Disclaimer: Yeah yeah, I don't own CSI: or any of it's characters. (Although sometimes I wish I did.)
Under Lock and Key
Chapter 1: Setting Up
2:36 PM, May 22, CSI Lab, Las Vegas
Gil Grissom picked up his ringing phone, not bothering to check the Caller ID and see the 'Unknown Number' printed on the phone's small, LED Screen. "Hello?"
"Good morning, Mr. Grissom." A man's voice said, ominous and distorted slightly. Grissom frowned, not understanding the source of the call.
"Can I help you?" He asked calmly.
"No, but someone here does need your help."
"What do you mean?"
"Mr. Grissom, if I told you, it would ruin the surprise. Why don't you join the party?"
"What do you mean, 'join the party?'"
"'I had him in the most unbounded confidence in 1862. He was the best informed scholar of the military art in America... But war is a terrible test. Halleck did not stand the test; whereas Grant did. Halleck was a theoretical soldier; Grant was a practical soldier.' I hope you understand what General Sherman's words mean, Mr. Grissom." Gil raised his eyebrows, thinking about the quote. "Mr. Grissom, I will only say this address once. You will assemble your team and come to it, or she dies."
"Who dies?"
"Number 13, Lakeside Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada. You have four hours to be here with your team. Or she dies." The man hung up. Grissom closed his cell phone and put it on his desk. He looked up just as Nick was walking by.
"Nick." Grissom called. Nick paused, turned and entered Grissom's office, closing the manilla folder he was holding.
"What's up?"
"I just received a phone call."
"About what?"
"Get Sarah, Catherine, Greg, and Warrick into the conference room. Tell them to stop worrying about anything else and get there. Someone may die if we don't act now." Nick nodded, his eyes widening a tiny bit in surprise.
Grissom walked into the Conference room five minutes later, the team seated and looking anxiously at Grissom. "What's going on?" Catherine asked. She had just been in the middle of working on a case.
"Nick told you about the phone call?" Nods from the group. "I don't know who it was from, but we have to get to 13 Lakeside Avenue, in..." Grissom checked his watch, "Three hours, fifty-three minutes, or a woman is going to die."
"Lakeside Avenue? That's across the city!" Sarah protested.
"Traffic's gonna be hell, too." Warrick said.
"Get the SUVs. We've got to save a life." Catherine said, standing. Grissom nodded at her appreciatively. Sarah, Nick, Warrick, and Greg stood and left, heading for the front exit.
"What exactly is going on, Grissom?"
"I don't know, Catherine. I wish I did, but I don't. All I know is that if we don't do something, an innocent person is going to die."
"I sure hope you know what you're doing." She said, breezing past him and heading for the exit. Grissom sighed and followed her.
--5:09 PM, 13 Lakeside Avenue--
The SUVs rolled up to the eerie mansion quietly, stopping in the driveway. Grissom and company piled out, looking up at the mansion and holding their metal briefcases. The silence pressed in from all around, only broken by the occasional cawing of a crow.
The black mansion looked like it had seen better days, sagging slightly and looking like a withered old man, compared to all the other houses on Lakeside Avenue. The steps to the porch creaked with age as the team stepped onto the porch, Grissom ringing the door bell.
The door opened silently, moving on well oiled hinges. No one stepped out to greet them and the team filed in silently, all of them seeming humbled by the creepy splendor of the mansion. They entered a large foyer room, with twin staircases leading up to a large landing, where a man stood, watching them. He waved his hand and the door behind them closed, the loud booming noise echoing throughout the whole house.
The man was dressed in all black, his pitch black hair slicked back. He had deep blue eyes and a pretty face, but it was a creepy sort of pretty. He had a slight smirk, and watched them with obvious contempt.
"We came as you asked." Grissom said.
"I can see that, Mr. Grissom. I can tell you're still wondering who it was I was talking about?"
"Yes." The man smiled.
"My name is Arthur Lopus the Third. This is my magnificent home."
"We don't care what your name is." Warrick said. The man ignored him and kept talking.
"I hope you enjoy your stay. You see, Mr. Grissom, I want to play a game. It gets quite lonely here, so I've cooked something up that you might enjoy. It's quite like chess. My pieces are all in place, are yours?"
"We don't want to play a game. We're here to save a life." Sarah said warningly. Once again Arthur ignored her and went on.
"Mr. Grissom, you do like to play chess, don't you? Your past obsession with it obviously shows that you once enjoyed it very much. Do you still like it so?"
"How does he know that you played chess, Grissom?" Nick asked. Arthur laughed and started down the stairs.
"Gil, an odd name, wouldn't you say? You'd think it's more or less the name of someone like me, not like you, Mr. Grissom. But you see, your team members are just pawns in your arsenal, Mr. Grissom. Your back row is in this house, and I'll bet you're wondering what I'm talking about." Arthur was about halfway down the stairs now.
"Just what do you want?" Greg said, frustrated.
"You see, Mr. Grissom, in the basement of this building, there is an exact replica of your Crime Lab. I must say, it is a wonder to behold. I have worked on it for many months. Now you're wondering what you'll be using it for, hm? I'll tell you. In this magnificent work of architecture, there are four bodies. And there is only one door into and out of my house, and guess what? That door locked behind you when it closed." Nick tried the door and found it locked, as Arthur had said. Arthur continued, "Mr. Grissom, you enjoy solving crimes, don't you? You have worked on over 2000, if I am not mistaken. Now, how would you like to add those four bodies to your list? Unfortunately, this is not the only game we are going to play. Have you ever played three dimensional chess? Three chess boards on top of one another? I certainly hope so, because there are going to be other games going on at the same time. You see, for every four hours you spend working on the crime, another body joins the four already here. And that's not all. You didn't think I was done, did you? Oh no, after the body count in this house reaches 8, in 16 hours, there's another surprise for you. Once 20 hours have passed, one of your team will join the body count." Arthur had reached the bottom of the steps, and was standing next to a large wooden circle in the floor.
He smiled and stepped onto a pressure plate next to the circle, and the wood slid back into the floor to reveal a giant clock. The second it was fully uncovered, it began ticking. The powerful ticks reverberated off the walls, and quickly became annoying. "Are you finally done talking?" Nick asked.
"Mr. Grissom, do control your pawns, please. Their incessant chatter is interrupting my explanation of this game's rules. Now, this clock, once the second hand goes around the clock completely eight times, the game will begin. I don't plan on talking that long, so for that eight minutes, all the doors in the house will be locked. Once the eight minutes has passed, they will all unlock except for one. Behind that one door is my private chambers, where no one is allowed. If anyone tries to force that door, or pick the lock, they will die. You may however try the door handle to find out which door it is. The door to my right," he motioned to a door, "Is the door leading to your crime lab. Obviously you are free to use any stairs and open any doors. Also after the eight minutes has passed, the lights will go out for precisely four seconds. Once that four seconds is up, the game will officially begin, and all the doors will unlock. After the lights come back on, the first four hour part of the game will begin. I take my leave, Mr. Grissom." Arthur turned and went back up the stairs and disappeared down a hallway. There was silence among the group as the clock loudly ticked off the seconds until the game began.
"This guy is crazy." Nick finally said, looking at the others.
"We have no choice but to play." Grissom said. Everyone stared at him, realizing that he hadn't spoken during the whole time Arthur had been speaking.
"Grissom, we've got to figure out something. Once we deal with this guy, we can figure these out at our leisure." Catherine said. Grissom shook his head.
"No. We have to do this."
"But--" Sarah started.
"Don't argue with me. Please. I have my reasons for doing this. Just trust me." Slowly everyone nodded. "Thank you." They all paused and watched the clock as it ticked off the sixth minute. "Catherine and I will take the northwest portion of the building, Sarah and Greg will take the northeast, Warrick and Nick will take the southeast." Grissom said.
"What about the southwest?" Sarah asked.
"He's made the first move, and in chess, that means he's the white pieces. The natural intention for the white player is to castle to the right, and on a map, that would be the southwest. Generally you don't want to draw attention to yourself in your castled area, so he would've planted the bodies in other areas of the house."
"That makes sense, I guess." Greg said. Grissom nodded, and the clock ticked off the 45th second of the seventh minute.
"Nineteen seconds." Sarah murmured.
--Nineteen Seconds Later--
The lights flicked back on, along with a chorus of rapid-fire door locks. Nick tried the front door, and to little surprise, it didn't open. Grissom nodded and headed off for the northwest upper floor. "Don't forget to check both floors." Grissom called over his shoulder as Catherine followed him.
They reached the top of the stairs, and Catherine and Grissom glanced at each other before starting down the hallway.