A/N: Thank you for reading! We appreciate hearing from you-more to come!

One More Grissom Sequel: The Day's Sweet Light

Chapter 5

The next morning, Nick called and wanted Sara to meet a retired detective who had worked the Alana Norwood case. He said he'd bring lunch. Sara and Grissom had time to scrub the children and clean the table on the deck before the two men arrived. Nick had been in their home often and knew what foods to bring so everyone had favorites to eat.

Doug Miller, the retired detective, was excited to be included in the discussion of an old case he remembered well. And he was grandfather to seven so lunch became a laughter and joke filled occasion. Jemma ended up sitting in the man's lap as he showed her how to spell her name with noodles.

After the meal, Nick and Grissom took the kids outside while Sara and Doug cleaned up and talked about his memories of the case.

"It's one that's stayed with me, for sure," he said. "Every time a female body was found, I'd think it might be Alana."

"Tell me about her family—parents, the cousin," said Sara.

As they washed and rinsed dishes, put away food and swept away crumbs, Doug Miller told her about the missing girl's parents. "They were good parents—overcome with pain and heartache that just became worse as days went by. I never had one doubt about their innocence. The two younger kids—six and nine—were the same way. The dad died several years later—some kind of cancer—and Ann Norwood is still in the same house."

Sara prepared tea and placed cups on the table as she listened. "What's the story on the cousin? Do you think he was involved?"

Doug shook his head saying, "We—all of us—thought the cousin was guilty of something. His buddies backed up his alibi for the days around the time Alana went missing. But there was something else—I had lots of twenty-year-olds, teenagers who were up to no good—and Sam Norwood was one of those."

Sara asked, "Was it drugs?"

Again, Doug shook his head. "We gave him a pretty good search and drugs never showed up—which was always curious when he did get arrested with drugs and paraphernalia. Up to then, I'd stake a badge that he'd never been involved in drugs—but there was something going on—not just a nude photograph hidden in a book."

"And he died in jail."

"Yes—one night in a holding cell. Some kind of ruckus, he got pushed or fell and died quickly. Wasn't much of an investigation as I recall." Doug picked up the tea cup and took a sip then used it as he pointed to Sara. "The family buried the guy and never a word about suing the city for overcrowding—never asked for a report about conditions. You know how many lawsuits come in daily about jail conditions?"

Sara was silent for a few minutes as she thought. "Have you talked to the mother—kept in contact with her?"

"No—not really—for a while, I'd go by. When I retired, I thought I might write a book and visited her but she was—was stoic—unemotional to a point. I left and haven't contacted her again."

"Would you go with me to see her?"

This time, Doug took a long time answering. "No—no, I think she might talk to you if I wasn't there."

They sat across the table, listening to children's voices coming from outside for a few minutes.

"One more thing," Sara said. "Why were there no interviews with the mother? Every interview had someone else in the room with her—it's—it's as if she was silent—a ghost—for every interview."

Again, it took a while for the retired detective to respond. "In the beginning, she was overwhelmed. Her husband answered questions. Her sister was helping out—you say there is no record of an interview with the mom? What about the dad?"

"Yes, the dad did several. But not the mom—someone was always with her during interviews and answering questions." For the first time, Sara felt uneasy—not with Doug but with his answers. She changed the topic, saying "I've not watched the videos yet. Do you want to watch with me?"

Agreeing, Sara opened her laptop and inserted the thumb drive. As a blurred image came on screen, Doug said, "I remember these—family had a home movie camera for about a year before Alana disappeared."

The two watched as a family laughed, celebrated, made faces at the camera. Near the end of the video, ninety seconds long, Alana Norwood walked across a lawn, her back to the camera. At one point, she tossed her head back, faced the camera and smiled for a brief moment before resuming her walk along a driveway.

Sara paused the video on Alana's face studying the image of a young girl, ready to be grown up, a hint of eye shadow on her eyes. She said, "She was a beautiful girl."

"Yeah—it's a shame, a tragedy what happened."

Sounds of children at the doorway caused Sara to close the laptop.

"Uncle Nick says we have cookies!" Will shouted from the door.

"Daddy says we can eat two cookies each," said Jemma, following close behind her brother.

Both children ran to Sara; Will pressed his lips to his mother's ear, whispering, "Can I have three cookies—I'm bigger than Jemma."

Laughing, Sara sent both to wash hands as she got up from the table. She said, "Thank you, Doug. I'll read all of this again—maybe I missed something that will be helpful."

The retired detective said, "I just don't know what you can find. I think she was taken, killed and buried in some remote spot."

Will and Jemma returned, hands damp from hand washing; Nick and Grissom arrived in time for a box of decorated cookies to be opened. Nick, as the one who brought the food, selected specific cookies for the children—a colorful unicorn for Jemma who handled it so long it became sticky and a bright yellow and black honey bee for Will who decided to nibble a wing first. Nick added more cookies shaped like caterpillars to their plates.

There were other cookies for the adults and as they ate, everyone talked about cookies, the prettiest one—the unicorn won—and the delicious taste of each cookie. The talk was amusing and pleasant with no mention of the long-missing twelve year old.

Later, after dinner, when their two kids were absorbed in watching Finding Nemo for the fifth time, Sara and Grissom sat on the deck and talked about the cold case.

Sara said, "It bothers me there is no interview with the mother."

Surprised, Grissom asked, "Are you sure? There is a lot of stuff in those boxes."

"I didn't miss it—and there is an itemized list of contents. Every time, someone with her answers the questions." Pausing for a moment, she added, "And there is something odd about Detective Miller. After I asked him about interviewing the mother, he was—hesitant, I think—and he'd already said he didn't want to visit her with me."

"Nick told me Miller had talked about writing a book about this case."

"Yeah, he said that—maybe he and the mother didn't agree about writing a book—but he was very open about the case until I mentioned visiting the mother. Then he seemed to clam up."

Grissom leaned to Sara and kissed her. "You have great instincts, dear. If something is there, you'll find it. Let's get the kids to bed and I want to read some of the information." Standing and offering his hand to her, he added, "We've had a lot of complicated cases—and you are a pro at using both sides of your brain to solve a puzzle."

A/N: You knew Grissom gets involved! Thank you for reading-and for your comments!