They had been checking the Anderson house for evidence for over three hours when Brass got a call for a 407Z... an attempted robbery, at a near by drug store. He would only be a few minutes, half an hour at the most, and so he drove down the road and into the approaching darkness.

Grissom jumped slightly as his cell phone rang. He looked around before picking it up.

"Grissom."

"..."

"Hello?"

"Take the road south towards Henderson civic Centre, keep going for one mile until you reach a warehouse."

"Who is this?" Grissom demanded.

"You can't go. Send Sidle, Willows and Brown."

"What?"

"If you want to see the girl again have your CSI's at the warehouse in one hour exactly. No cops."

"Is she alive?" Grissom asked quietly as he slowly picked up his evidence case.

"For now. Don't bring your weapons or else."

The line went dead.

"What the hell was that about?" Catherine asked as she came down the stairs.

Grissom looked up, his face was hollow and lacking emotion, "A call from her kidnappers. They want you, Warrick and Sara to go to an abandoned warehouse one mile past The Henderson Centre. No weapons."

Catherine raised an eyebrow, "Should we wait for-."

"No cops." Grissom relayed quietly, "One hour."

"Gil..."

"I know... I'm worried too. Go get Sara and Warrick. We have no choice."

Catherine nodded and left Grissom in the middle of the hallway with his thoughts. For a very long time he had put on a cold outer shell, it helped protect him against the harsh realities of the job. But now... the cold shell was melting away with his fear for the young girl.

He also knew that he wasn't the only CSI thinking that.

The black CSI Tahoe sped down the open highway with Warrick at the wheel. The car was deadly quiet, no one dared to speak, fear weighed heavy in the air.

"You know." Sara said quietly, "This is the first time I'm not going to tell you to slow down."

"Thanks Sara." Warrick grinned slightly, "So... what's the chance that she's..." He gulped, "You know..."

"She'll be fine." Catherine said firmly, "She's got to be, or else why would they tell us to come out and meet them without any weapons?"

Sara began twiddling her fingers quickly in the backseat.

"Sara?!" Catherine said sharply, "Please tell me-."

"Hey you didn't say anything about no guns!" Sara snapped.

Warrick sighed, "Alright, leave it in the car, hopefully they won't search the Tahoe." As they passed the Henderson Civic Centre Warrick pressed the reset button and put the milage back to zero.

"Alright, one mile." Warrick said as the metre came on to one mile.

"Take a page out of my book." Catherine said.

"What?"

"Hit the breaks."

Warrick shrugged and hit the breaks, sending the Tahoe spinning and burning rubber. When at last the SUV stopped and the CSI's filed out, Sara was muttering darkly about Warrick's driving habits.

"Hey I remember that." Sara said, "The bunny case."

"Yeah." Catherine grinned, "Alright, we're supposed to follow the path down to the warehouse."

The three CSI's stood at the head of the path and stared down towards a warehouse as the sun began to set in the distance. Two black Mazda's were parked outside.

"Alright," Sara sighed, "Let's go."

They slowly walked down the dusty dirt path as the sun dipped below the horizon. Two men with long rifles stood in front of the warehouse doors. Sara's stomach dropped as screams came from within the warehouse, Catherine shivered and Warrick clenched his fists.

"You the cops?" The first man asked.

"Criminalists." Catherine replied coldly, "Is she in there?"

Neither man replied, but the first one did bang his fist on the warehouse door, "Boss, they're here!"

The warehouse doors creaked open and the second man motioned for them to move forward.

"Inside, now."

Catherine, Sara and Warrick numbly complied and slowly walked into the small one roomed warehouse. There was a single light that swung from the roof, creating a single beam of light down to the cement floor where a pool of blood seeped away from A body.

Steve Anderson.