Warrick blinked at the question. Indeed where was the man and why hadn't he asked for that very pertinent information himself? And in the same moment he felt resentment; why would Grissom ask for Vega before wanting to know about Nick?
"Nick's hanging in there, by the way, if someone's vaguely interested." He grunted, his growing irritation heavily underlining the sarcasm.
"We know," Catherine said, her hands still on the window pane, her eyes never leaving the trauma room. "The nurse filled us in."
"He left to investigate as soon as we got Nicky down here and under care." Sara chimed in with a surprised glance at Warrick. "He's trying to find out how the fire started, and get a list of the personnel on duty. Not that I think it will do us any good but -."
"So what do we know?" Grissom asked, his eyes on Warrick, the air of logical investigator back on track.
"I found out that the ambulance was re-routed here, was closer to Sunset but dispatch ordered differently. I don't get that," Sara said, "Nick was bleeding dry and they take him to a hospital 10 minutes further away?"
"Needs to be investigated further," Grissom nodded. "Cath, you up to talking to the EMTs?"
Catherine simply nodded.
"Why insulin?" Warrick asked, "why on earth not take a more directly killing substance? It's a hospital and I know they have more potent drugs if you need to off somebody."
"Valid point," Grissom agreed, "there's actually two theories for that. Either it was the job of an amateur that was unable to get a hold of drugs that would kill in an instant, somebody with some familiarity with the routines of a hospital but not access to narcotics. Or somebody that wouldn't want to be traced so easily. Insulin is hard to trace in the body, it is a natural hormone after all and it takes complicated tests to pinpoint which brand was used."
Sara looked up, her laconic voice getting new life. "It could be anybody, insulin is not a narcotic, it's not lethal if not misused. You need a prescription but with the amount of insulin sold it will take us months to interrogate everybody with access to insulin. What if it was stolen? Oh God, we're nowhere at all."
Grissom looked at the woman slumping on the chair. "On the contrary, we know someone wants Nick dead and that already gives us the upper hand. We can deduce he saw something he shouldn't have. What the perp doesn't know is that he was resourceful enough to photograph what he found odd with his cell phone."
"What exactly?" Warrick asked, "what was there that is enough to kill for?"
"Nick probably recognized the man letting the former FBI agent that skipped ship out of a car at the scene, probably with his gun drawn considering the odd reflection from the streetlight. We were able to ID the man as a Timothy Welder, former FBI that went under cover to unveil how the mob's able to flood the streets with flunitrazepam. He jumped ship six months ago and FBI's been looking for him ever since."
"Rohypnol?" Warrick was stunned, "FBI?"
Grissom merely nodded. "Problem is that Nick's photo does not give us a clear enough picture of the man driving the rental car, but he probably recognized him and that's why he snapped that photo. It is very blurry and all zoomed in and the quality of a cell phone photo is never the same as with a digital camera. But there's a date and a time stamp on the picture so it will hold up in court and together with Nick's testimony it's bound to scare the man driving the SUV enough to want to get rid of Nick." He was silent for a moment, studying the man in the exam room pensively. Then he turned and met their stunned gazes. "I have to go call Jillian and let her know what is happening. They are not letting civilians in yet. Then I'll go find Vega and see what he's got for us. Catherine, you'll take care of the EMTs as soon as possible?"
"I'm on it," Cath nodded, turning away from the screen. "Sara; Sofia and Greg are coming in and somebody is gonna take you home for some rest."
"No way, I'm not leaving Nick."
"Sara, you're no use to the case if you're not rested and sharp." Cath protested. "You've been here –"
"This is not a case, it's Nick!" The look she bestowed Catherine was full of indignation and rebellion.
"Sara, Nick's involved in a case that we need to solve in order to keep him safe. The sooner we get leads that get us information on what the hell is going on the sooner Nick will be safe. Get it?"
Sara looked away but nodded in resignation and Catherine left with a determined stride.
Warrick's head was still reeling from the information and he sank down on the stool besides Sara. "The fucking FBI?" he groaned, rubbing his face with his palms.
"Don't go getting paranoid on me Warrick," Sara mumbled, "I'm already seeing ghosts behind every corner as is."
Warrick raised his eyes to meet Sara's, wondering idly if their current affliction was contagious.
Warrick had sat and risen about fifteen times before Greg and Sofia showed up. The scene inside the trauma room was not altering for the better evidently and his irritation kept growing. Nick was still laying there, BP elevated and occasional shudders rattling the gurney. No one had briefed them and Warrick had to steel himself not to rush into the room and demand some answers. When they hooked a pack of blood to Nick's IV he felt like imploding. The need to lash out coincided with Sofia's question how Nick was doing.
"Where the fuck have you been?" he heard himself wheeze and immediately sank back to the stool, shaking his head at himself. "I dunno, I just dunno!"
"Jesus Rick," Greg admonished, "was that necessary?"
"Sorry," Warrick sighed, " just took you guys long enough to get here."
"Greg, go get Warrick and Sara something to eat." Sofia ordered calmly, "I'll stay here and wait until you're back and then you can take Sara home to rest." Then she just walked into the room and left Warrick with his mouth slightly open. He witnessed her showing her badge and talking to one of the physicians. Then her hand reached to rest on Nick's trembling leg and she looked at him, nodding to encourage full debriefing.
Warrick berated himself for not doing the same, what was wrong with him? Here he sat, slowly going crazy and obviously not thinking very straight. It hit him like a baseball bat to his chest and he hitched for breath as Sofia stepped out and closed the door behind her.
"You okay Brown?" she inquired with a slight frown.
"Yeah, how's Nick?"
"Better, only approximately 20 minutes left till the insulin has lost it's full effect and one problem is solved. They won't have to use Glucagon or the rapid infuser to keep it up any longer, glucose in the IV will suffice. They've had to administer enormous amounts of Glucagon and epinephrine so he probably be kept under for an other hour or two. They don't want him to puke his guts out with the stitches and all."
"Do they know if it's caused him any injuries?" Sara asked, her hands fiddling nervously in her lap.
"Won't know until he wakes up and they can assess him properly. Good news is that the vein seems to have sustained the cramps but the liver is another story and they need to give him more blood to counteract the red cell loss. He's on heavy edication to stop the leaking from his liver right now."
"Why is he shivering?" Warrick asked, hearing his own voice petulant to his surprise.
"They're keeping his temperature down to aid in the combat of possible infection and neuro-cellular damage. He's probably just freezin' and they will bring his temperature up to normal with the transfusion."
"Sounds very high tech," Warrick grumbled and instantly felt his limbs go terribly cold and weak.
"Sit down before you keel over," Sofia ordered
harshly, "you look like hell Warrick."
Warrick searched for a
suitable comeback but found none and decided to keep his mouth shut
in case his teeth would be chattering. That would make a very counter
productive statement regardless of any fitting vocabulary.
"Sorry" Greg appeared with two cups of coffee and a bundle under his arm. "Had to go on a veritable hunt for any food in this place. So how's Nick?"
"Sara'll fill you in," Sofia ordered, "now scoot the two of you and Greg, before you turn back stop by the lab and fill them in on the situation."
Despite his trembling fingers Warrick managed to send a glare in Sofia's direction. A glare she blatantly ignored. "I'd love to be filled in myself," he let out, the irritation and anger still evident in his voice.
Sofia looked closely at him and Warrick got the sensation she was trying to sugarcoat something.
"Don't," he said shaking his head, "just tell me what's going on."
Sofia sank to the chair beside him and sighed, "you're suspended, I shouldn't –"
"Hey," Warrick barked, "that's my friend in there and I'm the one he told about the cell phone. If you have any consideration for Nick -"
"All right, all right," Sofia lifted a hand to stop the indignant litany. "All we know is that the fire was started with trash and a Molotov cocktail in a generic bottle, one partial fingerprinted miraculously saved off of one of the splinters; not much of leads to be found there. The important thing is that the surveillance cameras were effectively blackened out thanks to the very capable disconnection of the power feed for certain circuits, among them the circuits for the sprinkler system. Hence, the culprit, or somebody that works with him has knowledge about technology and this hospital. It was done in a very short time so the theory is that there has to be more than one involved."
"There's a pro involved," Warrick groaned.
"It's worse," Sofia interjected. "I suspect we have a leak in PD."
Warrick's head shot up, "Why?"
"Because when we contacted FBI they denied any involvement but they knew Nick's name. And that piece of information has not been given anywhere but this hospital and PD. And the attempt on Nick's life came after we logged his cell-phone with the photo as evidence. That piece of information is only accessible to anyone that can tap into our system."
Sofia was silent for a moment, twisting her hands while Warrick's head reeled.
"I think this is bigger than we imagine," she finished, letting her eyes rest on Warrick.
"So in fact, what you're saying is 'Trust no one'."
"Yes."
Warrick rose to look into the trauma room and the chill took a more insisting grip on him. "We know nothin'," he said with his eyes fixed on Nick on the stretcher. Still trembling and the nurse by the side of the gurney wiping the face Warrick was desperate to see and gauge his friend's true status. "All we know is that someone wants Nick dead and probably will try again. Where the next attempt will come from or how to stop it we seem to have no idea." He paused and felt the exhaustion tug at him with terror and exhausted resignation in its wake. "It's like chasing ghosts."
Sofia rose and laid a hand on his arm to calm him down.
"And I have this nasty feeling we'll lose this time around," he added and rested his brow up against the cool surface of the window pane. "You can't predict without a fucking theory on what's to come."
And the image of Nick's limp body with the blood soiled shirt covering a hole in his chest came back to haunt him till his breath ran uneven.