Horatio walked into his office to do at least some of the paper work until the results were ready. Time went by and 1 hour later the first results was up. The man whose name was confirmed as James Connor was indeed the father of Annie. The blood on the clothes was from Annie. Horatio read the preliminary autopsy report. The little girl had been regularly beaten before. He closed his eyes and put the report away to look at the watch. Still no word from Tim. So he went on with the paper work. About two hours later he was interrupted by people running down the hall and screaming voices. Horatio quickly got up to the source of it. He was stunned. The interrogation room. He entered it only be stunned again. James Connor was protected by two officers, Adelle was shouting and another two officers held a raging Speed back.
"What's going on here!" Horatio asked.
"That man just stormed in here, beating me! Hell! Get me out of here!" James shouted and touched his bleeding lip.
"I couldn't do anything, Horatio. Tim just ran into him. I thought he was still at the hospital…" Adelle tried to explain.
"It's okay, Adelle. Get him out. I handle this" Horatio said and turned to the still furious Speed, the officers ready to take over. "You can go now."
"Are you sure, Lieutenant?"
"Yes."
The officers left.
None of the two spoke for a moment. Horatio tried to think of something to say, while Speed tried hard to ignore his boss and to gain some composure. Then after some minutes passed by and the adrenalin level had gone back to somewhat normal, Speed could feel the pain in his already injured and now plastered right hand and he was sure his right eye was injured, too, because he could feel the blood running down his cheek. One of the officers hit him hard as he tried to get him away from Connor.
"I hope you'll get a real nasty headache. At least. What the hell is going on, Speed?" Horatio asked.
"That's none of your business", Speed replied.
"In case you haven't noticed, THAT is my business right now. You probably contaminated a crime scene, threatened a suspect and you try to fool me over and over again. I don't like that. Now, I'm asking you one last time. What the hell is going on?"
"I told you…that's none…"
"Alright. Speed, you're out. I'll give Eric a call to get you home. Give me your gun and take some days off. I don't want you near this building or James Connor for next few days. Is that clear?" Horatio stepped right in front of Speed, their eyes locked.
Speed had to control his temper very hard, but then he grabbed for his gun. Unfortunately he reached with his right hand for it, so he flinched by this movement and the gun landed on the ground. Horatio took a step back and retrieved the weapon. "I don't want to do this. You know that we can talk about whatever is bugging you. It stays between us. You know you can trust me, don't you?"
"I…it's
just…I can't, H. I'm sorry" Speed managed to get out and then
turned to leave.
Eric already stood outside the room, confused. "I
don't get it. What happened here?"
Speed stayed silent, he
fingered for a handkerchief in his pocket to wipe away the
blood.
"Eric, get Speed out of here. We'll talk later, okay?"
Horatio said.
"Sure. Let's go."
Horatio just stood there for a while.
Alexx appeared. "Have you seen Tim? I'm worried about him. His behaviour in the autopsy room was…odd."
"He was in the autopsy room? What time?" Horatio asked.
"About 20 minutes ago. Is everything alright? You look shocked", Alexx said.
"Well, you can say that. I just threw Speed out of this building."
"You did what?"
"You mind if we take a walk?"
"Absolutely not."
Once outside they walked a few steps and then took a seat at a nearby bench.
"I'm worried about Tim, too. This case…something's not right. He's out of his mind. But he refuses to talk to me", Horatio said. "What did he say to you back then?"
"He wanted to see the report. I asked him how he got here. He answered that he took a cab since he wasn't in the mood to deal with you right now."
Horatio nodded, but stayed silent.
Alexx continued. "He read my report, then asked for DNA results. I told him that Connor was the father of Anna. He handed me papers back, then, all of a sudden, stormed out of the room. His behaviour was odd. Never took his eyes from the body. That's why I went looking for him."
Horatio nodded again. "Okay. Let's take a closer look at Mr. Connor. There must be something that is bugging Tim."
"I'm worried, Horatio. That's not our Tim we saw today."
"I know."
tbc...