Just Another Manic Murder -- CSI: Miami Fan Fiction
Written by Glimmer aka Mandy

Horatio and his team are called in early Monday morning to investigate the brutal stabbing of a young girl. The stab wounds are extremely unique leading to a risky search for an unbridled killer.

Horatio glanced up into the early morning sun, squinting. It had been a very long night. He stifled a yawn as he puts on his sunglasses and slowly walked away from the horribly mangled form of a young girl. Her body had turned up early this morning in the alley behind a prominent Miami hot spot called, La Habana.

Frank approached Horatio tentatively, "What a mess, huh?" Nothing. Horatio didn't move. Frank tried again quietly, "You all right?"

"No, Frank. I'm not all right and I won't be until this monster is caught."

Frank shook his head as he watched Horatio walk away to help Detective Salas question the morning jogger who found the body.

Calleigh Duquesne confidently sauntered up to Eric as he snapped pictures. He turned to her, "Welcome to Monday morning."

Calleigh looked around her, the scene was unsettling. The body was twisted at an odd angle lying in the center of a pile of garbage. As much as it unnerved her, she swallowed the bile that threatened and knelt down to get a closer look.

The girl looked to be about twenty years old or younger. She was dressed in tattered jeans and an unremarkable sweatshirt, both drenched through with blood. "Well, she wasn't out clubbing. She just isn't dressed the part. Has Alexx been here, yet?"

"Yeah, she'll be right back." Eric nodded as Ryan approached.

Ryan hefted his kit in one hand and a black body bag in the other, "Alexx determined the body's been here about seven hours. No I.D., for now she's Jane."

Calleigh sighed, "OK so, that would put time of death around midnight last night." She shifted on her haunches looking around, "I see multiple rips in her sweatshirt consistent with stab wounds, but there's no sign of a struggle here in the alley."

Suddenly an idea struck her, "A dump job?"

Eric smirked, "You could say that," he pointed upwards. Calleigh followed his direction and gasped at the trail of blood down the side of the building starting from a second floor window.

"Our primary crime scene?"

Eric nodded. "Our primary crime scene."

Calleigh smiled, "I'm going to grab Frank and head on up there, if you don't mind."

"Be my guest."

Frank stepped carefully around the debris on the floor, the air was warm from the Miami breeze coming in through the broken window. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Calleigh, using her flashlight scanned the abandoned room. She stopped at the window minding the broken glass and blood, "There's a lot of blood here too Frank, but I don't see a murder weapon."

"Killer could'a taken it with him or threw it out the window with our vic." Frank shrugged.

"It's possible." Examining the shards of glass on the floor, "Maybe the window was the weapon, but I just don't see enough blood on any of these pieces to have caused the damaged evident on our girl."

"Plus wouldn't the killer have cut himself on the glass too?" Frank stood with his mouth open looking for confirmation.

Calleigh smiled as she pulled out her swabs, "You've got something there. The killer might have gotten cut while he was getting rid of the body."

Horatio walked up behind Alexx, "Anything on our Monday morning Jane Doe?"

"You sure know how to start the work week, Horatio. Our girl here can't be more than twenty, no hit on her ten card in CODIS. My initial tox screen found no traces of alcohol or illegal substances in her blood stream at the time of death."

Gently, Alexx turned the girl's arm outward showing Horatio shallow needle marks, "Except she's got track marks typical of a regular heroin user."

"Hmm, a drug deal gone bad maybe?" Horatio wondered out loud.

Alexx continued, "The broken bones and mangled position she was found in are consistent with a fall from a second story window, but that's not what killed her."

Pulling the blue shroud further down, Alexx revealed a startling road map of oddly shaped but similar wounds, "Cause of death was exsanguination due to multiple stab wounds to the upper torso. She bled out before she hit the ground. She didn't even get to see the sun rise"

Turning to the face of the corpse Alexx cooed, "Isn't that right, Sweetheart? You got quite the ending to your week and your young life." Looking up at Horatio she said, "I picked out some strange particles from the wounds. Ryan took them to trace."

"Alexx, why aren't there any defensive wounds on her hands or arms? Stabbings such as these put the killer in close proximity to their victims. Wouldn't she have tried to stop her attacker?"

"She would have, had she been conscious. My findings conclude she was not awake at the time she was murdered."

Horatio raised an eyebrow, "What kind of weapon did this?" he asked, puzzling over the unusual bruises surrounding the stab wounds. "I've never seen tool marks or any typical weapon make such indentations before."

Tenderly pulling at the wounds, Alexx noted, "The weapon wasn't very long, maybe two to four inches, but sharp and cylindrical. Who ever did this was strong, Horatio. They had to be, to cause this kind of bruising."

Horatio nodded, "That . . . or really, really angry."

Looking up from her work table, Maxine Valera nodded to Calleigh, "You were right. From the blood you found at the scene, I've got DNA from two distinct donors."

Valera handed Calleigh a computer printout, "One matches our vic and the other is definitely male, but no hits in CODIS for either."

Calleigh nodded as she left, "Thank you."

"What have you got for me, Ryan?" Horatio stood in the doorway.

Ryan looked up from examining the pictures of the crime scene, something was missing. He grabbed a sheet of paper and handed it to Horatio, "We found traces of an acrylic paint that matches the particles left in the wound, in the abandoned apartment and on the victim's shoes. "

"Acrylic paint used for what, Ryan?" Horatio shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"It's a very unique polymer used only in prop painting. Like creating fake food for movie props or to photograph for commercials or advertisements."

Horatio nodded, "Go on."

Ryan licked his lips, "The harsh lights make it almost impossible to get quality shots when using real food, so they fashion food using molds painted with a special acrylic to make it look just like the real thing, only lasting longer."

"So it's possible our victim worked at a production studio or knew someone who does." Horatio smiled as he walked away, "Good job."

Horatio stood in the hallway with his team. "Where are we at?"

"This case is getting cold, H." Eric spoke up first, "All we've got is a heroin junky killed with an unknown object that was painted with prop paint."

Ryan looked at his notes shrugging, "I spoke with the jogger that found the body and the manager of La Habana, the club that is across the alley from our crime scene. He said no one but employees has access to the alley side door and all of them check out. No one heard or saw anything around midnight on Sunday."

"Gentlemen, we've got a young girl who was brutally stabbed to death." Horatio looks away, stepping slightly to the side.

"I've been checking with missing persons, but so far no one seems to be missing our girl." said Calleigh.

"Another thing we are missing . . . the weapon." Horatio hung his sunglasses on his belt, "Here's what I want you to do: Ryan, have Detective Salas go back to the crime scene with you and see if there's anything we may have missed. Eric, round up a list of prop shops that use acrylic paint similar to what we found. Calleigh you and I will go talk to the club manager again, maybe he's knows someone in the prop painting industry."

Horatio put his sunglasses on, "Let's get to it. We have a midnight monster on the loose and the sun is about to set."

"Thanks for coming with me, Detective Salas," Ryan smiled up at her as he meticulously scanned the floor around the window. He blushed and turned away when she smiled back at him, she is so beautiful.

"It is nothing, Mr. Wolfe, I too am puzzled by this crime scene." Ylena followed him around the abandoned apartment.

"Calleigh already processed this room, but there wasn't much here. Traces of acrylic paint, broken glass and blood. Let's have a look in the alley where the body was found."

They descended the dusty stairs carefully when Ryan, from the corner of his eye, saw a little girl slip into the shadows.

Ryan motioned for Ylena to go around the bottom of the stairs opposite of him, "It's safe to come out. My name is Ryan Wolfe, I'm with the police. Please don't be afraid."

Ylena watched as a small child barely eight years old, carrying a tattered backpack and covered in dirty clothes way too big for her, slowly stepped out from under the stairs.

Ryan knelt down and looked at the child, "This is Ylena, she's with the police too."

Ylena smiled, "What's your name, Little One?"

The girl coughed and crouched further down in her baggy t-shirt, then with a soft voice responded "Saundra."

"Well, Saundra, are you all alone here?"

The little girl nodded with tears in her eyes, "Mommy and daddy are dead. My sister is gone. "

Ryan looked at Ylena startled, "Where did she go?"

"To hell . . . she said that's where he'd send her when he found out she. . .she couldn't pay."

"Who is he, Saundra?"

The little girl's dark eyes wavered and her body trembled, "The devil."

Eric sat with Tyler Jensen in the multimedia lab. "OK, you are the computer whiz, can you help me find a particular prop production shop by the type of acrylic paint they use? Specifically, Candy Apple Red #12."

Tyler smirked, but began typing immediately, "Well it isn't like there is a database for such things, but I can access shipping records. See whose been buying Candy Apple Red #12 from the manufacturer."

Nodding, Eric watched impatiently as Tyler methodically searched record after record.

Horatio took off his sunglasses, his hands on his hips. He just couldn't believe for an instant this guy was telling them the truth, "So, Mr. Montaine your saying that you don't know anyone who works at a production plant that makes food props?"

"Yeah, dat's exactly what I am telling youse. I don't know nobody whose in dat line of business." Mr. Montaine pulled the toothpick from between his teeth, "And another ting . . ."

"Another thing, Mr. Montaine," Horatio's voice was low as he got real close to the manager, ". . . is that you are hiding something. You had better hope it has nothing to do with my investigation or you'll find yourself behind bars for obstruction of justice."

"Mr. Montaine," Calleigh spoke up, her voice tinged with steel, "Who is in charge of your advertising? Specifically, advertising for your restaurant?"

"Oh, dat be Clyde Devlin. Works for a company called, Logos."

Calleigh smiled at the small, rat of a man, "Thank you, Sir."

Mr. Montaine winked at Calleigh, "Right back at'cha, Lady."

Horatio growled low in his throat, making the manager quickly scurry back into his office without another word.

"Logos, Eric. What can you tell me about the company?" Horatio looked Eric in the eye.

"Well, the manager's story checks out. Clyde Devlin not only works for an advertising company called Logos, he owns it and it just so happens owns a subsidiary shipping and design factory called Logos Props."

"And you said Logos Props is one of the companies that came up in your search concerning the color of the paint particles found at the crime scene?"

"Yeah H. and there's something else you need to know. Ylena and Ryan just came back with the eight year old sister of our victim. She's already identified the body from the autopsy photos."

Horatio paused nodding slowly, "I'll be with the victim's sister."

Horatio sat down next to the tiny little girl. Someone, he surmised Ylena, had wrapped her in a blanket and had given her a cookie and juice from the cafeteria. She sat quietly munching on the cookie.

"Hello, Saundra. My name is Horatio."

Saundra looked up and giggled, "You have a silly name."

Horatio smirked, "I suppose you're right. Can you tell me your sister's name, please?"

She took a long gulp of juice spilling some down her chin, Horatio used his handkerchief from his coat and swabbed it up gently, "Tasha Sommers, she's been taking care me since mommy and daddy died."

"OK and can you tell me about the last time you saw Tasha."

The little girl's faced scrunched up , "It was really dark, my sister woke me up and told me to take our blankets and hide.."

"You were living in the abandoned apartment building?"

"We didn't have no where else to go. Tasha stopped working."

"Why wasn't she working anymore?" Horatio's face was full of concern.

"She started buying stuff from . . . from . . ." The little girl paused.

"From who Saundra?"

"From the devil. She got real tired all the time and stopped going to work." Saundra ate the rest of her cookie, "She was crying really hard the night he came."

"The devil?" Horatio asked at her nod he continued, "What was she crying about."

"She told him she couldn't pay, that she'd . . . do anything for a . . . a . . . hit!" Saundra sat pondering.

Horatio nodded, "Then what happened?"

"I couldn't see anything, but I heard his voice. He was laughing. He said she should die. He was tired of throwing more of his . . . stash . . . down the toilet on her." Saundra smiled looking proud she remembered so much.

"You are very brave Saundra. Now tell me about how she fell out of the window."

Saundra shivered pulling the blanket around her further. "I heard her shaking and thrashing on the floor, she did that a lot, she called it a spell. They'd go away once she'd get candy."

Horatio nodded saying under his breath, "Withdrawal seizures."

"She stopped and then I heard . . . an icky sound."

"Can you describe it, Saundra?"

She thought for a moment, "It sounded . . . gushy and scary. The devil was saying naughty things to Tasha. He sounded so mad. He got close to the window. I saw he had an apple that he used to smash the window. Then he threw her out."

"An apple?" Horatio looked at Saundra, "What kind of apple?"

"A red one." Saundra reached into her tattered backpack, "This one. I took it after he left so he couldn't hurt me with it."

Saundra held up an exact replica of a caramel apple, complete with stick, caramel and a sweet red apple peeking out underneath. It looked good enough to eat, except for the bloodstains marring it. Clearly this had been the murder weapon.

"Is that so?" Horatio nodded to the social worker as he put his sunglasses on and carefully placed the bloody apple in a evidence bag.

"Eric, what do you have for me?" Horatio stood in the doorway.

Eric looked up, "I just got the report back from Alexx. The caramel apple replica recovered from Saundra is a match to the stab wounds and bruising."

He gestured for Horatio to look at what was under the microscope, "I didn't get any usable prints from the apple, ruling out the little sister's. The majority were smudged in the victim's blood, but I did get a serial number."

"Right. These props are very expensive and each one is made by hand. They have a serial number indicating the designer and the studio. As unique as a signature."

Eric smirked at Horatio's extensive knowledge, "Yeah. I checked with the property guilds here in Miami and there is only one designer that specializes in props made to look like food."

Checking the address and name on Eric's notes Horatio smiled, "Thanks Eric. We've got him."

"No problem H."

"May I speak with the owner, a Mr. Devlin, please?" Calleigh smiled her best disarming smile and batted her eye lashes at the young man behind the reception desk at Logos Props, a factory warehouse on the waterfront.

The man grinned lopsided back at her, "I'm sorry he's in the painting room and cannot be disturbed."

Horatio stepped out from behind Calleigh and raised his badge, "For this, Mr. Devlin cannot not be disturbed."

Calleigh watched as the young man's demeanor changed, he muttered something under his breath and then just bolted down the hallway.

"He's on the run Horatio!" She shouted as she drew her gun and chased after the man hearing Horatio following her, his voice calling for back up.

"The suspect is on foot. CSI Duquense and I are in pursuit. We need all area patrols, NOW!" Horatio raised his gun and ran out the back door into a maze of shipping containers awaiting transportation on the docks.

Up ahead he could see Calleigh, her gun raised as she cautiously approached the suspect, who had backed himself into a corner. Horatio canvassed the area looking for possible threats, gun ready when from out of no where something hit him hard.

Calleigh heard the thud and reacted without thinking, she turned just in time to see Horatio hit the ground, a huge guard dog snapping at his head. With her back turned she suddenly realized her mistake as the suspect smashed her over the head.

As she lost consciousness, Calleigh wryly wished it wasn't Monday anymore.

"What do you mean you lost their signal?" Eric practically shouted at Tyler.

"It just went dead. Something happened to Lt. Caine's cell, Man." Tyler repeatedly hit the enter button, but his screen flashed the same error message.

Ryan walked into the lab, looking from one to the other, "What's going on?"

Eric grabbed his arm as he pulled him out of the lab, "Calleigh and H. lost contact in pursuit of a suspect at the Logos production plant. Let's go."

"Ylena, have you found them?" Eric stepped out of the hummer, Ryan quickly following.

Taking a deep breath, Ylena surveyed the scene. Uniforms were swarming around questioning employees and searching for Calleigh and Horatio.

"No sign of them, yet. The employees are talking, they've implicated their boss, a Mr. John Devlin, "Devil" to his cohorts. He's got quite the heroin trafficking operation going on here. We've uncovered several stashes hidden in shipping containers."

"So H. was right. Tasha Sommer's murder was a drug deal gone bad." Eric looked out past the rows of shipping containers, "Hey, Ryan do you see that?"

Ryan stood next to him, "Yeah, and I think it's our first lead."

Calleigh woke up with a groan, her head felt like it was filled with red hot dynamite ready to explode at any moment. She blinked, it was dark, but she could make out faint lines of light somewhere above her. She surmised she was in a shipping container.

She was on her side, but couldn't move. Her hands and feet were tied and her mouth was dry from a gag. She writhed for a few tense moments trying to loosen her bonds, but when she heard a scuffling sound she stopped.

Holding very still she listened intently. In the distance, she could hear police sirens and tracking dogs. She prayed they were tracking her. Again she heard soft scraping noises coming from the corner of the container. She lifted her head and tried to look in that direction.

Seeing a large shape, she squirmed even more, her throat constricted in fear, as she realized she wasn't alone in the container.

Eric and Ryan raced to the edge of the docks, their foot steps heavy, pounding in rhythm. When they reached the object, Eric carefully picked it up with a gloved hand, "This is Calleigh's isn't it?'

Next to the shattered remains of a cell phone, Eric grasped a small leather barrette. The clasp was broken as if it had been smashed. "Oh man. There's blood on it." Ryan took out a swab and tested it for sure.

"There isn't much, it's likely the suspect hit her over the head with something causing the barrette to dig into her scalp and unclasp from her hair."

Eric looked around concerned. "Well, if this is where he hit her, then she must be close by."

Ryan squinted into the sunlight, he thought he saw a man slinking around one of the containers. He looked at Eric and the two of them raised their guns and slowly approached the man from opposite sides.

The man's eyes grew wide as she saw Eric coming toward him. Eric smiled, "Don't try anything stupid. Get down on the ground, hands on your head, NOW!"

The man hesitated for only a second and then bolted around the corner where he soon met up with Ryan aiming his gun at him. Ryan smiled, "Now don't make us tell you again . . . on the ground!"

The suspect looked behind him at Eric and back again at Ryan and knew he had nowhere to run.

Horatio heard scuffling to his right, he couldn't move and felt a dull burning ache in his arm, the guard dog had bitten him. Since being trussed up and dumped in this container he had been trying to loosen his bonds to no avail. He knew Calleigh was near him, but all he could hear was her shallow breathing.

He stifled an explanative, the suspect had to have hit her over the head. She's still alive, Horatio thought giving him all the more reason to keep trying to loosen his bonds.

After securing the suspect, John Devlin, in her squad car, Ylena watched as Eric, Ryan and a police officer with a tracking dog followed a trail of tiny red dots.

"This blood is still fresh, they've got to be around here somewhere." Ryan looked back at the squad car with Devlin smiling in the back seat.

"He can't remember which one he put her in! Doesn't remember seeing Horatio at all? What does he take us for?"

Eric smirked, "That's was his third mistake."

"What were his first and second?"

Eric pointed to a dark blue container the dog stopped at, "Committing murder and messing with two of our own."

Horatio had finally wriggled out of his bonds, his wrists a bit of a mess. When he reached Calleigh he spoke to her softly, her eyes full of fear at first and then softening when she realized who he was.

From somewhere close by he heard a dog barking. He couldn't be sure, but the dog didn't sound like the one that had attacked him. He heard muffled voices, so carefully he crawled to the sounds and hunkered down ready to strike the first person who opened the door.

With a great creaking of rusted metal the huge doors swung open, Horatio was momentarily blinded, throwing up his hands.

"H?" Eric grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet outside the container.

Horatio blinked and shook out the wrinkles in his suit, looking at the officer, Ryan and Eric, "Thanks Gentlemen, let's get Calleigh out of here."

Back at the crime lab, Calleigh smiled at Horatio, "Thanks. Sir."

"Did we get enough to charge Mr. Devlin with Tasha Sommers' murder?" Horatio smiled back, his eyes searching hers.

"Yep. He confessed, when we explained to him that his DNA is an exact match to the blood we found on the broken window. "The Devil" will be right were he belongs, behind bars."

"That, Calleigh . . . is all the thanks I need."

It was quitting time. Alexx shut off the lights to the autopsy theater and locked up her lab. She grabbed her coat and her change of clothing. When she reached the elevator she met up with Horatio, Calleigh, Ryan and Eric, they all silently nodded.

At Tasha Sommer's grave few people were there to pay their last respects until the CSI's from Miami Dade Crime Lab drove up to say goodbye. . .

THE END