PART 6
"YOU LOUSY! EGOTISTICAL! SON OF A BITCH!!!" Jamie stormed right up to Bailey, screaming at him at the top of her lungs. People were turning their heads to look at them, but she didn't care. "YOU KNEW!!! YOU KNEW AND YOU SAID NOTHING!!!"
"Jamie?" Horatio placed a hand on Jamie's shoulder as he approached them, mainly because he was worried that in about a minute she would lung at his throat "what's going on?"
"Leroy Hitchcomb has an FBI issued panic button disguised as a car alarm remote on his key chain" She told him, still shooting daggers at Agent Evans "He was working for the feds"
Horatio felt the rage boil up in his stomach as he turned to face Evans, coming closer to him until he was standing right in the man's face "You knew? You knew who this man was?" He asked very slowly through clenched teeth. "We could have gotten here hours ago.."
"Look, I didn't know anything about it, and even if I did there are procedures to follow in these cases" Bailey fumbled for words "I didn't know who this guy was..."
"You'd better not" Horatio said menacingly "Cause I swear to god if it turns out we were too late getting here because you and your stupid procedures - I am personally going to make sure this is going to be the last case of your career"
With that Horatio stormed off and went back into the building, leaving Jamie standing next to Bailey, still sending him an evil glare.
"Look J, I swear to you I didn't know..." Bailey tried to explain but she stepped away from him, refusing to listen
"It's Jamie! And don't even try it Bailey! Don't even try! I'm not stupid Bailey! I went to the same academy as you did and I know the procedure just like you do! Even if you didn't know who Hitchcomb was at first you knew before we got here because you ran his name through the FBI database way before we ever entered the building! And don't tell me you didn't - cause I know you - and you're too good of an agent not to have done that!"
For a moment the two of them just stood there as she shook her head at him, looking at him with what was mainly disappointment more then anything else. The she simply walked off slowly, following her boss and joining her team inside the building.
CSI CORONER"S LAB
"Hey there Call, I've been waiting for you..." Alexx said with a smile as she saw the blond coming through the doors.
"I heard you had a little present for me!" Calleigh smiled back at her
"I sure do!" Alexx handed her a small glass jar with a small bullet inside. "Does it look like the one you got out of the wall?"
"It looks like it" Calleigh said, lifting the jar to the light and inspecting it closely "But I won't know until I finish comparing them under the microscope"
She smiled and thanked Alexx then left the coroner's lab and made her way back to her ballistics lab. She carefully took the bullet out of the jar and placed it under the microscope where the other bullet they recovered from the wall was already ready. She looked through the lens and turned the tow bullets until the markings on the case were exactly aligned. "Like two pees in a pod"
Next she took a digitized image of the markings and went over to the computer - with a few clicks on her keys she started running a search through the database to look for any other bullets used in previous crimes that had the same markings on them.
*
CSI CRIME LAB
"Hey James, what are you working on?" Speed came into the room and took a seat next to Jamie who was sitting at the computer, looking intently on the screen.
"We found some photos on the hard drive you brought in, they must have used a digital camera. They tried to erase the files but I think I can restore them - maybe we'll find something on them." Jamie sighed, rubbing her eyes in frustration. It was late in the night - or more accurately - early in the morning - and they only just returned from the crime scene. In fact Erik was still there, wrapping things up. She reached over to her coffee, taking a sip and making a face when she found it cold.
"What number of coffee cup is that?" he smiled at her, getting up to stand behind her and rub her shoulders and at the same time looking at the images on the screen.
"I lost count about 7 hundred cups ago" She aid sarcastically, fighting the urge to surrender to his hands that were working wonders on her shoulders "Look at this, I got the this picture back up but it's a little bit distorted - like a negative, once I'm done working on it we might be able to find some shiny surface or a silhouette and maybe identify who Hitchcomb's partners were."
"Well I got something" he told her triumphantly "It seems like they sent an e-mail right before they deleted the hard drive - I have a tracing program running trying to locate the IP address to an actual address"
"Maybe they sent an e-mail to their buyer..." Jamie suggested hopefully
They were startled by a knock on the door and turned to see Agent Evans rapping on the glass window
"Great!" Speed sighed in disgust "Now what?"
*
The whole team along with Agent Bailey Evans and one of his men a guy named David Alison were gathered in the Horatio's office. Jamie knew Alison from her days in the Bureau - he was a good crime scene investigator and a fairly good scientist but he lacked imagination - the ability to come up with ways for the puzzle to fit. Sometimes you needed to think about the road less traveled so to speak, the things that were little less obvious - and David just didn't have that ability.
The office was way to small to hold these many people and the all ended up sitting close together - sharing couch space and leaning against walls. From his place leaning against the far wall Bailey could see Jamie and Speed sharing the couch, their heads buried in a file they were going over together.
Earlier, when he came to get them from the audiovisual lab, he saw them together - Speed was rubbing her shoulders in what was obviously a small intimate moment. They looked close - like now, they appeared to be sharing a secret, sitting so close to each other. He looked over at Horatio - wondering if he knew about it...
"Agent Evans?" Erik Delko's voice shook him out of his thoughts "You said you had something?"
"Yeah well, I got Leroy Hitchcomb's file from our database" Bailey gave out copies for everyone, trying to avoid meeting Jamie and Horatio's angry glares. "He was helping us out with some information about a child smuggling operation out of central America. A few month ago he dropped out of sight, stopped making contact. We do have the names of the contacts he made before he dropped off the radar - I figured one of these people probably made him an offer he couldn't refuse."
"I'll cross reference these names with whatever we recover from the hard drive of the computer - see if any name pops up!" Speed informed them
"We finished going over the slaughterhouse" Erik reported passing around pictures of the crime scene "We found a room in the basement where the kids were held - the windows and the door were covered in dark cloth. A few hairs a few fibers, the burnt paper in the kitchen, I found about a hundred sets of prints - most of them are probably from junkies and squatters that were probably there all these years when the building was abandoned. It's a dead end"
While Erik was talking a technician came, opening the door only slightly because David was leaning against it. He looked around, finding Calleigh and handing her a file.
"Well I may have got a lead here" Calleigh said as soon as Erik finished talking "the gun was used before, the markings and tags on the bullet match a round that was found in a robbery about a year and a half ago - the gun was never recovered"
"Ok, Calleigh you and me we'll follow up with that, Speed and Jamie you keep digging into that computer, Erik you go ahead with what you got form the slaughterhouse"
"I'd like my guy to give him a hand with that..." Bailey interjected
"Fine, Delko take agent Alison with you" Horatio dismissed him. Then looked around the room at everyone "We're closing in on the 24 hour mark, we have to find these kids as soon as possible"
"Don't worry H" They all nodded as they got up and left the room, heading back to their labs.
??
(footnote continued)
"YOU LOUSY! EGOTISTICAL! SON OF A BITCH!!!" Jamie stormed right up to Bailey, screaming at him at the top of her lungs. People were turning their heads to look at them, but she didn't care. "YOU KNEW!!! YOU KNEW AND YOU SAID NOTHING!!!"
"Jamie?" Horatio placed a hand on Jamie's shoulder as he approached them, mainly because he was worried that in about a minute she would lung at his throat "what's going on?"
"Leroy Hitchcomb has an FBI issued panic button disguised as a car alarm remote on his key chain" She told him, still shooting daggers at Agent Evans "He was working for the feds"
Horatio felt the rage boil up in his stomach as he turned to face Evans, coming closer to him until he was standing right in the man's face "You knew? You knew who this man was?" He asked very slowly through clenched teeth. "We could have gotten here hours ago.."
"Look, I didn't know anything about it, and even if I did there are procedures to follow in these cases" Bailey fumbled for words "I didn't know who this guy was..."
"You'd better not" Horatio said menacingly "Cause I swear to god if it turns out we were too late getting here because you and your stupid procedures - I am personally going to make sure this is going to be the last case of your career"
With that Horatio stormed off and went back into the building, leaving Jamie standing next to Bailey, still sending him an evil glare.
"Look J, I swear to you I didn't know..." Bailey tried to explain but she stepped away from him, refusing to listen
"It's Jamie! And don't even try it Bailey! Don't even try! I'm not stupid Bailey! I went to the same academy as you did and I know the procedure just like you do! Even if you didn't know who Hitchcomb was at first you knew before we got here because you ran his name through the FBI database way before we ever entered the building! And don't tell me you didn't - cause I know you - and you're too good of an agent not to have done that!"
For a moment the two of them just stood there as she shook her head at him, looking at him with what was mainly disappointment more then anything else. The she simply walked off slowly, following her boss and joining her team inside the building.
CSI CORONER"S LAB
"Hey there Call, I've been waiting for you..." Alexx said with a smile as she saw the blond coming through the doors.
"I heard you had a little present for me!" Calleigh smiled back at her
"I sure do!" Alexx handed her a small glass jar with a small bullet inside. "Does it look like the one you got out of the wall?"
"It looks like it" Calleigh said, lifting the jar to the light and inspecting it closely "But I won't know until I finish comparing them under the microscope"
She smiled and thanked Alexx then left the coroner's lab and made her way back to her ballistics lab. She carefully took the bullet out of the jar and placed it under the microscope where the other bullet they recovered from the wall was already ready. She looked through the lens and turned the tow bullets until the markings on the case were exactly aligned. "Like two pees in a pod"
Next she took a digitized image of the markings and went over to the computer - with a few clicks on her keys she started running a search through the database to look for any other bullets used in previous crimes that had the same markings on them.
*
CSI CRIME LAB
"Hey James, what are you working on?" Speed came into the room and took a seat next to Jamie who was sitting at the computer, looking intently on the screen.
"We found some photos on the hard drive you brought in, they must have used a digital camera. They tried to erase the files but I think I can restore them - maybe we'll find something on them." Jamie sighed, rubbing her eyes in frustration. It was late in the night - or more accurately - early in the morning - and they only just returned from the crime scene. In fact Erik was still there, wrapping things up. She reached over to her coffee, taking a sip and making a face when she found it cold.
"What number of coffee cup is that?" he smiled at her, getting up to stand behind her and rub her shoulders and at the same time looking at the images on the screen.
"I lost count about 7 hundred cups ago" She aid sarcastically, fighting the urge to surrender to his hands that were working wonders on her shoulders "Look at this, I got the this picture back up but it's a little bit distorted - like a negative, once I'm done working on it we might be able to find some shiny surface or a silhouette and maybe identify who Hitchcomb's partners were."
"Well I got something" he told her triumphantly "It seems like they sent an e-mail right before they deleted the hard drive - I have a tracing program running trying to locate the IP address to an actual address"
"Maybe they sent an e-mail to their buyer..." Jamie suggested hopefully
They were startled by a knock on the door and turned to see Agent Evans rapping on the glass window
"Great!" Speed sighed in disgust "Now what?"
*
The whole team along with Agent Bailey Evans and one of his men a guy named David Alison were gathered in the Horatio's office. Jamie knew Alison from her days in the Bureau - he was a good crime scene investigator and a fairly good scientist but he lacked imagination - the ability to come up with ways for the puzzle to fit. Sometimes you needed to think about the road less traveled so to speak, the things that were little less obvious - and David just didn't have that ability.
The office was way to small to hold these many people and the all ended up sitting close together - sharing couch space and leaning against walls. From his place leaning against the far wall Bailey could see Jamie and Speed sharing the couch, their heads buried in a file they were going over together.
Earlier, when he came to get them from the audiovisual lab, he saw them together - Speed was rubbing her shoulders in what was obviously a small intimate moment. They looked close - like now, they appeared to be sharing a secret, sitting so close to each other. He looked over at Horatio - wondering if he knew about it...
"Agent Evans?" Erik Delko's voice shook him out of his thoughts "You said you had something?"
"Yeah well, I got Leroy Hitchcomb's file from our database" Bailey gave out copies for everyone, trying to avoid meeting Jamie and Horatio's angry glares. "He was helping us out with some information about a child smuggling operation out of central America. A few month ago he dropped out of sight, stopped making contact. We do have the names of the contacts he made before he dropped off the radar - I figured one of these people probably made him an offer he couldn't refuse."
"I'll cross reference these names with whatever we recover from the hard drive of the computer - see if any name pops up!" Speed informed them
"We finished going over the slaughterhouse" Erik reported passing around pictures of the crime scene "We found a room in the basement where the kids were held - the windows and the door were covered in dark cloth. A few hairs a few fibers, the burnt paper in the kitchen, I found about a hundred sets of prints - most of them are probably from junkies and squatters that were probably there all these years when the building was abandoned. It's a dead end"
While Erik was talking a technician came, opening the door only slightly because David was leaning against it. He looked around, finding Calleigh and handing her a file.
"Well I may have got a lead here" Calleigh said as soon as Erik finished talking "the gun was used before, the markings and tags on the bullet match a round that was found in a robbery about a year and a half ago - the gun was never recovered"
"Ok, Calleigh you and me we'll follow up with that, Speed and Jamie you keep digging into that computer, Erik you go ahead with what you got form the slaughterhouse"
"I'd like my guy to give him a hand with that..." Bailey interjected
"Fine, Delko take agent Alison with you" Horatio dismissed him. Then looked around the room at everyone "We're closing in on the 24 hour mark, we have to find these kids as soon as possible"
"Don't worry H" They all nodded as they got up and left the room, heading back to their labs.
??
(footnote continued)