'You paged?' Cheryl was stood in the doorway of Yelina's office.

'The parents of Melizza are here. They've bought her older sister with them. You want to come join me in the interview room?'

'Her older sister?'

'Turns out, they were out together last night.'

Ten minutes later, Cheryl, Yelina and Melizza's sister, Amy, were sat in one of the interview rooms.

'You were with your sister last night?'

Amy nodded. 'She'd been bugging me to let her come out with her for ages.

'Even though she was only seventeen?'

'Don't you think I'm regretting this now?' She cried, a fresh wave of tears threatening to burst free.

Cheryl took a breath, 'did your sister hook up with anyone this evening?'

Amy shook her head, 'not that I know of. She'd gone out with her girlfriend, Carla.'

'And what happened to Carla.'

'I don't know. They had an argument and she left early.'

'And where did Melizza get her ID from?'

"Some guy called Mark.'

'Mark?' Cheryl looked at the girl.

'Yeah, we saw him inside a few times afterwards, but she was the one who found him in the first place.'

'You wouldn't know where we could find him?'

'No.'

'Okay, thank you Amy.' Cheryl got up and left, leaving Yelina to deal with Amy.

She returned to the computer to start flicking through the pictures of the people who had been at Illusions. After flicking through all of the twice, she still hadn't found Mark. 'God Damnit!' She cried, throwing her pen across the room with such force, it shattered on contact with the opposite wall.

'Cheryl?'

Cheryl turned around to find Horatio and Speed in the doorway. She ran her fingers through her hair. She had been so caught up in the case she hadn't even tied her hair back. 'I'm sorry, I'm just tired.' Strictly speaking, that was true. She had only just pulled a double before going out and she hadn't managed to get any sleep. Technically, she was now on a triple.

'Cheryl, are you still fit to be on this case?' Horatio asked her.

'I'm fine, really.I just-' She stopped andlooked down at the papers in front of her. They were the tox results of Melizza's blood. She stopped and looked up at the two men. Without saying a word, she got up, dashed past them and hurried to the DNA lab. Valera looked up when she entered.

'What's up?'

'I took a blood sample from Melizza Grant's hands. Have you run a profile on it yet?'

'It came out of the printer ten minutes ago.' She told her, as she moved over to a folder on one of the tables. 'You actually gave me two samples. Male blood, and female saliva.'

'Are you serious?'

'I ran them through the databases. Nothing.'

'Compare it to the hair I pulled off Melizza, and page me when you get the results.' She walked straight out of the lab and right into Horatio.

'Tripp found the Mazda. It's registered to Carla Breen.'

'Melizza's girlfriend?'

'Eric is going to process the car. Do you want the interview?'

'Yeah.'

Horatio stopped and looked at her. 'I can see this case is getting to you. Don't worry,' he said, seeing the panic begin to form in her eyes, 'Don't worry, I'm not going to take you off it, butI do want you to know, if you need to talk, my door is always open, and my phone is always on. I mean that as your boss, or your uncle, or a friend.'

Cheryl sighed, 'perhaps we should talk.Later.'

Horatio gently laid his hand on her shoulder. 'I'm not going to rush you, but it is ok to let someone in.'

Cheryl looked up at him, before turning around and hurrying off to do the interview, but not before he had seen the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

'Carla Breen?'

A pretty redhead was glaring back at her. 'Yeah.'

'You don't look all that sad, considering your girlfriend has just been murdered.'

'And raped.'

'You know about that?'

'She told me.'

'Did she tell you who raped her.'

'She didn't have to. It was that scumbag who got us the IDs, Mark.'

'Know his surname?'

'No.'

Cheryl looked closely at the girl. 'Would you mind giving us a DNA sample?'

Carla glared at her, before opening her mouth. Cheryl leant over and rubbed a swab against the inside of her cheek. As she leant back, she noticed something on the girl's hands. 'Mind if I do a tape lift of your hands too?'

'Knock yourself out.'

Cheryl did so, before returning to her questioning. 'So what happened after you found out she had been raped?'

'I left.'

'Straight away?'

'Yeah.'

'See, this is where I'm having a little problem with your story. Melizza died before the shooting took place, but we have a witness who saw you driving off afterwards.'

'So I stopped at the bar and had a couple of drinks first. I didn't particularly want to confess to drink driving. You already have me for underage drinking.'

Cheryl looked at the girl. Something didn't add up, and she was going to find out what. 'Thank you Carla,' she told her, before leaving the room.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

She went back to the lab and handed the new sample over to Valera, 'compare this to that unknown female sample, will you.'

'Good. You've just saved me paging you. The results are in on that hair. They're a match to the blood.'

'Thanks Valera. I'll be back in Trace.'

Which was exactly where Eric found her later. 'I've got GSR transfer from the car. The girl has definitely been using a gun.'

'I lifted some GSR off her myself in the interview,' agreed Cheryl.

'And,' continued Eric, 'I have a message from Valera. The unknown female DNA is a positive match to the sample from Carla.'

'Hey guys,' said Calleigh, poking her head around the door. We've run a check on the Breen household. Turns out that there is a colt registered to her father, which is right for the bullets recovered from the scene. We've got the warrant. I'm heading over there now.'

'I'm heading back in the interview now.' Said Cheryl, 'Wanna join?' She asked Eric, who was watching Calleigh walk off.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

'Here's how I see it, Carla,' began Cheryl, 'you found Melizza's body, and half carried, half dragged her into the club, wanting her to be found. And who's going to notice two drunken girls, one helping the other who had passed out, in a nightclub. After that, you left, got your gun, before returning to start firing at the person who had done it to her.'

'Interesting theory. Prove it.'

'Carla, we found Gun Shot Residue on your hands and in your car. Want to explain it?'

'Yeah, you find it when someone has recently fired a gun.'

'So you're admitting to firing a gun?' Asked Eric.

'Yes. I was angry, so I left the club and went to the firing range. I'm a member. Blew off steam.' She told them, looking straight at Cheryl.

'You're lying.'

'Prove it. You can't match the GSR to a gun. All you can do, is tell I've fired a gun recently.'

'No, but,' said Cheryl, 'we have a warrant to search your house, and we're going to run tests on all the guns we find, and match them to the bullets. And that will prove it.'

'No, you won't, because the bullets wont match up. You have nothing.'

Cheryl got up, placed both hands on the table and lent across the table so that her face was only inches from Carla's. 'You opened fire in that club. You know it and I know it. And I'm going to prove it.'

'All you have is the GSR.' Said Carla.

'And one day, I will find a way to make it so that you can match the GSR to a gun. Until then, I will find some other way.' Cheryl got up and walked out of the lab, slamming the door behind her. The door opened and closed a moment later.

'Hey, Cheryl!' Shouted Eric.

Cheryl stopped and turned around, 'don't bother Eric, I lost my temper, and let the case get personal. I know. And right now, I'm going to go concentrate on the one thing that doesn't lie: the evidence. I'll be back in the garage if you need me.' And with that, she turned around and left, leaving Eric standing in the hallway, unsure as to what had just happened.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks for reading, there's more to come! I'm trying to keep it as if it was an actual episode, does it work? Or do you want more character 'background/relations' etc?

Speedfanatic05 – my first reviewer! I'm glad I made you smile – thanks again for reading! And, in response to what you asked about Cheryl/Speed in the Lost Son… I'm not sure, I'd like them to, but I don't know if it would work. Maybe, we'll see.

Shopping-luva91 – Again thanks for reading… glad you're liking it