A/N: Again, I would like to thank you all for your patience over the last couple weeks. It means a lot that everyone is still following along after such long intervals.
Chapter Thirteen
Two local police officers stood with their guns drawn on Grissom and Nick. Nick straightened out into the standing position. Grissom raised his hands in the air politely.
"What the hell are you two doing in here?" the taller officer snarled.
"We're with the crime lab," Grissom replied. "If you'll allow me, I would like to reach into my pocket and show you my identification."
The officer cocked his gun. "You two get out of here. I know who you are. Billy and I have looked into this. You two are out of our jurisdiction. You two don't belong here."
Grissom was silent. He didn't know what to say about that. But Nick piped up. "We've been independently contacted by the suspect and her family to do a private investigation. We are not under jurisdiction right now; we are under contract."
Grissom arched an eyebrow. He had to admit; Nick was a fast thinker. He was impressed. The officers scowled. Nick continued, "Now, you could either let us complete our investigation and assist us with any information you may know, or Grissom and I here could take you two to court and force the information out of you."
The four men stood in silence for what seemed like an eternity before they finally put their guns down. "What are you two trying to prove?" The man identified as Billy asked.
"We're trying to gather what evidence we can and process it accordingly," Grissom replied, his tone firm, yet polite.
"So what do you two have?" the other officer asked them. Grissom shook his head.
"We can't talk about a current investigation," Grissom replied. The officers were visibly agitated. Nick's cell phone rang. He answered.
"Stokes." Nick listened in. "Hey, Doc. You put a rush on it? Thank you so much. What do we have?" He listened silently, his facial expression serene. He nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Doc." He hung up the phone and leaned over to Grissom. "Sara's bloodwork came in."
Grissom nodded. He looked to the two officers. "Excuse us." With that, he and Nick walked into the living room area. "What did Doc say?" Grissom inquired.
"He found trace amounts of Lorazipam in her system. We're going to need to go to the pharmacy and see if we can track down any sort of prescriptions for Lorazipam. Also see if any of them frequent bars. We're going to have to ask Sara about that, too. I can't see somebody drugging her here."
Grissom nodded.
"Hey – don't walk away from us!" Nick suppressed a laugh. Grissom and Nick shrugged and went back into the kitchen.
"Anything we can help you with, boys?" Nick replied, a wide smile on his face.
"Yeah. You two can tell us what you got. Maybe we have something new to help you with?"
"What do you got?" Grissom inquired. "What do you have that is so damn incriminating against Sara?"
"We have eye witness testimony..."
"Of what? Sara walking through the streets covered in blood?" Grissom demanded, his tone slightly hostile. Nick nudged Grissom with his arm and Grissom nodded, realizing he had to keep his emotions in check. The fact was that they were "independently contracted" by Sara and her family, so there was no room for Grissom to indicate any kind of intimate relationship with Sara. It would just be a reason for the officers to kick Grissom out of Tamales Bay, but not before telling him to take Nick with him. And he couldn't risk doing that to Sara. She needed his help. She had called him, begging him. Her cries on the other end of the phone still haunted him as he slept each night. He would give anything for her to never feel the fear that the situation had brought down on her.
"No. For your information we have an eye witness that was in the house when Sara killed him," Billy replied with a sneer.
Nick scoffed. "Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?" Grissom nodded in agreement with Nick's statement.
"It's true," the officer insisted.
"Well, we'll just see what the evidence says," Grissom replied matter-of-factly. "And then we'll determine whether or not Sara committed this murder. Now, who's our victim? What do we know about him?"
"Merle Andrews. Aged sixty. He was a childhood friend of the Sidle family. He was actually taking care of the house until Sara moved back three months ago."
"We're thinking he came in to grab a couple things," Billy replied, "and probably surprised Sara, and she killed him."
Nick and Grissom exchanged knowing glances. "Well, the evidence suggests otherwise," Grissom replied.
"What evidence?" Billy demanded.
"Can we keep processing the scene? Or should we leave you boys to your work?" Nick replied. The officers exhaled.
"You boys had better promise to give us whatever evidence you got when you get it all together." Grissom nodded.
"You have our word."
The officers nodded. "Just watch your step here. You're definitely on thin ice. Stepping on our toes and whatnot. Watch yourselves, boys."
"Thanks for the threat," Nick replied, his eyes narrowed, tone grim. The officers scowled at Nick before going upstairs to take care of a few things. "Jackass," Nick murmured under his breath when they were out of earshot.
"You did good, Nicky," Grissom commended him. Nick nodded, flattered.
"Thanks, Gris."
"We're going to need to get a hold of those files and find out just who this eye witness was," Grissom mused.
"They're probably making him up. To get us off the case and to get Sara to confess by intimidating her."
"I wouldn't be surprised. They sure don't play by the rules here," Grissom replied.
"This isn't Texas," Nick replied. "They're not 'Good Old Boys' up here." Grissom smirked and they began to process the living room area.
It appeared clean. Whomever had been in here obviously hadn't been in the living room. But they gathered samples and fingerprints anyway. They hoped that they would be able to gather something. A third set of fingerprints aside from Sara and Merle.
"What are you thinking, Gris?"
"I'm thinking that whomever was in here definitely knew how to cover their tracks," Grissom replied.
"Well, let's hope they got sloppy in the bedroom." Grissom's eyebrow arched.