Everyone had looked up at Grissom when he walked in with his coffee mug; he sat down at the conference room table and said, "What do we have so far?"

Sara opened her file and started first. "Well I did a background check on Michael Mitchell, he was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. He has an older brother named Brent, who was last seen visiting Michael at the Dallas State Prison day after yesterday. Since then he's fallen off the radar. Here's a picture of him."

Sara stood up and passed out a picture of Brent to each one of them for their own files then sat back down and took a drink from her coffee.

"They came from a rich family, but both parents had died mysteriously. They were never able to prove that it was fowl play. Both boys had inherited the money. Since then they doubled their inheritance by investing into everything both legal and illegal. Up to recently the Dallas PD had trouble pinning anything to them, but Michael had made a mistake and got himself arrested."

Catherine found all this interesting. "Well it looks like all of our major players here are from Dallas. I ran the fingerprints from my MVA through AFIS and found a match for a Jeffrey Johns, who is also from Dallas. Do you guys see a pattern here? My guess is that this masked guy that has Nick is really Brent Mitchell, and the goon squad works for him. My only concern is does Nick know who they are? If so ..."

Grissom interrupted, " Catherine let's not go there yet. What else?" he said looking around the table.

Greg looked at Warrick and gave him a nod. Warrick started talking.

"We were able to determine the type of weapon used, was a 9mm Berretta. We were also able to determine that the same gun was used in both Nicks' abduction and the Brian Daeber murder. So we find the gun we find the murderer."

Greg continued. "We also compared the tire treads at both crime scenes, they are the same. They belong to a 2005 Black GMC Van which we would love to have in our possession but …"

"I may be able to help you there." They heard a voice from the door and all turned around to see.

Detective Jim Brass stood in the doorway of the conference room. He wore the same suit he had on the night before. His top button of his shirt was unbuttoned and he had long since removed the tie.

Brass moved into the room and continued, "I just received a call from dispatch. It seems that one of our patrol cars just located an abandoned black GMC Van in an alley off of Perkins and 120th Street. Anyone up for a ride?" he smiled.

They finally caught the break they were looking for. Even though the van couldn't speak it could still tell them plenty.

Grissom spoke up, "Does anyone else have anything to add?"

They all shook their heads no. "OK then Warrick, Greg and Catherine why don't you three go check out the van while Sara and I go visit Archie.

Everyone stood and headed for the door, when Grissom spoke up. "Oh and one more thing. Be careful out there."

They all nodded and proceeded out the door. Sara stood to the side waiting for Grissom to join her. Grissom finally got up out of his seat. He collected his folder and coffee cup and walked up to her.

"So what are we going to be doing in the A/V Lab with Archie?"

"We are going to reviewing the videoconference. I had Archie record it."

"I get it. You want to see if we can pinpoint Nick's location from the videoconference."

"Yep. Shall we."

Grissom followed Sara out, and together headed towards the A/V Lab.

Nick could barely contain his emotions when Brent said that he could get out of the box to use the facilities. He had never been so happy for a full bladder in his life. The same four men that guarded him earlier were there. They lifted him out of the box and placed him on his feet.

Nick's legs crumbled beneath him, but before he fell all the way to the ground he was grabbed by the arms and held up. He felt a gun to the back of his head and heard Mav say in his ear.

"This gun will be on you at all times so don't try anything. Got it!"

"Yea I got it. You want to untie my hands?"

"Nope, not until we get there."

They led Nick back to the bathroom, and Mav was true to his word. They kept the gun up to Nick's head the whole time. They untied him, and then retied him after he was finished. Nick tried to take his time; he wasn't in any hurry to get back into that box. Unfortunately his guards didn't like the turtle act so they half dragged him back.

When they got back into the room Brent was standing there.

"Put him in the chair."

The four guards brought Nick over and sat him down. Nick's arms remained tied behind his back. Nick looked at Brent waiting for him to say something.

"So I see we made it back uninjured this time. That's good. You are learning your place." Brent said.

Nick shook his head and laughed at that remark.

"What's so funny?"

"You are. You think I'm learning my place. I'm doing what I think I need to to hopefully survive here. It's really hard for me to try anything when my hands are tied behind my back and a gun is pressed to the back of my head."

"Yea. Well I guess you got a point there."

Nick leaned forward a little to get the weight off of his arms. They were once again starting to get numb, but Nick wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of complaining.

Brent saw Nick move forward to adjust his position. Brent knew Nick had to be hurting, but no matter what the guy was put through he didn't complain. That showed merit.

"How's your leg feeling?" Brent asked.

Nick looked down at his blood soaked bandage and replied, "How do you think it's feeling? It hurts like hell."

Brent nodded his head in understanding as he sat down in a chair across from Nick.

"So what was it like?"

Nick looked at him, "What was what like?"

"Being buried alive."

Nick was shocked at the question. 'What was this guy up to? Brent had no trouble throwing him in the wooden box earlier, now all the sudden he wants to know what it's like.'

"Well I tell you what. If you untie me, I will be more than happy to place you in that coffin and bury your ass alive. Just so you know how it feels."

"Just answer the question Nick."

"Why should I? So you can use it against me later? It's obvious you did your homework on me. You know exactly what buttons to press."

Brent was starting to get mad. "Nick you better answer the question or you will go back in that box, gagged and blindfolded with the top on!"

At that threat Nick tensed up. He looked over at the coffin only a few feet away. There was no way he wanted to go back in there.

"You wanted to know what it was like to be buried alive? Fine. It was claustrophobic. I couldn't move ... couldn't breath. I was terrified and alone. There is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Yes." He said standing up. He looked at the guards. "Put him back in the box. Gag and blindfold him don't put the lid on just yet."

Nick jumped from his seat. "You son of a …" the gag was placed tightly over his mouth and then he was blindfolded. He could feel himself being lifted as he screamed into the gag. He was placed into the box and his feet were tied again.

Brent followed the men over to the box and once Nick was placed in, Brent spoke.

"You see Nick. I just wanted to make sure you remembered how you felt in that box. This is what's in store for you if your father doesn't come through. Now I'm sure laying there in an open coffin and not being able to see or to speak should get to one emotionally. Especially for one who's already been through something this traumatic, and I'm more than positive that you will be a basket case by the time I contact your father again. Don't disappoint me."

Nick was still breathing heavily from the earlier struggle. He could feel it coming again. The anxiety. He tried to push the feeling to the side. He concentrated on his breathing. He worked to hard to overcome his obstacles the first time and there wasn't a chance in hell that this was going to put him over the edge. He took a deep breath. Even though his wrists were raw from the ropes he started working on freeing himself. He didn't know what he was going to do once the ropes came loose, but he decided he was going to go out fighting if he had anything to do with it.

Warrick, Greg and Catherine followed Brass's Taurus to the alley off of Perkins and 120th Street. When they arrived they saw three police cars parked on either side of the alley so no one could enter the crime scene. The yellow and black police tape surrounded the van. The license plates on the van matched what Brass had called in on the night of the abduction.

As everyone exited their cars, Warrick and Brass shared a glance. This was definitely the van that they had pursued. Brass looked at one of the policeman and spoke. "Has anyone searched the vehicle yet?"

The police officer responded. "No sir, the only thing we did was look in the windows to make sure that no one was in the vehicle. No one has touched anything."

Brass nodded to the officer in thanks he turned around to face the CSIs. "Why don't you guys go ahead and do your thing."

The three CSIs headed towards the van. Warrick got there first. He grabbed the door handle and as he opened it he heard a beeping noise. He screamed.

"Bomb!"