[a.n thanks for all the great reviews- I decided to post earlier than planned because of the great response. Btw, I'm trying a new saving method, so if the format looks wrong, I'll convert it back to the original (I just read the bit that said what to save as in word!)]
Catherine and Warrick were back in the lab, arguing playfully about the DB they had just seen. It turned out that the man had had a heart attack, nothing suss for them to investigate. The lab was still bustling; it quietened down in the witching hours, but for now there were lab staff and technicians still hard at work. They were about to go and find Grissom when he found them, a more serious than usual look on his face.
'Hey Gris, thanks for the hard work.' Warrick joked.
'We could do with more bodies like that.' Catherine added, turning round, handing a coffee to Warrick.
'I just got a call.' Grissom started, a grim expression on his face. 'Emergency operators took a call from a John Doe; a bomb has been planted at a residential address in the lower Vegas area.'
'What are they calling us for, do they not understand what a crime scene is?' Catherine asked.
Grissom ignored the joking, looking her directly in the eye. 'The address was traced routinely, and came back on someone on the LVPD staff.'
The joking had died now, both of them staring at Grissom, both with a sense of dread increasing inside of them.
'Catherine, it came back as yours.' Grissom told her.
A thousand and one emotions crossed Catherine's face in the space of a few seconds, before one word crossed her lips. 'Lindsey!'
'PD and the bomb unit are on the way to the house. They tried phoning but didn't receive a reply- the line's busy. They found out the powers out on the whole block.'
'The phone won't work then- it's run off power.' Catherine said.
'The detective wants to talk to you.' Grissom answered, looking out of the break room window and seeing a man he knew by sight only approach.
'Catherine Willows?' He asked, coming in.
'Yeah- what the hell is going on?'
'I'm Detective Small with the LVPD. We don't know anything for certain; all we know is that we got a call seven minutes ago from an anonymous source that said a bomb had been planted at your address. He is due to phone again in three minutes, and the call should be redirected here.'
'What…why…' Catherine could barely process enough to get out a question.
'How many people are in the house at the current time?' The detective asked calmly.
'Two- my daughter, Lindsey, and a colleague, Sara Sidle, who was babysitting for me.'
'At what time did you leave?'
'At six.'
'This evening?'
'Yeah.'
The door opened, and a young police detective stuck his head in. 'Sir? He's on line.'
'Is there an office I could use?' The detective asked.
Grissom nodded, and they all followed him to his office, the detective doing a second take at the collection of pig embryo and various insects on the shelves.
'You are speaking to Detective Small of the Las Vegas Police Department.'
'This call cannot be traced.' Said a weird sounding voice. They all guessed he was speaking through a voice synthesiser. 'The bomb is wired to the house alarm. The alarm is currently set. If the alarm is unset, or breached in anyway, the bomb will explode.'
'What do you want?' The detective asked, as Catherine sat heavily down on the chair.
'You'll find out shortly.' With that, the line was disconnected. A second later, the detective's cell rang, the technician telling him they were unable to trace the call.
The detective hung up, and looked over at Catherine. 'The house alarm is set?' He asked just to confirm.
'Yeah, I put it on as I went out.'
'We need to get a communication line into the house, alert the occupants to not unset the alarm.' The detective said.
'I've got Sara's cell number.' Warrick told him, reaching for his phone.
'Good.'
Sara was getting tired of trying to read in the abysmal light provided by the tiny candles; she could do with her Maglite, get some serious light going. It was only in her car, she could be out and back in under a minute.
She walked to the alarm panel, remembering Catherine said it had been the same number as the locker room at work. It struck her as strange to use the same one, but then again, at least it was easy to remember.
She had tapped in the first two numbers when a sudden ring ripped through the silence. Her cell phone was in her bag, and Sara fumbled between papers trying to locate it before it could wake Lindsey up, the caller id not giving her any clues as to who might be on the other end of the line.
'Sidle'
'Ms Sidle, I'm Detective Small from the LVPD.'
Sara raised an eyebrow slightly, wondering why the police would be contacting her on her personal cell phone.
'What can I do for you?'
'I'm afraid we've got a slight situation.'
'I'm not following.'
'We just received an anonymous tip to say that the house you are in at the moment is wired to a bomb, via the house's internal alarm system.'
'You've got to be kidding me. Like I'm going to fall for that! Who are you really? Did Nick put you up to this? I'm gonna kill him.'
'Ms Sidle, I'm not joking.'
'And you expect me to believe you because…?'
'Hang on.' There was some muffled movement, and then a voice Sara hadn't expected came on the line.
'Sara, it's Grissom.'
'Gris. What's going on?' A drop of fear worked its way up her spine.
'Listen to the detective, Sara, he's telling the truth.'
'What the hell? What do you mean? There's a bomb?' Sara could barely think straight as she looked at the alarm panel. 'Can't I just disarm the alarm?'
'No! No! Don't touch anything to do with the alarm. The detective wants to talk to you. Listen to all he has to say, and stay calm.'
More muffled movements and the detective came back on line. 'Is Lindsey with you?'
'She's asleep.' Sara answered distracted, trying to piece it all together.
'Do you understand about not touching the alarm? Anything interrupting the circuit will set the bomb off.'
'I got it. You know the powers off, right? Surely, the alarm is off?'
'We're not sure of anything right now. How much battery is on your cell?'
'It's fully charged.'
'Good. Stay put, I'll be back in touch shortly.'
With that, the phone went dead in her hands, leaving Sara to look around her, and wonder what the hell was going on. She got up, crossed to the back bedrooms, just to check Lindsey was safely asleep in bed.
'How is the alarm sourced with the power off?' The detective asked Catherine.
'Um…it's got an internal power source. Oh God- the alarm will go off when that runs out!'
'How much time does it have on this power source?'
'Three hours.'
'Ok. What alarm setting is it on?'
'External doors and windows.'
'Any access route not covered?'
'Uh…no, no. An ex policemen put it in, it's top of the line.'
'I need to get to the scene.' The detective told them.
'I'm coming.' Catherine immediately answered.
'It would be best for you to stay here, at least for now. We will keep in contact.'
'I'm coming.' Catherine snapped at him, giving him no choice. 'That's my baby in there.'
'Fine. But you stay out of the way, and do anything we ask you to.'
Nick opening the door made them all jump. 'it's a regular party in here. Where was my invitation?' His teasing smile soon grew serious as he took in the looks of his co-workers.
'Nick! Uh, something's happened.' Warrick told him.
'What?' Nick asked, dreading the answer.
Warrick stepped forward, dragging Nick outside with him. 'Some maniac's wired a bomb to the alarm system at Catherine's house.'
Nick's eyes went wide. 'What? How? What?'
'Yeah, keep going for about five minutes and you'll be where we all are.'
'Sara knows?'
'Yeah, they just called her.'
'Man- she must be freaking.'
'At least it is Sara and not Catherine's regular babysitter- she really would be freaking now.' Warrick commented. Nick didn't look like he followed Warrick's sentiments, and it was no secret that he was closest to Sara out of all of them at the crime lab.
The door to Grissom's office opened, and everyone trooped out. 'Nick, what's going on with that B and E?'
'Done the fingerprints, they're running through AFIS now. Not a lot more I can do.'
'We're going to the scene.'
'Count me in.'
'Someone should call Sara's family.' Warrick said aloud.
Catherine looked back at them. 'Man, this is all my fault. Sara shouldn't be anywhere near there.'
'At least it's Sara and not a sixteen year old babysitter.' Grissom said, echoing Warrick's earlier thoughts to Nick.
'It shouldn't be anyone. What if something happens to Lindsey?'
'Nothing will.' Grissom said firmly. 'I'll go and pull Sara's personal file, get her details.' He said. 'Nick, I'm gonna need a lift- can you wait up?'
'Sure.' Nick told him.
As Warrick and Catherine followed the detective, they saw Warrick rescue the keys from Catherine's hand, telling her firmly she wasn't driving.
Nick took a seat in one of the desk chairs as Grissom rifled through a filing cabinet. He eventually pulled out a folder, with a small 'ah ha!'
He took a seat opposite Nick, opening the file, flicking past the requisite photo with barely a glance. Nick looked up at the silence from his boss, noticed the confused look on his face. 'What is it?'
'I…Sara's folders not complete.'
'Huh?'
'When she joined, I guess I didn't get round to filling in all the bits.'
'What bits?'
'There's no one listed as next of kin.'
Nick had a confused look on his face now. 'No next of kin?'
'No one listed.' Grissom corrected.
'You knew her before she came here- don't you know her family?'
'No. Never came up. Sara's a very private person.'
'That she is. Oh well, let's get out there. We can ask Sara bout it when she comes out.'
Catherine's normally quiet street was already full to the brim with police cruisers, unmarked cars, LVPD bomb squad van. And several TV crews from local news stations.
'See the media got wind of it pretty early.' Nick commented as he pulled the car into the closest available spot.
'Must have heard it go out on the scanners.'
They quickly found Detective Small, along with Catherine who looked beside herself, as if she was about to climb the walls. They were seated in the bomb squad van, the chief quizzing Catherine on the type of the alarm she had.
Warrick stood by the entrance, looking equally between Catherine and keeping an eye on the street, mostly to make sure no press came anywhere near.
'What's happening?' Nick asked Warrick when they got close enough.
'Not enough.' Warrick answered.
'Ms Willows, I know this is a hard time, but the more information you can give us, the more help it'll be in unarming this bomb.' The chief said, an older guy, with the air of an army sergeant to him.
'Yeah…sorry.'
'I understand. Now, let's go back over. How is the alarm triggered, on a normal full alarm?'
'Full alarm? There's movement sensors in all rooms. All the windows and doors have a trip sensor- when the alarms on, and the circuit gets broken, the alarm goes off.'
'What different settings are there?
'I've got four pre-set. Um, full alarm, external doors and windows only, um…external doors and windows plus kitchen, lounge and hallway, and the last one is full alarm minus the kitchen.'
'And at the moment the alarm is set to just external doors and windows?'
'Yes.' Catherine said in frustration. They had been through all this. She felt a comforting hand lie gently on her shoulder, and looked up to meet Grissom's eye. 'Yes, that's the setting.' She said in a more reasonable tone.
'Can you only do pre-set triggers?'
'No, you can chop and change it all manually.'
'Ok.' The sergeant made a quick note. 'We've got the plans to the house. Could you mark where any of the triggers are, including any movement sensors.'
Catherine took a deep breath and blew it out before accepting the red highlighter and drawing plans.
'Has anyone contacted Sara again?' Nick asked.
'We'll wait till we have something to tell her. There's only limited time on her cell battery and we don't want to waste it.' The sergeant said without looking up.
'What do you think it is we're dealing with?' Nick asked.
'A nut.' Came the curt reply.
Brass came back from checking in with his team. He had nothing more to report- the bomb squad were about to see how far they could get from their side.
The sergeant held up his hand for quiet, and they noticed he was dialling a number on his phone. It was on speaker phone, but as the number went through he gave them a hard glare. 'No speaking. We need to get the message through then disconnect.'
It was picked up almost instantly, and they could all imagine that Sara was waiting for the call. 'Hello?'
'Ms Sidle?'
'Who the hell were you expecting?' Nick and Warrick couldn't stop the small smile at Sara's oh so normal irritated tone.
It threw the sergeant momentarily though. 'Uh, yes, quite. Look, our men are doing a walk around, see what they can find out. So don't be alarmed by some men outside, maybe a little drilling or banging.'
'Great. What can I do?' Sara asked, sounding eager to move.
'Nothing. You sit still and don't touch a thing.' Came the quick reply.
They all heard the sigh. 'Whatever.'
'Sara- is Lindsey ok?' Catherine couldn't help it, she had to know.
'Cath?' Sara asked, sounding surprised. 'She's fine. Lindsey's still asleep. I didn't see the point in waking her.'
'Give her a kiss for me Sara. Tell her I love her.'
'You can tell her yourself when we get out of here.' Came Sara's cheerful reply.
Catherine couldn't ask anymore, the tears were running down her cheeks.
'Ok, Ms Sidle, we'll get back to you.' The line was cut before Sara could say anything more.
Sara listened to the sound of the dead phone line for a few seconds, before laying the cell carefully on the table, and getting up. She went to the windows, looking out at the circus on the street. Bright overhead lights highlighted the street, lots of police cruisers, media trucks, unmarks were dotted around. Sara wondered who else of the team was around- she had guessed that Catherine wouldn't have been far once she knew what was going on. Probably the rest were out on assignment and would get there when they could.
They still had a job to do, right?
Sara looked around her, focusing through the open lounge door at the alarm panel. The alarm panel that she had almost keyed in the number to trigger off the bomb. The thought made her shiver involuntary.
She crossed over to it, carefully now, on tiptoe, logically knowing that walking wasn't going to set it off but being careful anyway. She stood square to it, looking at it like it was some great masterpiece in a museum rather than a small eight by five plastic box.
She looked around, suddenly alerted to small red lights that blinked periodically from the corner over the front door. She experimentally waved her arm, making it light up again. Movement sensors. She had them in her apartment, connected to her alarm.
She walked through the rooms, counting sensors. Two in the hall, two in the lounge, two in the kitchen, one in each of the bedrooms, none in the bathroom. In the bathroom, she wandered over to the window. It was darker than a normal window, the light cast off from the spotlights round the front of the house barely noticeable. It was mirrored glass, she guessed, see out but not see in. She examined the lock, which looked like any other window lock, a metal clasp that pulled across a pin, locking round it. But as she looked closer, she could see two metal circuit breakers attached to the two sides of the lock, meeting where the lock did. The alarm circuit. It was hard to think that those two metal plates were the difference between a bomb going off and not.
If there was a bomb. They had what? A call. They must get a lot of hoax calls, surely?
But for a hoax call, they were sure taking it serious, she thought, exiting the bathroom and crossing back to Lindsey's bedroom. She stood in the doorway, watching the nine year old sleep by the light of the candle in the hallway.
They knew something. Or at least, they were pretty confident that this wasn't a hoax, anyway. Perhaps the perp had given them a little too much information to comfortably write it off as a hoax.
Sara hated not being able to do anything. She knew very little about bombs- and what she did know was mostly related to what a mess they left behind when they blew up. She wondered what kind of device was being used, what the explosive was. Centex maybe? Wired into the cavity of the house. Wouldn't take much, maybe a few pounds, to really light up the night sky. She wondered where it would have to be placed for maximum impact. It was a single story house. Small hallway, two doors off it to the lounge and kitchen, the back of the house where the three bedrooms and bathroom were. Garage accessed out from the kitchen. So, one in the back wall, take out the bedrooms, one in the kitchen, and maybe one in the lounge just for effect.
Sara suddenly looked up. It wasn't a flat roof, she remembered, so maybe there was an attic or something up there. Then she looked down. Maybe there was a cellar down there. Either of them would be perfect places to hide some explosive.
She crossed into the kitchen, after carefully closing the bedroom door behind her. She wondered if the door to the garage was wired, and if so, whether the alarm was set for it. She didn't remember Catherine saying it was, but then again, why would she?
The kitchen was quite large, modern looking, white and cream cupboards with a splash of navy blue thrown in for effect. A breakfast bar ran across the middle, with two stools sat at it. A chalkboard on the side listed Catherine's off duty for the next week, presumably so that Lindsey knew when her mom was likely to be around. There were other household effects, pictures on the fridge, a shopping list held captive by a snoopy magnet. A white board with flyers from Lindsey's school advertising school clubs or a cake sale. Parent-teacher night was stuck in a prominent position, along with Lindsey's last report card, mostly filled with As and Bs.
To Sara's right as she stood facing the large picture window, was another door she hadn't really taken notice of before. As torchlight swung across the backyard behind her, Sara used the tea light she held on a saucer as light, and opened the door. It led into a pantry of sorts, tins of food, bags of pasta, jars of sauce arranged neatly on floor to ceiling shelves to her right. At least if they were in here for a while, they weren't gonna starve, anyway.
To her left, there was another door, and this one drew Sara's complete attention. Judging by what she knew of the house plans, this wasn't too far from the outside wall, but wasn't flush with it, the backing on, as it did, the edge of the hall. Sara wondered if it led down to the cellar, but without certainty, especially as to whether it led outside, and therefore under the realm of the alarm, she wasn't about to chance opening it.
She stood and looked at it instead, debating all the possibilities. Before she turned away with a shake of the head, and headed back to the breakfast bar and a seat. If only the power was on. Here in the light of the candles everything seemed more creepy than it should.
You're sitting here with a wired bomb for company, she reminded herself. You're allowed to feel creeped out, and even scared. No one was going to think any less of her for that. Not that anyone could see how she was feeling, seeing as it was they were all out there, and she was in here.
She looked around, wondering how this nightmare was going to end. And then wishing she hadn't started wondering at all. She needed to talk to someone, get out of here. But seeing as neither was an option right now, she stayed standing, staring in the backyard, watching the police on who she now had to rely on. It didn't sit very comfortably with her, and she was soon off to stand vigil over the little girl she had promised to take care of.