Coldest Degree

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Red Eye or CSI: Miami!

Chapter One

The sun was already high in the sky before the tan Hummer came to a halt beside the swampy pond. After the dust kicked up by the drive settled, Horatio Caine stepped out of the car. His sunglasses were already covering his eyes and he was wearing his typical black suit with a light-blue button-down shirt this time. He was stylish yet at the same time slightly relaxed.

This was the first time that he had ever been called out to this remote location. A young boy had been heading down to the water and discovered the body. The kid had run home and the mother had called 911, which had in turn contacted Horatio and his well-trained team of CSIs.

All the houses nearby were about a half-mile up the dirt road that Horatio had taken to the swamp. The body of water was close to being called a pond, but the brackish water was close enough to the Everglades to be a swampland. The potential for clues was semi-'washed up' even with having a trained diver working for him as a CSI.

This murder had been carefully planned and meticulously executed. Someone somewhere had wanted this young woman dead and had gone to great lengths to ensure that as well as making sure her body was never found. Had Miami not been usually warm and in a dry spell, it was highly unlikely that the body would have been recovered this soon.

Horatio Caine carefully bent down beside the washed-up body. It was never easy to accept the fact that someone was dead, especially someone as young as this woman appeared to be. Someone had cut her life tragically short and it was up to him to see that the person responsible faced justice.

"What have we got here, Alexx?" he questioned, turning to face the African-American coroner beside him. Doctor Alexx Wood frequently came out of her 'lab' to assist with the careful removal and preliminary examination of a body.

"It's hard to tell. Poor girl really took a beating. There's a lot of anger here."

The young woman lying in the dirt was dressed in what had once been fine attire, but was now soggy, torn, and ruined. Horatio could see the bruises that had begun to form on the bits of skin that were visible from her awkward position on the ground. She had been tortured or beaten for a short period of time before her life ended. He could also see the cuts and slashes that accented the bruises.

"No id?"

"None. But I did find this," Alexx said, slowly holding up the young woman's left hand. A ring sparkled in the bright sunlight.

"Is that a wedding ring or an engagement ring?"

"I can't tell right now. That'll be up to you."

"Anything else?"

"Yes, there's this mark here. I think someone was trying to tell us something."

A crudely scratched 'J' stood out on the young woman's right forearm. The cut was crusty with dried blood and surprisingly long.

"Keep me informed, Alexx."

"Will do," nodded the woman as she turned her attention back to the body and her job.

Horatio stood back up and turned back to the two members of his team that had come to the site. They were patiently awaiting his instructions. This swampy area appeared to have only been a dump site, rather then the place of her actual murder. Little evidence would be gathered from the area, but every piece counted.

"So, what do want us to do, H?" asked Eric Delko, the team's diver.

"Eric, I would like you to take a peek in that pond. Calleigh, I want you to check out the area. Tire tracks, possible weapons—you know the drill."

"Got it," said the Southern blonde, grabbing her kit from where she had rested it on the ground.

"Let me know what you find."

"Sure thing, H," she agreed with a smile.

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The first thing that caught Calleigh's eyes was the set of tire tracks leading up to the water's receded edge. The treads were recent and went farther past where she would have assumed the water had been.

It was almost as if the murderer had wanted the body to be discovered.

"Hey, H?" she called, causing Horatio to turn and face her. "Take a look at this."

He walked over and kneeled down beside her.

"These tracks—they're off. Why would the killer have driven into the middle of the swamp and risked getting his truck stuck?"

"That's preciously the type of question we need to answer," Horatio Caine said with a grim smile. "Good work."

"Is it possible that she was dumped fairly recently?"

"What does the evidence say?"

"That it's possible."

He nodded and stood back up. Calleigh bent over the ground once more and snapped photos with the camera in her hand. Once she had accurately depicted the tracks, she went to work mixing the components needed to make a cast of the marks. If things worked out well, she would be able to run it through the computer and gather more information about the vehicle used to dump the body.

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Horatio Caine flipped open his cell phone and dialed the number of another member of his team. Ryan Wolfe had a mild case of obsessive-compulsive disorder and was a rather focused individual. If Horatio's guess was correct, then the young CSI would be hanging around the lab.

"Mister Wolfe, are you near a computer?" Horatio asked after Ryan picked up the phone.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I need you to take a look through the missing person files. We have an unidentified body out here."

"Okay, umm, what do you want me to use as criteria?"

"She's a Caucasian female, in either her late twenties or early thirties, approximately five foot, six inches—give or take a few—and has reddish-brown shoulder-length hair. She is mostly likely recently deceased, so pay close attention to files within the past three months."

"You got it, H."

Author's Notes:

Just a semi-scattered starter. I'm working really hard at planning it out and getting all the details correct, so please bear with me. Updates will hopefully be twice a week once I finish all of my information/research collecting. I'm still working on getting a second look on the episode that inspired this story. I'm trying to keep the characters normal, but they will be different than what is in the books and on the show (the CSI: Miami characters, that is) due to my inexperience with them. I'm more of a Las Vegas fan than a Miami fan. Enjoy and thanks for reading/reviewing!