DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'CSI'. They're not my property.
The silence was beginning to get boring for her never-resting mind, and had it not been for the cooler temperature inside the vehicle, Sara would've gone completely insane with the heat that would've made her twitch and turn in all the wrong places. Her curious little eyes bouncing from one place to another of the interior as the dull site of the almost empty road and the desert, its repetitiveness and lack of interest lost her focus a long time ago.
Having barely finished her scan of the car's surroundings, next to her seat she noticed a folded newspaper. Curious, she took it and saw the crossword puzzle on it. She smiled. "Well, this is certainly a shock," she said softly.
"What is?" Grissom glanced over at her. Sara didn't meet his gaze so he followed hers and saw the newspaper in her hands.
"It's not finished." She finally turned her head to him and showed him a clearer view of the crossword. "You only filled out half of it."
Grissom shrugged. "I got called in," he replied simply, trying not to detach his attention from the road.
Sara smirked. "Oh, a toughie… no wonder you haven't completed it," she teased after noticing it had been a copy of a certain famous newspaper.
"Lack of free time." He gave an excuse for himself.
"Ah, there's always time for an exercise of the mind, Griss," she leaned in briefly as she spoke before leaning back on her seat, only noticing a momentarily smile from her supervisor. "It's been a while since I did one of these," she said almost musingly.
Unnoticed by her, Grissom took a glimpse of her behind his glasses.
"Got a pen?" she asked.
"What?" his question sounded absent-minded.
"Pen. Writing object with ink in it?"
Grissom exhaled deeply. He wanted to reply when Sara interrupted him.
"Oh, wait. I had one," she said. A click was heard before she slowly dropped her pen-holding hand on the newspaper.
"What are you doing?"
Sara looked up at him. His tone wasn't a very playful one. "What does it look like I'm doing? Filling out the rest of the words," she responded.
"Don't you dare join that pen with the paper."
"Excuse me?"
"I'd like it to be the way it was when I get back to it."
His response caused an irresistible little smile to find itself on her face. "You think that might be anytime soon?" she dared him.
"You think I've never finished a crossword puzzle I've started?"
"As surprising as it may sound, I rarely see you with one." She pointed out.
Grissom smiled briefly. He usually spent his time with the crosswords and other mind puzzles and games privately. It was no surprise that he wasn't seen much with it. "I like my privacy."
"So do I," Sara's voice was a tender and quiet one, not reachable for Grissom's ears.
"I'll get back to it," he said, referring to the crossword in Sara's possession.
Instead of taking his hint and returning the newspaper back to where it was found, Sara kept her sweet grin and marked the first word. "I'm sure you will," she told him.
Seeing this, Grissom only sighed. He would have finished the rest when time allowed him to, but not this time. Instead – and because of the lack of traffic on the road – he could steal a few glimpses of his subordinate and see how well she will manage. For now, Grissom was pretty confident she would not succeed much.
Sara's writing was fluent, barely giving a pause for a thought, almost as if her hand had known each question by heart, giving an impression that she had done puzzle solving of this kind in the past. Then, she took a longer pause. "Uh, Grissom…" she started. "The seventh largest river in the world isn't Lena. It's Amur."
"Is it?" he tried to sound surprised.
Sara grinned. "It's actually eleventh… The Lena river."
"And how?" he sounded little curious.
"The Lena River in Siberia is 4,260 kilometers long, whilst the Amur River in northeast Asia - 4,410 kilometers long."
"Huh. I was distracted when I did that."
"Did what?" she faked puzzlement.
Grissom sighed and only threw her a glance. He knew she was teasing again.
Sara chuckled. "Everyone gets at least one word wrong in these crosswords," she assured him. Grissom could admit when he was wrong but she knew it wasn't the easiest thing for him.
"Especially when losing their concentration."
"Must've been a big distraction."
Grissom only smiled without an answer to her comment. He did not wish to answer her, and it felt somewhat discomforting to him when he heard her correction. Not a correction on a case but on a mind-engaging hobby or pastime such as this.
"Definitely the second victim's?" Nick asked Warrick of the hairs that were found by Sara yesterday.
"Identical."
A moment later, Sara walked in the room. "Hey, guys!"
"Hey," same greeting was received from both men.
Noticing Nick, she asked. "Is it a match?"
"It's Jessica's," Warrick replied and took one of the photographs and handed it to Sara. "And Brittany's bruises are consistent with those of a belt," he added.
Sara was observing some of the bruises found on the second victim on the photographs, and then took the small belt that was recovered from the scene, used to tie the victim's hands to the chair, for observation. "Found anything on it?"
"Fingerprints were recovered from the belt that matched Jessica's," Warrick responded.
"First a partner, then a victim."
"Or a victim all along," Nick said while checking the handcuffs.
Sara smiled. "I wouldn't say that."
"Why's that?"
"Because that's not what the evidence is telling us." Sara shook her head and placed the photograph on the neon table. "Ok. So, presumably that Jessica and the suspect were… partners… They kidnapped Brittany."
"No signs of a struggle in the car," Warrick said.
"And that is the same car… the tire treads at the "Pink Stick" parking spot were identical," Nick added.
"Someone, the killer probably, held a gun to her head as she sat in the back seat."
"Jessica in the front. She drove," Warrick said.
"They keep her for two days… on the third, go to the motel," Nick said.
"Jessica pays for the room. They go in. Tie up Brittany. No ransom demands…" Sara said.
"They strangle her. Then two hours later… He kills Jessica," Warrick nodded.
"Our guy's got a problem. Probably panics. Ditches his car."
"And that's where we've come to," Nick said.
"Yes," Sara said and sighed.
"Just need to find him…" Warrick finished.
Holding a small stack of documents Grissom rushed in the DNA lab. "Next time you decide to interrupt me in the middle of a very important meeting, Greg, for a reason I presume is extremely important, do so without being a kid and ringing my cell phone repeatedly," his voice announced a very annoyed man, while his eyes just above the frame of his glasses watched the lab technician sharply.
"I'm sorry. Just wanted to make sure you got my message," Greg's lively tone hid his nervousness rather well.
Grissom's eyebrow was raised at the young man's silly excuse and that 'always-happy' attitude of his. "Why did you call me?" This time he was just plain tired.
"That yellowy substance you found in the trunk – definitely urine."
Grissom lip stretched without going to a smile. "Thank you, Greg," he replied with a scrunched face. "Anything else?"
"Nope!" Greg shook his head while his hands helped him lean well against the table.
Grissom did not want to bother with a reply, so he simply turned around and exited the lab. On good days, he could tolerate the lab technician's humor. On bad, however… that was different.
