Chapter Ten: Quality Time
After getting a tracing of some partial and full fingerprints, Calleigh brought them to a fellow co-worker, Erik Delko, to scan into the computer.
"I see Horatio pulled you into this case too, huh?" she smiled and handed him the tracings.
He nodded, taking them and saying sarcastically, "Yeah. Figured if all the rest of you guys were here, I should be helping out too."
Calleigh watched as Erik took select prints, starting with the complete ones, and began the investigation. AFIS took over from there--various features and values of the prints would then be compared to millions and millions of other prints, until a handful of potentials could be detected.
"Well, I've gotta get back to Speed--call me if you find something good, okay?"
"Sure, no problem," Erik said, directing his attention back to the prints he had been handed.
* * * * *
Horatio stood in front of the apartment building with his hands resting on his hips, the lapels of his jacket pulled against the backsides of his wrists. The sun was shining brightly, accompanied by a cozy breeze. As his gaze trailed along the entrance, below the yellow police tape, Horatio's mind was whirling.
He heard the slam of the Hummer's door, looking back to see Robin appear from behind it. The sun reflected sharply off of the silver evidence-collecting kit as it swayed from side-to-side in her grip. Robin's eyebrows were low and eyes were squinting when she casually stepped up beside Horatio, "Now, explain to me…what brought you back here so suddenly?"
She followed him as he passed under the tape and into the tan-carpeted hallway, eyes still directed towards the ground. Horatio said, "Good thing about a fancy place like this is that they can afford to carpet the entire building."
He sat down on one of stairs, pausing for a moment, "…it stays pretty clean."
Robin folded her arms across her chest, hearing her voice echo in the nearly-empty space--her voice bouncing from wall to wall, "Yeah. I'm sure there's a janitor or a cleaning-lady that takes care of it all."
"Uh-huh," Horatio started, "how often do you think they clean?"
She shrugged, thinking about where he was going with this conversation, "I dunno…once a day, maybe every other day."
"…and no one besides the police and CSIs have passed through here since yesterday. I'd say we should be able to pick up some prints," Horatio stated confidently.
"Footprints? You sure? I'd think that they'd have showed up inside the room if his shoes were that dirty," Robin fit herself next to Horatio on the semi-wide step.
"True…there weren't any inside the room. He could've wiped his shoes off just before entering, which wouldn't help either. But the plus side is: we can check a few yards from either side of room 68 for prints that could indicate anyone going into or leaving the residence. Then, we take all the shoes from Jason Burgh and the victim…we'd also need to get the prints from the shoes that the police and CSIs were wearing that day… then we can compare them to any traces that we find. Whichever prints don't match could very well belong to the killer."
Robin smiled, "Horatio…you never fail to impress me. Why don't we try to find whoever cleans the place and see how long it's been since the last scrub-down? Might narrow the time frame a little more."
"Alright. Let's get the evidence first, then we can go ahead and ask the main office."
Robin stood up, lifting the silver box along with her, "Sounds like a plan."
They followed the now familiar stairway up to room 68. Careful of where he was walking, Horatio took the evidence kit from Robin and kneeled on the floor.
He decided on using the electrostatic dust-print lifter. After slipping on the usual latex gloves, the next step was to set out a Mylar sheet and flatten it with a rubber roller in order to collect the maximum amount of dust and prints. Robin, remembering the process, assisted Horatio by taking an alligator clip that was connected to a gray box and attached it to one side of the sheet. With the other hand, she moved a probe to the opposite side of the Mylar sheet. Horatio anticipated the voltmeter, which was also located on the gray box, to spike.
It did as expected, and Robin took the probe and the clip from the sheet. She pulled off her sunglasses and nestled them in her pocket, watching carefully as Horatio lifted the sheet from it's surface, revealing a few nearly similar footprints. He looked up at her, his eyes remaining knowledgeable, "…And we have step one…let's see how far we can get with the rest."
It would be a long process--moving from one area to another, repeating the procedure over and over again until the entire area had been cleared. While working, neither Horatio nor Robin talked much, but the silence was comfortable. Every once and a while there would be a glance from one or a smile from the other.
All this busy work made Robin feel at home--it kept her thinking, and also kept her close to Horatio. But it was becoming harder and harder for Robin to realize that once this case was over, she would have to go back to Captiva Island while Horatio remained in Miami. The idea of not seeing him again for years apart was one that she didn't want to grasp…
**First things first: I wanna say thank you sooo much to Yaba! You've been there rootin' me on since chapter one! I'm very happy that you like my story! Okay, back to my little end-of-chapter explanations. This was another one of those learn-more-about them chapters. Horatio is still keeping his cool, while Robin is following his lead and doing the same. I've got a good twist planned for the end, but I'm trying to stretch it as far as I can (I absolutely love writing this story!). Next chapter is gunna be another sciency one, but will be between Calleigh and Speed, since H and Robin will be busy working at the hotel. I won't spoil any more fun surprises, so talk to y'all later!**