Eric and Tim were back in the interview room, this time with Cole and his attorney. 'We've just arrested your personal assistant. Seems he did a pretty good job of doing what you wanted, even if it meant covering up murder.' Said Eric.

'Shame really. I bet good help is hard to find,' Speed added.

'My client has already told you he was not aware of any murder being committed, as he was asleep.' Said Cole's lawyer.

Eric smiled at him, before reaching into another folder and pulling out a photograph. This one was a close-up of the blunt force trauma that had been inflicted upon Xena Doman. 'This is a picture of the second victim, and as you can see, she received a bit of a heavy-handed hit.'

Cole shrugged, 'and?'

Speedle pulled out a piece of folded up paper and handed it over to the attorney. 'This here is a warrant.'

The attorney read the sheet, 'they want your ring?' Said the lawyer, both to inform Cole, and also to question the CSIs motives.

Cole looked down at the ring on his finger. It had a thick gold band with onyx and diamonds running around it. He shrugged, pulled it off and placed it on the table in front of Speed.

Speed bent over, opening his kit which was by his feet. He pulled out a pair of gloves and put them slowly on, before pulling out a piece of clay which he had pre-shaped into a smooth cube. He placed the cube in front of him, picked up the ring, and pressed it's sideinto the clay. Pulling out the ring, he set it to the side, before setting the impression next to the photograph.

'That impression, which you just witnessed me make, came from your ring.'

'I can see that.'

'Ah, good,' Eric said, 'so that means you can see that the impression matches the impression left behind in this girl's skull.'

Cole leant back in his chair and smiled. 'So what? I hit the girl. But that didn't kill her. She was alive when I went to sleep.'

Speed returned the smile. 'You're half right.'

'Yes,' Eric agreed, 'the hit didn't kill her.'

'But she was dead when you went to sleep.' Said Speed. 'And it was your hand that killed her.'

Cole leant forward, 'prove it.'

Eric grinned and turned to Speed, 'now isn't that a stupid thing to say to a criminalist?' Speed nodded. Eric turned his attention back to the pop star. He pulled out another photograph and laid it carefully in front of him. This one was a picture of the girl's face.

'Let me tell you what we think happened,' said Speed. 'Amber. Couldn't handle her cocaine and died. And then Xena here, she panicked, as I'm sure any normal person would do.'

'She was probably getting a little noisy at this point,' said Eric, 'so you shut her up. Hit her around the side of her head and knocked her unconscious.'

'So that temporarily solved the problem, but you still had a dead body on your hands. So you called your assistant. Now, between you, I don't know who, but one of you decided that the only way the other girl wasn't going to say something was if she was dead.'

'This is the part where we accuse you of murder,' interrupted Eric.

'You took your hand, placed it over her mouth and nose and smothered her. I'm guessing the method of murder was your assistant's idea, something he learnt from being inside. If there's no weapon, there's no trace of murder.'

'Which is true, in a sense,' agreed Eric. 'There may not be any evidence on the weapon, but there is evidence on the body.' He pulled out a final photograph and pointed. It showed a close-up of Xena's face, and the hand impression left there, accompanied by the ring impression.

'Maybe that assistant of yours wasn't all that great. I mean, he didn't tell you to remove the ring. And look at that, we've got you for murder.' Said Speed.

'Tell him the other bit, Speed,' said Eric.

'What?' Cole asked.

Speedle reached into the folder and pulled out a sheet of DNA samples. 'We pulled some condoms out of a trash can in your hotel room. The DNA on the inside matched you, and the DNA on the outside matched Amber White, and Xena Doman.'

Cole shrugged, 'so what? It was consentual.'

'Ah,' said Speed, 'technically, that's where you're wrong. For one girl, at least.'

Eric leant forward, clasping his hands together and resting them on the table, 'you see, Xena Doman was only fifteen, and that means you slept with a minor.'

'And that means a couple of extra years on your sentence.'

Cole shrugged again, 'so what?' He repeated, 'thanks to that Brit you've got working with you, this case is going to get thrown out of court. A word of advice to you: don't let someone so young, naïve and inexperienced work on something as important as this.'

Eric nodded to the mirror in the room, 'oh, on that note, we have someone who wants to talk to you.'

'A word of advice to you,' added Speed as the two CSIs got up to leave, 'in the distant future, when you eventually get out of prison. Should you ever find yourself committing a crime, don't ever ask a criminalist to prove something. Because they will.'

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

'He's all yours,' said Eric as he walked out of the room, Speedle right behind him.

'Thanks.' Said Calleigh. She put her hand on the door, and paused, 'Tim, go find Cheryl. Before it's too late.'

Speed looked at her before walking off without saying anything.

Calleigh shook her head. 'Are we fighting a lost cause here?'

'I don't know,' replied Eric, 'if he talks to her now, she'll forgive him.'

'But I think he's too stubborn. Or proud.' She said. 'Or both,' she added as an afterthought.

'She won't wait for him for long, that's for sure. She has more sense than that.'

Calleigh gave him a small smile and entered the room. She sat down opposite Cole, sitting where Eric had just sat, and placed a laptop in front of her. She waited a minute and the door behind her opened again. In walked Detective Tripp and sat down next to her, again.

'You two, again.' Muttered Cole.

'Hi,' greeted Frank.

'I'm not a big fan of television,' started Calleigh, 'I don't normally watch it. So you'll have to forgive me when I tell y'all that I don't watch the shows where three judges travel around the country trying to find the next big thing in music.'

'You're missing some quality TV there,' said Cole.

'Maybe.' Agreed Calleigh, 'however, I have people, like Detective Tripp here, who can fill me in on the highlights.'

Frank smiled uncomfortably.

'The detective here,' Calleigh said, leaning in, 'watched your show religiously. With his wife, of course.'

'Of course,' agreed Cole sarcastically.

'If the wife wants to watch something on the television, she watches it,' Frank said gruffly, 'if it's on in the background, I may half watch it.'

'Of course,' Cole repeated, in the same tone.

'Anyway,' said Calleigh, 'Detective Tripp told me something interesting about you.'

'Yes,' said Cole, leaning in to Calleigh, 'it really is that big,' he whispered.

Calleigh nodded slowly, 'I'm sure it is,' she whispered back, 'however, that's not the interesting thing I learnt about you today. No, what I learnt is that just before entering the show, you had just graduated from college. Iowa State, I believe. Not that bad a bad college, either. Now what was the degree you did? Something involving computers?'

'Media studies.'

'That's the one. And if I understand it correctly, you now have a degree which says you can manipulate images.'

'Amongst other things.'

'Talking of other things, another interesting thing I found out was that you have a college friend who managed to get a job working for the Miami Prophet.'

'Elle, yeah. So what?'

Calleigh opened her laptop and pressed a button. Onto the screen appeared the image of Cheryl and Cole which seemed like they had just been caught doing something. She turned the screen to face Cole.

'That picture isn't a fake,' Cole claimed, smugly.

'Nope. It's real.' Calleigh agreed, 'however,' she pressed a button and the picture was replaced by two others. The first was of Ryan and Cheryl in the same position, taken from the same angle, the picture next to it was the picture of the two taken from a different angle. 'As you can see, if you change the angle of the photograph, then the picture tells a very different story.'

'That doesn't mean nothing happened between us. The news proved that one.'

'And that is where the first interesting fact about comes into play.'

Cole shifted uncomfortably, 'oh yeah?'

'Yeah,' confirmed Frank.

'It was an excellent job. It must have been reassuring to know that when your music career dried up, you'd have a back up job.' She told him, a smile on her face. She pressed a button again, and the two pictures were replaced by the film of Cheryl and Cole actually kissing. 'It really is a good job,' admired Calleigh, 'you really do struggle to tell it's fake. However, when you compare it to this,' she showed him the film of Tim and Cheryl, and put the two side by side, 'you can see what you've done.'

'We've already had a word with your friend, Elle,' Frank added, 'she admitted to getting a copy of the original tape from the courthouse and giving it to you to manipulate. And we've also had a word with your PA and he's admitted to giving this phoney film to the news. So you're not getting out of these charges as easily as you thought.'

Cole slumped back into his chair, defeated.

'And that,' Calleigh added, as she shut her laptop and picked it up, 'is me fulfilling my promise to you.' She got and started to leave, but stopped and turned back to Cole. 'Oh, and let me add a little more advice for y'all.' Cole lifted his head and looked at her, 'it doesn't matter how good you are, try to frame a CSI and we'll catch you in that lie.'

Frank looked at Calleigh, then to Cole, and frowned, 'well, if everyone is giving their advice, here's mine. Don't commit the crime in the first place.'

Calleigh gave a small chuckle, 'and that, Cole, is probably the best advice anyone could give you.' Cole glared at them both. Calleigh smiled at him and waltzed out of the room, leaving Frank to book him.

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

Cheryl was in the locker room, pacing up and down. She was mid-way through packing her stuff up for the day, but had become distracted again. She knew Calleigh had gone in to see Cole, but that had been ages ago. She was on her twelfth length of the room when Calleigh finally entered.

'You're clear,' Calleigh told her, her trademark smile on her face.

Cheryl returned the smile and sank to the bench. She let out an enormous sigh of relief and ran her hands through her hair. 'Thank you so much, Calleigh. I owe you big time.'

Calleigh shook her head, 'we're even. Y'all saved my job after that incident under the pier.'

Cheryl smiled and nodded, 'thank you,' she repeated.

'I spoke to the reporter who wrote that article,' Calleigh said as she sat down next to Cheryl on the bench, 'she told me where to go. So I spoke to her editor. The paper is going to write an apology tomorrow, and re-report the story correctly.'

'I'm hoping they won't have to,' said Cheryl, rubbing her forehead. 'I don't want the promotion. I don't deserve that promotion. In fact, after today, I'll just be happy if I don't get demoted.'

'You'll be fine.' Calleigh reassured her.

Cheryl nodded, 'I've got to go, Calleigh. I need to get to the hospital.'

'I hope Madison is doing better,' Calleigh told her as Cheryl grabbed her purse and shut her locker. She was locking it when Speed walked in. 'I'll catch you later,' Calleigh said to Cheryl, who, with her back to him, hadn't noticed him walk in.

Cheryl turned around and found she had been left with him. She bit her bottom lip and looked at him. He came into the room and went to his locker and instead of opening it, stared at the damage he had caused it earlier. 'We arrested Cole.' He said, staring at the door of his locker, without really looking at it.

Cheryl nodded, 'I know.' She waited for him to say something. He didn't. She sighed, 'are you going to be able to get home alright?' She asked him, thinking about the Hummer key which was in her pocket.

'Eric said he'd take me home.'

'Okay. I just didn't want you to be stranded here all night.' She told him. When he didn't say anything back, she picked up her purse and put it over her shoulder. 'Night, Tim.' She said quietly, and left, leaving him alone.

Well, we're nearly there. Thanks for reading, and I'm glad y'all are liking it (?) Hopefully, the next chapter will be up by the middle of next week.