12/5/06
MIRACLE ON LAS VEGAS BOULEVARD
"What the hell is all this?" Nick demanded as he and Warrick walked into the break room at the start of shift.
"Hey, Merry Christmas!" Wendy called cheerfully, turning to look down at the two new arrivals from where she was perched atop a step ladder. "Don't you like what we've done?"
She and Mandy were busily handing Christmas lights around the large room. They had already strung garland and a few strategically placed sprigs of mistletoe. Upbeat holiday music blared from a boom box on the table. A small tree had been erected in one corner and Hodges was just putting the finishing touches of tinsel on it. There were even wrapped presents underneath it.
"We figured the place could use some holiday cheer. It is Christmas Eve, after all," Archie said.
He was standing by the sink, emptying several Thermoses into a large punch bowl. "Eggnog anyone?" he asked. "Non-alcoholic, of course. It's my grandmother's secret recipe."
"No, thanks," Nick said flatly.
"So, how does it look?" Wendy asked, climbing down from the ladder and moving to join Mandy near the door, where the two women could admire their handiwork.
"It looks great," Warrick said, smiling.
"Whatever," was Nick's less than enthusiastic response.
"Oh, I guess somebody missed their ration of Christmas spirit this morning," Hodges said pointedly. "But then, why would today be any different? You've been a Grinch all month."
"Maybe because I've actually been out on the streets, dealing with all the 'holiday cheer', instead of hiding out in the lab!" Nick snapped.
"Hey, I'd love to be out in the field," Archie commented.
"No, you wouldn't. Not this time of year anyway," Nick said bitterly.
"Well, I know what would cheer you up," Wendy said, moving to stand closer to the Texan.
"What?" he asked skeptically.
"Well, you are standing under the mistletoe..."
He glanced up at the small green and white sprig of plant life dangling from the door frame above his head. He lowered his eyes again to find Wendy smiling at him expectantly. Rolling his eyes and shaking his head slightly, Nick turned and left the room.
"What's his problem?" the lab tech asked.
"Don't take it personally, Wendy," Warrick said. "He's just had a couple of rough cases this past week."
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Fifteen minutes later, Warrick found Nick in the locker room, staring blankly into his open locker.
"There you are," the African-American investigator commented. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, just having a bad day. I didn't mean to take it out on Wendy like that."
"Eh, don't sweat it. Wendy's tough, she can take it. You can apologize to her later. You're with me tonight. Grissom gave us a B & E. We're meeting Det. Davis over on Las Vegas Blvd."
The two men rode together to the crime scene, with Warrick driving. Keeping his eyes on the road, the Nevada native asked, "So, are you going to tell me what's eatin' at you or am I gonna to have to guess?"
"How can you be so calm and cool after everything that we've been dealing with this month?" Nick asked bitterly.
"Yeah, this year does seem to be a pretty rough Christmas," Warrick agreed.
"Rough? Oh, there's the understatement of the year! I mean, come on, Rick, look at what we've dealt with this past week alone. First there was the department store Santa, who was fondling the children while they were sitting on his lap. Then there were the thieves who broke into the Salvation Army store and stole all the toys that had been donated for the underprivileged children.
"And last, but certainly not least, there's the case I'm working on with Sara. Hours after giving birth in the women's restroom of the bus station, a teenaged mother abandons her newborn in the manger of the life-sized nativity scene on the front lawn of the First Baptist Church.
"Now, this might have been seen as an act of contrition, except that it's been unusually cold all month and last night, it dropped down to 26 degrees. And since the mother didn't bother to tell anyone what she'd done, the baby had died of exposure before it was found early this morning!"
By the time Nick had finished speaking, he was out of breath and visibly agitated. He had obviously been holding all of this in for far too long.
"Have you and Sara been able to identify the mother?" Warrick asked, wanting to keep the other man talking, hoping to let him vent some more.
"No, but we have her on surveillance tape at the bus station. Christ, Warrick, she doesn't look much older than a child herself!"
Warrick nodded sympathetically. "You know, Nick, you shouldn't keep holding this kind of stuff in. It'll tear you up inside. You gotta let it out, talk to someone."
"Talk to someone? Like who?"
"I don't know, me, Catherine... Grissom."
The Texan gave a short, humorless laugh. "Yeah, Grissom..."
Warrick wasn't sure how to respond to this enigmatic statement. He'd noticed that things had been somewhat strained between Nick and the graveyard supervisor for a while now, but since Nick had never shared the reason for this with Warrick, he assumed it was none of his business.
"Well, whatever happened to that tight, little blonde you were seeing? Talk to her. Women love it when men open up to them, tell them our problems."
"Apparently not Allison," Nick said. "She said she didn't want to see me anymore because the stuff I told her about my job, gave her nightmares and that scared her. I gave the woman nightmares, Warrick. What does that say about this job? It tells me, that it makes me unfit for 'normal' company. Man, you are so lucky to have a woman like Tina."
Warrick could only nod slightly in agreement. Despite their strained marriage and their inability to talk about other things, he and Tina could always talk about work. As an ER nurse, Tina had seen some pretty harrowing things herself. She completely understood Warrick on that level and she didn't flinch away from the graphic details. Warrick had never appreciated his wife more than he did right at this moment. Unfortunately, none of this helped his friend.
"Look, Nick, maybe you should take some time off. Go home and see your family. You know, recharge your batteries."
"Yeah, I thought about that, too, but I'm afraid that if I go home, I won't be able to come back."
"What're you talking about?"
"I've been thinking a lot about what you said, about me being in the wrong town and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I am."
"Nick, I didn't mean anything by that. You were just so angry and I-."
"No, it's okay, you might be right. This town can be so unforgiving. Sometimes I just feel like we're all just wasting our time. There's a reason they call this place 'Sin City'. The whole town is doomed to fry in hell and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. We're not making a difference. We're just spinning our wheels."
"Come on, Nick, you don't really believe that. If you did, you wouldn't still be doing this job."
"That's my point. I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this job. It's just getting too hard... I don't know. Maybe if I had some kind of a sign that I was making a difference or a sign that I was doing the right thing..."
"What do mean, like a sign from God?"
"I guess so. I don't know... Don't pay any attention to me, Rick. I'm just babbling," Nick said.
They had arrived at the crime scene and he could see Det. Eric Davis standing outside the modest apartment building, watching for them. Nick didn't want to keep the man waiting. He was also starting to regret his candor. He hadn't really meant to say so much to Warrick, but somehow he couldn't seem to stop the flow of the words once he'd gotten started.
"Listen, just forget I said anything," Nick continued. "Let's just go do our jobs and pretend we're making a difference."
"Yeah, okay," Warrick agreed. He'd seen the detective as well and was anxious to get to work. Now was not the time or place to pursue this conversation, but he fully intended to get more out of Nick later, even if he had to tie the Texan to a chair.
Parking the SUV, the two men climbed out of the vehicle, grabbed their kits from the back and joined the young detective on the sidewalk in front of the building.
"So, what do you got for us?" Warrick asked.
"Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez, in apartment 402, waited in line overnight, to get their two boys one of the new Playstation 3s for Christmas, 'cause that's all the boys wanted, nothing else. Sometime earlier tonight, while the family was out at the boys' school Christmas party, someone broke into their apartment and stole the game system. So, now the boys have nothing for Christmas. The parents spent their whole Christmas budget on the game," The detective explained to the CSIs.
"Nice," Nick said caustically. He turned to Warrick with a bitter smile. "Christmas in Las Vegas, man, gotta love it! Merry fucking Christmas!"
Warrick watched his friend turn and head into the apartment building, still shaking his head in disgust. Nick had been in a few of these burned out funks before. What CSI hadn't at one time or another? It was the nature of the job, but Nick had always managed snapped out of it after a couple of days. And Nick was almost always cheerful around the holidays. But this time was different. His temper had been growing increasingly short and more volatile for a while now. Hell, he'd punched a suspect only a couple of months ago. Warrick was starting to get seriously concerned about his friend's mental health.
It didn't take long to process the apartment. The thief hadn't been very bright or very careful. He'd left his fingerprints and shoeprints all over the apartment. With luck, he'd be in the system and they could have the cops pick him up before he could even hock the game. The Sanchez boys could still have a Merry Christmas yet. It just might be a little late.
Several hours later, Nick and Warrick were returning to their vehicle. As they were loading their kits and evidence bags into the SUV, Warrick's cell phone rang.
"CSI Brown," he said, answering it. "No, we haven't left yet. We're just loading up... Okay, no problem. We'll be up in a second."
Returning the phone to his pocket, Warrick turned to Nick. "That was Davis. Apparently the Sanchez's have another older son, who doesn't live in the apartment, but he does have a key. He just showed up and he said that he was in the apartment earlier today, so we're going to need to go back up and get a sample of his prints as well."
"You know, someone should stay here with the evidence. I got burned by that once. I don't want to get burned again. You go up. I'll stay here with the truck."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, it's no problem, go ahead."
"Okay, it'll just take me a minute."
While Warrick jogged across the small yard to the front entrance of the building, Nick leaned back against the side of the SUV and wrapped his leather jacket tighter around himself. As he had said earlier, it had been unusually cold all month long. It wasn't uncommon for the temperature to dip into the 30s at night, in the winter, in Vegas, but it had been dropping down to the 20s for the past few weeks. Tonight felt like another one below the freezing mark.
It occurred to him that he should probably wait in the car where it was warmer, but he was rather enjoying the crisp, cold air. For some reason, cold air always seemed cleaner than warm air. He breathed in a deep lungful and held it, savoring the feel of the cold burning his lungs, envisioning himself being purged of all the negative, angry thoughts that had been poisoning him for months. He released the breath in a cloud of steam. If only releasing his thoughts was truly that simple.
Staring absently at the office building across the street, Nick saw a woman pass under the glow of the streetlight directly across from him. She was walking slowly, almost shuffling, and Nick wondered if perhaps someone had had a little too much holiday cheer. He wondered if he and Warrick should offer to give her a ride home. After all, this neighborhood wasn't the best one for a woman to be walking alone, at night, especially when she was less than fully alert.
He glanced over his shoulder at the building. There was no sign of Warrick. Turning his attention back to the woman across the street, Nick saw that she had stopped walking and was staring up at the office building. After a moment of this, she moved purposefully to the small fire escape ladder and began climbing up the side of the building.
Nick watched this with growing concern. The office building was relatively low, only five stories. But five stories was certainly a long enough drop to kill someone who jumped off the roof. He wasn't sure why suicide was his first assumption regarding the woman's actions, perhaps it had something to do with his own morbid thoughts of late, but that was his immediate gut reaction.
Again, he glanced over his shoulder, looking for Warrick. There was still no sign of the other investigator. He was still in the Sanchez' Apartment with Det. Davis. The uniformed officer had left the scene some ten minutes earlier. Nick couldn't use the radio in the SUV because the engine was off and Warrick had the keys. Reaching into the pocket of his vest, Nick pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.
Giving his ID number to the dispatcher, he explained the situation and requested that a unit be sent to the location. He listed the address for the office building. The dispatcher told him that all the units currently in his vicinity were tied up. It would probably take twenty minutes or so for another unit to get to his location. He thanked the dispatcher and hung up.
Another quick glance at the apartment building told Nick that his fellow CSI was still dealing with the Sanchez family. This was actually fine with Nick, as it meant that his partner wasn't around to interfere with the idea that was taking shape in his mind. If the woman, who by now had reached the roof, truly did mean to kill herself, twenty minutes would be entirely too late. Something needed to be done now.
Like Greg a couple of months earlier, Nick was confronted with a situation where immediate action was needed to save a life. Nick was not a police psychologist. He had no experience dealing with suicidal people, but he was apparently the only one around.
He made sure to lock all the doors to the SUV, securing their carefully gathered evidence. And as he started to cross the street, it occurred to Nick that he could be setting himself up for disciplinary action. He wasn't a cop. It wasn't his job to try and talk down jumpers. But what was he supposed to do, sit by and simply watch the woman jump? No, he could no more do that, than Greg could have sat by and watched a man being beaten to death.
Reaching the escape ladder, Nick hesitated only a second before starting his climb. As he reached the roof, he paused to look cautiously around. He had no proof that the woman was planning to kill herself. It was just as possible that she was planning some sort of break in or other mischief and he really didn't want to be caught off guard in such a vulnerable position.
The building was fairly small and there was quite a bit of light reflected down on the roof from the well-lit, taller building next door. It only took him a few seconds for him to locate her standing on the ledge opposite from him. She was staring down, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. The chill wind was stronger up here and Nick could see it lifting strands of the woman's dark hair. There was no question what she had come up here to do.
He approached her slowly, deliberately scraping his feet on the hardened roofing material. He wanted to make some noise, to let her know that he was there. After all, he didn't want to surprise her in a vulnerable position either. She turned slowly to look at him. She was much younger than he had expected, probably still in her late teens or early twenties.
"Who are you?" she asked, not appearing particularly distressed by his presence.
"My name is Nick Stokes. I'm with the Las Vegas Crime Lab. I'd like to talk to you for a few minutes. Could you please step away from the ledge?"
"No, I'm not really in the mood to talk right now. Why don't you come back later?" she said, with a wry smile.
Nick returned her smile. "You know I can't do that."
"No, I suppose not." She turned her attention back to the street below her, dismissing Nick from her thoughts.
He moved slowly and cautiously closer to her. When she didn't appear to object, he climbed onto the ledge beside her. Nick had never had a problem with heights, but here on the ledge, he was much more aware of the wind tugging at him and looking down at the street far below, he felt a small flutter of fear in the pit of his stomach. Forcing his eyes up, he looked out toward the glow of The Strip and was struck by just how pretty Las Vegas was at night. It truly was a city of light.
"Wow," he breathed.
"Yeah," the girl agreed quietly. "The city looks so different from up here. It almost looks innocent... almost."
Nick turned to look at her. "What's your name?"
"Angelica Muniz."
"That's a very pretty name."
"Thank you," she said dully, an automatic response.
"Angelica, why did you come up here?"
"Why not? I've got nothing left down there."
"Nothing left? What happened?"
"My boyfriend, Bobby, was in the Reserves and his unit was unexpectedly called up and deployed to Iraq about a month ago. I just found out this morning that he was killed by a car bomb in Baghdad two days ago.
"We were going to get married. We had a priest bless our engagement, but there wasn't time for us to have a proper wedding, like we both wanted, so we were just going to wait until he got back. But now we'll never get married and my baby will be a bastard. And he'll never know his father. Bobby didn't even know I was pregnant. I only found out a week ago."
"I'm so sorry, Honey," Nick said softly. "But Bobby will live on, in the child that the two of you made. If you kill yourself, you take that child with you. You'll be destroying all that's left of Bobby."
"What difference does it make now? I can't raise a baby all alone. My parents are very strict Catholics. When they find out that we had sex before we got married, they'll disown me. They'll throw me out of the house and I don't have anywhere else to go."
While the girl talked, Nick heard the distant sound of sirens and saw a squad car arrive on the street below them. After a moment, he saw Warrick and Det. Davis speaking with the uniformed officer who had just arrived. He saw all three of them look up in his direction. Glancing over at Angelica, he saw that she was oblivious to all this activity and was just staring into space, lost in her own misery.
"Listen, Honey, I'm sure that if you gave your parents a chance, they'd understand, given the circumstances," Nick said. "You and Bobby planned to do the right thing. You did everything you could. It's not your fault there's a war going on. You should give your parents a chance before you just give up."
"But I don't even know that I want to raise a baby by myself. I didn't intend to get pregnant so early. I'm in community college now, but I was hoping to transfer to WLVU in a couple of semesters. How can I do that with a baby? With the flash of a single car bomb, half a world away, my whole life has been ruined."
"Angelica, you have options. There are always options."
"You mean abortion? I can't, it's a sin."
"Suicide is a bigger sin. And I didn't necessarily mean abortion. There's always adoption. I'm sure there's some childless couple out there, who would love to have your baby."
Hearing more sirens, Nick saw that the Fire Department had also arrived in the form of a ladder truck and a department ambulance. Another squad car had arrived as well. The firefighters climbed off the truck and began conferring with the police officers.
"Angelica," Nick continued. "I'm sure this isn't what Bobby would want you to do. He's a soldier. He joined the military because he felt a need to protect his country and his loved ones and he died fulfilling that need. You can't let him down now. I'm sure he endured hardships in Iraq. You can't let him down now, just because things are getting a little tough for you. That's no way for a soldier's wife to behave."
Nick knew he was throwing some low punches, but he was running out of arguments and he was feeling desperate and out of his depth. Hearing noises behind him, he glanced quickly over his shoulder to see Det. Davis and one of the uniformed officers slowly approaching. Seeing that Angelica hadn't noticed the new arrivals, Nick discreetly motioned for them to stay back.
"I don't know what to do," the girl mumbled, staring down at her hands. "I just don't understand why God is punishing me. Why would He bring Bobby and I together, just to tear us apart?"
"I'm sure that isn't what He intended."
"How do you know? I wish I knew. I wish I had a sign from God, letting me know what I should do or if He even cares at all whether I live or die."
"Honey, you know that isn't how it works," Nick said softly, somewhat disconcerted that the girl was voicing the exact thing that he had only hours earlier. "We have to just trust that He cares and that He has a plan. That's why they call it faith."
He wasn't sure that he believed the words he was telling her, but they sounded like the right things to say. As long as she believed them, that was all that mattered.
"I just don't know," she whispered. "It hurts so much. It would just be nice to know that He was aware of my pain and cared."
"I know, Sweetheart. I care. I-."
His thought was interrupted by something small and white drifting through his peripheral vision. He turned his head in time to see another white speck float by on the wind. Seeing more and more of them, it took a moment for it to register with him what was happening and when it finally dawned on him, he felt his spirit lift in a way it hadn't for many months.
"Angelica," he called softly, "Look around. It's snowing."
"Huh?" the girl mumbled, looking up. A slight smile touched her lips. "I've never seen real snow before."
"I've never seen it in Las Vegas. Honey, don't you see what this is? It's your sign."
"What?"
"Think about it. When's the last time it snowed in Las Vegas? It's not very often that it gets cold enough to snow, but even when it does, we get so little precipitation that, no matter how cold it is, there's no snow. For both of those factors to happen at the same time, at just this moment... it would have to be a sign."
Looking out at the city, he saw that rather than slowing down or stopping, the snow was actually getting heavier, the flakes bigger. This was definitely an oddity. Seeing the look of wonder on the girl's face, Nick knew he needed to press his advantage. He stepped down off the ledge and held out his hand to her.
"Angelica, you've gotten your sign, two, in fact. He may have taken Bobby away, but He left a small piece of him with you. Are you going to throw that away? Please, take my hand..."
The girl stared down at his open palm for a long moment. Finally, with a small sob, she took his hand and allowed him to help her off the ledge. He pulled her into his arms and gave her a brief, tight hug before reluctantly passing her over to the two police officers.
Nick spent the next hour or so, giving his statement to various officers, while Angelica was turned over to the paramedics and loaded into the ambulance. When he was finally told he could leave, Nick returned to his earlier spot, leaning against the side of the SUV. He felt drained, but lighter than he had in a very long time. He looked up to see Warrick walking slowly towards him, a huge grin on his face.
"So, how does it feel to be a hero?" the other CSI asked.
"Knock it off..." Nick said, but smiling self-consciously all the same.
"No, no, I'm serious. I was talking with one of the paramedics before they left and he said the girl told them she was pregnant. So, you saved two lives up there. Any time you save two lives in one night, I'd say that's a pretty good night."
Nick thought about this for a minute, before finally conceding, "Yeah, I guess it is."
The two men stood for a moment, staring out at the still-falling snow. The fat flakes melted as soon as they hit the ground, but it was still beautiful to watch.
"Has it ever snowed in Vegas before?" Nick asked.
"If it has, it wasn't in my lifetime," the Nevada native answered. "It's been a weird night."
"Oh, yeah."
"Well, come on, we gotta get this stuff back to the lab... Hey, I just realized that dawn is only an hour or so off, Merry Christmas, Nick."
"Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too, Warrick."
THE END