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Horatio took a second to regard the man sitting inside the interview room from where he stood leaning on a desk at the other side of the bull-pen that housed the desks of the MDPD Detectives, a desk that coincidently used to belong to his sister-in-law, Yelina. Now it had been allocated to the new detective that had taken her place since she had resigned. The pictures of Ray Junior and the soccer practice timetables that used to grace the personal space of the tiny cubicle were gone, replaced with photographs of an unknown family.

Silvio Costa lounged in the seat like he owned the place, legs stretched out in front of him, feet on the table. Costa was around the same age as Horatio, maybe a couple of years younger, but time had not been as kind to the native New Yorker, the grey streaks in his hair were spreading from his temples, threatening to become his dominant hair colour. The lines around his eyes were well defined, and his skin was white, with no hint of tan, a legacy of conducting most of his business in the moonlight Horatio thought.

"Mr Costa." Horatio greeted the man as he entered. His voice was deep, almost descending to a growl. He stood to Costa's side his gaze focussed on the subject's feet, then his eyes flicked up to meet Costa's, and held them. Costa stared back defiantly for a few seconds before breaking the staring contest and slowly removing his feet from the table.

"Well, what'cha know? Hey Blue how're ya doin? Long time no see."

Horatio smirked; it was a long time since he'd been called 'Blue'. It was a habit of most criminals in New York to call all cops by that name, because of the colour of their uniforms. It was a habit that didn't extend to Miami, as the police in Dade County wore brown uniforms. Now Horatio was more often called 'Red', a nod from the suspects he interviewed to the vibrant colour of his hair. Different colour, same sentiment, he had thought when he first moved down from New York.

Then there was Costa's thick New York drawl, an unmistakable speech pattern that Horatio had missed hearing when he'd first joined the force here in Miami. Now, spoken by Silvio it was a reminder of everything he'd disliked about the city. Silvio's accent went way beyond the normal New Yorker's accent, it was almost as if he was replicating speech patterns he'd lifted straight out of a mafia movie.

"Yes Silvio, but it seems that old habits die hard huh?"

"Hey," Costa lifted his shoulders in a shrug, "I don't got no idea what you're talkin' 'bout." He shifted in his seat, "Besides, ya gone all native on me now Blue? Where's your accent gone? Ya wouldn't guess you'd ever lived up in the big smoke to hear ya talk now."

"Silvio, drop the chatter. I have a few questions that I want you to answer."

"Just like old times Blue, y'know ya should get back up to the city sometime, been real boring since ya left. The guys they put on your beat after ya ran away down here, Hell, they just couldn't hack it." Costa leant forward and whispered. "Took all the fun outta breaking the law, got too easy, y'know?"

Horatio's face remained impassive, he didn't want Costa to have the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of him for his snide remark, 'after you ran away down here'. But despite his calm outer shell, internally Horatio's anger spiked.

"Mr Costa, why were you in Jack Heith's home yesterday?"

"Whoa there Blue, why ya gone all formal on me? Do I need to get a lawyer in here?"

"I don't know Silvio, do you?" Horatio replied, a warning smile on his face.

Costa smirked, and settled further down into his seat, regarding the Miami-Dade Lieutenant with a wary eye. As he replied he smiled that infuriatingly confident grin.

"Nah, I don't guess I do. I don't know this Heith guy. You know me Blue, I don't mix with new people all that easy, kinda shy y'know."

"Well you see Silvio, that's going to be a problem for you because we just matched your fingerprint to one that we lifted from a Jack Heith's home. So you want to try again?"

"Well there was this one guy I got talkin' to at a bar a few days ago, wanted to show me some car he was doin' up."

"Convenient Silvio."

"Yeah, I guess it is. Well, y'know Blue, s'been fun. Hate to cut this reunion short but I gotta fly. We oughta go out for a beer sometime, catch up on old times."

"Don't go far Silvio."

Horatio watched as Silvio Costa walked out of the interview room, a distinct swagger in his step. Once out of the room Costa turned and gave Horatio a wave, a grin plastered on his smug face. Horatio felt a tug on his jacket sleeve, and before he moved his gaze away from Silvio's face he could've sworn he saw the grin falter for just a second. He looked down to see who wanted him, and was surprised to see Sharon standing next to him. She was looking in the same direction as Horatio's stare had just been focused, a look of recognition and fear swept over her features.

"Sharon, what's wrong?"

"Th…that man. I know him. He came to our home about a week ago. He was shouting, I think he's called Lucky; dad owed him money."

Suddenly something dawned on Horatio.

"Hang on, how come you're here Sharon? You should be at the safe house that Child Services has sorted out."

"Don't shout at me Horatio, but I didn't want to stay there. I was bored, and I want to help you solve this case."

"Sharon, do you realise how dangerous what you've done is? You've been placed in a safe house for a reason. You've just put your own life at risk and probably caused a lot of people to worry."

Sharon's lip began to quiver. The emotions that boiled within were close to the surface, and Horatio's heart melted to see her so upset.

"I…I'm s…sorry Horatio. I d…didn't mean to."

"It's ok sweetheart." He put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Listen, go sit in my office for a minute I have to go tell the team some things, and then I'll drive you back to the safe house. Perhaps we could order take-out how about that?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

It took him about thirty minutes to relate what had gone on in his interview with Costa to the rest of the team, and to put a quick phone call through to Amelia Masters to let her know where her errant charge had gotten to. Amelia sounded incredibly relieved to hear that the young girl was safe. When he began to mount the short set of stairs up to his office he saw that Sharon was ready and waiting at the office door, she was bouncing on the balls of her feet, and had an eager look on her face which developed into a wide grin when she saw Horatio approaching.

A few minutes later they were walking out the front doors of the MDPD building and heading towards Horatio's Hummer. A low throbbing noise caught his attention and he raised his head in time to see a black SUV accelerate rapidly, wheels spinning at first before the outer rubber layer caught up with the speed of the tyre and the vehicle shot forward. He saw the gun as the SUV closed the distance between them in a split second.

"Sharon! Down!" He yelled, running towards her and pulling her down to the ground using his own body as a shield but was a fraction of a second too late as the gunshot rang out and he felt the wave of displaced air from the bullet's path. He leapt to his feet, gun drawn. Levelling the weapon he fired off several rounds, the first bounced off the bodywork of the SUV with a clang and a small flash. The second bullet however shattered the glass in the back window, and the third took out the tail-light. The fourth bullet he sent after the retreating car, didn't cause a visible reaction, but Horatio thought he saw the figure in the drivers seat flinch, and heard him shout, possibly as a bullet struck him.

As he looked down at the ground he could see blood on the floor.

Sharon yelled in pain and grasped her left shoulder. From what Horatio could see it was just a graze to the shoulder, the bullet having mostly missed its target. Horatio snatched his cellphone out of his jacket and speed-dialed the morgue number.

"Alexx, I need you outside the main entrance. Sharon's been shot. I need medical personnel here now!"

He flipped the phone closed again and tried to calm down the near hysterical Sharon. By the time Alexx came running out of the main entrance, medical kit in-hand about half a minute later he had managed to calm Sharon down and had eased the fabric of her t-shirt away from the wound.

While Alexx cleaned and dressed Sharon's wound, which she assured him was no more than a surface graze, Horatio had sent marked patrol cars out to look for the SUV. He'd managed to make a mental note of the licence plate as he'd been firing at the vehicle. Eric had been given the job of running down the legal owners of the SUV and had found that it had been reported stolen barely half an hour ago. The owners, a young couple, had been carjacked at gunpoint at an intersection a few blocks away from the lab. Bolos had been issued to every police unit in the city for the vehicle. And Horatio was confident that they would find it.