"You were right," Sara told him, disappointed, turning the wheel to follow the black and white police cruiser as it threaded its way through Somerville's maze of one-way streets and traffic lights. "The money was transferred out of Catten's account within an hour, via online banking, and sent on to a Swiss account. I was actually able to follow it one transfer further, but I lost it after it left a Liberian account for somewhere in the Caribbean."
Alec let out a low whistle. "He covered his tracks pretty well. I set the police to interviewing his listed next-of-kin, but the contact information in his prison record was old. They were only able to find one brother who hadn't seen him since '89 and seemed to indicate he'd love to turn him in if he knew how to find him."
"Charming," Sara said wryly, and pulled the van up to the curb as best she could. Unlike Vegas's slick Tahoes, Boston CSI had to content itself with old electrician's vans. It did make for more room to carry equipment, and some of them were even redone as portable labs, but...they handled terribly.
Jerry Catten lived on the fifth floor of an apartment complex whose better days looked to have been sometime during FDR's first term in office. There was no answer at the door, and the manager, an overweight woman who seemed perpetually nervous, fumbled the keys trying to unlock the door, her hands slick with sweat even in the icy cold of the hallway.
Once the officer had cleared the area, Sara and Alec entered - and stopped.
"Uh...which square foot do you want?" Sara asked, staring in amazement at the smallest studio apartment she had ever seen.
Alec shook his head slightly. "Doesn't really matter to me. I'll take the kitchen, if you have no objections." At Sara's shrug of indifference, he took the five steps to the counter that separated the tiny kitchen - featuring a tiny fridge, two countertop burners, and a sink.
Sara began with the fold-out couch. "I'm going to hit the lights for a sec." The ALS turned up several stains, and Sara marked them and turned the lights back on, folding the sheets carefully and placing them into an evidence bag. She knelt down to do a sweep under the bed with her flashlight; nothing except a stray sock and a few magazines, mostly the off-color kind.
"Got something." Sara stood up to see Alec holding a roll of clear plastic trash bags, identical to the one Gregory Itzin had been found in.
"Nice. Nothing here, so far. Few stains; I bagged the sheets." She continued searching inch by inch, but nothing jumped out at her; she bagged a pad of paper and a handful of receipts to go over back at the lab. Frustrated, she began printing, hoping to at least link McGeary to Catten.
"Nothing else," Alec said. "He must have changed this trash bag fairly recently, though."
Sara turned to the complex manager, who was nibbling on a hangnail as she watched from the door. "Where do residents put their trash?"
"Basement," the woman mumbled around her thumb.
"May we see it?" Alec asked, obviously straining to keep the impatient snap out of his voice.
The woman looked distinctly unwilling to let them search the basement, and Sara stalked up to her. "Listen to me. There is a day old baby missing, and Catten had something to do with it. Either you let us search the basement, or we go and get a warrant. Either way, we're going to do it. If you cooperate, you might save Andrea Whitten's life."
The manager caved quickly and turned, stumbling down the hall to lead them to the basement. Sara followed at her heels and Alec a few minutes later after instructing the officer to tape off the apartment; they hadn't found anything immediate to help them locate Jerry Catten.
There were no trash bags in the basement.
"I thought you said residents put their trash down here?" Sara rounded on the woman angrily.
"Trash came this morning," the woman filled them in unrepentantly, and Sara fairly vibrated with fury as she glared at the woman.
"Another dead end," Alec muttered from behind her.
~*~
Nine AM found Sara and Alec once more in the break room, and two shredded creamer packets by Alec's elbow as he studiously worked on a third. They'd returned to Catten's apartment but had found nothing further, even after two more hours of searching.
The new trash bag Alec had found lining the barrel under the sink matched to the roll, and it had been sufficiently distorted so that there was no way of matching the torn-off ends to the bag they'd found Gregory in. The pad of paper Sara had bagged contained directions to a Cambridge video rental store that specialized in adult films, and a comparison to his account there found he hadn't been in a week. The receipts were all for entirely innocuous items, and the newest was dated from five days ago.
There was nothing more they could do. A CSI's job was to follow the evidence - and they had followed it as far as it would take them. Further progress in the case rested entirely on the shoulders of the Boston Police Department.
"Sara, Alec." Thomas straightened his tie from where he stood in the doorway. "I heard about Catten's apartment. I'm sorry."
"Us too," Sara agreed dejectedly, and swallowed more coffee. "He's just disappeared." His tie registered in her brain, and she frowned slightly. "Why are you all dressed up?"
"I'm presenting on signature killers in an hour," he reminded her.
She jumped up so fast she almost spilled coffee all over herself. "Oh, God, the conference. I'm late, and it's the last day."
"You were on a case," Thomas reminded her. "A CSI can't have a better excuse."
"Still..." Sara groaned, sitting back down heavily and burying her head in her hands.
"There's nothing else to do," Alec pointed out. "I was just going to suggest we go home and get some sleep. The PD is going to page us if they have any breakthroughs."
She hesitated, torn, and very deliberately checked her pager's battery. Still three-quarters full. "Okay." She took a deep breath. "I'm going to swing home and change. And call Marianne on the way and let her know I might be pulled out. I hope I am pulled out."
"Much as I want to sleep, I hope we're both called in an hour," Alec agreed, standing and stretching out his back with a yawn. "See you then."