Disclaimer: I dont own anything CSI Miami however Vanessa Pedrosa is my own creation as are any others you don't recognise.
"Sorry to keep you waiting detective…Eric found a couple of hand guns and I had to enter them into the evidence locker, then I ran into Gillespie from nights who wanted an update on some ballistics evidence…" Calleigh trailed off looking over at Vanessa curiously. "Are you alright detective, you look a little flushed?" Calleigh's concern for her colleague was endearing yet unnecessary. Vanessa forced a smile and once more tried to wish away her rosy cheeks…damn her Irish ancestry. "Any luck on the cell phone Calleigh?" Vanessa inquired abruptly changing the subject. "The cell phone is registered to a legal firm not to a particular individual. I can't get a hold of a senior partner or accounting department at this time of night so the cell will need to wait till the morning." Calleigh said a little annoyed, she hated having to wait on external departments for evidence to make sense. "Okay so what else do we have?" Vanessa asked as Calleigh pulled open the file. Vanessa looked over a few things before her eyes settled on the photo of the parking stub. "I think I know where we can start, feel like getting out of the lab for a while?"
Vanessa pulled up outside a new glass fronted building, the name emblazoned across the bulkhead…Fleur de Lis. "Hey I've heard of this place." Calleigh said looking over the front of the building, "This place got great reviews in Dade Distinctions. How do you know the stubs are from here?" Calleigh asked. Vanessa made her way towards the front entrance replying, "I recognized the watermark on the stub." Calleigh's right eyebrow shot up, "You've been here before? I thought this place was notoriously difficult to get into." Vanessa just grinned, "It is."
They walked through the foyer of the exclusive restaurant, straight to the host's podium. "I'm sorry we're no longer serving tonight, I can recommend you return tomorrow." The hostess told them looking over them with disdain, not thinking they met the caliber of their usual clientele. "I'd like to speak to the manager please…Leslie." The young woman looked at Vanessa annoyed, barely refraining from rolling her eyes. "We are no longer serving tonight; we open again tomorrow at 7pm." The girl told her attempting to direct them back outside. Vanessa flashed her badge "I can't wait, I need to see the manager now or I'll charge you with obstruction." Vanessa smiled coolly. The girl stalked off to return a few moments later accompanied by the manager. The manager towered over both Vanessa and Calleigh he must have been well over 6'4", blonde hair, well cut suit gold wedding band, Miami tan and perfectly capped white teeth. "Bradley Cooper. How can I help Miami's finest?" He asked them warmly. Vanessa held up the parking stub in its clear evidence bag. "We are investigating a suspicious death that occurred earlier this evening; this was found with our victim." Calleigh watched as he looked at the stub. "How terrible…well this is definitely one of our stubs. If you detectives would like to head through to the bar, I'll have the head of our valet service meet you there." He showed them through to the bar before leaving them for a moment.
"Get a look at this place. It's like it was just picked up in Paris and plonked down in Miami." Calleigh noted looking around at the ornate room – everything from the chandelier down the flatware screamed money not to mention the antiques and artwork. "Is that an original Monet?" Calleigh gasped looking out towards the dining area. The head of valet met them and they showed him the stub and the photograph of their victim. "She's dead?" He asked, paling slightly. Calleigh nodded. "She was a nice lady, gave me a big tip just to park the car she said it was her lucky night." He told them handing back the photograph. "How big of a tip?" Vanessa asked. "100 – I told her it was too much but she insisted." "Do you know if she met anyone here?" Vanessa asked quickly. "Yeah I went inside to take my break not long after I parked her car and she was sitting at the bar with a guy. Maybe a little older than she was, dark wavy hair, fly suit, lots of bling. We parked a porche 911 for him." "We'll need the details for both of those cars." Calleigh told him. "Give me a minute." He came back a few minutes later with the info they needed including a copy of the security footage and printed stills of the 2 cars arriving and leaving.
"Okay I've got an APB sent out for both vehicles and information on the registered owner of the Porche 911." Vanessa told Horatio as they walked down the corridor of the crime lab. "Registered owner is listed as Mateo Bataldo, 39 lives in the Gables. Only criminal history is a charge for exceeding the speed limit, was the victim of home invasion 5 years ago, the suspect was caught and convicted. Calleigh and I found a credit receipt from Mr Bataldo's charge card for a dinner for two at Fleur De Lis." Horatio nodded looking across at Vanessa, "Let's go pay Mr Bataldo a visit shall we." He held the door open for Vanessa as they exited the building.
Vanessa looked around the foyer of Mateo Bataldo's home as she and Horatio waited for his assistant to fetch him. She looked around at the photographs on the wall and saw several of them featured their victim. "Horatio." She called out to him indicating a large photograph prominently displayed over an elegantly carved coffee table. Horatio didn't comment - he merely nodded as his attention was diverted to the man descending the large marble staircase. "Mateo Bataldo?" Horatio asked once he was close to where they were standing. "Yes, please call me Matt. My assistant Gregory said you had some questions for me Lieutenant. How can I help you?" He asked showing them into a formal sitting room. The three of them sat in the plush velvet suite, Mr Bataldo in a wing chair directly across from Horatio and Vanessa on the chaise. "I believe you dined at Fleur De Lis this evening." "Yes that is correct. I had dinner with my wife. What is this about Detectives?" Vanessa looked over at Matt, watching him very closely she noticed that he appeared very calm, relaxed he didn't shift his weight, glance around nervously – he didn't give her the impression that he had anything to hide. "Is your wife here Mr Bataldo? We'd like to speak with her." If Horatio found Vanessa's line of questioning strange he made no move to give away his thoughts.
Matt looked down at his lap, twisting his wedding band. "My wife and I…we don't live together. I'm expecting her to arrive at some point, she got called away from dinner but we arranged to meet here to finish our discussion." Horatio and Vanessa looked at each other quickly and Matt began to get agitated. "Oh my god, has something happened to Lucia?" He asked them quickly, leaning toward them eagerly. Horatio pulled out an 8x10 photograph and held it out to Mr Bataldo. "Is this your wife?" He asked gently. Matt took the image with shaking hands, he looked at it and all of the color drained from his face, he began to shake and cry. Vanessa moved closer to him, her hand resting lightly on his. "Mr Bataldo?" she prompted gently. "What happened to my Lucia?" He cried out causing his assistant to come running into the room.
"Matt? What the hell is going on here?" Gregory got a glimpse of the photograph and immediately understood. "Matt, oh god, I'm so sorry." He crouched down next to his boss gently removing the photo from his hands and passing it back to the detectives. "What time did you arrive home from dinner Matt?" Horatio asked. "It was after 9, I'm not exactly sure. Who did this to Lucy?" he buried his head in his hands sobbing heavily. "It was about 9:20, I was just calling Senator Redfern to confirm his appointment for Thursday." Gregory supplied. Horatio nodded, "What were you and Lucia discussing at the restaurant?" Vanessa asked gently. "We were reconciling. We were separated, she had filed for divorce but I couldn't sign the papers. We've been going to counseling, working things through." He looked up at Vanessa his eyes pleading with her. "We had decided to start again, she was coming home. Who would have done this to my Lucia?" "That's what we're here to find out." Horatio informed him.
Back at the lab Horatio sought out the members of his team looking for updates. First step on his trail was the Trace Lab. He found Speedle hunched over a comparison microscope, jotting down notes on the legal pad to his right. Speedle began giving his report before he even looked up from the microscope – he knew it was Horatio; there was no mistaking those soft foot falls for anyone else. "I pulled some fibers from the victim's clothing; they're trilobal and a match to the upholstery in her car. Local PD spotted it abandoned not far from the swamp - Delko's processing it now. I also found an oily residue in the fabric of her jacket I'm running it through the Mass-Spec now to try get a manufacturer." Speed looked over at his boss gauging his reaction to the evidence presented to him. Horatio's face remained the same mask of impeccable calm and concentration however Speed noticed the minute shift in his eyes – he knew that now they had the first piece of the puzzle the tenacious investigator would not let the case go until it had been closed and Lucia's killer was imprisoned. "Good work Speed. I wanna know what that oil is used for and how she came in contact with it. Keep me posted."
Horatio entered the cool sterile autopsy suite, immediately spotting Alexx at one of the cold, steel tables with their victim. Horatio made his way quietly towards her standing close at her side as she finished cleansing the body. "Lucia Antonia Bataldo." He spoke quietly, his eyes never leaving the pale face of the woman on the table. "Lucia…oh sugar what a beautiful name. Did we find her family, has she got someone to go home to?" Alexx asked as she immediately began changing the body's identification from Jane Doe #86913 to Lucia Bataldo.
"Tell me about our victim Alexx."
"Horatio this girl was a fighter. I got skin samples from underneath her fingernails, looks like she caught a chunk of whoever was after her. I sent it off to DNA. I put time of death at approximately 8pm."
Horatio nodded looking over Lucia Bataldo's corpse, "8pm…okay she met her husband for dinner at 7:15 so that was an extremely fast meal. Cause of death?"
"Blunt force trauma to the base of the skull. Hit was hard enough to fracture the skull which pierced the occipital lobe. She bled into her brain. The pressure built up, eventually she ran out of room inside her skull and her brain was forced down into her spinal cord. She also sustained fractures to the ulna and radius on the right and several metacarpals on the left."
"Defensive wounds." Horatio stated.
"Uh huh. Our killer took two hits at the skull. The first hit wasn't hard enough to fracture it. It would have made our girl here see stars but it wasn't enough to kill her. Second hit took care of that. I made casts of the wounds sent them off to Calleigh to see if she could match it to anything." Horatio nodded still looking down at Lucia and imagining the struggle she went through to fight for her life only hours before hand.
"One last thing Horatio – she was still alive when she went into the water."
"How can you tell Alexx?"
"See the small area on Lucia's left ankle where the tissue is missing…these edges here indicate that there was blood flowing to the epidermis and muscle tissue when whatever it was took a bite outta our girl. There is no water in her lungs so she managed to stay on her back whilst she was still breathing."
"Could she have survived a head injury like this in normal circumstances?" Horatio asked quickly.
"Define normal honey." Alexx commented ruefully. "If she had've received immediate medical care, there might have been a chance at recovery although she would never have been the same woman again – the injury to the brain itself was too severe."
"Thank you Alexx."
"Anytime Horatio." She told him gently stroking back Lucia's blonde hair.
Calleigh was sitting at a station in the ballistics lab, her long blonde hair neatly pinned back, as she looked over the three guns that Eric had removed from the swamp as Horatio entered the lab. "Well we know our victim wasn't shot so I'm holding off doing a test fire but when I do I'll run them through the system see if they pop up belonging to any other unsolved cases. At first glance these pistols have been in the water far too long to have been our murder weapon." Calleigh informed him looking down at the wound cast in front of her. Horatio looked across at the casts she had made from the pistols and saw that they were too small to have caused the injury to their victim.
"Eric didn't find anything else in the water that might have been our weapon so you know what that means Calleigh." He looked across at the eager ballistics expert, watching the enthusiasm clearly etched across her face.
"Weapons vault." She beamed at him with her million watt smile. "I'll make casts of anything that might have been used."
"Let me know what you find."
"You know I will Horatio." Horatio indulged her in a brief smile, having little doubt that the moment Calleigh confirmed her findings she be hitting his speed dial button to share the news.
A/N - Okay folks thanks for reading please, please, please leave me some LOVE! A review (even if t is just a critique) will boost my writers ego immensly and make sure chapter three makes a speedy appearance for you fanfic reading pleasure xox
