AN: Well, here it is, finally – the next chapter! I am very sorry that I haven't updated in, well, a really long time. I could give you reasons, but the truth is that I've been unmotivated. I hope that I've managed to get started again, but I will not promise a quick update. The only thing I can promise is that I won't abandon my stories. I will try my best to at least finish the ones I have started.
As always, I don't own anything connected to the show. I hope some of you have stuck with me and that you will enjoy this chapter.
Last but not least, a big thank you to Kayla who helped me with this chapter!!
5 – One step forward
The team was sitting around the table in the break room later that day. Grissom and Catherine had spent an hour digging into the case of Kelly Nichols, while Nick, Warrick and Greg had looked into Joseph Nichols' past and present life.
"What do we have?" Catherine enquired, looking around at the faces of her co-workers and friends.
"Joseph Nichols, age 46, born in Tonopah, Nevada to Beth and Jonathan Nichols. Parents died in a car accident when he was thirteen, and he went to live with his mother's sister, Joanne Kindley and her husband Ben." Nick started. "About a year after that, he raped his eleven-year-old cousin, Lisa Kindley, and was sent to a juvenile detention centre. He was released when he turned eighteen, and has stayed in line ever since. At least according to his records." Nick huffed. "Guy doesn't even have a speeding ticket."
"That doesn't mean anything, we need hard facts." Catherine told him.
"I know." Nick nodded, flipping through his papers. "After being released from the detention centre, he got his high school diploma and got accepted to UNLV where he studied…"
"Architecture." Grissom interrupted. "He was an architect."
"Right." Nick confirmed. "He got his Masters, and then got an internship with some firm… hang on… Morris & Jameson, where he later got a permanent position."
"Architect." Catherine gave Grissom a meaningful look. "He wouldn't have had a problem building these models."
"It's him." Warrick nodded.
"We all think so, but we still can't get ahead of ourselves." Catherine said. "What did you find out, Greg?"
"Well, he was still at Morris & Jameson when his daughter went missing, on, drum-roll please, March 18th in 91. Her body was found on April 9th. Coincidence? I don't think so." Greg paused, giving the other team members a moment to digest the fact.
"He took Sara on the same day that his own daughter disappeared." Nick said, shaking his head.
"It would appear so." Catherine nodded.
"Not only that, I know why he killed Izzy Delancy when he did." Greg continued. "August 10th was Kelly Nichol's birthday."
"This just keeps getting creepier and creepier." Warrick noted, and Nick nodded in agreement.
"Can we get back to the facts?" Catherine steered the conversation back to the case. "So he was at the architect firm when his daughter disappeared?"
"Yup, in fact, he had just been promoted to some high position, and that was the reason of the dinner party that he and his wife were at when Kelly was taken." Greg went back to the topic.
"Right, right, I remember." Grissom mumbled under his breath.
"Yeah, so he was on his way up." Greg noted. "Then the kid was found dead, and everyone was devastated, of course. When his wife found out about his previous… let's say 'mis-step'." Greg air quoted the word. "She left him. Filed for divorce in June of 91. Maybe she thought her husband was a little more involved in their daughter's death than she wanted to admit."
"That's not necessary the case, Greg." Grissom stated. "The percentage of relationships that end after the death of a child is remarkable. It could simply have been the toll of losing their daughter that caused their separation."
"I'm just saying." Greg shrugged. "Anyway, a few months later, in August, Nichols was fired from the architect firm. Apparently he had begun self-medicating." He made a motion to indicate drinking.
"So, in less than six months, he had lost his daughter, his wife, and his job?" Catherine summarized. "That can make anyone go nuts."
"Don't forget his house." Greg cut in. "The wife got the better part of the divorce settlement – the house, the car, the dog. He was pretty much left with the clothes on his back."
"So what did he do then?" Catherine asked. "He hasn't been unemployed since 91, has he?"
"Nope, actually not." Greg glanced at his papers. "He checked himself into a recovery center, spent some time there and came out sober. Joined AA, got a job as a janitor in an office building, rented a one bedroom apartment on Alexander, and has been quiet ever since."
"Up until seven months ago, August third, when he suddenly quit his job." Warrick took over.
"That was a week before Izzy Delancy was killed." Catherine shot Grissom a look, and he nodded.
"The day after, he closed all of his accounts, sold his car to a local used car dealer, and dropped the lease on his apartment. Nobody has heard from him since." Warrick concluded. "I've run his name through every conceivable data base, he has no property anywhere in the state of Nevada. Like I said, he cleaned out his accounts, which amounted to about two hundred thousand – and don't ask me where a janitor gets that kind of cash – so he'll be able to stay below the radar for a while."
"Brass is putting out an APB on Nichols as we speak." Catherine said. "Did you find anything that could help us figure out where he's taken her?"
"Nah." Warrick shook his head. "Like I said, he doesn't own property in the state of Nevada, I'm waiting to get the results on the rest of the country but it might take a while."
"Let us know when you do." Catherine told him.
"Will do." Warrick nodded.
"OK, so we've been going over the Kelly Nichols case again." Catherine pulled out some papers from the file in front of her. "There were numerous witnesses who placed both Nichols and his wife at the party the entire night; there really was no way they could have taken the girl."
"Did they have any enemies?" Nick asked, and Grissom shook his head.
"None that posed an actual threat." He replied. "There were the occasional arguments at work, the people who had been passed over when Nichols got promoted, but it didn't lead anywhere. We went over every detail of their lives, and still found nothing."
"Could they have hired someone?" Warrick speculated, and Grissom shrugged.
"In theory, I guess. But they didn't have the money for something like that, and there was no unusual activity on any of their accounts." He said.
"Then what?" Greg wondered.
"That pretty much leaves an attacker unknown by the family." Catherine stated. "The girl was taken at random."
"We investigated every known sex-offender in the area, but it didn't result in anything." Grissom said, and Catherine sighed.
"I actually ran the semen found on Kelly Nichols through CODIS." Nick revealed.
"Why?" Greg asked. "What difference does it make? He's not the one who has Sara."
"If we can find out who killed his daughter, we might be able to bargain with Nichols if he contacts us." Grissom answered in Nick's place. "We can offer him information about his daughter's murderer if he lets Sara go in exchange."
"Oh. OK." Greg nodded.
"Yeah, anyway." Nick pulled a piece of paper from the folder in front of him. "I got a name; Mark Holden, currently doing life at Nevada State Prison for raping and killing his five-year-old step-daughter in Reno four years ago. He was living in Vegas at the time of Kelly's abduction."
"I'll call Brass, get him to go out there and talk to him, maybe get a confession." Catherine left the room, pulling her cell phone from her pocket as she went.
"It won't do much good if he doesn't contact us." Greg said. "We need a way of getting in touch with him."
"Well, he has no known address, no listed phone number, so other than going door to door in the greater Las Vegas area, I'd say we're a little out of luck." Warrick noted dryly.
"Then we'll just have to hope that he contacts us." Grissom stated, and Greg frowned at him.
"Why would he do that?" He wondered.
"This is something personal for him, directed at me." Grissom reasoned. "If we don't give the media any info, he'll get frustrated and hopefully contact us to make sure we know it's him."
"Let's hope so." Nick sighed.
xxxxx
"Well, well, well. What can the country's finest want with me?" Mark Holden gave Brass a piercing look. "I'm already doing my time. What're you gonna do, lock me up some more?"
"I bet I could find a nice little isolation cell, just for you." Brass replied dryly. "How's that sound?"
"Actually sounds pretty nice." Holden said.
"Oh, right, I forgot. People who molest and kill children don't go over too well, even with other criminals." Brass shrugged. "That's just too bad for you, isn't it?"
"What d'you want?" Holden growled.
"Kelly Nichols, March 91." Brass pressed the picture of the little girl up against the glass separating him from Holden. "Ring any bells?"
"That was a long time ago, man." Holden avoided Brass' gaze. "You expect me to remember every kid I've seen?"
"No, I expect you to remember the one's you've killed."
"You ain't got nothing on me." Holden shook his head. "If you did, the cops'd have been banging my door in fifteen years ago."
"Oh, but you see, we have this new technique called DNA." Brass told him. "Ever heard of it?"
Holden went visibly pale, and started biting the nails on his left hand which, by the looks of the bloody fingertips, was a nervous habit.
"What do you want from me?" He asked after a while.
"I don't want anything from you, I've got everything I need." Brass shrugged. "Your DNA in little Kelly Nichols, and you can say hello to Mr. Lethal Injection." Brass hung up the phone they had been using to speak, and got up to leave. A banging on the glass stopped him, and he picked up the phone again.
"What if I sign a confession, then I'd get life, right?" Holden asked nervously.
"You've been watching too many cop shows, buddy. It doesn't work like that." Brass shook his head.
"Come on, man." Holden pleaded, and Brass sighed.
"You give me a confession, and I'll put in a good word for you." He said, pulling a white lie.
"Thanks, really appreciate it." Holden visibly relaxed.
"So you wanna tell me what happened?"
"It's like I said at the trial, I didn't want to take her, I had to do what the voices said." Holden explained, and Brass nodded.
Right. He had looked through the file before heading out here, and Holden had pleaded insanity, claiming that the voices in his head had told him to rape and kill his step-daughter. The jury, however, hadn't bought it and he had been sentenced to prison.
"Did the voices tell you to kill any other girls?" Brass wondered, and Holden was quiet for a moment.
"No." He finally replied.
"Why don't I believe you?" Brass huffed. "Your lawyer will be hearing from the DA, and trust me; I will re-open every single case involving little girls over the past twenty years, and if there's even one out there whose blood you have on your hands, you are going down for it."
xxxxx
"Hey, I just talked to Jim, he confessed." Catherine said, coming into the break room where Grissom was going through the Kelly Nichols file again.
"That's great." He replied, glancing at her briefly. "But, like Warrick said, it won't do us much good if we can't get in touch with Nichols."
"Look, I've said it before but I am saying it again; we will find her." Catherine promised. "But you have to stay at least a little optimistic, I can already feel the guys loosing hope, and frankly I can not pull this boat on my own."
"I'm sorry, I want to believe you, I do." Grissom sighed. "I guess I'm just afraid of getting my hopes up if she never…"
"I know." Catherine interrupted. "I get it, really. Just try to keep a little faith, OK?" He nodded, and Catherine left the room.
Grissom leaned his head in his hands for a minute, taking a couple of deep breaths before returning to the papers in front of him. He didn't think that he could get anything more out of them, but he needed to do something, or he'd go insane.
As he started reading the interrogation with Joseph Nichols for the fourth time that day, his phone started vibrating in his pocket and he pulled it out, looking at the screen. Hidden number.
"Grissom." He answered, his attention still on the file in front of him.
"How does it feel not knowing where she is, how she's doing?" Grissom froze at the voice.
"Nichols." He breathed into the phone, and was rewarded with a laugh.
"You figured it out. Can't say I'm impressed."
"Where is she?" Grissom asked. He knew he should get up and leave the room, find someone who could put a trace on the call, but he was afraid to move and lose the man on the other end of the line.
"Wouldn't you like to know? But that's my secret." Nichols gave another laugh, sounding more hysterical this time. "We've been having a very nice time."
"What do you want?" Grissom wondered.
"What do I want? I want you to SUFFER!" Nichols almost yelled. "I want you to lay awake at night, wondering where she is, if she's even alive, that's what I want!"
"What gives you the right to drag Sara into this?" Grissom tried to stay calm. "I'm the one who couldn't find your daughter, it's me you want."
"I take it you got my message." Nichols ignored him. "You know how long you have to find her; I suggest you use the time well."
With that, he hung up the phone, effectively pulling Grissom out of the paralysis he had been in. He hurried out of the room and down the corridor to the AV lab, where he found Archie.
"I need you to trace the call I just got." He said breathlessly. "He just called me. Nichols."
Archie was already typing something into the computer in front of him.
"What number did he call from?"
"It was a hidden number, but you can still trace it, right?" Grissom asked nervously.
"Sure, I'll just go through your incoming calls and… there it is." He clicked on a number on the screen, and frowned. "It's a pre-paid phone card. Sorry."
"Can you see what cell phone tower he was closest to?"
"Yup, just hold on one second… he's somewhere downtown." Archie pointed at the screen. "The closest tower was the one off the Strip."
"Maybe he stays close to his hide-out." Grissom thought out loud. "We'll have to double the uniforms in the area and tell everyone to keep an eye out for him. Can you print the district we're talking about?"
"Sure." Archie hit a few more buttons and the printer started buzzing. Grissom grabbed the paper as soon as the printer was finished.
"Thanks." He was out the door before Archie had a chance to react. The young man shrugged, and turned back to the computer where he got to work on putting a trace on the pre-paid phone card, so that he would be alerted the moment the phone containing it was turned on.
xxxxx
Sara looked up as the light came on and the door opened. He looked more smug than usual as he entered the room and closed the door behind him, gun safely in his right hand.
"Good morning sunshine." He greeted her, and she settled for a smirk in return.
"What's got you all excited? Find someone else to kidnap and lock up in a dark basement?"
"As a matter of fact no." He seemed to ponder her words for a moment. "But now that you mention it, it might be fun."
"I think our definitions of 'fun' are a little different." Sara stated dryly.
"I guess so." He agreed. "No, I've just had a very interesting talk with your boyfriend."
"What? You talked to Grissom? Why?"
"I just wanted to make sure he knew who he was dealing with." He replied. "They have actually figured it out, if you're interested. Took them long enough."
"What did you tell him?" Sara asked cautiously, not wanting to sound too eager in case he'd take that as a reason not to tell her.
"I just made sure he knew that he had a limited time to find you, and told him to use his time well."
"What do you mean 'limited time'?" Sara asked, fear creeping into her veins. "Did you put it into your calendar, or something? March twentieth; pick up dry cleaning, kill Sara?"
"You'll find out in due time." He smirked at her before leaving the room. Sara sighed as she heard the lock.
"Damn it!"