Title: Lost Butterflies
Summary: The CSI team deal with the loss of one of their own.
Disclaimer: CSI doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Jerry Bruckheimer and
Anthony .E. Zuicker
Spoilers: Set after Butterflied
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Indicate a flash back
Chapter four
Vincent Lurie and his equally arrogant lawyer sat in the interrogation room and stared at the stone face of Jim Brass. To sit in the same room as the man who might have killed Sara took his entire exterior calm and Grissom had been ordered to stay out of the room, so Catherine was sitting next to Brass. Her arms folded in a professional manner and a look on her face that dared Lurie to say anything that would give her an excuse to have him arrested.
"I was told this was about a CSI?" His lawyer broke the silence. "My client was innocent of the last murder you tried to frame him for and is innocent of this one too...what's wrong? Running out of hard working, law abiding citizens to set up?"
Catherine kept her cold gaze locked on Lurie as she placed the crime scene photographs on the table in front of him. "I'm sure you recognize CSI Sidle." He looked down as though it was laboured chore and shook his head. "Perhaps if she didn't have half her face blown off..." Brass jumped up, knocking his chair flying backwards and went to grab the doctor, but Catherine got to Brass first. "Jim! It won't help." He shot one piercing look at him and then sat back down after picking up his chair from the floor.
"Mr Lurie..." "Doctor." "Doctor Lurie, did you ever come into contact with miss Sidle during the previous investigation?" "No. I would have remembered her..." "Because she looks like your dead girlfriend?" Brass took a cheap shot and was rewarded with Lurie flinching. "The resemblance is uncanny." Catherine smiled. He'd slipped up and let himself be bated.
"How would you know Mr. Lurie? You've never met her." His eyes darted from the CSI to his lawyer. "The photograph..." "The one of a three year old crime and not Miss Sidle?" Catherine smirked. "How about you cut the crap and start talking?" Brass suggested. "Miss Sidle was being stalked, she had a list of suspects; you were suspect number one. Would you mind telling me why a CSI, third class, would think that?"
"Maybe she was just lonely, had to invent an imaginary stalker..." He looked directly into the glass that Grissom stood behind, observing the interrogation. "Maybe no one took a risk on her and she was all alone. A little lost butterfly all alone in the big bad world." "Actually she wasn't." Catherine objected. "She may have been dedicated to the job and barely went home, but she had a family who cared about her. Some of us more than others, she just didn't realize."
Grissom was close to tears as he remembered his speech to Vincent Lurie only a few weeks earlier. If he'd just taken a risk and told her how he felt then maybe she'd still be alive. He'd word that word a lot lately. Maybe.
Maybe her death was quick, maybe she didn't suffer and maybe she was happy at peace. He despised the word now. Sara Sidle was dead there was no maybe about it. He blanked out from the conversation in the next room and thought of the last chat he and Sara had had.
"Sara, we need to talk." She looked quizzically at his sweeping statement. "Care to tell me what this about?" She asked as they stood in his office and he stared past her. His face was set in a hard, determined manner and she knew she was about to get an earful. "Is anything wrong? You've seemed...distant lately." His caring tone caught her off guard. "No." She lied. She'd wanted to end the conversation there, but he continued. "You could tell me if something was wrong, you know that, right?" She looked past him at the wall behind his desk. "No, Grissom. No I can't." She'd left before he could object and went to find Nick for the case they were working on.
When Lurie and his lawyer left the room his attention was snapped back to the task at hand and he stormed out of the observation room to confront Catherine. "Why the hell isn't he behind bars?" He shouted. Catherine's motherly face looked at him sadly as though she was consoling Lindsay.
"He has an alibi, Gill. He was performing a five hour operation on the nigh to of Sara's...it still seems weird to say death." "She's only been gone two days." Grissom objected. "It'll still seem weird in weeks, in years; the sad part is I remember consoling families of victims, telling them it'll get easier, but it doesn't...Sara's gone and she's left me behind."
"Actually..." David interrupted from behind. "I think the DNA lab messed up, I took a second DNA sample after I noticed a birth mark that shouldn't have been on the victims arm. The second test revealed the women had been dead for two days before we discovered the body...it isn't Sara."
Catherine's eyes flooded with tears of relief. "She could be alive?" Grissom was in between a state of sheer joy, shock and anger. "I'll kill the little..." He stormed off before Catherine could react and reached the DNA lab where Greg Saunders was sitting playing with M&Ms, trying to throw them into his mouth. He fell as Grissom's fist connected with his jaw.
Chapter four
Vincent Lurie and his equally arrogant lawyer sat in the interrogation room and stared at the stone face of Jim Brass. To sit in the same room as the man who might have killed Sara took his entire exterior calm and Grissom had been ordered to stay out of the room, so Catherine was sitting next to Brass. Her arms folded in a professional manner and a look on her face that dared Lurie to say anything that would give her an excuse to have him arrested.
"I was told this was about a CSI?" His lawyer broke the silence. "My client was innocent of the last murder you tried to frame him for and is innocent of this one too...what's wrong? Running out of hard working, law abiding citizens to set up?"
Catherine kept her cold gaze locked on Lurie as she placed the crime scene photographs on the table in front of him. "I'm sure you recognize CSI Sidle." He looked down as though it was laboured chore and shook his head. "Perhaps if she didn't have half her face blown off..." Brass jumped up, knocking his chair flying backwards and went to grab the doctor, but Catherine got to Brass first. "Jim! It won't help." He shot one piercing look at him and then sat back down after picking up his chair from the floor.
"Mr Lurie..." "Doctor." "Doctor Lurie, did you ever come into contact with miss Sidle during the previous investigation?" "No. I would have remembered her..." "Because she looks like your dead girlfriend?" Brass took a cheap shot and was rewarded with Lurie flinching. "The resemblance is uncanny." Catherine smiled. He'd slipped up and let himself be bated.
"How would you know Mr. Lurie? You've never met her." His eyes darted from the CSI to his lawyer. "The photograph..." "The one of a three year old crime and not Miss Sidle?" Catherine smirked. "How about you cut the crap and start talking?" Brass suggested. "Miss Sidle was being stalked, she had a list of suspects; you were suspect number one. Would you mind telling me why a CSI, third class, would think that?"
"Maybe she was just lonely, had to invent an imaginary stalker..." He looked directly into the glass that Grissom stood behind, observing the interrogation. "Maybe no one took a risk on her and she was all alone. A little lost butterfly all alone in the big bad world." "Actually she wasn't." Catherine objected. "She may have been dedicated to the job and barely went home, but she had a family who cared about her. Some of us more than others, she just didn't realize."
Grissom was close to tears as he remembered his speech to Vincent Lurie only a few weeks earlier. If he'd just taken a risk and told her how he felt then maybe she'd still be alive. He'd word that word a lot lately. Maybe.
Maybe her death was quick, maybe she didn't suffer and maybe she was happy at peace. He despised the word now. Sara Sidle was dead there was no maybe about it. He blanked out from the conversation in the next room and thought of the last chat he and Sara had had.
"Sara, we need to talk." She looked quizzically at his sweeping statement. "Care to tell me what this about?" She asked as they stood in his office and he stared past her. His face was set in a hard, determined manner and she knew she was about to get an earful. "Is anything wrong? You've seemed...distant lately." His caring tone caught her off guard. "No." She lied. She'd wanted to end the conversation there, but he continued. "You could tell me if something was wrong, you know that, right?" She looked past him at the wall behind his desk. "No, Grissom. No I can't." She'd left before he could object and went to find Nick for the case they were working on.
When Lurie and his lawyer left the room his attention was snapped back to the task at hand and he stormed out of the observation room to confront Catherine. "Why the hell isn't he behind bars?" He shouted. Catherine's motherly face looked at him sadly as though she was consoling Lindsay.
"He has an alibi, Gill. He was performing a five hour operation on the nigh to of Sara's...it still seems weird to say death." "She's only been gone two days." Grissom objected. "It'll still seem weird in weeks, in years; the sad part is I remember consoling families of victims, telling them it'll get easier, but it doesn't...Sara's gone and she's left me behind."
"Actually..." David interrupted from behind. "I think the DNA lab messed up, I took a second DNA sample after I noticed a birth mark that shouldn't have been on the victims arm. The second test revealed the women had been dead for two days before we discovered the body...it isn't Sara."
Catherine's eyes flooded with tears of relief. "She could be alive?" Grissom was in between a state of sheer joy, shock and anger. "I'll kill the little..." He stormed off before Catherine could react and reached the DNA lab where Greg Saunders was sitting playing with M&Ms, trying to throw them into his mouth. He fell as Grissom's fist connected with his jaw.