Grissom's phone rang as they listened to Sara knock out the plaster. He answered it quickly, knowing it was Warrick from the caller id panel.
'Got some news.' Warrick told him. 'Lydia White has a significant other, Elliot Cravely. They've lived together for a few months now, at Lydia's old address. Hadley's name rang a bell, so I ran him through the system. Got a rap sheet the size of my arm, mostly burglary or aggravated assault. Another name however came out with it, his partner in a lot of the burglary cases, Tony Hadley.'
'I know that name.'
'You should. Catherine put him away for murder one. Raped and shot his girlfriend of the time, after holding an off license at gunpoint.'
'He's still in Jail?'
'Yeah, serving life at the county lockdown. We dug some more on Hadley, though. Seemed he was also linked with the charges, but Hadley provided him with an alibi to keep him out of jail.'
'So Cravely owes Hadley?'
'Big time. Cravely's MIA at the moment- Lydia claims not to have seen him in days; Brass's questioning her at the moment. We did however find out that Cravely was in the army- and get this, in the bomb disposal unit. We've got an APB out on him, now we're just getting a warrant to search his crib.'
'Ok, Warrick, keep in touch.'
'How's it going down there?'
Grissom lowered his voice as he answered. 'It's going.'
'You have something?' Sara asked over the phone. She'd heard a cell phone ring, Grissom talking quietly.
'We're working on it.' Grissom answered her, not wanting to say anything till they had something concrete.
'How you doing with the wall, Sara?' Lewis asked.
'Almost done.' Sara grunted as she pulled away the last slab of plaster. Then wished she hadn't.
Her silence spoke louder than words at that moment. Sara was sure most people wouldn't actually know what she was looking at. It looked like putty stuck to the wooden slacks of the house's foundation. Except buried within each line was a small detonator, connected to the next line by a short wire, stretching as far on each side as the torch beam would show. C4.
They allowed the silence for a moment, then Lewis spoke. 'Sara?'
They heard a loud crash, a thump making them all jump. Sara had just swung the screwdriver into the plaster wall, the cheap plasterboard giving way under the ferocious blow. The thump that accompanied it was the chair she had been standing on toppling over thanks to a well- aimed kick from Sara.
'Sara?' Lewis asked again gently. But Sara had ripped the hands free from her ear, slammed her finger on the end button, cutting the call, the nausea ripping through her too much to speak through, to think through. She had to get out of here, out of the cellar, out of sight of the bomb that was going to kill Lindsey and her in forty four minutes. She took the stairs two at a time, breaking out into the kitchen as if she was short of air down there, taking in gulps of air to try and forestall the impending panic attack.
'Damn.' Lewis muttered as the phones dial tone came on. 'Call her back.' He instructed Small. He did, twice, till it cut straight through to Sara's voicemail. "Leave a message, I'll get back to you."
'She'll call back.' Nick said into the quiet. 'Give her a moment, and she'll call back. Sara won't give up.'
Lewis run his hands through his hair, before getting up, signalling the other member of his team that had been listening, over to a corner, where they talked in low tones about what they knew so far.
Grissom and Nick shared a glance, Catherine catching the look. 'Sara will call back, won't she?' She asked them.
'She will.' Nick said confidently.
Catherine rested her head in her hands, not trying to think about what was going on the house.
The phone ringing a moment later made them all jump.
Sara had just needed a few moments to compose herself, to get past the nausea, and panic, and get back to business. What she hadn't needed was an audience, all be it a radio audience, for her small breakdown.
'There are strips of c4, packed on the house supports, connected with wire. The timer is connected to the first one, and it looks like a serial connection- there's only one wire running between each bomb.' Sara's voice was eerily calm, business like. They all knew she was faking it, but they were glad she was. It was hard enough watching someone breakdown when you were in the room, could help. Listening to it over the phone knowing that there was nothing you could do would only make this harder still.
'Ok, that might make this easier.' Lewis said. 'How many can you see?'
Sara paused for a second. 'Enough.' She finally answered, all to aware of Catherine listening. 'Surely if it's a serial connection, I could just cut the first one, and break the circuit?' Sara said into the phone.
'That might not be enough. We don't know if there's any other devices, or whether it's a collapsible circuit.'
There was a sudden startled cry from Sara. 'What is it?' Lewis asked, thinking she'd seen something more.
'Rats.' Sara said, a shudder in her voice. 'I though you said you had this place exterminated?' She asked Catherine.
'I did.' Catherine said. 'This woman came.' She trailed off as a thought hit her. 'That's where I've seen her before!' She exclaimed, grabbing at the picture of Lydia White. 'She knocked on the door, asking if I had a pest problem. I told her that in fact I'd just had rats take up residence in the cellar. She said no problem; that she could come back the next day. I was working, my sister let her in for me.'
'We know the perp then?' Sara said over the phone line.
'Looks like it.'
'That doesn't help, though, does it?' Sara asked. 'Even if they did find them in time, there's no way they'd shut off the bomb. They're already facing life.'
No one confirmed or denied this over the line. They didn't have to.
'So let's beat them at their own game.' Lewis said quietly into the room. 'We don't have to know them, we just have to be smarter than them.'
Sara glanced down at her watch, seeing it was coming up to twenty-two minutes to twelve. Where had all the time gone?
'Well come up with something quick.' Sara told him.
'Can you go back upstairs? I want some more detail on the wire.' Lewis asked her.
'I told you all I saw.' Sara said, although she was hurrying over to the stairs as she said it.
'I want you to look at something different. I want you to unsheathe the wire where it connects to the timing device.'
'You want me to do what?' Sara asked.
Lewis repeated even though everyone knew Sara had heard it perfectly well the first time.
'Ok.' Sara said doubtfully. 'This better have a point.'
'Trust me. If the wire's what I'm thinking, we could have a shot at disabling this thing.'
'Could have?'
'That's the best I can do.'
Sara got to the top of the stairs and walked into the lounge. She caught the wire she had unsheathed with her fingers, running them back till she got to the end of the wire that was connected to the timer. Before she could do anything, a small sleepy voice behind her made her jump, dropping the wire.
'Sara, what are you doing?' Lindsey asked.
Catherine's heart froze for a second before it started pounding in her chest. 'Lindsey!'
'Hey munchkin.' Sara greeted her, trying to stop her heart from hammering in her chest. She felt like she'd been caught doing something really naughty, which was just ridiculous. 'What you doing up? Why aren't you in bed?'
'My cover fell off. I was cold. And it was really dark in my room. Why are all the lights off?'
'The powers off.' Sara told her. 'It'll be back on soon, though.'
'Is that why you're playing with the alarm?'
'Yeah…'
'Oh.'
'You should be going back to bed. I don't think your mom would like you up at this time.'
'She'd get her grouchy face on.' Lindsey agreed.
Sara had to ask. 'Her…grouchy face?'
'Yeah, the one she gets when she's mad about something. Who are you on the phone too?'
'Uh.' Sara was about to lie, but couldn't think of anyone. 'Your mom.'
'Oh.' Lindsey said, biting her lip, grinning guiltily. 'Don't tell her what I said?' She asked, not realising that the hands free kit meant Catherine had heard every word anyway.
'I won't.' Sara promised. 'You wanna say goodnight?'
'I'm not meant to be up.' Lindsey reminded her.
'Right. I'm sure your mom won't mind just this once.' Sara told her. She unplugged the hands free, and gave Lindsey the phone.
'Hey mommy.'
'Hey baby, what are you doing up?' Catherine asked, having to fight tears to make her voice sound something like normal. Everyone else in the van was deathly quiet.
'I got cold. My cover fell off.'
'You'd better get back to bed, you've got school tomorrow.'
'I know mommy. Will you be home in the morning before school?'
'I should be.'
'Goodnight, mommy. I love you.'
'Love you too, baby. Be good.'
Lindsey gave the phone back to Sara, who said 'I'll call back.' before hanging up the phone. She needed to know that Lindsey was safe and asleep in bed before she could concentrate on unsheathing wire again. Seeing Lindsey up and about had really thrown her.
Lindsey had waited for her, and linked hands as they walked down the hallway to her bedroom. 'I don't like the dark.' Lindsey confided.
'Me either.' Sara confessed. 'That's why I put candles everywhere.'
'They're pretty.' Lindsey agreed.
Sara watched her climb into bed, and pulled the comforter up over her, kissing her gently on the forehead. 'Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.' Sara said softly.
Lindsey giggled sleepily as she closed her eyes, and drifted back into sleep. Sara lent forward, kissing her on the forehead again. 'Goodnight.' She whispered.
'Is Lindsey asleep?' Catherine got in as Small hit the talk button on the phone.
'Yeah.' Sara answered. 'Let's do this.' She said, her voice all business. Lindsey's appearance had certainly focused her at that moment.
'Ok, unsheathe the wire as close to the edge as possible.' Lewis said.
Sara did with little hesitation. 'Ok. What am I looking for?'
'Of the four wires, there should be two pairs; one marked with a single orange line, one with two thin green ones.'
Seconds tipped away as Sara searched for what he meant, finally prying the four wires gently apart, finding the markings on the underside of the wire. 'Ok.'
'Ok, hold on.'
'No! Don't hold on. We've got seven minutes left!' Sara exclaimed despite herself.
'I know.' Lewis answered calmly, before putting the phone on mute. They could hear Sara muttering but couldn't make out words.
The two bomb experts looked at each other. The one who hadn't spoken, known by Tank because of his size finally shrugged. 'Let her decide.' He said.
'Decide what?' Catherine demanded.
Lewis didn't answer. He hit the mute button again. 'Sara, of the four wires, two are serial, two are parallel.' He said.
'Ok.'
'Cutting either of the pairs could disable the timing device and stop the bomb. However, the parallel circuit would override this, and the bomb would explode at midnight anyway when the alarm's power runs out. The serial, however, would break the whole circuit, and would render the bomb powerless.'
'Wouldn't the parallel circuit override this?'
'No, because only one circuit could be wired into the timing device. If you cut the serial, the whole circuit would collapse, and the parallel circuit would be broken anyway.'
'What are you saying?'
'That one of those pairs of wires is the parallel, one is the serial.'
'Which one's which?' Sara asked, watching the timing device clock down past three minutes.
'Usually the single marking is serial and the double is parallel, but bombers have been known to swap the markings to confuse.'
'So, I should cut the double green ones?'
'I don't know. I don't know anything about the bomber, how clever he is. Whatever wire you cut has to be cut now, and both of them have to be cut.'
'Why can't I cut both pairs of wires?'
'Because without anything, the complete break in the circuit would trigger the bomb. The only hope now is to stop the timing device, to break the circuit that way. Then, even with the power on, the bomb wouldn't have the circuitry to run.'
Sara stared at the four wires she held in her fingertips, unable to believe that two of the wires would disable the bomb, whilst the other two wouldn't make any difference. Her hands were shaking so much now, that she could barely hold the wires anyway. So that was what it came down to? Cutting a pair of wires? And she knew by the silence over the phone line that they were making the decision hers. Which seemed mighty unfair. She'd done their job up till now, had exposed the bomb, told them all they wanted to hear. Why couldn't they make this decision? She didn't want to be the one responsible for making the bomb go off, to make that final cut that would either disable or explode. Didn't want to die, but more, didn't want to be responsible for Lindsey's death.
She made two vows then. That she was never babysitting for anyone ever again, and that she was never setting her house alarm again. Burglary was way less hassle than this.
She thought of the strips of bomb, of the amount of C4 that would explode if she made the wrong decision. She just hoped it would be instant, for Lindsey's sake. That Lindsey wouldn't know anything about it, that she would sleep right through it, the "I love you" from her mother the last thing she remembered.
She thought of everyone listening in that van. Of her old mentor Grissom, the one who had fashioned such a love of forensics with his passionate lectures. Of Nicky, Warrick, even Greg. People she worked with, shared a huge part of her life with. Who helped wade through the horror of the everyday crimes to make life seem liveable again.
Of Catherine, who's little girl's fate now rested on her. On her ability to make this decision. To make the right decision.
'I'm sorry, Catherine. I'm so sorry.' She whispered down the line, one shaking finger finding the disconnect button, switching off the phone, plunging the house into absolute silence.
'No!' Catherine screamed at the phone, lunging for it, pulled off and away by Grissom.