Disclaimer: I don't own any of CSI Miami characters or intellectual properties. Please don't sue me; my lawyer's in jail.
A/N: Special thanks and a shout-out to CSI Babs for letting me borrow Blizzard, her white cat.
Chapter 1—Animal House
The small apartment had obviously been ransacked. Faded sofa cushions had been flipped over and sliced open. Pillow cases from the studio couch had been turned inside out. Feathers and batting now lay scattered about like a snowstorm. Books and computer magazines had been thrown across the room and lay scattered open. Pictures and diplomas had been snatched off the wall and now rested in seas of broken glass. CD's and DVD's had been hurled around the room like Frisbees. Even the refrigerator had been emptied out in a hurry, it seemed. Food now lay scattered on the linoleum in front of the open door.
The man looked to be in his early twenties. He had curly blonde hair, old acne scars, an unshaven face, and his gray eyes were open in fear and surprise. He wore an old brown tee shirt and jeans. He had fallen backward in his old gray office chair, his head now resting in the black blood pool in the worn brown carpet. His scratched hands were raised up at his side. The hole in his forehead told them the whole story. His computer screen was dark. Someone had yanked the plug out of the wall. Old plastic soda bottles littered the floor, obviously knocked over in a hurry.
"Name's Walter Mullinax" Frank said. "Known on the internet as Serial Velocity. Computer hacker. Couple of priors for ID theft and credit card fraud. He's been renting this upstairs apartment. Landlord lives downstairs. Said he came home and saw there was a leak in the ceiling. Came up to check on the problem and found this."
Horatio fingered his sunglasses as he stood behind Alexx. "So that blood pool seeped through."
"Landlord said he was out of the house this morning. Nobody heard a thing. No arguments, no gunshots, nothing."
"I see. What have we got, Alexx?"
"Through-and-through, Horatio" she said as she looked up at him, motioning toward the red tear above his eyebrows. "He's still in full rigor, meaning he's been dead at least six hours." She then gently lifted his head and motioned with her gloved fingers. "Exit wound right here. Turned him off like a switch. But judging from the blood pool, I'd say it would be closer to twelve."
"Residual spatter on the computer terminal suggests he was executed while sitting up" Horatio observed. "The angle of the fallen chair suggests he had turned to the side of the computer toward the front door, and then the surprise on his face. He knew his shooter."
Frank nodded as he looked around the room. "Definitely looking for something."
"Yes" Horatio agreed. "And Serial Velocity wouldn't give it up."
Calleigh and Ryan stood in the doorway and surveyed the mess while snapping on latex gloves.
"I'd say we're gonna be a little busy" Calleigh said. "Think you're gonna need me to retrieve a casing."
Ryan opened his fingerprint kit as his eyes scanned the doorjamb. "Doesn't look like any forced entry here."
Horatio's blue eyes scanned the littered brown carpet as he stood next to Ryan. "Mr. Wolfe. Do you see that?"
Ryan knelt down and looked carefully through the torn foam rubber and feathers. "Dog hair?"
"Maybe. Did Mr. Mullinax have a dog?"
"I checked the back" Calleigh said as she pointed behind her. "Got just a water bowl. Might have been an outdoor cat. No litter box. Back door was unlocked, but no signs of forced entry there either."
"Landlord didn't allow Mr. Mullinax to keep pets" Frank said. "Thinks he might have been keeping a cat, but couldn't prove anything. He's seen a white cat that's been crawling around. Didn't have a collar."
Ryan opened his kit and took out tweezers and an evidence bag. "If he did, it's probably long gone by now." He studied a small white hair with his tweezers before dropping it into the baggie. "Either a dog or a cat. A white one. I'll get these hairs back to the lab. That fur runs deep into the couch. He's had a pet here for quite a while."
"Do that, Mr. Wolfe. And put out a call to Animal Control. See whether they've picked up any stray animals in this area in the past couple of days."
IAB agent Rick Stetler suddenly stood at the doorway, arms folded over his paisley tie. He kept his head tipped down, watching suspiciously.
Horatio stopped and leveled his eyes at his rival. "Welcome to the party, Rick."
Rick smirked at the redheaded lieutenant. "You know it's my job to survey you at least twice a year" he asserted. "And since I live in the neighborhood, this would be easy."
"Yes. How convenient."
"Just doing my job."
"Thank you, Rick. Now excuse me while I do mine."
Nobody paid Rick any more attention. With gloved hands Calleigh removed a round from the wall and studied it. "This was our round. Nine millimeter. Blood. Brain matter on the wall. I'll get this back to the lab. Any casings, Horatio?"
Horatio scanned the floor next to where Alexx processed the body. "I don't see one."
"Nine millimeter. There would have been a casing. I wonder whether our killer knew to take it with him."
It was after midnight when Rick turned out the light and tucked the blue blanket around his chin. Between reports, investigations and field work, he was exhausted. He ignored the booming thunder and the rain that pounded against his window.
Scratch! Scratch! Scrape!
He groaned in anger. That gray field mouse was foraging in the walls again. "Knock it off!" he yelled at the wall, his eyes closed. He put the pillow over his head and turned over, hoping the noise would go away. He had set traps, but nothing seemed to work. That mouse just kept coming back, waking him up, annoying him.
Scratch! Scratch!
With a grunt, Rick picked up his black shoe and hurled it at the wall. It landed with a THUD! and fell to the floor.
Silence.
He sighed. "I'm gonna kill you one of these days" he snarled as he turned toward the other wall, putting the pillow over his head again. "Call an exterminator. Something!"
Rick had been asleep maybe half an hour when something else woke him up with a start.
"Rowr!" Scratch! Scratch! Scratch!
He clenched his teeth and, with his hand, groped the floor for something else to throw at the wall.
Scratch! "Rowr!"
This was coming from the back door, he thought. "What the hell…. Shut up!"
Scratch! Scratch! Scratch! "Rowr!"
A cat? At his back door?
Sleepily he sat up and sleepily made his way to the back door.
The little white cat looked up at him half hopefully and half expectantly. He had sad blue eyes that almost expected Rick to feed him. His white fur was soaked. He looked like he'd been thrown into a puddle, his white fur splashed with mud.
Rowr?
Rick stared at the little visitor for a few seconds. Those little blue eyes looked so pathetic, so hungry, so desperate. He didn't have a collar. The rain was still coming down.
The IAB agent held his hand over his neck and sighed tiredly. Just as he was about to close his door and find some leftover chicken or lunchmeat, his new little guest darted into the house, leaving muddy paw prints along his carpet.
"Hey!" Rick tried to run after the cat to put him back out, but he was just too fast. The brown paw prints on his beige carpet were the only sign that anything had been there.
Rick cursed under his breath and proceeded to tear the house apart, looking under cabinets and tables, getting on his knees and peeking under his couch.
"Get out here! Where'd you go?"
Still on his hands and knees, Rick sighed and cursed under his breath. It had been another one of those days. He was exhausted, and he had to get up at five and do it all over again. Sitting back on his heels, he listened for the slightest little sound.
Just the thunder and that mouse scratching around in the wall.
In sheer frustration he sighed. "Fine! Go ahead and starve!" he yelled out. "The second I find you you're back out in the rain!"
That mouse scratched in the wall again while the thunder cracked.
Rick looked up at the ceiling of his house. He wasn't the cold, heartless human everybody at the crime lab made him out to be. He went to the refrigerator and pulled out some roast beef slices, laying them one by one on a saucer he laid on the kitchen floor. He then filled a bowl with water and laid it next to the little roast beef platter.
"Here! When I find you, you're going right back out!" he called. He then yawned and crawled back into his bed, turning out the light. Normally a strange presence would have kept him awake, but he was too tired.
Scratch! Scratch! Scratch!
He groaned in frustration and put the pillow over his head again. "And while you're at it, kill that mouse!"
Sheer exhaustion won out. Pillow over his head, Rick lay on his stomach and was finally snoring within minutes.