"You can't hold me here, dammit! I want a lawyer now! Let me out, Detective. I think I had enough of this. Come on, I know you're all there! I have information that I'm pretty sure you need. Come on, let me out of here. I know you know to when you hear what I've got!" Eric paced the interrogation room he was placed into the hour before – already denying his right to a lawyer when arrested and demanding one suddenly – and waited his turn to be questioned. After a few more minutes of ranting, however, he sat down in his seat, seeing that his yelling was getting him nowhere. However, his fidgeting was noticeable.
He's just like a caged animal. Maggie saw him through the glass on the other side, waiting for Brass to go in, Nick right next to her on the left, trying to get her hand, but failing. Watching Eric through a different set of eyes, though, made her pity him more, as if she could reach out and help him once more. No. I can't. It's over now. Just like Nick, it's all over now.
The door to the interrogation room opened with a soft click, allowing Brass to come in, paperwork covering his arms and a scowl to his face. A bruise colored one side his face – a souvenir from Eric – and it highlighted his mood: irritated. Walking to the opposite chair and putting his papers down, shuffling them all into the folder they were falling out of, he faced the suspect with a menacing stare before seating himself and starting the questioning.
"So, Mr. Jacobson, tell me what you know about the kidnapping," Brass offered as if he was handing Eric a free pass out of jail. He leaned forward. "You mentioned that you knew something about Ursula Kearns being kidnapped. Please, enlighten us with your knowledge and uncanny insight into the matter."
As Maggie and Nick watched the squirmy silence that Brass was suddenly receiving, Catherine came to them. Standing next to Nick, she squinted to see the suspect in the next room, beyond the glass. Shaking her head when she realized who it was, she asked lightly, "I take it that's the ex boyfriend, Maggie?"
"If you want to call him that, then be my guest." Maggie shushed the assistant supervisor, Nick growling as she did, when she saw Eric's lips move into words, no sounds coming out. Catherine obeyed and her interest soon turned to the two in the interrogation room.
"What was that you were saying, Mr. Jacobson?" Brass soon asked as he saw the same things the C.S.I.'s did. Then, after a moment of nervous shaking from Eric later, the three behind the glass heard a bang on the table as Brass punched it with both fists, standing up and pushing his chair back. Taking Eric by the shirt collar, Brass brought the suspect up to his own face. "Listen, Eric, you had better tell us something now or face the consequences. It'll be easy to get charges to stick on you. Domestic abuse and assault charges do follow, you know? And if I were you, I would say everything I knew. I know that you were beating on Maggie O'Keefe before this, so make this good."
Brass released the man to his seat, pushing him back and nearly knocking him to the floor. As the detective sat back down calmly, Eric sat back up straight, finally realizing how much trouble he truly was in. After a moment of staring back at Brass – cowering in his chair when Brass reminded him of every moment wasted – Eric finally sighed, his tough-guy persona gone.
"Ok, ok, you've got me there, Detective," Eric started, taking deep breathes as he finished his initial panicking. "I knew something about this kidnapping. But, I swear to God, I didn't do it!"
"This guy is a real artist," Catherine commented, sighing.
"This guy really needs his ass handed to him," Nick added. "And I think Brass just started what I would have."
Maggie was not surprised at the comments (she didn't even register Nick's words until a minute later), but was more paying attention to the people in the next room than to her co-workers. When she heard something about Ursula and how Eric knew something about her disappearing, the uneasy feelings in her stomach came back, the same she had when Grissom received that phone call. She somehow thought that Eric had some hand in the crime, but disappointment soon followed.
"Well, what is it?" Brass tapped his fingernails on the table, waiting impatiently as Eric smirked and remained quiet, seeing Maggie behind the detective in the other room.
"Hell, Detective, I just knew about it, I think," Eric only said as his gaze moved from the C.S.I. back to Brass. "I was kicked out of my place at East Tropicana – Maggie can confirm that, since she was the one who did the deed – and walked out. I headed out to Alloy after a night at the park alone. Well, not quite alone, but you know what I mean…" He chuckled, as if recalling to memory some woman he picked up.
"Get on with it." Brass sounded more irritated than he already was, bored even.
Eric leaned forward, as if he was telling someone a secret. "You want to know where I was and who I was with in the park?"
"Horseman's Park with a prostitute named Lynda," Brass answered in a bored voice, pushing Eric back into his seat with one hand. "Get on with it or the deal is off!"
"What deal?" Catherine asked, confused.
"Brass said the man could have the charges dropped if he cooperated and gave him what he wanted," Maggie answered, a sigh escaping her lips.
"Isn't that too risky?" Catherine's strawberry blonde head didn't move, not even in shock. "He could be out in the streets and aiding in the kidnapping, if he's involved."
"Brass' men have been watching him for a while," Maggie said with some pride in her voice, glad that she called Brass after Nick when she kicked Eric out of the house. "They'll continue doing it for him if he thinks it's necessary. You should know that, Catherine."
"Ok, ok, you got me there," Catherine laughed, turning her eyes back to the glass wall.
Eric sighed. "So, ok, Horseman's Park with Lynda was great. Then, I said to her I had no place for the night, so she took me to some sleazy place at Alloy, some place she stopped by when she didn't haves shit for money for the night. Said that she was raped by the guy who used to live there, but his widowed wife was nice enough to help her out. Lets her stay there, even though there are three young kids, little minors, living there. But anyway, Detective, Lynda and I went to this place with the three kids and the widow and we settled there for the night. Come to find out, the woman's name was Karen, Karen Tanner. Her three kids were from some previous marriage, some magician that was killed, and her new husband lives there with her, I guess."
Brass' mouth started to open in recognition.
"What, Detective? Cat got your tongue?" Eric looked at him carefully, seeing the shock on his face. "Can I continue my story? My ass is on the line here."
"Sure, sure, Eric, tell me the rest." Brass played with the papers on the table, but still listened to the suspect.
"Well, Detective, Karen and her new husband there – his name seems to escape me…ah, yes, it was Quentin – said something about a C.S.I. when I got there, standin' in the doorway hearing them talk about something about Ursula. They knew who she was and knew what they did to her, something about some murder a few years back. They just didn't notice me and Lynda come in, which is why they kept talking at their table, kids in their beds, until they saw us and stopped, scared and all."
"You're kidding me. This is too easy." Brass shook his own head in disbelief.
"Yeah, really, and you picked me up at a good time, before they got to me. Karen had kicked me out and all, because the coppers were around, so I don't know anything else."
"He's lying," Maggie declared out loud, seeing her ex's eyes shift to the left. "He always does that. He's lying."
"Shhh," Catherine cautioned as the conversation continued.
"So, did you see any signs of Ursula Kearns while you were there at Karen Tanner's?" Brass asked, hearing no more after the mention of Eric being kicked out of another place and him seeing the police around Alloy Street once more.
"Notta," Eric confirmed, crossing his arms. "The two said something about keeping her someplace out on the Clark Avenue, where Quentin's sister lives, down by six-oh-four there. Her name is Hannah or something like that. I don't remember. But, yeah…Clark Avenue was what they said they had her. Holding her there and saying something about exchanging her for Maggie over there."
"Did they mention anything about the reasons why they kidnapped Ursula Kearns?" Brass asked carefully, looking back at Maggie, Nick and Catherine before hearing the answer. He heard something about an exchange and had to see if there was a motive behind it.
"Quentin was having an affair with Ursula, as far as I knew," Eric replied, licking his lips, again remembering something. "I was having something with Karen. So what? I don't know what else, Detective. It's all I know."
"He knows more." Maggie rolled her eyes.
"We can see that, but does the evidence point to it?" Grissom had come into the room, Sara behind him. "Eric is obviously involved, but you can't tell if he knows more or not."
"I know him, Grissom. I lived with him for some time. I can tell if he's lying or if he hasn't told everything." Maggie crossed her arms stubbornly as Nick put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Seeing Grissom give a disapproving glare, however, made him retract it and return to Eric and Brass. Everyone else followed his lead.
"You have anything else to add before I stick you back into the cell?" Brass gave Eric another vicious glare, another warning, as if to intimidate him, but received nothing more than another sigh from him.
Eric tilted his head to one side, slowly noticing that he was losing the battle, craving his freedom more than a metal cage. "Yes, Detective, maybe I do have more to say. Quentin was having a thing with Ursula in the motel room and reserved it a few times a week. While I screwed with Karen, he had that motel room, talking and fingering her while she was oblivious to everything. He got something out of her and one night, after they had a thing, he got her and brought her home, you know. I wasn't there, but Karen said something about it in bed. Well…"
"This is gross," Sara added, her nose wrinkling at the scene.
"Can we say the same for human nature?" Grissom questioned her.
"Good point," Sara replied sarcastically. "The next time I check my own morals, I'll chalk murder up there and see if I could get away with the same thing my mother did."
"Shhh," Nick and Catherine said together, trying to hear the last of the interrogation.
"…so, they brought her to Alloy, got a message to Grissom's office, and took her away to Clark with Hannah Tanner. I don't know anything else, Detective." Eric grinned a toothy predator's smile and sat back, relaxed and thinking that he was leaving the station scot-free.
Brass smiled too, realizing that the examination was over, and got up, knocking on the door to let a uniformed officer in as the door opened. "Take him back to the cell," he only said to the officer. "Bring him back to me when he has more to say about the matter."
Eric's mouth dropped. "Are you serious, Detective?" he yelled, giving Maggie a violent stare as he was taken away. "I have more, I tell you! More, more, more!"
"If you can find it with both of your hands and give us more information about Ursula Kearn's whereabouts, I'll think about letting you out to talk," Brass commented humorlessly as he went out with the duo, giving the C.S.I.'s a furtive face as he left.
The group then gathered together as the interview ended, all quiet.
"If everything Eric Jacobson said was correct, then he's not a part of the kidnapping, but a source of information," Nick commented, still angry that he was connected. "He's just a witness to some of the crime."
"We have only one way to find out, though," Grissom replied.
"Checking out the crime scenes," Maggie answered, her plan to head to the motel discovered as Grissom gave her a stern look. "We have some clues and connections. Hannah Tanner is a possible name of somebody in the kidnapping, as is Karen and Quentin Tanner."
"So, why does everything seem to ring a bell?" Sara asked, confused, a name wanting to come out of her mouth, a murder case that went unsolved until recently showing up in her mind.
"Because Karen Tanner used to be Karen Napolitano," Catherine answered for her before Maggie could. "She was the wife of Jason Napolitano, A.K.A. Harry Pitts, our murderer and kidnapper from years back."