Tim Speedle knew he was going to be in trouble as he hastened into the Miami-Dade headquarters. He had Ellie giggling in one hand, his black evidence case in the other and his ever present camera swinging uncomfortably from his left shoulder. He had stayed later than planned at Golden Oaks High School and had forgotten Holly was expecting him back at four. He had been an hour and a half late to return. Such was his haste to get his daughter and relieve the babysitter that he forgot to leave his findings back at the lab. This had involved driving like a madman through rush hour traffic, all the while cursing at the wheel until Ellie had started to chirp something that sounded a little too like 'shit' for Tim's liking. He knew Horatio would grill him if he took home evidence of all things and he sure as hell didn't want Ryan to gain an advantage on this case.
Ignoring the dubious stares, giggles, mutters and coos over Ellie, Tim headed to the lab as briskly as he could. It was there that he met the smirking Eric, taunting eyed Maxine and shocked Calleigh.
"Wow Speed isn't Ellie a little young for bring your kid to work day?" Eric queried mockingly.
Tim paused in a moment of breathlessness before swinging his case up onto a table.
"Cal Cal!" Ellie called out happily. "Eri!"
"Aww hey Ellie," Calleigh greeted brightly with a smile. The blonde stepped forward and gave Tim a worried glance. "Are you okay Speed? Something wrong with Holly?"
Tim shook his head as he tried to balance Ellie and unfasten his camera from his shoulder resulting in his left arm becoming tangled in the strap. "No," he muttered, "I was running a little late with work so I had to get Ellie that's all."
"Be careful she doesn't contaminate anything," Maxine chided with a roll of her eyes. Seeing the ice in Tim's glower the technician was quick to busy herself with her work. It was a cheap remark given they were nowhere near any evidence save what Tim had brought with him.
"Here, let me take her," Calleigh offered.
"No it's fine," Tim murmured as he finally shrugged his camera off onto the table with a loud thud as it banged against it clumsily. "Daddy's got you, right princess?"
Ellie clapped her hands in agreement as Tim finally embraced her in both hands before wincing slightly. "And you've got something for daddy too apparently," he grumbled.
Eric's nose wrinkled slightly and he immediately stood back with a shake of his head. "That smell's enough to contaminate the place," he jested.
Tim frowned before a sigh escaped him. "Well I'd better sort this and find her mum, she should be finished her shift soon," he grumbled. "Can you guys watch my stuff while I er...deal with this and try to locate Ridley? Hopefully she's not far, it's just I've got to process some stuff but obviously I can't do it with Ellie."
"Of course," Calleigh replied warmly.
"Great, thanks." Tim turned with Ellie as her face started to contort in frustration and a moan that signified the start of tears escaped her.
"He really doesn't make that look easy," Eric murmured as he watched his friend go.
"Well it's not," Calleigh retorted as she too watched Tim depart with Ellie. "I think him and Ridley really do overwork themselves mind. She said they should have this Saturday off to go out with us so hopefully that will help a little."
"Yeah hopefully," Eric replied as he looked at Tim's case and camera curiously. "I wonder where Speed was today."
Tim, not wanting to risk anymore humiliation within the building, instead chose to change Ellie's nappy in the back of the car. He thought he had gotten away with doing it without witnesses until a voice called out from behind him.
"Tim what on earth are you doing here with Ellie?" Ridley demanded as she looked to Tim in confusion. The sound of Ellie's frustrated moans had given her concealed presence away to her mother.
"Mama!" Ellie squealed out happily.
Tim winced slightly before he turned with Ellie in both hands and manoeuvred to shut the car door behind him. At least he could hide the fact that he had been changing Ellie. Seeing Horatio standing beside Ridley he was swift to banish his apologetic expression for a more calm and professional one. "I've got evidence to process," he confessed, "but Holly had to go."
Ridley swallowed down a sigh before giving her daughter a loving smile. "What evidence?" she queried. She had spent the early part of the afternoon going over photographs of the Warwick household with Horatio, once again trying to figure out how the killer had entered. It was work she should have been doing with Ryan but he had been busy going over the Pentagram murders as Eric had had to slip out for a few hours and had only returned to the lab just twenty minutes ago.
"To do with the Warwick case," Tim explained. "I'm fairly certain I know what the yellow and blue fibres were in the sack."
Horatio and Ridley both looked intrigued at this. "Well what?" Ridley demanded impatiently.
"Cheerleading pompoms," Tim confessed, "I was at the school and I noticed them so I looked into it, all three victims were cheerleaders at the same school. Anyway, I've a few other things to process but I can't do that with Ellie, obviously." He looked to Ridley hopefully and extended his arms and Ellie out slightly in her direction.
Ridley frowned, letting her frustration show on her face. "Alright, my shift's finished anyway," she gave in, "but you better tell me everything."
"I will, I will," Tim assured.
"When do you need me to pick you up again?" Ridley queried as she accepted Ellie and hugged her close.
"I'll give you a ring," Tim murmured.
"I'm sure I could leave you home," Horatio offered.
"Well if you're sure H," Tim retorted with a grateful look.
The redhead nodded. "Now, let's go look at your findings," he suggested. "See you later Ridley, and you too Ellie."
"Hoto," Ellie responded brightly with a drooling smile.
"See you later," Ridley replied softly.
"Thanks," Tim said warmly as he gave Ridley's brow a brief kiss. He then rubbed Ellie's head gently. "See you later princess."
Tim and Horatio headed up the car park back to the lab, leaving Ridley to depart with Ellie. Once they were a sufficient distance away and Tim heard the familiar choked start of the Mustang's engine, he turned to face Horatio with a serious stare. "Ridley's going to Vegas in three days," he announced flatly. He was unsurprised when Horatio did not seem shocked, as usual using his sunglasses to hide his emotions from view. God how Tim hated those sunglasses sometimes. "But you know that of course," he continued sardonically in a moment of bitter humour.
"She asked for the leave," Horatio retorted softly. He wanted to Tim to understand it was no betrayal of him and not something Ridley had arranged with the redhead behind her partner's back.
"I know," Tim grumbled, "she told me first, that's not what I'm getting at. I don't want her to go obviously but that's not my point either, she thinks it's as much about giving herself closure as it is about helping Stokes. Look, I can't go with her; we can't make the bills with both of us on leave and one of us needs to look after Ellie. I'd be damned if I had her in Vegas distracting Ridley in all that mess."
"What is your point then Speed?" Horatio pried gently, though he thought he could guess at it.
"You need to go with her," Tim answered bluntly. "If it can't be me it has to be you Horatio. You are the only other person in the country who knows how bad it was for her, maybe this will help her overcome it a bit better but we both know the risk of a breakdown is just as likely and I would never forgive myself if she was alone in Vegas dealing with that. Look I hope to God this helps her but I don't think she'll ever completely get over it, how the hell could she, and I don't want her alone if it goes the other way. No one in Vegas could understand, they weren't there when she got pulled out of that grave and they don't know about Hawkes, they don't realise..." He trailed off, unwilling to voice the darker parts of his girlfriend's past.
Horatio nodded calmly as they reached the main entrance doors. "I'll go with her Speed," he retorted reassuringly with a small smile.
"Good." Tim gave a blunt nod before turning his gaze ahead and hastening into the building.
They returned to the lab to sort through Tim's latest findings with a curious Calleigh and Eric. After twenty minutes Calleigh got called away to another case and Ryan arrived to go through the Pentagram Murders with Eric.
Tim and Horatio discussed Horatio and Ridley's latest findings as well as Ridley's finally admitted theory over the killer mimicking Springheel Jack. It was a theory Horatio would have dismissed quickly had the murders or disappearances rather of the other two women, Crystal Gunderson and Maria Valquez, not given it some merit.
Crystal Gunderson had also seemingly vanished from a two storey house with little evidence to suggest a break in. Her husband had been out of town for the evening, returning that early morning to find Crystal vanished. There was evidence that their bed had been slept in and their maid, who had slept downstairs that night in the spare room due to Mrs Gunderson having a fear of being in the house on her own, had reported no signs of a disturbance. As there had been little evidence of a crime save for a couple of security cameras not working it had sadly been dismissed by the police until her body had shown up, meaning what evidence there had been was long cold.
Maria Valquez on the other hand had lived in a cheap apartment complex in a questionable area of the city on the twenty-third floor. Despite the shoddiness of the complex the cameras in the hallway of her floor, installed after a few murders and drug dealings in the building, had been working the night of her disappearance. She had gone in the night, taken while her two housemates had slept on, blissfully unaware. There had been blood left in her room and evidence of a struggle yet no evidence of a break in as the housemates had recalled waking to find the main door into the apartment still securely locked. Reports of a nearby tall, eccentrically dressed man in black wearing something like a cloak or long coat that one drugged out witness had suggested, with a smile, as being like batwings had been readily dismissed by sceptical cops on the scene.
The three women had all attended Golden Oaks High School years apart, Crystal had graduated ten years ago, Maria five and Annabelle had of course still be in attendance until now. It was their only link but it was a link and exactly what the CSIs had been waiting for.
"We need a list of staff there during all three's term time," Horatio murmured.
"Already done," Tim retorted as he produced the list. "I'm just about to run them to see who might have a record they've tried to conceal. Apparently the gym teacher, Mr. Reynolds, is a known pervert, course that's strictly verbal and there's no suggestion of unwilling pupils. The history teacher Mr. Gamble is a known eccentric as is the art teacher Miss Lopez but that probably goes with the territory. I don't think either of them would be running about with spring heels or bat wings, if anyone even is doing that but I got photographs of all the classrooms anyway, just in case they're stupid enough to be working on their er...costumes at work," he said with dry humour.
Horatio gave Tim a look of pride as he smiled at him. "Great work Detective Speedle," he praised. "You run the names through Kodis and I'll go over the evidence of break ins at each house, or lack of rather. I think though we need to consider Ridley's theory a bit more seriously too."
"The girl who saw the bat man and the shadow men, and Violet's demon," Tim murmured. "I just don't see how more people wouldn't have noticed that."
"Well it is Miami, there are weird and wonderful things in this city every night," Horatio retorted. "Some people dismiss the obvious as too obvious, plus these people were all in black in the dead of the night, like any would be robber might be, and how many robbers are missed?"
"True," Tim replied reluctantly. "I suppose they're trying to throw us, think we've some mad spook acting a serial killer when it's just a regular nutcase with a grudge against some set targets. Well I'll go look into the staff then." He turned and headed off for the computers and access to Kodis.
Eric Delko sucked in a deep breath and checked his gun for the fourth time before he finally exited his car and locked it. He knew what he was about to do was both stupid and risky and if it went wrong no one was going to find him out here because no one knew to come looking. Not that he wanted anyone to come looking because if he was caught by his friends here it could be worse.
He glanced at the collection of rundown apartment blocks dubiously before glancing about the neighbourhood. There were a few suspicious characters- three teenage males to the left and two scantily clad women across the road and to the right but Eric didn't think any of them were likely to pose a threat to him. He hastened across the road and in through the main entrance of a grey block that was sadly becoming familiar to him.
He scaled three flights with ease though it was hard not to halt at the middle aged woman sitting near the stairwell on the second floor mostly definitely suffering under the influence of something illegal. He detested himself for hastening on but he just could not risk it and this was the third time he had spied her in this condition, it was evidently not a one time thing and he highly doubted his influence would be enough to help her break her habit.
He halted outside a scratched wooden door with the number 33 hanging lopsided on it. He knocked it twice then paused and knocked once more before announcing gruffly, "it's Estevez."
There was the sound of some scuffling on the other side followed by a chain jingling before the door was opened partially and a beady eyed, balding Caucasian male looked out at him. "Welcome," he greeted bluntly before shutting the door to unfasten the chain.
The door opened again and Eric was granted entry to an obvious drug dealer's den. It was a living room littered with drug paraphernalia, porno magazines, empty drinks tins and bottles, crisp packets, sweet wrappers and other questionable items that turned up regularly at crime scenes involving drugs. Mercifully, and this was a stretch, there were no needles, this dealer claimed to avoid the hard stuff and keep things clean. Eric knew the image well and had never imagined that he would become a part of it from the other side of his badge.
"You know what I want," Eric grumbled.
"Sure," the balding male retorted with a nod as he tugged out a cigarette and a lighter. "You got the money?"
"Yes," Eric retorted as he reached slowly into his jacket's outer left pocket and tugged out a handful of bills.
The man eyed him coolly as he lit his cigarette and then pocketed the lighter. He glanced at the money, nodded and took a draw from his cigarette. "Alright, wait here," he retorted calmly. He shuffled off to another room leaving Eric to nervously linger looking about his surroundings.
This was normal procedure, if one could call this normal, but Eric was always wary of the potential moment when someone either burst through the door on a raid or robbery, or the dealer came back and decided to murder Eric either for coin or out of suspicion. Eric was careful to come without his badge and ID but given his job he couldn't know when someone who knew this dealer might meet him on duty and then spy him in this neighbourhood.
Hearing the footsteps of the dealer returning he raised his right hand slightly, ready to draw his gun if necessary.
The beady eyed man returned armed with his cigarette and a small, plastic pouch of a crushed green herb ready for intake however desired. He held out his free hand expectantly and Eric handed over the cash. Eric then accepted the pouch and pocketed it in his jacket's inner pocket hastily.
"Pleasure doing business," the dealer remarked merrily.
Eric just grumbled, "see you." He headed for the door, hurried down the stairs, across the road and then into his car. He started the engine hastily and drove off. It was hard to caution himself to drive within reason, he just wanted to hit the accelerator and bolt as fast as he could but it wouldn't do to get picked up for a driving offence and done for possession.
It took him half an hour to reach his destination- his currently for sale, unoccupied home. There was a battered, second hand, red mini already sitting in the driveway, which he pulled up behind. He got out the same time as the owner of the mini exited and regarded him with a faint smile.
"Hey Marisol," Eric greeted his older sister gently as he fumbled for his keys before heading to the front door. She looked pale and frail to Eric though he wondered if perhaps he was just seeing her that way because he knew she was very sick. After all no one else in their family had guessed at her condition yet.
Eric opened the door to his former home and Marisol followed him through to the kitchen at the back of the house. Eric was quick to make sure there were no gaps in the closed blinds before he tugged out his recent purchase from his jacket and held it out to his sister.
"How much?" she queried softly.
"It doesn't matter," he retorted with a shake of his head, "as long as it helps. How are you today?"
Marisol accepted the small plastic bundle, opened her white, leather handbag and slipped it into the inner zip pocket before answering. "I'm alright; I've got an appointment later this afternoon." She grimaced slightly at the thought.
"You really should move back in with mum and dad," Eric suggested, seeing Marisol's look of revulsion he added hastily, "or me and Calleigh if you prefer."
"I wouldn't want to impose," Marisol said sweetly. "You and Calleigh have only just moved in together, you need to enjoy that experience. Besides, I'm putting you through far too much as it is." She winced slightly, waving off Eric as he reached out to her with a look of concern. "I mean given your career-"
"It's fine," Eric interrupted, "and I'm the one that offered. Anyway, I've got to get going, Calleigh's expecting me."
"I understand," Marisol retorted with a nod. "Like I said, you need to enjoy that experience."
Eric caught the look of sorrow in his sister's eyes before she could hide it. He could only imagine how she must be feeling, probably wondering how much time she had left in this world, if she was going to get well again, and regretting what she had not been able to do in life. The idea that Marisol was going back to an empty apartment to be alone with her thoughts made him fill with a deep pity. "Calleigh wants us all to go out on Saturday," he blurted out, "you should come with us, it'll be fun and get you used to the city again."
Marisol rewarded her brother with a wide smile before shaking her head. "I wouldn't want to impose on a couples' night."
"It's not like that," he retorted as he grinned back, "Ryan will probably be there, maybe Carrie and Horatio. Oh and if Ridley finds out Tim had Ellie in the lab today there's every chance Tim will be single by Saturday," he jested.
Marisol laughed softly at that. "Alright, I'll come."