Grissom tossed the folder on his desk and looked at them as Catherine entered the office.
"Where's Greg?"
"Here! Here, sorry," he said, hurrying to join the group.
Grissom looked at him and then opened the folder and sat down. He was quiet a moment, and Warrick asked, "What's up?"
Grissom sighed.
"Mary Prescott was kidnapped earlier this morning."
The CSIs looked at each other.
"Mary Prescott, daughter of Byron Prescott?" Catherine asked, and Grissom nodded.
"Who's Byron Prescott?"
Warrick and Nick looked at Greg.
"Man, don't you read the paper, or watch the news?"
"Byron Prescott is one of the richest guys in Vegas. Opening that new casino on the strip. What's it called?" Warrick thought a minute. "Diamond Dust, or something?"
Sara crossed her arms.
"Apparently she went out shopping and never came back. Her keys and purse where found in the parking garage near her car," Grissom explained. "The press is already all over it. Byron Prescott has hit every news station there is, and the lab has been flooded with calls."
He stood up.
"Warrick, Catherine, you take the parking garage, Nick, you take Mary's car. It's on its way to auto detail now. Greg and Sara, you scout the shopping center and see what you can find out." He handed out slips. "No one," he eyed Nick, "and I mean no one, talks to the press."
Warrick held the police tape up and Catherine ducked under it.
"There's the purse," Catherine noted, and Warrick pulled out the camera.
An officer walked over to them.
"Are there video cameras on the lot?"
He nodded. "I'll get the security guard to get the footage for you."
"Thanks."
Warrick took shots of the purse and surrounding area.
"Wonder how long it'll be before the ransom call comes in."
Catherine knelt down and looked inside the wallet in the purse, opened it wider for Warrick to see.
He whistled at the wad of bills.
"Doesn't look like it's about money."
"Maybe they're holdin' out for Daddy's money."
Greg dropped the price tag, his eyes wide, and Sara grinned.
"Who'd pay eight hundred bucks for a bra?"
"When you've got money like the Prescotts, Greg, eight hundred bucks is like small change."
"Give me small change, please."
"Excuse me, may I help you?"
Sara looked up. "Hi, we're with the Las Vegas crime lab. We're here to ask you some questions about Mary Prescott?"
The sales woman nodded. "Yes?"
"Was she shopping here earlier today?"
"Yes, Ms. Prescott comes in every Wednesday to pick up her order."
"Order?" Greg asked.
"Our new items don't get displayed until Fridays, but we work with select clientele and they pick up their items early, to insure availability."
"What time was Ms. Prescott in the store?"
"Well if you'll come with me I'll show you our security footage."
Sara and Greg looked at each other.
"Duh," he mumbled, following the sales woman.
Grissom leaned down.
"Well?"
Nick rolled out from beneath the car and wiped his forehead.
"Nothin'."
He got up. "This car is clean, man. There's nothin'. No fibers, no blood, no hairs," he pointed to the dash. "No ashes, no dust. Either it's fresh from the factory or I wanna know who cleans the Prescott family cars."
He wiped his hands off.
"Grissom, I wanted to talk to you about what happened the other day…between Sara and me."
Grissom looked at him and put his hands up.
"Nick, we're working a high profile case. I don't have time to talk about this right now."
Nick nodded, smirked after Grissom had walked away.
He tossed the grease rag down.
"She got her latte, said bye, and then left."
"And she always got a latte after shopping?"
"One before, one after."
"You didn't notice anyone out of the ordinary, maybe following her out?" Greg asked.
The teenager shrugged. "No one that I noticed. Guys were always staring at her, y'know." He grinned. "She's pretty hot."
Sara rolled her eyes.
"Okay, Casanova, did you see which way she went?"
He pointed. "She always took the stairwell by the security office down to the parking lot. Usually one of the guards would escort her out but there was some kind of commotion in the record store, so they weren't in the office."
Sara looked at Greg. "I'll take the stairwell."
"I'll take the record store."
Warrick lifted the tire tread.
"Cath, check this out."
She leaned over.
"This tread is huge. I'm thinkin' off road?"
Catherine nodded. "Looks like. Not too many places those'd come in handy on the strip."
Warrick looked around. "I'm gonna go get that footage." He stood up. "Where'd Alfalfa go?"
Catherine sniggered.
"A guy and girl kept glancing at each other, walking around, picking up stuff…they looked suspicious, to me. Well the guy went out and the alarm went off so I called security. They picked him up a few stores down."
"And the girl?"
"She bought a CD and walked out like she didn't know the guy."
"Could I get a copy of that receipt?"
"Sure."
"Do you have any surveillance?"
"Yeah, but security already got it. It's probably on its way to the police station with the guy, by now."
He handed Greg the receipt. "What's this got to do with you CSI guys, though?"
Greg looked at him. "I'm not at liberty to discuss that." He took the receipt. "Thanks for your time."
Sara was dusting the handrail when someone goosed her.
"Jesus!" She turned around and saw Nick laughing and punched him in the shoulder.
"Damnit, Nick, you scared me!"
"Sorry." He massaged his shoulder and put his gloves on. "The car was spotless, so I figured I'd come give you a hand."
"Well this half's mine. You start at the bottom."
He picked up his kit. "Meet ya in the middle."
He walked down the stairs.
"Public mall, how many people take the stairwell?" He shook his head. "That's gotta be a lot of prints."
Sara nodded.
"Get busy, Stokes," she called down, and Nick grinned.
"Super Swamper TSL Radial tires."
"Tough tires for tough terrain."
Warrick nodded.
"I'm gonna go check with Archie on that footage, see what he's come up with, if anything."
"Brass brought in some footage from PD, too. He may be backed up."
"Where's everybody else?"
"Greg should be at PD by now, Sara's still at the mall."
"Wasn't Greg working with Sara at the mall?"
Catherine grinned. "Nicky went to give her a hand."
Warrick raised an eyebrow.
"Move your leg."
"That's a big one."
The guard stopped and looked down.
"I'm trying to get situated, here, Sara, could you move your leg?"
"Wow, Nick, I didn't know this'd be so hard for you."
"Well if you could hurry up on the railing it wouldn't take so long."
He cleared his throat and began walking again and the two of them looked up.
Sara was holding a brush and fingerprint powder, dusting the underside of a rail, and Nick was right next to her, lifting a footprint from one of the stairs.
"Somebody said you were lookin' for me?"
Nick stood up. "Are you the security guard who was in the record store today?"
"Yes."
"We need to ask you some questions about Mary Prescott."
"Okay."
Nick put the print away and walked up the stairs.
"You usually walked Mary to her car, but didn't today because of the disturbance in the record store, right?"
"That's right."
"A guy stole some stuff and you took him down to the station?"
The guard nodded. "He's still swearing he didn't take anything. Said some girl stuffed it into his pocket."
"What girl?"
"Look, I'll pay for it, okay? If that's what'll it take to get me out of here, fine, but for the last time, I didn't steal anything."
Greg looked at him. "The clerk in the store said it looked like the girl was with you, like maybe you knew each other."
He laughed. "I kept looking at her because she kept looking at me." He shrugged. "She was cute, and I thought she was interested. When I turned around to leave she bumped into me, apologized and smiled, and then I walked out."
"And the alarm went off and you kept walking."
"Do you usually ignore alarms?" Brass asked, and the man shook his head.
"I didn't steal anything. And if I ever did, it sure as hell wouldn't be an oldies CD."
Greg looked at Brass.
"Sit tight."
Brass followed Greg out into the hallway. "See if Archie's went over that tape yet and get back to me." He checked his watch. "We can keep Mr. Happy here for another hour or so."
"I'm finishing up with Greg's," Archie said at seeing Warrick. He took his headphones off and pulled another print.
"I've enhanced these frames to the max…" He shook his head. "She looks familiar, somehow."
Warrick leaned over Archie's shoulder and examined the screen when Greg walked in.
"Got anything?"
"The guy looks to be telling the truth. She bumped into him and you can see, within just two frames," Archie explained, playing back the footage, "that she slips something into his pocket."
Greg squinted. "I didn't see anything."
Archie played it back again, slower, and Greg sighed.
"Okay. I'll head back over and tell Brass."
"What does any of this have to do with Mary Prescott?" Archie asked.
Warrick looked at the photos.
"Coulda been just a regular mix up."
"C'mon, man. Why steal something and put it on another person? 'Specially if you don't know 'em?" He crossed his arms. "I bet it was some kind of distraction to get the guards out of that lot." He turned to leave. "Lemme know what you find on my footage."
Archie put his headphones back on and nodded.
Sara hummed a tune as she wrote and Nick sat beside her, running prints.
He leaned over and whispered, "Your voice is sexy, Sar."
She grinned and then yawned, and Nick checked his watch. "If we ever finish up here you wanna grab a bite to eat?"
She scoffed. "Like we'll ever finish up here." She shook her head. "The shoe print that was a straight trail from the top of the stairwell out into the lot, near where Mary's car was found, is a size 12. Another print, found only by the car, is a size 7. Kinda small for a guy, don't you think?"
Nick nodded and sipped his coffee. "A woman, a teenager?"
"Could be anybody."
"Yeah, but we're not looking for just anybody."
"Both look like sneakers."
Nick looked at the shoe print and then back; AFIS had a match on a print.
Nick stared at the screen and Sara looked at him.
"What's wrong?"
He said nothing and Sara leaned over and looked at the screen, her face paling instantly.
Nick stood up and walked out, leaving Sara to stare after him.
"Nick?"