Irrefutable

By: Manigault

Thanks to those reading this! Many many thanks to those who reply-it keeps me focused!

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It was too soon. He hadn't intended on killing the moron Richards and his mistress for another few days, but his anger at being ignored by Sara had driven him to push his plans forward. Now Grissom knew who he was and people from his lab suspected who he was and would be nosing around.

A tight smile spread over his face as he stared at the monitor that showed Grissom and Lady Heather driving on a fruitless search for the dominatrix's grandchild. This whole situation had to be driving Grissom wild with fear and worry.

"What's really driving you mad, Grissom, is that you have less evidence on me this time than you had the first time." His smile faltered as he recognized his own loss of reality in that he was talking aloud to these monitors. He realized that this was becoming more common as he watched one and waited for the others to come alive. Sara was at work and he had failed to put any cameras in her work place, a fact that drove him insane, not knowing what she was doing or who she was with.

Picking up his phone, he decided it was time to send another message.

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The phone was ringing. Private name. Ignore it, Sara told herself She caught Brass's eye and he nodded at the phone. Frowning, she pushed a button and held the phone to her ear and waited.

"Sara? How are you?"

Gripping the phone tightly, Sara shook her head in disgust. "How do you think I'm doing? You killed two innocent people. You have threatened me and my-," Sara hesitated and struggled to regain control of her emotions. "You've threatened Grissom." She couldn't keep the contempt from her voice as she avoided looking at Brass.

"I'm concerned that your overdoing yourself, Sara," the man continued as if she had not mentioned Grissom's name. "It would be best if you return home and get some rest. I insist."

"You're crazy," Sara told him as she pulled the phone away from her ear and clicked the off button. Staring at Brass, she swallowed hard and said defensively, "I can't listen to his dribble, Jim. He insisted that I go home immediately to rest! Can you believe his audacity?"

Brass nodded grimly. "Unfortunately, I can, considering we believe that we know who the man is."

Sara's eyes widened. "You know who this is? Who is he? Are you bringing him in?"

Brass glanced around the break room before filling her in on his conversation with Catherine and her conversation with Grissom.

"Catherine spoke with Grissom?" Sara folded her arms protectively over her chest as she tried to sort through the information that Brass had given her in the last few minutes. Lurie. She remembered the last time she had seen the man who had murdered his lover, Debbie Marlin, and the affect the whole case had on Grissom. She had tried to bring it up with Grissom once, after they were together, but he had shut down and withdrawn inside himself. He didn't want to talk about the past.

"We don't have enough evidence on him to bring him in," Brass admitted with a heavy sigh. "I'm working on phone records and trying to get an order to discover the identity of the private numbers that keep ringing your phone and Grissom's."

Another sharp ringing split the air, but this time it belonged to Brass. His eyebrows arched significantly when he read the name of the incoming caller.

"Gil? I thought you were being careful not to use your cell."

Sara was on full alert when she heard Grissom's name. She eagerly watched as Brass gave a small grin and handed the phone into her eager hands.

"Griss? Wha-?"

"I took my phone apart and found the bug. I don't know how the bastard got hold of our phones, but I'm tired of playing his games." Grissom had taken apart his phone when they made another pit stop to get water and use the restroom. There was no payphone available and in desperation and anger he had taken it upon himself to free his phone from unwanted ears.

"I need to do the same thing," Sara said. She internally kicked herself for not doing so earlier and vowed that when she returned home she would search the place for every camera.

"Honey, I need to tell you something."

"Jim already told me who you think this madman is."

"No, that's not what I need to warn you about," Grissom took a deep breath and prepared himself for Sara's reaction. "Our home has cameras in it. Somehow, Lurie, if it is Lurie, was able to get inside and place them over a month ago."

Sara felt sick at this revelation, but unsurprised. "I thought so," she replied and then added softly, "I suspected as much from something he said today and had just decided to tear the place apart to find the cameras when I get home."

"No!" Grissom's heart lurched at the thought of Sara going back inside their home while Lurie was a free man. "Sara, don't do that until we have him in custody. Promise me?"

"Why not? Obviously, if it is Lurie then he knows that we're on to him. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of parading around our home for his pleasure." Her body shuddered at the thought of exactly what this lunatic had witnessed over the past month.

Seeming to pick up on her emotions, Grissom sighed softly over the line. "Once we have him in custody, once we have evidence to put him away for the rest of his life, then we will take the proper equipment in and tear the place apart. For now, I decided that I need to come home. We'll have a much easier time finding Heather's grandchild from Vegas, than driving on what I've now decided is a fruitless journey."

Relief mixed with happiness spilled over Sara and she felt a tear slip down her cheek. Swiping it away with the back of one hand, she smiled for the first time since this nightmare began. "Thank you, Griss. Be careful, okay? And, please come straight to the lab? You can assure Heather that we'll help her find where this grandchild is."

Sara didn't care for the woman for various reasons, but she couldn't blame her for once having an attraction to Grissom. What sane woman wouldn't be attracted to him?

"He'll be upset when he knows I've debugged my phone, but that's too bad." Grissom said with a newfound sense of purpose. He felt such a load lift from his shoulders when he spoke with Sara and informed her of the decision to return home.

"Be careful," Sara echoed again as a sense of foreboding crept over her mind. She turned away from Brass and said softly. "I love you."

"I love you too," Grissom told her before clicking off the line. With the first smile on his face since this insanity began, he turned to return to the car and found himself face to face with a revolver.

TBC