Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the idea.
AN: Thanks to Kristy for beta reading hugs. And thanks to all who reviewed my first fic and wanted another one... Rated M just to be safe.
Summary: A young woman is killed and her daughter missing. Will Grissom and Sara be able to find her?
„OUCH"
Grissom stopped and turned around, looking at an quietly cursing Sara. She held her head with her right hand and looked angry at a branch to her left.
"There are way too many of these here" she mumbled. Grisoom laughed privately.
"Sara, we are in a forest. These branches have to be here. They are part of the trees and..."
"Stop it, Griss, I know it and this is not funny! This is the third time I bumped my head on one." Sara rubbed the lightly reddening point on her forehead.
"You have to be more careful where you carry your head" Grissom replied, smiling broadly.
Sara mumbled something indescribable and followed Grissom. He had turned back around and kept walking, mainly to hide his smile from her.
"So, why did we have to leave the car behind? We easily could have driven a little bit up the road and then walk the last few steps to the house." Sara said, wiping another branch out of her way with one arm.
"And we would have missed all the little things our killer left us here . I'm assuming he took this way and so will we" he replied, looking around at the trees and bushes. When Sara didn't reply he stopped and turned towards her again. She was standing in the middle of the path, staring at him in disbelief.
"It took us ten minutes to get here and it will be at least five more to go to reach the actual crime scene. And to be honest, I haven't seen anything that could help us finding the killer, Griss! So, you're telling me we do this because you GUESS? Why not check out the house first and maybe we find enough evidence in there? Why walk this way up here through the forest with all those trees with branches and bushes and..." She slapped her right arm with her left hand "All the mosquitos around?" She was staring at him, the anger reflecting in her eyes.
"Greg and Warrick are at the house now, checking everything and talking to David. Sara, you know that the surroundings of a crime scene are sometimes even more important than the scene itself. And I wanted to take a little walk through the forest, maybe I can find some beetles. Even if the company isn't really cooperating" winking at her with a small smile on his lips he turned around and began to make his way up the path. Sara rolled her eyes and followed.
-.-.-.-.-.-
"Hey boss, what took you so long to get here? " Warrick looked up from the ground when he heard Grissom and Sara coming up the stairs to the house.
He looked behind Grissom and laughed. "Sara, you've got something in your hair" he said, grinning broadly.
"Shut up, I know that! What would you look like when you've been walking through that" she turned around and waved her arm into the general direction of the forest before turning back to Warrick. "For nearly fifteen minutes! I killed four mosquitoes, I got hit by seven branches in total and you're telling me that I got leaves in my hair? Boy that's the last thing I worry about right now." With that she turned away, shaking the leaves out of her hair.
"You're about to contaminate the crime scene, Sara. Could you do that a few feets away please?" Grissom said while turning around to face Warrick. "Greg's inside I guess. I'll go and take a look at what he's doing", entering the house through the front door.
"Contaminating" Sara mumbled but got a few steps away from the house. "I walked all this way and all he says is 'You're contaminating the crime scene'" repeating the words a little bit louder, imitating Grissom.
Warrick laughed and just shook his head. "Not your day, is it? Or just not enough coffee?" he winked at her.
"Stop that, I'm tired to death. And no, I didn't have enough coffee this morning" Sara snapped while walking past him and entering the house to begin with her work.
-.-.-.-.-.-
The inside of the house was dark, the last sunbeams of the day couldn't find a way through all the trees and the dirt on the windows. Sara switched on her flash light and observed the room. She could see the footsteps of her colleagues on the dusty floor. Everything in the room was covered in dust, the chairs, the table and the cupboards. She made her way through the room, examining every little detail
At least she tried. She was so tired that her eyes felt like they would fall shut any second. She blinked a few times, rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath. When the feeling subsided she took another breath and continued her way through the room.
Sara reached the adjacent door and saw David examine a body on the floor. Grissom was looking around the room while Greg listened to David. Sara entered the room and took a look over David's shoulder. The young woman's throat had been intersected, her blood was all over the floor. She appeared to be twenty five years old at the most, had long blond hair and, as David opened one of her eyes, Sara could see the grey green colour of it.
"That looks really bad. What happened?" she asked Greg and the young man sighed heavily.
"She was killed" he simply replyed. Sara raised an eyebrow at him and Greg continued.
"We don't know much right now. Her name is Linda McCullam, she lived in Miami and was here on vacation. We tried to call her husband a few times but didn't get him on the phone. So..." he looked down at the dead body, "her throat was cut with a knife. She bled out. This house belongs to an elderly woman, her name is Elisabeth Joiner. She said she hadn't been here for a few years. We found some fingerprints on the door and on some places in this house but for now we don't know anything."
"I got the husband!" Everyone in the room looked up to the door when Brass entered and waved his cell phone. "And we have a really big problem now. The first thing he asked after I told him about his wife was 'Is my daughter ok?'. Guys, did anyone of you see a little girl? Her name is Lilly, she's five years old and looks like her mother." Greg and David kept staring at Brass, Sara closed her eyes and Grissom took a deep breath.
"I'll go and check out the first floor. Sara, you come with me!" And with that he left the room, Sara directly behind him.
-.-.-.-.-.-
She lies in a foreign bed in a foreign house. She's afraid. She keeps her eyes shut, too afraid to open them. She wants to be with her mother. But she's not allowed to. She thinks about getting up and going downstairs where her mother is. But she can't. Her mother told her to stay in bed upstairs and she always does what her mother tells her to do. But she's so afraid. She can feel the tears falling down her cheeks. She presses her teddy bear closer. The screaming stopped a few seconds ago. Her mother doesn't scream anymore. She hears the footsteps on the stairs and the door to the bedroom opens. "Hey little angel" the man's voice says.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Sara reached the last step of the stairway and took one last deep breath. Grissom stood in front of her, his back towards her. Although she can't see his face she can sense his uneasiness, his tautness. The cases always became harder to take when children were involved. And it becomes almost unbearable when a person was killed and the child was missing.
Grissom made a few steps into the direction of the first door to their right. He carefully opened the door and stepped inside the room. After a few seconds he came out again, shaking his head. Sara went to the door on the left side and opened it.
Just like the first floor of the house the room was covered in dust, matching the statement of the house owner, that she hadn't been here in years. But dust was all Sara could find in this room. She came back out of it shaking her head, just like Grissom had done before.
As he opened the third door on his side Grissom saw the bed with the blanket and the pillow.
"Sara!" he shouted. Sara was in the room within seconds. Both looked around, searching everywhere for the little girl. Sara searched the closets and Grissom bend down to look under the bed. When he stood up again he was holding a teddy bear in one hand, looking from it to Sara.
They checked out the other rooms on the floor, before returning to the room Lilly had been in.
"No little girl would leave her teddy bear behind." Sara said. Grissom just nodded. "Not, if she left voluntarily."
TBC
Hope you like this fic so far, wanted to do something different this time.