Disclaimer: I do not own CSI nor its characters.

A/N Thanks for reviews! D

Chapter 8

They pulled into the parking lot of one of the small cafes along the strip. Both sat in one of the booths by the front window. It was around four o' clock and the place was pretty busy, full of tourists and locals alike.

All the better, Grissom thought; maybe it would keep his mind off of everything.

A waitress came over to take their orders a few minutes later.

"Two Coffees," Catherine said and the woman nodded.

"Anything else?" the waitress then said.

"That's all, thanks."

"Okay, I'll be right out with that."

The waitress walked away and Catherine was the first to say anything.

"Stop it, Gil. You're taking all of this so hard on yourself and it isn't your fault." She wanted to get on some other subject to cheer him up, but she had no idea what to say.

Meanwhile, Warrick had found Brass and was getting filled in on all the details.

"Barry is being brought in now." Brass said, "Any by the look on Grissom's face, I have a feeling that we might get some useful information out of this guy."

"Yeah… so Barry Steingard is the lawyer of Garret Torren… Sara was telling me about that. Torren murdered two women, raped them and then suffocated them. Grissom and Sara wrapped that case up a few weeks ago when you were away. I heard Torren was a real creep. Cath told me that Grissom said Torren made some sick remarks to Sara."

"Hopefully that's got nothing to do with what happened."

"I know. Sara's like a sister to me; I don't want anything to happen to her."

Just then, Brass's cell phone rang. "Jim Brass," he said. A few moments went by. "Okay, we'll be right there." He flipped the phone closed.

"What was that about?"

"They found Mr. Steingard; he's in interview room four."

"We'd better hurry then." Warrick replied and they headed down the hall.

Grissom sipped on his coffee and Catherine just sat there, watching the other people in the café.

"Alright, talk; I can't stand the awkward silence," Catherine finally said.

"Barry Steingard had something to do with this, I know it."

Catherine sighed, "Well, let's go over what we know so far."

"The car belongs to Jonathan Craft. Mr. Craft lent it to David Roberts, who then lent it to his step-father, Barry Steingard. Barry's DNA was found on Sara's necklace, which was found at the crime scene, along with blood that was also Sara's."

"And there's the ransom note, which makes me suspect that Barry has something to do with this, as well," Cath said.

Grissom finished up his coffee, "Yes, that ransom note has had me thinking. Barry Steingard, big time lawyer and lawyer of Garret Torren, a man with a reputation to preserved. He knows that Garret has all of the odds against him and that there's a slim chance he isn't going to lose this one, so he takes action. He takes Sara and leaves the note telling the crime lab to discard the evidence and she'll be okay. That way, he can win the case and look like a better lawyer."

"That makes sense, but we'll have to wait it out. Don't you remember… it was you who always told us to follow the evidence, not what we think or what we want to be true, but what evidence is there."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see what new information turns up when Warrick questions Barry Steingard."

Brass and Warrick finally found themselves down at interview room 4. Mr. Steingard was sitting at the grey table; a police officer stood in the corner and soon left as the two men arrived. They sat down at the table opposite of Barry Steingard.

Mr. Steingard nodded and then asked, "Could you please tell me why I'm here before you start the interrogation?"

"If you insist-"

"I was just asking," the man said; perhaps he found Brass's tone a little harsh, but Brass wasn't always happy-happy, joy-joy… especially not today.

"Earlier this morning one of our CSIs was kidnapped."

"I'm sorry."

Brass wanted to say something along the lines of, "Why, it's not your fault, is it?" but he kept his comment to himself.

"Uh… thank-you."

Warrick took over from there.

"Okay, firstly, would you care to explain why you had Jonathan Craft's car and why you never returned it?" Warrick asked.

"Jon is an old friend… I told David I'd take the car over when I left; it's been a while since I've gone over and said 'Hello.'"

"And somehow you never made it there…"

"I had somewhere to be. I was going to stop by afterwards."

"Where did you have to be?"

"Court; Garret Torren's trial was this morning, but it was called off for some reason."

Warrick looked to Brass and then asked, "Why is your DNA on Sara Sidle's necklace, which was found at the crime scene?"

"What the hell- why would my DNA be on the necklace of some woman I don't know?"

"I'm the one asking the questions here…"

"Maybe I saw it on the ground and picked it up to see what it was. Hey, maybe I thought she looked cute and helped her put it on. How do I know?"

Warrick could tell Brass was getting angry; he knew he sure was getting angry, but he tried to keep his cool, "Or maybe you saw her in the parking lot and you knew very well what you were doing. You attacked her and she tried to get away… you grabbed her shirt and accidentally got her necklace, too, causing the chain to break."

"No, no," he said, "I'm sure it wasn't like that."

"So you do know how your DNA got onto her necklace?"

Barry nodded; he knew that if he didn't cooperate, he'd be in even bigger trouble, "She must have been holding onto it and I tried to grab her arms and it must have snapped."

"Barry, where is she?" Brass jumped in.

"I-I don't know," he said, "I really don't know."

A/N End of chapter 8. I still have to finish writing chapter nine, so it should be up next week. Thanks for reading and reviewing; you guys rock!