Missing Link

Chapter One

As Grissom, Nick and Warrick had entered the recently deceased Lucy Turners home, the door had slowly and noiselessly closed behind them. Now, however, it swung wide open and loudly connected to the painted wall as a concerned and irate Grissom strode out and along the path to where the cop was leaning against his car. He was glancing up and down the road, and taking in the anxious faces of the people that had once again gathered around. In his hand he held a blue cup of some steaming beverage. A neighbor must've brought it out Grissom absently thought.

As the police officer saw him he set the cup carefully on the roof of the black and white squad car. "Anything I can help you with?" He turned back to the road as he heard the sound of a car coming to a stop across the street; after identifying the driver as Detective Jim Brass he returned his green eyed gaze back to the nightshift supervisor. "Is there a problem?"

Gil didn't speak for a couple of minutes; he knew it wouldn't do any good to start shouting. And it especially wouldn't look professional do the curious onlookers. "I thought you said this house was clear," he kicked him self as soon as he had spoke, knowing belatedly the statement sound accusatory – like the officer had lied.

It was apparent that the younger man saw it that way, too. His eyes hardened and jaw clenched before he calmly replied. "I did, I checked twice just in case…I know how to do my job Dr Grissom," He uneasily ran his right hand through his curling black hair. He didn't want to look bad, especially as Brass had just arrived.

"I don't doubt that you do. But this time you didn't do it properly." Grissom wished it was one of the others doing the talking at that present time; he knew this was not going well. But increasing worry made him curt. In order for the officer to see where he was coming from Griss knew he would have to let him know what had happened. "You allowed one of my CSIs inside that house and now she is missing." As he said this out loud the Entomologists tone hardened. "You let her in there! And now she has been kidnapped -- just like Lucy Turner one week ago," His voice rose and Brass, who had exited his car and was half way across the road, still heard him.

The detectives pace quickened and before the officer could reply just as angrily, Brass intervened. He spoke in hushed tones, well aware of the prying eyes and listening ears around the three of them. "How about we take this inside, huh?" It was a rhetorical question. They would go inside and speak or they would leave the crime scene and talk back at the Lab. Seeing reason, the other two men nodded and with hostility as their close companion, re-entered the Turner home. Once inside Brass turned to the officer. "Are you certain there was nobody in here?" The detective knew he would have but it was for Grissom's benefit that he asked anyway.

Believing Detective Brass doubted his ability to check a crime scene the officer replied indignantly. "As I told Dr Grissom, I know how to do my job. The house was empty, there were no intruders…I don't know what else to tell you," he tried hard to keep his voice neutral but it was hard for him when it seemed as though nobody in the house trusted him.

Brass nodded at him. "Its okay, we just have to make sure," he looked at the younger man reassuringly.

"Can you go outside and start asking questions? I want to know if anybody saw anything," Grissom interrupted the two. The sooner everyone got down to business the quicker they could find Sara.

The officer sighed. "I already did that," he responded. He admired and respected Grissom; he had done a lot of work to bring down the scum of Las Vegas; all his team had. But it was hard to like a man that was treating him as though he were a kid; he tried not to hold it against the man. After all he was obviously worried about Sara Sidle, his missing CSI.

Gil stepped past the officer and opened the front door. "Well that was before Sara was taken from this house, now I want you to ask if there are any witnesses to this crime. If the neighbors say they didn't see anything I want you to ask them again, and again, and again until they give you something," he wasn't aware that he was shouting until he felt a hand on his shoulder, effectively halting his rant. Brass indicated to the cop that he should start canvassing the crowd.

Upon seeing the three men entering the house, the rest of the team had stopped in their work of processing the scene to watch the disagreement, wondering if they should jump in and stop things before it got ugly. "Arguing with my people isn't going to bring her back any faster," the Detective chided gently. He straightened a crease in his charcoal black coat before looking around the room and delivering his news. "I came down here to let you know that Conrad Ecklie is on his way with the rest of dayshift, thought I'd give you a heads up. But until then tell me everything, how did this happen?"

As Catherine was the next one on the scene after Sara had arrived, she quickly filled Brass in on the events up until his arrival. "How did you both get here so fast?" he queried.

Catherine balanced the camera on her knee after taking the last photograph of the body, and looked up to regard the Detective. She shifted uncomfortably and not just because the position she was crouching in was making her legs ache. If they hadn't been arguing at the Lab, Sara wouldn't have stormed off home, she wouldn't have followed the brunette to her apartment and they wouldn't have begun to shout again. Both would still have been at the Lab when the call came through, and Sara wouldn't have arrived at the scene before anybody else. "We were both at her place, I left…" she looked at her watch. "Thirty minutes ago and I guess Sara did the same not too long after. She must've gotten the call en route to the Lab." Catherine was definitely feeling guilty right about now.

Before anyone could respond the door opened, the creaking alerting them to the presence of somebody new. "Its so good of you to start our work for us but now you can get the hell away from my crime scene, Gil," Ecklie's sarcastic voice filled the room and everybody stopped their work. The dayshift supervisor paused aside to let his remaining team of three into the room.

"This isn't just your crime scene anymore Conrad," tensions were high and Grissom's temper already frayed without Ecklie adding to the problems. Quite surprisingly, the Entomologist did keep his cool with the other man, in spite of the circumstances.

Ecklie shook his head in obvious disagreement; his folded his arms in front of him, wrinkling the sleeves of his grey jacket. "Lucy was one of mine, that makes it my crime scene and I don't give a shit that we're too close to this." He turned dismissively away from his competitor to issue orders to his team.

"Well then that's going to be a problem for all of us because two crimes have been committed here." Ecklie looked back at Grissom, his eyebrow rose and his gaze was questioning. At the dayshift supervisor's silence, Grissom took it as a sign that he should continue. "Around fifteen minutes ago Sara was kidnapped." A knife twisted his gut.

Every time he said those words it sounded more and more unbelievable, like it was some kind of bad dream. No, not a dream; a nightmare. "She was processing the scene when, at the moment we're assuming, the killer returned and took her. He left a note…this is our crime scene." He was adamant in pointing out that fact. It wasn't that he thought Ecklie was inept at taking control of the scene, he just knew his team were better – he trusted them to do the job and right now there was no place for errors, in collecting and sifting through the evidence – or in judgement.

Jim stood in between the two men and raised his hand, in the similar way that a child would do when hesitant about asking a question in class. "Here's a kooky suggestion but… Why can't you both work together? Both shifts want this case; both are close to the victims…" Grissom, Brass noticed, visibly cringed upon his calling Sara a victim. And when the Detective turned to Ecklie, he saw he did the same but in his mentioning of Lucy Turner – Brass continued on. "And both want to see justice done," he finished.

Both teams watched their supervisors intently as they eyed each other, kinda like two wolves from separate packs that have just treaded on the same stretch of unclaimed land, Brass mused.

"We'd have to share everything…evidence, results, resources," Ecklie announced uncertainly.

Grissom nodded curtly. He quickly weighed through the options, assessed the situation and drew up his conclusions. "We're both professionals, Conrad, both trying to obtain the same goal." Catherine, Nick and Warrick both saw their bosses' familiar thoughtful expression appear on his face. "We would have to share leadership…speak to each other before making a move," There was no love lost between the two men, and everyone in the room knew it. At first he would, like Nick and Warrick earlier that day, have been okay with Ecklie taking over the case, but now Sara was also in trouble – she could suffer the same fate as Lucy Turner. "I agree with Jim," he finally admitted.

Eyebrows rose all through the room. "And so do I," Ecklie quickly agreed. Well he wasn't going to disagree and have Grissom looking like the good guy now.

"Nick I want you to get that note back to the Lab, check for prints then find Dr. Rambar and see if he can get anything from the writing." Stokes stood and nodded, the note had already been bagged and he held it now, in his gloved hand. "This is high priority, everything else gets pushed to the sidelines until this is done," Grissom added firmly.

They had a six-day deadline.

"Consider it done." At Ecklie's cough he paused don't say he's gonna cause trouble already Nick sighed inwardly.

Ecklie turned away from them and spoke to one of his team. Tim Rhodes looked around thirty eight years of age, and stood at 5"6'. He was quite tanned – working the dayshift would do that to a person, and his straight black hair was tied back at the nape of his neck. As his boss gave him his orders his dark blue eyes scanned the living room, and the faces of the people he would be working alongside.

Once Ecklie was finished, Tim walked to the door and stopped before shooting back at Nick. "Looks like we're working together Stokes." His face was grim and the younger man wasn't sure if it was due to the face that they had to work together, or because he was upset about Lucy's death – probably both Nick decided. He followed Tim out of the house, looking around outside as he walked to the dayshifts car, hoping to spot something, anything that could help. He came up with nothing and dejectedly got into the passenger seat of Rhodes' car.

"Are you going to kill me?"

Might as well find out where we stand was Sara's thought when regained consciousness. Her head was throbbing; a dull pain like a migraine magnified ten fold, on the side of her left temple. Her hands were bound behind her back, as were her ankles, she was not blindfolded as she imagined she would have been nor was there anything to stop her from calling out. Sara suspected that was because there was nobody within hearing range. She was sat upon a purple velvet couch that could seat three people, and there was no carpet but varnished hardwood floors. No wallpaper but the room was painted a pale lilac with a white border all around. To the left there was a fireplace but it was unlit due to the warm temperature outside; a small window was open allowing a refreshing breeze in, and blowing the patterned net curtains over the few ornaments on the sill. Opposite the couch there was another, identical to the one that Sara was sat in but for the small difference that the other would seat two people.

A deep voice answered her question, and he sounded – friendly. It was surprising enough that her prison wasn't a basement, or some dirty shed or hole in the ground but Sara wasn't prepared for the supposedly kind, warm tone of her kidnapper. "I would never kill anybody…I'm going to release you from your bonds, okay darling? But you must promise me that you won't run this time or I won't be accountable for my actions."

This time? Darling? Sara held out her bound arms. Okay," she agreed, though was plainly still suspicious. "Where are my friends?" Were they around here too? Hidden away in one of the other rooms? "Grissom!" she shouted as loud as she could with her dry throat. "Nick…Warrick…Catherine!"

She didn't notice her kidnapper wince at her cries. "Please!" He almost sounded as though he were begging. "There is nobody here…who are these people that you speak of? Darling you must stop. Rest awhile and I will be back later," he left the room and Sara sank back into the couch, her legs pulled up against her chest protectively. She resumed her scan of the room and after a couple of minutes her eyes fell upon the pictures on the mantelpiece. Her kidnapper was there with a very familiar woman that was in all of the pictures, taken at places around Las Vegas. They looked as though they were husband and wife – arms around each other, smiling and holding hands.

The woman was Lucy Turner.