Sara could feel the blood draining from her face. She could tell by the gleam in his eyes that this wasn't the Grissom that she had known for almost ten years. Something had changed. There was something else in there, something darker, something so totally unlike himself that it frightened her to think about it. She felt like a gazelle under the glare of the lion. This is not a place to tread lightly.
She looked up to see him slowly laying the file on the table as he stood up and walked towards the kennel. He opened the door and walked in, leaning over to grab the chain close to the leather collar with his left hand and yanking her to her feet. His right hand swung back before striking her cheek with a resounding slap that brought tears to her eyes.
He wiped the tears from her cheek with his thumb before running his fingers through her hair.
"So beautiful, and all mine. You've always existed just for me you know. I'll never let you go. Now be a good girl and stay quiet while I finish signing off on all these cases."
She said nothing in response, which she supposed was the correct answer, as he went back to the loveseat and going through his files.
Oh, inwardly she raged at the gall he had. Be a good girl, indeed. How dare he get away with talking to her like a second class citizen? Although, how dare he get away with a lot of things he had done in the past 24 hours. The rational part of her brain tried to channel the anger into a slightly more useful avenue, like how to get out of there.
From her seat on the mattress, she looked over the corners of the kennel. Where things come together is often where it is the weakest. The chain link fencing was attached to the bar with a metal strap that went around the bar and through the fencing and fastened with a bolt. There was one of these metal straps about every six inches from what she could tell. She squinted at them, afraid to look any closer and possibly rattle the chain, alerting him to what held her attention. She couldn't tell what kind of bolts they were from that distance, and held onto the hope that she might be able to undo them.
"Ah crap. My phone died. I need to start remembering to plug the thing in. I guess I'll have to wait till we get back and call Brian then." Greg looked over at Nick and gave a little shrug.
"Well, we aren't exactly due back at the lab yet, want to take a detour past Sara's apartment, see if she's at home?"
"Sounds like a plan, if we get off on this exit we can swing around, go two blocks south, and her apartment building will be on the right hand side of the street. We can be there in no time, and no one will be the wiser!"
"True, and I doubt she would already be gone, since we just saw her yesterday. It takes longer than that to move everything out; did you see her spare bedroom the last time we picked her up? It's like a library in there, with all the books, the videos and the CD's in bookshelves stacked to the ceiling… It would take forever to pack all that up. I wonder if she's actually read all of it." Nick was still in a bit of awe that one person could accumulate that much reading material and it not be considered a fire hazard.
"Sara? Of course she's read all of it. She probably just lays her head on one each night and memorizes the thing by osmosis by the time she wakes up in the morning. Hey, what's that guy doing with her car?" Greg looked over at Sara's parking space where a burly guy with a heavy beard and overalls was hooking her car's rear bumper to his tow truck.
Nick shrugged in response to Greg's question as he pulled the SUV in the next parking space and climbed out, walking towards the man with the truck. His name was Henry according to the embroidery on his chest, and worked for Sam's Towing.
"Can I help you fellas," questioned Henry as Greg and Nick approached him.
"Only if you can tell us where you intend to take this car, it belongs to our friend." Nick looked the guy over. He seemed a little rough around the edges, but he looked honest enough.
"Just got a call this morning to pick it up, the keys would be under the back bumper, the title would be in the glove box, and to take it over to the garage for the United Way."
"Do you know who called it in?"
"Nah, I know it was a guy though. Didn't leave a name. Usually all the info we need is on the title, so I didn't worry about it none."
Nick thanked Henry before he and Greg headed towards the apartment building.
"You buy any of that?"
"Well, I don't know of any guys that Sara would let give away her car for her, since Brian's still out of town, and even then I still think she would have done it herself. But I do think the guy was telling us what he knew." Greg opened the door to the building, the blast of the air conditioner hitting them immediately.
"Nick, you still have a key to her place, in case she isn't home?"
"Sure do, but I don't think she'd appreciate it much if we just went barging on in there. How about we try knocking first?"
"Yeah, I guess that does sound like the logical route…" Greg pounded on her front door and peeked through the peephole looking for signs of life. "I don't think she's home."
"Greg, you can't tell jack squat from looking the wrong way through a peephole."
"Yeah, but I can tell if there are any lights on, and it sure looks dark in there. Should we go in?"
"I don't think so. I still don't think she'd appreciate it if we went in."
"But what if something has happened to her?"
"Greg, I'm sure she's fine, she just probably went to the store for something and will be back soon enough. We can check back after shift."
The duo arrived back at the lab the same time Warrick and Catherine pulled in from their scene. Neither pair had a very involved case, so they each dropped off their samples in the various labs and met back up in the break room.
"Why do you think Grissom left early?" Catherine had gone looking for him, only to have Judy inform her that he left about 30 minutes after they had at the beginning of shift.
"No idea. I will never claim to understand that man," Warrick replied as he shook his head.
"I think it has something to do with Sara," Greg muttered as he brought the coffee pot over to refill their mugs.
"Greg, you know what Grissom says about assuming" admonished Nick.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, it makes an ass out of you and me, but I still think something's fishy here. She never would have left without telling me."
