Chapter 9

The next morning, he went into the lab to find Eric, Ryan and Tripp waiting for him. "Gentlemen, what's going on?"

"Two things, H." Eric began.

"One, the GPS of that vehicle you asked us to run, came up with a location." Ryan explained as he handed a printout to the older man.

Horatio scanned it. "Very good, gentlemen. Give Mr Cooper my regards." He looked up to find Tripp. "Frank, do me a favor and run the information to a judge for a search warrant."

"Will do, H. I'm on it." The Texan turned to go back to his cubicle.

"Number two, H is that of the two sets of prints we came up with on the desk, we interviewed one of the parties, who has an air tight alibi for the time frame of the robbery."

"What about the other one?"

"Kevin Miller. He's waiting for you in interrogation room 2, as we speak." Ryan passed him a different printout.

"Good work, gentlemen." The red head bypassed his office to go straight to I.R. 2. "Good morning, Mister Miller. I'm sorry to have brought you in here quite this early this morning."

"What am I doing here, anyway?" The younger man asked indignantly.

"I take it you've heard about the robbery at the Events Center the other night."

"Of course." The younger man replied. "You know, I'm counting myself pretty lucky. I was off that night."

"Yes, I know." Horatio admitted. "Were you in the office any time that day?"

"Why would I have been?" He asked incredulously. "I'll say it again. It was my day off." He acted as if speaking to a person with a low IQ.

"I understand the concept, Mister Miller. My problem is that I've found your fingerprints in the office."

"Of course. I work there."They're going around in circles. Horatio tried another tact. "Where were you at the time of the robbery?"

"I was on the freeway between here and Fort Lauderdale."

"Did you have anyone in the car with you?"

"Nope, just me and the stereo."

Horatio cracked an amused grin at the reference. Trying another avenue to trip the younger man up, he asked. "Why did you take the boy's van? When did you notice the wheelchair?"

The younger man looked completely confused. "What boy? What van? What wheelchair?"

Horatio stared at the younger man for a moment, trying to size him up. He knew that the younger man was part of the group that committed the robbery, but also knew that without any evidence to prove it, he had to let the younger man go. "Before I let you go, would you mind giving us a DNA sample, and your fingerprints, just so we can rule you out?"

The man shook his head. "Knock yourself out."

Horatio motioned Ryan Wolfe into the room. "Thank you." As Ryan walked in, Eric motioned that he needed to talk to him. "Mr. Wolfe, once you've collected both DNA and fingerprints, have a uniform escort him out of the building, he's free to go."

Ryan looked up surprised. "Sure, H. No problem."

"Thank you." Horatio stepped out of the room and walked up to Eric. "What's going on, Eric?"

"Frank just called. He's on his way back with the warrant for the chop shop. Auto Theft is wanting in on the bust, though. They keep saying that they've had this place under surveillance, supposedly for quite some time, and they feel that the bust is their's."

"They do, huh?" The Cuban young man nodded.

"I'll get the A.T. officer's name from Frank, and we'll sort out ownership later. I'm just concerned, right now, about finding Stevie's van, and getting it back to him ASAP."

"How's he doing, anyway?"

"Unfortunately, his injuries are getting to him. I'm a little concerned that they're taking his mental state, and his outlook down with them, but, I think it would help if we had something positive to give him."

"You're right. I think it would help too." Eric put his hand on Horatio's shoulder. "Try to think positive, H. We're going to find it."

"Absolutely." Frank walked up. "Any problems, Frank?"

Frank shook his head. "Nope."

"Good." Horatio tilted his head to look at Frank. "Eric tells me Auto Theft thinks this is their bust. What's going on?"

The burly Texan sighed. "They say that they've had the joint under watch, supposedly 'for days now', and they say that any bust should be theirs."

"Uh, huh." Horatio thought on that for a minute, drumming the fingers of both hands against the belt at his waist. "Who's the lead investigator?"

"Detective Gabriel Montoya."

"Let's go talk to him."