WOO HOO, chapter 10, I'm in the double digits now :D!
Also, I know this chapter could seem a little slow due to the fact that there isn't any Greg or angst and stuff… but thoughts will be coming together in this chapter. But not all questions will be fully answered yet… no that comes in chapter 11… and guess who will FINALLY be coming back :D!
So yeah, chapter 10 people, I hope you enjoy, and reviews, as always, are always cherished :)!
Chapter 10: Questioning His Innocence
Nick and Catherine arrived back at the lab, and they had their minds set on immediately processing the evidence. While in the car, Brass had made a call to Nick, telling him that Caleb's DNA and fingerprints had already been taken, and also that the van had been picked up and was in the garage and ready to be processed. With everything that was going on at the moment, it all seemed like controlled ciaos
With the two of them entering the crime lab, they had approached Judy's front desk and collected Caleb's DNA and fingerprints. Catherine was the one who grabbed the buccal swab and she was heading over to Wendy's lab so that she could get processing Caleb's DNA. Catherine also had the evidence from the garbage can that she hoped would give them their first solid connection to Greg. Nick on the other hand had the ten-card in his hand and was heading over to Mandy Webster, the labs fingerprint expert, so that she could scan the prints into AFIS.
With Catherine swiftly making her way through the, it was easy for Wendy to spot the determined red-head making her way toward her lab. Though has she entered, before Wendy could even release the first syllable of a welcome, she was cut off by Catherine's demanding entrance.
"Wendy, I need you to process this evidence right away," she firmly ordered. Catherine then placed the three bags of evidence and the buccal swab all in a line. With the duct tape first in line, Catherine pointed to the two bags and issued her request for the results of her evidence. "So with the duct tape, first check for epithelial and run it against Greg."
Moving her way down the line, she then pointed to the bagged, tattered blue shirt. "There is blood on this shirt, so once again, check to see if the blood belongs to Greg," she continued to order. "Also, check around the shoulders of the shirt for epithelial; we've specifically looking for the Donnar's DNA here," she once again requested, her thoroughness coming through.
"Finally," she said, and then picked up the buccal swab in its' orange capsule and held it up for Wendy to see. "This is Caleb Donnar's DNA and his brother Markus is already in CODIS. If you get any unknown results, run the DNA against these two. If there isn't a match to either Greg or the Donnar's, run the DNA through CODIS."
Her final request was made, and she began to make her way toward the door to leave, but before she walked out, she told Wendy one last thing. "And Wendy, this is top priority. We need this processed ASAP so that we can convict the Donnar's, so be sure to page me immediately when you have the results." And before Wendy could even assure her, Catherine was out the door.
"Yeah sure Nick, I'll get these fingerprints in AFIS for you right away," Mandy answered. "So how is the case going? Any luck with Greg?" she then ventured to ask, hoping for some positive news.
"Well we have two men in custody right now who seem to be the kidnappers. All the evidence is pointing to them, but we don't have the actual proof right now, but I know it's them," Nick cockily added before continuing. "Catherine just gave most of our evidence to Wendy, so once she's got processed that, it will finally be the proof that we need to convict them," Nick explained, holding out hope in his voice.
"So you think these guys are the kidnappers?" Mandy asked, confirming Nick's thoughts.
"We have little reason to doubt it," Nick stated with confidence.
Catherine had this unfazed determination to immediately get all of the evidence processed, so as she made her way into Mandy's lab, interrupting the conversation that she was holding with Nick, she opened the door and blurted out, "Nick, we need to go process the van now." Only initiating her order, and without waiting for a response from Nick, she was out the door and headed down to the garage.
Immediately obeying her order, Nick began to leave the fingerprint lab, but not without saying goodbye to Mandy. "Well I gotta go, but hey, thanks again Mandy." Nick following behind Catherine left the lab and headed down to the garage to process the van.
The two of them in the garage, Nick and Catherine put on their blue jumpsuits and then walked over to the van to begin processing it. Walking to the back of the van, Nick's eyes were instantly glued upon the bullet impressions made upon the back and sides of the van, but as they opened the back doors, everything that they needed to find was out in the open, littering the van with evidence. There was no doubt; this was the van that Greg was taken in.
Starting at the point that caught his attention the most, Nick began to examine the outer exterior of the van and the bullet impressions. After photographing the impressions and the two bullet holes, Nick started to search the back of the van where he instantly found the two bullets. As he collected them, he set them off to the side so that he could send them to Bobby Dawson in ballistics to I.D. the bullets to clarify that they came from his gun, though he already knew they were.
Catherine was in the back of the van as well and her eyes instantly caught the sight of some red trace that was on the metal floor. Taking out a swab and some phenolphthalein, she was able to I.D. the red substance. "Hey Nick, I've got blood back here" stated Catherine. She was disturbed by it, but she was trying to set aside her emotions and not allow her mind to get carried away to disturbing and unwanted places.
Nick wasn't shy to express his dismayed thoughts though. "It's probably Greg's. When they grabbed him, they shoved him into the back of the van. I don't know if he stayed there the rest of the car ride, but he could have if there's blood," Nick stated as he spoke of the memories of seeing Greg's abduction and making a sour face at his reminiscence of the event.
This was all that was in the back of the van so Nick and Catherine made their way up to the front, the area where the kidnappers sat. Catherine took the drivers side and started to process the seat; her eyes looking for a loose hair or anything that could contain even the slightest shrivel of DNA. On shortly finding nothing, she then hopped into the driver's seat and quickly started to coat the steering wheel with fingerprint dust.
Nick had taken to processing the passenger seat and like Catherine he was also searching for something that could be considered as DNA. He was looking for hair as well, even searching for an old scab, and he even brought out his UV light checking for spittle or, a long shot idea, seamen. But still, he found nothing. The van was clean, and it really only seemed that Greg was the only person in the van.
After finding no luck in the passenger chair, Nick sat in it, and checked the glove compartment. After simply opening it, and the contents, or better word evidence, became visible; a white cloth was scene fallowed buy a brown cylinder bottle. His mind instantly assumed the worse. "Catherine. I think that the kidnappers chloroformed Greg," spoke Nick in a sick realization.
Catherine choose to not to dwell on what was the misfortune, and she quickly got Nick's attention and him back on track. "Nick, stay focused okay, check the bottle for fingerprints and get them to Mandy to run against the Donnar's, and send the white cloth to DNA and see if Greg's epithelial or DNA is on the cloth; prove that it was used to render Greg unconscious. And when you give this to Wendy, tell her once she is done with it, to have her send it to Henry to confirm that the substance inside of the bottle is a match with the contents on the cloth."
With the van now processed, evidence and hand and his supervisor's orders, Nick immediately obeyed her and quickly got all the evidence to the proper lab techs. It didn't take long for Nick to get the evidence to everyone though, and on his way back toward Catherine, he saw her leaving the garage and making her way out of her jumpsuit. Nick then did the same as her and removed his jumpsuit.
"You know, even though the evidence isn't processed yet, we could still start to interrogate the Donnar's. We can't accuse them of anything, only standard questioning, but it's something to do instead of just waiting around doing nothing," Catherine suggested.
Hearing this, Nick couldn't wait to begin interrogating the sick bastard that was obviously messing with his head. Nick nodded his head, agreeing with her, and the two of them headed down to Brass's office to pitch their idea. It didn't take much to convince Brass seeming that he liked the idea, and before they knew it, Nick was sitting in the interrogation room and waiting for Caleb Donnar.
With Nick in the interrogation room, Catherine was standing outside looking through the double sided mirror so that she could observe the interrogation. She then saw Officer Mitchell leading Caleb down the hallway and then the two of them entered the interrogation room.
Nick was sitting at the table in the interrogation room and was waiting for Officer Mitchell to bring in their suspect. Nick was anxious but excited, and he was ready to nail this son of a bitch. The door then opened, and turning his head, Nick could see a handcuffed Caleb Donnar being escorted into the room and over to the table, and he then sat down directly across from him. Nick's blood was already beginning to boil; the smug smirk still on his suspects face. "What happened to the lawyer that you threatened us with?" Nick asked, remembering Caleb's earlier threat, noticing that he walked in alone.
"I don't need to pay a guy to tell me not to talk to you when I can simply tell you that my self," Caleb blankly yet boldly admitted.
"Well, seeming that you've chosen to give up that right, let's just get to the questioning now. Do you know why you're here?" Nick asked, starting off with a standard and straight forward question.
"You obviously didn't catch on when I said that I'm not talking to you. 30 seconds later, it still applies. I'm not saying anything," Caleb harshly and clearly stated.
The fact that this smug bastard had all the answers but was still keeping his mouth shut, it was starting to really take its toll on Nick's sanity, feeling that he absolutely had no control in this situation. He was still determined to get something out of his stubborn and arrogant suspect though, so he proceeded with the interrogation. "Listen Caleb, it was just one simple question. You're not exactly going to give a whole lot away by just stating why you think you're here," Nick attempted to reason with him, hoping to persuade him in giving at least some shrivel of information.
Caleb instantly picked up on Nick's passive intentions in trying to get an answer out of him, but he just threw it right back in his face. "If I tell you why I think I'm here, then I'm basically confessing, and I am saying, I didn't do anything," he snapped back with a cocky confidence and composure.
The arrogance in Caleb's voice was easily digging into Nick's skin. Being denied yet again an answer, it was starting to affect him. His jaw clenched, his muscles tensed, and a frustration that was evident in his eyes started to show. With the rapid emotions that he had gone through in the past few hours, was starting to take its toll on Nick and his irritability finally broke through.
Slamming his fists down on the table, with a stern glare fixed upon Caleb, he practically screamed at him with his thick southern accent and harsh tone. "I'm not going to deal with your fuckin bull shit right now!" Nick viciously exclaimed at the man while pointing at him. "You're here because you kidnapped a CSI, and now, he's missing! If you tell us where he is, then maybe, MAYBE, you can escape the death penalty!" he retorted with his sense of humanity gone. Nick finally felt like he had control in this interrogation again, especially after he delivered his ultimatum; answer some questions, or get the death penalty.
Caleb was instantaneously taken back by Nick. Not expecting for him to go off like that, it replaced his arrogance with worry. But it wasn't just Nick's control in the interrogation that worried him; it was what he was being accused of. "Wait, you think I kidnapped someone?" he questioned, fearing that it was what they believed.
Nick just laughed at him seeing that he was still trying to play innocence. "You fuckin bastard! I'm putting your life on the line and you're still playing this innocent act!" he asked with mockery. "You wanna give this another try Caleb? Why do you think you're here?"
"Because you found out about the van; you traced the van to us!" Caleb practically confessed.
"Yeah I traced the van to you. You kidnapped my missing CSI in that van, I saw you kidnap him; you took him in that van!" Nick was screaming at him, his frustration taking over the tone in his voice.
By this time, rolls were completely reversed. Caleb became this frail, lost suspect, and Nick was the vicious interrogator with mockery playing in his voice every chance he got.
Caleb's mouth just hung open and his eyes here filled with sheer fear and were almost on the verge of tearing; he was speechless. He realized that because he kept his mouth shut, he was now put in a world of hurt. "I, I, didn't kid, I used the van, the van." This was all that Caleb could attempt to stutter out.
Nick still wasn't buying into Caleb's innocent act; to him, the stuttering was just a pathetic embellishment. "Caleb cut the bull shit. We have a witness saying that he saw you arrive at your house at about 1:30 this morning in that van and then shortly after he heard screaming. He then saw you park the van over at the foreclosed lot right next door to your house."
Looking at Caleb though, Nick saw something that he hadn't scene yet, and he himself was taken back by it. Caleb's eyes held this vulnerable fear. Taking down his dominate tone, but still with a stern voice, Nick finally gave Caleb a chance to explain him self. "Caleb, we have a lot of evidence stacked up against you so unless you've got something that you need to confess to, your looking pretty damn guilty."
"I swear to god, I have no idea what you're talking about with the kidnapping," he honestly admitted, his voice now practically breaking.
Nick for once also heard something other then a smug arrogance; he heard honesty in his breaking voice. Nick was now feeling just as confused as his suspect though, so he continued questioning him so he could finally clear some things up. "Caleb, I need you to listen here. Right now, you're being suspected of kidnapping a CSI who is now missing, and if we find him, and he's dead, you're looking at the death penalty. If you didn't do this, then you need to say so, or else you're going to be going down for someone else."
"I didn't kidnap anyone," was all that Caleb admitted to.
"Okay," Nick said, though he was hoping to get more out of the man who was trying to prove his innocence. "Well why did you mention the van?"
Caleb remained silent though.
"Caleb, you already mentioned the van," Nick said reasoning with the man, trying to get him to spill the beans for something.
Caleb still remained silent though, so Nick finally took his opportunity to present his reasonable logic that he had a sure feeling would be enough to get something out of his mess of a suspect. "Caleb, if you're trying to cover up for something else that you did, I can tell you, right now is not the time for that. You're being suspected of kidnapping someone who is now missing, so you have the death penalty on your hands. If you have nothing to do with this, you need to tell us, or you could be dying for something someone else did. I'm taken that you did something, or else you wouldn't be keeping your mouth shut, so for once, confessing to your crime, it's going to help you. Just tell us what you did man."
Caleb came to the conclusion that Nick's logic behind what he was saying was rather reasonable. He knew that he would get in trouble for what he did do, but it was nothing compared to kidnapping someone. Finally heeding Nick's advice, Caleb finally confessed to his crime. "I stole the van."
Hearing this, Nick remembered when he, Catherine and Archie all saw the report for the missing van. If this was the van that he stole, he wanted to find out why. "Why'd you steal the van?" he curiously asked.
Caleb was silent for a second, putting together his thoughts, but with a heavy sigh, Caleb then fully admitted to everything. "So my brother and I, we're desperate for money right now, so when my neighbor asked us to steal this van for him, he said that he'd pay us. He said that there was no way that we'd get caught or anything, that we would be fine, so yeah, we did it."
Everything that Caleb admitted to, it was honest and genuine, and Nick could tell by how smoothly everything came out; it required no thought or recollection. It was like word vomit. Just wanting to clarify him though, Nick asked, "So you stole a van for your neighbor?"
Caleb just shook his head.
"That was your big crime?" Nick asked, sarcasm playing in his voice, though he was serious; he was actually more so shocked. "Why didn't you just tell us that?" he asked, pondering the stupidity behind Caleb's stubbornness.
Nick's question seemed like it held an obvious answer in Caleb's opinion. "Cause stealing a car is a crime dumb ass," he replied, his arrogance returning for his comment.
Nick ignored Caleb's tone and the crude name he was called though. Returning to the questioning, Nick already knew that the car Caleb stole was the one from the report, but just wanting another clarification from the man, he asked, "And when did you steal the van?"
Once again, Caleb's answer required no pause or thought process. Remembering the night clearly, he responded, "It was two nights ago."
With this, Nick instantly knew that this was the van from the report. "What did you do with the van after you stole it?" Nick then asked, now wanting to clear this up.
"I dropped it off at my neighbor's house," Caleb answered.
"Did you ask why he wanted you to steal the van for him?"
"I tried to, but he never answered me."
With half of the truth now unraveling, Nick was completely hung up on why this man was being so stubborn over a stolen car when he was facing a crime that was far worse then what he did commit. "So you were willing to die just to defend the fact that you stole a car," he asked with puzzlement.
"No I wasn't willing to die. It was when you were talking about this kidnapping thing that I confessed didn't I?" Caleb said, factoring in his reasoning behind his stubbornness.
"Well what about when my colleague found the evidence in your garbage can, you didn't think of confessing there?" Nick once again mused, finding Caleb's intentions hard to fully understand.
"You know I figured that you guys were just desperate for something to convict us for," Caleb once again admitted.
"But we were looking through your trash. How the hell does rifling through your trash help convict you for stealing the van?"
By now, Caleb almost felt like Nick was mocking him. The same question basically repeating its self over and over was really starting to bug him. With the smug in his voice returning, Caleb once again stated his means behind his earlier stubbornness. "I told you, I thought you guys were desperate for information," he firmly stated, his irritant obvious in his voice. "You know I just kept my mouth shut because Richards said that I wouldn't get caught, so I figured that if I kept quiet, then you guys wouldn't be able to charge me of anything, because I wouldn't admit to anything," Caleb once more confessed.
Caleb's actions were now justifiable, but it wasn't his full confession that caught Nick's attention. "Wait, Richards… Calvin Richards?" Nick asked, for a confirmation with a thought he was already dreading.
And Caleb's simple answer confirmed Nick's already growing suspicion. "Yeah," Caleb said.
"What does he have to do with this?" he then asked; worry building in his stomach for what the answer might be.
"He was the neighbor who paid me to steal the van, and he was the one who said that I wouldn't get caught but obviously, he was full of shit!" Caleb exclaimed.
Everything was all of a sudden beginning to piece its self together in Nick's mind. This jumbled mess was now turning out to be a methodical scam. Nick was silently sitting there, his thoughts frozen in shock and he didn't break out of this trance until Catherine began to speak through the micro phone. "Nick, I just got a page from Wendy. She's got our results," she announced.
Hearing this, Nick instantly got up from the table and left the interrogation room. Turning the corner and seeing Catherine standing there with the same shock on her face that was on his, he knew that she was thinking the same thing. Walking to the DNA lab, Catherine began to speak her inevitable thoughts. "Nick, if the Donnar's are innocent, does that mean we're looking at Calvin Richards."
Nick was silent though. Catherine putting a question to his scrambled thoughts, he was finally beginning to put together his thoughts and suspicions, and they were all forming around this man. Before he could answer her though, the two of them entered the DNA lab.
"Wendy, what did you get back for the results?" Catherine asked, immediately demanded her results.
"Regarding the evidence that you collected from the van; DNA on the cloth came back to Greg and Hodges ran the trace that was found on the rag and it came back as chloroform and it also matched the chemical substance in the brown bottle, so the chloroform came from the bottle and was most likely used to subdue Greg," Wendy stated, listing off her results.
"For the evidence that you found in the Donnar's trash; blood and epithelials on the shirt are a match to Greg, as well as the epithelials on the duct tape," she continued.
For her next and final piece of evidence, it both reaped good and bad news; she only hoped that it would help the two CSI's. "There was also a second donor on the duct tape, but it didn't match either of the Donnar's; there actually wasn't a single marker in common," she announced with some dismay for her results weren't able to convict their only suspects. But still, she did have a result regarding the second donor. "I did run the unknown DNA from the duct tape against the unknown DNA from the staged crime scene though; we have a match."
Wendy handed the papers with the results on them to both Nick and Catherine who instantly grabbed them and started to read them over. Catherine was looking at the page with the results on the DNA from the tape and thanks to Wendy's thoroughness; Catherine was able to make certain assumptions. "Well if the DNA isn't the Donnar's, we are without a doubt looking at a new suspect."
"Catherine, we already know who our new suspect is," Nick said, stating what he thought was an obvious fact.
It was an obvious fact. Catherine knew exactly who Nick was referring to, and now wanting to discuss the suspicion growing between the two of them, she finally decided to dismiss the two of them. "Wendy, thank you for getting the results to us so quickly," she thanked as she started to leave the lab with Nick automatically following behind her.
Catherine was now heading down to her office and took a seat at her desk. Wanting to get her scrambled thoughts out of her head, she finally released the big question to Nick. "Do you fully believe that the Donnar's are innocent?"
Nick was silent for a minute. They had yet to talk to Markus, but Caleb's confession seemed like a genuine confession; it wasn't some made up story. Even if they had yet to interrogate either of them, none of the evidence had come back to them which didn't even make them proper suspects to begin with. "As much as I hate to admit it, because I feel that if I do, I am basically saying that this was all a frickin hoax and that we've wasted time following a bull shit lead. But they're innocent Catherine," Nick admitted to what he knew was the truth.
Catherine completely agreed with Nick, which led to her second conclusion. "So do you think Calvin is our new suspect?"
This was exactly what Nick was thinking as well, but his thoughts were just slightly more elaborate. "Catherine, I think he framed the Donnar's. The more I piece together everything in my mind, the more I bring my self to this conclusion that I think Calvin is the one who kidnapped Greg."
Another one of those damn cliff hangers! You love to hate them, you hate to love them. They're just so enticing!
Also, this is our last Gregless chapter… well, for quite a while at least. But yeah, you guys have MEGA Greg angst next chapter… so WOO HOO to that, and WOO HOO for me for leaving you guys with anticipation that is going to be killing you ha ha. :D!
So what do you guys think? I'm curious :)! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and now off to my thanks :)
For favoriting, thank you gregoani
For alerting, thanks tvaddict88, hikikomori-kun, acsgrlie, and Jennypen
And for my reviewers, thank you to Lady Sally, GreggoAddict, almostkaity, VisionX23, JodsRaine, acsgrlie, and Jennypen. Ahhhh, your guy's lovely reviews… honestly, it's what keeps me posting this story for you guys.
And one more thank you… Thanks to everyone who has read my story so far. As it is great to see someone leave a review or favorite my story, it's great to also see the number of people who have read my story (or even skim it ha ha), rise every time I post a chapter. So yeah, thanks to everyone.