Fic: Backtrack Creek, Chapter 6 (CSI / CSI Miami, Ryan / Eric, Nick / Greg)
Title: Backtrack Creek, Chapter 6
Pairings: Ryan Wolfe / Eric Delko,
Greg Sanders / Nick Stokes
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Summary: A deranged serial killer is terrorising a small isolated town of Backtrack Creek. CSI Ryan Wolfe, detective Vartann and Greg Sanders, a pesky reporter, end up in the middle of it, and there is no shortage of suspects.
Can officer Stokes shrug off his accent as well as he shrugged off his past? Did doctor Woods arrive into town with a hidden agenda? What happened to the third little piggy? Is Eric simply a sleazebag, or a sleazebag with a murderous streak? What is Greg planning with his newfound information? Is it possible for Speedle and soap to co-habit peacefully under the same roof?
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- ----- -----
Chapter 6
“I’m coming!” Nick yelled at the locked door and tried to rub the remains of sleep from his eyes. He stumbled forwards and pulled the door open.
“Sorry I had to wake you.” Ryan fiddled from one foot to the other. “I tried to call you. The postman told me where to find you.” He handed the morning paper to the half-sleepy man.
“Yeah, my battery was dead. What is it?”
“Vartann`s gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“I woke up in the middle of the night and he was gone. All his stuff is still in our room, his badge and gun, everything.”
“Come in.” Nick let him walk into his small apartment and closed the door. “Are you sure he didn’t take anything?”
“Yes. I remember he had his clothes piled on the chair, and those are gone, but that’s all. Like he just got up, got dressed and took off.”
“Maybe he had to go somewhere or-”
“I would have heard if his phone had rung, and why would he leave his gun and badge? He takes his gun with him when he’s going to the bathroom!”
“Really?”
“No, but… you know what I mean. He doesn’t just disappear without a word and definitely not without his gun. It just doesn’t happen.”
Nick nodded and lead him into the living room.
“Have you looked for him?”
“Yeah, for the last few hours. I went back and forth the main street, I went through every place someone might go at night-time.”
“Do you think he might have gone along with someone?”
“I don’t know, but he wouldn’t leave with some stranger.”
“Then why did he leave? Maybe… maybe someone lured him out.”
“He doesn’t know anyone here, except you. He’s not gullible, he’s a cop!”
“Okay.” Stokes nodded seriously. “Do you know if he took his phone?”
“No, it was in his nightstand drawer. I tried calling it.” Ryan run his fingers through his messy hair, making the unintentional "just-out-of-bed" look even more pronounced. “I’ve gone through every place I could think of.”
“Wait a minute, I’ll go get dressed.” Nick headed back to the bedroom and closed the door. “Others aren’t coming to the station for another two hours.”
“How do you want to handle this?”
“Well, we can’t be sure something has happened or even how long he has been missing-”
“Something happened.” Ryan stated with an unwavering tone. “I know it, and if you really think about it, you know it too.”
“I admit there’s reason to get worried.” Nick came back pulling a turtleneck over his head. “But we have to stay calm, and think what we’ll do about it.”
------ ----- ------ ------ ------ -----
Greg’s hand appeared from under the blankets and grabbed the ringing cellphone from the nightstand.
“Sanders, and if this is some telemarketer trying to sell me encyclopaedias, I already got them at home-”
“Greg, it’s me-” Danny tried, but got interrupted.
“And I don’t need any dietary supplements or thingies that would get me a six-pack in two weeks, I already got a six-pack, it’s just been emptied and then crushed-”
“Greg, are you even awake?”
“Call me again four hours from now and I will be.”
“Don’t hung up!”
“I wasn’t gonna hung up, I was gonna go back to sleep-”
“Greg, do me a favour and slap yourself on the head.”
“Ouch! Why did I have to do that?”
“Because I need you to listen. I found something good.”
“Is that really a good enough reason to wake me up?”
“Well, I could have called later, but I’m gonna get some sleep myself. I’ve been up all night.”
“Okay…” Greg pulled the covers off of him and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He hissed as his feet met the cold floor. “Okay, I’m awake. I used some warm-cold shock therapy.”
“Did your new police buddy have any idea why the guy broke into their archives?”
“If he had, he didn’t tell me.”
“He’s new there, so he probably doesn’t know.”
“You have a theory?”
“Listen, and then tell me what you think. There was a serial killer on the loose in that same area about thirty years ago.”
“I’m totally awake now. How is it possible we didn’t know about it?”
“Little towns keep their secrets from outsiders. Even from Stokes, I guess. But Brass must have known, he was working there back then and judging by the records I found he was working on some of the cases.”
“How many victims?”
“They found eleven.”
“Yeah, but how many were there?”
“Eleven plus one. They never found the last victim.” Danny sighed and a faint sound of tapping a keyboard came through from the background. “Eleven grown men, all just passing by with no ties to the area or people. Apparently there wasn’t too many people asking about them and the cases were put in the backburner indefinitely.”
“What about the plus one?”
“The time between killings got shorter between each killing. Each man was abducted and found the following morning. I guess the killer was nocturnal.”
“Where were they found?”
“In a forest, near a popular trail. Not the same place that our killer uses, but very similar. At least I think it is, I’m only working on maps here, so I can’t be totally sure.”
“But the last one wasn’t found?”
“Yeah, the last one was totally different. He wasn’t a traveller, he was a local.” Danny paused for a dramatic effect. “And he was a teenager. After that the killings stopped, but they were sure he was the killer`s last victim.”
“I gotta tell Stokes about this.”
“Why? Every man is on his own.”
“He’s worried I might be in danger if the guy got a good look at me.” Greg snapped the small nightlight on. “And if this guy is gonna go up to eleven victims, I think I should be scared too.”
“You haven’t heard the last part of it yet.”
“You got something more?”
“Yeah. The missing kid’s mother was Lily Caine, originally Lily Flynn. The kid was called Horatio.”
“And?”
“She split with her hubby the year after their kid was born, got remarried and had another kid with her new man.”
“Stop milking it.”
“The new guy was called Willows and their daughter was called…”
“Catherine?” Greg guessed.
“Yep.”
“How old was she when the boy disappeared?”
“He was seventeen at the time and she was born three years later, so she was fourteen.”
“Did they have any idea why the killer stopped? Or why he switched from grown men to teenagers?”
“No, but I’m gonna call some people, who wrote about the original killings. They’re all retired now, but maybe they kept some of their notes.”
------ ----- ------ ------ ------ -----
“Morning, boys.” A woman came to open the door and let Ryan and Stokes into the empty diner. She flipped the sign on the door to “Open” and guided them to a booth. “I wasn`t going to open for another half an hour, but you two look like you need a cup of coffee before you fall asleep on your feet.”
“Thanks, Linds.” Nick settled comfortable against the padded backrest. “He’s been up all night and then he woke me up, just so I wouldn’t get any sleep either.”
“He woke you up?” Lindsay repeated. Her eyes quickly mapped Ryan and then moved back to Stokes. “About time you gave up that lonesome cowboy act.”
“What?” Nick stuttered and glanced across the table. Ryan was wearing an identical stunned expression. “No! He knocked on the door, he didn’t-”
“Okay, okay, I believe you.” Lindsay chuckled.
“How did you even know that I…?”
“Are you kidding? Everyone here knew about it two weeks after you got here.”
“How the hell is that possible?”
“Don’t ogle the postman’s ass if you want to keep it a secret. I’ll go get you that coffee.”
“And a sandwich?” Ryan suggested carefully. He wasn’t exactly sure how Stokes was reacting to the surprise outing, but food was usually a safe topic.
“Sure, honey.” She gave Stokes a pat on the shoulder and turned to leave. “And don’t worry about it, Nicky. The postman didn’t mind.”
“Don’t ask.” Nick buried his face in his hands, leaning heavily against the table. “I don’t want to talk about it, so don`t ask.”
“I wasn’t going to.” Ryan assured. He scanned their surroundings before continuing, but Lindsay had disappeared into the kitchen. “So what do we tell your people when they come to work?”
“First we’ll introduce you and then… I don’t know. Tell them there used to be two of you, but we already misplaced one.”
Chapter 7