Cauchemar Part 7: Interruptions By koaladeb Disclaimer info in part 1

A/N: Credit for parts of the profile belongs to a friend who's just begun a Masters program in Forensic Psychology and helped me with this as a favor.you know who you are! Thanks again, girl!

Calleigh felt like a zombie by the time she walked into her apartment on Friday night. It had been the week from hell. They were no closer to finding their mysterious killer now, three days later, than when Calleigh had first arrived on the scene. And there had been plenty of other cases to work on, as well. All Calleigh wanted was an uninterrupted night of sleep in which she could wake up feeling more rested than when she had first nodded off. She went straight from the front door towards the bedroom, deciding not to bother turning on any lights, when a strange feeling rushed over her like a bucket of ice water. There was something off about her apartment. Calleigh felt for a light switch on the wall, squinting against the sudden brightness as the lights in the living room came on full force.

There was nothing out of place. Calleigh frowned, sure that she had sensed something wrong just a moment before. It's just your imagination playing tricks on you she scolded herself. Probably just because you're so tired. Calleigh willed her heat to slow down, turning off the lights and continuing her journey to her bed and a good night's sleep.

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Calleigh woke up later than she had originally planned the next morning, looking over at the alarm clock and realizing there would be no time to enjoy the peace and quiet of her apartment that day. As it was, she would have to hurry if she was to get into the lab by 10:00. Just before she walked out the door, Calleigh took one last look around her apartment, plagued again with the thought that there was something out of place, but again everything was as it should be. She shrugged her shoulders and walked out the door.

After a few hours in the lab, Calleigh had finished a couple of minor reports and was looking over the results from the latest round of tests on the talcum powder. Speed had asked her to test it further, hoping that they would be able to pick up some other trace element that would help them identify the manufacturer. Still nothing. Calleigh took a moment to smell the powder, racking her brain to figure out where she had encountered the light fragrance before. It was so familiar.but she couldn't place it. She was so engrossed in searching her memory that she failed to notice Horatio entering the room.

Horatio stood on the inside of the door and observed the focused look on Calleigh's face. She was in another world at the moment, and Horatio couldn't help but feel that he had been allowed an uninhibited look into Calleigh's soul for that brief moment. The distance in her eyes was not defensive, just thoughtful. He held back a sigh as he saw awareness creep back into her face. In another moment, she would realize he was there and all her walls would go back up. He was right. Calleigh returned to the present about five seconds later and immediately sensed his presence behind her. She sat up straight, turning around slowly and lifted her eyes to his, warm, but not inviting. She waited for him to speak, and he did not keep her in suspense for long. "I thought you might be ready for a bite to eat and was wondering if you might want to grab a burger with me." He wanted to try to talk to her again, this time away from any place where she could hide behind paperwork or tests as soon as the conversation got personal.

Calleigh frowned, considering his request. She was hungry, but she didn't want to give Horatio a chance to push her again on why she wasn't confiding in him. He had zeroed in on her distance too quickly for comfort last week, and Calleigh had no desire to face off with him again. On the other hand, she had been able to handle his subsequent attempts and he had let up on the subject. She noted with some satisfaction that his request to spend time with her alone no longer filled her with a sense of panic or dread. It actually hadn't affected her at all. Maybe it wasn't too big a risk and she would be able to handle a casual lunch with him. She nodded slightly and began to respond, "I think I might be able to."

The rest of her reply was interrupts by Speed and Delko coming in the door. Speed looked over between Calleigh and Horatio and said, "Hey! We're out of here to grab some food. You two want to join us?"

Calleigh smiled. This was perfect. Horatio wouldn't be able to go after her again with the boys present. From the look of frustration in his eyes, Horatio had just thought the same thing. With a look of satisfaction, she looked over at Speed. "Seems as though I'm raking in lunch offers this afternoon. Horatio here just asked me the same thing. How about we all go together?"

Horatio silently cursed the timing of his two friends. Just when he had a chance to talk to Calleigh alone they had to rush in and turn it into a group event. Well, he couldn't refuse now, not when Calleigh had told them all he was going out to lunch with her. He nodded, careful not to show his displeasure. Speed and Delko headed out, saying they would meet them out front. Horatio reached over and held the door open for Calleigh. "Let's go."

Calleigh grabbed her purse and nodded her thanks as she walked out. Horatio fell into step beside her, putting a hand on her arm to slow their pace until they were out of earshot. "Don't think that I'm going to let you off this easy," he said quietly. "You and I will be talking in the near future."

Calleigh fixed a warning look on her face and met Horatio's eyes dead on. "I'm sure there will be plenty of time for a conversation between friends and coworkers over lunch. Beyond that, I can't think of anything that we would need to discuss." She shrugged off his restraint and increased her pace to catch up to the boys. Horatio fought the anger and hurt that her response had caused. She was shutting him out again.

By the time they got to the restaurant, the tension between Calleigh and Horatio had relaxed somewhat as they allowed Speed and Delko to carry the weight of the conversation. They were talking about some new clubs that had opened, and Calleigh happily prompted their conversation as Horatio quietly observed his team. He was annoyed that Calleigh was freer in the presence of the two men than she had been with him in the lab. She smiled easier and the stiffness in her posture was relaxed. He finally entered the conversation, talking easily with Speed about the quality of a new restaurant and was rewarded with a smile from Calleigh just as his phone rang. He looked at the number and excused himself, going over to the doorway to take the call.

Calleigh couldn't help but listen to Horatio's half of the conversation, since their table was near the entrance and it was late enough in the afternoon for the restaurant to be mostly empty. He was talking to Yelina. She knew it as soon as Horatio started talking about changing dinner plans for the following week. Seems as though he was going to miss out on family game night. How cozy. She tuned out the rest of his conversation, not wanting to hear more evidence of how comfortable he was in mixing with his brother's family. It was none of her business anyway.

Horatio ended his phone call, apologizing again for having to cancel his attendance the following Monday. He had left a message for Yelina yesterday, letting her know in advance that he wouldn't be able to make it due to their new case. The profile was due in on Monday and he would need to spend time going over the evidence again in light of the information the profile might give them. He sat back down at the table, rejoining the conversation. He looked over at Calleigh, but her expression was far away again, but this time she didn't look content, she looked a little sad. She focused in on the conversation again, looking over at Horatio and frowning when she noticed that he had seen her unguarded look. His silent inquiry was met with a shake of the head and a hardening of her eyes before she turned her gaze back to Eric, who was recounting his latest date with great aplomb. Horatio allowed his gaze to linger on Calleigh's face a moment longer and sighed inwardly once again. She was farther away now than ever before.

Once the food arrived, the conversation was more limited as everyone focused on eating their lunch. Eric asked Calleigh what she had done with her free night, but she just smiled and said, "I slept." Eric made fun of her lack of social life, but Calleigh teased him right back, stating that he more than made up for her. The easy banter continued up until Horatio's phone rang again. He excused himself but was back at the table a moment later, signaling for the check and gathering the remains of his burger.

"This lunch just became to-go," he said, the friendly tone replaced by a deadly serious one. "We've got another body." No one needed to ask what he was talking about. The harness in his face broadcasted the facts loud and clear. They picked up their burgers and tossed money on the table before leaving the restaurant and heading to another crime scene.

They arrived 45 minutes later at an abandoned strip mall at the edge of the city. Alexx was already there, examining their latest victim and talking with the detective on the scene. Horatio walked up to be filled in while everyone else began getting gear out of their vehicles.

"Same MO as the last one," Alexx stated, "Young woman, blond hair, blue eyes, killed by asphyxiation and left here with a wig, a robe, and a frustrating lack of anything that will point to her killer."

"The wig is different," Horatio noted. "Long brown hair this time."

"Yeah, didn't know what to make of that either," Alexx responded. "From what I can tell, she was dumped here early this morning, just like the last victim, but this place is so out of the way that no one noticed her body until that security guard made his rounds this afternoon," she said, pointing out a man standing 20 feet away, looking hot and uncomfortable in the afternoon heat. "Estimated time of death is between 4 and 7 last night. I'll have more for you when I get her back to CSI."

"Ok, good work. Let me find out what our friendly rent-a-cop has to offer." Horatio walked over to the short, balding man and introduced himself. "What time do you normally make your rounds?" he asked the man, who had identified himself as Peter Hill.

"Usually between noon and 1:00. I'm just supposed to check the property to make sure that no one had been messing with the place, you know? Look for broken windows and graffiti and stuff."

"I understand. How long has this place been abandoned?"

"About four months. The owner's trying to sell or lease it to some big corporation. Thinks it would be a great place for a Wally World or something."

"Ok, Peter. What can you tell me about the stores that were here before it closed?"

"Man, I don't know. I only started looking after the place last month. I can only guess from what signs were left hanging. From what I can tell there was a Chinese place in the far corner, a video store somewhere in the middle, and a coffee shop on the other side."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, my wife told me once that she used to get her hair cut at some salon over by the video place."

"Ok, thanks for your help." Horatio looked over at the abandoned building. A hair salon.there was another one at the site of the previous victim, and there was the detail of the wig.it was something to keep in mind when they tried to track their killer. He walked back to where his team was already hard at work and pulled some gloves out of his kit. It was time to let the scene talk for itself.

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Hours later, the team gathered up the last of their equipment. The sun was just beginning to set, but their day was long from over. Calleigh headed back to the lab with more samples to analyze, though she already knew what she would find. Nothing. It was just like the other crime scene. Dirt, asphalt, and not a trace of anything else. That wouldn't stop her from testing every last speck of evidence, though. All the needed was one clue, one piece of material that could get them closer to their killer.

The weekend passed by in a haze of tests and disappointments. When Calleigh headed home on Sunday night, she was frustrated at the number of dead ends she had hit again in their search for the truth. Again, they had come up empty on trace examinations, finding only the same talcum powder that still was to be identified. The only thing they had found out was their second victim's name, Amy. She had last been seen by her roommate on Friday afternoon, when she went out for groceries. Again, their victim had been walking when she was abducted, and no one had seen her disappear. Hopefully, the profile, combined with an analysis of the victims, where they had been last seen and the location of their bodies would also help narrow the search. Tomorrow would be a new day.

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Monday morning, Horatio called the team in to go over progress in the case. Speed started out the meeting with the new information he had gathered on the wigs. "I called all the shops again after we found our second victim. Same dead end, but I did get a tip from one of the places I called. The owner had been looking though catalogues to see if she could identify the maker, and she noticed a trend. The type of quality that is present in the wigs this guy is using hasn't been seen by this lady in at least the last five years. I ran some more tests and she's right. They are closer to seven years old. The stores are going back through their records now, but most places don't keep them past two years. It's going to make it harder to find where they came from."

Calleigh spoke up with her update as well. "We're running into a similar problem with the robes. I located the manufacturer, but they distribute to almost a hundred of retail and department stores. There are 12 stores in the local area that carry that particular robe, and none of them have sold any large quantity of them in the past six months, either off the floor or in catalogue sales."

Horatio took over, bringing up a map that pinpointed the area in which the bodies had been found and the victims last seen. "As you can see, our killer is working out of a pretty wide area. From what Alexx has told be, the victims were both killed early in the afternoon and their bodies dumped in the early hours of the next morning. That means that the killer has between 6 and 10 hours to take the victim to his place, kill them, clean them up, take them to the dumping place, and arrange the body. We've estimated the amount of time it would take to completely clean and prepare the bodies at 4 hours, which means that the killer probably doesn't live outside of the following area." He enlarged the map, revealing an area of approximately 20 square miles. "Now, we've found both bodies in the parking lot of a building that has a hair salon in it. Right now, I'm willing to believe that this fact is a part of the killer's MO, so I've plotted all the past and present salons in this area." He pushed a button and about 50 new dots appeared on the screen. "I don't have to tell you that this leaves us too many places to cover looking for our killer to dump the next body, so our focus will have to remain on tracking this guy down with the evidence we've already collected." Everybody sat back in their seats, disappointed. Another dead end. "Now, without further ado, our friends at the FBI have prepared the following profile for us." He passed the copies around to the team. "White male, early thirties to late forties. The degree of planning and meticulous attention to detail implies that he is very intelligent, probably highly educated. Since the victims were basically pressed to death without any bones broken, there is a possibility that this guy has knowledge of anatomy and possibly medical training. In looking at the cleanliness of the victims and the scenes, the profiler thought that the cleaning after death was a type of purification ritual. The person I spoke to is very puzzled by the case-the wig aspect in particular. The appearance of the victim is always important in serial cases, so we know he is looking for petite women in their thirties with long, straight, blonde hair. Our best guess is that the wig might be some kind of fantasy, something he wants from the victim or his way of marking them. The powder could also be some kind of connection between the present murders and whatever it is from the past that he is trying to recreate." He paused, unable to keep the anger out of his voice at the next detail. "One thing is clear, though. We are dealing with someone who has an intimate knowledge of forensics.how to find evidence, and how to cover it up. Whoever this is, they know exactly how we work. They know too much for it to be coincidence. This person is a criminalist. Current or former CSI."