Shadow Play

Chapter 14

Having spent over an hour driving up and down the industrial section of Frelinghuysen Avenue, Jim Brass had come to the conclusion that little had changed since he'd left Newark all those years ago: many of the buildings were still the same, traffic was still a nightmare and, more importantly as far as he was concerned, you were still guaranteed to find working girls out and about regardless of what time of day it was.

Choosing a redhead that seemed to be working alone, he eased his rental car up to the curb, lowered the passenger side window and gestured her over for a chat.

"Hey, sugar" Keeping a safe distance back from the vehicle, she quickly scanned the rest of the traffic before bending to smile in through the window. "You looking for a date?"

"Only with a girl named Ellie." Leaning forward, Jim pulled his wallet from his back pocket.

"That's cool." Deciding she was safe, the woman stepped off the sidewalk and leaned against the car. "For thirty bucks you can call me any name you like."

Jim allowed himself a chuckle. "No thanks, I think I'll pass." Pulling a photo from his wallet he held it out for the woman to see. "This is the girl I'm looking for: mid twenties, five seven or so; she tends to have a big mouth and a smartass attitude."

"You just described half the girls out here." Reaching in through the window, she took the picture from him and studied it before shaking her head. "Can't say I've seen her and I'm out here everyday; if she was around I'd have noticed her by now." Handing the photo back, she examined Jim carefully. "So, you a cop or what?"

"That obvious, huh?" With a smile, he slipped the picture back where it belonged. "I used to be with Newark PD but now I'm out in Vegas." Keeping the wallet in his hand, he decided to try a long shot. "How about Mary Reynolds? Is she still around?"

"Old Mary? Yeah, she's still here." Leaning casually on the door frame, she shot him a knowing wink. "You won't find her working in the mornings though; she's getting on now and she can hide a lot more at night than she can during the day. Last I heard she had a regular spot on Tonnelle Avenue just up from 51st Street; you know it?"

"I should." Jim told her as he opened up his wallet again. "I worked that area for over five years." Pulling out a ten and a twenty he held them out for her to take. "There you go, thanks for your help."

"Nah, don't worry about it." She waved him off. "I don't want your money."

"Go on, take it." Leaning over, he pressed it into her hand. "Easiest cash you'll make today."

"You got that right." Stepping back onto the sidewalk, she slipped the notes into her bra and shot him a final grin. "Good luck, honey; I hope you find your Ellie."

"Yeah." Putting the car in gear, Jim carefully edged the rental back into the line of traffic. "So do I."

Squinting against the glare of the mid-morning sun, Sara pulled open the heavy gate and smiled as the first half of the expected convoy arrived at the crime lab's rear entrance. She moved to the side, well out of the way, as Greg drove his RAV4 in through the opening, coming to a stop just a few feet from her position. Winding down his window, he leaned out with a grin.

"He's about fifteen minutes behind me, I came on ahead to open up but I guess you beat me to it."

"It's about time you got here." Looking past him into the back of the compact SUV, her eyebrows rose at the sight of all the boxes he had packed inside. "I've been waiting for over an hour now; what was the hold up?"

"First the tow truck was late and then we couldn't get the damn car started." Looking past Sara's shoulder, he nodded towards the building behind her. "I'll park in there for now; if you give me a hand we can probably have this thing unloaded before the Mustang arrives."

As he drove his car into the lab's old garage, Greg marveled, once again, at how perfect it was for their purpose.

Standing well clear of the main structure, the four-bay, freestanding building was roughly the size of a small warehouse. Sitting in a far corner of the lot, it had served its purpose well until the mid 80's expansion of the complex and the addition of the workshop-like garage that was in use today. In the intervening years, it had become more of a dumping ground; outdated technical equipment and old office furniture mixing awkwardly with the vast collection of tools and implements that could no longer be accommodated in the lab itself.

But now, thanks to Grissom's efforts, the chaos was gone. The equipment and furniture had all been moved into the last of the bays, ready for proper disposal and the tools, both manual and power, had been organized and assigned spaces either in the drawers of the long workbench or on the array of shelves that ran above it leaving them more than enough room to work in.

Sensing a presence beside him, he turned to Sara with a grin. "I still can't believe how much space there is in here."

"Beats a rented workshop, doesn't it?" Pleased that her suggestion of using the garage had turned out so well, Sara beamed back at him. "At least the two of you will be able to move around without falling over each other."

"Um, that's something I wanted to ask you about." Shuffling awkwardly, Greg cast an anxious glance at his colleague. "You didn't make Grissom ask me to help him out with this, did you?"

"I can't make him do anything, Greg." Sara tried hard to hide her amusement. "Grissom asked you to give him a hand because he knows he'll need help with this and he genuinely thought you might be interested in doing it." Turning back to the Toyota, she feigned an indifferent shrug. "But if you don't want to I can always-"

"No!" Just as she known it would be, his reaction was immediate. "I do want to do it; I just wanted to make sure that he hadn't been..." His expression turned sheepish. "coerced into asking me that's all."

"I assure you, there was no 'coercing' involved, okay?" Giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, she nodded towards his car. "Now, are we going to get these boxes unloaded or what?"

Five minutes later, with her final trip from the vehicle completed, Sara stepped back and surveyed the assortment of cartons that now lined the rear wall of the garage. "These are all for the Mustang? There's got to be a dozen boxes there."

"Thirteen actually; I counted them back at Elaine's." Depositing his final load, Greg wiped his dusty hands down the legs of his jeans. "And there's a couple more in the Mercedes as well. According to Grissom, a lot of it will be the stuff they took off the car when they were just starting out but he's pretty sure there are spare parts in there too; apparently John Grogan had duplicates of a lot of the different components."

"Well, that should make things easier for you." With the back of her hand, Sara swiped at the thin sheet of perspiration that covered her forehead. "If you've got all the parts plus some backups it's really nothing more than a giant jigsaw puzzle."

"I think there may be more to it than that." Greg took exception to the somewhat over-simplified analogy. "I just hope there's a another starter motor packed away in there; that's what gave us so much trouble at back at Elaine's."

"She warned you about that, remember?" Heading for the door again, Sara slapped her hand against the RAV4 as she passed. "Okay, let's move this thing out of here and then you can give a hand bringing in something I thought this place might need."

After parking his car parallel to the chain-link fence, Greg waited for the Prius to appear around the corner and stepped back out of the way as it eased to a stop beside him. He stooped down to read the writing on the side of the largish box that occupied the back seat as Sara got out and opened the rear doors. "A bar fridge?"

"I drove over to Sears and picked it up after you left for Elaine's." Kneeling on the back seat, she pushed the unwieldy box across towards Greg's door. "I thought it'd be easier than having to head into the lab every time one of you wanted a cold drink."

"Makes sense." Reaching in, Greg grabbed his end and lowered the box to the ground.

It was as she was climbing out that the wave of dizziness hit her. Grabbing hold of the door frame, Sara closed her eyes and tried to ride it out.

"You okay?" Feeling a hand on her arm she opened her eyes to find Greg's staring back at her with concern. "You want a seat? Some water?"

"No, I think I just stood up too fast." Embarrassed, she shook her head. "Between that and the headache I've got, I just felt a little faint, that's all." She took a deep breath of air and look down at the box. "Come on; let's get that thing hooked up."

Moments later, the fridge was out of its box and in place beneath the workbench, the hum of its compressors sounding unnaturally load in the empty garage.

"I'll let it cool down for a while then stock it up for you; I've got some bottled water and sodas in the trunk of the car." Leaning back against the bench, Sara ran her finger around the collar of her shirt, easing it away from her suddenly clammy skin. "It's airless in here, isn't it? Maybe I should have bought you a couple of fans as well."

"Actually, I don't think it's that bad; the doors will be open when we're in here anyway and if we open up the windows at the back, I think we'll get by." Greg cocked his head as the unmistakable sound of a truck engine approached and broke into a grin. "That's got to be it."

Rounding the side of the garage, Sara hot on his heels, Greg watched as the Mercedes swept in through the open gateway. Behind it, a large flat-bed tow truck, weighed down with the Mustang 302, carefully inched its way on to the lot. As Grissom swung his car to the right, Greg stepped forward and signaled the truck driver to turn left towards the waiting garage. Leaving him to it, Sara headed over towards the now parked Mercedes.

Dressed in jeans and an old t-shirt, both of which were smeared with oil and grease, Grissom had the back door open and was carefully extracting the Ford's missing front grill as she came up beside him.

"Need a hand?"

"I think I got it." He glanced up with a smile. "But there's some stuff in the trunk you can grab if you like."

Pulling open the lid, Sara shook her head in amazement at the contents. "You know, I'm sure we had less boxes when we moved into the condo." Picking two at random, she balanced them in her arms. "No problems getting her here?"

"Well, we had to push her out of the garage and down the driveway when she wouldn't start but once we hit the street it was just a matter of winching her up onto the truck." Balancing the grill against the side of the car, Grissom grabbed one of the larger boxes before turning to watch Greg direct the tow truck into position for unloading. "I thought we might have had to strip the air dam off to get her up there but she made it with an inch or two to spare."

Walking slowly, they began to make their way towards the garage.

"I'm surprised Elaine didn't want to come with you." Shifting the boxes to one arm, Sara used her free hand to rub at her suddenly itchy nose. "I thought she might have wanted to check that the car was actually gone for good."

"She probably would have if she'd had the time but she's got classes this afternoon." Grissom glanced over at her with a grin. "She's did want me to tell you she's looking forward to dinner on Thursday night though."

Her eyebrow's rose in surprise. "You told her?"

"Actually, she'd already worked it out for herself; all I did was confirm it." With both arms occupied, he only just managed a shrug. "I suppose, logically, it had to be either you or Catherine and I think she's spent enough time with Cath lately to know it wasn't her."

Following her into the garage, Grissom held back as Sara placed her burden carefully on top of the other boxes. It was only as she turned towards him that he got the first good look at her face. "Why are you so flushed?"

"I don't know." She shrugged tiredly, wincing as the movement exacerbated the dull ache in her shoulders and arms. "I think I'm getting a cold or something."

Tossing his own box onto the work bench, Grissom was by her side in moments. "How long has this been going on?"

"I started to feel it about half way through shift." Sara admitted. "But it's been getting worse this past half hour or so."

Lifting his hand, he placed it across her forehead as he looked at her with concern. "Honey, you're burning up; I think this is more than a cold." Frowning at her, he shook his head. "PD had a lot of people out with the flu last week; looks like it might be our turn now. We've got to get you home."

"No." Shaking his hand off, she took a step back. "I'll be fine until you're finished here, you won't be much longer anyway so I'll just find a seat and-"

She shivered violently as a sudden chill ran through her and Grissom decided enough was enough. Pulling his car keys from his pocket, he wrenched four off the ring before striding towards the open door.

"Greg, can you handle the rest of this yourself? I need to take Sara home."

"Of course." Turning from the truck, Greg looked questioningly at his boss. "She dizzy again?"

"I'm pretty sure it's the flu." Holding the keys out, he dropped them into Greg's waiting hand. "Three of those I had cut for you last night: two for the car and one for the garage doors, the other one's the key to the Sara's car; when you've got the Mustang in, park the Prius next to it and then lock it all up and head home okay?"

Coming up beside him, Sara managed a weary smile for her younger colleague. "You know, there's really no need for this; I'll be fine." She swayed slightly and quickly grabbed onto the wall beside her.

"Sure you will." Stalking over to the pile of furniture, Grissom quickly found a serviceable chair and placed it behind her. "You're going to sit here and not move; give me a couple of minutes to get the rest of the boxes out of my car and then we're going home!"

Five minutes later, as promised, he drove out of the parking lot and turned east towards the interchange. With his attention divided between the traffic in front of him and the still-protesting woman by his side, Grissom never noticed the blue sedan that pulled away from the curb and followed him home.

TBC