Calleigh stood shooting off round after round of bullets into a target a fair distance from her. Firing the gun, put her in control, it gave her time to process her thoughts and to calm down.
She stopped to change clips and felt Horatio's presence behind her.
"Just let me shoot two more clips Horatio and we can talk and I'll get back to work." Calleigh said and started firing before Horatio had chance to say a word.
Once she had expelled all the rounds of bullets Calleigh made sure the chamber was empty, putting the safety on, she placed the gun down and took off her ear defenders.
"Nice groupings." Horatio commented.
Calleigh had emptied one clip at the head area, another at the heart and a final clip at the groin area of the body outline.
"Thanks." Calleigh said not sure what else to say. "I need to release some tension."
"Did it work?" Horatio asked.
"Maybe." Calleigh said.
"I heard about your run in with Yelina earlier."
"Whatever she said I didn't yell at her, I may have snapped and I'll apologise at a later date."
"Speed filled me in on what happened, it sounds as if you were justified in your actions." Horatio said.
"Excuse me?" Calleigh said not quite believing what he had just said.
"Yelina and I talked and I told her to back off. So hopefully she shouldn't cause you any more problems in future."
"Horatio, I don't want to make life difficult for you she is your family, I don't want to have to choose sides."
"Calleigh, Yelina will always be Ray Jr's mother and he and Madison are the only family I have left. And as I told Yelina this isn't about choosing sides it's about doing my job and as your boss it is my responsibility to make sure you don't have to work in a hostile environment. We'll finish our discussion about your research proposal later, but for now..."
"I found some sand." Calleigh blurted out.
"Sand?"
"At the bus depot. I gave it to Speed; it should match the kind that was in the bombs. The fingerprint cards are in the print lab being run against the prints we found. The photographs are in the process of being developed. I have a sketch of the area where the buses were parked to work with. I found a thread on the fence which someone is analysing, but no footprints. The security tapes are in the AV lab and I have the list of who worked which bus route."
"Sounds like you've been busy. I'll tell you what we're going to do, clean and put your gun away and then meet me in the AV lab. We'll check the security camera footage."
"Horatio." Calleigh said as he turned to leave. "Thank you for not being mad."
"There was nothing to be mad about. Any time you feel the need to take target practice keep it here and we'll be fine."
"Thank you." Calleigh whispered.
Calleigh sighed, they'd been watching the tape for over an hour and still didn't have anything useful and they still had 167 hours to go.
Both Calleigh and Horatio turned when the door opened.
"Your sand matches the sample from the bombs." Speed announced.
"Did you have any luck locating who imports it?" Horatio asked.
"No local importers." Speed replied. "I'm at a dead end."
"Maybe not." Calleigh said. "You said it came from a quarry just outside Las Vegas right?"
"Yes."
"Give me twenty minutes and I'll see if I can find someone to help us get that information." Calleigh smiled at got to her feet and walked out.
"Does she know something I don't?" Speed asked.
"It's not what you know, it's who you know." Horatio said.
Nick Stokes sat in the break room of the Las Vegas Crime Lab drinking coffee waiting for a call. Grissom had talked him into pulling a double to cover for someone who was too sick to come into work.
The phone rang and he got up to answer.
"CSI - Stokes." He answered.
"My name is Calleigh Duquesne, the woman I spoke to forward my call to this line, I was wondering if it's possible to talk to either Catherine Willows or Warrick Brown." Calleigh asked.
"They work the graveyard shift and won't be here for another five hours. Can I help or take a message?" Nick asked.
"I'm a CSI with the Miami-Dade Crime Lab, I was hoping for a little assistance getting some information from your neck of the woods."
"What kind of information?" Nick asked.
"We're working a case, a man placed eight bombs on school buses, only two real pipe bombs, and the other six were filled with sand." Calleigh explained.
"What does this have to Catherine or Warrick?" Nick asked.
"Nothing directly. We met a couple of years ago when they came to Miami on a case, a Chief of detectives was murdered and his wife and daughter kidnapped?"
"I remember now."
"I was hoping they could help me with a little research."
"What kind of research?" Nick asked.
"We traced the sand to a quarry on the outskirts of Las Vegas. We've gone through the importers and builders merchants here but no luck. I was hoping that maybe Catherine or Warrick could have gone to the quarry and asked if they had imported any sand to Miami. It might help us to catch him faster."
"I'm waiting on a case, so I've got time to drive out there. E-mail me the relevant details and I'll see what I can find out." Nick said, he gave her his e-mail address.
"Thank you." Calleigh replied.
"Do you always get what you want with that cute southern accent Ms Duquesne?" Nick asked.
"It's Detective Duquesne and not always. Do you always get your way with the Texas twang?"
"Not always and it's Nick. I'll give you a call as soon as I know anything."
"Thank you." Calleigh hung up.
"Okay I'm back." Calleigh said as she walked into the AV lab. Horatio and Speed had upped the speed of play back to get through the tapes faster.
"Did you find out who imported our sand?" Speed asked.
"No, but Nick is working on finding the information out for us." Calleigh replied.
"Who is Nick?" Horatio asked.
"Nick Stokes, he's a CSI with the Las Vegas Crime Lab. He's going to go out to the quarry and see what he can find for us." Calleigh explained.
"How do you know Stokes?" Speed asked.
"I don't, but Catherine Willows and Warrick Brown work the graveyard shift so they weren't there. Nick was waiting for something to do so he offered to help out. He'll call as soon as he has anything."
"While we're waiting on that information, keep processing what you have. I'll keep watching these tapes." Horatio said.
TBC
