It's getting more exciting! Enjoy!
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Greg was sitting on the computer quite concentrated.
"What are you doing?" Sara asked while she walked in with a bunch of files.
"Mrs. Douglas told me about a house near a lake she bought two years ago... I'm trying to find out where it is."
"You think they might be there?"
"Good place to do... whatever it is she wants to do."
Sara nodded. "All patrol officers are keeping their eyes open. Maybe one of them will find Nick's car."
Greg sighed. "I just don't get it. At first she seemed to be quite into Nick. Then these allegations..."
"He rejected her, she reacted to it. It's nothing unusual in stalkers like her. We see these things at work all the time."
"Yeah... And we both know how these things usually end..."
Brass walked in. "They found his car."
The good news was that they had found Nick's car. The bad one was, it didn't help them find him. It was parked a few blocks from the lab and there wasn't any sign of a struggle. They would later find out that the struggle took place just a few steps away from the car, outside of a supermarket around the block. Greg suspected that this finding won't be much help to them, so he decided to pursue his own lead. "Yeah but Russell, everyone else is out! Let me..."
"No," Russell said over the phone. "You can't be involved in this case, you know that! You're a victim and victims don't go catch the bad guys."
"But we aren't even sure it's Mrs. Douglas we're looking for. What am I suppose to do, sit here and wait until Nick's body is found?!"
"Give that information to Brass and..."
Greg interrupted him. "He's busy, too."
"Then give it to some officers and let them check it out. But you can't go with them."
Greg rolled his eyes as he hung up. After thinking about it for a second, he had an idea.
"Wow, that place is beautiful! I wish I had a house here!" officer Spencer exclaimed as he parked his patrol car near the lake house Mrs. Douglas had been talking about.
Greg had finally found out where it was. Russell forbid him to go there, but he didn't care right now. He knew it was probably a bad idea, but he wanted to be there for Nick and he dreaded the thought of police officers checking this place out alone. Greg remembered how comforting it was to see one of his friends after being in a dangerous, life-threatening situation. He didn't want Nick to feel left alone by his friends when he would be found. He deserved more than that. "Could you please concentrate?! Gosh, I'm starting to regret taking you with me."
"Yeah but I was the only cop willing to take you with me, so stop it. Everyone knows you're not supposed to be involved in this case. But if anyone asks, I had no idea. Got it?"
"Sure..." He gently pushed Spencer to make him go faster.
"Wait. You're staying in the car."
"What?! Spencer, come on!"
"Listen, I don't mind getting in trouble because I brought you here. What I would mind, though, is getting you killed while you shouldn't even be here. You'll wait for my sign while I go check it out."
"We have no idea how many people to expect in there! You'd have to be suicidal to go in there all by yourself!" Greg knew exactly that it was common procedure in a situation like that to stay behind as a CSI and let the cop do the cop work. But in this case, he didn't care.
Spencer simply rolled his eyes. "It's not my first day on the job, you know? Just let me handle this. Stay alert, but stay here."
Spencer sneaked towards the house while Greg watched him from afar. The officer had his gun drawn and was ready for whatever might expect him in there. Or so he thought. First, he tried to look through the windows. The shades were down, he didn't get a chance to look inside. Then, he tried to silently open the front door. He was quite surprised when it did open – he didn't know the people inside saw him approaching the house and unlocked it for him.
Greg was getting more and more impatient. He watched Spencer walk inside the house and thought this was a bad sign – neither Nick nor Mrs. Douglas were inside the house, he was sure. He waited some more but quickly got suspicious. Why would Spencer take so long to come back out if there wasn't anyone inside? Greg took out his radio and called for backup. It was a busy night for the Las Vegas Police, so he had to wait several minutes for backup to arrive. He now had the choice to either wait for backup to arrive, or go in there and find out what was taken the officer so long. As he had proven in the past, Greg wasn't the type of guy to just wait around while someone else might be in trouble. He decided to find out what was going on inside that lake house.
Just like Spencer, he tried to sneak up to the house. Unlike Spencer, he managed to do this without the people inside the house hearing or seeing him. He briefly looked around and saw a lot of blood drops and smears. Even on the door was one smear. With his gun drawn, he put his ear close to the door, trying to hear how far away Spencer and the others might be. He heard a noise, but it seemed to be quite far away, so he decided to take his chances and open the door. Taking small, quiet steps inside, he tried to stay as alert as possible.
"Does anyone know you're here?!" he heard a man yell from upstairs. Before Greg decided to go up there, he walked around the first floor. When he cleared it, he made his way up.
"Sara, have you seen Greg?" Russell asked as both were hurrying around the lab. The whole lab was busy looking for Nick, but they also had to work other important cases. It was hard to find anyone not busy at the moment.
"I think Hodges said him and Spencer were following some lead on Nick's disappearance."
"...What?! He's trying to find Nick? I told him to stay here and let the cops do the work!"
Sara patted Russell's back. "You should've known better." She smiled. "Want me to call him?"
Greg had reached the second floor. The voice was getting louder and he could also hear Spencer's voice. While meaning to approach the room the voices were coming from, his cell phone rang. It was on vibration, but still made some noise. He hugged the wall near the door.
"What's that?!" Travis was running outside the bedroom, looking around. "Where did that come from?!"
"I'm sure whatever it is is gone now... And will stay outside," Spencer said, hoping Greg would take the hint. He did understand what the officer was trying to tell him, but there was no way he would just leave. When Travis turned around again, Greg threw a pen down the stairs. "...It's coming from downstairs!" Travis quickly ran down.
Greg used the opportunity. "Spencer, where's Nick?" he whispered as he hurried inside the bedroom.
"You need to leave! Call for backup and wait outside! Quick!" Spencer replied, trying to whisper, too. He was too nervous to keep his voice down, though.
Greg noticed that the bedsheets had lots of blood stains on them. "...Is this Nick's? Where is he?"
"Don't you pay any attention?! Get out before they're back!"
"Too late for that..." Mrs. Douglas said, standing in the doorway. She had a big rifle in her hands. "What are you doing here, Greg?" She walked up closer to him.
"Mrs. Douglas, what the hell are you doing? Where's Nick?" He pointed his gun at her.
"I'm waiting for him to wake up... He just won't wake up..." She sniffed.
Greg had a terrified look on his face. All over this place was a lot of blood, he feared his friend might already be dead. "Bring me to him. Maybe I can wake him up..."
"How about you shut up and put your gun down? This is my house, it's impolite to wield your gun at me like that!"
"I'm sorry, I can't do that. Please, you love Nick, don't you? You want him to be fine... Let me help you wake him up..."
"Oh Greg, I really wish you didn't come here. I liked you."
"These cheap tricks won't work on her..." Travis said from behind, putting his gun at the back of Greg's head. "Now put your gun down."
Greg had no other choice but to follow the order and put the gun down. He then put his hands up. "Please, Cheryl... I worry about Nick and I'm sure you do too... You don't want him to die, do you?"
"She's not gonna fall for that..." Travis said as he pistol-whipped Greg.