Chapter: 11
The Secret Past
While she is lying unconscious and fighting for her life, Horatio has his team do a deep dive for her Marine and her Customs and Border Patrol personnel files.
What Horatio reads is not anything short of incredible. Renee graduated top of her class in the Marine Academy. She didn't allow her drill sergeant to let her do anything different than any of the boys. She told them that if she graduates, she'll do it at the same level as the men.
She could lift two hundred pounds despite her only weighing one hundred ten pounds. She could do five hundred pull up's, and a thousand men's push-ups.
Renee could run ten miles carrying a hundred-pound backpack in less time than the men carrying a fifty-pound backpack. She was stronger and tougher than all the boys. The bulk of her military records were heavily redacted, though.
While in the United States Marine Corps, she was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, two-Silver Stars, Navy and Marine Corps Medal, two-Bronze Stars, and four Purple Hearts. Renee had a spotless record. She only left the Marine Corps when she had a price put on her head after they had killed her last partner.
When she got stateside, Renee was reunited with one of the first military working dogs she ever trained "Charlie." The canine's previous two handlers were killed in action. Between her previous partners, she worked with Renee until a replacement could get there. Charlie would not listen to anyone but Renee.
Renee tried to match Charlie with a new handler, but she couldn't do it. So when Renee was discharged from the military, Charlie was allowed to retire from the service too. The two of them then joined Customs and Border Patrol.
Her record with the Border Patrol was no less impressive. When she was on patrol, she routinely stopped every shipment of drugs, explosives, money, people, and firearms that smugglers tried to get through the border.
Whether it was by sneaking under cover of night or attempting to throw the dogs off by masking the scent with gasoline or other scents, she and Charlie had managed to stop 99.9% of activity through her port of entry. Her record was perfect.
She only left the Border Patrol when she had another price put on her head. This time the price was also on Charlie's head by the drug cartels in the area.
Renee had transferred to the Miami-Dade Police Department two years before she was attacked. She had tried to keep a low profile in Miami but was not succeeding at it. She was too good of a canine handler, and she was too good at her job.
If Horatio thinks back, he can vaguely remember working a few cases with her. Ryan confirms that they did work a few cases indirectly together.
The cases had been closed, and they got the bad guy. Two cases were missing child cases where Renee's dog had successfully tracked the missing child through the everglades and exposed a child trafficking ring and a kidnapped child in both cases. From what Horatio could remember, the cases were solved in record time.
Horatio starts back at the lab as soon as Renee is released from the hospital. His sister only agrees to move into Horatio's house with him on the condition that he goes back to work. She will never allow herself to interfere with his work.
Renee knows that the city of Miami needs him just as much as she needs him. She needs her brother but will never admit it.
Horatio is more patient and supportive than she can have imagined. He is always ready and willing to help her when and if she needs it.
Renee, however, is a little too stubborn to accept any help. Being the Marine she was, she is doing more harm than good when it comes to rehabilitation. She is overworking her muscles. Renee continues this behavior until she collapses in the hall. Luckily it is when her brother was at home.