Twenty-Six
Mike and Chris Peterson sat at a table in the interrogation room. They had been in there for hours. They were refusing to answer the questions that Jim and Grissom kept asking them. They were seated together, Mike defiant, Chris a little nervous. Jim and Grissom were standing against the door. They were scowling at the two men from Las Vegas, who were glaring back just as defiantly at the officers. Grissom had a strong feeling that this was it. That within the next few hours, Sara would be set free, and he'd be on his way back to Las Vegas with her. She wanted to go home. This wasn't her home anymore; she knew it now. Her home was with Grissom. They knew there was no other person for each other.
"You're really pushing your boundaries here, boys," Mike snapped. "You're out of your jurisdiction here."
"That may be," Brass replied matter-of-factly, "but all it will take is for me to go to the nearest jurisdiction and prove gross incompetence. And it won't be that hard to do thanks to all the evidence my boys picked up." His face contorted into a snarl. "There's no way you guys will be able to prove you did anything by the book." The thought of Sara's rights being violated so badly disgusted him.
"Do you think any of it will be admissable?" Chris asked. His tone was a little nervous, but Grissom and Brass knew walking into the meeting that they couldn't be sympathetic to either of them. Not after everything they had put Sara through.
"I think any judge with a conscience would know what you boys are doing is wrong," Grissom replied, sitting down across from them. "Look, guys, we're not looking to throw you guys in the slammer. We want answers and we want Sara out of here. Plain and simple."
"Sara killed Merle," Mike insisted. It was a desperate statement to sway their judgment and it didn't by any stretch.
The doors opened and Nick walked into the room. He was holding the bagged knife and a bag with two ropes in his hand and had a smile on his face. Grissom turned and noticed the smile.
"Nick. What do you have?"
"Well, I did what you asked, Gris, and I went back to the house. Spray for Luminol shows that the kitchen floor was coated in blood. I had Dr. Harper run a test on what I found on both the knife and the floor and the blood belonged to Merle."
"So? She killed him in the kitchen," Mike snapped. Nick laughed.
"The abrasions on her wrists say otherwise. The reason why I'm so late was I had to run to the nearest courthouse. With the evidence Grissom and I collected, we were able to get a warrant to search your premises. I went with Captain Christian Fox."
"You can't do that."
"I can, and I did," Nick replied, his tone cold. "Your wife was cooperative when we showed her the warrant. We found a bottle of Larazapam prescribed to Chris and we found these ropes. I'm almost certain that Dr. Harper will find Sara's epithelials on the ropes."
"What else did you find, Nick?" Brass inquired.
"Well, Dr. Harper lifted fingerprints that we matched to Chris Peterson," he said. He looked at Chris and laughed. "For a law enforcement official, you sure are an idiot."
"So I touched a knife. I was on the scene."
"We also found your fingerprints on the inside of the coat closet. Did you even think to wear gloves, man? You left traces all over the house."
"Here's what we think happened," Grissom said, leaning back a little in his chair. "You find out Sara came back. You guys are still a little upset about what happened with Sara's mother as a result of Merle's testimony..."
"After all," Brass interjected, "it was his testimony that got Sara's mother off the hook."
"So you boys start plotting," Nick stated, "You guys figured if you couldn't get Sara's mother, what's the next best thing? Her daughter."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Mike snapped.
"That's what I thought at first, too," Grissom replied. "But you find out that Sara frequents the bar every night. So you go. You find her meeting with Merle. So you get a beer, and while nobody's staring, you slip in enough of your son's medication to medicate a horse."
"Dr. Harper states that with the amount in her system, it was a miracle Sara was still standing," Nick replied.
"So, it starts to hit Sara. Sara thinks she's been drugged by Merle or something. She gets up to leave, he notices she's not moving in a straight line and offers to take her home."
"This is where you guys messed up," Grissom replied. "Sara, no matter what happens, when she goes out, she leaves at least one light on so she can see when she gets home. It shows carelessness. You boys premeditated this entire situation, yet you failed to monitor her habits. You made yourselves known."
"Sara – even drugged – knows that something is up. But before she can do anything to protect herself or Merle, you and your father bolt out of the closet and grab each of them. Chris, since you look bigger, you probably grabbed Merle. Mike, you grabbed Sara, and dragged her up the stairs when she tried to go for Merle."
"That's ridiculous."
"Is it?" Nick asked. "We'll probably get your epithelials off of the ropes as well," Nick replied. "Look, Sargeant, with all due respect, this is a losing battle. You guys messed up this entire investigation."
"Your only saving grace was that you were going to bluff to Sara until she confessed," Brass repied. "You hoped that if you could convince her she killed him while she was under the influence of the drugs, that you could prosecute her and nail her for what Laura Sidle did to one of 'your boys'."
"What you didn't count on was Sara calling us," Nick replied. "Sara is like family to us and when she calls, we come running. No ifs, ands or buts."
"So why Sara? You guys don't think that she isn't affected by the death of her father? That she hasn't suffered in foster home after foster home? What did she do to deserve paying for what her mother did?" Grissom could feel his pulse rising. He was getting irritated.
"So why hasn't Sara been put to trial yet?" Brass inquired. "She has the right to at least an arraignment and yet you boys have kept her locked here. Her rights have been violated and if we were to go to a court right now, they'd spring Sara like that."
Mike took a deep breath. The last legs of this case were wobbling for them. "You don't know what it's like. You boys live in a big city. You don't know what it's like to lose one of your boys."
"Do you even listen to yourself talk?" Brass asked, incredulous. "We're in the same field. We lose boys all the time."
"The only thing in this business you have is your integrity, and you boys disregarded it for some perverted reason that I doubt you even understand," Nick replied.
"You boys are a disgrace to the badge," Brass snapped. "I've never seen such incompetence on a case."
The guys listened. "So what are you going to do with us?"
"I called Internal Affairs on the way here," Nick revealed. "They'll be here to deal with this place in the morning."
Grissom realized he had them over a barrel and he zoomed in for the kill. "What we want is Sara released. I'll take her out of this place, but you boys owe her an apology."
Mike took a deep breath and handed the keys to Grissom. "So how did you figure it out?" he asked.
Grissom took the keys and stood to his feet. He looked at Mike and shrugged. "I know Sara."