Chapter Five:
Walking back in to the Interview room, Horatio sat the sandwich down in front of Samantha, who looked up and smiled.
"Thanks," she said.
"Thank Delko later, who got it for you." Horatio said and sat down as Samantha began to eat.
"So tell me a little more about your self then?" Horatio asked.
"Well…" she began. "I was born in Glasgow, I lived in Glasgow, I went to school in Glasgow. Not much really."
"What about your friends in school?" Horatio asked curiously.
"Haha. Yeah Lisa was hilarious, she could never take anything seriously. She always joked about stuff. One time in chemistry…we were …making Esters. We were mixing ethanoic acid with ethanol and a few drops of sulphuric acid and by the process of elimination of water you get an ester…that smells really sweet."
"Yeah. I remember doing those." Horatio laughed.
"Yeah, well Lisa being Lisa doesn't listen to the teacher. After being told several times by the teacher, 'don't under any circumstances use a bloody Bunsen burner', what does Lisa go and do? She lights the dam thing up right under the test tube and bam, she blew the bloody lab up. The teacher was pissed off big time. Lisa got three weeks of detention and found it hilarious. She just sat and laughed the whole way though it. The girl is mental I tell you. One time at a gig she went totally ape over the singer and started screaming, going all girl on me and fainted when he looked at her." she said with a smile on her face. Her eye's lit up and she chuckled to herself quietly.
"She sounds crazy."
"Yeah she is, but she's the coolest person in the world."
"She sounds it." Horatio said smiling, Samantha picked up the pen that had been lying on the table and began to doodle on the back of her hand. Horatio smiled and slid a sheep of bank paper across the table to her.
"Draw on that and not your hand, you'll give yourself ink poisoning." with that there was a knock on the door. Horatio turned around to he who it was.
"I think you need to see this," Delko said, waving a peace of paper.
"ok. I'm coming." Horatio smiled at Samantha, promising her he would be back. Walking out he looked at Delko cautiously. "What is it?"
"The prints on the window match Pete Wendiz and so do the prints on the gun that killed the two girls."
"So he was definitely there."
"Okay."
"Alexx wants to see you as well. She was looking for you."
"Thanks."
"Keep an eye on her will ya." Horatio said nodding towards the interview room. Delko nodded.
It wasn't long before the door opened again.
"Social services are here to pick you up," he said. Samantha looked up from the paper to see her lawyer leaning against the door frame.
"Does Horatio know?"
"Yes, he said its ok, c'mon now." Cochran said impatiently.
"Horatio said he would be back."
"We'll he's been held up he says thank you and that you are to leave," snapped Cochran, who was growing more impatient by the minute.
Samantha got a dodgy feeling about this but agreed. Leaving the paper on the table, she pocketed the pen. Walking through the lab she looked around trying to spot Horatio, to no avail. Instead she spotted something else. She discreetly slipped it of the counter and into her pocket. She prayed it wouldn't ring, but to her luck it was on silent. They walked though the front entrance out into the harsh hot and humid daylight of Miami. She fumbled with the pen, snapping it and shoved the sharpest edge of the pen into her hand until blood flowed as she placed her bleeding hand on the railing, leaving a trail. The car at sat in front of them and she felt her self roughly shoved in. She knew what was happening and it was too late.
"Hey Alexx, what you got?"Horatio asked when he walked into autopsy.
"Your two vics. Poor girls. First one, identified as Sheila Andrews from Bolton in England, aged fourteen. Reported missing on December 18th." Alexx informed Horatio as she pulled the body out the morgue fridge. " Blunt force trauma to the head killed her, most likely a punch. She's seriously under weight, deprived of all the major vitamins, a lack of calcium caused the bones lose density, making them brittle, breaking the skull where she was punched, and also preventing a pervious fracture healing properly." Alexx explained, pointing to an x-ray on the light box behind her. Showing the ulna and radius, the radius was broken and healed wrongly.
"What about the bullet?"
"Just to make sure I suppose. Through and through." Alexx said
"And the second?"
"Identified as Carol McBride from Fife in Scotland, aged fifteen, reported missing on October 5th," she said as she placed the first body in to the fridge and removed the second one. "She was shot through the shoulder. Bled out, apart from being the same as the other girl, underweight, deprived of the basic vitamins, signs of abuse," she said sighing, she looked at the young blond girl, she stroked her hair.
"What do you think the time of death was?" Horatio inquired.
"Three days, maybe four depending on the temperature of the room," Alexx said. Horatio was silent for a moment, lost in thought. She turned to the body and said, "Don't worry, honey. Horatio will find out who did this to you."
"Yes I will." Horatio agreed, "Thanks Alexx."
Horatio was met by a panicking Delko.
"What's wrong?" He asked Delko.
"The kids gone!" Delko said breathlessly.
"What?"
"She's vanished. She's not in the building."
"Pull all the CCTV for the front desk and outside." Horatio ordered as he ran outside, and was greeted with no sign of Samantha. He looked around, noticing a red smear down the railing. He smiled to himself. "Clever Samantha." he whispered out loud. Delko appeared at the door.
"H, got the CCTV tapes."
"Get your kit."
Delko obeyed his instructions as guilt ebbed at his stomach. Horatio removed his sun glasses and continued to survey the crime scene, observing every inch around him, whilst Delko collected the blood smear from the railing. He sighed as there was no other sign of her around. They had nothing to go on and no sign of the child. Going back inside, Horatio made his way to the audiovisual lab to look at the tape, which might hold some clue to where Samantha was. He watched the tape, rewinding it, watching, rewinding, when he spotted her. Walking right out the building. With none other than Jonnny Cochran. He froze the images, printing them off and observing them one more time. Watching the second one he found his place quickly. After several minutes of fluttering about with the tape he managed to get an image of the car, and the license plate. Immediately he placed an alert with dispatch.
He though for a minute before he began to run a background check. The results surprised him. Former defendants included none other than Pete Wendiz. No matter how discreetly someone handles money, there's always a paper trail, his gut told him there was. It took him a while, but he managed to pull financial records. A large deposit made, the day before. In cash.
Horatio picked up the stills and wandered around the labs for a while, trying to piece events together in his mind. He could see it playing through as he stood in the corridor. Jonnny Cochran, walking in to the room. A conversation. Samantha getting up, walking along the corridor with him, out the doors. She must have known something was up if she had left a trail…or maybe she hadn't, intentionally. Then. Something caught his eye. The sheet of paper Samantha had been doodling on. He entered the interview room and red the message on the paper, in-between what looked like song lyrics there was.
Jonnny Cochran - 4.56pm - Social work.
Horatio smiled.
"Clever, clever girl," Horatio murmured. By then it was clear in her mind. She had been leaving clues.
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Samantha found herself, face to face with the cold end of a gun barrel.
"Let's go pay a little friend of yours a little visit. Shall we?" Cochran said with a broad grin. Samantha sighed as she felt the phone in her pocket. She slid it out, and un-flipped it in-between her seat and the car door, watching carefully as Cochran delivered instructions to the driver. Scrolling silently down the phone book she resisted the urge to smile. She hit dial…hoping to god it wasn't a pre-pay phone. "You've been a naughty girl you know." Cochran said to her smiling. "Pete's going to be very angry with you." he continued as Samantha let the phone slide gently down between the seat and the door, to come to rest snugly at the bottom of the door under the seat.
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"Horatio." he stated answering the call.
"Pete's going to be very angry with you," he hear a voice say.
"I hope he is," a second voice said, calmly, he recognised the voice instantly.
"I wouldn't be so calm if I were you. I wouldn't be calm knowing I will be on the other end of a bullet in short time."
Horatio shot out the door and in to the lab.
"Speed, track this call now! Get me on the radio." He said dumping his phone on the bench and heading for his car. It was only minutes later he heard Speeds voice.
"I got them…they're heading east, they're on First Street, cross street first avenue. "
"Thanks Speed." Horatio commented as he hit the gas.
"They've turned right on to Biscayne Boulevard, heading north."
"Right."
"They've turned right on to 8th street heading east," Speed informed.
"Yeah."
"There stationary at the top of 8th street at the American Airlines Arena. "
"Thanks Speed." Horatio said signalling he needed no further help. He prayed he made it in time.
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They came to a halt behind an arena. Samantha looked out the window, her heart in her mouth, nerves pulling at every atom of her body as she shivered nervously.
"Well, you not coming to say hello than?" said a sly voice as the door opened, the phone falling below the seat.
"To you? Not a chance!" Samantha spat venomously. His hand grabbed her dragging her up dragging her out the car and onto the harsh, hot ground.
"I don't appreciate people telling people things you know." His Scottish accent weakened. "You know I get angry when people open their big mouths, Samantha. I thought you would have learnt that," Pete said gently as he landed a kick in her abdomen, causing her to drop on the ground. Pete stood over her shaking his head and sighing. "I don't like grasses, Samantha," he spat, landing a kick for every word. Samantha struggled for air as another blow was landed. Coughing, she struggled to keep herself conscious.
"I hate when people don't listen to me, Samantha!" He yelled at her, his voice raising with every syllable, as he snatched the back of her top, hauling Samantha up on to her knees. She looked up and met the eyes of the dark haired Scot. Brown eyes stirred under the haze from the mid-afternoon sun.
"Why?" whispered the child.
"Why?"
"Why me? Why all this?" Samantha asked quietly, she was sure her voice was shaking despite her aim to cover her nerves.
"Why?" Pete laughed to himself quietly. "Because, big missy, your brother owes me a hundred grand for fucking up, and you were the payment. You paid your brothers' debit off, and now I have no use for you. I have no use for a grass, Samantha. School should have taught you something! You don't grass!" He snapped, striking her across the face. She wanted to break down in tears and cry right there but she bit them back and kept eye contact. "Why do you think everyone made fun of you? Because you couldn't keep your mouth shut!"
She began to pray.
"You always had to be miss goody-two-shoes, didn't you! Try to change the world, make it a better place. Here is your newsflash, Samantha. You can't change the way the world works. People like me, take advantage of people like you. It's the way the world works. Your just another statistic, lost in the system called life and in the end, Samantha, you will never be different because you are mine."
Dear god, let them come soon.
"You will always be mine." He repeated.
Let him come…
"You had dreams of being a rock star, playing for people who are cheering you on."
Please come…
"They will never come true." He said as he raised his gun, spinning on the silencer.
Please…
He raised the gun.
Please?