Running Disclaimer: CSI and Without a Trace are the property of their respective owners. I own nothing. Spoilers: CSI up to Play with Fire, WaT first season

Summary: WIP. CSI / WaT crossover. Set after CSI PwF and WaT Fallout 2. It's easier to run than to act.

A/N: Thanks to all the great people hanging out at Maple Street. You're amazing. But most of all thank to D for reading through this and telling me what actually works.

FBI Missing Persons Unit, New York City

May 14, 4.30 p.m.

"How is the video analysis coming?" Vivian

Danny paused the tape and looked up.

"My head hurts from hours of staring at the bad picture, but I know that she checked in at 2.45 p.m. as the receptionist said, and then left at 3.20 p.m. to go to the hotel shop to buy the newspaper. I've gone through the tape until 2 a.m., so far nothing. No one was meeting here, nothing suspicious in the lobby, but it's hard to tell. A/V is working on enhancing the image right now."

"That doesn't tally. The aspirin was found in her room, as was the newspaper. Is there any angle that the camera doesn't cover?" Vivian asked.

"No, it's all there. The tapes from the shops are inconclusive. The hotel

shop shows Sara buying the newspaper, alone. The pharmacy tape is a waste of

money. The angle makes it near impossible to see any faces. He pointed to a

second monitor. This is Sara, at least that's when her credit card was

used." He handed Vivian a printout of a woman standing with her back to the

camera.

"At least her clothes look like a match. But I'll send someone over there

and have her look at Sara's picture again to make sure. Anything else?"

"No, but I'm having the A/V guys trying to pull all the faces from the tapes

to compare against Dr. Watts and the database. That's going to take a while

longer. But it's the only way we might get something on the guy."

"We already have something. I ran the usual on him and he made a call to a

restaurant downtown at 4 p.m. the day that Sara disappeared. I've called and

they confirmed that he reserved a table for two and showed up in company of

a young woman fitting Sara's description. Forensics is still working on the

blood. Nothing from trace evidence. The place is full of fibres but

nothing special. Just what you'd expect in a hotel room."

Ali's Kebap Place, New York City

May 14, 6.35 p.m.

"Pretty dingy place. Not what I'd expect from the good doctor." Danny

commented as the walked up to the restaurant.

"Just the place for the stealthy lovers' meeting." Vivian smiled.

"Yes, I remember them. They were here early around 5.30 p.m. maybe, before

the dinner rush. I remember them because she has trouble with her hand,

dropped a glass and cut herself pretty bad on it." The waiter told them.

"What else do you remember?" Vivian asked for details.

"They arrived together, talked a lot,  but they were talking quietly, I

didn't hear what is was about. Suddenly, she got up and left half-way

through the meal. He paid and then left as well. They were in here only

about 30 minutes."

"Did he pay in cash?"

"I think so. But I can check that for you."

"What did they have? Any alcohol?"

The waiter thought for a moment.

"He had red wine, I think. She... I'm not sure, but I can look that up for

you."

"Yes, please."

The waiter left for the back room.

Danny laid out a possible scenario of Sara's last hours. "I'm starting to really like the doctor. He hasn't seen her for years, they meet up and he does something to piss her off. She leaves. He pays, goes after her, catches up with her; they  fight and it gets out hand, he kills her, panics and dumps the body. Central Park is big enough for that."

"As much as I like that theory, she did make it back to the hotel after

dinner. And he called her again. We know that she left the hotel again after

11 p.m."

"It's all of no use. We have to talk to Dr. Watts again; this time he

better get his story straight." Danny was frustrated. They were walking in

circles. Their only hope was that Jack and Martin had better luck in Las

Vegas. Either way they were running out of time.

"Lying to a federal officer. Could lose him his job already. I think we

better mention this to Dr. Watts." Danny had been thinking.

The waiter returned with a receipt.

"Here is it. the list of what they ordered. She ordered mineral water and

soup.

"Thank you. Is there anything else that you recall? Any small detail, a

part of their conversation?"

"They talked about a new position, I recall hearing San Francisco mentioned.

But that's about it."

"One last thing: did they seem like a couple?"

"Not at all. More like colleagues, business partners. They didn't seem

very close. They certainly didn't flirt," the waiter knew what he was

talking about.

"Thank you."

Danny and Vivian left the restaurant again. What they had learned didn't

confirm the direction their investigation had taken so far. Other than

Sara's abrupt departure, there was nothing to indicated any implication of

Dr. Watts.

We still have a blank spot in our time line. She left the restaurant at

around 6 p.m. and never gets back to the hotel, yet her jacket and

newspaper do. But Dr. Watts is nowhere on that tape."

"He could have had an accomplice. But that would mean he planned it and she

only got here on short notice." Danny shook his head. The case wasn't making

any sense.

"What do we do now? We can't get a warrant for Dr. Watts's house. The fact

that the waiter didn't see them fight... if it isn't on the tape we can say

good-bye to our warrant."

"Doesn't help that he's the vice-director of the crime lab either. We

won't get the warrant until he cops to anything. Danny sighed. So we'll pay

him another visit, confront him about her leaving, and hope that he

gives something up."

"Assuming there is something to give up. It might have been nothing."

"You heard him, he's lying, we know that. He's got to be hiding something. A

friendly dinner isn't a motive.

"There are people who happen to be married, Danny."

Vivian's cell-phone rang and she picked it up. "Yeah. When was that?" Vivian

scribbled down notes, while listening.

"No, we'd like to talk to her. We'll be there in 15 minutes. Bye."

"We just got a hit on Sara's credit card. A girl tried to use it at

drugstore. The cashier wanted to see an ID, she ran. Left the card.

Forensics got her prints off the card. I'm going over there now to talk

to the cashier."

"We got a name on the girl?"

"Yes, name and address were on the database." Vivian handed him a piece of

paper.

"That's just around the corner. I'll pay her a visit and see whether I can't

convince her to share her wisdom with us."

"We'll stay in touch. I'll have Dr. Watts brought in later."

Downtown apartment building, New York City

May 14, 7.30 p.m.

Danny was panting from climbing five flights of stairs. At the address

nobody had been home, which wasn't surprising. The apartment had been open.

Typical of drug users, it was devoid of anything of value. In order to

finance their habit, they sold all possessions of value from the stereo to

the clothes iron. At this time of the night she was probably busy making

her living, one way or another. His frustration was the case was growing by

the minute. They were treading water. When he stepped back out in the

street, he immediately saw something that that triggered an alarm inside his

head. In the twilight of the street, three teenagers were keenly eying the

government car he had parked in front of the building. Unconsciously

feeling for his gun, he approached the group.

The group had noticed his approach as well and a girl, dressed in hooker

fashion, walked towards him, obviously acting as spokesperson for the group

while her friends stayed in the backgroud. She closely resembled the

description from the police record that Vivian had given him.

"That your car?" She asked in a mock-sweet tone.

"Yep." He continued on his way undeterred.

The girl moved directly in his way, her friends closing in as well.

"It's a pretty car." She laughed a high-pitched laugh. "That's why we picked

it for a little ride." She came another step closer.

Danny didn't like the turn this was taking. He had been exhausted before but

now the adrenaline had him wide-awake. He cursed not having called the

police for back-up before chasing after their latest lead.

"Why don't we, say, take it for a little ride." She reached under her

mini-skirt and pulled out a switchblade knife. The blade glinted in the dim

light of the streetlamp. Danny quickly ran the mental odds. He was

confident that he could pull his gun faster than she could stab him, but

that wouldn't prevent him from getting cut. Possibly badly. Besides he had

no way of knowing how heavily armed her friends were. Danny had another

tactic in mind. Slowly, trying not to provoke her, he opened the car door.

"You wanna go for a ride, then get in." he tried to sound as confident as

ever, hiding the fear he would never admit to anyone.

The girl wrinkled her forehead in confusion, but kept a firm grasp on the

knife.

"You afraid to be seen with a guy like me?" he teased, hoping that his plan

would work out and he wasn't going too far.

"I'm not afraid of nothing." She snapped, eyeing him and the car at the

same time, trying to figure out what to make of the situation. Danny saw his

chance and went for his gun. He was a fraction of a second too late however,

the girl had picked up on what he was doing and plunged the knife in his

direction. Instinctively he dodged, sending a gunshot straight into the air,

missing any living target by far. But it had the desired effect. The young

men run as fast as they could, wanting to get out before it got nasty. Danny

used the momentary distraction caused by the shot to yank the girls arms

back, causing her to drop the knife to the pavement with a clatter.

"You're coming to the station." Danny told her as he handcuffed her.

"Oh crap." Danny cursed and pulled out his cell phone. His day out gone from

just trying and fruitless to seriously bad.

Only now did he feel a stinging pain and spotted the bleeding gash in his

forearm. Another jacket and shirt were lost to the perils of crime

fighting.

FBI Missing Persons Unit, New York City

May 15, 2 a.m.

When Danny finally returned to the office after having paid a visit to the

ER and then to the police station, Martin and Jack were back from Las Vegas,

sitting in the conference room with Vivian. He mentally steeled himself for

the wrath that was to come for not taking back-up with him.

"How nice of you to join us again." Vivian greeted him.

"Everything all right?" Jack sounded more tired and concerned than pissed

off. Danny was taken aback at that.

"Yeah. Had a run in with the local youth."

"So, we've heard." Martin couldn't hide a smirk. At least someone was still

the same.

He sat down.

"The girl claims that she found the wallet in the trash and decided to give

the credit card a try. She's in lock-up now for attempted assault.

Forensics is going over her clothes and the knife. She says she found the

wallet in the trash near the hotel and decided to give it a try. She and her

friends seem to be living quite well from small-time drug dealing, so she

might be telling the truth. But I certainly wouldn't put robbery beyond her.

She hasn't been arrested for anything like robbery before though." Danny

yawned. It had been a long day and his arm was stinging.

"How did it go with the doctor?" He asked referring to their prime suspect.

"Not at all. He lawyered up. Claims that he lied about them having dinner

because he's got a jealous wife and was afraid she'd think he was having an

affair. Other than that he's saying nothing."

"You buy that." Danny commented.

"There's nothing people won't do to cover up an affair." Vivian said dryly.

After the rest of the team had left, Jack was still reading over all they

had on the case, mentally going through each statement he had heard. Nothing

made sense, the puzzle remained incomplete. He had been so absorbed that he

hadn't heard Vivian coming in. Jack was surprised that she was still at the

office. After all she had a family. So had he, his mind reminded him

sternly.

"That's it, Jack. I think we'll have to let that one go. We have no

definitive indication that Sara was a victim of foul play. It rather looks

like she had enough of her life and just wanted to get away.

"There are too many loose ends, Viv. Who brought her things back to the

hotel room? Why would she leave her jacket and suitcase behind but take the

bag with her? Why did she dump the bag later?" Jack asked. "According to

everyone we talked to Sara wouldn't do anything like that."

"You also said that nobody really knew her. Jack, she's been missing for

over 80 hours now and we are out of leads. I hate to let this one go as much

as you do. But we can't find everyone. It's late. Get some sleep."

" I will, I just need to finished something here."

"Good night." Vivian stood in the door for a while, as if there was something else she wanted to say, but then didn't.

Jack got himself another cup of coffee. It wasn't just the case that held

him captive. This was another form of escape, a way of putting off dealing

with Samantha. For a while he had been planning on paying her a visit. But as soon as he had set foot in the office, he had know that he would put off his plans yet again. Work was such a convenient excuse, one that he has used all too often during his years with Maria. But it wasn't an excuse that was going to work with Samantha. The longer he put things off the harder it was going to be, for both of them.

He sat back down at his desk. There had to be something that they missed. If

Dr. Watts was indeed telling them the truth, then there was another unknown

who was on that surveillance tape. He visualized the scene. Someone had

brought Sara's jacket and purchases up to her hotel room. Regardless of the

circumstances that much they knew. The jacket, the paper, the aspirin. The

woman on the tape from the pharmacy had worn Sara's jacket. Assuming that

this was the same person who had gone up to the room, he should be able to

spot the jacket on the hotel surveillance. Jack went back to the monitor and

half an hour later, he had found what he was looking for.

tbc