A/N - Disclaimer - I own none of the CSI characters, just the originals. Also the titles of chapters are from movies. As always, please read and reveiw!
Anywhere But Here.
Chapter One - Intermission
Gil Grissom sat and waited while the rest of his small team gathered around his desk dragging chairs in from the walls. When they were all quite, he began.
"Catherine is not going to be working tonight or for the next few nights to be exact. Lindsey has a cold and no babysitter. Warrick and Nick you guys have a DB at the Nevada Rocks High School."
Grissom handed the file to Warrick and waited while they gathered their things and left, before turning to Sara.
"We have a DB at the local tennis club, where a prodigy was killed. Are you ok Sara, you look a little pale."
Sara nodded mutely, her face closed and her eyes distant.
"Ok then lets go"
Sara followed Grissom demurely out of the room, which shook him up a little. The silence was deafening.
Sara was not in the mood to do anything short of lying in her bed and sleeping for the next ten years. She was going to call in sick at the start of the shift but aside from feeling tired and slightly nauseas, there was no apparent reason for her lack of energy. She just felt off, though that didn't give her any kind of comfort whatsoever. She had decided to go to the doctor's that afternoon, who would hopefully just tell her that she had the beginnings of cold and that she should rest.
"Sara, are you listening?"
Sara shook her head slightly and continued to look out of the window, trying to refocus her attention to Grissom's voice.
"I was just saying the stats on our case. Did you hear any of it?"
Sara shook her head again, feeling a little woozy. Focus on the case. I need to get my mind off of how I feel. Focus on Grissom.
"Sorry Grissom got distracted, go over it again will you?"
Grissolm said nothing, just glanced up from the road for a second, looking at Sara unbelievably. What is going on here?
"Are you sure there is nothing wrong Sara?"
Sara rolled her eyes at Grissom, a look that was lost on him because his eyes were back on the road.
"I'm fine. I think I might have the beginnings of a cold is all. I swear that's all that is wrong. Now this case, who, what, when, where and how?"
Grissom pushed a file towards Sara, before retuning his eyes to the road again.
"Fifteen year old Hilary James was found dead after having been locked in a sauna at White Feather Tennis Club. No witnesses or none at least have stepped forward. Apparently this young lady was on her way to being the next best thing when it came to the tennis circuit. So the people around her had plenty of motives."
Sara had come across a picture of their victim, and she didn't look happy at all. Dressed in a pure white tennis suit, her long brown hair pulled back into a tight plait, there was no smile on her face, and she had huge sad eyes.
"Why do parents do that to their kids? I mean how would she know what she wanted to do at the age that she started playing tennis?"
Grissom shrugged.
"Parents just want the best for their kids I guess. Wow, this looks impressive."
Sara followed Grissom gaze, realising for the first time that the vehicle had stopped in front of very flash lot of tennis courts surrounded by a huge tall imposing fence, watched over by one of the biggest guys that Sara had seen in her life.
"Can I help you sir?"
The man moved closer to the truck, his sunglasses covering his eyes, his smile not exactly welcoming.
"Yes, I'm with the crime lab to investigate a murder."
The man glanced over in Sara's direction.
"ID's please."
Sara pulled off her ID badge from her belt and nodded to the man as he opened the gate to allow them through. There were about twelve tennis courts that Sara could see, each one perfectly maintained, and a few with white figures furiously moving back and forth across them.
"So this was Hilary's life. Not much of one really. And what is it about this game? Running back and forth after a ball doesn't sound like much fun."
Grissom was parking the vehicle and turned his attention to Sara.
"It's not too bad. I used to play a lot. Good way to keep fit."
Sara shook her head slightly. Yet another thing learnt about the mystery that is Gil Grissom
"I never played myself. I was more into Basketball and such growing up and now it's jogging for me. So I'm going to guess that we are needed here then?"
Grissom just ignored her comment and led the way through the crowd that had gathered around the sauna area where a body lay under a white sheet. Sara looked around at the people, disgusted by the lack of respect for death.
"Ok people, you all need to clear out. Now"
People slowly left, reluctant to leave with all the excitement going on.
"What is it with people? Do they want to see the body?"
Sara was getting frustrated with the slowness with which the people were leaving.
"Calm down Sara. It's just natural curiosity is all. You would never have become a scientist had it not been for curiosity"
Sara rolled her eyes. She wanted to get this case over and done with so that she could go home and try and sleep. Sometimes the nightmares that dogged her sleeping hours let her be for a while and she could get a few decent hours before the images came again. Finally the last person cleared out and they could get to work. Sara started clicking away with the camera, carefully removing the sheet from the body, trying not to stir up to much movement. Hilary James lay on the floor, a white towel wrapped around her upper chest, her body curled in the foetal position. Her eyes were closed, her lips were cracked and dry blood could be seen. Her skin was incredibly pale, her long hair loose around her shoulders.
"How long would it have taken her to die Grissom?"
Grissom glanced over at the temperature dial on the wall.
"At that temperature, maybe 1-2 hours. Check the door would you Sara? I have a feeling that this wasn't an accident. If she's been playing tennis for most of her life, she would know how to use a sauna."
Sara moved past Grissom and looked at both sides of the door. The side that was in the sauna had faint scratch marks and small bits of blood.
"She was trying to get out. Check this out."
Grissom stood close to Sara his torch highlighting the wounds in the wood.
"What about the other side?"
Sara closed the door slightly to get a better view of the other side. It had scratch marks near the looped handle, very distinctive in their pattern. Two scrapes on one side of the handle and another two on the other side. Sara snapped the pictures while Grissom took moulds of the markings in the door.
"So let's take a stab at this shall we? Hilary is in the sauna after playing a game of tennis and someone puts something in the door that makes it impossible for her to get out, let alone turn down the temperature. I guess now we need some suspects. You done?"
Sara nodded, gasping as she picked up her case. A wave of pain ripped a muffled scream from her throat, the pain shooting down from her shoulder and curling around the side of her right breast. When the pain had finally subsided, her rational mind returned. What the hell was that?? Grissom hadn't heard the muffled cry of pain, for which Sara was thankful; she didn't need Grissom on her case about it. She quickly swapped hands, and after taking a deep breath, followed Grissom out of the sauna. What greeted them was a great spectacle of sorts. There were forty odd people standing out of the door waiting for them, most of them no older then sixteen.
"Brass what's going on here?"
Jim Brass looked up from the person he was interviewing and moved over to where the CSI's were standing.
"We need to interview everyone here. I don't know how many of them saw Hilary today and I don't know which ones are friends or family so we need to eliminate them all one by one. Sara if you take that group over there, Grissom you just over there and the rest my officers and I will take care of."
With a nod, Sara moved away from Grissom, deciding to start with the impossibly young girl to her immediate left. The girl was so small that Sara invited her to sit before they started, so that she wouldn't hurt her back. The girl's tennis uniform was the same bright white as the other girl's that Sara had seen, with shoes so sparkling that it was hard to belief they were playing a sport in them. The girl had short blonde hair that had been cut in an energetic choppy fashion, and with her wide blue eyes, she reminded Sara of a Barbie doll that had been given a hair cut by a careless owner.
"Hi, my name is Sara and I'm with the police examining Hilary James's death. What's your name?"
The girl continued to look at Sara with those huge blue eyes, and with a soft steady voice answered Sara's question slowly.
"Clare Wallace. I'm sixteen; I was Hilary's doubles partner. Is she really dead?"
Sara felt her heart breaking for the girl. She looked so small and pale. Sara nodded slightly, and handed the girl a tissue when the tears started coming down her pale cheeks. She waited until the girl had herself under some semblance of control before continuing.
"Where have you been in the last six hours or so?"
The girl looked at Sara, still wide eyed.
"Am I a suspect? I didn't do it! I was playing tennis, in the middle of a match in fact when someone came onto the court going on about a body being found!"
The girl started panicking and it took a good ten minutes before Sara could explain the situation with suspects.
"We need to know where you were so we can discharge you as a suspect, that's all. Take a few deep breaths and try to calm down. We'll start from the beginning shall we?"
Sara made herself more comfortable across from the girl, trying to ignore the growing pain near her right breast.
As they drove into the parking lot just outside of the main building of the High school, Nick's curiosity got the best of him and his mind was running on overload with the lack of information it could be anything that they found inside the building.
"What do you think is the case? Grissom didn't give us many details."
Warrick shrugged, his brown eyes focused on getting their cases out of the back of the truck.
"No idea man could be anything. We must be meeting a Brass minion because I don't see him anywhere. Do you?"
Nick had a quick glance around the quad area and shook his head. It was then as wondered around feeling rather stupid that a short older looking man came up to them and introduce himself.
"Hey guys, Detective Caleb Jones. You must be Warrick and Nick, CSI. Well do we have a doozy for you two."
He led them down a few hallways and into one of the classrooms, where the body lay.
"This is Kimberly Felton. She was found about an hour ago. No one has actually been into the room aside form the emergency guys but once she was pronounced, they cleared out. Enjoy yourselves; give us a call if you need anything."
Nick and Warrick both waved their thanks and moved further into the room, stepping carefully. She was lying on the floor near the front of the room, close to the teacher's desk. Her arms were by her side and her hips were twisted slightly, so that her legs lay on an angle, her blonde hair fanning behind her. Nick moved closer still, and after examining her neck for a few seconds, made his call on the cause of death.
"We've got ligature marks. She was strangled. The marks are very thick though, like from a belt of some sort."
Warrick moved in closer to crouch beside Nick and the body, his torch following the trail of Nick's.
"A close intimate killing. This girl knew who ever did this too her. Let's work the scene and then go and find us some suspects."
After processing the scene, they went to track down Caleb Jones, but were instead welcomed by a small circle of scantily dressed girls, who were crying hysterically.
"Excuse me Mr. how did Kimberly die? We were her best friends and we demand to know what is going on."
The girl was tall with long blond hair and was wearing a shot blue and marron cheerleading outfit.
"I can't divulge anything I'm sorry ladies, but we have to go and talk to someone, excuse us."
Nick and Warrick pushed past the small flock of girls, and physically bumped into Detective Jones.
"Hey guys, I was just coming to see how you were doing. How did it go?"
Nick nodded his eyes going back to the young girls in the hall.
"It went fine. Why is it that these girls are still here? They should have been cleared out along with the rest of the school."
Billy shrugged.
"They refused to leave and if we manhandle them who knows what lawsuits would pop up. So do you want the good news or the bad?"
Warrick took the sheet of paper offered by the detective.
"The bad. It's always good to start low. What's up?"
"No witnesses. Nobody saw the girl go into the room or anybody come out for that matter. I interviewed the girls and she didn't have a boyfriend as far as they knew but you know what it's like in high school when your parts of the popular crowd, the relationships are shallow. I haven't interviewed the parent's yet, they have gone back home. The good news is that we know that the class room belongs to a Mr. Carlos Divolo, an English teacher. He was in the bathroom apparently when all this happened."
Nick looked over the statements that the girls had given, and decided to do them again. He turned to Warrick smiling.
"Hey dude, do you think if we turned on our charm we might be able to get more out of those girls? You up for a challenge?"
Warrick grinned widely.
"Do I hear a bet, Stokes?"
Nick nodded, feeling confident.
"You got it in one, Brown"
Detective Jones was smiling slightly to himself. Even though he had moved here a couple of months ago, he had heard long ago about the night shift of the CSI team, about the unique way they did things. He had also heard how they tended to be a law unto their own, and with the second highest solving rate in the country it was something he respected and admired. He watched as Warrick took a few minutes to think the question over and smiled at the answer.
"How about a hundred dollars? I've done more then enough over time to cover any loss"
Nick smiled widely. Warrick held out his hand and smiled as it was taken by Nick in a strong warm handshake.
"You're on mate. Ok so there are six girls, you take the left I'll take the right. Let's do this."
And with that Nick and Warrick moved apart slightly, each determined to win, neither of them wanting to lose the bet.
Sara had finally gotten some calm sane answers from the girl along with a few others; she was just waiting for Grissom to finish up before they moved on to interviewing the step father. She felt less confidant dealing with the grieving then she did with the killers and rapists that came their way. Grissom was in no way a people person, but she knew she would feel more confident with him there.
"What did you get off those girls?"
Grissom had pulled alongside her, looking over her shoulder at the notebook she held in her hands which was covered in her rounded scrawl. Sara handed the notebook to Grissom, waiting as he skimmed over it.
"She had a doubles partner? I thought Hilary was strictly singles. "Interesting. So we up to the step-father are we? Do we know his name?"
Sara nodded and turned a few pages before pointing out the name lost amongst a long list of others.
"Harry James. Hilary's mother died about six years ago of breast cancer, and then Mr. James officially adopted her as his daughter. He's the one standing over there."
Sara pointed him out with her pen, making sure the man was not looking her way before doing so, knowing that Grissom would want to study him before moving over there.
"How old is he?"
Sara pointed to a number on the page again.
"Forty-five. He was also Hilary's tennis coach, as well as he parent. She was home schooled and tennis was her life. Pretty sad existence for a sixteen-year-old if you ask me."
Grissom handed Sara back her notebook, turning to her and fixing her under one of his serious gazes.
"Are you sure you are ok? You seem a little snappy. Is working this case going to be a problem because I need to know now."
Sara shook her head, picking up her case with her left hand instead of her right, not wanting the pain that had finally faded to come back with vengeance.
"No I'm fine. Let's get this over with."
Grissom followed suit, deciding to keep a close eye on Sara from here on in. If there was anything going on, he didn't want it slipping under his radar like her drinking had. There was not going to be a repeat performance on his side of things. Mr. James was a lot younger then his age would have lead Grissom to believe. This man led a very healthy lifestyle and that was evident in not only his body but his face also. His hair was a rich brown, no grey in sight, his body was lean and loose, and he was tan, obviously from all the hours of tennis he has played in his time.
"Hello, Mr. James. I'm Gil Grissom from the Las Vegas crime lab and this is my colleague Sara Sidle. We are sorry for your loss."
Mr. James held out his hand and smiled sadly at them both.
"Please call me Harry. Thank you for helping with my daughter's murder. Do you have any leads as of yet?"
Sara shook her head as she shook Harry's hand.
"Not yet sir, we are still in our preliminary findings. Do you know anyone who would want to hurt your daughter?"
Harry laughed bitterly, his arms now crossed over his chest.
"Who didn't want to hurt her? She was a prodigy and half of the girls here would have killed to get into her spot on the tennis rankings. She ranked sixth in the under-eighteens. That's the whole world, not just USA. She had a lot of enemies because of her extraordinary talent."
Grissom raised an eyebrow at the world ranking comment, his face taking on one of interest.
"When did she start playing?"
Harry's face softened, and he ran his hands through his hair, revealing a tattoo of a dragon on his right wrist.
"When she was three. I know that people will judge us because we started her so young, but my wife and I saw something in her that no other three year old had. My wife thought it was just in her head and that Hilary was just good at hitting balls but when we got married just before Hilary's third birthday, I saw it too. When she was eight we asked her if she wanted to keep playing, and then again at twelve, and just last week I asked her again. It was her choice to continue and nobody else's."
Harry shot Sara a look; one that made her feel like he knew that she had judged him earlier, even though she was more then ready to take back her last opinion. She believed that he had loved Hilary and that he had just wanted the best for her.
"So you were part of her life for a while there, so why did it take her mothers death to push up the adoption process?"
Harry shrugged at Sara's question.
"I guess I always pictured us as a family forever. It never came up and then when Fiona was dying she said that she wanted me to legally adopt Hilary, not just so I could become her father but also to keep her out of foster care and away from her grandparents. They thought that I forced her into playing tennis, even though I was the one paying for court time and the travel costs that come with playing the game. Hilary has travelled to more places then any other sixteen year old that she knows, and she has learnt more then most. If anything, they should be thanking me for making their only grand daughter so well rounded."
He stopped talking then as a wave of tears came over him, and Sara looked at the grounds surrounding them, trying to give the man some sort of privacy even though she couldn't move away. Grissom on the other hand continued to look at the man with the same intensity that he did everything else.
"You were her coach as well as father. That must have been a hard role to fill."
Harry wiped his tears with the back of his hand, and locked eyes with Grissom, returning the intensity.
"I didn't kill her if that is what you are thinking. She was my daughter and I loved her."
Grissom shrugged, not quite so ready to believe the man.
"Many have killed for less. We will do everything in our power to find who killed your daughter, so I would advise that if there is anything you need to tell us that you do it now before the circumstances get any bigger."
Harry shook his head, anger flashing over his face.
"I didn't kill my daughter. I was giving a private lesson to Christina Dawson, whom I guess you have interviewed, so stop wasting your time with me and go and catch the bastard that did this to my daughter."
Grissom nodded curtly and moved away from the man, Sara following a little stunned. She had never seen Grissom interview a suspect with quite that much aggression. It wasn't until they were headed back to the lab that she questioned him on it.
"What was with the Brass questioning? Were you trying to see how much more the man could take?"
Grissom shook his head and adjusted his sunglasses slightly.
"He was too calm and it was making me suspicious, but when I pushed he reacted. He's not our guy. Someone else we interviewed killed that girl. Did we get any prints?"
Sara laughed bitterly.
"Yeah hundreds. With about the same amount of tennis rackets in the back. Greg is going to hate us."
Grissom shrugged.
"It's his job. It's not our fault that murders happen where hundreds of people happen to be. So do you still have the same opinion on the father? On making Hilary's life tennis?"
Sara thought for a moment trying to find the way to gracefully admit that she was wrong.
"I believe him when he said he asked her. It would be easy enough for her to just run away from that life. It must have been hard on her losing her mother like that though."
Grissom nodded.
"It would have been but maybe tennis was her release from all of the pain. We can't really judge something that we know nothing about."
The truck jumped violently as it ran into a pothole that Grissom had failed to see. Sara cursed under her breath as the pain went ripping through her upper right side again, making her eyes water and her breathing ragged.
"They really need to fix these potholes. They should use the tax money for that."
Grissom continued driving, oblivious that Sara was sitting in extreme pain, trying to keep tears that had welled up from spilling.
