AN: Sorry for the delay, but there was a bet on this chapter and... well I needed to wait for the results. Anyway. Here is the chapter. I hope you like it.

Chelsee6 don't be sorry for putting a review. I don't mind when you put a review, whereas you put a review :-) And thank you for helping us with the bet.

Pole I know you're shocked, but there's a warning posted in the summary.

Anyway thank you all for your reviews, you make my day!

And I can't forget SoFrost. Thank you for your encouragement, your corrections, suggestions and for all you can imagine. You're the best!

Chapter 18 – Dead End

They examined all the evidences found at the parish. The ropes didn't match the ones used to tie up Carl Roth. There were epithelial cells, but it could be everything or nothing. Warrick knew that everybody had access to the storeroom; that meant that every person of the group of volunteers, including Father Silecio, could have touched the ropes. They knew by the programs and by what the priest had told them that there were activities that justified the use of the ropes. It was a dead end and that frustrated them.

Archie found himself loaded with at least twenty videotapes, with more than three hours recorded. It would be an exhausting shift and the next that would follow it wouldn't be any easier. The videotapes were cataloged by date. So, he started for the most recent date and then went back to the oldest one. It could take days to process all of them but it had to be done if they wanted to catch the killer. He didn't know what he was about to find in there.

"Anything that could be suspicious" Sara had said to him. She had promised him that when she had time she would help him to watch all the tapes, but after that she had disappeared without another word.

He took one video off of the pile and looked at the date in the tape: 05/07. He played it. It was some kind of celebration, a birthday. There were several people around a birthday cake laughing and singing. He didn't know who was the person in the center, but it seemed like people were paying tribute to her. She had blonde hair and a radiant smile. She was attractive and her green eyes were emanating a sparkle that caught his attention.

"She's pretty, isn't she?"

Archie didn't turn to see who had entered the room. He knew very well that voice. He smiled never leaving his eyes from the screen.

"Yeah, she is beautiful"

"She was, Archie. That's Sabina Kestch" Catherine said taking a seat next to him.

"It's a shame. She had something, I don't know, pure?" He said still looking at the screen. Now she was opening her presents. Everyone, except two people was around her, clapping every time she opened one of the presents. Father Silecio was on the screen as Owen Wilson.

Archie forwarded the tape a few minutes. Now the group was making a toast. The first one to speak in the videotape was Father Silecio. He was more relaxed and looked at the young Sabina with sweet eyes.

"For the young ones." He said looking at her. "They are our future and in them we have faith to follow God's steps"

Everybody made the toast. After a little sip, Owen Wilson cleared his throat and talked.

"For the ones that left us" There was an uncomfortable silence. They weren't smiling anymore and Catherine detected that Mr. Wilson was a little drunk. The expression in Father Silecio darkened. He looked at Owen Wilson and signed. Finally he raised his drink and replied to him "For the ones that left us and never came back. May God takes care of them, the same way we are going to take care"

Everybody seemed to relax after the priest's words, and carried on with the party.

The rest of the videotape had nothing interesting. They did games and other things. There wasn't anything really probative except that they were a compact group that provided each other for comfort and happiness. For Catherine, the group looked like a family.

It made Catherine wonder what kind of relationship she had with Nick, Warrick, Greg, Grissom and especially Sara. They were co-workers, that was a fact, but between them there was a connection that was confirmed after Nick's abduction. Now watching the videotape she could see the parallels between St. Thomas Church's group and the CSIs. They didn't celebrate birthdays together, but had a few celebrations on their own. She remembered when Greg passed his exams and became a CSI and a few Christmas parties.

If there was a thing to be sure of, it was that Catherine will do anything for them. She demonstrated it when Grissom was in danger with the 'strip strangle'. She didn't doubt a second before pulling the trigger and kill that bastard to save her friend. But that was a dead or live situation. She knew that when Nick was abducted she wanted to rip the heart of his captor or when her daughter was in danger she was ready to do anything to save her. If Brass had let her be on the front she would have pulled the trigger once more time without any doubt.

She was deep in her own thoughts when an idea came up to her. If they couldn't prove Father Silecio's guiltiness, maybe the clue was in the group. It was a fact that Carl Roth was murdered by at least two men and there was a woman involved. Brass had brought a photography of the group to Ann Polley to identify the mysterious girl that went to Carl's apartment. It turned out to be Sabina Kestch. But now she was dead. The registries of Carl Roth's revealed that he made a few calls to the parish and other ones to the said woman a few days before his death. Now, they only needed to demonstrate that two other persons were involved in his murder, but that was another story.

It was hard to believe that Sabina's death was casual. It was too suspicious. So Catherine had asked Sara to look at the car and processed it. That was a few hours ago and still she hadn't heard anything from the brunette yet.

Another thing that preoccupied Catherine, was Father Silecio and the part he had played in this murder. He was the 'father figure' of the group. They worshipped him, they looked at him for advice, guidance and comfort. They worked for him in the parish. For what they knew, the life of the group was around him. But when they found scopolamine in his bathroom he had an excuse, better to say that his lawyer and his doctor, had an excuse for that.

Father Silecio suffered sea-sickness, and scopolamine it was commonly used by scuba drivers, due to its effectiveness against sea-sickness. That didn't necessarily mean that he had given the pills to Sabina Kestch to drug Carl Roth. The prints that she had found weren't from the priest, so they couldn't prove anything against him except his voice in the tape.

After an hour of looking at the videotapes where Archie and Catherine could see the priest in a scuba skin Catherine decided to take a break and see what Sara had found in the car.

She excused herself and went to the garage in search of Sara. In her way, she made a stop in the break room and took two mugs of coffee. Sara would need one of them. When she was going to leave, Grissom entered the room and called her.

"Catherine, I was looking for you" He said to her never looking away from the sheets he had in his hand.

"What can I do for you?"

"First of all. How is the Roth's case working?" He asked looking above his glasses

"Not very well. We don't have a real suspect and the only one that could be has an alibi, but I'm sure he is involved in a certain way"

"Just concentrate on the evidence, Catherine. What does it tell you?"

"Oh come on, Gil. Are you going to treat me like a rookie?"

"I'm just saying that if you don't have enough evidences to prove that your 'suspect' is 'responsible' for the murder, you need to let him go, and concentrate in other things"

"I know, but the evidence it's contradictory. In one hand we have his voice recorded in a videotape where we can see how a person kills our victim. We had the testimony of a woman that puts one of his 'group of friends' in the apartment of the victim, maybe hours or minutes before his disappearance, but now she is dead"

"Did you investigate the cause of death of that woman?"

"Yeah, it was a car accident. Sara is examining the car to see if it was tricked"

"What about Warrick?"

"Warrick is processing the ropes that we found in the parish, but they don't match the ones used to tied up Carl Roth's body to the planks"

"Good…" He said thinking. Catherine watched him with suspicious eyes.

"Good? What is good for you?"

"I need one of you for a new case. Do you mind if I take Warrick with me?"

"If he has finished with his work I don't see any problem" She said to him.

"Perfect." He started to leave the room when he turned to her.

"And Catherine, if you don't have any proof that leads you to a suspect of the crimes, you need to focus on anything else. We can't always catch the bad guys and put them between bars"

He didn't wait for Catherine's replied. He just said that to her and left the room leaving Catherine with two mugs of cold coffee in her hands.

'Guys, that's the word' she thought to herself. She took a sip of coffee and seeing the bad taste she emptied the mugs in the sink. She poured two fresh cups of coffee and went in search of Sara.

When she entered the garage, the first thing that caught her attention was the wrecked car. A red mustang which front was a mess, a jumble of metal At first sight it was obvious that the accident was a front collision, and according to the report, the car crashed with a wall. It was like the driver had lost control of the car or that she crashed intentionally. Sara was nowhere to be found. She went to the other side of the car when she tripped over something that made half of the coffee end on the floor and the other part of it on her blouse.

There was an immediate reply, and not very pleasant.

"Hey! Watch it! I'm trying to work in here!"

"Shit, Sara! You could put some warning signs or something like that!" Catherine said trying to compose herself and avoiding the pond of coffee that was on the floor.

"Catherine?" She asked surprise

"Who the hell else should I be?" She was pissed. She had a big spot of coffee on her new blouse and her hand hurt from the burning coffee and that pissed her off more.

Sara appeared from below the car and watched with her eyebrows arched.

"You need to watch were you put your foot before walking, you know?" She said in a mocking tone "You could be hurt"

"No kidding" replied the blonde sarcastically. "Now I need to change my clothes"

"Hey don't blame it to me. I was working, you're the one who trip over me."

"Yeah, yeah…" she said trying to clean herself.

After a moment Sara noticed the two cups of coffee on the floor.

"What were you doing with two cups of coffee?" Sara asked to her

Catherine stopped and looked at her. "I brought you a cup of coffee, but I doubt you want to drink it from the floor."

Getting out from under the car, Sara stood up and watched the blonde. The blouse was a mess of coffee and Catherine was applying some pressure on her left hand

"Are you hurt?" She asked pointing Catherine's hand, concern over her face.

"It's nothing, just a little burn" She responded without looking at her.

"Let me see" Sara demanded

"It's nothing, don't worry".

"If it is nothing you wouldn't be applying pressure in there" She said in a soft tone. "Please, let me see"

Catherine uncovered her hand as Sara approached to her to take a look at the burn while she was taking off gloves. She took Catherine's hand in hers and some napkins and started to clean up the remains of coffee carefully.

"Does it hurt?" She asked still cleaning her hand. Catherine watched as she proceeded to take care of her hand. The touch was gentle and smooth. Sara was very careful to not hurt her. In fact, Catherine didn't feel any pain at all but she was willing to pretend, just to feel Sara's touch. She didn't feel her hand burning that much – the sting was light, but she did feel all her body arching for Sara's touch.

Sara stopped cleaning her hand when Catherine didn't answer her question. She looked at her. Catherine was looking how their hands were entwined. There was a comfortable silence between the two women. Catherine looked at her, and then she realized that Sara had spoken and she hadn't given her any answer.

"No, it's fine" She said in a soft tone never leaving the brunette's hazel eyes.

"Good." She said smiling. "Let's put you some cream on that hand"

They left the garage and went to the locker room where there was a medical kit. Sara took the cream and turned to Catherine. She applied the cream over the red mark the burn had left on Catherine's hand. After that, she looked to the blue eyes of the blonde, not letting go of Catherine's hand.

"Now it will heal properly." She said with a bright smile on her lips.

"I don't have any doubt about that, Doctor Sidle" Catherine replied with a seductive smile on her lips.

"Well, since I was the one who provoked this" Sara pointed to Catherine's hand, "the less I can do is buying you breakfast."

"I hope you have a spare of clothes, because I don't and I'm not going out like this" She replayed showing the state of her blouse.

Sara smiled "Yeah, don't worry, I have some clothes you can borrow" She said opening her looker and taking out a black t-shirt that she handed to Catherine. She contemplated the mess that was the blouse and signed. "What a pity. It looked good in you"

"Thanks" she said blushing. Silence set once more between the two women. They were watching and neither was moving.

"What did you find in the car?" Catherine decided to break the silence. She felt vulnerable with Sara's stare, like the brunette could see through her. So she decided get her mind on work.

"Nothing. Everything seems to be in a good state, except the front." Her tone was serious and there was a shadow that covered her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"I've watched the photographs of the scene. There weren't marks of breaks on the road. It's like she collided with the wall intentionally"

"Yeah, that's what I though. I was hoping you could have found something that didn't corroborate that hypothesis"

"Well I'm not done yet, but I could use a break" Sara said. "Let's get us cleaned and have breakfast. The car is not going anywhere for at least the next 24 hours"

While Sara was taking a shower, Catherine's eyes were wandering through Sara's belongings. There were a few photographs on the inside of the door of the looker. One was of a young couple. From what she could see, she would say they were more than fifteen years old. It was obvious that one of the persons in the photograph was Sara – The gap between her front teeth made her unmistakable -who had her arms wrapped around a young boy, maybe seven years older than her. On the background there was the sea. There was something familiar about them. The other photographs were from the group of CSI. They were all smiling at the camera, she remembered this moment, it was during Lindsey's birthday. Another photograph showed another group. She didn't recognize the people that were there, except a smiling Sara, younger than now. "This one must be from San Francisco" Catherine thought to herself. Sara was been teased by a woman who had the remains of a cake in her fingers and from the look of it, it seemed she was trying to put some of that cake in Sara's face. She didn't remember Sara being so happy.

"Did you change?" A voice asked her. She was drying her head with a towel, and didn't seem to notice Catherine watching the photographs.

"Yeah, thank you" She said embarrassed and putting the piece of cloth on.

Sara looked at her a few moments while Catherine was finishing. "It fits you"

Catherine was going to ask her about the photographs when Sara noticed that she had turned her head to the inside of the door.

She approached her and closed the door. "If you're ready we could have breakfast"

Sara wasn't too fast enough for Catherine, not to notice the other photograph. The one with Sara and a female on the beach. The woman was leaning on Sara kissing her cheek.

"I'm ready" She said blankly. "Remember you're buying it!"

They left the looker room, Catherine wondering what other things Sara didn't want to share and thinking about the last photograph she had saw.

TBC