Pause
Nick tried not to jump when Paige grabbed his hand. She was trying to get his attention. It was the fifth time she'd done that.
For some reason, he couldn't concentrate on the next move. Well, the reason wasn't a mystery, though he kept it from her. He kept seeing Paige fire that final shot. The man was already down, and yet she made sure he would never get up again.
Was that the real plan? Nick didn't know if he could kill everyone who was after him, even if it was to protect himself. Had he delivered those fatal shots to the other men? He tried not to shudder.
Part of him screamed that it was wrong—what he did and what Paige did. Even though he knew "they" were basically evil, Nick couldn't . . . murder them. He would rather just be killed, if nothing else than to avoid doing something so inherently wrong.
"Nick," Paige said, again drawing his wandering attention. "You with me?"
He just nodded.
"Okay," she said, turning back to a map. "Since yesterday didn't get us where I thought it would, we have to go to the next level."
Nick wondered how many levels there were.
"We're going after the head of the program," Paige said. "His name is Jamison." She pointed to a dot on a map of New York.
"He's in New York?" Nick asked, finally finding his voice and a bit of focus. Paige nodded.
"There's a building off Broadway. That's where he is." She looked him in the eye. "You ready?"
No, Nick thought, but nodded anyway.
"The three vics were all male, estimated ages for all were between 30-45," Warrick cited off.
"Estimated?" Catherine raised an eyebrow at the guess work.
"No ID," Warrick said. "And amazingly enough, the building lease agent knows nothing about the company, or any of the men."
A weird silence crept into the conversation for a moment, until Grissom poked his head into the room.
"But they did have briefcases," he said. He held up a document in one hand as a victorious smirk started to play on his face. Sara and Catherine glanced at each other, then back at their boss. Suddenly they leaned forward.
Gil put the document on the table. "I don't know what this means, but I do know that it references New York." He pointed to one paragraph.
Sara read it aloud. "'Be advised it's recommended to close the dam and divert water to the city.'" She stopped and looked to Grissom. "And you got New York out of that . . . how?"
Gil frowned and studied the paper closer. His face lit up and he pointed again at the document. "Next paragraph. Sorry."
Sara sighed but read it aloud. "'The broadway will carry better results, with less risk from southwestern rodents. Liberty city presents less exposure to such rodents.'"
Sara, Catherine and Warrick all looked to their boss, questions in their eyes.
"I'm sorry," Catherine said, "but I'm still not seeing it." Warrick nodded with a raised eyebrow.
"Liberty city is New York," Gil said, looking to his stupefied colleagues. "Statue of Liberty?"
The others weren't convinced.
"Well, that narrows it down," Catherine said sarcastically. Grissom sighed.
"Well, I don't know what the rest of this is supposed to mean, but I have a sickening suspicion that 'southwestern rodents' refers to Paige Landry and Nick."
Sara raised her hand. "What does the water thing mean?"
"I'm speculating here. This isn't a word-for-word translation," Grissom said, a little fed up with his team's response. "It could just be gibberish for all I know."
Catherine cleared her throat and tried to hide the amused smile on her face. "So what next?"
Gil took a deep breath.
"Run the victims' face through facial recognition," he said. "If we can get a lead, we'll take it. If nothing turns up, I'm sending Warrick to New York anyway."
The tall CSI nodded. "Got it." Grissom turned to leave the room, but Warrick called out.
"There's just something I need to clarify," he said. Gil turned back as Warrick shuffled his feet and glanced at the floor. Gil waited for something, but Warrick was quiet.
"'Rick?"
He nodded. "Uh, are we . . . are we tracking down Nick because of the murders, or are we helping him?"
Sara and Catherine's heads snapped towards Gil to see his answer. Grissom took another deep breath. Evidently, the same question was on their minds.
"From the surveillance tapes, it looks like Nick and Paige could easily have been the victims themselves," he started slowly. "We know, even if we can't prove it directly, that these men were involved in what's been happening to Nick." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Even if Nick did shoot one of them, I'm calling it self-defense."
Catherine waited as Travis the lab tech processed the bullets from the . . . "victims." That's how Catherine thought of them.
A clink of metal sounded as Travis dropped a bullet into a dish and placed it under a large scope. She held her breath as Travis leaned and studied the bullet.
"Hmm," the blonde technician said, taking his time. "Take a look." As Catherine did, Travis moved onto another bullet.
"Which vic is this from?" Catherine asked, looking at the first bullet.
"Number 1," Travis said. "It matches Vic #2, the fatal shot, anyway. I've got the point blank shot from Vic #3 too." He frowned into another scope as Catherine looked up. "Hmm."
Catherine rolled her eyes. "Let me see." Her chest was tight with anticipation as she grabbed the dish and put two bullets side by side under her scope. Both had striations . . .
. . . and they matched.
She breathed out quickly the tension she felt. "They match." Her relief puzzled Travis.
"And that means . . ."
"It means Paige Landry fired the fatal shots on the victims," Catherine quickly filled in. "We have surveillance that shows Paige killing Vic #3."
Travis started to nod.
"So if the bullet she fired matches the others, she's the primary suspect," he said.
"Not just that," Catherine said, a bit somberly. "It means Nick didn't cross the line."
She hoped Nick didn't do anything to change that.
a/n: I hope you guys are still liking this. With everything else going on, I feel I'm not getting too creative anymore on this. But let me know if you like it. We're getting there . . .