SLOW BURN

~ Chapter 2 ~

Swinging her SUV wide around the large cluster of marked and unmarked police cars in the Galleria mall's car park, Catherine pulled to a stop just feet from the steadily fluttering crime scene tape that had been strung up around Grissom's Murano.

A flash of tan in her rear view mirror caught her eye as she shrugged free of her seatbelt and she watched as Kevin Crawford pulled to a stop behind her, climbed quickly from his Ford and strode purposefully towards his fellow officers before she exited her own vehicle and stood for a moment, staring at the abandoned Nissan just a few yards ahead.

All four doors were open giving a clear view into the front and rear seats and Catherine was pleased to note that there were no overt signs of a struggle having taken place. A buff colored A4 envelope had already been bagged and tagged and now lay on the front passenger seat awaiting collection whilst a plush duck toy that she recognised as one of Ben's favourites, perched precariously on the very edge of the rear bench seat, left there unnoticed, she surmised, when his father had hurriedly extracted the little boy from his car seat.

Two young CSIs from Days, Brent Warren who had landed a job at the lab after transferring in from Utah and Jay Navarro, a freshly-graduated CSI-1, were currently working the scene; Navarro busily fingerprinting the exterior of the silver SUV while Warren was in the process of setting up a grid search of the immediate surrounds.

Catherine watched them closely; although both had been employed on her watch, she'd never really seen them in the field and, today of all days, she needed to know that she had competent, skilled investigators working the case. A few minutes later, having tracked their every move and seen the focus and clear dedication to the task both displayed, she nodded her head approvingly, more than confident that the two young criminalists were up to the job at hand.

Shifting her attention away from the vehicle, she looked left and right, scanning every visible inch of the surrounding areas, in the hope that something – anything - might give them some hint as to where to start an extended search first but there was nothing to be seen in either direction, just acres of blacktop and hundreds of cars, and, she thought as she looked out over them, there was no way of telling which, if any, may have had something to do with Sara's disappearance.

"I did that when I first got here too."

Catherine started at the unexpected voice and turned to find Conrad Ecklie standing beside her.

"I… Conrad…" She faltered slightly. "I wasn't expecting to find you here."

"She's one of ours, Catherine; where else would I be?" Ecklie tried and failed to hide the exasperation her comment had provoked. "I was at a lunch meeting a couple of blocks away when I got the call about what had happened here; I was on the scene pretty much straight away.

"I'm sorry." Realizing how her words had been taken, she reached out and placed her hand lightly on the sheriff's arm. "I didn't mean for that to sound the way it did; I'm just worried."

"We all are, I guess." Ecklie managed a weak smile. "And I'd don't imagine I'm the only one with a massive case of déjà vu either."

"No, you're not." Catherine agreed with a shrug. "But if there's one person we can leave off the suspect list this time it's Natalie Davis." She tapped one carefully manicured fingernail against her teeth as she thought. "Not that that's going to help us much, of course." She sighed. "How's Gil holding up?"

"He's been kind of quiet ever since I got here; keeping it together for Ben's sake, I think," Conrad posited. "You know what it's like when you've got small children around, you start to lose it and they pick up on that then, before you know it, all hell's broken loose." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards the large shopping complex behind. "The management of this place offered us the use of an empty office upstairs so I had one of the uniforms escort them over; I thought it might be easier on everyone to keep them away from the scene."

"Probably a good idea," Catherine conceded as she glanced back at the two young dayshift CSIs still labouring away around the car. "The last thing any of us need is Gil Grissom standing over the top of us while we try to work a scene." She turned back to face Ecklie. "I'll go up and see how he is in a minute or so."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that." Ecklie frowned as he suddenly remembered something. "I was told that you were out at another scene."

"Yeah, I was," She confirmed with a sigh. "It looks like Kay Nicholson's turned up."

"Dead?"

"Very." Catherine nodded. "The coroner's guys had just left with the body when I got the call about this so I left Greg to finish everything up and hightailed it over here." She glanced at her watch. "He wasn't overly happy about that as I'm sure you can imagine but there really wasn't much more to be done so I'm expecting him to roll in here anytime now."

"And Crawford tagged along." Ecklie noted dubiously. "I'm not sure how Gil is going to take having a homicide detective helping out with his wife's disappearance."

"Well he wouldn't have a problem if that detective was Jim Brass so I can't see him having a problem now; Crawford's a good cop, I'm sure Sara's mentioned that to him by now," Catherine countered with a shrug. "You know what it's like, Conrad; any call that comes over with the words 'officer involved' and it's all hands on deck whether you're a rookie patrolman, a homicide detective or," she gestured towards him, "even the sheriff."

"Okay…" As if summoned by the mention of his name, Crawford stepped in beside Catherine. "We've got multiple cars patrolling the streets around this place just on the off chance that Sidle's wandering around out there somewhere." He noted the twin stares of disbelief his audience was directing his way and offered them an almost embarrassed shrug. "Yeah, I know it's unlikely but it's got to be done." He cleared his throat before continuing. "We've got officers stationed at every entry and exit of the mall and others going store to store asking if anyone's seen her plus we just got a call from the manager letting us know that they've got the security footage keyed up and ready to go." He looked at Catherine. "I thought you might want to come up with me and take a look; there's cameras all over this place so whatever happened out here should be somewhere on that tape."

"I will come up but, right now, I think it's more important that you take either Warren or Navarro with you to watch that tape, it is their case, after all." She looked across at Ecklie. "I'll go and check in with Gil, see how he's doing and maybe find out what, if anything, he knows; I think I'll be more useful there for now."

"Good luck with that," Ecklie commented sceptically. "Like I said, he was already quiet when I got here and, knowing Grissom, he'll have internalised it all even more since then." He sighed. "God knows what's going through his mind at the moment."

"Oh, I can guess." Adjusting her sunglasses, Catherine took a deep breath in as if preparing herself for the task ahead. "And if I know Gil Grissom, it doesn't have a happy ending."

Ten minutes later, having made a quick stop at the food court to pick up a couple of piping hot coffees, Catherine rapped lightly on the closed door she'd been directed to and then let herself into the room beyond. It wasn't the largest office that she'd ever been in but had been well set out: a sleek black timber desk and leather-clad executive chair occupying most of the first half of the space while two expensive looking sofas, their mid-grey fabric upholstery coordinating perfectly with the nearby black timber coffee table, sat in an L configuration at the far end of the room.

Seated happily on the floor beside one of the sofas, Ben looked up at her sudden appearance and grinned. The front of him was, more or less, covered by what looked like a large hand towel, its edge neatly tucked into the collar of the checked shirt he wore while his denim clad legs and red and blue sneakers he'd so proudly shown off the last time she'd seen him, only just poked out from the bottom. In his hand he held an ice cream, although he seemed to have more of the soft serve treat smeared across his face and hands than in the actual cone itself.

Ignoring everything, and everybody, else in the room, Catherine paused only briefly to place the cups she held down on the nearest corner of the desk before making a beeline over to the little boy.

"Hey sweetheart." Leaning forward, she kissed Ben's tousled hair before lowering herself to the floor beside him. "What you got there?"

Beaming happily, he held his cone up as if in triumph. "Ayes keem!

"You sure do." Despite the circumstances, Catherine couldn't help but chuckle. "Is it good?"

Pushing the sticky fingers of his free hand into his mouth, Ben pondered the question for a moment before nodding almost reverently.

"Well, the ice cream might be tasty but I'm not so sure about the fluff off the carpet." Taking hold of his hand, she gently extracted it from between his teeth and, keeping it tightly clamped in hers, looked up at the woman sitting on the sofa behind him. "Do you have something I can clean his fingers with?"

"Yes, of course." Reaching for the tub of baby wipes beside her, the female officer assigned to 'baby-sit' father and son, pulled a couple free and handed them across. "I know his mom will go nuts when she finds out I fed him Dairy Queen for lunch but I tried offering him a sandwich first and he just wasn't interested."

"I don't think Sara will mind." Catherine looked up with a reassuring smile before quickly wiping the worst of the ice cream and fluff away from his fingers. "Provided, of course…" She playfully jabbed her pointer finger into Ben's tummy, an action that caused the little boy to chuckle with delight. "That someone doesn't think he's going to make a habit of it." She glanced across the room towards the solitary figure standing in the window. "Because I'm sure even Daddy will have something to say about that." She cocked her head in that direction as she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Has he said anything?"

"No, not really." Leaning forward, the officer lowered her volume to match. "He told me Ben's name and asked if I could find something for him to eat but that was about it. He's really not moved from that spot since we got here."

"I thought as much." Catherine sighed then nodded down at Ben. "Will you be all right with him for a while longer? I'll make a couple of phone calls and have someone come out and pick him up but it may be an hour or so before they can make it."

"We'll be fine." Reaching out, the woman placed her hand on Ben's shoulder. "Won't we, buddy?

Pushing to her feet, Catherine retrieved the two coffees and rounded the desk before coming to a halt at her friend's side.

"Here," she gently nudged his arm with one of the cups. "Take this."

"I don't want it, Catherine." Not bothering to look at what it was she was offering, Grissom continued staring out through the window to the busy parking lot down below. "I don't want anything except to know that my wife is safe."

"We'll find her." Taking matters into her own hands, Catherine pushed the hot coffee into his before taking a sip of her own. "And she'll be fine, Gil, I'm sure she will."

"What, like last time?" He didn't even attempt to hide the dark sarcasm in his voice. "You remember what she was like after that, Catherine; you remember how long it took for her to begin to heal." He drew in a deep, juddering breath. "She was scarred physically and mentally for months afterwards; do you really think she'll bounce back after going through the whole thing again?"

"It's not the whole thing again though, is it?" Pushing aside the fear that ran through her, Catherine tried to keep her tone upbeat. "But if there's anything Natalie taught us, it's that Sara Sidle is tough and resilient and, when she absolutely has to, she will do whatever it takes to make it back where she belongs." Reaching out, she circled her hand over the rock hard set of Grissom's back. "Last time it was you she fought to get back to but, this time, it's you and Ben so, if anything, she now has twice as much motivation than before." She stopped the rubbing and let her hand come to rest lightly on his shoulder. "We'll get her; I'm absolutely positive of that."

"I promised to protect her." Almost unconsciously, Grissom took a sip from the cup before continuing. "I promised to protect both of them."

"From what I was told you were only gone twenty minutes, Gil, and you left them sitting in a car in a relatively busy parking lot." She shrugged helplessly; offering hope and reasoning was one thing when you were dealing with the loved ones of a stranger but when the victim and their family were not only known to you but also intimately acquainted with both the horrors and the vagaries of chance, the task took on an entirely new dimension altogether. "No one in their right mind would have thought they were going to be in any-"

"She's pregnant, Cath."

His voice was completely expressionless as he said it and all Catherine could

do was stop mid-sentence and stare.

"We found out a month and a half ago." Continuing to speak as though he were on automatic, Grissom kept his eyes trained on the window. "We wanted to keep it to ourselves for as long as possible," he shrugged. "Well, at least until the first scan when we could be reasonably sure that everything was okay." He turned to look at her for the first time. "I can't lose her again, Catherine, not now; not when everything was going so well."

"You won't." Mindful of the hot cups they both held, Catherine pulled him into a tight hug. It was a promise that she'd never given out before; one that very well might be impossible to deliver but she was now, more than ever, determined to give it her best shot. "We'll get her back to you, Gil." Stepping backwards, she offered him a small but confident grin. "We'll get them both back to you, safe and sound."

She had no memory of how she'd got there.

No recollection of walking into wherever it was she now found herself standing; no recall of positioning herself behind the off-white door she now faced; and, most alarmingly, absolutely no idea where or, indeed, when she'd left Grissom and Ben and ended up here on her own.

Taking a single step backwards, Sara gasped in a mouthful of the cool, air-conditioned atmosphere and stared at the handle before her; she didn't know if it was locked or unlocked and, as a ball of unease settled itself in the pit of her stomach, she wasn't entirely sure she had the nerve to find out.

Piped music played softly through a speaker above her and, beyond that, she could make out the murmur of voices – multiple voices – that seemed to be moving back and forth somewhere on the other side of the door. Both sounds seemed familiar but, given her current circumstances, she wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or not.

Turning around, she found herself staring at what looked like an expanse of white: white ceiling, white floor, white walls and, set into them, numbered white doors positioned at regular intervals along the entire right-hand side of the corridor. She watched them for a full minute, half expecting one of the doors to open but none did and, concluding that she was probably standing at this one for a reason, turned round once again and placed her left hand lightly on the stainless steel door handle.

A wave of fear washed through her; she couldn't go out there just now, not like this.

Pulling her hand back again, Sara quickly started a search of her clothing, her fingers running swiftly over the front and back pockets of her slacks hoping for something that might double as a weapon. During work hours, they were invariably stuffed with a mixture of latex gloves, plastic bindles, pens, markers and, of course her phone but both were empty now so she shifted her attention to her jacket.

She didn't hold out much hope for success; she'd pulled the garment out at the last minute, deciding that the simple white blouse she'd elected to put on was a little too simple, even for an appearance in family court. She found nothing that could possibly serve her purpose but her fingers did land on something and, pulling it out, she stared down at the tightly wrapped item in her hand. Plain white paper had been folded over and over again around something solid and, written on the top in tiny printed letters the word USE. Confused, Sara frowned down at it, trying to think back to the last time she'd worn the jacket and wondering why on earth she'd have left such a strange item in the pocket but then shook her head, positive that, regardless of when it was, she hadn't been the one to put it there.

Opening up the small parcel, she fully expected to find more writing but nothing else appeared until, with the final corner carefully unfolded, she tipped two bright and shiny quarters out into the palm of her hand and discovered a cell phone number; a cell phone number that she knew only too well.

Biting her lip in concentration, she looked down at the coins and the paper they were wrapped in and then up again at the door handle. The noises she'd been hearing outside continued unchanged but now she could place them; now she knew where she'd heard them before; now she knew where she was.

Reaching out again, she pushed down on the lever without hesitation and stepped out into the considerably larger space beyond. She stood for a moment, completely unnoticed by those that moved around her, and stared at her surrounds; they weren't quite as familiar as she'd guessed they were going to be but, given a minute, she was sure she'd be able to put a name to her location.

Straight ahead, a single payphone hung on the wall and Sara made straight for it, jiggling the two quarters in her hand as she approached. She lifted the receiver, dropped both coins into the slot and, with only a cursory glance at the number written on the paper, quickly dialled 702-555-0141.

"Grissom."

He was, she knew, always wary of answering a call from an unknown number but he answered this one in seconds and both the fear and desperation in his voice chilled her to the core.

"Gil, what the hell is going on?"

A/N: Sorry about the delay with this; the plan was to have a 7-10 day turnaround time between chapters and, I promise, I will be working to get it down. Thanks, as always, go to SylvieT for being the fantastic (and remarkably patient) beta that she is. :)