Author: Beginner Blue
Title: Wildlife
Disclaimer: The characters belong to CBS, I just wish the Bruck would treat them with a little more TLC.
"Calleigh, watch out for the wildlife." With a gentle hand in the small of her back Horatio guided her delicately back towards dry land.
Slogging knee deep through a Florida swamp the slender blonde arched her eyebrows and threw him a saucy look back over her shoulder. "Alligators, handsome? Or were you referring to something else?"
Horatio chuckled but his eyes were elsewhere -- scanning the murky surface of the swamp -- and he was still steering her carefully back towards the muddy bank. "Cast those tire tracks for me before it rains, will you?"
"Horatio!" Exasperated, Calleigh dragged a long, damp strand of hair back from her eyes. She turned to face him, dislodging his hand from her back. "I've seen those tread marks so many times I could cast them for you in my sleep. I need to look for drag marks. If a gator took him we can all quit looking and go home to bed. But I need solid proof."
He tilted his head quizzically but in spite of her flawless logic he didn't look convinced.
"If he's still alive we need to move quickly," Calleigh insisted, "or another young woman could die tonight. Will die tonight," she corrected herself. Calleigh turned her back on her boss and returned her attention to the muddy bank.
She half expected an argument but it didn't come. The small sound behind her was odd, out of place, almost lost in between the half hearted squawks of the birds settling down for a nap in the mid day heat. A splash? … a gasp? …
Calleigh spun around and he was almost gone. An instant of disbelief widened the sapphire eyes and was followed by a brief flare of panic. His body twisted underwater, the red hair followed it down and there was nothing of Horatio left except a small ripple rapidly expanding into nothing in the ugly green brown water.
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