Greed Chapter 1

It was a bright and sunny day in Miami and Horatio found himself standing in front of another victim's house. A young man named Seth Cooper was killed early this morning. His house was a mess as if there was a big fight. It was good news for the team. When there is a big fight it is more likely that the killer left something behind. Though according to neighbors Seth was acting very strange the few days before his death. They said that they often heard him smashing stuff in his house and shouting. However, nobody ever went over to see what was going on. Most of them were afraid to. It appeared that Seth Cooper had developed a bad temper. It reminded Horatio of Byron Jenkins, a man who killed his friend for being too tired to hang out with him. Horatio was becoming more uneasy as the days went by. It appeared that some of the citizens of Miami who developing strange personality traits that often lead to someone's death. And nobody was in control of what was going on with them. Horatio was lost in his own thoughts when Walter walked up behind him.

"I don't like this, Horatio," he said simply.

"Neither do I," Horatio replied. "How is Jesse doing today?"

"He was sleeping at the table in the DNA lab when I walked in this morning," Walter stated. "Valera said she could barely get him to wake up enough to leave so she could finish her work from yesturday. I'm worried about him, Horatio."

"So am I," he replied. "But first thing we have to do today is try to find our victim's killer. And based on the crime scene that is not going to be an easy job. There is a lot of broken glass we are going to have to go through. We don't know what was destroyed when our vic was killed and what he did himself before his murder."

"There's something else, Horatio," said Walter.

Horatio looked up concerned. "What is it?"

"Ryan was acting pretty strange this morning too," Walter explained. "He kinda freaked out when I went to make some coffee, he said he would do it and to stay out of his way."

"What about everyone else?" Horatio asked. "Is anybody else acting out of character?"

"Not that I have noticed," Walter replied. "Just Jesse and Ryan."

"I am afraid that whatever is happening to our victim's is starting to happen to the rest of the team," Horatio stated. "Our first victim was acting just like Jesse is now and I'm not sure what is going on with Ryan, but I want to find out before this happens to anyone else."

"I think that's a good idea," said Walter.

"Lets get to collecting everything from the crime scene," said Horatio. "I already have Calleigh and Natalia working on it, but they are going to need some help."

"Alright," said Walter, heading into the house with Horatio behind him.

The house was a mess, it appeared that everything was broken. The couch and entertainment center looked as if it had been torn to peices. There were books laying everywhere with large peices of wood that appeared to come from a bookshelf. The table in front of the couch had been shattered leaving glass at every inch of the room. And that was only what the living room looked like. The kitchen and bedrooms were not much better.

"It looks as if this guy was trying to destory his own home," said Natalia. "I would find it hard to believe that all of this happend in a struggle."

"Well the neighbors said they heard him smashing stuff for the past few days, but with this mess it is likely that our killer left something behind," said Calleigh.

"It's going to take some serious work to find anything in this pile of rubble," Walter stated.

Horatio walked over to a painting on the wall. It appeared to have been moved and was still tilted to the side. He removed the painting to reveal a safe that had clearly been pryed open. He opened the safe to find a few hundrad dollar bills at the back.

"It appears that this was a robbery," said Horatio. "We have about two thousand dollars still here, but there is no way of knowing how much was originally in this safe."

"So maybe this killer had some real motive for killing our man," said Walter.

"Yes, but if this is anything like our other murders, out killer is going to be acting as strange as the victim," Calleigh stated.

"Thats true, and it is also likely that the robber is someone our vic knew," said Natalia. "So far that is consistant with the other murders."

"Yeah, but we are still going to have to go through all of this stuff if we want to find a suspect," said Walter. "And that could take a awhile."

"We will get some extra help," said Horatio. "I'm sure Valera wouldn't mind getting out of the DNA lab for a little while."

Horatio looked out of the window to see Ryan arguing with one of the officers about something. It was clear to everyone that he was worried about something. Calleigh walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you alright, Horatio?" she asked.

He turned to look at her and gave a faint smile. "I will be as soon as we find whoever is doing this."