Chapter 3
"Hey Greg, how's that double of yours coming?" Russell asked flagging Greg into his office.
"Man, that scene was a mess! I'm going to be sifting through evidence all night. Would any of the girls be available to lend me a hand?" Greg cajoled.
"You do know that if Sarah or Fin hears you refer to them as girls you will be severely injured right? And no, they are all running solo's themselves. As am I. I didn't want to, but I'm going to have to call Nick back in. I'll have him find you when he gets here." Russell dismissed Greg and dialed Nick's number.
After three tries Russell grew a little concerned. Walking over to AV Russell asked Archie to try to locate Nick's phone. "Sorry, it's turned off. The best I can do is to give you his last known." Archie pulled up the information on the map on the screen. "That's weird. The last place his phone was picked up is in the middle of nowhere, about fifteen miles outside of town."
"Thanks Archie, can you send the information to my GPS?" Russell left AV without waiting for an answer. Spotting Brass as he left AV Russell pulled Jim aside and told him about Nick's confession about Brady and the fact that Nick had literally fallen off the radar.
"I don't like this one bit. Who's available to come with us?" Brass asked as he called Vartan's cell phone. ""Lou, Brass, we have a problem. Meet me out front."
As Brass hung up D. B. was finishing up a group text informing the team that there was a family meeting out front immediately, no exceptions. "Let's go." Russell firmly stated leading the way out front.
"What do you mean Nick is missing?" Sarah demanded hearing the news. Greg put a supportive hand on her shoulder in an attempt to get her to calm down some.
Russell briefed the two detectives and the four CSI's on the situation between Nick and Brady Magnus as they headed for their cars. Brass, having already gotten most of the information from Russell took this time to call Archie. He instructed Archie to send the GPS coordinates as well as a picture of Brady Magnus to each of their phones. Further instructing the AV tech to dig up any information he could on the guy. Then the seven of them piled into two different vehicles and headed out to the suspected location.
"Brady, what are you doing man? This is crazy! Emily is the one who you should be pissed at, not me. I was played just like you were!" Nick tried to reason with his former friend. To Nicks shock this only earned him a kick in the ribs causing him to gasp for air and his eyes to water from the sudden and unexpected pain.
"How could you blame her Nick? You are the one who came on to her! You are the one who tried to steal my woman! You are the one who thought you were better than me! It was you Nick! You!" With each declaration Brady kicked and stomped on Nick. His knee, foot, elbow and head exploded in pain from the impacts. Brady was circling Nick and with already having been knocked out at the car, Nick was getting dizzy and nauseous from the onslaught. The next blow was a boot coming down on Nick's stomach. This enhanced the nausea tenfold and Nick quickly turned his head to the side barley in time to keep from vomiting on himself.
"Brady?" Nick croaked out after he finished. "Why are you doing this? She's not even a part of our lives anymore man." Nick tried to reason.
"Speak for yourself Stokes. What do you think I did when you got me kicked out of school? Huh? I waited for her, we ran off together. We had kids together. Don't you get it Nick? You didn't break us up like you were trying to. We've been together all this time. She told me all about how you tried to steal her away. And when you couldn't have her, you raped her! How could you do that to me? I thought you were my friend and you tried to destroy my life and the love of my life!" Brady began kicking and stomping Nick again.
Barely conscious at this point, Nick became more aware when he heard Brady accuse him of rape. "What the fuck are you talking about Magnus? I never raped anyone in my life! We had sex, yeah, and at the time I thought we were making love, but I never raped her! If she said I did she lied, but that's all she's ever done isn't it? Emily is a liar! Face it!" Nicks spirit of self-preservation was screaming at him to shut up, but by this time Nick was too angry at Emily for turning his friend on him that he would have probably killed her had she been there.
Nick should have listened to his self-preservation mode. Brady lost what little control he may have had at Nick's insults against Emily. "Vanja! Vanja! Vanja! Vanja!" Brady was screaming as he choked Nick unconscious, only stopping when he had spent all of his energy and collapsed onto the floor in a daze.
"We should be coming up on the location any second." Brass announced via the radio. "We don't know what we'll find so Vartan and I go in first. Are you all clear on that?"
Reluctantly the CSI's agreed to Brass' demand just as they pulled up to the place indicated by the GPS. Seeing only Nick's Jeep and a shack that looked about to fall down drew mixed conclusions from the CSI's. Was he out here alone for some peace and quiet? Not likely, but not impossible. Or was he brought here against his will? If so, what would they find in the run down shack? Letting Brass and Vartan check the shack suddenly seemed like a good idea.
After finding only one door ad no windows in the shack, Brass and Vartan kicked the door down and were shocked to see two bodies lying on the floor. Vartan went to the stranger in the corner and pulled the night vision goggles he was wearing off of his head; the man was alive but appeared to be catatonic. Brass went to Nick thankful to find a pulse; Brass immediately called for a medevac chopper on the radio and called for the CSI's to bring lights.
The five CSI's entered the shack tentatively, not sure what they would find. The responses were mixed. Sara simply whispered Nick's name, Greg stood speechless, Morgan looked on horrified as she set up work lights, D. B. immediately asked if Nick was alive and received an affirmative nod from Brass. Fin went on auto pilot and began documenting the blood spatter. The others gradually began processing as best they could while they waited for the chopper to arrive, all working silently. Brass and Vartan handcuffed Brady Magnus and put him in the back of Brass' Charger. Figuring this was the safest place for him, for the time being since he was still catatonic it was useless at this point to try to question him.