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The piece of paper held directions, written in a code that was easy to break. Left, obviously the L encased in a circle, right, an R, similarly placed.
The street names were a little harder to work out. Whoever had written the instructions had done so in a rush, using as little letters as possible to write down a lot of information. Sara copied it all out, before bagging it, intending to send it to be assessed, see if anything came up through handwriting analysis.
She emptied the paper bag on the desk, the one the coroner had given her with all the remaining clothes and jewellery, and started picking over it with the metaphorical fine tooth comb. Time once again escaped her, thoughts of herself lost against the adrenaline rush of working a case.
Five minutes, that was all she had intended to do, shut her eyes for five minutes. But somehow in five minutes, the sun had dropped, night had engulfed the city once again, and she was due to start shift again in an hour.
She had finished with the evidence for now, gone through it, over and over again, with little to show for it. Some things that could or could not be important, evidence that may only come into effect once she had an idea of what she was working with. It was too early to call Brass, see if he had any heads up on an identification- he worked pretty much the same hours they were meant to.
The coroner had not yet released the body, which meant he hadn't completed his full post-mortem as yet. Probably another thing she wouldn't get till that night.
With the choice coming down to sleep or eat, Sara decided the latter would be of more benefit, seeing as by the time she got home, she'd have to turn around and come back in again. In the locker room, she quickly showered and changed into the spare set of clothes she kept in her locker, freshening herself in the hope it would keep her eyes open a little longer.
There was a diner just down the road, frequented by cops at all hours, and where Sara could fill up with a veggie burger and fries, washed down with a coke, without being out of place.
She got back to the station five minutes before shift was due to start, feeling more than a little wired. The sugar hit had worked, and she felt somewhat awake now, but with it came a sense of desperation that her first real case was slipping away from her. Through no fault of her own; in a case like this, you couldn't get something from nothing. Patience was what was called for.
Unfortunately, Sara hadn't been blessed with a whole lot of patience, especially when it looked like she was about to fail the first case she had gone solo on. She hated when a case got the better of them, when there just wasn't the evidence to get any decent leads, or to even get a suspect. She had a hard time letting something go that she was in the middle of. Especially when the victim had even yet to be identified.
'Hey, Sara.' Grissom called from along the corridor. Sara paused mid step, and turned to face her boss.
'Hey Gris.' She greeted him. 'I was just heading for the break room.'
'I need to talk to you quickly before.'
This piqued at her curiosity and she retraced her steps to stop outside of his office. He didn't move to go inside, so Sara guessed it was probably some trivial matter.
'I'm pulling you from the human torch case, handing it over to day shift.'
If he hadn't expected a fight, he was in for a shock. 'You're doing what?' Sara cried, loud enough that several near by lab techs looked up.
'We're just too stretched, and you can't handle this level of investigation solo.'
The anger rising in Sara was familiar, but she never expected it to be aimed at Grissom.
'You can help Warrick and I close ours, then I'm sure we'll have another case to work on.' He carried on, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the younger CSI before him was about to blow her top big style.
'You can't pull me from this case.' Her voice was dangerously low, but Grissom missed the threatening quality to it.
'Well, I am. Eckley made a comment that they could help out with our cases, and for once I agree with him.'
'But it's my case.'
'Not any more.'
Unconsciously, behind her back, Sara's hand curled into a fist. 'You can't give it to Eckley.'
'Sara, this is not your decision.' She was only aware of one thing then, that somehow, her fist was moving away from behind her back, and was about to travel upward. She was more than a little surprised when it was caught and held, still behind her, and a male voice told her, commanded her more like, to come and help him look at a fibre under the microscope.
Forcing Sara to move down the corridor, her hand pinned still behind her back, Warrick threw a 'be back in five minutes' over his shoulder to Grissom.
He forced Sara into an empty lab, before he finally let go of her hand. She swung around to face him. 'What the hell do you think you are doing?' She yelled at him.
'Stopping you from making a big mistake.' Warrick answered calmly.
'Stopping me- this is none of your damn business!' She yelled back.
Warrick stayed maidenly calm, waiting out the storm. 'I really don't think that you want to be giving your marching orders from this job by hitting the boss.'
'I wasn't about to.' But she trailed off, as she realised that yes, she had been seriously about to hit Grissom.
'Not that I'm saying he couldn't use a little sense knocked into him.' Warrick said with a small smile, before he grew serious. 'What's going on?'
Sara was about to lie to him and say nothing, but she couldn't get the words to form.
'It's just a case Sara, we're stretched as it is. What's the big deal if day shift get it?' He asked, when he didn't get an answer straight away.
'It's my case.' She answered defiantly.
And Warrick could understand that. It was hard to stay logical sometimes when you were knee deep in a case.
He looked at her for a moment. 'Did you go home at all?' He finally asked, not expecting a verbal answer. He got his confirmation when her eyes went to the floor. Grissom couldn't have picked a worst time to tell Sara she was off the case. One she had just worked all night and day on.
'Stay here, I'll have a word with Grissom, ask if we can double up on this case. Grissom can close the old case alone, it's all near enough done.'
Sara frowned. 'I was fine alone.'
'Yeah, you look fine.' Warrick said with an obvious up and down look. She'd had a shower but it couldn't erase the fact that she had had little sleep in the last twenty four hours, at least.
Despite herself Sara giggled. 'I suppose if I can stay on the case.' She gave him her own pointed up and down look, like she was examining a specimen under a microscope. '.you'll do.'
'Thanks.' He answered sardonically. 'Stay here, I don't want you getting in a bitch fight with Greg cause he hasn't finished your samples yet.' He told her, leaving her in the lab whilst he went to find Grissom.
Grissom took a little more convincing than Sara that this was a good idea.
'You can't remove someone from a case after they've started.' Warrick said, trying to reason with him. 'She's in the zone, of course she doesn't want to stop now, all that hard work will be for nothing.'
'Day shift will no doubt make good use of it.' Grissom pointed out.
'It's not the same and you know it. When you've put that much work into something, the last thing you need to be told is that someone gets to do the exciting bit of putting it all together.'
Grissom regarded him across the table. 'Is there something you're not telling me? Why this case?'
Warrick didn't think that telling him he'd stopped him getting a black eye and from having to sack a CSI would be a good way to go. 'Sara just doesn't want all that hard work to come to nothing. It's not like our case has anything more to do except find Tony.' He was their suspect, the case against him was water tight.
'Fine. You work with Sara on this. But I want a report by the end of shift of where you're up to.'
'Thank you.'
'Where is Sara? Why didn't she come and ask as well.'
'Uh.she had to.do something else.' Calm down. Warrick added silently.
'But if something big comes in, I will pull both of you.' Grissom warned, getting back to some paperwork.
They didn't talk until they got to Warrick's Tahoe. Safely buckled in, Sara went through the highlights of the case, explaining the evidence she had collected so far, and what they were still waiting to be processed.
They were revisiting the scene, so that Warrick could get an idea of the case, and also just to get a fresh pair of eyes viewing it. As they drove, the route started to feel somewhat familiar to Sara, and she pulled something from the folder.
'What's that?' Warrick asked, taking his eyes of the road for a second to look.
'The instructions, off that piece of paper.' Sara answered; distracted as she checked street signs against the instructions she had copied earlier. 'Here, K S - Knight Street. Turn Right at the end, onto.' Sara scrutinised the letters against the road name. 'P A- Park Avenue. The route's the same, at least from a few blocks back.'
There was a tinge of excitement to her voice, something at last falling into place with the bits of evidence.
'Lets take in the scene, then follow the instructions back if we can.' Warrick suggested as he pulled into the alley way still cornered off with yellow crime scene tape fluttering slightly in the breeze.
Not much had changed in the twenty-four hours since she'd last been here. Sara read the instructions on the piece of paper, trying unsuccessfully to guess at road names whilst Warrick took in the scene for himself, familiarising himself of where the body had been, where it had landed, the body shape of dark ash making it obvious.
'It never says what the end address is meant to be, what the instructions are too.' Sara said into the silence.
'Perhaps she didn't need to write that bit down.'
'Or perhaps she was just meeting someone here. The last point is just at the end of the block, Baker Street. Perhaps that was the rendezvous spot.'
'Not many killers give out instructions for meeting points.'
'Well, most people know their killers. Who says she didn't?' Sara pointed out. Warrick looked around for a few minutes before, not really expecting to find out anything more from the scene- Sara had been thorough, that much was obvious.
They hit the road, trying to follow the instructions back. It took two hours of wrong turns, and driving the wrong route, before they came to the first part. Parts were missing, or referred to in short, making it obvious that the victim, if it was she who had wrote the instructions, knew some parts well enough to not need written instructions.
They finally came to a street of town houses, each with a small lot out front, parked cars in driveways, lights on in only a few of the windows at this late hour.
Sara studied each house as they drove silently by, hoping that just something would alert them to the right house. There was no such sign, no big written in lights sign with "In here!" written on it. Sara sighed.
'What, did you expect the killer to be waving at us?' Warrick asked.
'Would help. We haven't got much else to go on.' Sara said.
Her pager went off at that moment, and Sara dialled the familiar number to the CSI labs, getting Dr Roberts straight away.
'Got something you might want to see.' He told her.
'We'll be there in ten.' She told him, getting off the phone.
'Where too?' Warrick asked, as he shifted the car into drive.
'Back to the labs. Coroners got something.'
Warrick started driving. Sara looked over at him, clearing her throat. 'I never.um.thanked you, earlier, for stopping me. You didn't have to get involved.'
'Couldn't have you throwing your career away for one stupid mistake. I know what that feels like, afterwards.'
'Thanks for doing it, anyway.'
'Anytime, Sara.'
Sara regarded silently in the passing street lights, before turning away, a small smile on her lips.
The piece of paper held directions, written in a code that was easy to break. Left, obviously the L encased in a circle, right, an R, similarly placed.
The street names were a little harder to work out. Whoever had written the instructions had done so in a rush, using as little letters as possible to write down a lot of information. Sara copied it all out, before bagging it, intending to send it to be assessed, see if anything came up through handwriting analysis.
She emptied the paper bag on the desk, the one the coroner had given her with all the remaining clothes and jewellery, and started picking over it with the metaphorical fine tooth comb. Time once again escaped her, thoughts of herself lost against the adrenaline rush of working a case.
Five minutes, that was all she had intended to do, shut her eyes for five minutes. But somehow in five minutes, the sun had dropped, night had engulfed the city once again, and she was due to start shift again in an hour.
She had finished with the evidence for now, gone through it, over and over again, with little to show for it. Some things that could or could not be important, evidence that may only come into effect once she had an idea of what she was working with. It was too early to call Brass, see if he had any heads up on an identification- he worked pretty much the same hours they were meant to.
The coroner had not yet released the body, which meant he hadn't completed his full post-mortem as yet. Probably another thing she wouldn't get till that night.
With the choice coming down to sleep or eat, Sara decided the latter would be of more benefit, seeing as by the time she got home, she'd have to turn around and come back in again. In the locker room, she quickly showered and changed into the spare set of clothes she kept in her locker, freshening herself in the hope it would keep her eyes open a little longer.
There was a diner just down the road, frequented by cops at all hours, and where Sara could fill up with a veggie burger and fries, washed down with a coke, without being out of place.
She got back to the station five minutes before shift was due to start, feeling more than a little wired. The sugar hit had worked, and she felt somewhat awake now, but with it came a sense of desperation that her first real case was slipping away from her. Through no fault of her own; in a case like this, you couldn't get something from nothing. Patience was what was called for.
Unfortunately, Sara hadn't been blessed with a whole lot of patience, especially when it looked like she was about to fail the first case she had gone solo on. She hated when a case got the better of them, when there just wasn't the evidence to get any decent leads, or to even get a suspect. She had a hard time letting something go that she was in the middle of. Especially when the victim had even yet to be identified.
'Hey, Sara.' Grissom called from along the corridor. Sara paused mid step, and turned to face her boss.
'Hey Gris.' She greeted him. 'I was just heading for the break room.'
'I need to talk to you quickly before.'
This piqued at her curiosity and she retraced her steps to stop outside of his office. He didn't move to go inside, so Sara guessed it was probably some trivial matter.
'I'm pulling you from the human torch case, handing it over to day shift.'
If he hadn't expected a fight, he was in for a shock. 'You're doing what?' Sara cried, loud enough that several near by lab techs looked up.
'We're just too stretched, and you can't handle this level of investigation solo.'
The anger rising in Sara was familiar, but she never expected it to be aimed at Grissom.
'You can help Warrick and I close ours, then I'm sure we'll have another case to work on.' He carried on, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the younger CSI before him was about to blow her top big style.
'You can't pull me from this case.' Her voice was dangerously low, but Grissom missed the threatening quality to it.
'Well, I am. Eckley made a comment that they could help out with our cases, and for once I agree with him.'
'But it's my case.'
'Not any more.'
Unconsciously, behind her back, Sara's hand curled into a fist. 'You can't give it to Eckley.'
'Sara, this is not your decision.' She was only aware of one thing then, that somehow, her fist was moving away from behind her back, and was about to travel upward. She was more than a little surprised when it was caught and held, still behind her, and a male voice told her, commanded her more like, to come and help him look at a fibre under the microscope.
Forcing Sara to move down the corridor, her hand pinned still behind her back, Warrick threw a 'be back in five minutes' over his shoulder to Grissom.
He forced Sara into an empty lab, before he finally let go of her hand. She swung around to face him. 'What the hell do you think you are doing?' She yelled at him.
'Stopping you from making a big mistake.' Warrick answered calmly.
'Stopping me- this is none of your damn business!' She yelled back.
Warrick stayed maidenly calm, waiting out the storm. 'I really don't think that you want to be giving your marching orders from this job by hitting the boss.'
'I wasn't about to.' But she trailed off, as she realised that yes, she had been seriously about to hit Grissom.
'Not that I'm saying he couldn't use a little sense knocked into him.' Warrick said with a small smile, before he grew serious. 'What's going on?'
Sara was about to lie to him and say nothing, but she couldn't get the words to form.
'It's just a case Sara, we're stretched as it is. What's the big deal if day shift get it?' He asked, when he didn't get an answer straight away.
'It's my case.' She answered defiantly.
And Warrick could understand that. It was hard to stay logical sometimes when you were knee deep in a case.
He looked at her for a moment. 'Did you go home at all?' He finally asked, not expecting a verbal answer. He got his confirmation when her eyes went to the floor. Grissom couldn't have picked a worst time to tell Sara she was off the case. One she had just worked all night and day on.
'Stay here, I'll have a word with Grissom, ask if we can double up on this case. Grissom can close the old case alone, it's all near enough done.'
Sara frowned. 'I was fine alone.'
'Yeah, you look fine.' Warrick said with an obvious up and down look. She'd had a shower but it couldn't erase the fact that she had had little sleep in the last twenty four hours, at least.
Despite herself Sara giggled. 'I suppose if I can stay on the case.' She gave him her own pointed up and down look, like she was examining a specimen under a microscope. '.you'll do.'
'Thanks.' He answered sardonically. 'Stay here, I don't want you getting in a bitch fight with Greg cause he hasn't finished your samples yet.' He told her, leaving her in the lab whilst he went to find Grissom.
Grissom took a little more convincing than Sara that this was a good idea.
'You can't remove someone from a case after they've started.' Warrick said, trying to reason with him. 'She's in the zone, of course she doesn't want to stop now, all that hard work will be for nothing.'
'Day shift will no doubt make good use of it.' Grissom pointed out.
'It's not the same and you know it. When you've put that much work into something, the last thing you need to be told is that someone gets to do the exciting bit of putting it all together.'
Grissom regarded him across the table. 'Is there something you're not telling me? Why this case?'
Warrick didn't think that telling him he'd stopped him getting a black eye and from having to sack a CSI would be a good way to go. 'Sara just doesn't want all that hard work to come to nothing. It's not like our case has anything more to do except find Tony.' He was their suspect, the case against him was water tight.
'Fine. You work with Sara on this. But I want a report by the end of shift of where you're up to.'
'Thank you.'
'Where is Sara? Why didn't she come and ask as well.'
'Uh.she had to.do something else.' Calm down. Warrick added silently.
'But if something big comes in, I will pull both of you.' Grissom warned, getting back to some paperwork.
They didn't talk until they got to Warrick's Tahoe. Safely buckled in, Sara went through the highlights of the case, explaining the evidence she had collected so far, and what they were still waiting to be processed.
They were revisiting the scene, so that Warrick could get an idea of the case, and also just to get a fresh pair of eyes viewing it. As they drove, the route started to feel somewhat familiar to Sara, and she pulled something from the folder.
'What's that?' Warrick asked, taking his eyes of the road for a second to look.
'The instructions, off that piece of paper.' Sara answered; distracted as she checked street signs against the instructions she had copied earlier. 'Here, K S - Knight Street. Turn Right at the end, onto.' Sara scrutinised the letters against the road name. 'P A- Park Avenue. The route's the same, at least from a few blocks back.'
There was a tinge of excitement to her voice, something at last falling into place with the bits of evidence.
'Lets take in the scene, then follow the instructions back if we can.' Warrick suggested as he pulled into the alley way still cornered off with yellow crime scene tape fluttering slightly in the breeze.
Not much had changed in the twenty-four hours since she'd last been here. Sara read the instructions on the piece of paper, trying unsuccessfully to guess at road names whilst Warrick took in the scene for himself, familiarising himself of where the body had been, where it had landed, the body shape of dark ash making it obvious.
'It never says what the end address is meant to be, what the instructions are too.' Sara said into the silence.
'Perhaps she didn't need to write that bit down.'
'Or perhaps she was just meeting someone here. The last point is just at the end of the block, Baker Street. Perhaps that was the rendezvous spot.'
'Not many killers give out instructions for meeting points.'
'Well, most people know their killers. Who says she didn't?' Sara pointed out. Warrick looked around for a few minutes before, not really expecting to find out anything more from the scene- Sara had been thorough, that much was obvious.
They hit the road, trying to follow the instructions back. It took two hours of wrong turns, and driving the wrong route, before they came to the first part. Parts were missing, or referred to in short, making it obvious that the victim, if it was she who had wrote the instructions, knew some parts well enough to not need written instructions.
They finally came to a street of town houses, each with a small lot out front, parked cars in driveways, lights on in only a few of the windows at this late hour.
Sara studied each house as they drove silently by, hoping that just something would alert them to the right house. There was no such sign, no big written in lights sign with "In here!" written on it. Sara sighed.
'What, did you expect the killer to be waving at us?' Warrick asked.
'Would help. We haven't got much else to go on.' Sara said.
Her pager went off at that moment, and Sara dialled the familiar number to the CSI labs, getting Dr Roberts straight away.
'Got something you might want to see.' He told her.
'We'll be there in ten.' She told him, getting off the phone.
'Where too?' Warrick asked, as he shifted the car into drive.
'Back to the labs. Coroners got something.'
Warrick started driving. Sara looked over at him, clearing her throat. 'I never.um.thanked you, earlier, for stopping me. You didn't have to get involved.'
'Couldn't have you throwing your career away for one stupid mistake. I know what that feels like, afterwards.'
'Thanks for doing it, anyway.'
'Anytime, Sara.'
Sara regarded silently in the passing street lights, before turning away, a small smile on her lips.