| Specters of Crimes Past - by kyrdwyn (page 2) |
| Rated: R (language, adult themes) Spoilers: None Synopsis: Three years after Ghosts and Shadows, Jana finds herself at the heart of an investigation into the death of a local defense attorney. |
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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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| Gil heard Jana's car pull up and opened the front door. She got out of the car and came up the front walk, her face unreadable. He stood back to let her in, shutting the door behind her. Jana walked into the living room and turned to face him. "Catherine called you?" He nodded, noticing the lines in Jana's face. He went to her and put his arms around her. She leaned against him. "I didn't do it, Gil." "I know." She leaned her head back to look at him, blue eyes staring into blue eyes. "You are the only person who hasn't doubted my innocence tonight." He kissed her forehead. "You're not a cold blooded killer." "Self defense," Jana pointed out. His lips moved to her ear. "You would have called the police and stayed. You don't run from your problems." "What did I do to deserve you?" Jana whispered. Gil pulled back and cupped Jana's face in his hands, surprised to see tears in her normally jaded eyes. "Jana…." "Catherine and Brass both thought I did it, you know. Almost as if the past eight years hadn't happened and I'm just another victim out for revenge." The pain in Jana's eyes was more than Gil could take. He pulled Jana back to him, holding her. "It's their job, Jana, you know that. I doubt they really thought you did it." She didn't respond, just stood there with her arms around him. He stroked her hair, kissing the top of her head. Finally Jana looked up at him, the unshed tears still there. "Thank you." "Anytime," he said, leaning down to kiss her lips. Jana leaned into the kiss, her hands sliding into the waist of his slacks to pull out his shirt and run her hands up his back. "Is that a hint, Jana?" he asked with a slight smile. "Shut up and take me to bed." "Yes, ma'am." * * * * * "Does Jana have any enemies?" "What?" Gil looked over his glasses to see Sara standing in the doorway. The brunette wandered in and dropped into a chair in front of his desk. "I was thinking about the Wilson case. Jana's got a solid alibi for the time of the murder," Sara's face didn't even twitch as she said this, "so why would her business card be on the body? It doesn't make sense - unless someone wanted us to think Jana did it." "By planting her business card to throw suspicion onto her," Gil mused. "Exactly. If you think about it, it's not a bad plan. Jana's often working alone late at night, out where people can't see her, and therefore no verifiable alibi. The killer drives by Jana's house, sees that her car is missing, and kills Wilson." "Not knowing that Jana wasn't working last night." Gil looked at a spot over Sara's shoulder as he considered the possibilities. "Exactly." Sara shifted in her seat. "So, who would plant evidence framing Jana and why?" "Hence the question about her enemies." Gil sat back, taking off his glasses and chewing on the ends. "To be honest, Sara, I don't know. I don't ask Jana about her business often because of her confidentiality policy." "Really? I thought the two of you were so close." Grissom just stared at the young woman until she blushed and dropped her eyes. "You'll have to ask Jana about her enemies," he finally said. "The only people I could think of would be the Edgecombe family, assuming they found out Jana was the P.I. on that case." He referred to the case that had brought Jana back into the crime lab after 5 years of blaming Grissom and Brass for why she had left. He smiled, thinking that he had Walter Edgecombe to thank for bringing Jana back into his life. "What's with the smile?" "Oh, just thinking about coincidences. So, are you going to talk to Jana?" "I guess I have to. Just so you know, Catherine still isn't convinced." Grissom shrugged. "That's Catherine." "You're not worried that she's going to try to pin this on Jana?" "I know Jana didn't do it." "Man, wish I had someone who had such faith in me," Sara said on her way out. * * * * * Jana was in her dark room, processing pictures, when Timothy let her know that Sara wanted to see her. Jana asked one of her techs to take over and headed out into the reception area. "Sara. What can I do for you?" "I wanted to talk to you about Alex Wilson." Sara watched as Jana's smile faded and her eyes clouded over. "Let's talk in my office," Jana said, the warmth gone from her voice. Sara sighed as she followed the P.I. into her office. Jana sat down behind her desk, a classic defensive position for suspects. Jana was on edge. Sara sat down in one of the leather chairs across from her and tried to smooth over the rough beginning to this conversation. "Jana, I'm trying to figure out what happened." "Someone took a gun and blew Alex Wilson away." "Right. And somehow your business card ended up on the body." Jana rolled her eyes. "I told Catherine and Brass - I don't know how it got there, I've never done business with him." Sara leaned forward. "Can you think of anyone who would want to see you go down for his murder?" Jana went still and stared at the brunette woman. "Are you saying someone is trying to frame me?" "I'm just trying to consider all the possibilities." Jana sat back in her chair and looked beyond Sara to the Las Vegas skyline outside the windows. "It's always possible. There are the people I helped put away as a CSI, clients who weren't happy with the results of the investigations, spouses of clients who weren't happy being caught cheating, even family members of Marcus Jackson could want to see me go down for something." Sara nodded, her mind wheeling with the staggering possibilities contained in that list. "Grissom mentioned the Edgecombe family." Jana raised her eyebrows. "I hadn't considered them. I suppose they could want revenge." "You sound like you don't think so." "I don't. I wasn't the one who leaked the story, I was merely a P.I. hired by Jeffery Michaels. Besides, three years is a long time to wait - they're connected enough that if they wanted their revenge they could have gotten my license pulled long ago. Why have another murder taint the family name?" Sara nodded, jotting down notes. Jana tore her eyes away from the skyline and fastened them on the younger woman. "Sara, I did not kill Alexander Wilson." Sara looked back at Jana. "You couldn't have if Grissom says you were with him." Jana smiled wryly. "Funny, I guess if Gil wasn't my alibi, I'd be the number one suspect. No one seems willing to believe in my innocence besides him." Sara didn't know what to say. She had a feeling Jana was right. * * * * * If you didn't do it, Jana, what are you so afraid of? Her attorney's question kept repeating in Jana's head as she drove home from his office. She'd gone to see him after Sara had left her office, needing someone to talk to. She couldn't tell him what she was really afraid of - that she was being set up, and that the evidence planted to frame her would overcome the truth. Jana knew that the CSI unit wasn't going to cut her any slack just because she used to work with them. If anything, that would work against her - it could be argued that she knew how to hide evidence. Not to mention she knew how Catherine worked. Once she got an idea into her head, it took a lot of evidence for her to change her mind. If Grissom couldn't convince Catherine that Jana had been with him at the time of the murder, Jana wasn't sure what would change the older woman's mind. Opening the door to her condo, Jana was greeted by Tilly and Evie, her two dogs. They jumped all over her, and she knelt down to hug them and let them lick her face. At that moment, Jana felt like there were three people in the world who believed in her innocence - and two of them had four feet and fur. * * * * * Catherine was out at the crime scene again with Nick. The night cleaning crew for the building had found Alex Wilson's body in a vacant office, slumped over the desk where he had died. Several slugs had been embedded in the leather chair, some going through into the wall behind the desk. There were very few prints in the room, and Catherine and Nick were now re-examining and re-dusting in the hopes of getting something new. "I still don't get why Jana's card would be in this guy's pocket." Catherine shot Nick a look. "She got careless, maybe." Nick stopped dusting and turned to look at Catherine. "Come on , Cath. This is Jana we're talking about. You honestly think she'd go to all this trouble to clean up a crime scene just to leave her business card? We've got almost no prints here, and the ones we've run are either the victim's or the cleaning staff's. No hairs, no fibers, no prints on the slugs. Yeah," he said to forestall Catherine's interruption, "that could mean that Jana wore gloves, covered her hair, and cleaned the place. But anyone who's ever read a crime book or watched TV could have known to do that. I still don't buy Jana as the killer. What would it gain her?" "Revenge? Wilson had a habit of getting Jackson's execution date pushed back for various reasons. Maybe she was tired of that and wanted him out of the way." Nick shook his head. "I still don't buy it." "You're just saying that because she used to work with us." "And you're jumping to conclusions based on a business card that could have come from anywhere and the fact that he represented Marcus Jackson. And you're ignoring her alibi." He turned back to dusting the doorframe. "I'm not ignoring her alibi, Nick. It's just that…" "Just that what? You don't trust Grissom?" Catherine sighed. "How many times have we dealt with lovers who were willing to lie for each other, Nick? I tend to doubt those alibis. And you know Grissom's always had a soft spot for Jana. Even if they weren't sleeping together, I'd still doubt her alibi." Nick stared at Catherine, his eyes wide and jaw slightly dropped. "Are you saying that Grissom would fabricate an alibi for Jana? Oh, I don't believe this. How long have you two worked together? You can't honestly believe that Grissom would lie for anyone. It's not his style. He's been in law enforcement too long. He knows what would happen if he lied about this. It could kill his career." "When the heart is involved, Nick, people often ignore the consequences of their actions." Catherine began turning over the cushions of the couch in the office. Nick turned to the wet bar in the corner. "All right, assuming for the sake of argument that Jana's alibi is false - how did they get time to concoct it? You called Jana right after you hung up with Grissom. She didn’t call him from the crime lab. The deputy you had babysitting her hasn’t been here long enough to have known Jana so he has no reason to lie when he says she made no phone calls." "She could have called him on her way down here. Or maybe they're just lying about the time that Jana got to his house." "You check their phone records?" "Brass is working on it." Nick peered at the glass sitting in the sink. He photographed it before picking it up to dust it. "Catherine, if your boyfriend showed up at your house at 8 o'clock and then asked you to tell the cops that you showed up at 6, what would you say?" "I'd want to know why." Catherine stopped and looked at Nick. "Are you saying that Grissom knew Jana killed Wilson?" Nick let out an explosive breath of air and restrained the urge to throw the glass in his hand at Catherine. "No, what I'm saying is that Grissom would have asked her why. If there was something fishy about her story - and you know how Grissom can sense suspicious stories - he would have told us, not covered for her." "Nick, Grissom's not infallible." Nick, however, wasn't paying attention to her. "We've got fingerprints," he said in his Texas drawl. He held up the glass from the sink. "Looks like two fingers and a thumb." Catherine came over and smiled. "Lift the prints and run them through AFIS. Looks like someone wasn't as careful as she thought." Nick rolled his eyes as he knelt to get the cards from his kit. "You know, if you're wrong you are going to owe Jana, and Grissom, one hell of an apology." * * * * * Grissom was worried. Catherine was still set on Jana as the prime suspect in Alex Wilson's murder, based on the business card. Nick was running the prints found at the scene through AFIS. Sara had been interviewing family, friends, and clients of Alex Wilson, trying to determine if someone else wanted him dead. Warrick, away at a conference in Tennessee, was the only CSI not working on this case. Grissom wondered what Warrick would think when he heard about this case. He hoped Warrick would be on Jana's side, given how close the two of them had been. As for himself, he had to stay out of this case. As Jana's alibi witness, he had a conflict of interest. So while Catherine did keep him up to speed on what was going on, he had her put it in writing and copy the memos to the sheriff. Grissom didn't make any suggestions and stayed away from the evidence. If he tried to interfere it could make things worse for Jana. But it was hard not to get involved in such a complex puzzle. Sara wanted to talk to Marcus Jackson. Grissom wasn't sure if that was a good idea, or if it would be helpful. But Brass and Catherine thought they might be able to get something out of it, so Sara was on her way up to Ely while Grissom was on his way to Jana's house, hoping to reassure her that she wasn't going to be charged with a crime she didn't commit. Tilly and Evie greeted him at the door when he opened it with his key. He leaned down to scratch behind their ears. "Where's Jana?" he asked them. The two raced up the stairs into the living area and he followed. Instead of leading him to Jana, the two went into the kitchen and parked themselves in front of the cupboard where Jana kept their treats, looking back at Grissom expectantly. He smiled and shook his head, opening the door and giving one to each of them. As they raced back into the living room, Grissom took a quick look around that floor of the house. Not seeing Jana, he climbed up to the third floor where Jana's bedroom and home office were. She wasn't in the office, and she wasn't in the bedroom. Frowning, he was about to go back downstairs when he heard a noise from her bathroom. Walking over to the door, he smiled. A shimmering landscape of bubbles floated across the surface of Jana's Jacuzzi bathtub. Her head rested against several folded towels that were on the small ledge between the tub and the wall of the shower stall. She had pulled up her blonde hair into a haphazard bun and her eyes were closed. Gil stood in the doorway, watching her. Though he couldn't see below the cloud of bubbles, he knew every curve and inch of skin that lay underneath there. He also knew what was going on in her mind - her fears, her anger. He quietly turned and went back into the bedroom, undressing. Despite the tough as nails façade she showed to the world, Jana was just as vulnerable as anyone else. Maybe even more so, given what happened to her. But showing that vulnerable side to anyone was something Jana never felt she could afford to do. When she had to, it made her mad - usually at herself. It was humbling to know he was one of the few people Jana would let her guard down for. It was to him that she had told her secrets and her fears, her worries about her job and her life. She'd even cried in front of him, and Jana hated to cry. Even during one of the worst points in her life, right after Marcus Jackson, she'd barely cried. Anger was more Jana's style. He could deal with Jana's anger, but this depression that she'd sunk into after having to ID Alex Wilson's body scared him. He didn't know how to bring her out of it. He walked back into the bathroom to find Jana's eyes were open, watching him. She smiled tiredly as he approached the tub, sitting up and moving forward. He stepped into the tub behind her and sat down, wincing a little at the heat of the water. He stretched his legs out on either side of Jana and she rested her back against his chest. Leaning back, he settled himself against the fiberglass and let his arms encircle Jana. Her sigh made him look down to see her eyes closed and she turned her head so that her cheek rested against his skin. He lightly kissed the top of her head and was rewarded with a small smile. He rested his head against the towels and closed his eyes, breathing in the scent of her and the bubble bath. Jana felt so small in his arms, as if her indomitable spirit had fled her body, leaving just a shell. He wanted to make it better for her, make Catherine and the others believe in her innocence, but he couldn't. All he could do was support Jana, be there for her. The way she had been there for him so many times. Jana murmured something sleepily against his chest. "Hmm?" he asked, not bothering to open his eyes. "I don't deserve you," she said quietly. His eyes opened at that, and he lifted his head and looked down at her. Her eyes were still closed. "Why do you keep saying that, Jana?" "After everything I put you through all these years, you still believe in me. You courted me for three years because I wasn't ready for a relationship. I don't know of any other man who would have done that." He hugged her tighter. "Oh, Jana. I don't deserve you, you know." He smiled as she made a noise of protest. "I don't. I put you through hell, yet you forgave me and allowed me to court you, as you put it." Jana tilted her head back to look up at him. "Hmm." She smiled and sat up. He dropped his arms as Jana turned around to face him, kneeling astride his legs. "I guess that means we're perfect for each other, huh?" He gave her a lazy smile. "I guess so." He reached out to cup her face in his palms and pulled her to him for a long, thorough kiss. Her hands traced random patterns across his chest as his hands slid down her neck and shoulders. Nothing in his life had ever felt so right, Gil thought. He ended the kiss and slowly worked his way down her throat. Having Jana in his arms, in his life, was like filling in the final block of a crossword puzzle. It made him feel complete. Jana sighed as he made his way back up for another kiss. Her hands had slid around to his back and she was slowly trailing her nails downward, causing him to shiver. They were so involved in the moment that the barking of the dogs failed to register. He could hear his heart pounding as his hands followed the curves of Jana's body below the water line. Suddenly Jana pulled away from the kiss, her hands pushing against his chest. "What was that?" she whispered, her blue eyes wide in apprehension. Before he could ask her what, he heard what she had from downstairs. "Las Vegas Police Department!" * * * * * Brass made his way up the stairs to the living area, the warrant posted on the door behind him. Catherine and Nick followed. A routine search through the permit database had discovered Jana's permit to carry a concealed weapon, specifically a Glock 9mm - same caliber as the gun used on Wilson. Coupled with the business card and her history with the deceased, it had been enough to convince the sheriff and Judge McSwain that they needed to search Jana's house. Personally, Brass thought it was a waste of time - Jana's alibi was solid and she wasn't going to shoot Wilson with her personal weapon. Jana was too smart to make a rookie mistake like that. He noticed that Jana had rearranged her furniture since the last time he'd been at her place - which was also the last time he'd had a warrant for it. Her dogs were still the same fluff balls, darting around everyone and barking. Catherine headed into the kitchen while Nick stayed in the living room. Brass pulled on his own gloves and idly picked up a double photograph frame from an end table. One side was a picture of Jana's parents, their arms around each other and both smiling at the camera. Jana looked like her mother, though the glint of steel often seen in Jana's eyes was in her father's as well. The other side of the frame held a picture of Jana and Grissom, something Brass hadn't expected to see. The two of them had apparently been to the beach at some point, judging by the sand and the water behind them. They were both in jeans and t-shirts, Jana leaning her head against Gil's chest and his arm around her shoulders. The smiles on their faces held the hint of a private joke between them. A noise on the staircase leading to the next floor made Brass turn. He nearly dropped the pictures when he saw Jana standing there, watching him. Her hair was in an untidy bun, and her UNLV t-shirt was sticking to damp skin. That, plus the cut-off jeans and bare feet, made Brass uncomfortable - like he'd interrupted her in the middle of something. Jana looked from Brass to Nick with an icy stare. Her eyes moved beyond the two men and narrowed. Brass heard Catherine come up behind him. "Well?" Jana asked. "We've got a warrant to search your house for evidence pertaining to the Alex Wilson case, Jana. We also need to see your gun," Catherine said unapologetically. Footsteps sounded on the stairs before Grissom came into sight of the three investigators. He, too, was barefoot, wearing jeans and a UCLA t-shirt - which was also sticking to his skin. "Where's the warrant?" he asked. His voice was quiet, but the tone firmly established whose side he was on in this matter. "It's on the door," Nick said, moving towards the stairs. No one said a word as Nick retrieved the warrant and handed it to Jana. She read it through, Grissom reading over her shoulder. "My gun is upstairs in my end table," Jana's voice was as soft as Grissom's had been, but Brass heard a disquieting note of hurt in her voice. Grissom must have heard it also, for his hand came up to rest on Jana's back. It was a simple gesture of support, but to Brass it spoke volumes about the depth of their relationship. Catherine, though, either missed or chose to ignore tone and the gesture. "I'll come with you to get it," she said, moving toward the stairs. Jana pivoted on the ball of one foot and walked stiffly up the stairs, letting her hand gently rest on Grissom's shoulder for a second. Grissom turned his head to watch both women disappear before coming down to confront Brass and Nick. "What the hell is this about, Jim? Jana's got an alibi - she was with me the entire time. That wasn't in the warrant. Crunching evidence to fit a theory?" Brass saw Nick back away from Grissom out of the corner of his eye. He stood his ground. "I didn't get the warrant - the sheriff did," Brass paused, then sighed. "At Catherine's request," he added, bracing himself for the inevitable explosion. Grissom's eyes narrowed and his jaw moved. "Catherine left out the alibi," he stated. Brass nodded. "Did you even try to tell the judge about the alibi?" "I didn't know about the warrant until Catherine called me to come serve it." He looked up as he saw Jana coming back down the stairs. Catherine was behind her, the evidence bag with Jana's gun in one hand, another bag with ammunition rounds in the other. Jana walked over to Grissom, and Catherine handed the bags to Nick, who took them as if he was afraid they would bite him. "We need to finish searching the rest of the house," Catherine said pointedly. Jana turned toward the stairs leading to her front door. "I'm going outside to wait. I need a cigarette." Grissom raked his three friends with his own icy stare before turning to follow Jana. "I’ll join you. I could use one myself." "You don't smoke," Nick protested. "Now's a good time to start." |
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