Irrefutable
By: Manigault
Thanks for those who reviewed! It keeps me energized and eager to finish this one out (no three years on this story).
Note: I know that I placed the men around Sara. Now I'm taking them away-Don't cuss me! g
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She couldn't fall asleep. There was no way she could sleep without hearing Grissom's voice and knowing if he was okay. She had just decided to phone Brass and ask him if he'd heard from Grissom when ringing cut into her thoughts.
Her breath caught as she looked at the caller id and frowned in disappointment. Unknown caller. Lurie. She considered not answering but then an image of the Grissom look alike in the hotel flashed through her minds eye and she pressed the button with an angry stab.
"What is it?"
She expected the voice disguisher to greet her when he spoke and was startled to hear he had apparently abandoned the gadget in favor of his own voice.
"I'm not happy that you let those men stay with you, Sara, although I know that you didn't invite them."
Her eyes widened at this revelation and silently she questioned herself about why she was surprised. Cameras. Cameras in her home as some psycho watched her every move. In that second she decided that when Grissom did come home then they would have to discuss selling the house and finding another one, a house that wasn't tainted by these unsettling images.
"My friends are concerned about me and want to protect me from you," said Sara, while standing up and moving away from the bed. She didn't want to speak with Lurie while she was on the bed that she and Grissom shared. "I want to speak with Grissom."
"He's not with me," Lurie said, his next words evasive, "Grissom's with someone that I trust. Someone that will do as I ask at the drop of a pin."
Sara shook her head and narrowed her eyes at this statement. "He's with Lady Heather," she said with sudden understanding, "she's the person that will do your bidding? She would hurt Grissom for you?"
Lurie took advantage of her question, although silently he doubted that Lady Heather could harm him if it came to that point. The problem was he didn't know where Grissom was or who he was with and knew that his time was limited in convincing Sara that he was in control.
"Of course she would," he said with deliberate sterness, "wouldn't you do whatever someone asked if it meant you could protect your loved one?"
"Heather's grandchild." Sara breathed out the words as new doubts entered her mind. Would Heather hurt Grissom if she thought it would lead her to this child? She'd seen the lengths she went to when she was angry with the man who killed her daughter so what would she do to find that daughters child? All of these questions assaulted her mind as she paced the bedroom and tried calming herself down enough to think logically.
"If you don't want anything to happen to Grissom then I need you to do what I tell you to do, Sara."
Pausing in her steps, Sara frowned and tried to make sense of the words that muddled her thoughts. Straigtening her shoulders, she asked him to explain what he expected.
"I want you to drive to Boulder City and then to Lake Mead Marina," he was speaking rapidly now, his self control faultering as the image of having Sara in front of him becoming more realistic. "I don't want you to let those men know where you are going and I don't want you to call anyone, so leave your phone."
Dread pressed in on Sara's mind as she pushed away the thoughts of being alone with this man and again she questioned if he really had the ability to harm Grissom. Why didn't Grissom call?
"You want me to drive to Lake Mead Marina? Where is that?" Sara knew exactly where it was because she and Grissom had spent a long weekend on a boat they had rented only a few months ago.
A tsking sound traveled over the line. He couldn't know, could he? His next words told her that he had done his research. "You have a short memory, Sara, I'm disappointed in you, but given the circumstances I can understand why you are forgetful. I'll give you directions." He proceeded to inform her of the route to the marina and she rubbed her forehead as she listened to the already familiar directions. "You aren't writing this down," he added as he finished explaining to her that the marina was only thirty miles from Las Vegas.
Feeling sick, Sara looked around the room checking the corners for any sign of the cameras. "Where did you hide the cameras, Lurie? When did you hide them?"
"When I see you in person then I'll give you the answers that you are looking for Sara." Realizing that he should leave if wanted to beat Sara to the Marina, he gave an exaggerated sigh and then said simply. "Wait fifteen minutes, and then leave. I'll be watching." Sara was smart and he hoped that she wouldn't realize that he was cutting his connection with her for possibly the next hour. He hoped that she wouldn't piece that together as he stepped outside of his home and walked briskly towards his car.
"What is the name of the boat? I assume that I'm supposed to find a boat?" Sara kept turning around the room as she spoke, searching for the cameras. Why did he ask her to wait fifteen minutes?
"The Marlin." A click of the phone ended their connection.
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Grissom slammed his fist against the exam room door and demanded someone open it immediately and hear him out. Only a few minutes earlier he had been forced back into the room by two hospital security guards who had turned deaf ears on everything he was trying to explain to them.
"Detective Thompson is on his way in as we speak, Mr. Grissom," Ida nervously informed the frustrated man before the door closed. "Alec will sort this out for you."
Ida watched the disbelief wash over the man's face as the door closed and she wrung her hands in concern. "What if he's telling the truth and there is someone in danger in Vegas?" She directed the question to the two security officers who had stationed themselves on each side of the door and received only a shrug from each man as they began discussion last nights baseball scores. She heard Mr. Grissom bang his fists on the door and listened as he implored them to phone Captain Jim Brass in Vegas.
Walking back over to the desk, Ida suggested to another nurse that maybe they should try to reach this Captain in Vegas. "What could it hurt?"
"Alec will be here soon, let him handle it," Erin replied with a pointed stare at the charts in her hands, "besides, you have other patients that are waiting to be seen and the waiting is filled past capacity."
Ida nodded. Alec was the detective that frequented this ER on various calls. Everyone liked and trusted him. He was very fair and keenly intelligent. He would sort this mess out. What could a few minutes matter anyway? Pushing the thoughts of calling Vegas from her mind, she bustled off to her next patient.
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Fifteen minutes. She had fifteen minutes. Why had he given her that? Sara stared at the phone in her hand and made a quick decision. Grissom's voice mail. Again. Pressing another number she phoned Brass and waited for him to answer. Why wasn't he answering? Frustrated, she entered her closet and tried to decide what she should do and if she should wake up the guys. What if he was still watching her? But he had given her fifteen minutes, didn't that mean he wanted a head start?
Her ringing phone caused her heart to skip a beat and she pressed the phone against her ear, hoping beyond hope that it was Grissom or even Brass.
It was Lurie.
"Sara? Did you try calling Grissom again? Shame on you."
He was throwing out a wild guess, wasn't he? Sara wasn't sure of anything anymore. Spying a jar of red creeper that Grissom had once placed in the closet as a joke, she had an idea.
"I'm waiting the fifteen minutes that you asked me to wait before leaving. Is that a problem?"
"I think that you should leave now." Lurie said with a new urgency. He was beginning to doubt that Sara would actually follow him to the Lake Mead Marina.
With another click of the phone, he hoped that he had instilled enough doubt in her that she would not alert her friends.
Sara walked into her den and found that Greg was sound asleep on the sofa. Placing her phone on the kithen counter, she gave one last look at a sleeping Greg and fought an urge to wake him up. She wasn't stupid, but realized that with Grissom's life at stake she was willing to behave in a stupid manner. If she could save him, then putting her own life at risk was minor.
With a sigh, she carefully opened the door and stepped outside.
TBC
