Author's notes: As I write this chapter I worry that I've had the CSI doing more than what they realistically be responsible for. However, on various episodes they seem to do more investigating the clues then the police do, so I'm going with it. I'm also sorry about the slow down in chapter postings. I hope to speed up, but work is zapping me when it comes to creating anything.
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Don had left the hotel; the bright light from the mid-day sun blinded him momentarily. The first stop was to go to the local FBI office and use their resources to help in the investigation.
Hailing a taxi Don sat back and let his eyes close. He was going to have to call back to Los Angeles and give an update to the director. Earlier this morning he had called and informed them what was going on. He didn't want his boss finding out by watching the morning news, that is if it made the news. After seeing the reporters outside the hotel when Colby was taken out Don couldn't be too sure.
His mind replayed the conversation he had earlier that day. To say the director was angry was an understatement. Don had to promise that this was not going to give the FBI a black eye. "I hope I know what I'm doing." He thought silently.
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Charlie had been searching for a while, it was overwhelming the amount of contacts that Colby had had in the last several months. Glancing at his watch he was surprised that it was past noon already. Opening his cell phone, he placed a call to Amita.
"Charlie! What a surprise. I didn't think that I'd hear anything from you until you came back on Sunday. Are you missing me terribly?"
"I'm afraid we've run into a little trouble here." Charlie quickly filled her in with the details of what had happened. "I think I'm going to need a little more computing power than what I've got on my lap top. I think if we were to run a program to filter out the legitimate contacts and see what is left we might be able to narrow it down. We will also want to check Don's account as well because he and Colby were doing the planning."
"So you're going back three months?"
"Lets go back at least four, Colby has been planning this since David and Claudia announced their engagement."
"I'll give you a call as soon as I have something." Amita promised. "Bye."
"Bye. Thank you."
Charlie turned back to his computer and noticed that Colby was starting to stir. Sitting quietly, Charlie waited to see if he would go back to sleep or not.
Swinging his legs out of bed, Colby sat up slowly. Looking around as if to orientate himself he saw Charlie sitting at the table. "Hey. Are you the designated babysitter?" His voice was rough with sleep.
"Babysitter?"
"Yeah, don't leave Colby by himself. He'll do something dumb." Colby's tone was slightly bitter.
"Actually, Don wanted to let you keep sleeping and I needed to get started running down leads." Charlie tried to make it sound plausible to his own ears but gauging by the reaction he failed. He watched as Colby stood and headed towards the bathroom.
"I'm going to take a leak. Do you need to monitor that too?" The door was pulled shut more firmly than needed.
"Well that certainly went well," Charlie told him self. "Not."
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Warrick picked up a photo and looked at it closely. Placing it back on the table he shook his head in disgust. He and Greg had worked late on processing the scene at the Chinese restaurant; even with Grissom's help they had worked past their normal shift.
After heading home and catching some sleep, he was once again at work. Rubbing his eyes, he picked up another shot of the crime scene. The three victims were confusing, two appeared to be the victim of a robbery gone bad and the other one had definitely been tortured. Had the man tied up in the basement been beaten to divulge the safe combination and if so, what was of such value to cause someone to torture another human?
His nose alerted him before his fellow CSI even said a word. "I'm hoping you have cup of coffee for me Greg."
"How could I ever disappoint you?" The younger man handed a mug to his co-worker. "Anything yet?"
"The autopsies are back, but nothing that we didn't already know this morning. Vic number three died from severe head trauma. The other two were shot.
"Did the detective have any information for us?"
Shaking his head, Warrick took a sip of the coffee and savored the flavor. "Talked to some of the relatives and no one knew anything. The boyfriend of the waitress said that she was always worried about some rumors that she had heard. According to him, the place was a front for drug running."
"I think that's a rumor about every Chinese restaurant."
"Probably, but I think that we need some place to start and that is a good a place as any."
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Catherine was holding a print out and had quickly scanned the information it held. "It looks like we've got some place to start."
"What have we got Catherine?" Nick questioned.
"It looks like Agent Granger had a significant amount of GHB in his blood sample."
"All right!" David exclaimed. "This shows that he didn't do it, someone drugged him."
"Wait just a minute Agent Sinclair." Catherine interjected. "GHB can also be used recreationally. Just because he has it in his blood doesn't clear him of any wrong doing."
"It does give reasonable doubt." He fired back.
Nick saw the need to intervene, "I think that maybe we need to pay the bartender that was serving Agent Granger a visit. He might be able to tell us something about our mystery girl."
"You haven't been able to find out who she was yet?" David hadn't given the dead woman much though and now he felt badly for forgetting that there was another victim in this case.
"Not yet," Catherine set the report on the table and slipped off her lab coat. "The purse that was found in the room didn't have anything in it that could lead to her identification, just lipstick and some condoms. We've run prints and photo recognition software, but nothing yet. We're waiting on DNA and then we'll run that through and see if we find a match."
With the addition of David, Nick and Catherine headed to the Luxor to talk to the bartender that had been working that evening. The club wasn't very busy since it had just opened and the trio walked up to the bar.
"Hello. What can I get for you?" The bartender inquired.
Pulling out his badge, Nick took the lead. "Just some questions answered would be helpful."
"Sure officer."
Not bothering to correct the man Nick continued. "I need to know what bartenders were working last night."
"No problem, that would be Mark, Jeff, Alexia, Gage and myself."
"Any of them working tonight?"
"All of us are on again tonight. I think Mark and Alexia are in already but I haven't seen the others yet."
Catherine pulled out a photo of Michelle. The woman in the photo looked like she could be sleeping, but the others knew the truth. "Do you recognize this woman?" She held out the picture and watched the reaction of the bartender.
"Yes, I've seen her in here every now and then. Usually she is down in Jeff's section. I don't know what her name it, but she seems to know him."
"Can you give us a little more information about Jeff? Last name, address, whatever you've got?" Catherine smiled at him.
"Sure. Anything I know I'll tell you."
"Good. Nick, I see there are surveillance cameras in here. Do you and Agent Sinclair want to go and see if you can find anything on them?"
"Thank god for big brother." Nick intoned as the two men headed to find hotel security.
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Charlie had been working for several hours on sifting through information from Colby's computer and other FBI links. He made sure that every so often he would look at the sleeping form on the bed. Charlie reflected back on the events of earlier that afternoon.
After leaving the bathroom Colby had returned to the bed and lay back down. Within ten minutes he had fallen asleep. It had been another ten or fifteen minutes when the nightmare hit.
Hearing the mumbling voice of his friend, Charlie looked up from the screen on his laptop. The young agent had started thrashing about in the bed, his arm flinging out and knocking the clock radio from the nightstand.
Moving to the bed, Charlie put out his hand in an effort to awaken the sleeping man. In the blink of eye Charlie was pinned on the floor and Colby was on top of him; an arm around Charlie's throat.
Laying still, but calling out Colby's name, Charlie tried to be as passive as he could. He hoped that by not fighting back Colby would release his hold.
The sound of Charlie's voice penetrated the fog in Colby's brain and suddenly he realized that he was out of bed and had his friend in a chokehold. "Charlie!" He rolled off and moved to his feet as quickly as he could. Reaching down he helped the mathematician to his feet. "Fuck, I'm sorry Charlie. I'm so sorry."
Waving off Colby's concern, Charlie moved to the sink and with shaking hands filled a glass of water. Taking a drink, the cool water helped with the burning feeling in his throat. Charlie took a deep breath and tried to calm his racing heart. He sat the glass down on the counter and turned to look at Colby.
Colby had sunk down onto the bed, his head in his hands. His voice was muffled as he spoke to Charlie. "I was dreaming. I was back in Afghanistan and hostile forces were overrunning us. My gun jammed and one of the rebels jumped me. I haven't dreamed about that shit in forever."
"Hey, it's alright. No harm done. I should have known better than to touch you when I tried to wake you. I've read about things like that."
"Charlie, don't you realize. If I attacked you, I could have hurt Michelle."
He didn't know what to say. They sat there in silence for several minutes, Charlie trying to decide on how to proceed. Luckily, Colby made the decision for them. "I'm going to go back to sleep." He pulled the blanket up to cover his torso. "Stay away from me Charlie, whatever happens just stay away."
Now hours later, Charlie looked back down at his work, relieved that the young blonde was still sleeping. The phone next to him started to ring and quieting it he looked down at the number he could see that it was Amita.
Stepping into the bathroom, Charlie flipped the phone. "Amita, I hope you have something for me."
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Greg hurried from the DNA lab looking for Warrick. Finding the man in the break room refilling his coffee cup. "I've got some results and as Alice said, "Curiouser and Curiouser"
"Great you're quoting a kids book."
"Nope, Disney movie. Anyway, would you believe we got a DNA hit on that robbery homicide from last night." Greg smiled.
"And?" Warrick was use to Greg's sense of drama.
"The Chinese man tied to the chair and tortured matched with the victim that Catherine and Nick brought last night. Enough in common that it appears that he was her father."