記憶中的美好事物

Disclaimer：I am not connected in any way to CSI
Summary：How is Grissom going to deal with this case? Is Sara okay?
Rating：T
A/N：Thank you so much to my beta readers Rhee and Mr. S.

Next Station: HAPPINESS ?

Chapter Two

We always ordered the same flavor of ice cream, we always walked the same road to go to bus stop, we always lived the same regular life style, we were always afraid to change and we were always in a contradictory position, because we had the courage to force ourselves to stop seeking what we always aspired to but we did not have the bravery to accept what we lost.

Nick Stokes saw a woman squatting behind a big dumpster. The woman was focusing on what she was doing and had not noticed him walk into the garage of the LVPD building. “Hey Cath, how’s it going?”

After catching a ride back to the lab with their only evidence, Catherine started to carefully process the evidence. She sprayed the inside of the dumpster, swabbed anything that looked like blood and took some pictures. She was taking one fingerprint off of the left side of the dumpster when she heard Nick’s voice. Catherine’s sight was transferred to Nick from the green thing in front of her and then she stood up. “Thank God you’re here, Nick, I haven’t collected so many fingerprints at one time in my life. I need to take a break and then go to the morgue.”

“Sure, take a break. I’ll keep doing it.” Nick said, putting on a pair of gloves.

After she took off her gloves, Catherine spoke in an apologetic tone. “Nick, sorry for calling you on your day off, hope your girlfriend isn’t angry.”

“Don’t worry about it Cath, Ariel isn’t like other girls. She understands my job, so she won’t be angry because you guys need me,” Nick said it with a bright Texas smileon his face.

“Glad she isn’t like Eddie,” Catherine said with a flicker of a smile, then started to walk towards to the garage door.

Nick remembered something and asked Catherine before she walked out of the garage. “Hey Cath, where is Grissom? You said you were working this case with him.”

The blonde CSI wheeled around facing the younger man. “Well, he’s at the scene.”

“The scene? I thought we didn’t have a primary scene.” Nick was surprised by the answer that he had just heard.

Catherine shook her head, looked into the air and sighed. “No, we don't.”

＊＊＊

Greg walked into the living room from the back yard. “I got a shoe print and some weird balls, the size of coins. It seems Mr. Harrison loves flowers very much, especially white roses, and he takes care of them very well. Did you find anything, Sara?”

No response.

Sara concentrated on what she was doing. After the female victim was taken to a hospital, Sara silently promised the victim that she would try her best to find who did this to her. She knew it was not the first time she had faced a victim still alive at the crime scene, she recalled cases she had solved and had not solved, she seemed to see pictures of victims fighting and begging for their lives performed in front of her or seemed to hear frightened voices yelling for help to fend off death.

Empathy and sympathy captured her brain yet again.

She drew a deep breath to clear her thoughts. She could commiserate or feel sorry for the victim, but not now, doing her job was the major thing at this moment. Sara swabbed the blood on the sofa, the arm chair and the floor, took photos of the blood drops and one bullet hole on the cream wall, and bagged the bullet which had got stuck in the wall. She had already collected some fingerprints off of the coffee table and the front door, now she was using her brush to moisten the black powder and started to brush the black cabinet lightly and carefully.

“I didn't have any luck in the other rooms. There was no trace in any of the rooms, pearls and jewels were on the dressing table, everything is neat, clean and orderly. I could even see my reflection in that desk in the study. Man, this is the neatest house I’ve ever seen,” Warrick stated while he put down his kit.

“Maybe you should see Mr. Neat’s amazing garden, too. You won’t believe this, there wasn’t one weed in the garden.” Greg joked to the taller man.

Finishing her work of collecting the fingerprints, Sara put all of the evidence into her kit. Something flashed into her mind, then she recalled her memories that once she had gone back to a crime scene because she had forgotten to check a spot. Sara stepped to the place where the male victim had been. Kneeling close the arm chair, Sara leaned forward, using both forearms on the floor to support her weight and flashing her light to check the space under the arm chair.

“Find something?” Greg stood beside the coffee table and asked her curiously.

Sara sat on her feet and held something in her hand which was stained by blood, and looked up to see the other two investigators. “Guys, I found a scalpel.”

Suddenly, a sense of seriousness flooded the entire room.

The joking time was over.

＊＊＊

“Nothing.” Grissom murmured to himself and used his sleeve to wipe his sweating face.

It was clear to him that their victim had been carved to pieces and dumped in an unrelated location and the murderer was smart enough to leave nothing for them. Although he knew the theories of murder cases, he still spent almost two hours checking all of the lawns on this street, one hour looking over other dumpsters and two and half hours inspecting the sewers to see if he could find any evidence the murderer might have left behind because of carelessness.

“Gil, I know you’re worried, but we both know this isn’t the primary crime scene.” Brass put one hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him and said it with concern.

Grissom said nothing and walked away.

Seating on the driver’s seat, head leaned against the head rest, hands entwined on his lap, Grissom started to analyze this case.

Was this case really connected with Debbie Marlin or had he overreacted about it? Did Dr. Lurie have something to do with this case? If the doctor was the killer, why did he kill someone again? Was it because he was addicted to the taste of killing people or someone had broken his heart again? If the doctor had fallen in love again, did that girl look like Debbie Marlin? Why didn't that doctor understand a relationship like that never worked, ever.

Suddenly, something jumped in his mind. A girl who looked like Debbie Marlin. He realized immediately who else the girl would look like.

“Sara Sidle.” Grissom whispered the name he did not dare to think of and closed his eyes. He could feel street lights extinguishing and the beaming golden and orange light of the sun gradually swallowing up the night.

Morning was coming.

TBC