4 weeks later
Grissom stalked through the hallways of CSI and finally reached the AV lab.
"What's up boss?" Archie asked as the supervisor shut the door.
"I had a thought. The officer that was on duty the night that Nick was kidnapped, I want to find out whether he had camera in his patrol car or not. I need to check with Brass, but if he does, will you analyze it for me?"
"Of course."
"Good. And remember, not a word to Nick, or anyone else for that matter."
Archie nodded in response, and Grissom went to track down Brass.
"So where were you last night man? I looked for you after shift, but you had already left. We went out for drinks," Warrick said as he closed his locker.
"Sorry, I had somewhere to be," Nick answered, while tying his shoe.
Warrick grinned, "You were at Clara's weren't you?"
Nick gave him a sheepish smile, "I will neither confirm nor deny that."
"You're spending all your free time there. Maybe you two should come out with your friends at some point."
"Give me the time and place, we'll try to make it then," he replied, shutting his own locker and heading out of the room.
"I'll call him in for you," Brass told Grissom, and picked up the phone.
"Thanks," he replied, sitting down.
Brass finished on the phone, "He'll be here in a minute. You know, that's a pretty interesting theory you have. Do you really think there's a second guy involved?"
"The tape leads me to believe there was."
"Well good luck finding the guy, sounds like you don't have a whole lot to go on."
"I'm just following the evidence Jim."
There was a knock on the door, and the officer stuck his head in.
"You wanted to see me?" he asked.
"Come on in Craig," Brass said, offering him the chair beside Grissom. The officer remained standing.
"So what is this all about?"
"I was just wondering. The night that Nick went missing, did you have a camera on your car?" Grissom questioned, starring at the officer.
"Geez, I really don't remember."
"Think harder," growled Brass.
"Um, I might have."
"Do you think you could find it for me?" inquired Grissom.
"I can try. I don't know what you hope to find. I told you already that I saw nothing," he said getting defensive.
"I know you did. I am just following an idea. If you could find the footage for me, it would be greatly appreciated."
"I'll see what I can do," he turned his attention to Brass, "Is that all?"
"Yeah, you can go."
Craig left the room and Grissom gave Brass a look.
"I know, I never liked him either," Brass mumbled.
"It's hard to believe he didn't see or hear anything that night."
"He was puking his guts out, but I could swear he's seen things worse than what was out there."
Grissom's pager went off and he glanced down at it,
"I'm needed in the lab. Let me know when he gets the video."
Jim nodded in response.
It was the next night and the crew was sitting around a large table in a bar, celebrating another victory for the good guys. Nick made his way through the bar towards the group with Clara by his side.
"They'll like you, I promise," he assured her as they neared his co-workers.
She gave his a slightly nervous smile as Catherine waved a greeting.
"Hey Nick! Who's your pretty friend?" Greg said.
"Everybody, this is Clara," he introduced her.
"Hi everyone."
"It's nice to finally meet you Clara, cause you know Nick doesn't shut up about you," Warrick laughed, extending his hand to her.
"And you don't talk about Tina enough?" Nick teased.
"We put up with these two all the time," Catherine joked, "By the way, I'm Catherine, and this is Grissom," she finished, pointing to Gil.
Clara shook their hands, then Sara and Greg introduced themselves.
"It's great to finally meet everyone, you know, put faces to names," Clara smiled.
Sara laughed, "So Nick does talk about us outside of work. What does he say?"
"Yeah, give us the dirt," piped up Greg.
"Dirt? He only has good things to say about everyone," Clara giggled as Nick blushed slightly.
"Well then you haven't heard the good stories," Warrick said.
"Have a seat and we'll talk," Catherine said, moving over.
Grissom sat in his office going over files. It was a night later and he had a ton of paper work to catch up on. His phone rang, and he looked at the offending object making the noise.
"Grissom," he answered tiredly.
"It's Jim. Craig couldn't find the footage you were looking for. It's probably been taped over cause its been so long. Sorry."
He heaved a sigh, "Thanks anyways. It was just a hunch."
Setting the phone down, he removed his glasses and put his head back. He could feel a migraine coming on. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. He wondered if he would ever get any peace and quiet.
"Come in," he called out.
"Hey Griss, someone sent you a package," Greg said, passing the small object to him.
"Thank you Greg, close the door on your way out please."
The former lab tech looked a little disappointed not to know what was in the package, but left anyways. Grissom examined what had been sent to him. It was a small box, with his name and the lab address typed neatly on the front, but there was no return address. He ripped open the paper, and took out the small box, removing the lid. Inside was a small memory card, very similar to the one that the lab had received when Nick had gone missing. There was no note and nothing else in the box. Grissom immediately pulled out a latex glove from his pocket and examined the stick while holding it in the glove. He would print it later.
He got up and made his way down to the AV lab where Archie was sitting. He shut the door and the lab tech gave him a quizzical glance,
"Did you get the tape from the patrol car?"
"No, but I have something else," he replied, holding out the memory stick.
"Where did that come from?"
"I just received an anonymous package with this in it. I want to see what's on it," he handed it, with the glove to Archie.
"Alright, give me one second and we'll find out."
He cleared his screen and inserted the stick into the computer. The screen went white and words began to scroll across it: This isn't over, it read, and then a picture flashed at them, and they both cringed.
It was Nick, in the box, the green light illuminating his horror filled face.
"Holy-" Archie began.
"Where's Nick?" Grissom asked, in an eerily calm voice.
"I dunno…"
The night supervisor was up and out of the room in seconds, nearly running down the halls of CSI. He almost collided with Catherine.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed, "Where's the fire?"
"Have you seen Nick?"
"Yeah, he's in the evidence room….why?"
"Good," he sighed.
"What's wrong?" she said, examining the expression on his face.
"Nothing."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure," he replied, brushing past her to continue down the hall.
She shook her head and headed her way, not sure what to think of what was going on.
Grissom got to the evidence room and saw Nick through the window, bent over some pictures of a crime scene with Sara.
"Gil?"
He turned around to find Brass behind him.
"What are you doing up here Jim?"
"We need to talk," Brass said, gesturing to Nick with a grim look on his face.
"What happened?"
To be continued…
If anyone knows the name of the officer I am referring to in the story, please let me know. I cannot remember it so I had to make one up. Thanks again for all the super reviews! -L