.before the fall?

'So, where are we with this?'

'Out in the cold without a coat.'

'Or scarf, or gloves, or a hat or clothes really.'

'Yep, we're in the cold.'

'So, what do we do? We have a missing suspect slash victim.'

'And a missing accuser slash suspect.'

'We have a whole lot of missing things.' Catherine summarised.

She and Warrick were sitting in an empty lab, at the end of shift, trying to summarise what they hadn't managed during the shift.

'So, we need to find Sara.'

'And Mike Laskey.' Warrick said.

'Why would the kid want to disappear after suing a CSI for assault?' Catherine wondered out loud.

'Daddy reckoned he was just out with friends.'

'He hasn't seen him since an hour after coming home from the police station. If your son had just been in for questioning on a possible homicide, would you let him out of your sight that quick.'

'He's just been cleared.' Warrick pointed out. 'He's seventeen. He'd wanna celebrate, right?'

'Celebrate, even though the girlfriend's still dead, even if it was self inflicted.'

'Oh, it was self-inflicted. Coroner's report- verdict? Suicide.' Warrick said.

'Yeah.'

'But?'

'Something's don't add up. His finger prints on the gun she killed herself with.'

'He tried to stop her.'

'The fact that girls rarely kill themselves in so violent a manner. They do the OD, or the gassing.'

'Rare, but it happens.'

'She's a pretty girl. She's about to kill herself. She wouldn't want to destroy her good looks, ruin her parents completely.'

'She was about to kill herself, why would she care what she looks like after. She'd be dead.'

'Yeah, but.look, suicides plan. It's rarely a spur of the moment decision. It's something that grows out of depression, of events around you. They plan it down to the note they write. That's the other thing, why no note?'

'Perhaps this was spur of the moment.'

'So why didn't the boyfriend convince her that to not do it?'

'Perhaps because he was the cause of it.'

'Because she was sleeping around, and he had found out.' Catherine shook her head. 'Doesn't make sense.'

'Sure it does. Private school like that, your reps gotta be important.'

'Yeah, but to suddenly bite the bullet, without any thought.'

'Perhaps worried about letting the rents down. Would also explain why she really didn't care what she looked like.'

'No, it would make her more aware of it. She'd let her parents down on one thing, she wouldn't want to ruin the chance of an open casket funeral.'

'Guns in the house.' Warrick answered with a shrug. 'No planning, no time to consider, grab the nearest thing that's gonna make you dead.'

'Paracetemol in the bathroom cabinet. Right above her head. Along with mother's anti-depressants and daddy's nifedipine.' Catherine told him. 'Why not go for the silent approach?'

'Wasn't thinking straight.'

'The boyfriend say's he went round, forced the gun from her hand, locked it back up. If this was so spur of the moment, how come the boyfriend happened upon her, gun in hand? Why hadn't she shot herself outright?'

'Chance?'

'Don't believe in it.' Catherine told him. 'And if it's so spur of the moment, why, after the boyfriend has gone to the trouble of locking the gun up again, did she leave the bathroom and go and get it again, knowing that there was enough drugs five feet away to send her into peaceful oblivion.'

'Making a statement- boyfriend doesn't control her?' Warrick suggested.

'That's the other thing I don't like. The boyfriend happens upon his girlfriend, gun in hand, threatening to kill herself, so he removes the gun blah blah blah. But then he leaves her? Would you really walk out on someone you're meant to at least care about, minutes after finding them with a gun to their temple? Wouldn't you at least wait until someone else was at home?'

'Perhaps she asked him to leave, so mummy and daddy didn't get suspicious.'

'He was the boyfriend. There all the time, from childhood. They would almost expect him there, surely.'

'I don't know Catherine. All I know is, whatever screwed up thing happened in that bathroom, the girl pulled the trigger and that makes her responsible.'

'It doesn't feel right though. Where's the boyfriend if he's so innocent?'

'Maybe he doesn't feel so innocent. He did leave her alone. Maybe the guilt's setting in?'

'We have a missing boyfriend.'

'And more importantly, we have a missing Sara.'

Grissom walked in at that moment. 'Sara's missing?'

'Not at home. Not answering her phone.' Warrick told him.

'What about the case?'

'She covered it all. Not a lot we can do about it.' Catherine filled in.

'So it was suicide?'

Catherine shrugged. 'For lack of further evidence, yeah.'

'Why don't I like the sound of that?'

'Because I don't like the feel of it. Something happened, but there's not a lot else we can do. Only two people will ever know what happened in that bathroom. One's dead, and the other is too clever to let anything drop.' Catherine summarised, somewhat bitterly.

Grissom gave her a sharp look.

'I'm not saying it gave Sara any right to do what she.allegedly. did but still. Something's not right about the case.'

'There's no excuse for what Sara did.' Grissom said. 'She let a case get personal.'

'Still.you can't honestly think of sacking her, can you?' Warrick asked, thinking of more than a few times he should have been sacked for his unprofessional actions.

'I don't know. That's why I need your report, and her statement. Tonight, beginning of shift- find her, get it down on paper.'

They nodded their understanding.

'And finish the case. Make it watertight. I don't want any holes picked in it.' Grissom added, turning to leave the lab.

'That might be a problem.' Catherine said reluctantly.

'Why?' Grissom asked, turning in the doorway to look at them.

'The boyfriend? Mike. He's missing.'

'Missing as in not seen in twenty four hours, filed report, missing.'

'Near enough.'

Grissom re-entered the room, closing the door, waiting for the details.

Catherine provided them. 'Walked out of home, an hour after leaving here, hasn't been seen since.'

'And what do the parents think of this- he's a minor, right?'

Catherine shrugged. 'They don't appear unduly worried.'

'Are they gonna report it?'

'Not when we saw them. But as it's twelve hours later, and they haven't called to say he's turned up, I would imagine it's occurring to them.'

'Add that to your list of things to do tonight.'

'Find Mike. Find Sara. Get this case closed. Party?'

'Breakfast, maybe.'

Food. No water. Water. She was gagging for it. Her mouth felt so cracked, like someone had poured concrete in it, then let it bake in the sun. Her legs, she was fairly certain, would never move again. They had exited the pins and needles stage long ago. Occasionally, the muscles would cramp, but that was the only feeling in them right now.

'You don't remember me, do you?' It was the first time he had addressed her with a question.

'I might have had a lot of alcohol, but my short term memory's not that bad.' Sara told him.

'You should have listened to me then.'

Sara tried to think back, tried to remember him, but failed. He just wouldn't connect with any memories of cases she held.

'Should have listened to the evidence.'

'Why don't you repeat it for me?' Sara asked, but was met with mirthful laughter.

She took it as a refusal.

'You should have seen the bigger picture.' He said, almost in a whisper.