Disclaimer: All rights reserved for CBS.

A/n:Due to the fact that we're getting down to the nitty gritty of both of my stories, I've decided to do only one update per week, so I can make sure that I don't skimp on a chapter because I'm rushing, because I know I have to get the next update soon. So, I'm updating Masquerade this week and Sara's Journey next week, and so on. This should make for longer chapters, and less stress on me. Thanks for reading and reviewing. I appreciate it very much.

Chapter 17

Grissom checked his watch as he walked into the lab door. Earlier than expected, he sighed as he headed to his office. He’d made a promise to Sara that he’d spend less time at the lab and more time at home, but he didn’t seem to be starting the new year off any different than the old year. The simple truth was that without Sara there, home wasn’t very appealing. Still, he resolved to make sure that in future he wouldn’t come to the lab more than ten minutes early, unless called in.

He rounded the corner and came to an abrupt halt. Hodges was leaning against the wall looking into the DNA lab. He cleared his throat and Hodges jumped.

“Oh, Gil, I didn’t see you there. I- I was just… um, Happy New Year!” he said with a guilty smile.

Grissom cut to the chase. “Why are you hanging out in the hall?” he asked as he continued on to his office.

Hodges followed. “Oh, just trying to decide something. Conrad asked me to come in early and help out with swing, you know that new Trace tech they have is totally in over his head and Conrad wanted me to help him out and of course I couldn’t say no.”

“Of course you couldn’t. I noticed that Wendy was here early also, did he call her in, too?” Grissom asked, his back turned to Hodges as he hung up his jacket.

Hodges shrugged. “I guess I did see her hanging around,” he hedged, looking around. “So, how was your New Year’s Eve? Did you go to any parties?”

Grissom turned to him and watched him silently for a moment. “No,” he said with a small smile. “I just had a quiet night at home.”

Hodges nodded. “Yeah, yeah, parties aren’t for guys like us. We’re above it.” He tapped a file on the desk. “So, well, I’d better get back to work. See you around.”

Grissom watched as he left the office and shook his head. Looking down he saw his mail waiting on him. Sighing, he sat down and began to go through it, throwing the junk in the trash. Two requests for him to lecture at conventions, one on entomology, and one on forensics. He put those to the side. A green envelope caught his attention because it had no return address and only had Gil Grissom written on the front. Frowning, he opened it.

‘Time waits for no one; I’ve had my fun, now it’s time for you to see my masterpiece. You must pay for your transgressions, and the sluts must pay for their free ways. What is mine will be mine forever, and if you try to take what is mine, you will pay.’

Grissom read this and felt a shiver run down his spine. In the last month the serial case had gone cold. With no leads, and no suspects, they were left with questioning the employees of the area hospitals and using the list that Catherine had made up, they had made good progress. Due to the sheer number of DNA samples that had been taken, every person they’d questioned so far had readily agreed to give a sample when asked, they’d had to send them out to be processed as Wendy couldn’t handle them all on top of her regular work load. They were due to receive the results in the next couple of days.

Now, as Grissom stared down at the note, he felt a sense of anticipation. Finally they had something, and it looked like they might be about to get more. He hated the fact that they hadn’t been able to catch this guy before another woman was tortured and killed, but he hoped that her death wouldn’t be in vain. Not wanting to wait, he leaned down and opened his field kit. He took out a pair of gloves and slipped them on. He’d already touched the note, but he wanted to avoid further contamination. He took out his camera and snapped a couple of shots. The last note they’d received had been clean, and Grissom didn’t really expect anything less from this one, but he had to process it nonetheless.

He examined every square inch of the note with a magnifying glass, and found nothing. They’d had the paper and ink of the other letters analyzed and had found that the ink had been different in each note, but of a common variety, and the paper could be found in any store. He didn’t expect this note to be any different. It was a self sealing envelope with no distinguishing features. That is until he examined the inside of the envelope. He’d used a letter opener to slit the top of the envelope open, and as he examined the inside he noticed a hair sticking out from the sealed flap. Smiling, he carefully slid the envelope into a paper bindle and sealed it. He stood and headed to the DNA lab.

Wendy looked up as someone walked through the door. She’d half expected it to be Hodges and was slightly disappointed when she saw Grissom. Shaking herself, she smiled, hoping Grissom hadn’t seen her momentary disconcertion. “Hey, Grissom, what’ve you got for me?”

“Top priority Wendy, put this ahead of everything. There’s a hair stuck in the flap of this envelope. Process it and get back to me as soon as possible,” Grissom instructed as he gave her the sealed bindle. He turned to leave, but turned back at the door. “Oh, if you need help I think Hodges is hanging about somewhere.”

Wendy stood with her mouth open as he left. She shook her head and got to work on the envelope, muttering, “Yeah, I’m sure he would.” Truth was that lately she hadn’t seen much of Hodges and for some reason she didn’t like that. She smiled when she thought of a couple of weeks ago when she’d been out on a blind date.

She’d been having a terrible time and then Hodges had walked up and she’d somehow found herself inviting him to join them at the table. He’d demurred, saying that he couldn’t do that, but had sat for a few minutes while he’d waited on his table. Her date hadn’t seemed pleased, but couldn’t find a way to object, so he’d just sat there stewing as she and David had talked about a case they’d worked that day. When his table was ready he had bid them a good evening and she and her date had spent another uncomfortable thirty minutes. Finally, they’d had coffee and Wendy suggested that they leave. The check came and it was way less then she’d expected. She asked the waiter about it, and he’d said that the guy at table ten had paid for half of the bill. She looked up to find Hodges smiling at her, and he lifted his glass in acknowledgment. She smiled and nodded. Her date had been elated. He said that he figured that ‘that guy’ had paid for his portion of the meal, leaving Wendy to pay the still sizeable bill. She’d given him a tight smile and followed him out of the restaurant letting him know that the date was now over.

“Hey, Babe, if you want to get off the love train, that’s okay with me. I can find someone more willing to ride the lube tube, and now I have the money to do it,” he jeered.

Wendy had nearly gagged and hadn’t been able to force herself to answer. She turned and walked away, calling a cab on her cell.

The next day she’d played it off with Hodges, not wanting him to know what a pig she’d been out with. She certainly wasn’t going to go on anymore dates set up by that particular friend.

Now as she started carefully extracting the hair from the glue on the envelope, she couldn’t help but wonder what a date with Hodges would be like. Sometimes he could be quite endearing, but then he could turn around and be a clueless clown. With a sigh she decided to concentrate on work. At least that was one thing that never disappointed her.

Catherine hurried down the hall, heading to Grissom’s office. He’d called her to tell her about the new letter and Catherine was anxious to read it. She entered his office, not bothering to knock, and found him seated at his desk.

He silently handed her the letter, now sealed in a clear plastic bag.

After reading it she looked up. “Do you think he’s set up another death scene, or just dumped her somewhere?”

Grissom shrugged. “Brass has people patrolling all of the local golf clubs, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t slip into one of them. The truth is we don’t have a single clue who this guy is, he could work at one of the golf courses, though that is unlikely, but it would give him inside knowledge of when he could do it. I just don’t know, Catherine. Last time I felt like this about a case it didn’t turn out so well.”

Catherine tilted her head and gave a soft smile. “But that’s not going to happen this time. Sara is safe and sound, and I’m sure not going to relax my guard. Look, who knows why this sicko has decided to make this personal with you, but I’ll bet that it really doesn’t mean anything personally; he probably just read about you and wants to play games. He doesn’t just get off on killing; he gets off on the thought that he has control over the media and even the police. But that very desire, that need, is what will make him get sloppy, make mistakes.”

Grissom nodded. “I know.” He sat back in his chair and changed the subject. “So, how was your New Year?”

Catherine rolled her eyes. “Lindsey threw a New Years Eve party, does that answer your question? I was stuck chaperoning about thirty teenagers. Yeah, instead of getting kissed at midnight, I was making sure nothing more than kissing was going on between the partygoers. How was yours?”

“Nice and quiet,” Grissom said with a small smile.

“Really, you mean to tell me you didn’t go out and party?” Catherine laughed.

“Yeah, my partying days are over. Now it’s just boring old TV with a cold beer and a snoring Hank next to me.” A soft smile remained on his face.

Catherine looked at him speculatively. “Have you heard from Sara?”

Grissom shrugged. “Yeah, we’ve talked.” He remembered talking to her the night before. Their day together at Christmas had been short, and he wanted more, but the sound of her voice over the phone each night wrapped around him like silk and he couldn’t help the way his body reacted to her suggestive banter. His New Year’s Eve had been good indeed, though he was technically alone.

Catherine was intrigued by the small smile on his face and the far away look in his eyes, but she felt it prudent not to mention it. “So, when are those DNA results due?”

“Tomorrow at the earliest and even then I don’t know if we’ll get any answers; if we’ll find any DNA profiles that fit the ones we have from the soil. And if we do find a match, I’m not sure what it means for our case. The circumstances are just too bazaar, but at least it might give us another cog in the puzzle,” Grissom said shaking his head.

“I guess that’s all we can hope for, although…”Catherine broke off sadly.

“Although we may get another chance soon, in the form of a new victim,” Grissom finished.

Catherine nodded.

The night passed slowly with few cases coming in and a lull in the ongoing ones. Greg walked into the breakroom and grabbed an apple from the basket on the table.

Nick looked up from where he was sitting reading a file and nodded at him. “Wrap your case?”

Greg nodded. “Just a B and E, nothing exciting, the perp didn’t even try to disguise his face. We found him within an hour of the alarm going off. He confessed before anyone accused him of anything.” He glanced at his watch. “Man, it’s only half past three.”

Nick grunted, “Tell me about it. At least you had something to do, I’ve had nothing to occupy my time but catching up on paperwork,” he said nodding at the files in front of him. “Oh, hey, guess who called me yesterday.”

Greg walked over to the drink machine and chose a Coke. “Hmm, let’s see, was it Sara?” he asked with a laugh.

“Oh, you got a call, too?” Nick asked with mock hurt.

“I think she called everyone,” Greg answered with a grin. He walked over and dropped into a chair opposite Nick.

Nick nodded. “Sure isn’t the same around here without her, and what with Warrick being gone…” he trailed off.

“Yeah, I know. It’s just weird. Have you heard from him?” Greg asked, propping his feet on the table.

Nick shook his head. “I think he’s been laying low. He’ll be back in a few days, I only hope he’s worked through some of his issues.”

Greg bit into his apple. “Yeah, we can only hope. We’re dropping like flies, man, and I don’t like it. Say, you’re not hiding some bottled up emotions are you?”

Nick was quiet for a moment. “To tell you the truth, I’m feeling just fine. I did have a bit of a rough patch, getting buried alive does that to you, but after Sara… well, I realized that shit happens to everyone, and I came through it, and Sara came through it, shoot, even you came through it. I mean, Sara may have had to take some time to deal with some issues, but from what she told me, it was something to do with her family, and if she didn’t take care of it now, it just wouldn’t be taken care of.” Nick grasped his hands on the table. “I think we’ll all be okay. Sara will come back, some day, and we’ll be the happy family we’ve always been.”

“And if we’re not?” Greg asked quietly.

“Then we’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

Tyler Gantt yawned as he opened the gates to the Desert Palace Mini Golf course. The sun was barely tipping over the horizon as he unlocked the door to the ticket booth. “I’ve got to find a job that doesn’t start so early,” he mumbled to himself.

He picked up a broom and started on his normal routine, sweeping the ‘greens’ on the course. There were eighteen holes, the easiest a simple straight shot from tee to hole, and as you went it got more difficult with sphinxes and pyramids and tombs. The final hole was a complex set up with a water hazard.

The morning air was cold with a chill breeze blowing over him. His hands were numb by the time he reached the seventeenth hole and he was praying for the sun to come up fully and warm the air. He trudged over to the beginning of the eighteenth hole and began to sweep the debris from the green. He reached the end and circled around the grand pyramid, hopping over the mini replica of the Nile River. He stopped mid hop and stared in confusion at something lying near the hole. He walked closer and was jolted when he heard a noise from over the fence. He looked up to see a car peeling away. He looked back down and before he knew what was happening, he’d lost his breakfast, turning his head just in time so that he vomited on the side away from the body lying on the green. When his stomach stopped heaving, he grappled in his pocket for his phone and dialed 911. As the phone rang he slowly looked back over to the body, a woman he now saw, for she was nude.

When the operator answered he stammered, “Yeah, I found a dead woman…”

TBC…