"We searched his house, his church, his car, came up with nothing and I'm still sure this bastard it the killer." Cath grumbled.

"He's perfect for it. And he had this smile, like we can't do anything to get him. He's smarter than we are."

"He's with God." Grissom entered the room.

"God?" Sara's voice was full of mock. "If there's a God he wouldn't support killer."

"Maybe the killer isn't a killer in his religion."

"A dead person is a dead person. That should be the same in every cult." In Sara's eyes a religion wasn't different from a cult. They were all after the money of people, wanted to use them for whatever they had in mind.

"When you don't believe in the right things you might be not a human."

"BS."

"He lives in his universe and there's nothing of the cop left I used to know." Grissom had been with Sara for a while, watching Brass and Greg interrogating the suspect.

"We will put him behind bars of our universe."

"First we need some evidence."

"He doesn't have an alibi. Being in your church and praying alone isn't one. As long as God doesn't come down from heaven, sits down in the witness stand, the Reverent has no alibi."

"In dubio pro reo."

Sara rolled her eyes. She knew this too.

Grissom's cell phone rang. He listened quietly, kept his face straight and hung up the phone.

"We have a 419 in Henderson, empty house, a gunshot victim, male mid twenties, one shot to the chest, one to the head. Sounds familiar?"

"Are you serious?" Cath asked in disbelieve.

"Fresh kill, very likely while we had the Reverent with us."

"Impossible."

"You're free to go and see it for yourself. Your case, Cath."

"Great."

"Don't worry if this isn't a copy cat there'll be a body for everybody. I call Brass so he can keep an eye on the Reverent. The rest of you, get prepared."

Sara sighed and went back to the locker room. When she had to pull another double she wanted some fresh clothes and a shower first. With wet hair she sat down on the bench.

"Need a boost?" Sofia came with a coffee and a donut in.

"Oh yeah, thanks." Sugar and caffeine. The best things in life to live on.

"You're welcome. What did you heard about the gunshot vic?"

"Looks like one of our ten."

"Reverent Candice was with Greg and Brass?"

"Probably. David has to confirm TOD. What do you think?"

"I think Candice is our suspect."

"How can he be the suspect when we have another body while he was with us?"

"Churches and religion aren't exactly my field of expertise but doesn't a Reverent have some helper? Some server?"

"You mean he instructed a server to kill this man? He was with us, the best alibi you can ask for."

"Exactly. Tell me Detective, you know both sides of the fence, the CSI and police side, how do we procedure now?"

"It's the same side of the fence, Investigator Sidle. Do you want to talk to somebody? His neighbors?"

"I thought more of the neighbors of the house owner. He told us he gives his card to a lot of people, I believe he walks from door to door, tries to catch some money."

"Souls." Sofia chuckled.

"Whatever. Maybe they didn't keep the card but they might recall him. We know the house owner all got the cards on different days, apparently he met them randomly, I believe he has a system."

"Why don't we talk to the owner again, let them recall their meeting. All of them must have told him at some point they were out of town. The shock has settled, memory is back."

"Tired of waiting for your next body?"

"I doubt there'll be another one like the ten. And I'm sure Cath will find out very soon that the scene she works on now is different than the others. No matter how good you instruct somebody, it's always different from how it is when you do it yourself."

"Circumstantial, only circumstantial. We can't lock him up with only circumstantial evidence. I hate this case!" Sara kicked the front tire of her car.

"Temper."

"Screw temper!"

"He's under surveillance."

"While his server walks around and can kill."

"We got a few names of possible server, they're all on radio and will get interrogated. We are a big step closer to get him behind bars."

"Closer to solve a case isn't solved a case. I want this over."

"Sara." Sofia's voice was soft. "We all do our best. Why don't we drive to a diner, have something to eat and go home?"

"Eating and sleeping don't help catching killer."

"Yes it does. Only a rested investigator can see evidence, work scenes and think smarter as a killer. Especially when the killer is a former cop/CSI."

No matter how much Sara wanted to argue, disagree, she knew Sofia was right. Their killer was highly skilled and intelligent. And she felt how tired she was, that she had problems to concentrate on her work. This way it was likely she made a mistake, didn't see a little detail, that could be the case breaker.

"I can use some food for my head. There's a salad bar down the road, do you want to join me?" Why did she ask Sofia and not Greg? Because the blonde was here and her friend was long gone home, sound asleep, like she should be.

"Sure. I follow you." With a smile Sofia walked to her car. Sara asked her for some private time. It seems like her apology had been a good decision. She had been wrong, had behaved like an idiot and sometimes it helped when admitted to it.

"How much sleep did you get?" Sofia asked after they sat down with their salad and juice.

"A little bit."

"Less than four hours? That's what I had."

"Three hours something."

"Is that your average sleep time or even not much for you?"

"Usually I sleep a little bit more." Sara smiled a bit. She knew she was known as the one who never slept. Maybe she slept less than her colleagues but she needed some sleep. At least five hours.

"It's hard to relax when you're involved in a case. So many things on your mind, missing evidence, rules you have to stick to, no matter how stupid they seem to be. Knowing there's a killer outside and you can't catch him. Drives me nuts. And when you find at least a kind of sleep your pager goes off and you have to come in early.

Sometimes the cases follow me in my dreams. I don't know why, there was a time when I could go home and left work behind." The blonde spoke more to herself than to Sara, her blue eyes turned darker and sadly. "You sleep poor, you dream bad, you miss family appointments, forget to call friends on their birthday, lose your partner because you're a pain in the ass when it comes to being reliable and your thoughts circle around cases all the time. Our job is great, it's important, fascinating but it destroys any kind of private life. No wonder people who work in law enforcement are divorced or end up being single very fast. Nobody wants to put up with us."

First Sara wanted to use a mocking tone and ask the detective if she had been dumped lately then she thought about it. That was a mean and unnecessary question. She could do better than that.

"I think the best partner for somebody who works law enforcement is somebody who works the same job. This way your partner knows exactly what he or she's dealing with. You can explain your cop husband why you have to pull a double while he knows you understand that he must leave the best wife in the middle of the night.

Probably we're all better off alone anyway."

"Perhaps. Knowing this doesn't change the fact that you're lonely sometimes and wonder if the job is worth having no own life."

"Do you think of quitting, Sofia?"

"No."

"Sounds like it."

"I think of a change, have to figure out what kind of change. When I changed from CSI to detective it gave me a boost. Another boost would be nice."

"Wanna come back to the lab?"

"No. I want to be a Lieutenant."

"Climbing up the ladder."

"Yes. If I have to give up my personal life they can at least pay me better."

"You said they had more moderately hours in Honolulu, what keeps you from going back there?"

"The fact I don't know somebody there. Of course I met new people and it was fun, but being somewhere far away from your hometown, without somebody who knows your home-town, knows a bit of your past, that's nothing for me."

"Means you'll be stuck in Vegas, stuck in work. No ocean beach around."

"Will you stop rubbing salt in my wound?" Sofia grumbled. "I know it's stupid but at the moment I can't act smart. So what? Am I not allowed to act stupid?"

"Of course you are." Sara said lightly. "We're all entitled to act stupid sometimes. That's humanly."

"Thanks. And sorry for getting bitchy again. I guess I need some sleep. See you tonight, try to catch some sleep yourself."

"I will. Thanks."

The phone rang after five seconds of sleep – at least it felt like that to Sara. In reality she had been asleep for two hours. Not much better.

"Come on Grissom, you can't be serious. Let me have three hours of sleep. Please." She groaned into the cell phone without checking the ID.

"Stay in bed, we have him."

"What?"

"We arrested Candice for killing ten people. You can sleep a few more hours."

"No fucking way! You got the bastard in the department?"

"He just confessed and will be transferred into jail soon."

"I wanna see that!" Sara jumped out of bed. There was nothing left of her tiredness. Within five minutes she was dressed, in her car and on her way to the department. They got him. Why didn't they call her when he got into interrogation? This was a big case, she wanted to be there when they got him. Why did all happened so fast? First they didn't get an inch closer and out of the blue they had evidence that made him confess. Why? How?

She ran into Sofia on her way to interrogation.

"They have him!"

"I know, Brass called me. I tried to reach you but you didn't answer the phone."

"Sorry, I was on my way to here." For a second she felt bad for not calling Sofia while the blonde knew how important it was for Sara to have the killer locked up and tried to call her. Why didn't she think of calling the detective?

"Where's he?" They asked unison Brass, who came out of his office.

"He's getting booked in now."

"You could have waited five more minutes." Sofia complained.

"What for? I know you kids wanted to see him go down but we all wanted to have him booked in ASAP. He killed ten people and brought a lot of shame over the department. The press is all over it, the Sheriff mad as hell and you are both free to give some statements to the press."

"Yuck, no, thanks." Sara backed off.

"You're the boss, you give the interviews." Sofia said. "If the show is over I go back to bed. There are a few hours left before I've to be back here and I need some sleep." The blonde turned.

"She's right on all of that. I want to sleep more than two hours, over four would be great too. See you later, Jim."

"First they're eager, full of enthusiasm and then they want to sleep. Children."

Sara grinned. She hadn't been here when they arrested Candice, it wasn't her job to give interviews. She worked on one of his scenes, yes, but so did every CSI on her shift. And swing. They could take one of these guys. For her, there were better things to do.

"Sara, do you have a minute?"

"As a matter of fact I do, it's break time. What's up Sofia?"

"I've an hypothetical question."

"Shoot."

Sofia sat on the edge of the table, considered her words for a second. "Theoretical if Grissom asks you about a colleague you worked with in San Francisco would you tell him about your colleague? Knowing your former colleague wouldn't like it."

"They called you."

"Yes." No need to deny the obvious thing. Asking a theoretical question that was so obvious not theoretical was stupid. And the only thing that came to Sofia's mind when she got a phone call this morning.

"What did you say?"

"First I wanted to tell them you don't want me to talk to them, then I thought that could give them the wrong impression about you so I let them tell me what you wrote and verified your application. I didn't add anything, all I did was telling them, you didn't lie."

"I knew they'd contact you. It's natural they look for some information."

"Yes." Sofia had been surprised when her former boss from Honolulu called her. He had an application from a Sara Sidle on his desk, who worked in Las Vegas with the crime lab. All he asked was if Sofia knew her.

"What else did they ask?"

"If I think you'd fit in there, how the weather is, when I come back for a visit, if I miss the beach."

"Would I fit in?"

"They could learn a lot from you."

"That's no answer."

"You're not always the easiest person to work with, not the first time. After a while you get better and their gain is the LVPD's lost."

"Thanks."

"Sorry, you said you wanted your next job without anybody helping you but I figured if I don't answer their questions it's bad for you."

"Don't worry. Thanks."

Sofia waited a heart beat. "Will you go?"

"I don't have a letter of acceptation."

"In case you get one, will you say yes? Or is that none of my business?"

"Can you keep the answer to yourself?"

"Like I'll keep the phone call between you and me."

"If they want me I'll leave Vegas. I applied in five different cities, Honolulu is my favorite. I liked what you told me, it's warm, I've the ocean and there's not so many people. Vegas feels like home, I love my team…"

"But you need a break."

"I need a job with less hours. I'm on my last legs, the work doesn't stop, it's getting more every week and I need a job with a regular work hours – or at least some free days every now and then. Plus they offer day time work, I hope when I can sleep at night I can sleep better."

"Worked with me. The two months on day in Honolulu worked like a miracle. Human being is made for sleeping at night, when you ignore all these years of evolution it hits back at one point."

"Sounds like you want your change soon."

"I didn't apply anywhere."

"What stops you?"

"So far I didn't have the right reason."

"Somebody told me a while ago it's better to change things than suffering from what you've got."

Sofia smiled. These were her words to Sara and the brunette was right. She should change something as well. Like Sara she slept poorly, worked too much and had barely a day off. Maybe it was the right time for a change for her now.

"Sofia?"

"Yeah?" Sofia stopped in the hallway when she heard Sara's voice. She had just closed a case, was on her way to bring her paper work to Brass and head home; after another double.

"Look what I've got a few minutes ago." The brunette handed her a sheet of paper. Instead of something case related or paper work for another case, which lowered Sofia's mood already, it was something it made her smile.

"Congratulation." She hugged Sara. It was the confirmation that Sara got the job in Honolulu. There was her change.

"Thanks. I'll have beach, surfer and cocktails soon."

"Yeah. When will you start?"

"First of October. They didn't tell you? I was sure they'd contact you before they contact me."

"That wouldn't be fair, would it?"

"No."

Sofia's cell phone rang. A big smile appeared on her face. "They're telling me now. Got a text from Honolulu."

"You are talking with them behind my back?"

"Sofia! I need a minute with you." Brass shouted.

"Okay." She handed her cell phone to Sara. "No secrets, no talking behind your back." With a smile she left Sara alone and vanished in Brass's office.

Undeceive what to do she put the cell phone from one hand to another before she looked at the screen.

Hey Vegas, we'll get your CSI to Paradise. She'll have stunning beaches and sunsets with cocktails, surfer and tropical fruits. Reminds you of better times? All you have to do is say YES and you're here too. Captain Tropical

Sara shook her head. There was Sofia's chance and all she did was giving her the cell phone instead of taking the chance, sending back three letters and get a job she liked a lot. It didn't take a doctor to see the blonde was tired out. Like Sara she worked too many doubles, accumulated too much overtime.

"See, no talking behind your back. They told me after they let you know."

"Yeah. Thanks." Sara gave the cell phone back to Sofia. "Any problems with Brass?"

"No, all he wanted was the report so he could close the case."

"Time to go home?"

"Finally. I'm not sure if I want to sleep first or have something to eat. The last…" Her cell phone rang, this time it was a incoming call, not a text message.

"Captain Tropical, how are things going in paradise?"

"Much better with the outlook of you being here soon."

"You mean CSI Sidle."

"No, I mean the YES you sent me a minute ago. Don't play with me."

"The yes?" What yes?

"Come on, I've your text, it's your phone number, don't play dumb."

"I was…wait a minute…Miss Sidle! Do you have to tell me something?"

"No." Sara grinned.

"No in the terms of yes?"

"Are you telling me CSI Sidle typed that text? What's she doing with your phone?"

"I left it with her for a second because my captain called me in to answer a question about the case I closed."

"So you aren't coming back?" There was disappointment in his voice.

"Beach, surfer, cocktails, sunsets versus stress, overtime, doubles and cold winters? I'm so in for a transfer. You get me the paper to my condo, I'll sign them and if you promise me to start on first of October I quit tonight."

"Give me five minutes and you have all you need."

"You have a little bit more, I need to go home first. Thanks Captain."

"No, thank you, Detective."

Sofia put her cell away, shifting her attention back to Sara, who stood at the front door with a wide grin.

"You answered a text for me."

"Says who?"

"If I take a closer look at my cell phone I bet I'll find your finger prints on the 9, 3 and 8 plus the send button."

"All you get are parts of my prints."

"That's enough."

"Are you mad?" Sara's voice became serious.

"Because you made the decision I want to leave Vegas? Because you told my former boss I want my old job back without asking me? Because you made me look like an idiot when he called? You so have to pay my lunch now, Sara." Sofia grinned.

"Deal."

"I've to say, I'm really surprised you want me in Honolulu too."

"Yeah you know, you're a smug pain in the ass but at least I know there's one cop who knows how to handle evidence." Sara smirked. Moving to a new city, starting a new job, getting to know new people, all these things could be easier when you have somebody with you, you know and who knows the place a bit. After all Sofia had been right when she said, Sara was a little bit complicated when she came somewhere the first time. And she didn't need another rough start like she had in Vegas. This time everything was supposed to be easy and relaxed. She needed a surfboard!

"Here we go, my new work contract." Instead of a diner they drove to Sofia's place to make sure her new work contract was really there. Smiling the blonde handed the papers to Sara after she threw a look at them.

"Coffee?"

"Water. I want to sleep later."

"You find all the hidden catches and I make us something to eat. Vegetarian of course."

"Thanks." Sara read the work contract. Everything sounded good, she had no idea what Sofia was paid at the moment, her new contract looked like it was not a very good or very bad payment. For herself the money would be slightly less. Vegas paid more but they had more work and Sara wanted to work less. After all the doubles and overtime were the reason why she looked for another job.

"I made us a fruit salad, the best way to get prepared for Hawaii. Do you like pineapples?"

"Yes."

"We'll have a joyride to the huge pineapple fields. They taste even better there."

"Most things taste better when you eat them straight from the field. I can't find anything bad about your new work contract."

"That's what I expected. Trop plays with open cards all the time."

"Trop?"

"Captain Tropical. You'll like him, he's one of a kind."

"Okay." Sara dipped her banana slice in a little pot of chocolate sauce that accidentally found its way on the plate with all the fruits. "When will you go over?"

"Good question, it isn't like I had a lot of time thinking about it. One hour ago I had no idea I'd go there at all. After some-body else made my decision."

"Sorry. It was wrong but…I can't explain why I did it. Oppor-tunity? There was a chance for you to go back to Honolulu, a place you obviously loved a lot, there was no reason I could think of why you shouldn't take the chance. So I typed the text, knowing it was wrong while it felt right." Sara blushed a bit.

"You did the right thing."

"I had good intentions."

"Stop worrying about it. Tell me what you planed so far? When will you leave?"

"Well, I'll tell Grissom tonight I want to stop working in the middle of August, that gives me six weeks to move my stuff from here to Honolulu and find a new home. Having like a million hours of overtime and a lot of holidays days left I can go over before, have a first look around."

"Sounds like a good plan."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

"Yeah." Sofia got lost in staring at her water. A lot of work. A lot of changes. She couldn't wait to make it all happen.