Thanks for the few reviews - they are much appreciated! Any more will always be welcome!
Knocking on the door, Sara swallowed her pride. She needed this closure and she could not afford to blow up in Philip Bowran's face once again. In fact, as the door swung open, Bowran looked like the one more likely to blow up.
"What the hell are you doing here? I was released, fair and square. You've got nothing against me." He seemed genuinely angry; even slightly nervous – could it be Sara's accusations had bothered him after all?
"I'm not here to interrogate you, Mr Bowran. I'm – I mean," Sara struggled to explain the complicated situation to a near stranger. "I'm off the case."
"So your boss came to his senses and fired you, did he? Glad to hear it – we can't have some hormonal woman firing random accusations all over the place now can we?" Philip Bowran smirked, reminding Sara of the reasons she had taken such a dislike to him the previous day. But still she remained civil.
"If you would just let me in for a moment, Mr Bowran. I feel I have an apology to make to you, and if you would just let me explain."
"Of course. And call me Philip, now we've established this is a social visit." Sarcasm lined Bowran's voice but still Sara held back, smiling graciously as she entered the house.
Possibly because he sensed Sara would rather have this encounter over and done with as quickly as possible, Bowran insisted on making her a cup of coffee whilst making niceties about the weather and traffic. Eventually, Sara had the chance to say what she had come for. She was convinced the visit had been for the best, even if she resented having to apologise to a man whom she still viewed as rude and aggressive. Already she felt proud of her self-control when it came to handling the visit and the treatment she had received.
"So, Mr Bowran."
"Philip."
"Philip." Sara confirmed, through gritted teeth. "Thank you for your welcome. I really just felt I owed you an apology. I've not been feeling at my best recently and my little eruption yesterday in the interview was the consequence of a few bad days. Unfortunately you were on the receiving end of my bad temper and for that I am truly sorry. This must be a very hard time for you and –"
Sara stopped midway in her rehearsed speech as she realised her one man audience was deeply distracted. Bowran was staring intensely out the window. Sara cleared her throat, unsubtly trying to regain his attention. When he turned from the window she was shocked by the look on his face. Gone was the satisfied smirk he had worn whilst realising he had the upper hand in the conversation and in its place had returned the look Sara had witnessed when he had first opened the door. Rage mingled with fear showed in his eyes.
"You told me you weren't here to interview me."
"I'm not," Sara replied, honestly confused.
"Then what are they doing here?" He gestured violently out of the window.
Sara moved over the window and cautiously peered through the blind. Approaching the driveway were Grissom and Nick.
"I don't like it when people lie to me, Ms Sidle."
Sara barely registered Bowran's comment. She was too busy panicking about how she could escape without having to speak to Grissom. She really, really could not deal with him right now.
But her thoughts were interrupted, all of a sudden, when a strong arm gripped her around the throat.
"I said, I DON'T LIKE IT WHEN PEOPLE LIE TO ME!'
She was soon to have much greater things to worry about.
"Isn't that Sara's car?" Nick questioned, as they approached Philip Bowran's house.
"I wouldn't really know, Nick. But I doubt it. As I was trying to explain earlier –"
"Grissom, it was a rhetorical question. I know that's Sara's car. What the hell is she doing here?"
"We'll soon find out." Grissom tried not to let the relief and happiness he was feeling show in his voice. If Sara was here then it meant he could speak to her. He could say all the things he should have said in the corridor earlier. It meant she hadn't left yet. He wouldn't shout at her for mishandling the situation, despite the fact she really should not be interrogating a suspect right now. He would do all the things he had regretted not doing the moment she had fled the lab that morning.
However, his relief was to be short lived. As the two men walked up the driveway of Bowran's home, they heard shouting.
"Did you hear that?" Grissom's question was not heard by Nick, who had already broken into a run towards the front door. "Slow down!"
"Grissom, we think this guy killed his girlfriend! And Sara's in there with him!"
Grissom cursed himself and joined the race to the door. How could his relief at knowing where Sara was have clouded his judgement as to her location? She was inside that house with a possible murderer and he had just told Nick to slow down. No wonder Sara had had enough of him.
Nick forcefully kicked the door in and rushed inside, closely followed by Grissom. They rushed through the downstairs of the house, and then moved up to the bedrooms. But there was nothing.
They had no idea how he had done it such a short time, but Philip Bowran had escaped. And he had taken Sara with him.
You really made a mistake, Ms Sidle. You thought you could visit me casually, get me to chat with you, make me think you were really sorry for your little performance yesterday. Well, congratulations, you deserve an Oscar – you nearly had me fooled. I was honestly beginning to believe that you weren't visiting me at the beck and call of your boss. I thought maybe you really were at my house out of some misguided reaction to your own guilt. But then your colleagues went and stuffed it up.
I didn't plan this, you know. Just like I didn't plan to kill Jenny. I never meant to hurt her. I loved her. If she hadn't – well, I'm not going over that again. But it wasn't my fault. And neither is this.
If your stupid boss hadn't turned up when he did... If that other guy hadn't decided to kick my door in… If they had just left us alone then I would have let you go. But they didn't.
If I have to hurt you then it's not my fault. Blame them. I'm sure they will.