Chapter Four: The Suspect
Robert "Bobby" Miller is dead. He had been shot through the head, it had been almost instantaneous. The CSI team was brought in, but the detectives were already moving, without waiting for the evidence. They already had a pretty good idea where to start looking. There had been a very public threat against his life two days before, in a high-end restaurant. So the team started working the scene, and the detectives went to pick up Bethany James.
Bethany was just leaving the office to go talk to some people on business. When the detectives showed up there was nothing in her manner to indicate she was apprehensive, nothing furtive. Hell, she acted just like nothing special had gone on last night. When they said they wanted to talk to her, she thought it was about business.
"Could you use one of the other guys? I'm on my way to a meeting."
"It's not like that Ms. James. We can talk to you here, or we can talk down at the station."
"It must be important, if it's got you talking in stereotype. Let's go upstairs."
She sent Kelly and Ron to talk to her contacts, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at her desk. "Well? What's up?"
"Where were you between 11 pm and 1 am last night." Detective John Hagen asked.
Bethany looked at him for a moment, and then said, "I can't discuss that with you. Why do you ask? What happened between those times that I'm supposed to be involved with?"
"Ms. James, the way this works is, we ask and you answer."
Bethany looked at him again. She had never personally worked with Hagen before, didn't know him, and he didn't know her.
"Look, I've already told you that I am not going to tell you what I was doing last night. So now what do you want to do?"
Hagen had never worked with Bethany, but had talked to others who had. What they had told him was being born out. She wasn't going to be intimidated, judging from these preliminary give and takes. Okay, let's try a different approach.
Hagen said, "A few days ago you threatened the life of Bobby Miller in a restaurant."
"Is that little cockroach pressing charges? I'm amazed. I never would have thought he would have dared to get me into a court of law."
"He's not pressing charges. He was murdered last night."
"Oh." She paused for a minute. "Between 11 and 1, huh?"
"That's right. So now I ask you again: where were you last night?"
"Look, detective, I'm honestly not trying to make your life more difficult, but there is no way I can tell you where I was."
Hagen sighed, "I think we need to go down to the station."
"Alright. You want to cuff me?" Bethany took off the gun she wore on her hip, keeping it in the holster. She started to put it away in her drawer, then hesitated. "Do you need this? Was he killed with a gun?"
"You would hardly offer it to me if that was the one you used. I think we can forgo the cuffs at this time. We'll come back with a warrant and search this place, your home, your car. You can leave the gun here. We'll pick it up later."
"Alright." As they were walking out Bethany told Jane (the receptionist) "Call Jack, these guys are taking me downtown, and are going to be coming back with a search warrant. I'm a suspect in a murder."
At the crime scene they had found some hairs that looked promising. In fact, that was the most promising thing they found. The other stuff left behind, a smudged shoe print, and a partial fingerprint were to be run through normally. They took the hairs to the lab to run against the suspect the police had in custody.
When Bethany first got to the room, she and Hagen were talking civilly to each other. "Look, talk to your colleagues. I didn't do it, I wouldn't do it. I can give you all the DNA you need. Do you want hair? Fingerprints? Blood? Urine? You name it, you've got it."
"I'll take you up on that offer, thank you." Calleigh came in, then stopped when she saw who it was. She asked Hagen if she could talk to him outside.
"Bethany James is your suspect?" she asked.
"Yeah, she was heard by dozens of people threatening Miller's life two days ago. She's not even pretending to be sorry he's dead, and she refuses to give an alibi for the time frame of the murder."
"Bethany is a friend of mine. I know her. There's no way she would have done this." Calleigh told him.
"Then there's no problem, right? You're the one who's always saying how evidence doesn't lie. So take her sample, compare it with the hairs found at the scene, and that should clear her."
"Okay, you're right. It just feels weird, doing this to a friend. Oh, God, and what about Horatio? When he hears about this he's going to hit the roof."
"Caine? Why, what's this got to do with him?"
"He and Bethany are close. I don't know exactly what their relationship is. Actually, I'm not sure they know exactly what their relationship is, but he's going to have a conniption when he finds out she's the prime suspect."
"I can't see Caine having a conniption under any circumstances. Maybe I should get him in here? Maybe he can talk so sense into her."
"He's in court right now. Get word to him as soon as he's out."
Calleigh went back into the room and got the samples from Bethany.
Hagen brought Bethany some coffee, and while he didn't stop asking questions, the way that she had responded made him believe she hadn't done it. Comparing her DNA from the swab to the hair found at the scene took several hours, even though it had a priority tag on it. In the end Hagen felt like a fool. He stormed into the room, throwing the test results down on the table in front of Bethany. "It's your hair. You better have a damn good explanation."
This was right around the time Horatio showed up. He came into the room, and picked up the results, looking them over.
Bethany was stunned. "There's no way. There's been some kind of mistake. I don't even know where he's staying, I wasn't anywhere near him."
Hagen said, "So explain it."
"I can't. Wait, you said you found hairs, right?" Bethany asked.
"Yeah. Your hairs."
"My hairs. Right. The kind of hairs you get in a hairbrush?"
Hagen and Horatio both looked at her.
"My hairbrush that was put into evidence here disappeared. Call Tripp. I want to talk to him."
Tripp showed up and confirmed what she had said about the hairbrush. Only a few minutes after that Jack, counsel for Will Brayker and Co, came into the building and was led to the interrogation room. He conferred with Bethany while Horatio and Hagen talked outside.
Hagen said, "Everyone always says they've been framed."
"That's true, but not everyone has a police detective corroborating a way the frame could have happened. If Bethany had really killed this man she would have come up with something more original. She also would have had an alibi ready. Actually, if she had done it, I doubt a body would have ever been found."
Hagen snapped, "Look, I know you two are involved."
"Involved." Horatio gave a small smile. He looked levelly at Hagen. "We are not, as you say, involved. But I do know her, and I know she didn't do this."
"That's the same thing Calleigh said. If she's so innocent why won't she tell us where she was?"
"I don't know. Whatever it is, she thinks it's important enough to protect."
"This is crap. Either she did it, or she's holding up an investigation."
"She's not holding up anything. We're not done processing the evidence yet. That is what's going to tell us where to look, not Bethany telling us where she was at the time."
The tension was rising exponentially between the two men.
Hagen said "I think you're too close to this. Your emotions are getting in the way."
Horatio was starting to reply when Jack interrupted them, telling them they could come back in.
Nothing really had changed since the lawyer came. Bethany was sticking to the same line as before. She didn't do it, and she wasn't going to say where she was. She did ask to have her clothes and skin tested for gunpowder residue. Her hands were clean, and so where the clothes she was wearing at the moment, but Hagen wanted to test all the clothes in her home. There was a warrant in the works to do that and more, at her home, at her work, and also her car, just as promised.
Horatio spoke for the first time to Bethany since he'd arrived. "The detectives are going to hang onto you as the prime suspect until they are forced to look elsewhere. If you don't tell us, we'll have to find out for ourselves, and that will take time, which could be used to track down the real killer. Every minute we're wasting here because of your stubbornness lets the trail get colder."
"Look, I've worked with the Miami-Dade PD plenty of times, and with Austin PD before that. You can believe me when I say you need to be out there looking for..." She stopped in mid-sentence. She looked like she'd stopped in mid-thought. Her hand was raised, frozen in the air from gesturing. Her mouth was still open from the words she had been speaking. You could almost see the tumblers in her mind clicking into place. . . . "You know what, Hagen is right. I did do it. I killed him and I'm ready to make a full confession."
"What!?" The word came from all three men in the room simultaneously.
"Look, Bobby Miller was a monster. He needed killing. Did I tell you about the time he held a woman down, pried her eyelids open, and put a lit cigarette on her eye? He got away with that, dozens of other maimings and mutilations, not to mention at least two murders, although I think the end total was more like five. When I found out he was in my town, I warned him to leave, and when he didn't I followed and killed him. I probably saved lives by what I did."
"Bethany, what the hell are you saying? You didn't kill him," Horatio said.
"Oh yes I did, and your own evidence supports it."
Horatio stared at her. "You realize you'll go to prison over this"
Bethany replied, "Yes."
"And the real killer will still be out there."
She flinched, just a little, but enough for Horatio to notice.
"What's going on?"
"Horatio, get out of here. This is a done deal."
Meanwhile the lawyer had been trying to get her to shut the hell up. Bethany told him "Jack, make the best deal you can."
Horatio said, "I would like to speak to Ms. James alone."
"Absolutely not," the lawyer answered.
"Counselor, your client just confessed to murder. In what way do you think I can make this situation any worse?" Bethany said, "There's nothing to talk about. I said you need to get out of here. Call your people off the crime scene, save the taxpayers some money."
Horatio insisted with a "Gentlemen, if you please."
The other two men left the room. Horatio pulled a chair over, so he was sitting near Bethany at 90 angle from her, so he could watch her face. She refused to meet his eyes.
"So what's going on here, Bethany? I know you didn't do it. We had breakfast this morning. I don't think even you have enough spine to murder a man, then have breakfast with me."
"Horatio, I can't. I wish I could, but the Miami police department has got leaks, and I can't do it."
Horatio said, "You can trust me, though."
"I would trust you with my life. But it's not my life on the line."
"Whatever it is, is it worth you going to prison for?" asked Horatio
Bethany replied, "Yes" with no hesitation
Horatio went for the only sign of weakness he had seen so far. "And the real murderer? What about him getting away?"
"I'll deal with that later."
"Whatever we have, whatever we might have later, I don't think it can stand you letting a murderer get away."
Pain flashed briefly in Bethany's eyes. Then she said, "I know. And I'm sorry. But it's worth that too."
"Would you talk to me? Please?"
"There are too many ears here. I can't. Even if there weren't, whatever I told you would end up on a report, and who knows how many people would see that." Bethany sat back in her chair.
Jack and Hagen came in, much to Horatio's frustration. Jack had managed through some kind of legal mumbo-jumbo to get Bethany's preliminary hearing set for a few hours from now. Normally it takes days. Bethany got released on bail. She went home to her apartment, and late that night got a visitor. She answered the door with a shotgun in her hand, and saw Horatio standing there. She put the shotgun down, and raised her eyebrows to the look on Horatio's face.
Horatio started first, "Okay, just you and me. No extra ears, nothing going on a report. Now will you talk to me?"
"I'll tell you what I think, but not anything specific."
Horatio sighed, and said, "I guess that will do. For now."
"Okay, come on in."
Bethany got a glass of wine, not her first of the evening, and offered one to H. He declined. She sat in an armchair, curling her legs under her. Horatio sat on the couch, as far away from her as the furniture would allow.
It was Bethany's turn to talk. "Alright. What do you know about Joshua Hernandez?"
"I know what everyone knows. He has stopped more drugs from coming into the country than most official government agencies. Has the nickname 'The Anti-Drug Lord' and has done it all on his own. He doesn't work for the government, although he does work with them on occasion. Last seen in L.A."
Bethany nodded and said, "Did you know that several organized crime groups have started working together with eliminating him as the goal? They've combined money, and there's a bounty on his head of 200 Million dollars."
Horatio whistled. "That's more then is offered for Bin Laden."
"Yeah, they want him dead in a very bad way. And right now he's sick."
Horatio stared at her. "What?"
"He can't protect himself. So a few of his friends are looking out for him. I'm one of them. I was watching over him when Miller was murdered."
Horatio said, "Why didn't you say this at the station?"
"Okay, a hairbrush that was logged into evidence was used to set me up. Someone in the Miami PD has been bought. Who am I supposed to trust? Who wouldn't go bad for that kind of money?"
"Well, there's me."
Bethany said "And I'm telling you now. But I couldn't be sure who would have heard at the station."
Horatio took his time, thinking things through with the new information. "Somebody already knows you're involved. Otherwise you wouldn't be in this frame up."
"I know. When I didn't go tonight for my shift he would have been moved. He should be out of the city by now. I hope he's out of the state. I think I was framed on suspicion. Someone figured I would have to tell the location to the cops to avoid going to prison."
Horatio said, "Now you're going to be on trial for murder."
"Now I'm going to be on trial for murder. Sure you don't want something to drink? I'm getting another." Bethany got up and poured another glass of wine. It finished the bottle.
Horatio noticed this and said, "So you are scared."
"Of course I'm scared. I've never been in prison. I don't know what it's like, what I'll have to do to survive. But that doesn't matter. Hernandez is more important than me being scared. And you know what?...I'm part cat. I always land on my feet. I'll make lots of contacts in the underworld, increase my knowledge of how these people think and act. See, I've got some silver linings."
"If he's no longer here, why do you have to confess to protect him?"
"I don't know who set me up. I don't know what their thinking is. I don't know if they think I'm the only one who was helping him or not. If they think it was just me, I have to keep them focused here. The only way I have left to help him is by buying him some time to get as far away from here as possible. It's a classic distraction technique. Keep them watching the left hand, while the right hand does something sneaky."
Horatio smiled slightly at her. It didn't reach his eyes. "Alright. Check me on this, though. If I were to find the actual murderer, a whole bunch of your problems would go away."
"To quote the real Buffy 'Does the word Duh mean anything to you?' I thought the only evidence y'all found was mine, though."
Horatio said, "Not quite. The only clean evidence we found was yours, but we've found some other things. My team running with it. I'll also go over the crime scene personally. Not matter how small, I'll find it. The killer always leaves something behind. It's one of the rules."
Bethany said, "I like that rule. I have to say, though, killing Bobby Miller, despite the problems it's causing me, really was helping out the human race. If this guy hadn't used the deed to set me up, I probably would have paid his bail."
Horatio asked, "Was that cigarette story true?"
"Yeah. He really liked to hurt women. Had a think about porn stars, I guess because they were sexy but no one really cares enough to protect them. That's a powerful double whammy. We even found two bodies in New Orleans. When we gave all the evidence to the state of Louisiana it was thrown out. Sometimes the rich are untouchable. I guess Miller got touched last night. Miller was paying off the women to keep them quiet. I wonder what's going to happen to them now."
Horatio got up. "I better go. I'm going to pull the team off everything else. We'll find something. Are you going to be alright here?"
Bethany walked H to the door. "Yeah. I'll be fine, one way or another. I'm part cat, remember."
"You're part cat, and I'm going to help you land on your feet."
Bethany smiled at him. "You're really good at this whole Knight in Shining Armor thing, aren't you?"
H gave her another small smile, looked at her a moment, then he turned and left.
The investigation into the other evidence was underway, but going too slowly for Horatio's comfort. He worked on getting the results finished after the others had gone to work. The next couple of days, while the team was in the lab Horatio went with Dective Hagen, trying to find Edward Winters, the man who had stolen the hairbrush. Mr. Winters had disappeared, no sign of him in Miami, or in Florida for that matter.
Speed was talking to Horatio and mentioned "We really don't have that much evidence to go on."
Horatio replied, "We don't need much. We just need enough."
After talking to room service they knew there was at least one woman in the room that night. Knowing Miller's tastes Hagen and Horatio went to porn producers, and talked to the actresses. They finally found the woman who had been with Bobby that night.
Between a smudged shoe print, a partial fingerprint, and a description given by the woman of a man she passed in the hall as she was leaving the room, they discovered the killer was Graham Neilson. Neilson was ex-FBI, who had burned out on the job, and had apparently decided if you can't beat them, then you join them. He knew that Miller was a blight on humanity, killing him would be doing genetics a favor. He hadn't meant to get Bethany into much trouble. If she had just given Hernandez up to the police Neilson's contacts would have done the rest, and she would have been fine.
Horatio said, "But you were going to kill Hernandez, weren't you? He's a good man, and you were going to kill him for money. You counted on Ms. James to turn her friend over, no realizing she would rather go to prison than betray a friend. I don't blame you for not realizing it. Obviously loyalty and trust aren't something you would know anything about."
Neilson asked, "Now what happens?"
"Well, now you're going to talk to internal affairs about your contacts within the department, and then you are going to be on trial for the murder of Robert Miller. Now, I am going to do the best I can to make sure you can never hurt anyone again."
Horatio was on the beach, looking out towards the ocean. Bethany walked up and stood next to him, also looking out.
Bethany said, "So, you got him."
"Yes we did."
They watch the ocean for a while. Then H reached over, still watching the water, and slid his hand down Bethany's arm until their fingers intertwined.
Horatio asked, "Are you okay with this?"
Bethany nodded, squeezing his hand.
Horatio nodded to himself. "Good, because I don't think I'll be letting go anytime soon."
Bethany looked at him and smiled.
Horatio used the interlocked hands to draw her to him, and kissed her. Then they both turned back to the ocean, looking out over the waves.
Robert "Bobby" Miller is dead. He had been shot through the head, it had been almost instantaneous. The CSI team was brought in, but the detectives were already moving, without waiting for the evidence. They already had a pretty good idea where to start looking. There had been a very public threat against his life two days before, in a high-end restaurant. So the team started working the scene, and the detectives went to pick up Bethany James.
Bethany was just leaving the office to go talk to some people on business. When the detectives showed up there was nothing in her manner to indicate she was apprehensive, nothing furtive. Hell, she acted just like nothing special had gone on last night. When they said they wanted to talk to her, she thought it was about business.
"Could you use one of the other guys? I'm on my way to a meeting."
"It's not like that Ms. James. We can talk to you here, or we can talk down at the station."
"It must be important, if it's got you talking in stereotype. Let's go upstairs."
She sent Kelly and Ron to talk to her contacts, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at her desk. "Well? What's up?"
"Where were you between 11 pm and 1 am last night." Detective John Hagen asked.
Bethany looked at him for a moment, and then said, "I can't discuss that with you. Why do you ask? What happened between those times that I'm supposed to be involved with?"
"Ms. James, the way this works is, we ask and you answer."
Bethany looked at him again. She had never personally worked with Hagen before, didn't know him, and he didn't know her.
"Look, I've already told you that I am not going to tell you what I was doing last night. So now what do you want to do?"
Hagen had never worked with Bethany, but had talked to others who had. What they had told him was being born out. She wasn't going to be intimidated, judging from these preliminary give and takes. Okay, let's try a different approach.
Hagen said, "A few days ago you threatened the life of Bobby Miller in a restaurant."
"Is that little cockroach pressing charges? I'm amazed. I never would have thought he would have dared to get me into a court of law."
"He's not pressing charges. He was murdered last night."
"Oh." She paused for a minute. "Between 11 and 1, huh?"
"That's right. So now I ask you again: where were you last night?"
"Look, detective, I'm honestly not trying to make your life more difficult, but there is no way I can tell you where I was."
Hagen sighed, "I think we need to go down to the station."
"Alright. You want to cuff me?" Bethany took off the gun she wore on her hip, keeping it in the holster. She started to put it away in her drawer, then hesitated. "Do you need this? Was he killed with a gun?"
"You would hardly offer it to me if that was the one you used. I think we can forgo the cuffs at this time. We'll come back with a warrant and search this place, your home, your car. You can leave the gun here. We'll pick it up later."
"Alright." As they were walking out Bethany told Jane (the receptionist) "Call Jack, these guys are taking me downtown, and are going to be coming back with a search warrant. I'm a suspect in a murder."
At the crime scene they had found some hairs that looked promising. In fact, that was the most promising thing they found. The other stuff left behind, a smudged shoe print, and a partial fingerprint were to be run through normally. They took the hairs to the lab to run against the suspect the police had in custody.
When Bethany first got to the room, she and Hagen were talking civilly to each other. "Look, talk to your colleagues. I didn't do it, I wouldn't do it. I can give you all the DNA you need. Do you want hair? Fingerprints? Blood? Urine? You name it, you've got it."
"I'll take you up on that offer, thank you." Calleigh came in, then stopped when she saw who it was. She asked Hagen if she could talk to him outside.
"Bethany James is your suspect?" she asked.
"Yeah, she was heard by dozens of people threatening Miller's life two days ago. She's not even pretending to be sorry he's dead, and she refuses to give an alibi for the time frame of the murder."
"Bethany is a friend of mine. I know her. There's no way she would have done this." Calleigh told him.
"Then there's no problem, right? You're the one who's always saying how evidence doesn't lie. So take her sample, compare it with the hairs found at the scene, and that should clear her."
"Okay, you're right. It just feels weird, doing this to a friend. Oh, God, and what about Horatio? When he hears about this he's going to hit the roof."
"Caine? Why, what's this got to do with him?"
"He and Bethany are close. I don't know exactly what their relationship is. Actually, I'm not sure they know exactly what their relationship is, but he's going to have a conniption when he finds out she's the prime suspect."
"I can't see Caine having a conniption under any circumstances. Maybe I should get him in here? Maybe he can talk so sense into her."
"He's in court right now. Get word to him as soon as he's out."
Calleigh went back into the room and got the samples from Bethany.
Hagen brought Bethany some coffee, and while he didn't stop asking questions, the way that she had responded made him believe she hadn't done it. Comparing her DNA from the swab to the hair found at the scene took several hours, even though it had a priority tag on it. In the end Hagen felt like a fool. He stormed into the room, throwing the test results down on the table in front of Bethany. "It's your hair. You better have a damn good explanation."
This was right around the time Horatio showed up. He came into the room, and picked up the results, looking them over.
Bethany was stunned. "There's no way. There's been some kind of mistake. I don't even know where he's staying, I wasn't anywhere near him."
Hagen said, "So explain it."
"I can't. Wait, you said you found hairs, right?" Bethany asked.
"Yeah. Your hairs."
"My hairs. Right. The kind of hairs you get in a hairbrush?"
Hagen and Horatio both looked at her.
"My hairbrush that was put into evidence here disappeared. Call Tripp. I want to talk to him."
Tripp showed up and confirmed what she had said about the hairbrush. Only a few minutes after that Jack, counsel for Will Brayker and Co, came into the building and was led to the interrogation room. He conferred with Bethany while Horatio and Hagen talked outside.
Hagen said, "Everyone always says they've been framed."
"That's true, but not everyone has a police detective corroborating a way the frame could have happened. If Bethany had really killed this man she would have come up with something more original. She also would have had an alibi ready. Actually, if she had done it, I doubt a body would have ever been found."
Hagen snapped, "Look, I know you two are involved."
"Involved." Horatio gave a small smile. He looked levelly at Hagen. "We are not, as you say, involved. But I do know her, and I know she didn't do this."
"That's the same thing Calleigh said. If she's so innocent why won't she tell us where she was?"
"I don't know. Whatever it is, she thinks it's important enough to protect."
"This is crap. Either she did it, or she's holding up an investigation."
"She's not holding up anything. We're not done processing the evidence yet. That is what's going to tell us where to look, not Bethany telling us where she was at the time."
The tension was rising exponentially between the two men.
Hagen said "I think you're too close to this. Your emotions are getting in the way."
Horatio was starting to reply when Jack interrupted them, telling them they could come back in.
Nothing really had changed since the lawyer came. Bethany was sticking to the same line as before. She didn't do it, and she wasn't going to say where she was. She did ask to have her clothes and skin tested for gunpowder residue. Her hands were clean, and so where the clothes she was wearing at the moment, but Hagen wanted to test all the clothes in her home. There was a warrant in the works to do that and more, at her home, at her work, and also her car, just as promised.
Horatio spoke for the first time to Bethany since he'd arrived. "The detectives are going to hang onto you as the prime suspect until they are forced to look elsewhere. If you don't tell us, we'll have to find out for ourselves, and that will take time, which could be used to track down the real killer. Every minute we're wasting here because of your stubbornness lets the trail get colder."
"Look, I've worked with the Miami-Dade PD plenty of times, and with Austin PD before that. You can believe me when I say you need to be out there looking for..." She stopped in mid-sentence. She looked like she'd stopped in mid-thought. Her hand was raised, frozen in the air from gesturing. Her mouth was still open from the words she had been speaking. You could almost see the tumblers in her mind clicking into place. . . . "You know what, Hagen is right. I did do it. I killed him and I'm ready to make a full confession."
"What!?" The word came from all three men in the room simultaneously.
"Look, Bobby Miller was a monster. He needed killing. Did I tell you about the time he held a woman down, pried her eyelids open, and put a lit cigarette on her eye? He got away with that, dozens of other maimings and mutilations, not to mention at least two murders, although I think the end total was more like five. When I found out he was in my town, I warned him to leave, and when he didn't I followed and killed him. I probably saved lives by what I did."
"Bethany, what the hell are you saying? You didn't kill him," Horatio said.
"Oh yes I did, and your own evidence supports it."
Horatio stared at her. "You realize you'll go to prison over this"
Bethany replied, "Yes."
"And the real killer will still be out there."
She flinched, just a little, but enough for Horatio to notice.
"What's going on?"
"Horatio, get out of here. This is a done deal."
Meanwhile the lawyer had been trying to get her to shut the hell up. Bethany told him "Jack, make the best deal you can."
Horatio said, "I would like to speak to Ms. James alone."
"Absolutely not," the lawyer answered.
"Counselor, your client just confessed to murder. In what way do you think I can make this situation any worse?" Bethany said, "There's nothing to talk about. I said you need to get out of here. Call your people off the crime scene, save the taxpayers some money."
Horatio insisted with a "Gentlemen, if you please."
The other two men left the room. Horatio pulled a chair over, so he was sitting near Bethany at 90 angle from her, so he could watch her face. She refused to meet his eyes.
"So what's going on here, Bethany? I know you didn't do it. We had breakfast this morning. I don't think even you have enough spine to murder a man, then have breakfast with me."
"Horatio, I can't. I wish I could, but the Miami police department has got leaks, and I can't do it."
Horatio said, "You can trust me, though."
"I would trust you with my life. But it's not my life on the line."
"Whatever it is, is it worth you going to prison for?" asked Horatio
Bethany replied, "Yes" with no hesitation
Horatio went for the only sign of weakness he had seen so far. "And the real murderer? What about him getting away?"
"I'll deal with that later."
"Whatever we have, whatever we might have later, I don't think it can stand you letting a murderer get away."
Pain flashed briefly in Bethany's eyes. Then she said, "I know. And I'm sorry. But it's worth that too."
"Would you talk to me? Please?"
"There are too many ears here. I can't. Even if there weren't, whatever I told you would end up on a report, and who knows how many people would see that." Bethany sat back in her chair.
Jack and Hagen came in, much to Horatio's frustration. Jack had managed through some kind of legal mumbo-jumbo to get Bethany's preliminary hearing set for a few hours from now. Normally it takes days. Bethany got released on bail. She went home to her apartment, and late that night got a visitor. She answered the door with a shotgun in her hand, and saw Horatio standing there. She put the shotgun down, and raised her eyebrows to the look on Horatio's face.
Horatio started first, "Okay, just you and me. No extra ears, nothing going on a report. Now will you talk to me?"
"I'll tell you what I think, but not anything specific."
Horatio sighed, and said, "I guess that will do. For now."
"Okay, come on in."
Bethany got a glass of wine, not her first of the evening, and offered one to H. He declined. She sat in an armchair, curling her legs under her. Horatio sat on the couch, as far away from her as the furniture would allow.
It was Bethany's turn to talk. "Alright. What do you know about Joshua Hernandez?"
"I know what everyone knows. He has stopped more drugs from coming into the country than most official government agencies. Has the nickname 'The Anti-Drug Lord' and has done it all on his own. He doesn't work for the government, although he does work with them on occasion. Last seen in L.A."
Bethany nodded and said, "Did you know that several organized crime groups have started working together with eliminating him as the goal? They've combined money, and there's a bounty on his head of 200 Million dollars."
Horatio whistled. "That's more then is offered for Bin Laden."
"Yeah, they want him dead in a very bad way. And right now he's sick."
Horatio stared at her. "What?"
"He can't protect himself. So a few of his friends are looking out for him. I'm one of them. I was watching over him when Miller was murdered."
Horatio said, "Why didn't you say this at the station?"
"Okay, a hairbrush that was logged into evidence was used to set me up. Someone in the Miami PD has been bought. Who am I supposed to trust? Who wouldn't go bad for that kind of money?"
"Well, there's me."
Bethany said "And I'm telling you now. But I couldn't be sure who would have heard at the station."
Horatio took his time, thinking things through with the new information. "Somebody already knows you're involved. Otherwise you wouldn't be in this frame up."
"I know. When I didn't go tonight for my shift he would have been moved. He should be out of the city by now. I hope he's out of the state. I think I was framed on suspicion. Someone figured I would have to tell the location to the cops to avoid going to prison."
Horatio said, "Now you're going to be on trial for murder."
"Now I'm going to be on trial for murder. Sure you don't want something to drink? I'm getting another." Bethany got up and poured another glass of wine. It finished the bottle.
Horatio noticed this and said, "So you are scared."
"Of course I'm scared. I've never been in prison. I don't know what it's like, what I'll have to do to survive. But that doesn't matter. Hernandez is more important than me being scared. And you know what?...I'm part cat. I always land on my feet. I'll make lots of contacts in the underworld, increase my knowledge of how these people think and act. See, I've got some silver linings."
"If he's no longer here, why do you have to confess to protect him?"
"I don't know who set me up. I don't know what their thinking is. I don't know if they think I'm the only one who was helping him or not. If they think it was just me, I have to keep them focused here. The only way I have left to help him is by buying him some time to get as far away from here as possible. It's a classic distraction technique. Keep them watching the left hand, while the right hand does something sneaky."
Horatio smiled slightly at her. It didn't reach his eyes. "Alright. Check me on this, though. If I were to find the actual murderer, a whole bunch of your problems would go away."
"To quote the real Buffy 'Does the word Duh mean anything to you?' I thought the only evidence y'all found was mine, though."
Horatio said, "Not quite. The only clean evidence we found was yours, but we've found some other things. My team running with it. I'll also go over the crime scene personally. Not matter how small, I'll find it. The killer always leaves something behind. It's one of the rules."
Bethany said, "I like that rule. I have to say, though, killing Bobby Miller, despite the problems it's causing me, really was helping out the human race. If this guy hadn't used the deed to set me up, I probably would have paid his bail."
Horatio asked, "Was that cigarette story true?"
"Yeah. He really liked to hurt women. Had a think about porn stars, I guess because they were sexy but no one really cares enough to protect them. That's a powerful double whammy. We even found two bodies in New Orleans. When we gave all the evidence to the state of Louisiana it was thrown out. Sometimes the rich are untouchable. I guess Miller got touched last night. Miller was paying off the women to keep them quiet. I wonder what's going to happen to them now."
Horatio got up. "I better go. I'm going to pull the team off everything else. We'll find something. Are you going to be alright here?"
Bethany walked H to the door. "Yeah. I'll be fine, one way or another. I'm part cat, remember."
"You're part cat, and I'm going to help you land on your feet."
Bethany smiled at him. "You're really good at this whole Knight in Shining Armor thing, aren't you?"
H gave her another small smile, looked at her a moment, then he turned and left.
The investigation into the other evidence was underway, but going too slowly for Horatio's comfort. He worked on getting the results finished after the others had gone to work. The next couple of days, while the team was in the lab Horatio went with Dective Hagen, trying to find Edward Winters, the man who had stolen the hairbrush. Mr. Winters had disappeared, no sign of him in Miami, or in Florida for that matter.
Speed was talking to Horatio and mentioned "We really don't have that much evidence to go on."
Horatio replied, "We don't need much. We just need enough."
After talking to room service they knew there was at least one woman in the room that night. Knowing Miller's tastes Hagen and Horatio went to porn producers, and talked to the actresses. They finally found the woman who had been with Bobby that night.
Between a smudged shoe print, a partial fingerprint, and a description given by the woman of a man she passed in the hall as she was leaving the room, they discovered the killer was Graham Neilson. Neilson was ex-FBI, who had burned out on the job, and had apparently decided if you can't beat them, then you join them. He knew that Miller was a blight on humanity, killing him would be doing genetics a favor. He hadn't meant to get Bethany into much trouble. If she had just given Hernandez up to the police Neilson's contacts would have done the rest, and she would have been fine.
Horatio said, "But you were going to kill Hernandez, weren't you? He's a good man, and you were going to kill him for money. You counted on Ms. James to turn her friend over, no realizing she would rather go to prison than betray a friend. I don't blame you for not realizing it. Obviously loyalty and trust aren't something you would know anything about."
Neilson asked, "Now what happens?"
"Well, now you're going to talk to internal affairs about your contacts within the department, and then you are going to be on trial for the murder of Robert Miller. Now, I am going to do the best I can to make sure you can never hurt anyone again."
Horatio was on the beach, looking out towards the ocean. Bethany walked up and stood next to him, also looking out.
Bethany said, "So, you got him."
"Yes we did."
They watch the ocean for a while. Then H reached over, still watching the water, and slid his hand down Bethany's arm until their fingers intertwined.
Horatio asked, "Are you okay with this?"
Bethany nodded, squeezing his hand.
Horatio nodded to himself. "Good, because I don't think I'll be letting go anytime soon."
Bethany looked at him and smiled.
Horatio used the interlocked hands to draw her to him, and kissed her. Then they both turned back to the ocean, looking out over the waves.