8:42 p.m
… Sara couldn't help herself; this was the second time she'd smiled despite her situation. She could hear all of her coworkers all talking at once. There was Catherine's husky purr, Nicks Texan twang, Warricks low, slightly slurred rumble, as well as a freaked out sounding Greg and the father-like sound of Captain Brass, and all of them were reassuring her and talking to her, it was very comforting to know she had so many people looking out for her. But the moment was broken as Adam pulled the cell away from her ear and said into the receiver
'You have twenty four hours' he growled 'Grissom, keep your cell with you at all times, I will be in touch with details. Twenty four hours until she dies.' And he hung up the phone. He turned to Sara and glared down at her. She tried to hold his chilling gaze, but couldn't as he swung his arm in a downward arc at her striking her with the cell phone hard enough to knock her over. She fell to the ground and clutched the side of her face where he had hit her, she looked up as Adam crouched beside her and said in his growling voice
'Take a look at your situation beautiful, you shouldn't be smiling at all.' Sara curled her upper lip back like an angry dog and sneered at him, he raised his hand and smacked her again, she retorted by spitting in his face
'You despicable bastard' she said as she quietly gathered a handful of gravel. Surprisingly Adam said nothing, he just wiped the spit off his face and stood. 'You gonna leave me here?' she shouted as he strode off. He pitched the cell phone into the rock formation and Sara winced as it broke, He tucked his gun back into his belt.
'No' He said 'we are going to go somewhere together for a romantic getaway' he turned to look at her then strode back. He opened the tailgate of the truck picked her up and practically threw her inside, she pressed her hand of gravel against the open tailgate of the truck and let the palm of her hand scrape across the paint job, please work she thought. She didn't object or complain as she was pushed onto the truck bed because when he picked her up the first time the stitches had torn a bit and she'd started to bleed. As quietly as she could she tried to spell out a word in the dirt and gravel…
9:18 p.m
Archie had traced the cell phone to a remote location off the highway in the desert. Catherine drove with Grissom in the shotgun seat with Nick in the back hanging over Catherine's shoulder. She stopped and pulled the black Tahoe over to the side of the road where Captain Brass was already leaning on the hood of his own car. He shook his head as the three C.S.I'S got out of the truck, Grissom let out a sigh, he hadn't actually expected him to hang around but still, it was extremely disappointing. He watched as Catherine and Nick went around behind a very large rock formation on the side of the road and Grissom came up to stand next to Brass. There was a long moment of silence in which Grissom's mind spun with hundreds of scenarios, some good, some not so good and some downright gut wrenching. He was shaken from his thoughts as Brass laid a hand on his shoulder; he looked over at his friend
'We'll find her' he said, Grissom nodded but still had to struggle to keep the light of hope alive. Nick all of a sudden materialized in front of him and held up a plastic bag with a crushed cell phone in it.
'My guess is he threw it against the rocks' he said, Grissom nodded and took the bag from Nicks hands. He examined the contents for a moment but once again his thoughts were interrupted as Catherine's lovely blonde head poked around the edge of the rock formation
'Hey guys' she said and waved them over with a latex gloved hand. Grissom, Nick and Brass made their way over stepping only where Catherine told them to.
'Sara may be trying to tell us something' she said pointing at a series of lines on the gravely sand painted with something that looked terribly like blood. Grissom examined it for a long moment
'What do you make of it?' she asked,
'I think it might be a license plate number' he said as he looked up at Catherine, she smiled at him
'That's what I thought' she said 'so I took photographs for digital enhancement and swabbed it, oh and not only that,' she looked over her shoulder at Nick 'Nicky' she said 'do you have those pretty colored rocks?' he nodded and gave her a slightly lopsided smile before holding up a bag of regular looking gravel.
'Other than the sky you don't see much blue in the desert do you?' she said handing the bag to Grissom. On first glance it looked perfectly normal but under closer inspection with the aid of a magnifying scope, Grissom could see tiny flecks of blue on them. He looked up at his coworkers
'What about tire treads?' he asked, 'if we can get a type of car then we will have a pretty clear visual for people to look out for.'
'No' Nick said 'the sand is to gravely for a clear tread' Grissom nodded
'Sort of makes sense he would pick a place where you couldn't be seen' he motioned to the rock formation 'and couldn't get a tire tread, but we may be able to get something off of the paint.'
Brass looked at his friend
'Let's hope so' he said 'I'll be waiting when you're ready to give me a description of the vehicle.' The three C.S.I'S nodded at their captain of homicide.