Chapter Number Five Up! More reviews would be appricated, but I'll just have to take what I can get. After all, its for the pleasure of writing rather than the reviews for which we type, right? If that made any sense... lol. Anyways, hope you enjoy, whoever reads it.

With his questioning yielding nothing that Eric counted useful, he was headed back to the lab. What more could he do? Maybe he could work on something there and keep his mind busy until the rest of the team figured this out, as he wasn't allowed to work on it specifically.

"Didn't stop you," he muttered to himself. He wished, just once, he could have gone through a day, or night, without screwing things up. He was impulsive, he knew it, and its what got him into so much trouble at times.

He pulled into the parking lot and climbed out of the Hummer. Sighing he headed into the lab but hadn't gotten fifteen feet into the building when he was spotted by Calleigh.

'Oh great,' he thought, turning to her as she called his name.

"Ryan filled me in on what happened," Calleigh said quietly as her blue eyes met his dark ones.

"Oh did he?" Eric's throat tightened. Any information relayed through Ryan was sure to make him look worse, not better.

"Yes, he called me because apparently you're not answering your phone." Calleigh folded her arms over her chest.

Eric's eyes went wide. He began to search his person for his phone, which he always kept in his pocket. Gone. Not there. He knew it wasn't in the Hummer, and not at home.

"Damnit!" he cursed, not caring Calleigh was there. "She took it."

"Who took it? Jade?"

"Yes," Eric muttered.

"When, last night?"

"No, I answered the call out didn't I?" he snapped, beginning to turn in circles. "She must have ripped it off me this morning."

"You saw her?" Calleigh demanded. But seeing her friend so distraught, she grabbed his shoulders and forced him to stop.

"Eric! Calm down," Calleigh tried to soothe. "Relax. Tell me what happened?"

"Will you go run to Ryan? Or Horatio?" His tone was cold, but he wasn't really angry with her. Just with his own stupidity.

"If I need to tell someone, it'd be Horatio, and you know that. I know you and Ryan don't get along, but you know Horatio. He'll help you in any way he can. You know that. So, come on, Eric, what happened?"

"I went to the address before Ryan and H got there. I wanted to see how much trouble I might have gotten myself into by being with her in the car before the guy was killed. She must have taken my phone in the process."

"You let her get that close?" The Southern belle sounded shocked.

"I didn't mean to! I tried to avoid her, believe me. She came at me once, and I pushed her off, she tried again and I side stepped her. I guess I just didn't push her off me fast enough."

"Sounds like she's repaying you for what you did last night," Calleigh said quietly.

"What in the hell is that supposed to mean?" Eric asked, raising his voice.

"You're forceful, Eric. You don't realize it sometimes, but you are. Maybe she felt like she had to give in."

"Oh no, don't you twist this into something it isn't! I didn't force that girl to do anything with me last night! You know I would never in my wildest dreams do that! She came onto me and she agreed to anything that happened."

Calleigh was about to open her mouth when she caught a figure in the corner of her eye.

"Get out of here," she hissed at Eric. "Stetler alert. Go on, get out of here, I'll deal with him."

Despite his previous anger, Eric nodded his thanks. He turned and nearly bolted for the exit of the lab. The last thing he needed was Stetler on his hands. The last time this had happened, his job was on the line, only because of what he and the team had been able to do to repair the situation had it been spared. But Stetler had warned Horatio he couldn't protect his team forever.

Eric made it to his Hummer and climbed inside. He sat in the driver's seat and leaned his head back, trying to clear his head. He needed time to think. Time to work out what had happened and try to untie all the knots he'd been tying since last night.

"First thing's first, I need to get my phone back."

But how did he do that? He didn't want to go any closer to Jade than he had to, but he had no means of contacting her except face to face. He couldn't call her from the lab, because he was supposed to be as low profile on this case as possible, and he didn't want to drag anybody else into this by using their phone. His mind worked so fast, his head began to hurt.

"Just go back to the house, demand the phone, and leave. Don't let her touch you," he hissed.

He fired up the engine and headed out of the parking lot for what seemed to be the thousandth time today. Would this day ever end? Would he ever wake up from this nightmare?

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Ryan and Horatio carefully walked into the jewelry store. Horatio especially. This is exactly the type of setting in which Speed had been killed. His heart pumped hard against his chest as the memories of his fallen friend rushed back to meet him. Would it be him with a bullet? Or Ryan? Or was his mind playing games with him and there was no danger? All these thoughts blazed across the surface of his mind just as he passed over the threshold of the building.

The store was quiet and Ryan felt that was strange. He saw no one behind the counter, so he casually walked over to inspect it. The stones beneath the glass gleamed brightly, far better quality than what he had seen on Jade's bracelet.

"Interesting," Ryan murmured as he inspected the jewels.

"Can I help you with something?"

Ryan looked up quickly. A young man had just come out from the back room, no older than Ryan. In fact he looked more like a college age kid. Sandy blond hair, blue eyes, and tan skin.

"We're with Miami Dade PD. Can I assume you are Mr. Corman?"

"No. I'm Jason Shod. I work here for Mr. Corman, is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact you can. Can you tell me if anybody sold this bracelet," Horatio passed a picture of it across the table, "to a Mr. Riers?"

Jason studied the picture carefully. "Yeah, Mr. Riers bought that pretty close to a year ago. Mr. Corman made the sale himself, but I was there when he did."

"Is it true that Mr. Riers paid five grand?" Ryan asked quietly.

"Yes. I saw him right the check."

"Did Mr. Riers ever question Mr. Corman's price, or the quality of the stones?" Horatio's question was lightly put, but there was a sharp glint in his eyes.

Jason took a minute to find his words. Ryan guessed he was thinking carefully about what he was going to say.

"Yeah, about two weeks after he'd bought the bracelet he came back in a right livid temper. He said he'd been at a party, and someone had mentioned that the jewels in the bracelet weren't nearly worth the value of five grand. He came back to confront Mr. Corman."

"So, you could say that Mr. Riers and Mr. Corman were not on the best of terms?"

"No, they weren't. Mr. Riers claimed Corman had cheated him out of his money. I was in the back working, but you could hear them shouting at each other. Mr. Riers made some nasty threats and accusations towards Mr. Corman."

"Death threats?" Ryan pressed.

Jason nodded slowly. "Look, don't let Mr. Corman know I told you this. I'd bet a year's worth of overtime he'd fire me if he knew."

"Its alright," Horatio soothed. "But would you say that Mr. Corman is an aggressive man?"

"For sure. I know he has some history of assaults in bars and stuff. The littlest thing can set him off. I don't really like working for him, but it's a pretty good paying job."

Ryan nodded. "Has Mr. Corman ever followed through on his threats?"

"I don't know, and I really wouldn't want to know. If he has, then he's a very dangerous man."

Horatio nodded and flashed a look to Ryan. It said, 'ok were done here.'

"Take care, Jason. If we need anything else, we'll be in touch." Ryan turned to head out of the store, Horatio on his heels. But as the red head turned for a look back, he easily registered the grimace on Jason's face. He'd seen that look before. Someone being intimidated.

"So, what do we have now? A dead Mr. Riers, who had altercations with Mr. Corman, who we now know is aggressive. Think Mr. Riers made threats, and Mr. Corman got him before Riers could follow through?"

"Maybe," Horatio said quietly. "But we need to find the murder weapon. Find that, and we're five steps closer to finding who did this."

"What about Jade? Do you think she had anything to do with this?"

"More than what she says, but we don't have anything that says its her. Yet," Horatio whispered.

"So, you do think that she's involved," Ryan pressed, trying to work through Horatio's vague statements.

Horatio didn't answer. He didn't like being pressed, and in his usual tendency, he stayed silent as they climbed into the Hummer and headed back to the lab.

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"Ah, Calleigh Duquesne! Do you know where Delko is off to? I needed to speak with him. Word reached my ears he has involvement in your latest case."

Rick Stetler's voice was like an ice pick on a chalk board in Calleigh's ears. She bit her tongue and forced herself to reply calmly and normally.

"No, I don't really. Whatever he's doing, I'm sure its important, but I'll be glad to help you out."

"Very well, step into my office, will you?" Stetler said, motioning to the interrogation room.

Calleigh followed him and took her seat behind the table. Rick remained standing. While someone else may have felt intimidated, she didn't. She knew the likes of Stetler, and she knew she could handle him. All she had to do was walk out if things got bad.

"Do you know how Delko is involved in this case? If it pertains to him being involved in the shooting, I believe I have the right to know, Ms. Duquesne."

"Its not my place to say what Eric was involved with or not. But I'm sure he had nothing to do with the shooting. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time doesn't make him a criminal."

"So, you do imply that he was there when the shooting took place?"

Calleigh's eyes flamed. Rick was putting words in her mouth, and already she was beginning to have more than enough of him.

"No, I do not," she growled. "He's informed Horatio of everything that he knew. Besides, when is it your business to pry into people's personal lives, Rick? What Eric chooses to do on his down time is his perrogative. Eric has given full cooperation with the investigation."

"Its my business when it threatens the appearance of the lab. One of our own CSI's involved with a murder? That doesn't look good now does it, Calleigh?" Rick leaned down onto the table, getting his face a little to close for comfort for Calleigh.

"Rick, step away from her."

Horatio's cold voice was a breath of relief for Calleigh. She wasn't afraid of what Stetler would do to her. She was afraid of what she'd do to him if he didn't back off.

Rick turned and faced the Lieutenant. His eyes weren't hidden by shades, and all that could be registered within their depths was smoldering anger.

"Protective are we?" Rick sneered. "This is the second time your working to get Delko out of trouble, Horatio. Are you sure there is nothing going on more than what should be?"

A light flashed deep within Horatio's gaze, and Calleigh felt a chill run through her. Rick was walking on deadly ground, and you could feel the tension of it within a mile radius.

"I'm not working to get Eric out of trouble, Rick. I'm working to prove what did or didn't happen in that parking lot. And you're impeding that by holding up my CSI. So, I would suggest you leave them alone so we can accomplish what the county pays us to do in the fastest amount of time."

"You avoid me, Horatio. Is there more between you and Eric than what there should be? You've worked awful hard to keep his record clean in the past, even when his badge was involved in a murder. What happened to zero tolerance?"

"Rick," Horatio growled. "Eric is a good man, and a good CSI. I respect him, as do the rest of the team. There is no truth to what you're implying. Now, if you would be so kind, get out of here and let me and my team work in peace." The direct order wasn't to be questioned, and Calleigh was surprised that Horatio had spoken like that in front of her. She knew Horatio and Stetler had many altercations, but the most aggressive had always been in private.

"You won't be able to protect him if what I suspect is true, Horatio!" Rick snarled as he walked out of the office.

Calleigh stood up as Stetler cleared the room and headed for the elevator. She met Horatio's eyes steadily, thankful that they'd softened.

"Stetler went to far, H. Don't worry about him," Calleigh tried to soothe. When Horatio didn't answer, her face grew worried. "Do you think Eric is involved in this?"

"I don't know yet. What my head tells me and what the evidence tells me are different."

"Does the evidence say Eric had something to do with this?"

"I don't know yet," Horatio murmured quietly.