Flashback- Chapter 11

Marching up the Red Rock Canyon Trail ahead of Catherine, Sara focused on the terrain surrounding the path. Hoping upon hope, she expected to see a glimpse of Nick or Grissom among the desert vegetation. Instead, she saw the long gloomy shadows cast by the floodlights that had been placed along the path. Police officers guarding the scene had also been placed at regular intervals up and down the hiking trail. Spying the bright yellow crime scene tape fluttering in the gentle desert breeze just up ahead of her, Sara took a deep breath. She lowered her head and quickened her pace towards the body of Officer Smithson.

The slender brunette knelt close to the body and, with a gloved hand, touched the officer's neck wound. Sara shut her eyes briefly, thinking about Grissom, worried about what condition he might be in. Sighing guiltily, she was worried about Nick too, but her thoughts were centered on Grissom. Setting her lips grimly, she proceeded to do a cursory inspection of the body. There was little she could do until the assistant coroner, David Phillips, arrived and released the body to the investigators.

Catherine arrived moments later, and together the two women established a grid around the body and photo-documented shoeprints left in the dirt and disturbed vegetation.

As they continued their documentation, Catherine turned to Sara and commented, "Sara, I've found three different boot treads here. What do you think?"

Sara bent down next to Catherine and examined the tracks that were embedded in the claylike dirt. "I'll bet we can match these boot prints to those of our suspects. What do you think, Cath?"

Before Catherine could answer, Sara heard a rustling behind her, and she stood up in time to see David Phillips approaching her with two assistants in tow to help him load the body.

Looking at Sara, David inquired of the investigator, "Any word on Grissom or Nick?"

Sara shook her head, "No, Dave. No sign of them anywhere in this canyon that I've heard."

Phillips nodded and bent down to the fallen officer. Carefully rolling the officer over, the assistant coroner carefully examined the officer's neck wound and then checked the liver's temperature.

"Preliminary cause of death was exsanguination from the gunshot wound to the neck. TOD, according to the liver temp was about 6 hours ago," David reported.

"Thanks, David," said Catherine quietly. She watched silently as Phillips and his assistants loaded the body onto the stretcher.

"Hey Cath?" called Sara, drawing Catherine's attention away from the coroner.

"Yeah, Sara? What do you have?"

"Across the trail here. Broken branches and more boot prints," commented Sara.

Catherine joined her colleague, and both women followed the footprints and disturbed vegetation until they came to a small clearing a little distance away from Smithson's body. As they emerged into the clearing, they noticed a blood pool at the far end near a large boulder.

Sara walked carefully over and took several pictures of the blood pool. Looking at the boulders, the slender brunette took note of blood splatter across the stone and took pictures of that too. Chewing on her lip, she felt her anxiety rise as she realized that the blood spread before her was most probably Nick's or Grissom's. Furrowing her brow, she shakily swabbed the blood and packed it away to take back to the lab.

Catherine lay a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Hey, you okay? I can get Warrick up here if you need to take a break."

Sara shook her head.

"No…no…I'm fine. I…I just need to get through this….just evidence, right, Cath?" Sata said softly, looking off into the darkened canyon wondering where Grissom was and how he was faring.

"Right, Sara…just evidence…just another case," said Catherine tonelessly.

Shaking herself, Sara stood up and dusted off her jeans. She stood up, packed the evidence she had collected into her kit, and started back towards the trail, all the while scanning the desert terrain.

Sometime later, both women were joined near the springs by Warrick and Greg. Both men had finished processing the trailhead and then had hurried up to assist Catherine and Sara. As Sara closely examined the blood pool that was situated near a group of large stones, she noticed discarded gauze bandages close by.

"Looks like some first-aid was performed here," commented Warrick, photographing the bandages and then bagging them so that they could be processed later at the crime lab.

"There's an awful lot of blood here, Rick," commented Sara softly. "With this much blood, whoever was shot was probably in shock or very close to it."

"And if that's the case, where could they be? Obviously, our victim was in no condition to be moved. They've got to be here somewhere, don't you think?" asked the tall African-American.

"You'd think," said Sara standing up and looking over the area for the umpteenth time.

"Warrick, what is that?" asked Sara, pointing to a mound of black material near him.

Warrick stood up and stepped next to the boulder. Picking up the piece of clothing, he held it up so that Sara could shine her light on it. In the glow of the light, "Grissom" in broad black letters stood out on the blood-drenched vest.


Nick took a step back from Petersen and held up his hands. "Hey, man," said Nick in a careful even tone, "I…I was just checking to see where we were, ya'know?"

Petersen didn't seem to hear him, but instead waved the gun back towards Grissom.

Backing away towards his injured friend, Nick held his arms up and kept wary eyes on the weapon that was pointed at him. Petersen waved the gun about again and said forcefully, "Haalaa- Tou, man aavordan Oo!_ (Now- You,me bring him!). Petersen pointed at Nick, then himself, and then finally at Grissom.

Nick cast a worried glance at Grissom, who was looking back and forth between the two men. Grissom's face was drawn as he coughed weakly. Blood dribbled from the corner of his lips, and he shakily wiped it away with the back of his hand.

"Nicky," Grissom said in a rough whisper, "It…it's okay. I think he just wants to move to a safer spot."

"Griss, I don't think that you should be moved. I'm sure that help is probably on the way. We just have to wait for it," countered Nick in a soft voice.

Petersen became increasingly agitated. "Haalaa! Alajeh kon!" he hissed waving the weapon. (Now! Hurry up!)

"Nick, I…I don't think that…that he's going to allow us to wait, y'know?" said Grissom in a low voice.

Petersen took a menacing step forward and cocked the trigger of the Glock.

"Okay, okay," said Nick, holding up his hand palm out as he bent down towards Grissom but never taking his eyes off of the man who was holding the gun.

Seeing that Nick was complying with him, Petersen slowly slipped the gun back into his waistband and stepped forward to assist Nick in lifting Grissom up.

Grissom clenched his teeth to keep from crying out as Nick and Petersen hefted the man to a standing position.

Petersen looked down the incline over his shoulder and then turned to Grissom.

"Murphy? I know it hurts, man, but we got to get you away from here. If we stay here, the medics won't have a chance to help you, y'know? They won't know where to get us. I know that you were in tight with the locals, but are you sure about this Nic?," Petersen said softly to Grissom.

For Grissom, getting to his feet helped to relieve the pressure on his left side even though shards of white fire stabbed through him in doing so. He panted through his pain as beads of sweat formed across his forehead. Grissom focused on keeping Petersen calm, hoping to keep the man's attention diverted away from Nick.

"Yeah…yeah…I've been working with him for a while. He…um…he knows who to go to for help. We won't have to wait for reinforcements. Why…why do you think he was with me in the canyon? He could have just as easily killed me, right?" asked Grissom looking at Petersen's dark eyes.

Looking over Grissom's shoulders at Nick, Petersen eyed Nick curiously. The younger CSI pretended to be preoccupied with protecting Grissom's injured side and keeping their balance in moving over the rough ground. Nick knew that Grissom was trying to convince Petersen to let him go, and Nick was not sure that he could leave his supervisor alone with this man.

"Petersen, listen to me, okay?" Grissom gasped, drawing Petersen's attention once more. Grissom lifted his head slightly and caught Nick's eyes, "I would trust this man with my life," said Grissom, meaning every word.

The camouflaged man pursed his lips as they continued to maneuver through the uneven ground, seeming to be deep in thought. Grissom tried to regain his footing and take some of his weight off the panting men. Every rock he stumbled over sent new waves of pain coursing through his chest, making it difficult to control his breathing.

After what seemed like an interminable amount of time and distance, Petersen called for a halt so that Grissom could rest. It had been just a couple of hours, but Nick took note of the gradually lightening of the eastern horizon. It would be daybreak soon, and he would have a better feel about what lay ahead of them. One thing was for certain, Grissom needed immediate medical attention.

Kicking away small stones and brush to clear a space to ease his injured colleague down to rest against a large boulder, Nick noticed that blood was seeping through the bandages he had wrapped around Grissom's chest. Carefully, Nick and Petersen lowered the man down into a semi-reclining position. Petersen stepped away and looked down the steep hill they had just climbed up, trying to discern if there was any movement on the desert floor below them.

"Hey, Griss," said Nick softly, "Your wound has opened up again. You're bleedin' through your bandage. How's your breathing? Blood still coming up?"

Grissom looked up at Nick with weary eyes and weakly nodded.

"Just a little. Hurts to breathe," Grissom managed to whisper between coughs as more blood dribbled from his lips. The injured man shakily reached up and wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand.

"Nick, I don't think I can take much more of this," continued Grissom quietly.

"Griss, I'm going to try to convince him to not go any further. If there are bad guys down there, they've probably given up the chase a while ago."

"At this point, I don't think it's a matter of whether there are really bad guys down there. It's a matter of whether he perceives that there really are bad guys down there and that he feels that we need to get further away. Let me try to convince him. He won't understand what you say. Remember, he thinks you're speaking Farsi, I think," said Grissom softly, the strain of so many words draining his strength.

Petersen walked back towards the injured man and spoke softly to Grissom, "Murph, only a little bit further. We're close to the rendezvous point. You need to hang in there a little further."

Grissom shook his head, "Don..don't think I can Petersen. Nick, here, he has connections, like I told you before. You can trust him. Let him go get help."

Petersen just shook his head, "He might be trustworthy, but I don't know about anyone else. No, no, Murph, we'd be better off if we have our own people helping us, y'know? I know that you spent time down there getting in tight with them and I'm sure there are people down there who want us here, but there are too many in among them who haven't shone their true colors. We can't take that chance."

"Murph, it's just a little ways. You can make it, and we'll be home free," said Petersen encouragingly. Then looking over at Nick, Petersen added, "We can even take Nic here with us and he'll get a hero's welcome back at the base."

"Listen, Petersen, we…we should let him go back to his people. The people from his village will get suspicious with him being gone," said Grissom slowly, still trying to take small even breaths to control the pain.

"Okay, okay…I hear ya," Petersen said, "but only after we get you to the rendezvous point."

Grissom rolled his eyes and groaned to himself. Is this guy single-minded or what? He glanced at Nick and then said to Petersen through clenched teeth, "How far is it?"

Petersen pointed to the ridge just above them. "Just over that ridge. Murphy, you can easily make it up there with the both of us helping you."

Grissom peered up to where Petersen was pointing. The silhouette of the ledge could just be made out in the gradually lightening sky. Grissom dropped his head and groaned. That ledge might as well be Mount Everest as far as he was concerned at this point.

The injured entomologist chewed his lip and once again locked eyes with Nick. You have to go, understand? You need to get away. Reluctantly, Nick gave Grissom a slight nod, letting him know that he understood but didn't like what Grissom wanted him to do.

"Okay, then we let Nic here go back to his people once we get where we need to be, right?" Grissom said with a sigh.

"Murphy, believe me, this is the best way," encouraged Petersen.

Grissom nodded his head and hoped that, indeed, this was the best solution out of this predicament.


Sara handed the bag containing Grissom's blood-socked vest to David Hodges along with the rest of the evidence she and Warrick had collected at Red Rock Canyon.

"Hodges, all this needs to be processed asap," said Sara tersely. "As soon as you get anything, anything at all, you notify me, you hear?"

Hodges pulled the vest from the bag, "Is this...," Hodges started to ask, aghast at whose garment he was holding.

"Yes, it is, Hodges," replied Sara, "Now get on with it, will you? Go over for any and all trace and get Wendy in here to do the DNA analysis, okay?"

Gulping, Hodges immediately started processing the vest and arranging the rest of the evidence so that the processing could be expedited in the quickest possible time.

Sara left the trace lab and walked quickly to the break room. She rested both her hands on the edge of the table and leaned against it as if she needed it to hold herself up. Sara shut her eyes and took in a deep shaky breath, trying to control her emotions.

"Sara, how are you holding up/" asked Catherine as she entered the room.

The slender brunette straightened up and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I'm doing okay, Catherine. Thanks for asking," she said with a smile that didn't quite reach her lips. "Anything new on Cattelier or Damien?"

Catherine shook her head. "No, both of them have lawyered up and clammed up. Jim all but threatened them with turning them over to Jason's cousin for information about where Grissom and Nick are. They both claim some mysterious stranger took them."

"The possibility exists that they killed both Gil and Nick and disposed of the bodies somehow, but it doesn't explain how they got bound. Maybe they disposed of Nick and Gil and then this mysterious stranger got to them for us to find. Is that possible, Catherine?"

"I don't know, Sara. What we do know is that there was another person out there in the canyon. Is it likely that it's our Red Rock Sniper? I don't know," speculated Catherine.

"More than likely…I'm positive I know who has your men. Your men are safe for now but won't be for long," came the voice from the doorway of the break room.

Both Catherine and Sara looked up to see a man in a naval uniform standing with Conrad Ecklie.

"Catherine, Sara, allow me to do the honors," said Ecklie formally, "Catherine Willows, acting Supervisor of the graveyard shift and Sara Sidle, CSI level III- this is Captain John Bower from the San Diego Naval Hospital."


A/N: Chapter 11 done and finished. Self-beta'd so that I can claim all the mistakes as my own. Thanks for those of you who reviewed and for those who continue to read this story. I probably won't post again until after the New Year's Day. To all of you, have a very happy new year- Take care all of you and let's hope 2010 is wonderful for all of you!

becky