Day and Night (8)
The team regrouped in Gil's office. It was a tight fit, but no one really cared as the news about Hodges' death rippled through the lab. Tensions high, they waited anxiously for their marching orders. Grissom wasted no time.
"By now, I know you've all heard about Hodges. He found out that Ronnie was our kidnapper, and she killed him. I know he was our friend, but right now we need to focus on finding whatever we can about Ronnie. She's still got Catherine and Lindsey, and the more time that goes by, the smaller our chances of finding them become. So, for right now, we all have to put aside our grief and anger and get to work." When no one objected, he continued. "Nick, Sara and Warrick, I want you at Ronnie's house. Go over it with a fine-toothed comb. She's been good at covering her tracks so far, but there is always a mistake somewhere. Greg, I want you and Ryan to dig into Ronnie's life. Anything you can find that might be a lead, let us know. Calleigh and Natalia, go down to the morgue and see if Robbins finds any evidence on Hodges' body."
"What about you?" Nick asked.
Grissom took a deep breath, before locking eyes with his C.S.I. "Horatio and I are going to get an arrest warrant for Ronnie."
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When he first walked into the apartment, Warrick found that he couldn't go any further. He stood in the doorway, looking into the living room, his brain flooded with the knowledge that he was standing in the home of the person that had tried to kill his friends - the person who had taken Catherine.
It looked normal - maybe that was what bothered him the most. If she was really the sadistic kidnapper that the evidence said she was, then he thought there should be something different about the space where she spent the majority of her time. Looking around, though, Warrick could pick out nothing that indicated something with a sick and twisted mind resided there. The apartment was clean, although not in an OCD sense. Magazines rested on the coffee table - Vogue, Cosmo, People - and there were a couple dishes in the sink. He made a mental note that they would have to check those for fingerprints and DNA.
Warrick took a deep breath, telling himself that he needed to join Nick and Sara in their efforts, but was caught off-guard by the rage that was slowly building through him. He tried to push it down, but it just kept coming, consuming him as he imagined Cath and Lindsey being held hostage. He didn't know what sick games Ronnie had in store for them, but he assumed that it was worse than what he could imagine.
"Warrick?"
He shook his head at the sound of Nick's voice, realizing that his fists were clenched and shaking. Looking over at his friend, he knew that Nick could see everything he was feeling in his eyes.
"C'mon, man," the other C.S.I. said gently, walking back to Warrick. "We've got work to do. The faster we get to it, the faster we find Cath, okay?"
Knowing that he was right, Warrick nodded, finally stepping fully into the room. "Let's get this bitch," he muttered.
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"I've got something!" Ryan called as he stared at the computer screen.
Greg was there in an instant, looking over his shoulder. "What is it?"
"She's got a storage unit on the outskirts of Vegas."
Greg frowned. "Why didn't that come up in the initial search?"
"It's under Hoskins - her mom's maiden name."
"How big is it?"
Ryan tapped on the keys, until he had a layout of the storage space. When he saw it, he whistled. "It’s huge."
"You think that's where she could be keeping Cath?"
"I think we definitely need to check it out. C'mon. Let's go tell H and Gris."
As they turned to leave the lab, the rest of the team walked in.
"Hey," Greg greeted. "We were just coming to find you guys. Did you get anything at the apartment?"
Sara nodded. "We've got fingerprints from the dishes that were in her sink and they definitely look like they came from different hands. Can you run them?"
Greg took the prints from her and immediately put them into the system. Ryan turned to Calleigh and Natalia.
"What about you guys?" he asked. "Was there any evidence on the…" He trailed off, looking at the Las Vegas team uncomfortably.
Calleigh shook her head. "Nothing. She used a hunting knife, but nothing broke off in the wound, and the cut wasn't distinctive enough to be able to get a match."
"Well we've got matches over here," Greg announced. He tapped on the keyboard a couple more times and then stepped to the side. "Meet Ronnie's friends."
Nick leaned forward, reading the names that went along with the prints. "Armed robbery, assault, rape, attempted murder, murder…these guys are a bunch of thugs."
"So now we know who has her…what about actually finding her?" Warrick asked, frustration clear in his voice.
"We found a storage unit," Ryan told them. "It's big, and it's just inside the city limits. There's a good chance that she's there."
"Then what the hell are we waiting for?" the taller C.S.I. growled.
Without another word, the team left the lab, moving as one as they followed the best lead they'd had since the nightmare had begun.
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They parked the SUVs some distance from the unit, not wanting to draw attention with their vehicles. Moving quickly but cautiously, they split up, surrounding the low building numbered twenty-nine. After doing a sweep, they joined up again at the front door.
"This is the only entrance or exit, H," Ryan told him. "No windows, no vents…nothing."
"Then it looks like we'll have to go in the front door," Horatio replied, his hands on his hips.
"Won't she be expecting that, though?" Greg asked.
Sara shook her head. "She has no reason to think we have any idea who she is. She took the evidence, erased the results from the DNA test…she probably thinks we're back at the lab, trying to figure out who killed Hodges."
"So we go in," Grissom agreed. "Weapons out, eyes and ears open. We don't know what Ronnie has set up in there, and we don't want to endanger ourselves or Catherine and her daughter. Don't hesitate - if any of the perps refuses to put down their weapon, take them down. But don't shoot to kill. I want to know why they chose us."
The door was locked, but Ryan made quick work of it, getting down on one knee to pick it. It swung in on silent hinges, and the C.S.I.s moved in quickly and fanned out, their guns at the ready.
Right in front of them stood a wall that stretched across the length of the room. There were two doors, one on each side of the wall, each with a window at head height. Warrick immediately went for the door on the left, bringing his head in front of the window so that he could see what was happening inside. The way color drained from his face had Ryan running to join him, his lock-picking set already in his hands. He worked quickly, and when the door finally opened, he raced across the room to the door on the right.
Warrick moved into the room immediately, his weapon out. He saw Catherine on the floor, weakly pounding on the glass and calling her daughter's name. Ronnie stood in the far corner, her eyes glowing as she watched the older woman suffer. He turned to deal with the woman who had caused them so much pain, but a movement to his right caught his attention. Turning his head, he saw what had Catherine so upset.
The room was separated by the one next to it by a wall of Plexiglas. On the other side of the acrylic glass, he could see Lindsey on the floor, with three large men towering over. They were pulling at her hair and her clothes, attacking her mercilessly. She fought back as hard as she could, but it was obvious that her strength was beginning to wane - bruises and scratches littered her face and arms, as though the fight had been going on for some time.
At that instant, the far door burst open, and Warrick saw the rest of the team flood into the room. He heard their muffled shouts as they demanded that the perps back away from Lindsey. Two of them complied, but the third pulled out his weapon. Shots were fired, and Warrick was relieved to see the perp go down instead of one of his friends.
Everything had happened in a matter of seconds, but as Warrick turned back to Ronnie, he realized that he had made a fatal mistake. The former C.S.I. had had just enough time to rush forward, wrapping an arm around Catherine's neck and dragging her to her feet. In her other hand was a syringe, which she held to the woman's throat. Warrick felt others join him, and his mind distantly registered that Grissom was next to him, his gun trained on Ronnie.
"Well this is unexpected," their former colleague remarked. "And unfortunate. We were just getting to the fun part."
"What did you do to her?" Warrick demanded.
"Nothing, really. Just pumped her full of drugs so that she wouldn't be strong enough to fight back. Don't worry - it's not permanent."
"Let her go," he growled.
"No." She tightened her grip on Catherine. "Take another step and I'll plunge this into her neck. And trust me, she won't survive these drugs."
"Then let's talk," Grissom said, trying to sound calm. "Let's talk about what you want."
Ronnie laughed hollowly. "What I want? I don't want anything."
"Then why did you do all this?" he asked, genuinely confused.
She shrugged. "I was sick of always tagging behind the 'prized' children. Your C.S.I.s could do no wrong. But me…I was just the new kid on the block. You all acted as though I wasn't even there, never noticing me. I was sick of it. And then Caine came, bringing his team, and suddenly there was no more room for poor little Ronnie."
"How did you pick who you would take?"
"It was obvious from the beginning who was attached to whom. I figured the way to cause the most pain was to split them apart."
"So that's it?" Warrick asked, incredulous. "We wouldn't let you sit at the popular kids' table, so you decided to kidnap our friends and put them through hell? You could have killed them!"
"I knew there was a good chance you'd get to them in time. Though Catherine and Lindsey weren't supposed to survive. Can I ask how you found us?"
"Hodges wasn’t dead when you left him," Grissom explained. "He texted Greg your name and we put it together."
Ronnie grimaced. "Amateur mistake - I should have caught that one. And now Lindsey is safe as well." She sighed. "Oh well, at least I'll take Catherine with me."
"Like hell you will," Warrick argued. "There's no way out, Ronnie. Give up now and you'll leave with your life."
She pretended to think about that for a minute. "Nah…I think I'd rather go out with a bang."
They saw her muscles tighten as she prepared to plunge the syringe into Catherine's neck. Warrick went to shoot, knowing that he was going to be too late. But before the needle pierced Catherine's skin, a shot sounded from his right, and a bullet ripped through Ronnie's left shoulder. The force of the collision sent her flying to the side, they syringe dropping to the ground.
Warrick looked up in surprise, wondering who had fired the shot. Standing in the other room, Calleigh held her gun steady, a look of determination and certainty on her face. The Plexiglas that had separated them was dissolved away, with traces of paint thinner around its edges. Satisfied with her work, Calleigh nodded at him before holstering her weapon and turning away.
With Ronnie no longer holding her up, Catherine had sunk to the ground. Without hesitation, Warrick moved towards her, scooping her up in his arms and cradling her against his chest. He barely noticed that Grissom was handcuffing Ronnie and reading her her rights. Moving forward, he just whispered soothing words in Catherine's ear, promising her that she was safe, that her daughter was safe, and that everything would be okay.
As soon as they were out of the storage unit and back in the sunlight, Lindsey broke away from Nick and Sara, running towards her mother. She collided with Warrick, her arms wrapping around his torso as she talked to Catherine, tears streaming down her face. His own tears falling, Warrick sank to the ground, pulling the two women with him. He held them both tightly, rocking them, telling them over and over again that he had them, that nobody else was going to hurt them. Catherine just clung to her friend and her daughter, relief washing over her as she realized that the nightmare was finally over.
"By now, I know you've all heard about Hodges. He found out that Ronnie was our kidnapper, and she killed him. I know he was our friend, but right now we need to focus on finding whatever we can about Ronnie. She's still got Catherine and Lindsey, and the more time that goes by, the smaller our chances of finding them become. So, for right now, we all have to put aside our grief and anger and get to work." When no one objected, he continued. "Nick, Sara and Warrick, I want you at Ronnie's house. Go over it with a fine-toothed comb. She's been good at covering her tracks so far, but there is always a mistake somewhere. Greg, I want you and Ryan to dig into Ronnie's life. Anything you can find that might be a lead, let us know. Calleigh and Natalia, go down to the morgue and see if Robbins finds any evidence on Hodges' body."
"What about you?" Nick asked.
Grissom took a deep breath, before locking eyes with his C.S.I. "Horatio and I are going to get an arrest warrant for Ronnie."
888888888888888
When he first walked into the apartment, Warrick found that he couldn't go any further. He stood in the doorway, looking into the living room, his brain flooded with the knowledge that he was standing in the home of the person that had tried to kill his friends - the person who had taken Catherine.
It looked normal - maybe that was what bothered him the most. If she was really the sadistic kidnapper that the evidence said she was, then he thought there should be something different about the space where she spent the majority of her time. Looking around, though, Warrick could pick out nothing that indicated something with a sick and twisted mind resided there. The apartment was clean, although not in an OCD sense. Magazines rested on the coffee table - Vogue, Cosmo, People - and there were a couple dishes in the sink. He made a mental note that they would have to check those for fingerprints and DNA.
Warrick took a deep breath, telling himself that he needed to join Nick and Sara in their efforts, but was caught off-guard by the rage that was slowly building through him. He tried to push it down, but it just kept coming, consuming him as he imagined Cath and Lindsey being held hostage. He didn't know what sick games Ronnie had in store for them, but he assumed that it was worse than what he could imagine.
"Warrick?"
He shook his head at the sound of Nick's voice, realizing that his fists were clenched and shaking. Looking over at his friend, he knew that Nick could see everything he was feeling in his eyes.
"C'mon, man," the other C.S.I. said gently, walking back to Warrick. "We've got work to do. The faster we get to it, the faster we find Cath, okay?"
Knowing that he was right, Warrick nodded, finally stepping fully into the room. "Let's get this bitch," he muttered.
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"I've got something!" Ryan called as he stared at the computer screen.
Greg was there in an instant, looking over his shoulder. "What is it?"
"She's got a storage unit on the outskirts of Vegas."
Greg frowned. "Why didn't that come up in the initial search?"
"It's under Hoskins - her mom's maiden name."
"How big is it?"
Ryan tapped on the keys, until he had a layout of the storage space. When he saw it, he whistled. "It’s huge."
"You think that's where she could be keeping Cath?"
"I think we definitely need to check it out. C'mon. Let's go tell H and Gris."
As they turned to leave the lab, the rest of the team walked in.
"Hey," Greg greeted. "We were just coming to find you guys. Did you get anything at the apartment?"
Sara nodded. "We've got fingerprints from the dishes that were in her sink and they definitely look like they came from different hands. Can you run them?"
Greg took the prints from her and immediately put them into the system. Ryan turned to Calleigh and Natalia.
"What about you guys?" he asked. "Was there any evidence on the…" He trailed off, looking at the Las Vegas team uncomfortably.
Calleigh shook her head. "Nothing. She used a hunting knife, but nothing broke off in the wound, and the cut wasn't distinctive enough to be able to get a match."
"Well we've got matches over here," Greg announced. He tapped on the keyboard a couple more times and then stepped to the side. "Meet Ronnie's friends."
Nick leaned forward, reading the names that went along with the prints. "Armed robbery, assault, rape, attempted murder, murder…these guys are a bunch of thugs."
"So now we know who has her…what about actually finding her?" Warrick asked, frustration clear in his voice.
"We found a storage unit," Ryan told them. "It's big, and it's just inside the city limits. There's a good chance that she's there."
"Then what the hell are we waiting for?" the taller C.S.I. growled.
Without another word, the team left the lab, moving as one as they followed the best lead they'd had since the nightmare had begun.
88888888888888888888888
They parked the SUVs some distance from the unit, not wanting to draw attention with their vehicles. Moving quickly but cautiously, they split up, surrounding the low building numbered twenty-nine. After doing a sweep, they joined up again at the front door.
"This is the only entrance or exit, H," Ryan told him. "No windows, no vents…nothing."
"Then it looks like we'll have to go in the front door," Horatio replied, his hands on his hips.
"Won't she be expecting that, though?" Greg asked.
Sara shook her head. "She has no reason to think we have any idea who she is. She took the evidence, erased the results from the DNA test…she probably thinks we're back at the lab, trying to figure out who killed Hodges."
"So we go in," Grissom agreed. "Weapons out, eyes and ears open. We don't know what Ronnie has set up in there, and we don't want to endanger ourselves or Catherine and her daughter. Don't hesitate - if any of the perps refuses to put down their weapon, take them down. But don't shoot to kill. I want to know why they chose us."
The door was locked, but Ryan made quick work of it, getting down on one knee to pick it. It swung in on silent hinges, and the C.S.I.s moved in quickly and fanned out, their guns at the ready.
Right in front of them stood a wall that stretched across the length of the room. There were two doors, one on each side of the wall, each with a window at head height. Warrick immediately went for the door on the left, bringing his head in front of the window so that he could see what was happening inside. The way color drained from his face had Ryan running to join him, his lock-picking set already in his hands. He worked quickly, and when the door finally opened, he raced across the room to the door on the right.
Warrick moved into the room immediately, his weapon out. He saw Catherine on the floor, weakly pounding on the glass and calling her daughter's name. Ronnie stood in the far corner, her eyes glowing as she watched the older woman suffer. He turned to deal with the woman who had caused them so much pain, but a movement to his right caught his attention. Turning his head, he saw what had Catherine so upset.
The room was separated by the one next to it by a wall of Plexiglas. On the other side of the acrylic glass, he could see Lindsey on the floor, with three large men towering over. They were pulling at her hair and her clothes, attacking her mercilessly. She fought back as hard as she could, but it was obvious that her strength was beginning to wane - bruises and scratches littered her face and arms, as though the fight had been going on for some time.
At that instant, the far door burst open, and Warrick saw the rest of the team flood into the room. He heard their muffled shouts as they demanded that the perps back away from Lindsey. Two of them complied, but the third pulled out his weapon. Shots were fired, and Warrick was relieved to see the perp go down instead of one of his friends.
Everything had happened in a matter of seconds, but as Warrick turned back to Ronnie, he realized that he had made a fatal mistake. The former C.S.I. had had just enough time to rush forward, wrapping an arm around Catherine's neck and dragging her to her feet. In her other hand was a syringe, which she held to the woman's throat. Warrick felt others join him, and his mind distantly registered that Grissom was next to him, his gun trained on Ronnie.
"Well this is unexpected," their former colleague remarked. "And unfortunate. We were just getting to the fun part."
"What did you do to her?" Warrick demanded.
"Nothing, really. Just pumped her full of drugs so that she wouldn't be strong enough to fight back. Don't worry - it's not permanent."
"Let her go," he growled.
"No." She tightened her grip on Catherine. "Take another step and I'll plunge this into her neck. And trust me, she won't survive these drugs."
"Then let's talk," Grissom said, trying to sound calm. "Let's talk about what you want."
Ronnie laughed hollowly. "What I want? I don't want anything."
"Then why did you do all this?" he asked, genuinely confused.
She shrugged. "I was sick of always tagging behind the 'prized' children. Your C.S.I.s could do no wrong. But me…I was just the new kid on the block. You all acted as though I wasn't even there, never noticing me. I was sick of it. And then Caine came, bringing his team, and suddenly there was no more room for poor little Ronnie."
"How did you pick who you would take?"
"It was obvious from the beginning who was attached to whom. I figured the way to cause the most pain was to split them apart."
"So that's it?" Warrick asked, incredulous. "We wouldn't let you sit at the popular kids' table, so you decided to kidnap our friends and put them through hell? You could have killed them!"
"I knew there was a good chance you'd get to them in time. Though Catherine and Lindsey weren't supposed to survive. Can I ask how you found us?"
"Hodges wasn’t dead when you left him," Grissom explained. "He texted Greg your name and we put it together."
Ronnie grimaced. "Amateur mistake - I should have caught that one. And now Lindsey is safe as well." She sighed. "Oh well, at least I'll take Catherine with me."
"Like hell you will," Warrick argued. "There's no way out, Ronnie. Give up now and you'll leave with your life."
She pretended to think about that for a minute. "Nah…I think I'd rather go out with a bang."
They saw her muscles tighten as she prepared to plunge the syringe into Catherine's neck. Warrick went to shoot, knowing that he was going to be too late. But before the needle pierced Catherine's skin, a shot sounded from his right, and a bullet ripped through Ronnie's left shoulder. The force of the collision sent her flying to the side, they syringe dropping to the ground.
Warrick looked up in surprise, wondering who had fired the shot. Standing in the other room, Calleigh held her gun steady, a look of determination and certainty on her face. The Plexiglas that had separated them was dissolved away, with traces of paint thinner around its edges. Satisfied with her work, Calleigh nodded at him before holstering her weapon and turning away.
With Ronnie no longer holding her up, Catherine had sunk to the ground. Without hesitation, Warrick moved towards her, scooping her up in his arms and cradling her against his chest. He barely noticed that Grissom was handcuffing Ronnie and reading her her rights. Moving forward, he just whispered soothing words in Catherine's ear, promising her that she was safe, that her daughter was safe, and that everything would be okay.
As soon as they were out of the storage unit and back in the sunlight, Lindsey broke away from Nick and Sara, running towards her mother. She collided with Warrick, her arms wrapping around his torso as she talked to Catherine, tears streaming down her face. His own tears falling, Warrick sank to the ground, pulling the two women with him. He held them both tightly, rocking them, telling them over and over again that he had them, that nobody else was going to hurt them. Catherine just clung to her friend and her daughter, relief washing over her as she realized that the nightmare was finally over.