Only a few more chapters to go, hope you guys enjoy the story!
Greg stepped out of the interrogation room after answering all of their questions. Nick greeted him outside the police station. "Hey, how'd it go?"
"I have no idea. They believe me but I can't prove anything I told them." Greg sighed.
"But no one will prove that you were involved, right?"
He shook his head. "No, of course not. I'm not worried, I'm annoyed."
They were talking about this on their way to Nick's car when they heard Greg's name being called from behind. Both turned around to Kyle Novak. "Hey Greg! I already got it, okay? There was no need to attack my mother!"
"I didn't attack her," he explained calmly – but still annoyed.
"Then where did her injury come from, huh?"
"How the hell am I suppose to know?!" Greg was slowly losing his patience.
"Just leave her alone!" he yelled aggressively.
Nick positioned himself protectively in front of his friend. "That's enough. Get lost before one of the cops detains you, alright?"
"Ah, another well-intended threat by Mr. Stokes, how original! How about you stay out of this for once? This isn't any of your business."
"Oh no? I think it is. You better stay away from him. I'm not repeating myself."
"Yeah? What if I don't? Will you hit me like he hit my poor mother?!"
Greg pulled Nick back to get closer to Kyle. "I did not hit your crazy mother! We met only once on Tuesday and she insulted and threatened me! I didn't do anything to her!"
Kyle's anger quickly faded. "...What? She… threatened you? How?"
Greg quickly explained without going into more detail than necessary. "I told you before, I don't want anything to do with you or your family. Leave me alone!" Both CSI's turned around to keep walking.
"...W-Wait. Please. This wasn't her."
Greg rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure." He turned back around to him. "What, she got a crazy twin sister or something?"
Kyle hastily shook his head. "She's had early signs of dementia for half a year now… She sometimes doesn't know what she's saying, she gets angry and… hateful. I'm sorry, I didn't know she was going to talk to you. But what she said… this wasn't her, it was the disease."
"She seemed to know exactly what she was saying."
"No, she..."
Greg interrupted him. "She seemed to know your brother better than you though, have you ever asked her about it?"
"...Why should she? What did she say to you?"
Greg didn't really want to tell him – or anybody else, really, but he already had to tell detective Black and Russell. He went on to explain in detail what she told him and what his interpretation of those words were. "And you wanna know what? All this time I kept wondering… Will you be the one finishing what your brother started?"
Kyle stared at him, feeling all kinds of emotions right now. "...You're lying, she didn't say those things."
"Why should I be lying?"
"...Y-You want to get rid of us so you..."
"I do. That's my greatest wish right now, but… I'm not lying. She said those things."
"...A-And you think… I could ever do anything to you… or anybody else… that's as revolting as what he did?"
Greg nodded. It took only half a second until he regretted it. "...No. I mean, I don't know. I don't know you and I don't want to get to know you. But you look so much like him, it creeps me out."
Kyle put his head down. "I never meant to scare you, Greg. I never meant to do any harm and I'd never hurt anyone like Neil did. It was hard to accept he was my brother, but we can't hide from our families." He sighed deeply. "And my mother… She's not perfect, alright? She wasn't the perfect mother, either, but I love her. I don't believe she meant those words she said to you."
"Go ask her about Neil. Ask her why she said those things and why she claims I hurt her. Is your relationship good enough for her to tell you the truth?"
In the following two days, Kyle's mother kept changing the story of the alleged assault a few times. This worked greatly in Greg's favor, as well as the fact that Kyle told the police his mother had dementia. Still, she wouldn't admit that Greg didn't have anything to do with her injury and wanted to press charges.
Usually he would be suspended until this case was closed, but since Laura Novak was such an unreliable victim and witness, the judge in charge decided he was alright to work. There had been a gang shooting in North Vegas and Greg was in charge of following the bullet casings to pinpoint where it all started. As he was walking by the road, taking pictures of bullet casings before bagging them, he felt like being watched. He's had that feeling a lot, but it was too intense to ignore this time. He kept looking around, but didn't see anyone. "Hey Ramirez," he said to one of the officers at the scene through his radio, "Would you mind following me around a bit?"
"Sure, where are you?"
"I'm just around the corner, maybe five minutes away." He didn't feel good about doing this, but he felt a mild panic attack creeping up on him and being in company usually helped him with this.
"Okay, I'll be right there."
He contemplated still going a few steps further, but didn't have enough time to come up with a decision, as he heard noise coming from a side alley. As he pointed his flashlight in that direction, he saw a silhouette walking towards him. "LVPD, put your hands up!" he ordered, but the silhouette didn't do it. Instead, the person came closer until Greg realized who it was – Kyle Novak. "...Were you following me?"
"I had to," was all he responded as he took a few steps further.
"Stop right there!"
He didn't. "Do you realize what you did? I talked to her."
"Kyle, stay where you are. I'm not telling you again." Greg's voice was getting shaky as the fear grew stronger. "Please."
"They had an affair."
The CSI frowned. "...Your mother and your brother?"
"My wife and my half-brother!" he yelled, only standing a few feet away from Greg. The desperation was painfully visible in his face.
"...What?"
"Yeah. She was acting weird when I talked about him and my mother, so we got into talking…" He wiped tears from his face. "She knew who he was. She knew what he did to these men…"
"I-I… I'm sorry to hear that, Kyle," he said empathetically. Not only was he actually feeling bad for him, but he figured it was best not to be hostile towards him.
"You don't understand. Not only did she cheat on me… She knew who he was. She liked him, anyway. ...No. She liked him because of it. It turned her on that he was a dangerous sociopath. I mean… What kind of person feels that way?" He sobbed. "And my mother? Same." He laughed humorlessly. "Pretty much the same. She had an affair with him, too. How sick is that?" Kyle shook his head. "My whole life is a big messy lie. I mean, is anyone I know who they said they are? Are they all crazy sociopaths? Tell me!"
"Kyle… I don't know. I'm sorry about all this."
"If it weren't for you, I might've never found out."
"...T-This isn't my fault."
"I might've never found out without you," he said as he stared at Greg with piercing eyes. "But where do I go from here?"
"Look, don't panic, don't do anything rash… This is going to be okay."
"How could this ever be okay?" He laughed humorlessly, but his face quickly turned into sadness and despare. "There's no way this will ever be okay. I lost the two people I cared the most about. What's the point anymore?"
Greg's heart was already racing, but his heartbeat elevated more when he watched Kyle pull a gun out of his pocket. "...Please don't."
"I've lost everything, Greg. I… I can't go on like this. I wish I would've never come to meet you."
Tears were falling down Greg's face. "This isn't my fault, you know that."
"Hey, freeze!" officer Ramirez yelled from behind Greg as he was hurrying up to the two men.
"I apologize, Greg. I should've never come here." Kyle slowly lifted the hand he was holding the gun with.
"W-We can work this out, I promise. Please don't..." As he was begging for his life, Greg realized that it wasn't him Kyle was going to shoot – he wanted to commit suicide. "Kyle, stop!" As the muzzle of the gun was almost touching the man's head, Greg reached out to push Kyle's hand back. A shot was released, going off behind his head.
"No!" Kyle yelled, preparing to try again, but Greg wrestled him to the ground, trying to take the gun away from him.
Officer Ramirez had finally reached the two and helped Greg recover the gun and restrain Kyle Novak.
"Just let me go!" Kyle begged as he cried, lying on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back.
