LOSS
Nick didn't know what to say to Penny and Jack; he didn't think there was anything he could say to make them feel better. He sure as hell knew there was nothing anyone could say to him. He was relieved when Jack put his arms around his wife and held her close.
"Penny, it's not his fault…" Jack said softly. "May we come in, son?" he asked Nick.
Nick nodded and moved aside so they could enter. Nick normally got on well with Phoebe's parents. Penny was, of course, Australian like Phoebe, but Jack was a flesh and blood New Yorker who loved hockey and football as much as Nick did. The bulk of their conversations revolved around sport. Jack didn't have any children of his own; he'd been a swinging bachelor for almost sixty years until he met Penny a few years before. They'd been married in Vegas not long after they met and now resided in Miami.
Penny had loved Nick ever since she'd first met him just after Phoebe came to Vegas; she though he was perfect. So to see her so shattered caused Nick actual pain.
Jack sat Penny on the couch and then walked with Nick into the kitchen, out of earshot. "She hasn't said a word since Captain Bass called. Until her little greeting to you, that is." Jack smiled weakly.
Nick could really see Jack's age at that moment. Normally a man who looked younger then his many years on earth; this morning Jack looked tired. "I should've called you." Nick told him.
Jack shook his head. "It doesn't matter, Nick." He told him sincerely; putting a firm hand on his shoulder. He paused before he continued. "Jim told us that this man...the man who has Phoebe…he attacked you a few years ago."
Nick swallowed hard and nodded.
Jack nodded back. "This man...you could never have known this was what he was going to do, Nick."
Nick felt tears in his eyes. He tried to hold them back. "I should never have let her go."
"Go where?" Jack asked, confused.
"She left work early. I should've made her wait for me." Nick clenched his jaw.
Jack looked like he might laugh. "We both know she wouldn't have listened to you. She would've laughed her head off and walked away."
Nick smiled; that was true.
"To worry about the past, Nick…it's useless." Jack continued wisely. "That's like me saying I should never have driven her to the airport so she could come to Vegas to start her new job. Or her mother saying they should never have left Australia. If this hadn't happened you wouldn't be giving a second thought to what you'd done before." Jack sighed. "All that matters is what we do now."
Nick shrugged as a tear fell from his eye. "I can't do anything."
Jack tilted his head, silently asking 'why?'.
"It's like...it's like I'm numb, Jack." Nick admitted. "I can't do anything. I can't even think about where he might have taken her, I can't think about anything that might help."
"You're in shock, son." Jack told him, placing his other hand on Nick's other shoulder to keep him steady. "It'll pass. Then you'll know what to do."
Nick wished he felt as confident as Jack sounded. Instead, he just nodded again.
"I'm going to unpack the car. We didn't know how long we'd be here so we just packed a few things." Jack told Nick. "I'll get us a hotel later today."
"No, no, you can stay here." Nick offered quickly.
"Thanks for the offer, son." Jack replied. Patting him on the back he then left the room.
Nick watched him leave and then caught sight of Penny sitting like a statue on the couch. She was staring at the blank TV with her hands in her lap and her back dead straight. Her face was frail; broken. The pain was so visible it hurt Nick's heart to look at her. He made her some tea and took it into the living room.
"I made you some tea." He told her, placing it on the coffee table. She didn't reply so Nick didn't push it. He just started back to the kitchen.
"Nick." She suddenly spoke up.
Nick turned back to her. "Yeah?"
Penny got up off the couch and turned to him, her eyes wet with sadness. "I don't blame you." She said firmly. "Not at all."
A wave of emotion ran over Nick. He swallowed and nodded his head insilent thanks. She nodded back and that was the end of it. As Nick turned back to the kitchen he was relieved that Penny and Jack didn't blame him; but that didn't stop his own feeling of guilt. The feelings that it was his fault; no one could make those disappear.
xxx
Warrick and Catherine sat with Archie in the Audio Visual lab going over the security tapes that had just arrived at the building. All three worked in silence; the desire to find their teammate, and friend, the obvious goal. They had just been told the day-shift crew was also going to be working on Phoebe's case. She was top priority. Grissom and Greg had gone back to her apartment with some of the day-shifters to conduct interviews and scan the outer of the building in the daylight. Catherine planned to go and join them once she found something on the tapes.
"Ok; this is last night's footage." Archie said, breaking the silence as he used the mouse on his computer to sift through footage on the large, wall-sized screen in front of his workbench.
"Nick got to Phoebe's around eleven to find her gone." Warrick recalled. "Doorman told Nick he'd seen her come back about four hours before that so that puts Nigel there around seven."
"Got it." Archie adjusted the time on the video footage. He started from 6:45 and fast forwarded it through.
"There; there!" Catherine yelped when a pixilated image of Phoebe in running gear came onto the screen. "That's her coming home." She checked the time. "Seven fifteen."
"Nigel was already waiting for her." Warrick sighed. "Ok; we know he didn't take her right out the front door. Back entrance video?"
Archie nodded, pulling up another screen on the computer. "Just the one exit; just the one camera. It was dark so I had to enhance it." He adjusted the time once more and zoomed through the footage. Seeing as it was a back exit; no one seemed to use it that often. In fact, the only movement they CSI's saw was at 8:04.
"Archie; freeze it!" Catherine told him, leaning forwards. "Zoom and focus." She ordered him. There was a man on the screen with his back to the camera. But he was carrying something large in his arms. Archie quickly focused the picture and it became very clear. The man was carrying Phoebe in his arms.
"Oh, God." Warrick breathed.
"He probably took the fire escape to get her outta there." Catherine mused. "That time of night; not many people around." She sighed, blinking tears back from her eyes. "He couldn't carry her that long; he had to have a car or something."
Archie hit play and the footage kept running. The man seemed to walk sideways in a very odd fashion. "What is he doing?" Archie asked.
"He knows the camera's there." Warrick realized. "He's trying to make it so we can't ID him."
"He's getting into a car." Catherine cut in; her eyes not leaving the screen. It was mostly out of frame but she could make out Nigel lifting Phoebe into the back of a dark coloured car. "Archie, can you get a make and model?"
"Might take awhile." Archie admitted. "There's no light in that ally. But I'll give it my best."
"That's all I need." Catherine told him.
xxx
Grissom stepped slowly down the fire escape of Phoebe's apartment building. He had just gotten off the phone with Catherine; she'd let him know that this was the way Nigel had gotten Phoebe out of the building without being seen. Grissom had taken to searching for evidence on his own rather then involve the day shift crew. He'd left Greg to watch over their work as he'd gone out on his own.
Grissom descended the steps; his eyes carefully scanning every surface for something out of place; something askew. On the second floor; he found something. There was a long, thin scratch in the metal railing of the staircase. The equivalent of someone keying a car. But Grissom knew no key could have made this mark. He took a photo on his camera before inspecting it closer. It was a new mark. The blue paint had been chipped and its shavings were scattered on the stairs. Grissom took out his magnifying glass an looked deeper into the scratch. There were tiny metal particles inside it. He got out his cell phone and called Greg, telling him to bring down his kit immediately. Greg was there in a flash.
"What did ya find?" Greg asked, setting Grissom's kit down and getting him out a bindle and tweezers like he'd asked.
"Metal shavings." Grissom answered, collecting the evidence. "My theory is as Nigel came down these stairs...something on his person scratched the railing. A belt perhaps, or a weapon."
"I'll get it back to the lab, a-sap." Greg nodded.
"How are things upstairs?" Grissom asked him.
"Nothing new. None of the neighbour's remember seeing anything." Greg shook his head. "But one of them did find a footprint in Phoebe's apartment."
Grissom looked confused. "We missed it?"
"Well, it's not where you'd normally find a footprint." Greg told him. "It was in the middle of a broken picture frame; pressed into a photo of Nick and Phoebe."
Grissom sighed. "Can you imagine what Nigel felt when he saw that?"
Greg nodded.
"Why don't you check the ally?" Grissom told him. "Cath said that Nigel had a car; maybe you can get a tire tread; help Archie narrow down the make."
"Already there." Greg quickly descended the last couple of flights of stairs and headed out the back exit.
The light of day made things a lot clearer for Greg. The ally was narrow; not meant to be used by vehicles. So Greg surmised that any treads he did find would most likely be from Nigel's vehicle. Role playing for a moment, Greg pretended he was Nigel and stepped sideways; out of view of the camera, to pinpoint where the treads may be. He didn't have to look far There was disturbed gravel with obvious tire marks to the very left of the ally; right up against the fence. Greg took a couple of photos before he noticed something glinting in the ground. He bent down and picked up what seemed to be an earring; a very specific piece of jewelry he'd seen dangling from Phoebe's ears the day before.
xxx
"Hey Cath." Warrick called to her as she exited the break room.
"Yeah." Catherine turned, sipping her eighth cup of coffee as she did so.
"I pulled some DMV records on old Nigel." He told her, showing her a file. "He had a 94 La Barren registered under his name around the time he stalked Nick."
"Then he went to prison." Catherine told him.
Warrick nodded. "The car was impounded. I checked; it was crushed into a cube last summer."
"Well, he got a car from somewhere." Catherine rubbed her temple. "Greg sent me a message saying he found Phoebe's earring and some treads in the alley; he's bringing them back now." Catherine tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn.
"You've been on for almost two whole days, Cath." Warrick asked; watching her with concern. "You need sleep. And food. You won't get far without both."
"I need to find Phoebe." Catherine told him. She started to walk away but Warrick grabbed her elbow and pulled her back.
"Cath; I got this." he told her. "I wanna find Pheebs as much as you do; believe me. But you need to sleep." Catherine opened her mouth to protest. Warrick cut in before she could reply. "If you're not outta here in five minutes I'll report you to Ecklie."
Catherine looked taken aback. "Excuse me? I'm your superior!"
"I'm not asking as a CSI, Cath." Warrick told her. "I'm asking as a friend. How can you expect to find Pheebs when you can't stop yawning?"
Catherine looked down. "I'm not going home." She told him firmly. "I'll sleep in the break room. You wake me the minute you get something."
"I will." Warrick promised; grateful to see her turn back to the break room. He waited until he saw her physically lie down on the couch before he left her alone.
xxx
By the time Sara arrived at the lab it was almost lunchtime. She found Catherine sleeping in the lab so she didn't wake her. On her way to the lab she noticed Warrick and Greg sitting together at one of the computers.
"Hey." She greeted them as she came in. "Anything?" She asked even though she knew there had been no great leads.
"Grissom found some metal shavings in the fire escape of Phoebe's apartment." Greg told her. "We're running some comparisons."
"Hey; how's Nick?" Warrick asked. He hadn't been able to get a spare minute to go and see him and he didn't want to call.
"Tired." Sara told them. "Worried. Numb." She shoved Warrick off his chair. "Go get some sleep; I'll take your place."
"Nah; I'm good." Warrick waved her away.
"Warrick; go." Sara told him giving him a stern look.
"Fine." Warrick got to his feet. "Page me if you get something."
Sara sat in Warrick's vacated seat. "So what've we got?" she nodded at the computer screen in front of Greg.
"The metal shavings are from a high-class product; whatever it is." Greg told her.
"Any ideas?"
"I'm thinking hunting knife or belt buckle…or a badge." Greg said. Suddenly something occurred to him. "Maybe a police badge." He added.
"You think Nigel would copy Nick's badge?" Sara asked raising her eyebrows.
Greg shrugged. "He wants to be just like him, right?"
Sara nodded. "What can I do?"
"We found a footprint on a photo in Phoebe's apartment. Search is set up on that computer." Greg nodded to the monitor beside him.
Sara shifted seats. "A photo?" She pulled up the search and saw the picture of Nick and Phoebe together. Smiling. Hugging. "Oh."
"Yeah." Greg said. "Photo was on the floor. He must've knocked it over when he drugged Phoebe and stomped on it."
"Which means that he should have glass in his shoe; you can never get all of it." Sara realized, immediately starting the search.
xxx
When Catherine awoke; the sun was up and Sara was not-so-quietly making coffee. "Hey." Catherine mumbled, tiredly pushing herself up off the couch.
"Hey; I was just gonna wake you." Sara brought her over a cup of coffee.
Catherine knew Sara well enough to know that tone in her voice. "What did you find?"
"The shoe print on the photo was a size 11; Jefferson's workboots." Sara told Cath.
Catherine looked puzzled. "I thought Nigel was a size nine?"
Sara nodded despondently. "According to his prison records."
"So he didn't smash the picture." Catherine's heart dropped. "Which means he wasn't alone."
