Now it was Nick's turn to go talk to Detective Keenan. He didn't know Keenan would be there, either. Like Greg, he assumed it was just him and Brass.
On his way to the interrogation room, he went pass Greg. He didn't say anything to him, he just looked at him and walked by.
Nick closed the door behind him. He looked surprised at Keenan, who was still sitting at the desk. "Who's this?" he asked, looking to Brass.
"Nick, this is Casey Keenan. He's from Internal Affairs and wants to ask you some questions about what happened," Brass explained to him.
Nick sat down opposite Keenan. "Why is IA interested in this?"
"Mr. Stokes, I'll just cut to the chase right away. Roger Randall, the man who held you hostage, was shot with your gun."
"My gun?" Nick asked a little surprised.
"Do you care to explain how that happened?"
Nick was confused now. What did that guy think happened? "The first thing he did after he closed the door was take my gun from me. That's how he got it."
"And why do you think he used yours to shoot himself instead of his own?" Keenan asked.
"Keenan, we had that already. Stop asking questions these guys have no answer to," Brass intervened again.
Nick looked at Brass. Did they ask Greg questions like that?, he thought.
"Right..." Keenan cleared his throat. "For the time he held you hostage, did he use your gun or his to threaten you?"
Nick thought about it for a while. "I'm not sure."
"You don't know? For over half an hour you did nothing but look at that gun and you can't remember if it was his or yours?" The softness Greg brought out of Keenan seemed to have faded pretty quickly. He knew Greg went through a lot in the last months, but Nick? Sure it wasn't easy for him, either, but Keenan didn't really care. He just wanted to get to the bottom of this. He really believed Nick shot Randall. In his mind, there was no reason to doubt that. Sure, Greg said Nick didn't do it, but he didn't even see Randall pull the trigger. There was just too much pointing to the fact that Nick shot him, with Greg's statement being a bit controversial, since he left out some things at first, and Randall being shot with Nick's gun.
"That was the least of my problems, you know? We were threatened with a gun, I didn't care which one it was. I was just thinking of ways to get out of there." Nick tried to explain himself. He didn't understand why he was in trouble now. He didn't do anything wrong. "Didn't you check Randall for gunshot residue?"
"No. He was instantly brought to a hospital, there was no time to do it. But we will. Back then we didn't know he was shot with your gun. If we would've known, we would've checked you for GSR." Keenan made some notes. "We want to do that test now if you don't mind."
Nick was looking at Brass. "Yeah sure, go ahead."
A CSI from the day shift went in to do the test on Nicks hands. It was negative, they didn't find any GSR on Nick's hands.
"Can I go now?" Nick was about to get up.
"Sit back down. We're not done yet." Keenan kept writing notes. "The test was negative, but that doesn't mean you're cleared."
"...What?" Nick was getting annoyed by this guy.
"You're a CSI. You know how to prevent getting GSR on your hands, that's not enough proof for me. We'll wait for Randall's test."
Nick rolled his eyes. "Why would I want to shoot a guy dressed as a cop?"
"He IS a cop."
"What?"
"Randall. He IS a cop. He's not from your police station, but he's a LVPD cop."
Nick looked surprised. He didn't believe it. This guy looked more like a drug addict than a police officer. Well, being a drug addict didn't rule out being a police officer, but still, he was sure this guy was just dressing up as a police officer. "Do you know why he did this?"
"I was hoping you could tell me." Keenan was looking at Nick. "He had a message for Dr. Langston, right? What was it?"
"Well, he wanted to see him. When he realized that he wouldn't come, he told us to 'send him a message'. Then he shot himself."
"So he didn't give you a message to pass on?"
"No, I think blowing his brains out WAS the message," Nick replied quite sarcastically, but he meant it.
Keenan gave him a frown. "And what do you think that means?"
"How should I know? I'm not even allowed to work on Ray's case."
Keenan could hear the bitterness in Nick's voice. "You're offended by the fact that you're not allowed to work on that case?"
Nick sighed. "I was, but I understand why I can't. It's okay."
"I don't think it is. I think you're still angry." Keenan had a weird grin on his face.
"Well, maybe I am." Nick was getting tired of this conversation. "I can't help my team finding a guy that threatens the whole police department! Of course I'm angry! What's your point?"
Keenan still had that grin on his face. "Do you want to be part of this investigation so bad that you'd shoot a police officer to get involved?"
Nick jumped off his seat. He was furious. "What is this? Why do I have to talk to this clown?"
"Calm down, Nick. Keenan, come on, you don't really think this is a vicious plot to gain some attention. Nick's been a CSI for so many years and never disappointed us!" Brass couldn't comprehend Keenan's accusation, they were beyond ridiculous, he thought.
"Did he help you?" Keenan kept asking these weird questions.
"Who?" Nick asked.
"Sanders. Was he in on your plan or did he just happen to be here and you thought he might get your ass out of the line of fire?"
Nick shook his head while he was laughing humorlessly. "I'll say it just one more time. I didn't shoot Randall. I didn't... plan anything! Greg didn't do anything wrong, either!" He stood up. "I'm done here."
Brass sighed. He feared this would end like that. He knew Nick had a temper when he was in a stressful situation like that. And this guy Keenan was just begging for his temper to show up.
Greg was sitting outside the interrogation room, waiting for Nick to come out. He was nervously tapping his feet. He could hear Nick's voice getting louder, but he couldn't hear what he was saying. But the fact that Nick was yelling surely wasn't a good sign.
Ray walked up to Greg and sat down next to him. "Are you okay?"
Greg nodded.
"I heard internal affairs are dealing with it. I'm sure everything will turn out just fine." Ray patted Greg on the back.
"They think Nick shot that guy... Who, apparently, really was an officer."
"How did you do in there? I'm sure your point of view will help Nick a lot." Ray was confident in what he just said, but he couldn't know what happened in there a few minutes ago.
"I don't know. I wasn't prepared for this, I did pretty bad. And I don't think I helped Nick much." Greg turned his head to face Langston. He looked at his older colleague with a painful look.
"Well, but we both know Nick didn't do anything wrong. He'll be cleared in no time. There's no evidence to show him in a bad light, just be confident, Greg." He smiled at Greg, patted him on the shoulder and left. After he was gone, Nick came out.
Nick passed by Greg with his head down low and didn't notice his colleague.
"Nick!" Greg stood up, causing Nick to turn around.
Nick looked tired and exhausted. He felt like he's been in that room for days, but it were only a few minutes. Not even as long as Greg was. But still, it had a toll on him. "Now's not a good time, Greg." He kept walking.
"Wait, Nick. Please."
Nick sighed. NOW Greg wanted to talk, of course. When he wanted to talk to him, Greg didn't care. But now that Nick really didn't feel like talking anymore to anyone, Greg changed his mind. "What is it?" he asked him annoyed.
Nick's harsh tone intimidated Greg. Why was I even waiting out here for him?, Greg kept thinking. What did Greg want to talk about, anyway? He couldn't really remember. He wanted to ask how it went, but it was painfully obvious what the answer to that question would be. "Nothing... I just wanted to apologize. For the way I acted earlier and... everything else." Greg looked down. Why was this so hard?
Nick just stood there for a second, not saying a word, keeping his eyes on Greg. Before Greg said these few words, Nick's face was filled with anger. Now he had a soft, almost relaxed face impression. He had a faint smile on his face, nodded and left.
Despite all the action and fuss they experienced that day, they still had a case to work on. What was Roger Randall's involvement in their case? Was there even a connection or was it just a weird coincidence?
"I went through Dr. Pierces files, but there seem to be a lot missing pages. They're all numbered and several numbers are missing." Sara sat down in Catherine's office.
"Is Ray back from the hospital yet?" Catherine asked.
"He called a few minutes ago. He's on his way back to the lab. Randall's in a coma, but they think he'll wake up in a few days. But get this. His wife was there. Ray said she knew about Randall's drug addiction and wanted him to go to therapy. Guess who his therapist was." Sara had a big grin on her face.
"Dr. Pierce? Now that's interesting. We have our connection. But what's Dr. Pierce's agenda? And why did Randall want to see Ray?" Catherine was confused.
"I don't have an answer to this questions yet, but I'm sure we'll find out soon. We have a lead, and all we gotta do now is follow it."
Hey guys!
I'm so sorry for being so slow in updating! I'm not sure yet where this story's leading to, but I want to make a really good ending to satisfy you :)
I want to thank you all for reading this and reviewing, it really means a lot to me!
I hope you like what I'm doing so far and like how I write for the characters. Interestingly, although I'm anything but a Ray-fan, I really enjoy writing him. He's a good sidekick-character, but I don't think I could ever do a story evolving around him. But we'll see ;)
The Nick-Greg parts are a little melodramatic sometimes, I'm not sure yet if I like that. How about you guys? Is it too much or just the right amount of drama?
I'll try to update a little quicker now and I hope you enjoyed these two chapters!