Chapter 9 – Archie's Last Try

Disclaimer – Don't own it, never will. Spoilers coming from all over the damn series now.

Notes – At this point it is important to remind you that Ellie Rebecca Brass has crossed the CSI team's path twice now (and Warrick in particular). Neither of the encounters ('Ellie' and 'Hollywood Brass') have left Brass Snr. with pleasant memories of his once-little girl, but he is still trying to make it work.

The interrogation room. Time: 5.40 pm.

"Clever boy, Grissom." Kyle rumbled menacingly. "You know who it is. Big deal. The offer stands. What's it going to be? The girl, or an arrest?" Kyle leaned forward until his face filed Grissom's vision. His eyes were two empty pits.

"Your call, Doctor."

Grissom didn't flinch. "Go to hell."

Kyle stepped back, stunned rigid. He wasn't the only one. Brass looked like Grissom had just kicked him in the guts, and Greg was glaring disgustedly at him. Only Catherine was unmoved. She focused on Grissom with expectation rather than surprise. She knew that his mind was going at light speed.

Kyle Andrews regained his composure. His face was now as devoid of expression as his eyes were of emotion. "Then she's dead."

Grissom turned on his heel and left the room. With the exception of the officers on guard, all followed him.

"What the hell are you DOING, Grissom!" Brass raged as the team raced down the corridor after their leader. "My daughter is in the hands of that fucking lunatic and he's gonna kill her and you just..."

"Brass, listen to me." Grissom spun around to face him. "Gerard is going to kill her anyway. The only way we can get your daughter back is by finding her first. You're a captain, and it's your daughter, so you outrank me. It's your decision. We can play by this bastard's rules and hope he's on the line, or we can try what I have planned, and get her back. Please Jim, trust me."

Brass looked into Grissom's imploring features, and realised something amazing. He did trust Grissom. He genuinely trusted him.

"You better know what you're doing."

Grissom smiled with sheer determination. "We're about to find out." He turned back to face his team. Catherine was pumped and psyched and ready to do whatever it took to find Ellie. Nick looked both worried and expectant, while Warrick coolly awaited orders. Sara looked stunned into disbelief by this sudden turn of events, and Greg... Grissom almost winced. He wished that Greg would stop looking at him with that combination of amazement and disgust. It wasn't an easy expression to meet.

Pulling himself together, Grissom formed up his battle plan. "Greg, Sara, Brass, come with me to the AV lab. Archie's the only one who can help us out here. Warrick, Nick, you guys go through Kyle Andrew's personal effects, see if there's anything there that can help us find Ellie. Catherine, do whatever you have to do to find out which phone that bastard was planning on calling Phillip Gerard from. You're the only one who can do this, Cath." he raised his voice over her spluttered protests. "I know there are thousands of pay phones in Vegas, and that this won't be easy, but you have something that I don't have: intuition."

For the briefest of seconds, Catherine was stunned into non-motion. Grissom, Gilbert Grissom, was praising her intuition rather than condemning it? Now she knew the world had gone crazy! Still, this might be the only time in her life that Grissom trusted her instinct rather than her mind and she was determined not to let him down. "I'll find it, Gil" she replied quietly.

But Grissom and the team were already moving off.

Catherine stood there for one more second, a tiny smile playing on her lips. Then she spoke in a voice only she could hear. "We're back."

"I cannot believe you guys! This is the second time in as many months that you have asked me to do the impossible! How the hell am I going to manage this in an hour!" roared Archie even as he moved to accomplish the task that Grissom had set for him.

Greg felt a certain sense of déjà vu. Once again, he was in the AV lab, once again Archie was raving about an impossible task, and once again, he was already prepared to at least try it. Only this time, it was Grissom asking Archie for the favour. Greg was just watching.

And it was brilliant! He had been wrong about Grissom a few seconds ago, he knew that now. If they could do this correctly, then they might just stand a chance of rescuing Ellie. But ONLY if they could do this correctly, as in perfectly. And, Greg had to admit, asking Archie to do something like this inside one hour might just be pushing it!

"Archie," Grissom began. "I'm not asking you to do something like this on a whim, you must know that. More than one life is riding on this. Down there in one of those cells below the station is a creature that is capable of tearing out limbs and crushing skulls with his bare hands. If this doesn't work, Brass will let him loose to get his daughter back."

No more needed be said. Archie plunged back into his work, emitting several colourful epithets against bug-obsessed supervisors and insane plans along the way. He, too, had seen Kyle Andrews enter the station, and was not keen on having a beast like that free in Las Vegas…

Meanwhile, Warrick and Nick were busily searching the possessions of said Kyle Andrews. So far they had found two rolls of twenties, one dirty magazine, and a switchblade that wasn't a switchblade as much as it was a ten-inch meat cleaver. Nick was starting to wonder if, despite size being such a big part of Kyle's life, he wasn't compensating for something.

Warrick spoke up. "Hey, man, you got any idea what Grissom's planning?"

"Er…"

"Yeah, I know, stupid question, does anyone ever know what Grissom's planning, but still, it's gotta make you curious, you know?"

"Yeah, I…"

"I mean, how is Grissom planning on rescuing Ellie Brass (who, I can tell you right now, is not the easiest person in the world to rescue, girl's got a death wish or something), inside" he checked his watch, "fifty minutes and counting?"

"I guess he…"

"Maybe it's gonna be a phone tap or something. Nah, nah, forget that, Gerard'll have worked that out way in advance, and anyway, they don't even know which phone they need to tap yet!"

"Well…"

Warrick knocked over an object that clattered to the floor, taking some paper with it. "Dammit! Nick, can you turn down the chatter? I'm trying to work here!"

Nick clenched his teeth and his fists and slowly began a mental ten-count. This was going to be a long hour…

Catherine was in 'the zone'. Not that she know precisely what 'the zone' was, only that it was a nice, friendly place to be that would tell you the answers to difficult questions, like which one of almost two thousand pay phones would be the one the CSI's wanted.

Right now, 'the zone' was telling her that the pay phone would have to be in a location fairly close to the crime lab, as Kyle had kept checking the clock inside the interrogation room. Catherine guessed that he had been trying to work out how long it would take him to walk or drive there.

'The zone' promptly went one further and told her that the pay phone might be inside a building. That would make it much more difficult for the police to set up surveillance, and it would provide privacy from nosy bystanders.

That still left almost 359 pay phones as potential call points! At this point, 'the zone' remembered an urgent appointment elsewhere, and vanished. Catherine racked her brains, trying desperately to think of something, anything, that might lead her to the kidnapper.

Then it came. Catherine realised that Kyle Andrews had known her late but not at all lamented ex-husband, Eddie. More, they had dealt in drugs on a regular basis. That meant a place that both parties could have met up at, and safely snorted to their heart's content.

Well. That narrowed the field slightly. In a town like Vegas, drugs were in no short supply, but you couldn't just deal it anywhere you wanted. That was it, then. The pay phone was in a place that Eddie would have felt relatively safe in, and would have been private enough for drugs. She headed for the records department. The police might know that a number of buildings were the haunts of druggies and dope dealers, but they might not have hard evidence of the fact.

Painfully aware of just how tenuous a lead this was, Catherine checked her watch. Forty minutes left. Oh shit.

"It's. Me." A pause. Then… "DO NOT! Kill. Her."

"Not clean enough yet, Arch. We've got to get this perfect…"

"Will you shut up and let me work! This isn't easy!"

Sara rubbed her forehead, frustration pounding a vicious rhythm on her skull. They only had about 35 minutes left, and they still had a hell of a way to go. Grissom's plan, in essence, was to form a fake message to Phillip Gerard, which they would then play through the phone (wherever the hell THAT was!), in the hopes of buying themselves some time. Of course, Gerard would only listen to a call from Kyle Andrews. Or, at least, one that sounded like it was from Kyle Andrews…

Which is why they (they being Archie and a thoroughly unhelpful Greg) were currently piecing together extracts from the audiotape that had recorded Kyle Andrews' interrogation. So far they had come up with this much:

"It's. Me. Don't Kill. Her. Yet. DO NOT! Kill. Her. yet. Don't let. Her. Go. I will talk. Later."

Which was, in essence, all they really needed, but played as it was it sounded like a robot or Grissom on one of his more emotional days was speaking, and that wouldn't fool Gerard. They needed to get the message to sound as if Kyle was actually talking. And they had about half an hour, maybe less, to do just that.

How in the world Archie was managing to clean up the audio track even as these thoughts went through Sara's head was something that she would probably never know. The Asian kid was just as fast with audio-visual equipment as Greg had once been with DNA, or as Franco still was with fingerprints.

Sara checked her watch again. God, thirty minutes! They were running out of time…

Catherine was frantic by now, searching desperately through old Narcotics division records. So far, she had only found records of drug hideouts where the DEA or the local drug squad had made what they referred to as a righteous bust. Not one mention of a building that had been investigated or raided, but had not yielded results.

Just when Cath was beginning to think that these cops only made records of the good jobs they had done, she found it. 'Mead View Apartments. Investigated 21/06/98'

Mead View Apartments. That name rang a bell somewhere in the depths of her brain. "Investigated 21/06/98…" 1998 had been the year that she and Eddie had officially separated, after he'd cheated on her with that bimbo Melanie. Not that she still held any residual resentment towards the little slut, perish the thought…

"THAT'S IT!" she suddenly yelled. Mead View Apartments was where Melanie had lived in 1998. Of course that's where Eddie would feel safe! And if Kyle Andrews had been a part of Melanie's life as well, then…

Grabbing the file, Catherine made a beeline for Grissom's office. Twenty minutes left. This had better be right.

Grissom held the completed and enhanced audio message in his hand. He'd heard it through once already, and it didn't sound perfect, but time was of the essence, and to be realistic, they weren't going to get it much cleaner.

Warrick and Nick rushed up together, looking downcast and angry. Grissom, ever the optimist, spoke up. "Tell me you guys found something."

"Nothing except a name on some scrap paper in his pocket, Melanie…"

"That's it? Melanie? No last name?"

"Not a damn thing." Nick was clearly pissed. To say that the name Melanie by itself was not much of a lead to go on was an understatement. So why had Catherine, who had just arrived, just punched the air in triumph?

"Yes! Grissom, I know where the phone is." Oh. So that was why.

"Mead View Apartments. It's a fifteen-minute drive. How much time left?

"Fifteen minutes."

"Shit!"

Twelve minutes (and two almost-crashes) later, Grissom and his team arrived at Mead View Apartments. Catherine vaulted 'Dukes of Hazard' fashion out of her Denali, and led the CSI's into the dilapidated old building.

"Melanie's apartment is on the 5th floor. Forget it, Warrick, that lift's never worked."

"Ah, son of a bitch!" Warrick was once more given cause to regret not buying a Stairmaster.

"Wait a minute." Grissom's eyes narrowed. "How the hell do you know that, Cath?"

"Because…I know stuff?" Cath gave Grissom what she hoped was a winning smile. It lost.

"Who is Melanie and how do you know her?"

"Fine!" Catherine rounded on Grissom. "Melanie is the woman that cost me my marriage, and she and Eddie also used to snort coke together. Happy?"

Grissom was far from happy. "You knew Eddie was taking drugs and you didn't tell me!"

"Oh that's rich! If you'd told me he was having an affair in the first place…"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" yelled Sara. "We have got, like, one minute, and you guys are talking about Eddie! LET'S GO!"

Slightly embarrassed, Grissom and Catherine raced up to the 5th floor. When they arrived, a beat up old pay phone in the hallway was ringing. Grissom slapped Archie's cassette tape into the player. "Arch, if this works you get all the funding you'll ever need." Grissom murmured to himself.

He picked up on the fourth ring.

"At last! Where the hell have you been, Andrews?" Gerard's voice came through loud and clear on the other end. Grissom felt a fresh wave of sheer anger at the sound of it. To have deduced that the big man's partner was Gerard was one thing, but actually hearing it, clear as a confession…The veteran CSI shook his head and clicked 'Play' on the tiny machine in his hand, holding it to the phone.

"It's me." It sounded like Kyle was there with them. Grissom clicked 'stop'.

"I know it's you. So, I'm guessing they agreed to your demands?" The smug satisfaction in his old mentor's voice reminded Grissom of Ecklie, and he had to fight to keep his hand from trembling with rage. He pressed 'play' again.

"Don't kill her yet." This was the moment of truth. Ellie's life depended on how Gerard reacted to this. Grissom comforted himself with the thought that right now Brass was running a trace on both this phone, and the one Gerard was holding.

"Excuse me? DON'T kill her? Are you fucking kidding? After all this trouble…"

"DO NOT. Kill her. Yet." Grissom winced. That part of the tape was still rough and patchy. He hoped Gerard hadn't noticed.

"Okay! All right! I-I won't kill her." Grissom noted the fear in Gerard's voice. Clearly, he was aware of what Andrews was capable of as well. "Can you at least tell me why not?"

Grissom knew he had to bring the conversation to an end. He prayed it was enough, both for Brass and his daughter. He clicked the play button one more time. "I will talk later."

"What…?" Grissom hung up mid-protest. Catherine sighed behind him. "That's never going to be enough time."

"I know." Grissom said quietly as his cell phone rang. "Grissom."

"Not enough time, Gil." Brass sounded older than Grissom had ever heard him. "We traced the call to somewhere near Lake Mead, but that's it. She could be anywhere there." Brass knew that if too many cops went driving around Lake Mead with their sirens on, Gerard would panic and almost certainly kill his hostage.

"It's a start, Jim. We'll find her. I promise." Grissom snapped his phone closed, and added "I just hope she's alive when we do…"

He turned to face his team. "Okay, we're not done here. Sara, you and Greg go over every inch of this place, see if there are any clues here at all. Catherine, you're good at making people fall over their own words. Go back to the station, take an officer and interrogate Kyle Andrews until either you or he snaps. Make sure it's him. Warrick, you and Nick come with me back to the lab; we're gonna go over Kyle Andrew's truck with a fine comb, see if there's anything there. Let's go."

Grissom led Warrick and Nick out of the dilapidated building and prayed that he'd done the right thing by not giving in to Andrews. If he hadn't, Brass would probably kill Andrews, Grissom, and himself. In that order.

To think today had started out as a good day…

AN: Once again, I am really sorry for leaving you hanging for so long. I know I sound like a broken record, but University stuff, and going out on the 'occasional' piss up does eat into your time. If I could have a few reviews, just to let me know how I'm doing, that would be great. Thanks!