Chapter 17
Grissom and Warrick continued questioning Mrs. Field. Not very surprisingly, as soon as Catherine left, she lost interest and would not answer any more question. Finally, after a few unanswered questions and about ten minutes of silence from the suspect, Mrs. Field chose to speak. "Now, if you would be so kind, I really must get going. My husband doesn't like it when dinner is late." the words slipped off her tongue so coyly, everyone in that room knew they were false. Or, not the whole truth, at least. Finally, from a corner of the room, Brass spoke. "You know, we have enough to keep you here as long as we want. Why would we want to let you go?" Grissom looked on worriedly, if the woman really was the culprit, Brass was making tings worse. Didn't she just practically say, 'I got your child and woman. If you don't let me go, they'll suffer.' Mrs. Field smiled sweetly, venomously, "Sure. Keep me as long as you like. You'll have my husband to deal with then." Brass huffed, "Well, then, I guess we will, won't we now?" Grissom immediately strode over to Brass's shady corner of the room and whispered into his ear, "Do you really think that was necessary? I think that she has Sara and Lindsey locked away somewhere and if we keep her who will look after them?" Brass still wasn't sure where Grissom was going, "The husband maybe?" he cruelly joked. "BRASS!!! What we will get is another warrant, a complete one. We can go anywhere, see anything, bag everything we think is evidence. And for now, we let her go." While Brass and Grissom were whispering together, Warrick crept up to them and when Grissom paused, he quietly asked, "So, what's the plan guys?" Grissom jumped half way across the room, "Geez Warrick! Do you HAVE to sneak up on us like that?" Warrick looked hurt, he only wanted to protect the conversation from the suspect's ears. "Grissom, I'm sorry, I guess we're just all sitting on pins and needles." Grissom nodded, "Uh huh." and then all three of them left the room. Getting the warrant would be no problem.
Catherine sat in her car, in front of her own house. Debating, 'Should I go through with it or not? Should I? I might get fired? Well.....what the hell am I thinking? Of course I should, it's my child!!! And my friend,' She finally got out and walked into her own, unlocked home. There was an officer right inside the door, guarding the crime scene. "Excuse me Ma'am, no one is allowed to come in here." Catherine scoffed, "I know that," she flashed her CSI id at him and angrily muttered, "And it's MY house." The office looked ridiculous standing there, not having anything else to say, "Sorry," he muttered and stepped off to the side. Catherine thought, 'Now that's better.' And made her way up the stairs. She got a large duffle bag from her closet and started collecting some things. A change of clothes and undergarments, some make-up necessities, hair brush and other hair stuffs, hygiene products, and some other knick knacks. Afterwards, she went into the guest room, and from a drawer got out a pair of binoculars. Then, she went into Lindsey's room and gathered her favorite stuffed animal into the bag also. She finally changed from her uncomfortable high heels into sneakers and went into the kitchen. From there, she started collecting food and water. A large amount of bottled water went into the duffel back followed by eatable products. The police officer peeked in and stuttering tried to do his job, "Um, I was instructed..to, umm, to, make sure that, uhh, no one contaminates the crime scene...or..uh, takes anything away." Catherine turned to bite the head of the rookie and almost felt sorry for the officer, "Well, this IS my own home, and if you MUST know, I'm gathering some necessities to stay at a hotel." The officer nodded, knowing that whatever he said will be hushed by this 'woman-on-a-mission'.Finally, before she rushed out the door, Catherine grabbed a woolen jacket and a couple of pillows from her couch. Then, burdened with her possessions she clambered into the car.
She only had about three minutes behind the wheel, and a good thing that was. Catherine's hands were shaking so much the car almost went out of control. She finally arrived there. The horrid place, only a mile away from her own house. She sighed, there was no car in the driveway, Mrs. Field was away, obviously not back from the interrogation yet. The house was the very last one on the street, far away from any other houses, lots of room and privacy. On the right side of the house was a thick forest extending about three miles and finally ending at a road. Catherine successfully maneuvered her car along a worn trail on the forest floor, and drove it off into the foliage as much as she could without breaking or grazing any tress. She spent half an hour trying to cover up her car with various branches that she found laying everywhere. In the end, she had done such an amazing job that some birds actually perched on the hood, until Catherine came up and shooed them away. Before she got back into her vehicle, she covered up the tire tracks by brushing long branches full of leaves across the ground. No one could suspect a thing even if they did venture to go out into the forest for some unheard of reason. She finally settled in her car and got out the pair of binoculars that she had stowed away into her duffel bag. She settled her gaze on the house that could be seen between the leaves of Catherine's hiding place. Then, Catherine comfortably positioned herself in the driver's seat of her car and started the long, tedious, process of staking out a place.
A few hours after the interrogating of Mrs. Fields, Jim Brass got his warrant which he passed down to Grissom. While Warrick and Grissom were going back to Mrs. Field's house to follow up on some of Grissom's haunches, Warrick finally remembered Nick. "Yo, man, I'm gonna go get Nicky, all right?" Grissom nodded and watched Warrick sprint off down the hallway, almost knocking into a Dactyloscopist on the way. He chuckled softly as he saw Warrick swerve and dive into the next hall before turning to Brass, "Hey, do you think that you could dig up some info on Mrs. Field's husband? An on Mrs. Field herself? Maybe there's a rap sheet or something." Brass quickly walked away to get his job done and Grissom was left alone to wait for his two CSI's. While he was standing aimlessly in the middle of the hallway, he decided to give Catherine a call. Surely she was at his house, maybe in her car driving somewhere. He took out his cell phone and dialed up the familiar number. The dialed number rang for a long time until a very agitated Catherine snapped from the other end. "Willows," Grissom mentally prepared himself for what was about to come. He had royally pissed Catherine off, and he knew he was going to pay before things were going to get better. "Hey, it's Grissom. Um..Cath, I understand that you might.." Catherine immediately cut him off, "Hey, Gris, I'm in the middle of something very important. I'll talk to you later." Grissom relaxed, later, means that she might forget about her undying rage. "That doesn't mean you're off the hook." she added savagely and clicked the phone off. Grissom heart started going a hundred beats a minute. Boy was he in for it. His attention was caught, though, by two running men that came sprinting past him, "Hey, Gris, meet you at the car, I'm driving." Warrick huffed as he ran. "No, I'm driving," Nick yelled over his shoulder, he wouldn't be undone. Grissom wondered at their free spirits and set after them at a leisurely pace. There was no way he would be seen running like a small school boy. When he finally reached the car he saw Warrick occupying the passenger seat beside the driver and gave him a stern look. The other squeezed himself in between the two front seats and plopped down in the back. Grissom got in and Nick sped away, breaking all possible speed limits and making the other two passengers pray for their lives.
A few hours later, Catherine was still sitting in her car, her gaze fixed directly at the house. She only had a small snack during this period of time, and no one had come or gone to the house. Apparently they were still interrogating Mrs. Fields. . . without her. All of a sudden, a blue Tahoe pulled up and three men got out. 'Grissom.' She thought and watched as the three men split up into three different directions. Grissom went in through the front door, Warrick went inside through the back door, and Nick stayed outside, walking around the side of the house until he disappeared. How Catherine wished that she could be there, in that house, helping solve the case, instead of hiding cowardly in a car staking out a place. 'How foolish of me. But...I had no other choice.' Catherine didn't know what to do anymore. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, she was having doubts. If Lindsey or Sara were inside, what good is to her if she's sitting outside? Or, wherever they are, maybe she's keeping them in a secluded place. Finally, Catherine decided to sit it out for a couple of days, and follow this woman if she ever went outside in her car. Thinking this: she finally settled down for a long wait.
Grissom and Warrick set off looking around the house. Warrick searched downstairs and Grissom upstairs. As soon as he mounted the stairs, Grissom went to the main bedroom and located the closet. At the bottom, he found what he was looking for: shoes. He collected every single pair in separate evidence bags before he felt content with his job. This would produce another link between the crime scene and the suspect, hopefully proving in the conviction. Warrick diligently worked downstairs, trying to find any muddy or dirty footprints, hopefully belonging to a child. Also looking for any male touches to the house that might suggest Mrs. Field's husband living there. He found none. Nick was looking outside for any prints, any sign of anything unusual. He only found a set of prints, belonging to an adult, going up to about the middle of the back yard, suddenly stopping and backtracking, and those were made a couple of days ago, Nick knew that much. He would have to find out the suspect's shoe size to rule out the possibility of it being Sara's. Other than that, nothing else was found at Mrs. Field's house and the party of three left about an hour and a half later. From there, they went straight to the lab to see if they could make a match on the soil found from some of the shoes bagged by Grissom, to the soil taken from the hidden bush alcove.
Catherine watched her boss and friends leave and much later saw Mrs. Field return, arms laden with bags. 'Hmm....someone went grocery shopping. But does she need THAT much food? Well, if her husband lives there. . . but we saw no male presence last time. What the hell,' She stared at the numerous bags that Mrs. Field desperately tried to hold on to, while figuring out the scenario in her head: arriving at a brick wall. As the woman went into her house, Catherine saw some lights turn on, and a shadowy figure walking back and forth in front of the windows. 'This is it.' She thought, and quietly crept out of her car, across the road and up to one of the windows of the house. Dusk already settled and it was getting darker by the minute, Catherine didn't need to worry about anyone seeing her, except Mrs. Field that is.
She slowly crept up to the window and ducked under the outside shutters. Taking several deep breaths to calm herself, she curled her fingers around the wooden pane that covered the window and careful lifted her head a couple of inches. She saw the back of Mrs. Fields rummaging in the refrigerator. 'This is it,' she thought, 'If you do this, you better do it right.' And so, keeping her eyes a couple of millimeters above the wooden pane, she kept her eyes fixated on Mrs. Field's back. The old woman began turning around and Catherine let out a small yelp which caused the woman to obtain sharp reflexes which she used to spin around. Catherine disappeared about a nanosecond before the prying gaze of Mrs. Field's met with the window. Had she heard something? A woman's voice perhaps? Or was it just her imagination? She stealthily crept up to the window and looked out. Not seeing anything but pitch darkness, she released the curtains that were held back by a colorful blue ribbon. Catherine sat, dumbstruck, on the cold earth floor. That was close, so close. She had to be more careful, her nerves were so high strung that at the least sign of danger she let out a yelp. She decided that was enough snooping for one day and decided to head back to her little hideaway and rest for the night. Bent at the waist, almost to the ground, she crept back to into the woods, and by moving around in the dark for about twenty minutes, she finally found her car and quietly slipped in with the agility of a cat. She sat there in the front seat for a little while, trying to catch her breath. That was a very close call, it wouldn't do for Lindsey to be found and then come home to a dead mother. No, no, that wouldn't be too good. She sat there mulling the thought over and over, and noticed as the front door of the horrid house opened inch by inch. The air caught in her lungs, 'Did she really see me? Does she know I'm here? Is she coming after me?' She was afraid now, her palms sweaty, her breathing shallow, severe goose bumps covered her whole body and she began to shake uncontrollably. Catherine saw the woman take a few steps, staring straight into the woods where Catherine's vehicle was located, but then, looking down slowly, and collecting a cat off the porch she returned back inside. Catherine slowly let out her breath and climbed back into the rear of the car. She debated wether she should change her clothes now or not. She knew it was inevitable and had to be done in pitch darkness or in the blinding light of day. She chose to do it now, so that there would be a less chance of her getting discovered if anyone sees excessive movement in the forest as the product of her getting dressed. So, she took out a pair of jeans and a T-Shirt and somehow managed to change while banging several body parts against the hard inside of the car. Finally, having accomplished this, she took another light snack and settled down in the back seats with her coach pillows and a blanket.
A little after Catherine settled down in an uneasy sleep, a curtain was moved from an upstairs window and an ugly face stared out. 'So, she actually did it. I knew she was desperate, but THIS much? Trying to get someone else's kid, shame on her.' Mrs. Field kept an horrifying scowl on as she thought of how the CSI woman had been sneaking around her own house. 'What, she thought she could get away with this? Hah, the stupid gal!!!" She started laughing with a cold, evil cackle, during which time a nightmare woke Lindsey up. At the same time that Sara couldn't comfort the screaming child.
Grissom and Warrick continued questioning Mrs. Field. Not very surprisingly, as soon as Catherine left, she lost interest and would not answer any more question. Finally, after a few unanswered questions and about ten minutes of silence from the suspect, Mrs. Field chose to speak. "Now, if you would be so kind, I really must get going. My husband doesn't like it when dinner is late." the words slipped off her tongue so coyly, everyone in that room knew they were false. Or, not the whole truth, at least. Finally, from a corner of the room, Brass spoke. "You know, we have enough to keep you here as long as we want. Why would we want to let you go?" Grissom looked on worriedly, if the woman really was the culprit, Brass was making tings worse. Didn't she just practically say, 'I got your child and woman. If you don't let me go, they'll suffer.' Mrs. Field smiled sweetly, venomously, "Sure. Keep me as long as you like. You'll have my husband to deal with then." Brass huffed, "Well, then, I guess we will, won't we now?" Grissom immediately strode over to Brass's shady corner of the room and whispered into his ear, "Do you really think that was necessary? I think that she has Sara and Lindsey locked away somewhere and if we keep her who will look after them?" Brass still wasn't sure where Grissom was going, "The husband maybe?" he cruelly joked. "BRASS!!! What we will get is another warrant, a complete one. We can go anywhere, see anything, bag everything we think is evidence. And for now, we let her go." While Brass and Grissom were whispering together, Warrick crept up to them and when Grissom paused, he quietly asked, "So, what's the plan guys?" Grissom jumped half way across the room, "Geez Warrick! Do you HAVE to sneak up on us like that?" Warrick looked hurt, he only wanted to protect the conversation from the suspect's ears. "Grissom, I'm sorry, I guess we're just all sitting on pins and needles." Grissom nodded, "Uh huh." and then all three of them left the room. Getting the warrant would be no problem.
Catherine sat in her car, in front of her own house. Debating, 'Should I go through with it or not? Should I? I might get fired? Well.....what the hell am I thinking? Of course I should, it's my child!!! And my friend,' She finally got out and walked into her own, unlocked home. There was an officer right inside the door, guarding the crime scene. "Excuse me Ma'am, no one is allowed to come in here." Catherine scoffed, "I know that," she flashed her CSI id at him and angrily muttered, "And it's MY house." The office looked ridiculous standing there, not having anything else to say, "Sorry," he muttered and stepped off to the side. Catherine thought, 'Now that's better.' And made her way up the stairs. She got a large duffle bag from her closet and started collecting some things. A change of clothes and undergarments, some make-up necessities, hair brush and other hair stuffs, hygiene products, and some other knick knacks. Afterwards, she went into the guest room, and from a drawer got out a pair of binoculars. Then, she went into Lindsey's room and gathered her favorite stuffed animal into the bag also. She finally changed from her uncomfortable high heels into sneakers and went into the kitchen. From there, she started collecting food and water. A large amount of bottled water went into the duffel back followed by eatable products. The police officer peeked in and stuttering tried to do his job, "Um, I was instructed..to, umm, to, make sure that, uhh, no one contaminates the crime scene...or..uh, takes anything away." Catherine turned to bite the head of the rookie and almost felt sorry for the officer, "Well, this IS my own home, and if you MUST know, I'm gathering some necessities to stay at a hotel." The officer nodded, knowing that whatever he said will be hushed by this 'woman-on-a-mission'.Finally, before she rushed out the door, Catherine grabbed a woolen jacket and a couple of pillows from her couch. Then, burdened with her possessions she clambered into the car.
She only had about three minutes behind the wheel, and a good thing that was. Catherine's hands were shaking so much the car almost went out of control. She finally arrived there. The horrid place, only a mile away from her own house. She sighed, there was no car in the driveway, Mrs. Field was away, obviously not back from the interrogation yet. The house was the very last one on the street, far away from any other houses, lots of room and privacy. On the right side of the house was a thick forest extending about three miles and finally ending at a road. Catherine successfully maneuvered her car along a worn trail on the forest floor, and drove it off into the foliage as much as she could without breaking or grazing any tress. She spent half an hour trying to cover up her car with various branches that she found laying everywhere. In the end, she had done such an amazing job that some birds actually perched on the hood, until Catherine came up and shooed them away. Before she got back into her vehicle, she covered up the tire tracks by brushing long branches full of leaves across the ground. No one could suspect a thing even if they did venture to go out into the forest for some unheard of reason. She finally settled in her car and got out the pair of binoculars that she had stowed away into her duffel bag. She settled her gaze on the house that could be seen between the leaves of Catherine's hiding place. Then, Catherine comfortably positioned herself in the driver's seat of her car and started the long, tedious, process of staking out a place.
A few hours after the interrogating of Mrs. Fields, Jim Brass got his warrant which he passed down to Grissom. While Warrick and Grissom were going back to Mrs. Field's house to follow up on some of Grissom's haunches, Warrick finally remembered Nick. "Yo, man, I'm gonna go get Nicky, all right?" Grissom nodded and watched Warrick sprint off down the hallway, almost knocking into a Dactyloscopist on the way. He chuckled softly as he saw Warrick swerve and dive into the next hall before turning to Brass, "Hey, do you think that you could dig up some info on Mrs. Field's husband? An on Mrs. Field herself? Maybe there's a rap sheet or something." Brass quickly walked away to get his job done and Grissom was left alone to wait for his two CSI's. While he was standing aimlessly in the middle of the hallway, he decided to give Catherine a call. Surely she was at his house, maybe in her car driving somewhere. He took out his cell phone and dialed up the familiar number. The dialed number rang for a long time until a very agitated Catherine snapped from the other end. "Willows," Grissom mentally prepared himself for what was about to come. He had royally pissed Catherine off, and he knew he was going to pay before things were going to get better. "Hey, it's Grissom. Um..Cath, I understand that you might.." Catherine immediately cut him off, "Hey, Gris, I'm in the middle of something very important. I'll talk to you later." Grissom relaxed, later, means that she might forget about her undying rage. "That doesn't mean you're off the hook." she added savagely and clicked the phone off. Grissom heart started going a hundred beats a minute. Boy was he in for it. His attention was caught, though, by two running men that came sprinting past him, "Hey, Gris, meet you at the car, I'm driving." Warrick huffed as he ran. "No, I'm driving," Nick yelled over his shoulder, he wouldn't be undone. Grissom wondered at their free spirits and set after them at a leisurely pace. There was no way he would be seen running like a small school boy. When he finally reached the car he saw Warrick occupying the passenger seat beside the driver and gave him a stern look. The other squeezed himself in between the two front seats and plopped down in the back. Grissom got in and Nick sped away, breaking all possible speed limits and making the other two passengers pray for their lives.
A few hours later, Catherine was still sitting in her car, her gaze fixed directly at the house. She only had a small snack during this period of time, and no one had come or gone to the house. Apparently they were still interrogating Mrs. Fields. . . without her. All of a sudden, a blue Tahoe pulled up and three men got out. 'Grissom.' She thought and watched as the three men split up into three different directions. Grissom went in through the front door, Warrick went inside through the back door, and Nick stayed outside, walking around the side of the house until he disappeared. How Catherine wished that she could be there, in that house, helping solve the case, instead of hiding cowardly in a car staking out a place. 'How foolish of me. But...I had no other choice.' Catherine didn't know what to do anymore. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, she was having doubts. If Lindsey or Sara were inside, what good is to her if she's sitting outside? Or, wherever they are, maybe she's keeping them in a secluded place. Finally, Catherine decided to sit it out for a couple of days, and follow this woman if she ever went outside in her car. Thinking this: she finally settled down for a long wait.
Grissom and Warrick set off looking around the house. Warrick searched downstairs and Grissom upstairs. As soon as he mounted the stairs, Grissom went to the main bedroom and located the closet. At the bottom, he found what he was looking for: shoes. He collected every single pair in separate evidence bags before he felt content with his job. This would produce another link between the crime scene and the suspect, hopefully proving in the conviction. Warrick diligently worked downstairs, trying to find any muddy or dirty footprints, hopefully belonging to a child. Also looking for any male touches to the house that might suggest Mrs. Field's husband living there. He found none. Nick was looking outside for any prints, any sign of anything unusual. He only found a set of prints, belonging to an adult, going up to about the middle of the back yard, suddenly stopping and backtracking, and those were made a couple of days ago, Nick knew that much. He would have to find out the suspect's shoe size to rule out the possibility of it being Sara's. Other than that, nothing else was found at Mrs. Field's house and the party of three left about an hour and a half later. From there, they went straight to the lab to see if they could make a match on the soil found from some of the shoes bagged by Grissom, to the soil taken from the hidden bush alcove.
Catherine watched her boss and friends leave and much later saw Mrs. Field return, arms laden with bags. 'Hmm....someone went grocery shopping. But does she need THAT much food? Well, if her husband lives there. . . but we saw no male presence last time. What the hell,' She stared at the numerous bags that Mrs. Field desperately tried to hold on to, while figuring out the scenario in her head: arriving at a brick wall. As the woman went into her house, Catherine saw some lights turn on, and a shadowy figure walking back and forth in front of the windows. 'This is it.' She thought, and quietly crept out of her car, across the road and up to one of the windows of the house. Dusk already settled and it was getting darker by the minute, Catherine didn't need to worry about anyone seeing her, except Mrs. Field that is.
She slowly crept up to the window and ducked under the outside shutters. Taking several deep breaths to calm herself, she curled her fingers around the wooden pane that covered the window and careful lifted her head a couple of inches. She saw the back of Mrs. Fields rummaging in the refrigerator. 'This is it,' she thought, 'If you do this, you better do it right.' And so, keeping her eyes a couple of millimeters above the wooden pane, she kept her eyes fixated on Mrs. Field's back. The old woman began turning around and Catherine let out a small yelp which caused the woman to obtain sharp reflexes which she used to spin around. Catherine disappeared about a nanosecond before the prying gaze of Mrs. Field's met with the window. Had she heard something? A woman's voice perhaps? Or was it just her imagination? She stealthily crept up to the window and looked out. Not seeing anything but pitch darkness, she released the curtains that were held back by a colorful blue ribbon. Catherine sat, dumbstruck, on the cold earth floor. That was close, so close. She had to be more careful, her nerves were so high strung that at the least sign of danger she let out a yelp. She decided that was enough snooping for one day and decided to head back to her little hideaway and rest for the night. Bent at the waist, almost to the ground, she crept back to into the woods, and by moving around in the dark for about twenty minutes, she finally found her car and quietly slipped in with the agility of a cat. She sat there in the front seat for a little while, trying to catch her breath. That was a very close call, it wouldn't do for Lindsey to be found and then come home to a dead mother. No, no, that wouldn't be too good. She sat there mulling the thought over and over, and noticed as the front door of the horrid house opened inch by inch. The air caught in her lungs, 'Did she really see me? Does she know I'm here? Is she coming after me?' She was afraid now, her palms sweaty, her breathing shallow, severe goose bumps covered her whole body and she began to shake uncontrollably. Catherine saw the woman take a few steps, staring straight into the woods where Catherine's vehicle was located, but then, looking down slowly, and collecting a cat off the porch she returned back inside. Catherine slowly let out her breath and climbed back into the rear of the car. She debated wether she should change her clothes now or not. She knew it was inevitable and had to be done in pitch darkness or in the blinding light of day. She chose to do it now, so that there would be a less chance of her getting discovered if anyone sees excessive movement in the forest as the product of her getting dressed. So, she took out a pair of jeans and a T-Shirt and somehow managed to change while banging several body parts against the hard inside of the car. Finally, having accomplished this, she took another light snack and settled down in the back seats with her coach pillows and a blanket.
A little after Catherine settled down in an uneasy sleep, a curtain was moved from an upstairs window and an ugly face stared out. 'So, she actually did it. I knew she was desperate, but THIS much? Trying to get someone else's kid, shame on her.' Mrs. Field kept an horrifying scowl on as she thought of how the CSI woman had been sneaking around her own house. 'What, she thought she could get away with this? Hah, the stupid gal!!!" She started laughing with a cold, evil cackle, during which time a nightmare woke Lindsey up. At the same time that Sara couldn't comfort the screaming child.