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Retribution
Chapter
Four
“What
the hell’s going on, Griss?”
In
an effort to stop himself from processing the apartment himself, Grissom had
waited outside by his car, trying Sara’s cell phone over and over again.
Fifteen long minutes later, Nick pulled up, closely followed by Detective
Vartann.
Grissom
sighed and put his phone back in his pocket, finally acknowledging that she was
not going to answer no matter how many times he tried.
“They
say the definition of insanity is repeating the same action over and over again
and expecting a different result,” he muttered to himself, fairly certain he’d
used that line before, but not remembering when. “Sara’s phone’s switched off.
Has been for hours.”
“I
thought she was out of town,” Nick said. “How come you came over?”
“I’ve
been trying to call Sara all night,” Grissom replied. “I haven’t been able to
reach her. I received a call from the phone in her apartment less than an hour
ago. No one spoke. So I drove over here. The place has been trashed.”
Nick
and Vartann took all this in; the detective with the detached calm of his job,
while Nick looked decidedly more worried. While Vartann went inside to look
around, the young CSI took out his cell phone.
“First
things first,” he told his former supervisor. “Let’s try to get hold of Sara.”
“I
told you – her phone’s switched off.”
“Not
who I’m calling,” Nick replied. He hit number one on his speed dial and waited.
“Hey.”
“Hey
G. Do me a favor? – Hop on the net and email our girl Sara. Her cell’s switched
off and I’ve got a friend here who’s worried about her. – Thanks man. I’ll see
you later.”
Pocketing
his phone, he flashed Grissom a reassuring smile. “Greg says ‘hey’. And he’s
going to email Sara right now. She’s been checking it every day since she went
to
As
Nick went inside the apartment to begin processing, Grissom remained outside to
brood over the fact that Sara had seemingly been in contact with everyone but
him.
---
Hey Sara,
I know I promised not to
nag you while you were away, but desperate times and all that jazz… Something’s
been going down here, the G-Man’s been trying to call you and he’s freaking out
because your phone’s off. So call him as soon as you get this, okay? It’s
important. Nagging over – I promise.
Hope everything is good
with you. We miss you. Nick says hi.
Talk to you soon, Greg.
He
took a moment to read the message all the way through. His message was clear
enough that she wouldn’t ignore it, but not detailed enough to worry her too
much – he hoped. That had been the rule he and Nick had imposed on themselves
for their regular emails with Sara. Never worry her. Don’t tell her about
Grissom quitting the lab. She was in
Satisfied
with what he’d written, he hit ‘send’ and went in search of Hodges.
“Got
anything for me yet?”
“Hello
Hodges. Thank you for running that analysis for me so quickly, Hodges. Here’s a
cup of my finest coffee, Hodges,” the trace technician snarked at him.
Greg
narrowed his eyes. “You don’t even like my coffee.”
Hodges
snorted through his nose petulantly. “Still. It would be nice to be offered
once in a while.”
Rolling
his eyes, Greg asked again, “What have you got for me?”
“After
a lot of complicated analysis and no small amount of personal skill, I might
add, I did find something very interesting in your chocolates.”
When
he didn’t continue, Greg waved him on, becoming impatient.
“Which
was –?”
“Coniine.”
---
Nick
was half way back to the lab when his cell phone rang.
“Stokes.”
“Nick, it’s Catherine. I heard there was a
break-in at Sara’s?”
“Yeah,
we don’t think anything was taken, but it was messed up pretty good.”
“Did you get any prints?”
“I
lifted a whole bunch, but they could be Sara’s. Or Grissom’s. I’m on my way
back to the lab to find out now.”
“Good. As soon as you
drop them off in the print lab, come by the layout room. We have a situation.
I’m going to call Grissom now and get him over here too.”
“Don’t
bother,” Nick replied, looking in his review mirror. “He’s right behind me.”
---
“Okay.
This is what we know.”
Grissom
stood in the corner furthest from the layout table, out of sight from the
doorway. The isolation served two purposes. He was no longer a part of this
team and he feared that, should he sit down with them and begin to discuss the
case, he might slip into his old role without realizing.
He
was also hiding from Ecklie.
“Our
vic, Tom Haviland, received his mail, which we now know included the chocolates
found in his cell, yesterday just before lunch. We also know that Jill Davenport’s
prints were on the chocolate box. Warrick, did you find anything among his
papers?”
Warrick
picked up a sheet of paper, enclosed in a plastic evidence envelope, and began
to read. “You will learn the cost of
betrayal. Retribution will be swift – J.”
He
passed the note over the table to Catherine. “It was the only note that wasn’t
gushing about what a great guy he was, so I ran it over to Jacqui. One print
and a couple of partials – a match to Jill Davenport.
“Any
way of finding out when he received the letter?”
Warrick
shook his head. “There was no envelope and it’s not dated. He received dozens
of letters everyday, so I don’t think we’ll ever know when he got this one.”
“Well
it obviously didn’t worry him too much,” Catherine remarked. “He didn’t report
it to a guard and nothing about his behavior suggested he was in fear of his
life. He went about his day as normal, and was alive and well at lockdown that
night.”
“Things
change,” Greg commented grimly.
Catherine
focused on him for a moment. “Do we have those tox results yet?”
Greg
nodded. “Yeah. Hodges found Coniine in the chocolates. And I just got the tox
back on our vic’s blood. Also positive for Coniine.”
“Poison
Hemlock,” Grissom remarked, almost to himself. "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you
will injure me."
“Socrates,”
Greg cut in. “It was how the great philosopher was put to death in ancient
Grissom
raised an eyebrow, a little taken aback.
“What?
You’re the only one around here allowed to be a font of information?” Trying
not to grin too much, he turned back to Catherine. “Coniine is derived from
hemlock,“ he explained. “It paralyses the respiratory system, leading to death
by asphyxia and not leaving any other visible evidence of poisoning.”
“Good
work, Greg,” Catherine remarked. “See if you can track down where she got her
hands on the poison, especially when she’s been staying as a guest of the state
for the past month or more. Nick? Did you find anything probative at Sara’s
apartment?”
“I’ve
left all the prints with Jacqui. She’s sorting through them now. But the place
was torn up pretty good. Jill or whoever was in there was obviously looking for
something.”
“She
was looking for Sara,” Grissom said without hesitation. No one argued. As much
as they wanted to remain objective and not jump to conclusions, everyone’s
instincts were telling them exactly the same thing.
A
heavy silence had descended, which was suddenly broken by the melodic beeping
of Catherine’s cell phone.
“Willows
– Jim, did you find her? – What? How is that –? Okay, I’ll send someone over
now.”
Hitting
end, she met Grissom’s eyes. “Both Jill and whoever she was supposed to be staying
with have cleared out. There’s no sign of them. Jim’s in the process of getting
a warrant, but he did find a greenhouse out back which was filled with, in his
words, ‘a lot of freaky looking plants’. It could be the source of the hemlock.
Warrick, Nick, Greg, you guys get over there. Try and find anything that might
give us a clue as to where Jill has gone, and anything else that might tie her
to Tom Haviland’s murder.”
The
three men filed past their old boss, each attempting to silently express their
support while he stared unseeing at the wall, lost in his own thoughts.
As
Warrick walked on ahead, Greg felt a firm hand on his lower back, one that at
once comforted him, and brought to mind thoughts that should be kept away
during working hours.
“Did
you email Sara?” Nick asked him softly, before reluctantly removing his hand.
“Yeah.”
Greg replied, stealing half a glance at the man beside him as the made for the
car park. “Nicky? Scale of one-to-ten, how worried should we be about her?”
Nick
sighed. “I don’t know, G. I just don’t know.”
---
When
the others were gone, Grissom finally spoke. “We know where Jill’s gone,
Catherine. And if she left right after she called me from Sara’s apartment,
she’s already got a four-hour head start on us.”
“Gil,
Sara’s fine. There’s no way Jill could know…”
“They
were friends at college. Sara probably told her where she grew up. With
everything that’s happened recently, it’s a safe bet that Jill can guess where
Sara is. She knows her. A little too well.”
“What
are you going to do?”
The
decision was made before he consciously realized it. There was only one thing
he could do.
“Call
Jim back. Get him to find a current address for a Laura Sidle. Sara’s mom.
She’ll probably be somewhere in the
“And
where will you be?”
“Trying
to catch a plane,” he announced on his way out the door.
TBC.
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