How could this happen to me?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Chapter 4: The Investigation

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The investigation would have been closed up in five minutes, had it not been for the stubbornness of Greg. He refused to believe that it was Nick's fault that he had crashed.

The day after the accident, Greg took that sample of blood that had been taken from Nick to Hodges.

"What can I do for you Greg?" Hodges asked when he entered trace.

"I need you to check the alcohol concentration in this blood," Greg replied.

"This is Nick's blood, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I hope it turns out the way you want."

After leaving trace, Greg went in search of Sara. He needed a distraction. He found her in the break room, reading a book. He sat down next to her, and for the next half hour they didn't talk, they just held hands and sat there, staring into space.

After that time Greg got paged by Hodges, and he went to see what it was.

"How many drinks did you say Nick had?" Hodges asked.

"He had two beers. That was all because he had to drive home that night."

"Well, his blood work shows that he had about the equivalent of a bottle of whisky in his system right after the crash."

"No wonder he could barley stand up. Someone must have switched his drinks." Greg was very happy. That meant that Nick was not at fault. He might be released.

Greg made a bee line for the lockup so he could talk to Nick. When he got there he saw that Nick was sleeping.

"Nick! Nick, wake up!" Nick woke with a start, and stared at Greg.

"What do you want, I was resting?"

"I have to ask you a question about the night of the accident."

Nick looked down. Greg knew that he didn't want to talk about it, but knew he had to.

"Ok, what is it?"

"Where your drinks open, or closed, when you got them at the bar?"

Nick thought it was a bit of an odd question, but answered anyways. "They were both already open and poured into glasses for me. Why?"

"Because that means that you weren't at fault for the crash. Someone drugged you."

Nick felt a sudden swell of happiness. It wasn't his fault that little girl was dead. He could live with himself now.

"I'm going down to the bar to ask some questions. If anything comes up, I'll let you know," Greg assured Nick. With that he left, on his way to the new bar on the strip.

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The bar was almost empty, and Greg went strait up to the bar tender, a young woman he recognized from the night before.

"Excuse me; I'm Greg Sanders, from the crime lab. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions."

"Fire away sweetheart."

"Where you working last night?"

"Yes, all night until 2am."

"Do you recognize this man?" Greg held out a picture of Nick for the woman to look at.

"Yeah. That's the cute guy that was here last night. I tried to flirt, but he wasn't in the mood."

"Did you serve him drinks?"

"Yes. Two beers, if I'm not mistaken."

"You have a pretty good memory of just one guy in a whole night."

"He was cute. I remember the cute ones."

"Is it possible that someone switched his drink that night? Maybe made it something a little stronger?"

"No way. I'm the only one who handles the drinks. There's no middle man."

"Well then, could you have switched it?"

"How dare you say something like that?" She was becoming very angry by this point. "I would never do something like that."

"I think you did. I think you switched his drink with something stronger, then gave it to him already open and poured."

"And why would I do something like that?"

"Because he didn't come on to your advances."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Well just to let you know, a 7 year old girl is not dead because of what you did." That stopped her. The woman looked thunderstruck. Then she started stuttering.

"I didn't mean for that to happen……….I only wanted to give him a bad hangover the next day………………I thought he was with the other two people………….one of them was the designated driver……………………she was the one who was supposed to do the driving."

"Well, that man drove his own car to the bar, and since he thought he'd only had two beers, he could drive home."

"I'm sorry."

"Tell that to the girls' family, you're under arrest."

The officer came up and cuffed the young woman. She went without a fight, still reeling over that thought that she had lead to the death of a little girl. Greg signed, put on his sunglasses, and got into his car to drive back to the crime lab.

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I'm trying to get this story done. Hope you like it. One more chapter to go.