XXII - CONFRONTATIONS
Grissom walked with Greg back towards the lab, neither saying much of anything. Grissom, intuitively understanding Greg's need for silence, let the young man contemplate their discussion without interruption. Finally reaching the lab door, Grissom told Greg he was going to see how Warrick and Sara were doing on the glass windows, leaving him with the firm admonition to page him if anything checked out with the prints.
Katie was sitting in the lounge, staring at nothing, when Grissom walked by. Backing up, he looked at her through the doorway, before entering. "You can pour yourself a coffee, you know."
Katie looked at him and smiled weakly. "Thanks." But she made no move toward the percolator. Sighing, Grissom grabbed two empty mugs and poured a coffee for both of them.
"We should have a safe house for you and Nancy soon."
"We can't stay with Warrick?" Katie responded blankly, acknowledging his words with a slight frown, and tentatively taking the proffered coffee from him.
"Listen - Katie," Grissom began, "I'm going to be candid here. You staying with Warrick is not good. It can be seen -will be seen by some - as a major conflict of interest. You're an eyewitness in a huge case for us, and this situation - " he sighed. "We can't afford to jeopardize the case or have the ethics of any of our criminalists called into question here. It's a matter of propriety. We can't afford to have any insinuations about the friendship you and Nancy seem to have developed with Warrick. We have to be above reproach, and we can't have anyone questioning his objectivity."
"But he's just - he's objective!" Katie protested weakly. "If he wasn't, he wouldn't even want to have anything to do with me - us - Nancy and I. Not after where we lived. Not after what I saw!"
Grissom responded gently, "You and I both know Warrick is objective - but a defense attorney might see it differently, and he might convince a judge and jury otherwise as well. You cannot stay at Warrick's place indefinitely."
Katie sighed sadly, shaking her head. "But he's my friend."
"I understand that. I really do - but you're a witness and he's one of the lead criminalists investigating this case. Do you want a judge to throw out any evidence he collects in your brothers' murder because you're living with him? Even if he's just helping you out? It will happen," he sighed at Katie's stricken look. "Listen. I'm not telling you this to hurt you, but the wrong people could use this against you and against him. Think about what I said. I just want you to be prepared."
* * * * *
Greg was smiling to himself when Nick walked into the lab, carrying the computer he had confiscated from the school room. "Hey Greggo. What's up?"
"Nothing. No news is bad news," Greg turned to Nick and eyed the computer. "That from the commune?"
Nick grunted an affirmative. "Cath's coming with some 'educational pamphlets' - including about 50 that match the one on mixed-race relationships we found at the desert crime scene. We want to see if we can pull the original files from the CPU here, and match either this printer, or one of the others, to the type. She's got some other notes for you too."
Greg grinned. "Good. I'm getting sick of prints. A change will do me good. So, where's Cath?"
"She's coming in with Brass. We brought most of the women from the commune back for questioning so she's gonna help get them sorted. She thought my attitude might benefit a little from distance." Nick said this dryly and grimaced. "You should see some of the pamphlets, man. They'll make your skin crawl."
"So, Cath thought you were going to go all Mt. Vesuvius on someone, and she sent you back?"
"That's about it." Nick looked at Greg, eyes narrowed. "You seem pretty upbeat. Ecklie come in and slip on a banana peel while I was gone?"
"Nope. I'm just - happy. Let's hook this sucker up and see what we can find, shall we?"
"Sure thing. It's nice to have you back, Greggo."
Greg smiled, knowing exactly what Nick meant. "It's nice to be back."
* * * *
If ever a woman needed to be bitch-slapped, Rebekah was it. The woman didn't seem to realize the trouble she was in. She was snotty, condescending, and Catherine was having a hard time keeping her irritation at bay. She rolled her eyes at Brass as Rebekah started expounding on her 'rights', and whispered just loud enough for him to hear, "I wish I hadn't sent Nicky back so early."
Brass grinned tightly, pulled into the lot and turned to Rebekah. "Listen. We had a warrant; you are a suspect. And if you don't like it, write a letter to the editor."
He and Catherine stepped out of Brass' squad car, Catherine squinting across the lot as O'Reilly and several of his men also parked. She wondered idly if any of them had had to deal with the same vitriol she and Brass had, before she turned back to Brass, lifting her field kit. "I gotta get the rest of this stuff into the lab. Can you handle her?"
"If I need to," Brass smirked. He opened the back of the squad door and offered a solicitous hand to Rebekah, enjoying her scowl as she tried sliding out of the car without the use of her hands. "I hope your cuffs aren't too uncomfortable. Watch your head."
* * * * *
Grissom was standing in the hallway talking to Dr. Robbins when Catherine strode in, scowling darkly and making a beeline straight for him. "I need a cup of coffee!" she exclaimed. "Next time I have to go anywhere with Brass, I hope we don't need to bring a suspect back with us."
"Who?" Grissom cocked an eyebrow at her, shooting an amused glance at Dr. Robbins. Catherine in high dudgeon was something to behold.
"Rebekah Winters, that's who! She's already demanding a lawyer, and you wouldn't believe the stuff we found in the school room. She's the head teacher, Grissom," Catherine glared at him, "and she's brainwashing those kids."
"Where is she?" Grissom kept his voice deliberately cool, hoping it would calm Catherine down. It didn't seem to have any effect. Catherine jerked her head over her shoulder, indicating the door she had just come through. "Brass has her - we brought all the women who take part in the home schooling - 5 of them - and left the children in the care of the older girls. We don't know where the other women that were at the commune last night are, but they're not there anymore. I think we're going to have to call Children's Services. Let me get this stuff to Greg. O'Reilly and his men are with Brass."
Grissom nodded at her absently, watching the doorway as Brass and several stoic looking cops walked in surrounding a gaggle of women displaying various degrees of peevishness. In the forefront, leading the herd, was Rebekah Winters. Grissom frowned when he saw the expression on her face and turned to Catherine and Robbins. "This should be fun."
* * * * *
O'Reilly and Officer Bowdly quickly escorted four of the women into the larger interview room, under strict instructions from Brass not to let them converse amongst themselves. Smiling faintly at Rebekah, Grissom indicated for her to follow Brass past the lounge towards Interview Room One.
"Will you free my hands, please?" her strident tone echoed down the hallway, bouncing off the cold tile flooring. Inside the lab, Catherine, emptying her field kit with Nick and Greg, winced.
"Try listening to that for 30 minutes solid," she muttered.
* * * * *
Nancy awoke with a start, heart pounding. Outside in the hallway, she could hear Momma Rebekah's voice, cold and disapproving, and in the nature of small children she panicked. "Don't let her take me back. Don't let her take me back." Her mantra became louder and louder, and she finally broke, running from the office, crying for her sister.
Katie, who had been dozing in the lounge, jerked abruptly and quickly stepped out into the hallway, looking for her sister. Rebekah, Grissom behind her and Brass in front, froze.
"You little bitch," her voice was an angry hiss as she turned to Katie, face white with fury. Katie blinked in sudden surprise, shrinking back from Rebekah in shock. The sudden weight of Nancy wrapping thin arms around her waist made her totter, and her hands dropped instinctively to the girls' shoulders, squeezing protectively.
"Rebekah." she tried to keep her voice calm. Grissom stepped forward quickly, aligning himself beside Katie and Nancy, eyes watchful as the two women confronted each other.
"We should have let you go when we had the chance. You were never one of us." Rebekah's voice was sharp as a whip, her gaze cutting. "I told Enoch you were trouble. When we found out about Scotty - what he was - I told him your family was cursed."
Drawn by the commotion in the hallway Warrick and Sara stepped out of the lab they were working in, striding quickly towards Grissom and Brass. Warrick's eyes narrowed imperceptibly at Rebekah, a frown tightening his mouth as he saw the focus of her wrath.
"You leave Scotty out of this!" Katie's voice was shaky but fierce. "Our family was cursed the day we moved to the commune. My brother was a gentle man; a gentle soul. You have no right to judge him. You had no right-"
"He was an aberration. A freak of nature; a monster. He was abhorrent in God's eyes."
"Like that couple Enoch sent the men to kill? Abhorrent like them? Why?" Katie's voice was getting stronger, louder. Stepping forward, she went nose to nose with Rebekah. "Because he was black and she was white? They skinned his hands, Rebekah, because he dared to touch a white girl! They were killed because they loved each other - doesn't Jesus tell us to love each other? Don't the Ten Commandments tell us to love our neighbors? I tell you - you're the monster. Not Scotty; not them. You. And Enoch. And all the rest of them who think God wants us to hate each other."
Nancy, still clutching Katie tightly, looked past Rebekah and saw Warrick. Loosening her hold on her sister, she quickly ran to him, burying her face in his neck as he scooped her up into his arms.
Rebekah followed Nancy's progress, turning to glare at Warrick. "Enoch says half-breeds like you should be destroyed." Her eyes flicked to Nancy before she turned her sneer back to Katie.
"I shouldn't have expected any more from you, making friends with a Sambo."
Katie bristled. "He's closer to God than you'll ever be; a better person than you could ever understand."
"It's your soul, Katie. Yours and Nancy's. I wash my hands of you both." Rebekah turned to look coldly at Grissom. "I would like to get out of the hallway, please. I find it - distasteful."
"Distasteful." Grissom murmured. "That's a good word for it."
* * * * *
Katie watched Grissom and Brass escort Rebekah down the hallway and out of sight, before turning blindly to face Warrick, her limbs shaking violently. The hiccuping sound of Nancy's crying broke through her stupor, and she stepped forwards and placed a comforting hand on the young girls back.
"I'm so sorry." her voice was soft, her eyes swimming with tears as she looked at Warrick.
"Not your fault." Warrick's response was just as gentle. "You can't control what people say, or think. I've heard it before. Thanks for sticking up for me." The hand that had been stroking Nancy's back in comfort brushed over Katie's, squeezing it so gently she felt like crying.
"You didn't deserve that," she whispered.
"Neither did you." He looked at her silently for a few seconds, before turning to look at the rest of the team surrounding them. "Catherine, tell Grissom I'm taking them home. I'll be back soon."
Catherine smiled in understanding, looking at her watch. "Take your pager. We'll buzz you if something comes up."
"Yeah. Okay. You want to get out of here, Nancy?"
The little girl nodded, and Warrick smiled as he shifted her slight weight to one side. Stepping towards Katie, he placed a comforting arm around her shoulders, drawing her against him as he turned her easily towards the exit. "Let's go home, then."
______
Author's Note: okay - next chapter - Dr. Jansen and Alli and Greg and Greg's apartment or else this chapter will end up way too long. Please R&R - as always, all input is welcome!
Grissom walked with Greg back towards the lab, neither saying much of anything. Grissom, intuitively understanding Greg's need for silence, let the young man contemplate their discussion without interruption. Finally reaching the lab door, Grissom told Greg he was going to see how Warrick and Sara were doing on the glass windows, leaving him with the firm admonition to page him if anything checked out with the prints.
Katie was sitting in the lounge, staring at nothing, when Grissom walked by. Backing up, he looked at her through the doorway, before entering. "You can pour yourself a coffee, you know."
Katie looked at him and smiled weakly. "Thanks." But she made no move toward the percolator. Sighing, Grissom grabbed two empty mugs and poured a coffee for both of them.
"We should have a safe house for you and Nancy soon."
"We can't stay with Warrick?" Katie responded blankly, acknowledging his words with a slight frown, and tentatively taking the proffered coffee from him.
"Listen - Katie," Grissom began, "I'm going to be candid here. You staying with Warrick is not good. It can be seen -will be seen by some - as a major conflict of interest. You're an eyewitness in a huge case for us, and this situation - " he sighed. "We can't afford to jeopardize the case or have the ethics of any of our criminalists called into question here. It's a matter of propriety. We can't afford to have any insinuations about the friendship you and Nancy seem to have developed with Warrick. We have to be above reproach, and we can't have anyone questioning his objectivity."
"But he's just - he's objective!" Katie protested weakly. "If he wasn't, he wouldn't even want to have anything to do with me - us - Nancy and I. Not after where we lived. Not after what I saw!"
Grissom responded gently, "You and I both know Warrick is objective - but a defense attorney might see it differently, and he might convince a judge and jury otherwise as well. You cannot stay at Warrick's place indefinitely."
Katie sighed sadly, shaking her head. "But he's my friend."
"I understand that. I really do - but you're a witness and he's one of the lead criminalists investigating this case. Do you want a judge to throw out any evidence he collects in your brothers' murder because you're living with him? Even if he's just helping you out? It will happen," he sighed at Katie's stricken look. "Listen. I'm not telling you this to hurt you, but the wrong people could use this against you and against him. Think about what I said. I just want you to be prepared."
* * * * *
Greg was smiling to himself when Nick walked into the lab, carrying the computer he had confiscated from the school room. "Hey Greggo. What's up?"
"Nothing. No news is bad news," Greg turned to Nick and eyed the computer. "That from the commune?"
Nick grunted an affirmative. "Cath's coming with some 'educational pamphlets' - including about 50 that match the one on mixed-race relationships we found at the desert crime scene. We want to see if we can pull the original files from the CPU here, and match either this printer, or one of the others, to the type. She's got some other notes for you too."
Greg grinned. "Good. I'm getting sick of prints. A change will do me good. So, where's Cath?"
"She's coming in with Brass. We brought most of the women from the commune back for questioning so she's gonna help get them sorted. She thought my attitude might benefit a little from distance." Nick said this dryly and grimaced. "You should see some of the pamphlets, man. They'll make your skin crawl."
"So, Cath thought you were going to go all Mt. Vesuvius on someone, and she sent you back?"
"That's about it." Nick looked at Greg, eyes narrowed. "You seem pretty upbeat. Ecklie come in and slip on a banana peel while I was gone?"
"Nope. I'm just - happy. Let's hook this sucker up and see what we can find, shall we?"
"Sure thing. It's nice to have you back, Greggo."
Greg smiled, knowing exactly what Nick meant. "It's nice to be back."
* * * *
If ever a woman needed to be bitch-slapped, Rebekah was it. The woman didn't seem to realize the trouble she was in. She was snotty, condescending, and Catherine was having a hard time keeping her irritation at bay. She rolled her eyes at Brass as Rebekah started expounding on her 'rights', and whispered just loud enough for him to hear, "I wish I hadn't sent Nicky back so early."
Brass grinned tightly, pulled into the lot and turned to Rebekah. "Listen. We had a warrant; you are a suspect. And if you don't like it, write a letter to the editor."
He and Catherine stepped out of Brass' squad car, Catherine squinting across the lot as O'Reilly and several of his men also parked. She wondered idly if any of them had had to deal with the same vitriol she and Brass had, before she turned back to Brass, lifting her field kit. "I gotta get the rest of this stuff into the lab. Can you handle her?"
"If I need to," Brass smirked. He opened the back of the squad door and offered a solicitous hand to Rebekah, enjoying her scowl as she tried sliding out of the car without the use of her hands. "I hope your cuffs aren't too uncomfortable. Watch your head."
* * * * *
Grissom was standing in the hallway talking to Dr. Robbins when Catherine strode in, scowling darkly and making a beeline straight for him. "I need a cup of coffee!" she exclaimed. "Next time I have to go anywhere with Brass, I hope we don't need to bring a suspect back with us."
"Who?" Grissom cocked an eyebrow at her, shooting an amused glance at Dr. Robbins. Catherine in high dudgeon was something to behold.
"Rebekah Winters, that's who! She's already demanding a lawyer, and you wouldn't believe the stuff we found in the school room. She's the head teacher, Grissom," Catherine glared at him, "and she's brainwashing those kids."
"Where is she?" Grissom kept his voice deliberately cool, hoping it would calm Catherine down. It didn't seem to have any effect. Catherine jerked her head over her shoulder, indicating the door she had just come through. "Brass has her - we brought all the women who take part in the home schooling - 5 of them - and left the children in the care of the older girls. We don't know where the other women that were at the commune last night are, but they're not there anymore. I think we're going to have to call Children's Services. Let me get this stuff to Greg. O'Reilly and his men are with Brass."
Grissom nodded at her absently, watching the doorway as Brass and several stoic looking cops walked in surrounding a gaggle of women displaying various degrees of peevishness. In the forefront, leading the herd, was Rebekah Winters. Grissom frowned when he saw the expression on her face and turned to Catherine and Robbins. "This should be fun."
* * * * *
O'Reilly and Officer Bowdly quickly escorted four of the women into the larger interview room, under strict instructions from Brass not to let them converse amongst themselves. Smiling faintly at Rebekah, Grissom indicated for her to follow Brass past the lounge towards Interview Room One.
"Will you free my hands, please?" her strident tone echoed down the hallway, bouncing off the cold tile flooring. Inside the lab, Catherine, emptying her field kit with Nick and Greg, winced.
"Try listening to that for 30 minutes solid," she muttered.
* * * * *
Nancy awoke with a start, heart pounding. Outside in the hallway, she could hear Momma Rebekah's voice, cold and disapproving, and in the nature of small children she panicked. "Don't let her take me back. Don't let her take me back." Her mantra became louder and louder, and she finally broke, running from the office, crying for her sister.
Katie, who had been dozing in the lounge, jerked abruptly and quickly stepped out into the hallway, looking for her sister. Rebekah, Grissom behind her and Brass in front, froze.
"You little bitch," her voice was an angry hiss as she turned to Katie, face white with fury. Katie blinked in sudden surprise, shrinking back from Rebekah in shock. The sudden weight of Nancy wrapping thin arms around her waist made her totter, and her hands dropped instinctively to the girls' shoulders, squeezing protectively.
"Rebekah." she tried to keep her voice calm. Grissom stepped forward quickly, aligning himself beside Katie and Nancy, eyes watchful as the two women confronted each other.
"We should have let you go when we had the chance. You were never one of us." Rebekah's voice was sharp as a whip, her gaze cutting. "I told Enoch you were trouble. When we found out about Scotty - what he was - I told him your family was cursed."
Drawn by the commotion in the hallway Warrick and Sara stepped out of the lab they were working in, striding quickly towards Grissom and Brass. Warrick's eyes narrowed imperceptibly at Rebekah, a frown tightening his mouth as he saw the focus of her wrath.
"You leave Scotty out of this!" Katie's voice was shaky but fierce. "Our family was cursed the day we moved to the commune. My brother was a gentle man; a gentle soul. You have no right to judge him. You had no right-"
"He was an aberration. A freak of nature; a monster. He was abhorrent in God's eyes."
"Like that couple Enoch sent the men to kill? Abhorrent like them? Why?" Katie's voice was getting stronger, louder. Stepping forward, she went nose to nose with Rebekah. "Because he was black and she was white? They skinned his hands, Rebekah, because he dared to touch a white girl! They were killed because they loved each other - doesn't Jesus tell us to love each other? Don't the Ten Commandments tell us to love our neighbors? I tell you - you're the monster. Not Scotty; not them. You. And Enoch. And all the rest of them who think God wants us to hate each other."
Nancy, still clutching Katie tightly, looked past Rebekah and saw Warrick. Loosening her hold on her sister, she quickly ran to him, burying her face in his neck as he scooped her up into his arms.
Rebekah followed Nancy's progress, turning to glare at Warrick. "Enoch says half-breeds like you should be destroyed." Her eyes flicked to Nancy before she turned her sneer back to Katie.
"I shouldn't have expected any more from you, making friends with a Sambo."
Katie bristled. "He's closer to God than you'll ever be; a better person than you could ever understand."
"It's your soul, Katie. Yours and Nancy's. I wash my hands of you both." Rebekah turned to look coldly at Grissom. "I would like to get out of the hallway, please. I find it - distasteful."
"Distasteful." Grissom murmured. "That's a good word for it."
* * * * *
Katie watched Grissom and Brass escort Rebekah down the hallway and out of sight, before turning blindly to face Warrick, her limbs shaking violently. The hiccuping sound of Nancy's crying broke through her stupor, and she stepped forwards and placed a comforting hand on the young girls back.
"I'm so sorry." her voice was soft, her eyes swimming with tears as she looked at Warrick.
"Not your fault." Warrick's response was just as gentle. "You can't control what people say, or think. I've heard it before. Thanks for sticking up for me." The hand that had been stroking Nancy's back in comfort brushed over Katie's, squeezing it so gently she felt like crying.
"You didn't deserve that," she whispered.
"Neither did you." He looked at her silently for a few seconds, before turning to look at the rest of the team surrounding them. "Catherine, tell Grissom I'm taking them home. I'll be back soon."
Catherine smiled in understanding, looking at her watch. "Take your pager. We'll buzz you if something comes up."
"Yeah. Okay. You want to get out of here, Nancy?"
The little girl nodded, and Warrick smiled as he shifted her slight weight to one side. Stepping towards Katie, he placed a comforting arm around her shoulders, drawing her against him as he turned her easily towards the exit. "Let's go home, then."
______
Author's Note: okay - next chapter - Dr. Jansen and Alli and Greg and Greg's apartment or else this chapter will end up way too long. Please R&R - as always, all input is welcome!