Disclaimer: Nope don't own them or anything like it.
Spoilers: Season 6 episodes aired through December 1st.
AN: Thanks to everyone who's shared feedback and encouragement. This chapter is a bit of a review but its a necessary evil to the story development.
Grissom handed Hodges the small envelope with the russet orange fiber he'd collected at the Nursery not far from Sara's cell phone. He only spared just enough time for the tech to maintain the chain of evidence before walking back to the AV Lab. This was one of those times that Dave Hodges was just more than he could bear. Looking from Sara's image to his watch he realized exactly how long he'd been gone and he felt both guilt and anguish at the lost minutes. The Lab was empty so no one saw him touch her face on the screen or heard his voice crack as he whispered what was on his mind. "God Honey I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be gone so long."
In the ninety minutes he'd been away trying to regain his focus on the case, followed by the wild goose chase following her cell phone the water had risen considerably. Logically he'd known that with the passing of time that there would be more water, he just wasn't prepared for what he saw on the screen because the water was higher than he expected as if it was pouring in much faster now. Sara wasn't talking or moving around as much now that the water was waist deep. She was shivering more violently now and it was obvious her teeth were chattering. The image before him more than anything screamed that Sara's time was running out while the sick bastard who'd set the whole thing in motion was enjoying playing mind games with them.
The fragrance of Blue Hawaiian coffee alerted him to someone approaching the lab. So Greg had broken out the good stuff, Grissom would have to thank his young CSI for that. It would be easier to get through doubles or even triples shifts if you are drinking good coffee.
Archie walked in carrying a cup of coffee. "Hey Grissom. You're back did you find anything?"
"Not much just Sara's cell and a fiber. After they're done fingerprinting the cell, they'll bring it to you and Hodges is working on the fiber I found too."
"Right. I'll see if I can get anything from it."
"So anything I should know about here?"
"No. She hasn't really said or done anything while you've been gone. I didn't have anymore luck following the websites, so I tried narrowing down her location by doing visual enhancements, but didn't find anything useful. I'm sorry."
"You did your best and I appreciate that. I've paged the team to meet me in the evidence room to see what we have so far. You okay with staying here with Sara?"
"Yeah, I'll be here keeping the lights on for you."
"Thanks."
Archie watched as Grissom with a final glance at the screen shoved his hands in his pockets and walked away from the room. He hoped that the team had better news for their supervisor, because at this rate the odds of finding Sara alive looked less and less likely.
Standing in the evidence room waiting for everyone to get together Grissom was haunted by the look he'd seen on Sara's face just moments ago. When she had told him about the night her father died he'd seen both the woman dealing with the tragedy and the heart broken lost little girl she'd been. Since then he'd found the image of a young Sara bravely facing that horror engraved in his brain and sometimes superimposing over Sara so he had this double image of her. It initially haunted him when he assigned cases, but she had proven she was both resilient and professional, so the childhood image faded until it only haunted his nightmares or at odd moments when she looked particularly run down. Seeing that expression again had brought up those feelings again and made him angrier with the man responsible than he'd thought possible.
If her captor had read Sara's journals like he had said then he knew better than most how much Sara had endured and overcome in her lifetime. Breathing deeply Grissom relaxed hands that had balled in anger and tried to relax his mind. He needed to piece together the evidence like puzzle pieces until a like a picture the solution formed. They needed to start coming up with some answers because it was beginning to feel like this guy was leading them about by the nose. He was reminded again of Paul Millander and the very uncomfortable feeling of knowing that this guy might out smart them. The worst part, that twisted like a knife in his gut, was that Sara would be the one to suffer if they didn't figure it out.
"You dropped this when you got that call." Detective Sofia Curtis wandered into the room.
"Thanks." He took the legal pad she was carrying. Sitting down in one of the chairs she watched as he read through the notes he'd written down.
The other members of the night shift entered individually or in pairs. Catherine carried a second mug of coffee that she set down in front of Gil. He smiled a little as a silent thank you while the strawberry blonde just nodded in reply. She was envious of the easy camaraderie between them. During her short time working with this group as a CSI she'd observed how they were more like a family than a bunch of co-workers.
"This guy has had us running around. I'm thinking we need to stop playing his game and process this abduction the way we normally would. So let's start at the beginning and take a fresh look at the crime scenes and the evidence we collected there." Grissom looked at each person standing around the table and meeting each eye. In the eyes of his team, Brass, Sofia and Conrad he saw a determination matching his own. He had no words to express what he felt. He turned to tape the crime scene photos on the board giving him time to slip his professional unemotional mask back on. The mask was a defense mechanism he had used so often that Sara had once accused him of feeling nothing.
Brass started them out, "P.D. got the call about a kidnapped woman and infant trapped in the first house. The first officers on the scene did a walk through and confirmed they could hear the victims, but couldn't reach them because of a cinder block wall. Fire and rescue was delayed at a pile up on I-15 so they didn't arrive for almost thirty minutes. When Gil, Greg and Sara arrived they began to process the scene."
"After we arrived the female voice began indicating that the infant was in distress. When we were unable to expand the opening in the wall. Sara volunteered to slip through and retrieve the baby so the EMTs could begin CPR and other treatment. After removing her vest and weapon, she slipped through."
"So you didn't realize there was a problem until?" Sofia asked quietly. Unlike the others this was the first time she was hearing the details of Sara's abduction and out of habit began treating the update like a witness interview asking questions and prompting for details.
"Until she screamed." Grissom swallowed glancing from the Detective back to the picture of the scene that he'd posted on the white board. "Then a sweep of our flashlights revealed a hole in the floor like from a trap door."
"That's when the female voice on the tape changed from victim to actress and then silence after we heard the recorded gunshot." Brass explained.
"We went through the gunshot cases going back six months and found a day shift case that might fit." Warrick stood and taped up two autopsy photos. "Serina Johnson and her son Jeremy. Day shift crew got the call of a body dump downtown. After the autopsy the Doc figured that it was a single through and through shot from a 9mm killed them both, but the recovered bullet was too damaged for an i.d. With no weapon, no bullet and given the girl's occupation as a hooker combined with a drug habit there weren't any leads on who might have killed her. I re-checked the physical evidence, but didn't find anything new."
Over the years on more cases than he liked Night Shift and Gil Grissom had made him and his team look bad. Conrad sat back a little pleased to have his team vindicated; it was nice to know that his staff had done a good job and not missed anything that could have prevented Sara's disappearance.
"So we know this guy has probably already killed two people." Sofia clarified. Grissom watched as she talked out the problem. He'd found that technique annoying when they worked a crime scene, but maybe it would prove useful this time.
"I think he probably paid the girl to make the tape and was confident that we wouldn't find anything to link to him that crime. So he left the tape at this crime scene to prove he did it." Grissom nodded, he agreed with Warrick's analysis.
"Where did the trapdoor take Sara?" The blonde Detective asked.
"A basement with a tunnel leading to the garage on the property directly behind it." Grissom posted another photo.
"We found a standard 4x4 cotton gauze saturated in ether."
"DNA tests identified Sara's epithelials so we know she was drugged in the basement." Greg didn't add that he'd run the test himself.
Again Brass took up the narrative to give Gil a moment to compose himself. "It took another half hour for Fire and Rescue to open the hole enough we could get through and another say fifteen for us to find the second scene and move through the tunnel to the second house. We figure he got her into a car and was gone at least thirty minutes before we got there."
"Grissom and I finished processing both houses, but neither Sara nor the perp left much else at the scene. So we came back to the lab to work the evidence."
"I arrived at the lab about two hours after Sara went through the wall. When I walk through reception I noticed the Courier with his package. I had Judy call Brass and then after grabbing a pair of gloves carried it to Gil."
"So Brass interrogated the Courier while Grissom opened the package?" She noticed that Brass, Ecklie and Grissom all nodded in agreement, something most of the lab joked was a sign of Armageddon.
"Yeah the Courier was helpful when I explained how he was facing a life sentence as an accomplice. Basically he got a call about a box left in a room, found a note with money and delivered the box because he thought he'd get more money. He doesn't seem to be connected and the call was placed from a cell phone."
"Day shift processed the motel room and traced the call. Neither led anywhere."
Catherine put the evidence bags on the table. "Gil opened the box. Inside was this small generic white box, the necklace Sara was wearing with a broken chain and the USB Jump Drive. I checked the box, wrapping and necklace for fingerprints, DNA and trace. All I found were Sara's prints and DNA on the necklace, but nothing else."
"While in the AV Lab Archie and I turned our attention from the cassette found at the first scene to the USB Jump Drive. Everything about it was identical to Nick's kidnapping except Sara is trapped in a room being flooded with water. From what Sara has said we need to be worried about hypothermia because the water is cold. That gives us between six and twelve hours depending on the actual water and air temperatures."
"Meaning?" Brass asked suddenly alarmed. Dr. Robbins had given him some hope during their earlier conversation. Pointing out that rescuers didn't give up hope on hypothermia victims until all hope was exhausted.
"Depending on how cold the air is she will lose body heat faster or slower."
Brass nodded, but didn't say what he knew they were all now thinking. They might only have another couple hours to find her alive.
Grissom posted up the photos he'd gotten from Dr. Robbins "Sara also tried using the metal frame bed to break the plexiglass wall, but succeeded in ruining her shirt with impact splatter."
"Based on the fibers we collected from Sara's vest the water is chlorinated, the percentage is consistent with residential pool water."
"Do we know anything else about those houses?"
Nick flipped open his file. "After interviewing the neighbors we found out that the first house was recently bought by the owner of the second house one Steven Ray whose wife and child were killed at home. He served eight years on death row for that until he was exonerated by DNA evidence."
"From what he told Sara he holds Brass, Catherine and I responsible."
"Did he say anything else that could be useful?"
Grissom looked down at his notepad. "Let's see he also told Sara that we could hear her and that we were closest to finding her when she first disappeared. When he called me using Sara's cell he implied that he'd read Sara's journals and that her cell would lead to her location. We know he's lied to both her and I at least once. I don't know how much value we can place on anything he tells us."
"So what's the game plan Boss."
"Let's follow the one thing that never lies right?" Catherine asked.
Grissom nodded, "We go back to the evidence, like the fiber Hodges is processing from where I found Sara's cell. Let's take a fresh look at everything. Not just for this case, but also the original case." Catching Catherine's eye he silently asked her to handle this aspect of the case so he could get back to Sara.
