Grave Matters

Grissom said, 'She said you were the father of her baby?'

'Yes! Yes, yes…of course.'

'Why did you believe her?'

'Huh?'

Grissom shrugged. 'She was a liar. Why believe her?'

The slick-faced boy looked from face to face; when he landed on Sara, she spoke.

'It wasn't your baby, Jimmy,' Sara said.

'What?'

'She was pregnant, but not with your child.'

The boy's eyes froze into marbles; the tears had stopped.

Grissom said, 'Dustin Black was the father.'

'No…no, that's impossible. Not Mr. Black! And Kathy wouldn't even've told me she was pregnant, unless I was the father and she wanted me to marry her…right?'

'You were the backup.'

'Huh?'

'If Dustin Black didn't want to leave his wife…he was a successful, respectable businessman, remember…? she needed somebody to step in and take responsibility.'

Brass said, 'Maybe it wasn't admirable, Jimmy-but she was just a kid, after all. Worried about the future. With dreams.'

'Maybe,' Sara said, 'she was just looking for somebody to love her. Somebody to give her consolation, comfort…maybe just somebody to talk to her, in a bad time of her life.'

The boy swallowed; his expression was pitiful. '…You think?'

Grissom shrugged. 'We don't know what Kathy was feeling or thinking. Our job is science. DNA tests prove conclusively that you weren't the father of Kathy's baby…but you did kill it, when you killed her.'

His fingers no longer tapping, Doyle sat there with the empty eyes of a corpse.

The killer was led off to lock-up, and in the hall Sara showed Grissom and Brass a handful of papers. 'By the way, that iPod? It's Kathy Dean's, like we suspected. Tomas just finished matching the files in the player to Kathy's computer.'

'We probably won't need even half of this evidence,' Brass said dryly. 'Kid knows he's caught, and he's trying to buy off his conscience by telling us everything he knows.'

Grissom asked, 'Anybody hear from Nick lately?'

'He found something interesting at the mortuary,' Sara said.

'Such as?'

'A sealed concrete vault. He got Black's number from me. Where that went, if anywhere, I have no idea.'

Grissom's expression was thoughtful. 'I think I know what might be in that vault…let's have a look. You and your ribs up to it, Jim?'

'If somebody else drives,' Brass said, 'I am.'

'I'll stay here,' Sara said, 'and keep at this evidence.'

But Grissom and Brass were already on their way.

Together, Nick Stokes and the mortician Dustin Black pried the concrete vault open.

A casket was revealed within; Nick recognized it as identical to the one in which Kathy Dean had been found.

Nick looked across the vault at the mortician, who gazed back with wide eyes.

'Rita,' Black said.

Nick said, 'Your assistant called you away for a nonexistent phone call, and then he just switched the coffins….' The CSI sighed. 'We need to confirm. Let's pop the top…. No disrespect meant.'

Using the crane, Black hauled the casket out of the vault and rested it on one of the tables in the center of the room. Nick waited for the mortician to climb down the ladder and join him before unlocking the casket. The two exchanged wary glances, and then Nick threw open the lid.

Inside, still perfectly preserved from being in the airtight vault and air-conditioned shelves of the workroom, lay an at-peace Rita Bennett. Beautifully coiffed and dressed, she might have walked off the set of one of her used- car commercials to lie down for a nap. Not even the smell of death was present to disturb the illusion.

'What now?' the mortician asked.

'These remains, and this casket, are evidence in two cases, Mr. Black.'

'Two cases?'

Nick nodded. 'We exhumed Rita…or tried to…because of suspicion of foul play in her death.'

The mortician closed his eyes. 'When will this be over?'

As if in response, a voice said, 'Soon, you evil son of a bitch. Very, very soon….'

In the workroom doorway, in a polo shirt and jeans that looked slept-in, stood Kathy Dean's father, Jason. He somehow appeared both bleary-eyed and alert, his regular features touched with several days' growth of beard, his wispy blond hair askew.

Dean held a Glock in his right hand.

Barely six feet from Nick, the broad-shouldered, menacing figure was on the other side of the casket from the CSI, pointing the pistol directly at the undertaker.

Nick had no idea whether or not the distressed father was a decent shot, but at this range he wouldn't have to be. Black would be dead with a squeeze of the trigger; Nick would be dead before his own weapon cleared its holster.

But maybe Dean didn't realize Nick was armed-after all, the casket blocked the man's view of the hip-hugging nine mil….

'Unholster the gun,' Dean said, his voice a deadly monotone, 'and use only two fingers.'

Nick did as he was told.

'Drop it in the casket.'

Nick again obeyed, placing the weapon on the late Rita Bennett's midsection.

'Now close the lid.'

Nick complied, and said, 'Mr. Dean, we are handling this. We have your daughter's killer in custody.'

'My daughter's killer is standing right in front of me.'

Black said, 'No…no, I didn't…'

Nick said, 'It was a boyfriend-named Jimmy Doyle. He worked here for Mr. Black.'

'I never heard of him,' Dean said, and raised his handgun and trained it on the mortician's chest.

Black said, with resignation in his voice, 'My wife called you.'

'Yes,' Dean said. 'Yes. She told me everything. Are you going to deny that you defiled my daughter?'

Black said nothing.

'She was pure. She was a virgin. And you…old enough to be…you defiled her….' The man's voice was trembling, but his gun-in-hand was not.

Nick said, 'We have evidence that-'

'Shut up!' Dean swung the gun around so that the barrel now aimed at Nick's face. 'Move around to this side. I want you over here with the dead man.'

Nick raised his hands slightly and came around to Black's side of the coffin.

The mortician was in full capitulation mode, hands raised high, no sign of fight in his body language, ready to offer himself up to the angry father.

Ready, Nick thought, to die.

'I trusted you,' Dean said, the gun swivelling back to Black. 'You have children! How could you be so goddamn low…?'

Black said nothing.

'You…you took advantage of her. You…you…'

'Loved her,' Black said quietly. 'I loved her.'

The wrong thing to say!

Nick watched Dean's face tighten and so did the finger on the trigger and just as Nick was about to leap,