Little Bit of Texas: Speed
Part One
"Why are you such an asshole?"
"I'm not an asshole, I'm a bitch. Can't you get anything right?"
Tim Speedle thought the man might actually take a swing at the woman, who had a look of disgusted contempt on her face. He recognized the man, a detective on the police force. Speed had never worked with him, though. He had been banned from CSI cases years ago, for trying to tamper with evidence. How this guy, what was his name?, managed to keep his detective badge, much less his job, was beyond belief. Adamson, that was it, Christian Adamson.
The woman he didn't know, but she was wearing a gun on her hip inside the police station, so she must be a detective as well. Unlike most of the detectives, who wore suits of one kind or another, she was in jeans with a tucked-in T-shirt. Presumably she had a jacket somewhere to cover her gun from the public eye when she went out. He thought he heard an accent to her voice, similar to Calleigh's but not quite the same.
There was a group surreptitiously surrounding the two, watching the argument like it was a sporting event. Speedle wondered vaguely if any of them had placed bets.
Adamson said something quietly to the woman, too low for anyone else to hear, and stalked off. The woman stared after him a moment, hands clenched into fists, then turned to walk in the opposite direction. When she saw she had an audience, she hesitated then walked on.
"What was that about?" Speed asked the nearest police officer, a uniformed man.
"I don't know, but I think I like that new detective," the man was grinning while he said it.
"Not an Adamson fan?" Speed asked.
"That man has no fans. Most of us have learned to ignore him, but it's nice to see someone stand up to him for a change. I've gotta go, I'm on patrol soon, and I want to spread the word a little before I'm on the street."
Old-lady grapevines had nothing on police stations when it came to gossip. Speed shook his head and went to find Detective Frank Tripp.
Tim found Tripp at his desk, on the phone. Speed sat in the visitor's chair, slouched back, and waited for Tripp to finish his call. He put the manila envelope he had brought onto the desk and crossed his arms over his chest.
Tripp hung up, picked up the envelope and looked at Speedle. "That's not a happy look on your face, Speed. Of course, I can't actually remember a time I've seen you look happy."
"Oh, funny. Try to keep that humor, you're going to need it. The DA says we don't have enough to convict."
"What?" Frank yelled. "How can that be? You've linked the fibers. We have an actual videotape of him buying the equipment he used in the robbery."
"You know, that's not a happy look on your face," Speed said, his head tilted to the side.
"Shut it, Speedle. Why won't he prosecute?"
Speed was watching Tripp's face get more and more red. He decided he wouldn't ask how to answer the question and 'shut it' at the same time. Tripp looked dangerously close to having a stroke at the moment, and Speed would hate to be the one to push him over.
"It's not the perp, it's the lawyer. The district attorney's office has lost the last three times it's gone up against Harrison Glithe, and they aren't going to take a chance again. What I want to know is: how our two-bit robber can afford Mr. Glithe's services?"
Tripp looked at him a moment. "That's something I can look into. It doesn't really matter one way or another at this point, but I'd be interested in knowing the answer. I'll let you know what I find."
"All right."
As he was leaving he passed the new detective, the one who was in the argument earlier. He noticed that her hair was brown and long, pulled back into a ponytail. She wore only a little makeup. Her face was normal, even a little forgettable. She had on a silver necklace with the pendant dropped behind her top, so he couldn't tell what it was. She was average in height, average in build. Even her clothing was designed to blend in. People will notice a cop in a suit, and everyone noticed a cop in uniform, and that helped someone in jeans and a shirt fade into the background. She wore her badge on a chain around her neck. All this took only a second to his detail-oriented mind, and then she was past him.
He was mildly curious about who she was, why she was arguing with Adamson, and why he had never seen her before.
Several days later when Speed went into the break room, he walked into a conversation between Alexx, Delko and Calleigh. Conversation may not be the correct word for it though. It was basically some kind of elementary school argument.
"She did not!" This from Calleigh.
"She did too!" Alexx said.
"Right to his face?" Calleigh asked.
"Right to his face," Eric said, deciding to join in.
"What did H do?" Calleigh asked.
"He said nobody else minded," Alexx said.
"And then what?" Calleigh said.
"You know, I haven't heard banter like this since I was in middle school. What's going on?" Speed asked.
"You know that new detective, Dayna Campbell? She was first on the scene on our latest case," Eric told him.
"Oh yeah, I saw her the other day. So what's the big deal?" Speed asked.
"She told H off," Eric said.
"What? Nobody does that. Horatio even has internal affairs walking softly around him. What happened?"
"Apparently she got upset at him taking over the case," Eric said.
"What'd she tell him?" Speed asked.
"She told him she wasn't his sidekick," Eric said.
"Whoa. That's when he said 'nobody else minded'?" Speed asked.
"Yeah. And then she said 'That's fine, and that's them.' Then she told him if that's the way it worked, he could get off HER case and go find one of his tame detectives. She would solve it on her own," Eric said, eyebrows raised.
"She said this to him? In front of everybody?" Speed couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"No, she asked to speak to him privately. But I had found the gun and wanted to let him know, and Alexx was just on the other side of the Hummer," Eric explained.
Alexx spoke up, "I walked up after they started talking, then didn't want to leave in case they noticed. I couldn't believe my ears. I'm still having a hard time."
In spite of himself Speed was fascinated, "So then what?"
Alexx continued with the story, "Horatio said, 'I am a lieutenant, you know.' Campbell told him 'Yeah, a lieutenant on a case I'm primary investigator on. That makes us partners for the time being. Or you can pull rank and have me replaced. But if you're going to work with me, then you're going to work with me."
There was a pause until Calleigh exploded, "And? Did he annihilate her?"
"I don't know, I couldn't hear anymore," Alexx said.
"What? Alexx you're killing me!" Calleigh hollered.
"That's all I heard. But when they came out from behind the Hummer, Campbell was still on the case," Alexx said.
Eric broke in, "And that's not all. Alexx went with the body, and I was showing H the gun, and out of nowhere he told me 'You know that new detective? I'm going to like working with her.' And then he actually smiled."
Calleigh was wide-eyed, like a kid listening to a fairy tale. "So she mouthed off to Horatio, and not only did he not eviscerate her, but now they're...what? buddies?"
"Apparently so," Eric said.
Speed said, "Nah. I don't buy it. She may have surprised him, but I don't buy Horatio Caine being buddies with anyone."
"Alright, Tim, buddies might not be the right word. But I think she earned more respect from him in two minutes than most detectives have after years of working with us," Alexx said.
"Hell, I respect her for having the balls...erum, the backbone to stand up to him in the first place. H can be intimidating. We've all seen him in the interrogation room," Eric shot a glance at Calleigh for his anatomical reference. She waved it off.
"I'll respect her after the case is solved. You can tell us how she did," Speed grabbed his soda and walked out of the room.
In twenty-four hours, Eric had the answer for Speed.
"Man, I don't know how she figured it. Do you know where our perp was? He went and crashed at his sister-in-law's brother's house. Campbell found him. His brother's wife's brother! How the hell she thought of that, I have no idea."
It was about a week later, and Speedle was having lunch in the break room when Calleigh came in, stormy weather on her face.
"Hey Cal," Speedle said, "I thought you were out on a call with H."
Calleigh shut the refrigerator door with more force than was absolutely necessary, "H called me on the cell phone and sent me back. He said that he and Campbell could handle it, and he wanted me here."
Speed's forehead creased, "Huh. That's strange. Is it an open and shut case?" he asked.
"I don't know. I was cut out before I got there," Calleigh said as she opened her soda.
Horatio included both Calleigh and Speedle in the science of the case. Calleigh was on hand to receive some bullets from the scene, and Speed got a beige powder. Speed ran the tests, tracked down his lieutenant, and gave his results.
"It's legal. That is, it's a designer drug, and it hasn't hit the legal radar yet," he said.
Horatio looked at him and sighed, "Okay. Let's figure out what the reaction will be."
"Already done," said Speedle. "It's a stimulant, highly addictive. It'll increase the strength of a person, as well as the pain tolerance, so if you find someone who's flying on it, it's going to be hard to take him down."
"All right, that makes sense," Horatio said.
"Lieutenant Horatio Caine?" a male voice from down the hall called. Speedle and Caine both looked around, and saw a large Caucasian man in a dark suit and tie walking towards them.
"I'm betting you're with the DEA, aren't you?" Horatio said to the stranger. Then he turned back to Speedle, "Thank you Speed. Good work."
That was the last time Speed saw Horatio for several days, something that had never happened in the crime lab since Horatio took over from Megan Donner a few years ago. Speedle couldn't even remember Caine taking any vacation time since he left the bomb squad to become head of CSI. The team knew he wasn't hurt or missing; he would call in everyday to make sure his people were all right, and that crimes were being solved in his absence. The calls were frustratingly short, simply telling them he was fine and asking for an update. He never gave a hint as to what he was doing, or when he would be back.
Calleigh actually screamed at the dead phone after her phone call on the second day he was gone. She was in the break room with both Tim and Eric at the time, and Tim thought their presence was the only thing that stopped her from throwing the phone against the wall.
"Hey, Cal, it's okay. We're all worried, but he knows what he's doing," Eric tried to soothe the blonde's feelings.
"I was supposed to be working on this case with him. He should have one of us there. He's got no one to watch his back," she said.
"Have you talked to Bethany yet?" Speed asked. Bethany was Horatio's girlfriend, and she and Calleigh had become good friends.
"Yes. She knows that H is doing something with the DEA, she knows he's working with that new detective Campbell, and that's it. He hasn't been to see her since this thing started, but she gets a phone call every couple of hours. She's getting a little scared, to tell the truth. Horatio doesn't usually keep things from her."
"Has anyone tried to get in touch with Campbell?" was the next question Speed asked.
Eric answered him, "I tried earlier. She's pulled the same disappearing act H has."
"So there's nothing we can do to help him?" Calleigh asked the room in general.
"We just have to trust if he needs us, he'll let us know," Eric said.
"That's just not enough," Calleigh said as she stormed out of the room.
"What's her problem?" Eric asked Speed, sitting down at the table with his fresh cup of coffee.
Speed shrugged from his slumped position on the couch. "Someone she cares about is in a bad situation and she's not being allowed to help. It's driving her crazy," he said.
"That's true for all of us, but H can take care of himself, and she knows it," Eric said.
"Yeah, but Calleigh's a woman. They feel things differently than we do," Speed said, then he grinned at Eric. "That's why we'll never hope to understand them. It's part of what makes the whole boy/girl thing so much fun."
"Or like walking through a minefield blind," Eric said
"Yeah. That too." Speed unfolded himself from the couch and stood up, "I'm going to see if audio has finished with the tape from Yelina's case."
It was a few days after that Horatio showed up back at the lab. He walked into Speed's lab in the morning and asked for the update on his current caseload.
"I've got trace from three scenes right now. A double homicide, an apparent suicide and a hit and run," Tim said.
"Do you need my help on any of them?" Horatio asked, looking at the crime scene sketches that were on the table.
"Nah, I've got it covered," Tim said. "So, what happened with the case that you were working on?"
"The good news is that it's over," H said. He was about to say more when Calleigh and Eric came into the room, both smiling hugely at seeing their boss back.
"What was the mystery all about?" Calleigh asked, after actually giving H a hug. Eric grinned seeing that, restraining himself to shaking Caine's hand.
"There was a new designer drug out there that had the DEA panicking. The first body was found here. Campbell and I were first on the scene, and we realized what we had on our hands when I recognized the victim as a former lieutenant from narcotics. Between the DEA, the narcotics division and eventually one of the cartels I was going to be getting a lot of people very, very upset with me. I wanted to limit the number of targets they had to aim for."
"What about the new detective, Dayna Campbell? Did she work on it with you?" Calleigh asked.
"Yeah, but Campbell can take care of herself. She's gone up against the DEA before."
Speedle watched Calleigh's face harden slightly.
"So what was the result of the investigation?" Tim asked, wondering at Calleigh's reaction.
Horatio said, "An undercover DEA agent had turned dirty. He was making money off of the new drug. We caught him last night. Dayna had to shoot him, but he's expected to recover."
"So everything's back to normal?" Eric asked.
"Let's hope so. It's good to be back where I belong," Horatio said.