Summary: WIP. CSI / WaT crossover. Set after CSI PwF and WaT Fallout 2. It's easier to run than to act.
A/N: Big thanks to D for turning this into something readable and to E for making it possible for me to see the show in the first place. You so rock! Also, as always to the Maple Street gang for being so inspiring.
McCarren Airport, Las Vegas
May 14,,
The rest of the flight passed in a haze. Jack barely noticed how the time
had passed; he was actually surprised when the flight attendant announced
that they were about to land. On the ground they were greeted by Agent
Nguyen from the Las Vegas field office.
"Good afternoon Agent Malone, Agent Fitzgerald." Nguyen nodded in their
direction. "I've done the background checks you asked for. Clean credit
history, no extraordinary withdrawals or payments during the last six
months. A Yukon is registered to Miss Sidle; it's parked in front of her
apartment building. We've taken a preliminary look at her apartment, no
signs of struggle. According to her rent contract she lives there alone.
Oddly, no missing persons report was filed with the LVPD. We contacted her
parents, but they haven't heard from her in months. Apparently they haven't
had much contact with her during the last couple of years." He handed Jack a
file.
"Not surprising if she went the New York on vacation. If I disappeared while
on vacation nobody would notice either." Martin interjected.
"We'll take a look at her apartment first, then we'll have to talk to anyone
who might have had contact with her before she left town. Someone's got to
know why."
Sara Sidle's apartment, Las Vegas
May 14, 3 p.m.
The two-room apartment provided just enough space for one person. The main
room doubled as kitchen and living room; there was a small bathroom and a
bedroom. The apartment was sufficiently furnished, but remarkably devoid of
decoration. No photographs or artwork of any kind on the wall.
"I'm going to take a look at the bedroom." Martin announced.
Jack looked around the small kitchen area. Everything was tidy, no dirty
dishes, nothing on the counter. Jack opened the fridge. Completely empty.
Sara had been planning on being away for a while. In spite of the
short-notice purchase of her ticket, Sara had organized her affairs
before leaving. He checked the trash; it was empty, further confirming
his impression. Sara had known what she was doing when she was getting ready
to leave. There was something or someone here she had wanted to get away
from. He walked over to the living area. Telephone, answering machine,
address book and note pad. No messages; A few entries in the address
book, just numbers, no names. Jack noticed that one number had been crossed
out. Someone she didn't want in her life anymore? At any rate they'd have to
check all of them. Nothing on the notepad.
Martin returned from the bedroom. "Nothing there. A single bed, made, no
pictures, nothing. As if she didn't even live here."
"She doesn't seem to have any hobbies, except work. Look at her books. No
works of literature, only work related reading. Forensics,
anthropology, anatomy, physics." He scanned the backs of the books.
"Well, she does seem to watch TV." Martin turned on the television. "It's
set to the discovery channel. I don't see any tapes or DVDs around."
"What did she do all day except work? No hobbies, no friends, no family that
reported her missing." Jack was puzzled by the lonely life unfolding before
him. "There was nothing holding her here."
Gil Grissom's apartment, Las VegasMay 14, 4 p.m.
Grissom was at home spending the time he had left before start of shift,
catching up on his reading as well as reluctantly engaging in the
necessary household chores. No observer would have been able to tell, but
underneath the surface he was still agitated. Ever since his conversation
with Sara his mind had been working incessantly. He was used to being a
slave to his intellect, but this time was quite different. This wasn't a
situation that could be picked apart and broken down into its elements. He
hated to admit it, but he wasn't satisfied with how it had gone. But he
didn't really see how he could have given a different answer. He was just
about to pick up some books to put them back on the shelf when he heard
the faint ring of the doorbell. Automatically he wondered whether he had
hadn't heard previous rings as muffled shouting from the corridor reached
him. He walked over and peered through the peephole. He saw a fairly young
man flashing. He opened the door a crack.
"Are you Dr. Gil Grissom?"
"Yes."
"I'm special Agent Fitzgerald with the FBI." Martin showed his badge. "I'd
like to ask you a few questions."
Grissom opened the door and let the agent in. he had an ill feeling. If
this was about a case, why would they visit him at home? He would be at
CSI in an hour. Could it be that he hadn't heard the ringing of the phone?
That had happened to him before just over a week ago. This just one more
warning sign. But right now, the FBI agent in his living room demanded his
attention,
"..., Mr. Grissom?"
"Yes, what is this about?"
"I'm investigating the disappearance of Sara Sidle. When was the last
time you saw her?"
Grissom had heard him perfectly, but almost wished he hadn't. This
didn't make any sense, his mind screamed. The FBI was investigating Sara's
disappearance. How could she have disappeared?
"I saw her on May 10 as she was about the leave the lab at the end of shift.
" Grissom heard his own voice, but the words were foreign to him. His mind
was recalling the information on auto-pilot. "She called me
the next morning and asked for a couple days of leave."
"Why ... leave?"
"For personal reasons."
"Did she seem disturbed or upset lately?"
"There was an explosion in our lab on May 10; she was caught in the blast,
but luckily not seriously injured. I urged her to take some time off, but
she didn't want to."
"That's not what I asked, but thank you for the information. How did she
seem when you last saw her?"
"She seemed ... normal." This wasn't true, but Grissom couldn't possible put
his last encounter with Sara into words right now. Even in another situation
he had a hard time picking up on people's moods. Sometimes, they seemed like
a language he had never learned to master. The evidence left behind by their
actions usually told him all he needed to know.
"She called you the next morning. What was that about?"
"She was asking for a few days off. I told her to take as many as she
needed."
"... attitude."
Grissom wasn't sure what the Agent had just said. He couldn't help feeling
completely out of control in this situation. He had no information, no idea
what was going on. If he hadn't known better, he would have been convinced
that this was some twisted, horrible nightmare.
FBI Field Office, Las Vegas
May 14,, 6 p.m.
"Have you learned anything new?"
"Gil Grissom, her supervisor, I think he might be our guy. At least, he
knows more than he's telling us. He was very nervous and evasive, didn't
really answer my questions. His story is that she just asked him for a few
days of leave for personal reasons; he said yes and that was it. I say
we dig deeper on this guy. You get anything?
"No, according to several police officers she is working with, she's quiet,
hard working, very professional. No one knows what she's doing in her
off-time. But the last case she was working on was connected to a gang
called "Las Culebras". Our organized crime task force is looking into them.
It's a long shot but so far it's all we have." Jack couldn't keep the
frustration out of his voice. He was having a hard time with this case, no
matter how hard he tried he couldn't get inside it. He had no feeling for
Sara, no impression of her personality. It wasn't the case, he had worked
cases with fewer leads and they had still been able to solve them. "I'll be
talking to some more of Sara's co-workers. It turns out that all but two
private phone numbers in her address book belong to people from work, one
belongs to her parents, the other to one Hank Peddigrew. He's a paramedic at
Desert Palms Hospital."
"You sure that you don't want me to help you with questioning the
co-workers?" Martin must have noticed that his attention wasn't fully
focused on the case.
"No, it's fine. Go to the hospital and get more information about the lab
explosion. Also see if you can talk to Mr. Peddigrew. I want to know why
his number has been crossed out in her address book."
Crime Lab, Las Vegas
May 14,, 7.30 p.m.
Everyone Jack talked to seemed to be saying the same thing: Sara was
completely devoted to her work, and would never just leave town without
telling anyone. But no one knew her in her off-time. The two co-workers,
Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown, indicated that they worked together very
well, but didn't know anything about her personal life. In neither
conversation had anything suspicious had come up. Nick Stokes was shocked
to hear about her disappearance and seemed genuinely worried what might have
happened to her. His demeanour was open, not trying to hide emotion.
"It's just not like Sara. She would never just leave without telling
anyone." Nick sounded incredulous.
"Did she maybe have problems at work lately?"
"Normally not, but on the last case we worked she went ahead on her own to
arrest a suspect without waiting for the police to clear the area."
"Did she ever act reckless before or disregarded protocol?"
"No, not as far as I know." Nick shrugged.
"What happened afterwards?"
"Nothing, I tried to talk to her but she didn't want to. I dropped it. I
just put the incident in my report." Nick paused. "Do you think you'll find
her?"
"I don't know, we are still trying to find out why she went to New York
City."
Warrick Brown didn't have anything useful for them either.
"I honestly can't think of a reason why Sara would have wanted to leave. If
she did, she would have discussed it with Grissom first."
"How did she get along with the people at work? Any disagreements or was
she involved with anyone?"
"No, Sara's very professional in that regard."
"Did she ever talk about her personal life, friends or family ?"
"No, not to me."
Although Warrick Brown was far less of an open book than Nick Stokes, he too
seemed to be concerned.
Exhausted from hours of talking to the people in Sara's life, Jack met up
with Martin at the CSI lab.
"I talked to the parents, but they have no idea what is going on in their
daughter's life. Apparently they have very little contact with her. Hank
Peddigrew is the ex-boyfriend. According to him they dated for almost a year,
but the relationship never got serious. On an interesting side note: he's a
got a fiancée, Elaine Alcott. She works for an insurance company. But both
their alibis checked out. I had the LVPD do some more checking" Martin
rattled off the outcome of half a day of investigative work. Half a day and
no leads. So far their best bet was Dr. Grissom and they were far from
having anything tangible on him. They could only hope that Danny and Vivian
were having better luck in New York.
"Did Dr. Grissom tell you about Sara having problems on her latest case?
"No, he never mentioned it" Martin frowned, seeing his suspicions confirmed.
"We better talk to him again."
At the front desk they learned that Gil Grissom was in the building at the
moment. They found him in his office, bent over crime scene photographs.
"Dr. Grissom?" Jack knocked on the doorframe.
He didn't seem to have noticed them. Jack repeated the gesture, speaking
louder this time. "I'm special Agent Malone with the FBI; you've met Agent
Fitzgerald before. We have some more questions about the last time you saw
Sara."
Grissom nodded, his expression stoic.
"Did you know that Sara went back to the lab the next morning?"
For a brief moment Grissom's face showed utter surprise. Jack was almost
certain that Grissom had not known that before now. Although he too got the
impression that Grissom was hiding something, it probably wasn't what Martin
was thinking.
"No, I didn't know that. I had the day off." Grissom answered the question.
"Have you any idea what she might have wanted?" Martin asked.
"No."
"We've been talking to Detective Brass. According to him he mentioned to you
that Sara acted in a very uncharacteristic way during the last
investigation. He said that she endangered herself and others through her
reckless actions. When you saw Sara at the end of her shift, did you
confront her about it?"
"I mentioned it, but she insisted that she was fine."
Jack had been watching the exchange silently. He had an idea of what Dr.
Grissom was hiding and decided to test it. He got up from the chair and
deliberately turned toward Martin while speaking.
"Do you think that the explosion in the lab might have triggered Sara's
unusual behavior?" Jack turned back to Grissom, watching him intently.
"Dr. Grissom, do you have a problem with your hearing?"
Grissom nodded. "It's a progressive disease." His tone was neutral, almost
light, as he if was relieved to be able to admit to it. Jack was fairly
sure about the answer to his next question.
"Does Sara or anyone here at the lab know about this?"
"No, no one here knows. It didn't come up when I last saw Sara."
"Then what did come up? "
A pause.
"Sara asked me out to dinner. I declined." Jack got the impression that
there was a tinge of regret in Grissom's voice. But maybe, he thought, that
was just his projection of his own situation on the case. With the trouble
he was having separating his personal life from the case, it wouldn't
surprise him.
"Were the two of you ever romantically involved?" It felt wrong to ask
another man that question when he was guilty of the same act. He was putting
Grissom in the same position that Farrell had tried to put him into.
"No, we weren't."
"Do you believe him?" Martin asked as they were on their way to the parking
lot.
"Yes, I think he's telling the truth. He doesn't have a motive. He might be
part of the reason why she left though. She suffers from shock after the
explosion, then the situation at the crime scene, then she's turned down. It
might have been enough to push here over the edge."
"I meant about not having been involved with her?" Martin clarified.
"He might have wanted to be, but I don't think he has ever acted on it." The
parallels and differences to his own situation were almost painful. He was
still drawn to Samantha, but didn't dare to act on it.
Martin didn't immediately reply.
"Well, if he isn't our guy, then who else? I don't think anyone we have
talked to is a suspect either. No one knew her well. But one thing keeps
bothering me: why did she come back to the crime lab right before she left
the city? By then she had already made up her mind."
"Maybe she just wanted to say good-bye."
Maybe that was also part of why he had to his family's apartment that one
morning. Because he knew it was over and he needed to say good-bye in a
symbolic way? Jack still wasn't sure what to think. What he was thinking and
what he was feeling were two different things. It seemed impossible to ever
find a compromise between the two.
Martin and Jack left Las Vegas the same night, there was nothing left for
them to do in Las Vegas. They now knew what Sara Sidle's life was about.
Work was at the centre of everything.
Jack was surprised that the concept of a devoted workaholic was so alien to
him. After all year-long passion for his work had often taken priority over
everything else, his free time, his wife, his daughters. He had made more
sacrifices for his work than he cared to admit. Maria had once told him that
he was only truly in love with his job. She hadn't been wrong.
Crime Lab Gil Grissom's Office, Las Vegas
May 15, 1 a.m.
Gil Grissom stayed in his office for the rest of the shift. Things were
going slow at any rate. He knew that the team could probably use him right
now. Everyone was still shocked about what the had learned in the past
hours. He himself had difficulty fully grasping it yet. Sara had wanted to
leave CSI. She didn't tell anyone about it and now she had disappeared. How
could this happen? As soon as that thought had crossed his mind, he saw all
the grizzly possibilities. On the job, he saw things like that happen every
day. He couldn't help but feel guilty over whatever had driven Sara leave
everything that he thought was important to her behind.
Maybe she had been more affected by the explosion than he had thought. He
should have put her on leave immediately, he should have insisted that she
take some time for herself. Now he saw all the signs of shock: the
confusion, erratic behaviour. Why had he been so blind to them? He had been
so determined to solve the case that he had lost perspective about what else
was going on in his lab. In that regard he had failed as a supervisor.
tbc
