An Unfair Act of Vengeance
Notes: This is my first story, I think I've got a pretty good idea of where I want this story to go, but I'd appreciate some reviews, and some possible ideas. Hope some of you enjoy it.
Nick walked quickly into the abandoned building where he was greeted by a bulky police officer. The two didn't bother to exchange pleasantries, and Nick simply flashed his badge before the officer led him inside the musty building.
"Body was found just up here in what must've been the conference room before this place shut down…" the officer drawled on while leading Nick up an old andnarrowsprial staircase. For a moment Nick could see himself surrounded by plexiglas and dirt; fighting the urge to kill those damned ants... He shook his head, he knew that the last thing he needed was to lose his concentration.
"It's awfully dark in this building, who found the body?" Nick asked as he squinted to see into some of the rooms littered with busted up furniture.
"It was an anonymous caller," the officer answered, knowing that it would be rather strange for anyone to just happen to be in an abandoned building, "hope you can get some leads there." He offered a slight grin at the CSI who followed closely in his footsteps.
"Here we go, we've had the scene cleared for a few hours now, so you can start processing."
"Well, we've all been pretty backed up," Nick stated quietly, "Grissom is supposed to be here any minute though…"
At first glance nothing in the old conference room seemed to be out of place, until Nick put his kit down to grab some gloves. A quick glance under the bulky table showed the body lying on the far side of the room. Out of curiosity Nick stood back up and walked into the hall. He turned around and began to back up, and once his back touched the opposite side of the wall he realized that he couldn't see the body at all.
"Well, unless someone just traipsed into this room by some really bad luck, there is no way anyone could've seen this guy…"
The officer looked up at Nick as he spoke mostly to himself. Nick walked carefully up to the man lying on the ground. His entire chest was covered with blood, and Nick couldn't tell what might've caused the wounds through the man's thick clothes. A look at the face caused Nick to quickly step back. A wave of disgust quickly came over him, and naturally the officer came to see what caused the criminalist to react like this.
A look down at the man's face made his start to gasp for air. The face was almost literally nonexistent. The eyes were missing, and something had sheered off the majority of the skin, not too mention the eyebrows and even the eyelashes were all missing. Nick forced himself to clear his mind as he bent down to take a closer look. He put his hand to his mouth as he saw that the victim had no teeth, and how the gums were practically torn to shreds.
Nick walked back to grab his kit when he heard a loud thud behind him. He whipped around only to see a man clad completely in black running right towards him. Nick freed his gun from his holster, but barely had time to raise his arms too brace himself for the impact, but rather than pummeling him the man thrust his arm right below Nick's before managing to easily slip out of the room.
Nick's eyes opened wide with shock as he finally forced himself to look down at the dagger that had been implanted deep into his chest. His hands immediately tried to stop the blood flowing from the deep wound that the strange man had caused.
Grissom looked for any signs of life other than the empty vehicles he had passed outside. He cautiously walked up a rather rickety spiralstaircase before finding himself in a hallway. A few yards down the hall he could see a beam of light enter the hallway just along the floor. A brief look of concern overcame him. Why would they just place a flashlight on the floor, and why was it that the only sound he heard was coming from his own shoes causing the old floorboards to creak…
He hand wavered just over his gun, ready to pull it out in a moment's notice. He quickly turned the corner only to sigh in relief as he saw Nick standing just past the doorway, looking down at something. His fear of possible danger vanished, but after a few moments where Nick never moved, he began to move forward to see if he wasn't having some type of panic attack. It definitely wouldn't surprise him. Nick refused to talk about it, but he knew the guy was still dealing with an incredible amount of stress after having been buried alive… He shook his head to concentrate himself back on the room, and his eyes focused on his friend's back.
Then it hit him. This entire scene was wrong… Nick's gun was lying on the floor next to a flashlight, and Nick wasn't moving…
"Hey, Nick." Grissom saidlosing his usual monotonous voice, but after a few more moments passed without a response he began to walk slowly up to Nick.
He was overcome with shock. His eyes couldn't see anything but the blood that flowed freely down his navy blue button up shirt, and jeans. His hands were completely covered by the same crimson blood… his blood. His legs were locked in place, in the back of his mind he thought he could hear someone saying his name, but he couldn't answer, hell, he couldn't even move… Slowly everything began to turn black, and the last thing he saw was the dusty wood floors rush towards him.
Grissom grabbed Nick and slowly lowered him to the ground. The younger man's weight was almost too much for him, but he managed to lower himself to the ground, using his lap to cushion Nick's head. Grissom's hand immediately freed itself from Nick's waist to check for a pulse. His hand slowly slid down to his side, and then he saw it… He saw blood on Nick's neck, he looked at his hand in surprise when he saw that his fingers and palm glistened from blood.
Then his eyes finally wandered down towards Nick's chest, as he searched for an explanation. He focused on Nick's hands, they were completely drenched with blood. Instantly Grissom moved one of Nick's hands, to reveal the handle of a knife. Instantly he felt his hand reach into his pocket to yank out his phone, and within moments he had called for medical assistance. How did this happen? And, where the hell is the officer that called us out here in the first place? He cradled Nick, hoping that after all the poor man had been through that it wouldn't end like this…
The minutes slowly passed by, and it seemed to Grissom that the ambulance would never get there in time to help Nick… Finally, he could hear the sirens. Breaks squealed and he heard people shouting… How couldn't I have seen that he'd been stabbed? How is it possible that it took me so long to see all that blood?
Someone pulled his arms away from Nick. The graveyard supervisor looked up in surprise to see a few paramedics hurrying into the room, carefully checking his vitals. The first paramedic wavedfor theothers to come over, and Grissom looked at them in shock as they lifted his friend by his arms and legs.
"What are you doing?" Grissom asked alarmed.
"Sir, there is no way we could get a stretcher up here to get him down that spiral staircase, let alone back down, and we've got to get him out of here fast, or he won't make it."
He stood there helplessly as the paramedics carried Nick from the room as gently as possible. He was frozen in place, and found he couldn't speak as he stared down at his hand that was covered with the other's blood.
Catherine had barely turned the car off before she had jumped out and run over just in time to see the paramedics place Nick into the back of the ambulance. She caught one glance at his bloody clothes before she felt tears swell in her eyes. A hand came to rest on her shoulder and she turned to see Warrick, Sara, and Greg staring silently into the still open ambulance. At seeing the other members of their team gathered she felt more confident and managed to hold back the tears.
""It looks like you guys are going to have a full night," a paramedic called out as he hurried to climb into the ambulance, "You might want to get in there, with two bodies and all…"
A look of terror seemed to overcome the red haired CSI; the paramedic looked at her inquisitively. But he didn't get the chance to explain as another paramedic slammed the doors shut and the ambulance took off.
"You guys, tell me one of you knows where Grissom is…" Catherine said, hoping that he wasn't the second body…
"Last time I saw him… h-he was leaving to come here…" Greg stumbled as he and the other two realized what Catherine was thinking.
She sighed with relief when she saw Grissom standing in the room staring at his blood soaked hands.
"Hey, you ok?" Catherine asked noticing the shocked look Grissom bore on his face.
Her appearance pulled him out of his trance, and he managed to nod his head slowly.
"That's good," she replied grimly, "cause we've got ourselves a crime scene to process…. Oh and don't worry, I sent Sara to follow the ambulance to the hospital, so we ought to be getting some news about him sometime soon."
Grissom let out a loud sigh as he allowed himself to move deeper into the room, and for the first time he saw the other two bodies. He could tell the officer was dead, a deep slash disrupted what should have been his neck, and his blood was spilled out on the floor. I guess that explains why there weren't any officers here to help Nick…
Once more he forced himself to focus on the scene, and his eyes moved to the second body. One glance at the victim's face turned into a deep stare.
"Whoever did this had a whole lot of patience," Grissom announced, "and based on where I found Nick standing, I'd say that he was hiding somewhere in this room the whole time."
He waved his flashlight around the room searching for any place someone could hide, but besides the table and busted chairs there was nothing in the room.
"One problem Grissom," Catherine replied while shaking her head, "or maybe not…"
The two immediately dropped to their knees to look under the bulky table. Both were thinking the same thing, and as they inched closer they both could see smudged handprints beneath the table.
"He held himself up against the bottom of the table, using the sideboards to hold him up, and to hide him…" Grissom stated quietly.
"Then he killed the officer, while Nick wasn't looking, and by the time Nick turned around he saw the guy coming and barely managed to pull out his gun before he stabbed him and made his getaway, but why? He had plenty of time to clear out of here…"
"I've got a feeling that this guy might have been set this whole thing up just so he could get Nick…"
"Wait, Grissom, then why not take some more time, and make sure Nick was dead. It seems like he'd have set this up for the officer, I mean that is who he took out first, and he definitely made sure he finished him off."
"Catherine, you're forgetting that there are a whole lot more cops out there than there are of us. Whoever did this couldn't have known this officer would get here, but if he knew that Nick was just coming into work from some time off… He could've known that he'd be in here at some point either by himself or with just an officer."
"Ok, say someone is out to get Nick, I still don't understand why he wouldn't make sure he was dead. Why leave him standing in shock, and leave the weapon in him?"
"I don't know Catherine, but I've got a feeling that there is a lot more to this than we know…"
Their eyes met under the table, and both could easily see how much the other was worrying about Nick.
To be continued...