| Shadows of Crimes Past - by kyrdwyn (page 3) |
| Rated: R (language, adult themes) Spoilers: Pilot, Anonymous, my fan fic Ghosts of Crimes Past Synopsis: Grissom asks Jana for help on personal matter which leads to her teaming up with the nightshift on a missing persons case. And yes, she does get to torment Brass again. (If you haven't read Ghosts of Crimes Past, I suggest you read it first.) |
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| CSI, Gil Grissom and company, and places and etc are all property of Anthony Zuiker, Alliance Atlantis, CBS, and other companies. They did not condone this fic, and I am not getting paid for it. I write because I want to. All other characters not appearing on CSI in any way, shape, or form that appear in this story are my property. If you have any comments - good or bad, feel free to e-mail me at: toxicrev@yahoo.com |
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| Nick let out a low whistle of amazement. "When you said this place looked like a high priced attorney's office, Sara, you weren't kidding." The team was standing in the reception area of Stevens Investigations. Nick and Catherine had never been to Jana's office, and both were surprised by how sophisticated it was. Sara didn't answer Nick's comment. She was too busy pacing around the room. Warrick looked at Nick and shrugged. He'd been here before, but under different circumstances - the office had been broken into and he'd been sent to investigate the scene. Brass had also been to the office before, and now he was just standing by the door to the hall, watching everyone. He knew why Jana wanted to meet after seeing what she had given him to turn over to Eckley. Jana wasn't dumb, despite having - in his opinion - some questionable work methods. She would have made her own copies. One of the three doors opposite the entry door opened, and Jana came out. She was still wearing the same jeans and t-shirt from the night before, but her hair was pulled back haphazardly with a clip. She had lines of fatigue in her face and circles under her eyes. Idly, Brass wondered if she'd slept at all since she'd talked to them. "Hey, come on back." Even her voice sounded tired. The group followed Jana into the lab area of her private investigation firm. Brass and Warrick had both been inside it several months ago while executing a search warrant during the Edgecombe investigation. Catherine, Nick, and Sara all stopped and stared around them. While it wasn't the equivalent of the Las Vegas Crime Lab, it was more than they were expecting in a P.I.'s office. Jana looked back over her shoulder at the CSIs. A tired smile crossed her face at their amazement. "Hey, it's just a lab." "Just a lab?" Sara echoed. "I know some small town police departments that would turn green over this." Brass noticed the pain that flickered over Jana's face at Sara's comment. He was puzzled by it until he heard her low response. "Funny, Grissom said much the same thing to me when he saw it." As Jana led them into her AV area, Brass continued to watch her. Despite his misgivings about her background - a crazed murderer had killed her parents, leaving an 18-year-old Jana a very rich young woman with a passion for catching criminals - she'd been a fairly competent CSI. He hadn't wanted her in the unit because of her background - he didn't think she belonged there. She'd surprised him, and angered him, by sticking with it - taking the shoddy assignments he gave her and working them the way she would have worked any other case. It was her habit of bending the rules, bending protocol, which really irked him. Sure, neither he nor Grissom were the best role models in that area, but as a rookie CSI, she should have known better. The sight of Grissom on one of the monitors in the lab brought Brass back to the present. Jana was seated in front of the control board, along with a red headed young man that Brass recognized from his previous visit - a lab tech by the name of Kevin. "Where did you get this?" Catherine asked, gesturing to the pictures. "That's part of what I need to tell you," Jana said. She swung around in the chair to face them, her fingers twirling a pen around nervously. "Grissom came to me a few nights ago, asking for my help. Someone had been slipping messages into his mailbox while he was at work. He showed me the messages - they were heavily threatening. They referred to two past cases of his and a current case. He wanted to figure out who was behind it, so he asked me to stake out his house." "Why didn't he tell us?" Sara asked in a tone that was almost challenging Jana. "He was concerned about the mentions of his current case - he suspected a mole within the department." "So he came to you." Nick said matter of factly. "Right. So I staked out his house. While I was there he got a package, from a Royce Harmon." Jana stopped to watch their faces. Catherine had been looking at the monitors, but her head snapped around at the mention of that name. Sara took a step forward. Warrick and Nick looked at each other. Brass, having known Millander was involved, wasn't too shocked. "Royce Harmon? Wasn't he --?" "One of Millander's victims? Yeah." Brass finished Nick's sentence for him. "So Millander's back?" Sara asked. "Yeah," Brass said with a sigh, "his prints were all over the package that Grissom got. Along with our vacationing lab tech, Daniel Lee." Warrick slammed his hand against the wall. "Son of a bitch." Jana turned to Warrick. "What?" "Lee was the last person to have the missing Metcalf file." "The file's missing?" Brass asked. "Yeah." Catherine said. Jana suddenly shot up from her chair and out of the room. Everyone else looked at each other in confusion. She came back five minutes later with a box in her hand. "The box Grissom got," she said without preamble, setting it on her chair. "He never opened it, about the only sane thing he did in this whole mess." Eyebrows raised all around the room hearing Jana criticize Grissom. It was the first time in months she'd done so. "What are you thinking?" Nick asked. Jana pulled something out of the pocket of her jeans. Silver flashed in the overhead lights as her knife blade was released from its sheath. "I'm thinking that if Millander and Lee got their prints all over this, there must be something important inside. Something they wanted Gris to have." She slit the tape on the sides. "Um, Jana? Aren't you worried about what's in there?" Warrick asked, backing away from the box. "Honey, I doubt blowing Gris up is Millander's style. Besides, this might be the only way to find them. So, either I die or Gris does. Not much of a choice to me." She slit the top tape and pulled the flaps back. "Well, hello nurse. Kevin, hand me those --" The lab tech already had a pair of latex gloves out and dropped them into Jana's hands. "You're beautiful." Jana pulled the gloves on and reached into the box. "Warrick, I think you were missing this?" She pulled out the missing Metcalf file. Catherine grabbed a pair of gloves and pulled them on. She took the file from Jana and carefully leafed though it. "Well, it's all here." Jana was still peering in the box. "Um, Catherine? Was Metcalf missing anything? Like, say, an ear?" She pulled out a vacuum-sealed plastic bag containing a human ear. "Oh my God," Sara said. "Millander killed Metcalf?" "Or he got to the crime scene first." Brass noted. Jana handed the bag over to Catherine and peered back into the box. "Oh look, he left us a note. How kind of him," Jana said. "You know, you just sounded like Brass," Nick pointed out with a grin. Jana and Brass both looked at each other, then at Nick. "No, I didn't." "No, she didn't," Brass said at the same time. The rest of the team tried not to smile. Jana pulled the note out of the box. There were no words on it, just a drawing of a fist with stars spilling through the fingers. Warrick had put on a pair of gloves and now took the note from Jana. "What the hell does this mean?" He held it so that the others could see. "Millander was fond of pictograms. Grissom could always figure them out." "Yeah, well, Grissom's not here, so we get to," Brass told Nick. "Stars spilling through fingers…" Sara said thoughtfully. Kevin turned around, "Moff Tarkin!" "Bless you," Warrick said. Kevin shook his head. "Thanks, but the picture - I think I know the reference." "So give, Patterson." Kevin glared at Jana. "I better get a raise for this." Jana leaned down, her hands on the arms of Kevin's chair. "I better hear something good or you'll be getting a new job." The CSI's exchanged looks. Jana was upset by Grissom's disappearance, they all were. Taking it out on her staff wouldn't help any. Catherine stepped forward, thinking to calm Jana down, when Kevin spoke. "That's only the third time this month, boss. You owe me a C-note." "Month's not over," she said, standing up and crossing her arms. "I've still got time to threaten your job again." Both were smiling, confusing the CSI's. "Anyway, the original Star Wars movie - classic film - Princess Leia is being held on the Death Star by Governor Tarkin and Darth Vader. Tarkin threatens Leia, and she tells him 'the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.' I think that's what your guy is trying to tell you." "Are you sure?" Nick asked. Kevin looked at Nick. "The UNLV Science Fiction Club just had a Star Wars marathon this weekend - all four films. Yeah, I'm sure." "So what does it mean?" Sara asked. "The more you tighten your grasp…" Jana murmured. "The harder we try to find Millander, the more he'll get away," Warrick mused. "What, so we don't try to find Millander?" Catherine asked. "This message wasn't meant for us," Sara reminded the group. "He sent it to Grissom. He was probably trying to tell Grissom there was no point in trying to find him." Jana looked slightly ill. "What's wrong?" Catherine asked her. "There was no point in trying to find Millander, because Millander was already planning to kidnap him? And I made his job easier by giving him a reason to lure Gris back to his house." "Hey - you couldn't have known how far this guy would go," Warrick tried to reassure her. "Anyway - we've got a better chance to find him now since you were around." Warrick gestured to the video monitors. Jana didn't say anything, just stared at the floor. "I knew I should have made him go to you guys," she finally whispered. "Hey, Stevens - wake up. Feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to get him back." Brass said harshly. Jana's head popped up and she glared at him, a glare he recognized. He was glad she was angry with him - it would keep her focused on the job at hand. "Kevin, show them what we found," Jana said, still glaring at Brass as she sat back down in front of the console and swung around to face the monitors. Kevin tapped on a few keys, setting the tape on the main monitor into motion. The team watched as Grissom's Tahoe pulled up into his driveway and he ran into his house, leaving the car door open. A few minutes later, a van pulled up behind the Tahoe, and Grissom came out of the house, a man behind him. The van hid the two men from sight, but when the van took off, there was no one in the driveway. "That's the plain view of the videotape I had recording Gris' house last night," Jana said. "Can you get a shot of the plate on the van?" Catherine asked, leaning closer. Jana shot a sideways glance at her. Kevin tapped a few more keys and the back of the van appeared in the main monitor. He zoomed into the plate area, enlarging it as much as he could without losing quality. They could only get a partial. "That's the best I can do, folks," Kevin said, hitting the button that sent the image on the screen to the printer. "It's a start, Kev," Jana said thoughtfully as she pulled the photo out and handed it over her shoulder to Warrick. "Do me a favor - close up on Gris as he was leaving the house." As Kevin ran the tape back into position, Nick spoke up, "Why?" "Warrick said there might have been blood in the house. Our boy is so fond of being sneaky, I want to see if Gris was bleeding or if it was planted to throw whoever was investigating off the trail." Catherine raised an eyebrow and looked over at Brass. He was looking at Jana with an expression akin to respect. Catherine hadn't suspected that the blood had been planted - or at least she wouldn't have until the lab had analyzed it. Jana was more on the ball than they were. "Here," Kevin said. They all looked. "No blood," Sara said. "Not that we can see." "Well, we've got something to go on, at least. Wonder how I can justify running this through the DMV without letting anyone know we're investigating this on our own," Catherine mused, staring at the photo of the plate. Kevin turned to Jana, "Doesn't Beverly owe you a favor?" Jana's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah. She does, doesn't she?" She pulled out her cell phone and dialed. "Bev? It's Jana Stevens. I need a favor. Right, plate search. I'm looking for a gray van, partial plate: unknown-V-J-6-unknown-9. Entire state if you can, Las Vegas if that's all you've got time for. Great. Thanks. I owe you one. You know my fax? I'll be waiting." She hung up the phone. "Bev's running it now, she'll fax the results as soon as she's done." "You've got friends at the DMV?" Nick asked. "Something like that." "So, what now?" That was Sara, impatient to be doing something. Kevin had been playing with the tape, trying to get closer on the kidnappers' faces. He stopped on the man who had forced Grissom out of the house. "That's Millander," Brass said, leaning over Jana's chair. "Can you get closer?" Kevin worked on the tape a moment longer, but the closer he got the more distorted the picture was. He shrugged. "Sorry, guys." Jana shook her head. "No problem, Kevin. You've done great." "Yeah, Kevin. Thanks." Warrick said. The lab tech blushed. Jana stood up, her face pensive. "I think someone probably ought to find out where this Daniel Lee fellow lives and see if he's home," she suggested. Catherine nodded. "Warrick and I will do that - we were both working on the Metcalf case and can use that as a reason for stopping by." "What about us?" Nick asked, gesturing to himself and Sara. Catherine looked at Jana, who shrugged. "It's your case," the P.I. said. "Technically - it's not. This is your investigation, Jana. We're just giving you a few extra hands to work with." Catherine watched as the younger woman eyes went wide. She was telling the truth though - she and the rest of the night shift couldn't be officially involved in the investigation. Jana had to run it - as a private investigator she had more freedom than they did. They could only help her out when it wouldn’t interfere with their other cases. Jana put a hand to her forehead, rubbing it absently. "Okay. Since you and Warrick were working on the Metcalf case, you check out Lee. Nick and Sara, if you've got time, I'd like your help when the fax comes in so we can check out the names. Brass, I think you're our best bet for a spy to Eckley's investigation." "You want someone to spy on Eckley's investigation?" he asked. "They've got what we don't have - access to the crime scene and the evidence found there." "You know, Sanders would probably help us out, on the sly," Nick said thoughtfully. Jana tilted her head, "The lab tech with the odd hair?" Nick grinned, "Yeah - that's Greg." "Well, I will go keep and eye on our erstwhile dayshift CSIs and their case, and let Greg in on our work." Brass turned to leave. Catherine and Warrick followed him. Jana turned to Sara and Nick. "You got time to stick around?" "If it gets Grissom back," Nick said. * * * * * Two hours later Nick, Sara, and Jana walking up to a shabby car rental place. According to the DMV, a gray van with the partial plate from the tape was owned by the agency. "Let me do the talking," Jana said as she pulled open the door. Nick and Sara looked at each other and shrugged. The guy behind the counter was decked out in military fatigues and a bandana printed like the American flag. He looked them over, narrowing his eyes at Nick and Sara and their clean-cut appearance. Jana, on the other hand, looked at home in the dingy interior. She'd thrown a worn leather jacket over her jeans and t-shirt, and changed from sneakers to cowboy boots before they left her office. "Can I help you?" the man asked. "Yeah," Jana said. "This your van?" She pulled out the picture and showed it to him. He frowned at it. "Who's asking?" Jana pulled out her P.I.'s license from inside her jacket and showed it to him. "I'm investigating a kidnapping - good friend of mine is the victim. We think this was the van that was used." "So, what, renting a van is a crime?" Jana looked at him with a disgusted expression. "Do I look like a cop? It's not a crime to me, and I ain't going to tell the police what's going on here. I just want to find my friend. If you want to help me, fine. If not, I'll be disappointed but there's not much I can do. You obviously know your rights," she added, jerking her chin at the framed copy of the Constitution on the wall behind him. "Yeah, I do, honey. P.I.'s can't get a search warrant." "No, we can't. Which is why I'm not threatening you with one. No point. Personally, I don't care what you do around here. You can dance around naked to 'Stars and Stripes Forever' while throwing darts at a picture of the Las Vegas Sheriff for all I care. I just want to find my friend before the asshole that took him decides that a dead body is less trouble than a live one, if you catch my drift." Nick and Sara looked at each other, amused. Fatigues looked over at them. "Who're they? They look like cops." "I know. I keep telling them they need to lose the clean-cut look, but they're fresh off the force - takes a while to undo the academy brainwashing. I'm hoping if I let them tag along enough they'll get the idea." Fatigues grunted. "Why not let the cops find your friend?" Jana snorted. "Because I want him found, and in one piece. I used to be one - I know how they work. My friend's not some high placed political figure or some celebrity's spoiled brat. You think they give a shit if they find him? They'll follow a few leads to say they did something, and when the next case comes in, they'll relegate the file to the back of a drawer somewhere, so sorry, no clues. Until the body gets dug up a year from now." He stared at Jana, and she stared back, letting her anger at the police department come through. "Let me see the picture again." She handed it over. He looked at it. "Looks like one I rented the other day. Let me get the paperwork for ya." He moved off to a back room. Jana stood at the counter, waiting. Nick tried not to smile as he caught Sara's puzzled expression. "Was she like that when she was a CSI?" "On occasion, yeah." "I can see why Brass didn't like her." The guy came back with a sheet of paper. "Here," he said, handing it to Jana. "Guy's name and info. You didn't get this from me." "Of course not. I never reveal my sources," Jana said seriously. "Thanks. If you ever need anything," she let her voice trail off as she handed the man her business card. They turned to leave. "Oh, by the way." They turned to face him. "For your information, I've got Al Gore on my dartboard, not the sheriff." Jana grinned. "It was worth a shot - he's on mine." He chuckled as the three left the building. "So, you really have the sheriff on your dartboard?" Sara asked. "Of course not," Jana said as she started the car. "I've got Brass on there." * * * * * "Well, Lee's place was a total bust - he's not there. Neighbors haven't seen him for a few days." Warrick was half-sitting, half-lying on one of the couches in Jana's private office. Though Grissom had been missing less than 24 hours, the strain of this investigation was starting to show on his attractive face through lines appearing around his eyes and mouth. Idly, Jana wondered how bad she looked. Jana was sitting on the edge of her desk, letting her legs dangle over the side. She was watching Sara and Nick, who were throwing darts at Jana's revamped dartboard - a picture of Millander had replaced the worn one of Brass. Catherine had gone back to the crime lab to work on a case that needed her attention. Brass had called in - Eckley's team had found nothing concrete, and were ignoring Jana's tape. Sanders confirmed what they had already suspected - the blood in the house wasn't Grissom's. "So Lee, who has somehow hooked up with Millander, takes the Metcalf file to mail to Grissom, then goes on vacation from the lab, rents this van, and then helps Millander kidnap Grissom," Sara said thoughtfully, watching Nick throw a dart into Millander's forehead. "My turn." Nick relinquished his place to Sara. "Why did Lee hook up with Millander in the first place? Does Millander have something on him?" "Maybe he has something against Grissom. There was a time a few years ago that I might have hooked up with someone like Millander for revenge - I was that angry." Warrick raised his head from the armrest of the couch, eyes wide at Jana's confession. "You're kidding." She shook her head, staring down at her feet. "Nope. I would have considered it, at least. Hell, maybe I would have done it if you caught me on the right - or maybe wrong - day." "Yeah, but you didn't," Sara pointed out while chewing on the end of a dart. "So what would make Lee cross that line?" "I don't know, but Millander's been heard from." They all turned to see Brass standing in the doorway, his suit more rumpled than usual and an audiotape in his hand. "And it's not good," he continued. "What does he want?" Sara's voice lost some of its usual hard edges on the question. "Nothing right now." "Is Gris --" Jana's voice was barely a whisper. "According to Millander, he's fine." Jana frowned, not exactly relieved. "So, Millander's just playing games?" Warrick asked, throwing his hands up in the air. Brass nodded. "Yeah. So what was this about Lee?" "We were wondering what makes a lab tech hook up with a guy like Millander. Nick was thinking blackmail, Jana was speculating a personal grudge against Grissom," Sara explained, tossing another dart. This one landed on Millander's ear. "Nice dartboard, Jana. I'm surprised I'm not on there." Jana reached behind her and handed Brass the former target. He gave a half smile. "So what do we know about Lee?" Jana asked. "Why do I think you're about to ask me to find out?" Jana smiled sweetly, "Why thank you, Brass." "God, you remind me of Grissom sometimes," he remarked as he left her office. Jana picked up the audiotape Brass left behind and hopped off the desk. "I want to hear this for myself." * * * * * The tape wasn't much, but it was enough to confirm that it was Millander. "Damn it. We need something more to be able to find them," Nick exclaimed. "Yeah, well, I'm guessing there was no trace or Brass would have mentioned it," Sara remarked. "Wonder if there's anything on there we can use," Warrick said thoughtfully. Jana pulled the tape out of her stereo in her office and handed it to Warrick. "I've got an audio lab in the back. Go for it. Tell Kevin I said it's okay." Warrick disappeared out the door with the tape, Sara following. Jana and Nick were left in her office. "Did you really hate Grissom and Brass enough, after…" Nick was quiet as he asked the question. Jana sighed. "Yeah, Nick, I did. I really did." She flopped down onto the couch, her hand over her eyes. "You know Grissom came to see me on what should have been my first night back. He's lucky he caught me at a low point - no telling what I would have done otherwise." Nick didn't say anything. "I don't know. Maybe I should have gone back to work, just gotten over it." "You really think you could have?" he asked, sitting down on the other couch. "No. I would have been useless out in the field, useless in the lab - and I knew it. Not to mention I know how I would have reacted to Brass. I was gone either way. At least I left on my own terms." "Can I ask you something?" "Sure." "Why'd you stay in Vegas? Why not move, make a fresh start somewhere else? You had to know that if you stayed you had a chance of seeing Brass and Grissom again." "I considered moving. But you know - I love living in Las Vegas. So I figured running into them was a small price to pay for staying here. I never contemplated something like the Edgecombe murder." "Hey boss." Jana dropped her hand and turned her head to face the doorway, where her office manager stood. "What's up, Timothy?" "There's a guy on line one for ya - says you were in his office earlier asking about a van." Jana looked over at Nick, eyes wide. "Thanks, I'll take it in here." She reached over to the extension next to the couch, hitting the speakerphone button. "Jana Stevens." "You're the lady who was in here earlier, the one whose friend was kidnapped?" The gruff voice was instantly recognizable to Jana and Nick. "Yes, I was. What can I do for you?" He chuckled. "Actually, nothing. I thought you might like to know that the van was just returned by the fellow who rented it. I'll hold it for you if you'd like to come check it out." "That would be wonderful. I'll pay you a day's rental for it." "Fair enough. Come by anytime." He hung up. Jana did the same. "You going down there?" "Well, here's the dilemma, Nick. The van is evidence. We go down there and check it out ourselves, we compromise anything in there for Eckley's team." "Yeah, but they don't know about the van. Brass said they're not even looking at your videotape." "Doesn't mean they won't. Eckley does have some smart people on his shift. I want to get Grissom back as much as you do, Nick," she said softly, leaning forward to put a hand on his arm. "But I also want to make sure that Millander doesn't get away with it. I want the bastard nailed. And his attorneys will have a field day with any evidence we come up with because we all have ties to Grissom. As much as I hate to say it, Eckley is the best we've got for nailing Millander." "So you're just going to sit back and do nothing now, after dragging us this far." Nick jerked his arm away. "Did I say that?" Jana stood up, heading for the door. "All I said is that we've got a dilemma on our hands. Call Brass and see what he thinks - he can always tell Eckley. If Eckley checks it out, fine. I'm going to go tell Warrick and Sara about the van." |
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