Disclaimer/Author's Note – See Chapter One
Chapter Eight - Regret
Elaine Alcott sat on a chair across the room from Catherine, clearly devastated. Eyes red with crying, she bravely tried to answer Catherine and Brass's questions.
'I saw him last week. We were engaged, but he had been getting cold feet lately. He wasn't sure he was the 'forever' sort of person,' she told them. 'We decided to have a break from each other for a while.'
'Were you aware of any other women in his life?' Catherine asked.
'There was someone. A few years ago. I…' she hesitated for a moment, 'I never knew her name,' Elaine replied sadly. Catherine shot Brass and uncomfortable look. 'He told me he ended it.'
'And you just let it go?' Brass wanted to know.
'He said it was over. I accepted it. Neither of us were angels in the early days,' Elaine insisted.
'Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Hank?' Catherine asked her. 'Any enemies? Anyone he might have pissed off?'
'No. No one. Hank was one of those guys that everyone liked,' Elaine broke down. 'I can't understand. Why would anyone do this to him?'
Grissom had sat at his desk for two hours, staring at the same maggot under the microscope. Finally he gave in and left. Now, as he drove to Sara's apartment, he wasn't sure of his real motivation for going there. To see if she was okay? Or just to see her? The confusion that he had felt during the past few years had intensified to the point of desperation. So analytical in his professional life, he was suddenly without the ability to reason. He had no idea where he and Sara would go from here. But he knew that things couldn't continue as they were.
Pulling into a parking space in front of her building, he noticed that her SUV was gone. Looking towards Sara's apartment, he saw the front door ajar. Panicking, he jumped out of his Denali and sprinted up the steps, drawing his gun on the way. Pushing the door the rest of the way open with his foot, he peered in. No one was there. Looking around to make sure, he spotted a now familiar sight waiting for him on the coffee table.
Another note.
You once said that nothing's personal. No victim should be special.
Will you feel the same when you're digging a bullet out of Sara?
As he ran back to his car, his cell phone rang. He answered it as he climbed back into his SUV.
'Gil. Brass has just hit pay dirt with his contact in the LAPD,' Catherine's voice came down the line. 'Jill had a TRO issued against her by Tom Haviland. She was obsessed with him…'
'Catherine,' Grissom cut her off as he pulled out of the car park. 'Get ahold of Brass and get him over to that warehouse. Jill's got Sara.'
Disconnecting, he flung the phone onto the dash and increased his speed. Horrific visions of a thousand crime scenes flashed across his mind. He couldn't bear the thought that the next one he arrived at would be Sara's. He had wasted so much time. He had hesitated and waited and now fate was forcing his hand. The thought that he had left things too late turned to lead in his stomach. If, somehow, things didn't end in tragedy, he knew he would choose differently in the future.