Disclaimer/Author's Note – See Chapter One.

Chapter Six - Connections

'Catherine. Have you seen Grissom?' Nick called out to the strawberry blonde CSI as she and Brass rounded the corner towards the DNA lab.

'Just got back from an interview, Nick,' she replied with a shake of her head. 'Why? You got something?'

The Texan handed her the printouts he'd been carrying. She read them and then handed them to Brass as Nick explained. 'Grissom had me going over missing persons. I found two cases that got me interested. A teenage couple went missing two days after Clive and Mary.'

'I hope that's just a coincidence,' Catherine replied, not believing the likelihood of that for one second.

'I'll put a call out,' Brass said. 'But, if it's not a coincidence, then we're probably already too late.'

'The second case is another missing person's case from over a year ago. Couple went missing together, and then the boyfriend turned up with an interesting tale about his girlfriend's violent proclivities. She's still missing.'

'He could be coving up for something he did to her…' Catherine speculated.

'Maybe…' Nick replied. 'Or maybe she found herself a guy more suited to her tastes. Either way, we should probably check it out.'

'Come on,' Brass told him. 'I'll put that other call out from the car.'

'You coming, Cath?'

'You go ahead. I have my own lead to check out,' she replied, gesturing to the samples in her hand.

George Matthews appeared to the outside world a capable, confident young man of 19. But when Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle showed up at his door that night, he turned into a wreck.

'It's Cathy. Isn't it?' he asked them as soon as they had identified themselves, his hands shaking, fear flashing in his eyes. 'They went after her again…'

Grissom and Sara shared a look of confusion, before attempting to set his mind at ease. 'Sir, we're just here to talk to you about the incident you were involved in six months ago,' Sara told him. 'You and your girlfriend were kidnapped?'

His fear changed to confusion. 'The police already interviewed me… and Cathy…' he looked from Sara to Grissom and back again. 'Did you find the psychos who did it? Is that why you're here?'

'We haven't found them,' Grissom replied. 'But we think they might be involved in several recent murders. We were hoping you could tell us as much as you can remember about them.'

'Murders? Oh god…'

'Lana was wild. You know?'

Simon Anders was a clean cut 18-year-old, but according to him, he hadn't always been that way. 'I was going through… a rebellious phase back then. Lana and me… we thought we were Clarence and Alabama.'

Brass made a noise of confusion.

'True Romance,' Nick told him. Brass still looked lost. 'It's a movie.'

Shrugging, Brass looked back at Simon. 'So, you and Lana took off.'

'Yeah. We had that whole 'our parents don't understand us' vibe going on. So we took off, went as far as we could on the money we had, then I got some work in a diner. But Lana got bored, started doing drugs…'

'You didn't join her?' Brass wanted to know.

'Me?' Simon looked at Brass and shrugged. 'Look… you know the score. A little bit of weed, everyone does it. But the stuff she was taking – uppers, downers, speed, LSD… When she started onto heroin, I was outta there. Not my scene.'

'That the only reason you left?' Nick asked him. 'Police report at the time mentioned something about Lana's behaviour.'

'The chick was getting weird, man,' Simon replied. 'Like, full on weird. Picking fights in the diner I was working at. Mostly with couples. Or teenaged girls who came in to eat – said they were flirting with me… Nearly got me fired. Then she came home one night with a knife…'

'A knife?' Brass cut in. 'What kind?'

'A big old hunting knife,' Simon told him with a shudder. 'She got high and started telling me how she was planning to use it… That's the night I left. Psycho bitch started talking about killing people.'

'Cathy left for college a month after it happened,' George was telling them. 'She had planned on going to Western LVU, but…' He shook his head. 'She said she couldn't stay after… what happened.'

'What did happen?' Sara asked him. 'How did they get you in their car?'

'We… uh, we were parked. Out in the desert… And we were… you know… Fooling around,' George blushed a little. 'Next thing we knew, some guy had a gun in my face and Cathy had a knife at her throat… They made us get out and get into their car. The girl sat in the back with Cathy – said if I didn't behave she'd cut her head off…'

His voice had begun to choke up. Sara leaned forward supportively. 'It's okay. Take your time,' she told him.

After a short pause, George continued. 'They drove us out to the middle of nowhere. The girl was terrorising Cathy with that knife, threatening her the while time. Saying crazy things…'

'What kind of crazy things?' Grissom wanted to know.

'She kept saying, 'Are you guys in love? True love?' And she asked… she asked if she should cut us open… see what our hearts said.'

Grissom and Sara shared another look. 'What about the guy?' Sara asked. 'Did he say anything?'

George shook his head. 'He didn't say much. I told… I begged the girl not to hurt Cathy. Told her to leave her alone… Her boyfriend… he didn't like that, so he punched me. Broke my nose. But he didn't really say much. The girl was running the show.'

'Did you ever get their names?' Grissom asked. 'Or could you describe their faces?'

'She was pretty… but in a hard way. Bleached hair… Not much taller than Cathy. So, about 5'6'', maybe? He was tall – around 6 foot, 6'2'' maybe… dark hair... I didn't hear his name. But he called her Alabama.'

Catherine came out of DNA, disappointed. Her suspect was a dead end – it wasn't Stacey Marks' DNA or fingerprints at either one of their scenes. She was back to square one.

Turning into the break room, she heard Warrick called her name. He and Greg followed her in.

'Please, tell me you got something,' she asked as she poured herself a much needed cup of coffee.

'Oh, we got something alright. Greg here found our suspect's car - following Clive and Mary the night they were murdered – and matched the licence plate number to a Lana Tyler.'

'Lana Tyler?' Nick asked as he walked into the break room, taking off his jacket. 'You sure on the name?'

'Yeah,' Greg replied. 'We checked to see if she had a record and she came up as a missing person.'

'Well, Brass and me just talked to her ex-boyfriend, and she's got a history of drug-use, violent behaviour… Not to mention the big hunting knife she got her hands on the night he walked out on.'

'A hunting knife?' Catherine said, taking a seat. 'Like the kind that cut out the hearts of our four victims?'

'Make that six victims,' Brass interjected from the doorway. 'Just got a call. Patrol found your other missing couple, Nick. Sliced and diced like the first two couples.'

'Going by George's story, this sounds like our perps,' Sara was saying as they drove back towards the labs, Grissom at the wheel.

'There's nothing concrete to support that yet, Sara,' Grissom replied in his usual even tone. 'Let's not get ahead of the evidence.'

'I'm just saying it sounds like their MO,' Sara replied, trying to keep her annoyance in check. 'I'm not drawing any conclusions…'

'What about the other cases you were reviewing? Any red flags?'

'A few – maybe two more that were very similar to our two cases. One just east of Barstow. Another about 60 miles west of Vegas. Teenaged couples, middle of the desert. Mutilation – but their hearts were still where they're supposed to be…'

'So, maybe that part's new to their MO…' Grissom speculated. 'They're evolving… maybe it has something to do with Valentine's day. Or maybe they're decompensating.'

'Which means they'll start making mistakes,' Sara said, crossing her fingers.

'Hopefully,' Grissom sighed, squinting his eyes against the glare of the oncoming traffic's headlights. He fell silent.

'You okay?' Sara asked him after a few moments. She noticed a hint of pain in his blue eyes.

'Yeah…' he replied, squinting again. 'Just a headache.'

'Want me to drive?'

'No, I'm fine,' he lied. She could tell.

'Pull over, Grissom.'

He looked at her and opened his mouth to protest, but he saw the concern in her eyes. Sighing, he flipped on the car's indicator and pulled over at the side of the dirt road. Putting the car in park, he raised his hand to his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off the headache.

'I'll be fine in a few minutes.'

All of a sudden, he felt her fingertips gently touch the back of his neck and begin to massage the taut muscle there. He let out a soft sigh as he felt the tension begin to melt away in the presence of her touch.

'I think you missed your calling, Sara,' he told her softly.

'Well… I'm a woman of many talents,' she replied with a smile.

'Of that I have no doubt,' he told her as he closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax. 'So, uh…Valentine's Day is tomorrow.'

'Is it?' Sara replied, as her fingers continued to deftly rub his neck.

'So… given your distaste for the day, I guess I shouldn't plan anything…'

Her fingers stilled. 'You were going to plan something?'

'Well… I don't know. Maybe… but if you hate Valentine's that much…'

He was baiting her. She could hear the teasing in his voice. With a smirk, she squeezed the back of his neck.

'Hey!' he objected.

'You know full well I was only ranting for the sake of ranting.'

He looked at her and smirked. 'I know.'

'So… what you had planned…?'

'Is a surprise,' he told her softly, his eyes flicking to her lips. In one slow move, he closed the distance between them and was kissing her.

She felt her body respond to him instantly, her hand moving from the back of his neck, up into the soft curls of his hair. With a soft moan, he pulled her closer to him, sliding one of his hands along her upper spine and into her hair, making her shudder with anticipation.

The kiss deepened, their mutual desire, their need for each other, become more apparent with each passing second. Sara lost herself completely to the kiss, blocking out everything but the touch of Grissom's lips. Until the sound of a car slowing down broke through her blissful cloud and startled her back to reality.

The interior of the car was temporarily bathed in the glow of headlights, before the car rounded them and was gone, disappearing into the darkness of the night. Sara breathed a long, deep sign of relief.

'That was close.'

'That was careless,' Grissom said, guiltily. Sara looked at him. He looked thoroughly ashamed of himself. 'I'm sorry, Sara. I don't know what came over me.'

'Don't be sorry, Grissom… Sure, we got a little carried away, but…'

'But that's exactly how those other couples were caught. Parked in the middle of nowhere… distracted.'

Sara's eyes widened as the realisation hit her full. 'Man… now you're creeping me out, Gris.'

Just then, Grissom's cell phone bleated and Sara jumped, barely stifling a small scream of surprise. He arched an eyebrow at her, his guilt temporarily replaced by amusement at her jumpiness. He flicked the cell phone open.

'Grissom.'

'Gris? Nick,' Nick Stokes' voice came down the line. 'We've had some developments at this end. We have the name of a suspect… And another murdered couple.'

'Where?'

'The desert again. About 6 miles from Lake Mead, just off Robertson Road.'

'Who's the suspect?'

'A Lana Tyler. 17 years old. Ran off with her boyfriend a year and a half ago. He left her after she started talking about killing folks with the hunting knife she bought herself. We have her and what's probably her new boyfriend on camera, tailing Clive and Mary the night they went missing. Warrick ran the plates and they came back to her.'

'Lana…' Grissom thought for a moment. 'We just interviewed someone who was kidnapped with his girlfriend six months ago – possibly by our killer couple. He says that the girl was going by the name Alabama.'

'True Romance, Gris,' Nick told him.

'What?'

'Geez, you're as bad as Brass. It's a movie. Lana's ex-boyfriend said they thought they were Clarence and Alabama from True Romance. She must have found a new Clarence…'

'Have Warrick enhance the image you have on tape, and show it to our kidnap victim. Sounds like these cases are connected.'

'Sure thing, boss.'

'We're not too far from the new scene,' Grissom then told him. 'See you there.'

He hung up. Starting the car once more, he looked as Sara, his expression grim.

'New scene?' Sara asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

'Another couple have been found,' Grissom told her, shifting the car into drive and pulling away from the side of the road.

'And the guys have a suspect?'

'Well, we've found out who Bonnie is. We just need to identify Clyde.'

TBC.