Chapter 14- Strange Revelations
The stranger walked passed Grissom as he was coming off the elevator. Grissom looked very determined but then again he always did. After all he had been watching him for several months. There wasn't much about Gilbert Aaron Grissom that he didn't know. What he didn't know he could find through his sources. He watched as Grissom headed back to his room, then stepped onto the elevator pressing 2 on the keypad. His next stop room 202.
When Grissom entered his room, Brass was on the bed, on his cell. He waved at Grissom as he entered.
"Yeah O'Connor I'll be out for awhile. Call Warrick Brown first if there is any news. Have Nick Stokes meet you at the lab. I'll call you when I leave here."
He hung up and moved to the chair.
"How you feelin, Gil?"
"Better, but what I don't understand is why I am here in the first place. And I still have no details on Sara's attack."
"Sit down Gil, I'll tell you everything. Someone has to, because the details are a bit graphic."
"Seeing Sara was graphic, Jim. I have to know what happened, for Sara, and for me."
"All right. Here goes."
He removed the jacket of his suit, and poured himself a glass of water. Grissom waited patiently, knowing that Brass had a lot to say.
"You entered Sara's apartment somewhere around 9:30pm. Sara had probably already been attacked. According to Nurse Barbara Lansing, you came into the hospital around 10:45pm carrying Sara. She was barely breathing. Both you and Sara were covered in her blood. She was unconscious. The nurse said that you were hardly able to speak. At first she thought you'd beaten Sara but she got that Sara had been attacked and that you had found her. Sara was taken to trauma; the doctor's cleaned you up and then you requested to go to the bathroom. Ten minutes later Nurse Lansing found you unconscious in the bathroom."
"Wait a second Brass, are you saying that I brought Sara in?"
"Yeah. The doctor said if it wasn't for you, she would have died of internal bleeding and kidney failure."
"Wait, how is that possible, I don't remember seeing Sara hurt at all. All I remember is that I went into her apartment and saw a broken flower pot, and the circuit breaker box."
"Well Dr. Robbins thinks that the trauma of seeing Sara hurt that badly shocked your memory. He said sometimes the body can run on pure adrenaline but not store any of what it did."
"Why did I pass out?"
"You had a slight heart attack, coupled with the stress and no food in your system, you were also dehydrated, your body just shut you down."
"I had a heart attack? Sara is almost murdered. What the hell is happening to my team? I mean we just saved Nick. Sara was attacked by that psycho in the mental hospital. I am having cardiac episodes! What the hell?"
Grissom looked around the room as if hoping he was dreaming.
"God Gil, Sara was so bad. I was here when she was brought in. One of my guys was stabbed in the arm. I couldn't believe it was her. She was so bloody; I thought she'd fallen through a glass door. She had broken bones; her lips were split and bruised. Her eyes were the size of golf balls. The only reason I knew it was her going into surgery was her mouth was open and I saw the gap in her tooth. When I went to get another look, I found out it was Sara. You were already in a hospital room, so I called Catherine. Sara had several seizures until they finally calmed her body down enough to repair all the damage."
Grissom looked at Brass trying to hold back the graphic images and tears.
"Gil, Sara will pull through. She is the toughest woman I have ever known. Well about equal with Catherine. We will find this bastard that hurt Sara."
"This guy is all mine! I will rip him limb from limb." Grissom said, his teeth clenched tightly.
A sudden horror came to Grissom's face.
"Oh dear God Jim, she was attacked was she...?"
"No, the SART kit came back negative. This guy was all about the violence. He didn't sexually assault her."
"It suggests revenge. This isn't some random attack. This guy had it in for Sara, and I am going to find out why."
"Uh that might be hard to do pal. The doctor's want you here for observation till next week at the least."
"Forget it! The longer we wait, the more this guy gets away with it."
"Gil, we aren't sitting around here. Ecklie locked down the lab, he won't let anyone in without a special pass. All the cases on hold are being worked on from Phoenix. Warrick and Nick are at the scene daily, and I have armed guards everywhere I can think of that pertains to Sara. Greg is running the DNA lab and Sofia is handling all phones calls and paper work. That old weapons shed in the back, he converted into a bunk. He isn't permitting anyone to leave the lab aside from Warrick and Nick."
"Conrad Ecklie?"
"Yeah, he is really sweating this after all that has happened this year. He even threatened to fire Hodges when he called his mom for her birthday. He's even impressed me. Course that could be for his own selfish reasons."
"Where is Catherine?"
He sighed and rubbed the little bit of stubble on his chin.
"Ecklie made her go home the night she was here. She's really taking this hard. Warrick has been there when he can. She won't talk to anyone else. But look you need to stay here until they are ready to release you. If you get sick while out there, you will be here longer and Sara needs you."
Brass had said the very thing to make Grissom come to his senses. Sara did need him.
"All right Brass, but I call the shots from here. I want a meeting with Warrick, Nick, Greg, Hodges, Robbins, Archie, Mia, and Bobby Dawson, and even Conrad. Send them all here tomorrow at noon. I also want a laptop with an uplink for Codis and the other databases. I need access to the internet and email. Any updates go directly to my phone, email, or instant messengers."
Brass made out the list. Ecklie knew that once Grissom had the details on Sara, he would want to work from the hospital. It was Brass's job to get a list of what he wanted.
"Ok anything else?"
"Starbucks, I need a vanilla bean frappucino in the worst way!"
Brass laughed, so relieved that Grissom was acting normal for once.
"I am a VB frap man myself, I'll get it all to you tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to go, I have to meet O'Connor. We found a Toyota in the ditch ten miles from Sara's. It's going to the lab."
"All right thank you Jim. You're one hell of a cop but you're an even better friend."
"Aw don't tell me a bum ticker is gonna turn you soft?"
"No way, science still prevails. Can you also ask Warrick to come by this evening, and can you hand me my cell phone I have a call to make?"
"Sure, that reminds me I had Nick go to your place and pack you a bag with some stuff. And also I snuck in a friend of yours."
Brass reached into the box by his chair and pulled out a familiar container.
"Moses! Daddy missed you!" Grissom told the tarantula with a grin.
"See you later, Gil."
Brass left the room with a smile, talking to himself as he entered the elevator.
"The man has a 37 year old girlfriend and a tarantula for a son. Just doesn't get any better that."
"Yes this is Gil Grissom calling for 707-555-1926. Recipient's name Olivia Grissom."
"Dialing please hold."
Grissom waited for his mother to answer the phone. The relay operator came back.
"Hello this is Olivia, go ahead."
"Mom, it's Gil. How are you? Go ahead"
pause
"Gil, it is so nice to hear from you. I am fine. Just got finished in the garden, the petunias are coming in nicely. go ahead"
His mother's cheerful demeanor even through the voice of a relay operator, made him smile.
"Your garden is so beautiful, always. Mom, I called to tell you that I am in the hospital. I am fine, I had a mild heart attack. Go ahead."
He almost hated to have the operator send it but he knew that being honest with her was always the best. When his father left, his mother hadn't tried to sugarcoat it, or hide the truth. She told him that he had left them and probably wouldn't be back because he was in trouble with the police. So even though it was hard, he knew he needed to tell her.
"I will be on a flight first thing tomorrow Gil, you hang tight. Caller has released the line."
He thanked the operator and hung up his phone. He hadn't counted on her being so spontaneous so soon. There was nothing he could do but call her back and get her flight time. Talking Olivia Grissom out of something was like talking a pitbull out of a steak. He redialed the number and waited for her reponse.
"Gilbert I won't hear any talk about me not coming. I will be there. Go ahead."
"Ok mom I won't try to talk you out of it. Please email Jim Brass at he will pick you up from the airport. I love you and I will see you tomorrow. Go ahead."
pause
"You must be sick if you aren't fighting me. I will email Mr. Brass. Goodnight sweetheart. Caller is ready to hang up."
He hung up the phone and laid his head back on the pillow.
Ten minutes later he was met by the eyes of Dr. Lurie.
"What are you doing here?"
"Seems you ask me that a lot. I came to check on you. And check your heart monitor."
"I don't want your help." Grissom said facing the window.
"Look I know what you think of me and I know the evidence says what it does. I can't change that. But I am still the top surgeon in Las Vegas and I fixed Sara Sidle on that operating table. You may not trust me as a man but under my care, Sara will recover."
"Oh come off of it! You just want to help Sara because she reminds you of Debbie! Hell I had trouble separating my feelings for Sara when I saw her lying on her bathroom floor."
"Sara does look like Debbie, but if I killed Debbie, then why didn't I let Sara die? She was in really bad shape when you brought her in. Another hour and she would have died. No one would have blamed me. But I saved her, because I am a doctor and because I owed it to you and the memory of Debbie. I didn't kill Debbie, the evidence just looks that way."
"The evidence doesn't lie Doc."
"I couldn't kill Debbie, I loved her for God's sake! Could you kill Sara if she was with another man? Yeah I was mad that she ended it for a younger guy none the less, but I couldn't kill her. I have spent every day since her death visiting her grave. I've ran and reran the evidence in my head. You don't trust me and you have every reason not to, but there is more to the story then you had heard or uncovered."
"I didn't uncover anything else because there wasn't anything else."
"Really? Let me help you out. You found a bracelet with the initials JC on it, a skull engraved on the back. The same skull that is tattooed upon the breast of your own Sara Sidle. I'll be back to check on you tomorrow."
Lurie walked out, Grissom's jaw still wide open in shock.