Chapter 8
Brass had just gotten through having a nice chat with the news media. He told them, in no uncertain terms, that if any of them reported what was going on outside of the bank that not only would he have them arrested for interfering in an open investigation, but he would personally make it his mission to make sure they would never know about anything concerning the LVPD ever again. He pointedly looked at Ms. Fox, the reporter from KTV-12, as he said this. She nodded and looked down sheepishly.
Brass walked into the van and noticed Grissom still watching Sara. He handed him a headset.
"What's this for?" Grissom asked.
"Thought you'd want to be in the loop with the SWAT guys." Grissom nodded his thanks to Brass and put on the headset. "It's Showtime," Brass muttered, "Get those guys in the air."
That's all that SWAT needed to hear. The six men climbed into the helicopter, checking the person in front of them to make sure they had all their gear ready to go. The helicopter hovered over the bank as the six men rappelled down the rope to the roof, unlatching themselves and giving a thumbs up to the pilot. SWAT officer Sanchez took out his portable electric screwdriver and unscrewed the latch to the air duct on the right side of the roof. SWAT officer Johnson did the same on the left side. Sanchez went in first. This air duct, he knew from the plans, led into the womens restroom, while the one Johnson's team was in led to the manager's office. Once they exited the air ducts the teams would be on opposite ends of the bank, essentially putting the suspects and hostages in the middle. Sanchez waited a few seconds and then signaled over the radios to both teams. "Go."
Sara watched the 3 men closely. They were discussing what each of them wanted Brass to give them. Morons. They should be more concerned with how the hell they were going to get out of here. Sara was sure that SWAT would be moving in at any moment, if they hadn't already. Sara decided that she was tired of playing "the victim". Let's see if I can help even the odds a little. She raised her hand. "Excuse me," she said trying to put some fear in her voice. Three pairs of eyes fell on her. " I need to use the bathroom."
Johnny stared at her trying to gauge what she was up to, if anything. "Okay, but Mark here goes with you. You don't mind do you Mark?" he said smugly.
"No, I don't mind at all." he leered at her. He came over and grabbed Sara by here arm and pulled her up. "How about you and me take us a little walk. That sound nice to you?" He said, as he looked Sara up and down.
Sara tried to hide the hatefulness in her voice, "Okay." If you only knew what I had in store for you, you asshole.
Grissom and Brass were listening to SWAT and watching the monitors when Grissom's cell phone rang.
"Grissom."
"Hey it's me. We got hits on 2 out of the 3." Warrick proceeded to fill Grissom in on what they had found out about the suspects. He also told Grissom about the weird hit they got on the 3rd guy.
"Warrick, I've seen that only one other time in my life and when it happened the Feds were involved somehow."
"Should we call them?" he asked.
"No,"Grissom said, "Not right now anyway, all they'll want to do is come out here and take over and leave us out of the loop. I'm not putting Sara's life in their hands."
"As soon as we finish here, we're all coming down there." Warrick didn't bother to ask for permission.
"See you then." He said as he closed his phone.
"So what did they find out?" Brass asked.
"The guy who seems to be in charge is Jonathan Mitchell, did 10 years for B&E and drugs. The guy who slapped Sara is Mark Freeman, did 12 years for 2nd degree sexual assault. " Grissom inwardly cringed as he relayed that one to Brass,"And the 3rd, the big guy called Moose, Is something of a mystery." Brass looked at him funny. "Seems alarm bells and whistles started going off when Greg ran his picture."
"Shit," Brass muttered, "Wonder what that's all about."
"Don't know, yet. They're bringing the information with them."
Brass didn't need to ask who they were. Suddenly, they heard Sara speak and ask to use the bathroom. "What the hell is she doing?" They said at the same time. Then Grissom froze. One of them was escorting Sara to the bathroom. "Damn it," he said out loud when he realized Mark was the one that would be taking her. She'd be all alone, with no protection, from a convicted rapist. Grissom watched Mark eye her up and down.
Oh this is just freaking greatTBC