Chapter 5

"How are the baby and the new mother holding up?" asked Horatio to a nurse as he stood outside Bethany's room, watching her sleep through the glass window.

"Both are fine and the child is pretty damn healthy for one born prematurely," replied the nurse. "If it's not too much to ask, Lieutenant, where was Mrs. Shannon's husband during all this?"

Dead, thought Horatio glumly. This lady obviously didn't watch the news coverage of Kyle's fatal crash. "Mr. Shannon was killed this morning in a plane crash," he said softly. The nurse looked away.

"Poor baby," she said. She looked back at Horatio. "She has a friend coming in to watch over her, a Mr. Steve McDaniels, from Australia. I just thought you should know."

"That's fine, nurse. Just let me know how she and the baby are doing."

"Will do."

As he drove back to the lab Calleigh called. "It's about Derek Wallace's rifle," she said. "The bullet is jacketed. Nine mils aren't, so it doesn't match up."

"So that rules Derek out as a suspect but we still need to ask him some questions," said Horatio.

"Should we have Patrol pick him up?" asked Calleigh.

"Yes, have them do that."

"OK. And…Horatio?"

"Yes, Calleigh?"

"How are Bethany and the baby doing?"

"Just fine," said Horatio. "You all did an amazing job with the labor. How's Wolfe doing?"

Calleigh laughed, the first laugh she had since Kyle was killed. "Let's just say he's thinking twice about having kids of his own."

Horatio hung up after a final goodbye and took a second to dig out a CD from the Hummer's glove compartment and popped it into the system. This was a CD Kyle made for him after Marisol died, all of the nineteen songs classic rock and meant to cheer Horatio up. He had listened to it on the plane flying to Brazil and it did the trick, now it was just a reminder that he better find Kyle's killer and fast.

As the speakers pumped out "Zombie" from the Cranberries, Horatio let himself remember the card that Kyle had sent along with the CD: My dear sir, it had read, please accept my sympathies and sincerest sorrow to both you and Eric. I hope you catch the bastard. Yours most sincerely, Kyle Shannon W/C.

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Derek rubbed his face. "Aren't you glad I didn't kill Kyle?" he asked. "Can I have my rifle back?"

"You see, Derek, the correct question would have been 'Have you found the person who did kill Kyle'," said Horatio.

"Have you?" returned Derek.

"Not yet," said Calleigh. "But any help that you give us would bring closure to his wife."

"Look, I don't know who would have the stones to shoot Wing Commander Shannon down," said Derek. "But whoever did was a right bastard…you should be hunting him down instead of hounding me."

"Maybe you know who shot him down," said Horatio. "Did anyone have a grudge against Kyle?"

"Who didn't?" said Derek. "Kyle could be an arrogant prig sometimes and be a little acerbic with people, but he was a good guy. Some people just didn't see that."

"Who would want to kill him?" asked Horatio.

"God, some of his crew didn't like him," said Derek. "The only one who did seem to like the chap was Steve McDaniels."

"The man visiting Bethany at the hospital," said Horatio.

"Yeah. You might ask him some questions."

Horatio left the interrogation room and flipped on his cell phone. "Yes, Patrol, this is Horatio Caine," he said. "I need you to pick someone up for me that Miami-Dade Memorial. His name's Steve McDaniels and he's staying with Bethany Shannon."

And he flipped off the phone and went back into the interrogation room.