Stones turned out to be a dingy pool hall on the Lower East Side. The room stank of stale smoke and it took a moment for Samantha's eyes to adjust to the dim light. It was closed for business but the owner sat at the bar, taking a stock count. Samantha let Horatio take the lead, instinctively knowing that he needed to feel useful. She hung back slightly and followed him through the maze of pool tables.

The owner stubbed out his cigarette and extended a nicotine-stained hand. "You must be the Feds. I'm Joey Romano. What can I do you for?"

Samantha wondered what had brought Calleigh to a place like this. She smiled politely as Horatio introduced them and glanced around the room. Maybe the music was good, she thought.

Horatio passed Joey a photograph of Calleigh. "Did you see this woman here on Tuesday night?"

Joey studied the photograph then nodded. "Yeah, I remember her. She was with a guy." He turned and pointed to a corner table. "They played a couple of rounds there, then had a few drinks at the bar."

"Did you hear what they were speaking about?"

"It was kinda hard not to hear, if you know what I'm saying."

"I'm afraid I don't."

"They were arguing. Well, really, he was doing most of the talking and she just sat there. I felt kinda bad for her."

Samantha looked up from the notes she'd been taking. "What was he saying?"

"Stuff about how she shouldn't have left. How he wanted her back. You know, couple stuff."

"Couple stuff?"

"Yeah. Then he tried to kiss her."

"He tried to kiss her?" Horatio's voice was tight.

"She didn't let him. She just got up and left, as calm as anything. Good for her, I say. She can do better than him. Guys who talk to women like that don't deserve 'em." Joey smiled at Samantha in a way that implied he wasn't one of those guys.

"Did he follow her?"

"Nope. He sat there for a long time. Had three beers. He left about an hour or so later."

Horatio shook Joey's hand again. "Thanks very much, Mr. Romano."

When he and Samantha were outside again, he stared up at the sky. "His account differs from Du Pree's."

"I know."

"So, who's lying?"

Samantha took a deep breath. "Romano's got nothing to gain by lying."

Horatio nodded. "I think it's time to talk to Du Pree again."

Horatio interviewed Andrew Du Pree at Missing Persons headquarters. He made Andrew wait fifteen minutes in the interrogation room before beginning. Samantha followed Horatio into the room and slipped quietly into the seat next to him.

Horatio stared at Andrew long enough for the other man to feel like a criminal. He shifted in his seat and looked at Samantha. Her eyes were fixed on the table.

Horatio opened a file. He'd read and re-read the words so many times prior to the interview that he didn't have to look down to recite them. "Lieutenant Andrew Du Pree. Thirty-five years old, never married. Ten years with the New Orleans PD. Spotless record. Two citations for bravery."

Samantha took over. "But you lied to me the other day. We spoke with the owner of Stones. He says—"

Andrew sighed. "Not really. Calleigh was unhappy."

"Unhappy that you tried to kiss her?" Under the table, Horatio's hands clenched into fists.

"It's time to come clean, Lieutenant. The way things are looking, you're the prime suspect." Samantha wasn't sure whether she was angry with him for lying or mad at herself for liking him.

"I would never do anything to hurt Calleigh!" Andrew leaned forward and clasped his hands on the table. "Look, Calleigh and I dated, a long time ago. We were only together for a month before she broke it off to go to Miami."

He said the word with distaste and Horatio tensed. "And why didn't you tell Agent Spade?"

"I didn't think it was important. Cal made it clear that she wasn't interested in picking things up where we left off. I'm not real proud of the way I behaved and I called her the next morning to apologize, but there was no answer. I thought she'd already left for the day."

"You didn't seem too worried when I told you she was missing," Samantha said.

"I wasn't, then. Calleigh's like that. Impetuous . . . yeah, that's the word. She's impetuous. Impulsive. She likes doing things on the spur of the moment. I thought she'd bunked off the rest of the conference to do a little sightseeing. I thought she'd turn up again in her own time." He shook his head. "I always used to tell her doing things on the spur of the moment would get her into trouble."

Horatio's eyes narrowed. The Calleigh he knew was unpredictable, but she was certainly not as rash as Andrew claimed. But, he wondered, perhaps he didn't know her at all. "What do you mean by that?"

"Take Miami, for instance." Andrew was on a roll now. "Someone shows up offering a job and without blinking, she accepts it. And just a week before, she turned down an offer to join the FBI. I'll tell you one thing, if I had the choice between the FBI and a little crime lab in Miami, I'd choose the FBI. Guess y'all would say the same."

Samantha glanced at Horatio, relieved to see he appeared calm. Then he smiled – a deadly, predatorial smile – and Samantha found herself glad that she wasn't on the receiving end of it.

"Then you never understood Calleigh," Horatio said. "She doesn't do a job for what she can get out of it. I knew that much about her the day we met. It's why I invited her to Miami. Calleigh likes to be challenged." He paused, looked Andrew up and down. "I can imagine that part of the reason she ended things with you is that she found you less than challenging."

"Or too challenging."

Samantha masked her snort as a cough. She wondered what she'd been attracted to aside from Andrew's good looks and charming accent, and privately agreed with Horatio's assessment of him as less than challenging.

"Whatever the case," Andrew said, leaning back in his chair to deliver his closing shot, "if I were you, I'd speak to Agent Douglas. He was the one who wanted her to join the FBI."

"Agent Douglas?"

Andrew nodded. "Agent Barry Douglas. The man who organized the conference."

Samantha didn't think it was a good idea for Horatio to interview Barry and said as much. She wasn't surprised that he disagreed.

"Look, Horatio," she said and put her hand on his arm. She couldn't know that it was something Calleigh often did. When he stepped back and pulled his arm free, she set her hands on her hips and looked up at him.

"I'm worried about you. You're letting your feelings for Calleigh get in the way—"

He looked at her then with such raw despair that she wanted to hug him, but she knew he wouldn't let her.

"Sam, I have to her find her."

It was only later she realized that she'd let him call her Sam.

Horatio, Samantha and Jack interviewed Barry Douglas. As a courtesy to his friend, Jack held the meeting in Barry's office instead of one of the interview rooms. Horatio sat to one side and watched carefully for any hint that Barry was lying. Samantha sat next to him and kept casting worried glances in his direction.

"You never mentioned how you knew Calleigh Duquesne," Jack said.

"It didn't seem important."

"Everything's important."

"The New Orleans field office was tracking that serial rapist a couple of years back. You remember the guy who shot the husbands in the head and attacked the wives? Calleigh's ballistics skills were the only reason the guy was caught. I was impressed. I asked her if she'd ever considered joining the Bureau. She said she was happy with her job."

"She transferred to Miami a week later."

Barry nodded and addressed his answer to Horatio. "Calleigh would have hated being an agent. The FBI's loss was Miami's gain."

"So there were no hard feelings?"

"No. Not at all. I was happy for her."

"You invited her to New York, is that right?"

"Look, Jack, I understand why I'm a suspect but I had nothing to do with her disappearance. Yes, I invited her up here."

"Why?"

"Because she's the best in her field."

"When was the last time you saw her?" Samantha asked.

"Tuesday night, after her lecture. I introduced her to Jack. We chatted for a bit, then she left. Jack and I had a drink and I went home. You can check that with my wife. On Wednesday I attended lectures from nine until three. Then I—"

"All right," Jack said. He stood. "Thank you, Barry. I'm sorry about this. We had to ask."

"I know."

Horatio was very quiet as they left Barry's office. Jack caught Samantha's eye and tilted his head for her to follow. She looked at Horatio as she passed him.

"Talk to everyone at the hotel again. Someone must have seen something. People don't just disappear into thin air."

Except, Samantha thought, sometimes they did.

Horatio stared at his reflection in the bar counter. Mike, the bartender, put another drink in front of him. Horatio tilted his head back and let the liquid burn down his throat. He knew he shouldn't be drinking but he needed the numbness that the alcohol brought. He didn't want to feel Calleigh's absence and hoped that if he got drunk enough, he could forget. He'd done the same the night Ray had died.

"Hey, Horatio."

She'd found him that night and driven him home. He'd kissed her, and she'd let him fall asleep in her arms.

"Come on, Horatio. Let's go."

He decided that tonight he wouldn't leave it there. Because in the morning she'd be gone and he wanted to remember. As she took his arm to steady him, he pulled her close and kissed her.

Samantha wasn't sure how to react. The last thing she'd expected when she'd walked up to Horatio was that he'd kiss her. She ducked her head and stepped back.

"Uh, you should, umm, get back to your hotel. You need to sleep this off."

She couldn't look at him during the cab ride but she felt his gaze on her. He took her hand in the elevator ride up to his room and smiled, and her heart broke for him. The love she saw in his eyes was for a woman who, for all they knew, could already be dead.

She should have stayed in the cab, she thought.

Horatio's hand shook as he unlocked the door then stepped aside to let her enter. She wondered what the hell she was doing there. And then his hands were on her waist and his lips were on her neck and it didn't matter.

"Calleigh . . ."

Samantha blinked back tears. He would hate her in the morning, she realized, but right now she needed to be loved as much as he needed someone to love.

They stumbled to the bed, discarding clothing on the way. Her calves hit the mattress and she fell backwards. He knelt over her, kissing and touching and murmuring words too low for her to hear.

Afterwards, Samantha held him until he fell asleep. Then she slipped quietly out of bed and got dressed. She hesitated at the door, looked back over her shoulder, then left.

She arrived home to find a message from Jack on her answering machine. Sam? Are you there? . . . Uh, I was wondering . . . Never mind, I'll see you tomorrow.

Samantha played the message again, then sat on the couch and buried her face in her hands. "Damn it, Jack, why do you keep doing this?"