Sin City

Security guy stayed by the car until I got here, but he never got out of his Jeep.'

'Good,' Warrick said.

'You take a look?' Nick asked.

'Yeah,' Jenkins said. 'Walked around it once, cut it a wide swath, though-looks locked. Didn't touch shit. Didn't smell anything foul comin' from the trunk area, so I just got back in the squad and waited for you.'

'Not your first time at the rodeo,' Warrick said. 'Thanks.'

Jenkins liked that. 'You fellas need me to stick around?'

'Naw,' Warrick said.

Nick asked, 'You call for a tow truck?'

Jenkins shook his head. 'Should I have?'

'Naw, that's cool,' Warrick said. 'We'll get it.'

'All right then,' Jenkins said, and let out some air. 'I'm gone.'

'Thanks again,' Nick called after him.

The officer waved but never turned back. He climbed into the cruiser, fired it up and rolled away-Nick's guess was the officer's shift was also long since over and the guy had likely logged more than his own share of overtime.

Warrick used his cell phone to call for a truck. The parking lot was well lighted and, at first, they didn't need their Maglites for their work, which they began by photographing the car from every angle. Then they dusted the handles, the hood and the trunk for prints.

'Wipe marks on the handles,' Nick said.

Warrick smirked humorlessly. 'Trunk too.'

'Kinda makes you think maybe it wasn't Mrs. Pierce who parked it here.'

'Don't let Grissom catch you at that.'

Nick frowned. 'At what?'

'Thinking.'

Nick grinned, and Warrick motioned for them to go back to the Tahoe, and wait, which they did.

'You know, if you're in the trunk of a car,' Nick said, 'you're doing one of two things.'

'Yeah? What's that?'

'You're a corpse waiting to get dumped, or you're sneakin' into a drive-in movie.'

Warrick smiled a little. 'They still got drive-in movies in Texas?'

'Last time I was home, they did.'

It took forty-five minutes for the flatbed truck to arrive and another three or four for Warrick to stop Nick from bitching out the driver for taking so long. In under ten minutes, the driver-a civil servant in coveralls impervious to Nick's complaints-had hooked up the car and dragged it onto the bed.

'Well, that was quick,' Nick admitted to the guy.

'You made my night,' the driver said with no sincerity whatsoever, and disappeared into it.

Once they had the car out of the way, the pair of CSIs got out their flashlights and searched the parking space carefully, even getting down on their hands and knees-but found nothing. Satisfied they hadn't overlooked anything, they drove back to the CSI garage to take a more careful look at the car.

After putting on coveralls, they entered the bay where the Avalon sat like a museum exhibit. Fluorescent lights gave the car a bleached, almost ghostly cast. Warrick used a slim-jim to undo the lock.

'Twelve seconds,' Nick said with a chuckle. 'Man, you're slippin'.'

'Want me to lock it back up, and give you a shot?'

Waving his hands in surrender, Nick said, 'No, no, that's okay-if I showed you up, you'd lose the will to live.'

'Yeah, well I'm just hangin' on as it is,' Warrick harumphed, and opened the door. He dusted the driver's door handle, the armrest, the steering wheel and the gear shift. Nick did the passenger side handle, armrest, and the glove compartment. Again, they noticed that the car had been wiped.

'Somebody's hiding something,' Warrick said.

'Usually are,' Nick nodded, 'or we wouldn't be involved-we're just going to have to look harder.'

'Yeah, well I better start looking with my eyes open, then,' Warrick said. He stared down at the armrest of the open driver's door. 'You see that funky power-window button?'

Nick glanced down at the passenger arm rest. 'Yeah, it's got that weird…lip, in the front.'

'So…how do you suppose one would go about raising the window?'

Nick frowned-was this a trick question? 'Well, 'one' would put his finger under the lip…and pull up.'

'Which should leave the clever team of criminalists with…what?'

Nick smiled, wide. 'A fingerprint on the underside…'

'Very good, class.'

So Warrick printed the underside of the power-window button…and got a partial. He got another partial off the back of the gear shift lever, and Nick lifted a pretty good print off the passenger-side window button. The prints would go into the computer as soon as they finished with the rest of the vehicle. They would also need to take Owen Pierce's prints, of course, and daughter Lori's.

'You got a preference over the trunk,' Nick asked, 'or the interior?'

Warrick shrugged. 'Whichever.'

'I'll take the trunk.'

'Go for it, drive-in boy,' Warrick said dryly, and opened the passenger-side door. Sinking to his knees, next to the car, he shone his Maglite on the floor and started going over the carpeting, inch by inch. After his inspection he would vacuum the floor as well; but for now, he just wanted to see the car, up close and personal.

The two CSIs worked in church-like silence, each focused on his particular task. Nothing on the passenger- side floor, nothing in the glove compartment, nothing wedged into the seat. Warrick looked in the cup holders, in the console storage area, even ejected the plastic sleeve of the CD player and found nothing.

Moving around to the rear of the vehicle, Warrick stopped for a moment. 'Anything?'

Nick was bent over the trunk, his face buried under the spare tire. 'Nothing-you?'

'Zip squared. Somebody's cleaned this car within an inch of its life. It's like it just came off the showroom floor. It's got everything but the new car smell.'

Nick beamed at him, mockingly. 'I know where you can get a little spray can that'll provide that, if you want.'

'I'll pass.'

'So we keep lookin'?'

'Keep looking,' world-weary Warrick said, and moved to the driver's side of the car.

As he went to lean in, the beam of his flashlight swept over the headrest and…something glinted.

It was there, then it was gone-like the car had winked. Warrick frowned. The Avalon had tan cloth seats… what could've glinted?

He swept the flashlight over the headrest a couple of times, but nothing showed up. The car did not wink at him. He leaned in, inspected the headrest, saw nothing. He raised the Maglite so that the beam shone straight down. Leaning in closer, he looked at the seam that ran across the top of the headrest. Then he saw it…

…gleaming up at him: a tiny piece of glass.

After photographing the mini-shard at rest, Warrick tweezered the fragment free. He carefully studied it for a moment, but its miniscule size kept its origin a secret.

After bagging his prize, Warrick went back to the seam. Moving slowly, a stitch at a time, he found first one blonde hair, then another. Both hairs, like those on the brush already in evidence, could easily belong to Lynn Pierce Then he found another hair-shorter, darker.

Bingo, he thought.

He stored all three hairs in separate baggies and went back inside the Avalon for one last look at that helpful headrest-first the side on the right, then the top, and finally down the left side, nearest the door. He shone the light at the underside of the headrest and picked up on a tiny spot on one of the stitches, about the size of a period. His experience told him the answer to a question he didn't bother to ask.

'Found it!' he yelled, but his voice remained cool.