Some minor spoilers for episode 13.09 Strip Maul in this chapter. Also, for any science geeks like me who are curious about the tox numbers, I did the math so it should (hopefully!) be correct.
x x x x
She tapped her foot impatiently, drumming her fingers on the phone. Above her, an intercom crackled into action.
"Come on Gil. Answer the fucking phone." She hissed angrily. "Don't do this to her now."
Getting no response but a dial tone, she snapped the phone shut and stared down at the airline flight in her hand, emitting a heavy sigh.
X x x
"Okay, so I ran the DNA from the bullet you pulled from the doorframe." Henry babbled nervously, the piece of paper visibly shaking in his hands. "It's definitely a match to Sara."
"Okay." DB hummed, oblivious to the effect he had on the young man. "And Bobby matched the bullet to Sara's weapon found under the bed."
"So she was definitely shot with her own weapon." Morgan shifted her weight uncomfortably, narrowing her eyes at the lab tech. "What about the DNA from the bed sheets and the SAE kit?"
"It's still running." He cleared his throat. "It'll probably take another few hours. Same goes for the victim's DNA."
"I might be able to save you some time there." Mandy interrupted, wandering into the layout room nose deep in a folder. "I ran his prints. His name's Jack Stone, in the system for multiple prior drugs offences and thefts in the 80s and 90s."
"Any connection to Sara?" Morgan asked hopefully. If they could find the connection, they might be closer to solving this bastard of a case.
"Not that I can tell." She shrugged helplessly. "Most of his offences were in California and Arizona, a couple were in New York. I'm sorry."
"What about the rest of the prints in the room?"
"All are from Sara, Jack or the cleaning staff. Nothing unexpected." She shrugged again. "Sorry I can't be of more help."
"Thanks guys." DB nodded absently. "Let me know as soon as you get anything else on the DNA Henry."
As the lab rats sloped back to their respective homes desondently, Finn turned to DB and cleared her throat.
"Okay. So, where does that leave us?"
"I don't know yet." He frowned, staring down at the results in his hands. "But I don't think it really helps our case."
X x x
Brass paced outside the room, stopping only to crack his knuckles and stare forlornly at the door to the ICU.
All the facts he'd been told in the last few hours were ricocheting around his mind like pin-balls, echoing inside his skull.
Sara was a murder suspect … she had a bullet wound … she'd been shot with her own weapon.
So many random facts and none of them made any sense together.
He glanced down at the photo in his hand. Vartann had sent him a picture of the crime scene, albeit only after a great deal of hassling and persuasion.
There was a large blood pool in the middle of the floor where the body had been found. Near that, on the chest of drawers there was visible blood spatter. Possibly from the stabbing, or from Sara's injury.
He felt his stomach lurch at the sight of it all and carefully lowered himself into one of the hard plastic chairs lining the corridor.
Reaching into his pocket, he extracted the small gold ring. It had been there for nearly two months, waiting for him to return it to its rightful owner.
If he could only find her.
He laughed softly in reminiscence, recalling the weeks spent searching for just the right engagement ring. Eventually he'd given up and had one custom made. He'd even gone so far as to have it inscribed.
To My Bride Nancy Brass 3/5/78
After the divorce, he'd refused to have it back. He'd told Nancy to give it to Ellie.
And Ellie had sold it to another hooker on the street for two hundred bucks.
With a sad sigh, he slipped the ring back into his pocket and tipped his head against the cool wall, blinking back the tears threatening to spill from his baby-blue eyes.
He'd ruined his marriage. He'd lost his daughter.
Sara was his last chance. And yesterday he'd damn near lost her as well.
X x x
"Hey." Hodges cleared his throat, creeping into the room. Greg snapped back from staring blankly at the table and sniffed, straightening up.
"Hey, you got something?" He asked, failing to disguise the emotion seeping into his voice.
It was obvious that he had been crying, but Hodges elected not to call him on it. Instead, he wandered over to the bench and held out a results sheet.
"I tested the blood and hair samples Finn took at the hospital, ten hours after Sara was admitted. She had zolpidem in her system – point-9 milligrams a litre."
"Point-9?" Greg repeated, snatching the report out of his hands. "That's insane. A single 5 milligram pill takes 10-12 hours to clear the system completely. Even if she took a double dose right before she jumped, it still shouldn't be that high."
"It gets worse." Hodges continued sombrely. "According to the tests on her hair, she took the drug about fourteen hours before Finn processed her."
Greg blinked, letting this information sink in for a moment.
"Fourteen hours before Finn took the samples would put ingestion at around 2am."
"Is that significant?"
"Yeah." He exclaimed animatedly, searching hurriedly through the stack of paperwork in front of him until he found the document he wanted. "Doc Robbins estimated the victim's time of death at between 1 and 3am. If it was after Sara took the pills, she couldn't possibly have stabbed him with that much Ambien in her system."
"Not unless she has insomnia on a level the world has never seen before." David nodded in agreement.
X x x
"Hey, I hear you may have exonerated Sara." Bobby grinned, slapping Hodges on the shoulder as he sailed into the room.
"Yeah, I guess. Maybe." He mumbled, passing up the opportunity to claim credit this time. "For the murder at least."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dave Phillips inquired, trailing in behind the rest of the techs.
"It means, Sara was still in that hotel room with a man who isn't her husband." Hodges pointed out tiredly, wiping a hand over his face.
"We don't know what happened yet." Mandy jumped in quickly before he could vocalise any theories. "Henry hasn't got any results from the bed sheets yet."
"I don't think we need a DNA hit to prove what happened." The trace tech continued with a dry scoff.
"I can't believe it." Super Dave shook his head slowly in loss as he sank heavily onto a stool. "I can't believe that Sara would do this."
"We don't know that she's done anything yet." Archie backed Mandy up snippily.
"No, not … not that." The assistant coroner shook his head. "I mean, I can't believe that she could try to kill herself. She always seems so strong, you know?"
"Yeah, I know." Hodges' expression instantly sobered, his voice suddenly becoming hoarse and quiet. "I can't stop seeing it."
Mandy, in an uncharacteristic gesture of kindness, placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently.
"Well, all we can do is keep praying."
"I've got all my fingers and toes crossed." Super Dave assured them with a firm nod.
X x x
"Alright, so run this by me one more time." DB frowned. "Slowly."
Greg took a deep breath and started again, making sure to moderate his pace this time.
"I did the math. Zolpidem has a half life of 2 hours. If she still had 0.9 milligrams in her system fourteen hours after ingestion, she must have taken 115.2milligrams."
"Wow." Morgan winced. "That level of sleeping pills must be life-threatening, surely?"
"It's not good." Greg conceded. "But, it does mean she couldn't possibly have killed the guy at 3am. She would have been knocked out."
"Hold on, back up a second." DB held up his hands. "The CCTV footage caught Sara leaving the hotel just after 1:30am, right?"
"That's right." Finn agreed.
"So, if she took them in the hotel she must have done it right before she left-"
"But we didn't find any sign of that in the room." Morgan noted. "No pills or containers."
"So she could have taken them as soon as she got home. And they can take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes to kick in."
"Probably closer to thirty, given the amount she took." Greg pointed out. "What's the relevance?"
"I'm thinking, maybe they had an unexpected effect on her. People do a lot of strange things on zolpidem."
"Like sleepwalking, for instance." Finn cottoned on to where he was going with this. "You think that's how she ended up on the roof?"
"It's possible." He nodded with a shrug. "Especially if she's been under stress lately. Possibly from her marriage?"
"So, maybe this wasn't a suicide attempt." Morgan added hopefully. "It could be that she didn't know what she was doing."
"Greg, what does your math put the blood concentration as at 6am?"
"28.8 milligrams." He read. "That's still over twice the maximum recommended dose."
"Doesn't mean it wasn't a suicide attempt." Finn pointed out softly. "She still took the pills in the first place."
"It doesn't matter." Nick snapped; the first words he had spoken since Greg arrived to deliver his results. "None of this matters because none of it proves anything. Time of death was anywhere between one and three, Sara was still in the room for some of that time."
"Nick, calm down." DB reached out to him but was roughly shrugged off. "Look, Finn's right; and you're right. It doesn't prove that she didn't attempt suicide and it doesn't prove that she's innocent; but it's something to hold on to at least."
"We shouldn't need to prove her innocence, none of this should be happening. Sara wouldn't take pills … she wouldn't …" He breathed, shaking his head unwaveringly.
"Nick, the evidence is right there in black and white." Greg pointed out.
"I don't care!" The Texan growled. "I can't believe that she would do this! Something else must be going on here, we should be trying to find out what it is."
"Hey, I don't want to accept any of this either." The youngest man insisted, tears springing to his earnest brown eyes. "But it is happening, Nick. Sara is in the hospital and she is a suspect. She took those pills, Nick. You know it and I know it."
"Like Hell," Nicky choked out a dry laugh, refusing to hear the evidence being put to him. "I'm telling you, if something was bothering Sara that much she would have talked to us first."
"You don't know that…" Finn attempted to jump in, but was bluntly rebutted.
"She would have talked to me!"
"How could she, Nick?" Greg barked, finally losing his cool. "You weren't here! You quit, remember!"
"That's not the point, you don't know…"
"That's exactly the fucking point!" The younger man snarled, clearing the room in two strides to get right in his colleague's face. "She needed us and you were too busy throwing your pathetic little temper tantrum to help her!"
"Oh, come on Greg…"
They were so engrossed in the argument unfolding before them; no one in the room noticed the distinctive sound of heels clicking down the hall in measured steps and coming to an abrupt stop outside the room.
"Hey!" A familiar voice barked, silencing the brewing fight and drawing five pairs of startled eyes to the door. "What the hell is wrong with you two?!"