Disclaimer: I disclaim owning CSI and the fabuouls characters therein. Is disclaim even a word ::Looks up in dictionary:: No way! I guess I can't own that word either. BAHH!
Enjoy!
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They all tilted their heads to one side looking aghast and confused. Under any other circumstance it would have been a comedic sight. Catherine shook her head, "Okay, what'd I miss?"
Greg jumped in, "That doll. The one with the green eyes? It's not in any of the rooms."
"Alright. Nick, Warrick, take these pictures of the living room and get started. Greg, take the bathroom. Gil and I will take the bedroom. Report anything mysterious immediately." The team split up each taking their stacks of photos to a quiet place in the lab.
Catherine hit the lights and switched on the ALS. "What the hell?!" she shrieked startling Grissom. He went to look at what the fuss was about. Cath looked into his eyes, "Thank God we didn't try and reach her Gil…"
The ALS picked up small outlines of what could only be Sara's body laying lifeless in various areas of the house. Directly in front of the door was the most obvious drawing; a glowing pool radiated from the head. Another image slumped over the arm of the couch facing the TV across the room. In the bathroom yet another with a glowing pool draining from the neck where Catherine had picked up the razor only moments ago. At the computer desk a rather crude one dimensional figure, drawn face down on the desk while sitting in the chair, was surprisingly discernible while looking at it from top-down. The scenes continued into the bedroom. The window at the foot of the bed had a small hole through it and what appeared to be broken glass and, "A rock?" Grissom picked up the small ragged ball that rested beside an outline of a faceless Sara on her bedroom floor. And finally a sixth image laying across the bed.
"Okay, I get the door. We knock. Couch, we plaster her on the news. Computer, we e-mail, and the broken window, a little juvenile, but we tie a message to a rock. Why the bed and the razor in the bathroom?" It was the most Grissom had said in an hour.
At least the wheels are still squeaking in there, Cath thought to herself. She took a different route out loud. "So he apparently has her on surveillance, otherwise how would he know how we reached her?"
Hodges seemed to appear out of no where. "Who are we trying to reach?" he said in a nosey way that caught the two off guard.
Catherine opened her mouth to speak but Grissom came to his senses and his voice filled the room. "No one." Catherine looked perplexed.
"Hey is that another model?" Hodges sauntered unwelcomed into the room. Gil stepped in front of him impeding his path before he could see anything.
"Just a copy cat." Grissom had finally snapped out of his daze and spoke with the vigor he had before opening this box from hell.
Hodges held up his hands in defense. He got the picture, "Okay. If you need me to process anything I'll be around a while."
Grissom pursed his lips and squinted ever so slightly as Hodges strolled out the door. "Catherine. From this moment on I only want us to touch this one. No one else in this building exists."
"You got it Gil." Without questioning his fervor, Cath began calling the other three telling Greg he was to personally test all evidence by himself and to not leak a word to anyone. Sara's life depended on it.
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"Hey War?"
"Yeah Nicky?" Warrick looked up from the picture he was studying.
"Did you notice those things on Sara's dressers?"
"Yeah, and look at this one…" he handed the magnifying glass to Nick. A solitary picture of Sara and Gil stood on her bookshelf next to the computer. "Check out her smile; they're happy together."
"So when were they going to tell us?"
"Man, you know how that goes. Ecklie would be all over them, he'd probably split them up if not fire one of them." Nick nodded in agreement. "Hey, check this out." On the floor next to the couch was a tiny replica cell phone.
"Is that her cell?"
"Yeah… I'll go get it." Warrick crossed the hall to study the object himself. "Hey Gris, Catherine… Check this out." He took a pair of tweezers and located the open cell phone underneath the coffee table.
"Another explanation for the body on the couch." Grissom stated unabashed.
Warrick looked surprised, "Body?"
"Yeah, hit the lights War." Catherine switched the ALS back on and shined it around the rooms.
Gil took the light from her hands, "We found Sara six times, in six different ways." Warrick looked stunned. Gris was back in the zone. Gil continued shining the light on each of the bodies explaining the positions of each and relating them to ways of outside contact. "The bathroom and bed are debatable."
"Do you think he's in the house?"
Grissom responded, "That or he's close by watching." Grissom motioned his hand indicating the three of them, "we can't save her. The killer obviously knows me, and through that he probably knows you guys, he'd see us coming." He shook his head, "He'd see a police cruiser a mile away." He thought for a second letting his own words seep into his brilliant mind. He let out a whisper, "It's inside…" then grew louder, angrier, "It has to be inside!"
Warrick and Catherine looked shocked at the amount of emotion and anger pulsing through Grissom's voice and body language. "The miniatures were all directed at me. He knew I would be intrigued . He knew Sara being involved would break me down, he thought I would make a mistake. If he knows what we all look like and can detect a cop car he probably has a scanner. Hell, he could be listening to us right now… And how did they know I was away from my office for that amount of time when they placed the box on my desk?!" He remembered that his door was locked when he had left and somehow the box was still delivered. He wanted to review the security camera footage, but suspecting the killer was someone in the lab it would be difficult to have access without help. Thinking the two had heard his last thought he soberly reiterated, "we have to find a way to get Sara out of that house. Quietly."
The time was now 7:30 am.
