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Chapter 10
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They saw the smoke before they heard the sirens. Following a fire truck as they got closer to Sara's apartment, their hope for her survival dwindled with each passing moment.
Grissom was the first out of the car. Consumed by guilt at having left her alone, he ran past the police line and the firemen to get to the door. Learning from past cases, he felt the door to see if it was hot before kicking it open and rushing in. His eyes burned from the smoke that rushed toward him on its way out the door. Rushing from room to room, he called Sara's name more times than he could count, but to no avail. Each room came up empty.
When he got to the bedroom, smoke was pouring out of the cracks above and below the closed door, smoldering the doorframe.
"Fahrenheit 932," he whispered, realizing how similar the two fires were, and what that would mean for anyone inside.
The explosion that came from somewhere in the kitchen brought him back to the realization that unless he wanted to die, he needed to get out of there. Shielding his eyes from the smoke and the brightness of the flame, Grissom made his way out of the apartment. The team rushed to meet him at the police line.
"Where is she?"
"Did you see her?"
"What happened?"
They bombarded him with questions, but Grissom simply walked past them. He went to the Tahoe, all of the doors of which were still wide open, taking a seat on the passenger side. He just had to sit and process it all.
Catherine followed him and tried again. "Gil," she said gently, "was she there?"
He looked at her with tears in his eyes and shook his head. "Do you remember the arson case from three years ago?" he asked.
The team all remembered that particular case. The homeowner had been arrested for arson and had called Grissom for help. The man's wife and son had been killed in the bedroom during the fire. When Grissom went to investigate the bedroom, he found the door closed and the doorframe smoldered. Grissom had to explain to the man that in order for that to happen, the temperature inside the room had to reach 932 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point any smoke produced by the fire would burst into flame.
Catherine remembered that arson all too well, but unable to trust her voice, she simply nodded, prompting Grissom to continue.
"The door to Sara's bedroom was closed with smoke pouring out, and the doorframe was smoldered…just like in that case." As the rest of the crew came forward to hear his response, Grissom put his head in his hands.
Catherine was rooted to the spot in shock. "There's no way anyone in that room could have survived," she said, more to herself than to anyone else.
"I should have stayed with her!" Grissom managed between sobs. "She was asleep…I tucked her in myself…"
Nick came up and put his arm around Grissom. He was crying, too. "We all loved her, man," he sniffled. All the team could do was be together as their world continued its recent downward spiral.
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Miriam couldn't stand to watch the team in so much agony. She hated to have to move her schedule up by an entire week, throwing off the carefully planned meaning and symbolism in the process, but conditions and situations had forced her hand, leaving her favorite member of the team in a burning building. True, she deserved to die for her sins, but God only knew why it had to be Sara.
Regaining control over herself, Miriam drove away to finish her mission in Vegas. It was time to leave another message, and she had just the one.
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