"So, let's recap all we know about Nick's kidnapping once again," Grissom said, looking from one of his colleagues to the other. Everyone from his team was there in the layout room, except for Catherine. She was in Florida, helping Caine's team with cracking a murder case that seemed to be a work of a copycat because the original serial killer was still doing his time. Back then, Catherine had the lead on that case, so she was now asked to help with this case.
Although they knew woefully little, nobody knew where to start. The first to break the silence was Sara.
"Well, Alicia called it in at 11:42 am, and the cops arrived twenty minutes later. She stated that she saw Nick for the last time at approximately half-past eight, which was when she went out to fix the circuit breaker. According to her statement, she was attacked by someone from behind shortly after she left the house. She also claims that she neither screamed nor tried to warn Nick,"
"Any ideas, comments?" Grissom asked with hope in his voice. "Oh, come on guys. We can do better than that," he snapped when no one said a thing.
"My opinion- Nick was collateral damage," Greg put in, in a low voice.
"So the attack was originally targeted at Alicia, but Nick saw something he shouldn't have," said Warrick, following Greg's train of thoughts.
"Yeah, exactly. You know, whoever did it might have gone to search the house, and when they saw Nick, they made him come with them so they wouldn't have any witnesses," Greg acknowledged.
"Let me stop you here," Sara said, frowning. "I'm sorry to say this, but if this is what had happened, we would've found Nick's body dumped within a three-mile radius from the farm. The police indeed searched the whole area, and they found nothing. Besides, why would they leave Alicia there if they originally came for her?"
"Well, maybe Nick was of bigger value for them than her," Grissom said, looking at Sara. "Did you find anything in Nick's car?" he asked her.
"No, nothing at all. But I found his DNA in the trunk of Alicia's car," she replied.
"And what does she have to say about that?" Greg asked, smirking.
"She says she drove him to her brothers' ranch some time ago, but she can't explain how his saliva and hairs got into the trunk," Sara replied.
"By the way, has anyone talked to the brothers already?" Warrick interrupted their conversation.
"Brass went to talk to them," Grissom answered his question and took a look at one of the case files that lay on the table in front of him. "Alicia owns a Ford Explorer, right?" he asked once he found what he wanted in the case file.
"Yeah, why? You got something?" Sara queried, leaning towards Grissom as if it should help her get the information in less time.
"Well, I found tire impressions at the crime scene. They're consistent with Alicia's Ford tires. The impressions lead to road 157, where the car must have turned around because the same track returns to the ranch," Grissom replied, his voice being more excited than usual. "And they were fresh. Two days old tops,"
"She said she hadn't left the farm since Tuesday," Sara said in response.
"I think it's time to stop ignoring the elephant in the room," Warrick said quietly after hesitating a moment, looking from one to the others as if he was seeking some kind of support from them.
"And what's that?" Greg asked, and stretched his arms wearily.
"That she had an accomplice," Sara murmured. She got Warrick's point. In fact, the presence of an accomplice in this crime came to her mind even before they started talking about it. When she was questioning Alicia, she couldn't help but notice how short she was. She herself was taller than average women, but Alicia was not only short but also very thin. Henceforth Sara was in two minds about whether someone of Alicia's body build would be physically capable of taking down a man of Nick's height and strength. Of course, Alicia could have had the advantage of the moment of surprise, because Nick had trusted her, but still, it didn't make much of a sense. On one hand, she wanted to believe that she was innocent, but on the other, she's seen so many cases like this to jump to any conclusion. Well, Alicia could've tricked him into something, drive him somewhere where no one would bother them, and killed him there. But she didn't find any blood or GSR on either Alicia's hands or clothes. Plus, the saliva and hairs in the trunk were indicating that a body was transported there. Whether it was a corpse or whether he's only been drugged, she couldn't tell. They were missing blood at the crime scene, which would mean that Nick left the ranch alive, or, at least, without any bleeding injuries.
"I think I've got a theory," Warrick said, taking Sara from her thoughts back to reality.
"Let's hear it," Grissom responded, content that they might have been finally getting somewhere.
"We didn't find any blood there, which leaves us with the possibility that chloroform has been used on Nick as well. But that's where it gets more complicated. I don't want to insult Nicky, but, truth be told, he's not of the lightest weight. And I just can't see Alicia picking up his dead weight, stashing the body into the trunk. So if she really is behind it, she had had a little help from someone, a male, presumably," Everyone in the room went quiet after hearing Warrick's theory. It seemed to make enough sense, and also to be possible.
Greg was the first to recover, saying: "Yeah, and they had a car waiting for them on road 157. It was clever, though. They transported Nick in Alicia's car, because that way, the other car didn't leave tire impressions, so we have no idea what their getaway vehicle was like. But why not take it further? Alicia's company chloroformed her as well, and drove her car back to her ranch, knowing we're gonna have a go at it, and that we're gonna find Nick's DNA in the trunk. And voilà, here you have a perfect crime. The victim is missing, physical evidence connecting the accomplice to the crime, and guess what's the best? The accomplice is a broken-down girl with a shady past who can't say there was someone else helping her, 'cause to do so, she'd have to confess to actually committing a crime, which means jail. Someone here was a genius,"
"I get you, but we don't have enough evidence to put her in jail," Grissom said, scowling.
"But she'd have to live with it," Warrick said softly, avoiding eye contact with the others. He personally felt sorry for her. He liked her, but he didn't let it cloud his judgement, or get himself too attached to this case. Right, his friend was missing, but he had to do his job no matter what it took, or, in this case, no matter who committed the crime.
At that moment, Grissom received a text message from Brass. He quickly read through it and turned to his team.
"You know, for a moment, I thought that Alicia's brothers could've helped her with this. I mean, they're of heavy build, and they surely have a lot of strength. But I just learned that their alibi checks out. Brass talked to the men that work on their ranch, and they all confirmed that George and Geoffrey were there the whole time. Also, Brass's boys turned the place upside down, and found no sign of Nick being there," he told them. He was beginning to get really pissed off as all they had were just assumptions.
"So, either we're looking at someone else here, or Alicia's actually telling the truth and someone's trying to frame her," Sara declared.
But little did they know the weirdest thing was due to come…
A/N: thank you for reading, any reviews are much appreciated :-) I have to apologize for the grammar, vocabulary, etc. again, but I'm not a native speaker. If you have any suggestions/tips/complaints regarding these topics, please don't hesitate to message me :) Have a nice day x
