THE COST

When Nick heard they had a new suspect in Phoebe's abduction, he disregarded everyone's objections and went to the lab; he wanted to see the man who had contributed to his girlfriend's disappearance. He walked directly to Brass's office when he arrived at the police station, unaware of anyone who was around him. That was until Warrick stood directly in front of his path.

"Nick; you shouldn't be here, man." Warrick said as he halted Nick in his step.

"Where is the guy?" Nick asked.

"Brass is in with him now." Warrick told him. "Let me take you home, man, you-"

"What did he say?" Nick asked, worry and fury rising in his throat. "He knows where she is; doesn't he? He helped Nigel take her."

"We don't know anything for sure yet, Nick." Warrick had to physically hold Nick back and away from the interview rooms. "Let's go get a drink or something."

"No; I wanna talk to him." Nick said firmly.

"No; can't happen, man, you know that." Warrick told his friend. "Just let Brass do his job-"

"His job isn't getting us anywhere!" Nick snapped. "Phoebe's still gone! And this guy knows where she is!" Nick shoved Warrick out of the way and stormed for the only closed interview room door. He opened it and walked right in; staring with malice at the balding, sweating man in front of Brass.

"Where is she?!" Nick screamed.

"Nick; get outta here!" Brass yelled back, jumping to his feet.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" Nick lunged for Bob and tackled him out of his chair. "You know where she is! Tell me!! Where is she?! Where did he take her?!"

"Get this guy off'a me!" Bob was yelling between Nick's attacks.

Warrick and Brass both had to use all their strength to pull Nick off Bob. "Cool off." Brass snapped at Nick as he helped Warrick shove him back out the door. Warrick, still gripping Nick tightly, took him down the hall.

"Who the hell was that?" Bob asked as he pulled himself back up onto his chair.

"That." Brass yanked out his own chair and sat back down. "Is just one of the guys whose gonna kill you if you don't start talking. Now."

xxx

Warrick took Nick out to his own car and tried to get some sense into him. "I know you're hurting, man, I do. But you can't attack our only lead to Phoebe; he's all we got right now."

"He knows where she is, Warrick, he knows!" Nick yelled, pacing angrily in front of his friend.

"I think so, too!" Warrick said back. "So let Brass pin this on him."

Nick put his hands on his hips and shook his head worriedly.

Warrick stepped closer to his friend. "Ok?"

"Yeah; ok." Nick agreed.

xxx

Phoebe was hungry, thirsty and dying to go the bathroom when she woke up again. She hadn't been moved at all; she was still tied to the pole, but she was getting colder. The air had wetness to it; more weight to her theory she was in a dank basement somewhere. She hadn't heard from Nigel in a few hours or so but she never put her guard down; she knew he was out there watching her.

Then all of a sudden, someone came barging into the room. "No!" Nigel's voice shouted angrily.

Phoebe tensed as she heard him quickly hurry over to her. She yelped a little as he grabbed her wrists tightly.

"He's not answering!" Nigel yelled.

Phoebe didn't think he was yelling at her; it sounded more like he was just venting and she happened to be his punching bag at that moment.

"This is your fault!" Nigel yelled.

Ok, maybe I was wrong…Phoebe thought to herself. "What?" Phoebe asked; her voice shaking.

"They found him because of you; your people!" Nigel yelled.

"Who?!" Phoebe screamed; frightened.

"You know who!" Nigel smacked her hard across the face.

Phoebe tasted blood in her mouth but she was bound; she couldn't fight back. "I don't know who you're talking about!"

"You should've left Nick alone!" Nigel yelled, smacking her again.

Phoebe could do nothing but sit there as Nigel whelped on her repeatedly. She felt her hands be cut loose with a sharp knife or object, Nigel didn't seem to care that he was cutting in Phoebe's skin as he released her. As soon as she was free; Nigel kneed her in the neck and she toppled to the ground.

"It's your fault!" Nigel yelled.

Phoebe could feel Nigel's attacks but something in her brain clicked on and she no longer felt the pain. She felt her body lift as Nigel picked her up. He carried her for a few moments before dropping her in a container of some sort. From the shape of her body in the container Phoebe knew it was a bathtub. She couldn't hear anything anymore; just a soft buzzing noise. She felt a cool wave of liquid at her toes and it took her a few moments to realize that it was water. Nigel had turned on the tap.

xxx

"The guy offered me six grand cash." Bob was saying to Brass in the interrogation room at LVPD. "I dunno if you know this but work has been slow lately. I get no commission; my family gets no food."

"You're breaking my heart." Brass replied bitterly. "Ya still haven't told me why you were at Phoebe's apartment."

"Nigel said he needed a hand to move some stuff." Bob sighed. "Offered me three grand more. I'm no idiot."

"Of course you're not." Brass simpered.

"I didn't know that's what was gonna go down; I was waiting outside." Bob continued. "Next thing I hear there's some girl screaming and Nigel's dragging her out of her apartment. She was already out of it; unconscious, y'know?"

Catherine, who Brass had called in ten minutes before to show the evidence, pulled out a photo that Archie had printed for her. It was from the video footage from the front entrance of Phoebe's apartment building. Together, Warrick, Archie and herself had gone back over all the footage around the time of Phoebe's abduction and looked for their new suspect.

"We have video surveillance that shows you leaving the apartment block five minutes before Nigel left with Phoebe." Catherine told him; showing him the picture.

"You didn't call the police?" Brass asked.

"Look; I knew whatever he was doing was illegal so I figured the cash he gave me…well, it mustn't a'been all that clean either, y'know? And I needed it."

"So you took the cash and kept quiet." Brass shook his head. "Nobel."

"I ain't proud of it." Bob told them.

"Where would he take her?" Brass asked firmly, his knuckles instinctively tightening.

Bob sighed. "Look; I don't know the guy that well, alright?"

Brass slammed an open hand down on the table. "One of my friends is missing and you're the only lead we have! You better tell me what I wanna hear, Bobby, and you better do it quick!"

"Look! I don't know where she is!" Bob yelled. "When I asked him where he was going with the car all he said was "Grandma would like Nick." The guy sounded crazy!"

"That's ironic." Brass retorted.

xxx

Catherine left the interview room only seconds later and immediately called Grissom at the lab. "Gil; get Greg to do a search on any properties owned by Nigel Crane's grandparents."

"All his family is dead, Catherine." Grissom answered her.

"I know; do it anyway." She told him. Then she told him what Bob had said about Nigel in the interrogation. When she was done she waited anxiously for Grissom's response.

"I'll do it right now." He finally answered. Then he hung up.

xxx

Phoebe could feel the water rising around her slowly. It was completely under her back but hadn't reached her hips yet. She could feel something warm trickling down her neck and knew that it was blood. She was dizzy and tired; all she wanted to do was sleep. Her energy was seeping away slowly; she wondered if she was dying. Suddenly, thoughts of Nick entered her mind. His smile; the sound of his laugh, his calming voice…all things she was desperate for right now. She thought of her mother and Jack; her family. They were all she had. She needed them.

Phoebe didn't know where Nigel was; she wondered if he'd taken off now that she was effectively out of the picture. Was he going after Nick again? Did her friends know he was the one who had her? Did they even know he was out of jail? Would they ever find her? All of these thoughts suddenly entered Phoebe's mind. But her brain was shutting off; telling her to sleep. And it was getting harder and harder not to listen…

xxx

Warrick was returning to the lab from dropping Nick home when he saw Grissom, Sara and Greg all running out of the building's front door. "What's going on?" Warrick asked as he caught up to them.

"Nigel Crane's deceased grandmother used to live in the dessert out of Henderson." Grissom told Warrick. "She died six years ago; the house was abandoned."

"Bob Giles, the guy who helped Nigel, said that Nigel spoke about the house; saying Nick would like it." Sara added.

"You think that's where she is?" Warrick asked.

"I do." Greg told him hopefully.

"Brass just called; he's almost there." Grissom added.

xxx

Brass sped his car along the deserted highway just out of Henderson. Six police cars with their sirens wailing followed close behind. Brass had a bad feeling about this place; a bad feeling that told him this is where he'd find Phoebe; dead or alive. He screeched his car to a halt out the front of Grandma Crane's residence; a rundown old barn with a beat up truck out the front. Next to this ancient truck was a shiny, new, dark green SUV. Nigel was here.

Brass took out his weapon as he headed for the front exit. He motioned to the officers who had just arrived to cover all the possible exit points and keep on the look-out for anyone around. Brass kicked down the front door and stormed into the house. He didn't see anyone immediately in front of him but he kept his gun at the ready anyway.

"Las Vegas police!" He yelled. "Show yourself!"

"I remember you." A quiet voice said.

Brass swung around and saw Nigel Crane sitting in a dining chair facing towards a turned-off TV. He didn't look at Brass when he came in; but he spoke to him as if he were sitting before him.

"You were there last time." Nigel continued. "You stopped me from killing Nick."

"Where's Phoebe?" Brass asked, keeping his gun aimed at Nigel's head.

"It's good to see you again, Detective." Nigel said in a quiet voice.

"Where is she, asshole?!" Brass yelled.

"It was good to see you." Nigel suddenly jumped up and aimed a pistol he was concealing at Jim.

Brass fired three shots in succession into Nigel's chest before the man could even pull the trigger. The criminal fell to the floor in a heap as two police officers ran inside.

"Jim?" Detective Vega asked him.

"She's here somewhere; get your men to look everywhere!" Brass yelled as he turned and ran for the stairs down to the basement.

"Yes, sir." Vega asked. Then he started barking orders to every policeman he could see.

Jim ran down the basement with his gun still cocked. "Phoebe?" He called. "It's Jim. Phoebe!" He hadn't really expected her to answer; Nigel had killed before and could do it again; no questions asked.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Jim saw a red puddle on the ground in the corner beside a pole with some chains on it. The blood looked fresh. "Phoebe!" he hollered. Then he noticed the blood trail at his feet. There were a few scattered drops leading to a back room. Jim followed them quickly; they led him to a bathroom. There was red tinged water all over the floor and the sound off the overflowing bath reminded Jim of a pleasant waterfall. But what he saw made him feel violently ill.

Phoebe was floating in the bathtub.

"NO!" Brass holstered his gun and hurried for her. He grabbed his radio and contacted Vega. "Vega; I've got her! She's downstairs. Send medical; now!" Tossing his radio aside, Jim reached into the overflowing tub and pulled Phoebe's limp, bloodied and bruised body out of the water. Her skin was shock white and she had many cuts to her forehead. "Phoebe?!" Jim felt for a pulse; she didn't have one. "Dammit, no!" Jim rolled her onto her back and started giving her CPR. "Come on; come on." He pressed into her chest firmly and breathed air into her mouth. "Please, come on." Jim realized he had tears running down his face. "Come on, Pheebs…" He muttered in a small voice as he tried to suck his tears back. "Please; come on!" He pressed even harder into Phoebe's chest.

Phoebe's eyes flew open as a large amount of water shot out of her mouth and all over the front of her body.

"That's it; that's it!" Jim cried happily. "Atta' girl." She took in ragged breaths and was coughing non-stop; but she was alive. He picked her up under her shoulders and held her close to his chest. "You're ok; you're safe now." He told her soothingly as he held her. "We got you." He felt her grip his arms tightly. "We got you."