He could feel someone else was in the room with him, creeping up close. Close enough to see his breath in this hot, Miami air. The tunnel was dark and damp, and it was close to two in the morning. Something was off though, as much as Teddy wanted to run, he couldn't. Something was stopping him, like emotional handcuffs. He slowly walked to the wall of the tunnel, sliding down the wall as he curled up in a ball. Something was going to happen and he wanted it to get it over with; whatever it was.
Footsteps echoed through the tunnel as Teddy held his breath. Chains and buckles drifted in and out of his ears while the footsteps were getting closer. Teddy opened his eyes and looked up, and saw dressed in black from head to toe approach him, with a hidden gleam in his eyes. Time seemed to stop as the shadow forcefully picked him up and whisked him away to the top of the tunnel, just moments before the sun shone through the clouds.
The final sound of a blade woke the citizens of Miami; the feel of a fresh murder evaporated.
The cell phone rang through her house, waking up the two sleeping partners that lay there with their legs tangled. The clock read 5:34 AM, nine minutes before the alarm would interrupt them from the dreams.
"Cal." Eric grunted, nudging his girlfriend to wake her up. "The phone, the phone is ringing." He fell back asleep as Calleigh ran to the phone, answering it with a monotone. After a few seconds, she hung her phone up and ran into the bathroom, turning the shower on. Eric trailed along, wondering why she was rushing.
"Hey what's going on? You're acting like you're late for a plane." Eric leaned against the bathroom door as Calleigh got undressed and hopped in the shower.
"Horatio called me; he said someone was badly chopped up. So I need to get there." The shampoo bottle fell to the shower floor as a profanity slipped out of Calleigh's mouth.
"Why didn't he call me?"
"He said it was your day off, I guess you can come in if you want. It'll be just Speed and me." She ran her fingers through her long, blonde hair, successfully getting all the shampoo out of her hair.
"I'll come in. How about we save time and share the shower?" Calleigh blushed as Eric said that, knowing that won't save anything.
"Eric, you know we'd waste more time…" Her words trailed off as she turned the shower off.
Horatio was the first at the scene, quickly calling the medical examiner to get her at the scene as fast as she can. He has seen everything, but nothing as brutal as this. Blood was still seeping out of the wound, and fell onto oncoming traffic. The victims face was torn off, Horatio concluded from the blood glistened blade that hung over the body.
The victim was in three parts. The head rolled off into the grass; much force was used to send the head. The face was still settled in the basket, tendons still stuck to the bones. And the body was still on the table, lying there with chains attached to the arms and legs. It was badly bruised on the parts that Horatio can see without touching the body.
A loud horn brought Horatio out of his trance as Tim got out of the car and jogged to where the man was, laughing until he saw the scene. His crime scene kit fell through his sweaty hands and his face was exasperated, wondering how a machine like this could ever kill someone.
"H… I don't understand." His words died on his tongue as he cracked his knuckles.
"Well, Speed, what I learned in college is that the French used to use the guillotine to execute someone during the French Revolution. It was the most humane to execute at that time. But now, things have changed." Horatio slipped on his shades, because the sun shown through the guillotine, blocking his eyesight. "Timothy," Speed looked up, and Horatio put his hands on his hips before walking off to Calleigh and Eric, "A lot."
"H, you should really stop that… ah forget it." Speed picked his kit up and opened it. He slapped on the latex gloves on and his crime-scene suit, so his skin cells compromise no evidence. Speed didn't bother wait for Calleigh and Eric, he just started to go into his grid pattern, picking up evidence when he comes across some. Eric walked up to Speed and pushed him over, as he almost fell onto the victim's ear.
"Hey buddy! Looking happy as ever; I could see."
"Dude, the murder weapon was a guillotine. I'm really wishing it wasn't." Speed picked up the ear with some tweezers and dropped it into the evidence bag, to be quickly sent to Valera. "Some of my ancestors were executed this way. I'm not in a great mood." Tim patted Eric's back as he walked off to Calleigh. "Watch what you say."
Calleigh put her blond hair in a bun and slipped the cap onto her head. She unclipped her gun belt and attached it to the outside of her suit.
"Just how does one put a guillotine on top of a tunnel next to a busy highway and not one person see this?" Calleigh walked over to Horatio and put her crime scene kit between her arm and body. "Matter of fact, where do they get an authentic one? Let's check the museums in the county to see who's missing a French artifact." Her blue hairpin glittered under the transparent hair cap. It shone from the sunrise and Horatio smiled at the little things that make Calleigh who she is.
A few hours passed before all the evidence was collected and all Speed wanted to do was drive home. The bags under his eyes reappeared and the energy drained out of him. He sealed up the last piece of evidence and dropped it into the box. He took all his gear off; he walked to his Hummer and left Eric and Calleigh at the scene.
Pandemonium followed Speed as he arrived at the lab a few minutes after leaving the crime scene. Camera crew and museum officials were crowding the door, wanting to know why there was a guillotine being carried into the lab. He sighed before he opened the door, and stepped out. He took a heavy breath in and walked up to the window.
"Tim, is it true that you have a family background of this type of execution?"
"Tell me, how is it possible for an artifact like that to leave a museum?"
Speed made his way through the crowd and entered the lab. Horatio walked up to him with a tired look on his face. Before Horatio opened his mouth, he walked away to the break room to rest his head. Lab rats walked out to see what facial features Tim had because they heard of the case, and ran back in the lab because his scowl shunned them off with his eyes.
"Tim!" Calleigh's southern twang interrupted his bad mood and he turned around to see Calleigh clad with blood.
"Cal, god what happened?" He examined her and furrowed her eyebrows.
"Alexx decided that it would be best to chop the body up the second I walked in. It doesn't make any sense, its already chopped up to begin with." Her story brightened his face as she went on. "She told me to come back for the cause of death, but I'm afraid that I will get bombarded with intestine fluids before I even step my shoe in." Her constant ramble gave him a little headache, so he rubbed his head as he interrupted her
"Cal, you're my friend and all, but today my head can't take your constant rambling. I'll be in the break room for case related things." He paused before he walked out. "Case related." She shrugged and walked off before Tim could do so himself.
Upon entering the break room and smelling a fresh batch of coffee that someone brewed up, he poured himself a mug and took a sip. Feeling refreshed after the sip, Speed dumped the rest down the drain and rested his head on the brick solid pillow that the break room's couch had to offer. Tim let out a long sigh and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.