A/N: Another awesome chapter by co-writer JellybeanChiChi. Thank you all for your reviews to last week's chapter - Im behind in my thanks with numerous appointments with my daughter.

CHAPTER 60

Sitting in the district attorney's outer offices, Dana Osorio looked at her watch for the seventh time. Her patience was wearing thin.

Her conversation with Grissom sparked her arrival at the offices. While she held a measured sense of urgency with her client, she went into high gear to get a brief completed so she could speak to Ladd Sayers as soon as possible.

Although she didn't have a formal appointment made with Sayers, she knew he was in his office. Her own secretary asked around and found he would be in his office by three, with no pending appointments for the rest of the day.

If that was the case, there was a possibility that he might stay late at the office or leave for home shortly after arriving at the office. Erring on the side of caution, Dana had gotten to the offices at 2:30 and had waited inconspicuously in the lobby by the attorney's entrance to catch when Sayers arrived.

Her tactic had worked. He had arrived at 2:55. And while she could have had corralled him right there at the entrance, she hadn't felt right about that. It would be one thing to try and gauge his whereabouts, but it would be another thing to blindside him in public among professional colleagues. That hadn't seemed right to Dana. It had almost felt like dirty pool and she couldn't know how he would respond to that, and he might respond sourly, which would ultimately hurt her client.

So, she had decided she would meet him in his office. She had even given him the space to take a different elevator to his floor, which had appropriated him a dozen steps in front of her into his office.

She had checked in with the front desk receptionist who was speaking with a secretary. Dana stated to the young man and older woman she needed 10 minutes of Sayers time and it was an urgent matter dealing with her client Gil Grissom. While the receptionist was ready to give Dana the brush off, the woman, Nicole Palmieri, introduced herself and led her to an inner lobby outside three lawyer offices, including Sayers' office. Pleasant and professional, she went into his office to check his availability. She arrived back at her own desk a foot from the waiting chairs to say he would be out momentarily.

But that moment stretched into 23 minutes. Dana was now reevaluating whether corralling him in the lobby was the better tactic after all.

No sooner had she thought that when a man exited Sayers' office.

Unfortunately, the man wasn't Sayers.

"Ms. Osorio, my name is Edmund Flanagan."

"Hello. It's nice to meet you, but I don't think I need an escort into Mr. Sayers' office," Dana said with a congenial, but pointed tone.

Flanagan picked up on it immediately. "Well, actually, perhaps we can talk in my office. I had been working the case against Patrick Davies, so any questions about that is under my purview."

"Hold on," Dana said. Sure, it pissed her off she was being passed over for a junior D.A., but it pissed her off more that they made her wait almost half an hour before going through some bullshit. "My client is not Patrick Davies."

"No," Flanagan started. "It's Gil Grissom. I understand that. So, if we could move into my office to discuss…"

While Dana mentally tried to process the connection between Patrick Davies and Grissom, she stood firm where she was. "Mr. Flanagan, clearly there is a misconstrued assumption of why I am here. I appreciate you wanting to offer your time to me, but I don't think you can help me in any capacity, unless you are the person behind withholding my client's pension and charging him an obscene amount of money for monitoring."

To an untrained eye, the look on Flanagan's face would tell very little. But to a fellow attorney, Dana could see a flicker of a look in which he was thrown to the wolves by upper management.

But he still stayed cool and toed the line. "Ms. Osorio, I believe you are correct as I do not understand your arguments in regard to your client. While impassioned, I am also going to guess it is misdirected towards this office."

"Well, I'll never know for sure until I talk to Mr. Sayers, who I know is in his office," Dana said. "Again, I respect you offering the time, but I'm not going to waste your time and mine. Mr. Sayers has categorically avoided me through alternative correspondence. Zero responses to emails and phone calls and a canceled appointment. This has to end, hence my proactive stance of coming to the office with full knowledge he has no meetings and he is indeed here."

"He's not here."

"Excuse me."

"He was here but has since left while we were talking."

Dana gave Flanagan a look that could only be described as annoyed skepticism. "I had no idea that the D.A.'s office had a teleportation device. Can I secure a time to get to the south of Chile and Argentina? I love penguins but hate long air travel."

"Funny," Flanagan said, neither responding or offering any more leeway for a conversation. "Nicole will be happy to get you an appointment."

"I'm going in there."

"Don't." Flanagan put a hand up and stood firm in front of Dana. "Look behind you." She did, and she saw two security officers. She knew Flanagan didn't call them, but Sayers probably did. Which confirmed he was in his office.

"Really? How am I a threat?"

Flanagan lowered his voice. "I am offering this professional courtesy. Just make an appointment. I will do what I can to ensure he makes the appointment."

Dana took a deep breath and kept her eyes on him. "Fine. Call off the dogs."

Flanagan nodded the guards off, and when they left, he went into his office without a goodbye.

Once alone, Dana allowed her shoulders to slump. She felt a little defeated, but no sooner had the feeling struck that she squared her shoulders again and turned toward Nicole's desk. With a smile, she asked. "Could I get an appointment with Ladd Sayers?"

Nicole offered a look of sympathy. "Let me take a look Ms. Osorio. Perhaps a half hour block is available in a few days."

As the secretary worked, Dana leaned against the desk and said under her breath, "I should have just cornered him downstairs when I had the chance."

Although she said it to no one in particular, Nicole could not contain the small smile. "I think we can get you something early next week. In four days' time."

"Let me check my schedule," Dana said.

As she did, Nicole perked her head up. "You know, sometimes a proverbial waterhole can be a good place to get things accomplished."

Dana snickered, knowing Nicole was addressing her under-the-breath comment. "I'm sure it can."

"Have you heard of Holy Roasters? Wonderful place to get a nice coffee drink or lovely tea or even abide a sweet tooth after a stressful day at the office. Or maybe a glass of wine in the evenings. But the place is perfect after 5:30. Not too many people before the evening wine crowd."

Dana looked over her shoulder. The two were the only ones around. "Holy Roasters? That's in Henderson, right?"

Nicole nodded. "So, you want that 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday next week?"

"I would. Thank you."

"I cannot believe you actually cornered that man in the parking lot of his mistress' apartment complex," Dana said as she and her father, Wilbur Jacobsen, sat at a table in Holy Roasters coffee shop and Wine Bar in Henderson.

"Well, I did what I had to do," Jacobsen said with a wink. "Sometimes you have to take matters in your own hand."

"Yeah, but that was cold, Wilbur," Dana said in jest to her father. "Dare I say ballsy?"

"That mouth," Jacobsen said as he sipped his coffee. "But… yes, I will concur it took a fair amount of balls."

She raised glass of a power trio smoothie with wheat grass to her father, who in turn raised his cup of joe. "Cheers pops."

"Next time don't hesitate about approaching him before the office. Elevators make for captive audiences."

"Literally," Dana said as she looked towards the door.

Jacobsen followed his daughter's gaze to the door seeing a single woman arrive. He then looked around the shop. They had been there for about 20 minutes and while there was a rush when they first arrived, it died down to just a handful of patrons spread around the place. Along with coffee, the establishment offered sandwiches, baked goods, boba tea, hot and cold tea drinks and high-end juice smoothies frozen or with yogurt, and after 5 p.m. it opens up its wine bar to patrons until midnight.

The two came to Holy Roasters in hopes of seeing Ladd Sayers. Dana's less than productive visit to the D.A.'s office did lead to a couple of interesting things. A tip that Sayers might be at Holy Roasters around 5 p.m., and that a junior D.A. approached Dana thinking as Grissom's lawyer she would want to know something about a man named Patrick Davies.

Which is why she contacted her father. While she didn't recognize the name, she thought he might since he served as Grissom's lawyer first.

And Jacobsen did know the name Patrick Davies. It was the name of the accused murderer of Jake Sullivan, a name Sayers hid from the defense attorney despite still trying to charge Grissom with the same murder. A fact so egregious that Jacobsen held no remorse in confronting Sayers about it while he parked his Mercedes in the parking lot of his mistress.

"I don't know Dana. Maybe Sayers will be here around 6:30 before, wine crowd rush at 7," Jacobsen proposed. He remembered how Sayers had a bottle of wine with him on his way to the mistress' apartment. "Or maybe not. He could just come in and buy a bottle of wine and leave from here to another place, if you know what I mean."

Jacobsen waggled his eyes to make a point, but noticed his daughter was paying no attention to him. Instead was looking toward the counter. "Dana? What's up?"

She took two more seconds staring at the counter, then turned to her father. "I was wrong about Sayers, pops."

"What are you talking about?"

Just then, the woman who recently entered the establishment sat at the booth past the couple in a more secluded corner. Dana picked up her drink and gestured for her father to do the same. She whispered something to her father as they got up and approached the booth.

"Hello," Dana said in a private tone.

The woman gave a soft smile of recognition. "Hello there."

"Nicole?"

Yes. Dana."

"You remembered."

"Of course."

"Well, this is my father, Wilbur."

"Wilbur Jacobsen," the gentleman said extending his hand for a shake.

"I recognize the name. I didn't know there was any relation," the woman said as she shook his hand. "Nicole Palmieri. Would you two like to join me?"

"You're not expecting company?" Dana asked.

"Nope. I like to call Holy Roasters my little secret."

"Well, we would love to, Ms. Palmieri," Jacobsen said, already knowing from his daughter she was the secretary in the D.A.'s office. "This is quite kind of you."

"I'm not sure if I would use the word kind."

"So why the invitation?" Dana asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

"I don't mind," said Nicole, a woman in her 60s who looked a decade younger. "For the past couple of months I've been dismayed at the actions of a member of the D.A.'s office toward someone I know, and if there is information that can help you both help Gil, then I need to be candid with what I know."

"You called Mr. Grissom by his first name," Jacobsen said. "You and he know each other?"

"You could say we formed a bond thanks to my daughter," Palmieri said. "She had a host of special needs and met at her school where he volunteered with a science fair. He used to tutor her in high school and college-level science and encouraged her to study forensics. He was a huge influence on her life. I remember he invited her a few times to see his lab."

"Did she study forensics?" Dana asked.

"She did," Nicole said. "But like I said she had a host of special needs, including medical needs. She passed away about three years after they met."

"I'm so sorry," Dana said.

"It was a blessing to have her with us as long as we did," Nicole said with a sad smile. "I know people change, but when I heard about the charges against Gil, I thought it could not possibly be him. I told you there were times we visited the lab, and I could tell by his body language that he had terrible shifts, but he would muster a smile and energy for Kara no matter what."

"I've always found him to be a genuine person," Jacobsen said. "But I have to say I never knew that he volunteered."

"I'm sure he kept it to himself," Nicole said. "He never seemed like a showy man."

"When was the last time you talked to him?" Dana asked.

"Oh… maybe two years ago. Around the time of the fifth anniversary after Kara died," Nicole said. "I saw him at a pizza shop. He looked as tired as he did when I visited the lab, but we chatted for probably two hours about all kinds of things. Work. Life. What not. And one thing he kept saying was how much he admired me as a parent. How no matter what, a parent secures the happiness of his child. That man has a baby boy now, and there is no way he would jeopardize that boy's happiness by going to jail. Not to mention that Gil fought murderers his whole career. Why would he ever become one?"

"I couldn't put it better myself, Ms. Palmieri," Jacobsen said. "While I'm glad you know Gil…"

"You want to know what I know," Nicole said finishing Jacobsen's thought. "Let's get down to the nitty gritty."

Dana reached her hand across the booth. "I'm all for that, but for whatever it's worth, I appreciate you going on a limb here. I know you aren't just here to give accolades to Gil Grissom. And what you might offer could jeopardize your job."

Nicole smiled and squeezed Dana's hand before letting go. "I'm a big girl and one that is looking toward retirement. This isn't just about helping someone who helped my daughter. It's about what's right." She took a swig of her drink before continuing. ""I believe Ladd Sayers is behind the nonsense you laid out today in the office, Ms. Osorio."

"You mean about Sayers withholding pension benefits and overcharging monitoring?"

"That's correct. And I don't think it's for vengeance, if that might be on your mind. I think it is totally for vanity's sake."