"Your car was seen one block away from Lt. Caine's house." Frank growled, "It was there for several hours and just around the time that Jessica Stanley went missing; your car drove away from there."
"So? That doesn't mean anything." James smirked.
"The neighbor may not have seen you drag Jessica to the car, but thank God she kept an eye on when you arrived and when you left. We have your license plate on a photograph she took." Frank said, "Where is Jessica?"
"I don't know."
"Bullshit! You used chloroform to sedate her! We found the cloth you used in the nursery. Did you think anything about leaving a baby girl by herself when you took Jessica?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" James growled, "Now, if there is nothing further. I would like to go home."
With that said James stood up. Frank sighed heavily. Jessica had been missing for three hours. Kyle had come home just minutes after James had kidnapped her. He had called Horatio and then the investigation had started. James only had a three minute walk from his car to Jessica and Horatio's house. They knew he had kidnapped her, but they didn't have enough evidence to prove it.
As James left, Horatio followed him. He had been listening to the interrogation and he was furious. James seemed to think he had outsmarted everyone on the team. That he had outsmarted Horatio, well, then he didn't know just how good the team really was. Kyle, Jessica's parents and brother were at a hotel, taking care for Sophia, while Horatio tried to find Jessica. The team was working hard on finding out where she was as well. Jesse and Alexx happened to see Horatio follow James and worried that Horatio would lose his iron control.
"Hey James!" Horatio called and James turned around.
Horatio grabbed him by the collar and shoved him against the wall.
"Take it easy Lt. I might have to report your for police brutality otherwise." James smirked.
"Wipe that smirk off your face before I knock your teeth you!" Horatio growled low, "Where is Jessica? I know you took her and you better hope that I find her unharmed you will wish that you had never been born."
"Is that a threat?"
"No that's a promise you…"
"Horatio!" Alexx said and forced Horatio to let go off James.
James smirked and walked away. Horatio ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily.
"I can't let him just walk away Alexx. I know he has her!" Horatio said frustrated.
"You don't have enough evidence, Horatio. I know that is hard to deal with." Alexx said, "But if you attack him you're giving Stetler a good reason to suspend you and then you won't be able to help Jessica."
Horatio sighed and nodded. Alexx was right. Jesse joined them and patted Horatio on the shoulder.
"I've sent a picture of James to a news station and they will ask the viewers to call us if they have any information about him." Jesse said, "He won't hurt her."
"You can't be sure of that." Horatio sighed.
"He loves her right? I think he wants to leave Miami with her, but he can't because he knows we got an eye on him." Jesse said, "I've looked in to James's background. He never has any close friends and he is an outsider at work. His former boss told me that James carried around a picture of Jessica all the time. He always talks about Jessica and nothing else."
"He is obsessed with her." Alexx said.
"Exactly."
"Ask his colleagues at Miami University if he is the same there." Horatio said, "Jessica said he worked there."
Jesse frowned, "I did a full background check on him. He's been unemployed for two months."
"He lied to her." Horatio growled and shook his head, "He came down here to be with her and instead he found out that she's getting married and has a baby with another man."
"He's mentally unstable." Alexx said, "A man that is so obsessed about someone that James is has mental issues."
"I can't argue with you on that." Jesse said.
"I just hope he is stable enough to not hurt her." Horatio sighed.
-I-
Jessica opened her eyes and looked around the room she was in. Somehow she hadn't expected to wake up in a room with white walls and with machines around her. She lifted her head up and saw that she was in a hospital. Then she noticed Horatio sleeping next to her in a chair. Jessica reached out and gently touched his face. Horatio stirred and woke up.
"Jessica! Sweetheart, you're awake! How are you feeling?" Horatio asked as he kissed her softly.
"I'm fine. What happened? Why am I here?" Jessica asked.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Horatio asked.
"Me and James were in Sophia's nursery. He was holding her… when he gave her back to me I told him to leave." Jessica said, "Is Sophia okay?"
"Yeah. She's with Kyle, your parents and your brother."
"What happened?"
"James knocked you out with chloroform sweetheart. He kidnapped you for six hours. We found you two hours ago." Horatio said, "You don't remember that?"
Jessica shook her head. Horatio nodded and told her how they had found her.
Flashback
Thanks to the news showing a picture of James, the team had got some good tips on where he was. One tip in particular could prove to be the big break in the case. Ryan and Jesse were looking in to it. A landlord had called and said that a man that looked like James was renting an apartment from him, but under the name Miles Warner. Ryan and Jesse couldn't find any Miles Warner in Miami and no one that was the same age as James.
"H, I think we got him." Jesse said as Horatio joined the two men in the lab, "James's rented an apartment only five blocks from your house."
"Good work gentlemen, call the landlord and ask him if James's car is outside." Horatio said as he rounded the team up for the rescue operation of Jessica and the takedown of James.
Cops drove all across town to the address where James lived. The landlord confirmed that James's car was outside the apartment.
"Alright, SWAT will move in first." Horatio said.
He prayed that Jessica was inside and that she was safe.
"According to the landlord, James hasn't been outside the apartment since he left the lab three hours ago."
Horatio nodded and then watched as SWAT burst through the doors.
"Everything is clear. Get an ambulance in here!" The SWAT leader called.
Horatio and the team ran inside and saw Jessica lying on the couch, unharmed. James was on the floor below the couch, stabbed to death. The knife was in Jessica's hands. Things did not look good.
End of flashback
"I killed him?" Jessica asked.
"No, you didn't."
"I didn't?"
Horatio sighed, "I can't prove it right now. But honey, I know you didn't do it. And even if you did it was self defense."
The door opened and Rick Stetler entered the room.
"Ms. Stanley, your doctor informs me that you are well enough to go through an interrogation." Rick said.
"Rick, she's been missing all day. Leave her alone!" Horatio growled and stood up.
Rick and Horatio glared at each other and the tension in the room was thick. Jessica's father Clark entered the room and pushed the two men further away from each other.
"As much as I hate the fact that IAB is questioning your team and my daughter, I think it's best to let this man do his job." Clark said, "And you can do yours Horatio, process the evidence. Prove that Jessica did not kill him."
Horatio nodded and turned back to Jessica.
"I want you to leave the room Horatio." Rick said.
Horatio was about to say something when Jessica put her finger over his lips.
"It's okay. I can manage this. Do as dad said." Jessica said and gave Horatio a kiss.
Reluctantly Horatio left Rick and Jessica alone and went to the lab. Clark waited outside the room. In Jessica's room; Rick took out his notepad and sat down on the chair next to the bed.
"Ms. Stanley, tell me what you remember." Rick said.
Jessica told him just as much as she had told Horatio about her day. Rick wrote it down and nodded every now and then.
"The lab has the knife that you used to kill James with." Rick said.
"I didn't kill him."
"The problem is that you have no memory of anything that happened during those six hours that you were in James's apartment." Rick said, "You may have killed him in self defense and in that case it has to be proved that it was self defense."
Jessica sighed and shook her head.
"You should also know that the team will be processing the evidence under my supervision." Rick said, "So that they don't do anything wrong."
"They could never do anything wrong!" Jessica snapped.
Rick chose to ignore that comment, "You had police protection outside the house, when James held your daughter, why didn't you call for help?"
"It wasn't the first thing on my mind! I've never known James as a violent guy. I knew I could get him to give me Sophia."
"Why wasn't Horatio with you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, his girlfriend is being stalked by a maniac and he is not at home with you. Do you think he has something to do with this?" Rick asked.
"That's absurd!"
"Trust me, plenty of men want their girlfriends dead." Rick said.
"He wasn't home because I asked him not to come home. I didn't think James would be back until next week."
"Why?"
"Because he had left me alone for a week after the first time he screwed up." Jessica sighed, "Horatio has nothing to do with this."
"Okay." Rick said, "I think I have everything I need for now. Goodbye Ms. Stanley."
"Goodbye."
-I-
Ryan and Calleigh were processing the crime scene and so far it looked like Jessica could have stabbed James. He had been lying right below the couch where she had been, the murder weapon had been in her hands and of course it had her fingerprints on it.
"I can't believe this. Jessica couldn't have done this." Ryan sighed.
"She could have. In self defense. Self defense is not a crime and I would have done the exact same thing." Calleigh said, "However, I don't think she would have been knocked out after it."
Ryan looked under the couch and saw three cloths of chloroform.
"I think I know why Jessica doesn't remember anything." He said and showed Calleigh the cloths, "James drugged her all the time. She was never awake."
Calleigh smirked, "Good work Ryan. Look what I found."
Calleigh was standing at the kitchen door and had found some strange markings.
"Something was stuck here." Ryan said.
"Exactly. Like the knife maybe. Take a mold of the markings and see if you can match it to the marking on the knife handle." Calleigh said, "Hopefully this will explain everything."
In the lab, Walter was processing the knife. He had found Jessica's fingerprints on it, but also James's. James's blood was all over the blade. Rick was standing behind him, looking over his shoulder.
"Stetler I can do my job." Walter sighed, "Why don't you trust us?"
"I do. But my boss doesn't. This is after all conflict of interest on the team's side. You should all be lucky that you're allowed to work with the case." Rick said.
The door opened and Horatio entered the lab, he sighed as he saw Rick.
"Rick, you don't have to stand that close to Walter." He said.
Rick just gave him a look and then chose to ignore Horatio. It didn't take long before Ryan and Calleigh arrived with the mold of the markings and asked Walter to take a mold of the same markings on the knife.
"I think I know where you're going with this." Walter smirked.
When the mold of the markings was done, Calleigh matched them to each other.
"James put the knife between the door and the doorway in the kitchen. He ran in to the knife himself." Calleigh said.
"Wouldn't the door have opened when he ran in to the knife?" Rick asked.
"He could have put something in the way to stop it." Ryan said.
"Did you find anything like that on the scene?" Rick asked.
"Rick." Horatio growled.
"Look, I'm trying to help you. You have to find something like that one the scene or Jessica will still be a suspect. Usually I'm supposed to watch you all like a hawk, but it could just be so that I have to use the bathroom and you sneak away." Rick said and gave Horatio a look.
"You're not going with us to the crime scene?" Ryan asked confused.
"No." Rick said, "I think you can manage without me."
With that said Rick left the lab.
"Wow, if Rick is turning nice then the world must be coming to an end." Walter said.
"Ryan and Calleigh, go back to the crime scene." Horatio said.
-I-
It was in the middle of the night and Horatio was sitting in Jessica's hospital bed. The two were cuddling. Jessica was being released the next day. Ryan and Calleigh had been able to prove that James had tied a rope between two door handles to keep the kitchen door from opening as he ran in to the knife four times. He had bled out, but still been able to put the knife in Jessica's hand before he finally died. Making her a suspect of his murder.
"Why do you think James killed himself and made me a suspect if he cared so much about me?" Jessica asked.
"I think he knew we would find you and he would end up in jail. He probably figured that if he couldn't have you then I shouldn't be able to either." Horatio sighed, "Unfortunately for him, he didn't count on the team."
"I guess not." Jessica smiled and gave Horatio a kiss.
The two fell asleep in each other's arms.
The following day when Horatio showed up in the lab to take a few days off; he bumped in to Rick.
"Sorry." Rick said.
"It's okay." Horatio said and the two men started walking away from each other, "Rick?"
Rick turned around to face Horatio.
"Yes?"
"Why did you help us?"
"I wanted to do at least one good thing in my career." Rick shrugged, "I knew Jessica wasn't a murderer, but just like you I have a protocol to follow."
"You've done plenty of good things Rick. I may not like it when you have to investigate my team, but every time you have to put a dirty cop behind bars it's good. It's good for society and for the department. Dirty cops should not be cops."
"Thank you." Rick smiled, "Tell Jessica I'm sorry for my interrogation with her."
"Yeah, she told me about that." Horatio chuckled.
Rick nodded, "Only three weeks left to the wedding. Nervous?"
"Yeah." Horatio smiled.
Rick nodded and the two men parted ways. Maybe Rick was much nicer than people thought.
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