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Chapter 3

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Vivian laughed to herself. Lucky for her, the team hadn't found the bug she'd placed in the break room, so she was able to hear the entire conversation. She was proud of herself as she listened.

'Good,' she thought, 'I'm getting to them. Once I've worn them out, they'll all get exactly what they deserve. Heathens!'

As she started her car and drove away, she made her decision. It was time to let them know that her patience had run out, that there was a price to pay for interfering with God's work.

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Grissom hung up his phone and looked at the clock. It was only 12:30, yet he felt as though he'd been at work for ages. Granted, they'd started shift five hours early with a dead bailiff and a message from Vivian, which was enough to stress anyone out. On top of it all, Grissom had just gotten off the phone with the swing shift supervisor, asking for some help with overflow while day shift was busy being asses and graveyard continued their wild goose chase with Vivian.

Now Grissom got up to find out what was causing the incessant crashing that only made his headache worse. He followed the noise to Sara's workstation to find her angrily heaving items across the room in frustration.

"Sara!"

The sound of his voice, while enough to make her stop throwing things, did not save her from collapsing to the floor in convulsing sobs. He rushed over and fell to his knees beside her, pulling her close to try and calm her.

After a moment, he ventured to ask, "Sara, are you okay?"

"No!" she sniffled, rather more forcefully than he expected.

"Do you want to talk?" he tried again after another few moments.

"She's such a bitch!" she finally managed.

"Who?" he coaxed, though he knew perfectly well whom she was referring to.

"Miriam… Vivian," Sara corrected herself. "I've been working the databases, the victimology, the patterns, the symbolism, the suspect info, the verses, everything, for three hours, since the group analysis in the conference room. I've gone over every angle a million times and still come up empty. I found nothing that we don't already know… Then I read the new one, and I just…"

Grissom straightened. "What new one?"

"She paged me and left a new verse. Here, I wrote it down." She got up off of the floor and walked to the table. He slowly got up to follow, feeling every bit of his age, and waited for a moment until Sara handed him a notepad on which she'd scribbled the reference.

"Jeremiah 19:11," he read out loud, taking the pad in hand. " 'This is what the Lord Almighty says: As this jar lies shattered, so will I shatter the people of Judah and Jerusalem beyond all hope of repair,'" he quoted, for once glad that he'd memorized so many verses as a Catholic.

"She's continuing with the Judah and Jerusalem analogy," Sara said softly, but with more venom than Grissom had heard in her voice in a long time. "She's saying-"

"She's saying that she has to break us up… that we're evil and we must be destroyed," he finished with a sigh, handing Sara a handkerchief as he heard another small sniffle escape before she exploded:

"That's what pisses me off! That twisted murdering bitch is calling us evil! How is that possible? I know I've done terrible things in the past, but-"

"Sara, don't even think it! You're a beautiful person. Remember that! Think of all the things you've done, and then think of what she's done: nothing. You're so much better than her in so many ways! If you let her get to you, then you're letting her win. Forget her and look again. This is what you're good at!"

Sara looked up at him in shock. She'd never heard so many compliments from him in such a short amount of time. Knowing, however, that he'd be extremely self-conscious if she said anything, and not wanting to break this sudden emotional connection, she simply nodded, and with a smile of thanks, handed back his handkerchief and started cleaning her workstation before diving back in.

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Over the next three days, the team worked tirelessly to locate Vivian and bring her down. Working together, they went over every piece of evidence they had, which, considering the status of the case was not much. To no one's surprise, it was Sara who brought things together.

"I got it!" she called as she ran into the conference room with a map and a notepad. Scanning the map onto the computer and asking Nick to flick the lights, she projected her findings for all to see.

"I believe we're all familiar with the layout of Las Vegas, Sara," Grissom sighed.

"We're all familiar with the scenes, too, Grissom, but we never connected the dots," Sara retorted. "First victim, commandment number one, killed in his home in downtown Vegas."

As she rattled off info, she highlighted the corresponding scenes on the map.

"Second vic, killed in his home near Henderson. Third vic, killed in his home near Laughlin. Fourth vic, our bailiff, was killed in the courthouse, not far from here."

"What's that other dot, there in Vegas?" Greg asked, earning him an elbow nudge from Nick and a glance from Warrick that said to shut up and listen.

"My apartment." Sara's eyes glazed over for a moment, lost in thought, but she quickly shook her head, as if shaking away the terror of that night, and forged ahead, focusing on the task in front of her.

"Look at the pattern of locations," she said firmly.

"Long, tight spiral," Catherine observed.

Grissom's eyes narrowed in thought. Glancing in his direction, Warrick chuckled.

"Watch out, guys… Grissom's got that look."

Smiles and giggles filled the room, but Grissom's train of thought never strayed from the tracks.

"Finish the spiral, Sara," he said slowly, his eyes staring unblinkingly at the projection. "Connect the dots… What's in the middle?"

The laughter died down and the smiles faded as they all watched the computer finish the spiral, the final point landing in central Vegas, right on the lab.

"Log in the addresses of everyone on this team," he demanded, hoping his hunch was wrong.

One by one the homes of the crew were typed into the database, and one by one crew members' heads dropped as their homes appeared along the spiral.

"Her path of destruction," Warrick sighed.

"She planned this all along," Grissom said heavily, getting up to pace the room. "The verse was jus the beginning. She's trying to wear us down."

"What verse?" Nick asked, straightening up to hear this new tidbit.

"Jeremiah 19:11." Sara quoted the verse for the rest of the crew. "Think about it. Vivian knew she couldn't get away with it in Vegas. We're the second best crime lab in the country, right behind the FBI, who has made no attempt to help, by the way. Vivian knew that when she got caught, she couldn't be held. She didn't leave enough evidence, even for us. But, she also knew that we'd keep coming. We enjoy a challenge and we don't give up. Now we've figured her out and she has to get rid of us before we nail her."

"Nice layout," Catherine said quietly.

"Okay, so she's already hit you, Sara… Who's next?" Greg looked to her for the answer to the question she was sure was on everyone's mind.

"She didn't hit in any specific order… I don't know… it could be anyone."

At that moment, each member of the team jumped as his or her pager went off. After looking at his own, Grissom glanced over at Catherine's.

"Same as mine," he mused.

Warrick's head snapped up. "Dan 5 25?"

Several glances around the room confirmed that they'd all just received yet another message from Vivian. Picking up his Bible and flipping through the Old Testament, Grissom stopped at Daniel and, reminding them all of story times in better days, read to the group:

" 'This is the message that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN.'"

"In English?" Nick asked, a look of confusion on his face.

"No, Greek," Grissom stated matter-of-factly.

"Let me rephrase," Nick retorted. "What does it mean?"

" 'Mene' means numbered. 'Tekel' means weighed. 'Parsin' means divided."

"Our days are numbered. We've been weighed and we fail the test. For her to win, we must be divided." All eyes turned to Sara to see her staring at the map, the familiar "quiet-but-pissed" look on her face. "She's gonna break us down, one by one."

Seeing panic and concern sweep the room, Grissom stopped his pacing and leaned forward on the table to give out orders.

"Sara, keep working on those patterns. You can work in my office. You won't be bothered there. You're the best we've got, so make it count. Nick, you and Warrick go over possible focal points for Vivian. There are six of us… Guess how many commandments are left?"

"Perfect." Nick flashed a sarcastic smile Grissom's way. "Just perfect. She really did plan this out."

"Get going. The sooner we crack this, the sooner it's over. Catherine, you show Greg how to work the databases. Find out how she worked in New York and Miami. Look at victims, locations, communications with authorities, and anything else you can think of. We may have to make a few phone calls."

"What about you?" Catherine raised an eyebrow.

"I'm going to look at verses. There's a story here and I'm going to find it."

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