Hunters and Collectors

Disclaimer: standard one, I don't CSI or any of their characters. Only some new characters are mine and I'm not nice to them.

Thanks for the reviews hopefully this will gather more.

Chapter 7.

"No luck at her apartment Gil, they weren't there, no sign of the car, nothing. The only thing I can think of is that it was a ruse to get looking elsewhere."

"Possibly Jim, but put yourself in their shoes, you have a relatively safe address after it has been searched, you watch from a distance until the police leave. It is then safe to use, would you still use it?"

"Hell yeah, why not, who would think of searching twice in the same place? We'll go back in an hour to give them time to get settled in and set up electronic equipment next door."

"This case really has gotten weird, three killers who started out with fraud and burglary, now Sofia is down but after successful surgery is going to be fine, we have enough evidence to convict all three but can't move until Sara is safe. When we go back I'll have the EMTs ready and waiting Gil."

"I'm coming with you Jim, you'll need a CSI on scene, don't worry I'll bring Greg, but I need to be there."

-/-

Back at the hospital, Sofia was awake, alert and very much alarmed at the latest news about her friend Sara, although it really didn't surprise her that Sara would go hurtling off into the night to catch bad guys. Her mother was sitting beside her.

"I don't know how many times I've told her Mom, she's a CSI and I'm the detective, I go in first and she comes in when it's clear, maybe now she'll learn."

"I know honey but this was something she had to do, she did call for back up and only followed them down. She was armed and tried to delay them until the police got there, apparently missing by mere seconds."

"That's not the point, she shouldn't have been in that situation to start with, they should have predicted that someone might try something, had officers in the parking lot, I don't know. Now from what I've heard she's badly hurt somewhere and we don't know where."

"Ok then as a former CSI, wrap your head around this one. They took her driver's licence so had her address, the police searched her apartment and found nothing. Any ideas?"

"That's easy Mom, I'm surprised you'd even ask it, you know the answer as well as I do. Firstly they'd watch the apartment to make sure it was searched before entering it. Police search done, apartment safe."

"Ok Sherlock what's next, since so far you are batting 1000."

"They move in and probably get mad at Sara for only having rabbit food in her fridge, the rest depends on her condition as to whether they kill her, leave her there or take her with them."

"Apparently she has lost a lot of blood, possibly too much."

"In my shoes, she wouldn't be worth the extended effort, I'd leave her in her apartment with no phone line but just restrained, she can't do anything, can't call out and would probably just die. God Mom I hate it when you do that, and thinking like that about a friend makes me feel worse."

"No just makes you a good detective honey, now get some sleep. I'm going to see Brass."

Captain Curtis phoned Brass and passed on what Sofia had said, which then made time of the essence, time Sara might not have.

-/-

Sara was running out of time and the girls wanted to be out of there and gone. George had other ideas, he wanted this CSI bitch to suffer some more and if he got the chance he'd take on that beautiful blonde too, but he didn't think he'd get the chance so this pretty brunette would have to do.

"Sara Sidle, today is a good day for you to die, at least for me anyway. Before we leave you here I'll let you in on a little secret. I wielded the sword that killed that man and kid, Heather used the knife and Nic, well she didn't want to, but finally found she enjoyed bludgeoning that woman to death. It's amazing what you can make people enjoy. As for you, you don't get off so easy, yours will be slow and painful, I could cut you up some but that would only make it faster. I'll just add a few bruises to your collection."

Sara's coherent thoughts registered that she was already dead if she didn't try something so she kicked out at him, hearing him grunt in pain after her painful kick to his shin.

"Heather get in here, and bring something to restrain this bitch's legs before she kicks me again. Nic go and prepare the trunk, we are leaving."

Heather brought in strips of a torn up sheet and tied Sara's ankles together, stuffed more material into her mouth and secured it tightly, too tightly, with more cloth strips. Together they carried and dragged Sara into her bedroom where George kicked her hard in the ribcage several times, making her want to vomit but she bit down on that thought.

Sara stared in horror at their meaning of 'trunk', she had assumed they meant the car trunk, she was wrong. She struggled furiously and futilely, cursing the day she ever bought it. It was a great storage trunk for blankets and clothes but not for people, it was too small, too enclosed.

Surprisingly enough she squeezed into it, terror on her face as George looked down at her grinning.

"I hope you don't get claustrophobia Sara, enjoy your death although maybe your friends will find you in time."

He shut the lid and heard a faint, muffled screaming from inside, he was satisfied. Nicola was downstairs cleaning everything they had used, cleaning any blood from surfaces and getting ready to depart after having a last meal and emptying Sara's fridge into a cooler from her cupboard.

"Road trip," she announced with a smile, "finished play time George dear?"

"Yes, she's terrified in her box, let's hit the road."

Sara re gathered her hysterical thoughts and made sense of them, she tried using her head to push the top of the box open only to find something blocking it, the catch on the outside never used to engage without a lock so that meant one of two things. Someone sitting on it, or they'd locked it. No one was sitting on it. She started screaming again until she hyperventilated and passed out.

The police and CSI arrived at the apartment for the second time that night, burst in to find…..nothing once more. Grissom and Greg weren't willing to give up that easily, using the ASL they checked everywhere and found cleaned up blood and followed a small blood trail to Sara's bedroom, Apart from the stripped off sheets they found nothing out of place.

TBC

A/N Poor Sara, Gil can look all he wants, he won't find her as he isn't familiar with her apartment (yet).

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