Chapter 1

She walked quietly through the hospital, her deliberately light footsteps still managing to echo pointedly on the sleek linoleum floor.

This was the one part of the night that unsettled her. The screaming patients and the howling winds that whipped up around this place often began almost soothing, familiar, understood. She could deal with the psychotic breaks and the attempted suicides, the arguments that got blown out of all proportion and the little ticks and habits that could be a cause for assault or worse.

The only thing she couldn't handle was the silence.

The all consuming silence that seemed more out of place in this institution than anything else in it. The twisted fantasies and the sick mind games all just seemed a part of this life but when the sun went down and the wolves in Vegas came out on the prowl, a strange and unnatural hush fell over the place and chilled her to the bone.

As Sin City partied into the morning, its sinners sank into dark dreams where they were free to indulge the fantasies that were discouraged in the harsh light of day.

She walked around the corner and placed several files on top of the grim metal cabinet in the corner, jumping as someone said her name,

"Evening Maggie."

"Jesus Kyle..." she sat placing a hand over her heart as she jumped,

"Nope, just Kyle." He smirked, flicking water from his cloth at her, "You needing to be admitted tonight Mags?"

"Funny Kyle, that's very funny." She said, shaking her head and turning to pick up the files she had scattered on the floor after her minor heart attack. "What are you doing?" she asked, turning back to him.

"Ross ripped out his stitches..." he replied ruefully,

"Again?" she sighed.

"Again." He confirmed, rolling his eyes, "Someone needs to invest in buster collars for people."

She rolled her eyes and whacked him playfully with a file as she said, "So, other than the crimson fountain, what else do we have of note tonight?"

"The usual." He shrugged, "Tantrums, tempers and...I forget the last part but you get the gist..." he grinned again and brandished the cloth at her, "Oh, I forgot, you've got another one in seclusion you'll have to check on."

"Wonderful..." she observed drily, throwing the sheets down and heading off to the seclusion room.

Peering in, she was slightly curious as to why the room was bathed in darkness. Slipping the key from the chain around her waist she inserted it in the lock and quietly entered the room.

Her hands fumbled on the wall behind her for the light switch. As they flickered in to life she turned back to look at the strangely lifeless figure on the bed and buried a scream in her hands as she discovered the room had been redecorated in a brilliant scarlet shower...

"Hey Sara, you're with me tonight."

Finn's voice rang out through the lab in such a way that, had there been more than one Sara present they would all have headed for the hills at the sound of the confident blonde's call.

As it was, Sara glanced up with a small smile from the reports she was neglecting at the break room table and raised a hand as way of answer and invitation as Finn marched through the lab's corridors.

While in many ways the two women were polar opposites; Sara, a generally calm, reserved brunette and Finn, the very definition of 'blonde bombshell' they had had nevertheless developed an unlikely friendship in the year or so since Finn had arrived in Vegas.

Sara enjoyed working with the lab's resident blood whisperer and had done since their re-enactment of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre on an unsuspecting house on the first case they had worked together.

As it happened, Finn wasn't all that cut up about spending this shift with Sara either.

"So what are we looking at tonight in Crazy Town?" Sara asked, clearing a space in the carpet of papers that she had spread over the table so Finn could lay out her files.

"Crazy Town." Finn said with an ironic smile, "There has been a murder at the Desert State Mental Hospital out on Canyon Avenue."

Sara's ears pricked up at this but she decided that it hardly warranted her mentioning her own history with the facility.

"What happened?" she asked curiously, absently taking a sip from the coffee cup on the table in front of her and grimaced when she discovered that it was stone cold and had developed a thin skin due to her forgetfulness.

"A patient died while in the 'seclusion room'." Finn said with distaste, flicking through the files as Sara stood to fetch herself a fresh cup of coffee, feeling that she would need it before the night was out, "Apparently they're putting it down to 'complications' with the restraints."

Sara raised an eyebrow at this revelation, pursing her lips before asking, "I thought that was all dealt with internally before asking, "What does this have to do with us?"

"Usually you would be right; but in this case the hospital has already faced previous complaints because of this. If they want to keep babysitting their little pet psychopaths they need an external source to confirm what happened and make an impartial judgement. One of the administrators is a friend of Ecklie's-"

"Ecklie has friends?" Sara broke in, smirking and raising an eyebrow,

"And apparently they exist in high places," Finn said chuckling at this, "He pulled some strings and asked for the lab's best forensic team. According to Ecklie, that's us."

"Oh, I'm honoured." Sara said drily, rolling her eyes, "Yet another reason for me to cross Ecklie off the Christmas card list this year..."

"Yet another?" Finn asked, intrigued, smirking slightly as she continued, "I sense that this could be a rather long list...What else is on it?"

"You don't want to know." Sara grinned, cradling the hot coffee mug in her hands by the sink as she said, "Is that everything?"

"I think so..." Finn said, scanning the assignment slip for any missed details, "You want to drive?"
Sara grinned and caught the keys Finn threw her way.

Unable to help herself she asked quietly,

"Do we have an ID on our victim?"

She concealed her expression in the coffee mug as she took another sip of it,

"Yes..." Finn said, consulting the sheet again to double check before saying, "A serial rapist named Adam Trent."

Sara choked on the coffee she had just taken a sip of, spluttering into the sink,

"The coffee's not that bad is it?" Finn asked, adding, "You OK?"

"Yeah..." she choked with streaming eyes, "Just went down the wrong way, that's all."

Of all the patients...

"Are you ready to go?" she asked, throwing away the remains of her coffee and heading towards the door,

"Sara, are you OK?" Finn asked, stopping and turning back as she realised she had been telling herself about Adam's schizophrenia.

"Yeah, fine." She replied, anything but, pulling herself from the horrors of her past to exchange them for the recurring nightmares of the present.

They ducked out into the car and headed off towards the hospital. As Finn continued to flick through the reports, getting to know their victim, Sara could not help going over what she already knew about him.

Rolling her shoulders uncomfortably as the skin beneath her thin clothes writhed as though someone had slipped live snakes into it.

Her nerves were rattled and felt as though they were being continually stimulated by a pulse of electricity causing every muscle to contract painfully and causing her extremities to twitch uncontrollably.

Nausea clawed and twisted her stomach, churning the coffee in it and sending hot, acrid bile up her throat, the burning sensation it inspired in her clinging to it.

Her heartbeat became thread and volatile, fluttering in her chest like the wings of a butterfly that had been caught in a storm. Her lungs seemed both to crave oxygen, forcing her to take deep, shaking breaths of it, making her chest expand to the point where it became painful; yet at the same time they despised it, making her rid herself of it too quickly, causing her to teeter on the edge of hyperventilation in her anxiety.

Her hands were slick with the cold swear that had crept up her spine, coating her skin and only intensifying the impulsive tremors that were tormenting her body.

When the rush of images began to flood in front of her eyes however, she pulled into a little in-shot at the side of the road, forcing herself to take a deep, calming breath as she attracted a concerned glance from her colleague,

"You OK?" she asked, resting a gently hand on her wrist and jerking back when the feverish skin beneath her fingers burned her, "Jesus Sara!" she exclaimed,

"I don't think Jesus has much to do with it." She managed to shoot back weakly, "I just feel a little lightheaded that's all...I'll be OK..." she took a deep breath and then added "You mind?" gesturing at the steering wheel and indicating that she wanted the other woman to take over.

"Of course." Finn said, immediately swapping places with her, "Are you sure you're OK? I can drop you back off at the lab and I'll deal with this myself if you want?"
"NO, no, I just need a minute, I'll be fine by the time we get there." She said as firmly as she could, not intending on letting Finn going there on her own just because she was having a bit of a rough day.

Finn knew better than to argue with the stubborn brunette and started the car again and pulled back out into the steady flow of traffic leaving Vegas.

As they drove, she kept half an eye on her colleague who was doing a wonderful impression of being 'fine'. She was chalk white and drenched in sweat, eyes closed and forcing herself to take, slow breaths.

"A little lightheaded my ass Sara." She said irritably, "I'm telling you, you could be lying in the middle of The Strip with your intestines hanging out and you'll still be telling people you were 'fine'. You can't work like this-"

"Leave it alone Finn." She growled, "I can and I will."

"Sara, this is just-"she began insistently,

"Please Finn." She said in a soft voice, her deep brown eyes connecting with the other woman's "Just drop it, please..."

Finn nodded softly and whispered, "OK..."

She could fell his hot, flushed skin pressing against her, the ceramic shard at her throat. She could feel his delight at having her under his complete control and she knew exactly what he wanted to do to her next...

Giving herself a little shake and, after drawing a deep breath she began to speak, more as an attempt to distract herself than anything else,

"What else is on the menu for Sin City tonight?"

"Well, Morgan is attending some kind of forensics convention in New York and Russell, Nick and Greg have a double murder at some kind of club just outside Vegas."

"Nice, while we're slumming it in the middle of nowhere." Sara said darkly,

"Yeah." Finn said with a small laugh before saying quietly, "Have you got any experience in this kind of places?"

"A little more than I would like..." Sara replied darkly, her tone implying that she did not want to talk about it.

And she didn't. She could still feel Adam's hands all over her body and had no wish to share that fact with Finn.

"What about you?" she asked quickly to distract from any potential follow-up questions.

"No..." she said with a cheeky, rueful smile, "But I think it could have benefitted my first husband..."

Sara smiled slightly at this as Finn began,

"You know, I think this case could be a straight up suicide..."

"Really? Why?" she asked, not sure if she was going to like where this conversation could potentially end up.

"It says here in the files relating to the victim that he was pathological narcissist, see, I knew my first husband would have fit in here, schizoaffective and suicidal...Now, I'm no expert, but I'm fairly certain that schizoaffective involves the patient having mood swings that can lead to depression and hallucinations, add that in to suicidal...It states in here that he's attempted several times in the past, maybe he succeeded this time."

"How would that tie in with the restraints though?" Sara asked quietly,

"The inmates are placed in the restraints when they're in seclusion." Finn began, "That means that they can't have someone on the room with them watching them all the time, it defeats the purpose. Some of them found ways to expose the sharp corners of the buckles and have been able to use them to slit their wrists. Done right, severs the radial artery, victim bleeds out before the next check up."

"I like your optimism Finn." Sara said with a sad smile, already knowing from bitter past experience that it was not going to be that easy.

"Yeah, if I'm thankful for anything in life, it's my cheery personality." She replied with a wink.

Sara smiled again and Finn glanced towards the files in her lap for a moment, sighing and brushing a strand of hair from her face as she shook her head slightly,

"What's up?" Sara asked softly,

"It just...It feels weird doing something like this, investigating a case like this...This man has raped countless women, and ruined so many lives and yet...Here, he's the victim..."

"The rules change in these places, they don't work in the same way we do." Sara replied in hushed tones,

She knew perfectly well that the same rules didn't exist. Here, those who were convicted felons were allowed to roam around freely and in order to prevent violence, were not locked up. Things that would have been unthinkable in their 'dignified society' were common, everyday occurrences. It was not somewhere that she thought she would be able to survive. She was fairly certain that, had she had even a shred of sanity left in her when she had arrived at a place like this it would have been stripped from her within the first week...

Finn watched her carefully as they drove up towards the gates, knowing perfectly well that Sara had more issues with this than she was letting on. Still, she knew better than to push her on them. She valued her safety a little too much for that.

As they drew up to the gates, the guard glanced in a bored way at their identifications before casually waving them on to the premises.

"I think he would let a bus full of playboy bunnies in here if they showed him something that looked semi-decent." Finn muttered, making Sara smile as they drove up to the complex.

Just before they got out of the car, Finn placed a hand on Sara's arm and murmured,

"You alright to do this?"

"I'm fine." She said with a smile and a wink, letting the other woman know she had answered like that deliberately. She was rewarded by a smile as they both clambered from the car. As they walked towards the entrance Sara said playfully,

"And Finn?"

"Yeah?" she said, turning towards her,

"I only intend on saying that once per shift."

Finn smiled, "Deal." She laughed,

Sara forced a smile onto her face as well as they pushed their way into the room and her nostrils were assaulted by the clinical smell of the cold corridors that immediately turned her stomach and made her want to retreat to the safety of the car.

Still, she forced herself to continue and shake the hand of the new hospital administrator, who was just as simpering and insufferable as the last, and take a glance around at the hospital.

First impressions really were everything and hers had not changed at all. Everything about this place was depressingly identical.

The same 'neutral' colour splashed over the walls that made her feel more melancholy than it would have if the entire thing had been painted black. The only difference now was that the paint was peeling, like skin from an aging person, hanging sadly from the walls, the faint chips and cracks in it citing the flaws and imperfections it tried to conceal beneath the veil of politics and insanity but that she could read as well as any fingerprint.

"Ladies, so good of you to come, please, send my regards to Conrad..." the administrator leered at them, shaking their hands in turn as they made introductions,

"Conrad?" Finn mouthed smirking at Sara who buried a grin in response and refocused on the administrator, who was telling them,

"It's a terrible tragedy of course. And we were making such progress with Adam..."

"Progress?" Sara asked, surprised by this dramatic change when the same faded, peeling posters still adorned the walls. "I thought the object of this programme was containment?"

"It was." He said, "But when the hospital changed over into my hands, certain changes began taking place." He said, taking a moment to appreciate his supposed wit, "Anyway, we started talking rehabilitation, trying to actually make actual, noticeable changes to these patients' and see if they can't be reintroduced to the general population at some point..."

"That's got to cost a pretty penny." Finn observed pointedly, "Who fits the bill?"

The administrator stared at her as though she had grown an extra head while Sara smiled, being thrown cold into the world of Finn took a little adaptation, she was a lot to get used to.

"Well, this is a state run facility...We receive, ah, donations from the patients' families..." he blustered, flushing and looking away from her.

Sara and Finn exchanged a glance but neither of them commented on this as they were led around the corner and introduced to one of the nurses,

"This is Margaret Fisher." He told them formally, "She found the victim." "Margaret, this is Sara Sidle and Julie Finaly, they're with the Las Vegas Crime Lab."

"Maggie." She said in a lightly accented voice, raising an eyebrow at the administrator's formality and rolling her eyes slightly, "Nice to meet you both."

"And you." Finn said smiling, the little grimace not going unnoticed, "I found him about an hour ago. I was just coming in and I was told there was a patient in the seclusion room, I went to check on him...I found him dead." She said quietly, "Would you like to see the room?"

"Please." Finn said, allowing her to lead the way.

"It's just through here." She said, leading them down another corridor, to the left and then up towards the end,

They were just about to enter the room when an uncertain voice called them all back, saying, surprised,

"Sara?"

She, along with Finn and Nurse Fisher, turned in response to the low, enigmatic voice. She felt her eyes widen as the words spilled from her lips without thought,

"What are you doing here?"