Chapter19
"Look, that is my jacket but I was not driving that car that night," Derrick said after minutes of Brass and Nick producing the photos of the jacket.
"So you are saying someone used a car you stole and then wears your jacket to commit a crime?" Brass did not believe him for a second.
"If I fess up and tell you, will I still have to serve time again," Derrick asked them.
Brass smirked. "Well you might be able to get a reduced sentence, but being a repeat offender, you will not get out of it all together. That is all up to the DA."
Derrick Greene whispered to his lawyer for a moment. "Okay. Yes I stole the car, but I did not run that girl down. I swear."
"Then who did," Brass demanded.
"Hey, that car disappeared from my place two days before that hit and run happened. What I do know is that Demetrius' brother, Aaron, became obsessed with getting some sort of revenge on that CSI dude that killed his brother. He came by my place once and asked where I got that car. I told him I got it from out of town. He knew I had stolen it. He became fascinated with it, saying he was thinking about getting a different car. Then he crashed at my place for a couple nights. One morning I get up and Aaron is gone and so is my car. I did not see Aaron again until yesterday. I had tried calling him but he never answered. Then when I saw him, I asked him where he had gone and where the car was. He told me he left early that one morning because his mom wanted him to come home for something. He said the car was still there when he left that morning. He also returned my jacket, saying it was cold that morning and he borrowed it. He was acting all weird though. Very agitated and nervous he seemed. That's what I can tell you. So I would talk to him about your hit and run."
Brass and Nick just stared at each other for a moment.
"Thanks Derrick. We will talk to Mr. James again and I will discuss your case with the DA."
Brass and Nick left room after Derrick and his lawyer cleared out. "Damn and we just let him go," Brass said angrily.
Brass got on his cell phone and called in for Aaron James to be picked up again.
"I'm going back to the lab and let them know what is going on. Then I'm going to fill Greg in, since I have not spoken to him in awhile." Nick trotted off to get back to the lab.
Greg has slept for 6 hours, the most he had in one shot in a few days recently. He had not received a call from the hospital or Chad, so he assumed Eve still had not come out of her coma. He was trying to stay positive because she was at least breathing on her own now, but it was still hard sitting there with her and wondering if he would ever see her green eyes again.
It was around 2 in the afternoon. He had got dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and was heading to his door to leave when his cell phone rang. He looked to see who it was and it was Nick.
"Hey Nick! You got some news for me?" Greg said as he began unlocking the door to leave.
"Hi Greg, I hope I am not disturbing you?"
"No, I am just about to leave my place to go back to the hospital. I was just home getting some sleep."
"Great! Listen can you stop by the lab first and I will fill you in on some interesting finds."
"Sure thing. I hope it is all good news." Greg grinned to himself, hopefully.
"It is, but I just rather tell you in person."
Greg was opening his door. "Okay then, I'll see you in a …" Suddenly Greg saw someone in his doorway. Before he could say any more, his phone was knocked out of his left hand with a baseball bat that nearly grazed his head too.
Nick heard a yell of pain and a clattering noise before the line went dead.
"Greg? Greg!" Sara had been standing next to Nick during the phone call.
"What's wrong?" Her eyes were wide with concern.
"I think something is going down at Greg's right now. We getter get out there with some officers." Nick filled in Sara while they ran down to Grissom's office. Nick told Grissom what he heard and they got a hold of dispatch and then proceeded to all leave in their Denali's to Greg's place.
Greg stumbled back into his apartment, clutching his arm in pain from the hit it took from the bat. Greg looked into the dark, furious eyes of Aaron James, holding the baseball bat, shutting the door behind him.
"I thought doing in your girlfriend would be enough for me, but I guess not, seeing as she has not died yet. I should have just come after you in the first place. Now I will take care of you once and for all; the man who killed my brother."
Greg quickly tried to duck out of the path of the bat coming straight at his head. He managed to save his head the damage but his left shoulder took the brunt of the hit instead. He fell to the ground from the force of hit and groaned out in pain.
For a split second, Greg wished he carried a gun for once in his life, but since he did not he had to think fast to keep Aaron from smashing his brains in.
"Look Aaron, I did not mean to kill your brother, I swear. I was just protecting myself." As Greg spoke, he slowly backed his way further into his apartment, looking for something to help him defend himself.
Aaron swung the bat again; this time purposely-hitting Greg's already hurt shoulder. Greg cried out in pain, hearing his own bone crack.
Greg was trying hard to keep his focus on Aaron, but the pain radiating down his left side was making it hard.
"You son of a bitch, you ran my brother down without a thought and you got off scot free. Hell, that does not work for me."
As Aaron was about to take another swing at him, Greg grabbed a beer bottle off his coffee table and threw it at Aaron.
Aaron tried to swing at the bottle but missed. It hit him in the forehead. He stumbled back a bit, still keeping the bat in hand. It unbalanced him long enough for Greg to get back to his feet and scramble into the kitchen before Aaron saw him and came after him again.
"Guess you were not too good at baseball, huh?" Aaron stopped in his tracks for a moment, blood dripping down his face where the bottle hit him. His eyes were radiating fury. Greg realized it probably was not the best thing to say to someone who was out to kill you.
Aaron made a motion to swing the bat at Greg again. Greg grabbed a dirty pan out of the sink, thankful for a second that he had not cleaned his dishes yet.
Greg countered the bat with the pan, only to have it lost out of his hand in the battle with the bat.
"Aaron, you do not want to do this. You do not want to be a murderer like your brother was. Think about what that would do to your mother."
Aaron glared at Greg, his teeth clentched. "You know nothing about my family, nothing about my mom." Aaron swung again, but Greg had ducked down onto the ground avoiding the hit. He ran back to the living room with Aaron closely behind him.
Greg started to throw anything he could get his hands on at Aaron. He was glad it was his left shoulder that was injured, so he still had his good arm to throw things.
He managed to hit Aaron a few times in the face to slow him down, but Greg was backing himself into a corner with not much left to toss at Aaron.
Aaron finally seeing that he had Greg back into a corner, helpless, grinned maliciously. "Payback is a bitch, isn't it?"
Greg tried to shield himself from the next swing, but failed this time. Aaron hit Greg hard in his side, causing Greg to fall down to his knees, buckling over in pain.
"Now how does it feel, Killer?" Greg could barely hear Aaron. He was struggling to catch his breath after the last hit.
Greg mustered up enough breath to look up at his attacker and say through gritted teeth, "It feels great!"
Greg did not know why he kept antagonizing his attacker more, but somehow it made him feel better.
Aaron became infuriated. He took another swing and only busted on Greg's left shoulder again. Greg felt waves of dizziness come over him from the pain.
Aaron was enjoying seeing Greg in pain, but he wanted to finish him now.
"Say goodbye, Killer!"
A/N-Surprise, surprise...cliffhanger. :) What will happen to Greg?
