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Chapter 8
Back to the present.
The case had developed. Catherine was busy doing paperwork while Sara had been searching for Greg to check up on some results.
Half an hour later Sara headed for Catherine's office. Her senses had been right about Mr. Brandz and the feeling that he was hiding something. So she went to Catherine to inform her of the findings.
"Hey, Catherine?"
"Yeah?" she said as she looked up from the file she was reading.
"Our hunch turned into a case solver" Sara smiled.
"Really?" Catherine asked curiously.
"Well, remember the blonde hair in the SUV at Mr. Brandz? It belonged to Alice Kenner. I had her DNA compared with the DNA from the saliva found on the comforter. Turns out they have 7 out of 13 alleles in common."
"Miss Kenner has a baby" Catherine stated.
Handing over a file Sara continued "She and her eight month old daughter recently moved to Las Vegas. Guess who sold her a house?"
"Mr. Brandz" Catherine answered immediately.
"Bingo. Eight days ago Mr. Brandz and Miss Kenner closed the deal. My guess was he switched the cars, so I dusted the number plate of the SUV that's supposed to be Alice Kenner's"
"And those prints came back Mr. Brandz's" Catherine answered as in her mind all the pieces of the puzzle fell in place.
"Also, someone tried to scratch the VIN numbers out of both of the cars." Sara added.
"Well, let's call Brass to get Mr. Brandz so we can confront him with the evidence."
"No"
One brow shot up as Catherine looked over at Sara. "Care to elaborate on that?"
"Well, Alice Kenner is still in the holding-cell. I heard she begged to see her daughter, so since we've got enough evidence to nail Brandz I think it's priority to reunite her with her daughter."
"Ok. I'll call Grissom to update him. He's on his way to search Alice Kenner's garage."
"Well, there's no need for that. Tell him to meet us at Brandz's in an hour"
After Sara had been to Alice Kenner –who was still at the PD– and explained her how Mr. Brandz had tried to frame her for the hit-and-run, she picked up Catherine at the CSI HQ and together they went over to Brandz's place where they would meet up with Grissom and Brass.
Throughout the ride to Brandz's, Catherine kept sneaking glances over at Sara. Sitting behind the wheel and being involved in cruising through traffic Sara didn't notice the strawberry blonde's staring.
During the ride Catherine gathered up all her courage and decided to just be bold and ask Sara out. So, breaking the silence she spoke up.
"Sara"
"Hmmm" the brunette muttered, still focusing on the traffic jungle in front of them.
"Would you….uhm…" Catherine's ability to form complete sentences seemed to vanish in the air.
Stopping for a traffic light Sara turned her head, focusing on the face of the blonde that had fed many of her fantasies during her sleep, a curious look came onto her face as she saw the blonde's rather flustered state.
"Would you please turn the radio on? We could use something to break the silence" The blonde asked 'Damn you weasel. Stupid, stupid! You should've asked' she kicked her butt mentally.
A flash of disappointment crossed over Sara's face, but was soon replaced by her serious 'CSI-look'
"Sure" she answered.
Turning on the radio she let out a sigh, which didn't go unnoticed by Catherine. This made some of her courage return. She recognized the sigh. It wasn't one of dismissal, no, it was one of disappointment.
Then and there she decided that, the next opportunity that would come up she would grab with both hands and ask the brunette out on a real date…not just a dinner appointment between co-workers.
Arriving at Brandz's place they saw Brass and Grissom were already there –standing at the front door. Apparently they had been there for a while and decided it was time to make the arrest.
Knocking on the door Brass called out "Mr. Brandz open up."
Not getting an immediate response he knocked again "Mr. Brandz!"
The door opens a little, but as soon as Brandz sees Brass and Grissom he closes the door and runs off through his house –trying to escape via the back garden.