When Sara had pulled into her parking space she looked for the Sedan, but it was gone. Satisfied, she gathered her food and headed towards her apartment. On the doorstep sat a white box from FedEx. She unlocked the door, set her things down, and went back for the box. She shook it and something heavy thudded inside. She selected out a knife from the dish drainer and opened it. She pulled out a piece of tissue and there she saw the text book she had been waiting for.
"Alright!" she said with delight.
The book was Chemical Physics and was recommended by her favorite scientist, besides Grissom. She flipped open the book and saw diagrams of structures and new mathematical calculations. She set it aside for lather and kicked her shoes off. If there was one thing to relaxing, it was contained in a tiny bottle of lavender shampoo. She turned on the water, peeled the rest of her clothes off, and stepped into the shower. The warm water rushed down her back and soaked her hair; nothing was more comforting at the moment. For a second she had the nerve to call Grissom. Whenever they showered together, Grissom had a technique to putting her at ease. With his hands, he would lather her back with soap and gently message. His hands were so big that he need not apply much pressure. Just the thought of his hands on her excited her, and she spent more time than she had intended to in the shower. Afterwards, with her towel wrapped snugly around her, she padded into the living room to enjoy her supper. As she ate she pulled her book into her lap. Soon the combination of comfort and good food made her eyelids heavy. She set the book down and curled up to fall asleep.
0~0
At the same time, he came home. He put away his briefcase and turned on his shower. Part of him couldn't help but wonder if she was doing the same thing. He stepped under the spray and the day washed away. He washed away his careless mistake of hunting beside Lake Tahoe and he washed away the fatigue that came with his job. He helped people for a living, and it was a job he took seriously. He never mingled his personal life with his work… that would introduce risk. As he soaped up he thought of her brown silken hair, wet from her shower. He thought of her curling up with a book or a television show. Was she the kind of woman that enjoyed soaps or documentaries? Maybe one day he would find out. The many thoughts of his new brown-haired beauty inspired him to turn the water cold and he quickly ended his shower. He knotted a towel at his waist and went to sit at his computer. He pulled up the database for the Department of Motor Vehicles and typed in her name. A dozen Sara Sidles came up, but he recognized her address and clicked on it. If there was one thing he could count on the DMV for, it was driver's license pictures. She had a few in her life, in each one she looked like more of an angel. When she was younger her cheeks were too fat, but now that she was older she would be firm in just the right places and softness would still be there. He also admired her freckled face. He had trophies that he thought were one of a kind. He had ones that were tan and toned, and ones that were cute and harmless. Sara's face looked serious and sexy to him. She had freckles across her forehead and the bridge of her nose. She had dramatic eyebrows and a tiny mouth that suited her. From her driving record he could see that she was from San Francisco and wasn't married. Her brown eyes were soft. He imagined them full of fear as he took her to the desert and hunted her. Seeing her freckled face up close made him want her. He wanted her underneath him, begging for her life. At the end, Shannon Andrews hadn't begged. She had given up and had welcomed the sweet release of death. He had watched her from a distance and then ambushed her coming out of a grocery store. When he closed his eyes, he could remember the slender woman carrying two brown grocery sacks.
"Can I help you?" he had asked.
Shannon appeared a little nervous. "I can manage," she said as she balanced the bags to unlock the door.
The sun had set hours ago and the mask of darkness was welcoming. With a friendly laugh he took a bag and waited while she unlocked the door. Looking in the bag, he saw that she had a box of cereal and other treats for a young person.
"Have a kid?" he asked.
Shannon nodded. "Yeah, I have a son," she said with a smile.
"Your husband should be out with you. Let me guess, home with the little tyke," he said.
As the two spoke he found the exact moment to spring. She had been unaware of his intentions, and that was what happened when someone let their guard down. He had covered her mouth firmly with his hand and, with the help of ether, she had been unconscious in a matter of moments. Cautiously, he looked around. When he was satisfied that his movements would be undiscovered, he drug her to his Sedan. For her car, he had tipped off the owner of a chop shop. For her, he had driven to the mountains beside Lake Tahoe.
0~0
Sometime during the night, Sara had discarded her towel and moved to her bed. The cool sheets were a comfort to her hot skin. She was so relaxed that she didn't hear the phone ring when Grissom called. He didn't call back, but instead he keyed into her apartment an hour later. On the coffee table he found the remains of her supper and her text book. He threw the garbage away, but took a moment to flip through the text book.
"Sara," he called to the quiet apartment.
He took off his jacket and laid it on her mustard colored sofa. The towel she had discarded lay at his feet. He picked it up and smelled it. His mind was filled with visions of him making love to her in the shower. It smelled of lavender and potato soup. He tossed the dirty towel into her hamper and peeked into the bedroom to see her lying in the middle of the bed. She wasn't uncovered, but he could tell from her silhouette that she was naked. Quietly, he toed his shoes off and took his pants off. Sara turned her head and Grissom was amazed how beautiful she was when she slept. He unbuttoned his shirt, made his way over to the bed, and gave Sara a nudge. It took a few nudges to wake her up, but she slid over to make room for him to climb into bed. He pried some of the blanket away from Sara and she cuddled into him.
"How was your night?" she asked groggily.
Grissom kissed the top of her head. "It was slow tonight. I made an appointment with my friend at the university," he said.
Sara smiled. "A plant expert, I assume," she said.
"Yeah," Grissom replied. "Sorry I woke you."
"I'm sorry I was a bitch earlier. Don't be sorry you woke me up," she said.
"Why is that?" he asked.
0~0
Later that afternoon, after lunch and other necessary recreation, Sara and Grissom went and met with Dr. McNeil at West Las Vegas University. McNeil was a lot younger than Grissom, but in Sara's opinion he wasn't as handsome. Grissom gave him the splinters and McNeil examined them.
"When I get them under the microscope I can tell you more," he said, taking the container of splinters deeper into the lab. "By the color and pattern I can guesstimate what kind we have here. Now it isn't going to be spot on, I would need a bigger sample for that."
McNeil opened the container and selected one of the little bags that were inside. He placed it gently on a slide, dropped a bit of solution on it, and slid it under the microscope. He adjusted the eye piece and nodded.
"What is it?" Sara asked.
"Take a look," he told her with a smile.
Sara looked into the eye piece and saw a close-up view of the splinter that was found in one of Shannon Andrews' arms.
"Can you tell me what I'm looking at?" she asked, puzzled.
"Well," Dr. McNeil said. "At first glance I thought it was pine, but this splinter is from a fir tree."
Sara nodded. "Only the white and red firs grow near Lake Tahoe. Since the red fir grows closer to Vegas, I'll go with red. Shannon was from Vegas and it makes more sense," she said.
Grissom had the other slide prepared and McNeil slid it into place. Grissom wrote 'Red Fir' on the red fir and slipped it back into the container.
"This one is, without a doubt, Mountain Adler. It grows next to streams or rivers," McNeil said. "I'm afraid this stuff grows all over the mountains around Lake Tahoe. It'll be impossible to narrow it down without bigger samples."
Sara pursed her lips. "What else can we do?" she asked Grissom.
Grissom thought about this. They had hit a dead end, that much was certain. He looked at Sara and sighed. He didn't want to tell her they had nothing else, but that was all he could say.
0~0
Back at the lab, Sara sat with what little evidence they found. She had the crime scene photos spread out before her and she had the black trash bag in a sealed evidence bag. They hadn't found anything on the garbage bag. Like she had feared, the water had washed any evidence away. She pulled a picture closer to her and sighed. This picture was a close-up of the faceless corpse. Sara looked the body up and down. She stopped and grabbed the magnifying glass.
"Grissom," Sara gasped.
Sara hurried down the hall towards his office. She passed by Warrick and Nick who we busy carrying a dummy down the hall.
"Sara," Warrick called. "Can you give us a hand with this?"
Sara didn't answer. She rounded the corner to Grissom's office and shut the door. Grissom looked up at her and picked up a piece of newspaper to show her.
"What is sixty-one down?" he asked.
Sara stopped. "What?" she asked.
Grissom showed her the newspaper again. "Sixty-one down," he repeated.
Sara read the crossword and smiled. "Ineluctable," she said.
Grissom looked again and smiled. "I see it now," he said.
Sara dropped into the seat across from his desk and sighed loudly. Grissom looked up and took off his glasses. To Sara, he looked like a school teacher about to scold. It made him unbelievably attractive.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
Sara showed him the picture and handed him the magnifying glass. "She is missing an earring," she said.
Grissom licked his lips and sat back. "I don't think we can comb the bank for a tiny earring," he said.
Sara shrugged. "Give me time. All I need is a metal detector and Greg," she said.
"Those two aren't hard to find. One is in the garage and the other is in the break room," he said.
Sara smiled and almost hugged him.
0~0
"Tell me why I came to help you again?" Greg asked as he walked along the banks of Lake Tahoe with Sara.
Both Sara and Greg had metal detectors and were scanning the area for the earring. It beeped a few times, but the results were always disappointing.
"Because I'll buy you breakfast," Sara said.
Greg nodded. "Good reason," he said. "Maybe I'll get the steak and eggs."
"Greg," Sara said as she swept her detector around a tree. "You can have a whole damn cow."
Greg laughed and kept scanning the area that Sara told him to scan. Truth be told, he would do anything for Sara. She was the one who believed in him and helped him through all his problems with becoming an investigator. Once he had liked her in a romantic sense, but he was sure she had the a romantic interest in Nick. Just then Greg's detector went off and Sara hurried over to see what had been found. She got her knees with a flashlight and pawed around in the dirt. Finally, she lifted up a sliver earring.
"If we were out here looking for your jewelry then I would have asked for two cows," Greg said with a smile.
0~0
This broad was more determined than he had thought. He was careless with the jewelry that Shannon Andrews wore, but he didn't suspect anyone would look for it. The thought of this woman hunting him sounded like a game. It was a game of wits that he would win, and she would know she was the looser when she was running through the desert, screaming screams that fell silent. He had decided to hunt her against his better judgment. Half of him told him that she would overpower him or that he would get caught, but the other half told him that hunting her would be a thrill that couldn't be passed up. For now, he would let her play around and hunt him. He thought back to the other women, all of them had been the same, really. He had picked them all out on the street or in a grocery store. He had brought them all back to the same place, but something about this Sara Sidle promised to be different. Something about her told him that she had raised the bar that measured all his other future victims.
0~0
Sara drove back to the lab in a rush. Greg sat in the passenger seat, clinging to the arm rest and wondering if Sara needed a mental evaluation. Grissom had called in a team to tape off where the earring had been found, but she had taken it upon herself to log it into evidence.
"Sara, do you want to log us or the earring into evidence," Greg said.
Sara slowed the Explorer. "Sorry," she said.
On instinct, Sara looked in her rear view mirror and saw the same black Sedan that she had seen the previous day. Sara stopped for a red light and looked back at the Sedan.
"Greg, do you see that Sedan behind us?" Sara asked.
Greg looked back. "Yeah, it looks like a hearse," he said.
Sara chewed her lip. "I'm going to try to lose him. I have a bad feeling," she said.
Sara never was a person who raced on the road, but this time she peeled out as soon as the light turned green. Greg gripped the armrest tighter, but Sara only clenched her teeth and drove. After a while she slowed and turned onto Second Street.
"Is he back there?" Sara asked.
Greg looked again. "No, but I am pretty sure you lost the pavement too. Sara, I think I need to let you watch that driving video that is shown to high school kids," he said.
Sara brushed off his remarks. "I saw that car yesterday," she said.
0~0
After Sara had peeled out, he took a turn onto another street and headed to her apartment to see if she would come home.
"She knows," he said to himself.