The eerie thing was that nothing seemed out of place. Sara and Nick had arrived at the Willow household, both feeling uneasy and apprehensive and were discomforted by the fact that nothing looked as though it'd been disturbed when they got there.

There were no obvious signs that Catherine had put up a fight - something they both knew she would have done if she were able. The living room was a little untidy but that was to be expected given a nine year old girl lived there. No house a child occupied could stay spotlessly clean and tidy - at least not for long.

"There has to be something," Nick growled in frustration some twenty minutes after arriving on the scene. "A clue or sign that the guy was here. It isn't like him to be subtle."

"It isn't like Catherine to let someone abduct her from her own home without even a small struggle." Sara sighed from where she was dusting the door handles for prints, voicing the fear neither had wanted to acknowledge. "She must have been subdued fairly quickly since there's nothing.."

Nick shuddered, keeping the mental images at bay He'd seen too much to plead ignorance and claim he didn't understand what she was implying, they both had. The possibilities were endless and each other them frightening in their own way. "She's not dead," his firm statement seemed to echo around the quiet house and made her jump. "If she was dead, he'd have left her here for Grissom. He might have taken her by surprise, maybe even been here before she got home.. Maybe he drugged her somehow or threatened Lindsey.."

"Or maybe he just knocked on the front door and she let him in?" Sara frowned when she uncovered dozens of fingerprints on the door handles, both on the inside and outside. "There has to be at least two dozen fingerprints here. It'll take too long to identify them all."

Swinging the strap of his camera over his shoulder, Nick started towards her only to stop when his keen eyes caught sight of something on the floor a few feet away from the door. A tiny drop, so small it could have been easily missed. Crouching down, he snapped a picture of the area before reaching into his pocket for a cotton bud and vial to collect the sample in. "While we're waiting to find out who those prints belong to, we can run this and see if we get a match." He passed before straightening, letting a hand rest on the carpet for a brief moment. "This is damp." Lifting his hand, he sniffed it cautiously, frowning at the familiar scent of disinfectant. "Carpets were cleaned recently. What'll you bet Catherine didn't have time to clean up herself and that she doesn't hire a cleaning service to do the housework when she's not here?"

"We'll have to check but personally I'm not betting against you." Sara finished lifting the various prints and stored them safely in her bag. "Let's get back to the lab and see if we can get through this lot before Grissom has a nervous breakdown."

Shooting her a sidelong glance, Nick closed the door behind them with a still-gloved hand. "Does it bother you that Grissom's so concerned about Catherine?"

"Should it?" She gave him a quizzical look as they started down the path towards the car. "He'd be worried if any of us were missing. He cares about us all, even you surprisingly.."

A small smile flickered over his lips at her attempt at lightening the mood but it didn't last long. "But he cares about Catherine a little differently to how he cares about the rest of us.."

" I know, Nick, I'm not blind or stupid." Realising where the conversation was going, Sara hid her smile and walked around to her side of the car, opening the door and slipping in. "Do you still think I have non platonic feelings for Grissom? That I begrudge Catherine for the relationship they have? Maybe you think I don't want her found?"

"No! Not at all.. But.. well.." He shifted uncomfortable in his seat, fingers fidgeting where they rested against the wheel. "There's been a lot of speculation that maybe there was possibly something going on between the two of you.."

To his surprise and immense relief, Sara laughed at the expression on his face. "Grissom's like a father to me, Nick! Sure, there was a time when I might have had a crush on him but that's as far as it went and it certainly wasn't reciprocated.. He humoured it, flirted in return but.. I met Grissom when I was at a point where I really needed a father figure in my life. He filled that role without question and I'll always be grateful for that." Her smile turned sly, an eyebrow lifting as she turned in her seat to face him. "Didn't we go through this earlier? I mustn't have made it clear enough.."

Before he could react, she leaned across the distance between them and kissed him briefly but thoroughly. Pulling back, her face was flushed and her lips were ever so slightly swollen. "When this is over and Catherine's back safe and sound, remind me to refresh your memory about where my affections lie."

Grinning at her, Nick turned the key in the ignition and hoped, not for the first time, that they'd find Catherine alive and well as quickly as possible.

Warrick arrived back at the same time as Nick and Sara. Holding a bag almost identical to the one Sara carried, he jogged across the parking lot to greet them. "Find anything?"

"At least a dozen prints on the door handles that could belong to anyone who's gone to Catherine's house for a visit and a single blood sample found on the carpet. Someone cleaned the place before we got there." Nick shrugged despondently, his arms hanging loosely at his sides as the three of them walked through the front doors. "What about you? Mrs. Millander say anything?"

"Nope. Mrs. Millander wasn't home." Warrick's expression gave away his discomfort. "Found some traces of blood, though. Not a lot but enough to make me think she's in danger and didn't leave home willingly."

Sara shook her head and led the two men straight to the lab, where a subdued Greg Sanders was waiting. He looked up expectantly when they entered, his face falling when the CSI shook her head in the negative.

"We've got some blood samples and fingerprints to match." She put her bag on the table and took out he prints she'd lifted, placing tem on the bench beside the vial Nick took out of his pocket.

"Grissom wants to see you all in the breakroom," Greg told them as Warrick put his vial on the opposite side of the bench to Nick's. "I'll get started here and do what I can.. When you're free, I take it you'll be coming back to help."

"Sure." Nick spared the younger man a glance. "Don't worry, Greg, we're not expecting you to process all of this by yourself."

"Good." Relief flooded his features. "The sooner it gets alone the sooner we.. you.. can find Catherine."

Exchanging sympathetic looks with the lab technician, the three CSI's filed out of the lab and headed for the breakroom, each wondering why Grissom wanted to see them there.

The TV and video were set up when they got there, with Grissom clutching the remote in his hand where he sat upright on a stool he'd brought in from the lab. He glanced up when he heard them but didn't need to ask if they'd found anything; he could tell there was no good news by the apologetic expressions they wore.

"Pull up and chair and make yourselves comfortable. Millander sent us a home movie." As he spoke, his eyes flittered back to the screen of the television.

"Have you watched it yet?" Keeping her voice soft and making a concerted effort to keep anything other than curiosity from appearing in her eyes, Sara sat down in the chair nearest to him.

Silently, Grissom shook his head and waited until Warrick and Nick had sat down, too. "I thought that since we don't know what's going to be on the tape, we should watch it together. Eight eyes are better than two."

Understanding and sharing his need for moral support, the four of them braced themselves for the worst case scenario when Grissom pressed play on the remote control.

A woman's face came on screen, one Warrick recognised as belonging to Isabelle Millander. It was a close-up shot, allowing them no glimpse of their absent colleague or of Millander himself.

"Introduce yourself." The voice that issued the order was unpleasantly familiar. The terrified expression on his mother's face sent shivers down their spines. The petrified tried to speak but couldn't get the words passed the tape over her mouth. Her attempts, however, served as a form of entertainment to her child, who chuckled cruelly. "I suppose it's a little hard with that over your mouth. Should we remove it, Mother? So you can introduce yourself to our audience?"

With what could only be described as malicious intent, Millander tore off the tape, the camera wobbling with the action. The four CSI's watching the video winced at the sound it made but Millander didn't react at all to his mother's pain.

"Pauline, please." Her voice shook but her impassioned pleas went ignored. "Don't do this. Let her go and we'll go home, okay? We'll talk about your father or whatever you want to talk about.. Please stop this. You don't have to do.."

"Don't I?" He cut her off, the camera shaking unsteadily as he held it with trembling hands. "You drove me to this, Mother. You turned me away when I needed you. Why should I stop now when I'm so close? Why should I listen to you?"

Mrs. Millander gazed at the camera - at her son - fearfully, the injuries she'd already sustained showing up clearing on the tape. Bruises, cuts.. the presence of the blood in her house was beginning to make sense to Warrick. "Because I'm your mother and I love you. I'm so sorry, Pauline.."

"My name is Paul!" Millander shouted, his voice uneven and rough with emotion. One of his hands came into view and to the horror of the CSI team, it was clutching a gun. "You have never accepted me for who I am, Mother! You made me the person I am but you turned your back on me when I became something other than what you wanted! I'm sick of it, Mother. You won't do that again. Never again."

He shot her without hesitation.

The violence shook them all but what happened next was worse.

Millander moved, the camera swinging around as he changed direction. He adjusted the zoom on the lens until it focused on the other occupant of the room.

Catherine sat on the floor in the corner of an almost empty room. Her hands were obviously tied behind her back and she, too, had a gag in her mouth - a cloth gag as opposed to a piece of tape but it didn't make any of them feel any better. When the camera zoomed in on her, they could see the dry blood on her forehead and the fear in her eyes.

"I don't know why I chose men, Catherine," Millander spoke calmly as he walked towards her, her eyes widening slightly at his approach. "I should've gone for women instead. It's much more.. satisfying." He laughed at the scowl on her face and turned the camera around so there was a close up of his face. "I hope you enjoyed the movie, Grissom. It's just a little something to keep you on your toes. Don't worry, though. You'll be hearing from me soon."

The screen went fuzzy as the tape ended.

For several long, tense minutes no one said anyone. No one dared to breathe. When Warrick eventually opened his mouth to talk, he was silenced by the ringing of one of their cell phones.

Grissom's.

Glancing down at the small screen, Grissom's eyes hardened when the number was recognised as being Catherine's mobile.

"It's him," he announced to the three CSI's looking at him expectantly. "He's using Catherine's phone."