Fool Me Twice, Shame On Me

Chapter 5

"What do we have?" D.B. Russell asked, walking into the light room of the Las Vegas Crime Lab.

    "Our kidnapper left a fingerprint on Greg's phone, but he's not in any of our databases," Nick quickly answered.

    "And we had an unknown male's blood on the windowpane, which means he's been injured." Sara added.

    "Anything about where the kidnapper took Greg?"

    Everyone shook their heads.

    "Hey!" Morgan said loudly, practically running into the light room. Nick and Sara jumped.

    "You have something?" Russell tried to hide the hope in his voice, but not very hard.

    "I found blood drops going down the fire escape, and bloody drag marks leading from the bottom of the fire escape. They just stop abruptly, like Greg was tossed into a car or something." Morgan tried to keep her tone happy. They were another step closer to finding him, but in order for them to take that step, Greg had to be hurt.

    "I'll go down and see if there were any video cameras that would give us any clue as to where Greg's been taken." Nick immediately started to leave the room, but Russell stopped him.

    "Take Morgan with you," he said. "No one is going anywhere without another person with them again. I don't care if it's weird." He looked between Sara and Morgan. "You two can spend the night at one another's houses, right?"

    The two women nodded.

    "And Nick, you're gonna stay over at my place from now until we find Greg, alright?"

    Nick blinked in surprise. "Sure," he shrugged.

    Russell sighed. "Now go. Take Morgan and call me with anything you find."

    "We will," said Morgan, running down the hall after Nick.

    "Okay, so." Nick said, standing right at the end of the bloody drag marks. He looked around, eyes squinted in concentration. Morgan was leaned against Nick's car, looking around as well. She was still angry with Nick for what he had said.

    "If I were the kidnapper," he started, leaning down into the position of someone dragging another person across the ground. "And I was dragging...someone," he emphasized the last word, almost as if he were still coming to terms with the fact that his little brother had been taken. "I would end up stopping here." Nick stopped, looking around for some glint off a screen somewhere.

    "Right there!" Morgan said loudly, appearing right beside Nick. Nick jumped. She tried not to laugh as she pointed to a video camera off in the distance. It wasn't too far, but they weren't sure if they would be able to get anything off of it.

    "There's two!" Nick exclaimed, pointing to one right to their left, which was right on the other side of the parking lot. Morgan immediately pulled out her phone, dialing Russell.

    "There's a video camera on the back of the casino to the east of here," Morgan said into the phone. "Yeah, that one. Can you pull the feed?" Nick watched her smile as she spoke. "Alright. We'll be there to help go through it soon. Thanks." She hung up the phone, and the smile slipped off her face. "They need us back at the lab."

    "I'll drive," Nick offered, quickly hopping into the driver's seat and stuck the key in the ignition. Morgan wordlessly climbed in the passenger's seat, and they were on their way.

    About fifteen minutes into the drive back, Nick sighed. ""Okay. Out with it. Yell at me, tell me how horrible it was--what I said to Greg. Just say something."

    Morgan felt like she couldn't hold her tongue any longer, and Nick had opened the door for her. She decided to step through.

    "How could you?" Morgan said, tears in her eyes surprising her. Her voice sounded so small, so broken. She sniffed. "You knew he looked up to you," she sounded like she was pleading, and she didn't even know what for. "Why would you say those things?" She brought herself to look up at Nick, and saw some tears slip down his cheeks.

    "Yelling at me would've made this easier." He stated, choking on a sob for the second time that night.

    Morgan brought a hand up to her cheeks to wipe away the tears falling down. "Well, I don't think yelling at each other will help Greg at all," she wrapped her arms around herself, wrenching her eyes shut. If she could plunge herself into pure darkness, maybe she could imagine herself somewhere else. She focused so hard on all the fun times her and Greg had, hoping that she could somehow convincer herself that that Greg was never going to leave her. That he would always come back. That he would be okay.

    "You know," Nick chuckled softly through his tears. "Greg and I were going to go out tomorrow after work." He glanced at Morgan, who was staring at him tiredly, grateful for any distraction from her own thoughts. "The plan was to get him drunk enough and then text you to come out and meet him."

    Morgan nodded just barely enough for Nick to see, then continued to stare out the windshield. Nick glanced often over at her expressionless face, and focused on driving. He deserved the silent treatment. He deserved worse, and was actually glad she hadn't begun yelling at him right at the start. She was like his younger sister, and if he had hurt her too, he probably wouldn't be able to keep it together enough to focus on Greg's case.

    Nick was just about to park the car in a spot by the doors of the Crime Lab, when he saw Sara and Russell running out the door, Julie following close behind.