Ghosts from Las Vegas
By: PaintedShadow
Here's a new fic, I hope you like it. Let me know…
Sara was in the middle of signing off on the majority of the paperwork that was making home on her desk. After getting through a few files, Derek, one of the best detectives on PD entered her office, "Hey, you working late tonight?"
With a sigh Sara responded, "I hope so, the girls are at a friend's house for a sleepover, I'm trying to make a decent size dent into this paperwork."
Derek walked in a few more steps and sat in one of the plush chairs that is in front of her desk. "Well, heads up, I was over at the crime lab today for the Hayner case, the serial case that I've been working on," at her nod he continued, "turns out that this killer has hit a city before."
"Oh, where?"
At his confused look her added, "Jack hasn't mentioned any of this to you?"
"No, not yet, I haven't seen him today."
"Oh, well they are on their way here, they will be here in two hours."
"Are you picking them up?"
"Yup, Jack wanted me to warn you, there's five CSI's and a consultant coming."
"Wait, you never answered my question Derek, where did the killer strike before and who is coming?"
With a heavy sigh, "It's the Las Vegas Grave shift crew that is coming, including Supervisors Warrick Brown and Catherine Willows with three other CSI's."
At the mention of the names of her previous co-workers and friends, Sara let her elbows fall to the desktop, and rested her head in her hands. "What about the consultant?"
"Uh, well that's the thing, they mentioned that they were bringing him but never said his name, I honestly don't know if it's a guy." Derek chuckled trying to cheer up a visibly down Sara. "Ok, well just thought that I would fill you in before you take over the case."
Sara's head snapped up in shock, "Wait, what, Derek I didn't say that I would take it over."
"Yes, you did Sar--, I'm leaving for Marcia's wedding and then I have 2 weeks of vacation, remember? You are the one that signed off on the leave. You said that you would take over the case or cases that I was working on, well this is the one, sorry that you have to face your past, but it's not going away."
"Yeah, I know." Sara said hesitantly, "It's just, it's too soon, I haven't had the courage to tell Gil yet."
"Sara, it's been ten years, you have to be realistic, I mean if you haven't told him by now there must be a reason, hell he might not even be coming. Wouldn't he be Supervisor if he was?"
"Good point, but still, they are all still probably in contact with him so when they find out about Lily and Leanna they are going to mention this to him and he is going to be pissed." Sara let out a long breath.
"Ok, you have to calm down, look at it this way, no matter when he finds out he is still going to be mad, you kept this from him Sara, personally I think it might be better if he finds out from them."
Sara just stared at him, then smacked him over the head, "Are you fucking crazy!?" Sara sat back down, "Go get them."
"It's too early."
"Go!" Sara shouted, pointing at the door.
The moment Derek walked out of her office, she let her head fall and hit her desk with a loud 'thump'.
"I'm guessing that Derek just informed you." Jack said from his stance in the doorway.
"Yeah," Sara mumbled, not moving her head from the desk.
"Sorry but we can't avoid it this time. The serial has striked four times; I'm really surprised the media has just started to talk."
"I am too, but I've gotten use to the media now." Sara lifted her head from the desk.
"Yeah, it only took you six years!" They stared at each other for a moment then started laughing. "Are you going to be here in two hours to meet them or you heading out soon?"
"Jack, you know the girls are spending the night at Melissa's, especially seeing that your Rachel is there too."
"Yeah well I am heading out for some dinner, want to come and join me?"
"No thanks Jack, I really need to get this paperwork done before they get here since I'll be taking over the case from here out because Derek is going on vacation for three weeks."
"Ok, I need to head out, meeting with the sheriff."
"Oh have fun with that!"
"Thanks Sara, have a good night."
"Bye." Sara said as she got back to the files that needed signing.
--
Sara was in the middle of reviewing a file when her office phone rang.
"Sidle."
"Hey Captain, we need ya over at the crime lab, Derek just drove the Vegas crew over."
"Jack, I thought you were in a meeting."
"I was. He told me that I had more important places to be so he sent me back to work!"
"Haha okay, I'll be over in a few minutes."
Looking at the time, 4 PM wow, it's actually not that late. Sara thought to herself, she pushed aside the files and turned off the lights.
Walking over to the crime lab, she saw Harrison and Karen outside at the picnic tables on this beautiful spring day.
"Hey guys, how've things been?"
"Good," they replied in unison, Harrison was the one to continue, "but they evicted us out of the break room because the Vegas crew is here."
"Yeah, we're being briefed on the case that's connected to Vegas too."
"Figures." Karen says.
Walking inside, the receptionist greeted her warmly, as Sara headed right for the break room.
Right before entering she heard Jack say, "The captain of homicide is on her way over to aid us in this case, she should be here soon, probably just lost track of time….again."
That was her cue, pushing the door open she already started talking, "thanks Jack for that lovely introduction, even though it is normally you who is the one who is always late."
Jack looked back to see the expression and play of emotions on the faces of the CSI's from Vegas, there was a mixture of shock, anger, happiness, confusion, sadness, and surprise.
"I'm guessing by your reactions that you know each other?" Jack whispered.
"Jack, remember when I said that I use to be a CSI," at his nod, she continued, "well I was a CSI in Vegas."
"But left without any notice."
Sara would recognize that voice anywhere, "Griss." Sara slowly turned to see him sitting on the couch about five feet from her. She was speechless, couldn't think of a coherent thought until, "What? I thought you retired?" came spilling out of her mouth unexpectedly.
"I did, I'm a consultant now. Warrick brought me since they said that there were bugs."
"Of course."
"Ok, I see you guys need some time to catch up now so that you aren't fighting later," looking at Sara, "you know how little tolerance Sheriff Dean has for fighting, especially when it involves you missy!"
"Drop it Jack!" Sara growled, making the CSI's head snap up in her direction.
"Ok, I'm out for the night, Derek will help explain everything with the 2 CSI's on the case."
"Wait, what!?" Catherine, Warrick, Grissom and Sara all exclaimed.
"Rachel got sick at Melissa's, I'm going to go pick her up. Any message for the girls?"
"The normal one." Sara smiled but it quickly disappeared when she remembered who was sitting less than ten feet from her.
When Jack exited the room, Sara turned around to see six sets of eyes upon her. "He's a single parent, Kelly was murdered three years ago." Sara said stopping herself so she doesn't babble. She looked at everyone meeting all their eyes, even Grissom's.
"I don't think we have met," Sara said as she looked back at the young CSI.
"Yeah, well I know who you are pretty well, all I heard for several months was how well you mentored Greg and the kidnapping. Hi, I'm Jane."
Sitting down in a chair, Sara spread her hands, "What do you want to know? One at a time though!"
"Police?" Nick brought to the conversation.
"Yeah, I couldn't deal with my depression that I had after the kidnapping so the next best thing was the police force. I had actually gotten several offers to teach, but I couldn't do that."
"How long have you been captain?" Grissom asked.
"About six years now, when Ron died, the former captain of homicide, they needed someone who could stand the media and the caseload. We had several newbies and rookies at the time, so they asked me and I accepted. Ron and Isabelle helped me through my depression and night terrors."
"Have you thought about us?" Greg finally gained the courage to ask.
Sara looked over at Grissom before answering, "Everyday."
Smiles turned up on the guys' faces.
"Any more questions?"
"Millions." Grissom answered quietly from his seat.
Looking over at Grissom, Sara raised an eyebrow, "Can they wait until later?"
"They'll have to. Do you want us to start with the victims and our evidence, or do you want to start?" Grissom said getting into work mode.
"You can since that he struck in Vegas first."
"Okay, there were four victims in Vegas, in this order, Sara Curt, 16, Kelsey Ray, 18, Janice Rye, 22 and Lindsey Miller, 20. Catherine, will you describe the scene for Sara Curt?" Warrick started in work mode.
"Sure, she's 16, small motel room, Four Aces motel, first floor, we suspect he got in through the sliding door, there were no finger prints but there was semen—"
"Sorry to interrupt, but was she raped?" Sara asked.
Catherine slightly nodded. "They all were. Why?"
"Three out of the four here were raped then murdered, we think that he had an interruption at the last one, but I'll get to the details of the after you all finish."
"Ok. She had multiple stabs wounds," looking back in the files, Catherine flipped through a few pages, "seven stab wounds, nothing near the face or neck."
"That's the same MO for all of them, except Kelsey Ray, she had eight stab wounds." Warrick broke in.
Grissom gave Sara the okay to go ahead, so she did, "Okay well here it's been a little different, what I can decipher from Robbie's notes is that they were all raped and murdered, same way, but not in hotel rooms, but houses. So we think that he has gotten more personal. Like I said before the last one wasn't raped, we think that he was interrupted by someone and just killed her, she had one stab wound, right to the heart."
"What were the victim's names? We have lists from where they work, and any connections that we get could bring us closer to getting him." Nick said pulling out a stack of lists.
"In order, Michelle Hayner, 20, Rose Calvin, 24, Brittany Ryan, 22, and Victoria Jacobs, 26."
"The age range is different, still even numbers, but he wasn't in order, he jumped around." Grissom said.
"Do you think that could be on purpose or just random?" Greg asked
"Honestly, I don't think we know enough to figure that out quite yet." Sara said flipping through more files. "Hold on a minute." Sara said stopping on a page, grabbing her cell phone, flipping it open and punching in a number.
"Hey Robbie, I have a question about the Hayner case… there isn't any notes about if there were any fingerprints or fibers.—" "Oh, okay, thanks, I'm going to go get them from DNA, why the hell aren't you here anyways?" "—oh, great, have fun with that. See you tomorrow morning." Sara snapped the phone shut.
"Ok, I'm going to go get the results for the semen that was found, they broadened the search since he's hit in Vegas, they want to see if he was hit anywhere else. Be right back." And with that Sara walked out.
They guys just looked from one to another all ending on Grissom.
"Yes, I know, she's changed." Grissom said with sadness etched on his face.
"How are you doing?" Catherine asked.
"Emotions going haywire…not use to that. Feelings are still mutual. She's just gotten very good at hiding them."
"What do you mean? Wait how can you tell?" Greg questioned sounding concerned.
"Eye contact Greg, also her body language tells a lot."
"If you want to know something, just ask," Sara said walking back into the break room. "I'm very open now; I don't try to hide things, takes up too much effort to."
"Who are you and what the hell have you done with Sara Sidle?" Catherine asked.
Sara shrugged, "I changed."
"Funny Sidle, you didn't change, your life changed, the mother role is really good for you." A guy said as he entered into the break room.
"Tim, do you ever know how to keep your mouth shut?!" Sara practically screamed scaring the CSI's sitting at the table.
"Sara, I'm really surprised that they don't know, Lily and Leanna are sitting in your office. Derek was over there and called me to tell you that they were there."
"Cover for me!" Sara said as she ran out of the room, and over to the PD department. What she didn't realize is that Grissom was following behind her.
Should I continue??