Half an hour later, Speed and Delko had the required paperwork and were banging on the bus door again.

'What do you want this time?' Asked Whilks.

'A look around your bus.' Said Speed, with a smile, brandishing the warrant. Whilks snatched it off him and ripped it open.

'And a sample of this,' said Delko, cheerfully, taking a tape lift of the pollen stain from Whilks' sleeve. 'And if you wouldn't mind leaving the bus and standing with that nice officer over there.' Whilks glared at them, but got off the bus, allowing Eric and Tim to board.

'Wow, this bus is almost as big as my apartment!' Exclaimed Tim.

'Now, is that your apartment, or Cheryl's?'

'My apartment, Delko. And being as you've seen both, why do you need to ask?'

Eric shrugged, 'just making sure you know what you've got.'

'I've not got anything, anymore.'

'Tim, don't give up on what you have.' Said Eric, sadly.

'Delko, we're here to find out who killed those girls, not to discuss my living arrangements.' He shone his torch down the bus, and allowed the light to settle on a bunch of flowers.

'Lilies.'

'And guess what I found?' Said Eric, his hand pulling something golden out of a trash can.

'Is that a credit card?'

'Nope. This is a key card. And I suspect it's the same card Cole claimed he lost.'

'Which means, the only people with access to the room are the pop star and his PA.'

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

'Thanks for agreeing to help, Officer Wolfe.' Said Cheryl, holding a blown-up version of the picture of her and Cole, trying to find the location of where the camera had been when the photograph had been taken.

'No problem, Detective. And, it's Ryan.'

'Just Cheryl, will do, too.' She glanced at the laptop monitor, 'a step to your right, and we've got it.'

Ryan nodded and set the camcorder up on a tripod, whilst Cheryl set another one up, of the same picture but from a different location. Plugging them both into the laptop she set up a split-screen of the two images, before walking over to where she had been stood.

'Okay,' she said looking down at the photograph, 'you need to stand right in front of me.'

'Um, Cheryl,' started Ryan as he came and stood in front of her, 'I know I agreed to help, but what exactly are we doing?'

'We are proving that, from the right angle, even something innocent can appear incriminating. Basically, I am trying to prove that nothing happened between Cole and I, and he is trying to set me up, so that the case can get thrown out of the window when he gets charged for a double homicide.'

'And so you don't get charged with tampering with evidence.'

Cheryl nodded. 'Right, I want you to get a leaf out of my hair.'

'What leaf?'

'That's a good point,' she frowned and walked over to her kit. Inside was the leaf from the previous day. She plucked it out and handed it to Ryan. 'Normally, I wear my hair up at a crime scene. I don't know why I didn't yesterday. I'm a firm believer there's a good chance my hair could contaminate a crime scene. Though, in this case, it would seem the crime scene contaminated me.'

Ryan looked around, 'this leaf isn't from around here,' he told her after checking all the plants in sight. 'This is a leaf from a lily.'

'How on earth do you know that?'

'My grandfather is a keen horticulturalist. It rubbed off on me, a little.'

Cheryl broke out a bright smile, 'and that means two things. Firstly, he is setting me up. Secondly, he has had access to the cocaine.'

'Cocaine?'

'Oh, one of the victim's died from a cocaine overdose, and we found traces of lily pollen in it.' She stepped back into position, 'okay, take the leaf from my hair.'

Ryan reached his arm out to in her hair, by her ear.

'Freeze,' said Cheryl. They both glanced at the laptop. The picture from the camera where the photograph had been taken matched the photograph, whilst the other camera showed exactly what Ryan was doing. 'Bingo!'

'I'm sorry Cheryl, and I know we have just shown what was really happening with the photograph here, but it doesn't explain something.'

Cheryl frowned, 'what?'

'Why are your clothes looking so ruffled?' He asked, indicating to the photograph.

'Oh, that's simple. The skirt was ruffled because I had just been on my hands and knees processing a scene, and hadn't straightened it out properly. The shirt button, well, the crime scene was really hot, and that was as low as I could take it whilst keeping it decent.'

'Cheryl, I'm sorry if I'm out of line for saying this, but next time, I'd keep the shirt buttoned up that extra button, regardless of how hot a crime scene is.'

'How hot a crime scene is. Ryan, that's it. That's the missing link!'

Ryan looked blankly at her, 'what's the missing link?'

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

Cheryl walked back into the crime lab a while later feeling slightly better. She was still getting some strange looks, but she knew she was slowly getting there at proving her innocence. The feeling dropped slightly when Calleigh spotted her walking in and headed straight in her direction.

'Where have y'all been?' She demanded.

Cheryl handed the laptop over, 'proving that the photograph is a fake.'

'Cheryl, you should be leaving that to me!' She told her, furiously, dragging her into a nearby room. 'If Rick finds out, y'all are in serious trouble. I thought Horatio told you to let me handle this?'

'I can't just do nothing, Calleigh. Not only is my career riding on this, but my relationship is too.'

Calleigh's expression softened. 'Look, I think we are getting somewhere. Dan and I think the film is fake.'

'You think?'

'Alright, we know it's a fake, but we think we can prove it. Dan is analysing the image now. And I've spoken to Cole, but he's not saying anything that would make a judge think otherwise, Cheryl.' She sat down. 'I need to know where you were for that hour earlier.'

'I can't say.'

'Is it to do with Madison?'

Cheryl gaped at her, 'you know about Madison?'

'Horatio told me, but don't worry,' she said, seeing the alarm wash over Cheryl's face, 'I'm not going to say anything. If you went somewhere to clear your head because you were thinking about her, then that's fine. We can just check traffic cameras. In fact, don't you have that GPS thing in your cars, so we could use that as proof of where you had been?'

'It wouldn't work, Calleigh,' sighed Cheryl, 'I never really left the hospital. I said I did, I know. But I was really with Madison.'

'Oh.'

'You can't say anything. I know it will get back to Yelina if Rick is involved, and I can't do that to Horatio.'

Calleigh nodded, 'okay. Then we have to try something else. If that image is fake, then it must be two images edited together. Think Cheryl, where were you when you were wearing those clothes?'

'It was the day before yesterday. I was in court all day.'

'You didn't go anywhere else?'

Cheryl shook her head. 'I was there all morning, met Tim for lunch outside, spent the afternoon inside court again, before popping in here on my way back to see Horatio. The second I got back I changed and washed my Hummer.'

Calleigh's head perked up, 'when you met Speedle, did you kiss him?'

'Of course I kissed him. But that was outside the courthouse, before this whole case started. How would a reporter know to be filming us? The only way would be if they,' she stopped, 'they knew about my promotion. I guess they could know about it before I did. They certainly knew about it when I was washing my car that evening.'

'Cheryl, do you remember who the reporter was?'

'Yeah, Elle Swan from the Miami Prophet.'

'Right, I'm off to the Miami Prophet headquarters to see Ms Swan. And Cheryl,' she said, as she was halfway out of the door, 'please stay out of my case. For your own good!' Cheryl nodded and took a seat, watching Calleigh's hair flying out behind her as she left the room.

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

Cheryl glanced at her watch. She had been sat there for the best part of all of ten minutes, and she knew she couldn't stay where she was. She got up and wandered out into the crime lab. It was still busy, so she wandered down the corridors, eventually finding herself at the morgue. She headed in, with the intention of trying to clear the air with Alexx, but the ME was nowhere to be found.

Instead, Cheryl's attention was drawn to a sheet covered body on one of the gurneys. Curious, she pulled it back, and found herself looking at the body of Xena Doman. Even in death, she was a pretty Latina girl, with thick black hair, and a thick black eyelashes. Cheryl stood looking at her for a moment until her attention was drawn to something over the girl's mouth. She grabbed a UV light from the side, and attached a red screen before shining the light on the girl.

The light instantly picked out a hand shaped bruise over the girl's mouth and nose. Cheryl's mouth dropped open. Someone had smothered the girl, not something. She grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. She was on her fifth, when the door opened behind her.

'And what do you think you are doing?'

'Alexx, come look at this,' she said, without looking up.

Alexx walked over, 'I thought you were off this case?'

'I came to see you, but you weren't here, so I,' she sighed, 'you can take the girl out of the Crime Lab, but you can't take the criminalist out of the girl. I got nosey. And by the looks of things, it might be a good thing. What do you make of that?'

Alexx looked at the bruising and gasped. 'Given the time of death, this should have appeared hours ago.'

'Alexx, does that mean the TOD is wrong.'

Alexx nodded, 'by a couple hours at least. Something had to alter this.'

'Could heat do it?'

'For every hour the body is dead, the liver temperature decreases proportionally.'

'But if the body was kept warm,' said Cheryl slowly, thinking of how warm the crime scene had been.

'Then the liver temp would have stayed warm, making the time of death seem later than it was.' Finished Alexx.

'But surely the heat would have affected the outcome of the bruising.'

'Normally, yes, but the tox report indicated that this girl also had high levels of cocaine in her, and that would have affected the bruising.'

'So, if Cole Turnall claimed he passed out at about 2am, then, whilst originally, the TOD would mean he had been out cold, the new TOD would mean that he could have done it?'

Alexx nodded and smiled, 'yes.' The smile dropped from her face, 'but you aren't supposed to be working on this case.

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

'This key card is definitely to the penthouse suite,' said Eric from a computer, 'and the only fingerprints on it match Turnall and Whilks.'

'And we have a match,' said Speed, as he sat back from the microscope. 'The lily pollen from Whilks' sleeve, the lily pollen from the flowers, and the pollen from the cocaine are all a perfect match.'

'But that still leaves us with a problem. Whilks may be responsible for supplying the cocaine, but we have witnesses saying Whilks was at the bar at the TOD of the two victims. And the tox report came back on Turnall's blood. The sleeping tablet residue means that he was definitely out for the count when they died.'

'What if I told you the TOD was out by about two hours?' Cheryl asked from the doorway.

'I'd tell you, you shouldn't be on this case.' Said Eric.

Cheryl glanced over at Speed, who was deliberately not looking at her. She sighed and leaned against the doorframe. 'Which is why I'm telling you guys, so you can follow up on it.'

'Alright, what do you have?' Eric asked.

'You remember how stupidly warm that room was? Well, someone altered the AC thermostat, which altered the temperatures of the bodies, and ultimately altered the TOD.' She handed the pictures of the handprint bruise over to Eric, 'and the second girl was smothered by a hand.'

'Thanks, Cheryl. We should take it from here, though.' Eric told her, taking the photographs off her.

Cheryl smiled at him and then looked over at Speed. He was still ignoring her. She sighed again, but left the room.

'Was that really necessary?'

'What?'

'Ignoring her.'

'Yeah. I think it was.'

Eric cuffed him with the photographs. 'At least when Cheryl's acting childish, she has a decent excuse, considering her age. You on the other hand, are being stupid. If you're not careful, you're going to blow it.'

'It's already been blown, Eric. I don't give cheaters a second chance.'

'And so you shouldn't, but why are you so sure she cheated on you? She may be a lot of things, but one thing she definitely is, is in love with you. She wouldn't risk it.'

'Did you not see the photographs?' He asked him in a strangled voice.

'Calleigh is out proving they're fake.'

'From what I hear, you were giving her a hard time about it.'

'I was giving her a hard time about the claims in the paper about her solving all the cases. I would have forgiven her eventually,' he told him stubbornly. 'Besides, this is about you and her, not me and her. I'm not the one that's seeing her.'

'And neither am I,' Speed grumbled. He held up the tox report. 'There's a problem here.'

Eric sighed, 'what?'

'According to this, even if the TOD for the girls is 2am, Cole would have passed out around 1am.'

'Which means he still wouldn't have been able to do it.' He paused, 'unless he doped up, afterwards.'

'I think we should have a little chat with our superstar, and his assistant.'