29th of June Thursday
"Do I deserve a chocolate bar for breakfast?" Sofia put away her empty bowl. She had cereals, she had fruits, now she could treat herself with something more…delicious.
"Chocolate for breakfast? For everybody else this should be enough proof of pregnancy, knowing my chocoholic girlfriend, it's only your endless lust for sweet cocoa."
"The only pleasure I'm allowed to have at the moment."
"You poor thing." Sara pulled her lover in her arms and kissed her. "Get your chocolate bar, you'll have a long hard day. Want me to come over after my shift, get you some dinner and force you into a break? And no, I don't offer to come around to see Grissom. I want to have dinner with you, only you. No Grissom, not even Greg. Only you and I."
"I'm not the easiest girlfriend at the moment, am I?"
"Honey, you've always been a challenge, a reason why I wanted you. I love challenges and I love you. Meat lover pizza with extra cheese and a triple chocolate cookie?"
"Two." Sofia smiled.
"Okay, two. Anything else?"
"A couple of kisses."
"Are you sure you want kisses after you had chocolate and pizza?"
Instead of an answer the blonde pulled the brunette into her arms and kissed her. "Do you want to ask this question again or did you understand my answer?"
"I think I missed half of it, could you repeat it for me?" Sara smirked and got pulled back in another kiss. The kiss got broken by the blonde's cell phone ringing.
"There was a time when we didn't have cell phones and could actually have a private life. The next time we go on holidays, can we leave our cell phones here?"
"Absolutely."
"Thanks." The blonde picked up her phone. "Curtis."
"Time to leave your girlfriend, the boss called and wants us in early. Apparently our expert will arrive in thirty minutes and we're supposed to welcome him." Greg's voice came out of the cell phone.
"Great, can't wait."
"Liar. Give Sara a good morning kiss from me."
"Dream on." She closed her phone. "We've to get in early to greet your ex. Oh and your young admire wants me to kiss you from him. Do you want to tell me anything about you and Greg?"
"We danced with the same woman last week. You know, who didn't want to dance with you because you're not her type."
Sofia's eyes narrowed. "Careful, Honey. Don't tease me too much."
"Just playing with your ego."
"My ego doesn't like being played."
"I'll feed it with chocolate tonight. Go and welcome Grissom and give me a call where I can meet you tonight for our private dinner."
"Not in the building if that's possible, I let you know. Take care of all the cute animals and make sure, your helper doesn't cause any trouble anymore."
"He's as tame as a kitten."
"When he wants to sit on your lap and asks you to crawl him, I shoot him."
"You're the porn barbie, he wanted to do a bunch of illegal things with you."
"As soon as I've some time on my hands I come into the forest and make him sweat."
"I told him to prepare himself for that meeting. So much like your mother, amazing." Sara pulled Sofia once in again in her arms and kissed her one more time. "Take care of my CSI and our baby."
"No heavy lifting, breaks and not too much stress, got it. And so has Greg. See you tonight. Love you."
"Love you too."
"Doctor Grissom."
"CSI Curtis, how are you?"
"Fine, thanks. How is your new life?" Okay, it was awkward to talk to Grissom, but it wasn't bad.
"Very interesting. And yours? Back to CSI."
"There wasn't much of a choice."
"I heard about the accident, it's been a little bit over a year."
"Yeah, not a thing I celebrated. Better things have happened in my life." Like meeting Sara, falling in love with the brunette and having the brunette falling in love with her. Things, she didn't have to mention, but she had the feeling, he understand her when she said these things. But it wasn't fair in case he missed Sara and how could you not miss Sara?
"I bet. And where's the guy, who played music in the lab?"
"With the boss, he's the leading CSI on this case."
"Really? I thought you as a former acting supervisor are superior."
"Greg worked the last years as a CSI, he can teach me a few things. During my time as a cop I didn't pay a lot of attention at what's new in the lab and around. He's a very good teacher, a very good leading CSI."
"I'm glad to hear that. What do you have for me?"
"A collection of bugs and a lot of questions. And pressure."
"I heard the kid might be the son of the mayor."
"Yes." And Sofia would talk to the mayor later. Nothing she looked forward to do but Greg would go back to the crime scene and wanted her here so she could rest. How could she argue about this? Not even the argument, she didn't feel very comfortable around Grissom was a reason to risk her baby.
"Then we better get started."
"Follow me." She took him into a layout room and showed him where the bugs were left for him.
"Nice collection."
"I thought you'd like them. Can they tell us when the boy died?"
"They can tell us a lot of things, we have to make them talk."
"Your job. Enjoy. Uhm, the crime scene photos are on the computer, I wrote down a guest password for you, so you can see all the evidence we have so far. Within the next hours we should get the result of the DNA test and know, if the boy was really the son of the mayor. Even when he's not the DB, the mayor will want us to find his son, so we'll kind of work two cases maybe."
"Don't we like challenges?"
Only when the challenge was her girlfriend - his former girlfriend. Not when the challenge included a lot of pressure.
"Kind of. Uhm, give me a call when you need something."
"I will."
"Talk to you later." She turned and left the room before he could ask any more questions.; like how Sara was. At the moment she wasn't ready to talk with him about the brunette. The first hours had to be strictly work related, everything else would mess up her feelings. And she needed a clear head.
"Curtis!" She stopped. Her boss must have seen her before she could escape in a room and work on the evidence.
"Yes boss?"
"The mayor is here to answer your question and I hope, you can answer some of his questions too. Sanders is out at the scene."
"Okay." Damn, she had hoped for a few more minutes alone. Why was Greg already gone? With her case folder she stepped into the room, where her boss and the mayor sat.
"Good morning mayor Milford. I'm CSI Curtis."
"Do you have any news?"
"Not regarding the DNA of the body we found, the DNA guy will inform us as soon as he has the results, we have a rush on everything related to this case. The entomologist arrived and started working a minute ago, he's the best.
"Did you find any clothes or anything related to the body at the scene?"
"No sir."
"If this is my son, I want to know who did this to him and I want you to find him so we can give him what he deserves."
"Yes Sir." She cleared her throat. "Can you tell me why your son ran away?"
"Because I took away his smart phone and the laptop after I caught him smoking in the garden. He's twelve."
"Where did he get the cigarettes from?"
"He stole them from me."
Sofia saved herself the comment it was pretty hypocritical to punish the son for something, the father did; even when it wasn't illegal for him. He was the role model, when he smoked in front of his son, how could the son believe, it's wrong?
"Okay, what happened then?"
"I sent him to his room, without dinner and the next morning he was gone."
"Did he leave a note?"
"No, but he stole my credit card and all the cash my wife and me had in our wallets."
"How much?"
"A little bit under thousand dollar. We disabled the credit card."
"Wow, that's a lot of money for a twelve year old boy. What did his friends say?"
"Apparently he never contacted them, but I'm pretty sure they're lying. It is possible he hides at a friend's place, wasting all the money and comes back when he's broke."
"Don't you think the parents of his friends would say something?"
"I'm sure if he hides somewhere, they have no clue about it. He could stay in a garden house, a holiday house and the parents aren't aware of this. Brandon is full of ideas and it's not the first time he ran away. But so far he came back the next morning, hungry and tired. Then again, he never had a thousand dollar with him."
"What did he wear when he left?"
"It was in the night, my wife and me were asleep, I've no idea what he wore."
"Well, which clothes are missing?"
"I've no idea, you have to ask my wife. Or the housekeeper."
To Sofia it didn't sound like the mayor put a lot of effort in finding his son so far. He didn't call the police the next morning, didn't look too much into details about the possible runaway and still wanted them to bend over backwards and come up with answers to questions, he never asked.
"I'll do that. If I have any more questions or get new information, I contact you." She got up, walked out of the room and took a deep breath. That wasn't as bad as she expected although she had to say, she didn't like the mayor. He didn't seem to worry a lot about his son - until they found the DB. Well, time for Greg and her to get answers. First stop: the housekeeper. Maybe she cared more about the boy's disappearance than the father.
Lost in her thoughts and making plans for the morning, what to do when, she bumped into somebody.
"Sorry, I…wow." She knew this guy and he wasn't a cop or CSI.
"Well hello, if that isn't the beautiful lady I met at the bar once. How have you been? I hope you're not in trouble."
"No, I work here. Are you in trouble, Mister Lee?"
"Lou, please. Can I invite you to a coffee?"
"Sorry, as I said, I work here. What are you doing here?"
"Support a friend."
"A friend?"
"The mayor."
"Wow, powerful friend."
"Just another man. If you're on duty now, what about a drink after work?"
"This is a big case, there is no after work."
"Ouch. Okay, one last try: next week, premiere ticket to the new movie I'm in. The new Kodak Theater, what do you think?"
"I think if you make that two tickets so I can take my better half with me, we can have a drink."
"The same date, who made you leave me at the bar the first time we met?"
"The hot brunette, yes."
"No more questions, I can understand you prefer dating her than me. To where can I sent the tickets?"
"The CSI lab."
"What about your private address?"
"Why? Do you want to deliver them yourself?"
"Would it surprise you?"
"Yes."
"Let me surprise you."
"Nice try. I see you at the premiere." She blinked at him and walked away. Lou Lee flirted with her. Again. That was a great boost for her ego, the best moment of the morning. Next to everything that was related to Sara of course.