Sara and Nick returned within the week from Portland. Daniel Elliot's next of kin was quite co-operative and seemed shocked and upset at the news of his death. Elliot's house took a lot of work to sort through as it was a complete mess. They found nothing that was any help except a small black book in the back of his closet. It held a list of names that were obviously his customers, and a code to where he was to meet each one. Other than that, the rest was rubbish. The local CSI team had been very helpful and had pretty much left them to it. They had both returned quite hopeful that the book would help them.
There were 21 names in all in the book and each CSI was given seven names to look up. Catherine was given the job to go to the meeting places, or get Brass to sent some cops to the ones further a field to check them out. It took a long time to go through each of them, but once it was done they all gathered back into the evidence room, around the table, looking rather glum.
"Okay Sara, you first."
Sara sighed.
"Nothing. Five dead – from overdoses and the other two had alibi's according to Brass when he talked to them."
Catherine merely nodded, not showing any emotion.
"Nick?"
Nick's expression said it all.
"Three dead, three alibi's and a cabbage from an overdose."
"Warrick."
"One dead, four alibi's and two 'cabbages'."
He replied using Nick's description.
"What about you?"
Nick asked. Catherine shook her head.
"They were all old rundown places that looked like he hadn't been there a while. Some had even been burnt down. There was nothing in them to suggest anyone had been there. I'd already figured it was an old book, otherwise he would have taken it with him. So whoever the killer was must have been in the new book, and must have taken it with him."
There was a long pause after that, as Catherine dropped her pen onto the table, defeated. No-one seemed willing to speak or voice what they all knew deep down. This was one that got away.
"What now?"
Sara asked, breaking the silence. The others all looked up at her. Catherine shrugged, shaking her head slightly.
"That's it. There's nothing left to burn."
She said quietly.
"No. I won't accept that. We must have missed something."
Sara said determined.
"Sara we've been through the evidence a dozen times or more."
Nick told her sadly.
"No, we missed something. I won't accept that this is it. This is Grissom we're talking about, we can't just give up on his case."
She stood and stormed out of the room to collect the evidence they had. They watched her leave, then Nick and Warrick looked at Catherine.
"It's your call. You're the boss."
"I don't know where to go with this anymore. We've been through everything. I just don't see what else there is to go through. Have we really missed something?"
"I don't think so."
Warrick says.
"And I think Sara knows it as well. She's put 100% into the evidence, she's been over it even more than us. She just needs time to realise that we can't win every case. It's just frustrating that out of all the cases the most important one is the one we can't carry on with."
"Maybe one day we'll find something that will solve the case, but right now there are no more leads to this."
Warrick said.
"And we all agree on this?"
Catherine asked sadly. They nodded.
"And what about Sara?"
"I'll go talk to her."
Nick said, standing up. Once he was gone Warrick and Catherine looked at each other.
"What do you think we should tell Jade?"
Catherine asked.
"I'll sit her down and tell her...the truth I guess. She'll understand. She knows what evidence can be like."
"It's going to hit her hard though."
"Yeah. I'll go and tell her now. The sooner the better I think."
Catherine nodded and followed him out. She found Brass heading towards her as she walked to her office.
"How's things? Any leads?"
He asked, following her into the office and sitting down with her.
"Nothing."
"So...?"
"So that's it. Case Pending. Unsolved."
Brass nodded.
"Grissom would understand you having to move on to another case you know."
He said, understanding part of why Catherine was so down heartened.
"I know. When he goes through the evidence he'll come to the same conclusion, but I still feel awful about it. If it was one of us he'd have done everything he could to find the killer."
"And you did. There is nothing else for you to do. You guys have all put your lives on hold since Grissom was injured. It's time to move on. Grissom will pull through this, you've got to believe that. And you've got to carry on – there are other people out there that need you."
Catherine gave the Officer a small smile and concurred with a small nod. Standing up, she picked up a small piece of card with the case file name and number, and a small description on it, and moved over to Grissom's fish board, pinning it up carefully on the fishes fin. She took a breath, turned around and moved on.
*****
Nick entered the lab to find Sara next to the table, all the evidence – photo's, lab reports, bags with physical evidence in – scattered across the table where they'd left it. She was just sitting there staring at it all.
"Sara?"
"I know, I know. It's just hard to accept. There's four of us, and all this evidence and we just can't find that damn clue that will give us everything."
"Yeah, it's an arse isn't it."
He said sitting next to her.
"I just didn't want to let Grissom down, you know?"
"And you haven't. He'll appreciate everything you've done and that's still more than you even needed to do. You've put 110% into this case and it's going to be hard but you have to let it go. The main thing is Grissom's still alive and each day he's getting a little better. There's every chance that he'll pull out of this."
"You're right. I know you're right. And I guess...one day maybe we'll have the ability and evidence to solve this, unfortunately it's not now."
She looked down and Nick reached across and put an arm around her shoulder.
"It'll be okay."
"Yeah. Suppose we'd better go and get our next case from Catherine."
Sara said.
"Let's pack this away first though."
Nick said, leaning over to grab the case file box. Then slowly the sorted through the evidence and packed it away neatly. The box was then taken to the storage room and placed, up on top of one of the shelves.
Heading back to the break room they found Catherine in there with Warrick. Sara smiled at them and took a seat one the sofa next to Catherine.
"So, you got a new case for us?"
"Yeah. You and Nick have a homicide down on the strip. We've got a body found in the desert."
She said gesturing to herself and Warrick. Sara and Nick nodded, taking the folder and left the room. Catherine took a breath.
"Ready?"
Warrick asked her.
"Ready."
She replied.
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