Deceptive Intentions
by Nicol Leoraine
Chapter 1
Grissom and Nick just finished the scene and were walking back to the black Chevy Tahoe parked on the other side of the garages, carrying their kits and the evidence that they had collected. It took them several hours to process the scene and Nick was tired, not even trying to suppress the yawn, when someone called out at them.
Grissom turned to face the young officer.
"If you could..." The officer panted. He had clearly been trying to catch up with them for a while. "Detective Brass... he wanted to talk with you... your phone is switched off."
Grissom reached into his pocket for the phone and noticed the black display. He forgot to charge the batteries. With a sigh he looked at the younger CSI who had enough brain not to laugh at his chief so soon in the morning. Nick shrugged.
"Happens all the time. Mostly after double shifts," he said, reminding Grissom that they had been working on this scene for quite a long time now.
"Nick, give me your phone."
Nick put down the collected evidence and fished the cell from his pocket, then handed it to Grissom with a tired smile. After a short talk with Brass, Grissom hung up the phone and passed it to Nick.
"Brass has located our missing suspect, we need to go take a look at her," Grissom said, "You take the evidence back to the car and change the film in the camera, I´ll see you up there."
"I´ll be there in five," Nick said and headed for the car, while Grissom and the sergeant waited for the elevator to take them up to the 17th floor of the Grand Hotel.
xxxxxxxx
The Tahoe belonging to the CSI was parked on the farther end of the lot. Several cars passed Nick on his way. When he finally pulled out the keys and opened the back door of the van, he heard footsteps.
Nick put the case into the back and turned, thinking it was the sergeant. He didn´t even finish the move, when something hard connected with the side of his skull, right above his left ear. A moment of pain as his brain registered the blow, then only darkness. Nick was unconscious before his body hit the ground.
A man, clad in black, looked at his victim and let out a strangled sigh. The gun in his hand felt heavy and he would rather throw it away, but there was still some work to do. He rummaged through the evidence until he found what he was looking for. After several failures to open the sealed evidence bag with glowed hands, he took out his swiss knife and ripped open the evidence envelopes. He took out the contents, put it into his pocket. He repeated it with several other bags, so they wouldn´t know what he had really been searching for. He considered dragging the CSI into the car to give himself some extra time, but the shrill ringing of the phone put a hold on his thoughts.
When the ringing stopped, the CSi laying on the ground moaned. As Nick´s eyes slowly opened, first thing he saw was the ground. He blinked and tried to lift up on his arms, but a movement to his right get his attention. Nick didn´t had the time to react, when the heavy boot connected with his side. His body rolled and he caught a sight of black. Even in pain, his hand shot out to grab at his attacker. He felt the smooth fabric, then another kick sent him back to darkness. Nick´s fingers released their hold and the man jumped away, cursing.
He had what he wanted. Slamming the back door of the Tahoe closed, he started for a run towards the elevator, but the indicator moved and he knew someone was coming. Cutting his run, he turned to the staircase. The door to the stairs closed just as the elevator stopped and several people stepped out.
xxxxx
The grey fog in his mind gave way to the pain and another moan escaped his throat. Nick was lying on his side, his arm unconsciously protecting his ribs. The cement floor was cold and uncomfortable, but it provided a partial relief to the growing headache. He blinked and tried to discern what happened when he heard footsteps.
It all started with the footsteps and now Nick heard them again. Someone was coming. With a stiffled groan Nick propped himself up on his elbows and pulled closer to the car. A pang of fear shot through him with the thought that maybe the attacker changed his mind and wanted to finish what he started. But it was a familiar face looking down at him.
"Nick! Are you okay?" Grissom asked, shocked to find his CSI on the floor. He knelt down beside him and grimaced at the blood on Nick´s head.
"Y-yeah, I think so," Nick stuttered and tried to sit up, but Grissom pushed him back with ease.
"But you don´t look good. What happened?"
"I don´t-" Nick hissed as Grissom touched a particularly tender spot on his head. When he pulled off, his fingers were red from blood. "-know," Nick finished, slightly sick at the sight of his own blood. "I was just about to close the car... when my head exploded. When I came to... I saw a man in black clothes. Before I could get up... he kicked me again."
"Did you saw his face?"
"Nick?" Grissom snapped his fingers right before his face and Nick blinked. It was hard to focus on Grissom´s face as it was slightly spinning - just like everything else. It made him a little nauseous and Nick felt an urge to sit up.
"You okay?" Grissom asked with concern.
"Sorry, just zoned out. Can you help me up?"
"I don´t think it´s-"
"Or I´ll get sick. Gris?" Nick tried to sit up. His ribs protested as well as his head, but with Grissom´s help he managed.
"Better?"
"Uhm." Nick blinked dazedly.
"So it happened right after I left you?" Grissom was trying to get as much information as he could before Nick decided that he will get a little sleep.
"Mm," Nick mumbled and tried to focus on Grissom.
"That was a good quarter of a hour ago, Nick. You were out quite long." With a sigh Grissom stood and pulled out his cell, cursing once again as he realised the batteries were out.
"Where´s your cell?"
Nick indicated his pocket and Grissom took it, frowning at the three missed calls, all from him. He quickly dialed.
"Jim? We got a problem." Grissom sighed and looked at Nick.
"Yeah, I found him. Listen, I need you to look for a man, dressed in black. If you can, get someone to all exits. I want to know who left this hotel in the last fifteen minutes, or who´s leaving now. He attacked Nick-" Grissom paused. "Relatively speaking - yes. We´re in the parking lot on the third floor. Send here some paramedics, please."
"I´m fine," Nick protested and tried to prove it by standing up. He realized it wasn´t a good idea just as Grissom grabbed his arm and stopped his inevitable fall. With the movement, Nick´s shirt rolled up and revealed several bruises on his chest. Grissom glared at him, trying to navigate Nick safely back on the ground, while ending his call with Brass.
He then leaned down to Nick and gazed at his shirt. Nick frowned, not understanding the reason. He followed Grissom´s gaze, but saw only his dirty, bloodied shirt. The head wound only now stopped bleeding and Nick already felt lightheaded.
"What´s wrong, Gris?" Nick asked, confused by the intensity in his chief´s eyes. He knew that look well - Grissom used it to examine evidence.
"When did you messed up your shirt, Nicky?"
"Huh?"
"It´s dirty here and here - see?"
Nick looked down once again and tried to see something else than his own blood. And really, there was the dark, oily substance.
"Think it´s from his shoes?"
Grissom nodded. "We will get him, Nicky."
Nick only sighed in response. It was too close, once again. He shivered at the thought what could´ve happened, had the attacker been shooting instead of kicking.
While Nick was lost in his thoughts and fought to look much braver than he felt, Grissom took a quick look around. He noticed the opened back door of the Tahoe, also the several empty evidence bags, ripped open. They´ll need to check their logs but Grissom was almost sure that the case was compromised in one way or other. Gritting his teeth, Grissom turned as he heard a car approaching. He saw the red lights of the ambulance and walked toward it, navigating the driver so he wouldn´t disturb the secondary scene.
Just as the medics get out of the car, another man walked up to him. It was Brass and Grissom nodded to him.
"I´ll need his shirt as an evidence," Grissom told one of the paramedic, when they started assessing Nick´s condition.
"Of course, Sir," the man replied, then turned his full attention to the patient. Grissom watched as the young CSI protested that he´s just fine, then winced as the medic put a gauze at his head wound to definitely stop the bleeding. Seeing that the medics have all under control, Grissom took Brass to the side.
"So, what the hell happened?" asked the detective angrilly.
Grissom repeated what Nick told him and added that he found some marks on Nick´s shirt, probably from the attacker´s footwear.
"Fifteen minutes? That´s one hell of a time to get away," Brass sighed. "Okay, I closed down the garages, thought you would like to take a look first."
Grissom´s lip turned up in a slight smile.
"What about the exits?"
"There´s five other exits, Grissom. I had three free men, but I put there also some guys from the hotel security. They´re checking everyone leaving - writing down their names. I can tell you people are not happy."
"I´m not happy either," Grissom said and Brass saw a glint of guilt in his eyes.
"Look, Griss - this wasn´t your fault-"
"My fault or not, Brass... this could´ve ended much worse than a beating. Nick could´ve been killed." Grissom hissed, then shot a look at Nick. Thankfully the man didn´t hear them, he was fully occupied with responding to questions from the paramedics.
"But he didn´t. What does it tell you?" Brass was trying to turn Grissom´s mind to more important things.
"That Nick wasn´t the primary target. I think he was just in the way."
Brass nodded.
"What about the car? Was something stolen?"
"I found few bags ripped open, empty. I think he stole some evidence, but I can´t be sure until I check the logs."
"Sir? We´re ready to go." One of the paramedics approached them, while the other fastened Nick on the stretcher. He looked pale, face screwed up in grimace, but alive.
"You taking him in?"
"Desert Palms. Probably concussion and those ribs need an x-ray. But he should be okay," the paramedic assured them.
"Okay, I´ll follow you in my car-" Grissom paused. He just realized he forgot to call his team and there´s a new scene to secure. Not to mention that his car was now an evidence. "Or rather I´ll stop by as soon as I can," Grissom shot Nick an apologetic look, but the young CSI understood.
"That´s okay, Gris. I´ll just rest up a bit," Nick mumbled sleepily, as the medics put the stretcher into the ambulance.
Grissom watched as the car pulled away then picked out his phone and called Warrick. He gave him a short version of what happened and finished with: "I need you and Sara here as soon as possible."
He then turned at Brass, who was also talking into his cell.
"No, keep her there until I say else." The voice on the other side protested and Brass said a little more harshly: "I don´t care if she´s tired! She´s a suspect and she´s staying where she is. And you´re there as a guard not a waitress, so damn hell tell her that!" With that Brass ended the call and looked at Grissom, perplexed.
"Just what the hell are these young made from? He´s whining that she´s whining... damn it, this isn´t a party."
Grissom merely raised his eyebrows.
"You´re still keeping the girl here?" he asked.
"Technically, she isn´t arrested. I can´t even say she´s a suspect. But I´ll interview her at the station. For now - I need you to take her shirt as an evidence."
"I think Sara will do a good job on that. I´ll need to go to the hospital and talk with Nick. Hope he´ll be able to tell me more."
Brass nodded. He knew the older man wanted to take some samples, to gather all the evidence Nick was able to offer, but he also knew that Grissom cared about his people. He won´t say it straight away, but he was sure the CSI wanted to be sure Nick wasn´t hurt worse than they thought. Brass understood and didn´t felt the need to voice his thoughts, he simply nodded at Grissom.
"We still don´t have a motive, Grissom. Was it the killer or just the thief? Why didn´t he took the whole car? Why leaving Nick alive if he already killed someone?"
"Good questions. I don´t have the answers - yet. But I´ll get them." With that Grissom turned and carefully walked to the Tahoe, his eyes taking in the smallest details.
xxxxx
Warrick and Sara arrived almost simultaneously. They found Grissom kneeling on the ground, looking under the car.
"Bomb?"
Grissom get up and brushed off the dirt from his trouser.
"Nah, just looking."
"How´s Nick?"
"Beaten up. They took him to Desert Palms."
Warrick grimaced, thinking about the last time Nick was there like a patient. It was when Warrick left Nick to go inside Crane´s house alone, so he could make a call. He wasn´t prepared to see his friend flying through the air and he was more than scared when he found Nick on the ground, unconscious and looking almost dead. Shuddering, Warrick pushed away the memory and concentrated on Grissom.
"So, what´s the plan? Should we process the car?"
"Yeah, that´s one of the things. The car is the primary scene, the parking lot the secondary. I think you ought to check also the stairwell, he could´ve run that way."
"What about me?" Sara asked, seeing that Warrick got the scene.
"You will go up to the 17th floor and find Brass. He should be with our suspect." Grissom unconsciously winced at the word as Brass made it clear they can´t arrest the girl, but then he thought about Nick and decided that everyone concerned in this case should be a suspect.
"You should take photos of the stains on her blouse and a sample for chemical analysis. Ah, and take a look at her shoes."
"Any reason?" Sara asked, eyebrows arched in suspicion.
"The man that attacked Nick knew what he was searching for. That means he was for A. the killer, or for B. an accomplice. Either way, he had some knowledge about the crime. Nick had the same oily stains on his shirt where the attacker kicked him as that women on her blouse. I want to know where was she walking in the last twenty-four hours. After you finish, collect the videotapes from the security - I want the tapes from the cameras on all the exits, the garages, the elevator - if there´s any."
"What about the first scene?"
"We already processed it," Grissom sighed. "You won´t find there anything. The evidence is in the car, but it was probably tampered with. We´ll check the logs at the lab. Any questions?"
"No, but what are you doing to do?"
"I´m going into Desert Palms and talk with Nick."
to be continue
A/N: Please, please, review.