chapter 5... And REVIEW people! Ya'll are slackin!
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Chapter Five: The Missing Piece
Brass, Catherine, Greg, Sara, Nick, Grissom, Warrick,
I have heard many say over the years that the Vegas crime lab solves cases that are rendered by many to be unsolvable.
We shall see if that is true, as many have rendered the six previous cases that I have been involved in unsolvable. They did awfully when it came to following my clues, and since I happen to know of your progress, I think you are doing well. Much better than any of the others did... Or maybe it's how strongly you feel about my captives that is allowing you to do so much better... I must admit, I had my doubts about the others... About how much they loved the people I'd taken... they didn't seem to try very hard. But then, they weren't as smart as you lot.
As a result of your undeniable skills for solving cases, your deadline has been moved from 10 pm Saturday night, to 10 pm tonight. Then I will move all five of the lovely ladies to a new location, and you will have another 24 hours to find them there. If you don't you can look for them Sunday morning at the foot of the mountains.
I do hope you succeed. They are such beautiful girls, and women, I'd hate to have to kill them.
Oh, and I never told Greg or Nick how they would find Beth and Susan.
Greg, remember that explosion in the lab? Well, I'll do a little fireworks with Beth... Not enough to destroy her body, but enough to kill her beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Nick, take a look in Susan's "box of nightmares". Find the one picture that's missing, and you'll have you answer...
Here's to the Vegas Graveyard crew. And here's to hoping you're as good as smart as everyone thinks you are.
The Puzzle Master.
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Nick didn't even have to go look to see what picture was missing... He knew the exact one that would be fitting of the area. The one with the woman, lying in the desert, and what appeared to be a board from a privacy fence buried in her chest, with another board nailed near the top, barbed wire twined around the crude cross, and wrapped around the hands, feet, and throat of the woman... Another that had always disturbed Nick. He'd asked Susan once, why she drew her nightmares, why she didn't just try to forget them, especially ones like that. And her reply had been; I've tried that before. Tried to ignore 'em, forget 'em... But when I did that, they just kept comin' back... M' Gran'ma, she practiced Voodoo y'know, tol' me that if I didn't find a way to keep a constant reminder of 'em, I would keep having th' nightmares. So, I started drawing 'em... Then I put 'em in a box, an' I put 'em outta sight. So long as I do that, I never have the same one more'n once.
He didn't question her again after that. While she may not have followed the ways of her grandmother, she still held on to some of the things she'd been taught. And if drawing her nightmares kept her from talking in her sleep constantly, then that was fine by him, as long as he didn't have to see the drawings.
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Sofia knew when Ecklie was mad, and today he was pissed. He was ranting about the Graveyard shift ruining things for the day shift. As he strode past her, towards the break room, where all of the Graveyard was currently sitting, trying to crack the case, she tried to stop him.
"Um, Ecklie, I don't think you shoul-"
"Shut it, Curtis!"
She wisely closed her mouth, thinking that it might be more ammusing to see what happened. There were many shouts that came from the break room, which ensued for several minutes. Ecklie eventually came back out, face red, and obviously angry. Were he a dog, Sofia thought, trying to hide a smirk, He'd have his tail tucked between his legs.
"They tear you a new one, Ecklie?" she said, failing to hide her amusement.
Ecklie only glared at her as he walked by. Which meant they had.
"Hey, I tried to warn you."
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"Explain to me why we're here again?" Sara asked Catherine, as they went over Catherine's home again. It was 2 hours to deadline.
"Everyone else found clues at their places. All we found here was the note... I'm betting we missed some-..." she stopped suddenly, looking down the hall, at her daughter's bedroom door, "We did miss something... We didn't check her room. We foudn the note, taped to the door, but we didn't go in, because we got so hyped up about the note."
"I think that's why we're not supposed to work on personal cases," Sara pointed out, as she and Cath headed for the room, "But Grissom and I weren't about to let the day and swing shift be in charge of finding our daughter... And I'm pretty sure te rest of you felt the same about who he took from you..."
"Still strange," said Cath, stepping into Lindsay's room, "To hear you say 'our daughter' now, instead of 'my daughter'... I'm surprised you adapted so quickly. And you're right. I don't want anyone but me, Warrick, and the rest of you crazy bunch working on searching for Lindz."
"I didn't have to adapt... Work is the only place I used 'my' " Sara informed her friend, "And only some of us are-... Catherine... What is that?" she pointed to the shelf above Lindsay's TV. On it were several pictures, most of Lindsay with her friends and family. Right in the center was one of Lindsay, standing in front of an old rundown building, with her arm around a tall brunette girl, both were smiling and waving at the camera.
Catherine picked up the photo, and she understood the clue left in the letter instantly. On the wall behind the two girls, were two large spray-painted fish, that looked exactly like the ones you might find in a Dr. Suess book. One was blue, the other was red. And around the wall, and the girls, were Joshua trees. They had found the missing peice. And Catherine had a rough idea of where the place was.
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Greg was the only guy who wasn't sitting still. He was pacing back and forth. It had been too long since Catherine and Sara had called to say they were heading back to the lab, and that they had found the missing piece of the puzzle. But... This was Vegas, and it was Friday night, which meant everybody from L.A. was there, which meant major traffic. Yay. Right then, Greg was cursing every resident of L.A. and that general area. And he was doing it outloud. The language he was using was enough to make everyone wonder just how sane he was staying.
The kidnapping of Beth hadn't seemed to affect him too much, from all outward appearences, but after so long of Grissom telling them to remain impersonal in cases, you could get pretty good at hiding your emotions. Now was a time when he was failing miserably...
"Greg," said Warrick, finally, "Sit down, before I tie you down."
"I don't think that would work," Nick chimed in, "way he's pacin' ya'd have to sedate him."
Greg shook his head, muttered something else, but sat down.
Grissom, whom had been biting the legs of his glasses, and staying quiet, suddenly stopped, "It makes sense now... Perfect sense... The coffin, the factory drawing, the burnt wood, the Joshua trees..."
"Gil? Mind filling us in on what you're talking about?" Brass asked, trying to sound casual.
"The place Catherine found a photo of... I know it. It was an old coffin... factory, I guess you could say... Fire started a long ways back, most of the walls were still standing, though, just the inside, and the roof went down, but by then, the place was abandoned anyway. Always been Joshua trees out there. It was torn down, about six months ago... None of it's left now... Except the basement area."
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Catherine and Sara tried to keep from running into the building, but were unable to resist. They nearly ran into the guys, who were just heading out of what they still referred to as "Greg's lab".
"We know where we're goin', "said Warrick, "so let's round us up a couple of officers, and get going...Time is running out."
It took a good twenty minutes to round enough officers up that were willing to go without any kind of approval from their superiors. But the CSIs knew there was no time to try and get the approval of Ecklie, or the sherriff. The idiots would take to long, just to try and teach them a lesson, even if it meant innocent lives were lost.
That twenty minutes left them with half an hour to make a forty-five minute drive... and that was an estimated time when half of L.A.'s population wasn't in Vegas for the weekend. The other half would be there in the morning, or at least be on their way...
Thankfully, their route took them away from the main flow of traffic, and onto a backroad. A rather bumpy back road. It was enough to make Catherine feel like she was going to puke. It would be the first time that day. She'd done so that morning too. She heard Warrick ask if she was okay, and simply nodded. She knew she must've been looking green, but nervousness, and a bumpy road were not the best mixture. She looked in the rear veiw mirror at Greg, who was pointedly staring out the window. Trying not to look out the front most likely.
Behind Catherine, and Warrick, was Sara and Grissom, their passenger was Nick. Both Sara, and Griss were determined not to look at the clock. Nick however was staring at it, as if hypnotized.
"Nick?" said Sara, turning in her seat.
"Yeah, Darlin' " said Nick, momentarily looking away from the glowing green numbers.
"Would you please stop watching the clock? It's not helping any." Next to her, Grissom shook his head, though wether it was to agree with Sara, or to tell her it was pointless to tell Nick to stop, neither was sure.
"Well, I would, Sara... But it looks like we're out of time..." Nick inclined his head at the clock.
Sara looked towards it, just as the numbers flipped from 10:00 to 10:01. "Griss... How much longer till we get to that place?"
"Not more than a few minutes."
"I don't think we have a few minutes..." said Nick.
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NOTE: The traffic in Vegas on Friday night, and saturday morning is very real. I have been to Vegas enough times from L.A. on a friday night or saturday morning... And believe me, it takes 2 to 3 hours longer than it should to get to Vegas. Remember, I speak from personal experience