Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Chapter 21—The Kindness of Strangers

It was eight in the morning on Saturday. Rick had a dish towel draped over his shoulder as he set the jar of warm milk down on the scratched end table, along with the medicine dropper. "Come on, Blizzard."

The cat had been lying on her side in the sheepskin bed, just waking up from her latest dose of Tramadol. Rick had taken the blue flex bandage off her abdomen so her scar could get some fresh air. White fur was beginning to grow around the red scar. The surgical glue had begun to slough off. He would rebandage her later.

Blizzard didn't resist as he lifted her head up and gently wrapped the old blue pool towel under and around her. "Up we go."

As he sat back in the brown chair, he cradled her like a newborn. Those blue eyes were open, but still distant from the Tramadol that Dr. Hughes had prescribed. He looked down on the cat who had saved his life a week earlier, who had friended him, who showed him a pet's unconditional love.

All the IAB agent could hear was the cat's quick, labored breathing as he looked around Sandi's small, modest living room. He had known her only for a week, yet she was willing to let him sleep on her living room couch while he cared for Blizzard and the kittens.

"You almost ready for your breakfast? Sandi's coming home with your kittens soon."

Gently he reached in with one finger and rubbed her between her pink ears. Normally she would have rolled over on her back and purred, wanting him to rub her belly, but now he had to cradle her like a baby while she looked away distantly, still healing from the surgery.

"Can't believe I didn't know why you were so big."

Exhaustion and sadness had set in. Normally careful about his appearance, he was wearing the same black tee shirt and workout pants that he had been wearing for days. He hadn't shaven, and his black hair began to poke out in odd directions. At the Miami-Dade Police Department's recommendation, he was staying somewhere away from his house until they could be sure of dealing with Steven French and Byron Donovan. Sandi had been nice enough to let him sleep on her couch while she worked the night shift and take care of Blizzard while she slept during the day. So many times he thought he'd understood how a crime victim might feel. But now he himself couldn't go home. That mattress with Blizzard's bloodstains still lay untouched. Dean Cresswell's bloodstains hadn't quite come out of his carpet. He hadn't had a chance to patch up that bullet hole from when Steven French tried to kill him. Rick picked up the medicine dropper and filled it with the warm milk.

Mrrrm?

Blizzard weakly pawed the air from inside the old blue towel. She seemed to come out of the trance of the pain killers and squirm to reach that medicine dropper.

"Stop squirming!"

He tilted her up and lowered the medicine dropper to her mouth. She reached up and sucked on the dropper, some milk running out of her mouth and onto the towel.

"Don't drink so fast! I don't need you puking on me!"

Rick sank more deeply into the chair and watched Blizzard wrap her paws around his hand when he heard a click in the front door. He sat up with a start.

Sandi waved and smiled at him through the window. He leaned his head back down as she slipped in. "Hi Rick! Got some guests."

He sighed tiredly. "Who?"

"Well, look at this! I never thought I'd see Rick Stetler playing Doctor!"

It was Alexx, carrying the metal incubator. Her young daughter Janie followed closely. "Just tell me where you want the babies."

Sandi nodded at the Ottoman where the IAB agent rested his feet. "This should be good."

"Mom, can I see them?" Janie begged, almost bobbing in her excitement. "Can I hold one?"

"Wait!" her mother said firmly. "They've been away from their mother, and they're scared." Opening the lid, she carefully reached in and pulled out Mister Ginger, who squealed and flailed.

"Look, Sweetie" Alexx said to her daughter, who looked on eagerly. "His eyes are opening. Now just hold him in your hand like this. Miss Sandi's getting their formula ready. Would you like to help feed them?"

"Yeah!" The girl fawned as her mother laid Mister Ginger into her hands. The kitten squealed and squirmed, pawing the air. "Mom, can I have him?"

"He's not weaned yet, Sweetie. Sergeant Stetler has to take care of him."

Janie pouted as she held the kitten close to her white tee shirt. Rick began to smile. She then held the flailing kitten up to him. "See? He's got one eye open" she said proudly.

"I'm gonna need your help feeding him" was all he could think to say.

"Okay, time for breakfast" Sandi said as she brought out four bottles of kitten formula. "Dr. Woods, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help. I'm exhausted. Somebody brought in a Rottie involved in a hit-and run."

"Oh, it was my pleasure, Sweetie" she said as she carefully held up the tiny white girl kitten. "Looks like your eyes are opening, too." Eagerly the kitten reached out and wrapped its tiny paws around the syringe, gnawing the tip with her needle-sharp little teeth. Alexx smiled. "Aw. Baby, baby, baby?"

"Rick, I'm going to bed" Sandi announced. "Thanks again, Dr. Woods."

"I'll take care of things" he assured her.

Alexx smiled knowingly at the closed bedroom door. "Looks like the two of you get along, Rick."

Rick looked down to hide his embarrassment. "She's just letting me sleep on her couch till they get this case solved."

But there was no mistaking it. "I'd say Blizzard saved more than your life, honey."

Horatio, Delko, Ryan, Calleigh, and Natalia stood around the lighted work table in the lab. Taped evidence bags, clothes, wires, and bloodstained towels lay neatly arranged, neatly labeled. All wore their lab coats. Nobody spoke. It was a Saturday morning, but they knew what they had to do.

Delko nodded with a resolve. "Hey, I'm not a big fan of Stetler, but we all know that guy tried to kill him."

Horatio looked across the table at the CSI. "Yes, Eric, but as you know, it's up to us to give the DA an airtight case. Right now, the only evidence we really have against Steven French is Dean Cresswell's confession. The tracking device we found in French's laptop may prove premeditation to kill Stetler, but it doesn't put any murder weapons in his hand. It has to be airtight. No mistakes."

"Yeah, Dean Cresswell. Who conveniently died in holding" Delko sniffed.

Calleigh studied the evidence in front of them. "And then there's Byron Donovan. My dad really stepped out to take down that woman."

Horatio looked at her sympathetically. "Which is why I want everyone here to go back through everything."

Ryan sighed and slapped down a magnifier. "We've been over everything, H."

"Mr. Wolfe, Steven French can't be allowed to walk. Go back to every crime scene if you have to. Go back to Walter Mullinax's apartment. Talk to Tyler and see how it's coming. Go talk to Stetler and Dr. Hughes if you need to. Call me the minute you find something. Stetler and Blizzard are in hiding. We have to make sure Steven French never hurts anyone ever again."

"What about Byron Donovan?" Calleigh wanted to know.

"Let me deal with him." With that he slipped off his lab coat. "Anything happens, call me."

The CSI's looked at each other for a few minutes. Nobody spoke.

Ryan's phone chirped. "Hey, Tyler. We were just talking about you." He paused. "You sure? I'll be right there."

"What's going on?" Natalia wanted to know."

"Tell you later."

"Think I might have something" Tyler said to the monitor.

Ryan perked up as he sat down next to the AV tech. "Tell me."

"Both computers got wiped clean. Nothing."

"Steven French's fingerprints are on that jump drive that got ripped out of the computer. What are you saying?"

"I don't think Steven French knew that monitor had a video camera in the screen." He waved his finger over the top left. "I'm running a program called Grave Robber on it. It's able to bring up files that were erased up to fifteen years ago. It pieces together bytes that it thinks is related." He clicked on the icon. "Let's see what it does."

Both Tyler and Ryan held their faces just inches from the monitor. "It's even date and time stamped. This guy thought of everything" Tyler said.

"Lucky for us" Ryan agreed. "There's Walter Mullinax getting up to answer his door. Now Dean Cresswell's arguing with him. Now Walter looks scared. There he picks up Blizzard and dumps her out his back door. He's getting up again. He's back in his chair. Okay, there's French. He shoved Walter to the ground. Like Dr. Reese. There's the nine millimeter."

"And there's the blood on the video lens. Now Steven French yanks the jump drive out of the port. There it goes dead."

"Steven French was careful, but not careful enough." Without another word, Ryan dialed his cell phone. "Yeah, H. I'm in the AV lab. Tyler got it all right here. Walter Mullinax's computer. Steven French definitely shot him. It's all on the video cam."

Horatio dipped his head with a resolve. "Get me a copy of that immediately. That's all we need to put him away for life. Nice work, Mr. Wolfe. Tyler." With that he snapped his phone shut.