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Chapter 6: Sara's Apartment

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It was an odd feeling to pull into her own apartment complex on a case. Vartann pulled into the space next to her as she parked, and asked her to lead the way to the superintendent's office. Knocking on the door, they brought him out into the hallway to talk.

"Merry Christmas, Sir. My name is Detective Vartann, and this is-"

"Ms. Sidle! Yes, I know who this is. Merry Christmas, Ms. Sidle." Handing her a single red rose, he asked, "Working again this year?"

She was stunned by the gift, but his question shook her out of her silence. Vartann smiled to himself as she stumbled over the words.

"Umm- Yes, y-yes I am." Clearing her throat, she looked up resolutely and started again. "Actually, we're looking for someone."

"You don't say…"

"Yes. I know this is going to sound strange, but are there any Sara's living here with brown hair? … I mean, other than me?"

"Well, not that I can think of, but we just had a couple of new apartments leased out not too long ago, and I haven't gotten to know the tenants quite yet. Might be one of them."

Suddenly, Vartann looked to his hip. "Hey, I'll be right back, Sara. Just got an important page."

"Alright." Turning back to the super, she continued her questions. "Well, have you noticed anything odd around here lately?"

"Not really… Oh, wait, you know what? I found something this afternoon up near your apartment. Hold on, and I'll grab it for you."

"Wait… My apartment?" She furrowed her brows in pure confusion as he disappeared momentarily. When he came back out, she was amazed at what she saw. He held a long-necked beer bottle, and sitting gracefully at the bottom of the clear glass was a beautiful blue swallowtail butterfly.

"Mean anything to you?" the super asked, but she didn't hear him. She was focused on the bottle and the clear implications of it's meaning. Taking the bottle from him, Sara let her mind drift back to that haunting day in her apartment when one of her deepest, darkest secrets had been revealed. He'd come to ask what was wrong; what he got was more than he'd bargained for. But he'd stayed and proved to be the friend that she needed and so much more…

"Hey, Sidle," Vartann called, pulling her from her memories. "I gotta run. We've got issues down on the Strip, but I got word about our mystery caller. We traced his call and got an address. I wrote it down for you." With that, he started to run back to his car.

"Vartann, I can't go this alone! I need an officer with me!"

"Trust me, you got this one. Merry Christmas!"

Looking down at the paper he'd handed her, she read the address and immediately stared back at him.

"Wait, this can't be right; this address belongs to… Vartann!"

But he simply smiled as he climbed in his car. "Good luck, Sara."

She looked down at the address again, and suddenly it all came together. Her suspicions weren't unfounded after all… When the super asked her what was wrong, all she could do was whisper his name:

"Grissom."

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