Kojak

The bright Miami sunshine beat down on Horatio Caine as he stood overlooking the latest crime scene. It was still early in the morning, but already the day was proving to be a scorcher. The temperature had been in the 90's all week, and today's crime scene was far enough away from the coast to miss any cooling breeze coming off the water.

A tall balding man came up from behind to stand beside Horatio. "Frank," Horatio said in greeting. "What have we got?"

Frank Tripp pulled his small note book out from inside his tan suit jacket and flipped it open. "The victims name is Henry Walt. He's the owner of the house. It was called in by the weekly maid service. Neighbors don't seem to know too much about him. Say he lived alone, and always drove a brand new BMW. No one seems to know what he did for a living, and no one can recall when they last saw him." Frank close the note book a returned it to his jacket pocket.

Horatio nodded his head and looked around at the dead man's home. It was a large sprawling bungalow with big windows and wide front stoop. The lawn was neatly manicured and the on the right was a driveway bordered with nicely trimmed hedges leading into a double garage. This house said wealth without being superfluous. Horatio had to admit, the place looked classy.

To his right, he spotted Eric Delko padding up the driveway.

"Hey H, I'm not late am I?" Eric said with a grin.

"No you're not. The body is in the living room." Horatio gestured towards the front door. "Calleigh's inside waiting for you."

Eric looked up in surprise. "I thought you said I was on time."

"You are," Horatio answered with a hint of a smile. "But Miss Duquesne was early."

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"Well hey there! I was wondering when you'd decide to show up," quipped Calleigh. She had already started photographing the body when Delko walked in.

"What have I got to do to stop you from showing up early?" Eric said with a grin, "You're making me look bad."

"Sorry, it's just my nature to be eager." Calleigh lifted her camera to her eye to continue her documentation. At her feet the body lay sprawled face down in the middle of a large pool of blood, presumably his own.

"What have you got so far?" Eric asked, donning a pair of latex gloves.

"Well, the M.E.'s not here yet so I haven't been able to get a good look at the body, but if I had to guess I'd say he was stabbed and bled out." Calleigh knelt down and, without touching the body, pointed to a spot on the victim's right side. "This right here looks like a stab wound to me. From the amount of blood, I'm guessing that there are more, probably on his front."

Eric nodded his head in agreement to what she was saying. "But we won't know for sure until the M.E. gets here."

"Well it's a good thing I'm here then." Calleigh and Eric turned and grinned as Alexx Woods strode into the room. She sunk down onto her knees next to the body, carefully avoiding the blood pool. Her hand moved over the body with gentle efficiency. "Alright hun, let's get you turned over." With practiced ease Alexx rolled the body over onto his back. "My goodness, someone sure wasn't happy with you. I count seven stab wounds."

Indeed the body did look a grizzly sight. The man's white shirt was ripped to shreds and was completely saturated with blood. Without hesitation Alexx stabbed a thermometer into the body's right side then held up one of his arms to look at. "Looks like he put up a bit of a fight; look at these slash marks on his forearms. He must have been trying to shield himself from the attack. I'll know more at the post." Gently setting the limp arm aside, Alexx removed the thermometer and glanced at her watch. "His liver temperature puts time of death around two O'clock yesterday afternoon." Sitting back on her heals, Alexx pulled off her latex gloves with a snap. "Well that's it for me. I'll see you two at post."

The wheels of the gurney squeaked quietly has it rolled past Horatio in the front hallway. He stepped into the living room where Calleigh and Delko were continuing to process the scene.

The large room looked rather dim and moody due to the curtains on the windows being drawn. The furniture was rather Spartan, but tasteful. A single black leather couch in front of a flat panel TV, a book self along one of the walls and a round oak coffee table that was bare except for a current TV guide. The largest pool of blood, where the body had lain, was directly behind the couch. The dark hardwood floor was covered in bloody footprints, spatter and smears.

"Looks like the killer wasn't concerned with cleaning up after himself," stated Horatio.

"You're not kidding," replied Delko. "Other then the footprints, I've also got hand smears and gravitational droplets leading away from the victim."

Horatio nodded as he scanned bloody the floor. "Well it shouldn't be too hard to-" Horatio paused as something caught his eye. "Calleigh, what's that in doorway to the kitchen?"

Calleigh looked up from her camera. "I don't know. I haven't made it over there yet. Why? You found something?"

"Possibly." Horatio knelt down by the doorway. "It looks like an animal print."

"An animal?" Delko moved over to wear Horatio was kneeling. "Hey yeah, looks like a dog's print; a big one. There are more in the kitchen too."

"Did anyone report finding a dog?" asked Horatio as he moved into the kitchen. Unlike the dark hardwood, it was easy to pick out the prints marching across the bright linoleum.

"Not that I know of," answered Delko lifting his camera to his eye to get a shot of the print. "Hey Calleigh, could you hand me the scale?"

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Horatio blinked in the bright Florida sunlight. The animal tracks had lead into the backyard with a set of human print accompanying them. Donning his sunglasses, Horatio followed the trail across the stone patio, but stopped when he came to the edge of the lawn. Other then the first step few steps on the neatly manicured grass, the trail virtually disappeared. There were any number of places the dog could have gone, thought Horatio as he scanned the yard. And the prints from the human, were they following the animal? Or was the dog following the person? Or did they walk together? In any case, where did they go? The yard was fenced, and the back gate looked to be closed. Finally, Horatio rested his eye on a small garden shed near the back of the yard.

Striding across the lawn, Horatio reached the shed and slowly, cautiously, released the catch and swung open the oversized door. It was dark inside, but he could make out a few gardening tool and big lawnmower at the back. Taking off his sunglasses, Horatio peered inside for a better look. He heard a slight shuffling move come from the back of the shed. Cocking his head he called softly into the darkness. "Hey there. Are you hiding somewhere back there?" He was answered by a few more sounds of movement. "You can come out. I'm not going to hurt you." A set eyes and ears peeked at him from behind the lawnmower. "Hello there. Come on out." Now a nose joined the eyes and ears over the mower. Thump thump came the unmistakable sound of the dog's tail against the floor. "That's right, come on out." Horatio knelt down and held out his hand. The dog slowly moved out from behind the lawnmower. Horatio smiled when he saw that it was a big German Shepherd. "Come on," he beckoned. "That's a good boy. Come on boy." Slowly, the Shepherd came to Horatio and tentatively licked his out stretched hand a few times.

Now that he was in the light Horatio could see that the dog's paws and muzzle had blood caked on them. There were also a few more gravitational droplets staining the dog's thick brown coat.

Giving the Shepherd's head a few soft pats, Horatio stood up and started to head to the front of the house. After a few steps though, he realized that the dog wasn't with him. The Shepherd was still standing at beside the shed watching him intently. Horatio stop and looked at him. Smiling, he turned his shoulder to the dog and donned his sunglasses. "Come." The dog dutifully followed him towards the side gate.

"Hey Frank. You'd better call animal control." Frank turned to see Horatio come around the side of the house with a German Shepherd at his heels.

"Where did you find him?" asked Frank, nodding his head at the dog.

"He was locked in the garden shed and he's got blood evidence on him."

"Do you think the killer might've put him there?" Frank knelt down gave the dog's ears a scratch.

"Careful Frank, I've got to process him for evidence. As for how he got there, I'm not sure, but he sure didn't lock himself in."

Horatio walked over to where his Hummer was parked and opened up the back hatch. The Shepherd followed suit; keeping his head no less then a foot away from the back of Horatio's knee. Retrieving his kit from the back, Horatio looked around for quite place to process the Shepherd. The scene had calmed down some, but there were still plenty of people around. Detectives were still hunting for witnesses, uniform officers where keeping spectators behind the tape, not to mention his own criminologists working the scene.

With dog in tow, Horatio wandered over to the far side of the lawn and stopped next to the hedge dividing Walt's lawn from the neighbors. He set down his kit and turned to the dog. "Sit." The Shepherd sat at once, keeping his eyes on Horatio. Quickly and efficiently, he began to document the dog, taking photos and clipping off samples of bloody fur. The Shepherd didn't move from his sit position, and never took his eyes off of Horatio. Underneath the blood, he could see that fur on the muzzle was starting to grey. This dog must be getting old. As he continued to run his gloved hands through the dog's fur, Horatio found a collar hidden in the dog's thick ruff. Horatio carefully removed it from around the dog's neck. The tag on the collar read 'KOJAK'. Horatio smiled at the police reference. "Well hello Kojak." The dog's ears twitched at the sound of his name. "I'm Horatio Caine, and you are a very well behaved dog." Kojak blinked at him but didn't move.

"He really is a good dog. Too bad he had such a jackass for an owner." Horatio looked up to see a teenage boy standing on the other side of the hedge.

"And who are you?" Horatio asked, standing up to look that the teenager. The kid looked 16, maybe 17, dark hair and baggy clothes.

"My name's Chris Wright. I live here." The kid jerked a thumb over his shoulder indicting the neighboring house.

"What did you mean about the dog's owner?"

"About him being an ass, you mean? That's just it: Mr. Walt was an ass. He got the dog a maybe a year ago. Said he wanted a guard dog. Anyway, my little sister was really excited about there being a dog next door. She loves animals. So a few days after he gets the dog, she goes over to ask if she can play with him. Mr. Walt just starts yelling at her, saying to never go near the dog ever. Said that it was a vicious dog and tear her apart if she ever set foot on his property again. She was only eight. Who yells at an eight year old kid? She was only asking.'

'But that dogs not vicious, I've never even heard it bark, let alone growl. I think that annoyed Mr. Walt because he was always yelling at the dog and throwing things at it; trying to make it mean. Asshole. He didn't deserve a dog like that."

As the teen wandered away, Horatio turned and looked at Kojak. It was certainly hard to image a dog like this being owned by such a man. But then, if Walt had only gotten him a year ago, then he wouldn't have been the dog's first owner.

Horatio had just finished bagging the collar when he spotted Calleigh heading towards him.

"Frank said you found the dog in the shed. I'm just going around to process it." Calleigh leaned over and gave Kojak a pat. "He's gorgeous. Did you find anything on him?"

Horatio smiled at Calleigh's idea of 'gorgeous'. Kojak's fur was matted with dirt from the shed and his muzzle was coated in blood. "Some blood, and his collar may have some epithelials on it," answered Horatio as he gently pulled the Shepherd's mouth open. "And look at this. He's got some flesh in his teeth."

"You think he may have taken a bite out of our killer?" Calleigh watched as Horatio pick out the sample with a pair of tweezers.

"Maybe," answered Horatio. "Walt doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who feeds his dog steak." He dropped the tiny piece of evidence into a container. "Speaking food, I'm thinking that he's mostly likely been locked up since yesterday. Could you maybe find a container we could put some water in for him?"

"Oh, I don't think we'll need too. Animal control is here. They're just waiting for you to finish."

"Okay, well I'm done now." Horatio removed his gloves and gave Kojak a hard scratch. He smiled as the big Shepherd thumped his tail twice on the ground. "Good boy."

Picking up his kit, Horatio started over to where he saw the Animal Control van was park. "Come Kojak." Kojak followed with his head just behind Horatio's knee.

"Kojak?" asked Calleigh with a smile.

"It was the name on the collar."

"I see," she said with a laugh. "Rather appropriate for a German Shepherd."

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"Is this the dog then?" A man wearing an Animal Control uniform bent down to give Kojak a pat.

"This is him," confirmed Horatio. "Have you got some water for him? I don't think he's had any since yesterday at least."

"Yeah, no problem." The man pulled open the back of the Animal Control van and dug out a large plastic dish and a water bottle. Dumping the water into the dish, he set down in front of Kojak. Kojak sniffed at the dish, and then looked up at Horatio for approval. Horatio smiled and nodded. Instantly the German Shepherd began lapping up the refreshing liquid with gusto.

"That dog sure minds you," commented the AC officer.

"Yes, he'll make some family a great pet," replied Horatio.

"Yeah, it's too bad really." The officer squatted down and started to rub the Shepherd's shoulders.

Horatio looked at the man confused. "How do you mean?"

The officer looked up at him. "Oh, he's great dog, but he's old and the shelters are already overcrowded. He'll probably just be destroyed." The officer scratched the big dog's ears. "It's a real shame too."

Before Horatio could reply, he heard Delko call to him across the lawn. "Hey H!" Horatio walked over to meet him.

"All done?"

"Yeah, Calleigh and I are finished processing the house and she's just about done on the shed. We're going to head back to the lab and see if we can't match some of the prints we got. Did you get anything off the dog?" Horatio didn't reply. "H?"

Horatio watched as the Animal Control officer started to load Kojak into the back of the van. It was just an animal he told himself. Just a well trained animal that had just lost his home and only companion. As he van door swing shut, Horatio's eyes meet the animal's. His blue met soft brown. They were sad, but accepting. Like he knew that he had lost his home and yet had resigned to it. Loss. That was something that Horatio could identify with.

"Wait!" Horatio called out to the Animal control officer. "Wait! You can't take him yet." He jogged over to the van where the officer had just opened the cab door. "That dog is evidence and I can't let you take him yet."

The animal Control officer gave him a quizzical look. "Are you sure? I've never heard of a dog being classified as evidence before."

"I'm sure. Open the back. I'm going to take him." As they walked around to the back of the van Horatio heard Delko come up behind him.

"H? What are you doing?"

Horatio didn't answer as he watched the officer open up the back of the van. Kojak lightly jumped down out of the back and moved to Horatio to give his hand a few appreciative licks.

"Are you sure you want to do this Lieutenant?" asked the officer. "'Cause you could just have the body sent over after he's been euthanized. It's no problem. I could bring him over this afternoon."

"No. No thank you," replied Horatio, putting his hand on top of Kojak's head. "I'll take him with me now."

"Suit yourself." With that the Animal Control officer climbed into the van and pulled away from the crime scene.

"H, what are you doing?" Horatio turn to Delko who was standing right behind him. "We can't book a live animal in as evidence."

"Where does it say that, Eric?" Horatio knelt down beside Kojak and gently rubbed his ears.

Delko hesitated. "Some people aren't going to like this."

Without looking up, Horatio replied, "You just let me worry about that."

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The elevator doors opened with a resounding ping as Horatio and Kojak step out into the lobby of the Miami Dade forensics lab. The officer at the reception desk looked that the lieutenant doubtfully as she handed him his messages, but didn't say anything.

Trying not to draw to much attention, Horatio led Kojak downstairs to the locker room. It was in between shift changes, so the room was fairly empty. Walking down the rows of lockers, Horatio stopped when he came to his own. Ordering Kojak to sit, he pulled out a comb, a bottle of water and a small pocket knife.

"Alright Kojak, let's see if we can't do something with what little we have." Horatio straddled the bench dividing the rows of lockers. "Up." Kojak neatly stepped up onto the bench in front of Horatio and sat down.

Gently at first, Horatio began to wet down the dogs thick fur and comb through it. When Kojak showed no signs of displeasure, he took out the knife and an attempted to remove a few of the bigger clumps of fur. "With all this dirt on you who can tell what kind of dog you really are. You just might turn to be a poodle." Horatio smiled as Kojak thumped his tail in reply.

Horatio was at it just over half an hour before he was interrupted. "Horatio?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh there you are." Alexx smiled as she popped her head around the corner. "So the rumors are true then. I wasn't sure so I thought I'd come see for myself." Alexx sat herself down behind Kojak and started running her hand through his fur. "He's a nice animal Horatio."

"Yeah he is. Or at least he will be once I get him cleaned up," sighed Horatio as he attempted to comb out another clump of fur.

"I may have something that will help." Alexx got up and moved over to her locker. After riffling around on the top self, she came back with a brush and a pair of scissors. "He can keep the brush; it's an old one anyways." Horatio nodded in thanks as switched from the comb to the brush.

"Horatio, what exactly are you up too?" Horatio looked up in mild surprise as Alexx sank back down onto the bench.

"He's evidence, Alexx."

"Un-huh." Alexx crossed her arms across her chest. "What kind of fool do you take me for?"

Horatio gave a small half shrug as he bushed out the fur down Kojak's back. "It's the truth. If I had let Animal Control take him it would have been destroying evidence."

"Ah! Now I see," Alexx leaned forward so that Horatio would look at her. "And what are you going to do after this cases if finished. Put him in evidence lock up with the rest of the trace and DNA samples?"

Horatio smiled and shook his head. "I'll think of something."

Alexx sat back and sighed. "You're only delaying the inevitable, honey. Real soon, the rumors will reach someone who won't like what they hear, Horatio. Animal Control will just come back and this time you won't be able to stop them."

"I'll stop them."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Just have a little faith, Alexx." Horatio sat back and smiled. "There, that looks much better now, doesn't it?"

Alexx sighed and rubbed the dog's shoulders. Horatio had made up he's mind, even if she didn't totally agree with the decision, she trusted him and she would stand by him. "He's beautiful," she agreed. "What's his name anyways?"

"Kojak."

Alexx laughed as she took the German Shepherd's head in her hands and looked into his big brown eyes. "Who loves ya, baby."