All We Can Do Is Run

Chapter 1

The day started out like any other Tuesday morning. Horatio's alarm went off at around 4.45, he got up and walked down to the kitchen to fix himself a coffee. He sat at the table with the coffee still half asleep. He stared down at the marble worktops while he rubbed his tired brow, wishing he could just go back to bed. After he finished his coffee he strolled up stairs and pulled on his sweatpants and an old t-shirt. He stepped outside for his morning run along the beach. The sun wasn't up yet and the beach was lit with moonlight, he felt the fresh breeze kiss his skin and took deep breaths of the sea air. Horatio enjoyed jogging at that time of the morning; it was calm, quiet and just the right temperature to go running. He returned back to his house at about 5.45 where he took his morning shower. He towel dried himself and slipped on his boxers. He brushed his teeth and then wandered over to his wardrobe pulled out a suit and shirt and popped them on to his already made bed. He walked into his en-suite and dried his hair with his towel then threw the towel into the washing bin.

'I wonder what today could bring, these days with Zoë around I never know what is going to happen. She does certainly liven the place up.' Horatio thought to himself as he strolled back into his room where he picked up his trousers, he slipped them on and zipped them up. He then placed his shirt on and sprayed his deodorant and buttoned his shirt up and put the cuff-links in. Those particular cuff-links always reminded him of Ray Jr. as he picked them out for Horatio.

'I do miss him, I must ring Yelina at some point to arrange a catch up.' Horatio thought to himself as he tucked his shirt in and did his belt up. He smiled as he clipped them on remembering the time Ray Jr pointed to them in the shop window. He went back into his en-suite and sorted his wild floppy hair out. He put his badge, ID and gun holster on his belt and then proceeded down the stairs. He was definitely more awake than he had been before his coffee, his outlook on the day was also a lot more positive. He walked through the hall and picked up his gun and keys from the table that sat by the front door.

He walked out down his drive and jumped into his black Porsche Cayenne S and drove to work, he dropped it off in the Miami-Dade employee car park and went straight up to his office.

The rest of the team turned up, Zoë was early, like usual. Eric was slightly late after having a night out, but nothing out of the ordinary. Horatio sat back in his chair with 7 different files sprawled across the desk in separate piles in order of most urgent. He sat back and just stared at them with a sigh. His eyes then trained in on something he'd not seen, there was a fresh cup of coffee on his desk. He frowned mildly at it and then leant forwards and took hold of it. He brought it closer and it was still very warm. 'Who put that on my desk? That's never happened before.' Horatio thought to himself as he cautiously brought it up to his lips and took a sip. 'Not that I have a complaint; that is a good cup of coffee. Who was it? Zoë? Why would Zoë put a cup of coffee on my desk? It wasn't her, I'm sure of that. I don't know, perhaps Frank put it there and forgot about it when handing me more files? It's his loss.' Horatio thought to himself and then pulled out his phone as it began to ring.

"Lieutenant Caine." He asked before he took another sip of the rich coffee.

"Hi H, it's Frank. We've got a DB in an abandoned car park on Biscayne Blvd." Horatio listened to Franks thick Texan accent and sighed silently, all he wanted was to sit back for more than a second and enjoy a free cup of good coffee.

"We'll be right there Frank." They hung up before Horatio downed the coffee to give him an energy boost. Horatio then walked through the lab and grabbed Eric, Ryan and Zoë. They each took their own hummers; they pulled up into the old decrepit car park and parked up next to each other. The sun was up and the day was just getting hotter. Ryan got to work with the camera and snapped pictures of the evidence while Eric then picked up and bagged the evidence once Ryan had pictured it. Zoë also collected and processed but kept herself to herself to concentrate fully on the task at hand.

"H, we've got hundreds of bullet casings, it's going to take a long time to process." Ryan called over to Horatio as he glanced around and studied the many bullet casings around the floor.

"Patience is a virtue, the more casings there are, the more chance we've got of catching the killers." He said firmly as he took his sunglasses off and looked down at the body. He began to fiddle with his sunglasses in his right hand while he placed his left on his hip. He glanced up to Zoë a few times. 'Was it her that left the coffee?' He asked as he watched her process.

"Hey, don't touch my stuff, ask first; there's important things in that and if you break anything your job will be the next thing to break." Zoë growled at one of the officers who was just about to move her kit and evidence with heavy hands. Horatio couldn't help but secretly smile. 'It definitely wasn't her.' Horatio thought to himself when he sat her get up and walk over to the officer who began to apologise profusely. Horatio then received a call and quickly pulled his phone from his pocket.

"Caine."

"Hi Horatio, I'm stuck in stand-still traffic, it doesn't look like I'm going anywhere soon, I'm going to take the next turning off and find another route, if we ever get moving." Alexx sighed on the phone.

"Okay Alexx, thank you for letting me know." Horatio replied as he continued to watch Zoë talk with the officer, it was clear that she didn't like her stuff being touched and that she didn't like it when he tried to apologise by placing his hand on her arm.

"I'll be there soon Horatio, bye." They hung up and Horatio quickly walked over to Zoë and the officer when he saw Zoë becoming defensive after the officer had touched her.

"Is there a problem here?" Horatio asked warmly as he looked from Zoë to the officer.

"I'm fine." Zoë replied as she turned around and picked her kit up to walk away.

"I'm sorry Lieutenant, but I don't know what I did wrong." The young officer pleaded him when Horatio turned his gaze upon him after watching Zoë walk away.

"Just keep your hands to yourself in future and you won't have a problem." Horatio replied as he looked down. The officer nodded silently and then walked away and glanced over to Zoë as he headed towards his patrol car.

"Alexx is stuck in traffic, she may take a while getting here." Horatio announced to the team once he'd turned to them. He then turned back to see Zoë beside the body and watched her a little more. 'Why do I keep watching her?' Horatio thought to himself as he turned his gaze towards the floor and pressed his lips together. Zoë had crouched down to get a better look at the floor around the victim. The victim's shirt was partially unbuttoned and Zoë caught a glimpse of a tattoo.

"Horatio, there's a tattoo on this guy's chest, it looks like it could be a gang symbol." She said as she was looking at him and gestured for him to approach. Horatio nodded and then walked over to her with his hands on his hips. Horatio crouched down beside her and had a look while she studied Horatio's intense eyes as they studied the tattoo.

"That's the Mala Noche, Zoë. They're notorious criminals that work around Miami." Horatio stood up and placed his hands on his hips and looked over to Eric and Ryan.

"Gentlemen, we're dealing with the Mala Noche and possible rival gangs here." Horatio announced and both stood up and began to walk over to Horatio and the body. A very loud explosion was heard the team instantly turned around to see what it was as Horatio quickly pulled Zoë up and closer to him.