Chapter Nine

Grissom had ruefully informed Catherine that it wasn't possible for Sara to come to the lab in the next few days. Ecklie was conducting some kind of quality and work inspection and the assistant director was already more than a little pissed at Sara.

Grissomhad arrived to visit Sara on Sunday. The woman had looked pleased with his presence and they had spent a great deal of time talking. Catherine had been aware that Grissom and Sara were friends before he brought her to work in the Vegas Crime Lab. But she hadn't been able to garner much information regarding the true nature of their relationship. Grissom, being Grissom, always maintained a strict professionalism during work and treated Sara no different than the other CSIs. But now, watching them converse like old pals, she began to see what being cloistered in the lab and the crime scene never allowed her to see.

Catherine's natural curiosity was too much for her to remain quiet and on Monday when she returned back to work, she met Grissom first thing.

"So, you knew Sara really well before she came here?"

Grissom looked up in surprise. "Well enough. Why?"

"No, you just never talked about it." Catherine replied.

"There was nothing to talk about." He shrugged.

"Do you… like her?" Okay, that came out and I don't know why.

"Catherine?" He had a what's-this-about expression on his face.

"Well, I did hear rumors." She explained feebly.

"I never took you to be one who hears rumors." He raised his eyebrows. "So, what's the report on your checking up on Burke?"

So he doesn't want to discuss it. Well, I guess that's it then.

"Burke hardly socialized but he used to play the slots once in a while. He never won nor lost a substantial amount. His girlfriend, Abby Ross, now Mrs. Abigail Donner, left Vegas shortly after he died. She's in Arizona and I've tried calling her but got an answering machine. She has every right to not answer our questions unless we get a suitable warrant from the Phoenix PD."

"Ask Brass to arrange it." He instructed. "Sara was found in the car that is supposed to be registered to her. If she lost it, sold it, abandoned it, gave it away to charity, we need to know."

"Okay."

Brass was more than happy to scheme the warrant for their purpose. He had been away on a much postponed vacation which he had immediately cancelled on hearing about Sara. He still carried the ghosts of the time when Holly Gribbs had been killed in the line of duty. The news of Sara must have hit him with full force. Catherine had always admired the exceptional coolness with which Brass handled all his cases. That is why, this distraught Brass unnerved her. She was thankful she had good news for him.

Catherine then went through the casefile of the "eclipse killer' as he (or they) had come to be known. She read the file she had made almost four years earlier for the twentieth time, hoping she had missed something there. She then went through Sara and Nick's notes. Sara kept a small book where she jotted down everything before officially transferring them into the main records. Catherine had tried once again to encode them but gave up and decided to take it home with her. She had come up with a list of all possible victims, from the age of 13 to 19, whose ethnicity, profession or vacation trips connected them to all the countries that came under the arch of the solar eclipse. The list was long and there was no way of knowing how many others were connected in some remote way to the countries. They still had to figure out how the killer thought and until that, they would get nowhere. There had been no missing reports filed from the list she had made but then again, that didn't really mean anything. Short of calling each household and confirming that their daughter was safely tucked in bed, she couldn't do anything with the list.

She wondered what clues had led Sara to go to the motel. She then went over the sketch Greg had provided and thought of showing it to Sara that night. However, much as she wanted to nab the guy, she didn't want to torment Sara. The brunette said nothing but Catherine had woken up for two nights at a stretch by the sounds of Sara talking in her sleep. The woman had appeared to be in the throes of a nightmare as her limbs thrashed about and she moved her head from side to side. Catherine had been at a loss and had only been able to stand and wait for the nightmare to subside before returning back to sleep. She hadn't asked Sara because the woman showed no signs of distress in the morning. But she couldn't help thinking that her telling Sara about the attack so early in the recovery stage had caused those nightmares.

She had regularly called home to check up on Sara. It wasn't until her sister had started to sound suspicious that she stopped. She then immersed herself in her work for the next couple of hours until dawn broke the darkness outside.

"Catherine!" Greg huffed as he entered her office. "We found another victim."

Catherine sprung up, adrenaline rushing through her veins.

The victim was Melanie Dreher, only daughter of a widowed second generation Greek mother. Melanie was supposed to be on a trip with her school and therefore her mother didn't take notice of her absence. But the previous night's rain must have exposed the body and a group of UNLV students had found it in a ditch.

Melanie's body had begun decomposing showing that it had been there for a while. Catherine forbade anyone from touching the body before she had a time to process it. As expected, there was a sketch of an eclipse on the torso. There were indications of a sexual assault. Nick was beside her, photo-documenting the scene. Suddenly, her fingers encountered a bulk in the uniform skirt. Catherine carefully took it out and saw that it was a piece of glass with blood on it. This was the first time she saw material evidence in this crime. She quickly packaged it. This was a small lead but at that moment, it was manna from Heaven.

Catherine heard the incessant sobs of a woman when she got back to the main road. A tall, dark-haired woman was leaning against a car. Her face was buried in her hands and her entire body shuddered with her cries.

"The mother." Brass whispered from Catherine's right. They walked towards the woman.

Catherine felt terrible for her. Brass softly spoke. "Mrs. Dreher, I'm Detective Brass and this is Catherine Willows from the Crime Lab. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?"

The woman removed her hands. Her eyes were red-rimmed and a beautiful face stained with tears. "Why? Why her! Melanie never did anyone wrong. She was a sweet girl. She was…" Another bout of sobs wrecked her body.

"Mrs. Dreher, it wasn't your daughter's fault. Whoever did this to her is an extremely sick man and many others like Melanie are in danger. We need your help in finding him." Catherine requested.

"Melanie was all I had. After Francis died… God, I promised him I'll live for our daughter's sake… he made me promise I'll send her to college, give her all the love… Francis will never forgive me…" Alexis fell down on her knees.

Catherine watched as Brass helped the woman. She knew what Alexis was feeling. She understood precisely what it felt like to be a single mother and have your entire universe centering only on your child. That girl was the only family Alexis had left and now with this…

Catherine shivered despite the summer heat.

Catherine worked till noon. Doc Robbins had confirmed that the COD was the repeated knife stabbing on the chest, just like all the previous victims. Like others before her, her left breast had been cleanly removed. She had been raped but by a foreign inorganic object. The sketch on her stomach was by a standard felt-tip marker, available in anyone's house. A sample of the blood was sent to Wendy and she informed them that the DNA matched that of Melanie. The glass was still being examined by Greg.

Sara was engrossed in a book when Catherine reached home. One look at the woman and Sara knew something was terribly wrong. Exhaustion was written painfully on the pasty face and it brought forth a flash of concern within her.

"Catherine, are you ok?" She came forward.

"Yes. No. I don't know." Catherine whispered, sitting down on the couch.

"Want to talk about it?" She asked, sitting down beside the woman.

Catherine wet her lips and swallowed. "We found another body today."

"Same guy?" Sara questioned after recovering from the initial shock.

She nodded. "I met her mother. For a moment, it seemed as if I was in her position. If I ever lose Lindsay…" Her voice broke.

Sara stared helplessly as Catherine struggled to contain her tears. She didn't know what to do. Comforting someone had never been her strong point but she nevertheless wrapped her arm around the woman's shoulder and pressed it gently.

"You never realize how much someone means to you until you lose them." Sara understood.

"No, you don't."