Dead Avenues

"His parents are on their way here," Catherine said, leaning against a doorway in Grissom's office.

He didn't look up from his desk, but nodded.

"I imagine the good judge and his wife are worried about him," Gil said. He sighed. "When they get here, make sure they aren't told more than they need to know, Cath." He shot her a look.

"I won't," she said. She yawned.

"Why don't you bring me up to speed before you get some sleep?" Grissom said. It was Catherine's turn to shoot him a look.

"I'm fine," she said. "What are you working on?"

"The tapes," Grissom said. "I'm going through all of them." He gestured to the remote and TV behind him. "The more I know about Nigel Crane, the better. Now what have you found?"

Catherine raised an eyebrow as her eyes scanned over the tall stacks of tapes—all surveillance and commentary at Jane Galloway's attic and Nick's as well.

"Uh, the coworker, Chad Johnson. Sara and I interviewed him. He's clean, but was weirded out by Crane," Catherine said. "It seems everyone was. As a result, no one was close to him."

"Hmm." Grissom took off his glasses and started cleaning specks off them. "Too bad no one questioned him till now."

-------

A light shone in his face. Nick winced at the brightness just beyond his eyelids. He tried to move his hands to block the light.

They didn't move. Instead, he heard rattling.

"Wake up, Nick," Crane said. Nick groaned, and slowly opened an eye. Crane was flashing a light in his face, as if examining his pupil's response. Nick tried to move away, but again he heard the rattling.

It convinced him to open both his eyes. The first thing he saw was a long chain. He was back in that room, on top of that cheap carpet, and half-way in the closet. The chain was locked around the metal hanger bar, and it lead to his handcuffs.

"No more running away, Nick," Crane said. "I don't want you to get hurt." Nick shut his eyes and groaned.

"Then let me go," he said softly. His body felt worn out, and his head felt like an elephant was stepping on it.

Crane laughed. "No, Nick," he said. "You're not well." Nick cracked his eyes open again. The man had small cuts on his face, courtesy of the light bulb. But the insanity in the man made Nick shudder. He acted like nothing was wrong with what happened. He didn't seem angry at Nick, but just insistent that he stay.

Nick shut his eyes again. It hurt too much to think. He lay his head back on the carpet, and let himself fall into unconsciousness yet again.

-------

"Archie, what do you have?" Grissom asked. He stretched his arms out. He'd been sitting around watching tapes for too long.

The Asian technician queued up the surveillance footage from the convenience store.

"The only thing I found was just a half-hour after the kidnapping," Archie said. "A dark F250 drives just in view of the front camera, but I only have a partial license plate." He fiddled around on his keyboard, and pulled up an enhanced image of the truck. Only the right half of the truck was seen, and only the last three digits of the plate were caught.

"8-2-0," Grissom read aloud. "Well, it narrows the search a bit." He patted Archie on the shoulder. "Thanks, Archie."

Grissom quickly left the video room, and practically ran into Brass.

"Gil," Brass greeted.

"Jim, I have a partial license plate. Last three digits are 8-2-0," Grissom said. Jim nodded.

"I'll run it." Brass turned on a heel and took off down the hall. Grissom turned to go his way, and this time almost ran into Sara.

"Gris, Catherine and I found something in Crane's bank statements," she said. She started walking off to their office, leaving Grissom to follow.

Catherine was seated, still pouring over the statements. As soon as the other two entered the room, she presented what she had.

"Okay. Nigel Crane has been saving up money ever since he's lived here and worked for Luna Cable, which is three years ago," Catherine said.

"He had $19,000 saved up as of last month," Sara said, taking over. "But last week he converted it to a cashier's check, made out to Lorna Gibson."

Gil stared at Sara, then Catherine. "Who's Lorna Gibson?"

The two women looked to each other for a second. "We don't know," Catherine said. "She lives here, an older woman, age 59. But we can't find her."

"We're about to go to her residence," Sara filled in. Grissom just nodded.

"Let me know what you find."

Suddenly the three CSIs heard shouts. They whirled around to the source: Mr. and Mrs. Stokes.

"Where's Nick?" That was his mother. She was dressed richly, in a business suit and with her brown hair swept up, but even so she looked like an emotional wreck. She and her husband were headed their way, when Jim Brass cut them off.

"Mrs. Stokes, Mr. Stokes, let's go talk over here," he said. Grissom breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted to do was have to console Nick's parents while he was actively trying to find him.

Alive.

He turned back to Sara and Catherine. "Find this Gibson woman, quickly."