"This looks like the place," Horatio said as he looked up at the gaudy window of 'Nancy's Nails'.

Eric let out a small laugh, "It's not like you could miss it with a sign like that."

The large neon pink sign in the window could only be described as being 'garish' - and that was being kind. The nail salon had an air of desperation in its exterior design.

Grabbing his kit from the back of the Hummer, Horatio followed his colleague inside, surprised to find himself face to face with Yelina.

It must have taken Yelina by surprise too, judging by the look she gave him.

"Horatio, you're back?"

He gave her a tight nod. His first crime scene since the attack and misfortune would have it that Yelina Salas was the lead detective. Their last conversation had been stilted and frosty to say the least.

"What have we got?" Horatio replied, getting straight down to business.

Yelina raised her eyebrow before consulting her note pad. "The victim is Nancy Harrigan, owner of the beauty salon."

Horatio quirked an eyebrow at that. The dark and dank interior were at odds with the brightly-lit sign in the window.

He nodded his head toward the body on the floor. "Who found her?"

Yelina pointed to a young blonde woman standing in the corner of the room who was gesticulating to a uniformed officer.

"Danielle, her assistant."

Opening his kit, Horatio pulled out a pair of gloves and snapped them on, clicking on a penlight torch and shining it over the body as Alexx did her preliminary report on the victim.

"What have we got, Alexx?"

"Thirty-five year old female with a nail file rammed into her skull," the M.E replied without looking up.

"Ouch," Eric said as he grabbed his camera and began taking pictures of the crime scene.

"Cause of death?" Horatio asked, although it was plainly obvious that the nail file had caused the killer blow.

Pulling the liver thermometer out of the corpse, Alexx replied, "I can't see any signs of injury apart from the obvious. Whoever stabbed that nail file in her eye did it hard enough to pierce her brain. Death would have been almost instant."

"Hmmm," Horatio replied before turning to look at Eric. "Do me a favour and check if they have CCTV here."

Eric nodded his head and made his way over to the uniformed officers.

"Good to be back?" Alexx asked as she began packing her things away, gesturing to her colleagues to prepare the body for transport back to the morgue.

Horatio's boyish grin was his only response. His smile faded as Yelina made her way back over to him.

"Any leads?" Horatio asked, watching Alexx beat a quiet yet hasty retreat.

Yelina glanced back down at her note pad. "Her assistant says that there's been some trouble between our victim and another nail salon that's just set up across the street." Yelina looked up from her notepad briefly before speaking again. "Fancy's Nails opened three months ago and has been undercutting Nancy and taking her customers it would seem."

Horatio chose to bite his tongue regarding the ludicrous names and instead concentrated on scanning the crime scene. "Have we managed to track down Miss….uh….Fancy?" He frowned as he said it, feeling ridiculous.

"Fancy Delancy," Yelina said with the ghost of a smile on her face which grew with the incredulous expression Horatio gave her. "Officers are trying to track her down now."

He shook his head, placing a yellow fibre into a small envelope before sealing and marking it.

Yelina watched him a while, admiring the way he effortlessly moved around the crime scene, giving off an air of authority without being arrogant.

"Have you missed this?" she asked quietly.

"Nail salons?" he replied flippantly.

"Crime scenes," Yelina clarified, even though there was no need to. "It hasn't been the same without you. I've missed you."

He frowned, not wanting to get into another disagreement with her. "Yelina - "

She cut him off. "I know. This isn't the time or the place. How about coffee some time?"

How could he let her down gently without causing a scene? Yelina had a fierce temper and although he'd spoken to the Chief about his relationship with Calleigh, he had no desire to share that with anyone else yet, especially Yelina.

He knew he couldn't dismiss the invitation outright, especially since he'd need to keep in her good graces if he stood a chance of going through Raymond's things. There had to be something in his possessions that would give Horatio a clue as to what his brother had been messed up in before his death.

"Could we…uh, maybe talk about this later?" he said, noncommittally. He had no idea how he would broach the subject with her of wanting to take a look through Raymond's things.

Yelina seemed to take his words as a positive step forward and gave him a shy smile, along one of those longing looks from behind her dark eyelashes. She nodded her head and then gestured to the witness.

Horatio followed her across the salon.

"Ma'am, my name is Lieutenant Horatio Caine. Is it ok if I ask you some questions about Miss Harrigan?"

The young blonde woman looked up from her phone and gave him a sultry stare. "Sure."

He ignored the way her eyes roamed up and down his body and got straight to the point.

"When did you find Miss Harrigan?"

Danielle continued to look at him, biting her bottom lip as she did so. "Nancy likes me to get here early so that I can help her open up. I got here about 10am and the door was locked."

Horatio fought the urge to shake his head. If Nancy's Nails considered opening at mid morning was 'early' it was no wonder the business was failing.

Danielle continued, winding her blonde hair around her forefinger. "I used my key, turned on the lights and found her." She pointed to where the body had been only moments ago. "I called 911 straight away."

"It must have come as a shock to find your employer like that," Horatio suggested.

Danielle shrugged her shoulders. "Nancy had a temper on her. Miss Fancy wasn't someone she should have been messing with."

"You know Miss Delancy?" Horatio asked.

Danielle shrugged again. "She offered me a job at her salon. She said she'd double my wages."

"Did you take it?"

Danielle pursed her lips before running her tongue along them. "A girl's gotta make ends meet, sir."

"Did Nancy know you were jumping ship?"

Danielle looked genuinely sad for the briefest of moments. "I was going to tell her this morning. Looks like I don't need to now."

"Indeed," Horatio replied, surprised at her callousness. "We'll be in touch if we need any more information from you, Miss….uh - "

"Porter," the young woman supplied. "You can have my cell number. Give me yours and I'll ping it to you." She looked at him hopefully.

Horatio ignored the young woman's eyes on him as he nodded to Yelina.

"Detective Salas will make sure we have your contact details. Thank you for your time."

Feeling as if he was still being watched, Horatio made his way back over to Eric who was dusting the scene for finger prints.

"Anything interesting?" Eric asked, not looking up from his task.

Horatio stood with his hands on his hips, tapping his gold badge. "There's something about our witness," he began as Eric gave him a knowing smile.

"Yeah, I think she's got the hots for you, H."

"Eric," Horatio said, drawing out his colleague's name in a warning tone.

"She's still watching you. She's practically undressing you with her eyes."

He risked a brief glance and knew Eric was right, the woman was still staring at him.

He was about to respond when his cell phone chirped. Horatio looked at the caller ID and answered immediately.

"What have you got for me, Francis?"

"I spoke to a few guys in Organised Crime. I've got a location of a known Bandyci hangout. Want me to check it out?"

"Where is it?" Horatio asked, moving away from Eric in a bid to gain a little privacy.

"An old warehouse in Coral Gables."

Horatio glanced at his watch. "Send me the location and I'll meet you there."

Eric watched as Horatio tucked his phone back into his jacket pocket.

"Eric. There's something I need to attend to. I'll send Speed to come and help you out here."

"Everything ok?" the younger man asked.

Horatio gave him a tight smile and nodded. "Process this place with Speed and let me know if anything comes up. I'll be on my cell."

Making his way to the Hummer, Horatio felt a hand on his arm.

"You're leaving?" Yelina asked.

He didn't have time for round two with Yelina right now. There were places he needed to be. "I have to go," he said as he opened the door of the Hummer.

"Is everything ok?"

"Everything's fine," he tried to reassure her.

"About that coffee…" she began. "We need to talk. About Ray…"

He nodded his head. "We will, I promise."

Horatio glanced down at the coordinates Frank had given to him, stamping down on the feeling of deja vu as he got out of his vehicle. He shook the memories of the night of his attack from his mind and watched Frank get out of his department-issued sedan.

"This is it?" Horatio asked, hands on his hips as he surreptitiously felt for the gun at his hip, surveying the run down building covered in graffiti and spray paint.

"The intel we've got says this is one of their hideouts for stolen electronics," Frank replied.

"Seems as if they have their fingers in a lot of pies," Horatio mused as he tapped at his gold badge. "What do you say we make a house call?'

Frank paused for a moment. They would likely be heavily outnumbered should the Bandyci be home.

The burly detective shook his head in frustration as Horatio strode purposefully toward the building not waiting for his answer, peeling back a piece of metal that served as a door of sorts.

"Ah, sweet Jesus," Frank grumbled as he followed the lieutenant inside. One of these days, that stubborn sun of a bitch was going to get them both killed.

Upon entering the building, Frank was relieved to see that the place appeared unoccupied. On closer inspection, the place was full of metal shelving on which boxes of TVs, DVD players and games consoles sat.

Guns still drawn, Horatio and Frank silently made their way around the building until a deep voice stopped them suddenly.

"Who the hell are you?" an Eastern-European voice said.

"Miami Dade Police," Horatio replied, his gun trained on a scruffy looking man in overalls.

"We have receipts for all of these," the man said, gesturing to the electronics.

"Yeah, and I'm the Avon lady," Frank shot back. "Show me your hands and turn around."

The man did as he was told as Frank moved forward and patted him down. "You make one false move and my friend here is going to blow a hole in your head. You understand?"

The man stood still. "I'm not armed. It's only me here."

"Where is everyone else?" Horatio asked as Frank nodded that their suspect wasn't concealing a weapon on his person.

The man turned round to face them again as he put his hands in his overall pockets. "They're out making deliveries," he said amiably.

Frank and Horatio shared a look, fully aware of what kind of deliveries those would be.

"What's your name?" Horatio asked.

"Petr."

"You have papers to work in the U.S?"

"Of course," the man replied with a smile that faded suddenly. "Is that why you're here?"

Satisfied that the man wasn't an imminent threat, Horatio holstered his weapon and showed him a photo.

"Do you recognise this man?"

He could tell from Petr's response that he did.

"That's Anton. What happened to him?" Petr asked, looking again at the photo that had been taken of the John Doe currently residing in Alexx's morgue.

"He a Bandyci too?" Frank asked.

"We're a legitimate business. We're no gang."

Frank rolled his eyes. "You think we were born yesterday?"

"We're not here about your business interests, we're only interested in who this guy is," Horatio said. "Does Anton have a second name?"

"Novak."

"When was the last time you saw him?" Horatio continued.

Petr looked at the photo again before handing it back.

"Anton works in a different part of the business. He said he met some coloured guy who could help with our supply chain."

Horatio had guessed Petr was talking about drugs, judging by the way the man was refusing to look at him as he spoke.

"You have a name for this guy he met?" Frank asked.

Petr shook his head. "Anton didn't say. He just said that he was going to check the guy out…maybe do a little work with him and see if our business models were compatible."

"When was this?" Horatio asked.

"Last time I saw Anton was about six weeks ago. He also said that he'd been introduced to some Spanish group that wanted to help us expand but that he'd need to give them a…how do you say ...show of faith."

"These Spanish businessmen have a name?" Frank asked.

Petr thought for a moment. "The 'Mal' something, I think." Petr scratched his chin. "What happened to Anton?"

"Someone killed him. He's in our morgue back at the department. You wanna formally ID him?"

Petr looked at Frank nervously. "No way. Someone murdered him, right?"

"Looks like it," Frank answered.

"You think it was the Spaniards?" Petr asked. "You think they killed him?"

"I think maybe you might want to choose your business partners a little more carefully next time, sunshine. Any idea where we can find your Spanish friends?"

Petr shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I don't know. Do you mind if I get back to work, I have calls to make."

"We'll be in touch," Horatio said as he followed Frank from the building.

"What do you think?" Frank asked as they walked back to their vehicles.

Horatio put his sunglasses back on. "They're up to more than just stolen electronics. You ever heard of the gang he was taking about?"

Frank huffed. "Sounds like the Mala Noche. They've been building numbers in the last year or so."

"Hmmm. Maybe we should give them a visit too?"

Frank nodded his head toward Petr as the man left the building and headed to a rusted sedan, the tyres squealing as he pulled away at speed.

"I get a feeling the Bandyci are gonna make some house calls of their own."

"Sounds like we might have just stumbled into a turf war, Francis."

The thought of being caught in the crossfire made Frank feel uneasy.

"Now that you've got what you needed, maybe we should keep ourselves out of it?" the detective suggested.

Horatio glanced at Frank before looking in the direction that Petr had sped away in. "I still don't know how this relates to Raymond."

"Maybe you don't want to, either."

Horatio shook his head. "The Bandyci and the Mala Noche are running drugs all across this city. Maybe Raymond was on to them…maybe that's why he was silenced."

"Then leave this up to the Narcos, Horatio."

He gave Frank a sad smile. "I can't do that, Francis. If someone wanted to get my attention with Anton's body, they've got it."

"Maybe if we play this right, they'll take each other out."

Horatio turned to look at his colleague. "That still won't get me any closer to finding out why Raymond was involved with this."

Frank could see the glint in Horatio's eyes, the steely blue orbs just visible over the aviator sunglasses. "Why do I get the feeling you're planning to go all 'Lone Ranger'?"

Horatio pulled out the keys to the Hummer and pulled himself into the driver's seat. "If I need a Tonto, I'll let you know, Frank."

Pulling himself into his own car, Frank shook his head made a call. "Hey, it's Tripp," he said as the caller answered, "there's something you need to know."