Eye on Crime - Chapter 5 of 5
By Celtic Lady

Frank pulled into the Miller driveway with the whole entourage packed into the Hummer. Eric had updated him on the charade that Troy had tried to pull earlier that morning. Needless to say, Troy and Peter were both keeping pretty quiet.

Everyone climbed out and Eric began looking around the property. Upon seeing the open manure tank on the back of the truck, he asked Calleigh, "did you check in there?" He gestured upwards to the open door.

Calleigh turned on her best charm as she responded, "Oh! Would you mind? I'm wearing white and it picks up everything." She gave a big smile at Delko hoping to encourage him to look instead.

"Your crime scene, I'm just here as an observer," Delko smiled back not taking the bait.

Disappointed, Calleigh looked around for a ladder and spotted one not far from the truck. After setting it up, she then went in search of a strong stick to stir the soupy manure for a body. The camera crew was standing by as she climbed up the rungs and then leaned over towards the door. Not being able to get good leverage, she had to climb higher on the ladder and try again when the unimaginable happened.

Her scream grabbed Frank's attention as he ran over with his gun drawn. As he peered upwards, he quickly understood the problem. Calleigh peered out the open door covered in the soupy contents. "I found Mr. Miller!" she exclaimed.

Frank couldn't do anything but stare at Calleigh while Eric was laughing hysterically.

"Need any help?" chided Eric as he tried to stifle his laughing.

Calleigh's stare said it all as he quickly grabbed the fallen ladder to assist her in getting down. While Eric held the ladder, Calleigh slowly climbed out of the vat dripping it's contents everywhere.

"Hey watch out. I'm wearing white too!" exclaimed Eric as he shifted to avoid the drops.

"Sorry," was all that she could reply as she tried to pull her weight over. But the manure was somewhat slippery and she lost her footing and fell. Delko had no choice as he caught her in his arms along with everything that she was wearing. After he put her down, he could see the brown substance all over the front of his clothes and winced at the thought.

Frank smiled as he stood out of the way and let them deal with the problem. Instead, he decided to call the Coroner to inform them of a pick-up.

Calleigh spotted a garden hose and turned on the water to wash herself down. She basically had to shower herself in order to get it out of her hair and her clothes. Upon seeing her success, Delko joined her.

After they finished, it was Frank who noticed another problem. He rushed up to Calleigh and offered her his jacket. "Here, I think you'll need this." He held it open for her to put her arms in.

Not understanding, Calleigh tried to give it back, rather than get it wet, when he further explained, "you kind of have the wet T-shirt thing going on."

She looked down suddenly as she covered herself. 'Oh, my." With a slight blush on her face, she thanked Frank for his southern generosity and put on the jacket.

Delko's modesty didn't seem to bother him at all as he stood there dripping wet. Malinda, on the other hand, had other ideas as she zoomed her camera in on him panning up and down.

Shortly thereafter, the place was busy with people roping off the truck and the coroner's office trying to get the body out of the tank – with great difficulty. Horatio had heard the news and arrived to see how things were going. Upon seeing the drenched Calleigh and Delko, he inquired, "what happened?"

Delko was still laughing as he quipped, "Calleigh found Mr. Miller in the manure tank and I think we know how he wound up there."

Calleigh just shook her head at Delko's observations. "Then I fell getting out of the tank and Delko caught me."

Horatio grinned, "why don't the two of you go shower and get into some clean clothes. I'll take over here."

Spotting Frank, Horatio walked over to him. "Frank, why don't you take Calleigh and Eric back to the lab so they can change into some dry clothes."

"Great!" Frank was more than glad to get out of there.

--OO--

Later that afternoon, Horatio stood in the medical observatory as he watched Dr. Alexx Woods perform an autopsy on Arnold Miller. With no apparent external injuries, the autopsy was their only hope of finding his cause of death. It didn't take her long to find the culprit. She held up the man's heart as she spoke into the recorder. "Massive coronary. Nobody could have helped this poor man - he probably dropped dead on the spot."

Horatio nodded to himself and left.

With the day at it's end, he packed up his things and went to pick up Madison at Jade's apartment. When he got there, he was surprised to see Madison answer the door. Jade walked up moments later sniffling as she greeted him.

"Looks like I may have caught her Flu," Jade explained as she nodded towards Madison. "I'll be okay."

Again, Horatio thanked her for taking the sick child off his hands and again, Madison found her way into his bed later that night and cuddled up next to him.

The next afternoon, Jade called Horatio to let him know she wouldn't be in that night. Horatio understood.

When he left work, he stopped and picked up some hot chicken noodle soup at a restaurant and drove to Jade's apartment. When she answered the door, he handed her the soup. "I thought you might need this."

Jade was elated as she took the gift. "Just what I need. Thank you."

Horatio was just about to turn and leave when he felt the strange urge to look down. On Jade's feet he saw white fuzzy bunny slippers with pink ears.

Horatio smiled.

THE END.

Author's Note: The next two stories, of this three story arc, are already written and will be posted in the next few days. If you liked this story and would like to see me write another "humerous" version, please let me know. Oh, and I'm taking suggestions as to what terrible things I can do to the characters!