XXV - IF YOU LOVE A WOMAN
If it was at all possible, Willem van der Brucke looked even worse today than he had the day before. Grief had made a permanent home on his face, his eyes steeped in a pain so intense Nick almost couldn't bear to look at him.
When Grissom had told van der Brucke that Marta had denied having plans to meet Audra the evening of her murder, Willem's face had crumpled in upon itself, tears pooling in his eyes.
"But who - why? Audra was meeting Marta; she told me it was Marta."
Brass, who had been waiting in the lobby of the Palms for Nick and Grissom, leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. "Is it possible she was having an affair?"
Grissom and Nick had both winced at the question, even though they knew it was a valid one. Van der Brucke had looked at Brass, his expression shattered. "I will never believe that."
"Did Audra know anyone else in Las Vegas?' Grissom's tone was unbelievably gentle as he studied the man before him.
Willem shook his head, "No. No one. Just Marta."
"Would Marta have a reason to lie to us about her dinner date with your wife?"
Nick shot a glance at Grissom when he asked this, making a mental note to tell Sara that Grissom had been listening to her when she had voiced her distrust of the woman. Van der Brucke had merely shaken his head.
"Marta was our friend. Why would she lie?"
Brass snorted cynically, "People lie all the time. It's a fact of life. We're going to need names of every single person who knew you were in Vegas, knew where you were staying, and knew about the diamonds and jewellery."
Van der Brucke just stared blankly past Brass' shoulder, "None of them would steal from me. None of them would hurt Audra."
"Maybe someone you know told someone who would," Grissom responded, "That's what we need to find out."
"Am I a suspect?" His eyes focused briefly on Grissom's face, skimming over Nick in the process. Nick thought he saw a brief flash of anger there, before it was replaced once more by sorrow. "Do you think I had anything to do with this?"
Grissom smiled gently at the man, "You know I can't answer that, Mr. van der Brucke. It's an ongoing investigation."
Willem merely nodded sadly, "Would you kill the woman of your dreams?" The question was rhetorical, and van der Brucke continued. "I do not doubt she loved me. She loved me more than I probably deserved. Yet you come here, and you try to make me question my relationship. My wife never lied to me; not once in all the years I knew her. I'll give you what you're requesting, but I will not hear any more aspersions on her character or on my own. We loved each other."
"Sometimes love might not be enough," Grissom replied softly.
"I used to think that way too," Willem responded, "and then I learned the truth. Love is always enough."
* * * * *
Catherine and Warrick were waiting impatiently in Mr. Miles' office. The concierge had rushed him in there when they had found him after leaving the penthouse, promising to return momentarily. That had been 20 minutes ago.
Warrick was sitting comfortably in a chair, watching Catherine pace in amusement. "It's okay to sit down, Cath."
"I don't want to sit down," Catherine responded. "I want to find out who the hell was crawling around in our crime scene. And I want to talk to T. Price, whoever the heck that is." She stopped in front of the tinted glass window and looked out into the main lobby, searching for Miles. To her surprise, she say him standing at a discreet bank of phones a few meters away, gesticulating wildly as he talked to someone on the other end.
"That's odd," she muttered.
"What?" Warrick sat up a little straighter and looked to where Catherine was pointing.
"If Miles needed to make a phone call, why not just have us wait and use his office phone?"
"He didn't want anyone to see us in our LVPD Forensics gear. We're bad for business," Warrick shrugged, but his eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he studied the man. "He looks pretty tense, doesn't he?"
Catherine nodded absently, and looked at her watch. "He hasn't been on the phone since he left us here - I would have noticed him earlier. He's on the third phone from the right." She paused and turned to Warrick. "Didn't Nick say he showed up on the surveillance tapes for the Service Elevator?"
When Warrick nodded, Catherine smiled. "Why would the concierge use the Service Elevator? He seems pretty snooty to me - don't you think he would view the service elevator as beneath him?"
Warrick didn't respond immediately. Instead, he looked at Miles again through the window. "How tall would you say Mr. Miles is?"
Catherine shrugged, "I don't know. Not much taller than I am."
"Exactly," Warrick's smile was grim, "and the little hair he has is blonde."
* * * * *
Sara was sitting in the break room. Insurance forms bored the crap out of her, so she had left them with Greg and had gone down to AV to talk to Archie about the surveillance tapes. He had managed to pull several stills from the many hours he had already searched through, and Sara went over all of them, looking at the people. As far as she could determine, everyone of them would have had a legitimate reason for being in the penthouse.
Sighing at the lack of clues, she decided to go through the maintenance logs again. They were almost as boring as the insurance papers, but at least they weren't full of legal jargon. Walking back to the break room, she stuck her head in the lab on the way past.
"I'm gonna grab a coffee and go through the maintenance logs. Want one?"
Greg had looked up from the myriad forms and ran a hand through his hair, grinning. "I never say no to coffee. Give me a minute and I'll join you there."
Sara had nodded absently and headed off in search of a caffeine fix. Greg quickly looked at the information he had gathered already, and sighed. The van der Brucke's insurance premiums alone were more than he made in a year - way more. Greg was wondering idly what it would be like to have money like that when a ringing cell phone caught his attention. Sara had left her Nokia on the table.
Grabbing it, he flipped it open, "This is Sara's phone."
"But you're not Sara," Nick drawled. Greg smiled.
"Thank you for noticing. She left her phone in the lab. Do you want me to get her, or can I give her a message?"
"Can you grab her for me Greg? And I don't mean that literally."
"Sure thing, bro. So - anything new to report?" Greg meandered down the hallway and into the break room. When Sara looked up at him, he grinned and waggled her phone at her. *It's Nick!* he mouthed.
" - so, anyway, Grissom wants to know if you guys have found anything interesting in the insurance papers."
"Same old, same old," Greg responded. "They look pretty standard to me. I mean, if you consider insuring millions of dollars of diamonds as standard. There was nothing that popped out at us. Sara's gone back to the maintenance logs. Here - talk to her."
In the Tahoe, Nick said goodbye to Greg and smiled widely when Sara spoke into the phone. Grissom, trying very hard to pretend he wasn't listening to Nick's side of the conversation, leaned forward and turned up the radio slightly. Bryan Adams was playing on the radio, and Nick grinned. Even the fates were conspiring with him in his plan to make Grissom admit his feelings for Sara.
~ To really love a woman
To understand her - you gotta know her deep inside
Hear every thought - see every dream
And give her wings when she wants to fly
Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms
You know you really love a woman
When you love a woman you tell her
that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
'Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
that it's gonna last forever
So tell me have you ever really
- really, really ever loved a woman? ~
"Hey, Sar."
"Nick. Something I can do for you?" Sara asked. Shooting a sideways glance at Grissom, Nick smiled wickedly and pitched his voice purposely lower.
"There are so many ways I could answer that question, Sara," he responded, "but Grissom's with me."
~ To really love a woman
Let her hold you -
'til you know how she needs to be touched
You've gotta breathe her - really taste her
'Til you can feel her in your blood
And when you can see your unborn children in her eyes
You know you really love a woman ~
Grissom's brows beetled together, and Nick smirked. "Greg already filled me in on the insurance papers. You're going through the maintenance logs again?"
"Yeah. And before you ask, I went to AV and looked at the stills Archie's pulled. Nothing jumps out at me. Where are you guys?"
Nick laughed, "Why? Miss me?"
Grissom jerked the Tahoe around a corner, causing Nick to hit the side of the Tahoe rather painfully with his shoulder.
"Sorry," the older man muttered grimly. Nick grinned wider; Grissom wasn't sorry at all, and Nick knew it.
~ When you love a woman
you tell her that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
'Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
that you'll always be together
So tell me have you ever really -
really really ever loved a woman?
You got to give her some faith - hold her tight
A little tenderness - gotta treat her right
She will be there for you, takin' good care of you
You really gotta love your woman..~
"We're on our way back to the lab. Brass is meeting O'Reilly at Marta's place. They're bringing her back in to clarify some stuff for us."
"I take it you didn't learn anything new from Mr. van der Brucke?"
"No, not really," Nick agreed. "All we know is that someone is lying about Audra's plans the other night. And I don't think its van der Brucke. Have you heard anything from Cath and Warrick?"
"Not yet. I'll call them."
~ When you love a woman
you tell her that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
'Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
that you'll always be together
So tell me have you ever really -
really really ever loved a woman? ~
"Okay then. I'll see you soon." Nick hung up the phone and tossed it beside him on the seat, turning to smile at Grissom.
"Sara says hi," he said, as he leaned forward and turned up the radio. "This is a great song, isn't it Grissom? Bryan Adams is a smart man. Yessirree, Bob."
Grissom merely cocked an eyebrow at Nick and continued driving.
* * * * *
"I specifically recall our colleague telling you that tampering with a crime scene was a chargeable offence." Warrick's tone was neutral as he watched Mr. Miles. The man had finally returned to his office, and was now sitting at his desk trying to appear calm. The slight shaking in his hands and the nervous pendulum-like swinging of his eyes gave him away.
"I don't - I don't know what you're talking about."
"The air exchange shaft is part of our crime scene. Someone replaced the grating today after we left."
"Well - yes. We couldn't leave it open for an indeterminate time."
"Who replaced the venting?"
"You'd have to ask Mr. Powers. I just told him to replace it."
"An old boyfriend of mine is a district engineer for the city, and is familiar with building safety and construction," Catherine added, winking at Warrick when he glanced at her. "I called him while we were waiting for you and asked him what he knew about your hotel here - specifically, I asked him about the venting and the grates. You know what I learned, Mr. Miles?" Catherine didn't wait for a response. "He told me that the architects and building engineers had to have the grating specially made for the hotel to fit the unique design of the venting system. He estimates that each grate would have cost over $500.00 - conservative. I'm surprised hotel management had the foresight to have extras made - just in case one got lost."
Miles rolled his shoulders, "I'm not in charge of ordering maintenance supplies. That would be -"
"Mr. Powers. We know. We spoke with him as well, while we were waiting for you. He gave us his cell number earlier this morning before leaving for the day. He told us he thought you had pulled some strings - gotten a replacement grate quickly for him to re-install because he didn't have any extras. They don't tend to be something that needs frequent replacing. Anything you care to tell us, Mr. Miles?"
Miles shook his head miserably, "I want a lawyer."
"You're going to need one," Warrick responded. "We'll let you call one from the police station."
* * * * *
Nick strolled into the break room just a few feet ahead of Grissom, smiling when Sara looked up from the maintenance books and eyeballed the extra large Starbucks he was carrying.
"That better be for me," she muttered, quickly smiling at Nick before shooting a baleful gaze over his shoulder at Grissom.
"One for you, one for Greggo," Nick confirmed. "So, what's up?" Grabbing a chair he flipped it around and straddled it, forearms across the chair.
"Catherine and Warrick had to call Lockwood to Icarus - they needed a police escort to bring Mr. Miles in."
Grissom, who had been leaning morosely against the counter top perked up. "For what reason?"
"I didn't get the whole story, but something about replacing the grate in the venting. They're bringing him in on charges of tampering with the crime scene, but they think he was involved in the robbery somehow."
"What about T. Price?"
Sara shrugged, "He's not a suspect. He was in a car accident several weeks ago, and is still in the hospital. Dead end."
"Where's Greg?" Nick asked suddenly.
"Catherine asked him to compare the unknown hair against the dead cat burglar. She wants to know if the two men could be related."
_______________________________________
Author's Note: Sorry - took longer to post this then I had anticipated. Mainly because I'm busy, and I'm working on a dozen other things right now. Not as much banter between Warrick and Catherine as initially intended, but don't worry - it's coming. Next chapter: the team discusses the case - banter involving everyone - we learn some interesting things about Miles..
The song, of course, is "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" by Bryan Adams.
If it was at all possible, Willem van der Brucke looked even worse today than he had the day before. Grief had made a permanent home on his face, his eyes steeped in a pain so intense Nick almost couldn't bear to look at him.
When Grissom had told van der Brucke that Marta had denied having plans to meet Audra the evening of her murder, Willem's face had crumpled in upon itself, tears pooling in his eyes.
"But who - why? Audra was meeting Marta; she told me it was Marta."
Brass, who had been waiting in the lobby of the Palms for Nick and Grissom, leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. "Is it possible she was having an affair?"
Grissom and Nick had both winced at the question, even though they knew it was a valid one. Van der Brucke had looked at Brass, his expression shattered. "I will never believe that."
"Did Audra know anyone else in Las Vegas?' Grissom's tone was unbelievably gentle as he studied the man before him.
Willem shook his head, "No. No one. Just Marta."
"Would Marta have a reason to lie to us about her dinner date with your wife?"
Nick shot a glance at Grissom when he asked this, making a mental note to tell Sara that Grissom had been listening to her when she had voiced her distrust of the woman. Van der Brucke had merely shaken his head.
"Marta was our friend. Why would she lie?"
Brass snorted cynically, "People lie all the time. It's a fact of life. We're going to need names of every single person who knew you were in Vegas, knew where you were staying, and knew about the diamonds and jewellery."
Van der Brucke just stared blankly past Brass' shoulder, "None of them would steal from me. None of them would hurt Audra."
"Maybe someone you know told someone who would," Grissom responded, "That's what we need to find out."
"Am I a suspect?" His eyes focused briefly on Grissom's face, skimming over Nick in the process. Nick thought he saw a brief flash of anger there, before it was replaced once more by sorrow. "Do you think I had anything to do with this?"
Grissom smiled gently at the man, "You know I can't answer that, Mr. van der Brucke. It's an ongoing investigation."
Willem merely nodded sadly, "Would you kill the woman of your dreams?" The question was rhetorical, and van der Brucke continued. "I do not doubt she loved me. She loved me more than I probably deserved. Yet you come here, and you try to make me question my relationship. My wife never lied to me; not once in all the years I knew her. I'll give you what you're requesting, but I will not hear any more aspersions on her character or on my own. We loved each other."
"Sometimes love might not be enough," Grissom replied softly.
"I used to think that way too," Willem responded, "and then I learned the truth. Love is always enough."
* * * * *
Catherine and Warrick were waiting impatiently in Mr. Miles' office. The concierge had rushed him in there when they had found him after leaving the penthouse, promising to return momentarily. That had been 20 minutes ago.
Warrick was sitting comfortably in a chair, watching Catherine pace in amusement. "It's okay to sit down, Cath."
"I don't want to sit down," Catherine responded. "I want to find out who the hell was crawling around in our crime scene. And I want to talk to T. Price, whoever the heck that is." She stopped in front of the tinted glass window and looked out into the main lobby, searching for Miles. To her surprise, she say him standing at a discreet bank of phones a few meters away, gesticulating wildly as he talked to someone on the other end.
"That's odd," she muttered.
"What?" Warrick sat up a little straighter and looked to where Catherine was pointing.
"If Miles needed to make a phone call, why not just have us wait and use his office phone?"
"He didn't want anyone to see us in our LVPD Forensics gear. We're bad for business," Warrick shrugged, but his eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he studied the man. "He looks pretty tense, doesn't he?"
Catherine nodded absently, and looked at her watch. "He hasn't been on the phone since he left us here - I would have noticed him earlier. He's on the third phone from the right." She paused and turned to Warrick. "Didn't Nick say he showed up on the surveillance tapes for the Service Elevator?"
When Warrick nodded, Catherine smiled. "Why would the concierge use the Service Elevator? He seems pretty snooty to me - don't you think he would view the service elevator as beneath him?"
Warrick didn't respond immediately. Instead, he looked at Miles again through the window. "How tall would you say Mr. Miles is?"
Catherine shrugged, "I don't know. Not much taller than I am."
"Exactly," Warrick's smile was grim, "and the little hair he has is blonde."
* * * * *
Sara was sitting in the break room. Insurance forms bored the crap out of her, so she had left them with Greg and had gone down to AV to talk to Archie about the surveillance tapes. He had managed to pull several stills from the many hours he had already searched through, and Sara went over all of them, looking at the people. As far as she could determine, everyone of them would have had a legitimate reason for being in the penthouse.
Sighing at the lack of clues, she decided to go through the maintenance logs again. They were almost as boring as the insurance papers, but at least they weren't full of legal jargon. Walking back to the break room, she stuck her head in the lab on the way past.
"I'm gonna grab a coffee and go through the maintenance logs. Want one?"
Greg had looked up from the myriad forms and ran a hand through his hair, grinning. "I never say no to coffee. Give me a minute and I'll join you there."
Sara had nodded absently and headed off in search of a caffeine fix. Greg quickly looked at the information he had gathered already, and sighed. The van der Brucke's insurance premiums alone were more than he made in a year - way more. Greg was wondering idly what it would be like to have money like that when a ringing cell phone caught his attention. Sara had left her Nokia on the table.
Grabbing it, he flipped it open, "This is Sara's phone."
"But you're not Sara," Nick drawled. Greg smiled.
"Thank you for noticing. She left her phone in the lab. Do you want me to get her, or can I give her a message?"
"Can you grab her for me Greg? And I don't mean that literally."
"Sure thing, bro. So - anything new to report?" Greg meandered down the hallway and into the break room. When Sara looked up at him, he grinned and waggled her phone at her. *It's Nick!* he mouthed.
" - so, anyway, Grissom wants to know if you guys have found anything interesting in the insurance papers."
"Same old, same old," Greg responded. "They look pretty standard to me. I mean, if you consider insuring millions of dollars of diamonds as standard. There was nothing that popped out at us. Sara's gone back to the maintenance logs. Here - talk to her."
In the Tahoe, Nick said goodbye to Greg and smiled widely when Sara spoke into the phone. Grissom, trying very hard to pretend he wasn't listening to Nick's side of the conversation, leaned forward and turned up the radio slightly. Bryan Adams was playing on the radio, and Nick grinned. Even the fates were conspiring with him in his plan to make Grissom admit his feelings for Sara.
~ To really love a woman
To understand her - you gotta know her deep inside
Hear every thought - see every dream
And give her wings when she wants to fly
Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms
You know you really love a woman
When you love a woman you tell her
that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
'Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
that it's gonna last forever
So tell me have you ever really
- really, really ever loved a woman? ~
"Hey, Sar."
"Nick. Something I can do for you?" Sara asked. Shooting a sideways glance at Grissom, Nick smiled wickedly and pitched his voice purposely lower.
"There are so many ways I could answer that question, Sara," he responded, "but Grissom's with me."
~ To really love a woman
Let her hold you -
'til you know how she needs to be touched
You've gotta breathe her - really taste her
'Til you can feel her in your blood
And when you can see your unborn children in her eyes
You know you really love a woman ~
Grissom's brows beetled together, and Nick smirked. "Greg already filled me in on the insurance papers. You're going through the maintenance logs again?"
"Yeah. And before you ask, I went to AV and looked at the stills Archie's pulled. Nothing jumps out at me. Where are you guys?"
Nick laughed, "Why? Miss me?"
Grissom jerked the Tahoe around a corner, causing Nick to hit the side of the Tahoe rather painfully with his shoulder.
"Sorry," the older man muttered grimly. Nick grinned wider; Grissom wasn't sorry at all, and Nick knew it.
~ When you love a woman
you tell her that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
'Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
that you'll always be together
So tell me have you ever really -
really really ever loved a woman?
You got to give her some faith - hold her tight
A little tenderness - gotta treat her right
She will be there for you, takin' good care of you
You really gotta love your woman..~
"We're on our way back to the lab. Brass is meeting O'Reilly at Marta's place. They're bringing her back in to clarify some stuff for us."
"I take it you didn't learn anything new from Mr. van der Brucke?"
"No, not really," Nick agreed. "All we know is that someone is lying about Audra's plans the other night. And I don't think its van der Brucke. Have you heard anything from Cath and Warrick?"
"Not yet. I'll call them."
~ When you love a woman
you tell her that she's really wanted
When you love a woman you tell her that she's the one
'Cuz she needs somebody to tell her
that you'll always be together
So tell me have you ever really -
really really ever loved a woman? ~
"Okay then. I'll see you soon." Nick hung up the phone and tossed it beside him on the seat, turning to smile at Grissom.
"Sara says hi," he said, as he leaned forward and turned up the radio. "This is a great song, isn't it Grissom? Bryan Adams is a smart man. Yessirree, Bob."
Grissom merely cocked an eyebrow at Nick and continued driving.
* * * * *
"I specifically recall our colleague telling you that tampering with a crime scene was a chargeable offence." Warrick's tone was neutral as he watched Mr. Miles. The man had finally returned to his office, and was now sitting at his desk trying to appear calm. The slight shaking in his hands and the nervous pendulum-like swinging of his eyes gave him away.
"I don't - I don't know what you're talking about."
"The air exchange shaft is part of our crime scene. Someone replaced the grating today after we left."
"Well - yes. We couldn't leave it open for an indeterminate time."
"Who replaced the venting?"
"You'd have to ask Mr. Powers. I just told him to replace it."
"An old boyfriend of mine is a district engineer for the city, and is familiar with building safety and construction," Catherine added, winking at Warrick when he glanced at her. "I called him while we were waiting for you and asked him what he knew about your hotel here - specifically, I asked him about the venting and the grates. You know what I learned, Mr. Miles?" Catherine didn't wait for a response. "He told me that the architects and building engineers had to have the grating specially made for the hotel to fit the unique design of the venting system. He estimates that each grate would have cost over $500.00 - conservative. I'm surprised hotel management had the foresight to have extras made - just in case one got lost."
Miles rolled his shoulders, "I'm not in charge of ordering maintenance supplies. That would be -"
"Mr. Powers. We know. We spoke with him as well, while we were waiting for you. He gave us his cell number earlier this morning before leaving for the day. He told us he thought you had pulled some strings - gotten a replacement grate quickly for him to re-install because he didn't have any extras. They don't tend to be something that needs frequent replacing. Anything you care to tell us, Mr. Miles?"
Miles shook his head miserably, "I want a lawyer."
"You're going to need one," Warrick responded. "We'll let you call one from the police station."
* * * * *
Nick strolled into the break room just a few feet ahead of Grissom, smiling when Sara looked up from the maintenance books and eyeballed the extra large Starbucks he was carrying.
"That better be for me," she muttered, quickly smiling at Nick before shooting a baleful gaze over his shoulder at Grissom.
"One for you, one for Greggo," Nick confirmed. "So, what's up?" Grabbing a chair he flipped it around and straddled it, forearms across the chair.
"Catherine and Warrick had to call Lockwood to Icarus - they needed a police escort to bring Mr. Miles in."
Grissom, who had been leaning morosely against the counter top perked up. "For what reason?"
"I didn't get the whole story, but something about replacing the grate in the venting. They're bringing him in on charges of tampering with the crime scene, but they think he was involved in the robbery somehow."
"What about T. Price?"
Sara shrugged, "He's not a suspect. He was in a car accident several weeks ago, and is still in the hospital. Dead end."
"Where's Greg?" Nick asked suddenly.
"Catherine asked him to compare the unknown hair against the dead cat burglar. She wants to know if the two men could be related."
_______________________________________
Author's Note: Sorry - took longer to post this then I had anticipated. Mainly because I'm busy, and I'm working on a dozen other things right now. Not as much banter between Warrick and Catherine as initially intended, but don't worry - it's coming. Next chapter: the team discusses the case - banter involving everyone - we learn some interesting things about Miles..
The song, of course, is "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" by Bryan Adams.