A/N: I'm absurdly pleased with myself for finally figuring out what the song "Put The Lime In The Coconut" was about. Here's chapter two. I'm working on chapter three and it's almost finished. I just have to be less of a lazy-ass and type it up.
Chapter Two"Hi, I'm Gil Grissom and this is Sara Sidle. We're looking for Tricia Malone." Grissom smiled at the young girl.
"I'm Tricia." She said suspiciously.
"Tricia, we're here to talk to you about Amy Thomason." Sara cut in. "She's gone missing and we're looking for her. If you could just give us a minute of your time, it might really help us to determine where to start looking."
"Amy?" Tricia's eyes welled up. "Come in, please." She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. "How can I help?"
"Veronica Thomason said that your cousin, Michelle, has a party at her house once a month or so and sometimes Amy stayed at your place afterwards. Was Amy staying with you that night?"
"We never decide in advance. If Amy had the car, she'd go home. If not, she stayed with me. That night she caught a ride with Steve Macklin, a guy from Chem. Amy was into him. We saw each other briefly, but we never laid any plans. When I didn't see her at the end of the night, I figured she took Steve's car. I was tired, so I went home."
"Tricia, did Amy have anything to drink at the party?"
"Nope. No drugs or drinking for Amy. She's really focused on getting into Yale. She refuses to do anything that might jeopardize her chances."
"What about you? Did you drink anything?"
"I had a beer. Chugged a bottle of water afterwards and waited two hours."
"Can you remember if Steve had anything to drink?" Grissom asked.
"Yeah. Straight-edge Steve was guzzling beer like it was Gatorade. Saw Amy take his keys."
Good for Amy. Grissom thought with pride. "Do you have Steve's phone number, by any chance?"
"Yeah. His info's in my phone." Tricia snapped open her Motorola Razr. "Okay. Here it is. Steve Macklin, 555-0810."
"Thank you very much." Sara jotted the number down.
"Here, let me give you my number in case you need anything." She scribbled it down beneath Steve's number.
"Thank you, Tricia. You've been a big help." Sara assured the young woman.
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"Alright. Steve Macklin. Think we got time for one more chat?" Grissom flipped his sunglasses over his eyes.
"Let's go find Steve Macklin."
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"Hi, I'm Gil Grissom and this is Sara Sidle. We're looking for Steve Macklin."
The older woman eyed them suspiciously. "May I ask why?"
Sara jumped in. "Ma'am, we're friends of Victor Thomason and we're investigating the disappearance of his daughter, Amy. She and your son were friends, so we were hoping we could talk to him, see if we could get an idea of where to start looking."
"Alright, come in." She admitted them. "Steve, there are some people here to speak to you!"
A young blonde boy stuck his head out of his room. "Yes mom?"
"This is Gil Grissom. He'd like to speak to you. It's about some girl you know. Amy Thomason, or something."
Steve appeared in the living room as quickly as he could. "Let's talk outside." He sat on the porch swing while Sara and Grissom occupied the railing across from him. "What do you need?"
"Tell us about Michelle Malone's party." Grissom requested.
"Oh." Steve looked at the ground. "Look, it's a long story, and…"
"We've got time." Sara assured him. "Why don't you start by telling us about your relationship with Amy Thomason."
"I sat next to Amy in Chem. She was two years ahead of her grade in science. About two months ago, Amy asked me out. I said no, because I'm a senior and she's only a sophomore. The guys would ridicule me."
Two years is an insurmountable age difference to him? Grissom thought incredulously. Try fifteen years!
"So anyway, I said no. She asked Ms. Tripp if she could switch lab partners. Ms. Tripp said no, the lab partners were assigned permanently."
"So what happened then?" Sara coached.
"Amy stopped speaking to me. At first I thought she was angry. Then I realized she was just hurt and embarrassed. Everybody knows that Veronica is the key to Amy and vice versa. So I went to Veronica for advice. She told me to take Amy out to lunch as friends and talk to her. Veronica said that Amy appreciates honesty. So I asked Amy out to lunch the next day and she said yes. Didn't even look up from her chem book. So we went out and got pizza. I explained my reasons to Amy and she told me that they were stupid.
They were stupid. Sara wanted to say.
"I told her that I appreciated the fact that she'd taken the risk of asking me out and that she was sure to find another guy who would be way better for her than I was. She said, 'thanks for the platitude, but please don't be condescending.' I asked her if I had done anything that misled her. She told me that whenever we'd do an experiment in chem, I'd always grab her elbow to show her something or I'd sit way too close. She said it was little things like that that added up.
Well, at least he was nice about breaking her heart. Sara directed the tiniest of glares at Grissom.
"Then I realized that I had done all those things and I wasn't misleading her, because I really wanted to say yes. So I explained that to her and asked her out. She said yes. We'd gone out a few times, low-key, nothing to write home about, but the party was our first appearance together. I managed to get completely trashed and while Amy and I were making out she grabbed my keys. She took me home and stayed overnight because it was too late for her to be out driving. When I woke up the next morning, she was gone. I figured Veronica came and got her."
"You don't know where she might've gone?" Sara asked.
"I really don't know." Steve apologized. "I wish I could help you."
"Thank you." Grissom stood and followed Sara to the car.
"Well, people don't just disappear." Sara sighed, slipping inside the Mercedes that Victor had loaned them.
"I know." Grissom pulled the car out of the parking spot in front of the house. "There's no such thing as without a trace."
"But where do we look? The last person to see Amy says she just left." She sighed. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know."
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Not for the first time, Catherine Willows looked at her daughter and sighed. Lindsey was fourteen, nearing fifteen. She was a freshman in high school, for God's sake. In another two months, she'd be able to get her driver's permit.
Catherine thought about work. She'd long since accepted that work took her away from Lindsey more than she would've ideally liked, but Hell would freeze over twice before Catherine accepted that she was half Braun and would never have to work another day in her life if she just accepted Sam and the strings that came with his money.
Catherine's home phone jangled. "I got it!" Lindsey shouted, snatching up the portable phone. "Hello? One sec." She turned to Catherine. "It's for you."
"Hello?" Catherine answered.
"Ms. Willows? Hi my name is Dr. Tara Evans, and I'm a doctor here at Desert Palms. Sam Braun has just been admitted and you're listed as his next of kin. I'm going to need you to come down to the hospital and fill out a few forms."
"Oh my God! Yes, I'll be there as soon as I can. Uh, thank you." Catherine hung up the phone. "Lindsey, how soon can you be ready to go?"
"I'm just getting breakfast."
"No time. We'll get it later."
"What's going on?"
"I'll explain it in the car. Come on, let's go."
Lindsey hopped in the passenger seat of Catherine's Denali. "Okay. What's going on, mom?"
"Sam Braun is in the hospital and I'm listed as the next of kind. I need to go to the hospital and fill out forms. So please don't skip today, okay Lindsey? Just go to school and be a good girl."
"I don't want to go to school."
"Lindsey, please just do this for me. Here's a ten. Go to Starbucks and grab breakfast, okay?"
Lindsey stared at her mother. "This is really important to you, isn't it? Alright. No problems from me today."
"Thank you." Catherine revved the engine and sped all the way to Desert Palms. She rushed into the main waiting room. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Dr. Tara Evans." She told the receptionist.
"One second." The receptionist paged Dr. Evans.
Soon a blonde woman exited one of the ICU suites. "Ms. Willows? I'm Tara Evans, the doctor on your father's case. I'm afraid he suffered several heart attacks. He passed away about ten minutes ago."
Catherine clutched her purse. "He died?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Oh my God." Catherine sank down into one of the waiting room chairs.
"I'm so sorry, but Mr. Braun requested that you speak with a Mr. David Wiltman in the event of his death. His lawyer, I presume."
"May I see him?" Catherine requested?
"Ms. Willows…"
"May I see him?"
"Yes." Dr. Evans led her into Sam's suite.
Finally Catherine could believe it. Sam was gone.
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"Sara, can I offer you a scotch?" Victor held out the bottle.
"No thank you, I'm not a fan of scotch."
"A glass of wine, then?"
Sara hesitated. Oh what the Hell. It's just one glass of wine. "Sure."
"You know, I don't think I've properly thanked you for trying to find Amy."
"Of course. I can't imagine not trying to help."
"Sara, all those years ago, when you were a student at Berkeley, Gil couldn't stop raving about his brightest student. At first, I thought he was an idiot because he was going to enter a relationship with a student. But when he didn't, to protect you more than himself, I realized that there must be something special about you. So I wanted to meet you, but I never got the chance. Now that I've met you, I realize why Gil was so enamored with you. I was hoping you might go to dinner with me tomorrow night."
Sara swallowed her wine. "Oh, um, yes, I guess."
"Great. I'll call and make reservations."
Yeah. Great.
A/N: There's nothing like writing the Cath scenes the The Imperial March (for all you freaks that haven't seen any of the Star Wars, that's Vader's Theme. And I don't think you're actually freaks. I just…oh forget it.) Thanks for reading! Review. Review. Review. Review. (Think I should put in one more 'review?')