Shock
"Nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, salt, sugar, and pumpkin?"
"Among others. Your mystery substance is pumpkin pie. Without the crust, of course." Greg handed Catherine the readout as he spoke. Catherine tucked a few strands behind her ear.
"Altoids and pumpkins. It's his signature."
"Whose signature?" Nick asked walking into the lab.
"Noel Gray. He was put away about ten years ago for possession, got out on probation two years ago," Catherine explained. "Listen, Nick, Grissom and I are going to be concentrating on this case. Do you think you guys can handle anything that comes in tonight?"
"Yeah. No problem. Sara and Warrick are in the morgue with David working on the Dobson stuff; I'm tracking down fingerprints."
"Thanks, Nick." Catherine took the chromatogram from Greg's hand and left the lab. She wanted to be alone for a little bit, but the only place she could get any chance of solitude was Grissom's office and that wasn't a good option at the moment. She walked to the break room and sat down at the table. Grissom's crossword puzzle from the previous day was only half finished. She picked up a pen and scanned the clues to see if she could help him out.
Grissom went to the morgue partially hoping to find Catherine there; instead, he found Sara and Warrick talking to David outside the morgue. Doc Robbins called to him from inside the studio.
"What have we got?"
"Ted Wilks. No external clues as to how he died, but upon further examination I can faithfully exclude drug overdose." Al Robbins spoke as he put up x-rays taken from the body on the table. "I'm waiting for the toxicology report on his stomach contents, but from my examination I'd say he died as a result of anaphylactic shock."
"Anaphylactic shock? Catherine and I found drugs at the scene as well as an unidentified substance."
"That would account for the drugs I found in his bloodstream, but there wasn't enough to kill a rat, much less a human being."
"Thanks, Al." Grissom paused for a moment. "If you see Catherine, tell her I need to see her."
"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Catherine's voice asked cheerfully. Grissom slowly turned to face her as he realized that she wasn't angry with him anymore. His eyes silently asked if they were ok and she only smiled at him. "I ran into Jesse on my way down. The victim had some remnants of altoids laced with cocaine. He also had some pumpkin pie, which led to his death."
"Pumpkin pie?" Grissom asked as she handed him Greg's findings as well as the toxicology report.
"Yep. That's what our mysterious brown stuff was as well." Catherine waited for a few moments as Grissom looked through the reports. When he finished, they told the coroner thanks and headed to Grissom's office to discuss the new evidence. Doc Robbins didn't have any evidence that conclusively proved that their victim was murdered.
"We're going to have to close the file," Grissom said as they entered his office. There just wasn't any evidence to support a claim of murder.
"I know." Catherine didn't like it, but all they had was circumstantial evidence. Just because a minute amount of drugs was found on the scene didn't mean there was foul play involved. Before Grissom could say anything Catherine apologized, "I'm sorry."
"About what?" Grissom was confused. There wasn't anything that she should be apologizing for. He looked at his best friend expectantly.
"Today, this past week. You pick. I haven't exactly been the easiest person to be around lately."
"Cath, how long have we been friends?"
"I don't know, ten years or so. Why?"
Grissom could count the number of times he had heard her talk about her parents since they met on one hand. "I was thinking that in the last ten years, you've never really mentioned your family apart from your sister."
"Yeah, and?"
"Why are they suddenly taking interest in Lindsey? She's nine years old and probably doesn't even know they exist, so why now?"
"I don't know how to answer that."
"Tell me the truth." Grissom looked at her, daring her to not answer.
"Are you sure you want the truth?" When no answer came she continued, "They've known about Lindsey since I found out I was pregnant. They wanted us to go up and visit them, but I always found an excuse not to travel. Now that I'm officially divorced and 'alone,' they want to come down and have a family diner."
"Isn't that what you wanted?"
"I guess, but part of me still resents that they didn't care that I had realized the mistake I made and came home. We don't talk very much; Rachel keeps me up to date when we have dinner on the weekends, but that's about it." Catherine felt better having told him what was going on, but she was still unsure whether he would let it go now.
She was almost eighteen when she left Montana for good. Many things had changed during her yearlong absence. The ranch had been sold and her parents were living in town. At first, things were good, but she found that her parents no longer wanted to deal with her. In one argument her mom had said that she was a grown up and should get her own life. So she did.
"Cath, I've never known you to back away from a fight."
"I know. I," she paused. Everyone had skeletons in their closets; most of hers had been shaken out and revealed, but this was one that she didn't want everyone to know about. It was hard enough that Grissom knew it. "I don't know if I can let go of the hurt they caused, even for Lindsey's sake."