24.
His pager eventually did take him from Schell's side, but before he returned to the Crime Lab, Horatio made two quick stops. Waiting for him in the Lab's parking lot was Frank, holding a file folder and wearing a decidedly smug smirk on his features.
"Our boy went north instead of south," he said, falling into step with Horatio as they made thier way to the Lab. "We hit all the Wal-Marts south of Oleta River and into the city proper before one of the boys suggested checking north. We hit paydirt, found clothes in the dumpster behind the Wal-Mart on 163rd in North Miami Beach. They tested positive for GSR. But that ain't the good part..."
Frank's smirk turned into a predatory grin. "While we were searching? Some kids in a vacant lot got our attention and guess what we found?" He flipped the file open and pulled out a photo, showing a heap of old wood scraps, weeds, some litter and hiding in amongst it all was the butt end of a rifle. Horatio glanced at it and then flipped through the others, which eventually led to the photograph of the entire rifle as it was retrieved from the trash heap.
"A Kimber .22," Horatio said, "Way to go, Calleigh."
"Eric is processing it and the clothes. And Calleigh is chomping at the bit to get that thing into the range. She's already on a hunt for the owner registration and Alexx retrieved two bullets from our vic," Frank said.
"Have we come up with a residence for Parnell yet?" Horatio asked.
"Still working on it; jar-head's addie was his brother's place and he ain't giving up much else."
"He doesn't have to..." Horatio said, ominously, carefully studying the photographs. Frank grabbed the door for him and they were both met by Eric in front of the reception desk.
"Eric..." Horatio said, tilting his head slightly as he continued viewing the photos.
"Just got done going over the rifle for trace and DNA; running them over to Valera now."
"What's the word on the car?" Horatio asked, looking up.
"Trace is working on what we found already and Documents is coming through with the paper trail now; was gonna go get it and page you."
"Anything new from the Parnell residence?" Horatio asked.
"Nothing. It was pretty much just a place for him to crash at. Anything we've got is going to be on him or the car," Eric replied.
"All right, go get that information and meet me in Ballistics, Frank..." Horatio said and returned the file to the Detective. "See if you and your detectives can go back over Parnell's known haunts and find friends. See if they might know who he's been hanging around with, or if he's suddenly had a change in habit from his normal routines. Remember that he's been with a higher social crowd recently. Maybe one of his aquaintences might know who they are," Horatio suggested.
"Got a few of the boys doing that now, wanted to get this to you first before I go join them. You going to be here at the lab if something comes up?" Frank asked.
"Here or Mt. Sinai Medical," Horatio said. "Just page me."
"How's the other vic?" Frank asked, nodding his head in acknowledgment.
"Recovering..." Horatio said.
"Rumour mill has it Stetler stuck his nose into something over there."
"You know what they say about rumours..." Horatio said, cautiously.
"Where there's smoke there's fire?" Frank joked.
Horatio only dropped his head and smiled mirthlessly. Getting ready to head for the Ballistics lab, he shot Frank a sly look and replied, "And sometimes there's just smoke."
Frank's chuckle followed him as he walked away.
In the Ballistic's lab, Horatio paused seeing that Calleigh, geared up, was set to test fire the suspect rifle. He waited until she had fired the weapon twice and retrieved both rounds from the test tank, then met him with a smile at the door leading back into the testing lab. He immediately got the door for her as she approached.
"Hi..." she greeted. "How is the other victim doing?"
"She's going to be fine..." Horatio said.
"Is it true that Rick Stetler was in her room waiting to interrogate her when she got out of recovery?" Calleigh asked.
"That is correct, and word travels fast," Horatio commented as she passed him. He let the door swing shut as Calleigh immediatly headed for the huge stereoscope for comparing her test rounds with the bullets that killed Lionel.
"Why would he want to know what is going on with this case? What would the other victim know about it? It's not really an Internal Affairs problem."
"No reason to stop Rick." Horatio replied offhandedly, "He might have gotten wind that I was involved in the Seattle end of things."
Calleigh, affixing a test round to the magnetic holder, stopped and looked at Horatio. "Is he still on a head hunt?"
"When hasn't he been?" Horatio asked.
"But why involve..." Calleigh started to ask him, but then her cat green eyes narrowed and she looked at Horatio. "He didn't ask her about the Seattle cases did he?" she asked.
"Do me a favour, Calleigh," Horatio said and as she looked at him expectantly, he gazed at her in frank earnestness. "Let's just keep that between you and I for now? All right?"
"Of course," she turned away and and fit a bullet recovered from Lionel into place. "What else brings you down here?"
"If your interrogation of Parnell goes the way I think it will, he's gonna start letting out that there is another party involved. When he does, I may interrupt you to learn who that might be. I thought I'd let you know that ahead of time. Should a suspect come up, I'll be following that course of action. You just stick with Parnell and where he's involved in the other cases."
"Fair enough," Calleigh smiled as she began adjusting the scope's focus. "Thank you for the warning..." she added, as she adjusted the focus her smile suddenly turned wolfish. "Now that's as pretty a match as ever there was one..." she drawled and stepped back from the scope for Horatio to take a look.
Stepping up, he looked through the ocular pieces and a faint smirk of triumph twitched across his lips. The test round and bullet from Lionel neatly matched. "And there we have our murder weapon," he murmured.
"Now we need to match it to our suspect," Calleigh replied.
"Another thing you might take into consideration where he is concerned?" Horatio said as he spotted Eric emerging from the elevators. "Parnell is ex-Marine. He's probably been through SERE training. He won't crack fast."
"I've been thinking about that!" Calleigh said as she saw Eric. Horatio began moving to meet him in the hall beyond.
"Just do what you do best..." Horatio said.
"Don't I always?" she called as he exited.
SERE training... Calleigh mused, viewing the bullets again. Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. A training course designed specifically for Special Op's soldiers and snipers in case they ever got caught behind enemy lines. Parnell indeed could be a tough one to get to... unless they had the evidence they needed to make him fold.
In the hall, Horatio met up with Eric.
"Did we get a match?" Eric asked, looking in at Calleigh, then back at Horatio.
"We did, it was our murder weapon. Now we need to tie it to our suspect. What have you got on the car?"
"Well, it's not Parnell's. Registration records shows that it's owned by a company called CCL Management. I have Documents tracking down a history of the company now. How Parnell came to be driving it is still a mystery. It's not been recorded stolen, so he must have had permission."
"CCL... name or numeral?" Horatio pondered out loud.
"250 Management? I could have them chase that lead down."
"More then likely it's a name... but do that just in case."
"Gotcha. Oh and the credit card people are balking at divulging information on the cards Parnell had, so we pulled a little muscle. They should be sending the information any time now."
"Seems they'd know better when the call is coming from us..." Horatio commented dryly. "What's Wolfe working on?"
"Trace... we didn't get any prints off the rifle, but we do have DNA and GSR from the clothes, and we found trace on some of the junk moved at the site to bury the rifle in. He was getting hasty when he dumped it. Ryan's helping out with that."
"Maybe a little more then that..." Wolfe's voice suddenly said behind them. They both looked at him curiously. Ryan, looking smug, was holding up an evidence envelope.
"I followed a hunch, about Parnell's piercing? There's not too many places in Miami willing to to do work on that portion of the anatomy. I found a place remembering the work on a Marine... was gonna head over and see if they recognize Owen's picture. Maybe it will pan out into something."
"Why don't you just accompany Eric as he goes and checks it out? You're still technically on medical leave, remember?" Horatio gently suggested.
"Yeah, I keep forgetting..." Ryan replied, looking a little subdued.
"Good hunch though; Eric?" Horatio asked, looking at Delko.
"Let's go see what this leads to," Eric grinned and nodded at Ryan.
"Keep in touch." Horatio said, as the two junior CSI's headed for the elevator.