. As they were making their way outside the house, Nick's cell phone rang; he glanced at the number flashing up 'private caller'. He looked at Sara, who urged him to answer it. "Hello?"
"Nick! Is that you?"
"Greg!" Nick shouted in surprise startling Sara, "Greg thank god are you OK?"
"Yeh" Greg lied "I'm fine" he replied, looking nervously at his kidnapper, who was currently holding a gun to his head.
"Greg where are you?"
"Can't say" he rasped.
Nick guessed that Paul was there, "Greg, you don't sound fine, what's he done to you?"
Greg was about to reply when the phone was snatched away by Paul and his hand muffled his cries. "Nothing" Paul harshly replied "Absolutely nothing, but he wont stay in pristine condition forever, remember that Nick"
"You bastard" Nick seethed "what's Greg ever done to you?"
There was a long silence at the other end of the phone and Nick feared he had hung up, until he heard more muffled cries, telling him, he was still on the line. "Well?"
"Have you worked out who I am yet?" Paul finally replied softly.
Nick paused, didn't know whether it was best to tell the truth or not. "Yes" he admitted.
Paul whistled appreciatively "Wow gotta say I'm impressed with you CSI's, I thought it might take you a little longer if I'm honest"
Nick decided it was best not to reveal to Paul exactly how much they knew about him, he was certainly not going to divulge that it was because Jack had survived that they knew. He answered carefully. "Tristan" he said deliberately using his alias "why are you doing this, I thought we were all friends?"
Paul could barely hide his amusement, so they weren't as smart as he had given them credit for, so Nick thought he was just some mailman turned psycho "Poor naïve Nick, say goodbye to Greggo, be sure to tell dear Grissom that he is OK. For now"
"NO" Nick screamed but was immediately disconnected. He turned to face Sara, who had heard everything, "Why can't he just tell us what he wants? What the hell is his game? We know he wants to get back at Grissom, but where does Greg fit into all this? Maybe Greg's not a specific target; maybe he was going to target any of us" Nick was trying to convince himself that Greg wasn't in immediate danger.
Sara wished that she could believe that Greg had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time but that video was hauntingly stuck in the back of her mind. "But what we found in there…" She said her voice shaking
Nick's face turned white as the realization hit him "Oh god you don't think that he was" he couldn't bring himself to say it
"I don't think that it was a coincidence that Greg was in the shower, I think he's sexually attracted to Greg". She sadly admitted. Nick turned around and wretched violently.
Grissom, Warrick Catherine and Brass were busy processing the crime scene when they got the call from Nick that they had all being hoping for, Greg was definitely still alive, Nick had spoken to him and although he sounded disorientated and possibly drugged, he was alive and as long as he stayed that way, they were going to do their damn best to find him. There didn't seem to be anything significant about the crime scene. The girl was found on the bed, had been strangled before she was shot but there was no sign of sexual assault. The guy had been shot dead in the living room; the bullet casing was the same as what had been used at the laboratory massacre. The house they were found in was a quiet neighbourhood. They were just a young couple; a passing friend had discovered the slayings when he got no answer. The neighbours hadn't heard a thing, Paul must have snuck in, killed them and left again unseen, and the question was why. Paul lured the CSI's away and left the note on the dead man's clothing as the distraction that enabled him to grab Greg.
"It's possible" Warrick theorized "that they were chosen solely because of their location, this place was easily too far away for Nick and Sara to get back to the lab even if they discovered the note the second they walked through the door"
"Well if that's the case" Catherine commented "Then why these two why not the man that lives alone two doors down or the middle aged couple and their teenage son? There's got to be some greater significance than just location"
"There's absolutely no sign of forced entry anywhere" Brass clarified "no broken windows, any hint of a door being forced, and yes I checked the attic" he added remembering that particular case all too well. "This guy is either the world's greatest burglar or they knew him and let him in"
Grissom who had been fairly silent for a while suddenly spoke "He's playing us; he chose these two because of their similarity to Rick and Mary"
"Rick and Mary?" Warrick questioned
"The bodies in the basement" Catherine grimaced remembering, "You're right Gil, they are a similar age, Rick and Mary were a young couple too, Mary's blond hair blue eyes and slim frame is virtually identical to the victim. Mary was strangled too. The only difference is Rick was stabbed not shot and they were both sexually assaulted post-mortem. There is no sign of sexual assault on either of these two vics"
"He didn't have time, their sole use was to create a crime scene for us" Grissom remarked
"He's gone to an awful lot of trouble, just to get us out of the way to snatch Greg" Catherine observed
"He's toying with us" said Grissom "He sees it as a personal triumph. He could easily have followed Greg home and knocked him out, then taken him but he didn't, he kidnapped him from what should have been the relative safety of Greg's own lab. From right under our own noses damnit!" Grissom's carefully concealed anger was beginning to simmer dangerously now. "The one place in the world that should be safe and secure and he just breezed through and took him, killing anyone who stood in his way, just like that. He's mocking us well and truly, he wants his revenge and wants to make damn sure I suffer."