Hi everyone,
Thanks for all of your reviews. All of the comments are appreciated and I would once again like to send out a special thank you to my beta - Tefla. Thanks again!
Warrick and Catherine stood in front of Nick's house. Grissom had called and explained to them the events that had unfolded. He asked them to come and process the scene while he and Greg were to head back to the lab to locate the CD. The CD disc that would hopefully save Nick's life.
Catherine and Warrick were lucky enough to have just finished the other crime scene when they received Grissom's call. They wouldn't want anyone but themselves processing Nick's house. Greg was going to take the evidence they had collected at the convenience store and log it at the lab once he arrived there.
Warrick took the first step, neither of them knew what to expect in there. Grissom had mentioned blood evidence and that the place had been trashed. They slowly walked up to the front door where an officer stood guard. They both flashed their IDs and he let them through. The front door opened with a familiar squeak. Nick had mentioned in passing that he had to oil it.
Both CSIs walked into the familiar living room, but with the way it looked there was nothing familiar about it. Nick's CD collection, books, lamps, and his television all lay on the floor. That wasn't what got their attention though. It was the drops of blood on the carpeting and the pool of blood on his armchair.
Catherine squatted next to the armchair and put on a pair of latex gloves, she pulled out a swab and ran it along the cushion of the armchair. She had a feeling it was going to be Nick's blood. She swallowed the lump in her throat as a memory resurfaced. This was the second time she was processing Nick's house as a crime scene. The first time being when Nigel Crane was stalking Nick and had killed Morris Pearson in this very house.
Warrick walked over to the other side of the house to take a look around. It seemed that the men that had Nick didn't spare one room. The whole place was trashed. Nick would be cleaning this up for days. He only hoped that Nick would be around to clean it up.
He sighed. He had better get started. Warrick really didn't feel comfortable with all this. He felt like he was violating his best bud's privacy, but he was positive that Nick would understand. He pushed his feelings aside and started to dust for prints. He would make it a point to help Nick clean up after this whole fiasco was over.
Warrick retrieved a bunch of prints, but he figured the prints he did find were a potpourri of all of the CSIs who had visited Nick's place within the past few weeks. He also figured to add a few cops to that list as well. Though he did hope that they would get lucky with at least one print.
Catherine was on her hands and knees crawling along the floor to see if she could find any stray hairs. She had immediately found a bunch of short brown hairs, which she bagged. They were more than likely Nick's, but you never know. She had found a few long blond ones, 'Gee I wonder who these little babies belong to?' she asked herself sarcastically as she took another sample.
She continued to crawl along the floor when she spotted some short blond hairs. 'Hmm…I don't know anyone that has short blond hair maybe we just got lucky, but then again I'm sure we aren't the only people Nick knows.' She took out a pair of tweezers and picked up the specimen.
"Any luck?" She heard from behind her.
"I took swabs of the blood on the floor and on the chair. My gut says it belongs to the same person … probably Nick. I've also found some short brown and blond hairs as well as long blond hairs…. I have a feeling that we are going to find a lot of ourselves here. How about you?"
"I was able to get a few fingerprints as well, but I have a feeling we are going to come up empty."
"Well let's hope for the best."
"Yea I know … it's just hard Nick's been through so much and now this."
"Warrick I know how you feel. I'm feeling it too, but we need to stay strong for Nick. He's looking to us to help him out of this."
"You're right of course. I wouldn't want to let my man Nick down."
Catherine smiled at Warrick response, "Why don't you go outside and find out if anyone questioned Nick's neighbors. I'll finish up in here."
"Sounds like a plan."
Catherine watched Warrick as he walked towards the door she could tell by his body language that he was still plagued with guilt. For some reason Warrick felt that it was his sole responsibility to watch over Nick and if anything happened to him that it was his fault.
Nothing could have prepared the CSIs for this. It was none of their faults. They had to start using their feelings of anger and frustration and turn it into hope and determination. She felt confident that they would find something in Nick's house that would help in the search for him. They already received one piece of information from Nick himself. That the man in the hospital lobby was not the original killer and that Nick was with the killer.
Grissom walked into the lab with a look of determination on his face. Greg wasn't too far behind him, carrying the evidence that was collected at the convenience store crime scene. Grissom stopped short of his office door and turned to address Greg.
"Greg, process that evidence and once you are through come and find me right away. I will be going through some evidence myself. If for some reason you can't find me, just call my cell."
"Sure thing." Greg continued down the hallway.
The graying entomologist headed towards the case room. He knew that was where they had filed Dustin Schultz's case after the suspect had been killed at the hospital. Now with this new evidence it was apparent that the assailant at the hospital was not the original killer. He walked over to the file cabinet labeled 'S'. He opened it and pulled out Dustin Schultz's file.
He removed the file and headed back to his office. The evidence was still being kept on ice, in storage, if he needed to get to it. Though he figured he would only need the file for now.
He walked into his office and placed the file on his desk, opened it, and read the police report along with Nick's testimony at the hospital. He then looked at the pictures of the dead assailant. His brow furrowed when he looked at the picture. He went back to Nick's statement which read that the 'pit bull' tattoo was on the right arm of the assailant. In the picture of the dead assailant the 'pit bull' tattoo was on his left arm. How could they have missed that? All this time the real killer had been loose and Nick had been unprotected.
He glanced up at the door when he heard a knock. It was Greg. The spiky haired CSI stood there waiting to be invited into the cluttered office.
"Um … I just finished up with logging the evidence."
"OK give me a minute. Have a seat."
Greg nodded and sat down. He glanced over at the file, "The Dustin Schultz file … did you find anything in there?"
"Yes I did … we screwed up big time."
Those words took Greg by surprise, "What do you mean?"
Grissom stood up and leaned over his desk showing him the picture of the dead assailant from the hospital, "Nick's testimony said that the killer had a pit bull tattoo on his right arm in this picture the tattoo is on his left."
"Do you think he could have been mistaken?" Greg asked.
"When Brass and I interviewed him he remembered the tattoo vividly. I guess when you see a pillow coming at your face you are going to remember certain things."
"I'm sorry Grissom I wasn't implying …"
"Greg it's OK. You were just trying to see both sides of the story."
Greg sat back in his chair waiting for Grissom's next move.
"We let Nick down. The killer has been alive this whole time and could have gotten to him and we wouldn't have been the wiser. We are going to have to fix this."
"How?"
"We need to find that CD and get Nick back. Do you know where it's at?"
"Yea. It's in the Evidence vault with the rest of the Schultz case evidence we received."
"Let's go and get it. After that I want to bring the CD over to Archie to see if he can find out what so important about it."
Grissom closed the file on his desk and put it in a drawer. Greg was already on his feet waiting for the older man to finish. Soon both men were out the door headed towards evidence vault. The two men walked down the hallway and passed the A/V room where Sara was hard at work on the tapes from the convenience store.
Sara had just queued up the first tape and started to watch it. She figured she'd start with the camera near the cash register. She paused when she heard Grissom and Greg walk by, but turned and refocused her attention back on the screen.
So far the videos had shown nothing, she began to fast forward the tape and that's when she saw it. Five men had entered the store all armed. They didn't even attempt to hide the fact that they were armed. They walked in and started shooting people and walked back out. They didn't even go to the register at all.
Sara rewound the tape and paused it looking at what appeared to be the man in charge. All of the men wore masks. She stared at the screen wishing she had X-ray vision like Superman from the comics. She did notice a marking of some sort on the man's arm. She refocused the pixels and enlarged the screen. She gasped when she saw the 'pit bull' tattoo.
At the same moment of Sara's discover of the tattoo, Erin Matthews, the witness to Nick's kidnapping was walking through the halls with the officer that had escorted her. She had just walked past the A/V lab and glanced at the screen that Sara was working on. She suddenly stopped and stared at it. The officer went a few more feet then realized that Erin wasn't with him. He turned and looked at her with questioning eyes.
Erin had pointed to the screen and said to the officer, "Those are the men that took your CSI. I recognize the clothing."
The officer looked at her then at the screen. He walked over to the door of the A/V lab and knocked. Sara turned from the screen to see the officer and a woman standing in the doorway.
"Can I help you officer?" Sara asked.
"Yes ma'am. This young lady was witness to the kidnapping of CSI Stokes this evening. We were just walking by when she saw your screen." Sara briefly glanced back at the screen then back at the officer. "She says that she recognizes the clothing and these are the men that grabbed Stokes."
Sara looked at Erin then back at the officer, "Thanks officer I'll take it from here. Could you wait outside for us?"
The officer nodded in understanding and left the two women by themselves. Sara got up from her seat and walked over to Erin and extended her hand.
"Hi I'm Sara Sidle, I'm a CSI here and I work closely with Nick Stokes, the man that was kidnapped this evening."
"Erin Matthews." She responded taking Sara's hand and shaking it.
"Now you told the officer that you recognized the clothing."
"That's right. I was able to get a pretty good look at the men that grabbed your friend. Even though they are wearing masks I recognize the clothing and the tattoo. I had neglected to mention it now that I think about it. I'm really sorry about that."
"No don't worry about it. We really appreciate everything that you have done … if it wasn't for you we wouldn't have found out this soon that Nick was grabbed."
"That's what Mr. Grissom said to."
"Well you should listen to him. He knows what he's talking about … most of the time." She said to lighten the mood.
Erin smiled in spite of how she felt. She was scared. All her life she had never witnessed a violent act. She only heard or saw some news report on it. She had never been part of it.
Sara could tell by the look in Erin's eyes that she was scared. She knew the look all to well and had felt that feeling a few times herself. She had always been able to pick herself up and get through it. Erin seemed to be that kind of girl she just needed a little shove.
"Erin I know you are scared and it's understandable, but we won't let anything happen to you. I promise."
She looked at Sara. The fear was slowly dissipating, "You promise?" she asked.
"Yes I promise."
Nick woke up to a splitting headache. He slowly opened his eyes to find himself in a small empty room. The only piece of furniture present was the cot he was lying on. He tried to sit up only to find his arms handcuffed to the railing above him. So he scooted himself up to a sitting position where he was able to look at his leg.
His hands were caked with blood … his blood from the wound in his leg. His leg had been bandaged and it appeared that the bleeding had temporarily stopped. He was thankful for that, so far he didn't feel any ill effects from the blood loss, but then again he still hadn't attempted to stand.
He looked around the room and wondered where he was. He noticed a camera in the upper right hand corner of the room. They probably knew by now that he was awake and he wondered what they had planned for him. He knew that he was a dead man as soon as they got their hands on that CD. He hoped that Grissom and the team could pull a last minute 'Hail Mary' and save him like they did that last time. He took in a deep frustrating sigh. He had a feeling that this time he wasn't going to be so lucky. These guys were professionals.
The last thing he remembered was being hauled out of his house – then nothing. He reached up and felt a lump on his head. 'No wonder I don't remember what happened.' He mumbled to himself.
The jingling of keys from just outside the door had caught his attention. He turned himself around and faced the door as it opened. Three armed men had entered the small room and stood around the bed. Finally a fourth man entered carrying a file. This was the man that had shot him. Nick just looked at the man as he walked up to him. He was sure this wasn't a friendly visit.
"How are you enjoying your stay Mr. Stokes?"
"Well I've only been up for about five minutes, but I can honestly say that I'm a little put off with the accommodations." Nick retorted sarcastically looking at his handcuffs.
Harris smiled at Nick's comment, "Well I'm sorry, but we were plain out of plexi-glass coffins."
Nick knew the man was trying to get a rise out of him with that last comment; he wasn't going to be baited.
"Who are you?"
"Let's just say that's something that you don't need to know."
Nick just glared at the man. It was obvious that he wasn't going to get any answers from him. So Nick decided he wasn't going to play along as well. He looked at the file and tried to hide his surprise when he read his name on it. It looked like his work file.
Harris followed Nick's gaze down to the file, "Yes Mr. Stokes this is your work file. I can honestly say its very interesting reading."
Nick remained silent.
He opened the folder and looked through its contents and continued to speak., "It says here that you played college sports down at Texas A&M." he looked back up at Nick for a response. "Is that so?"
Nick still remained silent.
"So you like to play games Mr. Stokes. Let's see if you like the kind of games I play."
Harris looked over at his men, "Uncuff him and bring him." He said as he walked out of the room.
Nick watched as one of the men uncuffed his arms from the cot and then cuffed his arms in front of him. He was violently pulled up and pushed out of the room. He felt a spike of pain through his leg as soon as he put weight on it. He could feel a gun in his back and hoped that he wouldn't fall as he was being pushed along.
The hallway that he was led down was just made out of concrete cinder block. Dark pipes lined the ceiling. If he were a guessing man he would have guessed that he was in the basement of some building. But usually CSIs didn't guess … they would let the evidence speak for itself. And that's what happened when Nick spied an elevator just down the hallway. He nonchalantly looked away hoping to trick his captors into believing he didn't spy the elevator.
He felt a hand wrap around his arm as he was led into another room. This room was a little bigger than the room he woke up in. There was one lone chair in the center of the room and a small table just against the wall to the left. He was pushed down into the chair. Two men stayed on either side of him.
He sat there and waited for Harris. He could feel his body starting to betray him again. He could feel the sweat starting to accumulate on his forehead. He could feel his heart beating faster. Nick wasn't sure what this guy had planned for him, but the waiting was part of the torture. It was the anticipation of what was going to happen. He had a feeling that this guy had a lot of practice in torturing people. That however, didn't bring Nick any comfort.
Harris finally entered the room and spied Nick sitting on the chair. He smiled when he saw the glint of perspiration on Nick's forehead. He had waited on purpose … this was part of the fun. The anticipation of what was going to happen made more men go crazy then just plain torture.
He walked up to the CSI, "So Mr. Stokes are you ready to play one of my favorite games."
Nick still glared at the man.
Harris pulled out a gun with a smile, "It's time for some Russian Roulette."
Well there you have it. Hoped you liked it. As usual please review. Thanks!