Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
Author's Notes: SAY NO TO PLAGIARISM!
Chapter 6 – Pieces Of The Puzzle
"He's her uncle?" Greg repeated, shocked. "But that's the guy who's been hanging around outside her apartment. How could he have just flown in?
"I don't know." Brass replied. "But I'm going to find out."
He walked into the interview room with the CCTV picture and sat beside Sofia who was telling him how sorry she was.
"Mr Reeves, my name is Detective Jim Brass, I worked with your niece. Can you tell me when you arrived in Las Vegas?"
Reeves frowned. "About two hours ago, why? Why are you questioning me about when I got in rather than finding my niece's killer."
"We have CCTV of a man matching your description hanging around outside Sara's apartment just hours before she was killed," Jim placed the image on the table, "is this you?"
"Could have been anyone." Reeves replied, his jaw set defensively.
---
"Greg, what's happening?" Catherine said as she caught sight of Greg hovering outside an interrogation room.
Greg nodded to the window. "Who's that?" Catherine asked, looking through the window.
"Sara's uncle. He just turned up. But he was the CCTV from outside Sara's apartment just before she..."
"Her uncle?"
"Yeah. Sofia's sorting out the warrant for a dental impression from him."
Catherine looked stunned.
"I just don't understand people," Greg's voice was shaking as he tried to hold back the tears. "Why would he do that to Sara? To his own niece. I just don't understand."
"me neither." Catherine replied shaking her head sadly.
---
March 25th, 1987
I was really distracted in physics today, Jessica and Caitlyn were having a loud conversation about how they fight with their parents just in front of me and I couldn't help but listen in. They were complaining to each other about how they aren't allowed out late and that their parents lecture them about grades and homework. I just thought that it was so unfair. Neither of them have had to go to hospital with concussion or a broken arm just because they were in their father's way. They haven't had to lie about the bruises to their teachers. They haven't watched their dad beat their mom until she was unconscious, and then spend the night sat beside her because you're terrified she's going to die but even more scared about what he would do it you called an ambulance.
They go to bed each night safe at home, with their parents who must love them enough to care about what time they get in and how well they do at school. I live with strangers and move every few months to stay with another set of strangers. I've lived in so many houses over the last two and half years that I can hardly keep track of my address or the names of the foster parents and the other kids.
They have no idea what it's like to feel so ashamed, so angry that the only way to soothe it is to take it out on yourself. To hurt your body to stop the pain in your head.
I'm sick of dreaming about that night, they're so vivid, I can see the blood spatter over the walls, I can even smell the iron lingering in the air from the sheer amount of blood, I can smell the scent of death.
When I wake up I'm too terrified to go back to sleep because I don't want to see the image of my dead father again, see my mom cowering in the corner with the knife still in her hands and blood soaked into her pyjamas.
I remember the flashing lights of the police car, shining through the windows. They never turned them off, even when they'd arrived and got out of the car. They lit the front rooms, turning everything a strange colour.
My dad wasn't the only person to die that night. My mom and I also died, our lives ended it. Mom got sent to prison and I got stuck in foster care. She might as well have to killed us all.
I don't know what I am going to do if I don't get a scholarship to college. I can't stay here. Everyone knows. They see me and they think "that's the girl who's mother killed her father". I can feel them judging me and I just want to scream that it's not my fault, that I didn't kill him.
Maybe it is my fault, Mom always used to say it was, after he hit me. I'd always got in his way, or said something wrong. I was too smart, too quiet, not like normal girls. How could I be a normal child when I was growing up in a house like that. I thought I was normal, that everyone lived the way we do but apparently not.
It makes me feel sad sometimes, when I see other kids and how they grow up. It feels like I'm missing something, some huge, important part of life which I just didn't get. I know they say "you can't miss something you never had" but it's really not true, you can and I do.
I seem to have been missing the day luck was given out.
Nick sighed as he came to the end of the entry. "Jesus." He whispered under his breath.
"You alright?" Warrick asked.
"Yeah, it's just I'm starting to realise that we had didn't really know anything about Sara. All these years and we didn't have a clue. We completely missed about her and Grissom, we missed how terrible her childhood was and when she needed us, we just weren't there for her." Nick was suddenly feeling very guilty.
"I know, man, she had a rough time of it. And all the clues where there, we all saw her loose it over domestic abuse cases but we never saw the reason why. We never asked. She must have thought we just didn't care." Warrick replied shaking his head.
"You remember that mail order bride case?"
"When Sara got suspended for insubordination?"
"Yeah, I was so horrible to her. I didn't even think about why she was getting upset about it. I gave her a hard time and even worse, I gave up on her. I forgot that she was my friend." Nick was cringing at the memories of the things he had said to her.
"None of us were there for her, especially after the team were split up. We turned into enemies and there was no one there to check she was alright, that she was eating and sleeping and going home occasionally." Warrick said shaking his head.
"We really let her down. And now it's too late, there's nothing we can do about it."
"We can get her justice."
Nick looked defeated. "I'm not sure sending the bastard who did this to prison for the rest of his life is enough."
---
"We've checked with McCarran Airport, Mr Reeves." Brass said pausing to allow Reeves to take in what he was saying. "You said that you arrived in Las Vegas a few hours ago, they have no record of you landing on any of their flights, however they do have a Mr J Reeves who landed at six forty two am yesterday morning from San Francisco. That was you, why did you lie about when you arrived in San Francisco?"
"Ok, so I was on a trip to see Vegas, is that illegal now? I was going to go and see Sara at some point while I was here and I never got the chance to see my niece before she died."
"We have a warrant for your DNA and a cast of your bite mark." Brass said slamming the paper down on the table in front of Reeves.
"Why? On what grounds."
"Hmm." Brass said looking over at Sofia with a mock confused look on his face. "Maybe it's because you lied to us when we asked you when you have arrived in Vegas, maybe it's because you match the description of a man seen hanging around your nieces apartment. But as I have a warrant you don't have any choice in the matter.
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