A/N As I was already into the first several chapters before I put story here, the first "chapter" is actually Chapters 1-5

The Horizon

Chapter1

As the morning sun rose above the horizon, Stella Fay sat on the bench watching the waves wash upon the beach in front of her. To say that she actually saw what was before her would really be pressing the mark because her mind's eye was really focused upon the dilemma she was facing.

Stella was a bright lady in her early 40's who had come from the mid-west in search of a better life. She had always been a hard worker and had devoted herself to those things that all too many saw as trivialities. She had been wife and mother and had given her all to those she cherished. As she neared the twentieth year of her marriage, she had known for a long time that she was the only one really trying in the mix. Feeling that she would be a failure somehow if her marriage wasn't a success, she had toiled on basically alone to make things work.

Stella's husband Ray's latest scheme to make millions had brought them to Miami. She knew he was making a serious mistake but instead of arguing with him [as if he would have listened] she had dutifully followed along, doing her best to make their daughter's life better, if not her own.

They had been in Miami about a week staying in a motel that had made Stella very nervous. Her senses had told her that Ray was up to no good but she had tried as usual to believe the best of him. Ray's temper had become worse and worse as the days had gone on and the drinking habit had only increased with each passing day. On the sixth day after making calls and the expected sales falling through, he had snapped.

When their daughter Amber had giggled at a cartoon she was watching on her little DVD player, he had almost slapped her. Stella had seen him raise his arm and had stepped in-between taking the blow across her face. Fortunately Amber hadn't noticed as her back had been turned and her headsets had blocked the quiet argument that had followed. With a voice barely above a whisper, Stella told Ray that they were through and that she was taking the car and Amber. He had started to argue but at seeing her white hot anger he snapped "OK, but don't come crying back to me when you find out you have no-place else to go." At her asking what he meant, he had laughed with a cold voice. I sold everything we had back home. There's nothing to go back to."

In those moments any love that she had for that man had withered and died. Gone were any misgivings of saving the marriage. She knew that if he had ever had any love for either of them that he had lost it in his drunkenness and greed.

It had taken her no more than fifteen minutes to pack their meager belongings and load them into the car. She had tried not to show the real reasons for their packing to their daughter. She just had no idea how to explain without telling the Amber what a loser that her dad was. Once they left the motel Stella drove to the nearest bank and withdrew four of the last $500 dollars in the account. She knew that she would have to stretch that to keep the two of them going. Part of her mind screamed that she should have taken the whole 500 dollars from the bank, but she just couldn't bring herself to do that. Next she drove to a burger joint. She nibbled on a salad while Amber happily ate a burger and chattered.

Once they finished supper, they had driven around looking for a different place to stay. Stella had been shocked to see the prices and so they had driven for hours. Before long, Amber had curled up in the back seat with her favorite blanket and pillow and was fast asleep.

Stella ended up parked on the beach and had spent the night crying then wracking her mind on what to do next. As the sun rose above the horizon, Stella had no idea that as bleak as she had envisioned their situation, it would only seem worse before the day was done.

Chapter 2

Frank Tripp had begun the morning a bit earlier than usual. His normal six A.M. shift had been bumped up to five due to an unusual call. He had known Stan Burch many years. To say that they were friends would have been laughable. It was more of a case that Stan had learned to respect Frank and had called upon him whenever he had run into trouble, which had been more often than Frank had really cared for. Stan had been the manager of a seedy little motel on the south side of Miami for many years and had run across the shadier side of the cities inhabitants. Frank had to give it to the man, even though he was surrounded by those who had for a large part given up on their lives; Stan tried to do the best he could.

It had been the call from Stan this morning that had roused Frank earlier than usual and it was beginning to look like it was going to be one of those crazy days as if the whole town was in a pressure cooker and the heat was beginning to make everyone melt down. Frank arrived at the motel and stopped to talk with Stan who was visibly upset.

Stan told of taking the trash out before he began his shift at 5. When he was at the back of the motel by the dumpsters he noticed that the curtains were partially torn down in room 132. The door was ajar as he knocked and as it swung open he saw that the room had not only been ripped to shreds but that there was a lot of blood on the walls. Stan was violently ill and then he quickly dialed for the only cop he had ever trusted. As much as he wanted to turn from this place and leave he knew his responsibility was to keep others out until the cops could come.

Frank knew that the scene must be graphic to have made this man before him so ill. Although Stan tried to be a good man, Frank knew that he had seen his share of trouble and brushes with the law in his earlier years. Frank made the calls to the ME and the CSI team. Yes, he thought to himself, this is going to be a very long day.

Chapter 3

After Frank's call, Horatio surveyed the scene in the motel room. The kinds of sick, abhorrent thoughts that drove people to commit such heinous and violent acts never ceased to amaze Horatio. There had been one body in the room and there were definitely signs of struggle. In fact, there were few things in the room that were intact. Even the mattress and box springs had been torn to shreds and the human remains had fared no less violence. It was very clear that whoever had done this had a tremendous amount of repressed rage, pent up over years which had finally exploded in this insane, senseless destruction.

It had taken the better part of the hour that they had been there just to sort through the debris enough to find a wallet. Upon opening the wallet it proved to be that of the victim, a Ray Fay. There was little inside the wallet other than his ID and a picture of him along with a woman and child. Horatio wondered what had happened to the others in that picture.

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Stella walked to the door of her car. She looked through the window at the still sleeping form of her daughter. Fear gripped her heart at the thought of what she would say when Amber asked about her father. A sob escaped her and she fought to hold it back. She had spent most of the night in tears and she had a throbbing headache from it. She glimpsed herself in the rearview mirror as she slipped into the driver's seat once again. She was shocked at the dark circles under her eyes and the redness of her face. She turned her face and saw the ugly bruise and split lip from the blow that Ray had given her. How, she wondered had she ever been so stupid as to think that man had ever loved her. If he had hit Amber that hard… she shuddered at the thought.

She took a sip of what remained of her soda from the night before, the tears of the night having made her mouth dry. She started the car and decided to go to a grocery store and get some food for them to live off of. As she drove the sleepy side streets looking for their provisions little did she realize that they were now being sought in connection to a murder case.

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Frank questioned Stan the motel mgr. about the woman and child in the photo from the crime scene. He said that sure, they had been there and had left the motel about 8 pm the night before in the car. He surrendered the check –in form that had the car's license number on it. Nobody had seen or heard from the room after that. He hadn't seen anyone unusual in the area through the night although he had been away from the desk at about midnight when there had been a disturbance in one of the other rooms. Frank left the interview thinking that something just didn't add up right. He didn't realize that he was being watched the whole time.

Chapter 4

It took the CSI team until late in the day just to gather the evidence and sort through the rubble that had been a motel room. After Alexx's initial exam of the body she had set the TOD at about 12am. After questioning all the motel guests and staff they had come up short on any clues as to who had done this. As the woman and child were the last to be seen leaving the room it was obvious that they had to be questioned in connection to the crime. Frank had put a bolo out for them and there had been officers looking for them the whole day with no success.

After getting some groceries and some camping supplies Stella and Amber had headed south toward Homestead. It had taken all of Stella's energy to get them to a small RV park and get them settled in for the day. Amber had taken to the idea of camping and had behaved really well not even missing her father.

Stella was thankful for her daughter. It seemed that sometimes Amber was far wiser than her tender age of ten. Stella watched as Amber arranged her sleeping bag for the night. Although others had always looked at the child as stupid or weird, it had always been Stella who had stood up to everyone, even the doctors when they said that Amber would never walk or talk but only be a vegetable. True, Amber's development was behind those of her age, seeming to be much younger than her peers. Yet sometimes those few who truly looked deep inside her saw glimpses of great intelligence if not genius. Even now, anger coursed through Stella's body that society had labels and pigeon holes for kids like this.

Stella smiled as her daughter began to count out hotdogs that they were going to fix for supper. She roused herself to help with the cooking and began to teach her again about fires and safety. Repetition was often the key to helping her to remember things.

They finished supper and sat beside a small campfire together, simply enjoying each other's company and the peace they had not felt for some time. Stella leaned back and closed her eyes, relaxing before the fire. Suddenly she felt Amber's lips pressed gently against the bruised side of her face. "Momma's got a booboo" she softly said. "Momma is my hero, thank you momma" she whispered into Stella's ear. It took every ounce of strength that Stella could muster not to sob out loud at that moment. All she could do was hug her daughter tight and be thankful they were away from the source of pain. Little did she realize that their lives were perched on the edge of even more pain and change.

Horatio stood before the windows in his office staring into the ever darkening sky over Miami. In his mind's eye he saw again the faces in the photograph from the crime scene. How, he wondered did those innocent faces fit into the grizzly scene that he had witnessed this morning? He turned again to his desk and opened the folder containing the information on the Fay family. It had taken little time to find out that Ray had been in debt up to his eyes and had sold everything in Ohio before coming to Florida the week before. The team had contacted the Montgomery county sheriff's department and had found out that Ray had a list of crimes throughout his life. It was obvious that he had been on a slippery slope and had just continued his crimes getting worse each time. The information on the woman and child had been clean. The woman named Stella had had an impeachable past. She was well liked and the officer had even gone so far as to say that folks felt sorry for her because she had never seen the side of Ray that others knew too well. The child was a special needs girl and she was loved by all that knew her. When the sheriff found out that the woman and child were being sought because of Ray's murder he replied that it had only been a matter of time before Ray's luck had run out. He was just hoping that the woman and child had been spared from the violence that Ray had been stirring up for years. Horatio looked again at the picture and hoped that they were indeed going to be spared from more pain. Something in the eyes that looked back from that photo spoke of a loneliness that Horatio knew all too well. He closed the folder and rose to go home for the night. He hoped that the woman and child were found soon and that they were indeed innocent, but then again if they were it meant that they could be in serious danger. For out there somewhere was someone with extremely violent tendencies.

Chapter 5

The watcher had sat in their secluded place, hidden from view and had kept their vigil during the police and CSI investigation and search of the motel room. It was amusing to watch them scurry like little ants after their nest had been disturbed. The tall Texan had been the first to arrive after the idiot motel manager had stumbled upon the scene. His reaction to the room had been all but comical but the Texan; although he was not pleased by the scene he had remained calm. The watcher was intrigued by that calm and longed to provoke him. There had been another that intrigued the watcher as well, one with red hair and a confident air. The watcher sensed an anger emanating from the red one. It would be interesting to see if Red and Tex could put the pieces together and even come close to finding a trail.

Stuart Davies, a Sheriff's Deputy in Montgomery County Ohio had run across something that changed his life. In his rounds he had run across an abandoned car on a drive at the back of the Englewood Reserve, a park near a town just North of Dayton. There are often cars that someone leaves while they run a trail or walk through the park but this car had just felt all wrong. Stu was hard pressed to say why he had felt so uneasy when he saw the car. He had stopped and with all his senses screaming he had approached it with gun drawn. He saw a young man slumped down on the passenger floorboard of the car. It was obvious that he had been there for many days. Why it had gone unseen for as long as the man had obviously been dead puzzled Stu. Stu had recently gone through a short crime scene training course and was glad that he had done so. Stu stepped back on his own footprints and called the scene in. While he waited he began taking pictures of evidence that he spotted on the ground.

Later when the coroner examined the body, there was a small bag clutched in the palm of the right hand. Upon investigation it was later found that the bag contained several pills and a slip of paper. The pills, when tested were a new form of PCP with some additives that they had not been able to pinpoint. The small slip of paper had a phone number, a date, [which had been 10 days before] and the following words. Ray Fay, Englewood Park.

Stu dialed the phone number and after the Third ring heard a male voice on the other end. After an awkward conversation for both sides for several seconds, the man on the other end surprised Stu by saying," I can tell you are in the Montgomery County Sheriff's office. May I ask your name?"

At Stu's response the Voice on the other end of the line said, "I'm CSI Eric Delco in Miami Florida."

After a moment's surprise, Stu shared that he was working on as murder case involving Ray Fay and that he had suspected this to be his number. Eric confirmed that the phone had indeed been found in Ray Fay's room and that he was deceased. Eric then told Stu that he would return the call after he spoke to his department head.

It was Horatio that made the follow-up call to Stu later that day. Both officers shared the information that they had. The evidence showed that Ray had met the young man in the park. The young man named Danny Valentine who was a local college student had been a science major and quiet kid. When his roommate had been questioned he had tried to run. When they caught him he had been carrying a bag with pills identical to those in the bag found at the scene. When his room had been searched, they found several other bags. All in all there had been over 5000 pills seized in the roommate's arrest. When he had been questioned he admitted that Danny had been messing with a PCP recipe and had made the pills. He had taken 3 bags of 5000 pills each when he had gone to meet someone in the park over a week before. He hadn't seen him since. When he hadn't returned, he had taken the last bag and had been going to try and sell it. That was when the officers had come to the house.

Horatio then shared all about the scene that they had discovered that morning and how Ray had been found. When he finished the call, Horatio felt that somewhere in the city was a new kind of drug. Suddenly he felt he knew why the crime scene had been so torn apart. Someone was looking for those drugs.

As the day progressed and the police and CSI's left the watcher was sure they had not found clues to find their identity. They smiled knowing that their handiwork had intimidated and baffled the ones known as Miami's Finest. A flash of anger passed across the face of the watcher as they remembered the dolt from the Midwest. He had thought he was so smart; trying to peddle something that he had no idea of the power of. The watcher felt again the anger bubbling up within, where had that idiot hidden the stuff? It was obvious that it hadn't been in the room. It was obvious that the manager hadn't found anything either. That every word had been able to be heard had obviously not been on any of the officer's minds. The watcher knew that they had not found what he desired. So the question remained… where was the stuff? The watcher knew that the longer that there was time to wait, the more the anger would grow. A smile crossed the watcher's face as they thought; if the officers thought they had seen something now, how much more would they be amazed if the anger grew. No, Miami had seen nothing yet!