And So it Goes...
By: Manigault
Note of thanks: I appreciate everyone who is reading this story and especially those taking the time to leave comments. Gracias.
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"Hey Archie." Sara touched the lab techs left shoulder lightly, while smiling down at him as she'd done a dozen times in the past.
A slight blush darkened Archie's olive complexion and he avoided making eye contact with either herself or Grissom, who was standing on his right side. Focusing on the computer screen directly in front of him, Archie said a quick hello and then decided to get straight to business.
"There wasn't much activity in the store on the day you asked me to check for you, Grissom. Sara enters about here." He clicked a few keys and they saw Sara entering the convenience store, her expression sad and more than a little weary. Grissom felt his throat constrict as he watched her speak to the clerk behind the counter and then make her way down an aisle, her chin held high as she walked with a determined stride.
Archie split the screen so that the front door stayed on one side of the computer screen and another camera followed Sara as she stood in front of a display of pregnancy tests. Sara wrapped her arms protectively around her middle as she recalled that day and the emotional turmoil she had been experiencing. The fact that this event had been captured on video surveillance was daunting.
Picking up on the uncomfortable vibe emanating all around him, Archie risked a glance up and over at Sara and gave her a warm smile. "Your secrets safe with me, Sara, you know that right?"
"That's not what worries me, Arch, it's the fact that my every move was followed on camera. Why?"
"Oh, that." Archie gave a slight shrug and turned back to the computer. "It's not uncommon these days that the owners of some of these stores invest in top notch surviellance cameras. They have been robbed so many times. The cameras catch every aisle and anybody that enters." With only a brief hesitation, Archie smirked. "The bathrooms are safe. No cameras."
"What a relief," said Sara with a smirk of her own as she took that second to glance over at Grissom whose attention appeared to be transfixed on the screen, his expression one of someone miles and miles away.
Turning back to the computer, Sara ventured a question. "Any possible suspects, Archie?"
Clicking a few more keys Archie sped up the second screen and then paused it as a woman entered the front door of the shop. She wore a cap pulled low over her face and her long brown hair spilled over her shoulders in a scraggly manner. She kept her head down so there was no clear view of her face.
"There are only three people that entered after Sara did and the other two were a young couple that were all into each other, not observant of anyone else in the store at all." Archie clicked some more keys and they could follow the stranger as she moved from one aisle to another, aparently searching for something...or someone?
Grissom felt a multitude of emotions as he kept his focus trained on Sara as she picked up one box, looked at it, put it back, picked up another. He could only imagine what was going through her mind as she contemplated this unexpected turn of events. It was a comment from Sara that made him turn and look at the stranger that was moving along the aisle towards the section where Sara had stood.
"I don't remember seeing her at all." Sara mused as she kept her arms wrapped around her middle in a protective stance. "If that is our miniature killer then she was right next to me and I didn't even know."
Tearing his gaze away from the stranger, Grissom looked over Archie's head towards Sara, saying, "We pass by potential killers every time we go to the grocery store or the gas station. The fact that this potential suspect was standing next to you and your thoughts were preoccupied to the extent that you didn't notice, then that's only a natural part of human nature."
"Grissom? You aren't making me feel better." Sara kept her tone light and teasing, but his words creeped her out, seriously. It wasn't as though she hadn't faced the results of violance on a daily basis for more than a decade, but when it stared you in the face, perspectives changed. An involuntary shiver ran along her spine as she watched the woman follow her along the aisle all the way to the counter where Sara purchased the pregnancy test and then retreated to the privacy of the public restroom.
"She's hovering near the doorway to the restroom." Archie hit a fast forward button as Sara exited the restroom wearing a stunned expression as she made a hasty retreat from the store. Within seconds, the stranger entered the bathroom.
"She must have found the test." Sara felt violated as she imagined this possible suspect rummaging around in the trash can for the stick that showed a positive result.
"Please tell me it was sitting on top of the trash can and she didn't have to dig." Archie shuddered at the thought of someone digging around in nasty trash.
"I dropped it in the trash can and didn't pay attention." Sara watched the woman exit, her head still lowered so that her face wasn't clear enough to distinguish it from anyone else on the street. There was something familiar, however, and the thought pressed on her subconscious.
"Sara? What is it?" Grissom watched the confusion play across Sara's face and resisted the urge to walk around Archie and take Sara in his arms.
It was probably the simple fact that on a subconscious level she recognized the woman from that day in the store, nothing more and nothing less. Sara made herself smile towards Grissom and shake her head.
"It's just a feeling, Griss, that's all."
Grissom had no chance to expound on her statement as the phone beside Archie began ringing and the lab tech eagerly retrieved it, thankful for any excuse to avoid the new tension vibrating around the room.
"Archie. Hey there, Warrick. Yeah, he's right here."
Grissom took the phone with a puzzled expression and immediately received the answer to why Warrick was calling him on a land line.
"I've been trying your cell, Griss and you're either not answering or you left your phone someplace else."
"My desk. What's going on?"
Sara listened to Grissom's side of the conversation before her beeper began vibrating against her hip. Checking the id plate, she read a short message from Greg asking her to meet him in the locker room. Frowning, she wondered why the locker room but decided she could take advantage of the break to relieve her bladder.
She glanced at Grissom who was bent over the table, scribbling some notes on a piece of paper that Archie had provided for him, and turned her attention to the young lab tech.
"Tell Grissom to find me in the locker room, Archie, okay? Greg asked to meet me there."
"I'll go with you." Archie offered, his concern evident as he made to stand up only to receive a shake of the head from Sara.
"It's less than a twenty feet from here, Archie, I'll be fine."
Leaving the room before Archie could protest, she was out the door and down the hall in seconds. She would be lying if she didn't acknowledge that she'd been feeling a bit claustophobic with everyone shadowing her every move and that the sudden freedom was a relief. Grissom would get over it.
Glancing back over her shoulder she noticed that Archie was watching her progress down the hallway, all the way to the locker room where she turned and waved. He lifted a hand and turned back inside the computer room.
Shaking her head with a small smile, she entered the locker room and found it empty, with the exception of a cleaning cart.
"Greg?"
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Filling the coffee mug for the second time in the past thirty minutes, Catherine returned to her seat across the table from Irene. She and the agent had retreated to the break room as Grissom had asked and now they were filling the time with various stories of past cases.
Turning the subject to Irene's partner, Catherine ventured with the observation of the man's good looks.
"Yeah, he isn't bad looking." Irene admitted with a wry laugh. "He knows it, however, and along with his mile wide ego he's a pain to work with."
Picking up on some other emotion, Catherine grinned. "You don't mind being partners with him, though, do you?"
"He's a good man." Irene sipped on her coffee and frowned. "Don't let him know that I admitted that."
Catherine would have continued this line of questioning, but a frantic Grissom burst through the door, his eyes wild with fear.
"Have you seen Sara?'
"She was with you, Gil, last time we saw her in your office, before coming in here."
Grissom didn't respond as he backed away from the doorway without explanation. Sara had been with him, safe, and then by the time he hung up the phone with Warrick and turned to catch her up to speed, Archie informed him that Sara had received a page from Greg and went to the locker room to meet him.
Immediately Grissom sprinted to the locker room in search of Sara, almost tripping over a housekeeper pushing her cleaning cart along the hallway. "Excuse me," he mumbled as questions bounced around his mind. Why would Greg page her to the locker room, especially when he could have tracked her down in the computer room. And why would Sara go without waiting for him to go with her?
Entering the locker room, Grissom found it empty, nothing out of place and no sign that Sara was in there minutes before.
"Sara?"
TBC