Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the idea.
AN: Thanks to Kristy and Chaotic4Lifefor beta reading hugs.Rated M just to be safe.
Summary: A young woman is killed and her daughter missing. Will Grissom and Sara be able to find her?
Both went back downstairs in silence, staring at the teddy bear in Grissom's hand. As soon as they entered the room the conversation between the three men stopped, staring at Grissom and Sara, then the teddy bear and back at both CSI's.
Sara took a deep breath. "I'll go and find Warrick. He needs to know, too." Grissom just nodded while Sara left.
Grissom looked at the three men standing in front of him. swallowing hard he started to speak. "We need every shred of evidence. Even the smallest pieces. I know, you do your work great at any time, but in this case we have no time missing even one little thing. Greg, you will finish here", he turned towards Warrick entering the room; Sara directly behind him.
"Warrick, you'll continue with your work outside. Turn over every little stone. David, get the body back to the lab and tell Doc Robbins I need the results as soon as possible. Sara, you and I will process the rooms upstairs." Everyone just nodded and started their assigned tasks.
-.-.-.-.-.-
She's crying. She misses Muffin. She has never left Muffin behind in her life. She loves the teddy bear more than anything else in her life. Besides her parents. Her parents. 'Where are they' she wonders. 'Where is my Mommy?'. She has been more than happy when her Mommy told her that they were going on vacation. She had wanted her Daddy to come with them, but he needed to stay at home and work. So she came here only with her Mommy. And now her Mommy was gone. She cowers in the back of the strange car and is afraid. She doesn't know the man who has taken her out of the bedroom and who won't tell her where her Mommy is now. The man doesn't talk to her. Or he just tells her to shut up. She wants to ask so many questions but she doesn't have the heart to do so. She's just a little girl. And she's all alone now.
-.-.-.-.-.-
They had worked all night, mostly in silence, fast and concentrated. It had been hard to focus on the work, their thoughts always drifting away to the little girl. Now they were back at the lab, processing the evidence they had collected earlier that day. Unfortunately not much was found, just a few smeared fingerprints and some blood drops.
Greg processed the blood they found,. but unfortunately, like all of them suspected , it belonged to Linda McCullam.
Warrick checked out some branches, leaves and stones, still hoping that he had missed something at the scene.
Sara ran the fingerprints she could discover through AFIS, but they came up without result.
After a short time in the lab they all met in Grissoms office to discuss their findings. "Ok guys, what do we have?", Grissom started, looking from Greg to Warrick, then to Sara and back to Greg. Greg cleared his throat. "Well, as I expected, all the blood we found is from the victim. Not a trace of second DNA. But, this is also a good sign in my opinion." At Grissoms questioning look he continued. "Well, if there's only blood from the victim we can be sure whoever did this, didn't harm Lilly."
"At least the murderer didn't kill her the same way he killed her mother", Sara added with slight frustration in her voice. Grissom raised an eyebrow at her comment then looked at Warrick. "Did you find anything on the branches or stones?"
Warrick shook his head, the same frustration heard before in Sara's voice now reflected in his eyes. Grissom stared at the younger man in front of him a few more seconds then moved his gaze to Sara.
"Let me guess, the only useful prints came back with no result." He asked her, his voice getting softer. Sara chewed her lower lip, meeting his gaze. "I called the husband again and ask him to give us something we can compare the prints with. So that we can be sure they are hers."
After a short break she added "Griss, that's ridiculous. A woman has been murdered, her little daughter is missing and whoever did this didn't leave anything behind? We must have missed something!" the frustration and anger in her voice becoming stronger with every word.
"I talked to Doc Robbins when we returned" Grissom started to reply. "He hasn't finished the autospy yet, but he was able to give me some details. Linda McCullam diedof bloodloss. She wasn't dead the moment her throat was slashed, she lived for about two or three more minutes. The police received the call to report her murder three hours after she died. It came from a phone booth at a petrol station nearly 250 miles away from where Linda McCullam was killed. Brass is on his way to talk to the owner"
"So the murderer wanted to be sure that he's far enough away. But why did he call? It would have been much easier to just get away from the crime scene and drive on. No one would have found her until her husband would have reported her missing." Sara furrowed her brow.
"Maybe he is absolutely convinced that he didn't leave anything behind. That we can never find him. Maybe it's a game for him." Greg added somewhat shyly.
"And this exactly makes it even more complicated. If it's just a game he is uninhibited. He won't mind killing more people if he needs to. And it gets more dangerous for the little girl. I'm sure he will keep her as long as he needs her. But we don't know how long that will be." Sara's last words were merely whispered. Grissom threw a questioning look at her.
Warrick's pager started to vibrate and he looked at it. "I need to get this call guys, I'll be back in a minute." "When you're done go through the evidence again, there needs to be something." Grissom assigned. "Greg, go and see Doc Robbins, he should have finished the autopsy by now. If he can't tell you something new, redo the autopsy. And again, if necessary." Greg nodded and made his way out of Grissom's office. When he reached the door Grissom called after him "And shut the door please:" Sara looked at him questioningly but remained silent.
Grissom leaned back in his chair and tipped his chin with his left index finger. Sara started to shift after a few seconds, nervous about being alone with Grissom when he was in a mood like this. Not talking at all, just sitting there and staring at her. Finally he leaned forward, his forearms rested on his desk, his fingers folded. He shifted his gaze from Sara to his hands. "You're ok?" he asked in a soft voice.
Sara blinked a few times. "Uhm... Sure I am. I guess I am. How do you feel?" she asked irate in return.
Grissom shrugged his shoulders. "It's always hard when children are involved. But this is our job and we can't allow any feelings in it. No mourning, no anger, no… frustration" he added ,looking up into her eyes at the last word.
"I know that, believe me, I do. But it's not as easy as you want it to be, Griss. I know what you're about to say. But I'm not like you. I can't switch my feelings on and off. My feelings often help me to stay focused, to do the one step that is necessary to solve a crime."
"I know that, Sara. I just want you to remind yourself that this is not different from any other cases we have. Just stay focused and do whatever is needed to get the killer. I know..." he stopped her reply with a move of his left hand, "... that you do this in all of your cases. But you seemed more affected by this case." He saw the anger rising up in her eyes.
"So you're trying to tell me to feel nothing and just work this case. Fine. If you can do that, I can't. A woman was murdered and her young daughter is missing. And if we're right and this is just a game for the killer, I for one can not stay relaxed. This little girl depends on us to survive. And believe me, if we find the killer and Lilly is not still alive, I will haunt this guy even if it takes ages."
She rose up from her chair and stormed out of his office. Grissom stared after her and sighed heavily. He had never seen Sara behaving like this. Sure she was affected by some crimes, especially cases where women were raped or which contains domestic violence. But he had never seen her that affected in a case with a child. He leaned back in his chair and thought for a few more moments then decided that he would talk to her again later and started looking through the files on his desk.
-.-.-.-.-.-
She looks up when the car comes to an abrupt halt. She lifts her head and looks out of the window. She can see other cars bu t there are no people. She turns her head when she hears the car door open. The man turns around. 'You stay here and keep your sweet little mouth shut my angel' he tells her. She nods. She's too afraid to say something. When the man leaves the car and slams the door shut she starts crying again.