Sara Sidle arrived at work fairly refreshed after five hours of sleep. She
came early, knowing that there were a ton of interviews to be sent up. She
swung by the break room to grab a cup of coffee and headed towards the
phones to contact Jim Brass concerning the schedule of witnesses. After
spending more than twenty minutes on the phone with the Captain, she began to
write a list of people she would speak to during the day.
The sheet of paper displayed a fairly long list of names. School counselors
would be handled by Brass. She would speak with the family priest, assuming that Nick would be the easiest person to talk with the school coach.Sara contemplated the assignments, knowing that Nick might want to have a
say as to who spoke to which visitor, but she was trying to be efficient.
She strolled down the corridor in search of her "temporary" boss to find him
slumped behind the desk of Grissom's office. His eyes were glued to the
computer screen, the sounds of the mouse clicking the only thing to break
the silence in the room. Sara smiled slightly at the determination behind
those fierce features, but then the smirk slowly faded to a small frown.
Sara blinked a few time as she noted the wrinkled shirt that he wore the
other day. Did the guy ever leave last night?
Sara cleared her throat to alert him to her presence. He glanced up in
slight confusion. His eyes darted to the clock on the wall, and he pushed
back on the chair he sat in.
"Hey," he said his voice slightly hoarse.
"Hey, yourself." Sara walked further into the room and looked down at the
various papers, printouts, and files strewn about the desk.
"I set up all the interviews. Brass is going over to the school to speak
with the two counselors. I've got the priest, and I felt that maybe you
might handle the head coach...if that's all right with you." Sara looked
up at him, trying to invoke casualness to her tone. She wasn't trying to
take over any aspect of the case, but wanted to help delegate duties.
Nick seemed too engrossed to notice as he ran a hand through his hair.
"Good."
"You find anything in all this mess?" She indicated the mass of crap piled
on the desk.
Nick began to gather up the items in some sort of pattern. He placed certain
papers in stacks only known to him. "Maybe."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sara asked, arching an eyebrow.
Nick smiled at her. She reciprocated- at least he wasn't too worn away to
appreciate their kind of banter.
"Everything is too neat and tidy going back the last twenty years, and then
Matt Todd's history becomes hard to track down past 1985, when he was living
at..." Nick searched for a slip of paper. "When he lived in Tucson, Arizona.
Then the trail goes cold."
Sara wandered over to the chaos that was Nick's current work desk. "He would
have been…..what, 25? You think digging that deep into the father's past is
going to reveal some magical reason for his son's current murder?" Sara
asked. She didn't mean to come off as condescending, but she really
wasn't following the other man's thought processes.
Nick seemed to take exception to her question. He scooped up his papers,
ignoring her glance. "I'm being meticulous," he grunted.
He brushed past her, as he organized his work area the best he could. Sara
noted the stubble around his face from not shaving. She folded her arms
across her chest. "Did you get any sleep last night?"
Nick ignored her. He finished with his stacks and looked up. "What time does
the coach get here?"
Sara didn't try to hide her annoyance at being selectively disregarded. "At
8 a.m. Plenty of time for you to eat something, take a nap, and shave."
Nick's mouth formed a thin line. "I've got a meeting in less than an hour,
more red tape crap to deal with." He handed her a thick file folder. "See if
you can research Matt Todd's business ties. All of his construction projects
have to do with buildings for the community. Recreation centers, churches,
local theaters, parks. They all have one thing in common."
"Families and kids," Sara replied accepting the items. She looked down, not
really convinced at any possible link, but she was intrigued.
"Where are you going?"
"I have to assign Warrick to a robbery. Hopefully he can wrap it up in time
to help with the interviews in the morning," he explained, heading out of the
office.
Sara hurried to catch up with him. "We've got another double ahead."
It wasn't really a question and the temporary supervisor didn't even try to
answer it as he walked down the hall to his next destination.
Sara was left with the feeling that Nick Stokes was spearheading a case-
whether the rest of the team caught up to him or not.
Nick had assigned Greg the task of searching for any medical history on
Jason Todd. He wanted to know if the father concentrated on both sons at the
same time, or if he followed pattern according to age. Perhaps the youngest
had been spared any advances. More than likely Jason would be ignored until
his brother was too old. Then, sexual predators tended to go after the next
sibling. Nick prioritized his morning after the pointless meeting with the
day and swing shift supervisors. All the cases from Graveyard were being
handled in a timely manner. Nick headed towards the Trace lab, knowing he
had to clear one more obstacle off his plate. He spotted David Hodges,
standing near a printer, his bored expression quite obvious.
"Hey, Goose. I need to talk to you." Nick used his pointer finger to
summon the other man closer. The tech rolled his eyes and sauntered over as
if this was a waste of his time.
"Yeah," David greeted.
Nick fixed him with one of his best intimation stares. "Look, you got to
keep your area as sanitary as possible. All of your projects need to be
maintained and neatly organized according to procedure. Other people use the
same space, all right?" Nick gave him a slight smile, trying to play the
'I'm just doing my job card'.
David just stared at him as if he just went over something as lame as the
fundamentals of the alphabet. "You know, boss. Good grooming is a
requirement for any kind of management position."
Nick didn't let the snarky act faze him. "I'll come by to check out your
cleanliness if need be. However, this isn't a school and I'm not a
principal. So, why don't we pretend to be respectful to other coworkers?"
Nick explained, clearing his throat, which had become very scratchy towards
the end of his remarks.
David looked past him, as one of the female lab techs walked by them.
Following her till she disappeared from view, he brought his attention back
to the other man.
"Sure. Whatever."
Nick sighed. He subconsciously rubbed at the muscles in his neck that
decided now was a good time to spasm up on him. "I'm glad we had this
conversation," he mumbled as the tech walked away.
Nick shook his head and went to track down Greg on his progress. His phone
shrilled at him. He looked down to see Warrick's ID blink at him. He flipped
it open, to find out how far the other man had gotten on his case.
Greg studied the crime scene photos with fresh eyes. There were no
significant clues about the body. The dump area was proving to be a dead
end. Nothing came back on the blanket or from the child's clothes. No trace
of any epithelials, DNA, or hair and fiber. The rookie criminalist was at a
loss on how to move forward. He looked up when he heard foot steps. Nick
came bounding into the room with purpose.
"Come on. Marisa Todd convinced her husband to allow us access to the house.
The funeral arrangements have been put on hold, since Doc hasn't completed
his findings."
Greg jumped up and quickly joined the other man, who continued to update him.
"It seems she wants the investigation to hurry up so she can bury her
child."
Both criminalists headed to their SUV.
"Where do we start?" Greg asked on the drive over.
"We're covering the whole house. Sara's meeting us there. I'll cover the
boy's bedroom. I want the two of you to look for anything that could have
been used as a murder weapon. Doc Robbins says we should be looking for a
large blade. Hunting knife or anything with a serrated edge."
Greg listened to his instructions intently; his superior's voice kept
drifting into raspy tones.
"What about blood evidence?" He asked.
Nick shook his head. "The child was killed at the scene. There were no other
wounds to the body, besides the sexual assault." Nick's jaw tightened. "Look
at any computers. Check for e-mail and chat room conversations about any
kind of kiddie porn, or anything sexual in nature. These types of predators
usually like to share with other people. Their appetites are not bound by
their own family."
Greg nodded mutely.
Both CSI's arrived at the house in record time. It felt a bit unusual for
the uncooperative parents to have all of a sudden changed their minds and
allowed the investigation to continue in the middle of the night. The whole
dichotomy of the household seemed to on some sort of rift. Marisa and Matt
Todd were struggling over who had control. It was obvious during the failed
interview that there was tension between them. Somehow the mother had won
out on some argument. Nick wondered if the possible murder weapon had all
ready been disposed of.
The duo met Jim Brass at the door while the rest of the family stood outside.
Marisa Todd held on to the hand of her youngest son as she approached Nick.
"We're staying at a hotel, while you go through anything. I hope you find
something that tells me what happened to my son." The woman stared at the
lead CSI intently. She seemed more in control, and less on the verge of a
nervous breakdown. Her husband stood back, casting a weary glare at the both
of them.
"That's for the best, Madame," Nick explained.
Jason Todd let go of his mother's hand and wandered over to the criminalist.
Nick kneeled down to talk to the child face to face. "Hey, buddy. You feel
any better?"
The little boy shrugged. "Mom says I have step throat." He fiddled with
something in his right hand and displayed the item to the CSI. "This is my
game boy. I've got all 200 pokeomon." The child shoved the device into the
older man's hands.
Nick smiled at him. "Oh, yeah? Must have taken you along time to collect
them." Nick inspected the video game.
Jason went beside him and pointed at the screen excitedly. "There's Char
Char, he's one of the rarest ones."
"That's very cool." Nick squinted at the animated animal.
"Leave Mr. Stokes alone, Jason. He has work to do and we have to go on a
trip to a hotel." His mom tugged at the child and ushered him closer to her.
Nick stood up. "I'll talk to you later, all right partner?"
"Okay." Jason followed his mom to a car, his father close behind.
Nick watched them drive away, a patrol car following them to their
destination. A SUV pulled up as the family drove away. Sara stepped out with
her kit.
Nick gathered his stuff and looked at his two collogues "Let's set to work,
we have a long night ahead of us."
Nick did a preliminary walkthrough of Johnny Todd's bedroom. He had sent
Sara to go through the dad's room. Greg started his search of the rest of
the house for any sign of a weapon or pornographic materials. Nick combed
though the child's bed, using the ALS in search of any possible body fluids.
So, far he didn't detect any trace evidence of sexual abuse. He bagged the
blankets and sheets for further analysis later on.
Nick searched for anything out of the ordinary, going through the boy's
closet, drawers, and book shelves. The child's room was like a shrine for
the sport's enthusiast. Posters of football players and major baseball teams
lined one wall, while pennants covered every space around the bed. There was
a case for every trophy won, with pictures of teammates taped to the sides.
Johnny was definitely an active child and Nick took a moment to sit crossed
legged in the middle of the room. He took in all the pride, all the
accomplishments, and shook his head. Everything had been destroyed; all the
little icons in competitive achievement in the world would never bring this
kid back.
Nick closed his eyes as he drifted away for a moment. He rubbed at his
strained eyes and shuddered a little when a slight chill went down his
spine. His head filled with music, a song's lyrics drifted through his mind.
"You looked inside my fantasies and made each one come true,
something no one else had ever found a way to do.
I've kept the mem'ries one by one, since you took me in;
and I know I'll never love this way again.
I know I'll never love this way again,
so I keep holdin' on before the good is gone.
I know I'll never love this way again,
hold on, hold on, hold on."
Nick's eyes flew open as his stomach churned upon the female vocal in his
head. He got up ignoring the song's memory that slowly faded away.
"Get a grip," he mumbled to himself.
He stretched since his back ached from moving around so much. He grabbed
his less-than-stellar collection, and sought out Greg to help with the rest
of the inspection of the home. The team spent five hours covering every inch
of the place. Nick gathered his teammates together after they finished
going over every room. The trio met back at the lab to discuss their lack of
findings before the morning interviews could begin.
Nick found himself in the AV lab, hounding Archie over security tapes from
another case. Sophia Curtis's rape case was dwindling down. They had a
suspect in custody and the thing to nail the bastard with was lost somewhere
in his twisted library of videotapes that were found in a basement.
"Come on man, I know you are quicker than this," Nick said, pacing the room.
"I'm not a miracle worker, Captain," the tech replied in a really bad
Scottish accent.
Nick gave him a look of mild amusement as he sipped his bottle of Coke.
"Just try to sift through these faster. We need to find the right tape.
Sophia is an interview room as we speak."
The Asian shook his head. "As soon as I find it, I'll bring it to her."
Nick patted the man's shoulder. "I know you're doing great work. I appreciate
the haste, dude."
The criminalist walked out of the room in search of Warrick. His partner had
wrapped up on his burglary, and was going to start the analysis of the linen
Nick had collected from the son's bedroom. The search of the Todd's
residence had turned up nothing. There wasn't a scrap of any pornographic
material. The computers' e-mails and hard drive had been a bust. Greg was
working on a set of large kitchen knives, but it was highly unlikely that
any of them were the right style. The coroner had insisted that a hunting
knife had been the weapon, and a butcher knife wasn't going to match up.
Warrick caught up with his partner, a plastic-wrapped sandwich held tightly
in his grip. He pulled the Texan aside and stuffed the food into his empty
hands.
"Sara says you haven't eaten anything all night. Now scarf this down before
you have your interview."
Nick was going to protest, but the thought of food made his stomach growl,
reminding him how long it had been that he went without eating. He wasn't
being self-destructive; the CSI just forgot to take the time for a meal.
Nick went to the break room and began to wolf down the sandwich, much to the
glee of his partner.
"You know, Grissom seems like a robot at times, but even he knows when to
take the time to refuel. You know what I mean," Warrick deadpanned.
"Yeah, I know, man. Just kind of got caught up with the case and all the rest
of the supervisor duties," Nick answered between mouthfuls of food.
"So, what's with you lately?" the lanky man asked as he leaned against the
doorframe.
Nick paused ever so slightly and shook his head. "Nothin'." He looked over
at his disbelieving friend and gave him a lame answer. "You know how it
goes."
"You're way past the point of trying to impress the boss, you know," Warrick
reasoned to him.
That earned him a glare. "I'm not trying to prove anything." Nick got up
from his chair to throw his trash away. "I'm just focused." He looked at his
watch. "I've got to meet with someone now. You going to---"
"The sheets. I'm already on it." Warrick interrupted him.
Nick allowed a grin. "Cool, man. See you in a little while."
Father Myers sat in the interview room, with simple ease and calm. His
demeanor didn't reflect the kind of pressure he must have been under as a
family guide in crisis. Sara entered the room after observing him, her
expression neutral. Little things were not adding up, and she didn't want to
let this man think for a moment that he could hide behind a collar if he had
any relevant information.
"Mr. Myers, how long have you known the Todds?" she asked.
"For three years. They attend Mass every Sunday and as well as a few of my
Bible Study classes," the priest answered.
Sara flipped through her file. "Mr. Todd was in charge of the building and
construction plans for the new wing of your church. Correct?" She looked up
at him, searching for any nuance.
"Yes, Ms. Sidle. Matt Todd has helped construct many houses of God over the
years. It was a blessing when he joined our family as well as building the
congressional."
Sara nodded. "Do you know of any other social circles of the family? Any
functions that they take their children to?"
Father Myers placed his elbows on the table. "The Todds are a private
family, but they remain active in the community. Marisa is an art teacher at
a local middle school; her husband belongs to the chamber of commerce. They
entertain; they go to every game that Johnny ever played at school. They are
a loving family, Ms. Sidle. They are being torn apart by this horrible crime."
"Marisa Todd spoke about a conversation with Johnny. She said that the boy
had been acting weird, and when he would not talk with them. You had a
conversation with him." Sara looked at the other man. "What was he afraid
of?"
Father Myers's expression changed, his eyes grew softer, his lips thinned as
he frowned. He seemed drained all of a sudden, but then quickly composed
himself. His tone of voice was as sweet and kind as ever. "I simply don't
know. He got very quiet any time I tried to get him to open up about what was
wrong. He seemed skittish… not communicative."
Sara leaned in. "Do you recall seeing anyone approach Johnny at church,
notice anyone out of the ordinary?"
The priest grew somber. "No, Ms. Sidle. In fact the Todds had a group of
friends over at their house just a week ago, and everyone had a nice time."
Sara's eyes narrowed. "Really? Tell me about it."
The priest's brow furrowed in concentration, and then he shook his head
agitated. "It was to celebrate Johnny's promotion to shortstop. He'd been
in the outfield, but wasn't really happy about it. Some of the boy's friends
were there, his coach, some of the other parents."
The man looked at the criminalist. "It was just a fun time." Then he paused
as if struck by something.
Sara noticed the slight mannerism. "What is it?"
Father Myers looked hesitant, and then shifted uncomfortably. "It's
nothing."
"If it is, then telling me won't be an issue," Sara urged, as she smiled
slightly.
Father Myers sighed. "Matt was in a terrible mood that night and I don't
know why. He seemed very agitated and didn't spend any time with Johnny at
a party that was put together for him." He looked up at the CSI. "They were
always so close."
"Did it seem like Johnny was avoiding his father?"
There was a grim expression that quickly faded to a more determined one.
"No…they….I mean…..I just didn't see them act as they normally did. You
know?"
Sara didn't answer. "Why didn't the Todds report their child missing right
away, Father?" The CSI had no problem with addressing the man in front of
her with his revered name to gain some sort of trust.
"Johnny had run away several times in the past few months. They just thought
it was more of his antics… his growing rebellious nature," the priest
defended.
"Rebellion and teenagers go hand and hand. Johnny was 9 years old, hardly a
time to get all distant with your family and start running away. Unless he
was fearful of his own home?" Sara hinted, trying a gauge a reaction.
The priest straightened in his chair. "There was nothing to be afraid of at
home."
Sara continued her line of questioning, but came back with very little
information. Father Myers was very loyal towards the family and protective,
almost to a fault, of their need for privacy. He insisted they were not to
be the ones to be put under the microscope.
Sara had him write down the list of people at the party just a week earlier.
The case still cried out that someone in the family or close to them was
part of their tragedy. The last gathering might have been the final
preparations in order to plan out the kidnapping and murder.
TBC…
All Authors notes, answers, and comments are at my bio section. Just click on my name.