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After Horatio left, Ryan just sat at his desk for awhile. He was still trying to process everything that he had been told. Ryan picked up Ronald's journal that contained the pictures and observations of a young girl and looked through it again. He came to the realization that Ronald must have been watching his daughter from afar, not wanting to risk her life. Horatio had told him that he helped ensure the girls safety by placing her with a family that was already under a witness protection program. He thought it was the best place for her and the family always told Horatio that they owed him a favor for helping them. They were more than happy to take in Allison.

Horatio did not want to do anything to expose Allison's whereabouts and thought it was best they leave her entirely out of the case. Ryan had thought it would be a good idea to at least talk to her to find out what she remembered, but agreed to hold off for awhile.

For now Ryan would slow down his investigation and wait for Horatio and his team to process the evidence from Greta's apartment. If Horatio's intuitions were correct, the person that murdered Greta was tied to the killing of the Paige Family, perhaps even the same person.

Horatio did give Ryan one clue however and that was to investigate the current owners of the home where the Paige family had lived. Ronald had always wondered why the people who eventually bought the home were so insistent on owning it. They had paid well over the asking price to avoid anyone else from obtaining it. Additionally Ronald could have sworn he knew the couple from somewhere and always had a strange feeling about them. Horatio had many discussions about this shortly after the house was sold, but never looked into it. He told Ryan that this may not lead anywhere but it was something he could do while waiting.

Ryan thought this was a good place to start since he also had an odd feeling about the woman he talked to on the day he visited the house. She had known way too much for someone claiming to be curious about the history on the house.

Ryan decided to do a background check on the couple and perhaps even go back and talk to them. If there was a link between the couple and the murders he wanted to find it. While he was working he looked up as the door opened and saw that Katie had returned. "Hi Katie".

"Hi Ryan, did you and Horatio have a good talk?" She didn't know when he had left, but she had been gone for almost 2 hours and figured it had been enough time for the two of them to talk.

"Yeah, he's really put a new spin on this case". Ryan wanted to say more, but some of the information he had been told was not something he really wanted to talk about.

"Anything you can share with me?"

Ryan had been hoping she wouldn't ask this. "I need to look into a few more things before I can verify the accuracy of the information so I would rather not talk about it until then".

This answer seemed to satisfy Katie, "Oh, sure that's understandable. I hope you didn't think I was trying to be nosey?"

Ryan gave her a suspicious look "Sure, you just want to try and steal my case away from me right when I might be close to solving it, I know your type". Ryan had to stop since he started smiling to much which eventually led to him laughing.

Katie couldn't help but join in on the laughing, but manage to say "So, is that what type you think I am. I've got news for you; all you get for solving a cold case is another cold case". She was feeling in such a good mood that she picked up the stress ball sitting on her desk and threw it at Ryan.

The stress ball managed to hit the side of Ryan's head "Ow, what was that for". He stood there for a second rubbing his head. He then reached down, picked up the ball and threw it back. Fortunately for Katie it missed her by a mile.

This got both of them laughing for a minute before Katie said "Well that was fun, but I'm off again and won't be back until tomorrow".

"Ok, I'm probably going to be taking off as well. I have a new lead that I need to look into. Maybe we can pick up where we left off tomorrow". He gave her one last smile before she left the office.

Ryan decided it was time to get back to work. He logged onto the computer and started his check on Sylvia Kemp and her husband Edward. At first he didn't find anything unusual. They seemed to be a normal couple who bought a house after getting married. The only thing that was not usual was the amount they paid for the house. It was just like Horatio had said; they put in an offer that was a lot more than the asking price. He remembered when he had talked to Sylvia she had mentioned that they had gotten a good deal on the house. This was so far the only thing that didn't add up, but this was not enough to go storming back to the house to ask more questions. He needed to find more so he kept digging.

Two hours later Ryan was just about to give up when he came across a name that looked familiar. He had started to look at the extended family of Sylvia and Edward Kemp when he couldn't think of anything else to try. He was now looking at a picture of Sylvia's uncle who just happened to have a picture in the criminal database. Evan Jovanovich had been arrested on several occasions for minor infractions, but it was the one that occurred during a trial where he was found to be disruptive that caught his attention the most. According to the arrest record he was one of the defense lawyers', but was eventually pulled off the case due to his arrest. Ryan pulled up his file on the Paige case and after searching for a few seconds he had his answer to why the name was so familiar. Evan Jovanovich was the lawyer that worked on Richard Paige's case. This was too much of a coincidence. Ryan knew this might be the link he was looking for.

Ryan checked the clock and saw that it was almost 2 in the afternoon. He wanted to check out the lawyer some more but he also wanted to run this by Horatio. He turned his computer off and went in search of Horatio.

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It felt strange to Ryan to be walking back to the area where he use to perform his investigations. He had finally gotten use to his new department so he didn't really think about this place much. But here he was going to talk to Horatio as if he had never left. He was going to talk to him about his case just like the old days, but this wasn't the old days and he had to remind himself of that. As he walked toward Horatio's office he saw Natalia coming out of the lab.

Natalia saw Ryan and didn't know if he would try and avoid her or not. She decided to just say hi as she walked by him and then just keep walking. "Hi Ryan, how have you been?" Now why did she have to ask him that? He would probably not like that and make any excuse to get out of her way.

Ryan smiled at Natalia and answered her "Hi Natalia, I'm doing great. Have you see Horatio around?" He really needed to find him so he didn't think it would hurt to ask.

Natalia was taken back a little bit by Ryan's response. She expected him to look away and make some excuse to not answer her, but she was pleasantly surprised. "Yeah, I think he was in the DNA lab talking to Eric".

"Thanks Natalia, I'll see ya around". Ryan felt like he was finally accepting this and it was time to stay friends with the people he truly felt cared about him. He always liked Natalia and hoped she still felt like being friends with him, but the way he had been acting lately he wouldn't blame her for not wanting it.

As Ryan walked toward the lab he secretly hoped he didn't run into anyone else, but if he did he would accept it and just make the most of it. He really liked his job and the people around here so he it would do no good to close himself off to any contact.

Ryan entered the lab and just as Natalia had said, Horatio was in there talking to Eric. He saw they were discussing something so he figured he would wait for the right opportunity to make his presence known, but Horatio turned and looked in his direction at the same moment he stopped to wait.

Horatio looked over and saw Ryan walk in. He had just been discussing last night's murder case and thought Ryan's timing was perfect. "Mr. Wolfe, I think we may have found something that I would like to discuss with you. I hope you have found something equally valuable?"

Ryan became excited at Horatio's news. "I think I have, where can we talk about it?" He didn't want to discuss the case in front of Eric.

Horatio looked at Eric "I need to discuss something with Mr. Wolfe, alone".

Eric looked dumbfounded at Horatio's response. If Horatio was going to talk to Ryan about the case than why couldn't he listen? He also wondered what Ryan had to do with this case. Their investigation had revealed that Ryan had been in the woman's apartment at some point, but Horatio said it had to do with a case he was working on. He had to wonder what a cold unsolved case had to do with this woman and was hoping Horatio would let him stay. "I think I would like to stay and hear what you have to say. After all I am working on part of this case".

Horatio didn't seem to pleased with Eric's response. "We will talk later, but right now I need you to leave so that I can talk to Ryan in private".

Eric could detect the change in Horatio's tone and knew from experience he better do as he is told. "Alright, I'll give you your privacy". Eric glared at Ryan as he left the room, but didn't say anything.

Ryan caught Eric's glare and thought it was a combined look of confusion and anger. Eric was probably confused as to why Horatio wanted him to leave and angry that Horatio wanted him to leave on a count of whom he was talking to. Eric never did make any attempts to maintain communication with him, let alone a friendship after the Russian Mob incident.

Now that they were alone Ryan went over to where Horatio was standing "So, what have you found?"

Horatio pulled up a few things on the screen "Well, it looks like we were able to get some DNA from the crime scene, but unfortunately it does not match anyone in our data base".

Well, finding DNA was always a good start, but if they didn't have anyone to match it to then they really had nothing to go on. "Have you tried running it against other unknown DNA sources to see if we have a match there?"

"I've started the search, but I don't think we will find anything in our electronic data base. But I was thinking that it might be worth looking for any potential DNA on your case that was missed and running it to see if it is a match to this". Horatio remembered the case from 10 years ago and knew that they hadn't taken have any DNA samples, but then again the technology back then was not like it is now. All they needed was a small sample.

Ryan thought about Horatio's idea for a minute before saying "Yeah that is a good idea, I'll get right on it, but let me tell you what I found. I looked up everything I could on the current owners of the home, but came up with nothing until I started looking at their family members. Sylvia Kemp's uncle is the same man who defended Richard Paige when he was on trial. I know that is has long been speculated that the mob helped get Richard free, so it would stand to reason that his lawyer was connected to the mob. I think it is too much of a coincidence that he just happens to be the uncle of the current owner. I also thought it was odd that Sylvia herself had told me they got such a good deal on the house when in fact they put down more money that was being asked. I thought that a bit suspicious".

Horatio thought over the information Ryan had given him, "I agree that it is too much of a coincidence. I think you should check out the Kemp's a little more. It might also be beneficial to see if we could get any DNA from them and compare it to our sample. What is the next course of action in your case?"

"I was planning on doing some more checks on the Kemp's and I thought I would go and visit them again. Maybe this time I can meet Mr. Kemp as well". Ryan was pleased that Horatio was asking him what he was going to do. Usually when he worked a case he just waited for Horatio to come up with a game plan.

"That sounds good Mr. Wolfe, but I want you to be very careful. Your case has gotten very interesting and does not appear to be very cold anymore".

Ryan accepted Horatio's warning and knew that this case was becoming stranger by the minute. He decided to make his way to the evidence room to see if there was anything in the way of potential DNA and then he was going to continue his investigation into the Kemp's background. If all went well he would be paying them a visit tomorrow.

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Author's Note – Sorry this took longer than normal. My internet was not available to me in the last few days, plus I feel like I have lost some of my writing mojo. Not sure where it went, but I am hoping to get it back if I want to complete my 2 stories. I also have plans on starting another one (but alas, it will not be a CSI Miami story).

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave me a note to let me know.