Chapter 3
Sara sat her hands in her lap as she waited outside her victim's room. The nurses were in there now, making her comfortable. The doctor walked towards her, clipboard in hand.
"Ms. Sidle?"
Sara nodded, flashing her badge briefly. She snuck a look over the Doctor's shoulder as the nurses made their way out of the girl's room. She caught a quick glimpse of tubes, beeping machines and white clean sheets.
"The girl is in a stable condition, which is surprising considering her injuries."
Sara inclined her head, she knew it wasn't protocol but she wanted to know how the girl was doing.
"Can I ask what the injuries are?"
The Doctor thought for a moment, before nodding slowly,
"The reason she collapsed like she did was due to a perforated lung, caused by one of the 4 broken ribs. She also has a mild to medium concussion. I also suspect a broken tibia and possible sprained wrist. Not to mention to masses upon masses of bruises. From what I have seen this girl is lucky to be alive. As for why the paramedic's pronounced her alive, I'm afraid it is your job to work that out, there seems to be no medical explanation."
Sara shook her head, she was as baffled as the doctor was. There had been no pulse according to the paramedics and as Grissom had felt the girl was stone cold. She pushed it to the back of her mind for the moment,
"Will it be possible for me to talk to her?"
The doctor was about to reply when a small bleeping came from Sara's coat pocket. She got a disapproving glare, but when she saw the caller display she decided to take it outside. She stood against the concrete of the entrance and flipped open the phone,
"What do you have for me Warrick?"
The voice crackled to life on the other end of the phone. She held the phone slightly away from her ear as he spoke.
"I did some research into the name when you paged me about it. Have you any idea how many Lucy's there are the greater Nevada!"
Sara stifled a laugh, she knew it was a long shot, but they had to identify the girl's parents or guardians.
"Yes Warrick, but did you find aything?"
There was a pause on the other end of the phone and the sound of tapping on a keyboard.
"There have been no Lucy's matching your age and description been put as missing in the last 6 months."
Sara felt her head swim. You have to be kidding me. She thought quickly,
"Ok, so that means that either the girl gave me the wrong name, which I doubt. Or that she has not been declared missing. That can't be right. Someone is missing a 15 year old girl….Warrick….You there….?"
There was more tapping down the phone, and Sara felt herself begin to get a little annoyed.
"Uh…Yeah…Sorry. But I think I might have something. 2 months ago, there was a massive car crash. Made all the local newspapers, nearly all people involved where killed. The Lester family were involved…It says here, that the only survivor from the crash was a Lucy Lester."
Sara's eyebrows rose. Well that would explained why the girl had not been recorded as missing. Though she should be in the care of other relatives or guardians.
"Who is her official guardian Warrick?"
There was more tapping as he put the newly found name into the system.
"I assume she had no other relations as she's in here as being put into the Larson Foster Care. It's a house where they put the kids before they find more permanent, just down town from where she was found."
Sara took a deep breath, ok, well they had a name, and they had a place of residence. She wasn't going to bother even saying why the place hadn't reported her as missing. She'd stayed in a similar place when she was younger. They just didn't care.
"Thanks Warrick."
"No problem."
She rang off and walked back to the room, where the girl was being looked after. She swung open the door and made her way inside. The girl, Lucy, was lain out on the pristine sheets, the white drawn up to her chin, one arm bandaged, and tubes running from her face and her chest. They all traced back to a steadily breathing monitor keeping track of her progress. Lucy was pretending to be asleep. She could tell by the fluttering of her eyelids and the unsteady breathing. She pulled up a chair as quietly as she could and took a seat next to the bed. She knew that Lucy was aware she was there. She was going to wait for her to acknowledge her on her own accord.
Grissom surveyed the grass. There was nothing here. Barring the tyre tracks of course. But they would only get them so far. Nick appeared behind him, and voiced exactly what Grissom was thinking,
"Grissom, we've got nothing."
He quickly thought over the best course of action, their only real lead was the girl and Sara was covering that. He decided there was probably nothing more they could do here, and they had already disrupted most of the day, of the family to whom the garden belonged to,
"Ok Nick, well head back to the lab and process the photos. Sara's camera is in my car as well."
Nick nodded obediently and took of back to HQ. Grissom mused a few moments more, trying to get his head around the baffling case before making his own way back.
Sara was still sat beside the bed; Lucy's eyes were open but clearly not taking anything in. Her face was expressionless, and Sara felt her heart go out to her. Only 2 months ago, she had lost her whole family; her whole world would have changed as she moved into an unfamiliar place. Now this. Sometimes life just wasn't fair.
"You stayed."
Sara turned to look at her; it was the first words she had spoken since she had been back at the crime scene. Her voice was weak and croaky as though it hadn't been used in a while. Sara didn't know what to say, after finding all of what had happened to this one girl.
"I wouldn't have left you."
It seemed like a pathetic response for someone who had lost everything in a matter of weeks, but seemed to strengthen the girl if but slightly. Sara herself felt a little more confident, she had seemingly acquired her trust.
"I guess you know there's a few things that I need to do?"
Lucy nodded mutely. She allowed her to brush out her hair, to swab beneath her finger nails and take a swap from her mouth. She let her move her forwards and bring down her gown gently to take photographs of the bruises and in total, 5 bites. She pulled back the sheets to photograph the ligature marks on her wrists and ankles. Using her tweezers she removed the grey substance that she had noticed earlier and bagged it. She then took photos of what appeared to be defensive wounds on Lucy's palms. A single tear was on the girls cheek when Sara had finished.
"Look I know this is hard, but I need to know."
She thought the answer was already pretty obvious, but she had to check, then she had to get the evidence. It was one of the things she really hated about her job.
"Did he rape you?"
Lucy closed her eyes. It seemed like an eternity before she nodded. Sara sighed and began to prepare the SART kit. She quickly explained to Lucy what it involved and felt an immense sense of sadness when she saw how easily the girl accepted what she would have to go through further. Lucy lay back and Sara began.
Afterwards when Sara was done, she packed away the kit and sat back beside Lucy's bedside. She was filled with a mixture of feelings, pure unadulterated anger; this girl had been seriously assaulted and would probably be scarred for life, and an overwhelming feeling of sadness, but over it all determination as she saw Lucy fiercely wipe the tears from her eyes. Sara quickly stepped outside, where Catherine was waiting,
"I got your page, you have the Kit?"
Sara nodded and mutely handed it over. She also handed over a vial of blood,
"Send this to Tox; I'm thinking it might clear up about why the medics made such a massive error."
Catherine nodded briskly and headed off back to the lab. Sara however span on her heel and headed back into the room, where Lucy was staring straight at the blank wall. Sara took her seat back beside her, she took a deep breath,
"I know that was hard for you, but I'm gonna have to ask you to do something even harder now. I need you to tell me what happened."