Wow, so ok this update took 7 years...and i could go into an explanation buuuut who cares. The story is finished finally :)
And because it took so long between chapters there are going to be inconsistencies.
Here's to closure guys.
He should have known really. That he was going to be followed. He'd already been told as much by the man who broke into his apartment. Whether or not it was him or his brother didn't change the fact that they were now threatening his friends- Morgan had been shot and who knows how worse it could have been.
Greg hadn't realized he was driving back to work until he had parked his car. It took him a second to realize it was still running idle, music humming quietly, until he had shivers running up his arms from the air conditioner. He turned it off and sat with himself in the quiet, so consumed by what if's his head drummed numbly. Thoughts pushed against each other, fighting for space. He wanted to run away, fight someone, hide, protect. Do everything and nothing.
Suddenly his phone began ringing, bringing him back to the present stillness. He reached into his pocket and saw a number on his screen he didn't recognize. Fear flitted through his chest and spread, oozing into his finger tips. He had a choice, surely, he could toss his phone and runaway like the man had suggested in the first place. Of course, never knowing if or when the mans brother would find him or what would happen to the others, he would be living in fear. A shadow would follow him wherever he went.
Or he could answer it, prepared to finish whatever task he asked of him if it meant keeping his friends safe. There could be a chance, however limited, of using whatever information he could get from them that could lead to their arrest. There was also a chance, much more likely, that he would have helped them commit a serious crime that ended with him being killed anyways.
The phone had rung three times now. He let out a slow breath and answered.
"Hello," he said tentatively.
He recognized the voice instantly as the man who had threatened him in his kitchen. He had a calm, almost casual tone as he replied, "Hello Mr. Sanders. I expect you received my message."
Through clenched teeth, Greg grumbled, "Yes."
"Good. I would like to remind you that it was you who asked to get involved. We couldn't risk you getting cold feet in the end."
"And what exactly am I doing?" Greg reached for the steering wheel to brace himself. He clenched so hard his knuckles turned white.
"The family that was killed-"
"That you killed" Greg corrected. There was a pause on the other end. The man continued.
"They called themselves the Steidbakers but I knew them as Marley Simons and Theresa Day. Lowly drug addicts, no major convictions so I doubt they're in CODIS. However, they had something of mine when they were arrested for possession 13 years ago. That item, a small computer chip no bigger than a dime, was placed into evidence. It would take us a while to formulate a plan to get it but with your credentials, and with you looking into their history already, I'm sure it would be easy enough for you to slip in and grab it for us." Greg was relieved. Of all the scenarios he thought of what they might ask, removing or destroying evidence was the least of his concerns.
"May I ask what's on it?" Silence on the other end.
"No. I think the less you know the better. Nice try though."
Greg closed his eyes, going over the possibilities. Bank numbers, address's of people that crossed him, evidence of a crime. Whatever was on that chip could get someone killed and he would have a hand in ending their life. Morgan's face swam into vision suddenly, of the brief moment of hope he'd felt when she'd agreed to go on a date with him. It would be easy enough to convince himself that he didn't have a choice, but he knew that was a cop out. He had a choice, and he chose to keep his friends safe.
"I'll grab it as soon as I can," he replied back.
"I would like to remind you that we are both on a tight schedule. The sooner I can get my brother out of the state, the better it is for both of us. You have two days." Then he hung up. Greg was left in silence once more, still holding his phone to his ear. Whether disbelief or fear, he couldn't decipher what held him in place another 30 minutes before he finally shook himself out of his reverie and headed to the lab. If he was going to play this off before getting caught, he would need a valid excuse to get into that evidence. He hadn't looked at the case properly since he was attacked in his home.
The lab was mostly quiet, save for the machines humming along. He saw Sara in one of the rooms looking like she wanted to talk but Greg didn't want to have to lie to her about what he was doing. He simply waved and kept going until he found a small computer room and headed to the back corner to go over the case alone.
D.B was finally able to settle into his desk for the first time since his shift started. Two of his CSI's had now been attacked within a week of each other with Morgan receiving a very personal message. Someone at his lab was being targeted and using his team as leverage. But who? And why?
He could guess as much that it had something to do with the murdered family. That's when this all started. He had seen most of the report but kept getting interrupted, first by calls to send CSI's out and then not 30 minutes later another call about Morgan's attack. He had seen to it that she was taken to the hospital and ordered a police officer be with her 24/7 (much to her protests who insisted that it wasn't likely to happen again, and why was she the only one who needed a babysitter?). Greg's attack, while concerning, had seemed like a one-time crime of opportunity. With Morgan's, it was a vendetta. Brass agreed. He had called D.B on his way back to the lab insisting someone in the lab knew exactly who these men were and he wasn't about to let some jackass risk the safety of the entire department. He informed D.B he planned on interviewing each and every one of his employees starting with him and D.B didn't protest. He had been with Brass for over an hour, first to assure him he was not being targeted, and then hypothesizing who they thought it might be. The only thing they could discern was it was most likely a CSI- someone close enough to Morgan and maybe Greg (though he hadn't received the same threat) who had enough authority to risk blackmail.
Nick and Greg were the most obvious choices to start. They had been a part of the case from the beginning and met all the criteria. Right before he had sent Nick out to help Morgan, him and Sara had also come to his office wanting to talk to him about something but he had brushed them off and told them to talk to him afterwards. They were to be questioned first-before IAB took over that is. Once they were involved they couldn't protect them.
Now at his desk, D.B heaved a great breath from his lungs. Nick was on his way back already, he just needed to wait. Having been busy all morning it was unsettling to finally be stagnant. He reached for the case in his file drawer, eager to find any clue as to why they were being targeted. The Steidbaker's had no family to speak of, no history beyond the neighborhood, no criminal records. They popped out of thin air. Given the track marks on their arms it seemed unlikely they had no criminal history and with years of sobriety they surely must have received help from somewhere. The ME had claimed that the boy was healthy too, no birth defects. He was 12 years old, they might have gotten clean about then, possibly spent time at a rehab clinic or arrested. He made a note to have them call the clinics in the morning, for now, he could search for drug related arrests.
There were hundreds of drug related charges in the span of the 3 month window he searched in first. It would take hours upon hours to comb through every file, looking for anyone who fit their description. Misdemeanor charges we're not put into CODIS, all he had to go with was a rough time frame and their description.
Only 30 minutes in however, he heard a knock at his door. He bade them in without looking up from his computer. Nick walked through.
"You wanted to see me?" he asked. D.B eyed him casually.
"Ah yes, please have a seat," He said gesturing to the small arm chair in the corner and closing the door. If Nick was the target he didn't want him to feel threatened- he would never open up to them if he did. Brass and D.B had agreed that if they both talked to them it would come across as accusatory and while they differed on the extent of their actions (Brass had insisted that they had plenty of opportunity to come forward but now they were scrambling to save their ass "and now the case is in shambles!") they had at least agreed that whoever it was, would not have done so willingly.
D.B started, "I was hoping to talk to you about your case." Nick peered at him expectantly. He continued, "I'll be frank with you Nick, our lab is being targeted and Brass and I are sure it's because of your case." Realization flooded Nicks face as he leaned back.
"And you think I'm the one being blackmailed?" He scoffed. "Look I don't disagree. Someone is being targeted here. Everyone knows that guy attacked Morgan specifically to get a message across and Greg's attack- I mean it's too coincidental. But I haven't been contacted by anyone."
D.B lowered himself into a chair beside him. "Here's the thing Nick. You, Greg, and Sara are the only ones who processed the scene. You guys have the most connection to the case." Nick jerked his head a little at the mention of Greg's name, a gesture that did not go unnoticed by D.B. "If this was about tampering with evidence it would be a completely different conversation, but these people threatened the lives of everyone in the lab. Whoever it was, needs to come forward with what they know so we can catch them before anything worse happens."
Nick leaned a little closer to D.B, his brow furrowed. He seemed older suddenly, the lines beneath his eyes grew tight and angled. He spoke quietly, "I'm not the one being blackmailed. But I think it might- I think it might be Greg." Nick looked quickly away from D.B and stared at his hands.
D.B gazed intently at him. "And what makes you think that?"
Nick stood up suddenly and began pacing the small office, unable to contain his concern any longer. "You have to understand D.B When we first-"
D.B narrowed his eyes. "Whose We?"
"Sara and I. That's what we were going to tell you earlier but we didn't think Greg was blackmailed at the time. We thought maybe he was being stalked. Sara had seen him throw away evidence, DNA, that he had run through CODIS and the man that popped up had a long history of assault. We also noticed something odd at the crime scene." Nick paused for a moment. It was essential that D. B knows everything but it still felt like a violation into Greg's privacy. Nevertheless it was affecting the whole case it was bound to come up. "Sara found a button, his button, that had popped off his shirt."
D.B was quick enough to put two and two together. "His vest was ripped off him, it could easily have come off that way, it doesn't mean it was anything more."
Nick continued, "That's what we assumed too but his actions lately- he jumps at the slightest touch, he's not sleeping. And remember the other morning I had called you about his place? It was a mess. It looked like there had been a struggle, and there was a large hand print on the balcony sliding door."
"Greg told me it was probably yours and that he slipped," D.B said doubtfully. He had forgotten all about sending someone over to inspect Greg's place. A lot had happened since then. Nick had finally sat down rubbing his hands unceremoniously. D.B leaned back in the chair thinking. It was surprising somehow, even though he had been expecting it. To hear it all from someone else, brought it into reality- made it solid- a brick sliding deep into his stomach.
"We need to get Greg in here now."
Nick looked up pleadingly. "What are you going to do? Whatever Greg has or hasn't done it's obvious that he was being threatened- that the lab was being threatened. He didn't have a choice, he's a victim in all this."
"I agree. But until we talk to Greg we don't know the damage that has been done." Just then a knock came on his door making the pair flinch. D.B told him quietly, "I will do everything in my power to help him. You can trust me." Nick's shoulders relaxed slightly as he nodded. D.B then answered, "Come in."
Sara walked in holding a file. Her hair was placed loftily in a ponytail that gave her the air of having come from a brisk run. She closed the door behind her as she said, "Oh good, just the two people I needed to talk to." She handed Nick the file in her hand. "Our cases are related." Nick read the report out loud.
"A familial match between Louisa Day and Theresa Steidbaker. She's her mother?" Sara nodded.
"She was killed a couple hours before your family, tortured it looks like. If I were to hazard a guess it would be for information on their whereabouts," Sara was talking fast and deliberately, her words tumbling out one on top of the other filling the space like static. "The Steidbaker's are really Marley Simon and Theresa Day. Both arrested about 13 years ago for a minor possession charge, Theresa gives birth in prison, afterwards she kidnaps her child from foster care, and Marley presumably meets up with her once he's released and they are never heard from again. However, we found letters from Theresa to Louisa, no address attached, just some photos of the kid. Louisa had written back but didn't have an address so she'd left it with the neighbor. It just said, 'forgive me.' We don't know how Louisa contacted her daughter but we're sure that's where our suspects found their address. The hand writing on the piece of paper the ex-wife had matched Louisa Day's. And we had a look at Gino's bar we have a brief glimpse at the man who gave her this information, but he paid with cash."
Nick said, "But that still doesn't explain who wants them dead. They didn't flip on a drug dealer or anything and Doc found this weird skin pocket in Marley's hand. I think he was smuggling something, but where or what, we have no way of knowing. And do you have any physical evidence in your case Sara? Because all I have are ballistics leading back to nothing and saliva from his fist that doesn't match anyone in CODIS." Sara leaned against the wall arms crossed. Nick noticed for the first time how dark the circles were under her eyes and how wrinkled her clothes were.
"My crime scene is just as clean. However, that lead that I mentioned Brass had, before the shooting had happened, they had canvased the area and found a witness who saw 2 figures running away after Greg was attacked. He even got a description of one of them." Sara gave Nick a meaningful look before turning to D.B. "This is why I came to talk to you. Earlier today I saw Greg throw away evidence-"
Nick interrupted, "I've already told him everything Sara."
"Well," she continued slightly taken aback, "That man the DNA matched to, Jason Markus, looks exactly like one of the men our witness saw in the alley." Nick fumbled around in the file for the photos and compared the arrest photo to the sketch. He had to admit, it wasn't a perfect match but it could be close to get a warrant. Sara continued, "and he looks like the man seen at Gino's. I looked deeper into his history. He got caught trespassing at a private security firm, Alliance International. Rumor has it they've been experimenting with Witches Brew."
Nick was grasping the file in his hand so roughly it was bending at an awkward angle.
D.B had been silent. He'd come to one conclusion and frowned as he said, "You have no evidence, no motive, and the only suspect you have is in connection to Greg. None of this has anything to do with that family being murdered. Do you have any physical evidence that this man knew that family at all?" They both stayed silent. "We have a suspect in Greg's assault but connecting it to the murders… We can't do that without him."
Suddenly there was another knock at his door. D.B gestured for them to leave as he said, "I'm going to talk to him. Please keep your suspicions to yourself for now please. I'll talk to Brass about making Jason Markus a person of interest. We should be able to get a search warrant from there." The other two nodded as they began walking out. Nick opened the door and standing there sheepishly was none other than Greg himself. He looked surprisingly at the pair before looking at D.B.
"Can I talk to you?" he asked nervously. The other two looked awkwardly between D.B and Greg before leaving and closing the door. D.B gestured for him to sit in a chair but Greg remained standing. "I did something stupid."
There could also be spelling/grammatical errors. I didn't reread that thoroughly to be honest. I was so happy to actually finish it :P