Chapter 9

Warnings et les disclaimers dan Chaptero Uno.

This is dedicated to my awesome beta, JallynJ, and to all you lovely reviewers, thank you so much for the encouraging reviews!!! I hope you like this chapter!!! Sugar, xoxoxo

"Where now Gil, back to the lab?"

"No. We can go home."

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Sara felt queasy. She had eaten two pieces of bread, and had a glass of juice earlier, and had paid the price for it...

She had been so hungry and thirsty. He hadn't fed her since the third day, and it was now the seventh. She had only drunk perhaps two glasses of water a day at the most, and she was having the most painful cramps in her stomach.

Sara's head was swirling with the thoughts that there might be other women in the house, being treated more or less the same as her. They had never seen the parallels between the missing women and her. Well, to be fair not all of them were taken in the same way. The bodies were found in different ways. And only perhaps four of them were tall brunettes, four in seven wasn't exactly earth-shattering odds. Sara could remember every minute detail of the cases:

Amy-Ann Cairngores. Female 23. Blonde, petite, green eyes. Went missing from her own home. Door had been kicked in. The police had found Crystal meth in her kitchen. Suspected Ms. Cairngores was a drug addict. Found in the woods. No evidence of sexual assault. Died from asphyxiation, pattern consistent with a large rope.

Geneiva Kanes. Female, 28. Chubby brunette of average height. Same method as Amy-Ann, except fibers were found. Found behind a dumpster. Evidence of repeated sexual Assault. Died from three stab wounds, one to the chest, two to abdomen. She had two children.

Louise Reynolds. Tall, pretty brunette. 34. Owned a horse riding stables. Went missing on her way to the stables, car found abandoned at the edge of the road, with several blood pools. Some from the perp. Louise's battered body was found in a field several miles away. Evidence of repeated sexual assault, and wounds consistent with being beaten badly. Cuts and abrasions all over her back, and the tops of her thighs. Grissom found the similarity between her and Sara disturbing, and took Sara off the case.

Alyssa Henders. Intelligent 17 year old, with a bright future. She had no money in her bank account, she had gone missing on her way home from school. Police suspected run away, as they found no suspicious evidence. They suspected she'd cracked under the pressure of being a pre-Yale student, with a buzzing social life, and an alcoholic mother. Her boyfriend had moved away two months before Alyssa went missing, and he too, was also missing. Alyssa went missing perhaps three months before Jayden came to Sara's home.

Daniella Marconi. Beautiful Italian girl, who had moved from a small village in Southern Italy, to the U.S. Hoping for a piece of the American modeling industry. Tall, 5"10. Police had found her body, semi-burnt in a dumping site. She had died previously to the burning, gunshot wound to the head. She was dead at least three weeks before she was found. No evidence of sexual assault. She had, however, been ten weeks pregnant. When they spoke to her fiancée, police found he had been out of the country at the time. He was now on a major dose of anti-depressants. Catherine and Nick had spoken to him when he was in a psychiatric home, after attempting suicide from finding out about Daniella.

Susanna Dawes. Tall redhead. 37 years old. Two sons, one 3 year old daughter. Disappeared after dropping her daughter off at nursery. Police never found the car. They never found Susanna. The husband, who was immediately cleared told them "Susie will still be alive. She used to be a psychiatrist. She can get the kidnapper to relate to her. You have to find her. She's so full of life."

Police never found Susanna Dawes.

Siobhan Meadows. Brunette of average height, 5"5. Fiercely intelligent, scarily pretty. Only 25 years old. Went missing some time during the week end, she lived alone. No one could pin point the exact time of her disappearance. She still hadn't been found. Police had stopped looking. There was no evidence at her home, or her car.

Sara saw that there was next to nothing linking these women together... They all had different physical attributes. Nothing in common. Nothing linked them to Jayden, except the fact he had told her he was the one who kidnapped them. Sara remembered Louise Reynolds, and shuddered. It was another Debbie Marlin to her. She wondered if her back looked the same as Louise's. She wondered if he had really thought it was her he was hitting, instead of Louise, when she was kidnapped from the riding stables. He had killed Louise. Why? If he wanted a replacement Sara, why had he killed Louise?

The cogs clicked and whirred in Sara's mind...she added up the days between the Dawes case, and her going missing...17 days...did he see Sara? Did he realise he could get her, the real her, instead of a replacement, so he killed Louise? She had been out to Louise's car three days before she was found in the field. Maybe he saw Sara, then came back to wherever he had hidden Louise and killed her...the thought was disturbing to the extreme. But Sara couldn't help regurgitating it through her mind...

She felt her mind slow down as she dropped off to sleep...he must have drugged the food and water with something that made her sleep...Sara didn't really care, as long as she got to eat and drink...and sleeping meant she didn't have to think about where she was, what was happening...

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"Catherine!" Nicks voice shouted to her as she was walking past. "Have a look at this!"

"What?" She hurried into the lab

"All the practicalities point to Andrew Sherpe, yeah? But is then conflicted by the DNA evidence."

"Soooo..." Catherine was puzzled.

"Look at Andrew Sherpe's medical records. He had Leukemia. Then a bone marrow transplant. Which means...?"

"Change of DNA...so the DNA from Nicola won't match the DNA samples we have in the system for him that we had done five, or so, years ago."

"Why was his DNA taken then?"

"Suspect in a race-hate crime. He was cleared though, the real perp confessed"

"God. Sara would get such a kick out of this."

"I know Nicky...I know"

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She needed to get out. She needed out! Howhowhowhowhowhowhowhow? It ran through Sara's head, a thousand miles a minute. She had woken up maybe four minutes ago, lying on the rotted old camp bed, with a glass of water near her right elbow. She didn't drink any though, she smelt it: a funny metallic scent was rising from it. How could she escape? Sara needed a plan. A plan. Yes, a plan would be good. She heard a scream. Had he killed one of the others? Who? It was coming from above her though. Sara was jealous, it wasn't fair. She had to stay in the basement. He was always spending more time with her than the others...

NO SARA, YOU SELFISH BITCH! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!

She shook the guilt from her. She was basically longing for another woman to get tortured and abused, just so she didn't have to...

It was her fault those other three were being kept...they were replacement Sara's, he had even said so himself...

How could she? How could she want him to hurt the others instead of her? Alyssa, only 17, practically a baby. Susanna with three children, who all needed their mom. Siobhan, who spent so much time giving back, working as a pediatrician. Sara could value their lives as well above her own. Yet, she wanted them to be hurt instead of her? It was like when she was back with...Him. Then , she had also wished it could have been someone else. Not all the time, but at least some of the time, having him do to them what he did to her...NO SELFISH BITCH!...having to beg, plead, ask...no don't think about it...think of an escape plan...no.

Sara curled up into a ball on the camp bed, and sobbed...

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"Andrew Sherpe, I sentence you to a life sentence to be served in Nevada State prison. You have not only committed an evil act upon a young and innocent child, but you have committed a series of offences similar to this. Only a person so evil and..."

Grissom and Catherine left the court room. Catherine had been called on to give evidence, and Grissom just wanted to see the evil bastard go to jail. It was like it brought a small piece of Sara back to him. Once they had entered the new DNA into the system, they had come up with three other cases similar to Nicola's, and had linked Andrew to them. Finally, Nicola, Caidence, Denise and Jane had a bit of justice brought to their unfairly cut-short lives.

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A month. She had been there a month and three days to be exact. She hadn't come up with a plan. He had come up with new tortures though.

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On her third week, she had woken up inside the little hole he put her in. She was so cold. She cried.

"Do you want out Princess?"

Sara wasn't going to give in any time soon, he realised...So he taunted her.

"Aren't you curious princess, as to why nobody has come looking for you yet? They don't care. They're glad that you're gone. You're damaged goods."

No. it wasn't true. They would find her. Sara rocked back and forward.

"Oh yes princess. I'm all you have. Don't you want to spend time with me?"

No. Oh god, she was so cold.

"I'll go now princess. Be back later."

"No! Don't leave me in here alone. Please."

Sara scratched at the door. She was so scared, so cold. She just wanted out.

"When I come back maybe I'll bring pops..."

"NO. Please. I'm sorrrrrrrrry"

She heard him thunder out the basement.

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The sweetest perfection
To call my own
The slightest correction
Couldn't finely hone
The sweetest infection
Of body and mind
Sweetest injection
Of any kind

I stop and I stare too much
Afraid that I care too much
And I hardly dare to touch
For fear that the spell may be broken

"The Sweetest Perfection" Depeche Mode

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Christ, he was bloody glad to get out of that basement. He liked her screaming, and crying. He liked her saying sorry. But he didn't like it when she begged to let her go home, away from him. She irritated him when she did that. It was so bloody pathetic, it wasn't what he wanted her to do. He remembered how, after he'd beaten her almost unconscious, and she'd looked at him, eyes wet and wide like an abused puppy. He remembered what a kick he had gotten out of that, till she said

"Please, let me go home...let me see Griss..."

He reasoned with himself. He shouldn't kill her. She would realize that 'Griss' didn't care when he didn't come looking. So Jayden didn't kill her.

God, he just loved her so much. He normally only liked kids, but she was so fucking special. He wished he had been able to get near her when he was younger, but he knew his dad would have thrown him out. He had to be content perving at her, but not doing anything.

Now he had her. And the old man couldn't interfere. It still bugged Jayden though, that the old man had more of a hold on her, was more frightening for Sara, than he himself was.

He went into his study. He had rigged up a camera in the 'hole' so he could see when she was really ready to come out. She had to say it at least five times for him to release her. Oh, he just loved watching her. He took the currently fully recorded DVD out, and slid in another. He placed the fully recorded one on the side of the desk, where it then proceeded to fall off, and become wedged in between the wall and the desk...

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Five weeks.

"Nothing on Sara, Jack?"

"Sorry Gil. We're doing everything we can. But the department's pretty tied up with the Heidi Anderson case."

"Thanks. Bye"

Gil was numb. She had been gone for five weeks. He had to move on. He knew the next time he would be seeing Sara, would be on a cold slab in the morgue.

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She had been in there for five weeks now. She had been in the 'hole' for three hours. She had a plan.

She called to him, her voice rising and dipping hysterically. She said what he wanted to hear.

After all, she had a plan.

"Princess? Are you feeling more...agreeable?" She said nothing as he opened the door. "Princess?"

She brought her knee up, and he collapsed to the floor. She kicked him hard in the head, then ran as quickly as she could to the stairs. Panting and gasping for air, she tugged and tugged at the door. It was locked. She scrabbled at it, trying desperately to open it? Why wouldn't it open. No! She heard his boots come up the stairs behind her.

"You stupid little bitch." he grabbed her around the waist, then practically threw her down the stairs.

Sara could taste her freedom ebb away as he dragged her back to the 'hole'