Disclaimer: As always, I do not own CSI or any of the characters

A/N – I hoped to have this up sooner but net issues have put it on hold. But it's finally here. So enjoy :)


Chapter 14: The Missing Link

Grissom sat in his office, hunched over his desk, case notes in hand. None of the evidence they'd collected had led them anywhere nearer to finding Warrick or Nick. Tests on the van had shown the last journey at an absurd mileage which would take them out of Las Vegas, giving them nothing to link to a possible location. A knock on his door disturbed his thoughts.

"Hi Brass," Grissom greeted, now setting the file down on the desk. "What's up?" he asked.

"Thought you'd like to know. PD just got a call from a rental place. Possible fake ID. Wouldn't normally alert us like this, but with the flag out on Jason Green and anything suspicious, the manager thought it best to call us in."

"You're going out there now?" Grissom asked. Brass nodded. "I'll come with you." He grabbed his vest, and joining Brass, they made their way outside. They ran into Sara on the way.

"What's up Gris?" Sara asked, falling into stride with them. "Got something?"

"Maybe," he said, not stopping.

"Need me to come along?" she asked. Grissom shook his head.

"Stay here. Work the evidence with Cath. Times ticking." Grissom and Brassed exited the lab, leaving Sara watch them go. She headed back into the lab in search of Catherine.


Jason looked at the clock on the wall as the seconds ticked by. He wasn't sure what was keeping the young girl that had served him, but she'd gone to the manager.

'Maybe I'll be having a word with the manager about her service,' he thought to himself.

A few more minutes ticked by. He started to fidget with his fingers. He was getting nervous. It shouldn't have taken this long. He sat at the desk, looking at the clock, as though willing Lillian to come back. After a few moments longer, he heard the click of her heels approaching from behind.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she said, as she flashed him a big smile. "We have a van for you. All I need now is your method of payment."

"Of course," Jason said, smiling back at Lillian. "Where do I sign?"


Brass pulled his car up to the rental place, making sure to park it far enough back so he didn't give away the element of surprise. The police car pulled up behind him. Brass got out of his Taurus, as did Grissom, while the police officers got out of their car, making their way over to Brass. Grissom studied the rental place while Brass instructed the police officers. Brass made his way to stand beside Grissom.

"Beggars belief doesn't it?" Brass said. "The guy works so hard to cover his tracks, but tries to rent another vehicle in broad daylight."

Grissom nodded. "Although we still don't know what part he plays in this."

They made their way towards the entrance, the other officers close behind. As they did, a man in a dark suit exited the building.

"O, thank goodness you're here," he said, breathlessly.

Brass eyed the man up and down, catching a glimpse of the ID badge pinned to his chest.

'Manager," he thought to himself.

"Where is he?" Brass asked, getting straight to the point.

The manager pointed into the building. "He's in there. With Lillian."

"Thank-you," Brass said, politely. "Officer James, come with me." He entered the building, drawing his gun as he went, followed closely by Officer James. Silently, he approached th desk, keeping his gun to the back of Jason's head, as did the other officer.

"Jason Green," Brass said, keeping his voice level.

Jason was caught off guard. He turned around at the mention of his name, and saw the two guns pointed at his head. He went to rise.

"Don't move," warned Brass. "If not, I'll shoot." He motioned to Officer James. "Cuff him." Brass kept the gun trained on Jason, while Officer James cuffed him. He didn't put up a fight. Didn't even move while he was being checked for weapons.

'Cornered, like a rat in a trap," He thought to himself. 'Careless. Tyrone is gonna be angry.'

Brass now took notice of the young lady behind the desk.

"Lillian right?" he asked. She nodded. "You ok?" She nodded again, before making her way towards the office.

Holstering his gun, he grabbed Jason by the arm, almost pulling him as he walked back outside the building to where Grissom was waiting with Officer Tyler. As Jason was pulled out of the building, he made yet contact with Grissom. He sneered.

"None of this will matter you know," he grinned slyly.

Grissom said nothing, but watched as Jason was lead the the car.

"Save it," Brass said after Jason, as Officer James escorted him to the police car.

He made is way back to where Grissom was standing.

"How long do you think it will take him to crack?"

"Depends," Grissom said. "From the sound of it, he won't give us what we want."

Brass shrugged. "We'll see. I need to speak with Lillian and the manager. Shouldn't take long." Grissom nodded as he watched the police car drive away.


Sara stood in the observation room, hidden by the one way glass, watching Jason Green. He was now dressed in an orange jumpsuit, his clothes having been removed and currently processed for evidence. Handcuffs held his arms behind his back, making it difficult for him to make himself comfortable on the chair. He'd asked for a lawyer who hadn't arrived yet, delaying the interview further.

'If it isn't murder yet, and his lawyer doesn't turn up, it may soon be," she thought to herself. She scolded herself for thinking these thoughts.

The silence was broken by the door clicking open.

"Hey Sara," Greg greeted. "Thought you'd like to know that there was blood on his clothes. It belonged to Nick." Sara didn't say anything, and Greg brought his attention to Jason sitting at the table.

"Doesn't look too smart does he?" Greg said.

"Well, looks can be deceiving," she replied.


"His lawyer is here," Brass said to Grissom. "They're having some time now. We'll start the interview soon."

"Good. We know he's involved. We found some of Nick's blood on his clothes and the fibres match those we recovered at Nick's house."

"Bastard can't deny he isn't involved."


Grissom and Brass at opposite Jason Green and his lawyer, Chantelle Williams, in the interview room. Catherine, Sara and Greg were behind the one way window, watching the interview.

"We know that you're involved. The evidence says so," Brass said to him.

Jason clicked his tongue inside his mouth. It was Chantelle Williams that spoke.

"I've looked at the evidence and spoken with my client. He says that he was threatened with his life if he didn't do as he was instructed."

"Oh, come on. Threatened?" Brass had to smile. "You've got to be kidding me. We know that whoever it is wants Marty Silver free, and that, coincidently, you were in prison with his brother Tyrone Bale." His tone got harsh. "So you're telling me Tyrone is threatening you?"

Jason nodded.

"Well why didn't you contact the police."

Jason shrugged. "He'd have killed me." He hid a smirk.

Brass rolled his eyes. "Either way you're involved and you're going to be inside a lot longer. And maybe Tyrone will be in there with you. We've got evidence of you being involved in this from the beginning. We've got your fingerprints on an envelope that you hand delivered to the station. You rented a van which you returned with blood evidence in."

"You know what this is?" Grissom asked, interrupting Brass and placing a photograph in front of Jason. He looked at it. "It's a blood drop. On the clothes we removed from you when we brought you in."

"Must have cut myself."

"Well, it's not your blood. It belongs to one of our missing CSI's, Nicholas Stokes. We also matched some fibres we found at the scene to those from your shirt." Jason remained silent, so Grissom continued. "The samples we took from the van you returned had blood samples from both Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown, both of whom are still missing."

"You can't tie the van to my client."

"Yes we can. It was rented out in his name. He also got sloppy. Left prints on the underside of the handle."

Chantelle looked at Jason, who merely shrugged.

Brass stood up and began pacing round the room.

"So, you want to tell us where they are?"

"Nope," Jason replied. "You're the one with all this 'evidence', you find them."

"I need a few moments with my client," Chantelle uninterrupted.

Brass however chose to ignore this request.

"You know, you're being set-up, and your too stupid to notice. You think it was coincidence that Tyrone got you to do all his work? Got you to rent another van?" Jason was getting angry, the vein in the side of his head bulging. But Brass continued to push. "You know what," he knelt with his palms on the table, "I bet he's sitting there taking the piss out of you as we speak. Laughing at you for believing him. You're his lap dog."

Jason jumped up, now aggravated, however his restraints prevented him from lashing out.

"Captain Brass, this is not on," shouted Chantelle. "This is harassment."

"I'm just telling Mr Green here the truth," Brass said a smirk on his face. "Now, sit back down."

He let the atmosphere settle again.

"So, are you going to tell me what I need to know?"


"Well that was useless," Sara said to Catherine and Greg as Brass and Grissom left the interview. "He didn't give us a thing."

"I don't know," Catherine replied. "He admitted to being involved with Tyrone Bale, so at least now we know he's involved."

"What if," Sara began, "We've been going about this the wrong way. We've put all of our efforts into finding Warrick and Nick through the evidence Jason's left behind. Perhaps we've missed a link between Marty's case and this one." She left the room, thoughts whirring through her brain. Grissom and Brass entered just as Sara left.

"Where's she off too?" Grissom asked.

"She's gone to cross reference Marty's case with this one. Thinks we may have missed something." Catherine replied.

Grissom nodded.

"I er, better get back to the lab," Greg said. "Things to run." Grissom looked at Greg leave before continuing.

"Somethings going on. So far we've got one guy in custody who we believe to have been set up, and we haven't received that phone call from Tyrone. It's as if he's waiting for something.

Sara burst into the room, folders clutched in her hands.

"You guys, I think I might have found something," she said, opening the folders to the appropriate pages. "It didn't register before, but, look at this." She pointed to the paper.

"The addresses," Grissom began.

"Match," finished Catherine. "How did we miss this?"

"Tired eyes," Grissom replied. "Didn't pick it up."

"So the first address we responded to matches the address of Marty's first rape."

"Looks like," Sara said. "So maybe we need to look at the others. We know the area that last call was placed right?"

"Yeah. We need a map," Catherine said. They moved to the evidence room, where they set up a large map on the table.

"We know that the call was placed in this area," Grissom said, circling an area on the map.

"Well, according to these addresses, only one matches," Sara said, "And that's right here," she said, marking it with the pen.

"The home of his last rape victim," Catherine said.

"It's a long shot," Brass said, "But it's something. I'll go secure a warrant."


Police cars and Tahoe's sped through the roads, lights flashing and sirens blaring. Cars moved out of the way to let them through. As they pulled up to the estate, they cut the lights and the sirens.

'No point announcing our arrival just yet,' Brass thought to himself, as he wrestled with the steering wheel.

He pulled the car up, screeching to a stop. The other vehicles followed suit. Brass indicated for two police officers to take the back entrance, while the other two were going in with him. A fifth officer had a ram in his hand, ready to open up the door. Brass pulled his gun, as did the other officers.

"I don't want you guys in there until I said so," Grissom said to Catherine and Sara who were waiting anxiously on the pavement. They nodded. He made his way up to the house where Brass was getting ready to move in.

"Draw your weapon Gil," Brass said in a friendly manner. He knew that Grissom didn't like to use his gun, but he'd insisted on coming in with them at the rear. That meant he'd have to have his weapon drawn. Grissom un holstered it and nodded. Brass rapped on the door.

"Police. Open up." No-one answered, so, Brass indicated the officer to barge down the door. They entered the dingy doorway. The inside was dark and dusty.

"Check upstairs," Brass said to two of the officers. The third officer and Grissom remained with Brass as they checked the ground floor. They cleared each room and entered the kitchen.

"Guess the only way is down," Brass said as he approached a door in the corner leading to the basement. He cautiously approached the door, opening it. The stench hit him as soon as he did. Burnt flesh. Stale blood. He put his arm across his mouth trying to stem the gag reflex. Quickening his pace, he shone his torch down the stairs, checking for any assailents, or broken stairs. Finding none, he made his way to the very bottom. He checked again. Grissom reached the bottom, shining his torch into the room, and along with Brass', it lit up the very dark room.

Pools of blood littered the floor and the walls. And there, almost in the centre of the room was a body. A very still, lifeless body.

"Is that - " began Brass, but was interrupted by Grissom, eyes wide, now heading forward, shining his torch in a bid to preserve the crime scence.

"Warrick? Warrick?" he called, moving closer. There was no response. He checked the area for any dangers and found a clear path. Getting closer he saw the full extent. Warrick was sprawled on his back, his hands bound in front of him. The broken arm stuck out at a precarious angle. Grissom knelt down, fiddling with Warrick's wrist in an attempt to find a pulse. He couldn't find one.

"Come on," he cried in frustration.

He searched some more.

'Found it,' he said to himself.

"Brass, I need a medic now. I've got a pulse, but it's very weak," he cried out, as it echoed round the room.


Next chapter coming soon..