Title: Distorted
Disclaimer: I do not own anything
Rating: M
Summary: A series of attacks verify that a killer is on the prowl, and eagerly hunting for his next victim. (GC)
(spoilers) Set this season
**
Catherine tried to ignore the searing pain that was tearing through her body as she pulled at the rope that bound her hands behind her back. With no success, she tried to drag her wounded body to the nightstand in hopes to find her phone.
Her blood soaked night shirt clung to her body, as a trail of her blood marked the path she was taking. Catherine clenched her eyes closed and tried to control her breathing. She struggled to pull once more before being overwhelmed by the pain of movement and gave up collapsing face down on the carpet.
"Gil." She spoke just above a whisper, her throat raw from screaming. "Please. Wake up." She inhaled trying to cope with pain. "Please…."
**
"Mr. Sterling." Brass began "The doctor's said you had a large amount of Gamma Hydroxybutyric Acid in your system. Better know as GHB."
Glen Sterling looked at Brass as if he had two heads "I'm not sure what you are talking about." He replied putting his previously discarded t-shirt over his hospital gown.
"The date rape drug;" Brass spoke "Your system has been flushed, what you experienced with the seizure was a rare but severe side effect.
"I don't get it." Glen told him as he lay back down on his hospital bed "How would that drug have got in my system."
"That's why I am here. Did you go anywhere that night, anywhere that someone may have slipped the drug into your drink or into something you ate?"
Glen shook his head "I made dinner for both my wife and myself, we had wine but it was homemade."
"So you remember having dinner with her?"
Glen nodded "I've been getting back bits and pieces of my memory, out of nowhere something will just hit me."
Brass nodded "Is there anything else you can tell me?"
Glen shrugged "I don't think so." He paused and slid off the bed.
Brass watched as he disappeared into a small bathroom. Brass heard water running, and then Glen Sterling emerged with a small cup of water.
"I'm so sick of this water." Glen complained slowly sipping the liquid.
"Water is water to me." Brass commented as he opened his ringing cell phone. "Brass" he answered.
"Brass it's me." Nick spoke "I can't get a hold of Catherine or Grissom and Wendy wanted to hand off the tests results directly to him."
Brass sighed and looked at his watch "He said he would be back in a few hours…that was a while ago. I'll try him and call you back." Brass hung up with Nick and dialed Gil's cell number.
"Gil, its Brass, let me know when you're coming back in. Fashionably late was an hour ago." He spoke as Gil's voice-mail picked up.
Brass disconnected and returned the call to Nick "I got his voicemail, I will swing by his place on my way back in. If either of them show up have them call me."
Nick nodded "And I'll get the results from Wendy and…I…" Nick began only to be cut off when his was paged to the front desk; he closed his cell phone and made his way through the lab.
Glen Sterling kept his focus on the water "My wife and I..." he paused realizing he was speaking of his wife as if she were still alive. "We had our water delivered once a week. And we...."
Glen Sterling froze and if he was seeing a ghost "The water. The only other thing I drank had been the water."
**
"Can I help you Miss?" Nick stopped short of a petite brunette that was waiting for him a the front desk.
"My name is Mary," he stuck out her hand "Mary Bakeman. I was watching the news last night about the woman that was murdered."
Nick nodded and motioned toward the waiting area. "Have a seat."
The women nodded and sat next to him.
"Eight months ago, my husband and I were attacked, when I saw the news, it was like I was seeing my story. I've never come forward with it because I didn't think anyone would listen to me."
Nick leaned forward "Okay," he nodded
"Someone." She paused "Broke into my home, my husband was already in bed, he hadn't been feeling well and I was finishing up some work in my office. When I came into my bed room there was a man standing over my husband, he had a knife. Before I could react he charged at me. He threw me down and he threatened to cut me. I screamed for my husband, but he wouldn't wake up. No matter how hard I fought, I couldn't get the man off of me. I couldn't fight him anymore and I just lay there while he raped me. I was hoping that if I didn't fight he would let me live. And he did. When he was finished he just got up and left, I remember being so afraid to move that for the first hour after, that I didn't even want to breathe. I was going to call the police and report it, but when I tried to wake up my husband, he…." She began to tear up. "He wouldn't wake up. I called the ambulance and I was so worried about him that I didn't tell them what happened to me. My husband never woke up; they said he died of an accidental overdose. They told me he must have been experimenting with drugs and took too much. My. Husband." She spoke slowly "Was not a drug user."
Nick handed the sobbing women a tissue "Did you remember anything about you attacker?"
Mary shook her head" No." she stuck her hand in her purse. "But he dropped his knife." She pulled out a large butcher knife that was contained in a sealed plastic bag. "I don't know why I didn't turn this in before." She handed it to Nick.
**
Catherine lay still on her bedroom floor trying not to focus on the uncontrollable trembling in her body as her temperature slowly dropped. She had since lost feeling in her hands and soon began to realize she was having more trouble catching her breath. She closed her eyes and tried not to focus on the fact that her life was slowly ending.
Then she heard it, the buzz of Gil's vibrating cell phone shattered the silence.
Catherine's eyes opened and paused. Was she hearing things? The phone buzzed against the dresser once more, and Catherine was now convinced.
"Don't hang up." She spoke as he rolled her self onto her back and slowly inched toward the dressing. Every move she made took everything she had let in her and each time she would have to take a second to catch her breath.
"No!" she began to sob, when the phone stopped vibrating and the room was filled one more with silence.
Hot tears stained Catherine's face as she began to succumb to the pain. She slowly let her eyes slip closed as she took her last conscious breath.
TBC