Illusions
Author: Jess
A/N: Ah, Rouch, where would I be without you? Thanks so much for all your help. And go read her story with Teenwitch. It's amazing. And thanks to CSI4nsicAce for all those grammatical things. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. You all are too kind.
Disclaimer: I checked my mailbox but still have not received any statement saying I own CSI. :(
Chapter Three
Gil Grissom frowned as he reentered his office. Sara was never late for assignments. Greg and Sofia had both acknowledged seeing her in the last few hours, and Grissom, himself, had seen her; he knew she was in the building. He waited for her for five minutes before handing out assignments. When she still had not shown, he had dismissed Sofia and Greg to their work, and then set out to look for her. After investigating, he came to the only conclusion he could: She was not in the lab.
He was giving her another five minutes before he put out an APB on her.
"I am so sorry." She was out of breath, and she was trying to compose herself.
Grissom looked up and was unsure if he was relieved or angry at the sight before him. Sara stood in his office doorway, clutching a couple of readouts in her hands. "I got carried away with the case. The tires, and then Hodges paged me, and then I talked with Dr. Robbins--"
"I thought we were going to the coroner together?" Grissom interrupted, startled at this turn of events.
He watched her mouth twitch. "I…Sofia said she needed to talk with you. I didn't want to disturb the two of you," she said.
"Next time, come and find me. I'll make the time." Grissom watched her. Her eye contact was anywhere but on him.
"I just got our Jane Doe's print card," Sara said in an attempt to change the subject. "I'm going to go run it through AFIS, unless you need me anywhere else."
Grissom rose. "I'll come with you," he said as he made his way to the door. "You can tell me exactly what we know so far."
He motioned for Sara to proceed. She hesitated for a second before exiting the room first. The two silently walked through the hallway.
"Dr. Grissom?" They both stopped and turned. Judy was walking towards them. "I'm sorry, sir, but Ecklie has been bugging me all day for the requisition forms," Judy said.
Grissom turned to Sara. "I'll meet you in the lab."
He then turned and motioned for Judy to follow him to his office. Grissom quickly found the forms hidden among the piles of paperwork on his desk, signed his name, and handed them off. He left his office and headed for the print lab.
The shout of his name stopped him again, and he turned to see Mia motioning for him. He entered the DNA lab, giving her a questioning look "The results are in on the Strinker case. DNA is not a match to the husband," Mia said as she handed him a report.
Grissom nodded and left the room. He removed his cell phone and made a quick call to Detective Vartann to let him know that the only suspect they had on that case no longer was a viable option. He entered the Print Lab just as he was hanging up. He watched Sara scan the finger print card into the system.
She turned to look at him as the computer began to search for a match through AFIS. "There were no prints on any of the flowers I collected," Sara began. "Hodges determined that the fiber I found was vicuna. It's expensive and he couldn't locate any local shops that carry it. The tire tracks I found are manufactured by Yokohama. They're Avid T4 style. We're looking for a 2001 Honda Civic LX." Grissom nodded as he sat in a chair beside her.
"Dr. Robbins sent a sample of her blood and stomach contents to toxicology. She had Xanax in her system," Sara continued.
"She wouldn't have been very successful holding a knife," Grissom remarked.
Sara nodded and turned her attention to the computer screen. AFIS had found a match. "Kimberly Witt," Sara said. "She was a teacher."
Grissom read the information. "I'll contact Brass."
Sara listened to his conversation as she printed the information out. She clicked out of AFIS and opened the missing person's directory. She typed in the victims name and waited.
"Brass will meet us at the victim's address," Grissom said as he hung up the phone.
"She's not in missing persons," Sara said as the search ended. "If she's a teacher, wouldn't the school notice if she hadn't been in?"
"Good question," Grissom said.
"I'm driving," she said when he failed to elaborate.
"Of course," Grissom replied, slightly amused.
His cell phone rang as the two left the print lab. "Grissom," he answered. Grissom listened to the caller and frowned. "Do not let anyone touch the body. Take as many pictures as you can. Tell them not to turn on any lights; I don't want them to scare any of the insects away. I'll be there in twenty."
He turned to Sara. "Sofia's body has insects. Apparently, that fact slipped the reporting officer's mind," Grissom said.
"I'll let you know what I find," she said. "Have fun," she added, with a touch of bitterness.
Grissom watched her leave and wondered when everything had gotten so complicated between the two of them. Although, really, when had things ever not been complicated where Sara was concerned? He pushed those thoughts to the side, telling himself that he would have time later to dwell on them. Right now, he needed to focus on work.
Jim Brass stood in the parking lot, and nodded to Sara Sidle as the Tahoe pulled into the lot. "Where's Gil?"
"Sofia called," she replied as she opened the truck, "her case has bugs."
Brass raised an eyebrow at the tension in her voice and filed it away to ask her about it later. He waited for Sara to collect her kit and then the two walked over to the manager's door together; Brass knocked and waited for a response. "This should be fun," Brass groaned, knocked again, and readied himself for an angry answer. Most people didn't take kindly to being awoken at this hour.
The door opened to reveal an elderly woman scowling at them. "What?" the woman growled.
Brass flashed his badge. "Ms. Stevens? I'm Captain Jim Brass. This is Sara Sidle from the crime lab," he said and produced a warrant from his jacket. "We need access to Apartment 234."
The woman rolled her eyes. "One second," she mumbled and closed the door.
A few seconds later, Ms. Stevens exited her apartment with a jacket on and a set of maintenance keys in her hand. Brass motioned for the other officer to follow them.
"Kimberly and Tyler are out of town. I'm not expecting Kimberly back for another week, and Tyler shouldn't be home for a few more days," Ms. Stevens said. "Are they in any trouble?"
"Kimberly Witt was found dead last night," Brass stated.
Ms. Stevens stopped abruptly and turned around. "But she's in Baltimore. She left on Saturday to visit her parents," she said. "She's such a sweet girl. A teacher. Who would do this?"
"I don't know, ma'am," Brass said, "that's what we're trying to figure out."
"You mentioned Tyler. Did Kimberly live with anyone?" Sara asked.
"Yes, TylerCuneo, her fiancé. They're getting, well, they were supposed to get married in June," Ms. Stevens said. "Has anyone told Tyler? He'll be devastated."
"Do you know Tyler's cell phone number?" Brass asked.
"No, but he works at the same school as Kimberly. He coaches basketball," Ms. Stevens said. "He's out of town with his team. They're in the tri-state finals."
"Thank you, Ms. Stevens," Brass said and motioned to the door.
Ms. Stevens unlocked the door and then walked away. "We're going to need to talk to Mr. Cuneo," Sara said.
"I was planning on dropping by the school in the morning," Brass said.
Sara nodded. "Don't," she said as the officer reached for the door handle. "We don't know how Kimberly ended up where she did. For all we know she could have been abducted from this apartment."
She placed her kit on the sidewalk and removed fingerprint powder and a brush. She carefully brushed the knob and revealed two prints. She removed the digital camera from her kit and took pictures of the evidence before lifting the prints.
"I'm going to need to get the landlady's fingerprints when we're done," Sara said and nodded to the officer.
He opened the door and immediately placed his hand on his weapon. "Signs of a disturbance, Captain Brass," he said.
"You, stay out here," Brass said to Sara as he removed his weapon. "We'll call you in after we clear the area."
"Hug the walls!" Sara yelled not sure what had lead to the officer's concern.
"We've done this before, Sara," Brass said and entered the apartment.
Sara rolled her eyes and closed her kit. 'And yet, so many of you still manage to damage the crime scene,' she thought as she leaned against the apartment complex wall. A few minutes later, Brass and the officer reappeared.
"All clear," Brass said. "I'll keep Officer Pierce outside the door. I'm going to see what else Ms. Stevens can tell us."
Sara nodded. As she entered the apartment, she saw what had set Pierce on edge. A tall lamp lay across the floor of the entryway and shards of glass were scattered around it. Sara placed her kit down and removed a stack of evidence markers and the camera. She took pictures of the scene before proceeding further into the apartment.
"It's going to be a long night," she said to herself as she looked at the chaos in the living room.
Two hours later, she was finally finished with the living room. Sara wiped the sweat from her forehead. There had been some sort of a struggle in the room. The living room telephone had been ripped from the wall. A flower vase had been knocked to the floor and shattered on impact. The lamp had fallen over and broken its glass cover. There were gouges in floor with epithelial cells embedded in them, and she discovered three distinct shoe prints left in the carpet. She lifted every print that she found, and she had taken five rolls of film.
Sara moved towards the kitchen. She looked around the kitchen and saw a litter box and two dishes on the floor. 'She has a cat, but where is it?' The refrigerator door held a variety of teacher appreciation magnets, two pictures of the victim and a young man, a photograph of a black cat, a Chinese take-out menu, and a message pad. Sara took a picture of the message pad before removing it from the door.
"7pm-Vet. 5am-cab," she read and then placed the pad into an evidence bag. "She must have taken the cat to the vet."
The refrigerator contained cat food, butter, and a carton of baking soda. 'No perishables. It appears as though she was getting ready to leave town for awhile,' Sara thought as she closed the door.
A voice interrupted her thought process, "Hey, Sara."
She turned to see Greg standing at the edge of the kitchen, kit in his hands. "Grissom sent me. He's tied up with processing bugs." Greg looked around. "Where do you want me?"
"I was just about to check the bedroom," Sara answered.
Sara walked to the threshold of the room with Greg close behind her. "She was going somewhere," Greg remarked and pointed to the open suitcase on the bed.
"The manager said she was going to visit her parents." Sara entered the room. "It doesn't look like she got very far packing."
The closet doors were open and piles of clothes were neatly stacked on the bed. Underwear was all that had made it into the suitcase. Greg started to take photos. Sara walked around the bed. On top of the bedside table was a plane ticket.
"She had an eight a.m. flight to BWI on Saturday," Sara said. "She was supposed to arrive at the airport at five in the afternoon."
"Why didn't her parents report her missing?" Greg asked.
Sara shrugged and turned her attention to the bedside phone/answering machine combo. The light was blinking. She pushed play. "You have two new messages," the automated voice said, "Friday, nine pm."
"Hey, Kimmy, I guess you're in the shower. Anyway, have fun seeing your parents, and don't forget to get me a box of salt water taffy," a woman said.
"End of message. Saturday, five am," the automated voice said.
"Your cab's here," a man's voice said. There was a slight pause. "I'm waiting five minutes lady."
"End of message. You have no more messages."
Sara removed and bagged the tape. "Well, she never made it to the cab," Greg said.
Sara nodded and opened the bathroom door. There were no visible signs of blood. She removed the ALS from her kit and swept the room. "No blood," she sighed, "She wasn't killed here."
"She was getting ready to leave. Her cat's not here and she had a note about going to the vet. Her cat might be there," Sara said, talking through the events. "She was packing. There's no sign of a forced entry, but there's a sign of struggle."
"You think she might have let the guy in?" Greg asked.
"Probably," Sara said. "So, either she knew the person, or it looked like someone she didn't need to fear." She noticed Greg's questioning gaze and elaborated, "Like a repair man. Knocks on the door, says he needs to fix something, she lets him in. They struggle. He takes her."
Sara sighed and left the room. She walked out the apartment and spotted Brass. "Anything?"
"According to the landlady, Kimberly and Tyler are a very nice couple. Young, in love," Brass said. "Never heard them fight. I talked to the neighbors. No one is currently in the apartment on the right. An Alison Lehman is renting the apartment on the left, but she's been out of town on business for the last few days. Just got back in last night."
"No one saw or heard anything?" Sara said.
"I'm going to keep interviewing, but it doesn't look promising," Brass said.
Sara nodded. "Greg and I are going to finish processing the apartment, then pack up, and get back to the lab," Sara said. "Let me know when you're going to the school."
"Do you even have any overtime left?" Brass teased.
Sara smiled and waved him off. "Just call me."
