As Horatio had promised, he and Agent Hickoc paid a very in-your-face visit to Prechel to find out exactly what was going on with the Sandoval case. The end result was the two men paying a visit to Prechel's boss, Harisford, the local D.A. and having Prechel removed from the Sandoval case on charges of unnecessarily endangering a witness.
It turned out what was going on was Prechel had been playing a very dangerous game with Sandoval's lawyer, Kuber, at Savannah's expense. The man had been making Savannah out to be his star witness when, in fact, she had nothing of value to contribute to the case, thus putting her life in unnecessary jeopardy.
Harisford had taken immediate action upon hearing this. He had called Prechel in to account for his actions and had given the man a very serious dressing down, going as far as to put him on notice. He had also removed him from the Sandoval case and re-assigned it to an Assistant Harisford knew to be Prechel's unspoken rival. Then he had personally apologized to Savannah, who had graciously accepted the apology with a dignity and grace that had made Horatio proud of her.
Next, he spoke to Sheriff Donaling and inquired about Andrew. Upon learning that Andrew was looking for Savannah, Donaling promised to do what he could to put a stop to the search. He did suggest that Savannah have her name and Social Insurance Number changed to protect herself further, which would also make things more difficult for Andrew. Horatio promised to pass the suggestion on.
Meanwhile, Savannah was thoroughly enjoying her "grounding." She had worked several crime scenes with Horatio, Calleigh, and Natalia, and once assisted Alexx with an autopsy. To her surprise she found she had a natural aptitude for forensic science. With the money that was coming in from her commissioned artwork, and Natalia and Alexx's suggestions, she began to seriously consider taking a course in Criminology on-line, leaning heavily towards the sciences, maybe even getting a Bachelor of Science, like Horatio.
And speaking of Horatio, their relationship was steadily getting better. They were talking more and it was getting to the point that Savannah found herself preferring to talk to Horatio rather than Tina. After her out-burst on the beach they had talked some more at the restaurant and, after a little coaxing from Horatio, Savannah had told him about her nightmares. He hadn't tried to analyze them but had asked her what she thought the nightmares meant. That had gotten her thinking. She realized she felt like she had no control over the events in her life and understood that she had to take that control back or Andrew and Sandoval were going to win.
Savannah took the first step to regaining that control when she faced down Sandoval.
A few days after her talk with Horatio, Sandoval and Savannah passed each other at the MDPD. Sandoval had tried to silently intimidate her again, by glaring at her in a dark, ugly way that seemed to promise silent retribution if he ever got his hands on her.
Frank, who had been nearby, would later mention the incident to Horatio.
"What did Savannah do?" Horatio asked upon hearing about the confrontation.
"What she did was pull your favorite trick," Frank replied.
"My favorite trick?"
"Yeah. She pushed back her blazer enough to reveal her gun, put one hand on her hip and the other hand on her gun and started 'casually' tapping it. She even deliberately removed the safety strap!" Frank said. "I had to do a double-take because how many times have I seen you do the exact same thing?"
"Oh! That's his classic Wanna-Play-Catch-The-Bullet-Stance," Calleigh chirped cheerfully, coming over to join them.
"Is that what that's called?" Horatio asked, grinning.
"That's what we call it but the junior cops call it the Caine Stance, which is what you do when you're starting to get hostile or want to appear intimidating. Scares the heck out of the rookies," Calleigh replied easily.
Both Horatio and Frank chuckled.
"Just to top it all off, Savannah also gave Sandoval a stare that could have rivaled you for iciness," Frank said to Horatio. "I swear it felt like the room temp dropped by several degrees. If I didn't know better, I'd swear she was your kid."
"Now that's a frightening concept," Calleigh quipped, causing both men to chuckle again.
"What did Sandoval do?" Horatio asked.
"Dumbass backed down in one heck of a hurry," Frank said, grinning broadly.
"That's my girl," Horatio said, smiling.
Unbeknownst to Frank, his "daughter" crack would spark an idea in Horatio, an idea that would get fuel added to it forty-eight hours later.
Evening was falling and it was promising to be a nice night. Savannah was crossing the parking lot to enter the Crime Lab where she was meeting Horatio for dinner. She was still feeling pretty pleased about having faced Sandoval yesterday. Today had been her day off and she'd enjoyed herself, especially now that she was escort-free. She was lost in thought when she heard someone call to her. It was Sandoval's sleeze-ball lawyer, Darryl Kuber, and he was headed straight for her. To make matters worse, the parking lot was devoid of people. She kept walking.
"What do you want, Kuber?" she called back, wishing she had her Glock but since it had been her day off, she hadn't taken it with her.
"To talk," he replied, catching up to her.
"Got nothing to say to you," she replied, not changing her pace but adjusting her bag. All her self-defense training started coming to her.
"Well I've got plenty to say to you, madam," Kuber snapped.
"So say it and leave. I'm busy," she shot back.
"Where do you get off playing games with my client? I should sue you for perjury," he snapped, trying to get in her face.
She tipped her sunglasses down to the bridge of her nose and looked over them at Kuber, a trick she'd seen Horatio pull numerous times. It also hid the fact that her heart was starting to pound with fear and nervousness. "Games? That's a new one," she said, trying to hide her emotions. "Look, I really don't give a damn about your client. He fracked things up by dealing drugs and trying to have me killed, not to mention seriously injuring two other people. His mess is his own goddamn fault. I had nothing to do with it."
"That's not the story I'm hearing," Kuber snapped, really not liking this country bumpkin's attitude towards him.
"Then you need to get your hearing checked. Sandoval is going down and I had nothing to do with it and if you value your precious lawyer license, you'll leave me alone," Savannah shot back. She moved around him to continue making her way to the Lab.
"Listen, you little –" Kuber began.
Frank was crossing the Crime Lab parking lot from a different direction when he saw Kuber confront Savannah. Both curious and concerned, he used the parked cars for cover to get closer to the pair, his cop radar up. He was close enough in time to hear Savannah tell Kuber to get his hearing checked.
Atta girl, Frank thought. Then he froze when Kuber suddenly grabbed Savannah. He was about to interfere when, to his amazement and private amusement, Savannah neatly clocked Kuber with a vicious punch that laid the man out flat and out cold. As she stood there, shaking her now-sore hand and glaring at her tormentor, Frank made his presence known.
"Well, I was going to be a good Texas gentleman and offer to help you but it looks like you don't need my help after all," he said, coming over to her.
"How much did you see?" she asked.
"Enough. Let's go put some ice on that hand of yours or Horatio will get concerned and Alexx will fuss," he said, putting an arm around her shoulders.
"What about him?" she asked, jerking her head towards a still-prone Kuber.
"What about him?" Frank asked, shrugging.
Savannah thought about that for a moment and then said, "Good point. I think the break room has an ice pack in the fridge. Ryan had to use it once when he accidentally got hit by Natalia."
"How did that happen?" he asked, grinning. It would explain the bruise on Ryan's mouth that he'd acquired about a week ago.
"She was yanking on something at a crime scene that was stuck pretty good and Ryan went to help her. Unfortunately he happened to be standing right behind her when the object abruptly let go and Natalia's fist went flying. Guess what it hit?" Savannah asked, grinning at the memory. Frank chuckled. "By the way," she said as they walked inside the building, her voice going conspiringly low. "Don't tell anyone, but I really enjoyed hitting Kuber. I've been wanting to do that for a while."
Frank grinned and mimed doing a zipper across his mouth, causing Savannah to laugh.