here is another chapter, i'm just kinda wondering if anyone is even reading this anymore, because i haven't gotten a review in a few chapters. so yeah, let me know if it's crap, if that's what you think.
Chapter 8: Distrust is a seed sown
Tim's POV
I looked over, at Nick, where he lay, he was asleep, I knew it, the annoying thing was, I had just decided that I was going to tell him I still liked him, since Tony had left the room, and Kate was asleep, but then, the explosion. I turned my head away from Nick, to look at the window, of course, I couldn't see out of it, there were flowers, for both of us on the sill, since we were good friends. I couldn't help it, being so close to Nick, after so long, I stared at his face, memorizing every scar I could see, I wanted to reach out, and trace the marks. Twenty years is a long time, but I still felt the same for him, as the day of the attack.
There was a knock on the door, I looked over, and saw a man I had never met, that of course, didn't mean that Nick didn't know him, "Hi, which one of you is Tim Speedle?" He asked.
"Who wants to know?" I asked.
"Sorry, I'm Charles Austin, I'm a physical therapist here at the hospital, I have been assigned to help Tim deal with, and possibly even recover from his injuries."
"I'm Tim, that's Nick, if you wake him up, I'll be pissed at you," I told him.
The guy nodded, and walked across the room, he had a large bag in his hand, "I was just coming to introduce myself, the doctor will have to be here before we can do anything about therapy, though I've got a general idea, we'll make a plan with him."
Charles sat silently, for five minutes, until the doctor arrived, trailed by a nurse.
Greg's POV
I lay on my side, reminiscent of my last stay in the hospital, I had been rolled so that I was facing the door, I knew from Tony's breathing that he was asleep. The nurse came in, she had been in five times in the last two hours, "I still don't want any pain killers," I told her.
"I'm not here to give you any pain killers, I'm here to apologise, I checked your chart, you're allergic, I'm sorry,"
"Alright fine, you can leave now," I said.
Sara poked her head around the door frame, the nurse was startled. "Hey Greg," Sara said.
"Hey Sara, how is everyone else?" I asked.
"Fine, fine, Tim's already taking part in his first physiotherapist appointment."
"Really, that was fast."
"It's a good thing, sooner he participates, the sooner he get's to a point he can be independent."
"Greg, do you think that Ecklie could have planted that bomb?" She asked.
"I don't know, no one at the lab really likes him, but he's all politics, he's got a right hand woman on his team, for the forensics stuff, no he couldn't make a bomb, and I don't think he would even know where to find someone that could. He asked me last week about a birthday present for his Nephew, he likes video games, I asked him if the kid had an X-box, he asked me what an X-box is."
"You mentioned a guy with Ecklie, before the explosion," Tony said, I hadn't even noticed a change in his breathing.
"Yeah, some blonde hair blue eyed guy, had a visitor's tag, so his name would be on something at the front desk."
"Thank you Greg, I'm heading to the lab, to see what I can get."
"Isn't the explosion Cath's case?" I asked.
"She won't mind the tip."
"Whatever, Go Sara."
Sara left, shaking her head, "How long have you been awake?" I asked.
"She wakes me up every time she comes in," Tony said, probably referring to the nurse.
"Sorry, she might finally stop coming in," I told him.
Sara's POV
I pulled up in front of the lab, and walked up to the reception desk, "Hey, Sara, aren't you supposed to be on vacation?"
"I was, but I came back when I heard about the explosion," I said, "I was just talking to Greg, at the hospital, did Ecklie bring a visitor into the lab recently?"
"Let me check the log," She replied, pulling a binder across the desk, and opened it, "When are you asking about?"
"Right before the explosion, within a few hours," I asked.
She flipped through the book, "a Justin Maverick was issued a visitor's pass exactly one hour before the explosion, Ecklie signed him in, he signed out ten minutes before the explosion." The receptionist showed me the book.
"I need to take this page," I told her, she nodded, and took it out of the binder, I slid it into an evidence bag, and walked into the secure hallways of the lab, there was a construction crew, cleaning up the hallway. I walked to the layout room Catherine and Warrick were using. Catherine was standing over the table, at one end, using the microscope, Warrick had on glasses, I knew he wore contacts, but I had never seen him with the glasses. "Guys, I've got a suspect, for you." I told them.
"Who? And how, because you haven't even looked at the files, let alone the evidence?" Catherine asked.
"I talked to Greg, and he mentioned that Ecklie had someone with him, right before the explosion, we haven't seen anything of this guy, let alone Ecklie," I said.
"Ecklie is on unpaid leave, because the bomb was in his office, that's why you haven't seen him," Catherine said.
"Here's the sheet from the book, Ecklie signed a Justin Maverick into the lab, an hour before the explosion, he signed out ten minutes before the explosion."
"That coincides with Greg's official statement, thank you for getting the visitor sign in sheet," Catherine said, "Now you're on vacation, go and get some rest."
"Cath..." I said.
"Go, Sara, this is not your case."
Grissom's POV
I was walking by the layout room, and heard Sara talking, I stopped, and heard her say, "Ecklie signed Justin Maverick into the lab, an hour before the explosion..."
I waited until Sara stormed out, and Walked into the room, "Give me an update?"
"We're still trying to piece together enough of the bomb to understand the components used, Hodges hasn't gotten us back the results on what explosive was used, but as soon as he does, and we determine what timing device was used, we can build our own, to discover what the bomb was made of."
"Alright, I heard Sara say something about Ecklie signing someone in, have either of you checked this person out?"
"Not yet, we're working on the bomb."
"Well, maybe this will help, Ecklie's visitor has the same initials and last name as the guy Nick was after, I'm going to head over to Ecklie's to see what he has to say, Warrick, keep on the bomb components, if you have to, call Nick, he may not be able to be here, but he wants to be part of it, and he's good at putting bombs back together, Catherine, you're driving."
"What, I'm staying here," she said.
"No, you're driving, my case and your case just merged, when Ecklie brought my suspects sibling into the lab."
We drove at full speed to Ecklie's townhouse, I was first at the door, Catherine wasn't far behind.
"Why do you think this guy planted the bomb?"
"Because this guy, Jason Maverick wants Nick dead, I'm thinking the brother may have wanted to help him."
Ecklie answered the door, looking tired, "I was sleeping, what do you want, Grissom?"
"Where are they?" I asked.
"Who?"
"Jason and Justin Maverick." I stated.
"I know a Justin Maverick, we're friends, but I don't know a Jason Maverick."
"I need to talk to Justin," I told Ecklie.
"He's sick, he came down with something at my Nephew's birthday party yesterday."
"We still need to talk to him," Catherine said.
"Why are you harassing my friend?"
"We're not harassing him, we just want to ask him some questions," I told him.
"Fine, come in, I'll get him." Ecklie stepped back, we came in, and I watched him walk down the hall, Catherine shut the door behind us. I had expected Ecklie's house to be cleaner, it was pretty cluttered, and done in different shades of brown. There were pictures on the shelf near the door, and I stepped over to them. Most of the pictures were of Ecklie and a Blonde man, who looked a fair amount like Jason Maverick.
Ecklie came out of the bedroom, "Is that Justin," I pointed to one of the pictures.
"Yeah, he'll be out in a minute, he just wants to get some clothes on."
I nodded, and turned back to the pictures, "That one was taken last year, we were in Frisco for the weekend, we were outside a sea food place, neither of us realized it was a gay part of town until someone offered to take the picture, that's why we're laughing so hard."
"Conrad don't tell all our history." the voice came from the doorway down the hall.
"So you were at the lab two days ago, before the explosion?" I asked him.
"Yeah, we were picking up the birthday present Conrad forgot for Jeremy."
"But you forgot it anyway, Greg said it was still in your office, when he walked by, at the time of the explosion."
"No, we took it with us," Ecklie said.
"You were there almost an hour, what did you do?" Catherine asked.
"We were there for half an hour, tops," Justin said.
"The log says you signed out ten minutes before the explosion."
"No, we left pretty quick, we went to the break room, got the present, and left," Justin said.
"Do you have any siblings?" I asked.
"An older brother, and a twin brother," Justin said.
Ecklie turned to him, "We've been friends twenty years, an you never told me that."
"You never asked, and it's not like they're on the right side of the law, I haven't talked to Jesse in ten years, Jason in nineteen," Justin replied.
"Have you seen either of them recently?" I asked.
"I thought I saw Jesse two days ago, at the airport, while I was waiting for Conrad to pick me up."
"So Jesse's around, maybe Jason is too," I turned to Catherine.
"Why are you asking about my brothers?" Justin asked.
"Did you speak to the DNA tech at the lab?" Catherine asked.
"No, I didn't talk to anyone."
"Is your twin your identical twin?" I asked.
"If you don't know us, you couldn't tell the difference," Justin said.
"Thank you, Justin, can we come back and ask more questions later?" I asked.
"Of course, I'll be here for a week, then I have a conference to attend in Washington, for work."
"Alright, thank you again, Justin," Catherine said, and we left, "You don't think it was him?"
"No, it wasn't him, there's never been proof that Jason works alone, just that he's good at getting away, that usually entails good planning, and usually no partner, it's easier to make mistakes, the more people are involved."
"So what do you think happened?"
"Jesse and Jason meet up somewhere, Jason mentions that he wants to get rid of his first victims, now Jesse somehow finds out that they're both at our lab, and gets lucky, Ecklie brought his twin in, no one would see anything strange about Ecklie's friend running in and grabbing something from Ecklie's office, or putting something in there."
"But why talk to Greg, he could have gotten in and out, without anyone seeing him."
"To frame Justin, the goody two shoes, he told us his brothers were on the wrong side of the law, why not go one step further, and show him what it's like to be on the wrong side."
"Distrust is a seed sown," Catherine said.
"Nick would hate us for this, treating Ecklie better than he treated Nick."
"I like to give law enforcement and their family the benefit of the doubt, even if Ecklie won't."
