her head. Her voice was frosty as she said, "I'm sorry, it's not here and neither is he, I don't know what to tell you."

Nick and Catherine shared a look, Nick nodding at the look in his eyes. "I'll call the judge."

TBC…