(thanks for reviews. Next parts up soon. Most of the technical part is completely blagged as I don't have any idea of them- all used for entertainment value!)

Chapter Five

They heard the scraping of metal against plastic, all having to deal with just sitting and listening rather than being actively involved. 'Okay…ah shit!' Sara exclaimed, accompanied by a thump as something hit the floor hard.

Everyone in the van suddenly had their hearts in their mouths.

'What, what happened?' Lewis cried into the phone.

'Uh- I just slipped and cut myself. Dropped the torch.' Sara answered, sounding embarrassed.

'Are you ok?'

'Yeah, fine.'

'Ok, nice and slowly, take it easy.'

Over the phone line they heard what sounded like Sara taking several deep breaths before the prying continued.

Sara watched as blood trickled from a cut on her thumb, down towards her wrist, where it carried on till it was soaked into her shirtsleeves. Stupid shaking hands and sweaty palms. Where was her calmness, professionalism? But not even with these tools could she remove the panel of the bomb without a little bit of sweat pooling somewhere.

Greg went to DNA lab to do what he did best. There was a nice skin tag at the follicle- this baby had been yanked from the head, probably after becoming tangled up in something. He carefully prepared it before running it through the machine, the wait seeming longer than usual for the machine to finally spit out the DNA profile. With that, he could move onto another database, see if the DNA matched anything they already had in the system.

Warrick was likewise waiting for the wonder of AFIS to work it's magic and tell him who had laid those prints at the house. Being the only workable prints on the frames it was likely they would be fairly recent ones. He just wished there was a quicker way to search AFIS.

AFIS finally decided to spit up a match at the same time as the DNA database decided to perform a match at the same time. Warrick and Greg were both going to tell the other when they met up in the corridor, just outside Grissom's office.

'Got something!' The both exclaimed on seeing the other.

'A match!' The both added at the same time.

'Who?' Warrick asked Greg first.

'Well, female markers and.'

'Lydia White?' Warrick asked before Greg could carry on with his usual long winded spiel on the DNA.

'Uh yeah, how did you…know?'

'Matched the finger prints.' Warrick explained. 'Now all we've got to do is find out why. The only reason her fingerprints were in the system was she had a break in last year and they were taken to discount fingerprints found on the scene.'

'The only reason she's on the DNA database is the same crime. They found blood at the scene, and they wanted something to compare it to when Ms White claimed she had fallen over and cut herself the week before.' Greg said.

'Ok so how does a suburban housewife end up with her fingerprints and DNA at Catherine's house?' Warrick wondered out loud.

There had been silence for a good minute over the phone before Lewis ventured to ask what Sara was doing.

'I'm just getting the last corner off.' Sara answered. In truth she had been standing trying to calm herself before she looked behind the panel. Finally feeling less likely to hyperventilate, she gave a final tweak and the panel came away in her hands, still attached to the base behind by snaking wires.

'Panels off.' Sara announced.

'Ok, describe what you see.'

'Wires, wires and, oh, more wires.' Sara answered, the sarcasm being used as a cover up to stop any other emotion being audible in her voice.

'Colour?'

'Brown and blue mostly- is this likely to be the same as plug wires?'

'No. Now, run each wire back from the panel to the base. Any look out of place, like they shouldn't be there?'

Sara run them through with her eyes, able to discount the large majority of wires on the first look. The base panel was your basic circuit board, but as Sara looked closer, she noticed that it looked like it had been tampered with before. It wasn't sat quite flush, where it should have been. Sara wrinkled her brow as she thought. The screws hadn't been tampered with, but they had to be removed to get to the circuit board. Which meant…someone had to have done it from the other side. She looked around. To her left was the door leading into the kitchen, then Sara remembered the door in the walk-in cupboard, one she assumed to run down to a cellar of sorts. The door angle meant that the staircase had to lead directly behind the hall, easy enough to provide access to the back of this wall. Sara put a finger behind the circuit board, the board falling forward with little resistance.

She didn't normally curse that much, but now seemed as good as time as any. 'Fuck.'

The quiet toneless expletive down the phone line made all who were listening suddenly shiver as though someone had just dropped the thermostat twenty degrees.

'What, Sara? Speak to me.' Lewis asked calmly.

There was only silence from the other end of the phone.

'Sara, tell me what you see…come on Sara, speak to me.' Lewis said.

Still silence. Grissom leaned forward. 'Sara, what do you see?' He asked gently. Nick just held his breath; Catherine was staring at the phone, willing Sara to speak.

'Um…the…the…circuit board, came out.' Sara's normal voice was shaking now. They could all hear the struggle to get the words out.

'Ok, what's behind the board?' Lewis asked gently.

'There's a…there's a timer device. There's two other wires, running…uh…running from the circuit breaker to the timer.'

'What colour are these wires?'

'Blue, like the others.'

'Ok.' Lewis looked over at another member of the bomb squad, and in the look they seemed to agree something. 'It would be really helpful if we knew what kind of wires they were. Do you know how to unsheathe a wire?' Lewis asked.

'Uh…yeah?' There was uncertainty to Sara's voice, the answer coming out more like a question.

'I don't want you to do this unless you are absolutely sure you can do it without cutting the wire. Cut the wire and the bomb may explode.' Lewis warned.

Sara's voice was harder on the reply, more sure. 'I can unsheathe a wire.' She said firmly.

'Ok. Go gently. If you know, go for the wire running to the circuit panel rather than away from it.' Lewis instructed.

'Huh, I just got a flash of déjà vu.' Sara said.

'You've done this before?' Lewis queried.

'No, but I've seen Speed like a hundred times. At least I'm not under a moving bus doing this.' As she spoke, they could hear her voice calming, as speaking about something unconnected, or fairly unconnected took her away from the fact that she was dealing with wires that could potentially explode a bomb.

'That movie was totally unrealistic.' Lewis said, hearing what the others had, willing to speak of anything if it was gonna keep Sara calm.

'Yeah.' Sara agreed. 'But Keanu was totally hot.'

'Well he's not my cup of tea, but whatever rocks your boat.' Lewis said with a smile.

They could almost hear Sara's smile as she asked 'You didn't like Sandra Bullock?'

'Nah, not really. Now, give me that chick in the Matrix anytime.'

They heard Sara's slight laugh over the phone. 'Ok, I've cut through the plastic, and I'm exposing the wire.'

'Good- is it normal metal wire?'

'Uh, no, not exactly. It's a lot thicker, and there's a kind of coating to it. Oh, it's four wires twisted into one.'

'Ok, sounds like titanium. Hold on, I need to confer with a colleague. I'll ring you back, save your battery. Do not touch anything.'

As the phone went back to dial tone in her ear, Sara stared at the timer device counting down the last few hours of her life. She'd give anything right now to have time rewound, to get back to the sofa watching Monsters' Inc with Lindsey.

Until then, the idea of being surrounded by a bomb had been almost unreal. There was nothing to see, no hard evidence to back it up. Only an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Seeing the timer had thrown her completely because it was the first evidence that this wasn't someone's idea of a sick joke, that this bomb was real, and all around her, and that it was set to go off at midnight. The hope and denial she had been building up had shattered in that one, terrifying moment.

Shaking these thoughts from her head, she instead crossed the hall to the kitchen, to the cupboard and the access to the cellar. She considered just opening the door, but guessed that Catherine wouldn't be very happy if the bomb exploded from her own stupidity.

So instead, she stood and stared at it, trying to calm herself. When that failed she walked the few metres to the back of the house, to check on Lindsey instead.

Warrick's phone call to Grissom coincidently coincided with this break, catching the room in full pensive motion, making them all jump in their seats.

'We've got the same match for the fingerprints and DNA.' Warrick told Grissom. 'Get the fax name for that van and I'll fax a picture for Catherine to look at, see if she recognises her.'

'Anyone we know?'

'Not really. On the database as a victim rather than perp.'

Grissom reeled off the fax number for Warrick. 'Cops are on their way to check out the address, but we'll carry on looking, see if anything pops up in the system about her.' Warrick carried on.

'I'll get Brass to come back, start looking into it. Call if you get anything.'

'How's things down there?'

'…Tense.' Grissom finally answered.

'I'll get back to you soon as I've got something. Tell Catherine we're thinking about her.'

'I take it Greg is there?'

'Yeah, he's helping me.'

'Good.'

Grissom hung up and looked over at the fax machine as it suddenly kicked off into action. 'Match to the fingerprints and DNA. Good job, Nicky.'

Nicky would have felt pleased although he wouldn't allow himself that luxury yet. Not until Sara and Lindsey were out of there and safe.

Grissom looked up at Brass who had stood silent till then. 'They could do with some cop knowledge.'

'On it.' And he disappeared.

'Warrick's sending us the picture, to see if you can ID her Catherine.' Grissom added, getting up to retrieve the picture.

He briefly glanced at it, no bells ringing at the picture of a thirty-something woman. She looked to be of white origin, her hair long and brown, eyes that looked cold, bright blue orbs staring unflinchingly at the camera. He handed the piece of paper to Catherine, watching closely for any reaction.

Catherine looked at the picture carefully, a slight spark of recognition but no clues as to why. She looked up at Grissom, and shrugged. 'I don't know who she is. I recognise her slightly. Like I've seen her before, but not really met her, you know?'

'Yeah. Keep thinking, Warrick's running her through the system now.' Grissom looked over at the door as Lewis walked back in. 'Anything?'

'Maybe. Catherine, I need to ask you some things. The door down to cellar- it's in the walk in cupboard in the kitchen, right?'

'Yeah.'

'Is it covered by the alarm?'

'Um…' Catherine wrinkled her brow as she tried to think. 'It's definitely covered by the full alarm, but…'

'Take your time.' Lewis told her.

Catherine closed her eyes as she tried to concentrate on what was covered by the external alarm. Was the cellar door an external door? Not really, but she knew that there were some exemptions and add ons to some of the programs. It was just a case of remembering which. 'All external doors and windows. But not the cellar. Because the fuse box is down there, and if the power was off while the alarm was on I needed to get down there.' She thought aloud.

Lewis smiled. 'Good.'

'So you need to get down to the cellar?'

'Sara does. It's the likeliest place for all this to be set up.' Lewis told her.

'Just don't tell her about the spiders that live down there.' Catherine said thoughtfully with a hint of a smile. 'I don't think you'd get her down there. Mutants, the spiders down there.'

'I'm sure Sara can handle it.' Lewis said. 'Ok, same drill.' Lewis stated, giving them all hard looks before looking at the detective. 'Phone Sara back.'

The detective nodded as he hit speed-dial on the speakerphone.

This time it took about four rings for Sara to answer the phone because she was trying to stop her heart from jumping out of her mouth. When she finally answered she had to clear her throat, praying her voice wasn't about to give out on her.

'Ok Sara?' Lewis asked.

'Yeah.' Sara answered, the earlier sarcasm gone now.

'Good, I need you to find the door to the cellar. It's in the.'

'Walk in cupboard in the kitchen.' Sara finished for him 'I know.'

'Ok. You're going down to the cellar.'

'Oh man. Tell me there aren't spiders down there.'

'There's no spiders.' Lewis lied for her.

'You're lying.' Sara stated. 'But thank you.' They heard a door creak open. 'Crap.' They heard her mutter. 'why does it have to be dark? Why can't all this be done in the light with the sun shining, or at least a forty watt light bulb swinging or something. Not this lousy little Maglite. Sorry Catherine.'

They guessed the monologue was all rhetorical, that Sara was speaking to herself rather than for anyone else's benefit.

'Crappy light.' She added for benefit. 'And oh, there's the spiders. Geez. There aren't rats as well, are there Catherine?'

'No, we had the exterminator in last month.' Catherine told her.

'Good- cause right now, I think I'm creeped out enough to run screaming from one. If only I had my gun.' She said wistfully. 'I could do with a bit of target practice. Spiders. Uh. Sorry Gris, but I just don't see the fascination. They have too many damn legs.'

None of them could help the small smile at Sara's ramblings.

'Ok, well I can see where the perp started.' Sara finally said. 'The fuse box has been tampered with.'

'Ok, can you get it off?'

'Sure- give us a sec.'

'Take your time.'

'Easy for you to say.' Sara only had to glance at her watch to know time was seriously of the essence now.

The fuse box was surprisingly easy, though, coming away in her hands almost straight away. Behind it were the standard makings of a fuse box: Flip switches covering the various power options for the house, the meter. And a hole drilled into the backboard that definitely wasn't part of any fuse box Sara had seen. Through the hole ran more of the blue wires, running to what looked like the central switch system. Sara told the others of her findings as she realised what the wires meant. The power being off wasn't a coincidence; if someone switched the power back on, the wire would trip the alarm, and explode the bomb.

Someone definitely planned this out with all eventualities.

In the background over the phone, as Lewis asked if she could get the back panel off, Sara heard Small place a phone call telling someone to make sure the damn power didn't come on until he said so.

The back panel wasn't as easy to remove as the fuse box had been, and Sara had to resort to banging it in places to remove it. 'Well if this doesn't wake Lindsey up.' She muttered as she worked, trying to claw her fingers under the corner she had just managed to lift, get some leverage behind it.

'Linds can sleep through anything.' Catherine told her.

Sara didn't want to know if she would sleep through a bomb as well.

With the ends of her fingers turning raw, her nails broken, the back panel came away from the wall, exposing the nerve centre of the electrics for the house. At first look it was all a jumble of wires, but as Sara looked closer she began to see some sort of pattern to the wires, and was able to spot the wires out of place amongst the others. By cross referencing the wires back to the fuses, Sara could see what parts of the house had been specifically isolated to trip the bomb; mainly power coming back into any of the plugs in the house, and to the garage, presumably because the garage door was electric.

Catherine confirmed this with a nod, Lewis more vocal for Sara's sake.

'Can you find where they accessed the back of the alarm panel from?' Lewis asked.

Sara swung the torch round her, getting a sense of how big the cellar was, and how much of it was hidden in the darkness. The small Maglite, though powerful, barely touched the darkest corners of the room. She followed the line of the stairs down, seeing where the cellar was still narrow and had to be flush with the hall. At the foot of the stairs, about seven foot up, someone had neatly stuffed a three by two hole in the wall with plaster and had painted over it. It was only from where she stood, looking down towards the stairs, that Sara could see the plaster job was different, that it was more recent than the rest of the wall.

'I'm gonna need you to get behind it. But slowly, carefully. You don't want to have to disturb anything behind it.' Lewis instructed.

Sara looked around for something to stand on, finally finding an old dining room chair, which she dragged over. Sara started at the bottom left hand corner, at first gently knocking at the plaster, before she poked at it with the butt of the screwdriver, the screwdriver going straight through. So much for the gently approach.

The hole, however, gave her an edge to work with, and she started clawing away the plaster from the hole.