Author: Winter Wolf 1993
Disclaimer: For CSI; Don't own, don't sue.
For the OC's; Do own, ask if you want to borrow.
Ships: GSR hints. Some crushes.
Title: Staring Up At The Sky.
Summery: A dead woman, two missing people and Sara's too involved. Will her determination to solve the case cost lives?
Chapter 1 - Sara's POV.
A crash, a bang, Lindsey Willows screaming and suddenly nothing was the same.
A woman, no older than twenty five was lying in the middle of the road and I suddenly realise that she hasn't been hit by a car. No what's happened is much worse, because she's just been thrown from a dirty white van.
I run over and drop to my knees at her side. She's bleeding from what looks like multiple gunshot or knife wounds to the stomach. Her pale blue t-shirt is stained with blood, her blue jeans are soaked through with blood too. Her face is bruised but her eyes are open, a strand of reddish blonde hair caught on one of her eyelashes as she gaps for breath, struggling to live.
She gasps, bringing up blood as she tries to talk. I try to put pressure on her wounds but there are just too many of them and she's lost too much blood. I lean close to her, desperately listening for her words.
" Help... them," She chokes out and I realise that she's crying because the tears are cleaning paths over her grimy cheeks. She chokes for a second before she goes silent.
One breath... two breaths... she stops.
Her mint green eyes are staring up at the sky, staring but not seeing and I hear the ambulance but I know that it's far too late.
I know that she's already gone.
" Her name's Kristina Marshall," Gil says, putting up a picture of a woman. It's her all right, but she's not bruised, not bleeding and she's so very alive. " She's from San Francisco."
He looks towards a thick casefile on the table, almost nervous and Catherine voices what Greg, Nick, Warrick and I are all thinking.
" Why do I get the feeling there's something more to this," Catherine says and Gil nods.
" She was one of three people kidnapped over a two week period," He says, putting up more photos. A man and a woman, both smiling at the camera and suddenly I realise what Kristina meant when she told me to 'save them.'
" Sarriah Williams, Daniel Tyler and Kristina Marshall all went missing from different places. Marshall from a night club in the heart of the city, Tyler from his apartment and Williams from the lab's parking lot," Gil says and something seems to hit me with the strength of a truck.
" Lab?" I ask and Gil nods.
" They're criminalists," He says. " Three of San Francisco's best."
" West's team?" Greg asks. " I read about them on the net. They're supposed to be stamping out the law breakers in that city."
" Well, no one could find very much evidence to do with the kidnappings, all that they could find were some prints that didn't match anyone in the system and a note at each scene."
He pulls out three notes and lays them flat on the table. We all lean forward to get a look at them.
YOU'LL NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN, YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME. NEVER AGAIN WILL A CSI GET THE BETTER OF ME.
" So it sounds like he was a past offender," Nick says. "Why isn't he in the system."
" Most likely that he got off after he was interviewed but by then everyone already knew," Warrick says.
" And now he's making them pay the price," Greg says and he looks at the photo of the dead girl and I wonder if he'll still remember her when this case is closed.
" This case is thought of as cold," Gil says.
" Why?" Catherine asks. "Couldn't they solve it when it involved one of their own?"
She wants to criticise them so that no one here thinks it's their fault that Kristina died.
" Yes," Gil says. "But they went missing eight months ago."
Catherine's smirk which appeared when Gil said yes vanishes instantly and she looks at the photos, horror in her eyes.
Maybe I begin to wonder if they're still alive before Greg swallows five minutes later and says, in barely more than a whisper; "What are the chances?"
My heart is beating so loudly in my ears that I can't hear Gil's answer.
I don't think I want to.
Author's Note: Please review! Telepathic cake for anyone who does.