5.
The Reception desk at the Miami-Dade County Crime Lab the following morning had a subdued and tense anticipation surrounding it. Everyone noticed it. Calleigh Duquesne, walking in pulling her sunglasses off from the intense morning sunshine, noticed it immediately as she approached the counter. Slim, with very blonde straight hair, Calleigh was on the short side, but her demeanor, and the gun and badge on her hip, seemed to make her small stature vanish. Several uniformed policeman and a few lab techs had already gathered nearby, reading through their messages.
"Mornin' ya'll!" she greeted cheerily, smiling at Paula. "Any messages?"
"Right here." Paula said, picking up a small stack of memo sheets.
"What is going on?" she promptly asked, looking around before turning her green eyed gaze back to Paula. "Ya'll are acting like there's a lynching about to happen." She dropped her gaze as she began flipping through the messages.
"There's about to be." Paula said causing Calleigh's head to come back up.
"Oh, yeah? What happened? Did Ryan super glue another quarter to the floor in front of the vending machine again?"
"Ummm…" Paula hedged.
Calleigh smiled dazzlingly. "Let me guess, Eric stuck another hand in the refrigerator again?"
"Worse than that…" One of the officers said, bending over to hiss it toward Calleigh's ear as he walked off to his patrol.
"Ooh," Calleigh nodded, looking at Paula. "What's going on?"
Paula looked around, then leaned over the counter and looked at Calleigh conspiratorially. "Remember a few weeks back when that asshole from IA had H put in the lock up?" She whispered.
Calleigh's expression instantly lost all its humour, she remembered that day only too well and frequently wished it and Rick Stetler were gone.
"What about it?" she asked, her voice lowering.
"Apparently a call came in for him through the reception desk here that Carol Jensen took. And she never got it to him." Paula said.
"Oh, dear…" Calleigh murmured, studying Paula's strained face a moment. "and it was important?"
"Apparently so, he called reception last night around ten or so and had Jessie search back through the logs to see who was on and what messages were left for him that week. Apparently because he was in the holding, uhhh, well, you know… because he was in there, Carol set his messages for that day aside and he never got them."
"Crap…" Calleigh breathed, looking at her in dismay.
"Exactly," Paula said. "He came in about six am, looking like death warmed over, went straight to his office and called her in there about five minutes ago."
"Oh, dear…" Calleigh said, then smirked conspiratorially. "Has anyone called Alexx?"
"Think I should or will there be anything left?" Paula shot back.
"Oh!" Calleigh said, waving a hand. "He's not that bad! She'll survive."
"Head's up…" another uniformed patrolman said as he walked past.
Around the corner of the newly installed glass walls of the renovated building came a petite, short haired brunette in an officer's uniform. Her eyes were dark and her face was nearly white in anger and shame. The remaining officers in the corridor promptly vanished as the girl came in around behind Paula. Calleigh immediately dropped her gaze to her messages, and turned slightly away, but didn't move from the desk.
"Well…?" Paula whispered to the girl as she sat down in her chair, shaking with restrained emotions.
"What the hell was I supposed to do?" Carol whispered, "The guy was in our own lock up, was I supposed to take his messages to him?"
"What'd he say!"
"He just asked me if I was the one who took his calls that day." Carol said as Paula sat across from her, leaning forward. "When I told him yes, he asked me why I didn't give him his messages."
"What did you tell him?" Paula asked.
"I tried to explain that that was the day he was indisposed."
"What did he say to that?"
"Gawd, Paula!" Carol replied, shaking, and running both hands over her face. "He gave me a look that could've froze hell over and he only said two words after that."
"Only two?" Paula asked.
"Only two, and he never even raised his voice but he scared the crap out of me!" Carol complained.
"What did he say?" Paula urged.
"All he said was… never again." Carol looked at her beseechingly. "What was I suppose to do? He was in lock up!"
"You're supposed to get him his messages." Calleigh said, looking at the flustered brunette, who looked up at Calleigh indignantly. "Despite what may be happening in this lab, he's still the head supervisor, he's still your superior and one of those messages could mean life or death to someone. Obviously something was very important, or he wouldn't have called you on the carpet for it."
"But this was three weeks ago!" Carol blurted.
"Regardless… his messages need to get to him, right away. No matter what is happening to him. You could have left the messages on his desk. He would have gotten them." Calleigh replied.
As she was speaking, another person came through the front doors, and approached the desk. "Morning all…" he said, looking at the three women curiously.
"Wow, you're on time!" Calleigh chirped, turning to look at Eric Delko as he looked at Paula.
"Funny, ha…" he replied as Paula handed him his messages. "Feels like a funeral home in here, what's going on?"
"Horatio." Calleigh said, smiling brilliantly as she turned away from the desk. She winked at Paula as Eric fell in line beside her, sorting through his notes.
"Storm clouds again?" Eric asked.
"Oh yeah, reamed Carol a new one for not getting his messages to him. She screwed up bad, apparently one was pretty important." Calleigh said as they headed down the corridor together.
"From three weeks ago?" Eric exclaimed. "Man I hope she hasn't stashed any of ours away that long."
"She'll never stash any away ever again." Calleigh said as they came around a corner. "He was at that grand opening event last night wasn't he?"
"He and Alexx, Burton pretty much told them they had to go."
"What would cause him to call reception at 10:00pm trying to backtrack old messages?" Calleigh asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Eric replied. "And speaking of the man…"
Both spotted Horatio at the same time, sitting in his office. At some point in time he had returned home and changed, and despite looking immaculate in a black suit and a deep burgundy shirt, one could tell he had had very little sleep. There were smudges of fatigue under his eyes, and he seemed to be carrying a burden almost beyond his capabilities to carry. He was sat back in his chair, legs crossed, and silently stroked the corners of his mouth, lost deep in thought. A neat stack of message slips sat on the blotter before him, with one pulled out. He spotted Calleigh and Eric coming down the hall, and with a nod of his head, beckoned them inside.
"Morning H," Eric greeted with Calleigh following suit.
"I was just about to have you two paged, but you saved me the trouble," he said giving them a slight smile. He reached over and tugged a different note over to himself and picked it up.
"Early morning road trip," he said, handing the paper to Eric. "Alexx just got called out to a very suspicious scene out in the Glades. Apparently…" Horatio paused and raised an eyebrow, "Apparently they have a vic with a broken neck that his friends are saying he got when he hit the side of his house."
Calleigh blinked, "Hit the side of his house, how?" she promptly asked.
"That's where it gets interesting," Horatio said, twisting his head slightly and giving them a weary smile. "His friends are saying he launched himself out of a culvert like a rocket and he hit the side of the house."
Eric looked at Horatio in surprise for a split second. "You've got to be…" he started, but a look from Horatio stopped him dead. They had all seen just about everything over the years and very little surprised them any more.
"Launched from a culvert…" Calleigh chipped in, then looked at Eric with a challenging smile. "This ought to be good!"
"Sounds like something only a bunch of good ol' boys would do."
"I'd take exception to that, but unfortunately your right." Calleigh grinned.
"If something happens out there, you know to call me." Horatio said.
"Will do," Calleigh replied, looking at Eric, "I'm driving this time!"
"Hey, wait…" he started as they left the office, leaving Horatio with the faintest of smiles on his face at their banter. It slowly vanished away as he glanced at the single note separated from the others. On it was a time, Schell's name and phone number --the same given to him by Tyler-- and the note was back dated to three weeks prior.
He closed his eyes wearily for a moment, feeling the fatigue, before he uncrossed his legs and swiveled around to face his desk, reaching for a cup of coffee. He was about to sip when the intercom on his desk chirped.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Sir, I have a request for you're presence at the scene of a suspicious pedestrian involved accident from Detective Tripp?" Paula's voice said over the speaker.
Horatio sighed, "All right," he said, reaching for a notebook and pen. The day was getting off to a typical start.
It turned out to definitely be a suspicious case; a hit and run. And since he was shorthanded with Ryan Wolfe still being out on injured reserve, Horatio found himself processing the scene, with Frank's help. There wasn't much, and by late morning, he was loading his kit back into the Hummer, his thoughts still drifting and straying to Schell. Frank had noticed he seemed a bit more distant than usual and Horatio had claimed fatigue; he was at the opening event the previous night, a fact which Frank nodded his understanding about, and dropped the subject.
Driving off from the scene, he was pulling onto the business loop for downtown Miami when he came to a decision, and a few moments later he pulled into an available street parking spot and made his way to a florist shop. For several minutes he wandered around the place, looking at the different bouquets and options, a puzzled frown between his eyes, before he made his way to the main service desk. There, as he waited for another customer ahead of him, he flipped through an FTD selection book, still not finding what he wanted.
"Thanks for waiting sir, how can I help you?" The woman behind the counter asked.
"Um," Horatio started, looking at the display coolers behind the counter and thinking. "You do custom orders, correct?"
"Of course!" she smiled, "have you got something particular in mind?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." Horatio replied. "Something elegant, made up of white flowers and fragrant," he said.
"For a special occasion?" she asked pulling out a receipt book.
"No, but I would like it delivered and I'd like to write something down on the note to go with it."
"All right, hang on, let me get a few samples for you to look at here, and I'll get you a card." She smiled and set about her work.