CSI Miami Fan Fiction "Raymond's Christmas Carol"
Chapter 1—"Frustration"
Fourteen-year-old Raymond Caine was not a happy young man—and hadn't been since he and his mother had re-turned from Rio the previous summer. His father, with whom Raymond and his mother had been reunited after being officially "dead" for many years, was now really dead. "This," young Raymond thought drowsily, "is SO unfair." He wished his father was still alive. Raymond rolled over and whacked the snooze button on his alarm clock. His dream of being with his father, looking over Rio from the hilltops, had been invaded by the reality that it was time to wake up.
Yelina Salas also missed her husband. For many years, she and Horatio had been led to believe that her husband was dead. Then she and Horatio (despite considerable opposition) had found out that Ray Sr. was indeed alive—and had been working deep undercover for the Federal agents. Horatio had reunited the family, and the three had relocated to Rio for Ray's protection. But the reunion had been short—Ray had been killed in Rio. Now Yelina and Raymond were back in Miami—but Yelina chose not to return to the Miami-Dade Police Department. She had instead chosen to become a private investigator.
That morning, she was making some breakfast for her son; the radio softly playing Christmas carols in the background. Yelina worried about Raymond—he hadn't been quite the same since their return from Rio. Her normally-outgoing only child had changed, becoming more withdrawn. "Perhaps he's still grieving over his father," Yelina thought. She'd call Horatio later—perhaps Raymond would find it easier talking to his uncle than to her. Christmas vacation was coming up in a month, and that meant no school for Raymond. Yelina didn't like the idea of having her son alone in the house in his present mood. Maybe the holiday—even if it was a quiet holiday with his family—would cheer Raymond up. Yelina went to her son's room to check on him. "Getting back into the routine might settle him down," Yelina thought. She could hear the sounds of her son's morning routine: rummaging around for something to wear and getting his books together. She knocked on his door. "Raymond? Breakfast is ready!" she called.
"Be right out, Mom!" Raymond replied through the door as he stuffed his algebra book in his backpack.
Lt. Horatio Caine and his team had quite a different problem: somebody had decided to burglarize places that helped a group who cared for some of Miami's most vulnerable citizens—the abused women and children. What upset the team about this case—Horatio and Natalia, especially-was that someone had so little compassion for the emotionally-hurting. Fortunately, no one had been physically hurt-yet. Horatio wanted to find the thieves before that happened.
The third and most recent burglary involved one of the two Miami locations of Bonzo's Toy Emporium. The staff at both Bonzo's stores had been working with two popular Miami radio stations for the shelters. For every item a customer bought, Bonzo's contributed an amount (based on the cost of the item) to the Miami Safe Haven Fund. The staff of the two radio stations—WBLB-AM (a talkradio station) and WROK-FM (a rock station)—were involved with the Fund all year, but most extensively during the holidays. Their many listeners added to their involvement by buying toys for the Haven's children—the boxes that the stations kept in the lab reception area were over-flowing every day. Even Natalia's fellow officers and the lab personnel contributed to the Fund's toy and fund drive, something which touched Natalia deeply.
Eric and Ryan had just arrived at the Bonzo's West Beach store, which had been burglarized the night before, and began checking through it for evidence. Eric shook his head when he saw what had happened. "Looks like someone went very old-school to get in," Eric noted, seeing the bricks that had been thrown through a plate-glass window. Glass was all over a train display, and the bricks had smashed much of the display's village. All of the stores were on holiday hours; the two CSIs figured that the time of entry must have been very late. Unless someone's route home at the time of the burglary had been through this area, the only available witnesses were the mechanical kind—the store's security cameras.
Ryan had found the carefully-disconnected alarm near the service entrance. But he also found that their suspect got a bit careless this time—he left his fairly-used pliers and screwdriver behind. These were soon measured, photographed, and bagged. Then Ryan joined Eric at the front of the store. "Looks like someone forgot a few things," he told Eric, showing him the tools. "The alarm's been disconnected."
"Well, let's hope the security cameras are still working," Eric said as he gingerly stepped through the broken window.
Calleigh and Natalia soon arrived to help look for evidence. Natalia went in to help Eric with the inside; Ryan warning her, "Hey, Natalia, look out for the glass!" Calleigh helped Ryan with the security cameras. Out of the seven cameras around the immediate point of entry, the three nearest the window had been disconnected. "Just like the other Bonzo's and Graham's Goodies," Calleigh sighed in exasperation as she bagged one of the cameras. Graham's Goodies was a local favorite; the founders, David and Katie, donated in many ways to the Safe Haven Fund year-round. For the Grahams, the Fund was a personal cause: their eldest daughter, Irene, had been killed by her abusive husband two years ago. The Grahams' son and daughter-in-law, Ian and Rose, now raised Irene's son, twelve-year-old Duncan. Duncan's father, however, had somehow managed to disappear right after Irene's death. Not being able to find the man bothered Horatio—the family deserved some peace, and the file remained in the dayshift's active box.
"One place in each direction," Ryan mused aloud as he finished with a camera. "That leaves the south side. Wonder if the Fund has any donors on the south side?"
Calleigh looked at Ryan as she placed the camera in the Hummer. "What are you thinking? A pattern to this?"
Ryan took out a pad of paper and quickly sketched out a compass. "Well, so far, one store in each direction's been hit: one north, one east, and one west,…." Ryan explained. Calleigh easily figured where Ryan was going with his explanation. "One north, one east, and one west,…." Ryan's words rumbled around in Calleigh's mind as she explained Ryan's theory to Eric and Natalia.
"A compass—but nothing on the south side," Natalia thought.
Eric quickly saw what Ryan was thinking—the suspect might well be following a pattern. "Why don't we check this out when we get back to the lab?" Eric suggested. "We have the new lightmap now, and we can add today's information."
