Chapter 12

Whether Ecklie liked it or not, Gil Grissom was determined to tag along as Ecklie's team searched the known address of the deceased attackers of the Rampart suite. He brought Sara and Greg along with him, leaving Nick in charge of supervising Warrick Brown. The man had been pushed past his limit and they were all afraid that he would do something drastic.

In a small concession to who this case belonged to, Gil and his team hung back, letting the day shift crew do the walk through on their own. Only after they had had time to do their initial search did the night shifters go through it. Ecklie was quiet about his irritation due to the fact that this case was clearly connected to two of Gil's cases. He stood beside Gil as the bugman stared at the living area of one Jose Garnica.

"Think you can spare one of your guys to assist us in the phone record search?" Ecklie offered.

"Yeah, You can have Sanders." Gil agreed eagerly, wanting his team in on this. This was the closest to an answer they had gotten.

"Lowest man on your totem?" Ecklie snarled.

"He's the freshest I have available. Warrick and Catherine are out at the moment. Nick is unavailable. Sara is about to interview a potential witness to our other case." Gil motioned his guys over. "Greg, you're with Conrad for the moment. Sara, I need you to talk to our special witness again. You know where to find her, right?"

"Yeah, I left her with a friend." Sara nodded.

"See if she has any new information. Perhaps she knows something helpful." Gil suggested. Greg gave him a look like a puppy that had been kicked as Sara hurried off. "Greg, I need you on this. We need to break this case."

"Yeah." Greg agreed morosely following Ecklie away.

Nick strategically placed himself beside the door, playing cards with Jessica and Lindsey. From where he sat, he could keep an eye on Warrick and block the only way he could exit the place. "Uno." He grinned at the girls. Looking at Jessica. "Your turn. You need a green or a three."

Jessica stuck her tongue out in concentration as she studied the five cards in her hand. "No Gween." She said sadly.

"What about a three?" Lindsey suggested, tracing Nick's discarded three with her finger. Jessica checked her cards and shook her head with a slight pout. "What about a wild card? The card with the black on it?"

"YEAH!" Jessica slapped the wildcard down on the pile, absently dropping three of her other cards. Lindsey helped her right the cards explaining to Jessica that she had to pick a new color. "Pink!"

"You can't call pink, Sweetie." Nick chuckled, shaking his head. "That's not a color of the game. "You need to pick red, yellow, blue or green."

"Pick the one that you have the most of." Lindsey recommended gently.

Jessica stared at her cards intently, tongue sticking out in the effort. Finally she made her decision "Yadow!" Nick chuckled again, knowing he'd seen three blue cards dropped on the table a moment before. Lindsey smiled, trying to concentrate on her cards as Jessica complained. "I wike Pink. It's the pwettiest cadow."

"Yes, on you it is." Nick agreed. "But it's not part of this game." He winced as Lindsey stacked a procession of four Draw-Two cards onto the pile. Smiling smugly she topped it with a Wild Draw-four card.

"Blue Uncle Nick." she grinned. "Draw eight cards, and you're skipped. Jessie, it's your turn. Blue."

"Boo!" Jessica put a blue zero down as Nick filled his hand with new cards. Catherine was smirking at him from her spot on the couch where she was checking over witness statements.

"I should know better than play cards with these two." Nick grumbled good-naturedly. "The daughter of a gambler and the granddaughter of a casino mogul."

Catherine laughed aloud at that. Still chuckling she went back to her statements, continuing to listen as Nick got his butt kicked by two young girls.

Sara sat down next to Lucy in the lobby of the police station. She felt guilty for dumping the younger woman in such a miserable place, but three hours ago, she needed a secure place to have her. Lucy looked up at her, concerned about the expression she saw on her face.

"You okay Sara?"

"Yeah, Grissom sent me to ask if you've heard……or if you've seen anything new."

"No." Lucy shook her head, looking worried. "But….I've been feeling a really deep concern for Warrick. Is your friend okay? He is….isn't he?"

"Yes…..He's okay." Sara tried to smile reassuringly, but failed.

"What happened?"

"His family…..was attacked again." Sara hurried to reassure her, " They're all fine. The men that were protecting them were all killed. We've got to find these people before anyone else gets hurt."

"I wish I could help." Lucy sighed, looking truly distraught. "I don't know how to……force a vision or a visitation."

"Has it ever worked by touch. Touching someone or something?"

"Nothing distinctive…..usually just garbled images." Lucy confessed. "Perhaps I could try. Do you have something that belonged to Debra?"

"I don't, but I know someone who might." Sara smiled. "Come on, lets get out of here."

"Where are we going?" Lucy followed her.

"It might seem creepy, but I'm taking you to the morgue. A friend of mine works there, and he might help." Sara explained. "Doc is a friend of Debra's family."

Greg crowed with delight, spinning the desk chair in circles in celebration. Grabbing the printout he ran to Gil's office only to find it empty. Then he remembered that it wasn't Gil he was to report to, but Ecklie.

Turning around he headed towards the other man's office. He'd never dreaded going to talk to anyone as much as he dreaded Ecklie. Tapping lightly, he entered the office.

Ecklie frowned up at him. "What do you want Sanders?"

"I found something……several somethings actually." Greg explained nervously. "This guy, Garnica, called Holcomb three times in the last six months. He also called our other attacker, Carrey."

"I guess it's time I had a talk with Carrey then." Ecklie took the printouts, acting as if the conversation was over. I sit in on that. I interviewed him last time, and……I got a lot out of him. I'd like to see what he has to say this time." Greg questioned nervously.

"This isn't grade school Sanders. You're done, go back to your homeroom." Ecklie gave him a patronizing smile. Greg stood there in shock for a moment, unable to believe he'd just been spoken to like that. "Run off and play with your little friends."

Greg slammed out of the office. Yanking is phone out of his pocket, his first instinct was to call Warrick to vent. He'd almost punched in his number when he realized that Warrick would be with his family. Instead, he punched in Nick's number, needing to let out some steam.

Catherine charged up to Ecklie as he came out of the interrogation room. She got into his face, "You had no right to interview our perp without one of us in there!"

"Relax, the guy knows nothing." Ecklie told her, attempting to sidestep the irate woman.

"You should have allowed Greg in there. He got Carrey to confess who hired him. You shouldn't have sent him off to play. He knows more about this guy than you do!" Catherine felt the urge to spit in the man's face, but restrained herself. She took the pleasure of looking at Ecklie's broken nose and the bruises under his eyes caused by Warrick's fist. As she walked away from the weasel, she vowed to give Warrick a hug for that one.

Greg was waiting in the locker room for her. "He got nothing. We have to wait until tomorrow, but we'll get you in there with him.

"Tomorrow." Greg grimaced. "What about Holcomb? Can we question her?"

"Let's go talk to Gil, see what he says." Catherine put her arm around him, patting his back. "Ecklie's a pig, don't let him get you down. We wouldn't be this far without you, Greg."