Author's Note: Bear with me in this chapter. I know that it might seem kind of long and there is going to be lots of description, but trust me, it will enhance the story. I assure you, this is where the story really starts moving. The name "Pandarus" comes from the Chaucer poem "Troilus and Criseyde". The CSI characters are not mine and unless I find a magic lamp under my Christmas tree, they probably never will be.
* * *
Pandarus Point – Pop. 102
The sun seems to permanently hang low on the horizon here. Out here, the glow of the sun does not bring comfort. Here, it is cold and unfriendly. It seems out of place somehow, almost like it is mocking those who live here. It is almost better at night. At least under the cover of darkness the barren loneliness of the surroundings is not so stark. At night it is easier to imagine that this is a town like any other. At night, the demons sleep.
But it is daylight now. The sun illuminates the dust that billows across the naked desert landscape. This dust is thick and choking. It burrows itself in your hair, your eyes and your mouth. This grainy dust is metaphorical for the secrets this place holds. The secrets, like the dust, are oppressive to all that are touched by it. Secrets trapped themselves inside of you and you can never rid yourself of it.
Some people would call this a shanty town. A more accurate description would be ghost town. There are people who live here, yes, but they are not really alive. They walk through life without seeing that there is so much more for them. They have that lost, empty look that suggests that while their body may be sustaining life, their souls have long since departed. The people do not lament their fate; but they do not try to change it either. They simply accept this life. If you ever came to visit, the first thing you would want to do is leave. There is something about this place. Something sinister, something not of this world. The dead roam the streets of this town. Yet there is something far worse than the deadened look of the inhabitants. The pervading sense of evil is common place here. The town folk have felt it for years. It has been waiting in the dark and sharpening its teeth. When it burst forth several months ago, everyone knew. They couldn't see it, and they didn't know exactly what the evil was capable of. But they knew it was there. And they knew that their lives could never be the same again.
It is in this town that Rachel Hubert sits alone in her house.
* * *
CSI Headquarters
"Have you had any luck trying to contact any family members?" Catherine asked. Her heart felt like it might break in two for the family of these children. To lose one child was devastating; to lose both was unbearable.
"That's the strange thing" said Sara as she thumbed through the file. "We got the number–which by the way, is out of service- from the dentist, but he said that he had no idea that the children were ever missing. And he just saw the mother three weeks ago".
Warrick shrugged. "That's not really strange Sara. I mean maybe she just couldn't talk about it. It must have been incredibly difficult on her to have both sons missing. She probably just decided not to say anything".
"Well, see that's what I thought" Sara explained "But when we went through Missing Persons we found no record that she ever reported the disappearance."
Nick stared at her. "That makes no sense. As soon as your kids go missing, you would be on the phone with the authorities."
Catherine chimed in. "Any parent would be begging them to do anything they could to find their kids. I mean, if Lindsey ever…" She couldn't bring herself to continue down that train of thought, but the team knew exactly what she meant. Parents would not sit idly by while their children went unaccounted for, especially for a couple of months. What was going on here?
Warrick had a sudden thought. "What if the reason she didn't report it was that someone was threatening her? Maybe someone was holding them for ransom, and told her that if she called the cops they would kill her kids."
Sara shook her head. "I don't think so. This woman lives in a town of, like, a hundred people. It consists of some dirt and a couple of cows. It is a really poor town. This woman had no money, and I don't think that kidnappers would go through a place like that when looking for victims."
Warrick was undeterred. "Maybe it wasn't ransom. Maybe it was a jealous ex-boyfriend. We all know what people are capable of when they've been scorned. Maybe he decided to teach her a lesson, and warned her not to call the cops."
"That's a lot of 'maybe's' " said Catherine skeptically.
"Right now those maybe's are all we've got" Grissom spoke for the first time. "I think that's a plausible explanation, and certainly one worth investigating further. If Warrick is right, and it was some ex-boyfriend, then I am betting he took the kids from their own backyard. Which means that there has to be some physical evidence. Warrick, Nick and I will head out to –where did you say she lived?"
"I didn't, but it's called Pandarus Point" Sara replied.
"Thank you. We'll head out to Pandarus Point and see if we can get any information from the mother, and hopefully find some evidence. Sara, Catherine, I want you to stay here and try and figure out what the words 'I AM THE NEW MESSIAH' mean. That part still doesn't make sense to me. Everyone got that?"
The team nodded and separated. As the guys were leaving, Nick turned and called back to Catherine and Sara in an attempt to lighten the mood, just for a moment. "Work hard ladies! Try not to be too jealous about us enjoying a little sunlight while you're cooped up in here." Sara just glared at him. Neither woman responded. If either of them had been blessed with the ability to see into the future, they would have never let him walk out that door without telling him how much they both cared about him.
* * *
Pandarus Point
The drive up took up the better part of an hour. Brass and a uniformed officer lead the way, with Warrick, Nick and Grissom following in the Tahoe. They barely spoke to one another, each thinking about the unenviable assignment that they had drawn. They had to tell a mother that her children were dead. Nick could only hope that they would be able to gather enough information to track down the children's killer. They pulled up to a small house set back on the dusty land. The nearest house was barely more than a pinprick in the distance. There was an eerie feeling of solitude out here. Even the neighbors were far removed from one another. There was a rickety picket fence running around the far perimeter of the property. It was a pathetic attempt at creating a backyard. It was more like a prison. The back of the house housed a large chicken coop that looked like it might collapse if someone sneezed on it. Some cheap plastic children's toys littered the ground, intermingled with rusty tools. There were several shovels, a saw blade and an assortment of other unidentifiable items that looked like they were homemade. All in all, it was not a happy looking home. The front of the house was dilapidated and it gave off an aura of incredible sadness, as if its owner knew what was coming. Before they had even reached the front door, it swung open. A young woman with dark blond hair met them on the porch. She was wearing a filmy floral print dress and scuffed tennis shoes. Around her neck was a small gold crucifix, hanging from a silver chain.
"I saw you from the window" she said by way of explanation for her sudden appearance in the doorway. "Are you here about my sons?"
Brass took charge. As kindly, as gently as possible, he told her what they found. She flinched and turned away, but she did not cry. She had suspected the truth when she saw them approaching she said. The heart doesn't lie. In an empty, dull voice she invited them in. Feeling like intruders on this woman's intense personal grief, they entered.
"Mrs. Hubert, we need to ask some questions in order to find out what happened to your boys" Grissom spoke in a gentle voice, as if she herself was a child. "Do you know who did this?"
She shook her head sadly. "I was downstairs one day, trying to fix a pipe. My boys were outside playing. I was down there maybe ten or fifteen minutes. When I came back up, I couldn't find the boys anywhere. I was going to drive to the police station – my phone hasn't worked for some time now – when I found a note on the table. It said that if I wanted to see my boys again, I would tell no one that they were missing." She looked very small, sitting there in the middle of her kitchen. Nick knew that while it was devastating to know what had happened, there must be some measure of comfort knowing the truth. At least now she didn't need to lay awake every night wondering where her children were.
Brass spoke "Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt you or your children? Any ex-boyfriends?"
She looked horrified by the thought. "Oh my God, I had never even thought of that! You mean it might be someone I know? Why would someone do that to me? To my boys?" She rubbed the small crucifix that hung around her neck as she talked.
Grissom decided to be very honest with her. "The chances that it was someone you know are very strong. It would probably be someone who the boys wouldn't have been afraid of, otherwise they would have likely caused a commotion. It was someone who knew their way around the property, and leaving the note suggests that this is a highly personal crime. What I want to know is, may we investigate the property outside? There is a strong possibility that there will be some sort of physical evidence. We don't have a warrant, but we can…"
"Not necessary." She dismissed the notion of a warrant with a wave of her hand. "Please, if there is any chance we can find out who did this, I want to help"
It was decided that Brass would go with Grissom and Warrick while they looked around the property, the officer would go radio the local authorities and have them come in (as it was their jurisdiction) and Nick would wait with Rachel. He was the most sympathetic and she needed someone whom she felt comfortable with.
* * *
Warrick and Grissom searched very carefully. They both felt compelled to stay until they found something. There had to be some shred of evidence as to the killer's identity, and this was the best place to find it. It took almost half an hour before they found anything. It was Warrick who made the discovery.
"Griss? I think I have something"
Grissom hurried over. On the ground behind the chicken coop the dirt was slightly disturbed. As if someone had buried something.
"Murder weapon?" suggested Grissom. Without waiting for a reply, he began to carefully dig away at the dirt. The chickens clucked irritably at the sudden disruption of their rest. It didn't take long to find something. The hole was shallow. They didn't find a murder weapon. But they found something else.
The rest of the skeletal remains lay in the grave. The bones that had been missing from the scene were here. Whoever had killed these boys had buried some of the remains here. Grissom scanned the yard. His heart stopped.
* * *
Nick stood at the window trying to think of something to say. He didn't have to. Rachel Hubert spoke.
"Do you think they're happier?" The question caught him off guard.
"Excuse me?"
"Cory and Dale. Do you think they're happier now that their dead?"
Nick thought carefully as he tried to answer. "I think their pain is over. I think they would have been happier if they had gotten the chance to live their lives. But I think they are in a better place." He looked back out the window.
"I think you're wrong!" The sudden sharpness of her tone surprised him. She saw the look on his face and softened.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout. I just think I disagree with you. You see, I think that it is living here that is what is what makes people unhappy. This world is cold and unfriendly. Sometimes I am the only one that sees that. Everyone else buys into all the lies that we are fed about the joys of life." Nick stared at her.
* * *
Not ten feet away from where Grissom and Warrick stood was giant stone fire pit. They hadn't seen it because it was blocked from view by the chicken coop. A top the grill was a large cast iron pot.
"Maybe the reason we can't find anything on the bones….maybe it's because they were boiled before they were placed at the scene."
Greg's voice was ringing in his ears.
Oh dear God.
* * *
Nick listened as Rachel continued to talk. He was almost mesmerized by the words that escaped her lips. She was a grieving mother he reminded himself. She doesn't realize what she is saying.
"This world is what's evil! People don't want to believe it, but it's true. It's the dreamers that you need to worry about. The dreamers are the ones that are going to be corrupted by this world. This world will take their beautiful dreams and destroy them. It can't be allowed to happen! My boys were dreamers. So are you, I can tell. The world wants to take the dreamers and eliminate them. So I took it upon myself to deprive the world of what it thinks it is allowed to take. I will purge the world of the one thing it really wants: the dreamers. I am the new messiah!"
Before the words had a chance to sink in, Nick was aware of a flash of pain as she drove the knife into his flesh.