So sorry for the lack of updates, but life has been a bitch lately with Christmas and all. Thank you everyone who have reviewed so far, it means the world to me, so please feel free to leave more reviews :-D

Jess, as always thank you, thank you, thank you – you are the best!

I just have to say that I don't know very much about dogs and especially not the police kind, so if what I'm describing in this chapter isn't possible, could we then just pretend that it is? For the sake of the story… Enjoy…

Chapter Seven

The Crime Scene

Arriving at the crime scene, Sara drove up and parked behind the canine unit. She got her kit from the back of her car and joined Grissom who was talking to the dog handler.

"Hi Gris. What do you want me to do?" She asked the old man.

"Sara, I need you to follow the dogs." He turned to the man he was talking to. "This is Officer Taylor, he'll be leading the dogs."

The two of them shook hands. "Anytime you're ready, ma'am." The officer said to her.

"I just have to put my jacket in the car, and then I'm ready." Sara said, shrugging off her jacket and walking towards her car. It was too hot to run in a jacket. "Let's go." She said when she returned a few seconds later.

The dogs picked up the scent within seconds and immediately went in the general direction of the toilets.

"She's definitely been here." Taylor informed her, stopping in front of the bathrooms. He was holding the dogs back so Sara could have a good look at the area.

"Do you have something?" Nick asked, walking out of the building.

"No." Sara shook her head. "I just got here, you?"

"No." He shook his head. "I got samples from different places in there, but nothing concrete."

"The dogs definitely place her here." Sara told him, looking around.

"The scent seems to end over here." Taylor yelled to them from the side of the building.

They joined him in front of a row of big bushes and looked at each other, both knowing what the other thought – the bushes were a great cover for someone keeping an eye on the toilets.

"Are they picking up on her leaving here again?" Sara asked.

"No, ma'am," Taylor shook his head. "The trail ends here; we'll try to search farther away, but…" He made a gesture with his arms as if saying that it would most likely be a waste of time.

"Ok." Sara looked back at the bushes. "Could you call me if you pick up the scent again? I'll start processing here."

"Sure thing ma'am." Taylor replied, and led the dogs away from them.

"You have a new admirer there, Sara." Nick commented with a grin as he snapped on his gloves.

"Huh?" Sara looked back at the retreating officer. "No." She shook her head. "You take that end," she pointed to the back of the building, "and I'll take this end till we meet in the middle."

"Sure." Nick nodded and went down the path. "I still say he's gonna ask you out when we finish here." He yelled back to her with a smile.

"Not gonna happen, Nick." She yelled back, snapping on her gloves.

"Care to make a bet on that?" Nick walked back towards her.

"What?" Sara looked at him. "Nick, we have a job to do here."

"I know." Nick looked serious for a moment then smiled at her. "If I'm right you buy me breakfast, if I'm wrong then I'm buying?"

"Will it get you to work faster?" Sara asked mockingly. "Ok, sure." She held out her hand and they shook on it.

They continued to work in the bushes for a while when Sara found a pink barrette on the ground where the leaves were messed up. "Nick, I got something here." She yelled out.

He moved down to her carefully. "What is it?" He asked.

"Was the girl wearing a pink barrette?" Sara asked, pointing at it on the ground. When Nick nodded she snapped a couple of pictures before picking it up placing and it in an evidence bag.

"Looks like a fight took place here." Nick mused. Sara only nodded, taking more pictures of the scene. "Hey, what's that?" He asked, pointing at something white on the ground in between the bushes.

"Looks like a handkerchief." Sara snapped more pictures and Nick picked up the item.

"Ma'am?" Taylor was standing at the end of the row of bushes looking at them.

"Yes?" Sara turned her head and looked at him.

"They're not picking up anything else." He said, pointing at the dogs.

"Which means he probably carried her away from here." Sara turned back to Nick.

"Yeah." He nodded. "You think he dropped this during the fight with the girl?" He asked, holding up the hankie.

"It's worth a shot," Sara said getting up, "but it's evidence. We should ask Grissom before we do anything with it." She pulled out her phone calling Grissom.

"Grissom."

"It's Sara. Grissom we might have found the place she was taken."

"Where?"

"There's a row of bushes on the side of the toilet building. We're standing between the wall and the bushes." Sara told him.

"I'm on my way." He hung up the phone.

"He's on his way." Sara answered Nick's questioning glance.

He bagged the handkerchief and they went to the edge of the bushes to wait for Grissom.

"It's always worse when it's a kid missing." Taylor said, trying to make small talk.

"Yeah." Sara replied absentmindedly, looking out for Grissom.

"You have kids, ma'am?" He proceeded to ask.

"What?" Sara looked at him, but caught the smile Nick was hiding behind his hand out of the corner of her eye. "No. No, I don't have kids."

"Your husband doesn't want kids?"

"I'm not married. Look…" Sara started, but was interrupted by Grissom arriving.

"What've you got?" He asked.

"Signs of a struggle in the bushes, a pink barrette and…" She motioned for Nick to show Grissom the hankie, "…this."

"The barrette matches the description of the girl's." Grissom looked at it. "I'll send it back to the lab with Greg."

"Are we using the handkerchief on the dogs?" Nick asked. "It could destroy the DNA evidence on it, but it might lead us to the secondary crime scene."

"We have to preserve the evidence." Grissom said, looking down at the dogs. "We can't risk them ruining the possible DNA on the handkerchief."

"I know." Nick said with a sigh. "I just thought I'd run the idea by you."

"What if…" Sara interrupted them. "Could the dogs get a good scent sniffing at the top of the open evidence bag with the handkerchief in it?" She asked Taylor.

"I don't know." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. "But I guess it's worth a try."

Sara looked at Grissom for permission. He thought about it for a minute then nodded.

"It could work." He mused. "Try it, but the dogs cannot get in contact with the handkerchief."

"Ok." Sara took the bag from Nick and handed it to Taylor. Grissom left them alone to get Greg to go to the lab with the evidence they had so far.

They led the dogs to the end of the bushes and held the bag up to their noses. They sniffed the bag a little while before sniffing around on the ground. Both Nick and Sara followed their actions closely and high-fived each other when they were led down a path towards the parking lot.

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Catherine met up with Sofia in the hallway of the Adams house.

"There's nothing here." She told her. "I've been through everything including the car and I found nothing indicating a crime."

"Good." Sofia looked at the pictures on the wall. "I hate cases with kids." She sighed.

"Me too." Catherine looked at the pictures as well. "I got her brush and toothbrush for DNA comparison." She held up two bags.

"Let's hope we don't need those." Sofia said, looking at the pink toothbrush.

"Do you know why the nightshift is running this?" Catherine asked her.

"Yeah, the dayshift was swamped with a casino robbery and shooting with multiple vics, so you guys were called in to cover for them."

"Ok." Catherine nodded in understanding and changed the subject. "How are they holding up?" She asked, looking towards the living room.

"They're barely keeping it together." Sofia shook her head. "I think deep down they know that this is not just a simple kidnapping."

"Hell of a case for Shaw to come back to."

"Yeah, but thank God she did. I don't think I could handle another case with Mills." She said, referring to the man who had temporarily filled Kimberly's position. "He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed."

"I know." Catherine sighed. "He almost got my last case thrown out because of a technicality." She shook her head at the memory. "I better call Gil and see how things are going at the park." She got out her phone but it started ringing before she could dial the number. "Willows." She answered, not bothering to check the display for caller ID.

"Hey Cath." It was Sara. "Are you still with the parents?"

"Yeah, I just finished processing. There's nothing here. I picked up the girl's brush and toothbrush for DNA comparison." She informed her. "Did you guys find anything?"

"We found the place she was taken. There were signs of a struggle between the bushes next to the bathrooms."

"Ok." Catherine looked up at Sofia. "I'll ask the parents if she usually went alone. Did you get anything else?"

"Yeah, the dogs led us to the parking lot, but we're at a dead end right now. Nick's gonna process it and I'm heading back to the lab with what little evidence we have." Sara sighed.

"Ok." Catherine nodded. "Do you need anything else?" Sara didn't answer right away and Catherine thought for a moment that she had hung up. "Sara?"

"Yeah."

"You need anything else?" Catherine turned her back to Sofia for a little privacy. "Are you ok?" She asked in a softer tone of voice.

"Yeah." Sara sighed again. "I could use a hug though." She said, sounding a little embarrassed at her admission.

"Oh, well…" Catherine started but was interrupted.

"Hold on, Cath. Grissom wants to talk to you."

"Catherine?"

"Gil?" Catherine shook her head at his bad timing. "What's up?"

"I think you should bring the parents to the lab. Brass already sent a couple of officers to the house to keep an eye on it."

"What if someone calls?" Catherine knew that no one would call, but they at least had to have all bases covered.

"We are working on forwarding the phone to the lab as we speak. But this isn't just a kidnapping, all the evidence points to…"

"I know, Gil." Catherine sighed. "We'll bring them in as soon as the officers get here."

"Good. I'll see you back at the lab."

"Yes, I'll…" Catherine didn't get further when she realized that he'd hung up the phone. "Damn." She looked down at it before turning back to Sofia. "We're bringing the parents to the lab."

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Grissom handed the phone back to Sara without a word, leaving her alone with Nick on the scene. Looking at it she realized that he'd hung up.

"Damn." She muttered, just loud enough for Nick to hear.

"You ok?" He asked from where he was crouched on the ground studying an oil stain.

"Yeah." Sara nodded. "He just hung up." She held up the phone.

Nick was about to say something sympathetic when someone else beat him to talking.

"Miss Sidle?" Taylor walked up to them.

"Yeah?" Sara turned and looked at him. "The dogs get anything new?"

"No. No, I was just wondering if you'd want to have dinner sometime?" He smiled at her. "When this is all over of course." He added.

"Oh." Sara looked uncomfortable. "Uhm, no. I'm involved with someone." She felt the blush spreading on her face and saw Nick grinning out of the corner of her eyes.

"Well, it was worth a shot." Taylor looked over at Nick. "I'll see you guys later." And then he quickly walked away from them.

"I'm heading back to the lab." Sara looked over at Nick who wasn't even trying to hide the smile on his face.

"Sure." He nodded and she walked towards her car. "Hey Sara?" He yelled at her.

"Yeah?" She turned back, she knew he wouldn't just let her leave.

"Where are you taking me for breakfast?" He asked laughing.

"Funny, Nick." She turned back towards her car again.

"Can I please be the one to tell Catherine?" He jogged up to her. "I want to see her face when she finds out."