Chapter 8

"Wait, so you're telling me that all the footage is now gone!" yelled Sarah. Unfortunately, she got some pretty bad news. The whole lab had looked at the A/V lab to see what the commotion was. "Sorry Sarah, but somebody must have deleted the footage. I'm sorry Sarah," said Archie.

Sarah stormed out and went straight to the security office to talk to the guard. "Hey Tad, can you explain to me why all the footage between six o'clock and midnight is gone?"

"I don't know Sarah, maybe the camera's batteries died?"

"No because everything after midnight came back on."

Tad shrugged again and Sarah grunted. Quickly, she went back to the A/V lab hoping that Archie got something. "Please tell me you recovered the footage."

"Sorry, but, I got you one even better."

Sarah looked at him in confusion. "What could be better than seeing what happened?"

"Well, how about some audio?" Archie hit the play button on the computer. Sarah heard a man's voice and then Greg's cries in pain. "Can you…"

"Yep, it's already recorded onto this disc. And I'll keep working on trying to get that lost footage."

Sarah patted him on the back and took the disc from his hands. Meanwhile, Warrick came into the fingerprint lab and found Nick running the fingerprints. "Did you get a hit?"

"No, the fingerprints came back unknown. Now, I'm trying to run these treads Cath found outside. It's still searching."

"Why don't you narrow it down to a red Cadillac?"

Nick looks up at him with confusion. "Why would…."

"If this is the same guy that hit Greg, then he would be driving a red Cadillac. Greg said he saw one before he was hit."

Nick typed in red Cadillac and came up with one. "A red Cadillac license plate number 555-LMN."

"Did you get an owner?"

"Nope."

"Well, at least we got somewhere. Sarah was having a hard time at the A/V lab. Apparently, the footage was deleted."

"Is that why you left?"

"No, I went to the break room to get some coffee, but then I remember that one, there is no coffee pot, two, Greg would kill me if I took some of his stash, and three, the break room is a crime scene powered by Griss."

Nick laughed and printed out the information. "You want to go for a drive?"

Warrick nodded and they headed out in search of a red Cadillac. Grissom continued to process the scene, looking for any signs of what happened. He goes over to Greg's phone lying on the ground motionless. He picks it up and sees that he has a missed call and a new voicemail. Grissom gains entry to his voicemail and listens to the message. "Hey honey, it's your mother. I heard that you got hurt again! What is going on Gregory? I don't want anything to happen to my baby. Please call me back and tell me what the hell is going on. I love you."

His mother! Of course she would hear that Greg got hurt again. It seemed that somebody was leaking information to the press. Poor Greg, he's got somebody after him and an overprotective mother making sure he's alright 24/7, Grissom thought to himself. At the hospital, Catherine is waiting in the waiting room waiting to see Greg. "Mr. Gregory Sanders?" asks a nurse.

Catherine stands up and looks at her. "What's your relation?"

"I'm…Catherine Willows from the Crime Lab. I'm a co-worker of his."

"Ah, well then, if you would follow me, I will take you to his room."

The nurse leads Catherine down the hall to the hospital bedroom. The nurse opens the door and lets Catherine inside. "I'll leave you two alone."

The nurse closes the door and walks away. Catherine looks at the sleeping Greg on the bed. There was a long IV line leading into his right hand. A thick bandage with a long red mark on the front crossed his head. His left hand was heavily bandaged. She then notices Greg's clothes lying on the chair next to the bed. Catherine quickly bags them and puts them by the door so she could take them on the way out. She then sits in the unoccupied chair and watches Greg. Slowly Greg opens his eyes and looks at Catherine. "Hey Cath."

"How did…"

"I heard you walk in. What's up?"

"Everyone's worried about you. How are you holding up?"

Greg sighed and slowly moved his head towards Catherine. "For having some crazy lunatic after me, I feel better than ever. I just wish I could last a week without having to go to the hospital or call the police."

Catherine laughed. "Everyone at the lab is working on this. Can you tell me anything about what happened?"

"Well, I woke up to the sound of the table crashing. I looked over and found my phone vibrating on the ground. When I bent over to pick it up, something hit me in the back of the head. Everything seemed foggy after that blow. It's hard to remember what happened, but I did scratch him across the face. I'm sure there's some DNA. I didn't get a good look at his face, but his voice sounded so familiar, I just couldn't quite place it."

Catherine opens her kit and scrapes the underneath of Greg's finger nails. "We'll be back to check on you later. We'll also bring you back some different clothes."

Greg mouthed "oh" knowing that Catherine was taking his clothes for analysis. "You get some rest Greg."

Greg nods and falls asleep as Catherine walks out of the hospital bedroom. She then walks up to the doctor. "Sorry, but are you the doctor that is treating Greg Sanders?"

"Yes, I'm Dr. David Phillips."

"Can you give me the report on all of his injuries?"

Dr. Phillips gives Catherine the manila folder that contained Greg's status. "Thank you."

Catherine walks away and heads outside. She then gets a call on her cellphone. "Willows."

"Hey Catherine, its Grissom. I hope you got something from Greg."

"We got some of the attacker's DNA and we have Greg's injuries and clothes."

"Great, bring them to the lab right away."

Catherine hangs up the phone and gets ready to get into her car. Back at the lab, Sarah walks back to the A/V lab. "Hey Archie, you paged me?"

"Yeah, you see, I was looking for the footage, but it was all deleted, but, before you burst, I have probably the most important evidence that could get you your attacker."

"Spit it out Archie."

"You see, I figured that you can't delete any of the footage from our cameras unless you did it from inside the lab, so I figured that the person had to have logged on. I checked for anyone that accessed the camera feed, and only two people came up; you after you found Greg and Tad, the security guard."

Sarah's eyes opened wide. Archie looked at her with a smile. "Good job Archie."

Sarah left the room and headed over to Grissom. "How about a kiss for my excellent work?" yelled Archie.

"Forget it!" Archie heard from down the hall. Sarah found Grissom just hanging up his phone. "Hey Grissom, I've got a lead."

"Who?" asks Grissom.

"Tad, the security officer. You see, he was the only person besides me that accessed the camera feed tonight. Either he did it, or he was helping out a friend."

"Good work Sarah. Get Brass, I think it's time we have ourselves a chat with Tad."

Sarah headed out of the room and over to Brasses office. Finally, thought Grissom, We're finally getting somewhere.

I personally want to thank TheOneBlueGecko for giving me some tips. Thank you again! I also want to thank all the readers for reading this fic. I won't let you down, I promise!