Twenty Questions
It wasn't until late in the shift that Brass was able to find and pick up the elusive Scott Paolini. When he entered the interrogation room, Catherine was seated comfortably, Sara watching in the shadows. She felt safer with both Nick and Grissom hidden behind the mirror glass.
"Mr. Paolini, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," Catherine said as rehearsed, pulling Scott's attention away from his surroundings and to her. They had planned this down to the last detail. They didn't want Scott to know that Sara was there.
"Sure." He took a seat in a chair facing Catherine, his back to Sara.
"We just want to ask you a few questions." Sara watched Catherine expertly flip open the file in front of her.
"Go ahead." Sara held in a gasp. Here we go.
"I want to get to know you a bit better first. How's your family? Your wife? Your son? Your daughter?" Sara watched him, reading his body language like a book. She shook her head mutely as he mumbled an unenthusiastic fine.
"Just fine?"
"Yeah." Sara felt herself shaking with suppressed emotion. Here came the worst parts.
"What about your best friend, Amanda Bell? Have you talked to her lately?" Sara watched Scott's posture stiffen, such that he was sitting almost ramrod straight. Then Catherine hit him with the worst.
"She's in the hospital now you know. Punctured lung."
"A…Amanda?" Sara watched Catherine shrug indifferently, knowing that the woman was anything but. Damn she was a good actor.
"She's supposed to be staying a week."
"And her daughter?"
"Is staying with a friend." Sara watched him deflate substantially, his shoulders drooping and head looking towards the floor. This was her cue as Catherine stood to leave, taking the guard with her. Sara swallowed around the lump in her throat.
"Why?" she asked, stepping from the shadows. Scott jumped and spun quickly at her voice.
"Sara?"
"Why'd you do it? You've got to know you're all but convicted of about four murders." She was surprised to see shock cross his face at the news. The kind of shock that showed was genuine and everyone in the observation room knew it.
"Murders?" he asked after a minute. Sara rolled her eyes. She didn't have the patience for this. She wanted to be with Bekki, wanted to be away from the hospital and wanted to get away from all of this drama that had ensued.
"I don't know anything about any murders." Sara wanted to hit him. He was lying and to her! She had trusted him, Amanda had trusted him and here he was sitting denying any involvement in what had happened.
The evidence never lies, she reminded herself for the thousandth time.
"Why? Did Tony take your daughter?" Sara resisted the urge to smile at the dejected look in his eyes, though he kept the rest of his face resolutely impassive.
"No." Sara just stared at him, one eyebrow raised. He knew she knew he was lying.
"He said he'd destroy my life piece by piece, starting with my little Clare if I didn't. I didn't want to, Sair, you've got to believe me." Sara knew she did, knew she'd believe him to her grave but that didn't erase what he did.
"Then why didn't you come to the authorities?"
"He said he'd kill her if I did, if I told anyone but Ali, or Ross, my wife and son." His hands that he'd placed on the table were shaking violently and his eyes were beginning to water. Sara resisted the urge to put her hands to her temples – well, hand since one was in a sling – in frustration.
"You know the deal, Scott," Sara said wearily." Give us the whole story and we'll see about a lighter sentence."
"Tony came to be about a month ago," he began. "Clare hadn't come home from school when I got home and Ali was panicking. That's when we got the call from Tony saying he had her and he had something for me to do. I asked him if she was okay and he said she was fine, happy even. I wanted to talk to her, make sure it was really Clare but he wanted to know if I was 100 with him. I told him I was going to call the police and he said he'd kill her if I tried it. So I asked him what he wanted and he went off on this elaborate scheme to destroy Mandy. I don't… I didn't get why he'd want to do that.
"Than he told me he knew about Bekki, about his daughter. I froze. He continued rambling on about how Amanda was a bitch and a slut for taking his daughter away. Of course, I was there for Bekki's birth and Mandy sent me Christmas cards once a year with Bekki's yearly achievements. I knew her first word, when she took her first steps… I don't know how he found out."
"Scott, what did Tony ask you to do?" Sara interrupted, her patience wearing thin and her emotions running on little adrenaline.
"To kill them all. I was friends with them all too," he said, pain shining in his eyes. "You don't understand how painful it was to… to…" Sara's emotions were hanging by a thread as she fought to keep herself under control. It wouldn't do to breakdown in the middle of an interrogation and she wasn't going to start now. She could picture Scott assaulting her friends. Part of her wanted to hit him and another part wanted to tell him that it would be okay, that he would be home to his family before he knew it.
"Why did you keep going?" She berated herself for the shakiness she just couldn't keep from her voice.
"He still had Clare and he told me he'd take Ali and Ross next."
"Why Lauren?"
"What about Lauren? I swear he only told me to get Emily and Ellen. And he was there the whole time. I couldn't get out of it. I haven't seen or talked to Lauren in… years."
"Anna?"
"Talked on the phone with her last week." His voice turned pleading. "I didn't do anything to Lauren or Anna and nothing to do with Mandy. Sara, you've got to believe me!" Sara struggled to keep herself withdrawn when she was being pulled into the emotional abyss that had been created.
"How was everything supposed to go down?" Sara could feel the tension from the other room and hoped every one was doing okay. This case had been especially hard on her and Catherine and she sent a mental prayer for the older woman's sanity.
"Your Banning provided the morphine in little darts."
"Like this one?" Sara threw a dart, firmly sealed in an evidence bag, on the table. She'd taken it to show him, to prove that they had him.
"Just like that. Gave me three for Ellen and four for Emily." Sara puffed out a breath.
"And me?" she managed to squeak out. She then mentally kicked herself for losing the tenuous control she held on her emotions.
"Sir, out of my hands… Tony did train himself to use those things made of bamboo that jungle tribes use." Sara nodded, looking away from him.
"Is that it? Can I call Ali? Tell her I won't be home?" Sara stood and moved to the door.
"In a minute," she said and left. She didn't know how she got in the observation room but when she opened the door Catherine, Nick and Grissom were standing there stunned. She watched Catherine turn and roll her eyes at the two men before approaching Sara.
The brunette collapsed into Catherine's arms and began to cry.
This one is really emotion packed… I hope you guys enjoyed it. I feel so bad writing this, same like I felt writing the two chapters originally in Subtle. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this at least a little more than I did writing it.
Kavi Leighanna