Brass checked the clock on the car stereo for the billionth time, he looked back at the diner and saw no movement, and Jessie had been gone ten minutes. Not too long if there was a queue but it was late night and he doubted that. She's probably getting chatted up, again. Brass thought to himself, but just to be on the safe side, he decided to go check in on her.
Locking the car without a backward glance he quickly crossed to the entrance and pulled open the door, he was hit by the cold air conditioning and the smell of fries and his stomach growled, soft music floated through the diner which was quiet except from a few hushed conversations here and there.
Brass looked around, a young scruffy man, probably a grad student sat nursing a black coffee, and an older couple sat tiredly eating pancakes as they talked quietly. A waitress slumped in a chair behind the counter and a large cook was visible in the kitchen window. No Jessie.
"Shit" Jim breathed and walked up to the waitress "excuse me, there was a woman in here about ten minutes ago, blonde, about your height, wearing a suit? Do you know where she went?"
The waitress sat up straighter, her dirtied fingernails of a tobacco smoker scraped through her greasy gray hair. "I dunoh hon, she came in, ordered two black and a box of house specials, said she needed the bathroom" she said slowly, very unhelpfully she pointed at the still steaming coffees and the Donut box.
Brass didn't even nod at her he just stormed across to the bathroom and slipped through the aerially open door, his pulse had quickened and he had to calm himself down. "Jessie? Jessie?" he called, he checked all the booths, before Checking the window "son of a bitch" he shouted
A bloody hand print marred the wall and the window latch was broken, what looked like long blonde hairs and some darker ones were wrapped around the latch, the bathroom mirror closest to the window was smashed and bloody and to top everything off, a slim silver locket lay broken and partially crushed on the Lino flooring.
Jim screwed his eyes shut and pulled out his phone "Lou? Get down here now an bring as many boys and CSI as you can, it's Jessie, son of a bitch has taken her, diner about ten minutes from the strip, margie's" he snapped the phone shut without waiting for a reply.
He stormed back into the diner and called out loudly, flashing his badge "alright, none of you are to leave here, you understand, you leave an you will be arrested"
"what the he'll man?" the grad student spoke up angrily "why we gotta stay?"
"I'll tell you why you prick, your all witnesses to An abduction" Jim said angrily, the whole situation dawning on him.
It wasn't long before he heard the sirens and the bell above the door ringing continuously, the entire team of detectives and CSI's were there, along with what looked like the whole of the LVPD. Unfortunately, the first person to reach Jim was Gil Grissom.
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The enormity of the situation was reflected in Grissom's eyes, he moved woodenly towards Jim and for the first time since he'd met him, he felt fear.
Gil Grissom's brown eyes crinkled in pain as he drew up beside the detective, they were wide and assessing and worried. "Please tell me this is a sick joke and Jessie is going to jump at any minute?"
Jim sighed "I'm sorry Gil, I wish it was" Grissom
Fell silent and Jim wished he would yell at him, get mad, something, but he just stayed silent.
Nick pushed his way through the crowds of detectives "what the hell? Where the fuck is Jessie? Why weren't you keeping an eye on her?" Jim thought this was better, anger and hate he could handle. Nick got close up in his face and for one moment Jim thought he was going to punch him, but Grissom gently pushed nick away from the detective.
"This isn't helping nick" he stated which just seemed to make nick even more furious.
"This is Jessie we're talking about! Jesus Grissom even you can't be that heartless as to forget your own family ties!" nick shouted
A hush descended on the diner, Grissom's eyes tightened and he took a step away from nick and turned his back, nick sensing his mistake calmed momentarily "Grissom, I'm sorry...I'm just,...Jesus" he ran a hand through his hair as tears threatened but Grissom just ignored him and spoke to Jim
"show me where she was last" Jim nodded and led him into the woman's bathroom where grissom sat his silver case down carefully on the sticky floor "get me warrick and his camera in here"
Jim cleared his throat " in so sorry Gil, I should have come in with her, should have insisted"
Gil turned to face him and looked at him openly just as Jessie had about half an hour ago. "I don't blame you Jim, I know you tried your best, you would never do anything to put her in danger and it's just a diner Jim, you couldn't have known"
"I should have...I should have gone with her..." Jim blundered only stopping when Grissom
Squeezed his shoulder and smiled tightly.
"Please Jim, let's just concentrate on finding her" he said as warrick strolled in, his usually sleepy eyes wide and alert, his camera poised in his hand. Grissom indicated the evidence with a tilt of his head.
Warrick knelt carefully beside the locket and took a few snaps, repeating this process on the bloody hand print and broken mirror and the hairs caught on the latch, he did this silently until he had finished and looked Grissom straight in the eye. "We'll get this bastard, I promise" Grissom nodded tightly and opened his silver case.
"Get me the CTV videos" he said snapping his plastic gloves on and drawing an evidence bag from His kit.
Warrick looked puzzled "but Grissom, there are no CTV cameras in the bathrooms?"
Grissom pointed out of the open door, propped open by a small black cement cat, to a camera behind the counter "this mirror here is in direct view of the camera, the angles tight but it should have captured everything that happened"
Warrick smiled at Grissom's analytical ability and practically sprinted away to the back offices. Grissom knelt down and gently picked up the partially crushed locket; he dropped it into the evidence bag and sealed it. He Rose to his feet and inspected the hand print, measuring it and hovering his own hand against the print, he didn't speak just moved around methodically.
Next he moved to the smashed mirror, blood clung to the broken shards and his reflection was distorted into hundreds of tiny Grissom's
He narrowed his eyes at it and filed away the fact the glass had broke in such a way a fist could not have done it. He took swabs of the blood from the mirror and hand print before moving over to the window.
He plucked the strands of hair and separated them into diffract evidence bags, he dusted the window for finger prints and came up with a set of partials. Brass had watched his friend without speaking, but spotting something in the corner of the sink he spoke up.
"Gil? Is that a tooth?" he pointed to the molar in the sink beneath the shattered mirror, Grissom
Nodded and drew his own camera from His kit to snap a shot of the tooth before bagging it.
Finally he was finished collecting the evidence, giving the bathroom another once over he was satisfied he hadn't missed anything he led Jim back out into the main diner. A few detectives were questioning the customers, waitress and cook while the csi's examined the rest of the building, warrick stepped out of the back rooms holding a bag containing the ctv tape and joined them near the counter where the box of donuts and now cold coffees sat.
Brass watched Grissom give the orders for warrick Catharine to return to the bureau and process the evidence who both, looking White and strained hastened to do so. Grissom turned back to Jim "does she have her gun on her?"
Jim nodded "she always carries it with her" Grissom seemed slightly relieved to find this out and collapsed heavily into a booth far from the detectives and remaining CSI's, Jim hesitantly sat opposite him.
"Jim if anything happens to her...I can't lose her". He mumbled into his hands
"you won't Gil, well find her and bring this scum to justice I promise, everything will be okay" although he said this confidently he sounded as if he was trying to reassure himself more. Grissom looked up and his usually angelic face was pained. "Thank you Jim"
Jim managed to smile and left his friend to give his statement to Lou, guilt and worry gnawing away at him.