The Search by SLynn
Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine.
Spoilers: Everything up to 'Nesting Dolls' in Season 5 although I doubt seriously I drag all that up.
Day Six
Sara tried not to let her fear of heights get to her. Not today. But hovering, and there really was no better way to describe it, literally hovering over the city of Las Vegas wasn't an easy thing for her. Still, she didn't complain.
Sara sat right next to Brass and opposite Nick. She and Nick were looking out the left side, Warrick and Brass the east. The four of them sat facing each other, binoculars in hand peering out the windows.
It was slow work.
They'd started at eight, nearly four hours ago, and whether it be fortunate or not had yet to spot anything significant.
Part of her was glad. Extremely glad. As long as there were no bodies to spot she could hold out hope a little longer. But it was waning.
The other part of her, the realist, knew that in order for anyone to have closure on this they needed their bodies. It was a tough thought but true. If they never found Grissom or Greg part of them would always wonder what really happened.
And they all needed to know that.
The cement runoff that Greg's wallet had been found in turned into a shallow creek just outside of the city. The followed that up into the hills and canyons where the supposed trail Grissom and Greg should have intersected it. The creek still had running water in it and they'd been told by park services that it regularly flooded. It was very unlikely that a body would have gotten far as it was also overgrown with trees and branches. The party had circled back several times to recheck thicker groves over and over throughout the day. So far, nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The search went on until they'd almost run out of creek to search.
"Anything?" Brass asked over the radio headset they each wore. They all heard the uneasiness in his voice.
Sara shook her head as Nick and Warrick both gave verbal negatives.
"Isn't this about as far up as the trail?" Warrick asked, casting a brief glance at Brass.
"Yeah," was the curt reply.
After circling for the fourth time Sara felt Nick press her foot with his. She looked up and he met her eyes and then looked out the window. Leaning in, aware he didn't want to say anything to raise any expectations she watched as he silently pointed. Straining for several seconds she saw it. Her short nod was enough for Nick.
"Brass," he said into his radio, "I think we got something over here."
"What?" he asked, both him and Warrick turning at once.
"It's shiny," Sara said picking up her binoculars for a better look, "small."
"I think it's a phone," Nick said.
Brass nodded and then contacted the pilot.
It took them fifteen minutes to find a suitable place to land and another fifteen to walk down to the creek.
"About where was it?" Warrick asked as they looked around the area.
"Looked different from the air," Nick said with a shake of his head. "Over here I think."
They walked towards the edge of the creek near a tree whose roots had overgrown into the embankment. Near it Nick found what he'd been looking for.
Nick, putting on gloves, crouched down and picked it up.
"Lab issue," he said as he flipped it open, "Batteries either dead or the water fried it. Won't start but…"
Nick trailed off as he realized that the other three hadn't joined him. Were still about ten feet away, staring even.
"What?" he asked standing.
Warrick gave a slight nod of his head at the tree, the part still in the water.
"What?" he asked again, not sure what they meant.
"Come over here Nicky," Brass said, waving him over as he spoke.
Nick turned round, facing the tree and creek as he walked backwards. After several feet he saw what had stopped them. It hadn't been visible from so close up and he'd been so intent on the phone he'd never seen it.
"Something hit it," he said his voice in awe.
"Someone hit it," Brass corrected.
You could see the broken branches where the impact had been made. The current wasn't fast now, but rushing off the mountains as it had been a few days ago it would have been much swifter. Too strong to swim in. A person falling in would have been forced to go whichever way the current carried them. And someone had been carried down stream and hit this tree, hard.
Reluctant, they all approached it now. The breaks in the branches were still fresh. Warrick snapped a few pictures, letting out a sigh.
"Give me a hand here," Warrick said to Nick, putting the camera down and pulling out his tweezers.
Leaning out as far as he dared, Warrick snatched something off one of the lower branches. Nick stood by, ready to pull him back if he needed the help but Warrick managed without him.
"What do you think," he said holding up the scrap, "denim?"
"Looks like it," Sara agreed knowing that meant it was Greg. Grissom hardly ever wore jeans to a scene.
Nick was now looking over the edge into the water. Down into the murky water. After a minute they all were.
It was definitely dark enough to hide a body. It looked deep enough too.
"What do you think?" Brass asked him.
Nick just nodded.
They all continued to stare down at the water as if a face would just appear. Rise up and greet them.
"Let's look around first," Warrick suggested, knowing that the other two men were thinking about going in to remove any doubt.
Sara agreed right away. She was suddenly wishing she'd opted out like Catherine had. Not sure she could see it. Them. Either of them. Dead and cold. Bloated and waterlogged. It was too much to think about.
The each scanned about, looking for anything obvious. Sara headed off towards a group of trees that looked like a fairly good shelter.
As she got closer, she was amazed to see what looked like two easily identifiable indents. It had rained for the past three nights so they couldn't be too old. Kneeling down near the marks she could see that they were nearly side by side. It was easy to imagine they'd both been here, each leaned against a tree, possibly sleeping through the night.
"Nick," she called out.
He didn't waste time asking what she'd found, just came over to see for himself.
"Does that look like blood?" she asked.
"We can find out," Nick said opening his case and swabbed the area she'd indicated.
It looked a few days old at least, the rain had sheltered the spot but it still diluted the sample. Sure enough, it came back positive.
"We can type it at the lab," Nick said bagging the sample, "We've got them both on file, see whose it is."
"Well," Sara said looking back at the creek, "it's got to be Greg's. His wallet was found, denim on the branches. Looks like he made it out."
"Sara," Nick started warmly, "don't get your hopes up. He could have been hurt before he…before."
"Hey," she said ignoring that last part and picking something up off to the side, "duct tape?"
She'd found a discarded piece, like someone had torn off too much.
"Well considering the rain, there's still a lot of blood here. Someone bled a lot. They might have used it to stop the flow."
Sara nodded. They'd of used whatever they had handy. Whatever Greg had carried in his case.
"Find anything?" Warrick asked, joining them now.
"Some blood," Sara supplied, "duct tape. We think they stayed here at least one night."
"I think I found something better," Warrick said, moving away and indicating for them to follow.
They didn't walk far.
"That doesn't happen on accident," Nick said shaking his head with a small smile playing on his lips.
Someone, either Greg or Grissom, had left them an arrow out of driftwood. It pointed down the incline, back to the trail.
"Look at this," Warrick said, pointing to one of the felled trees. It was easy to see someone had broken off one of the larger branches.
"He made a crutch," Sara said sounding bright for the first time in days, "Greg must have fell in somehow, hit that tree and hurt his leg. But he got out and Grissom made him a crutch."
Nick nodded. He could buy that. Wanted too.
Warrick nodded as well, less optimistic but this was something. No way either one of them walked away from here if the other drown. There was just no way. Sara's explanation was the only one.
The three of them met back up with Brass and quickly caught him up. He didn't hesitate to get with the copter pilot before pulling out the maps for a review.
"Look at this," Brass said pointing it out to them, "We're about seventeen miles from country one-oh-eight. This trail looks like it heads straight for it. They might be out on that road now."
"Let's go," Nick said not wanting to waste anymore time.
"Can't," the pilot returned, "we've got enough fuel to get back to McCarran and that's it."
"We'll radio back," Brass assured him, "have uniforms start patrolling it. They might already be there."
"What if they went this way," Warrick said, moving his hand down the map in the opposite direction, "They don't have a map. They don't know that they're that close to real road."
The other direction was longer, through the Dead Land Wash, but still bordered by the five-fifteen.
"I'll have them go up and down that road as well," Brass said with a nod, "Cover all bets. Who knows, we may just catch a break."
"It's about time," Warrick returned.
"You guys got everything you need?" Brass asked, eager to spread the word and continue the search.
"Yeah," Nick answered, "we're good."
"Good," Brass said nodding once to the pilot. "Let's get this bird in the air."
They all got in and strapped themselves down. It wasn't as good as actually finding them alive, but at least now they had hope again. It was more then they'd imagined they'd have at the end of the day. Much more then they'd believed possible but it really looked as if Grissom and Greg were still out there, still moving forward.
They were still alive.
