Chapter 24

He paced the room in his house and kept looking up at the wall as if the answer was there. "Can't go the hospital it's too dangerous. They must really like my Sara to guard her so closely. I will just have to wait until she leaves the hospital and start working on her again. Now I must take the time to figure out the perfect gift to win her love. Maybe I read her wrong, maybe she doesn't like flowers and that's why she throws them away. But she threw my other gifts away too. I need to find a way to get her alone so I can tell her that I love her." He took one last look at the wall turned off the light then left the room.

He went into his living room and sat in the hanging chair and imagined Sara sitting there and remembering the times on the beach. Will she be happy here until I can take her back to California? He wanted to give her time to get to know him before he took her back to their home on the beach. He knew that once she got to know him she would love him as much as he loved her. And once they got to the beach house she would fall in love with him all over again. Then she would put her life here behind her and they would be happy on the beach. That would be a dream come true and he will just have to make sure she has all she could ever need. It's a quiet piece of beach where not too many people visit. There are only the three houses on that stretch of beach and since he now owned all three they wouldn't have to worry about being bothered by neighbors. She'll appreciate all he has done to ensure that they are not disturbed once they settle down. The only people that ever visited the beach while Sara lived there were her friends, the other neighbors and he. He didn't let her see him very often because he wanted to see her response to his gifts before he made any moves. But she left California before he could make his presence know.

As he had told her, he would kill her before he let her get away again. He also knew he would have to kill Catherine Willows too. He'd already found out where she lived and drove by there the other day and thought it was a nice house. He checked her out online and it said she had been an exotic dancer when she was younger and was married to an Eddie Willows, checked on him too, sleazy looking guy. She had a 5 year old daughter, her sleazy dad can take care of her once her Mom is dead. I wonder if Sara likes kids. She's still young enough to have a couple. They would all have that same cute gap in their teeth, her chocolate brown eyes and the curl in their hair, especially when it is wet.

Sara had been easy to find once she had left but he'd had a job to do and that was why it took a year before he could renew his relationship with her. He knew everything about her so it wasn't hard to track her down. They would be surprised if they knew what kind of information he could gather from his computer. It wasn't just your run of the mill computer, he wasn't a genius for nothing. He had some of the biggest corporations in the world in debt to him for the information he's been able to gather for them and the computer systems he'd installed for them. He kept meticulous records and those same corporations were well aware of those records so they knew they were between a rock and a hard place and had to come back to him for all of their computer work. He was in very high demand because of his expertise but none of them knew anything more about him than the phone number he gave them.

He looked at the picture he had sitting on the coffee table. It was his favorite that he had taken of Sara. She had just come out of the water and had lowered the top half of her wet suit and picked up her surf board and was carrying it back to her house. Her hair was plastered against her face and there was a huge smile on her face and the morning sun was shining on her hair. She was always happiest at that time of the morning, before she had to go to work and face the ugliness of her job. She didn't seem to be happy at all anymore and that was why he wanted to take her away from all of this, away from the ugliness. They would have a good life and she would be happy.

"Nick, let's wrap this up and take the evidence back to the office. We need to process this before we can get back to Sara's evidence."

"We need to see if Grissom can get more help from Ecklie. I'll ask him when we get back and see what he says." Nick stowed his gear and evidence in the back of their truck and hopped in the passenger seat while Warrick fished out the keys out of his pocket after he put all of his stuff next to Nick's in the back of the Denali. Nick turned to him after he had started the truck. "Think Grissom's mood has improved any?"

"Has Catherine given up on Sara, has Sara moved on to someone else, no to both ? So I guess it would be safe to say that his mood will not have improved. I would bet that it has gotten worse."

"Once again that's a sucker's bet and I'm not stupid enough to take it. What the hell are we going to do with him? Maybe we should call Lady Heather, I always felt he had a soft spot for her?"

"Nick you are a genius! She gave me her card the last time we were out there on a case and said to call her anytime. I'll call her when we get back to the office."

"Why would she have given you one of her cards you sly devil?" Nick punched him on the shoulder and laughed.

"Actually she asked me to keep an eye on Grissom because she said she she was drawn to him but not in a sexual way. I'm sure it wouldn't take much for it to turn sexual if you know what I mean?"

"Why am I always the last one to know all of this stuff and why didn't you tell me? Geez I need to start watching people better. I missed Catherine and Sara and now this. I feel like I'm being left out of the loop."

"It's not that you're being left out of the loop it's just that you are too naïve and don't think sexual thoughts about your coworkers." At Nick's grimace he went on. "I don't mean think about them as a sex object I mean look at them and think about who you would pair them up with. Greg and I do it all the time. Sara is the intellectual sexy type, she and Grissom would make a good pair intellectually but sexually, no way. Now Catherine is sexy as hell and intelligent, men throw themselves at her, she could have her choice of man or woman. With Sara you see the intelligence and the beauty but with Catherine her beauty knocks you out and once you get past that her intelligence comes out. Haven't you ever wondered about stuff like that?"

"Not about my coworkers man, that's like incest or something. Sara's like a sister and Grissom has always been like a father or big brother. Catherine is sexy as hell but I still can't think about her like that. How come you and Greg never told me about these little games you play?"

"We probably would have included you if you had been around when we started talking but I guess the timing has always been off. What do you care if you can't think about them like that?"

"Well there's always Archie and other people. So have you ever paired yourself with Catherine? You two have this flirting thing going on all the time."

"Naw, we actually talked about it one time and knew that we couldn't act on it because she said work would get in the way if things didn't work. That's what tells me this is pretty serious for her if she's willing to take a chance with Sara."

"Man I always thought they hated each other from the way they always fought. Now you're telling me it was sexual tension? So no more fights, damn that was good entertainment?"

"Oh so you do think about them sexually then?" Warrick was laughing at the look on Nick's face when he realized what he had said.

"Aw man I'm just as bad as you and Greg aren't I?"

"Not yet but we'll work on it buddy."