CHAPTER 6:
See Part 1 for disclaimers
Previous parts may be found at fanfiction.net; grissomandsara.com/fanfic and my website:
www.geocities.com/missyliannem/csi.html
And praise once again for our wonderful editor, Alison, who goes above and beyond the
call of duty in this chapter. Thanks for all the work, Alison :)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Greg laboured over the DNA machine, his chin resting on his folded hands. Silence
reigned in the room, a testament to his mood. He hypnotically watched the machine spin,
separating and dividing the samples into a basic thirteen individual marker sequence. It
was too slow.
Many times he had given Grissom the results produced by his magical machines, taking
pride when the results would prove to be a crucial piece of evidence that would break a
case. Now, more than ever, he needed to produce that evidence. It wasn't about Grissom
acknowledging his work. This time it was about bringing back one of his friends.
Sara had always taken his teasing and light-hearted advances with ease. She had never
avoided coming into his lab, comfortably dealing with his innuendos with barbed words,
designed not to hurt but to even the stakes. A tear came to his eye as he remembered
how she had even taken the time to reassure him of his abilities. It had been at a time he
had felt broken under the embarrassment of failure when placed in a situation outside his
control and training.
Sara had only been missing for hours, yet the lab seemed hollow, without substance. An
essential part of Greg's world had been taken and he knew how much rode on the results
contained in the machines that he had come to take for granted. He realized that he had
also come to take Sara's presence for granted. Now it was gone, he wasn't sure whether
life would ever be the same for him.
Watching the machine spin around and around, his mind began to wander. The sights at
the crime scene jumped forth into his thoughts, each piece of evidence further proof that
the attack had been brutal. His mind actively went into overdrive, his imagination painting
vivid pictures in his mind.
He shook his head, dissolving the thoughts that Sara's disappearance might be
permanent. Grissom was on the case. His solve rate was the best in the state. Any
further thought on the subject was given up as the machine buzzed to indicate that its spin
cycle was at an end. Not long now and he'd have the low down on the suspects.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sara's first impression as she regained consciousness was the musty smell that assailed
her nostrils. She frowned as she tried to work out where she was. The ground was cold
and hard, yet the air in the room was warm. Flashes of the attack at Catherine's house
flittered through her mind in random sequence. She couldn't recall at all how she had
gotten here, wherever here was.
It was black. Pitch darkness. Not a spark of light broke through the suffocating, heady
air. Sara frowned, her mind still foggy. She tried to keep her breathing even as she
realized that her mouth was covered firmly with duct tape. Her hands were bound tightly
with rope in front of her, as were her feet. The reality of being bound cleared her fogged
mind quickly. The events prior to losing consciousness were not totally clear, but she
remembered enough to know who had delivered the final blow. It sent a chill down her
spine when she saw the deep-set anger that had put so much power in the punch.
Knowing that he would be returning, Sara decided that she needed to do something to
protect herself. Sara strained her eyes to see. She didn't think that her eyes were
covered with anything, yet she could not see a thing. . She pulled the heavy tape from her
mouth, wincing as it pulled at the soft skin of her lips.
Her head hurt as she struggled in the blackness. She brought her bound hands up to her
head, her long fingers quickly locating the source of pain. Congealed blood from a
laceration above her eye had left a sticky trail down the side of her face. She wiped with
the back of her hands at her eyes. There was definitely nothing over her eyes and her
actions cleared any possibility the blood had been causing her difficulty in seeing. There
was still nothing, not even a faint glimmer of light to break through the darkness. It was
then that it hit her; maybe it wasn't that the light was out, but her eyes were no longer able
to see. The thought terrified her. More so than the pain in her side that made her
breathing so terribly painful.
"Think, Sara. Forget your fears and think logically. What would Grissom do?" Sara
muttered to herself. Now that she had forced herself to stop and consider, her training
kicked in. Sara began to determine her surroundings and the situation. She struggled
against the constrictive bonds holding her arms. The only result was a severe chaffing to
her wrists. It was pointless.
Sara awkwardly pushed herself into a sitting position. Her ribs reminded her of the beating
she had sustained at Catherine's house and it wouldn't surprise her if at least one of them
was broken. Bringing her feet up as close as she could, Sara was able to release the
knots on the bindings at her ankles. She let out the breath that she had been
subconsciously holding and wiggled her toes, enjoying the tingling feeling that shot up her
legs in response and reminded her that she was alive. Now all she had to do was make
sure that it stayed that way.
Gradually crawling across the concrete floor, she found herself relying on her other senses
to create a plan of her prison in her mind. The floor was smooth. Sara could feel the thin
layer of dirt that time had encrusted over the surface of the concrete. She grimaced. At
a crime scene, she had the benefit of gloves and protective clothes and she could see
what she was about to encounter. Nonoxynol-9 would definitely be given a good work-out
when she finally made it out of here.
Single sheets of newspaper littered the ground. Sara pushed them out of her way and a
distinct smell permeated her senses. She was obviously sharing her quarters. All she
needed to work out now was whether it was the larger or smaller version of the four legged
rodent.
After what seemed like an eternity, she reached the edge of her room. Despite the crawl
only being a distance she calculated of being just over five feet, she was exhausted. Sara
leaned back against the wall. Her mouth was dry. Sara ran her tongue around the inside
of her mouth. Her desire for water increased each passing moment in the humid room.
There was a dampness seeping through the back of her thin shirt. While the air in the
room was warm, the cold concrete quickly sent a chill through her body. She had no
protection against the cold. Sara ran her hands lightly over its surface, trying to determine
where she might be. Her left shoulder gave a twinge of pain in response. She sighed,
wondering what had happened to it. She could account for all the other injuries, but not
that one.
As Sara sat catching her breath, she listened intently. A heavy, consistent rumble vibrated
something in the room. The sound was familiar, so common that you no longer noticed
it was there. An air-conditioning system. The relief from the air-conditioner was obviously
going elsewhere.
She continued her physical exploration, letting her fingers trail against the cool wall as she
gingerly moved forward. Sara tried to concentrate on what her remaining four senses
were detecting, formulating a detailed map of the room in her head.
Her mind wasn't being quite as cooperative. It kept returning to another room, one which
had changed the direction of her life. The sounds she had heard then were mixing with
what she heard now. Sara put her hands up to her face as she did those many years ago.
She was surprised to find her cheeks damp from tears.
The uneven beat of feet hitting the floor outside the room she was held prisoner in quickly
brought her back to the present. She found that the sound was coming from the other
side of the room and sounded high above where she stood. The distance she had moved
from her original position had been away from the door, not towards it. She also
suspected that there was a staircase down into the room.
A wave of dizziness swept over her and Sara was tempted to sit down back where she had
been left. But, her anger won through and she remained firmly rooted where she stood.
Her only concession to her unsteadiness on her feet was to lean slightly against the wall
to her right. The coolness of the wall permeated through her top, allowing her to focus
once again. She let her tied hands rest against the cold concrete wall seeking comfort in
it's cool solidity. The touch reminded her of another solid constant in her life, one that kept
her grounded and focused. In the dilemma she faced on her own, she needed to be
reminded that there was promise of life beyond.
The door opened, a stream of light shone down the staircase to the bottom, tapering into
the darkness. Sara forgot for a moment of the precarious position she was in as she
rejoiced in knowing that her lack of sight was due to darkness, not an injury. The door
slammed shut, the sound echoing in the room. The sound of heavy shoes on the stairs
reminded her quickly that she was about to meet the man who had put her here; a man
who had told her of how she had ruined his chances of the new life he had planned.
Eddie Willows was set on vengeance.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The conference room was quickly becoming the central hub of activity. More and more
information was filtering in from the various sections of the CSI labs. The white board was
divided into crime scene descriptions, each listing what had been found, the results that
were at hand and what they were still waiting for. While answers were coming through,
there were still gaping holes. Evidence was still being processed, lab technicians working
overtime to push the results through. The case was top priority.
"The deadline is nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Lindsey's okay...for now." Catherine
added the last words. Her daughter's upbeat voice had taken her by surprise and allayed
her fears for the moment. Catherine closed her eyes as she thought how quickly the
situation could change. "Twenty thousand dollars. I don't have that sort of money at
hand."
"You know that even if you gave them the money, you couldn't guarantee her safety,"
Brass reminded her gently. He turned away from the whiteboard to watch her pace the
room, his eyes watching her reaction.
"I know, I know." Catherine reassured him. She swiveled around to face Brass, running
her fingers through her hair. "But it's a bit harder to follow when it's your own child at
stake."
He nodded. He knew how hard it was to be objective on a case when it was family
involved from first hand experience. At least Catherine was holding back, not insisting on
being on the investigative team. While it made it harder not having the extra team
member, it made it easier on the team they had left to work as one, not troubled by
Catherine's emotional state in dealing with the evidence.
"And Sara's not with her?" Grissom confirmed, still shocked by the recent news. It did
begin to put one piece of evidence into place. His fingers rotated his pen between his
middle and forefingers.
"No." Catherine shook her head, dropping one hand down by her side. "Lindsey said that
she'd been left at my house."
"Catherine, we found some fingerprints at your house. They belong to Eddie." Grissom
looked intently at Catherine, hoping that she would quickly process the information he was
giving her.
"What? How could that be? He's never been to the house," Catherine exclaimed, her
voice rising with each word. In her heart, she knew the truth even as she questioned the
news.
"He was there today," Brass confirmed.
"More importantly, he was there after Sara had been injured." Grissom drove the point
home, dropping the photograph Greg had taken of the fingerprint on the coffee table. "His
fingerprint was found in her blood."
Grissom had always tolerated Eddie for Catherine's sake. He'd not had to keep up the
pretense once she separated from him. Now that Eddie had Sara, his anger towards the
man was rapidly increasing.
Catherine swore as she picked up the photograph, repeating the word over and over. Her
clinical eyes surveyed the photograph, picking out the clearly defined ridges that showed
up and indicted her ex-husband as a criminal. She dropped the photo on the table as she
brought her hands to her face and closed her eyes. The nightmare of her daughter's
abduction had just gone from bad to worse; her friend and colleague was another victim
in a violent and appalling crime.
"Eddie took Sara. But why? What could he possibly gain?" Catherine shook her head
as she tried to understand her ex-husband's motives. Catherine dropped into the seat
as she recalled his final words to the team earlier that day. Sara would pay.... they would
all pay. She remembered the dark anger that had filled his face. She had only witnessed
it occasionally and she had worn bruises as a result. What would he do to Sara now that
he had her alone?
"I'm not sure. All we know is that Eddie was there after Sara was injured." Grissom
watched his long term colleague struggle with the news. He could see how she was trying
to assimilate the evidence with her own personal knowledge of the man.
Brass added, "Lindsey and her kidnappers both have the same story that Sara was left
behind. I'd say that the likelihood is that he is involved. Especially since we can't seem
to locate him when we need him."
"Damn you, Eddie. What the hell are you thinking?" Catherine rubbed a hand over her
mouth, tapping her finger on her lip as she thought. "Oh, Eddie, you're such an idiot,"
Catherine muttered under her breath. She tossed back her chair, frustrated, and resumed
her pacing of the room. He was their only quick way to locate Lindsey's kidnappers and
he had to go and disappear. What could he possibly gain from taking Sara? What was
he planning to do to her? Would she fight back - silly question, this was Sara. Would she
survive?
"What do you know about the money he owes?" Mobley asked.
"What?" Catherine broke out of her daunting thoughts and took a moment to think of the
question the Sheriff had asked. "Nothing. Nothing at all. He came in last night asking
for the twenty thousand dollars. He didn't say what it was for and I didn't ask. You
learned not to ask with Eddie." Catherine was mad with herself for not asking him
seriously what he wanted the money for. If only she hadn't been presumptuous in
accusing him about the reason why he needed the money; maybe Lindsey and Sara
wouldn't be in the situation they were facing.
"Detective Lockwood is getting a warrant to search his premises and car as we speak."
Brass' voice broke through Catherine's thoughts.
Catherine shook her head. "I've got a set of keys to his house."
"Why?" Mobley asked, curiosity filling his round face.
"I'm his ex-wife and we share custody of our daughter," Catherine told him sarcastically.
How could Mobley be concerned about why she had keys to her ex-husband's property
when two people close to her had been taken.
"It'll mean less damage to the property if he doesn't answer. But we still need the warrant
to make any evidence found stick," Brass pointed out.
"Dr. Grissom?"
Grissom looked towards the doorway at the woman who had interrupted them. Judy, one
of the secretaries stood at the entrance to the room, hesitant to enter.
"Yes, Judy?" Grissom prompted when nothing further came from the woman's mouth.
"This letter arrived for you by courier. The courier claimed it was urgent." Judy walked
over to Grissom's side.
Grissom frowned, reaching out for the yellow envelope. He scanned both the front and
back of the envelope, only finding it addressed personally to him. His finger traced his lips
as he analyzed the print. It had obviously been printed on an inkjet, the text smudged.
He slipped his finger under the flap and removed the letter. He didn't think his heart could
sink any further since Sara's disappearance, but this had just proven that it could. The
letter fluttered from his hand to the table
"Grissom..." Catherine knew that it wasn't good news.
"It's a ransom - for Sara."
Everybody moved in on the offending piece of paper, all eyes firmly fixed on the thin sheet
of paper that had landed face up on the table. The words were written in large, bold type,
their meaning unmistakable.
"If you want to see your CSI alive, you'll have $30,000.00 left in a blue sports bag outside
The Golden Nuggest at 3.00 p.m. today."
"That's only two hours away," Catherine commented.
Grissom pulled himself up in the chair. "Time in which we will process the evidence and
find both Lindsey and Sara before either deadline arrives." His eyes glinted with
determination.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The air tingled with tension. Both occupants were waiting for the other to make their
move. A beam of light danced around the room in a myriad of directions, searching out
and seeking what it could not seem to find.
Sara realised with a smile what the problem was. The light from the staircase shone
precisely on the spot where she had been trussed up like a pig awaiting a spit roast. The
analogy sent her back a couple of years, her thoughts dancing over nights spent huddled
under a blanket watching a pig slowly being disintegrated by natural processes. Sara had
been touched by Grissom's actions, the painstaking and memorable experiment eventually
leading to the Scott Shelton's arrest. She hoped that he was following the evidence right
now and finding the connections. She wasn't sure that she would be able to escape Eddie
Willows' anger another time.
She heard the sound of his feet coming down the stairs, slowly; warily. Sara tucked
herself back into the shadows, using the darkness that had recently been her enemy as
a friend. She slowed her breathing and tried to remain calm. It was difficult with her mind
constantly flicking back to her last encounters with Eddie, one in which she had come off
second-best.
Sara groaned, the effort of the small sound causing a sharp stabbing pain in her ribcage.
She brought her arm around to gingerly touch the spot and flinched at even the slightest
pressure against the area. Rolling to her side, she eased herself into a sitting position.
The room swam before her eyes as if she was on a boat in a massive storm. Sara closed
her eyes, her hand reaching out to hold onto the leg of the coffee table beside her.
Gradually, she tried to open them again and was rewarded with a settling of the room
around her.
She felt the pulsating pressure building in her head, a warning signal of a migraine.
She ran a hand over her forehead, as individual snapshots of the attack flashed in her
mind. Suddenly, she swore out loud as she realized that she needed to find Lindsey.
Sara had just managed to make it to her feet when there was a shout at the doorway.
Eddie Willows barreled his way into the house, calling out for Catherine and Lindsey,
stopping short when he saw Sara there.
"Where are they?"
Sara slowly responded, her words disjointed as she swayed on her feet. The hit to the
back of her head had been hard "Who? There were some guys. They wanted
something.... "
"Why didn't you do something? You're with the police. You know what to do. You're
trained. Why did you let them take them?" Her halting words seemed to set off a
time-bomb within Eddie. The explosion surprised her and she instinctively cringed away
from his dominating presence.
Eddie moved closer to her with each verbal onslaught. He seemed to gain height and
increase in size. But his last question permeated her sluggish brain. "Them? Lindsey
was the only one here, no one else."
"You let them take Lindsey. She's only eight - "
"Nine. She's nine," Sara corrected.
Sara was rewarded with a fast moving backhand across her face for her effort. It
dropped her to her knees and blood flowed freely from her eyebrow where his heavy
ring had broken the skin. Sara struggled against the darkness beckoning to her.
The last words she heard were Eddie's.
"Maybe you are the answer to all my problems."
She was able to finally see the man searching for her and not his distorted shadow. The
shadow reminded Sara of the other encounter with Eddie, how his body had loomed over
her.
Sara frowned, trying to gauge what had happened. Her head connected with
something as movement caused the floor below her to dip. She realized that she was
in a car. Worse than that, she was crammed into a tiny trunk. Every bone in her body
ached as the car shuttled along, the lack of good suspension making each dip and
pot-hole in the road absolute agony.
She struggled to get her thoughts together as patchy parts of the attack at Catherine's
house filtered through her addled brain. Her hands and feet were not bound. She felt
around the trunk, finding only an oil rag and some rather obnoxious and smelly items.
She didn't even want to think what they were. There were no tools whatsoever - not even
a car jack.
Sara rolled onto her side as the car suddenly pulled to a stop. She bit down on her
lip as a lightning bolt of pain shot through her chest. She listened intently to the sounds
around her. A car door slammed. It reverberated through her head, competing with the
vice-like pain throbbing with every heartbeat. Somebody was moving around outside.
Keys jangled in their hand. She didn't know who was outside. The last memory she
had was of Eddie Willows. Did two plus two make four or was she jumping to conclusions?
A key slid into the lock and Sara heard the latch open. She gathered her thoughts,
quickly devising a plan in her mind. The trunk opened slowly. Sara's eyes darted
around, finding her kidnapper. Bright sunlight obscured her vision, making it difficult for
her to see his features. As he leaned over the edge of the boot, Sara screamed and
lashed out with her feet. They connected solidly with his chest. He fell backwards from
the car, surprised by the sudden and ferocious attack.
Sara tried to get up out of the trunk. Adrenaline was running fast, but it failed to mask the
sheer agony the swift movement brought. She cried out and stopped for a moment.
Taking a deep breath, she consciously pushed past the pain and climbed out.
While Sara's initial attack had been fast, her attacker had regained his senses and
quickly subdued her. Her conclusion had been correct. It was Eddie Willows holding her
tightly in his arms. Sara didn't recognize the area he had brought her. It seemed to be
totally deserted. Her screams had not brought a soul into the street. She fought
violently against the arms which held her tightly, throwing her whole body into the fight.
Her head connected with Eddie's sending stars across her vision as a prelude to the
darkness which followed.
Right now, Sara vindictively hoped that he was hurting as much as she was from her
injuries. The flashlight finally caught her in its beam, illuminating the paleness of her skin.
Vivid bruises and streaks of blood marred her face. Blood had clotted heavily around the
edges of the cut above her eye.
"So you're awake," Eddie said. His voice sounded very nasally. The last blow that she
had managed to inflict on him had connected with his broken nose. Sara had been lucky
that she was already unconscious or she would have suffered dearly for the second hit,
even if it had not been deliberate.
"Obviously," Sara said with obvious disdain. While she was afraid of him and kept her
distance, she wasn't going to let him know that he had frightened her.
"I should have done those knots a bit tighter." Eddie gave a sidelong glance at the ropes
on the ground where he had left her. He didn't trust Sara not to attack him again.
"You could have saved yourself the trouble by not taking me." Sara took the chance to
follow through on finding out what Eddie was up to. She didn't know if he would respond
or not, but it was better than trying to second guess his actions. " What do you hope to
gain, Eddie? Your daughter has been kidnapped and you go and take me... it's not going
to achieve anything."
"That's where you're wrong." Eddie moved closer to her. . "Taking you was pure
inspiration."
Eddie had taken on an air of arrogance and moved around the room proudly. Sara
thought he reminded her of a peacock wooing its beloved mate.
"Ah, how?" Sara said it gently, not wanting to have the violent reaction at Catherine's
house repeated.
"Well, I've sent a ransom for thirty thousand for you to your boss. Once I have that, I can
pay back what I owe and have some left over for me to make a new start. Lindsey will be
safe and everything can go back to normal."
Sara shook her head, not believing the naivete of the man. How did he possibly believe
that the ransom would be paid?
Eddie had caught sight of the movement. He moved very close to her, his eyes narrowed.
Sara automatically took a step back, only to find that the concrete wall prevented her
moving any further. She was unable to keep the fear from her eyes as she lifted her chin
defiantly.
"It won't be paid. You do realize your ransom won't be paid. It's police policy." Sara was
unable to stop herself from continuing, "Eddie, you've got no chance of a new start and
you've just killed any chance of getting your life back on track."
Sara saw the anger burst again. She cursed herself for not allowing Eddie the chance to
gloat. She needed to get out of here right now. Lifting her knee, she connected painfully
with Eddie's groin. As he bent over in pain, she shoved him violently sideways and ran
towards the stairs.
She made it to the top of the stairs and twisted frantically on the door knob. It didn't turn
under her hands. Her breathing was laboured and her frustration boiled over. She hit the
door with her clenched fists in anger and hot tears began to fall.
"I'm not quite as stupid as you thought, am I?" Eddie's pained voice called out from the
bottom of the stairs.
Sara swung around quickly to face him. He began to climb the stairs, one at a time. He
was hunched over, walking slowly and painfully towards her. For all her training in
weaponless defense, she was struggling to overcome Eddie. Her injuries were interfering
with her abilities and Eddie's own anger made him an exigent opponent.
It was down to one last effort. Sara wasn't sure she would be able to follow through. The
chance of success was slim and the likelihood of injuring herself, great.
End Chapter 6/?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
See Part 1 for disclaimers
Previous parts may be found at fanfiction.net; grissomandsara.com/fanfic and my website:
www.geocities.com/missyliannem/csi.html
And praise once again for our wonderful editor, Alison, who goes above and beyond the
call of duty in this chapter. Thanks for all the work, Alison :)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Greg laboured over the DNA machine, his chin resting on his folded hands. Silence
reigned in the room, a testament to his mood. He hypnotically watched the machine spin,
separating and dividing the samples into a basic thirteen individual marker sequence. It
was too slow.
Many times he had given Grissom the results produced by his magical machines, taking
pride when the results would prove to be a crucial piece of evidence that would break a
case. Now, more than ever, he needed to produce that evidence. It wasn't about Grissom
acknowledging his work. This time it was about bringing back one of his friends.
Sara had always taken his teasing and light-hearted advances with ease. She had never
avoided coming into his lab, comfortably dealing with his innuendos with barbed words,
designed not to hurt but to even the stakes. A tear came to his eye as he remembered
how she had even taken the time to reassure him of his abilities. It had been at a time he
had felt broken under the embarrassment of failure when placed in a situation outside his
control and training.
Sara had only been missing for hours, yet the lab seemed hollow, without substance. An
essential part of Greg's world had been taken and he knew how much rode on the results
contained in the machines that he had come to take for granted. He realized that he had
also come to take Sara's presence for granted. Now it was gone, he wasn't sure whether
life would ever be the same for him.
Watching the machine spin around and around, his mind began to wander. The sights at
the crime scene jumped forth into his thoughts, each piece of evidence further proof that
the attack had been brutal. His mind actively went into overdrive, his imagination painting
vivid pictures in his mind.
He shook his head, dissolving the thoughts that Sara's disappearance might be
permanent. Grissom was on the case. His solve rate was the best in the state. Any
further thought on the subject was given up as the machine buzzed to indicate that its spin
cycle was at an end. Not long now and he'd have the low down on the suspects.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sara's first impression as she regained consciousness was the musty smell that assailed
her nostrils. She frowned as she tried to work out where she was. The ground was cold
and hard, yet the air in the room was warm. Flashes of the attack at Catherine's house
flittered through her mind in random sequence. She couldn't recall at all how she had
gotten here, wherever here was.
It was black. Pitch darkness. Not a spark of light broke through the suffocating, heady
air. Sara frowned, her mind still foggy. She tried to keep her breathing even as she
realized that her mouth was covered firmly with duct tape. Her hands were bound tightly
with rope in front of her, as were her feet. The reality of being bound cleared her fogged
mind quickly. The events prior to losing consciousness were not totally clear, but she
remembered enough to know who had delivered the final blow. It sent a chill down her
spine when she saw the deep-set anger that had put so much power in the punch.
Knowing that he would be returning, Sara decided that she needed to do something to
protect herself. Sara strained her eyes to see. She didn't think that her eyes were
covered with anything, yet she could not see a thing. . She pulled the heavy tape from her
mouth, wincing as it pulled at the soft skin of her lips.
Her head hurt as she struggled in the blackness. She brought her bound hands up to her
head, her long fingers quickly locating the source of pain. Congealed blood from a
laceration above her eye had left a sticky trail down the side of her face. She wiped with
the back of her hands at her eyes. There was definitely nothing over her eyes and her
actions cleared any possibility the blood had been causing her difficulty in seeing. There
was still nothing, not even a faint glimmer of light to break through the darkness. It was
then that it hit her; maybe it wasn't that the light was out, but her eyes were no longer able
to see. The thought terrified her. More so than the pain in her side that made her
breathing so terribly painful.
"Think, Sara. Forget your fears and think logically. What would Grissom do?" Sara
muttered to herself. Now that she had forced herself to stop and consider, her training
kicked in. Sara began to determine her surroundings and the situation. She struggled
against the constrictive bonds holding her arms. The only result was a severe chaffing to
her wrists. It was pointless.
Sara awkwardly pushed herself into a sitting position. Her ribs reminded her of the beating
she had sustained at Catherine's house and it wouldn't surprise her if at least one of them
was broken. Bringing her feet up as close as she could, Sara was able to release the
knots on the bindings at her ankles. She let out the breath that she had been
subconsciously holding and wiggled her toes, enjoying the tingling feeling that shot up her
legs in response and reminded her that she was alive. Now all she had to do was make
sure that it stayed that way.
Gradually crawling across the concrete floor, she found herself relying on her other senses
to create a plan of her prison in her mind. The floor was smooth. Sara could feel the thin
layer of dirt that time had encrusted over the surface of the concrete. She grimaced. At
a crime scene, she had the benefit of gloves and protective clothes and she could see
what she was about to encounter. Nonoxynol-9 would definitely be given a good work-out
when she finally made it out of here.
Single sheets of newspaper littered the ground. Sara pushed them out of her way and a
distinct smell permeated her senses. She was obviously sharing her quarters. All she
needed to work out now was whether it was the larger or smaller version of the four legged
rodent.
After what seemed like an eternity, she reached the edge of her room. Despite the crawl
only being a distance she calculated of being just over five feet, she was exhausted. Sara
leaned back against the wall. Her mouth was dry. Sara ran her tongue around the inside
of her mouth. Her desire for water increased each passing moment in the humid room.
There was a dampness seeping through the back of her thin shirt. While the air in the
room was warm, the cold concrete quickly sent a chill through her body. She had no
protection against the cold. Sara ran her hands lightly over its surface, trying to determine
where she might be. Her left shoulder gave a twinge of pain in response. She sighed,
wondering what had happened to it. She could account for all the other injuries, but not
that one.
As Sara sat catching her breath, she listened intently. A heavy, consistent rumble vibrated
something in the room. The sound was familiar, so common that you no longer noticed
it was there. An air-conditioning system. The relief from the air-conditioner was obviously
going elsewhere.
She continued her physical exploration, letting her fingers trail against the cool wall as she
gingerly moved forward. Sara tried to concentrate on what her remaining four senses
were detecting, formulating a detailed map of the room in her head.
Her mind wasn't being quite as cooperative. It kept returning to another room, one which
had changed the direction of her life. The sounds she had heard then were mixing with
what she heard now. Sara put her hands up to her face as she did those many years ago.
She was surprised to find her cheeks damp from tears.
The uneven beat of feet hitting the floor outside the room she was held prisoner in quickly
brought her back to the present. She found that the sound was coming from the other
side of the room and sounded high above where she stood. The distance she had moved
from her original position had been away from the door, not towards it. She also
suspected that there was a staircase down into the room.
A wave of dizziness swept over her and Sara was tempted to sit down back where she had
been left. But, her anger won through and she remained firmly rooted where she stood.
Her only concession to her unsteadiness on her feet was to lean slightly against the wall
to her right. The coolness of the wall permeated through her top, allowing her to focus
once again. She let her tied hands rest against the cold concrete wall seeking comfort in
it's cool solidity. The touch reminded her of another solid constant in her life, one that kept
her grounded and focused. In the dilemma she faced on her own, she needed to be
reminded that there was promise of life beyond.
The door opened, a stream of light shone down the staircase to the bottom, tapering into
the darkness. Sara forgot for a moment of the precarious position she was in as she
rejoiced in knowing that her lack of sight was due to darkness, not an injury. The door
slammed shut, the sound echoing in the room. The sound of heavy shoes on the stairs
reminded her quickly that she was about to meet the man who had put her here; a man
who had told her of how she had ruined his chances of the new life he had planned.
Eddie Willows was set on vengeance.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The conference room was quickly becoming the central hub of activity. More and more
information was filtering in from the various sections of the CSI labs. The white board was
divided into crime scene descriptions, each listing what had been found, the results that
were at hand and what they were still waiting for. While answers were coming through,
there were still gaping holes. Evidence was still being processed, lab technicians working
overtime to push the results through. The case was top priority.
"The deadline is nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Lindsey's okay...for now." Catherine
added the last words. Her daughter's upbeat voice had taken her by surprise and allayed
her fears for the moment. Catherine closed her eyes as she thought how quickly the
situation could change. "Twenty thousand dollars. I don't have that sort of money at
hand."
"You know that even if you gave them the money, you couldn't guarantee her safety,"
Brass reminded her gently. He turned away from the whiteboard to watch her pace the
room, his eyes watching her reaction.
"I know, I know." Catherine reassured him. She swiveled around to face Brass, running
her fingers through her hair. "But it's a bit harder to follow when it's your own child at
stake."
He nodded. He knew how hard it was to be objective on a case when it was family
involved from first hand experience. At least Catherine was holding back, not insisting on
being on the investigative team. While it made it harder not having the extra team
member, it made it easier on the team they had left to work as one, not troubled by
Catherine's emotional state in dealing with the evidence.
"And Sara's not with her?" Grissom confirmed, still shocked by the recent news. It did
begin to put one piece of evidence into place. His fingers rotated his pen between his
middle and forefingers.
"No." Catherine shook her head, dropping one hand down by her side. "Lindsey said that
she'd been left at my house."
"Catherine, we found some fingerprints at your house. They belong to Eddie." Grissom
looked intently at Catherine, hoping that she would quickly process the information he was
giving her.
"What? How could that be? He's never been to the house," Catherine exclaimed, her
voice rising with each word. In her heart, she knew the truth even as she questioned the
news.
"He was there today," Brass confirmed.
"More importantly, he was there after Sara had been injured." Grissom drove the point
home, dropping the photograph Greg had taken of the fingerprint on the coffee table. "His
fingerprint was found in her blood."
Grissom had always tolerated Eddie for Catherine's sake. He'd not had to keep up the
pretense once she separated from him. Now that Eddie had Sara, his anger towards the
man was rapidly increasing.
Catherine swore as she picked up the photograph, repeating the word over and over. Her
clinical eyes surveyed the photograph, picking out the clearly defined ridges that showed
up and indicted her ex-husband as a criminal. She dropped the photo on the table as she
brought her hands to her face and closed her eyes. The nightmare of her daughter's
abduction had just gone from bad to worse; her friend and colleague was another victim
in a violent and appalling crime.
"Eddie took Sara. But why? What could he possibly gain?" Catherine shook her head
as she tried to understand her ex-husband's motives. Catherine dropped into the seat
as she recalled his final words to the team earlier that day. Sara would pay.... they would
all pay. She remembered the dark anger that had filled his face. She had only witnessed
it occasionally and she had worn bruises as a result. What would he do to Sara now that
he had her alone?
"I'm not sure. All we know is that Eddie was there after Sara was injured." Grissom
watched his long term colleague struggle with the news. He could see how she was trying
to assimilate the evidence with her own personal knowledge of the man.
Brass added, "Lindsey and her kidnappers both have the same story that Sara was left
behind. I'd say that the likelihood is that he is involved. Especially since we can't seem
to locate him when we need him."
"Damn you, Eddie. What the hell are you thinking?" Catherine rubbed a hand over her
mouth, tapping her finger on her lip as she thought. "Oh, Eddie, you're such an idiot,"
Catherine muttered under her breath. She tossed back her chair, frustrated, and resumed
her pacing of the room. He was their only quick way to locate Lindsey's kidnappers and
he had to go and disappear. What could he possibly gain from taking Sara? What was
he planning to do to her? Would she fight back - silly question, this was Sara. Would she
survive?
"What do you know about the money he owes?" Mobley asked.
"What?" Catherine broke out of her daunting thoughts and took a moment to think of the
question the Sheriff had asked. "Nothing. Nothing at all. He came in last night asking
for the twenty thousand dollars. He didn't say what it was for and I didn't ask. You
learned not to ask with Eddie." Catherine was mad with herself for not asking him
seriously what he wanted the money for. If only she hadn't been presumptuous in
accusing him about the reason why he needed the money; maybe Lindsey and Sara
wouldn't be in the situation they were facing.
"Detective Lockwood is getting a warrant to search his premises and car as we speak."
Brass' voice broke through Catherine's thoughts.
Catherine shook her head. "I've got a set of keys to his house."
"Why?" Mobley asked, curiosity filling his round face.
"I'm his ex-wife and we share custody of our daughter," Catherine told him sarcastically.
How could Mobley be concerned about why she had keys to her ex-husband's property
when two people close to her had been taken.
"It'll mean less damage to the property if he doesn't answer. But we still need the warrant
to make any evidence found stick," Brass pointed out.
"Dr. Grissom?"
Grissom looked towards the doorway at the woman who had interrupted them. Judy, one
of the secretaries stood at the entrance to the room, hesitant to enter.
"Yes, Judy?" Grissom prompted when nothing further came from the woman's mouth.
"This letter arrived for you by courier. The courier claimed it was urgent." Judy walked
over to Grissom's side.
Grissom frowned, reaching out for the yellow envelope. He scanned both the front and
back of the envelope, only finding it addressed personally to him. His finger traced his lips
as he analyzed the print. It had obviously been printed on an inkjet, the text smudged.
He slipped his finger under the flap and removed the letter. He didn't think his heart could
sink any further since Sara's disappearance, but this had just proven that it could. The
letter fluttered from his hand to the table
"Grissom..." Catherine knew that it wasn't good news.
"It's a ransom - for Sara."
Everybody moved in on the offending piece of paper, all eyes firmly fixed on the thin sheet
of paper that had landed face up on the table. The words were written in large, bold type,
their meaning unmistakable.
"If you want to see your CSI alive, you'll have $30,000.00 left in a blue sports bag outside
The Golden Nuggest at 3.00 p.m. today."
"That's only two hours away," Catherine commented.
Grissom pulled himself up in the chair. "Time in which we will process the evidence and
find both Lindsey and Sara before either deadline arrives." His eyes glinted with
determination.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The air tingled with tension. Both occupants were waiting for the other to make their
move. A beam of light danced around the room in a myriad of directions, searching out
and seeking what it could not seem to find.
Sara realised with a smile what the problem was. The light from the staircase shone
precisely on the spot where she had been trussed up like a pig awaiting a spit roast. The
analogy sent her back a couple of years, her thoughts dancing over nights spent huddled
under a blanket watching a pig slowly being disintegrated by natural processes. Sara had
been touched by Grissom's actions, the painstaking and memorable experiment eventually
leading to the Scott Shelton's arrest. She hoped that he was following the evidence right
now and finding the connections. She wasn't sure that she would be able to escape Eddie
Willows' anger another time.
She heard the sound of his feet coming down the stairs, slowly; warily. Sara tucked
herself back into the shadows, using the darkness that had recently been her enemy as
a friend. She slowed her breathing and tried to remain calm. It was difficult with her mind
constantly flicking back to her last encounters with Eddie, one in which she had come off
second-best.
Sara groaned, the effort of the small sound causing a sharp stabbing pain in her ribcage.
She brought her arm around to gingerly touch the spot and flinched at even the slightest
pressure against the area. Rolling to her side, she eased herself into a sitting position.
The room swam before her eyes as if she was on a boat in a massive storm. Sara closed
her eyes, her hand reaching out to hold onto the leg of the coffee table beside her.
Gradually, she tried to open them again and was rewarded with a settling of the room
around her.
She felt the pulsating pressure building in her head, a warning signal of a migraine.
She ran a hand over her forehead, as individual snapshots of the attack flashed in her
mind. Suddenly, she swore out loud as she realized that she needed to find Lindsey.
Sara had just managed to make it to her feet when there was a shout at the doorway.
Eddie Willows barreled his way into the house, calling out for Catherine and Lindsey,
stopping short when he saw Sara there.
"Where are they?"
Sara slowly responded, her words disjointed as she swayed on her feet. The hit to the
back of her head had been hard "Who? There were some guys. They wanted
something.... "
"Why didn't you do something? You're with the police. You know what to do. You're
trained. Why did you let them take them?" Her halting words seemed to set off a
time-bomb within Eddie. The explosion surprised her and she instinctively cringed away
from his dominating presence.
Eddie moved closer to her with each verbal onslaught. He seemed to gain height and
increase in size. But his last question permeated her sluggish brain. "Them? Lindsey
was the only one here, no one else."
"You let them take Lindsey. She's only eight - "
"Nine. She's nine," Sara corrected.
Sara was rewarded with a fast moving backhand across her face for her effort. It
dropped her to her knees and blood flowed freely from her eyebrow where his heavy
ring had broken the skin. Sara struggled against the darkness beckoning to her.
The last words she heard were Eddie's.
"Maybe you are the answer to all my problems."
She was able to finally see the man searching for her and not his distorted shadow. The
shadow reminded Sara of the other encounter with Eddie, how his body had loomed over
her.
Sara frowned, trying to gauge what had happened. Her head connected with
something as movement caused the floor below her to dip. She realized that she was
in a car. Worse than that, she was crammed into a tiny trunk. Every bone in her body
ached as the car shuttled along, the lack of good suspension making each dip and
pot-hole in the road absolute agony.
She struggled to get her thoughts together as patchy parts of the attack at Catherine's
house filtered through her addled brain. Her hands and feet were not bound. She felt
around the trunk, finding only an oil rag and some rather obnoxious and smelly items.
She didn't even want to think what they were. There were no tools whatsoever - not even
a car jack.
Sara rolled onto her side as the car suddenly pulled to a stop. She bit down on her
lip as a lightning bolt of pain shot through her chest. She listened intently to the sounds
around her. A car door slammed. It reverberated through her head, competing with the
vice-like pain throbbing with every heartbeat. Somebody was moving around outside.
Keys jangled in their hand. She didn't know who was outside. The last memory she
had was of Eddie Willows. Did two plus two make four or was she jumping to conclusions?
A key slid into the lock and Sara heard the latch open. She gathered her thoughts,
quickly devising a plan in her mind. The trunk opened slowly. Sara's eyes darted
around, finding her kidnapper. Bright sunlight obscured her vision, making it difficult for
her to see his features. As he leaned over the edge of the boot, Sara screamed and
lashed out with her feet. They connected solidly with his chest. He fell backwards from
the car, surprised by the sudden and ferocious attack.
Sara tried to get up out of the trunk. Adrenaline was running fast, but it failed to mask the
sheer agony the swift movement brought. She cried out and stopped for a moment.
Taking a deep breath, she consciously pushed past the pain and climbed out.
While Sara's initial attack had been fast, her attacker had regained his senses and
quickly subdued her. Her conclusion had been correct. It was Eddie Willows holding her
tightly in his arms. Sara didn't recognize the area he had brought her. It seemed to be
totally deserted. Her screams had not brought a soul into the street. She fought
violently against the arms which held her tightly, throwing her whole body into the fight.
Her head connected with Eddie's sending stars across her vision as a prelude to the
darkness which followed.
Right now, Sara vindictively hoped that he was hurting as much as she was from her
injuries. The flashlight finally caught her in its beam, illuminating the paleness of her skin.
Vivid bruises and streaks of blood marred her face. Blood had clotted heavily around the
edges of the cut above her eye.
"So you're awake," Eddie said. His voice sounded very nasally. The last blow that she
had managed to inflict on him had connected with his broken nose. Sara had been lucky
that she was already unconscious or she would have suffered dearly for the second hit,
even if it had not been deliberate.
"Obviously," Sara said with obvious disdain. While she was afraid of him and kept her
distance, she wasn't going to let him know that he had frightened her.
"I should have done those knots a bit tighter." Eddie gave a sidelong glance at the ropes
on the ground where he had left her. He didn't trust Sara not to attack him again.
"You could have saved yourself the trouble by not taking me." Sara took the chance to
follow through on finding out what Eddie was up to. She didn't know if he would respond
or not, but it was better than trying to second guess his actions. " What do you hope to
gain, Eddie? Your daughter has been kidnapped and you go and take me... it's not going
to achieve anything."
"That's where you're wrong." Eddie moved closer to her. . "Taking you was pure
inspiration."
Eddie had taken on an air of arrogance and moved around the room proudly. Sara
thought he reminded her of a peacock wooing its beloved mate.
"Ah, how?" Sara said it gently, not wanting to have the violent reaction at Catherine's
house repeated.
"Well, I've sent a ransom for thirty thousand for you to your boss. Once I have that, I can
pay back what I owe and have some left over for me to make a new start. Lindsey will be
safe and everything can go back to normal."
Sara shook her head, not believing the naivete of the man. How did he possibly believe
that the ransom would be paid?
Eddie had caught sight of the movement. He moved very close to her, his eyes narrowed.
Sara automatically took a step back, only to find that the concrete wall prevented her
moving any further. She was unable to keep the fear from her eyes as she lifted her chin
defiantly.
"It won't be paid. You do realize your ransom won't be paid. It's police policy." Sara was
unable to stop herself from continuing, "Eddie, you've got no chance of a new start and
you've just killed any chance of getting your life back on track."
Sara saw the anger burst again. She cursed herself for not allowing Eddie the chance to
gloat. She needed to get out of here right now. Lifting her knee, she connected painfully
with Eddie's groin. As he bent over in pain, she shoved him violently sideways and ran
towards the stairs.
She made it to the top of the stairs and twisted frantically on the door knob. It didn't turn
under her hands. Her breathing was laboured and her frustration boiled over. She hit the
door with her clenched fists in anger and hot tears began to fall.
"I'm not quite as stupid as you thought, am I?" Eddie's pained voice called out from the
bottom of the stairs.
Sara swung around quickly to face him. He began to climb the stairs, one at a time. He
was hunched over, walking slowly and painfully towards her. For all her training in
weaponless defense, she was struggling to overcome Eddie. Her injuries were interfering
with her abilities and Eddie's own anger made him an exigent opponent.
It was down to one last effort. Sara wasn't sure she would be able to follow through. The
chance of success was slim and the likelihood of injuring herself, great.
End Chapter 6/?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~