A/N: A new chapter! Thank you for reading-thank you for your comments! Enjoy!
In Search of Truth
Chapter 2
"How do I look?"
Gil Grissom raised his head upon hearing his wife's words. A baby was bouncing on his chest at the same time a four-year old was crawling under his knees. Somewhere under the covers, a three-year old was making sounds of a puppy.
Once he got his eyes on her, seeing her dark pants and pale pink shirt, he said, "You look great—really, you do."
Seeing a slight frown on her face, he added, "You look professional—you can do this—they called you." The baby's bottom slid to his neck so he picked her up and sat her on the bed above his head.
Ellie squealed with delight as her hands went to his face, "Dadda—dadda—dadda!"
Grissom's hand went up as he said, "Don't come closer—you are clean—unwrinkled. We'll do fine—go!"
Hesitating for a few seconds, Sara said, "You'll be fine?" A question before adding, "Jim will be here soon. Catherine is here—the girls left for school earlier. I'm driving one of Catherine's cars so you have the van if needed."
"Go—go!" Her husband waved a hand toward the door just as three year old Libby crawled from under the bed covers making the sound of a meowing cat.
As she left the huge bedroom, she heard more giggles from her children and her husband's deep chuckle.
It was their third day in Vegas; Sara's first meeting with the sheriff, Judge Klein, and Judge Thomas. She had known all three for years but was as nervous as a cat on a hot sidewalk. She knew the basics of what had happened and today, she'd learn details, meet the person who was going to help her, check out her work space. She was anxious.
Meeting at the courthouse was unexpected but made sense to maintain a level of security; the building had not changed in years. As soon as she passed the security checkpoint, she saw Conrad Ecklie waiting.
"Good morning, Sara! You look nice."
Sara's first thought was how he never changed; his voice the same patronizing tone she remembered from a decade ago. They had put aside differences—and their past—by the time she left and he had been very considerate when she'd left the lab, arranging for her accumulated leave to extent her last date of employment.
"Hi, Conrad," she said. "You look nice too—being sheriff agrees with you."
"Thank you—thank you. We appreciate you coming—and Gil. Everyone's looking forward to hearing him again."
Taking a crowded elevator stopped their conversation until they were the only ones going to the top floor.
Ecklie asked, "And the family—your kids—how are they?"
"Good—they enjoy visiting Catherine's castle. And her girls are wonderful with them."
Never changing his tone or glancing at her, he said, "Three children in five years…"
The elevator doors opened.
"We are here. The judges are at the end of the hallway—private chambers." Ecklie held the door as she exited the elevator.
They walked the length of the building in silence before Ecklie used a card to open the door. Sara had never been in this room—never been on the top floor of the courthouse but had heard rumors of luxurious apartments and work-out rooms. So when the door opened, she was surprised to see a conference room—just like the ones used by jurors and clients and attorneys on lower floors.
A long oval table took up most of the room. As the door had opened, three people stood and turned toward Sara and Ecklie. The stranger was a young man; instantly, Sara knew he was assigned to help her on this search. Rapidly, her eyes went from the three people to the boxes lining the room.
Two large white boards stood along one wall, two thin laptops were on the table, and a bowl of fruit and a coffee maker were on a sideboard. Windows along the wall had a view of The Strip.
Judge Thomas reached Sara first, taking her hand before pulling her into a brief hug, saying, "Sara, it is good to see you again!"
Maddie Klein waited until Sara was released and pulled her into a two arm hug. She laughed and said, "You look great—California and kids and that sweet husband agree with you! And now, we've dragged you back to—to this."
Quickly, she was introduced to Lahn Duncan—a young man with the exotic appearance of Asia in his eyes. She'd read a summary of his work history—nearly a decade of work in interpreting internet crimes for officers of the court. This involved everything from hackers and cell phone data and internet searches for bomb making; any crime involving technology had landed on his desk.
As everyone took a chair around the table, Judge Thomas explained their reasoning for confidentiality. He said, "If this gets out, we'll have dozens of cases affected—everyone who's been convicted for years will claim missing evidence put them in jail. It will become the biggest scandal in the state."
For several minutes the two judges and the sheriff talked about the known cases involved in missing evidence, how each case had been scrutinized and examined by several teams.
"Too many people," Maddie Klein said. "They missed something crucial or—for all we know—the person doing this was on one of the teams! We don't know—for weeks, Ecklie has had people looking at tapes and we haven't come up with one person who isn't supposed to be there."
They talked another hour before the judges and Ecklie decided it was time to leave Sara and Lahn alone. After that, Lahn spent an hour explaining what he had done, using spreadsheets and one of the laptops.
The young man said, "I think it's here—just a matter of finding a clue—or two or three." He grinned, adding, "When Judge Thomas and Judge Klein came to me, they had already decided to ask you to come. So I looked at your file—case files where you were an investigator."
A bit wiry of her new partner, Sara lifted an eyebrow but did not say anything.
"You were involved in a lot of solved and closed cases—complicated stuff."
Softly, Sara chuckled, saying, "I guess that's one way of putting a fifteen year career in a nutshell."
"Oh—oh—I meant it as a compliment!"
Sara's smile grew as she said, "I appreciate that—so you think you and I can figure out who has been removing evidence? Physical and digital evidence."
Lahn had already opened a box and placed a stack of files on the table. He said, "It has to be someone in the lab—investigator or tech."
Sara opened one of the folders, saying, "Let's keep everyone on the table—until we can rule out someone—I know it's not me." She shot a glance at Lahn, adding, "I'm not sure about you!" Then she laughed to show him she was teasing.
In a short time, Sara made a list of everyone involved in the first known case. The list named over twenty people investigating a breaking and entering that was a simple criminal case. The guy had pleaded guilty before anyone noticed the missing photographs, the absence of a list of items taken; simply, most of the file was filled with blank pieces of paper.
Lahn pulled up the digital record and showed her where the digital record had been deleted. He said, "I tracked it to the computer in one of the offices used by investigators—a dozen people use it every day—suppose to log in and out but you know how that works."
"You've got security tapes?"
It took a few seconds for Lahn to pull up video. He said, "The lab doesn't have cameras everywhere but evidence locker room does—hours and hours of not much to see."
Sara waved it off, saying, "Let's look at some of it so I get an idea of where everyone is and what it looks like now."
For several minutes, the two watched as people moved around the lab unhindered or unaware their movements were being recorded. Lahn pressed a key and moved to the large evidence room, a new area since Sara worked in the lab. One camera stayed on the door; two cameras were motion sensitive and came on whenever anyone walked into the room.
"The tapes will fast forward until motion is detected," explained Lahn, "so we don't sit watching hours of nothing."
After a while, they moved back to the files, actually reading notes made by officers and investigators.
Lahn had emptied several cups of coffee. Sara ate an apple.
"Who is this guy?" Sara asked. "Any connections, priors?"
Lahn reached into another box for a folder and handed it to Sara. Then he pulled up an electronic file. "To me, he seems to be a minor guy—this was his third arrest for petty crimes."
The research on the guy was extensive. As she flipped through page after page, Sara asked, "Did you do this?"
The young man nodded. "I—I tried to be thorough."
She held up a page copied from a high school yearbook. "Back to high school—I think this is very thorough." She held a black and white photograph of a young man with pale shoulder length hair and slid it next to the most recent mug shot of an older man; same person twenty years older with a head as pale and slick as a cue ball.
Almost six hours after she'd left, Sara walked back into Catherine's house. She could hear children laughing, Catherine's voice followed by the low sound of her husband's responses. After she'd left the court house, she had stopped at a small bakery for cookies and with the pink box in one hand, she headed in the direction of laughter.
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