Well, yeah I know, you've already read this part... the thing is I was trying
to go on with the story but couldn't because I wasn't really satisfied with
this chapter and it kept bugging so much it was really killing my muse...
So anyway... this is this part again, slightly re-written – and the next part is flowing quite nicely and should be up this weekend....
Have fun BlackRaven
PART 15
*
"This is hopeless" Erik tossed the papers aside in disgust and rubbed his temples "There's about a hundred names in here. we can't check them all."
"Yeah I know" Speed sighed "When did Africa become such a hot vacation spot?"
Erik didn't bother even nodding or smiling - he was way too tiered for any sort of reaction. Instead he turned his attention over to Calleigh who had been sitting quietly at the other side of the table for the past half hour, engrossed in her papers and occasionally jotting down something on her notepad.
"You've been unusually quiet Cal' - what have you got there?"
"I'm trying to decode the second list off of Cruz's computer. I figured if he went through the trouble of encrypting it, it must have something to do with the, shall we say, less then legitimate aspect of his business" Calleigh explained
"How's it going?"
"Not so good actually." Calleigh sighed "I could actually use some help."
"Speaking of getting some help - where's Jamie?" Erik suddenly noticed the absence of their forth team member
Calleigh just shrugged and went back to her papers, Speed however looked a little bit alarmed
*
Jamie sat on the floor with her back to the wall and took a deep breath, preparing herself. She reached out a hand and pulled down the file from the table above her placing it on the floor in front of her and staring at it for what seemed like forever.
Finally she mustered up the courage to open the file and start reading it, taking look at the pictures over and over again, familiarizing her self with the facts. She took out a few pages and pictures out and spread them on the floor at her feet. When she finished that file she pulled another one off the stack the desk and went through it as well, then another one and another one.soon the floor at her feet was papered with pieces of the files, faces of different people looking back at her from the pictures. Young children and old men, all carrying deep scars that only she could see...
"What are you doing?" the voice startled her and she nearly jumped out of her skin
"Speed! God you scared me!"
He took a seat beside her, leaning his back against the wall "What's all this?"
"Pedophile cases, child abductions, molestations."
"Boy, you sure know how to have a good time don't you?" he teased and she smiled faintly in response "You're making a profile aren't you? Even though Horatio said you didn't have to? You're doing it anyway?"
"We can't afford to waste any time"
"You shouldn't be doing this."
"Tell me, Tell me there aren't more then 50 possible suspects on that client list and I'll stop this right now." she searched his face but he couldn't give her the answer she wanted "I have to do this Tim, we have to narrow that search."
"Anything I can do to help?"
"Stay here, stay in the room, just so I'll know you're here." she was almost whispering when she made her request, hating to sound so vulnerable. She knew he couldn't understand how frightening it was for her - no one did - not even H, he simply trusted her when she told him what it was doing for her, but he didn't really understand. It wasn't the horrors or the brutal scenes that flashed through her mind that she was so scared of - it was the understanding. The knowing that a part of her mind was able to understand what and why made these people do the horrible things they did. The ability to know them so closely and realize what made them tic was what scared her the most. But she couldn't explain that to anyone - especially not Speed and a part of her prayed that he would never ask.
Speed simply nodded and got to his feet, moving to the other side of the room so she would have space enough to work but staying in her line of sight. He took a seat in a chair and made himself comfortable, not taking his eyes off her for even a second.
Satisfied that he wasn't leaving, Jamie turned her attention back to the papers on the floor in front of her and started talking slowly in a hushed voice, mainly to herself "We're dealing with a quiet guy, he doesn't get into trouble, he goes mostly unnoticed, he works at a regular job, probably successful but he's been in the same position for years - he's not the kind of guy who gets promoted. He had a hard childhood, probably a broken home, most likely suffered some sort of sexual abuse as a child. If he's married then he doesn't have any kids – that's why he needs this boy - probably married to a woman who can't have children, and if that's the case he knew about it before the marriage. if he's not married then he hasn't had a girlfriend in years, no dates, no female friends, he has a lot of respect for women, he's afraid of them – that's why he didn't choose the girl... which means the abuse he suffered as a child was probably at the hands of a female"
Speed kept listening as she continued listing off characteristics, occasionally stopping to pick up a report of look closer at a picture. little by little the man they were looking for was starting to take form in his mind.
*
Horatio sat behind his desk and went over the case file again and again, trying to find something they've missed, and trying to ignore Bailey Evens' constant pacing.
"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" he asked testily "Some other case to sabotage?"
Before Bailey had the chance to make his snappy comeback Calleigh rapped on the door and let herself in closely followed by Erik. "We think we have something."
They both paused for a moment, casting suspicious glances at Bailey. They weren't sure if they could share their information with the FBI agent in the room but Horatio gave them a glance of approval to let them know they should go ahead and talk.
"We think we finally managed to decode the second list - or at least part of it" Erik handed him a few papers "We think it lists the names of his clients as well as the amounts of money they paid him."
"How do you know this is the list of his illegal operations?" Bailey questioned
"We guessed" Erik retorted angrily but Calleigh placed a soothing hand on his shoulder to restrain him
"The amounts" she explained quickly "They're way to high for just a vacation and the destinations are all third world countries where you can buy and use kids pretty easily, plus only half of each of these payments went into the travel agency's business account – the other half went into Cruz's private bank account"
"The list doesn't have any names, just codes, but we crossed referenced the bank accounts where the money originated from with the original client list and managed to narrow our suspect list to about 10 people." Erik added
"I think we could narrow that a little bit more" Speed's voice came from the doorway and he and Jamie joined the others in the office "We have a profile."
Horatio turned to look at Jamie in surprise but she made it a point to avoid his look, while Bailey made it a point to send Horatio his most triumphant sneer - making sure Horatio knew he considered it a personal victory. But Horatio wasn't paying attention. He was more interested in looking carefully at Jamie, noticing how tiered she looked and how sad - noticing how Speed was the one to do the talking and the way he was standing in front of her - as if trying to protect her from the others.
Calleigh took the handwritten pages from Speed and went through them quickly "I'll run these against our possible matches - see how many we can eliminate" she left the room and Erik followed her.
Speed lingered behind but Jamie gave him a look and he nodded and left. For a moment both Horatio and Jamie stared at Bailey expectedly - waiting for him to get the hint.
"Bailey, the guy we're looking for was probably molested as a child, he's probably not a registered sex offender, but either way I'm pretty sure he has some kind of juvenile record" Jamie sighed "You think you can check that out through the FBI database?"
Finally Bailey took the bait and left them alone.
For a few moments there was just silence... neither one of them prepared to be the one to open the conversation. Horatio was torn between being angry at her for going behind his back and being curious about her and Speed. Eventually he chose a third option...
"Are you alright?"
He could see that she was a little thrown off by the concern in his voice, as if she expected him to be yelling and angry...
"I'll be ok..."
"I wish you wouldn't have had to do this..." he aid softly "I tried..."
"I know you did" she cut him off "But it was my choice to make, you don't have to protect me H, I'm a big girl...I can take care of myself" she started heading out through the door but then looked back at him with a soft smile on her lips "But thanks anyway... thanks for trying"
So anyway... this is this part again, slightly re-written – and the next part is flowing quite nicely and should be up this weekend....
Have fun BlackRaven
PART 15
*
"This is hopeless" Erik tossed the papers aside in disgust and rubbed his temples "There's about a hundred names in here. we can't check them all."
"Yeah I know" Speed sighed "When did Africa become such a hot vacation spot?"
Erik didn't bother even nodding or smiling - he was way too tiered for any sort of reaction. Instead he turned his attention over to Calleigh who had been sitting quietly at the other side of the table for the past half hour, engrossed in her papers and occasionally jotting down something on her notepad.
"You've been unusually quiet Cal' - what have you got there?"
"I'm trying to decode the second list off of Cruz's computer. I figured if he went through the trouble of encrypting it, it must have something to do with the, shall we say, less then legitimate aspect of his business" Calleigh explained
"How's it going?"
"Not so good actually." Calleigh sighed "I could actually use some help."
"Speaking of getting some help - where's Jamie?" Erik suddenly noticed the absence of their forth team member
Calleigh just shrugged and went back to her papers, Speed however looked a little bit alarmed
*
Jamie sat on the floor with her back to the wall and took a deep breath, preparing herself. She reached out a hand and pulled down the file from the table above her placing it on the floor in front of her and staring at it for what seemed like forever.
Finally she mustered up the courage to open the file and start reading it, taking look at the pictures over and over again, familiarizing her self with the facts. She took out a few pages and pictures out and spread them on the floor at her feet. When she finished that file she pulled another one off the stack the desk and went through it as well, then another one and another one.soon the floor at her feet was papered with pieces of the files, faces of different people looking back at her from the pictures. Young children and old men, all carrying deep scars that only she could see...
"What are you doing?" the voice startled her and she nearly jumped out of her skin
"Speed! God you scared me!"
He took a seat beside her, leaning his back against the wall "What's all this?"
"Pedophile cases, child abductions, molestations."
"Boy, you sure know how to have a good time don't you?" he teased and she smiled faintly in response "You're making a profile aren't you? Even though Horatio said you didn't have to? You're doing it anyway?"
"We can't afford to waste any time"
"You shouldn't be doing this."
"Tell me, Tell me there aren't more then 50 possible suspects on that client list and I'll stop this right now." she searched his face but he couldn't give her the answer she wanted "I have to do this Tim, we have to narrow that search."
"Anything I can do to help?"
"Stay here, stay in the room, just so I'll know you're here." she was almost whispering when she made her request, hating to sound so vulnerable. She knew he couldn't understand how frightening it was for her - no one did - not even H, he simply trusted her when she told him what it was doing for her, but he didn't really understand. It wasn't the horrors or the brutal scenes that flashed through her mind that she was so scared of - it was the understanding. The knowing that a part of her mind was able to understand what and why made these people do the horrible things they did. The ability to know them so closely and realize what made them tic was what scared her the most. But she couldn't explain that to anyone - especially not Speed and a part of her prayed that he would never ask.
Speed simply nodded and got to his feet, moving to the other side of the room so she would have space enough to work but staying in her line of sight. He took a seat in a chair and made himself comfortable, not taking his eyes off her for even a second.
Satisfied that he wasn't leaving, Jamie turned her attention back to the papers on the floor in front of her and started talking slowly in a hushed voice, mainly to herself "We're dealing with a quiet guy, he doesn't get into trouble, he goes mostly unnoticed, he works at a regular job, probably successful but he's been in the same position for years - he's not the kind of guy who gets promoted. He had a hard childhood, probably a broken home, most likely suffered some sort of sexual abuse as a child. If he's married then he doesn't have any kids – that's why he needs this boy - probably married to a woman who can't have children, and if that's the case he knew about it before the marriage. if he's not married then he hasn't had a girlfriend in years, no dates, no female friends, he has a lot of respect for women, he's afraid of them – that's why he didn't choose the girl... which means the abuse he suffered as a child was probably at the hands of a female"
Speed kept listening as she continued listing off characteristics, occasionally stopping to pick up a report of look closer at a picture. little by little the man they were looking for was starting to take form in his mind.
*
Horatio sat behind his desk and went over the case file again and again, trying to find something they've missed, and trying to ignore Bailey Evens' constant pacing.
"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" he asked testily "Some other case to sabotage?"
Before Bailey had the chance to make his snappy comeback Calleigh rapped on the door and let herself in closely followed by Erik. "We think we have something."
They both paused for a moment, casting suspicious glances at Bailey. They weren't sure if they could share their information with the FBI agent in the room but Horatio gave them a glance of approval to let them know they should go ahead and talk.
"We think we finally managed to decode the second list - or at least part of it" Erik handed him a few papers "We think it lists the names of his clients as well as the amounts of money they paid him."
"How do you know this is the list of his illegal operations?" Bailey questioned
"We guessed" Erik retorted angrily but Calleigh placed a soothing hand on his shoulder to restrain him
"The amounts" she explained quickly "They're way to high for just a vacation and the destinations are all third world countries where you can buy and use kids pretty easily, plus only half of each of these payments went into the travel agency's business account – the other half went into Cruz's private bank account"
"The list doesn't have any names, just codes, but we crossed referenced the bank accounts where the money originated from with the original client list and managed to narrow our suspect list to about 10 people." Erik added
"I think we could narrow that a little bit more" Speed's voice came from the doorway and he and Jamie joined the others in the office "We have a profile."
Horatio turned to look at Jamie in surprise but she made it a point to avoid his look, while Bailey made it a point to send Horatio his most triumphant sneer - making sure Horatio knew he considered it a personal victory. But Horatio wasn't paying attention. He was more interested in looking carefully at Jamie, noticing how tiered she looked and how sad - noticing how Speed was the one to do the talking and the way he was standing in front of her - as if trying to protect her from the others.
Calleigh took the handwritten pages from Speed and went through them quickly "I'll run these against our possible matches - see how many we can eliminate" she left the room and Erik followed her.
Speed lingered behind but Jamie gave him a look and he nodded and left. For a moment both Horatio and Jamie stared at Bailey expectedly - waiting for him to get the hint.
"Bailey, the guy we're looking for was probably molested as a child, he's probably not a registered sex offender, but either way I'm pretty sure he has some kind of juvenile record" Jamie sighed "You think you can check that out through the FBI database?"
Finally Bailey took the bait and left them alone.
For a few moments there was just silence... neither one of them prepared to be the one to open the conversation. Horatio was torn between being angry at her for going behind his back and being curious about her and Speed. Eventually he chose a third option...
"Are you alright?"
He could see that she was a little thrown off by the concern in his voice, as if she expected him to be yelling and angry...
"I'll be ok..."
"I wish you wouldn't have had to do this..." he aid softly "I tried..."
"I know you did" she cut him off "But it was my choice to make, you don't have to protect me H, I'm a big girl...I can take care of myself" she started heading out through the door but then looked back at him with a soft smile on her lips "But thanks anyway... thanks for trying"