Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters besides Lila and Anne. The restaurant mentioned is a real restaurant but I don't own that either.
A/N: I have been thinking about this story line for a while now, and I really wanted to start it. I hope you like it and please review because they make me happy, and I always love to be happy!
Nick always hated cases like these. As soon as Grissom had handed out assignments that night, Nick knew that he wasn't going to get any rest. Not because he would be working long hours, but because he knew that he was going to be plagued by nightmares.
Nick could see the yellow crime scene tape around the playground. The air was chilly and he could see his breath in the air as he tried to control his breathing. Sophia stood outside the scene waiting for the CSIs. It was a hard night for all of them.
Nick, Catherine, and Greg approached the young, blonde detective and noticed the frown that accompanied her forlorn blue eyes. Greg nodded his head in greeting; a true sign at how tragic the night was, not even Greg could act humorously.
"A mother found her lying under the bridge of the playground when she went to collect her own kids this afternoon. Thought she was sleeping at first, but when she tried to wake the young girl up, she noticed that she wasn't coming to. Called the police. The parents are nowhere to be found, and there's no form of identification what so ever on her. She looks to be around five or six years old, however." Sophia relayed all the information they had gathered from the past hour.
"Where is the woman who found her?" Catherine asked. She hated to see cases like these. It didn't matter that Lindsay was a teenager now, all children reminded her of Lindsay.
"Sitting down on a park bench with two uniforms keeping watch on her. I haven't interviewed her in depth yet if one of you want to come with me for it?" Sophia posed the question knowing that one of them would want to go.
Catherine thought for a second about sending Nick over to interview the woman, she knew he would be upset about the situation more than any of them. She knew about his childhood and about how he was molested by a last minute babysitter when he was nine years old. He had confided in her so many years ago about it while they were working a homicide case involving a teenager who appeared to have been taken advantage of by his therapist. Even though the evidence had proved that it didn't in fact happen that way, he still let it hit close to his heart and had gotten out of hand on the case. It was only after threatening to take him off of the case that he had finally opened up about the traumatic life experience. Ever since then, Catherine had worked hard to protect Nick from cases involving the death of a young child. Tonight, however, it seemed inevitable that he would have to face his demons in some form or another.
"Greg, you go with Sophia. Nick you take the perimeter, I'll check out the body." Catherine saw the look of disappointment cross Nick's face and the relief cross Greg's face. She wasn't being cold or insensitive about Nick's past, she just knew that he would eventually see the body or deal with it, and the sooner the better.
Greg walked away behind Sophia a second later and Catherine and Nick proceeded under the crime scene tape. The rubber material the city put in all the public parks bounced under their boots as they walked closer to the little girl. Both investigators caught sight of the little girl, laying in a fetal position under the playground bridge. They both stopped temporarily to stare down at the young life lost. Neither breathed for what seemed like eternity while they stared at the girl. She had long blonde hair and even though her eyes were closed, they knew she had big eyes. She was wearing a pink shirt with a big read heart in the center. Her little denim jeans were wrinkled and slightly dirty. Her tiny face was completely pale and her mouth was slightly agape. There was dried snot beneath her nose and her hands were tucked underneath her head. If they hadn't known her to be dead, they would have thought she was indeed sleeping.
Nick's mouth had gone dry and his heart rate had increased dramatically. He could never understand why anybody would want to hurt or worse yet, kill something so innocent. He knew he needed to move away and start gathering evidence, but he felt his feet firmly planted to the ground.
It wasn't until David announced himself, that both CSIs awoke from their personal nightmares. Nick said a quick hello, and then set off to distract himself the only way he knew how to; working.
Nick, Catherine, and Greg sat around the layout room table. The two men had just arrived back from the scene and Catherine had just returned from autopsy. The air was thick with the somber moods of all three of them. Finally Catherine felt she needed to speak first.
"We got an ID on our vic. School safe kit turned up the results. Her name is Lila Elliot. She's six years old and lives in Green Valley. She lives with her mom, Anne Elliot. No word on the dad, and her birth certificate doesn't list a name."
"COD?" Greg asked.
"Al found large quantities of GHB in her system. Enough to make her OD." Catherine muttered.
"Any signs of sexual assault?" Nick asked through clenched teeth. GHB was a known and popular date rape drug and criminals usually used what they were familiar with.
"Not according to the Doc and the SART kit came back clean. " Catherine replied, glad that there was at least some silver lining in this terrible storm.
"So where was Lila's mom? Did we get a hold of her?" Nick asked.
"Nope. Sophia spoke with Anne's work. She's a waitress over at that restaurant at the Paris, Mon Ami Gabi. According to the restaurant manager, Anne was scheduled to work lunch and part of dinner tonight, but never showed up. Sophia was on her way over to the her house when I spoke to her."
"Good, I'd like to know why the hell this woman wasn't watching her child at the park or better yet, why she left without her child." Greg said. Even though he was young and didn't have any kids of his own (or any nieces or nephews, for that matter), he still felt his heart splitting with this case.
Catherine heard the familiar ring coming from her cell phone. She reached forward to the table in front of her and peered at the caller ID. It was Sophia. She quickly flipped her phone open and listened on the other end and Sophia relayed to her what they had found at the mother's house. Catherine sighed and closed the phone.
"Get your kits. We've got another 420 to investigate." Catherine told the two men. This case just kept getting worse and worse.
The three of them were inside the mother's house. The mother, Anne, was on the floor of her bedroom, covered in stab wounds from neck to pelvis. Blood was everywhere. The house appeared to have been broken into and the bedroom was a mess.
"She's got defensive wounds on her arms." David told Catherine as he examined the body.
"She fought back." Catherine murmured as she picked up a brown hair off the bed.
Nick noticed what she had just found and walked over to examine it with her.
"Both vics had blonde hair, right?" Catherine asked, affirming her suspicions.
"Yeah, so what's a brown hair doing on her bed?" Nick asked.
"Well there's a skin tag on it, so maybe we'll get lucky."
"You think maybe her boyfriend did this?" Nick questioned as he peered around the room.
"Why don't you run it Nick." Catherine said as she placed the evidence into her kit.
"Okay. Guy breaks in and kills the mom first. Uses the kitchen knife to do it. After that he walks down the hall and grabs Lila. He gets her out of the house so she won't notice that he's killed her mom. He takes her to the park at night, figuring nobody would be there when it was dark. Lila escapes and hides under the bridge at the playground, but the drugs he's administered are too much for her poor little soul and she slowly dies."
Catherine thought about it for a minute, it was a good theory, but there were still so many unanswered questions. Why did he choose this family? Did he know them? Where was the murder weapon?
Sophia walked into the bedroom with a hopeful look on her face. Both CSIs looked up at her as she walked in.
"I was talking to the neighbors and we may have a suspect. Neighbor saw Anne's sister driving off this morning around seven AM. Were bringing her into PD right now for questioning."
"Well that time fits with this liver temp. I'm getting right now." David spoke from the floor.
"So much for my theory." Nick grumbled. He hated not knowing what happened.
"I'll go with you Sophia, Nick you stay here with Greg and finish processing. When you two are done, send Greg down to PD and you go back to autopsy." Catherine commanded as she turned and began to walk out the bedroom door with Sophia.
Nick nodded his head in agreement. He really did not miss the days when Catherine had been his boss.
