Disclaimer/Author's Note – See Chapter One.

Chapter Nine – Tightening the Net

The teenage couple were badly beaten. Matt Hawkins, 18, had a broken nose and several lacerations to his head and arms. Karen Walker, also 18, was so battered and bloody that it was difficult to pinpoint her exact injuries.

They'd been together for a little over six months, and this had been their first Valentine's Day together. As such, Matt had done it right, presenting Karen with a dozen red roses and a silver charm bracelet before whisking her off for a romantic dinner for two. Afterwards, he made the mistake of taking her to see a movie at the Playhouse Movie Theatre, just off the strip. It was from there that they were followed, just like seven teenaged couples before them. And just like the previous couples, the murderous couple, styling themselves as Clarence and Alabama, had ensnared them in their gruesome web of violence.

Miraculously, they were both still alive.

Just as the violence was spiralling towards the final climactic double murder, a police patrol car came along the quiet stretch of desert road the killers had brought their victims to. Seeing the cop car, Clarence and Alabama fled, leaving two frightened, battered, but very much alive witnesses in their wake.

'So much for my needle in a haystack theory,' Sara mused, feeling both relieved and frustrated. Sure, this couple had been saved from a horrific death, but what about the next victims? Their killer couple had escaped and there was still no way to track them.

'They'll strike again. Soon,' Grissom statement was not a guess, it was a fact. Aside from bugs, serial and signature killers were his area of expertise. 'Their failure here will drive them to find another victim. They'll escalate. And it's still Valentine's… they'll try to find a new couple tonight.'

He looked towards the rest of his team. Catherine was already at the hospital, waiting for one of their victims to be ready to give a statement, as well as to collect their clothing for evidence. Warrick and Nick, however, were still at the crime scene – Warrick was currently casting a promising tread mark on the road, while Nick scanned the area for the smallest piece of evidence.

Grissom turned to Sara. 'Can you get over to the hospital and help Catherine.' he asked her. 'These victims may be the only lead we have.'

Sara nodded and walked quickly to the Tahoe as Grissom approached Warrick.

'What have you got?'

'Fresh tread,' Warrick answered, not looking up from his work. 'Hopefully it's our suspects' vehicle. I'll run it as soon as we get back to the lab.'

'Good. I'm going to check in with Brass, see if he has anything,' Grissom said. 'He's still running surveillance on the movie theatre, in case our perps go back tonight.'

'Yeah.' Warrick finished casting and looked up at Grissom. 'Sorry this messed up your date.'

Grissom frowned. 'Date? Who said I was on a date?'

Warrick had a playful glint in his eye, but shrugged and went back to his work. 'Guess I heard wrong. My bad…'

Sara arrived at the hospital and found Catherine being handed two brown bags filled with clothing.

'Thanks,' she told the nurse who'd collected the clothing for her. She turned as she sensed Sara's approach. 'Hey.'

'Hey,' Sara replied. 'Have you spoken to either victim yet?'

Catherine shook her head. 'The girl still isn't conscious. The boyfriend is stable, but they wanted to clean him up, get him on some painkillers before they let me see him.'

Sara nodded towards the bags Catherine now held. 'Want me to get those to the lab for you?'

'Greg's on his way to pick them up,' Catherine told her. 'So you can keep me company 'til they let us in to see Matt.'

Sara shrugged. 'Okay.'

They sat down in a quiet corner of the waiting area and Sara stared pensively at the wall in front of her. She couldn't get her head around the fact that, just over an hour ago, she was in Grissom's arms, and now she was on the job, again. There was a time she welcomed ever scrap of overtime she could get her hands on. Now she was amazed to find it inconvenient and more than a little annoying. Maybe she was growing…

She wondered how long it would take Catherine to bring up Sara's fledgling relationship with their enigmatic boss. She didn't have to wonder long.

'So. You and Grissom...'

Sara didn't look at her. 'Uh huh.'

Catherine raised an eyebrow. 'Is that all I get? An 'uh huh'?'

'Yup.'

Catherine sighed. 'Fine. Whatever. I don't need to know details.'

'Good.'

Catherine shot Sara a look of frustrated disbelief. She'd only been dating Grissom for five minutes and already she had adopted his tight-lipped, closed-off routine. Always up for a challenge, Catherine wasn't going to let this fact deter her from getting as many details as possible.

Catherine took a breath, ready to try again when a doctor approached the waiting CSIs.

'You can talk to Matt for a few minutes now.'

'They were crazy,' Matt was saying, his voice muffled from the painkillers and the surgical packing around his broken nose. 'The girl was wild, she scratched and punched Karen, waving her knife around and ranting about 'true love'.'

Despite being in the relative safety of his private hospital room, Matt was still visibly shaken and very scared. His eyes kept darting towards the door as if he expected the murderous pair to burst in and finish him off.

A flash of fear suddenly passed across his face. He tried to still up, but the drugs and his injuries made him sink back into his pillows with a groan. But the urgency in his eyes never diminished. 'Karen! Where is she? Is she okay?'

'She's fine,' Sara reassured him. 'The doctors are with her and she's going to pull through.'

With a sigh of relief, Matt lay back and closed his eyes, the weight of his fear dispelling temporarily.

'Is there anything you can tell us, Matt?' Catherine asked him. 'Anything at all that can help us catch your attackers. Their car, maybe?'

Matt thought for a moment, trying to focus his pain and drug-hazed mind. There was something… Something he had told himself to remember. To tell the police…

'The car,' he said, the information finally coming to him. 'Dark colour. Dark blue or… black, maybe? A Jetta.'

Sara and Catherine exchanged a hopeful glance. 'Did you see the plate number, Matt?' Sara asked him.

'I can't remember it all…' he said, angry with himself. 'I saw it as they drove away… 9, 3, 6, M… T… I can't remember the last letter… I'm sorry.'

'No, that's great, Matt,' Sara told him with a reassuring smile. 'You did great.'

Warrick frowned at the computer as it took it's time coming up with a response. He had fed the tread mark that he lifted from the scene into the computer, and now the seconds ticked by slowly while the database compared it with everything on record.

Greg had called a quick 'hello' to him five minutes before, as he arrived with the evidence collected from Catherine at the hospital. Ever the scientist, Warrick knew that Greg would be doing double-time helping Mia to process the evidence, to ensure they had an answer ASAP. Everyone was working flat out to come up with something. But Warrick couldn't help but feel a little pessimistic. No matter what came of the evidence in the lab, nothing was going to tell them where their suspects were right then and there, which was the only information that mattered tonight.

They might, at this very second, be torturing and killing their next victims. The very thought sent a wave of cold nausea through Warrick's stomach.

A beeping and whirring sound of the computer's printer springing to life brought Warrick out of his reverie. He just had to hope that the computer was providing him with a lead and not another dead-end.

Catherine and Sara practically ran out of the hospital as Sara flicked open her cellular phone and hit speed-dial. Her quarry answered almost immediately.

'Brass? It's Sara. Need you to run something through DMV for me,' she said urgently as she reached her vehicle and unlocked the door. Catherine was climbing into her own Tahoe nearby. 'We've just spoken to our victim, and he has a partial plate number for us. 9-3-6-Mike-Tango. The vic didn't get the last letter… Yeah, we're heading back to the lab now. Let me know if you get something…'

She hung up and started the car, pulling out of the car park behind Catherine and following her back to the lab. As she did so, she said a silent prayer that this was the break they had been waiting for.

'Treads come back to a Volkswagen Jetta,' Warrick told Grissom. 'So it's either completely unrelated or the suspects have changed cars.'

'Those treads were fresh,' Grissom reasoned. 'There's a good chance they were from the suspect's car.'

'Let's hope so. They're the only lead we've got right now.'

'Oh ye of little faith,' Catherine said as she and Sara entered the lab. 'We got a plate number. Brass is running it as we speak.'

'It didn't happen to be from a Jetta, did it?' Warrick asked hopefully.

Sara smiled. 'A black or dark blue Jetta.'

'Yes!'

Just then Sara's phone rang. 'Sidle… Jim… You did? That's great… Yeah. Will do… Thanks.'

She looked at the others. 'We got a name and address for the owner of the car. Brass wants us to meet him there.'

The apartment was rented by J.D. Murray, 25. Several squad cars had already surrounded the apartment building by the time Grissom, Sara, Catherine and Warrick arrived. They had no sooner parked than Jim Brass pulled up behind them and hopped out of his unmarked car, brandishing a search warrant. Although itching to get started on the scene, the CSIs held back while Brass and his team secured the apartment.

'All clear,' Brass called down to them after a few minutes. 'We must have missed them.'

'Damn it!' Sara murmured so that only Grissom could hear her. Her tone was tight and angry. 'They're probably out grabbing another couple right now!'

'Sara, this is the best lead we've got,' Grissom told her in the calm, firm tone she hated him using on her. When he directed it her way, it usually meant 'Calm down. No emotions at the crime scene.'

The interior of the apartment was simple and stark, neither clean nor tidy. The only homey touches to the living room were dozens of framed photographs, all of a smiling couple, staring lustfully at one another. Lana Tyler and J.D Murray.

While Catherine and Warrick started processing the living room, Sara moved towards the lone bedroom. The bed looked like a tornado had hit, and the room smelled of recent sexual activity. Sara was about to bag the sheets for DNA comparison when a stack of papers and what looked like a diary caught her attention on the bedside table.

Flipping the diary open, she discovered the scratchy, spider-like writing of Lana Tyler, rhapsodising at length on the subjects of murder and mayhem. Sara was stunned to find in depth details of each of the murders they were investigating, as well as several more that they didn't yet know about.

More startling still was a sheet of paper that lay under the diary. Written in a different hand, which Sara suspected was that of J.D, was a list of names, credit card details and addresses, along with descriptions of significant others and movie preferences. Several of the names had been crossed off the list in red ink. Suddenly, everything was sliding into place, and Sara couldn't believe they hadn't thought of it before.

'What have you got?' Grissom's voice startled Sara, and she jumped and let a small yelp out involuntarily.

'Jeez, Gris, don't sneak up on a person at a crime scene,' she said, turning towards him breathless and shaken by more than just his sudden appearance.

'Sorry. What did you find?'

'The killings weren't random,' Sara told him. 'I can't believe we didn't realise it before. They had a list…'

Sara's voice brought Warrick and Catherine to the door of the bedroom.

'Find something?'

'They have a list, with all our victims on it, plus a few more beside. Descriptions of their girlfriends or boyfriends, cars, addresses, credit card numbers, even the types of movies they like to watch…'

Catherine shook her head at their mistake. 'And we thought they just picked kids at random at the movies.'

Warrick's attention was on the dresser top. Walking swiftly to it, he picked up something with his gloved hand and examined it. 'They did pick up kids at random at the movies,' he told them, holding up a name badge for them to see. 'J.D. worked at the Playhouse. Box Office.'

'That's how he got names and addresses,' Sara realised. 'Taking ticket bookings…'

'I'll let Brass know,' Warrick said. 'He'll want to talk to the manager of the Playhouse.'

As he left the room, an idea dawned on Sara. 'The couple that escaped tonight. Matt and Karen? They're on this list.'

'Well, that makes sense if they gathering information on their victims are in advance,' Grissom reasoned.

'Yeah, but they failed tonight,' Sara said. 'Matt and Karen got away. If they're escalating the way we suspect, makes sense they'll go after another couple on their list…'

Grissom and Catherine's eyes widened as Sara's point hit home.

'How many more names on that list?' Catherine asked, taking her cell phone out of her pocket.

Sara checked. 'Eight.'

'We'd better start calling then,' Grissom said.

Five minutes later, Catherine was finishing up her last call as Sara hung up her cell. Each of the numbers she had called turned up nothing. One couple was having a quiet dinner at home. Another had gone to Lake Tahoe for a few days. Grissom shook his head to indicate that he'd had as little luck as she.

The urgency in Catherine's voice made them both turn to watch her. 'Are you sure that's where they've gone? ... What time? … Can you give me a description of the car they took? …' Catherine paused as she jotted something down. 'No… ma'am, I'm sure everything's fine. But just in case, can you call your son's cell phone? Sure… okay, you have my number. Can you call me back when you've…? Great… Thank you.'

The look on her face as she hung up said it all. Brass and Warrick entered the room as she filled them in. 'Darren McKenzie and Lucy Bell. Dinner followed by a movie at the Playhouse. Apparently they go there all the time…'

'I'm heading back there now,' Brass said. 'Have you got this couple's car details?'

'Here you go.' Catherine handed him the slip of paper.

'Meanwhile, I'm calling in some favours with the local media,' the Captain informed them. 'In half an hour, I plan to have our two suspects' pictures, along with their car details, spread all over the TV news. I'll issue a BOLO on this new couple's car as soon as we confirm they're missing.'

As if on cue, Catherine's cell phone rang. 'Willows… Mrs McKenzie… He's not answering? ... Okay. Don't worry… We're looking into it now… I'll let you know as soon as we have anything…'

She disconnected again and looked at Brass. 'There's your confirmation. Movie let out over an hour ago and Darren's not answering his phone. Put that BOLO out.'

Brass nodded. 'Will do. It's time to tighten the net people. I don't want our suspects to be able to make a move tonight without us knowing about it.'

TBC.