C S I (UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 28 - Full circle

A few weeks time skip...

Lauren's POV
"So maybe for next session, you can try and establish this line of communication about this issue with your coworkers." My therapist suggests. "Sure, I'll try." I nod. "That's great." She smiles. We shake hands and I make sure to sign my forms on my way out as usual before leaving. "Hay." Nick greets me with kiss as he waited outside. "How did it go?" He asks, with his eyes on the road. "Good, we talked about a lot of stuff. About work, about us, about our friends not knowing and whether they should. About what happened with that serial killer and me getting kidnapped." I explain. "...do you want to tell them?" He asks. "I don't know...we both love our jobs. And I don't want our relationship becoming workplace gossip. But I'm tired of this sneaking around." I sigh. "Nicky, I don't want you to think it's because I'm embarrassed by you or our relationship." I state. "I know, and you've told me before but...do you really think our friends would care? I mean sure they'd be happy for us but it's our business and we're all adults, we're all mature enough to know to keep a distance from personal stuff." He mutters. "Nick we talked about this." I huff. "You talked and I was supportive. I still am. Look, I love you, I love what we have. I don't care it people know or not." He sighs. "I don't want to talk about this now." I mutter. "Fine." He mumbles, visibly upset. "We have cases anyway. Grissom wants you to meet Catherine and Brass near Charleston and I'm meeting dispatch at a suspicious cercs near the strip." He states. The rest of the drive is filled with awkward silence neither one of us is willing to break. He drops me off at my crime scene with a quick bye before speeding off to his. "Hay, was that Nick?" Catherine greets with a question. "Yeah, I was at a doctor's appointment and Nick offered me a ride when Grissom called him with assignments." I explain. "What have we got?" I ask as one of the officers lifts the crime scene tap to let us through. "Dead female, Melissa Hollaway according to her license." Catherine explains. "Hay." Brass greets us with a small wave. "Melissa Hollaway, 26, Vegas native. She'd been living here for 6 months since moving out." Brass explains. Catherine and I take a quick preliminary examination of her place. "Nothing seems out of place." I comment. "No windows or the door look to be jimmied." I study the locks. "It wasn't a break in or at least whoever did it, had access to her keys." I state. "Anything taken?" I ask. "None that we've found yet. We're checking with her insurance company. She had a itemised list of valuables and we'll check the list to see if anything's been taken." He replies. I stand in the middle of the room, hands on my hips and looking around. "Something's not right." I mutter. "Where did she work?" I ask. "She worked as some sort of accountant for this business." Brass answers. "What's that got to do with anything?" Catherine questions. "Just a hunch." I shrug. "Any next of kin?" Catherine asks. "Parents. They've moved to New York since retiring but they're on the first flight here." Brass sighs. While Brass goes to meet up with the parents and Catherine covers the back of the house, I focus on my hunch and shuffle along the walls of the living room and the adjoined kitchen. The fridge looked stocked with all the typical things you'd expect to see in a single 26 year old girl's house. Her cupboards were neatly stacked with a few essentials and the fancy stuff in case guests came over. Despite my best efforts and much to my disappointment, none of the drawers or cupboards had a false bottom or a hidden compartment. I continue to shuffle along the wall, tapping gently as I go. I'm shuffling behind the couch when my foot gets stuck. "Damn it!" I hiss, tucking to free my feet. In the process, I also free a bit of the wall and out falls what I'd never have suspected. "Diamonds..." I gasp. I tap along the wall, all the way up to discover that the entire section of wall was used as a safe for diamonds. "Catherine, get in here!" I call out. "What?" She appears behind me. "Look!" I show her the hollowed wall and the diamonds. "Shut the front door!" She gasps. "How did you know?" She asks incredulously. "I didn't. Not completely. I had a hunch she was living above her means. A nice new fridge, a fairly decent apartment for a 26 year in this market and with her job." I explain. "But I never suspected this! Drugs, pills, I can expect but this is a whole other party." I state. "This has got to be at least involved in her death. I mean if they're legal and yours, why hide them in a hollowed out wall in your apartment?" She questions. "Mafia? Gangs? Robbery? Trafficking?" I theorise. "Hard not to go there." She shrugs. I catalog each diamond and bag them. Once Catherine and I check every wall and crevice in the apartment, we pack up the bags of evidence and head to lab. "I'll drop these off, you can go check on the autopsy." I offer. "Okay." She agrees. "Hay, has anyone seen Nick?" Grissom asks as he walks by the break room. "Not since he dropped me off at my crime scene. Why? Has he not checked in?" I reply. "No, and I keep calling but goes to voicemail." He states. "Try calling dispatch. They can patch you through to the officer on the scene." I suggest. I pour myself a cup of coffee absentmindedly. Nick's usually quick to check in with an update and he's an experienced CSI, I try to calm my worrying mind. Catherine comes back with the autopsy results. "Hay, got anything interesting?" I ask. "Yeah, I got cause of death. According to doc Robins' autopsy report, Melissa suffered a compression fracture to her chest. In essence, her ribs were compressed so hard, a piece broke off, flying into the lungs and she essentially drowned in her own blood." She explains. "TOD?" I question. "Doc puts it about 12 hours ago." She replies. "Who found her?" I inquire. "According to Brass's notes, an elderly neighbour called it in because she heard some noise and was concerned." She states. "Speak of the devil." I comment as Brass walks in. "What's wrong?" We both ask when we see his worried expression. "...I called the officer on the scene at Nick's suspicious cercs. Nick's...he's gone." He reveals. "What do you mean gone?" Catherine demands. "I mean gone. The officer is a rookie. He stepped away to get some air and when he came back, Nick was gone." He explains. "Have you told Grissom?" I finally speak. "Yeah." He nods.