Chapter 15

Nick and Warrick had called Brass and filled him in on the latest developments. Brass had told them not to do anything until he got there with back up, but Warrick knew that trying to keep Nick from entering the golf club would have been like trying to hold back a bull from charging at a red rag, and that wasn't one job he wanted to have to do. Even Warrick who was always laid back and calm in situations like this, wanted nothing more than to go in and save Sara from her abductor, so when he got off the phone to Brass, he told Nick they had the go ahead. He would deal with the fallout of breaking protocol after Sara was safe.

The two CSI's had reached the door of the Golf Club, and could hear Sara screaming for help.

"At least that means she is still alive man", Warrick said desperately trying to get the best out of an evidently grim situation.

"Yeah but for how much longer?" Nick said.

"Well let's get in there and ensure she doesn't check out any time soon then", Warrick said with steely determination while taking the safety off his gun.

When Dave had dragged Sara into the golf club she had been unconscious, as she started to come round, she couldn't quite make out where she was or what was happening to her.

"Where the Hell am I?" she thought groggily, reaching to the back of her head, she could feel a lump starting to rise from where her head had hit the ground.

Sara began to shiver uncontrollably from a combination of fear, coldness and exhaustion.

She tried to get up from where she was but was unable to with the leather restraint around her waist. Trying to get her bearings she looked down to see that she was tied to a metal table similar to a coroner's slab. Her clothes had been removed with the exception of her underwear. To her left there was a tray laid out with various medical instruments.

Panic began to well up inside her; she knew this could only end in disaster. Her eyes darted around the room trying to locate Dave. She couldn't see him anywhere.

"Please God, make him have gone out for supplies, it might just bide me the time I need to get out of this," she prayed desperately.

The room was dark except for one neon light hanging above her head, her eyes strained to focus in the harsh lighting. As she looked around the room there were blue spots in front of her eyes.

She heard a voice in the corner.

"Yes she is still out cold, look I don't know how much time I have to do this before her brat pack arrives, you need to get over here ASAP Doc, I can't do this on my own. 40 minutes?

I don't have that kind of time; you will have to talk me through the procedure on the phone. Yes I have everything, instruments, ice and a whole lot of rage, what more do I need? Of course I have the nerve to do this, before tonight is out I am gonna show Sara Sidle and the rest of the CSI team, how good a coroner I could have been if they hadn't fired me. Only I won't be performing an autopsy, cos she will still be alive" Dave said and then laughed maniacally.

"Just tell me where to make the first incision Doc, and I will take it from there. Sara is finally gonna live up to her heartless image, literally," he said into his cell.

Sara could feel the hot tears streaming down her face. She had no way out of this; she was going to become a victim, like the thousands of murdered people she had investigated over the years. She was going to be the team's next case. "Jesus is this what slaving away for years on end has led me to?" she thought miserably to herself. "At least I will be with Gil soon that is all that matters now", she concluded. If she was going to be cut open by this psychopath, she was going to have to focus on something to get her through the next few painful hours. That something would be the love of her life, Gil Grissom. The thought of Gil's face and the happiness that they could have shared together was enough to make her start sobbing uncontrollably. It was also enough to get the attention of her abductor.

"Hang on Doc, I think sleeping beauty just woke up", Dave said into the phone. "I'll call you back."

Dave came towards her and started to stroke her tear-stricken cheek.

"Morning beautiful, glad you could join us", he said to her softly. "What has you all upset?"

"The fact that you are going to hack me into little pieces may have something to do with it, you sick freak", Sara said with new found strength. She was not going to let this guy think he had the better of her. She would go down all guns blazing.

"Did your mother never tell you it was rude to eavesdrop Sara?" Dave said in a dangerously low tone. He picked up the scalpel and held it to her ear. "Little girls that listen to grown up conversations that they shouldn't listen to get punished Sara. I think I should cut your ear off first so you won't be able to listen into people's business ever again, what do you think?"

"I think you are fucking nuts", Sara said, no longer abiding by her don't-piss-off-the-psycho rule.

"Well true as that may be Sara, I am the one who is standing here with the scalpel and you are the one lying on a metal slab, so you are hardly in a position to give a psychiatric evaluation now are you?" Dave said a little bit louder than before.

"So where shall we start Sara? Ladies choice, I insist. Shall we start with the ear that led you to the information of your demise, or would you prefer somewhere else?"

He spoke to her like a well trained waiter reading the specials from a menu board. All of his previous nerves had disappeared only to be replaced with a new confidence that Sara did not like or trust one little bit. She honestly believed that he was going to go through with this crazy scenario. The worst part was that she could see no way out of it, she was at his mercy.