Chapter Eight
Professor Jason Talbott sat in the interrogation room across from Jim Brass. Grissom was leaning against the two-way mirror, watching the exchange between the police detective. Sara stood on the other side of the mirror, doing what Grissom had asked of her. She was forbidden to be a part of the interrogation because of the hard evidence that they had discovered on Allison Conners' body.
"Professor Talbott," Brass began, "Did you see Allison Conners' the night she was murdered?"
Talbott looked at his lawyer who nodded for him to answer Brass' question.
"Allison and I had an argument at the bar," Talbott explained, "I was trying to talk her out of going away with Rick. The kid had talked her into moving to Los Angeles and I was trying to tell her that she was too good for him."
Grissom took that moment to intervene, sitting down at the table beside Brass.
"Professor Talbott, we found significant evidence that you were with Allison after she left the bar that night. Can you explain that?"
Talbott leaned over as his lawyer whispered something in his ear.
"I waited for Allison after her shift," Talbott began again, "She didn't want to talk to me during her shift, but I had to keep her away from Rick Evans. That scumbag wasn't good for her. I just wanted a better life for her."
Sara shifted her weight slightly. She was becoming restless. Something was wrong, something about Talbott's posture, his attitude. The way he spoke about Allison with such emotion, it made Sara uncomfortable. She continued to observe the interrogation going on in front of her.
"What was Allison wearing when you talked in the bar?" Grissom asked.
"I don't really remember," Talbott said, becoming somewhat nervous, "I think her top was pink."
Sara glanced at the pictures of Allison's body when they'd pulled it out of the pond on the UNLV campus. She was wearing running pants, a pink T-shirt, and tennis shoes. Grissom had found Talbott's hair inside of Allison's shoe.
Without really thinking about it, Sara flipped open her cell phone and called the bar in Gainsville where their victim had work. The manager answered the phone.
"Mr. Jackson?" she said, "My name is Sara Sidle, I'm from the crime lab. Do you have security cameras in the bar?"
"Actually, we do," the manager told him, "Is there something I can help you with?"
"I need the footage from the night that Allison disappeared," Sara told him, "I need to know what she was wearing when she died."
"The cameras are in black and white, is that all right?"
"Its fine, just need to know what I'm looking for."
When Grissom left the interrogation room, he found Sara waiting for him in the hallway. She looked anxious, pacing the short width of the hallway.
"What've you got?" he asked, sensing her need to talk to him.
"Manager at the bar in Gainsville says he's got footage from the night Allison was murdered. I figured we could drive out there and pick up the tapes while Brass gets us a warrant to search Talbott's house and office," Sara explained, still pacing.
Grissom's hand on her shoulder stopped her. Their eyes met and Sara smiled sadly.
"I'm sorry, I just want this case to be over with," she told him.
"I understand that, Sara. And you're plan is do-able. We need to know exactly what Allison was wearing, but you either need to calm down, or go home, Sara, because I can't use you like this, you're wound too tight."
Sara nodded and took a deep breath.
"I'm fine," she told him, "I am. Let's just get moving, okay? The sooner we're done, the sooner I can get home."
"Okay," he said, nodding, "Go wait for me in my office, Sara. I need to talk to Brass and I'll meet you there."
Nick met Warrick outside of trace, holding a printout out to him.
"Blood on Erin James' bed isn't a match to Erin," Nick told him, "But it does have the eight matching markers."
"David?" Warrick asked, checking the printout.
"Hell yeah," Nick said, "Something happened in that room, man, something messed up."
"And we need to figure it out."
Grissom and Sara arrived at the bar in Gainsville in good time. Sara had fallen asleep and Gil hadn't tried to wake her. She'd slept a lot more than normal the last few days and he wasn't sure if she was coming down with something or if she simply felt comfortable enough to sleep. Which ever it was, he was glad for it, she needed to rest.
"Sara."
She jerked a little when he touched her, and sat up fully, wide awake. She looked around the interior of the car and her eyes focused on him for a second.
"Wow," she cleared her throat, "Something must be wrong, I haven't slept this much in years."
Sara stretched her arms as much as she could in the small space of the SUV and smiled at Grissom.
"Sorry I couldn't have been better company," she struggled to stifle a yawn as they both made there way out of the car.
"Sara, I really do think maybe you should take a few days off when we're through with this case," Grissom told her, "You need to catch up on your sleep... and not on company time."
Sara grinned, shaking her head, "I know, I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me. I've never been this tired in my life, Griss."
They entered the bar together and their conversation was delayed further. Sara approached the waitress behind the bar, flashing her badge.
"I need to speak with Mr. Jackson, please. My name is Sara Sidle, he's expecting me."
The waitress moved away from them and a few moments later, the manager returned with two video tapes. He gave them both to Sara.
"Have you found the man that did this to Allison?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Jackson, but we can't discuss an open case," Sara explained, "But when we get some answers, we'll let you know."
As they headed toward the exit, Grissom realized a flaw in Sara's logic. He stopped, turning back to the manager.
"Mr. Jackson? Do you have video surveillance in the parking lot?" he asked.
The manager nodded, "Course I do, I've gotta protect my girls."
Sara and Grissom stared at each other. They had an answer all along and neither of them had thought of it. Grissom went back to the bar to retrieve the video from the manager before moving back to join Sara on the walk out.
Camille James answered her front door to be greeted my CSIs Stokes and Brown. Two men she had seen more time than she cared to count lately.
"We're sorry to bother you again, Mrs. James, but Detective Brass has a few questions for you."
Brass stepped up to the front door and said, "Ma'am," as she let them in.
The three men followed Mrs. James into her living room. She sat on the couch and Brass took a seat on the coffee table opposite her, opening a notebook to take her statement.
"Mrs. James, we have reason to believe that your son and daughter were involved in a struggle that resulted in her death," Warrick explained, "We found Erin's remains buried on David's property. Mrs. James, your daughter is dead."
Tears welled up in Camille James' eyes but she didn't seem shocked at all by the news of her child's death. She shook her head, wiping tears from her eyes.
"David came over here, the night that Erin died, he was high," Mrs. James explained, "He wanted me to call her, ask her to come home. I knew he wanted money from her because I didn't have anymore to give him. So I called her. I lied to my little girl, I told her there was a family emergency and I needed her here."
Mrs. James cried harder now and the three men exchanged glances.
"Mrs. James, what happened after Erin arrived?" Brass asked.
Mrs. James shook her head again, "When Erin figured out that I lied to her, she was hysterical. She started screaming at David, telling him that he was worthless and a waste of time. She was furious and they started screaming. Erin grabbed her car keys and headed for the door but David caught her before she could leave. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the living room. They struggled a little and before I really knew what was happening, Erin was... she was outside, lying on the ground under the window."
Nick and Warrick looked at each other then, neither of them sure what exactly to say. Warrick cleared his throat before he spoke.
"How did Erin's body end up on David's property, Mrs. James?"
"We...um, David and I, we moved her," Mrs. James began again, "David went around back and found a trash can. He- he made me help him stuff Erin's body... oh, god, what have I done? My poor little girl!"
Sara and Grissom sat in the A/V lab going through hours of security video from the bar where Allison had worked. So far they hadn't found anything in the parking lot video simply because Allison's car had been parked under the street lamp that the camera had been mounted on.
"What's she wearing?" Grissom asked, glancing over her shoulder at the monitor she was staring at.
"Black skirt, from what I can tell, maybe dark blue, and a light colored shirt. Talbott said it was pink and that's definitely possible," Sara told him, pointing at the black and white image of Allison Conners on the screen, "She has on fishnet stockings and high black boots. Griss, we need to find those clothes."
He nodded and turned back to his own monitor. He pointed at the image frozen on the screen, "Green Ford Mustang. I ran the plates, they're registered to Frederick Evans. He picked her up that night, this-" he unpaused the video "-is Allison getting into the car with him. She knew he was going to be there."
"Okay," Sara said, rubbing her eyes, "We know that Allison and Rick had sex in his car and we know that he picked her up from work. We also know that Talbott waited for her that night. So do we have the footage from the parking lot when Evans dropped her off at her own car later?"
Grissom fast forwarded the video and paused it again.
"Here," he told her, "Just after two."
They both sat silently staring at the monitor. Something seemed too easy about this case, it unsettled them both.
Grissom's cell phone rang, causing them both to jump a little. He reached for it, unclipping it from his belt.
"Grissom."
The conversation was brief and Sara only heard Gil's end of it. When he disconnected the call, he turned to her, standing.
"We've got a warrant. Brass is waiting for us downstairs."
Sara nodded briefly and joined him, standing.
"Let's go."
"Stokes."
Warrick stood beside Nick as he spoke into his cell phone. They were outside of Camille James' house, watching as Brass cuffed the woman and put her in the back of his car.
Nick disconnected his call and turned to Warrick.
"They found David James' car," Nick said, "There towing it to the garage as we speak."
"Good, let's head over there," Warrick said, starting to move toward their car.
Nick turned and followed Warrick to the car and they made their way back to the lab.
Sara moved into the master bedroom of Jason Talbott's home. They had cleared the downstairs, neither of them finding any evidence of Allison Conners in the house. Sara was feeling slightly frustrated. She just wanted to find something to nail someone with Allison's murder. A young college student was dead and they'd been working her case for days with no one to blame for her death. This case was getting to her.
Moving the ALS over the sheets on the bed, she found semen and vaginal fluid. She took a sample of each and moved on to the laundry basket on the other side of the armoire. She began pulling clothing from the basket, focusing the ALS on every pair of men's pants that she pulled from the basket.
"Grissom!"
Grissom appeared in the doorway behind her.
"What'd you find?" he asked, moving to stand beside her.
"Blood," she said, holding up a pair of jeans, "And vaginal fluid."
"All right," he said, "Bag those and keep processing. If we find Allison's clothes, we've got this guy, Sara."
She nodded, taking a large evidence bag from her kit and bagging the pants. Grissom moved and left her alone to finish the room.
Sara put the bag next to her kit and opened the armoire, going through the clothes hanging there and checking the drawers. Coming up with nothing, she moved away from the room and went into the connecting bathroom.
The bathroom again produced no clothing and Sara exited in search of Grissom.
Grissom was in the bedroom of Talbott's thirteen year old daughter. It was a disaster and he was having a hard time even moving around the room as the floor was littered with clothing.
"Wow," Sara said from the doorway, "If I ever let my room get this dirty, my parents would've killed me."
Grissom shrugged, "I never owned enough clothes to let my room get this dirty. Besides, I wouldn't have been able to do my experiments in this mess."
Sara laughed a little and moved further into the room. Kneeling down, she began sorting through the clothing on the floor.
"Are you thinking that maybe Allison's clothes are buried in her somewhere, Griss?" Sara asked, picking up a pink tank-top and tossing it to the side.
"It would be a convenient way to hide something in plain sight," he replied.
Sara grumbled, "Plain sight, my ass."
At that, Grissom laughed and they continued their search in a comfortable silence, each of them moving in opposite directions around the room. Sara eventually dug under the girl's bed, producing three different diaries and a box of "love letters".
"This girl keeps everything," Sara mused, flipping through the pages of one of the journals, "This one is a couple years old."
Grissom was standing in the closet and when he didn't respond to her spoken thoughts, she looked up at him. He had stopped his search and was simply standing there, staring into the closet.
"Griss?"
He turned to her. In his left hand he was holding a black leather skirt that looked way too big for a thirteen year old and in his right hand he was holding a pair of red silk underwear.
Sara looked up at him, "I'm going to take a guess and say that those don't belong to Talbott's daughter."
"There's semen visible on the inside of the skirt and on the underwear."
They looked at each other and Sara knew that it was almost over. All they needed now was a DNA match and Jason Talbott would be in jail for murder. Sara knew what had to be done. She took another large evidence bag from her kit and opened it for him, taking the articles of clothing and labeling them.
"Are you all right?" Grissom asked quietly, noticing that she'd gone slightly pale.
"Fine, just..."
His hand was on her face before he could really think about his action and Sara smiled. She moved into his touch, wanting nothing more than to go home with him and curl up on the couch or in bed. They reluctantly pulled away from each other, both of them with serene looks gracing their features.
"We're at work," Sara mumbled.
"I know," Grissom said, "This is only gonna get worse, honey. I need to know that we're gonna be able to handle moments like this."
Sara took another step closer to him and placed a hand on his chest, "We'll be fine, Gil. I promise."
She kissed him quickly and they separated, each of them going about their needed tasks. Sara exited the room first, taking their evidence out to the car and leaving Grissom to do his final walk through of the house.
When they arrived at the lab, Sara took their evidence to Trace and dropped them off with Greg while Grissom headed straight to his office to call Brass.
"Jim, its Gil. Sara and I found Allison Conners' clothes in the professor's house," Grissom spoke into his phone, "Sara's processing what we have now and I want to talk to Talbott again when she's finished."
"Will do," Brass told him, "We'll be waiting."
Sara popped her head into his office just as he closed the phone.
"Greg got it," she said, "Vaginal fluid we found on the pants belonged to Allison as well as the blood and the rest of the clothing we found. We got him, Griss, Talbott was with Allison right before he died. He probably disposed of the body."
"All right. Let's go see him."
Grissom stood and approached Sara, turning off his office lights and walking beside her down the hall.
"Professor Talbott," Sara began, "We found these pants in the hamper at your house this afternoon. The stains I've circled in the photo are spots of vaginal fluid mixed with blood. Both of which are a positive match to Allison Conners."
"I think that you should tell us what happened to Allison."
Talbott leaned over to listen to his lawyer's advice then glanced at Sara and Grissom.
"I watched Allison get into the car with Rick that night after her shift," he began, "She was still wearing her work clothes. She looked like a slut. They parked at the other end of the lot and had sex in his car. I stood there, watching them, I didn't know what else to do. I think I may have throw up at some point. Anyway, um, Allison got out of Rick's car and he didn't even stay to make sure that she got into her car okay. I stood by and watched her get in the car, but I couldn't just let her leave."
Talbott stopped talking and Sara and Grissom glanced at each other. The room was momentarily silent before Talbott finally spoke again.
"I tried to talk to her, but she screamed at me, told me that I had no right to be there," he said, beginning to sound remorseful, "I couldn't let her go. I was in love with her and that asshole was using her, he was gonna dump her the minute they got to LA. And I tried to tell her but... but Allie just wouldn't listen!"
Sara jumped a little, startled by the change of tone in Talbott's voice. She noted the way his lawyer placed a hand on his forearm to calm him and he took a deep breath. She shifted a little in her seat before she felt Grissom's hand on her thigh. She looked over at him and gave him a week smile, silently letting him know that it was all right, she was fine.
"I pulled her out of her car... I just wanted to talk to her. She got into my car and she finally stopped screaming at me. Now, she was crying, I didn't want her to cry. I made it to the campus before..."
"Before you killed her?" Sara asked calmly. "You raped her. When she wouldn't talk to you, you forced her to have sex with you. But you didn't know that Allison was a hemophiliac. She started bleeding and you couldn't make it stop. Eventually, between the blood loss and the fact that she was struggling against you, Allison passed out. You didn't know what else to do, so you strangled her. You wrapped your hands around her throat and choked the life out of her."
"I-I didn't mean..." Talbott was sobbing now and Sara was feeling somewhat nauseated.
"Why did you redress her?" Grissom asked quietly.
"I- She was covered in blood and I didn't want anyone to see her like that," Talbott said, his breathing slowing quickly. "I took her body back to her car, I knew she had her workout clothes in the trunk. I put the pants on her and tried to clean her up a little. I-I-I'm so sorry!"
The grin on Sara's face was forced as she tried to cover her urge to vomit. She glanced at Grissom and said, "I think we're done here."
She stood abruptly and left the interrogation. As she left, she vaguely heard Brass being, "Professor Jason Talbott, you're under arrest for the murder of Allison Conners. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or ..."
Sara found the nearest trashcan and emptied the contents of her stomach. She wiped absently at her mouth as she felt Grissom's hand gently rubbing her back.
"Are you all right?" he asked quietly.
She nodded, desperately scanning for the nearest water fountain. Sensing what she needed, Grissom pointed to the hall to their left and Sara moved away from him quickly. He didn't follow her. He sat on the bench near the interrogation room and waited for her to return.
"I'm sorry," Sara said, sitting down next to him a few minutes later. She stared down at her hands as he reached over and held one of them.
"Sara, in all of the years I've known you, that is the first time I've seen you become physically ill over a case," he said gently, "Even after that decomp you and Nick worked."
Sara laughed, "Yeah, liquid man. But just because you didn't witness it, doesn't mean that it didn't happen. We were in the layout room going over evidence on his jacket... I made Nick swear that he wouldn't tell anyone."
Grissom looked at her and laughed a little.
"Come on," he told her, pulling on her hand as he stood from the bench, "I want to have a debriefing with the team before we head out."
Sara caught his use of the word 'we' and smiled, following his ascent.
A/N: This story is coming to an end and I just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to read and review. I really appreciate it!