It was after midnight, and Horatio was trying to construct a re-enactment of the last hour of the bride and her father's lives. They had looked through numerous photographs and video clips before they had started to send things back for processing. The groom, his mother and his mother-in-law had all been taken to the hospital for shock and several witnesses were now semi-conscious thanks to exhaustion and/or drink. Everyone wanted to leave but Horatio and Ridley were both afraid of letting their killer or killers as it appeared to be slip through the net though it was very likely that one or both had already done that.
Alexx was away back to the lab with the bodies, confirming only that the father, one Mr. McDowell, had died from a head injury before his body had been dumped or had fallen in the knee deep bottom tier of the old fountain. The house lacked security cameras unfortunately, there was one by the main desk and in the main office where the money was kept in a safe but that was it, Blackthorn Manor wasn't a hotel after all despite its size though guests could and did stay for a 'haunted house' sleepover experience. The young Silver couple had intended to stay over and detectives were going through their possessions right now.
Silver, the name wasn't lost on Ridley and when it had been told to her she had looked like she had seen a ghost. The late barely Mrs. Silver had been removed from the chest and a blank 'Happy Birthday' card had been found inside it beneath her. Ridley had turned cold at the sight and almost gone into shock. Calleigh had intervened swiftly and led Ridley away from the box and the card and dismissed it as spook tactic before attempting to turn her attention to the late Mr. McDowell instead.
Horatio was pondering the possibility that either their killer had skipped Halloween because he had gotten Ridley's birthday wrong or, much more likely, he had feared his kill might go amiss with all the other drama of Halloween and so had decided to wait a day to make sure his present was delivered. The redhead kept his thoughts to himself however and persuaded Ridley to talk to the witnesses.
Now here they were, slowly gathering the early evening's dramatic events together. Horatio stepped onto the cold, marble floor and turned to the small group of investigators before him. The guests had been moved to the large bar room next door, Horatio loathed that it had a bar but it was the biggest room to contain everyone in the place sadly. Of the guests some were amused, some tipsy, some outright drunk, some angry, some tired, some irritated and some promiscuous as several guests had informed him. The tangled web of interrelations of the evenings had been hard to untangle but Horatio thought he might have managed it.
"Right," he addressed his group, "we have analysed what we can and taken what statements we can, so far I'm going with the statements and footage that matches up. When we go back and study it more thoroughly we might get a better picture but we can't keep all our guests confined that long, the DA has already been in contact over that. No proof of guilt, no reason to hold them."
"Human rights H," Eric comments brightly. His tiredness was starting to show in his eyes but he kept up a merry appearance despite it as it was a long evening with Calleigh at least.
"Indeed," Horatio retorted dryly with a small nod. "Right, let's start going through the events. Calleigh you've always been keen on marriage so why don't you play our not so blushing bride."
Calleigh beamed from ear to ear as she stepped forward.
"Eric be a gentleman and play Calleigh's unfortunate groom," Horatio ordered as he rested his hands on his hips and continued to stare at his team.
Eric bowed his head swiftly to avoid his blush being obvious as Speed let out a taunting snort of amusement. Calleigh was oblivious to it as she headed to the dance floor.
"Everyone saw the first dance, so we know Mrs. Silver was still alive then but there were no plans for a dance with her father so his time of death is a little more unclear," Horatio observed. "Video footage on one Mr. Martez's phone depicts Mr. McDowell at the table looking a little rowdy during the dance, but we only have a couple of seconds of footage putting him there. Mr. Owens said the body was found about twenty minutes after so it's a tight window."
Horatio moved to the main table, pulled out the chair two down from the bride's that Mr. McDowell had occupied and slipped into it. "I'll play daddy dearest, fondly described by the bridesmaids as a 'pervert, creep, lecher and asshole' respectively, which gives us plenty of motive and suspects. Now then," his sharp blue eyes flickered to Speed, "Speed you can be our joker, married best man Daniel Groves, ready to intrude on the dance floor early with head bridesmaid, recently divorced and most definitely having an affair with Daniel, Rachel Dean." He looked to Ridley. "Ridley, do us the honour of playing Rachel."
Speed's eyes flashed with annoyance as he shuffled reluctantly to the edge dance floor whilst Ridley gracefully kept her cool as she strode up to him and held out one hand. The shock was still plain on her face and she was obeying Horatio's orders almost robotically, not really giving the matter any thought. All Ridley was fixated on was a blank birthday card left with a corpse.
"Closer guys," Eric teased from where he stood, now jovially hand in hand with Calleigh. "Danny you had your hand visibly on Rachel's ass."
"Oh come on," Speed complained.
"Got to be as accurate as possible," Eric retorted scornfully, followed by a teasing tut.
"Right, since our DJ is with the rest of the witnesses try to use your imagination please," Horatio urged. "Eric lead your new wife to the middle of the dance floor."
Eric forced his face to appear calm, afraid that revealing any other kind of emotion might give his feelings away. He gripped Calleigh's hands tighter than necessary as he tugged her to the dance floor, focusing hard on his footing as he did.
Calleigh started humming with a smile in an attempt to create some sort of rhythm for their awkward dancing. She assumed Eric was acting nervously because he wasn't a good dancer and was a little too tired to attempt pretending at being a groom.
"Right," Horatio continued, "a few seconds in and I'm sharing a few choice words with my wife, or that's what it appears. That's the problem with a party where everyone is in costume, and then we have some people wearing masks you can't even see."
Ridley shuddered at Horatio's last words as images of numerous masks flickered through her head, so many unidentified faces, so many suspects and one of them a being she had been hunting for months, looking there through cut out eyes, taunting them all. Devil masks, skulls, animals, Venetian styled, cheap sequins, suggestive lace and more, so many, many masks.
"In you come Daniel," Horatio instructed, "pulling Rachel with you in some rather attention seeking form of a tango."
Speed mumbled a curse under his breath before sticking his right arm and Ridley's left out straight and dragging her onto the dance floor. There was no attempt to dance like Calleigh and Eric were, Calleigh in a cute fashion, instead the pair walked, Speed almost stomping.
"What happens next?" Horatio queried his team.
"The other bridesmaids were on camera," Calleigh spoke up, "at the edge of the dance floor watching, Claire, Beth and Anna, Claire was laughing, Beth looked horrified and quickly left, and Anna started speaking to one of the groomsmen."
"Right, suspect number one, Beth," Horatio announced, "she left the scene and so far there is no evidence of her returning, she claims she went to get fresh air but she has no alibi, of course Mr. McDowell was found outside so it could still be true."
"Danny steps on Mrs. Silver's dress," Eric commented brightly as he smirked at Speed, "clumsy Danny."
"Right," Speed grumbled as he refrained from re-enacting accidentally stepping on a dress.
"I glare at him," Eric continued with a taunting glare.
"I try to lead us away," Ridley continued as she started tugging on Speed's hand.
"I get close and say something to Rachel," Calleigh said as she leaned into Ridley and whispered, "this is fun."
"I pull back," Ridley continued as she gave Calleigh a bemused glance.
"Danny turns Rachel dramatically," Horatio called out as if directing a scene in a play, "to make it all about him and then they leave the scene as everyone starts laughing and clapping. Drama avoided but Mr and Mrs. Silver, not that impressed."
Speed didn't bother with a turn and made to pull Ridley off the floor but she froze prompting him to glower at her impatiently. "Not quite," Ridley argued, "Danny turns with his back to everyone, he spins Rachel," she forced Speed's arm up and imitated a small turn under it, "and they swing behind the bride and groom, or it appeared that way."
"Meaning?" Calleigh quipped curiously.
"You guys turned too," Ridley explained, refusing to use the Silver name, "and in all that movement it looks like Danny and Rachel bowed out together but we didn't." She looked at Eric and Calleigh with a serious expression. "Right, you guys do a turn and move forward, we'll do a turn and try to move back."
They obeyed, though it was a clumsy attempt that resulted in some giggles from Calleigh and a happy smile from Eric. "Look," Ridley announced when they were done, "we've separated." As they were behind Calleigh and Eric now it wasn't obvious, so she raised her now free hands and waved them briefly before lowering them again. "We had to, with the dress and everything there was no easy way to do it, we broke apart." She found herself meeting Tim's gaze at those words and felt a little pang of regret.
"We broke apart," he repeated coldly.
"We need to watch those tapes again," Ridley insisted, "but I didn't notice Danny and Rachel linking arms again, I think the bride said something to Rachel and she just wanted to get off that dance floor."
"Correct," Horatio announced calmly, "drama on the dance floor, probably enough for no one to really know when Mr. McDowell left the table, his own wife isn't even sure and she was beside him taking his abuse. One guest, Mr. Burke, says Mr. McDowell stumbled into Anna and got up close." Horatio stood up and moved in the direction of the door. "There's a photograph and even though it's blurred, you can see a bridesmaid, I'm thinking Anna, and someone invading her space who could be Mr. McDowell, all right around here. Another photograph shows a groomsman nearby, I suspect Mark, the same one Anna was talking to at the dance floor."
"But all the groomsmen were wearing the same suits and masks, and the bridesmaids were wearing the same dresses and masks," Eric remarked wearily.
"The perfect way to blend in," Horatio mused.
"There was a photograph of Danny and Rachel in the corner," Calleigh pointed out, gesturing to a spot at the back of the tables, "they were getting awfully close in it too."
"That's their alibi," Ridley murmured, "they were embarrassed about it but confessed it happened after the first dance. Rachel claims it's not what it looks like of course."
"Of course," Speed grumbled before sighing, looking to Ridley and quipping, "shall we?" He gestured to the corner with one hand.
"I want to see that photograph again," Ridley commented seriously as she let Speed begin to lead her to the corner.
"Here," Horatio said as he gestured to the small collection of cameras on the table in front of him. He knew he had to send up with the rest of the evidence but right now they were all he had to reconstruct the night's events, people's drunken recollections, exaggerations and outright lies weren't really reliable enough. He snapped a red one up, scanned through it and then zoomed in on the photograph. "Ladies and gentlemen Rachel has dirt marks on her shoes and I don't think she was doing a dirty dance."
"The photo was after the dance like they said, there's not a speck of dirt on the floor," Ridley murmured almost excitedly, "but how soon after?"
Horatio nodded. "Exactly. Suspect one- Beth, she left during the dance and says she was outside, without an alibi but she claims she didn't notice Mr. McDowell or anything strange and came back after ten minutes. Suspects two and three- Anna and Mark, rumours said Mr. McDowell harassed all the bridesmaids but Anna most, she's seen talking to Mark about something when she should be watching her friend dance, then she tries to leave the room and is stopped by Mr. McDowell. Suspect four- Rachel, she claims she left the dance floor with Danny towards the end of the first dance and got close with him in the corner, though she is in denial about how close but we know she was lying. She didn't leave the dance floor with Danny and if she is lying about that she is probably lying about other things too. Also, the dirt on her shoes indicates that after the dance she left the dance floor, went outside and then came back to Danny."
"Seems a weak motive, killing a guy because he's sleazy," Calleigh murmured in disapproval.
"If it was deliberate," Ridley argued, "It could have been accidental and I have heard of weaker motives."
"Me too," the blonde mused, "but still, sad to ruin your friend's wedding night over something like that."
"What about her friend?" Eric demanded in frustration. "How were there two killers here?"
"According to witnesses the late Mrs. Silver left the dance floor hand in hand with her husband," Horatio answered coolly, "some people say she was talking with her bridesmaids, but only Claire could have been near, others say she had a drink, and some say she was talking with relations. All we can gather from that is that she stayed briefly to mingle. There are a few photos showing her about this room but it's hard to put them in time order. A few witnesses claim she left this room alone, some think to look for dad, others to find a bridesmaid and others say she was simply drunk and mingling, and state many of her guests were in the lobby and outside. Interestingly no one claims a bridesmaid went with her, odd given they were surely duty bound for the evening but we know Beth, and most likely Rachel were absent at this point, leaving Claire and Anna."
Calleigh broke from Eric and moved towards the doors briskly, missing Eric's glance of dismay. She paused and grinned back at the small group. "So I leave on my own," she said perkily, "out to a crowd of masked guests who might as well be strangers because I can't possibly know or tell who they all are and no one even really notices or comes with me. Good job this isn't the scene of a horror movie," she added brightly.
"Oh don't worry," Ridley called in a surprising moment of dry humour, "if it were you would be safe, it's the brunette chick who gets the goriest death, the plucky, good looking blonde always gets to live."
"Well hurray for blondes," Calleigh enthused with a wide smile.
"Um what about us?" Eric demanded with an unimpressed look at Ridley.
"Playing it straight, let's see," she glanced at Speed icily, "the average white male, gone at the start, the sidekick," she glanced at Eric apologetically, "no offence with that, gone twenty minutes in, usually in gorier fashion and the experienced, older male, meant to be representing some form of authority and thus salvation to the hapless victims," she paused and looked to Horatio calmly, "well he usually gets it in the back."
"How true to life," Horatio retorted sardonically as he gave her a small smile that quickly vanished, "stabbed in the back, and isn't it usually by someone he knows?"
"In the films yeah," Ridley murmured quietly, "but reality isn't so simple, is it Lieutenant Caine?"
Horatio placed his hands in his pockets and shook his head.
"Average white male and sidekick," Eric repeated sarcastically as he folded his arms and shook his head, "I don't know which of us should be most offended."
"Well if it helps," Ridley retorted with a feigned calmness as she envisioned the birthday card, "I'll still get the worst death, bloody and slow towards the end."
Her expression chilled Eric and unnerved Speed a little; it was almost as if she was starting to expect a gruesome fate for herself.
"Let's try to avoid the clichés Ridley," Horatio said calmly before he turned to Calleigh. "Calleigh, I want you to go and interview the bridesmaids one last time, find out more about where Beth went to and where she was when daddy dearest was found, ask Rachel the truth about being outside, and ask Claire and Anna why neither of them bothered to accompany our not so blushing bride out of the room.
Eric," he turned his sharp, blue gaze on the half-Cuban, "we need a better idea of who was seen near the bride in her last hours, if someone can even recall a distinctive mask, it's a start. Ridley, back to the attic, I need you to time it from here, how long could it have taken Mrs. Silver to get up there? She must have taken part of the journey willingly or someone would have noticed. If we can work out a rough time length for the journey then we can narrow down her time of death, and where the killer must have been and when. We can also rule out her being with dad, it's unlikely she would have had time to go after him and then end up dead in the attic before dad's body was found."
Ridley paled just a little at the thought of going up to the attic on her own, travelling through the hotel alone given its creepy decorations was bad enough but up there to where the poor bride had died, where the murderer had been and had so many places to hide... She forced herself to nod, glanced at her watch and started to move.
"Speed, we need to go through these photos again," Horatio ordered, oblivious to Ridley's fear. The redhead glanced over at the dark haired male when he didn't get a response and saw his brown gaze on Ridley's retreating form. "Speed, ASAP," he commanded.
Speed turned to his superior with a fixed look of disinterest as he nodded and moved towards the cameras.
01:20 am, the guests were gone, the last of the evidence was away and Horatio and Speed had reached the bottom of the steps leading up to the attic whilst Calleigh and Eric were sealing up Rachel and Beth's shoes along with Danny's jacket, which had some spattering on the back that he claimed was food but Calleigh suspected might be blood.
Horatio looked up at the dark square above before reaching out to the rungs, gripping them tight in his left hand and pulling. Forty minutes, Speed had informed him in his usual dry and unconcerned manner that Ridley had been gone for forty minutes, a little too long even for a bride in a heavy taffeta dress he thought.
"Detective Moon," Horatio called calmly as he continued to climb, "Detective Moon are you still up here?" He paused as he reached the top, all the lights were out but he thought he could hear a noise, distant and muffled. He tugged out his phone using it to give a brief illumination; he found the chord for the light bulbs and tugged, nothing as expected. "Ridley," he called again as he turned the phone outwards to guide his path.
Breathing with something else, possibly a sob, to the left. He turned in that direction and walked, thinking several swears when he stumbled over several abandoned toys. At last his phone outlined her form, on the ground, head in her knees, and arms about her knees defensively, under a table like a scared child, a rather spooky apparition up here.
"Ridley what's wrong?" Horatio pried calmly. It was hard to muster concern into his voice, it was not that he did not feel it; rather he was fearful of her feeling demeaned by it.
"He was here," she murmured, "he sent me a card; he knows it was my birthday. I'm going to be next," she choked out, "he will finish me before I can get him for Justin." She swallowed hard. "Locked in a box, trapped, suffocating, I can't be that way, bound in the dark, trapped, can't move, I can't move!" Her eyes went wide as she yelled but she barely flinched.
He dropped before her in a crouch, and looked at her curiously before reaching out a hand and resting it on her left shoulder lightly. "Ridley I won't let that happen."
She looked up at him with such a viciousness the redhead was noticeably shocked. "You did let it happen!" she accused. She fell silent just as quick, her eyes widened slightly as if she had surprised herself before she added hastily, "we all did and do let it happen. Case fourteen," she said hoarsely, "this is fourteen. I've let so many people down, I keep going over it and over it but I can't get any further, everything I suspect is wrong, everything I guess is wrong."
"Ridley come on, let's go downstairs," Horatio suggested, using the calm and persuasive tone he usually reserved for children. "This case could be the one, he wasn't expecting another killer to be at the wedding, it would have made him sloppy."
"The lights blew," she confessed as if she hadn't heard him, "and for a brief moment I thought this would be it, just like a horror movie but I was alone. Silver, Mrs. Silver, and a happy birthday card, did he pick her for me? Did he kill her for me?" she demanded.
"If not her it would have been another," Horatio answered, his voice still irritatingly calm, "and if not tonight then last night. Ridley, don't let him in your head."
"Case nine, Justine and her brother Riley, Justin said the same thing, 'don't let him in your head', Justin was case ten."
Horatio reached down, gripped her arm and attempted to pull her up. "Let's go back downstairs Detective Moon."
She rose stiffly, shrugged off his grasp and allowed him to lead the way back to the ladder and down to Speed who had caught bits and pieces of their conversation and was now pretending to be fixated on his camera.
They headed downstairs and out to Horatio's car, as Calleigh and Eric had left in Eric's. Horatio drove them back to headquarters. Once there Ridley escaped out of the car and headed to her own without a word. Horatio watched after her with a burning curiosity. Her words had struck a chord with him, 'you did let that happen', that had been personal.
"It's time to go home," he addressed Speed quietly, "and call it a night. Tomorrow we will go through it all again and see what the evidence and Alexx suggests."
Speed nodded wearily. "Night H."
"Night, and put some ice on your nose," the redhead advised calmly. "By the way, how did it happen?"
"Someone overreacted last night," Speed grumbled.
"Oh? Eric said you left early; he never mentioned it was because of a fight."
"It happened on the way out," Speed lied.
"I see, well take care of it."
Speed looked back at his superior uneasily, certain that somehow, he didn't know how, Horatio knew he was lying. He simply nodded and headed on his way. He paused at his own car and found his gaze searching across the dark and mostly empty car park for Ridley's banged up Mustang. It was there, three rows back and five spaces to the right, dark and still. He stared at it coolly as he heard Horatio's engine start up again and then the gentle purr as he eased it out of the car park. His hand tugged out his car keys from his pocket but he kept staring at the Mustang as he wondered if Ridley was going to spend another night avoiding sleep. She had looked completely freaked out and he wondered if it was just the birthday card or a multitude of things. Deciding angrily that she just had issues he unlocked his car.
"Good morning Miss Thibodeaux, is Ridley here?"
Ruby frowned at Horatio's small smile before shaking her head, leaning against the doorframe and folding her arms. "No," she answered bluntly.
"Do you know where she might be?" the redhead pried. He could see that Ruby was uneasy, concern filled her emerald eyes and her stance, whilst defensive, seemed a little less aggressive than usual.
"No," Ruby repeated. "She..." She paused, wary of saying anything to the redhead.
Horatio tugged down his sunglasses slightly with one hand so that Ruby could see his blue irises. "Ruby is something wrong?" he queried gently.
"She didn't come home last night," Ruby confessed, "in fact I haven't seen her since yesterday." She moved her right hand up to sweep it through her short hair when Horatio's hand snapped out to grasp the wrist tightly. "Ouch, what the hell?" she snapped.
Horatio tugged the wrist out and frowned down at the pewter coin bracelet on this wrist. "Well this looks familiar," he murmured.
Ruby's cheeks flushed as she had the grace to look embarrassed as she glowered up at the lieutenant. "Got a thing for jewellery?" she quipped sarcastically as she pulled her wrist back.
"Only when I think it might help a case," Horatio murmured. "Does Ridley know that Detective Silver bought you a bracelet to match her necklace?"
"It's not a match," Ruby snapped defensively as she rubbed her wrist, "and how do you know Justin bought it?"
Horatio's smile vanished as he shook his head chidingly. "Miss Thibodeaux for Ridley's sake be honest with me, why did Justin buy you that?"
Ruby scowled up at the redhead before snapping, "what has that to do with Ridley or you? You're a nosy prick you know that, and Ridley warned me not to talk to you."
Horatio sighed. "Miss Thibodeaux it's eleven in the morning, Ridley had a scare last night and I am growing concerned for her and I know you must be too. This case puts her in a lot of danger and it was fatal for Detective Silver now I feel there could be a clue when it comes to Detective Silver, something he knew or something in the way he was killed but it's too personal for Ridley and she's holding back something about it all."
"Ridley..." Ruby paused and sighed angrily. "Look poser cop I love Ridley, I'm probably the closest friend she has and she trusts me but...but things are bad, I see that and if this could help... Well you have to promise me," she said sternly as she wagged a finger at him, "that she won't know you learned anything from me and that you won't say anything to her that you don't have to. I mean this bracelet and her necklace, I don't see how that could be relevant to a psychotic serial killer but you're the cop here not me."
"I promise," Horatio said solemnly, "that I won't betray your confidence."
"Alright," Ruby relaxed her stance slightly and glanced past him to the stairs, "but you're not getting in here, Ridley would be super pissed about that. The fact is Justin did buy me the bracelet, it was a couple of months before his death, I...I'd slept with him, a stupid, drunken mistake, and it was like he was trying to reward me for it, disgusting shit. I was going to chuck the bracelet right back in his face but then I thought I'd show it to Ridley and prove to her that he was kind of an ass, but the time was never right and then...well then he got killed." She paused and bowed her head slightly. "Man, I sound mean about him but it's not how it was, I cared about him too you know I just didn't like the way he took advantage of Ridley."
"Took advantage?" Horatio echoed curiously.
Ruby nodded. "Yeah, Justin was married but he was a real player, Ridley and I aren't the only women with his ironic coin jewellery gifts, but Ridley doesn't know that. She used to rebuke his advances and laugh it off, but then...I don't know poser cop," Ruby shrugged awkwardly, "something happened. It was over a year ago, it was like a weight had been lifted off Ridley, I don't know like she'd had this fear we didn't know about until it was gone and then she was wearing that gold coin necklace. She said it was to replace her old one but I didn't believe that, Justin got Ridley infatuated with him and I don't know how or why but she wouldn't hear anything bad about him."
"Her old necklace?" Horatio questioned sharply.
"Yeah, some gold star thing, I barely remember it, she wore it incessantly too but it must have broken or something. Look, I wanted to tell her about Justin and how that coin necklace means shit to him, if anything it's an insult, it's like he was marking you as paid for but like, how can I tell her now?" She swept a hand through her hair with a frown. "She was in love with him and now he's dead and she blames herself, I can't ruin her memories of him even if they are wrong, it's all she has and she's messed up as it is without me adding that to it."
Horatio nodded. "Thank you Miss Thibodeaux. One final question, any ideas where Ridley might be?"
"I dunno, the beach?" Ruby shrugged again. "I have no idea; she hasn't bothered answering her mobile. Was she at your crime lab last night? Are you sure she left?"
"Hmm, good point." Horatio flashed a faint smile at her. "Thanks again and have a good day."
"You too."
Horatio turned and headed back to his car, his head full of more questions than answers. So Justin Silver wasn't as saintly as Ridley made out or thought and her coin necklace that she clung to as a reminder of her had meant very little to him. A replacement for another necklace, a gift that appeared when Ridley had suddenly stopped resisted the married detective's advances and acted like it was a weight off her shoulders rather than on... 'Over a year ago,' Horatio mused, 'around the time that Detective Silver killed Mr. Hawkes... There's a link,' he thought determinedly, 'but to the current case, probably not. Nonetheless, there is a reason that Detective Silver killed Mr. Hawkes and that Ridley wore Miss Chase's treasured necklace.'
When he finally reached the CSI headquarters he was unsurprised to see Ridley's battered car where she had parked it last night. Upon entering the headquarters he remained unsurprised to have Calleigh inform him that Ridley was there and looked like she had been all night given she was wearing last night's clothes. What did intrigue him was hearing that Ridley was confident she had a photograph of Mrs. Silver's killer. In disguise of course, his face fully masked, but it was still the best clue they had so far.
So the wedding re-enactment was inspired by 2 CSI episodes, one with a wedding and one with a murder on a plane. Britt, I write Calleigh as being totally unaware of Eric's feelings for her and thus being unaware of her own feelings for him but I'll try and work on Calleigh's side of things :-) Margie, yes the suspense is long but I don't want to rush the fic although hopefully with this case they'll have more evidence ;-).
As always guys thanks for the lovely reviews and keep them coming!