Title: Last Chance - Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Not mine. Enough said. No infringement intended. Don't sue. Thanks.

Authors' note: Fight with mom. Disagreement with myself. Escape? Chapter 11. Me and my hostile life take full responsibility for any mistakes there are in this Chapter. Please read and review as I really like feedback and maybe it'll make my day better . . . even if you want to flame me. :) Enjoy.

As Sara pulled away from the lab, she drove in the general direction of her apartment. She had no intention of going home, but Grissom had looked so tried it had literally scared her. She knew he wouldn't have gone home if she hadn't. So she pleaded fatigue. He'd be upset . . . Really upset . . . when he found out she lied. But it was better then watching him burn himself out.

When she was sure Grissom had bought her story, and wasn't following her for any reason, she doubled back and headed for the police station where they were holding Anthony Ampress.

When she walked in the door, Brass looked at her with surprise. "I thought Grissom said you guys were clocking out for a while?"

"Yeah, he did, but I didn't. Get anything new yet?"

"Oh, uh, no . . . his lawyer advised him not to talk to us."

"Figures . . . But I've got a couple of questions for him, if you don't mind . . . "

"Sure, you can try . . . But he's not talking."

"Great, thanks Jim, and um, by the way, can you not mention to Griss that I'm here. I mean not right away. Let him get some sleep . . . "

"Sure Sara, but if he asks . . . "

"I know - and I'll tell him once he's had some sleep." Sara turned around and walked into the interrogation room

"Mr. Ampress . . . How are you today? Do you remember me? Sara Sidle . . . from the Las Vegas Crime Lab?"

Ampress nodded. "Y..y..yes. You and that p...p..partner.

"Good. I have a couple more questions for you and I'd really appreciate your honesty. Can you handle that?"

Ampress just looked down at his hands.

Sara started. "I met Penelope today Mr. Ampress . . . she's a beautiful little girl."

Anthony's eyes lit up. "Y..y..yes she is. She is my s..s...sunshine...my only daughter's, only daughter." Then his face clouded over. "But she is dying Miss Sidle, and I am helpless to save her. The treatment would cost just more than six thousand dollars. Money I do not have. Money I cannot get."

"And so when you asked Mr. Fina for help? What happened?"

Ampress' lawyer touched his shoulder, signaling him not to answer. But Ampress just shrugged his hand away. "That bastard . . . he told me . . . 'no' - he didn't have the money, how does a celebrity or his caliber NOT have the money? But he told me he would PRAY for my 'nele . . . HA! I didn't need his prayers. I needed the money. And you know what?" He paused.

"What, Mr. Ampress?"

"They never did. Pray I mean. Not once during supper prayer did they ever pray for her. I would listen and I would wait every day. And that monster couldn't even do THAT for her. It was free . . . it was simple. And he just didn't do it. And Miss Sidle . . . I didn't forget. How could I? Every single night I went home and looked at my grand baby. Watched her getting sicker. And Miss Sidle . . . I got so mad." He looked away. Tears glistening in his eyes. "My baby doesn't deserve this."

"Mr. Ampress . . . maybe he really didn't have the money."

"No! He did. I know he did. Five days ago . . . the dogs got sick. Really sick. They were normally very active animals . . . but then that morning . . . neither one could even stand up. And you can bet he didn't let them die. They got taken to the vet that very morning. Best animal hospital in Vegas. Three days ago I found a bill. From the vet. For the fucking dogs. Seven thousand three hundred and fifty-six dollars. For the DOGS Miss Sidle. Dogs. But not Six thousand for another human life. " Ampress was visibly shaking with anger now, and again his stutter was gone. "And I hope they both rot in hell. They deserve what they got. "

Then he got silent and calm again. No matter what Sara said all she got back was a blank stare. Finally she just stood and walked out of the room. "He's got her - Somewhere . . . Dammit! I know he does!" Sara knew the desperation in her voice and she hated it. She was losing her cool and she didn't know how to regain it.

"I know it's frustrating, Sara, but she's out there somewhere and if anyone can find her it'll be you guys. It's what you do." Brass was right.

Sara closed her eyes. This was her job. This was something she was not only good at. This was something she excelled at. She just needed to calm down. Think about it. Look at it unbiasedly. She smiled weakly at Brass and calmly walked out of the precinct.

Once in her own car Sara just drove. Thinking, playing out scenarios over and over in her head. This man wasn't going to get the best of her. She parked the car beside a park. She rolled down her windows and closed her eyes as she concentrated only on the feel of the wind playing with her hair.

When her cell phone rang thirty minutes later, she was shocked to realize that much time had passed. Nothing had been on her brain for and entire half hour. Not the case . . . not even G... And it wasn't going there now. She's only been thinking of the wind on her face.

She picked up the phone. "Sara . . . "

"Hey Sara, it's Jessie. Grissom was right, I couldn't get a match off the floor swabs. But I was able to determine that it did indeed come from a dog."

"Great, thanks Jessie." Sara hung up the phone.

She dialed the lab and asked to be directed to Trace.

A woman picked up the phone. "This is Sheila."

"Hey Sheila . . . it's Sara - I was wondering if you had the results from the dinner plates?"

"Yep, perfect timing. They're printing right now . . . "

"...And?" Sara asked impatiently. She wished they would find one good lab tech and stick with them. Not that it would matter in a couple weeks anyway . . .

"Both the mom and dad's plates came back positive for cyanide. Large doses . . . way above the fatal limit."

"And the girl's?" Sara was almost afraid to hear it.

"Plate was clean. No cyanide. But I did find a high dose of sleeping medication. I'm assuming the girl didn't like Filet Minion . . . her sample was just a salad plate with ketchup, a bite of hotdog, and an uneaten bun . . . Anyway. At those levels that kid would have been snoring in her food."

"Good. Maybe she slept through her parents' deaths." As she hung up the phone, Sara felt somewhat relieved. If Ampress had planned on killing her, he would have just done so at the table with her parents. And now that signs were pointing to the conclusion that she was very possibly still alive, Sara felt renewed hope. She started the car and headed back the way she came. She had to talk to Ampress.

She walked back into the interrogation room and Ampress looked at her. "I have nothing else to say to you Miss Sidle."

"Mr. Ampress. We have definitive proof that you killed Mr. and Mrs. Fina, covered their bodies with the blood of their own dogs, and took their daughter. Mr. Ampress, we know how and we know why. We found a stain on your garage floor." Lying just a little . . . "And we've matched it to the blood found at the crime scene. We have the cyanide you used to poison the couple . . . "which wasn't a lie . . . she hoped. "And we have the sleeping pills you slipped to Maddie." Probably. Sara stared him down.

His lawyer leaned over and whispered something in Anthony's ear. Ampress shook his head but said nothing.

Sara started again. "I believe you don't want harm to come to Maddie Fina. So do yourself, and that little girl, a favor, and tell me what you did with her."

With that Ampress said "Miss Sidle, you don't know anything. I didn't kill anyone - and even if I had - telling you where the Fina child might be - well, that would be considered confessing. Which my lawyer strongly encourages against."

Sara sighed as though she were tiring of this game. "Mr. Ampress, you are going to jail. For a long time. The only question now is, for how long? If you tell me where Maddie is, and if she's there alive, the DA is going to offer you a plea. This will be your only chance at this offer. You could get your sentence reduced to half. Instead of doing Twenty-five to life . . . you'll do Fifteen to twenty-five."

"Miss Sidle . . . I'm an old man. Either way we play it, I'm going to die in there." His lawyer clapped a hand on his shoulder to shut him up but Anthony just glared at him and knocked it away. "Ok. Ok . . . I killed them. The cyanide was so easy to get. You'd be amazed how easy it is to break into a university chemistry lab. It was easy to cook into their food. Too easy. They didn't even know what they were eating. The little girl, Maddie, I ground hers up and put it in the ketchup. Girl eats so much ketchup . . . on everything. The plan almost failed . . . , she started falling asleep right there at the table before her parents had even gotten to the poison. But her mother . . . fool . . . just excused it as her having a long day. Carried her to her room. Then she came back, and they ate. They ate until they died. Gluttonous pigs. The stuff works fast. Wasn't even a whole hour before they were both dead. They started looking a little sick . . . then - BAM - it was over. I had brought the blood with me in the trunk of my car. Big buckets . . . Who would have guessed that such a dumb animal had so much blood in it? I posed them, but you already knew that . . . forced in death to stare at the heart of the animal they chose to give their lives for . . . forced for eternity to PRAY for my baby. Dumped the blood over them. Scooped up the little girl, she's a tiny one, not real heavy, and the buckets...and then I got the hell out of there." A sad smile crossed his lips. "Their lives would have cost them six thousand dollars." Ampress sat back in his chair. Apparently confessing was good for him. Sara hadn't noticed one stutter. In fact he looked downright relaxed. "I didn't kill the child. I would never hurt a child Miss Sidle. I am not a monster. I killed them because they killed my 'nele. I couldn't let them get away with killing her..." he started crying. "I did it for her, because I love her Miss Sidle...I love her so much...and she's dying.

Sara nodded. "Where is she Anthony?" Her voice was calm but her hands were sweaty and her heart was pounding. She hadn't really expected a confession...expect the worst...pray for the best.

He sighed. "There's a storage compartment. Under the name Dominick Garmen...you'll find her there." he rattled off an address.

Sara almost wept with relief as she bolted for the door. Pray for the best. He could be lying..he could have already killed her...there were a lot of could haves.

She grabbed her cell phone and hit Grissom's number as she got in her car and started the engine. His voice floated through the phone lines and he didn't sound as though she'd woken him.

"Grissom, it's Sara . . . Ampress gave it up. We're going to get the girl." She recited the address to him and flung her phone to the side.

She tore from the lot, led by two police cruisers with lights flashing and sirens blaring. Behind her was another two.

"Hold on baby, helps coming, we're on our way."

To Be Continued . . .