Monday May 6, 10:00 AM
Las Vegas
After placing the call to Detective Messer a little over three hours ago Grissom had delved head first into the case. In fact everyone from the night shift to the day shift was working on this case. No one messed with someone in their lab without expecting consequences.
Not that they knew everything.
After Greg had been rushed to the hospital both Grissom and Doc Robbins had decided to wait till they had more evidence before placing the blame were they both knew it should be. Grissom's conversation with Danny had been enough to prove that.
Grissom sighed as he replayed the conversation with the young man in his head.
"This is Detective Messer."
Grissom was surprised to hear the tense New York accent come through the line. It was like he already knew what the older man would say. It made him nervous
"Detective Messer this is Supervisory Agent Gil Grissom with the Las Vegas Crime Lab I'm calling on behalf of Gregory Sanders." Gil heard a sharp intake of breath before he continued, "Mister Sanders was attacked earlier today in the lab and he said that you were the person to call."
"Where is he now?"
"He was placed in the intensive care unit at the hospital just a few minutes ago."
"How was he before the attack?"
It took Grissom a moment to answer, "Not good," figuring that Danny might know more than he was letting on Grissom decided to fish a little, "He just started a quadruple shift."
He heard Danny curse lightly, "That means he probably hasn't been eating or sleeping either."
Grissom's voice took on a surprised tone, "How did you know?"
"It is the same as last time."
This time Grissom's voice lowered in suspicion, "Detective if you know something about this attack then I suggest you tell me."
This time Danny growled into the phone, "I don't think I can tell you what you already know."
Deciding to go out on a limb Grissom made a snap decision, "Detective Messer I would like you to come to Las Vegas and help us catch whoever did this."
"And Greg?"
Grissom couldn't help but feel a sense of relief as he gave Danny the address of the hospital, but he also felt anxious that he would be discussing Greg's life with a stranger. "Did you get all that detective?"
"Yes sir. I'll be there as soon as I can." After that Danny hung up
Grissom was still not sure if he made the right decision, but he trusted Greg and if he was willing to trust this person from New York then the least Grissom could do was to show a little trust himself.
A light knock on the door made him look up.
In the door stood a smallish man with brown blonde hair and troubled blue eyes. "Mister Grissom?"
"Grissom will be fine," walking from behind his desk Gil held out a hand to Danny, "and you're Detective Messer I presume,"
"Danny." The normally strong accent seemed tired.
"Danny." Grissom nodded, "I take it you haven't seen Greg yet."
Danny shook his head as he sat down in one of the seats in front of Gil's desk, "I wanted to know what happened first."
Gil gave a slight nod before relaying to Danny what had happened. "I first noticed something was wrong when he was at work on his day off..." he then proceeded to explain how he had noticed that Greg had been working through lunch breaks and how he seemed more agitated than normal.
"That's when you figured out it had something to do with his father?" catching the suspicious eyes Danny added, "I guess I'd better explain. I knew Greg in New York; he was a...special friend."
Grissom's eyes widened for a minute before he nodded and quickly moved to his desk on the pretense of organizing papers, "Only two people in this lab know about Greg's past; one is the coroner Dr. Albert Robbins, he processed the bodies, and the other was myself...I found him." Danny lowered his eyes as Grissom's voice softened and his eyes took on a glazed look. The dirty blonde man knew exactly what Grissom was feeling. He had been the first one that Greg had called. He had been on the phone at the time of the attack. Had heard the screams.
Shaking his head Danny forced the memories away and cleared his throat. This seemed to spur Grissom out of his own haze, "Sorry."Grissom shifted his attention back to his paper only glancing up through his eyelashes when he was sure the other wasn't looking to see if he had reacted or changed his demeanor in any way.
He hadn't.
"Your earlier assumption was correct, it did have something to do with Greg's father, more specifically it had something to do with his father escaping prison."
Danny inhaled sharply and stared at the salt and pepper man as though willing him to say it wasn't true and that he had lied. When no such comfort came the younger man slowly removed his glasses and dropped his head into his hands. "I thought he was supposed to be in solitary confinement in the supermax."
"So did I," Grissom's voice turned steely, "but apparently being a model prisoner wipes away past sins." He shook his head, "Anyway, this is what we know so far; three weeks ago Jefferson Sanders was sentenced to solitary confinement for starting a prison riot that caused three people their lives. A week later a local guard was making his rounds when he noticed the door to Jefferson's cell was wide open and his prisoner gone. Neither he nor the warden knew what had happened, but both knew it had to be an inside job. Upon searching each of the guards it was found that one, a mister Phillip Castral, was missing from his post at the watch tower."
Danny looked up hopefully at Grissom, but the older man shook his head sadly, "Mister Castral was found dead in his house that very day from two gunshot wounds to the head, all of his prison credentials were missing."
Danny swallowed anxiously, "So we have no idea where he is?"
Grissom shook his head, "By the time prison official realized what had happened he was already gone."
Danny stood up and started pacing the room, "I don't care what it takes," he stopped and looked at Gil, "we have to catch this guy, we have to. I won't let him hurt Greg again."
Grissom watched the New Yorker pace up and down his office with his hand clenched in rage and for the first time since the detective arrived he began to relax. "Due to your special relationship with Greg I'm sure you know all about me."
Danny stopped his muttering and turned to Gil. He inspected the other man toughly before nodding slowly.
"Then you know there is nothing that I won't do for him." Again a nod, "That is why I would like your help in catching this psycho path before he strikes again."
There was a moment's pause. "As long as he gets what's coming to him then I'm in."
"O trust me he'll get what's coming to him."
