Entreaty Chapter 22

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The shrill ringing of a cellphone cut through the somber room. All eyes focused on Tom, who after reaching into his jacket, had pulled the phone out only to stare blank faced at the name that appeared on the screen.

"I can't talk to her yet."

Tom held the phone out towards Grissom who took it and slowly lowered his eyes to read the name. He felt helpless as he handed the phone back to Tom. "It's your mother, Tom. You don't really want me to tell her, do you?"

He prayed that wasn't what Tom wanted. He watched the sadness in Tom's eyes grow as he shook his head. "I'll tell her soon, but not yet." The ringing stopped, and everyone in the room released pent up breath.

"When you are ready to talk to her, I'll show you to my office where you can have some privacy." As Grissom said this, he hoped it would be soon. The tension surrounding Tom was almost palpable and he did not know how much longer he could maintain his own composure.

Clearing his throat, Tom turned back to Doc Robbins. "You were telling us what you found? Kyle didn't feel the bullet, but he knew that it was coming."

What could you add to that? Doc Robbins thought to himself as he looked back at the man on the table. Kyle. He started to pull the sheet down to the victim's waist to show the bullet's path, but he hesitated and looked up at Grissom, saying. "Maybe you should show Tom to your office, now, Gil." Turning to the man in question, who despite being an FBI agent was also the victim's brother, Robbins continued, "It would probably be best if he didn't see this."

"I can handle whatever you show us," Tom insisted. He braced himself for what the sheet would reveal and found that nothing could prepare him for the fact of seeing his brother cut open, organs exposed. His face paled, his stomach roiled, and he found the air rushing from his lungs within seconds. Sara and Grissom were beside him in an instant, holding each arm as they escorted him from the room.

They walked into the hallway and somehow managed to guide him to Grissom's office. Tom collapsed into a chair, braced his arms on his knees, and lowered his head between his hands.

Sara tugged on Grissoms arms and tilted her head towards the door, signaling him to follow her out and give Tom some privacy. Grissom glanced back inside as he closed the door and saw Tom's back shakiing in spasms of grief.

As Grissom and Sara walked side by side back towards the autopsy bay, they did not speak, each lost in their own thoughts and battling their emotions.

"What have you got for me, Nick?" Grissom asked as he answered his cellphone. Nick and Greg had driven out to the nearest airstrips where they had inquired about planes that had taken off and landed within the proper timeframe.

He heard Nick's heavy sigh on the other end of the line and fought back his own disappointment.

"We're batting zero, Gris." Nick admitted. "Either nobody is talking or it was a private air strip." Nick's next comment was garbled, prompting Grissom to ask the younger CSI to repeat himself.

"Hold on a sec, Grissom." Nick continued an argument with Greg and then spoke back into the phone. "Greg saw a side road that he's convinced leads to a private airstrip. Something about a trip out here a few years back for a party. I'll call you right back."

The line disconnected and Grissom continued towards the ballistics lab where Catherine and Warrick were working on the evidence from his bullet riddled car. He had not taken five steps into the lab when his phone rang again.

"Anything Nick?" Grissom asked.

"There is a small air hangar out here Grissom. And a strip. I don't see anybody outside."

Grissom's brow furrowed with thought. "Nicky, don't get out of the car. Okay? I'm going to call Brass and have him meet you out there. If it is the people we are looking for then they are dangerous."

"It could take Brass thirty minutes to get here, Gris. I have my gun."

"Nick, I'm not asking you to remain in your car and away from that hangar. I'm ordering you." Grissom said. He was aware of the concerned looks he was getting from Warrick and Catherine, but he ignored them and focused on his conversation. "I want your word."

There was a long pause and then he heard Nick's resigned sigh. "Okay. But tell Brass to get her ASAP." He gave Grissom directions and then thought it would have been faster to call Brass himself.

Grissom clicked the off button and dialed Brass. After giving him the directions he turned to Warrick and Catherine who were still watching him with interest.

"What have you found?" asked Grissom.

"Your car was riddled by a semi automatic rifle." said Warrick.

"If they had wanted to kill you then you wouldn't be standing here now." Catheine added. She shivered at the thought of both Gil and Sara not being here and quickly pushed the image to the back of her mind.

"It was a scare tactic," said Grissom. "We already determined that when we found ourselves alive."

Grissom tucked away the emotions that had gripped his mind at the thought of Sara being harmed. "We need to find out who was flying that plane."

He thought of Nick and hoped that he was not playing cowboy.

Warrick brought his mind back to the present with his next comment. "The bullets don't match the one that struck the victim."

"Kyle." Grissom said automatically. He earned stunned looks for identifying with the victim, but given the circumstances neither Warrick nor Catherine would dare call him on it. Each of them understood that Grissom was identifying with the victim and that fact made him all more human to them.

"That doesn't mean the same person didn't shoot him." Warrick added as if Grissom had not interjected the name of the victim.

"What do we know about this case?" asked Catherine. So far they had pieced together the fact that Grissom was related to the man on the autopsy table and to the man pacing around the breakroom, but they had little information on how he had become involved in the first place or what he suspected.

Grissom rubbed the back of his neck and longed for his migraine medication. "We have a missing boy," his mind recalled the image of Andy. "We know what type of plane and the weapons that were used but no other evidence to point in the direction of the perpetrator."

"That's more than we had a few days ago, Gris." Sara said from the doorway. She then held up a piece of paper. "We also have this."

Grissom walked quickly over to where Sara was standing and reached for the paper as she continued to speak. "It's a signed confession from Olivia."

TBC

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