Catherine Willows wandered into the CSI labs ready to catch up on the letter case. She was stunned by the hive of activity and the looks of shock on the faces of the people. Grissom almost bumped into her with his crime kit in hand.

“You're with me.” He all but snapped at her.

Dazed she turned and began to follow him out to the car park. “Care to tell me what's going on?”

Grissom stopped and Catherine had to side step to prevent a collision. Her colleague turned and looked at her, “Sorry, I forgot you weren't here when the call came in. It’s Sheriff Mobley he was killed as he left his car to go into a function that was being held in his honour.”

Catherine’s mouth opened but nothing came out. The only thing she could think of was the way the sheriff always turned up at the most prominent crimes and always managed to rub her supervisor up the wrong way.

“Jim’s there already. The sheriff has the letter P carved onto his forehead; it seems our killer has struck again.” Grissom stated setting off once more.

The two CSI sat in silence as Grissom drove to the small but select restaurant where the meal was to have been held, both stunned by the news and the fact that such a prominent person as the sheriff could have been attacked and killed so easily.

“Well, that puts an end to our theory.” Catherine finally said into the silence of the car. Grissom threw her a quick puzzled glance. “Our killer isn’t spelling out a word, or it’s none I can think of, or maybe you know one that starts GLP.” Shaking his head Grissom concentrated on driving.

It was a solemn group that returned to the labs. Mobley had obviously been killed by the same man that had attacked their two previous victims. Again there was nothing left to give them any clue as to why the killer was carrying out these crimes or how he chose his victims, the only thing they did know was that their suspect, whoever he was, was intelligent and organised.

Reaching the area where Warrick and Nick were working, Grissom told them to meet him, Catherine and Jim Brass in the layout room. Once everyone was settled Grissom asked for an update from those who had not been at the scene.

“The murder weapon appears to be a knife called a Pig Sticker,” Warrick began, “or at least similar to a Pig Sticker. It has a ten inch blade with sharp serrations on the backside of the blade.”

The team then turned to Nick to discover his findings, “The letters are carved using a double edged slow curved knife used in wood carving.” He informed them.

Grissom turned to ask Sara what she had discovered and realised she was not there.

“Any of you know where Sara is?” he asked looking at the two younger men. They shook their heads.

“Last thing she said was she was hungry and was going for food, did we want anything. That was about twenty minutes ago she should be back soon.” Warrick the taller of the two added.

“Okay,” Grissom said, “the last crime scene was like the others, no prints no weapons. The killer isn’t carving out a name or word as far as we can make out, unless he’s killed someone and we haven’t come across the body, but that is unlikely as he wants his victims to be found.” He paused for a moment, then went on, “I can’t help thinking we’re missing something. He’s picked his victims for a particular reason and is carving the letter in a particular place, why?”

There was a silence which was broken by Jim Brass’ phone. “The Sheriff’s wife is waiting in an interview room,” he informed them, “she wants to talk to you.” He pointed at Grissom.

No one was particularly surprised to hear Mrs. Mobley’s request as she had become friendly with the older CSI through the talks he had given her Crime Club after being forced into it by Brian Mobley on the anniversary of the clubs founding.

No one had wanted to give the talk especially Grissom, but in his usual way their supervisor had forgotten about arranging who was to give the talk and it had ended with him having to give the talk himself. He had been relieved and surprised to discover that the members of the club were intelligent, well informed women with a keen interest in the forensic side of crime solving. Indeed they had helped push for some urgent upkeep and updating of the equipment in the Forensic Lab, some of their husbands and indeed some of the members themselves holding important positions in the community.

“Let me know when Sara gets back.” Grissom said heading out the door to the interview room.

Beverly Mobley looked up as Grissom entered the room, it was obvious she had been crying but it was equally as obvious that she now had that under control and was eager to hear of any news regarding her husband’s death. “They said Brian had been stabbed and that it was over with quickly but that’s what they usually say isn’t it?” she said softly with a small sad smile.

“I am very sorry about your husband’s death.” Grissom said quietly not wanting to confirm or deny her comment. Beverly noticed the man’s phrasing, her husband’s death not the Sheriff’s death, she realised the CSI had often come face to face with her husband’s more pompous ambitious persona but that he really did regret his death.

“Thank you. I know you and Brian didn’t always see eye to eye, but I also know you will do everything in your power to find his killer. Is his death related to the other two stabbings?” Beverly asked.

Grissom hesitated, he thought for a moment and then realising that the club would have been following the murders in the media he nodded. They had withheld the fact that a letter had been carved on each of the victims in the hope that the killer might contact them to push for such details to be reported, as they seemed to hold a great deal of importance for him and they also did not like to give away all the information they had on a crime as it helped to separate the compulsive confessors from the true killer.

“I thought so.” A small tear ran down her face. “Brian was so proud to be the guest of honour at the function, oh I know he could sound pompous, a little arrogant at times but...” She tailed off looking at Grissom who stood looking very thoughtful. “Grissom?” she said softly. He looked up at her understanding in his eyes, “have you thought of something?”

“I think you may just have given me some insight into this case, thank you Beverly. I really have to go, Captain Brass will arrange for you to get home, excuse me.” He turned and hurried back to the Layout Room.

“I think Beverly Mobley may have given us an important clue in understanding this case.” Grissom informed the others as he reached for a pen and paper. They gathered round him and watched as he wrote:-

G

L

P

E

A

S

G

He paused and glanced at Catherine, “Any clearer?” he asked. The strawberry blond standing at his side counted the letters.

“Seven.” She said with an understanding smile. Grissom nodded, the two younger members looked at each other and then back at the paper.

“Seven.” Grissom stated equally as pleased.

“So it’s seven letters, three of which have been found on our victims, how does that help?” Warrick asked.

“Maybe this will help.” Grissom informed him writing letters next to the G and forming the word GLUTTONY.

Warrick and Nick shook their heads.

“I’ll do the next.” Catherine informed Grissom and elbowed him gently aside. She wrote UST next to the L forming LUST. “Now do you get it?” she asked.

The two younger CSIs stood for a moment. “Gluttony.” Warrick said.

“Lust.” Nick intoned, “Sounds a bit old fashioned to me.”

“It is.” Catherine told them, “Think old, think religion, think Seven.”

“The Seven Deadly sins.” The two of them answered in unison.

“Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth and Greed.” Grissom stated filling in the letters for the remaining sins. “His victims are people he considers guilty of those sins.” He went on, “It was easy for him to choose Gregson for gluttony as the man was well known for his fondness of food and drugs. Our killer then staked out what he considered to be a den of iniquity and chose Hombard as his symbol of lust and then the Sheriff, even his wife said he could appear arrogant.

Mobley was in the news whenever a high profile crime occurred so he became the symbol for Pride.”

“So that leaves us with Envy, Anger, Sloth and Greed.” Catherine stated thoughtfully.

“So all we have to do is match up potential victims to the sin.” Warrick said, “That doesn’t help much.”

“No but at least we know he’s aiming for seven.” Nick informed him.

“Unless he starts to repeat.” Catherine voiced the thought that was in their minds.

Grissom looked at her sternly. “I only said what you were thinking.” She told him. She stretched her back and looked round the room, “Shouldn’t Sara be back by now?” Her three colleagues looked at her slightly confused at her change in topic.

“Well, she was only going to get something to eat. Has anyone seen her?” Catherine queried.

Grissom attempted to page the missing CSI but received no answer.

“I’ll check and see if she’s got so engrossed at looking at those back files she hasn’t noticed the time, she might have switched off her pager.” Nick said hopefully heading for the door.

“I’ll check and see if her car is in the lot.” Warrick told them, “she usually goes to the little store along the road and that shouldn’t have taken her long.”

Grissom glanced at Catherine who had a worried look on her face. “Don’t say it.” She told him.

“Say what?” the older CSI queried.

“Don’t jump to conclusions.” She replied.

“Well don’t. Anything could have happened. Her car could have broken down.”

“She’s got her cell phone.”

“She might have decided to eat out.” He informed her.

“Sara, eat out when she’s working on something, you don’t believe that either.” The blonde retorted.

Nick came back into the room followed by Greg Sanders, “Can’t find her and Greg hasn’t seen her either.”

Warrick came in just behind them, when they looked at him he simply shook his head.

They all looked at Grissom for their next move.

“Jim, Grissom here.” He said into his phone, “Sara went out to get something to eat about an hour and a half ago, she’s not back yet, her car’s not in the lot and she’s not answering her page or phone. Can you get your people to keep an eye out for her or her car?” He paused listening to Brass, “Okay let us know as soon as you hear anything.” He finished speaking and looked at the others.

“Let’s not let our imaginations run riot,” he told them, “Nick, Warrick go check up on what Sara was doing before she left in case she decided to follow up on something while she was out. Greg, you’ve still got work to do,” he looked at the young lab technician, who nodded and started to turn away, “if we hear anything we’ll let you know.” The young man gave a small smile of thanks and left.

“Okay, you’ve given them something to keep them busy what do we do?” Catherine asked.

“I’ve got paper work,” Grissom said softly, “and you are going to help.”