Well, I managed to get this in, but I MAY have neglected writing up my History notes...lol, oh well...I still have another few weeks til that test...now, thanks to all who reviewed, I appreciate all the comments (Kegel, you keep me on my toes with all the questions...I really do appreciate that, it helps keep my story straight, and makes me think about how I write, and what I can do to improve:D) Now, here ya go, hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 3: INTRODUCING MR.TROUBLE

The weight of the discovery of that cursed tattoo plagued Sara and Greg as they processed the scene. The both of them kept casting furtive, paranoid glances over their shoulders, even though police officers were littering the area like the pieces of trash that blew carelessly in the wind. The sun was still low in the sky meaning it was still a long way until noon, but the relentless sun bore down upon them, making the air sickly warm, and thick with moisture.

Sara and Greg were sweating from more than the heat however. Greg took one of his sleeves and wiped the sweat from his forehead which was starting to drip in to his eyes, and looked over at Sara, who seemed to be in a daze. He understood this time why she would be lost in her own thoughts.

That Komodo dragon…the crime lab had seen that tattoo come up only recently, but they were seeing it become all too common. Whenever they saw that mark on someone, they knew that Santosa Perkasa was involved. Perkasa was the new casino owner on the strip who moved to Las Vegas nearly two years ago from Indonesia.

Greg sighed as he made his way over to blood spatter a bit away from the body. If Perkasa was involved with these killings, it was not likely that they would get anything probative. Santosa Perkasa had no conscience, but he had a brain, and only hired the best people to do his dirty work.

Greg swabbed the blood, already starting to dry up from the heat leaving only a stain on the blacktop. Though Perkasa had only been in town for two years, he was already renowned by all the local casino big-shots for his cruelty and ruthlessness. No one crossed him and what he wanted, he got.

"Sara." Greg called over to her. She turned her head from where she was photographing tire treads. Greg got up, stretching his cramped legs in the process, and started over towards her. "You know who is behind this, don't you?"

Sara nodded solemnly. "That tattoo represents everything he's about. Black and red for the casinos he owns. The Komodo dragon represents his past in Indonesia, and his toxicity and ferocity." Sara looked away momentarily to regain her composure, and then back at him. "What do you think was Perkasa's connection to these kids and their parents?"

"I don't know." Greg replied slowly as he thought it out. "I think, though, that there is a definite connection. The fact that one of his goons was there, and the fact that he is now dead has got to be connected somehow." Sara looked away again. "Sara?"

"I'm scared, Greg."

"Scared?" Greg questioned her, jumping a little in front of Sara to look her in the eye. "Look around you, Sara. There's a ton of police guards around here. Besides, not to be a downer, but it's not like he'll get caught, or go after us. He has so many loyal hit men that we'd never be able to trace him."

"No, no Greg." Sara said. She took her arms and rubbed her arms, as if she were cold. In truth, the suspicions and fears she felt was causing her to feel shivery. "Greg, you agree with me, right? What Santosa Perkasa wants, he gets."

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with us?" Greg said, looking curiously at Sara.

Sara looked up at him frustrated. "Don't you see? Matthew and Gabriel, Greg. One of them is perfectly healthy, and the other…well, he's not dead yet. I can only assume that he wanted them dead as well, for whatever reason. And they're not. What is going to do now?"

She knew that she had struck something with him. She could see his eyes grow in realization, and she knew he realized exactly the same thing she did. However, he quickly recovered. "Sara, don't worry." He turned away from her, and went back to the body, where the evidence he had collected was laid, so that she could not see his face. "The boys are safe. One is in the hospital, the other in child services. Not even Santosa Perkasa's men would try anything." He turned and gave a reassuring smile. "No need to worry, k?"

Sara smiled back, though she was not entirely convinced of Greg's words. With anyone else, those kids were much protected. With Santosa Perkasa after the, she wasn't sure at all. "You ready to head back now?" She asked Greg, after taking the last few pictures of tire treads. In her mind, she heard the screech of tires as whoever had been driving accelerated, aiming the vehicle right at the frightened form of Carl Portman.

"Yeah, there is nothing else here that I can see." Greg said. Just as he did, his pager started to ring simultaneously with Sara's. Without bothering to look at the number, Greg gave a small smirk. "I guess its good timing. Sounds like Nick found something."


After logging in the very few pieces of evidence from their latest crime scene, Greg and Sara met with Nick in one of the layout rooms. He was standing in front of one of the illuminated tables, looking at a bunch of photographs. Sara knocked on the glass wall to announce their arrival, and then both she and Greg walked in to see what he was looking at.

"Okay, I don't have any results from trace yet," Nick began, still rearranging the photos, not bothering to look up, "but I did go to Dr. Robbins, to ask if he found anything suspicious about the bodies. Surprise surprise, the COD was haemorrhage due to their carotid and jugular being cut."

"Well, that's unusual," Greg cynically stated, "considering their throats were slit."

Nick gave him a scowl. He cleared his throat. "That's not what was so unusual, smart-ass. Here." He said, picking up a photo of the dead body of Laura and holding them up. "He found some odd markings on her thigh. Look familiar?"

Sara and Greg's mouths dropped open. The scarring on her thigh was prominent, and still coloured. It was easy to tell, though it was obviously done without a precision tool, that someone had carved a Komodo dragon into Laura Powell's thigh.

"What does this mean?" Sara whispered.

"Matthew and Gabriel, and their parents being attacked, one with a makeshift Komodo dragon, and that guy, with the crossed out tattoo…" Greg counted it out on the fingers of his hand. "What do they all have in common with Perkasa?"

"The guy in the parking lot had a Komodo dragon?" Nick asked, surprised. He knew that Sara and Greg had gone to another crime scene related to their present case…he hadn't known about that. "You mean he was one of Santosa Perkasa's guys?"

"You meanhe was one of his guys." Greg corrected, finally tearing his eyes from the photo, to which Sara was still staring. "He's dead now. Besides, the dragon was crossed out. It either means one of two things. One, he quit being paid by Perkasa, or…"

"…he double-crossed him." Nick finished for Greg. Something came to Nick's mind. "You know, if this guy was the only one at our primary scene, why would he not kill all of them? I'm sure that was his plan, if Gabriel has his throat cut as well."

"…Gabriel was the one with his throat cut?" Sara interrupted, slowly averting her eyes from the picture as well. "How do you know?"

"In a minute, Sara…" Nick said.

"Well, the only reason I can think of for why he didn't kill the boys is…remorse?" Greg chanced a guess.

"If that is true, then why did he even take them?" Nick countered. "He could have kept the kids there and made a faster getaway. I mean, they were probably better off in a warm house than in the cold outdoors. There's only one reason why he would take the kids."

"He was protecting them." This time Sara spoke up. "He was taking them away from the person who was killing them. There wasn't one person, there were two." Here, Sara started to pace the room, still putting pieces into the scenario puzzle. "Perkasa hired two people to kill the Powell family. They killed the parents first, since they posed the biggest threat. When they got to the kids, however, our parking lot vic got guilty. Somehow, he got the kids after Gabriel got his throat cut, maybe threw a few punches, and ran."

"That sounds great, Sara," Greg said, looking at his friend wear a hole in the floor. "And it would be awesome if the evidence we found proved that, but…"

"What is it, Greg?" Sara said, pausing her pacing.

"That doesn't really help us." Greg finished. "I mean, I doubt we will get anything to point to that other guy who was at the house. And looking at Santosa Perkasa's record of evading the police, it's a long shot that we'd get anything to convict him of anything."

Sara looked at Greg, and then to Nick who would not look up to meet her eyes. "I can't believe this. Greg, I thought you were more optimistic than this. Look at what we have going for us! This time, he didn't get it done right the first time. He's slipping. It gives us such a chance! And he didn't have time to hide any of the bodies this time, like he did with the rest. No cleaning up. And now, it's our turn. We have the chance to catch this guy once and for all before he gets the chance to hurt anyone else." Greg and Nick looked at each other, but nodded.

Sara smiled. "Thank you."

"Yeah, but what do we do now?" Greg said, leaning against the table. "We still have nothing to compare anything to. This is just empty speculation until we have our evidence processed."

"Well, Greggo, you and I are done with work. Shift's up. Tomorrow we can get our info straightened out." Nick patted Greg's shoulder exaggeratedly.

"Well, what do I do? Go crawl under the table?" Sara said, feigning hurt. "I'm off shift as well."

"That's true." Nick said, looking at Sara. "But I'm pretty sure you'll go to the hospital before anything else."

Sara looked curiously at Nick. "Why's that…?" And then she remembered what Nick had said before. "Gabriel! You mentioned Gabriel."

"Yeah, someone from the hospital phoned the lab while you and Greg were gone…"

"Is he okay?" Sara quickly asked.

Nick laughed lightly. "He's awake now." Sara's face immediately lightened, as if a dark cloud that was hanging over her suddenly dissipated. "However, they want someone with him. Since you went in with him, and you seemed to, as they say, 'have a keen interest in his well-being,' they wanted to know if you wanted to visit him."

Sara blushed a little at Nick's comment from the hospitals, but Greg piped in before she could explain herself. "It's okay Sara. You go on, and let us know tomorrow how the little guy is doing. Then, hopefully, our evidence will yield some answers for us."

Sara's smile widened. "Thanks guys. Goodnight." She walked out of the layout room while her two friends wished her the same.

They stood there for a minute in silence, both contemplating what would happen in the future. As Greg was making to leave, Nick asked him to stop. He turned around.

"What's up Nick?" He replied, seeing Nick's eyes closed in worried thought.

"I don't know about this Greg." Nick said, his voice low enough that Greg had to strain to hear him. "There's something about this that I don't like."

Greg sighed, and his voice also fell to a whisper. "I know."

"I mean," Nick continued, "Santosa Perkasa is involved. I know he's relatively new, but he's a menace. And more than the fact that he has the brains to pull off anything, but he also has the money. It's a lethal combination."

"I know."

"And Sara…she's getting too emotionally involved with those kids. It's like she got sprinkles with maternal…fairy dust when she saw those kids. And when she gets like this, she's liable to do anything."

"I know, Nick."

Nick looked up. "So, what are we going to do?"

Greg swallowed. He was the newbie in relation to all his shift peers. He wasn't the one who usually had the plan. How did he get in this position this time?

He wasn't the only one who was scared of Santosa Perkasa.

"We make sure Sara stays out of trouble. Until then, I guess we wait."


Stay tuned! The next chapter gets spicy. Oh, and if anyone wants to talk about the last episode of CSI with me, PM me...haha, really want to talk about that episode!!! Thanks to CSIGranger7 for the chat!