Disclaimer: I do't own anything CSI Miami. Vanessa Pedrosa is my original creation.

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Dawn came early in Miami and insisted upon making its presences known to all. Vanessa was practically squinting as the bright orange glare poured through Horatio's second floor corner office. "Okay Vanessa how did Mr Bataldo's alibi hold up?" Horatio asked her gently placing a cup of steaming hot coffee in front of his colleague. "Thanks. Okay, his alibi checks out. Bataldo left the restaurant at 9.05pm – he stayed back after his wife left, he ordered a scotch neat and drank it. He then proceeded to his house in the Gables after making a brief stop at the office to collect a file. We have the electronic entry from his access card for 9:13pm in and a 9:16pm exit. He could have easily made it from the office to home and arrived at 9:20pm."

Horatio frowned slightly. "Lucia was already dead by the time Bataldo left the restaurant. Have we got any other leads as to who would want to harm Mrs Bataldo."

"Well, I did some digging and found out the reason for the separation and pending divorce. Lucia caught her husband having an affair with his business manager."

"He wouldn't be the first man to do that."

"There's more. Mateo's business manager was one Michelle Kirkland who until the time that their affair became public was also a close friend of Lucia Bataldo."

"That is interesting? What happened once the affair was out in the open?" Horatio inquired softly, Vanessa could see that his mind was hard at work trying to piece this information into what they already knew.

"Lucia was furious that her friend and her husband had betrayed her – she had been confiding to Michelle her fears that Mateo was stepping out on her. Lucia made allegations to the taxation department regarding Michelle Kirkland's finances, the result was almost financial ruin for Kirkland. Turns out she had been receiving kickbacks from clients and not declaring them as income. She owed over a million dollars in unpaid taxes. Apparently, Mateo severed all contact with Kirkland and hired a new male business manager. He took out an injunction against Kirkland preventing her from coming within 300 meters of his home, business or person."

"That sounds like motive to me."

"I thought so too so I went a head and interviewed Kirkland, her alibi is rock solid there is no way that she could have murdered Lucia." Vanessa sat back deflated, it had been a long hard night and for every step forward she took she had to back track another three. This case was going know where and fast.

"What was her alibi?" Horatio asked curiously.

"You're going to love this H. She was at Dade-Memorial, she'd been brought in to the ER early afternoon after an attempted suicide. They have her on a 24 hour watch at the moment."

"How serious was the attempt?"

"I spoke to ER staff, they told me if her boyfriends had come home just a few minutes later, Michelle would have been dead."

Horatio turned away from Vanessa to look out the expanse of glass which provided him beautiful views of the orange sun rising up over the strip of beach a few hundred yards from the crime lab. This case was severely frustrating – every time they thought they had a lead it went no where. The physical evidence was circumstantial at this point and so far hadn't lead them towards an accurate suspect or scenario. Horatio knew that the physical evidence was the key to solving this murder however he had no idea how to get the answers he needed.

Both investigators took a moment to review the evidence available in the case. There just wasn't enough information to give them a solid lead – if they made a move before the rest of the evidence was analyzed it would have to be based on intuition or merely just a stab in the dark. "We need more evidence Horatio…I don't know where to go next." Vanessa admitted in exasperation. As if on cue Horatio's cell phone chirped, he answered it quickly. "Okay Speed, we'll be right there."

"What have you got for us Speed?" Vanessa asked lounging across the trace lab bench eager to hear that their case finally had a definite direction to go in. Speed rubbed a hand across his weary face, his ever present 5 o'clock shadow was rapidly becoming a beard and he had the unhealthy complexion of someone who hasn't slept for nearly 48 hours. Speed looked across at Vanessa and saw his own bone aching tiredness echoed in her pale face, the way her pony tail was disheveled told him that she had obviously pulled it out and retied it several times in the last few hours. She was still wearing the slinky grey cocktail dress, refusing to take time out of the investigation to go home and change.

"I ran the oily residue found on our victim's jacket through the Mass-Spec I got back a type of motor oil used for high powered, high end motor boats. The composition of the motor oil is specific to only a few engine makes."

"This is sounding promising." Horatio noted.

"Oh it gets better. One of the engines is specific to the 2004 Dominator 68 S yacht – the exact same make and model of the yacht currently owned by Mr Mateo Bataldo."

Horatio's eyes lit up and Vanessa forgot all about her lack of sleep, they finally had a new lead. "Let's go see a man about a boat shall we."

Out at the Bataldo's yacht club slip Horatio, Vanessa, Speed and Eric were all aboard the 'Vero Amore' searching for evidence that Lucia Bataldo was on board the opulent yacht the nigh she died. "The works please gentlemen." Were Horatio's only instructions upon boarding. Mateo had declined Horatio's offer of being present whilst the search was conducted, he admitted that he could not face the thought of being there whilst they tore apart his boat to look for evidence that he had murdered the only woman he'd ever loved.

Vanessa stood on the deck of the boat looking out across the water, watching the sunlight glint on top of the bobbing waves. A soft easterly breeze blew across her skin and she felt a calm flood over her – they were going to close this case, she knew it. She could feel it in her gut – somewhere on this magnificent boat was the evidence that would put someone away for their inhumane treatment of Lucia Bataldo. She turned around watching for a moment as Eric dusted surfaces for finger prints, Speedle was inspecting the flooring looking for footprints or trace evidence and photographing the scene, Horatio was moving room to room looking for any indication of blood or body fluids which could lead them closer to a suspect.

As soon as Horatio entered the lavish state room the ALS illuminated several strange iridescent shapes on and around the bed. He began moving around the room taking samples and photographs when the others entered the room crowding in the stateroom doorway.

"Looks like someone had one hell of a party in here." Speedle noted looking around at the amount of body fluid smeared around the king sized bed. There were iridescent patches on top of the silk bed spread, all over the Egyptian cotton sheets and even on the thick pile carpet. Horatio removed his orange goggles and looked across at his team his dark blue eyes alight.

"Let's see if we can't find out who our guests of honor were."

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