When The Past Comes Knocking

Turning the engine off, Sara clung to the steering wheel, trying to control her shiver. Only an hour had passed since that FBI woman in charge called to arrange a meeting down at the station but it felt so much longer than that. Since her son went missing time had plunged her into a sleepless, horrible darkness and she was getting desperate for some ray of light. According to the CARD team called in, some new evidence turned up this morning but they wouldn't say anything to her on the phone. Only that they hadn't found Silver yet. Alive or...

Gritting her teeth, she got out of the car and marched towards the entrance. It was strange to be on the other end of the discourse; to be the one others offered their sympathy to or asked questions about her private affairs. But she didn't care for any of that. Her son's face was on an Amber Alert and all she prayed for now was that he wouldn't end up like the unfortunate kids she'd seen in her line of work. The mere thought drove her insane.

The blonde woman waiting at the front was Melissa as she had guessed. She was the one speaking to her on the phone last night when she reported her boy missing and she appreciated her soothing and confident manner. There was another male agent by her side but she didn't catch his name as she shook hands with them in a daze and they politely ushered her to a room and a chair. Sitting on the metal table was a file and a glass of water as it was usual during questioning, only this time the glass was meant for her and the file concerned her son's life. She recalled observing suspects' faces reflected on that same table but staring at the surface now, the only thing reflecting back at her was her own anguish.

Melissa waited patiently for her to settle while Sara grabbed the glass with both hands to reduce her shaking. Her throat felt as dry as a desert and she gulped half of the water down before she dared to raise her eyes and look at the file the woman opened in front of her.

"Miss Sidle, I'm sorry we have to meet under these circumstances but our priority is to find your son and we need your help."

"Of course," she muttered with a struggle, "anything."

"You are a member of the police force yourself so I won't beat around the bush here. You have reported your child Silver missing since yesterday evening, at nine, correct?"

"Yes."

"Tell us again how he went missing exactly."

"We… We went shopping together at the grocery store near our house, the one I told you about yesterday.

"Ok, what time was that?

"It was around six, no seven, excuse me..." Sara swallowed to clear her throat. "It was six thirty, just after his favorite program on TV ended."

"So," Melissa encouraged her, "what happened at the store?"

"We were walking up and down the aisles, picking up some stuff and joking with the labels like we always do and then Silver wanted to play hide and seek. He likes to play there and it's our neighborhood store. I know every inch of that place so I didn't think there was any harm..."

Sara's lip quivered and Melissa was quick to settle her down. "It's ok Sara, you didn't do anything wrong, just tell us what happened."

"The last time he went to hide, he didn't come out."

"What time was that?"

"I think it was...around seven." Sara rubbed her temples and then gasped as she remembered. "But what about the tapes? Anything on the tapes?" She almost yelled as she got up to her feet in agony.

Late at night, after she reported everything on Silver's disappearance and searched every place she could think of, she went to the lab to talk with the guys from the night shift and they told her they had retrieved the surveillance tapes from both inside and outside cameras but when she wanted to look for herself their supervisor had sent her home, being adamant on keeping her hands off the case. But if they'd seen something she had to know.

"Easy now Sara. We have established excellent communication with the local force and I'll tell you everything we have so far but you have to let me ask the questions ok?"

Sara nodded and sat back down so Melissa went on.

"First of all, is there anyone who might want to hurt you or your son, anyone with a grudge?"

"Could be anyone from any case I worked. You know the hatred, we deal with every scum in the Bay Area."

"I know, I know, I was just asking if you were aware of anything more specific. If anyone called you or threatened you." As Sara shook her head in frustration, Melissa decided to bring up the issue she was sure the brunette didn't want to talk about.

"When I asked you yesterday if the boy might've been taken by his father you told me that this was impossible since the father is no other than the famous Gil Grissom and that he didn't even know of his son's existence."

Sara felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment and strived to mouth a yes.

"Well, I had to contact him early this morning and he was shocked as you may have guessed but he insisted on coming to help us. He said he'd take the first flight out."

Sara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them she stared at Melissa firmly.

"Ok."

"Great, because we have some leads and we need both of you to help us as long as you let us do our job." Sara nodded urging her to go on.

"In the tapes your colleagues told you about, there was a man talking to your son but his face was kept hidden by his baseball cap. They walked out the store together towards the parking lot but the camera there was unfortunately out of order."

Sara knew that already, she had searched through the parking area herself and noticed that someone had knocked out the camera. "Wait," she said, "together? You mean Silver went with this man of his own free will?"

"It appears so." The woman pulled a photo out from the file and placed it in front of her to see. Sara's heart fluttered with pain. It was him, wearing his baggy jeans and Giants hoodie following a tall, thin man. "Why would he do that?" Sara wondered aloud, "I always tell him not to talk with strangers, let alone follow them..."

"Sara," Melissa cut her in as she pulled another photo from the file, "there's more. Officers spotted an abandoned car near the rail station not far from the store. It was a stolen vehicle so we got a warrant quickly and your lab recovered enough evidence to confirm your son was inside that car. There were a lot of fingerprints and also some blood in the passenger seat."

As Sara's pupils dilated in terror, Melissa raised her hands to calm her down. "Not a life threatening quantity," she said, "only a few drops". The blood matches your son's DNA from the toothbrush you provided and some fingerprints were a match to him as well. Other fingerprints were matched to the owner of the car but there was also a couple that belonged to a third person. AFIS gave us a hit; he's a former inmate, released from state prison three months ago."

"Who is he?" Sara asked, panting.

"His name is William Redstone. He was involved in one of your cases four years ago but that doesn't mean that he's the one behind this, he may very well have been hired by another inmate..."

Sara stopped listening as the name she heard flooded her mind with images, photographs of his beaten wife she had to document for the case file, all the bruises, the cuts, the broken ribs… She remembered everything, it was one of the worst beatings she had ever seen and it was only thanks to a neighbor that the wife got away from his blind rage still alive. It turned out Redstone was abusing her for over five years and he'd surely keep doing it if someone didn't stop him. She recalled throwing herself passionately into his pursuit, she even threatened him personally and was reprimanded by her supervisor but they eventually got enough evidence and saved the poor woman from her suffering. Sara spoke to the wife afterwards, visited her repeatedly in the hospital and convinced her to move out, change her name and start a new life.

"It's him," she breathed out, quivering. "The wife beater. He wants me to know it's him, that's why he left that car for us to find. He threatened me in court, you know." Sara covered her face with her palms as she recalled the man's rage when he shouted to her after his conviction, "you'll regret this, bitch."

"Why would Redstone do that?" Melissa was puzzled. "Domestic violence is not a major offense, he wasn't a child abuser or molester, he knew he wouldn't get more than five years of sentence, why would he risk going back to jail over some old resentment?"

"I...I confronted him more than was necessary. I helped his wife take the kids and move away."

"Kids?"

"A boy and a girl. Five and three years old at the time. His son must be..."

Sara was caught in mid sentence as the door was yanked open and Grissom burst inside in a fury.

"Nine, his son must be nine. Just like mine."

TBC