The house was a modest bungalow on the outskirts of the neighbourhood. The yard was kept nicely, and the curtains were drawn. Warrick rapped on the door, and waited. Finally, he heard a few locks click off the door, and it cracked open. A teenage girl with tight dark curls stared at him with big brown eyes.
"Yes?" she asked, eyeing his vest which identified him as a CSI.
"Are you Lynette?"
She nodded, "What can I do for you Mr. Brown?"
"Do you know this girl?" he flashed Nine's picture at her.
Lynette glanced at it and then looked away, "Yes," she mumbled.
"Can I come in?" Warrick asked.
The girl glanced inside, and Warrick heard a male's voice, "Lynn, who is that?"
An older man with a white beard appeared at the door, "What do you want?" the man asked the CSI.
"I am investigating the death of this girl," he showed the picture, "and was told that Lynette knew her. Could I come in and speak with her?"
The man thought for a second, then opened the door and ushered him in. Inside, he led Warrick to a small living room and they sat down.
"So what can you tell me about Nine?" Warrick began.
Lynette glanced at her father, almost to seek approval. Warrick watched the exchange and noted that the girl didn't share any familial features with the man.
"Go ahead," the father said. Lynette nodded and began to speak.
"Nine and I go back. When I was little I lived with her family. My mom couldn't support me so they took me in, and my mom worked and sent them money. Nine, or rather Nina was their favourite, they hated me-"
"They treated her like a slave. I couldn't believe child services hadn't stepped in," the father interjected.
"One day, John," she gestured to the man she called her father, "My dad, well not really my dad, he knew my mom, showed up. He had promised my mom he would find me and take care of me. So he paid Nina's parents and adopted me. I didn't see Nine for a long time, and then when we moved here, they were here. Except she didn't like her parents either. They steal, lie, cheat, do anything to make money. She was honest, nice, wanted to be a student."
"How did she know Mark and George? They told me to talk to you."
Lynette sighed, "Mark didn't know, but Nine had a huge crush on him. Mark and George are students, and cause Nine doesn't go to school, she hangs with them whenever she can, so she can learn and feel smart. She knew them before I did. See, when I came, Mark said he fell for me, and he had Nine introduce us."
"Mark said you saw Nine last night. Want to tell me about it?"
"Oh, Nine brought me a note Mark asked her to bring me. She dropped it off and left."
"What did the note say?"
Lynette blushed, "It was just a cute love note he sent me. He's a romantic like that."
Warrick took this all in, then said, "So do you know anything about the fight that happened? Or any reason why Nine might have been involved?"
Lynette shook her head, "I was at home," she turned to her dad, "You were out last night, did you hear anything?"
John studied his hands, "No."
Warrick wondered what he knew, "Sir, do you know where I can find Nine's parents?"
"Probably scamming some poor tourists on the strip or at the local bar."
The CSI thanked them and was shown out. Once outside he took out his cell phone,
"Sidle," Sara answered.
"Hey Sara, can you run a background check on a guy named John Val Jean?"
"Sure, he a suspect?"
"I don't know, it's just a gut feeling that he might be involved somehow. Just met him, and he reeks of secrets and guilt."
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"You paged?" Greg asked entering the AV lab.
"I was just about to go over the 911 tapes with Nick and figured you should be in on it," Archie answered.
Nick gestured for Greg to have a seat and Archie hit play on the tape.
"911 emergency, how can I help you?" a female voice rang out.
"Where is it old man!" a voice demanded in the background.
Archie paused the tape, "As you can hear, there is a distinct voice in the background, and if you get me someone to compare it to, it will be an easy ID process. Now, we never hear the guy's accomplice, but we do hear our vic and Anna," he hit play again.
"Please, I'll give you money, but not that!" Robert Riley pleaded.
"Is anyone there? I'm sending over the police," the operator said.
"Please help, please…" the muffled whisper came from Anna.
There was a scream in the background and the line went dead.
"That's the end. I think Anna hung up when they murdered her grandfather," Archie concluded.
"You talked to the restaurant employees Nick, you recognize any voices?" Greg questioned.
"No, not right now. But Greg, will you grab the tapes from the evidence room for me and Archie can do a comparison."
"Sounds good. Where are you off to?" Greg said.
"The hospital. I need to talk to Anna. When you're done, see Grissom. He and Brass are rounding up the last of our suspects. You get anything else off that call Archie?"
He shook his head, "Sorry, nothing more that can help us."
"Thanks anyways. Later guys," Nick left the room.
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Sara and Warrick stood outside the interrogation room, studying the people sitting inside. The man wore grungy jeans and a t-shirt, and the woman wore a tattered sun dress. PD had picked them up panhandling along the outskirts of the strip. Both were dirty and looked hung over. Warrick raised an eyebrow at Sara, "Shall we?" he pushed open the door and held it for her.
"Mr. And Mrs. Theodore I presume?" Sara asked entering the room.
"What's it to you?" grunted the man.
"We picked them up this morning while they were running this latest con act," Brass answered, "Seems they were wanted for several other scams as well, and some petty theft."
"What do you want this time? We'll pay the fine, and we'll be back on the streets by night fall," Mrs. Theodore snorted, pushing her stringy hair out of her greasy face.
"So it's not your first time in here then," Warrick commented.
"Good call Einstein," Mr. Theodore retorted.
"We'll get to your charges later, we'd like to talk about something else now," Warrick continued, reading over their file.
"Make it snappy, I've got stuff to do," Mrs. Theodore answered.
"How about we talk about your daughter then. Nina right, or as the kids called her, Nine. When was the last time you saw her?" Sara started.
"That ungrateful little brat! Comes and goes as she pleases, and couldn't be bothered to help out her old folks. She'd rather hang out with those snobby kids who think they can better themselves with education! Look at the slums we come from, how much better do you think they'll get?" Mrs. Theodore stated.
"We're not talking about the other kids right now Ma'am. We're talking about your daughter. When was the last time you saw her?" Sara demanded.
"Last night. I told her to get home, but she wouldn't. Was doing another favour for that boy. I'll be damned if that girl ever listened to me!" Mr. Theodore spat.
"Which boy?" Warrick asked.
"That little snot student, Marius or Marcus or something…"
"Mark?"
"Yeah, that bugger."
"And what kind of favour was she doing for him?"
"Oh, talking to that brat Lynnette! Ungrateful thing! Never appreciated what we did for her!"
"We took care of her when her own mother couldn't, treated her like gold we did, and she acts like she don't even know us anymore. Walks around with her nose in the air, thinking she lives better than us now," Mrs. Theodore continued.
"Now I'd think about how you say that Mrs. Theodore. Looks like you had several warnings from Child Services when you had Lynette. I think she might have had the right to complain about how you treated her," Brass interjected.
"BS," Mr. Theodore stated.
"Can we please talk about your daughter?" Sara raised her voice.
"Fine! No we haven't seen her since last night. What you got against her? She done something? Cause we aren't bailing her out. She's got to learn her rights from wrongs," Mr. Theodore answered.
"You're daughter is dead!" Sara slammed the picture of Nine on the table, "Do you care now?"
"Sara," Warrick mumbled a warning.
"Did you care enough to check if she went home last night? Did you think to ask where 'that ungrateful brat' was this morning? I didn't think so!" Sara snapped.
"Sara!" Warrick took her by the shoulders and guided her out of the room, which became eerily silent.
Once outside Warrick turned to her, "What was that?"
"They don't care Warrick! They don't care where Nina was or if she came home! And now she's dead. Maybe if they had asked, or looked for her she wouldn't be. She was a child! She had her whole life before her…and now…no one cares."
He sighed, "Someone did Sara. You saw how we found her. Someone out there cared enough for her to do that much."
"And someone cared enough to kill her."
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"She's been asking for you Mr. Stokes. I've told her to gather her things, she can be discharged at any time now," the nurse told him.
"What about her memory loss?"
"There's nothing more we can do for her now. In time she'll get her memories back, no matter how good or bad they are."
Nick nodded a thank you to the nurse and headed to Anna's room. The door was ajar and he knocked quietly.
"Come in," he heard from inside.
Gently pushing open the door, he entered the room. Anna had changed out of her hospital gown and now wore jeans and a t-shirt. Her face had more colour in it, a nice change from the ghostly white that Nick had witnessed before. Yet her eyes betrayed her. There were faint dark circles under them, and they looked sad. He could tell she had been crying.
"Hi," he greeted her.
"Nick, hi… Did the nurses tell you I asked for you?"
"Just when I got here. I had to talk to you anyway."
"About my grandfather, right?" she said sombrely, sitting on the bed.
"Yeah…"
"There's a reason you're here Nick. There's only one reason why a CSI would be involved with my grandfather's death. He didn't die naturally, did he?"
Nick looked away and swallowed, "Don't lie to me. I want the truth," she urged him, her voice shaking just a little.
"He was murdered."
Nick heard her take a deep breath and try to regain her composure.
"And I was there…" not a question, but a statement she made.
"Yes."
She was silent again, and Nick watched a small tear roll down her cheek. She brushed it away and faced him, "Do you have any suspects? Do you know who did this?" Anna tried to sound brave, forceful.
"Not yet. We're still trying to figure out what happened, and the person's motive."
"I want to help."
"You can Anna, we need it."
"What can I do?"
Like it? Love it? Hate it? Sorry for the long waits in between chapters. School has started and I have little time for the story anymore. Plus, I've felt a little unimpaired with it lately. I am going to put it on hiatus for awhile, probably get back to it when I have a bit more time. For now, I am going to work on another story, a songfic for CSI and it might be posted a little sooner. So please bear with me, I apologize for the wait. Thank You again for all your kind reviews.
PS: Now can anyone guess what "story" the B case is "loosely" based upon? L