Alright I'm too excited about this chapter to not post it so I'm going to ignore what little restraint I have and just do it.
Second update for today.
Edit: If it's popped up to say I've updated this all I have done is corrected a spelling and swapped an "I" for a "he"
Edit 2: You're going to need to have read the last chapter of Vapour for the end of this to make sense.
Enjoy! x
Chapter Seven
Calleigh settled herself down in her Ballistics lab and then reached for her cell. She leant back into her chair as she patiently waited for him to pick up.
"Tripp?"
"Hey Frank, any luck with that warrant yet?"
"No, Mr. Tanner has friends in high places, he's pulling out all the stall tactics."
Calleigh smiled into her phone and rolled her eyes.
"Well maybe I can help…"
Tripp listened as Calleigh informed him about the newly identified fake fingernail and its connection between both Susan and Holly.
"Alright, I'll let the judge know. Even Tanner can't worm his way out of this one, we should have grounds for an immediate warrant."
"Thank you Frank. Can you let Ryan know when you get it and ask him to collect Holly's prints and DNA?."
"Yeah, will do."
Calleigh waited for the click to signal that he'd hung up and was just about to re-clip her phone to her waist when it started to buzz. Curious, she flipped it open and answered the call.
"Duquesne?"
"Calleigh!" a voice squealed.
"Sarah?"
"Guess what, I'm in Miami on business and I've got a free evening. How 'bout a catch up?"
Calleigh flashed a smile and considered this for a moment. Sarah was one of her old high school friends from Louisiana and she hadn't seen her for ages. She knew Eric wouldn't mind, they didn't have to do everything together.
"Sure. Where and when?"
/EC/
Eric was pacing outside the Ballistics lab. He was trying to think of a way to explain why he wouldn't be travelling home with her after work; he and Valera were going shopping but obviously he couldn't tell Calleigh that. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, wondering if all this was really worth it. He looked through the glass and watched as Calleigh flashed a smile into her phone that lit up the room and he melted; 'of course it was worth it.'
He entered the lab just as Calleigh hung up and silently sat himself next to her.
"Anyone I know?" he asked, a little curious.
She flashed him one of those smiles and re-clipped her phone to her waist.
"That was an old friend from high school. I've made plans to go out with her straight from work, you weren't planning on cooking dinner or anything were you?"
Eric could have jumped for joy; she had just inadvertently answered his prayers.
"No, that's fine. You go have fun," he grinned, perhaps a little more enthusiastically than was really necessary.
"Okay…" she eyed him carefully. "Anyway, I won't be back too late."
He reached up and ran a hand through her hair.
"Take as long as you want."
Calleigh bit her lip, a little confused. Whilst she appreciated Eric's understanding that she wanted a girls night, she couldn't help but feel that he had ulterior motives.
Eric held her gaze, knowing that she was suspicious and attempted to reassure her. He watched as she opened her mouth to speak and silenced her with his immediately; deciding the best action to take would be to leave the room without saying anything more.
"Eric?" Calleigh mumbled into their kiss.
She watched as he pulled away and flashed her a playful grin, before he disappeared from view and left her to wallow in her confusion.
/EC/
Natalia sighed. She still hadn't been able to find the murder weapon which was a little odd; a tire iron wasn't an easy thing to hide. She looked back along the street, mentally ticking which potential hiding places she'd checked. Her eyes suddenly settled on a trashcan in front of a restaurant and she grimaced; 'just her luck.'
With an effort, she dragged herself over to it and lifted up the lid, stumbling backwards as the smell hit her. Once she'd finally got a hold over her nose, she moved forwards and gingerly began to probe through the trash. After a good ten minutes, a voice interrupted her.
"What are you doing?"
Natalia looked up and met the eyes of an older man who was watching her curiously. She forced a smile and took a moment to step backwards from the trashcan, breathing in the fresh air.
"Hi, I'm CSI Boa Vista, I'm just searching for something that may help a murder investigation that I'm currently working on."
The man's eyes lit up, suddenly interested.
"Well, you're not going to find it in there," he gestured to the trashcan. "It was emptied three hours ago."
Natalia widened her eyes.
"But it's nearly full!"
"And I run a restaurant, we get through a lot of waste," the man shrugged.
Natalia ripped her gloves off in her frustration and ran a hand through her hair.
"Well did you happen to see anything before the trash got taken out? Anything unusual?" she tried desperately.
The restaurant owner considered this for a moment before he shrugged again.
"I did see a tire iron, but I'm not quite sure how it got there."
Natalia froze; 'Oh God.' She sighed her frustration and looked away, trying to compose herself; their murder weapon was currently making its way to the landfill site a few miles outside of the city. Even if she managed to find it, it was now useless. The trace and possible DNA was contaminated and she knew it would be unlikely to stand up in court. She eventually allowed herself to look back at the man and gave him a polite smile before she took out her cell and dialled a number.
/EC/
Eric was taking a moment to catch up on some paperwork when his phone buzzed. He stretched an arm in front of him, trying to fight away the dull ache in his wrist from all the writing and then reached for his cell.
"Delko?"
"Eric, it's Natalia. We've got a problem."
He rubbed his eyes as she informed him of the latest snag. The future of the case now rested on the fake fingernail; it was currently all they had to tie Holly to the crime scene. A flash of blonde momentarily captured Eric's attention as Calleigh walked past the Trace lab on her way to interrogation and he smiled when he realised the warrant had come through. He turned his attention back to his phone and reassured Natalia that as long as Holly's prints and DNA matched the other evidence that they had collected, not having the murder weapon wouldn't be a problem.
"Okay, I'll head back to the lab," he heard her reply.
"Yeah, see you later."
He snapped his cell shut and reached for his paperwork once more, grimacing when he realised how much he had to get through.
/EC/
Calleigh met Ryan in the hallway, just outside of interrogation. She flashed him a smile and eyed the two evidence bags in his hands.
"You got Holly's DNA and prints?" she asked, not really needing to.
"Yeah, much to the annoyance of the lawyer," he grinned back at her and gestured to the right where Mr. Tanner was angrily talking on his phone, shooting the odd glare at both Calleigh and Ryan in the process.
She allowed herself to laugh and turned back to Ryan.
"Could you do me a favour and take the DNA to Valera? I'll run the prints against the ones Eric found on the glass." She still wasn't quite sure what to say to Valera about their earlier conversation and decided it would be best if she avoided the DNA lab altogether, at least until she was sure that she wouldn't erupt into hysterical laughter at Valera's expense; 'because Cooper?' It was just too surreal. Not that she didn't have anything against him, but just because she couldn't see the potential for a relationship there.
"Sure, I'll meet you in Trace when I'm done," she heard Ryan reply as he handed her the prints.
Calleigh flashed him another smile and together they set off for their various destinations. Calleigh caught Cooper's eye through the glass on their way and it took every ounce of her not to laugh; 'Cooper? Really?'
/EC/
Eric looked up when she entered the room and watched as she walked over to the computer and fiddled with some fingerprints. He hesitated for a moment, not sure whether to stay in the room or not considering the way he'd run out on her earlier; he didn't want to give her the opportunity to question him further, but her voice made his decision for him.
"What?"
He smiled when his eyes met hers; she'd caught him staring. With a sigh, he stood up and closed the distance between them, pulling her in close.
"You're just so beautiful that it's hard not to look."
She arched an eyebrow at him but couldn't stop the smile that tugged at her mouth. She held his gaze as he grinned playfully at her and then looked back at the screen, still wrapped in Eric's embrace.
"Are those Holly's prints?" he asked.
She kept her eyes on the computer and nodded.
"Yeah, I'm running them against the ones that you got from the glass."
Eric held in a sigh of relief when he realised that her mind was currently focused on the case and not his earlier odd behaviour. He silently praised 'Professional Calleigh' and kissed her temple as he drew her in tighter. He so badly wanted to ask her but he knew that he couldn't, not here, not now. He felt her relax into him as she shifted herself in his arms and through the glass, he could see Ryan and Valera were laughing about something. Eric felt his heart begin to beat faster; 'had she just told him?'
Before he had a chance to ponder the thought, the computer emitted a 'beep' and Calleigh moved against his arms to get a better look. She turned back to face him and flashed him one of those smiles.
"It's a match. Holly must have cut herself on the glass during the struggle."
"Well I guess that mean's we can definitely prove she was in the parking lot at the time of the murder." Despite his increasing paranoia, Eric couldn't help but smile back at her. He slowly bent down and planted a gentle kiss on her mouth and he was about to deepen it, when a voice interrupted them.
"Can't you two get a room?" Ryan teased.
Eric groaned and Calleigh wriggled away from his grasp.
"You really know how to pick your moments don't you Wolfe?" Eric growled, studying him closely in an attempt to work out whether Valera had told him or not. His heart slowed a little when he decided that she hadn't.
Calleigh shot Eric a warning look and forced a smile at Ryan, her professional side scolding herself for allowing their colleague to witness that. She raised her eyebrows at him questioningly, waiting for him to tell her his findings.
"We've got Holly's DNA on both the glass and the fingernail," he grinned back, glancing smugly at Eric in the process. It wasn't often he embarrassed the other man and he was going to savour the opportunity.
"Guess things aren't looking so good for Ms. Jackson now," Calleigh's voice made him turn his eyes back to her.
Ryan nodded and glanced through the glass when he caught sight of Natalia heading for the break room.
Calleigh followed his gaze and smiled.
"It's okay, I'll take it from here," she told him, her eyes sparkling knowingly.
Calleigh watched as Ryan smiled back at her and left the room, heading for Natalia. She reached for Eric's hand and gave it a squeeze; sometimes she wished that she could just let her own inhibitions go and be more public about her relationship with Eric but another part of her liked that what they had was private; it was what made their bond so special. 'Besides,' she thought with a smile. 'It's also fun to keep Valera guessing.'
/EC/
Valera studied Calleigh through the glass and sighed; keeping this a secret was going to be torture. She was a gossip and subtlety or secrecy had never been her thing. She glanced to the side, briefly looking at Dan and sighed again. For an entire week she was going to have to act like she wanted him. 'Oh, Eric owed her big for this...'
/EC/
Calleigh called Horatio as she made her way to interrogation and brought him up to speed on their discovery. He met her outside and together they entered the room. She was quiet for a moment and simply stared at Holly's immaculately painted fingernails. The other woman eyed her curiously and began to feel a little irritated.
"What?" she snapped.
Calleigh raised her eyes to Holly and smiled.
"I see you've fixed your nails."
"Well I had to do something while you kept me waiting." Holly glanced down at her hands and frowned, a little confused as the what the relevance was but before she could ask, her lawyer beat her to it.
"CSI Duquesne if you have a point I suggest you make it."
"Of course," she flashed him a smile and pushed four documents across the table. "Ms. Jackson we know you killed Susan. You followed her from the club to her car and smashed her front window with her own tire iron. She then tried to run but you struggled with her. You cut yourself on the glass and scratched her, breaking one of your acrylic nails in the process. We found Susan's DNA under it as well as your own and matched your fingerprints to the ones we found on the glass. Eventually, you hit her over the head with that same tire iron that you smashed her window with and killed her," she paused to look at the lawyer and smiled sweetly. "Do I need to continue or have you got the point yet?"
Tanner considered this for a moment and looked down at the documents which confirmed everything Calleigh had just said. He sighed as he struggled to find a loophole and smiled when he thought he'd found one.
"How would my client have removed the tire iron from Miss. Hampshire's trunk? It would have taken some time."
"Which Susan gave her; she changed her shoes," Horatio answered.
"Excuse me?"
"She had driving shoes."
Tanner frowned and stared at Horatio blankly.
"Come on, you can't possibly have expected her to drive in stiletto heels? As for the trunk, it's a simple case of central locking. It pops when Susan unlocks her car and re-locks once the ignition is turned," Calleigh filled in the gaps and glanced at Holly. "Ms. Jackson, now would be a good time to speak."
Holly raised her eyes and Calleigh watched as anger seeped in. The woman rubbed the back of her neck and Calleigh caught sight of a small cut halfway up her arm as her sleeve rose up a little. With a sigh, Holly brought her hand back down and clenched her fist tightly, breaking one of her fake nails under the pressure and then she erupted.
"I followed her to the parking lot, saw her start to swap her shoes and I saw red. Susan was trying to take Derek away from me! She wouldn't let him go, wouldn't accept that he was with me! It was never going to end so I ended it. How would you like it if another woman tried to steal away your boyfriend?"
Calleigh raised her eyebrows and shook her head; it never ceased to amaze her how ridiculous murderer's excuses could be.
"And you never thought to trust Derek?" she made it sound more like a statement than a question and Holly opened her mouth and closed it as she pondered what Calleigh had just said.
Horatio gestured to Tripp who was just outside the room and waited for him to enter.
"Book her Frank."
Calleigh watched as he led Holly away and smiled as the woman began to thumb her now exposed, bitten-down real fingernail.
"Terrible habit," she called as Holly left the room.
Horatio smiled at Calleigh and followed Holly and Tripp out, leaving her to consider Holly's question. She then scolded herself for even allowing herself to think about it. She couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't get jealous if other women tried to flirt with Eric, which they inevitably would, but she could rest assured that she wouldn't flip out like Holly had because Calleigh trusted Eric. She trusted him with every fiber of her being and knew that he would never cheat on her or hurt her because he loved her and she loved him. With a satisfied smile, she rose and headed for the locker room to say goodbye to him before she left to meet Sarah, not realising that Eric had plans of his own...
/EC/ Later that night, 22:12 /EC/
Eric stared at the box in his hand. His shopping experience with Valera had been surprisingly painless and she'd actually been a big help. Eric had chosen it though; he'd known it was the one as soon as he'd seen it and he hadn't been able to put it down since he got home. With a smile, he flipped the box open and gazed down at the diamond engagement ring that sat snugly in the cushioning; 'it was perfect.' He ran a hand through his hair when he realised he was going to have to wait for a while until he could give it to her. Horatio hadn't been able to give them time off until next week and as Eric had decided that he wanted it to be absolutely perfect, he'd agreed on the following Thursday. He suddenly snapped the box shut when he heard the front door open and frantically began to look for a place to hide it. He'd just managed to stuff it behind the sofa and fling himself back onto it when she entered the lounge.
"Hey honey, I'm home," she drawled.
"Oh, my favourite part of the day," he teased back.
"Cute," Calleigh raised her eyebrows.
He laughed and followed her into the kitchen.
"So did you have a good time?"
"Yeah, It was great to catch up. I don't get to see Sarah very often but we still hit it off when we meet up."
Eric smiled and watched as she placed a paper bag down and reached for the drawer to her right, pulling a fork from it. She then removed a clear container from the bag and flipped the lid up, stuck her fork in and took a bite.
"I see you've brought dessert home with you," Eric grinned.
Calleigh laughed and licked the fork clean.
"Well what's a girl to do when there's leftover cheesecake?"
Eric tensed a little; it was still hard for him to hear the word after their run in with Calleigh's father. His eyes met Calleigh's and he sighed at the playful sparkle in her eyes.
"It's not funny. I still can't look at your dad."
"He can't look at you either," she flashed him one of those smiles and she settled herself on the counter before she took another bite of the dessert.
Eric couldn't help but smile back and his eyes settled onto the corner of her mouth where a piece of cheesecake was clinging to it. He moved towards her and gently nudged her legs apart so he could stand between them.
Calleigh raised her eyebrows as she took another bite and sighed happily as he slipped his arms around her and his hands gently began to rub her back. He was still staring at her and if it were anyone but Eric, she'd probably have felt a little self-conscious.
"What?" she smiled as she dug her fork back into her dessert.
"You've got cheesecake on your mouth."
She laughed and moved to wipe it away but Eric stopped her.
"I'll get it," he muttered softly as he leant down and kissed it away, tasting both vanilla and Calleigh. He then eyed the as yet uneaten bite on her fork and moved to take it but she pulled it away.
"I thought you hated cheesecake?" she smiled playfully as she slipped the fork into her mouth.
He laughed and removed the fork, setting it down on the counter beside her.
"I've changed my mind," he whispered, as he leant his forehead on hers.
"Oh really?" she raised her eyebrows knowingly.
"Really," he confirmed, before his mouth met hers again in a gentle, lingering kiss.
Eventually, he pulled back and kissed her forehead. She smiled back at him and rested her arms on his shoulders before she stretched them upwards above her head as a yawn crept in. Eric laughed and brushed a strand of hair off her face.
"Come on sleepy," he said, as he gently lifted her off the counter and into his arms. "Let's get you to bed."
/EC/
Eric sighed happily as she wriggled in closer, slipping into that nook that she fitted perfectly. He clasped their hands together while he adjusted his head on his pillow and was almost asleep when he felt her wriggle again.
"Cal?" he called sleepily.
He felt her wriggle again.
"My feet are cold."
Eric chuckled softly and covered her feet with his own, warming them instantly.
"Better?"
He heard her release a satisfied sigh and he glanced down as her eyelids fluttered closed and she lost herself to sleep. Eric smiled and gently, he planted a kiss on the top of her head before he allowed himself to close his own eyes. A small sigh and a single thought were the last two conscious activities he made as sleep washed over him; 'he didn't know how he was going to survive the next week.'
Can I really be that evil and leave you guys hanging there?
Yes :D Because out of the chapters I have written, I'm not sure which one is going to be the next one and I need to have a play with the time shifts and formats.
But as always, next chapter up tomorrow.
Reviews very much appreciated.