Chapter 10
Tim was sitting with the archived case file spread out over the layout table when Calleigh entered the room. "Hey," she said, sitting down.
He looked up at her, speculatively. "What did you tell Horatio?"
"Good morning, Calleigh. How are you this morning? Isn't it nice that it's stopped raining?" she said, sarcastically.
"What did you tell Horatio," he repeated, with more irritation.
"Tim…"
"No. What did you tell him, Calleigh?" he said. "You had to have told him something."
"He asked me a question, all right? A direct question which I answered. What the hell do you think I'd do, Tim? My God," she said, angrily.
He sat back, shaking his head. "I'm sorry," he said, softly. "It's just…"
"I know what it's just," she replied, sighing. "But really, Tim. There's a lot of things I'll overlook, and a lot of things I'll do to cover you, but none of those things include out and out lying for you. To Horatio, in response to a direct question of all things. At least not without a hell of a lot more to go on than you're giving me."
"I know," he said, looking down at the table.
"And you shouldn't expect me to, either," she added.
"I don't, really," he replied.
"Good," she said. "Now, then, Horatio did talk to me this morning about what he told you. And I talked to Alexx already."
"Yeah?" he asked, warily.
"Yeah. We decided I'm staying the night with you tonight. Alexx is going to stay with you tomorrow night and Saturday, and then I'll stay with you Sunday," she replied.
"I…" he started, but she cut him off.
"Don't you even," she said sharply. "You've lost your choice in the matter."
"Ok," he said, in a small voice.
She softened, looking at him. "Look, Tim, it's not that we want to intrude or boss you around, but we all know you're not going to ask for the help. Even though Horatio told you to, you're not going to be able to. Alexx and I know you too well. So this way you don't have to ask. We've already decided for you. It's out of your hands."
"Ok," he repeated. He knew she was right. He didn't like it, but he had to admit it.
"Ok, then," she said, gently. "Now, then, what's all this?"
"The original case file. I told you I'd find it," he said, turning back to the papers.
"I know," she said. "Anything pertinent yet?"
He shrugged and handed her the list he'd been working on. One column listed similarities to the case and the other listed the differences. The similarities list was much longer. "Enough maybe to have a talk with Markham."
She looked at the list, nodding. "Looks that way. Do we know where he might be?"
Tim sighed. "Not yet, no."
"Ah," she said. She looked over the papers in front of her, picking one up and reading it idly. "Huh."
"What?" he asked.
"I didn't know you were a CSI in 95," she replied.
He shrugged. "I didn't remember, either. I'd lost track."
She frowned at him. "You just turned thirty, didn't you?"
"End of June, yeah," he said, turning his attention back to the file.
"You were twenty-one when you started?" she asked, somewhat incredulously.
His hand paused over a page as he thought. "Yeah, must have been, I guess. No, wait, I was twenty, yet. It was in the spring."
"How on earth did you manage that?" she asked. "Did you graduate early?"
He bit his lip. "Calleigh….it's not important, you know," he said, not wanting to discuss it further. He felt more in control than he had earlier, but he wasn't sure how long it would last if she kept pushing.
"No, I guess not, but still," she said. "I was just surprised, is all."
"It's ok," he replied.
"Anyway," she said, looking back at the file.
They had been looking over the file quietly for a few minutes, when he said suddenly, "Yes. I did."
"Hm?" she asked.
"I did graduate early. To answer your question," he said, still not looking at her.
"Ok," she said. She didn't pursue the line of questioning further, and he relaxed a bit.
They kept perusing the file in silence until Eric interrupted them by sitting down at the table. "Hey, did you get some sleep?" he asked.
"Yeah," Tim replied, glancing up.
"Good," he said. "What's all this?"
"Tim remembered what case reminded him of this one, finally," Calleigh said.
"Ah. Good news?" Eric asked.
"Maybe," Tim shrugged. "Not sure just yet."
"Well, better than nothing, huh?" Eric said. They both nodded in response. "Hey, Calleigh, did you know Speed has cats?"
Calleigh looked up and smiled. "I did, actually. Did you get to meet them last night?"
"Two of them, anyway. You have three?" he asked Tim.
"Yeah," Tim mumbled, still concentrating on the case.
"You only saw the two? Didn't Strawberry come out for you?" Calleigh asked.
"Strawberry doesn't like visitors. She was probably hiding under the couch," Tim replied, glancing up at her. "She only comes out when you're there because she likes you for some reason."
"Well, don't I feel special" Calleigh teased.
"Wait, one of your cats is named Strawberry?" Eric asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Strawberry Jam, actually," Calleigh grinned. "Goes with Toast and Cider, who are the two you met, I presume."
"You named your cats after food?" Eric laughed.
Tim felt his face redden slightly as he explained. "It's tradition, sort of. When I was growing up, we named the cats Rice Pilaf, Pasta, and Hot Chocolate. And Pickle, who they got after I left, I guess. And my dad had a dog named Jellybean that he got before I was born. It's kind of a theme, goes with the restaurant, sort of."
"So you kept the theme going," Calleigh said, nodding.
"Well, yeah, sort of. Except for Marnie, but she's the only one whose name I knew to begin with and she never did answer to anything else," he said, shrugging.
"That's four," Eric pointed out. "And what do you mean whose name you knew to begin with?"
"Marnie died, I don't know, five, six, years back? She was the second cat I had. Cider was the first. And then there was Tea, who came with Toast, but she died too, three or four years ago. Something like that. I got Strawberry maybe a year ago? She's the baby," he said. "I knew Marnie's name because it was on her tag when I got her. They're all crime scene rescues," he explained.
"You got them from scenes?" Eric asked, confused.
"Sort of. They're cats that were left behind and no one from the victim's family or friends claimed them. They'd have gone to the pound otherwise. It doesn't happen all that often, but sometimes no one wants the pets. They've mostly come from scenes I didn't work, though, except for Cider. Randy, from the clean-up crew, will call me up sometimes, when he's got an unclaimed pet to see if I know anyone who'll take it. Melinda from night shift has taken a couple of the dogs, I know. Randy tries to take them to the no-kill shelter if he can, but sometimes, they just have to go to Animal Control," he explained. "But usually, the family will claim the pet when they go to claim the rest of the belongings."
"Huh. I'd never thought about that," Eric said.
Tim nodded. "I hadn't, either, until I found out what was going to happen to Cider. Her previous owner was an elderly woman who didn't have any family to claim her." He shrugged. "Anyway. That's the story of the cats."
The three of them lapsed into silence again as Tim and Calleigh continued to go through the paper work. "If Markham was paroled," Calleigh said, suddenly, "wouldn't his parole officer know where he is?"
"I tried that already," Tim sighed. "The PO hasn't established contact yet, he was just paroled at the end of last month."
"Well, that's good," Calleigh said, sarcastically.
"Isn't it," he sighed.
"Well, parolees have to register, isn't his address in the system?" Eric asked.
"Tried that, too. They're backlogged and haven't gotten the system updated. Someone down there is going through the files to see if they can find the card, but since Markham's not a registered sex offender, he's not on the priority list," Tim replied.
"You'd think he would be," Calleigh said. "Look at this," she said, holding up an autopsy report from one of the victims.
"I know. But we never could prove he did anything ante-mortem, because it would have gotten covered up by the post-mortem stuff. So we just got him on murder. And mutilation of a corpse, but that hardly mattered once we got down to it," he sighed.
"Lovely," Calleigh sighed.
"Yeah," he nodded.
"So you still have pretty much a whole lot of nothing," Eric summarized.
"Yes, Delko, thank you so much for pointing that out," he grumbled as Calleigh glared at Eric.
"Sorry," he shrugged.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Calleigh said, frustrated. "Let's go eat lunch and see if they can come up with an address for us by the time we get back."
Tim considered protesting that it was barely 11:30, but decided against it. "Ok."
"Wait, did you just say ok? To taking a break?" Delko asked, incredulously.
"Eric, don't," Calleigh said, warningly.
"What? I'm just teasing," Eric protested.
"Leave it alone, Eric," she repeated.
"Excuse me, I'm right here," Tim said, irritably.
"Sorry, man. I didn't mean anything by it," Eric said.
"It's fine. Let's go, if we're going to," he said, not looking at either of them. He didn't want to see the looks he was sure they were exchanging.
"All right, then. Lunch it is," Calleigh said, leading the way out of the room.