Chapter Two - "Next of Kin"

When I got to the scene, I saw police cars and ambulances. Normal day at work. Jim Brass came up to me. "Gil, this girl wants to speak with you." Weird. I don't know the last time a kid wanted to speak to me.

"Dr. Grissom?" A young woman asked. I nodded. "You work for the crime lab, right?"

"I'm the supervisor of the nightshift there," I answered. I noticed the woman had a holster on her hip and her shirt was covered in blood. She was bleeding profusely from her nose.

"I need you to find my uncle's next of kin. You work with her."

"What's her name?" Brass cut in.

"Sidle. Sara Sidle." What? I felt my jaw drop. Sara? The Sara?

"Jim, whose house is this?" I asked, panicked.

"There are four victims. Jack, Elizabeth, Alyssa and Lukas Sidle. Two survivors. Mathieu Sidle and Sam Morey-Sidle." Wow. Sara's family. "They are the son and niece of the deceased Jack Sidle."

"Did you call her?"

Brass shook his head. "It's your call to make."

Twenty minutes later, Sara pulled up. She ran to me, not even closing the door of her truck. "Grissom!" She shouted. "Where are they?"

"Over there," I pointed to the ambulance. She took off and I followed.

The little boy, Mathieu, was sitting on the gurney, bloody gauze wrapped around his forearm.

"Tante Sara!" the kid yelled and grinned through tears.

"Neveu Matt!" Sara said. "Ou est Sam?"

The tall young woman stepped forward out of the shadows. "Right here," She said.

Sara spun around and hugged her slightly taller doppelganger. She pulled back. "You're taller than me now."

Sam frowned. "Duh, Sara. You haven't seen me since I was six. I'm almost 21 now, in case you don't remember," she said in a bitter tone.

"Why is your nose bloody?" Sara put her hand under the woman's chin.

"Some bastard punched me. I blew his brains out."

Sara turned to me. "So, where's the fifth body?"

"Missing," I replied.

"Shit."

I drove to Desert Palms Hospital. In the reception area, I asked the lady where Sam Morey was.

"Room 213." I walked to the elevators and headed to the second floor.

On the next floor, I found Sara arguing with Sam.

"Samantha Quinn Morey-Sidle, you will go back in that room and let that doctor sew that cut up."

"No, Sara, it's fine."

"It goes to the bone. Get some stitches." Sara was standing with her hnds on her hips. Sam crossed her arms and frowned.

"Fine, but you owe me." She spun and walked into 213.

I went to Sara. "You okay?"

She shrugged. "That girl is impossible."

"Maybe you should talk to her mother," I joked. Sara's face turned dark. Wrong thing to say.

"Sam doesn't listen to anybody," Sara sighed. "Her Uncle Jack could, but no one else can."

"I'm sorry, Sara. I'm really sorry," I said and put a hand on my ex-girlfriend's shoulder. "I'm sorry."