Chapter 9
When Grissom first got the call that Nick had disappeared, he'd initially thought that Nick had finally had enough and just walked away.
There were almost no signs of struggle. A stray white fiber on Nick's vest that the younger man could have picked up anywhere. It was almost as if Nick had just set his camera down, taken off his vest, and walked away without looking back.
Then the scent dogs had followed Nick's trail into the alley, to a large dry spot indicative of a large vehicle having been parked there. Grissom knew Nick's personal truck was still parked in the lab parking lot, as he'd seen it when he'd gotten into his department Denali with Catherine right after they'd gotten the call about Nick.
Now Grissom was yelling at David Hodges, who was practically tackling a delivery man at the reception desk. "Hodges, what are you doing!"
The trace technician finally managed to wrestle the package from the delivery man and panted out, "Getting this away from him before he destroys any trace on it. It's about Nick!"
Hodges set the package on the reception counter, looking from it to Grissom.
Pulling a pair of gloves from his pocket, Grissom put them on with a sharp snap, then gingerly picked up the package.
It was a padded envelope of the variety used for sending compact discs or other small media. There was no return address, but it had a type written mailing label addressed to the crime lab. Under the address, it read re: Stokes.
Carrying the package to the layout room, Grissom vaguely registered the fact that he was being followed by most of the graveyard shift staff.
"You've all got work to do! Get to it!" he snapped. More softly, before the crowd could completely dissipate, he said, "I'll call you if I get any new leads from this."
Several minutes later, after carefully cutting the envelope open and scanning over the two objects it contained – a cassette tape and a USB drive – with the ALS, everyone had gathered again as Grissom prepared to play the tape.
They quickly discovered the tape was a bust, so Grissom took the USB drive to the computer and plugged it in.
A ransom demand flashed across the screen, then the words, "You can only watch."
Grissom did what no one else seemed able to do. He moved the mouse over the word watch, and clicked. The screen changed to a web cam feed showing Nick in what appeared to be a box of some kind.
Looking closely, Grissom could see that the box appeared to be surrounded by dirt. Moving his attention to Nick, Grissom's heart fell. The younger man was still alive, but there was a look of utter defeat on his face. Grissom feared that Nick wouldn't be surviving this. With no one of real import to the younger man waiting for him, Grissom feared Nick had finally found his reason to stop trying.
