Chapter 8

He checked on the body and noticed the pale color. The blood was almost completely drained and he already knew she was dead. He let the blood continue to drain as the officer's lifeless body laid on the table before him. He was in heaven at the sight of her pale skin and relaxed limbs. She was a pure vision of beauty like this to him. He loved the sight and to him it was better than anything in the world he could have ever seen. He laughed softly to himself as he watched her blood drain slower, marking her death as the machine kicked in to drain it.

"Dead bodies don't bleed." He murmured as the machine continued to drain her blood. "You have to use mechanics to drain the blood of a dead person."

Nick silently continued to stare out the window of his apartment, unsure of what was going on inside his own head. The only thought he was thinking was that his daughter had never known that he would have cared for her. If he had only known she existed maybe he could have protected her. He slammed his fist down on the table when his pager went off and Nick looked down with a frown. It was a 9-1-1 page from the lab and that sent a sickening chill down his spine. The only reason he would get a page like that would be a missing person. This night was going to be a long one and he had a feeling it was also going to end in a tragic outcome.

Grissom looked up when he saw Nick walking into the lab. He nodded grimly and pointed to a chair at the conference table.

"We have a missing police officer." Grissom said simply as he slid a folder across the table towards Nick.

Nick caught the folder and winced as he thought about what this was going to mean. A police officer missing could only mean one thing, either this guy was escalating or this was all part of this plan. Nick could tell they all knew that this was their serial killer.

"Do we have any clues?" Nick asked looking at the officer's picture.

"Nope." Grissom said shaking his head negatively.

Krisalyn woke up and looked around the hospital room with a grimace. She wasn't sure what was going on but she had a bad feeling that something very bad was about to happen. She heard some commotion outside her room and looked up to see the police officer who was guarding her room check in on her. She could tell by the look on his face that something very bad had happened.

Nick and the team arrived at the warehouse where they found the body of the police officer. Grissom frowned when he saw her pale skin and noticed holes in her arms that looked like needle marks. He looked up at everyone and nodded as they all spread out to check out the scene. The tip had come in to Grissom's secure phone line about where the body was so they knew this guy wanted them to find the body, now they needed to figure out what was so big about the body now, why give it up so easily?

He laughed as he watched the team work the crime scene. They always worked a crime scene the same way, dusting for prints, taking pictures and stuff like that. He watched them work for a while before he made the decision to end their misery right then and there. He was about to set the newest bomb off when he saw Nick walk into the area.

"Dammit." He muttered to himself. He was going to torture CSI Stokes so he couldn't kill him. "You weren't supposed to be here to." He muttered as set the trigger away from him. He was going to have to let them all live until Stokes left the area. "You just had to go and ruin my plans, well fine, this means only a stupid patrolman is probably with Krisalyn, maybe I should start my torture with her." He said softly to himself as he turned his back towards the area and silently slipped away.

Krisalyn was feeling the worry in the pit of her stomach. Something was really off and she felt it. She knew that something bad was about to happen and yet she couldn't place her finger on exactly what that bad thing was. She groaned silently to herself as she tried to think about something other than the negative feelings wiggling into her head. Something had to go right for once, something good had to happen and she would figure out what that good thing was if it was the last thing she did.

"Who am I kidding, I am never going to think anything positive until the sick person who attacked me and killed those people is behind bars." She muttered to herself. She looked up when she heard a thump outside her room and slowly raised her bed with the electronic button.

Nick shook his head and then rolled his neck from side to side to get the crinks out. This scene was becoming more confusing all the time. He glanced over into a corner that had yet to be looked into and groaned as he realized he was going to have to be the one to head over there and look into it. He stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed the device sitting there with a blinking red light. He gulped and slowly backed away.

"Hey you guys, um, I think we have a repeat of our last crime scene." He said as he kept backing away from the corner.

"What do you mean?" Grissom asked sharply.

"There's a device with a blinking red light over there in that corner." Nick pointed towards the corner as he continued to back away.

"All right everyone out and I'll call the bomb squad, it may be nothing but after the last crime scene exploded I'm not taking any chances." Grissom ordered as everyone got up and made for the exit as fast as possible.

Krisalyn waited patiently to see what was going on outside the door. She wanted more than anything to climb out of the hospital bed and open the door to check herself but she knew the officer was friends with Nick and considering the fact he was already really mad at her she didn't think it would be such a good idea.

"Oh who am I kidding, since when do I care what Nick thinks?" She muttered to herself as she threw the covers off and slowly swung her legs over the side. She reached up to unplug the IV from the wall and waited and until it beeped to let her know it was on battery power now. She planted her feet firmly on the floor and got to her feet. She felt the first wave of dizziness but firmly held her ground and clenched the IV pole tightly in her fist.

Kathryn looked up as she saw Nick frowning at the building. The bomb squad had secured the device and confirmed that it was a live bomb. They placed it into a secure container and detonated it so that no one would get hurt. Kathryn headed over to where Nick was standing and placed her hand gently on his arm.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked softly.

"Why didn't he detonate the device? Why are we all not dead?" Nick asked as he glared at the building.

"Maybe he had his own reasons." Warrick said as he joined into the conversation.

"Are we going to have to be afraid to head to crime scenes from now on?" Nick asked shaking his head.

"Yes." Grissom nodded grimly.

Krisalyn made it to the door and opened it slowly and stared out with wide eyes. The floor was practically deserted, like it was almost every night, but there was no officer in front of her door. She frowned as she opened it all the way and stepped into the hallway, grateful Sara had brought her pajamas from home so she didn't have to wear the awful hospital gowns. She glanced down the hallway to her right and then to her left and shook her head confused. Something was definitely not right and she had a feeling she better call someone to find out where the officer was.

He laughed as he glanced down into the fear filled eyes of the patrol officer he had just taken down. So this guy thought he was going to be able to take him down, well he obviously learned he wasn't a match. Shaking his head he whispered something into the officer's ear before he placed the gun to the officer temple and pulled the trigger. He pulled the gun away and smiled.

"Gotta love silencers, they certainly make murder so much easier." The man said laughing softly as he stepped out of the vacant room and kept his head away from the security camera sights.

Krisalyn was sitting on her bed staring at the phone, debating on whether or not to page Nick or just to leave it alone.

"Maybe he just went to the bathroom or something." She said to herself. "No he would have used the one here in the room to be close by. He wouldn't have left to get coffee because the nurses always bring that to him so he won't have to leave his post. Something is definitely wrong." She muttered to herself as she lifted the receiver and dialed 9.

Nick felt his pager vibrate and uttered a curse under his breath. He glanced around to make sure no one had heard him before he clicked a button on the side and ignored it. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone at the moment and since Grissom was with him he knew it wasn't Grissom that was paging him.

He laughed as he stood outside the door to her room. She was inside and probably sleeping like a little baby. He slipped the glasses into place just in case and opened the door slowly. He saw her sitting with her back to the door and the phone on the bed. So she had figured out something was wrong and was calling for help. By the time help arrived it would be a little too late.

The nurse opened the door to Krisalyn's room softly and saw the man making his way towards her.

"Excuse me sir you're not supposed to be in here." She said with a confused look on her face.

Krisalyn turned sharply around at that and saw a man rush by the nurse, slamming her into the door on his fast retreat out. She picked up the phone and dialed in Grissom's number with a 9-1-1 after it since Nick obviously wasn't responding. She got to her feet slowly and saw the nurse had hit her head. She banged on the call button and waited until someone else came into the room and saw what was going on. Krisalyn was as pale as a ghost.

Grissom looked at his pager and his eyes went wide. He jumped to his feet and ran out of the crime scene area, tearing his gloves off at the same time.

Sara watched him go and jumped to her feet as well, running right after him. Pretty soon it was a chain reaction and everyone was gathered around Grissom as he used a cell phone to make a phone call. They noticed the way his eyes looked at the ground and not at their face as he nodded and just listened on the phone. He said he would be right there and hung up and finally seeing his entire crew standing right there staring at him.

"Our killer showed up at the hospital. There is a nurse unconscious and Krisalyn said she needs me there. She said she paged Nick just before the guy came in but you never answered your page." Grissom said turning his attention to Nick.

"I didn't even look at it." Nick said looking at the ground and feeling angry with himself. "What happened to Officer Thompson?"

"He's missing. Brass is already enroute with a couple of officers but Krisalyn wants someone else there." Grissom said with a shrug. "You guys can finish up the scene I'll head up to the hospital and sit with her."

"How about if I go?" Nick asked softly.

"You can go with me, but as her supervisor I need to be there." Grissom said after a moment of silence.

That stupid little nurse, she ruined everything. Well now she was going to have to pay with her life soon. Krisalyn got lucky tonight but soon that luck would wear off for the pretty little CSI and CSI Stokes would also learn that he was playing on a losing team.