Chapter 14

The guys hurried down to the morgue. They found the women with David and Al, in the viewing room. The body of Debra lay in the open drawer before them. Lucy was whiter than a ghost, trembling as he hand lay on the body of the deceased woman.

"What the hell are you doing to her!" Nick charged forward, pulling Lucy away from the body. She went limp in his grasp and he had to pull her against him to keep her from falling. "Warrick, help me!"

Warrick grabbed a stool and set it down beside Nick, helping him balance the woman on the stool. Nick moved around in front of her, lightly patting the woman's too-pale cheeks. Her tawny eyes were unfocused as her eyes fluttered open and closed. "Doc?" She okay?" Warrick cried out nervously.

"She was in a trance." Sara explained, peering nervously over Nick's shoulder. "We didn't do anything to her. She was trying to contact Debra."

"She doesn't look too good." David admitted. Al pushed through, checking her pulse.

"Maybe she should lie down. Put her on a table over there." Al suggested. "Her pulse is steady."

"I ain't laying her on a table in the morgue. It's for dead people. You want her to wake up from a faint and think she's dead?" Nick looked at the older man like he was crazy.

"S-ss-alright." Lucy murmured, frowning. Warrick went over and got her some water from the sink. After a couple of sips, she sat up on her own. Eyes open and clear, she looked around at the people hovering. "I'm fine. Really, I am. I think I know where the girls are." Looking from Warrick to Nick, she frowned. "Hi guys?"

"You talked to Debra?" Sara questioned.

"No, I don't talk, they do." Lucy shook her head weakly. "But, Debra showed me images. I saw the building the girls are at. Debra is afraid. The girls have been alone for a while now. They're scared, they're hungry."

"Do you know where?" Warrick questioned eagerly.

"No, but behind the building, I saw something familiar."

Lucy frowned, trying to picture the image. "Some sort of sign, in the air….like a neon sign or something."

"This is Vegas, that doesn't narrow it down much." Warrick grumbled, pulling his notepad out of his pocket. "Can you draw what you remember?"

"I'll try." Lucy took the pad and the pencil Sara supplied. Glancing up, she looked around at them. "Can you give me a minute?"

"Sure." Warrick shrugged, but no one moved.

Nick cleared his throat. "What she meant was for everyone to back off." He told them pointedly. Ill at ease, everyone backed away, giving her some space.

"Thank you." She smiled up at Nick, causing his heart to melt a tiny bit. He gave her a wink and walked over to where Warrick was pacing.

"What are we doing here, Bro?" Warrick grumbled as Nick approached.

"Could you stand still? You're making me seasick." Nick reached out as Warrick paced past him, grabbing his arm to stop him.

"I hate this!" Warrick snarled. "Just sitting around, waiting for something…..anything! I want this shit over! Now!"

"We all do." Nick kept his hand on the bigger man's arm, holding him still. "I know this is harder on you than any of us, but we will finish this. Anyway we can."

"Greg, Catherine and Grissom are all working on the evidence we have. They're scheduled to interview Jarrod Carrey in about two hours." Sara informed him. "Greg got information from him earlier, he'll do it again."

"Greg?" Warrick looked amazed. "He did the interview?"

"Yeah." Sara chuckled. "Catherine told me that Greg kicked butt. Didn't let up on him until he gave him the information he needed."

"Greggo is the man of the hour." Nick chuckled.

"Always knew he had it in him." Warrick agreed. "He's a good CSI. He may still be a kid to us, but he's a damn good CSI."

"Guys, this is the best I can do." Lucy came over, offering the notepad to Warrick. He took it quietly, looking down at it with a frown. After a moment he grinned.

"This is great! I know this place!" Warrick crowed. "Road trip gang!"

"Where are we going Warrick?" Sara trotted after him. He set a quick pace and his companions had to hustle to keep up with him.

"One of my old neighborhoods. Off the strip, one of the best gambling you can get." Warrick explained as they got to the SUV. Sara, having grabbed the notepad, examined the drawing but she didn't recognize anything.

"Why would you hang out in places off the strip, aren't they the ones that are dangerous?" Sara questioned.

"Sometimes, when you're down, the strip doesn't welcome you….you gotta go somewhere else." Warrick confessed.

"Were you really that far into it?" Sara questioned. She had known he was a gambler, had tried to convince Gil to fire him because of it, but she never questioned how deep he'd actually been.

Warrick chose not to answer. Sara understood that he wasn't proud of how far he'd sunk. She was impressed at how far he'd risen.

Lucy made a small strangled sound as Warrick turned a corner. She grabbed the back of Nick's seat and the seat beside her, bracing herself. Sara reached over and patted the hand beside her. "Don't worry, we suspect that Warrick was trained by Nascar." She smirked.

"I heard that." Warrick glanced at her through the rearview mirror.

"He's very into competitions." Nick said over his shoulder playfully. "He takes the challenges of driving very seriously."

"He's never been in an accident." Sara added.

"At least, it hasn't been proven that he was in one." Nick quipped.

"You know, you two can walk." Warrick threatened, sounded a little peeved. "And since you don't know where you're going, it would be a long walk."

Warrick's voice was still playful, but Nick and Sara both knew when to stop their teasing. Lucy looked at the three of them, impressed by the relationship between the three coworkers. They weren't the type of friendly coworkers she had known. They people who truly knew one another, and cared about each other. She could feel the friendship emanating from them and it made her feel good about knowing them.

Warrick pulled up along the side of the road. "Well Lucy? Is that what you saw?"

Lucy looked out the window at the neon sign across the street. "Yes! It is…..but it wasn't this close up, it was smaller, in the background."

"Now what?" Nick grunted, irritated. "So we found a sign…..big deal?"

"We know have a search area." Sara pulled out the city map from the case under her seat. Marking the spot, she drew a circle around the area. "Now we start circling the area until we find the right distance from this sign."

"That'll take hours." Nick frowned.

"You got a better idea, Bro?" Warrick challenged. Nick shrugged. "Good, now get in the back, Lucy needs to be in front."