Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or any of the recognisable characters

A/N: Brief spoilers from past episodes. Also, I began writing this before Grave Danger aired in the UK, hence why I have not mentioned anything to do with that episode. Also, thank-you for the reviews. And a big welcome to all new readers :) Enjoy.


Chapter 12: The Evidence Never Lies

Less than three hours later, Catherine and Sara had met back at the lab and were hovering in Grissom's office, waiting for him to arrive. Despite having had a few hours to clean up and refresh themselves, they both looked the worse for wear. Moments later, Grissom entered his office, flicking through the case file. He looked up, acknowledging Sara and Catherine.

"No Nick?" he simply asked, taking a seat behind his desk.

Catherine shook her head, pacing the width of the small room.

"No, I haven't seen him since we left a few hours ago," Sara said.

Grissom nodded, figuring that perhaps Nick was still trying to sort his own emotions out. He had after all been no stranger to his own problems, having been held at gunpoint twice. Grissom knew that Nick and Warrick were close friends, and that this, coupled with his own experiences was playing heavily on his mind.

'Especially as he was the last person to see him,' Grissom thought to himself sadly.

"So what's our plan?" Catherine said, almost business like, and now taking the chair next to Sara.

"I need Sara to head over to this car rental place," he said, handing Sara a slip of paper with the address on. Sara looked down at it and read it over. "O' Riley will meet you there. The owner rang up. Someone returned a van, with what looks like blood in it."

"Know who borrowed it?" Sara asked, handing the slip of paper over to Catherine for her to read.

Grissom nodded. "Jason Green."

"What?" Catherine asked, lifting her head quickly from the paper. "You mean he took out a rental? Can we get an address from the information?"

Grissom shook his head.

"Unfortunately no. The address is the same as the one where we were at earlier." Silence filled the room, as the memories of processing the scene went through their minds.

"Search it thoroughly," he said to Sara. Even though he knew she would, he didn't want anything to be overlooked.

"Right on it," Sara said as she left Grissom's office.

"You think we can get something from the van?" Catherine asked.

"I don't know," Grissom said. "Hopefully we can find something that can give us an idea where they've taken Warrick. I didn't find anything at the phone box. Just lots of prints. None of them belonging to Jason or Tyrone. So far all we've got is several locations around that area that Brass pulled from Jason's prison record. Tyrone on the other hand has no previous address in Vegas."

"Wait. You went and processed the phone box already? I thought we were doing that later," Catherine asked.

Grissom shrugged. "Needed to process it before any potential evidence vanished. Except there wasn't any." Frustration etched Grissom's face.

"I don't know Cath," he began. "This guy is playing us against our own game. He leaves very little evidence, and the evidence he does leave us gives us a dead end. And before long, we're going to get another call with the arrangements of our so called release." Grissom sighed. "Maybe it's time we started playing him at his own game."

"How'd you mean?" Catherine asked.

"To have any chance of getting Warrick back we have to either release Marty or find that piece of evidence that'll lead us to where they're staying. Perhaps we should release him," Grissom said, eyes glazed.

"No, no, no," Catherine said eyes widening. "You can't be serious? Didn't you hear the Sheriff? And you know we don't make deal with terrorists. And -" She was cut off as Grissom held up his hand.

"We give the illusion of releasing him. We go to make the drop." Catherine opened her mouth, making no sound, now understanding where Grissom was coming from.

"And Brass knows about this?" she asked.

"Yes. It was his idea."

Catherine nodded, impressed.

"And the Sheriff?" she asked.

"Doesn't know yet."

"So er, when are you planning on telling him?" she asked him.

"When the time is right," Grissom said, the small end of a smile on his face.

"So what are we going to do for the moment?" Catherine asked Grissom.

"I'm going to try and get in contact with Nicky. I want you to see if Greg's busy. Pull out the case file for Marty Silver. See if there is anything in that that'll help us in this case. Then, go over what we've got so far."

Standing up, Catherine pulled down the jacket she was wearing, exiting Grissom's office. Grissom picked up the phone, dialling Nick's number. The phone began to ring...


Sara jumped out of her Tahoe, recovering her kit from the back. O' Riley was waiting for her.

"Hi Sara," he greeted.

Sara smiled. "O' Riley," she said, nodding her head in acknowledgement of the greeting. "So where's the vehicle?" she asked.

"Over there," O' Riley said, pointing over to his right. "The guy left before taking his deposit back. Wasn't until the worker checked inside that he realised why. Manager got in touch straight away. Wasn't too pleased."

"Well, would you be?" Sara said, walking over to the manager who was still in conversation with one of his workers. They approached the manager.

"Sara Sidle," O' Riley said, introducing her to the manager. "She's with the crime lab."

The manager extended his hand in a form of greeting.

"Steven Gibbs," he said. "I'm the manager. Just tell me you can get the guy that done this to the van."

Sara didn't say anything.

"Mr Gibbs. Have either you or any of your workers been inside the van since it's been returned?" she asked, now using her flashlight to peer in the back.

He shook his head. "No. Tim here opened her up and saw the state she was in. Came and got my straight away."

Sara pulled on a pair of latex gloves, and took a swab from her back. Using it, she took a sample from the back of the van.

"What are you doing?" asked Steven.

"Testing," Sara replied.

"For what?" he asked.

"Blood," she said, as the swab in front of her showed a positive ID for blood. She took some photos. In the back was some rope covered in blood. She took another sample of blood to take to Greg once she got back to the lab. As she pulled her torchlight back towards her, she noticed a piece of blue material caught on the edge. She took a photograph before grabbing her tweezers, she picked it up. It had blood on it. She bagged it.

"Who was this van rented out to?" Sara asked. Although Grissom told her it was Jason Green, she needed to clarify the information.

"Er," the manager scratched his head. "Jason Green. Came in a few weeks back. Said he had some things to move."

O' Riley spoke.

"How did he seem? This Green guy?"

"I don't know," the manager replied. "He seemed normal I guess. Although you'd need to speak to Susie. She dealt with him."

O' Riley and Sara moved aside, now in conversation. O' Riley nodded as Sara spoke.

"Okay Mr Gibbs," Sara said. "I'm going to need prints from everyone that works here, to rule out your employee's prints. And I'm going to need to tow the van back to the lab to gather evidence."

Steven Gibbs stood there, astounded.

"You can either give Miss Sidle here what she needs now," O' Riley said, pulling his phone from his pocket for effect, "Or I can get a warrant. Either way, we'll need the van and the prints."

Steven Gibbs waved his hand.

"No, take it. Everyone that works here is in at the moment. We had a big meeting early this morning. This way," he said, signalling for O' Riley and Sara to follow him.

It didn't take long for Sara to gather everything she needed, and before long, she was heading back to the lab.


Grissom tried calling Nick again, and once more had reached his voice mail. Hanging up, Grissom went in search of Catherine. He found her in the evidence room pouring over documents.

"Anything?" he asked, walking up behind her.

"Nothing on the surface. The guy raped and killed women. Left no evidence until he slipped up. Could be why our guy knows a lot about forensics. Knows where Marty messed up so know to be careful," Catherine said.

"Where's Greg?" Grissom asked. "I thought he was helping you?"

"He was. But Sara got back to the lab. Had some blood evidence for him to run."

"Where's Sara now then?" he asked.

"O, she's waiting for the van to be brought in so she can examine it closely." Catherine looked Grissom up and down. "What's wrong Gil?" she asked, now standing up from the chair.

"I don't know," he replied. "It's getting to me now. And I can't get hold of Nick either."

"Well, you know this case has been tough on him. It has on us all. But Nick," she let her words trail off. "I'll ring Brass, get him to check on him. I'll meet you in the garage." She left the room to place the call. Grissom followed her but made his way to the garage where he gathered Sara would be waiting.


"Brass, it's Catherine," she said into the phone. "You doing anything at the moment? Good. Grissom's trying to get hold of Nick but he's not answering his phone. Don't suppose you'd head over there and check on him. Yeah, thanks Brass." she hung up the phone, heading to the garage.


"Well, there's a lot more blood in there then I first thought," Sara said to Grissom as the inside of the van glowed showing where there was blood.. "The stuff the manager found was superficial. Looks like somebody didn't clean it too well," she said.

Catherine entered the room, and placed her hands on her hips.

"You find anything Sara?" she asked.

"Yeah. Blood. Some hairs from the front seats. Got a couple with the tags still attached. I also found a small sample of material with blood on it and some rope. That's with Greg. What do you reckon?" she asked. "They've changed vehicles?"

"Possibly," Grissom said. "But we can't know for sure. If they're holed up somewhere where they think no-one will find them then they may not need another one. Did you ring Brass Cath?"

"Yeah," she said. "He's on his way. He'll call when he gets there."


Brass parked his car outside Nick's house. Looking up he noticed no movement coming from the house.

'Huh. Must be asleep,' he thought to himself. 'Something we could all do with.'

Nevertheless, he got out of his car. The two policemen that had been stationed outside his house were there.

"Hello Detective," the dark haired one greeted.

Brass nodded. "Have you seen Stokes recently?"

"No sir. Haven't seen anything for a few hours. Figured he must be asleep."

Brass nodded and knocked on the door. There was no reply. He knocked again but still nothing. Moving to the side, he looked through the window. He noticed his keys, phone and wallet sitting on the chair.

'Must be in,' he thought to himself. 'Better just see for sure though.'

He knocked again but still got no answer. He pushed on the door. It opened silently. Instinct took over. It wasn't like Nick to leave the door unlocked like this. Not after Nigel Crane.

"Sir?" the dark haired officer asked. Brass motioned for him to be quiet. He reached down for his gun. He pushed open the door further, now taking a step inside. Living room. Clear. Kitchen. Clear. He made his way down the hall. Bedroom. Clear. He approached the final door. The bathroom. He could hear water running. He knocked on the door.

"Nick?" he called out. "Nick is that you?" He was met with no reply. "Well, I'm coming in." He pushed open the door. Gun in hand. Empty.

"Shit," he muttered to himself. Nick's personal effects were scattered on the floor, from the result of the struggle. Broken shards from a mirror were on the floor, the smallest of blood smears across the wall. He pulled out his phone. First he needed to call Catherine. Then he needed to give the officers out front a piece of his mind.


The shrill ring of Catherine's phone broke the conversation. She moved away from Grissom and Sara to take the call.

"Willows," she said into the phone. She nodded as she listened. All of a sudden though, she shouted into the phone, startling Sara.

"What? But Brass I thought - " she stopped mid sentence, cut off by Brass on the other end of the phone. "Yeah, I'll tell Grissom. Get him over there straight away." She hung up the phone. She paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts before addressing Sara and Grissom.

"That was Brass," she said, clutching her phone in her hand tightly. She chose her next words carefully. "Seems like the reason you couldn't get hold of Nick earlier was because he's not there."

"Well where is he?" Grissom asked, urgency showing in his eyes, although his voice remained calm and composed.

"Brass doesn't know. Looks like there was a struggle in his bathroom. He found a blood smear along the wall."

"That makes sense," came a voice from behind them. None of them had noticed Greg enter the room. He was clutching several pieces of paper. "I er, I finished processing everything Sara gave me from the van. Most of the blood was Warrick's. I managed to get some DNA off of the rope too. That also belong to Warrick. The hair belongs to Jason Green."

Grissom just nodded. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Er yeah." Greg replied. "I thought you'd want to know this straight away. The material Sara found that had blood on it? Well -"

"It was Nick's," Sara said, more for clarification then an actual question. Greg nodded. She threw her hands up in the hair.

"Great. This just gets better and better," she said through her teeth. She threw off her latex gloves, barged past Greg and exited the garage.

Catherine made to go after her but was interrupted by Grissom.

"I'll go," he said, now hurrying after Sara. Greg and Catherine watched him go.

"First Warrick and now Nick," Greg said, fidgeting with the paper in hand. "What now?"

"I don't know Greg," Catherine said. "I don't know."


"Did you do it?" Tyrone asked.

"Yeah. Just what you said. Took the van back to the rental place. Left some blood and evidence for them to find."

"Good, good. They should have found it by now. Know that we've got their other CSI. Now they know we mean business." Tyrone stood, and looked at the photo of his brother on the mantel piece. Knife in one hand, a skinned animal in the other. "Soon brother. Soon we'll have our revenge and you will be free."


Woo. Long chapter. Hope you enjoyed. Next chapter coming soon :) Feel free to leave any ideas or questions