Chapter 33

"Where the hell is she?" Brass was pacing back and forth in the front yard of the house where everything was set up to trap her stalker. "I always had a bad feeling about this and now we can't find her. Did you try her phone again?" He turned to the officer to his left.

"Yes sir I've tried 3 times and it just goes into voice mail." He looked at his superior and saw the worry in his eyes. "And I've tried Officer Garcia's just as many times and he's not answering either."

"Well keep trying. I guess it's safe to assume he either has both of them or Manny was in on it. Did anyone see what direction they went in when they left the station?"

"Most of us were already here sir. Maybe they had a flat or something and that's how he got them. There aren't too many routes that they could have taken to get here. So we can check those routes. But don't you think they would have called?"

"Ok Palmer let's get every available unit out on the street searching for Garcia's car, report to me when they find something. They have to be out there somewhere. I'm going to head back to the station and figure out how long I wait before I go talk to Catherine. She is going to kill me." He hung his head as he headed towards his car. "Why the hell did I listen to Sara and let her talk me into this? Now I have to tell the CSI's I screwed up gain and let this guy get to her. This day couldn't get any worse." He got in his car and rocks and gravel flew as he spun the tires. All the way back to the station he tried to figure out how he was going to tell Catherine. He decided to head over to the Rampart instead of going to the station. "Better get it over with now. If I wait any longer she'll yell because I waited too long." He pulled into the drive of the Rampart and threw his police placard in the window and headed in. He called the officer guarding Catherine and asked for the room number then he headed towards the elevator. "Damn I hate this job sometimes." He walked out of the elevator and looked down the hallway and saw the officer standing outside a door about halfway down the hallway. He walked towards the door then stopped by the officer. "Take a break ok." He stood at the door then took a deep breath and knocked.

Catherine was on the floor playing with Lindsey when she heard the knock on the door. She looked at her watch and thought it was too soon for Sara to be done already. She looked out the peephole and saw Brass standing there. She opened the door and didn't like the look on Jim's face. "Why aren't you with Sara?"

Jim poked his head into the room. "Lindsey I'm going to take your Mommy for a little walk we'll be back soon." He gave Lily a look that asked her to watch Lindsey. He reached out and took Catherine's elbow. "Let's go for a walk."

"Jim where the hell is Sara? Where is she?"

"I guess I won't beat around the bush, he's got her." He was glad he still had hold of her arm because her legs gave out as soon as what he said hit her. He led her to a chair at the end of the hallway and sat her down. "Do you need anything, water or something?"

She sat there for a minute before she was able to say anything. "Let's go down to the bar, I need a drink. Then you are going to tell me what the hell happened." He started to talk but she held her hand up for him to be quiet. "I don't want you to say anything until we get downstairs." He helped her up and held her arm until they got to the elevator, once they got inside and the door closed Catherine moved over to the back corner and tilted her head back so it was resting against the wall. As soon as the door opened Catherine headed to the bar and sat down at a table in the back corner, when the waitress came over she looked up. "Whiskey straight up, make it a double." She then turned to Brass. "Now tell me how the hell he could have gotten her when she was supposed to be at a meeting in your office?"

"There was no meeting in my office. That's just what she told you to get you to let her leave without worrying." He looked up as the waitress brought Catherine's drink. Then watched her down it in one gulp then order another one. "Hey take it easy."

"Don't Jim, this is not the time. Whose idea was this and what went wrong?"

"I tried to talk her out of it but she was bound and determined to do it. She came to me and told me she wanted her life back and she felt going after him was the only way it was going to happen. Between the two of us we devised a plan to get him to come to us. All we know right now is that she and Manny never showed up at the house."

"So what has been done to find her? And how long has she been missing?"

"I was supposed to show up at the house about 10 minutes after Sara. So I guess it's been about an hour. There were three officers at the house waiting for her but she never showed up. We've checked the route they should have taken and there were no accidents or reason they would have been delayed. My guys are still out looking for them as we speak."

"What about the GPS on his car? Aren't all police cars outfitted with GPS?" Her second drink arrived and she downed it as fast as the first one.

Jim sat there and watched his friend and he'd never felt so helpless."Manny suggested they switch to his personal car so as not to scare the guy off when they showed up at the scene. I think it's safe to say he was in on this from the start."

"When did he join the force?"

"Hang on let me make a call." While he was talking on the phone Catherine thought back to last night and now she knew what was on Sara's mind. Jim looked up as he was talking and he cringed at the look on Catherine's face. He wasn't sure he wanted to hang up the phone and face her wrath right now. When he got the information he needed he hung up and looked at Catherine. She seemed to be in her own world right now and it didn't seem to be a happy place. "He started about a week after Sara got to Vegas. He came from the same part of California that Sara did. It appears he's been following her from the start."

"I'm going to go upstairs and say good bye to Mom and Lindsey then we are going to the office and get everyone to work on this." She stood up and headed out of the bar leaving Brass to pay the bill. He was waiting for her to blow up but so far there was no sign of the Willow's anger and he was wondering how long it would take for her calm to break. It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes before she was back and from the looks of it she was even angrier than when she left. "Let's go." She headed towards the door without even breaking stride. Jim had to almost run to keep up with her, he was able to get to the passenger door just in time to open it for her.

"You want me to call the guys and bring them up to speed before we get there?" Jim asked her as he got in the car.

"That would probably be a good idea. Tell them to do checks on both men. Check everything. How are they connected, how do they know each other and how long have they known each other. Tell Archie to see if there is any way we can track either one of them." She waited until Jim was done making his calls before she spoke again and when she did she held nothing back. "How the hell could you let her talk you into doing something so fucking stupid Jim? No don't talk! Do not say a word. She's still recovering from her injuries and not even ready to go back to work and you let her do something like this." She was yelling through the tears she had been holding back from the minute she saw Brass at the door. "I know you are a good cop but sometimes I gotta wonder about some of the decisions you make. I don't blame you for her getting taken I blame you for putting her in a position where she could be taken. If Manny really is involved, which I don't doubt, then he could have taken her anytime but he needed a time and place where he would have enough time to get her away without anyone being the wiser. You handed her to him on a silver platter. I don't envy you having to talk to Grissom. I'm staying away from that one. Don't think I'm done with you yet but right now I am going to focus all of my energy on getting her back. When we do get her back, and we will, you will owe me big time. You can breathe now."

He turned to her and saw that the tears were falling freely and he didn't know if there was anything he could say to make things any better. "Sara is like a daughter to me and I felt sick when I got to the house and she wasn't there yet. I was fooled by Manny, he seemed so genuine and he seemed to honestly care about protecting Sara. Now we both know it was just a ruse to stay close to her. I will do anything in my power to find her."

Catherine reached over and put her hand on Jim's arm. "I know you will Jim and I also know how much you care for her. I just needed to vent and now that I have we can get down to business. Now that we are here I will leave you to your meeting with Grissom and go see my guys to get things rolling." She got out of the car almost before he had it stopped and headed into CSI headquarters. She went straight to Archie's lab and when she entered she wasn't surprised to see Warrick and Nick there too. "Anything guys?"

"Catherine I'm so sorry about this, how you holding up?"

"I'm fine Warrick what are our options?"

Archie looked up from his computer screen. "I checked the GPS on her phone and it's stationary at a spot downtown and I needed to wait for someone to give me the authority to send someone to check it."

Catherine pulled out her phone and called dispatch. "Yes, this is CSI Willows, I need a unit to check near the 4000 block of Koval for a phone belonging to one of our CSI's. Have them get back to me at this number. Thanks." She turned to Warrick. "I want you to do a search on Manny Garcia, find out anything and everything on him. And I mean everything. Nick I want you to do the same for this Tim guy." They both turned to the computers and started their search.

"Where's Brass?" Warrick asked as his fingers flew across the keyboard.

Catherine laughed a slightly evil laugh. "He went to tell Grissom what happened."

"Oh man I don't envy him. Twice in one week, man that's tough. What did happen? How the hell did this guy get a hold of her?"

"Well Nicky apparently behind my back she's been planning this with Brass. They set up a crime scene and they were going to trap him there. On paper it looked good but there was one variable they hadn't planned on and that was Manny. It looks like he's been watching her since she got here. He moved from California about the same time she did. Started on the force about a week after she got here. This just shows that this guy Tim has been patient up until this point but something caused him to step up his pursuit of Sara. Let's see if we can figure out what that something was, maybe it will help us." Catherine's phone rang and she picked it up and answered. "Willows. Yeah, ok thanks." She hung her head for a minute then took a deep breath before she spoke. "They found Sara's phone and purse in an ally which officially puts Manny on my shit list. That son of a bitch is mine when this is all over. I want 5 minutes alone with him. Maybe his balls can join that pig in a jar on Grissom's shelf." The three men in the room cringed at the thought.

Brass walked in the room about 10 minutes later and the look on his face told them that the discussion he had with Grissom went exactly as Catherine thought it would. "So Jim how's your day going?"

"Shut up Warrick." He walked over to Catherine and put his arm around her and she let him. "How are you doing?"

"Better than you from the looks of it." She gave him a smile to show her support. "I've realized over the last week that when Sara wants something she will do everything in her power to get it." She actually blushed at remembering some of the things she and Sara did over the last week and it didn't go unnoticed by the guys in the room. "I also know how persuasive she can be. That doesn't mean you are off the hook but it means I understand. Now let's put our heads together to find her and get her back. Jim I think we are going to need some search warrants for the financials on these two guys."

"I'll get on it. Anything else?"

"Let's start with that." Catherine started pacing because at the moment there wasn't anything else she could do.