Chapter 13

Sara carefully slid her key into the lock and pushed the door open. She smiled as she watched Sofia enter her home... Sara's eyes traveled up the length of her body and settled on her eyes as she let the door close behind her. She wrapped her arms around Sofia's waist and pulled her close to her.

For a long lovely moment they stood in the gloom of the hallway, their faces inches apart, their entire intimate focus on each other.

"Hey…" Sara gave her a soft chuckle and leaned down to claim her lips with hers.

Sofia's hands moved up her chest and linked around her neck. "Hi…" Her lips moved to her ear and her tongue snaked out to pull her lobe into her mouth. She leaned back slightly and gazed into her eyes as she ran her fingers through her hair.

Sara smiled her gap-toothed smile and pulled from her embrace, laughing softly at the whimper escaping the blonde's lips. Taking her hand, she began to walk backwards slowly. "Mmm... that was sweet..."

Sofia allowed her to pull her slowly down the hall. She stopped her movement and held her hand tightly. Raising her hand, she caressed her cheek as she gazed lovingly into her eyes. "So are you."

Sara smiled broadly and leaned into her hand, turning her head slightly to place a soft kiss in her palm. "Want you…"

Sofia nodded wordlessly and gently pushed her through the doorway to the bedroom. Sara's hands immediately went to the buttons on the blonde's shirt. She grasped her hands quickly to still them and shook her head.

"What?"

"Let me do it... I want to watch you undress..."

Sara smiled seductively and nodded. "Mmm... well, then..."

She grinned as Sara took a couple of steps back from her and pulled her shirt over her head. Sofia quickly undid the buttons of her shirt and let it fall to the floor beside of her as she kicked off her boots. Her hands went to her pants and struggled with the button briefly as the sound of the zipper of Sara's jeans being pulled down resonated in the room.

Sara's eyes sparkled as she slid her jeans and silk underwear down her legs, her gaze focused on the blonde's hands pushing her slacks down and off to side where they joined her discarded shirt. Sofia took two quick steps to stand directly in front of the brunette and pulled her body against hers.

Sara's mouth found her neck and lavished it with attention as her hands stroked her chest lightly. Sofia's fingers found the clasp of the brunette's bra and unhooked it with ease. Placing gentle kisses across her collarbone, she slid it from her body. Her thumbs grazed across her nipples and she raised her mouth to her ear, releasing a soft moan.

Sofia eased her onto the bed and she took the opportunity to rid the blonde of her panties. Laying her on her back, she found her place beside of her and allowed her hands to explore her body. Looking into her eyes, Sofia smiled as she felt her shudder lightly as her fingers slid across her stomach.

"Mmm… feels good" Sara's voice was ragged and breathless. She shivered in anticipation.

Sofia grinned and shook her head slowly before lowering her head and taking her nipple into her mouth. She held it between her teeth and flicked her tongue against it, smiling against her breast as she groaned.

Releasing the erect nub, Sofia looked at her with bright eyes. "Love touching you…"

The blonde moved down her body at an agonizingly slow pace. A soft kiss here, a gentle nibble there. Sara sighed as she felt the blonde's warm breath blow across her clitoris. She bit her lip as her tongue carefully circled it. She tightened her fingers in her hair as her mouth closed over it, pulling the throbbing erectile tissue into her mouth and sucking on it lightly.

Sofia looked up at her and increased her pressure as her eyes clamped shut. She released her clit from her mouth and gave it a long lick before she moved back up her body. Her fingers continued to caress her.

Sofia plunged her tongue into her mouth as Sara's hips bucked against her, urging her to quicken her motion. She resisted the urge to give into her, savoring her soft moans into her mouth. Smiling, she pulled her tongue from her mouth and removed her fingers from the brunette before her orgasm had a chance to be released.

"Sof…"

Sofia grinned at Sara's frustration and positioned herself between one of her leg, resting her hand against her clit. "Patience, my dear..."

Sofia moved her hand slightly, sliding the tip of her fingers against her clit with mild force. Sara moved her hips against her. It resulted only in increasing the pressure against her oversensitive nub. She moaned loudly and pressed her nails into the blonde's back.

"Tell me what you want, Sara..."

Sara opened her eyes and stared into his dark blue irises. "Sof... please..."

Sofia continued to grind her pussy slowly against Sara's thigh. "Tell me..."

Sara's nails dug harder into her back as she pushed against her again. "God, Sof..."

"Sara..." Sofia's voice was calm, almost to the point of being annoying. Almost.

"You... are such a... fucking tease..."

Sofia grinned and leaned down, flicking her tongue against her lips. "Tell me what you want..."

"Sof... dammit... fuck me..."

Sofia smiled and eased the tip of two fingers into her wet folds. "No..."

Sara slammed her hips against the blonde's hand, pulling her fingers inside of her. Her eyes, black with lust, glared at her. "Yes!"

She grabbed Sofia's head and pulled her down, kissing her with a ferocity that quickly made her give into her. She sucked her tongue into her mouth, her teeth grazing along the rough muscle. Wrapping her hand around the blonde's, she pressed her fingers deeper inside of her... effectively making her grant her request.

Sara held her tightly to her as she slid two fingers inside of her easily. Her fingers continued to move slowly inside of her, brushing across her g-spot with each stroke.

Sofia quickened her pace, her fingers pressing against that special spot with each hard thrust. She pulled her tongue from her mouth and buried her face in the crook of her neck, pulling the soft flesh into her mouth. Sara's nails scraped across the blonde's back as she met each of her thrusts with her own.

Sofia felt her walls begin to clench around her fingers and moved her lips next to her ear. "Come for me, honey..."

Sara gripped her back, her grasp slipping briefly against the blonde's sweat-drenched skin. "Come... with... me..."

Sofia emitted a soft groan as their movements became frantic. Their moans echoed in the room as their orgasms crashed together. Sara's nails dug into her shoulders as she felt Sofia's fluids coat her hand. The blonde's body shook as she felt the brunette's fluids rushing over her hand.

Sofia allowed her body to collapse onto her. Sara's arms held her tightly against her chest. The blonde nuzzled her neck as their breathing slowly began to calm.

Sofia moved to Sara's side and pulled her into her arms, kissing her deeply.

"That was nice."

"Mmm…"

Sara looked into her eyes and a grin appeared on her lips.

Sofia chuckled lightly and tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. "What?"

"I was just thinking..."

Sofia raised an eyebrow and smiled. "About?"

Well... if this is how you keep your promises when we come home... then I definitely could learn to leave work the minute shifts are over..."

Sofia laughed heartily and pulled her in for another kiss. As she felt that familiar stirring sensation, she realized there would not be much sleep in the Sidle household this morning. She smiled against her mouth as she eased her tongue into the brunette's mouth.

Sara pulled the SUV alongside the curb, parking behind the lone police car. Two uniformed officers were covering the two entrances into the house. The one in the backyard was ambling around the lawn. The officer in front was standing on the porch, making notes.

"Anybody home?" Sara asked, leading the way up the walk to the front door.

"No" the officer answered, finishing his jottings before looking up. "Neighbors said they left about an hour ago."

Sara and Greg made their way slowly to the room supposedly to be Debra's.

"You take the bed and the bedside table then I'll look in the closet" Sara instructed, shining the flashlight on the far side of the room.

"Okay" Greg said, a frown of concentration hardening his face.

Sara took a slow circuitous path towards the closet. There, she opened it and let her flashlight played on everything, it finally came to a stop when it reached a small metal box in the bottom corner of the closet. She bent down and took it out placing it on the floor and opened it.

Sara squatted next to the metal box, spotlighting its contents in her flashlight's beam. Greg lowered himself behind her, peering over her left shoulder. "Know anything about guns?"

"That's a Taurus model 22BGPP .22 LR small frame semi-automatic pistols," Greg stated.

"Greg, I'm really impressed! I didn't know you knew so much about guns."

"I bought a paint ball gun for my nephew that looks pretty much just like it," he explained "and I have tried that model once at the shooting range."

"I don't think I have tried this model" Sara said, leaning in closer to examine the gun. "It's missing a corner" she added with a grin, running a gloved finger over the grips.

"I bet the piece you found in the car match perfectly" Greg chuckled and stood up. Opening the next wardrobe door, he began examining it as Sara started lifting fingerprints.

Sara shook her head as she replaced the gun in the box and bagged it. "No bet. I just hope you're right" she said, giving him a wink.

"Found anything yet?" Sofia asked peering into the room as she jotted down notes.

"Yes, a Taurus .22 with a pink grip" Sara said triumphantly.

"Great! Hopefully it's the right one" Sofia replied with a smile. "I'll take a look outside while you finish in here" she said leaving the room.

Greg knelt down on one knee, his flashlight illuminating over a wine rack. "Seems like this side of the wardrobe is used as a wine cellar" he informed.

"Well it's a dark place," Sara answered automatically, giving her head a shake. "I guess it's better than nothing if you don't have a wine cellar."

Greg didn't meet her eyes, but nodded emphatically as he pulled out a bottle. "I guess. But why keep an empty bottle in the rack?"

"It's a great place to hide it" Sara said as she started photographing the bottle. "You won't notice it has been open unless you take a very close look."

Greg removed the cork and tried unsuccessfully not to wrinkle up his nose and preventing his lips from twitching as a very bad smell seeped from the bottle. "Eww" he exclaimed, "pure champagne doesn't smell like this, there is definitely something else in this bottle."

"Put the cork back on. Print it and bag it. We can test the contents when we get back to the lab" Sara replied, leaning away from the sour smell coming from the bottle.

"Hey Sara, take a look at this" Greg called from the background, coming out of the bathroom with some medicine bottles in his hands. "The safety seal is still intact on most of them but one is open."

Sara tilted her head to stare inquisitively at Greg as he moved up beside her. "Ok, let's photograph them first and the count them afterwards. Just place them on the desk."

"Right" he replied, setting down the bottles and the numbered marker where she directed.

"Now let's count them" Sara said putting the camera away.

Greg picked up the bottle and read the label, "According to the label the pills were prescribed and handed out seven days ago, and Mrs. Costner is to take 2 per day, so there should be 86 pills back in the bottle."

Sara spread the pills out on the desk and photographed them before counting them. "Now you count them and then let's see if we count the same amount."

Greg counted the pills and looked up at Sara, "I count 81, you?"

"81" Sara replied with a smile.

"So there's five missing" Greg stated, "And we know Sam had at least four pills in his body."

"Jep" she said, smiling broadly. "Bag the open bottle and put the rest back where you found them." Sara took a last look around, "think we found what we came for" she announced pulling her gloves off, "let's find Sofia and go back to the lab."

Sofia was walking towards them from the other side of the house as they got outside. "There's another driveway to the house on the other side" She said, resorting to nodding in the direction she was coming from. Handing Sara a dyed-stone she added, "And it's made with these kinds of stone."

Taking the stone handed, Sara set her kit down in the back of the SUV, brows rising. "Yep same type as I found in the tires."

Sofia shut the SUV's rear door with a slam. "Well I assume he was here now and then which explains the stone in his tire."

They climbed into the vehicle, "luckily for us we gathered a lot of other evidence so we don't depend on a stone" She grinned.

Sofia started the engine and backed the SUV out of the driveway. "Then better get you back to the lab so you can have a look your findings."

Lost in her work, Sara didn't realize that someone had entered the room until Grissom moved beside her. Jerking her head up, she smiled sheepishly as she took the Trace report he held out to her.

"How's the case coming?"

"Good" she said slowly. She opened the folder Grissom just had handed her and read what it said. All the threads we found are a match and the pills are identical with the once in Mr. White's stomach." She said after a long silence, shrugging as she went back to work on her evidence. "Bobby checked the gun we found. It's the one used in the shootings."

"Okay, what else do you have out for testing?"

"Greg is working on the contents from the champagne bottle. Trace is comparing fingerprints and hair samples. Sofia is studying the topographical map we printed from the computer." She sat up quickly, a happy grin crossing her face, "and the piece of pink mother-of-pearl fit perfectly into the gun grip."

Grissom leaned over and took a closer look, "yep, that's a match" he agreed, giving her a smile as he stood.

"So you think you'll have this wrapped up soon?"

"Hopefully" she began with a shoulder shrug, "so far all the evidence looks promising."

"Good!" Grissom sighed dramatically as his pager went off, "its Catherine, better go see what's up" he said heading towards the doorway.

Sofia headed directly for Sara's workstation and pulled up the case file on the LIMS computer system, printing out the exact map as was found on Ms. Costner's computer. She then called up a street map of Boulder City and plotted the location.

"Found anything?" Greg asked as he strutted in.

"Not yet" Sofia said simply, turning back to the computer to tap a few keys that sent the monitor's output to a larger screen, mounted on the wall. "This is where the body was found, and this is where Ms. Costner's car was spotted." She put her mouse on each point and drew a line between them.

"Doesn't seem far apart in a bird's eye view" Greg said. "Can you find a map where the different landmarks are highlighted?"

"Sure!"

Through with her task, Sofia followed Greg from map to map, alternating between looking at the map and looking at his face, trying to discern whether he saw anything interesting. After a moment, the detective noticed Greg's eyes narrowing, and a cleft forming between his eyebrows. It was obvious that he was concentrating. She quickly looked back at the map, desperately trying to find what had captured his attention.

"Wait just a minute," Greg said rhetorically. "Can you place the maps on top of each other?"

"What is it?" Sofia asked, doing as she was asked.

"When Brass sent me out to take a look at the surroundings where Ms. Costner's had been observed, I noticed a gap between some scrubs" Greg told. "But except for walking a few yards down there searching for things left behind, I didn't gave it much attention."

"Understandably" she said. "Do you think you can find the exact spot on the map?"

"There" Greg replied pointing at a line across the map. "That's the thin walking path."

Sofia enlarged the map, "I think you're right" she granted. After measuring the line and convert it into the scale she looked back up at Greg, "the path is roughly a bit more than a mile long."

Greg's head shifted slightly down and to the right as he took her eyes off the map to peer intently at Sofia, "that's no further than you can walk. Even in darkness it wouldn't take more than half an hour."

"No probably not" Sofia agreed, shutting down the computer. "Well I don't know about you but I could really use a cup of coffee" she said getting up.

"Me too." The two playfully stole down the hall to the DNA/Chem. Lab. "Meet you in the break room as soon as I have checked how the processing is going" Greg said.

Greg came in to find them laughing, and he smiled at them both, eyes crinkling. "Hello ladies. Glad to see you're doing well."

Sara and Sofia tried to compose themselves. "Find anything probative?" Sofia asked, smothering a last chuckle.

Greg hesitated, but in the end honesty won out. "No, but everything is in processing now."

"How long until the results is ready?" Sofia asked.

"No more than half an hour, I'd guess," Greg answered.

"Greg, I'll be your best friend if you'll dig out some of your primo coffee and brew us up a pot. I think we deserve a break," Sara said to him.

"Leaded or unleaded?" He asked, hoping she didn't choose the decaffeinated version.

"You've got to ask?" She teased back.

"How 'bout some Mocha Sanani Yemeni?" He asked, pausing halfway to the door.

"As long as it has caffeine and sugar in it," Sara answered in short.

"Hmm. Desperation. I like that in a woman," he quipped as he resumed his trek towards his hidden cache of coffee beans.

She couldn't help smiling at that. Greg was, in his own inimitable way, a friend worth having.

A few minutes later he chuckled, his eyes bouncing between the two, "coffee is about ready."

Sara poured herself a cup of the fresh java, whose scent did indeed indicate its origins, and inhaled the steam with pleasure.

"You got anything?" Greg asked Sara, faintly challenging.

Sara gave him a grin and held out a report. "We got the right firearm, and the pills are a match."

"Can't wait to hear her explanation to that information" Sofia said sarcastically as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Oh it gets even better, the piece of mother-of-pearl I found in the car it matches perfectly" Sara said, sipping the hot coffee.

"Hey" Mandy smiled as she breached the door to break room. "One set of the finger prints from the gun and the pill bottle belong to your suspect. I found both the suspects and the victim's finger prints on the champagne bottle." She looked at Greg, "I think your test is done, heard the machine bib a few minutes ago" she told him before leaving again.

"Thanks Mandy" Sara smiled before turning her attention towards Greg. "Get back to work" she teased him as he returned to his lab.

"Wendy ran the assays on the hair from the suspect's room. It's a match" Hodges said as he entered the break room. Sara looked up from her folder, nodding slowly. "I compared the gun with the cast Robbins made of the head wound, as you asked me to. The bottom of the grip fits perfectly into the cast" he confirmed.

"Great job" Sara said, "Thanks Hodges."

"As always" Hodges smirked self-satisfied, leaving the break room.

Greg reentered the room looking up from his file. "As expected the contents in the bottle is a mix of champagne and 'CAT'."

Sara nodded, tapping her pen on the table. "So, Costner gets him to that empty warehouse, coax him into drinking poisoned champagne. Get him to climb into his car and she kills him after or while having sex with him. Shoot him as an extra precaution, clean up after them, and walk the short distance through the path back to her car."

"Sounds about right according to the evidence" Greg said.

Sofia nodded, "we have what we need to make an arrest" she said getting up. "I'll have Brass sending a car out to pick her up."

Exchanging a smile with Greg, Sara watched as the detective walked out of the room.

Tbc…