Chapter Title: The Art of Security (prologue)
Author: Merrianna
Story: Flowers Family: 00 of ?
Series: SpeedBurn: 18
Characters: Las Vegas: Gil, Cath, Lindsey, Warrick, Nick, Sara, Greg, Brass, and Ecklie
New York: Mac, Stella, Danny, Aiden, Flack, Jessica, Adam, Jane and Sid
Quantico: Aaron Hotchner, Jason Gideon, Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid, JJ Jereau, Penny Garcia
Pairings: Gil/Cath, Mac/Stella, Danny/Aiden
Rating: M: Crime, Romance and Humor
Summary: On a field trip to New York City, Lindsey Willows goes missing. Several teams have to work together to stop a serial kidnapper.
Spoiler: Seasons 1 – 5 of Crime Scene Investigation, season 1 of CSI: NY, and random facts from Criminal Minds.
Category: Crime-related; Drama; Science; AU
Setting: AU: SpeedBurn: June 6, 2005: New York City
Disclaimer: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was created by Ann Donahue and Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Alliance Atlantis Communications, CBS Paramount Network Television (2006-2009), CBS Productions (2006-2009), and Jerry Bruckheimer Television. CSI: NY was created by Ann Donahue, Carol Mendelsohn, and Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Alliance Atlantis Communications (2004-2007), Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Production (2004-2007), Alliance Atlantis Productions (2004-2007), CBS Paramount Network Television (2006-2009), CBS Productions (2004-2006), CBS Television Studios (2009-present), Clayton Entertainment, and Jerry Bruckheimer Television. Criminal Minds was created by Jeff Davis and produced by Touchstone Television (2005-2007), Paramount Network Television (2005-2006), The Mark Gordon Company, ABC Studios (2007-present), CBS Paramount Network Television (2006-2009), and CBS Television Studios (2009-present). I am in no way connected with these people, and I do not claim ownership of these characters, lands, or names. I have borrowed them to share a story, and most likely not a story any of them would have written, had they had the time or no. I am making no money from this and it is just for my entertainment and that of free entertainment to a select group. Thank you.
Distribution: Please ask first?
Note: In the SpeedBurn timeline series significant changes occur in various episodes, marking differences in each series. The initial drastically changed episodes are in chronological order: "Bait" (Without a Trace), "Reveille" (NCIS), "Lost Son" (CSI: Miami), "Bodies in Motion" (Crime Scene Investigation), "Summer in the City" (CSI: NY), and "In Name and Blood (In Birth and Death)" (Criminal Minds). Many episodes after those changed are also different. This story is number 18 in the grand scheme. Thank you.
Note: This story is in the middle of Speed Trap.
Feedback: Yes, please, especially constructive.
xxx
04:15 PM
New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Avenue and 82nd Street, Manhattan
The crowd in the museum ranged from tourists to tour groups to people just coming in out of the June heat. For one group of visitors the museum was the last destination of a weeklong summer school trip. The sixty teenaged girls, who were divided into groups of six with one adult for each, were giggling and whispering about everything, which mostly had nothing to do with the art or other exhibits.
Miss Willison, a curly-haired, strawberry blonde teacher, with the help of the nine volunteer parents, made sure to keep a tight reign on the more exuberant individuals as they passed through each of the presentations. But after such a long week some of the grown-ups, having always lived in the big city of Las Vegas, became a little lax in keeping their groups together. They still kept an eye on their straggling charges but weren't wholly aware when one or two would take off ahead or back to different displays.
When the time came for the tour to head back to its hotel, one of the many groups seemed to be missing two of its members. Mrs. Miranda, a fortyish woman with dusky brown hair wearing jeans and a white t-shirt, frantically held on to two girls in similar attire, with two others trailing after, as she made her way to the main security desk.
"Sir, I seemed to have lost two of my girls," she conveyed her distress in hushed tones as tears of panic filled her eyes.
The young security guard without any hesitation went to the speaker system. "All security this is an amber alert."
Alarms were blaring, and most people stood wondering what the hell was going on and if there was anything they should be doing. Security guards were preventing the rest of the visitors from leaving the premises. The chaos that came from Security lock-down of the entire building had patrons demanding to know what was happening.
Soon the Las Vegas teenagers were huddled together with several adults trying to calm them down. Miss Willison was taking a head count even as the commotion carried on around her. She had hoped that it was just a drill... that seemed to be normal after September 11th... but when she went over the group a second time, she came up still missing two. She moved, grim faced, across to the couple standing at the security desk. Mrs. Miranda, the woman who had initiated the whole disturbance stood crying next to a stocky man with salt and pepper hair who was barely controlling his anger.
"Mrs. Miranda, where was the last place you saw them?" He demanded in a deadly sharp voice.
"They were near the Ancient Egyptian displays when Karla... when Karla called back to tell me that they would be going to the ladies room and would catch-up with us at the Greek exhibit." The woman sniffed as more tears began to form in red-rimmed eyes.
Miss Willison draped an arm around Mrs. Miranda's shoulders in an effort to comfort the distraught older woman "Dr. Grissom, Lindsey Willows and Karla Clerwood haven't shown up in any of the groups. Could it be that they went back to the hotel without telling anyone?"
Gil knew that Lindsey had been doing some dangerous things recently, but he hadn't gotten the impression that she wouldn't do anything like that on this trip so far from home, especially it being the last day before they were scheduled to leave. "I'm sure that Lindsey or Karla would have told someone if they were going to leave."
He tried retracing his own group's steps in his head. They had been a little behind Lindsey's own group, comprised of Mrs. Miranda, her two girls, two other girls, and Karla and Lindsey. The girls he'd been in charge of had been giggly but very interested in the exhibits or his amusing summaries of them in which he added extra facts not written on the displays. Gil could remember being unable to see the blonde pre-teen after a certain point. At the time, of course, he hadn't panicked thinking that her group had gotten further ahead.
"Mrs. Miranda, do you remember seeing which way they headed? Was it back towards the previous ladies room or did they go ahead to the next one down?"
The woman took a deep calming breath and tried to picture the last time she'd seen the two girls. "I think they went towards the next exhibit. Oh, I remember looking there first and finding that it was roped off by the janitors."
A spark of understanding flashed across the crime scene investigator's face. Unlike most of the chaperones, Gil dealt with these situations on a daily bases. He left the women looking after him in bewilderment as he strode over to the main security guard.
"It's probably just the teenage girls playing a practical joke but to be on the safe side, I want this place combed from top to bottom," a gruff, tall, gray haired man in his mid to late forties ordered into a hand radio. The men standing there nodded in reply to their orders and separated, going about trying to find the missing girls.
"Excuse me."
The gray haired man glanced over; aggravation marred his face and tone. "Yes."
Grissom ignored the man's displeasure. "I'm Gil Grissom, Lindsey Willows chaperon..."
"I'm Richie Torpan, Senior Supervisor of Security. I thought the woman Mrs. Miranda was her chaperon?" The haggard man sounded frustrated.
Gil took a great effort to not strangle the man. "She is for today. On this trip, I'm her legal guardian. That's not relevant right now; Mrs. Miranda remembered that Lindsey and her friend had gone ahead to the next restroom which was just after the Greek exhibit. Mrs. Miranda said she checked there first noticing that the restroom area was roped off with janitor signs."
"What makes you think they're there?" Torpan inquired, looking dolefully at the bearded man before him.
"In my professional opinion, it's a good starting point to begin looking."
"Your professional opinion huh. What kind of profession would that be?"
Gil once again reigned in his frustration "I'm a Criminal Investigator for the Las Vegas Crime Lab."
"Isn't it just as likely that these girls are only playing prank?" The guard argued.
Grissom's face hardened at the man's continued evasiveness and lack of compassion. "Look, Mr. Torpan, I've dealt with situations like this in Las Vegas. The longer we argue, the more time is wasted if it turns out that these two girls aren't just playing a bad joke, which I think is highly unlikely. Lindsey isn't the type to play practical jokes."
Grudgingly, the taller man turned to his remaining guards standing watching the visitors which were in tight groups and weren't about to be going anywhere.
"Perez and Livingston, we're going to check out the restrooms at the end of the Greek exhibit; that's where they were last seen," he barked at his men.
"I insist on going with you," Gil declared, steely determination in his blue eyes. He didn't put much faith in the man's common sense.
Richie Torpan expelled a long breath as he eyed the man in front of him. He nodded once, not wanting to debate with the older man further.
As they approached the restroom that Lindsey's assigned chaperon had indicated, Grissom felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. The area had indeed been cordoned off. He looked to Richie who sported a troubled look of his own. "Is it supposed to be cordoned off?"
"No, that wasn't even there twenty minutes before the alarms went off. The cleaning staff would have reported if the area needed to close down for maintenance." He took out his hand radio.
A man in coveralls approached the small group of men from where everyone had gathered in the front of the museum.
"Ed, do you know about this?" Torpan gestured to the spot where the signs stood.
"No I... I don't know anything about this." The haggard man stuttered.
Ed the janitor and one of the security guards moved to inspect the area beyond the cord. They stopped at the command that came from the civilian next to them, who held up a warding arm. "There should be less amount of people walking through to potentially contaminant the area."
"What do suggest we do sit and twiddle our thumbs?" Torpan asked.
Grissom glared not amused by the man's off humor, "No, I suggest that you and myself have a look."
The disgruntled security man nodded his agreement appearing to bite back his own temper.
Grissom gestured for the man to procede him into the restroom in an effort to avoid more arguments. Gil followed Torpan past the cordoned off area careful to not disturb anything unnecessarily.
What Gil saw chilled him as few things could. In the small room, there were contents strewn about the area. A struggle had taken place from the look of things: overturned waste basket, a broken mirror and other debris.
"Don't touch anything." With a critical eye Grissom saw Lindsey's small backpack lying scattered revealing an MP3 player, a purple purse and cell phone which he knew the blonde girl would never have left behind. He desperately wanted to investigate further into the room, he knew logically that it was now a crime scene, and if one person entered there without the proper equipment, invaluable evidence would be destroyed. For the first time in the blue eyed man's life he felt as if his world would shatter. Lindsey, Catherine's little girl, whom he was supposed to protect, had vanished. The bright-eyed teenager that had forced Cath and him to re-look at their lives had disappeared out of a busy New York City museum.
xxx
Continued in Chapter One: (when written)