Even before the blood-streaked, near-naked figure had emerged into the black room, Gil Grissom had heard someone moaning.
Though his weapon was in hand, Grissom hadn't fired when Dayton literally flipped a finger at Brass, the CSI hesitating for fear of striking his friend, who flinched into his line of fire.
'Grissom! Grissom!' The voice was Sara's in the walkie-talkie. 'We heard a shot-are you all right? What's going on?'
'Stay put,' Grissom said into the walkie. 'Brass is in pursuit of Dayton-keep all possible exits blocked!'
He clicked off.
Grissom's ears still rang from the gun as he moved out of the black bedroom, but he could make out the moaning, despite his compromised hearing.
This room was not black.
It was red.
Bare cement walls, floor, and ceiling-some pipes exposed above but blending into the overall mono-color scheme-had been painted out by a bright glossy red. The only light was a red bulb, stuck in a high socket on the left wall and, like every other room in this house, had another door at the far end. In the center of the crimson chamber-above a drain in the floor, cloaked in shadow but not clothing-Mark Brower hung from a noose just tight enough to keep him from moving, but not constrictive enough to kill him.
His hands were behind him, obviously bound but by what Grissom could not yet see. Blood poured from behind Brower to pool almost invisibly on the scarlet floor, and even Gil Grissom needed no further evidence to know that the finger flung at Brass had been unwillingly contributed by Mark Brower, mouth agape in some sort of bawling that Grissom saw but could not quite hear with his ringing ears.
His eyes wild with fear, and pleading with his potential rescuer, Brower managed, 'Help me,' but the words came to Grissom only as a faint, far off whisper, though the CSI's lip-reading skills made the cry crystal clear.
The red chamber was empty but for Brower, but Grissom didn't know whether Dayton's dive through that other door might not bring him back here around through a back way. As such, he didn't want to holster his weapon; but he had to help Brower, even if the common palmar digital artery was too small for the copycat to exsanguinate.
With any major trauma, however, the victim might go into shock, and Brower was definitely bound (so to speak) to injure or kill himself, if he didn't quit bouncing around with the noose around his neck….
Switching his gun to his left hand, Grissom withdrew a pocket knife, got it open, and started to cut the rope just over Brower's head. The entire time, the CASt copycat kept moaning, 'Help me, help me,' like the human- headed fly in the old horror movie, and that was about how distant it sounded to Grissom, with his gunshot-ravaged hearing.
But the longer the CSI worked on the rope, the more the gunshot echo dissipated and the ringing in his ears dissipated too, Brower's appeals growing louder and more intense.
'Quiet,' Grissom said, his own voice not much above a whisper. 'We don't know where he is.'
'You got a goddamn gun, Grissom!' Brower said, his features distorted with hysteria and pain. 'Get me the hell out of here!'
Grissom kept at it and when he finally cut the last strand, Brower dropped to the floor, rolling into a fetal position.
'Gris!' came Warrick's voice from the walkie-talkie. 'Please report! Do you need assistance?'
He pocketed his knife and pulled the walkie off his belt. 'I have Brower down here. He's alive but short a finger.'
'I'm coming down with Carrack and Jalisco-'
'No,' Grissom interrupted, voice was low but emphatic. 'Stay upstairs-it's dark down here, might wind up shooting each other. Set up a perimeter around the house, watch doors, windows, any possible exit. Brass remains in pursuit of Dayton, who is naked and bloody…and possibly armed and dangerous.'
Nick came on then. 'Gris, you sure you-'
'No,' Grissom said, and shut off his radio.
Though the handcuffs served as a temporary tourniquet, Grissom thought it best to get direct pressure on Brower's wound. After returning his walkie-talkie to his belt, the CSI withdrew a standard handcuff key, and released the man…despite his own desire to leave him cuffed, and save time at the inevitable arrest.
'Sit up,' Grissom said.
Brower just lay there, whimpering-
With more urgency, Grissom said, 'Sit
'Help me…'
Grissom did not want to touch Brower, who was, after all, evidence.
So it was not entirely a lack of compassion for the copycat that prompted Grissom to say, 'No.'
Reluctantly, Brower managed to sit up by himself. Grissom handed the man a handkerchief.
'What am I supposed to do with this?' Brower asked numbly.
Grissom said, 'Apply direct pressure to your finger.'
'Apply direct pressure to the wound…and stay here.'
Still agitated, Brower asked, 'Where the hell else would I go?'
'Well, if it's upstairs, you'll probably be mistaken for Dayton and shot.' Which would be a nice irony, considering that was who Brower had homicidally imitated.
'I'm not going anywhere,' he whimpered.
'To jail, you are,' Grissom said.
Grissom moved to the back door of the room, listened intently, hoped it was the last room in this fun house, and reached for the knob.
Following Dayton, Brass-his flashlight beam leading the way-plunged into darkness.
He wanted to move faster, sure that Dayton was getting away; but he also knew others were posted upstairs, and that a little caution might go a long way toward keeping himself alive, if Dayton happened to be lying in wait somewhere….
The detective swept the area with his beam.
Some kind of storage room-empty cartons stacked, shelves all around with smaller unmarked boxes; but no suspect.
Brass crossed the space, and found-yes-another damn door…open.
Doing his best to move silently, Brass eased through and swept the light over a workroom with bench, to his left; along the other walls, tools on pegboard, a drill press, a table saw, and a smaller bench with both a grinder and a vise. Beyond the bench on the left, at the far end of the room, naturally, waited yet another door. Smell of sawdust in his nostrils, Brass was almost past the bench when he felt a blow against his left leg, just below and to side of the knee, and then a blinding pain.
The gun and flashlight both fell from his hands, his weapon clattering to the floor somewhere at right, the flash bouncing off something before hitting the floor and spinning to a stop, the light now pointed at him.
He looked down at the knife sticking out of his pants leg, a dark circle spreading in the gray slacks. He started to lose his balance, but before he went down, Dayton rolled out from under the workbench and came up with a head butt that sent Brass tumbling backward, starbursts in his eyes, and he crashed into something hard, then fell to the floor.
He was trying to get back on his feet when a click preceded stark but limited illumination.
Very nearby, Dayton-red spattered on his face like he'd been eating barbecue, sloppily, eyes showing white all around, his wolfish white teeth exposed in an animal snarl-stood at the workbench, having just flipped on a switch for a single work light.
Brass had been looked at with displeasure by many a perp in his time, but never with such complete contempt and hatred.
'You-you meddling imbecile son of a bitch…you petty little civil servant scum of the earth…you've screwed
