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Very Little Time

'Where's Ryan?' Calleigh asked Eric.

He looked up. 'He's not in?'

'No.'

Eric shook his head. 'I haven't seen him.'

'He's late. He's never late.'

'I'm sorry, I haven't seen him. Maybe he got caught in traffic or he overslept.'

She gave him a hard look. 'You ever known Ryan to oversleep? You ever known Ryan to be late for anything?'

'No,' he admitted.

'It's really not like him at all,' she said. 'After the stressing he's been doing over this case – '

'Relax, Calleigh,' Eric said, giving her a reassuring grin. 'He'll come running in here in the next half hour saying sorry over and over again and freaking out because he's late for something for the first time in his life.'

'Maybe,' she said. 'I have some work to do in my lab. See you later.'

He waved a hand and knocked over one of his crutches. He made a grab for it and caught it.

'You still need those?' she said from the door.

Eric shrugged. 'The doctor said I should use them for walking distances. I can stand and walk across the room okay, just hurts a bit.'

'Ryan will be glad,' she commented. 'Another week and he won't have to be covering all your field work.'

'That'll make two of us,' Eric muttered.

A few minutes later there was a quiet tap at the door. It was Horatio. 'Morning Eric,' he said. 'You seen Wolfe this morning?'

'No,' Eric said. 'Calleigh was looking for him, but he hasn't turned up yet.'

'Maybe he went out to look at the scene again,' Horatio said thoughtfully.

'No, he hasn't clocked in yet,' Eric said.

'That's odd.'

'That's what Calleigh said,' Eric said.

'Do me a favour, Eric. Give him a ring, see what's happening. Wolfe's never late.'

'Sure.' Eric reached for his phone.

'Thanks, Eric.'

'If I don't get him I'll call his apartment,' Eric added.

'And if you can't get him on that, send an officer around.'

'I'll go myself, if you want,' he offered.

'No, on second thoughts, I will,' Horatio said. 'You'll come with me.'

Eric dialled. He got Ryan's voice message on his cell phone and left a message. 'Hey, Ryan, it's Eric. Just wondering if you're okay cos you're late for work. Hope to see you in later. Bye.' He ended the call. 'No answer from his mobile.'

'Right, try his apartment,' Horatio said.

Eric dialled the number. Again, he got the answer phone and left the same message.

'Right, let's go around there,' Horatio said.

The hummer pulled up outside Ryan's apartment building. Horatio got out. 'No car,' he observed.

'Tire treads on the ground,' Eric pointed to the ground.

'Driving in or driving out?' Horatio asked.

Eric narrowed his eyes and squinted at the tracks. 'Driving in, at speed,' he said eventually. 'Directionality shows that they're caused by driving in at speed. But see those – ' he pointed at another set, partially over the top of the first. 'Those imply driving out at speed. Burnt a lot of rubber.'

'Okay,' Horatio said thoughtfully. 'Let's assume for the moment that it was Wolfe who drove in and out. What would make him drive in or out this fast? Let's take a look around his apartment.'

They went up, a woman coming out letting them into the building when Horatio showed his badge.

'Have you seen Ryan Wolfe?' Horatio asked her.

She frowned. 'Youngish, dark hair? Police officer?'

He nodded.

'No, sorry,' she said. 'I saw him going out yesterday going to work, haven't seen him since.'

'Thank you, ma'm,' Horatio said and he and Eric went on up the stairs.

Ryan's apartment was locked so the caretaker let them in, again after seeing the badge. Inside, everything was neat and tidy, nothing out of place. No sign of any trouble, no fight, nothing. No sign of Ryan, either.

There were two messages on the answer-phone. One was the one that Eric had left. The other was from Ryan's mother, shouting at him down the phone about whatever it was he had done the night before that had obviously seriously upset her.

'Maybe he went around to talk, apologise?' Eric suggested.

'He would have called the lab to let us know he was going to be late,' Horatio said. 'But it's unlikely. He's more likely to have waited until he finished.'

'Well, there's nothing here,' Eric said. 'Let's get back to the lab, see if he's turned up.'

He hadn't, but Calleigh had news.

'Ryan's sister came in, shouting and wanting to speak to him,' she said. 'I told her he wasn't here so she started shouting at me.'

'She had no idea he's gone missing,' Horatio mused.

'So he's classified as missing,' Calleigh said quietly.

'Not yet,' Horatio said. 'Not yet.'

'Did you find anything at his apartment?' she asked.

'Nothing,' Eric said grimly. 'He's not there and his car wasn't there. No one's seen him. None of his neighbours, no one.'

'Great,' she said. 'So we have no idea where he is.'

Tripp came over. 'That might have just changed,' he said, looking concerned. 'We just got a call about an abandoned car, Wolfe's licence plate.'

'You've found his car,' Horatio repeated.

'Bad news is that it looks like there's blood inside,' Tripp added.

Horatio looked at Calleigh. 'Let's go.'

Ryan's car was parked haphazardly on the side of the road. There was blood on the driver's window and on the headrest of the seat. Calleigh examined it silently and pulled a swab out of her kit.

'What have you found?' Horatio asked.

Calleigh swabbed the blood and applied luminol. She watched the reaction and said, 'It's definitely blood.'

'How much?' he asked, hands on hips and eyes fixed on the ground.

Her voice was steady as she replied, 'Not much.'

He nodded silently. 'Right.'

'He might still be alive,' she said, lowering her voice.

'Might,' Horatio said, 'is good enough.'

'I'll get this back to the lab, verify that it's – ' her voice finally shook, 'what we think it is.'

He nodded slowly. 'Fine. You do that.'

'What are you going to do?' she asked.

'Honestly, Calleigh?' he murmured. 'I don't know.'

Eric looked up as Tripp came in. 'You got something for me?' he asked.

'Calleigh told me where Wolfe was at dinner with his family last night,' he said. 'I got a list of people there last night, and the security tapes are on their way over. Like you asked. What you thinking, Delko?'

'I'm thinking,' Eric said, 'that it's possible that someone from the restaurant might have had something to do with it.'

'How'd you figure that out?' Tripp asked.

'Call it a hunch,' Eric said, taking the list. 'Thanks, Tripp.'

'And I got this for you,' the detective added. 'Here. The security tapes for the outside of Wolfe's apartment building for last night.'

'Thanks.'

Eric left the list for a while and instead he played the security tape. There was little of any interest, until he watched Ryan's car driving in fast. Ryan got out and went in. A few minutes later another car pulled in and stayed there, the driver not getting out of the car which instantly caught Eric's interest. A few hours Ryan came out of the building and got in the car. At the moment he got into his car, the man in the other car got and walked over. Eric watched with growing horror as he zoomed in on Ryan's car and saw the man knock him out and drive the car away.

He wrote down the licence plate number of the man's car, and tried to get a clear image of the man's face but couldn't pull up anything useable.

Eric pulled the list over and examined it closely.

When the tapes from the restaurant arrived, he examined them. There was no car with the same licence plate as the other car. There was one car that he couldn't pull up any licence plate number up since it was hidden behind another car. He watched again and when Ryan left the place and drove away, a man walked out of the restaurant and walked down the street. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Eric set about trying to find out who the man was. So far, this was his only lead, other than the licence plate. He got Tripp to pull up the car and try and find out who the car belonged to.

Finally, he had something to work with.

'I went through the list of people who were at this restaurant last night and compared it to the name we got on that car,' Eric explained. 'I didn't find a match, but I did find something very interesting.'

'What's that?' Horatio asked.

'I found a certain person who was there last night, with a man whose name matches the name on the car licence plate.'

Horatio smiled. 'Excellent. So we have a suspect.'

'Yeah,' Eric said. 'The car outside Ryan's apartment belongs to a Matt Tyler.'

'Matt Tyler,' Horatio said thoughtfully. 'Who was he with?'

'A certain widowed Mrs Moore,' Eric said.

Horatio raised an eyebrow. 'Things are beginning to add up, aren't they? Any luck in tracing Mr Tyler?'

'Tripp's on it,' Eric said. 'But we've still got to find Ryan.'

'Exactly.'

Calleigh came in. 'Any news?' she asked.

'We have a couple of leads,' Horatio said. 'You?'

'Tripp's not having any luck finding Matt Tyler,' she said. 'But he's working on it. Any news about the blood in the car?'

'None yet.' Horatio paused as Valera came in. 'I hope you have some news.'

She nodded, holding the sheet of paper in front of her. 'I ran a comparison of the blood you found in the car against DNA I got off of a water bottle in Ryan's locker.'

'Well?' Calleigh said.

Horatio's mobile rang. He ignored it.

'It's Ryan's blood,' Valera said quietly. She looked to be on the verge of tears. 'I checked it three times. There's no mistake.'

There was silence except for the ringing of Horatio's mobile.

'Are – are you going to answer that?' Calleigh asked quietly.

He shook his head. 'You and Eric are off of any other cases you might be working,' he said. 'This is the only case you're one. We don't have much time.'

'We need to find him quickly,' she said as his phone rang again.

He nodded and took out his phone. He was about to turn it off, then changed his mind and answered it.

'Horatio,' he said shortly.

There was silence on the other end.

'Hello?' he said sharply into the receiver. 'Who is this?'

He heard a faint gasp and cough. 'H-Horatio.'

'Wolfe?' he said sharply. 'Wolfe, is that you?'

Everyone in the lab turned and stared.

'That's Ryan?' Calleigh exclaimed.

'Wolfe, talk to me,' Horatio said. 'Where are you? Wolfe, keep talking to me, keep talking. Can you tell me where you are? Ryan, where are you? Do you know? Just keep talking – Ryan, keep talking!' He looked at Calleigh. 'Get on it,' he snapped. 'Get a trace on this number!'

She nodded and left.

'Wolfe,' Horatio said calmly. 'Keep talking to me. That's right, we're going to find you. Just keep talking to me. You have to stay awake Ryan, you understand that? Just talk, just stay awake. Ryan? Ryan! Talk to me!' He swore angrily and looked at Eric. 'Our time frame just got less,' he said.