*AN: Ok, so next chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, we'll be getting a few answers here. Gonna be mainly case related. Hope you enjoy and please review.*
Chapter 12
Brass walked out of Laney Logan's room, leaving the doctor in the capable hands of her colleagues. He put his note book in his jacket pocket, and made his way to the floor above. Dr Logan's floor was packed with victims of the explosion, luckily it wasn't so big. There was only a two serious casualties, everyone else had superficial injuries that they would recover from in a matter of weeks, if that.
He made his way to the floor above, meeting Catherine as he stepped through the door. Slightly out of breath from climbing the stairs, two steps at a time. Everybody was rushing around, desperate to find some answers.
"Cath!" He called. The CSI looked over, excused herself from the crime tech she was talking too and walked over. "What have you found?"
"Nick and Greg are going over the bomb fragments with the Bomb Squad, it doesn't look like it was very big. Warrick's looking into the security video, seeing if he can find who placed the bomb," Catharine said, her gloved hand was flicking through her notes franticly.
"Tell him to look out for the mailman, just spoke with Dr Logan. She was Sara's doctor." The pair paused there, Brass could see Catherine was trying to keep herself together. He was struggling with it himself. "Dr Logan said she saw the mailman go into Sara's room just before the explosion, I'm gonna get Vartann to track him down. I want to talk to him." Brass' voice had become dangerously dark on that last sentence.
"Will do. We'll get them, Brass. Whoever this is, we'll get them." Catherine put a hand on his arm, the pair shared a look. Brass didn't really know how he was feeling, but he was glad Catherine seemed to keeping a cool head.
"I'm going to talk to Jones," Brass said.
"You think he's behind this?"
"No, I think whoever hired him is. We need to find out who that was," Brass said as he got out his phone and put it to his ear. "This is Captain Jim Brass, I want to speak with an inmate. Vincent Jones."
"I'm sorry, Captain," The man over the phone said. "Mr Jones is no longer an inmate, he posted bail 3 days ago."
"He what?" Brass shouted down the phone.
"He posted bail 3 days ago."
"Why wasn't I informed? This guy threatened one of my people, I should have been told the minuet he got out. You know what, forget about that. Why was he granted bail in the first place? He was in for murder, about to go to trial."
"I don't know sir," the officer replied.
"Whatever, send me his information, I want to know where he is now," Brass shut off his phone, clenching it in his fist. It took all his restraint to not punch the wall.
"What it is?" Catherine asked. Brass ignored her and dialled another number on his phone. "Brass?"
"Vartann, put out an APB for Vincent Jones. I want to know where he is and who he's with."
"Cath, its Warrick. I found the person who delivered the bomb. John Smith, he's the mailman."
"John Smith? That's cute, what's your bet that's not his real name?"
"You know I don't bet any more, Cath," Warrick replied. "But, if I did, I would bet it wasn't. I've asked Archie to check him out."
"Great, thanks Warrick. Greg and Nick are on their way back to the lab, meet them there and go through the evidence. Let me know what you get."
"Sure thing. Hey, have you spoken to-"
"No. He needs time." Catharine interrupted. "When Archie gets a last known, get him to send it to me. I want to speak with Mr Smith as soon as."
"Yes, Boss." He replied and Catherine hung up, she looked round to see Brass walking down the street, envelope in hand.
"That the warrant?" She asked.
"Yep, let's go get the guy." Brass and Catherine walked up to the front door, Mitch following them with his hand to his gun. "Mr Jones, LVPD open up," Brass called, pounding the door with his fist. A car screeched to a halt, Catharine, Brass and Mitch all turned quickly. Their hands going to their respective guns. Catharine and Brass exchanged exasperated glances when they saw Greg in the driver's seat.
"Sorry," he called as he opened his door. He ran up to the door, kit in hand, as the front door was opened.
"Captain Brass. Ms Willows," Jones exclaimed, surprised. "What do I owe the pleasure?"
"Mr Jones, we have a warrant to search your residence. Why don't you step out of the house?" Brass said, motioning him out with his hand. Jones nodded, opening the door wider and walking out with his hands raised.
"What's this about, Captain?" Jones asked, with all the air of an innocent man.
"Like you don't know." Catherine said.
"Wow, Ms Willows, what's with all the aggression?"
"Oh, I don't know. How about the fact that you're supposed to be in jail." Catherine retorted. "Greg, have a look around and see what you can find. Look for anything that could tie him to explosives." Greg nodded, taking a look at Jones before moving in the house with Mitch.
"Ah, the explosion. I heard about that on the news. It happened at the hospital Ms Sidle was admitted to, right? Tell me, how is she?" Jones asked, smirking a little. Catherine didn't answer. "I heard that there were two casualties, I do hope that it wasn't-"
"Shut up," Catherine almost shouted him, her anger getting the better of her. Brass held her back as she made a move towards him. Jones smirked.
"Cath, this isn't helpful. Go help Greg." Brass pushed her to the door, Catherine shot Jones a filthy look before entering the house. The house wasn't very big, a staircase greeted her the moment she entered the house, along with a living room/kitchen. It was clean, not a lot of furniture. The room looked more like an office than someone's home. There was some paperwork on the table, Catherine picked through it. A credit card bill caught her eye. She opened the envelope, there wasn't much on there. A few supermarkets, restaurants and a DIY store.
Catherine's brows furrowed as she looked at that and cast her eyes around the room. Her head turned as she heard the floor creak behind her, Greg was coming down the stairs.
"Greg, is Jones doing any work upstairs?"
"Work?" The younger CSI asked.
"Any DIY stuff going on up there?" Catherine asked, rolling her eyes at him.
"No, why?"
"He went to a DIY store," Catherine said, waving the statement. "I want to know what he's doing, nothing down here."
"Basement?" Greg suggested. Catherine nodded, it was a good suggestion and Catherine couldn't help being a little proud at how much he's come along in the short time he's been out in the field. They looked round the room, Greg nodded at a door underneath the stairs. The pair walked over, Catherine took out her gun and motioned for Greg to stand behind her. She turned her torch on and opened the door, they walked down the stairs, Greg turned his torch on when they couldn't find a light switch.
Their lights shone over a supposedly empty room, Catherine's eyes squinting as they adjusted to the dark. "Doesn't look like there's anything here. " She said.
Lights flashed on, blinding her for a second.
"Geeze Greg. Could have given me some warning."
"Sorry." He said, coming from behind the staircase. The room was practically empty save a bookshelf with a few bits and bobs on, a table and chair. "Could be his workstation." Greg suggested again.
"Grab your kit, process every inch of this place."
"No problem."
Catherine left Greg in the basement, looked through the rest of the house before making her way back outside to Brass. They weren't going to find anything in this place, she knew it. The only way they were going to get answers was from Jones himself, she was going to do everything within her power to get them.
"Mr Jones, you're not much of a home maker," she stated.
"I move around a lot. Not any more, thanks to your Ms Sidle."
"What was in your basement?" Catherine asked, doing her best to ignore the way he said Sara's name.
"Nothing much, I don't really use it." He replied, flippantly. "Will you tell me? Captain Brass refuses to answer."
"Tell you what, Mr Jones."
"What happened to Sara?"
Catherine and Brass shared a look, she knew the pain in the older detectives' eyes was mirrored in her own.
"Catherine!" Greg called, walking out of the house holding up an evidence bag. "I found this in the basement."
"That looks like the end of a pipe bomb, Captain?" Catherine turned to Brass, her eyebrows raised.
"I think we should talk down at the station." Brass took Jones by the arm, leading him to his car.
"Talk to me Hodges." Nick said as he walked into the trace lab.
"Do you know, it doesn't matter how hard the bad guys try, I'll always find what I'm looking for." Hodges said in his usual, slightly arrogant, manner.
"Just tell me what you got." Hodges handed him a sheet of paper. "Bleach. So nothing?" Nick handed him back the piece of paper, crossing him arms.
"Oh contraire." Hodges took another piece of paper from the printer. "Here are the results from the cap Greg found in our suspects basement."
"Nitro-glycerine, acetone peroxide, methyl ethyl ketone-"
"Your basic homemade bomb supplies." Hodges interrupted with a smug look. "No need to thank me."
"I wasn't going to," Nick said, turning away to exit.
"Hey, Nick. Have you spoken to Grissom?" Hodges asked. "I tried speaking with him earlier but he-"
"Hey, Hodges, let me give you some advice."
"Sure."
"Keep your nose out of other people's business. Don't use Sara to try and get close to Grissom."
"That's not what I was-"
"Yes you were, he won't like it. Neither do we," Nick interrupted. To his credit, Hodges looked abashed and nodded his head, hanging it a little. Nick saw that. "We're all feeling what happened to Sara, none more so than Griss. Try a little sensitivity, ok?" Hodges nodded.
"How is he?"
"How do you think?" The pair shared a look, Nick could see that Hodges was genuinely concern this time. "I need to get this to Catherine. Thanks, Hodges." Nick left the lab and saw Catherine leave Archie's lab. "Hey Cath!"
"What you got, Nick?" Catherine asked as Nick caught up with her.
"Results from trace. Looks like Jones' was making a bomb in the basement."
"Great job Nicky. Archie found Mr Smith, Brass sent a couple of officers to pick him up. Greg and Warrick went with them. He should be at the station any minute now." Catherine said, they were finally getting some good news. "He also found that Smith had $10,000 added to his account."
"10,000? How did Jones' get that much money?"
"I don't know, it'll be the first thing I ask him." Catherine replied.
"You speaking to Jones now?"
"Yep, you wanna come with?" She asked.
"Definitely."
Catherine and Nick met Brass at the station, he was standing outside one of the interrogation room's.
"Jones' in there?" Catherine asked as they drew line with him.
"Yep, along with his lawyer," Brass replied.
"We gonna go in?" Nick asked.
"No. Mitch just brought Mr Smith in, I was going to speak with him first, make Jones sweat a little."
"Good idea. Where is he?" Catherine asked.
"Over here." The three of them made their way to another interrogation room where Mr John Smith sat, alone.
"No lawyer?" Nick asked.
"He refused one," Brass said. "Shall we?" The three of them entered the room, Brass and Catherine sat at the table, Nick leant against the wall by the glass. Brass threw a file on the table and took out some photographs, photographs of Smith entering and exiting Sara's hospital room. "Mr Smith, John Smith. Is that your real name?"
Smith didn't answer.
"I get it. You're a tough guy. You're not going to answer questions." Brass turned the photos to face Smith. "Here is a picture of you entering CSI Sidle's room, a picture of you taking in a parcel and another of you leaving. A few seconds after you left the room, it exploded. Now that's some convenience."
Smith didn't speak, he just shifted his focus and looked away.
"What was in the box?"
"How am I supposed to know? I didn't open it." It was the first thing he said since getting picked up.
"Our IT guy blew up a picture of the box," Catherine said, taking out another photo from the file. "There was no address on it, no return address. Nothing." She paused. "How did you know who to deliver the box to?"
"I just guessed, I suppose."
"Listen to me." Brass said, threateningly, leaning forward. "Two friends of mine, good friends of mine were in that room. Unless you talk to me, I'm going to book you and you'll be going away for a very long time."
"You haven't got anything on me." Smith said, not sounding do sure of himself anymore. Sweat broke out on his forehead and Catherine leant forward.
"You so sure about that?" She said. "My guys are there best there is, we've already got plenty on you. Enough to put you away for a long time, and you don't strike me as the sort of guy who'll do well in prison."
"Look, I didn't know what was in the box. Honestly, if I did there was no way I would have delivered it. I liked Sara, she was nice."
"You knew her?"
"Yeah, I'd seen her about at the hospital. She was nice, friendly. I swear I wouldn't have delivered that box if I knew what it was." Smith said, pointing at the table to prove his point. Catherine looked to Brass, she believed him and so did Brass, it seemed.
"Who gave you the box?" Brass asked.
"I don't know his name. A guy came up to me, gave me the box and said that is was a special gift for Ms Sidle. He offered me 10 grand. I'm having some money troubles. Gambling debts, I was desperate."
"You didn't ask any questions?" Nick said, pushing away from the wall.
"No, look the dude was…" He searched for the right word. "Scary. Not a big dude, but there was something about him."
"Can you give us a description?" Brass asked.
Smith looked between the three of them before saying: "Yeah, yeah I can."
*AN: So, very case heavy. We'll be getting some more answers in the next chapter. Not sure when the next update will be due to another fic update I've got to do, uni work and such.
PS: I don't know much about making bombs and chemicals and such, what I write is what I find out from internet research so if anything wrong I apologise.
PPS: Don't hate me for what I've done to Sara and Grissom, all will be revealed I promise.*
