Chapter Four: Plain and Simple

On the way to Miami…

Horatio looked over at Robin, she had her elbow resting on the side door and was looking out of the window. Her eyes squinting from the rush of warm air.

"You might wanna get some sleep now, because once we get there I doubt you'll find the chance."

She sat back in the seat, "I think I'll be alright."

It was quiet for a minute, then Horatio remembered something Speed had told him on the phone, "At the crime lab, they found mascara on the body of Sally Kirsten--the little girl. With that and the blood smear, we should be able to start a pretty good analysis. I'm sure they've got a DNA sample from the smeared blood by now, so our next job is to find who it belongs to."

"Mascara? Maybe she was playing dress-up before leaving the house."

"I don't think so…it was applied cleanly, not just thrown on."

"Just eye makeup? Nothing else?"

Horatio shook his head, "That's it."

Robin rubbed her face, sighing and resting her head against the soft padding of the seat.

"I got you a hotel room that's right by the crime lab. It's a real nice one, Hotel Inter-Continental," Horatio said, trying to keep Robin from getting too stressed out.

"What? You already booked me a hotel room? What if I'd have told you that I wouldn't help out?"

Horatio smirked, still staring ahead at the dark road, "Robbie, I know you…and you'd never say no to me."

"That's not true! I've said 'no' to you before!" Robin chuckled, trying to convince him.

He simply raised his eyebrows, showing his usual, casual expression. She hit his arm playfully, "Horatio! Don't even bring that up!"

Horatio liked hearing her laugh again. But as soon as he heard his cell phone chime, he knew the humor wouldn't last much longer.

"Horatio," he said, flipping open the cell.

"Where are you? We've found our second…or, our first victim, technically," Speed started. "Vicki Trenton, 32 years old, Caucasian. She's got dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Alexx reported that the woman was shot with the same bullet type as little Sally."

"Anything else in common between the two?"

"Yeah," Speed stated uncomfortably, "You remember the heart-shaped cut on Sally's shoulder? Well, our newest victim has one as well."

Robin watched worriedly as Horatio rubbed his forehead.

"And Horatio…there's something else. The woman's face was cleaned of all makeup, except for some sort of lip-gloss. I haven't figured out if that has anything to do with the case or not, but usually women wear more than just one layer or one type of makeup," Speed finished.

"Alright…I'm almost there. Just keep looking for anything that could give us more of a lead. Remember, we overlooked one thing last time, and it was the key to finding Miss Vicki. We can't make that mistake again."

"Right, I'll get right on it," he hung up.

Horatio clipped the phone shut, trying to hide how much it was bothering him. Robin was waiting for him to explain.

He looked over at her, confirming plainly, "We've found whose blood was on Sally Kirsten's clothes."

Robin understood, knowing that the rest of the ride home would be long…and quiet.

**Alright! I've got the first layout to the story! I'm sorry for taking so long to post this chapter, but thinking up conversations between Horatio and Robin while in the car was harder than I thought! I'm trying really hard to whip out a few leads (in the case) for the next chapter, so just keep posted! Oh yeah! Thanks to everyone who've been giving me reviews. I really appreciate it! : ) **