Here is Chapter Three as promised. Please keep the reviews coming my way, they're like a weed joint to an addict going through rehab. I should warn you all, this is the longest chapter so far. Handwritten, it is 21 and a half pages front and back in a wide rule notebook.
Chapter 3In the next few days, Horatio and Ginny got her parents affairs in order. The lawyer read their will, which left everything to Ginny who cannot touch anything until she turns 21, and until then Horatio was named trustee. He also learned that John Werner had escaped from prison a few months ago, which meant he planned the murders of Ginny's parents and it was not over yet. Detective Woods did not have any more questions for Ginny, but Horatio did tell him who he was looking for.
Friday morning, the two of them boarded their plane headed for Miami. On the flight, Horatio talked about some house rules that were the general set of rules for every child. Ginny talked about her classes, what she was taking and how well she was doing. He was pleased to find that she was passing her science classes with flying colors. He then told her that forensic science is nothing but science, math, and deductive reasoning.
When the plane landed and they got their luggage, the two of them left the terminal. Once in the parking garage, Horatio spotted his departmental Hummer and walked towards it. He stopped when he noticed his niece not following. "Are you coming, Ginny? Or do you wish to gape at the Hummer all day?" He watched as that took her out of the shock that she went into at seeing his work vehicle.
She ran to catch up with him, and asked as she loaded herself inside. "You drive that, Uncle Horatio? It looks like a tank! Don't get me wrong, I bet I'll feel safe and secure inside."
Before answering her, he loaded himself inside as well. He made sure they both ere buckled up and headed out, when he turned his smiling face towards her. "It comes with the job. As for your other comments, that's the idea." He made a couple of turns before he continued the conversation. "We're going to have to make a stop before we head home, okay?" He waited for her nod, and then spoke out loud to himself. "I better make sure where everyone is before I introduce her."
Ginny watched as her uncle pulled out his cell phone and made a few calls. Each call was few moments, and was not pleasing to him. He surprised her by making the monster of a vehicle do a 180 on a dime, and head back in the other direction. She knew something was not right. "Is something wrong? I thought we came from this direction." Horatio looked at her, and silently cursed himself for forgetting she was with him.
"I'm sorry, Short Stuff, gut I momentarily forgot about you." He explained by using the pet name he had given her years ago. Then a thought occurred to him. "I'll tell you what. I will let you shadow me on this crime scene we are going to, and if you still want to we can continue the deal I made with you the other day." He waited for her nod before giving her some instructions. "Now we don't have any gloves that would fit you properly, I want you to keep your hands inside your pockets. If for some reason you have to leave the crime scene, let me know first and then I will get an officer to escort you off. I do not want you more than three feet away form me, if you are there could be some contamination of evidence. If you see anything that might be important that we missed, do not try and collect yourself but tell me and I will handle it. Do you understand those rules I just laid down for you?"
Ginny's vigorous nod told Horatio, that she understood and will abide by them. It also told him that she was eager to do what most thirteen-year-olds only hear or read about and possibly wish to do themselves. "Where are we going, and what happened?" She asked him. He thought the only thing keeping her in her seat was her seat belt.
"A kid not much older than you was stabbed in a city park not far from here." He heard her say something about a curfew just as they turned the last corner. "What was that about a curfew?" He asked her.
"What I said was that he or she must have been out past their curfew parting with some bad friends. You know the kind that does underage drinking and smoking, and possibly illegal drugs. Of course, I won't do any of that. I know that rules are in place for a reason and to keep you safe." Ginny told her uncle, without voicing that if she did he would most likely use his crime scene investigation skills to find out. Horatio thought that she is smart for her age, as he drove up to the crime scene.
He stopped and killed the engine, and then got out of the Hummer. He helped his niece out, and she followed him to the back to get his field kit. As he put on a pair of rubber gloves, he reminded her to put her hands in her pockets. As they approached the crime scene, he made a visual sweep to see who was and was not there. He was semi-glad everyone was there, but he did not want to introduce his niece under these circumstances. At least he didn't have to hunt them down later at the lab. He walked right up to the black woman leaning over the body. "What has he been telling you Alexx?" He asked her, motioning toward the body.
Ginny knew she was right by the beer bottles and cigarette butts scattered everywhere, she was startled as the woman, named Alexx spoke. "Nice to see you're back, Horatio. Poor baby, from the liver temperature I would say he has been dead for about 12 hours. I can't tell you now if he consumed any alcohol until I take him back to the morgue and get him on my table." She looked at the dead body, and caressed the hair from the forehead. "You didn't know that this was going to happen, did you Sugar?" Alexx looked at Ginny a little puzzled, and then asked her boss, "Horatio, who is this young lady."
Before he could answer her, three more people walked up, a female and two males, as if they too want to know the answer. "Now that everyone is here, I won't have to repeat myself. Team, this is Ginny Pierce, my niece. Ginny, this is Alexx Woods the one I told you about the other day," he pointed to the woman beside the corpse, "And this is Eric Delko, the underwater specialist." He then pointed to a lean muscular Hispanic male, "This is Ryan Wolfe, DNA analyst," he pointed to a stoutly build white male who looked like he could fit the job, "And this is Calliegh Duquesne, she is our ballistics expert. We also call her 'Bullet Girl'." He pointed to a striking female with long blond hair. "This, Ginny, is my CSI team." He told his niece not to move from her spot until he said otherwise.
As Horatio was filling his team in on her background, Ginny took a closer look at the crime scene. Not too far from her, she saw what appeared to be a parking ticket crumbled and thrown away. "Uncle Horatio?" She asked to get his attention. She waited until he looked up at her, before continuing. "I think I found something."
Horatio walked back over with his team not too far behind him, wondering what they could've missed but found by a thirteen-year-old. "What is it?" He asked her. Ginny briefly pointed towards the paper and replaced her hand back into her pocket.
As he bent over and picked it up, Ginny plainly stated, "That looks like a parking ticket. Most likely written to at teenager, an adult would get it taken care of and file it away." She heard an astonish gasp from the four people behind them, as they heard proof of her unusually high IQ. She smiled at their reaction. Her uncle got up and turned to face the team with the evidence in hand.
"Did I mention she is unusually gifted and exceptionally bright?" Horatio took one look at their shocked expressions. "No, I guess not. Nicely done kiddo." He bagged and tagged the paper. He watched Ginny's smile get bigger and brighter at his praise, and in return her smiled at making her fell important. Shortly after that, everyone on the scene was smiling for no apparent reason.
When everything was done that could've been done, everyone left the crime scene. Horatio explained to his niece that since the scene was processed, they would have to return to the lab to examine the collected evidence. Ginny wanted to know her uncle's role on the CSI team, and she was wondering if he would let her watch the piece of evidence she found being examine. "Uncle Horatio, what exactly do you do on the team? Plus, I was wondering if I can watch the piece of paper I found being examined?" She asked him as they were heading to the crime lab.
Horatio thought for a few moments on how to best describe what he does exactly, and to mull over her question on observing the examination of the evidence. "My job is to make sure everyone else does theirs properly and well. I also help process evidence, especially when they don't add up. As for you watching me process the ticket, you can do so. Later, we will have to see Alexx in the morgue to find out what he told her. As far as I can tell, you did a good job on the scene today. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of the case and it is not over until we catch the perpetrator. Even then we still have to defend our findings in a courtroom." He was really proud of the way Ginny handled herself on the crime scene.
A few minutes later, they pulled up behind the Miami-Dade Crime Lab building, and got out. Ginny followed Horatio inside and into evidence lock up. She waited on her uncle to see if everything has been logged in yet. As he tried to find this out, she took this time to look over her surroundings. When he got her attention, he had the ticket bag in his hand. "What now, Uncle Horatio?" She asked him as she followed him to his office.
Horatio waited until they reached his office before answering Ginny. He got his two lab coats and two pair of rubber gloves, and then handed her one of each. "Now we see what you found. Put these on so you can have a little hands on learning." She did as he asked, but once they were on she felt ridiculous. He had some difficulty swallowing a laugh as he looked at her. His extra lab coat engulfed her small body, and the rubber gloves consumed her hands.
Ginny still could walk in her uncle's lab coat, but the problem was keeping it on her shoulders. Horatio's shoulders were much broader than hers, he decided to help her out by buttoning some of the front buttons. "I just bet if I look into a mirror like this, I would find myself somewhat amusing." She saw him try to hide a smile at her expense. "Go ahead and laugh Uncle Horatio. I'll try to keep the gloves from falling off."
Horatio couldn't help himself any longer, and let out that laugh at the site of Ginny. After that was out of he system, he took a closer look at her. "At first glance, you looked like a midget in my clothes. Now you don't look so bad, and these gloves aren't too big either. So in my opinion, in a few short years that won't be a problem." He stated the obvious. He grabbed the bagged ticket, before leaving again. "Come on, Short-Stuff. If you're worried about it, I'll try to make sure nobody sees you."
"Thanks Uncle Horatio, but I'm not worried. You're right, I don't look half bad." Ginny answered him as she followed him out and down the hall to a lab with clear window. "What is this used for?" She asked as they went inside.
Horatio thought that she would make a great CSI, because she is always asking questions. As he took out the ticket, he answered her. "This is the document lab. In here we find out if a document is a forgery, Ginny." He handed her the wadded up ticket. "Why don't you straighten this out carefully, while I start to get things together?"
Ginny nodded her head as her uncle did some things at different spots in the room. As she was straightening out the piece of paper, she was surprised to find two things. "Uncle Horatio, you're not going to believe this." She waited until he was looking over her shoulder before stating what she found. "This is not a parking ticket, but a warning with some chewed up gum in the middle of it."
Before Horatio could do anything else, his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and talked briefly before disconnecting. As he is replacing it back into his pocket, Calliegh walked in. "Horatio, is there anything else to process?" She asked him. She looked at Ginny and smiled at the way she looked in her uncle's lab coat and a pair of gloves.
"Actually, there is Cal. Ginny and I have to see Ray Jr. in summer school, so could you please process this parking warning and the chewed gum that was found inside it?" He told her as he left the room with his niece trailing behind him. He decided to enroll her into school while he was there, so that he won't forget about it later. "That was your Aunt Yelina on the phone, she told me that your Cousin Ray is in trouble again at school. Her mother couldn't be reached, so the school called her. She called me because she is out of town at the moment."
The two of them stopped by his office to dispose of the coats and gloves, before leaving the building. When they got to the school, they immediately went to the principal's office to find a boy approximately Ginny's age with black, curly hair sitting in a chair in the hallway. The boy looked up as the pair approached him, and he looked Ginny over with a fine toothcomb. "Is she another half-sister, Uncle Horatio?" The boy asked Horatio.
"No Raymond, she is not you half-sister. Ginny is your cousin. Her mother was your dad's and my younger sister. She was adopted out when we were younger. Now tell me what happened this time, Ray." Horatio explained to his nephew. He looked over at his niece for a moment to find a puzzled look on her face. He motioned just a minute before he could explain Ray's reaction to her.
Horatio cocked his head to one side as he listened to what his nephew had to tell him. "Curtis Johnson and I got into an argument about my dad. He said that Dad was a bad cop, and I told him that he was not. The discussion quickly turned into a fight when he hit me. Without thinking, I hit him back. Before I know it, the teacher was telling both of us to see the principal." Ray looked over at Ginny, and then asked Horatio an inquiry. "Where is Ginny going to go to school, Uncle Horatio?"
Horatio looked between the two kids, before answering him. "I thought she could attend school with you." He, however, did not say anything about Ray Jr.'s conflict. He turned toward Ginny to explain Ray's reaction to her. "Your Uncle Raymond was capricious to his family. He ended up having another child, named Madison. I claimed her as my own to protect everyone, but she developed a serious type of leukemia. When her mother and came up negative as a bone marrow match, I had to tell Yelina about her so we can see if Ray was a match." Almost as an after thought, he added, "You know something, Ginny, you almost look like your Uncle Raymond. Because of that you might get picked on too."
Ginny nodded her head in understanding as the principal called her cousin and uncle in. She waited in the hallway as they talked, then all of a sudden the bell rang to signal the end of the school day. She noticed that some of the passing students looked at her with either sympathy or malevolence, and before she knew it one of those students approached her. "You don't belong her you nauseating relative of a dishonest cop!" The unknown student heatedly told her, and then spit in her face.
Ginny immediately reached out and knocked the backpack from the student's hand, causing the contents to scatter across the hall creating some problems for other students trying to get home. With a smug smile on her face, she got up and stalked forward. "I don't appreciate people spitting in my face. I suggest you pick up your things before someone steps on them and demolishes them. Oh, and by the way I am not abhorrent to anyone." She walked right up and got into the other's face, but held herself from giving the same treatment.
Unknown to either party, Horatio and Raymond Jr. saw the entire incident. Both of them walked up to Ginny to calm her down, as the miscreant hastened to pick up his belongings. Ray decided to compliment her, "Ginny that was great, but I think you just made an enemy. Jose Cuervo can hold a grudge for a very long time." Horatio just looked at her in an endorsing way of her response to the other kid. As she laughed at the kid's name, her cousin just had to know. "What is so funny?"
"Jose Cuervo is also a name of a liquor. You know the song 'I Went Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo' by Tracy Byrd? Next time he does decide to make some amusement of us, I know how to make a good comeback. It won't be 'stick and stone…' Or any of the other." Ginny explained to her only blood relatives.
Horatio and Ray Jr. just shook their heads in disbelief at her. Ginny's uncle reached inside his pocket and handed her a handkerchief to wipe the saliva from her face. She handed the handkerchief back, as they walked outside to the hummer. As Horatio started the monster vehicle, his cell phone rang again; he talked briefly and then disconnected the line. "We're going to drop you off Ray, then Ginny and I are headed out to the wetlands." He told his nephew. He was just told that a female body was just found with three missing fingers and some other body parts.
When Ginny heard her uncle mention going to the wetlands, she immediately thought what would be out there. "I would like to stay in the car this time, Uncle Horatio." She asked thinking of the three things that scare her. She looked up at Horatio with pleating eyes.
Horatio wanted to know why his niece wanted to stay in the car this time. "May I ask why you want to do that? I thought you wanted to learn what I do at work." He couldn't think of anything that would make her want to stay in the vehicle. He watched her fidget in her seat as Ray Jr. got out at his stop. Ray Jr. said his good byes for now and went inside his grandmother's house.
Horatio drove on thinking she was not going to answer him. He was just about to repeat himself, when she answered. "Crocs, gators, and sharks, oh my!" He just smiled at Ginny's reply. She subconsciously said in a childhood rhyme, and was wondering what her uncle was thinking about her now.
He leaned over slightly, but only far enough to where he can still drive correctly. Horatio then let her in on a personal secret of his. "You know what?" He waited for her to shake her head before continuing. "I'm scared of them, too. I think anybody who isn't should have his or her head examined. Here's a hint, give them plenty of room and don't make them feel threaten." Horatio watched as Ginny thought about what he had just told her, with the end result being a surprised look on her face.
Ginny shook herself out of her state and then doubtfully asked, "My Uncle Horatio scared of something less intelligent than the human race? I don't think so." He then gave her that stare of his. The one right before she found out that she was wrong.
"I'll tell you what. I bet you a movie that we fear them for the same reasons. If I'm right, I get to pick the movie to see. If not, then you pick. Deal?" Horatio bargained with her. He would bet his entire paycheck that he was right.
Ginny thought about Horatio's deal. Before she gave him her answer, she decided to add a clause to it. "If I do agree, the loser gets to pick the next movie after that. If you agree to that, then we have a deal." She watched him smile at her devious plot, but nodded his agreement and continued driving. 'No way an I going to let him control the entertainment with me.' She thought. She turned to look at him and then gave her answer, "They all have razor sharp teeth and powerful jaws. Their only thought and instinct is to eat. I'm mostly afraid of sharks, because they cause the most damage with their multiple rows of teeth." She waited on a remark from him.
Horatio took only a second to process what Ginny told him, and he knew she was waiting on an immature response from him. He was going to have to disappoint her. "I don't call that fear. That's just playing it smart." She replied that she couldn't even watch them on television or in the movies without freezing up like they were right next to her. "That I can't explain, but I know what not to watch with you. Just to make you feel better, Eric does not go into the water with them around without someone to back him up with a rifle. I do by the way, don't like them for your reasons." He watched her smile as he pulled up to the crime scene.
Ginny looked at Horatio as he motioned for her to follow him. Unlike the last crime scene, Horatio gave his niece a pair of rubber gloves when they reached the back of the Hummer. She took the gloves from him and began to pull them on, as he got ready to process the scene. "I want you to stay in my view the entire time we are here, okay? This time you can touch some things, but not before they are photographed." He told her as he led the way to the yellow taped off area.
Ginny decided to look in the outer area from the body. She was watching Horatio out of the corner of her eye and staying in his view. She stopped to look at something more closely, and did not see the man until it was too late. He grabbed her and silenced her before she could even think to alert her uncle. The man was all ready leading her away from the crime scene, help, and her uncle toward only God knew what.
As Ginny and her captor approached an airboat, she heard Horatio yell out her name. When she didn't answer, he got more urgent and scared. She jerked her tied hands loose and started to run. As she tried to escape, she ripped off the duck tape from her mouth not thinking about the pain. She heard her captor chasing after her, and she yelled as loud as her exercising lungs would allow her. "UNCLE HORATIO! HELP!" She continued to run back the way they came, back toward the crime scene and her uncle.
Horatio only looked away for a moment to talk with Alexx. When he looked back to where Ginny was a moment earlier, she wasn't there. He slowly took a look around to see if she moved on him, and she was nowhere in sight. He asked everyone there if they had seen his niece. No one had. He called out, "GINNY!" Thinking she wandered off, following some trail. When she didn't answer, he got worried and immediately thought something bad has happened to her. He called again, this time unable to hide the emotion in his voice.
He was just about to send a couple of officers out to look for her, when he heard her. "UNCLE HORATIO! HELP!" She sounded as if she was a few hundred yards away, and running towards them. He immediately grabbed his gun and ran towards the direction he heard her from. As he was running, he ordered Calliegh to follow him as back up. He then commandeered an uniformed officer for added fire power, and told Eric and Wolfe that if they did not hear from him or Calliegh in five minutes, then call in the bad boys.
Ginny didn't know how long she had been running, but she knew she better slow down. When she did, she also knew that was a mistake. Her captor caught up with her, and re-gagged her. She could hear her uncle a few yards away, but could not alert him to her location. She than remembered what he told her awhile back during one of his visits. "'CAPER' means-stay Calm, be Aware of your surroundings, make a Plan, Execute it at the right moment, and Run as fast and far you can to safety."
She did the only thing that she could think of. Ginny rammed her knee into his groin, hoping he would yell at her in pain. She was not disappointed, "YOU BITCH! You're going to pay for that." A few moments later, Horatio busted through the wild growth as her captor gave her a good hard slap across her face. The man pulled out a little peashooter gun and then pointed it at her.
Horatio was running to Ginny's rescue, when he heard a male voice yell at someone. Taking the chance that he was threatening his niece, he barged through the wild plants to see her captor hit her rather hard and then banish a small gun on her. Horatio took aim and leveled his pistol on the bastard, and ordered, "Sir, put the gun down! Ginny come over here by me." He also noticed that Calliegh and the other officer were right behind him with their weapons drawn also. He watched as his niece backed away from the other man, and into his direction from her position from her.
When Ginny reached Horatio's side, he put up his weapon and untied his niece. He had just removed her ropes when a crack of a shot rang out. Horatio instinctively grabbed Ginny and threw her down on the ground. He redrew his weapon and covered his niece's body with his own. He lifted his head to assess the situation. Ginny's captor was laying in a pool of his own blood; he had a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Next on his list was to look over his niece to make sure she was okay. When he assured himself that she was fine, he hollered to Calliegh, "Cal, are you okay? How about Officer Kraft?"
"We're okay H. Is Ginny okay?" Calliegh hollered back as another shot rang out. Horatio shouted back that his niece was okay. He could feel Ginny tremble underneath him.
Meanwhile:
John Werner watched as his partner failed to capture the girl. He underestimated her intelligence, so he went to his temporary back up plan. He took the rifle he laid down next to him, and shot his partner in the back of the head. He immediately got up and ran away to regroup and reform his plan. To make sure Caine and Duquesne do not follow him, he shot off another round. He then jumped into the airboat that the young girl ran from a few minutes ago, and started it up before heading out.
TO BE CONTINUED
I warned you it was a loooonnnnnggggg chapter. I'm still in the beginning of chapter four, so be patient as I try to finish it and the story. You will have to have been following the characters' story lines in the series to understand the next chapter.