Horatio just laughed. Then he looked at Speed. "How do you want to tell the others?"
Speed sighed. "I don't know. I want to see them. I don't want to wait."
Horatio nodded. He got out his phone and called Alexx, Calleigh and Eric and told them to come over right away. He told them it was important and it involved Speed. They said they would be there as soon as they could. Speed said he would take care of the dishes and stay in the kitchen until Horatio called for him.
After each of his friends arrived, he looked at them and said, "I've come into some information about Speed and I thought you three should be the first to hear it."
"What is it?" Alexx asked.
"First of all, I have to tell you, there is someone in my kitchen who can explain things better than I can," he said as he went over to the door to the kitchen. He opened it and motioned for the person to come in.
Alexx and Calleigh gasped as Eric jumped out of his seat. "What the hell!" he said as he looked at Horatio. "This is not funny, H."
Speed walked up to his friend. "I'm really here, Eric. You're not hallucinating. I promise."
Eric nodded, then he punched his best friend. "Eric!" Alexx said she jumped up and rushed over to Speed.
"It's okay, Alexx," he said as she took his face in her hands. "I probably deserved it."
"You're really here?" she asked as tears came to her eyes. He nodded and she pulled him into her arms. "Oh, my baby. What happened? Where have you been?"
"Let's sit down and Speed and I can explain," Horatio said as Calleigh turned on him.
"You knew?" she accused.
"No, Calleigh," he sighed. "I had no clue he was alive until he came to my door tonight."
Speed and Alexx sat on the sofa with Horatio. Eric and Calleigh sat across from them. Speed told them about the US Marshalls and the threat to Alexx. He told them what he had been doing for the last six years. Then Horatio explained what he had discovered.
Eric held his hand up. "So let me get this straight. Some guys posing as Marshalls set all of this into motion? Why?"
"We don't know," Horatio admitted. "This is why we need your help. We need to find out who is behind this."
"Horatio, I can't be a CSI anymore," Eric sighed.
"We know that," Speed said as he looked Eric in the eye. "And that's to our advantage. They won't be expecting you to be investigating. You and Alexx are out of the lab. You two can investigate with me. I can't exactly go running around Miami yet. Calleigh and H can investigate as much as they can from inside the lab. They can bring in who they trust, but we've got to keep this quiet as long as we can."
"Speed's right," Calleigh agreed. "Whoever did this went to a lot of trouble to make it look like Speed was dead. If we investigate this openly or if he comes out of hiding too soon, they could come after them again."
"Or they could make good on their threat to Alexx," Speed said as she squeezed his hand.
"Baby, I can take care of myself," she said as she looked at him. "We need to do whatever we can to get you back into the land of the living."
Calleigh suggested they use some of the connections they had made in the New York crime lab to help their investigation. Horatio said that was a good idea and contacted Mac Taylor. Mac agreed to give them any help they needed. Speed and Eric decided to fly up to New York to start their investigation.
The next day, Eric and Speed went to New York with instructions from Horatio to be careful. They worked with Mac Taylor and Danny Messer exclusively on the case. They find out that Natalia Boa Vista was an alias. She was never admitted into Quantico. She had been placed there for the soul propose of spying on the lab. She was still was reporting to someone, just not the FBI.
They flew back to Miami and gave what they found to Horatio and Calleigh. The two of them ran everything through the Miami lab. They brought in Ryan, Walter and Jesse and had them keep an eye on Boa Vista. Walter overheard her phone call to her contact. "There's something going on," she said to her contact. "Delko came in a few days ago and gave a file to Caine and Duquesne. They pulled Cardoza, Wolfe and Simmons into Caine's office. No, I don't know. I'll find out."
Walter walked past her on purpose when she hung up. "Walter, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked.
"Sure, Natalia, what's up?" he asked as he gave her a smile.
"What are you and Ryan and Jesse working on?"
"Oh, Horatio got a hot lead on a cold case. He wants us to follow up on it. It could connect to the jewelry store Tim Speedle was killed in."
"Do you need any help?"
Walter saw his opportunity. "Sure, we could use some help with a couple background checks."
"Who are you looking at?" she asked as she grabbed a pad and some paper.
"We're looking at Ed Byrne and Chris Addison," Walter said as he handed her the file he and Jesse had put together for just this purpose. "They seem to be connected to what happened that day."
She took the file and smiled at him. "I'll get right on this."
Walter left her and sent a text to Horatio. H just smiled and waited. He watched from his office as Boa Vista hurriedly grabbed her purse and started out of the lab. He let her get to her car before he signaled Calleigh to make the arrest.
"What's going on?" Boa Vista asked as she was led into an interrogation room.
She saw Frank and Horatio standing there as Calleigh shut the door. "H, I was about to run down a lead on the cold case you gave Walter when Calleigh arrested me. She said she is charging me with attempted murder. Who am I supposed to have tried to kill?"
"Me," Tim Speedle said as he came out of the shadows.
