Natalia opened her eyes slowly, only to shut them again quickly when the on set of pain began. Her head and face felt like they were burning, after a few moments Natalia let out a groan and opened her eyes again. Trying to get up she realized that her hands were tapped together along with her feet and her mouth. She took a few moments to get a good look at her surroundings. She was in a bedroom lying on a bed, by the bed she could see a wooden chair facing a computer. There was movement in the far corner, looking over she could see Brian sitting at a table with his legs crossed typing on a computer sipping on a cup of coffee.
Brian looked over to Natalia, he smiled and grabbed a plate off the table and made his way over to Natalia. "Well hello sleeping beauty" he said before sitting on the bed next to Natalia.
He leaned over and took the tape off of Natalia lips, and gave a shocked look at her. "You are the first person who didn't scream when I took the tape off," Brian said taking another sip of his coffee.
Natalia said nothing; all she did was glare at him while he sipped of his coffee. Finally putting the mug down he grabbed a container and shook it in front of Natalia. "Tylenol? I hit you pretty hard with a shovel, your head has to be on fire right now."
He got silence as his answer.
Shaking his head he put the Tylenol back on the desk "Fair enough you don't want to talk, I did slap in it face with a shovel, but here eat this." He said putting a sandwich to her lips.
"Oh come on, it's your favorite. Turkey on wheat bread with lettuce, tomato, and light mayo."
Natalia just turned her head to the side, making Brian get upset.
"You haven't eaten anything all day, you left Calleigh's in a bet of a rush and you have been passed out for most of the morning. I know you have to be hungry."
Once again silence was his only answer.
Brian lost is temper and took a fist full of Natalia's hair jerking her forward and slamming her back on the bed's backboard. "Eat the fucking sandwich Natalia, or I'll make you eat it. I don't want you passing out when we have our conference call with Horatio." Brain said, but Natalia didn't respond.
Brian sighed and let go of Natalia's hair and put the sandwich in his other hand, he gave a smile and punched Natalia in the stomach causing her to scream out in pain. Once she opened her mouth Brian shoved the sandwich in her mouth.
"There, now was that so hard?" Brian said with smile.
But all Natalia did was spit it back out in his face. Brian slapped Natalia in face hard causing her noise her bleed. He stood up and wiped the food from his face and straightened his suit before walking back to table and picking up a gun.
Natalia eye's got wide when she saw him raise it and point it right her. "I was trying to be nice to you, I don't care if you starve yourself because the only way you will be leaving this apartment, is in a body bag" he said before he pulled the trigger.
A silent bang rang out and Natalia's world slowly started to fade in the darkness.
Back at the lab, Eric and Ryan were in the garage processing Natalia's Hummer. Eric took the passenger side while Ryan took the driver's side.
"Lucky for us they detailed Hummers 30 through 35 yesterday, so Natalia's and whoever kidnapped her will be the only fingerprints and trace on here." Eric said.
Ryan nodded and the two men got the work. They spent an hour and half processing the Hummer, Eric went into the fingerprints lab while Ryan went to trace. Where the two stayed for the remainder of the afternoon.
The car ride to Nathan's was slow, Horatio was driving and he was only going about 10 miles over the speed limit. Normally to Calleigh that was going fast, but Natalia was missing, she could be anywhere, this was no time to move at a snails pace. For the whole car ride Calleigh was tapping her foot, biting her nails and looking out the window occasionally glancing over to look at the speedometer.
As much and Calleigh tried to hide emotion, it didn't take long before Horatio noticed. In fact he picked up that something was wrong from the moment Maxine came in saying that they found Natalia's DNA at the crime scene this morning.
Calleigh had been acting different all morning, she was quiet, and appeared to be fighting with herself on the inside. The thought finally occurred to him that Calleigh really cared for Natalia, as he replayed this morning events in his head he could see the small flicker of emotion in her eyes when the news just kept getting worst.
Still thinking to himself, the only time Calleigh showed emotion was when Eric had gone missing over a year ago. After a few more moments of thinking his brain started screaming at him, Natalia and Calleigh had to be a couple. 'But for how long?' was the question he asked himself.
He looked over to Calleigh to see her staring straight ahead now her cheeks were turning a rosy red, her eyes were starting to water and he could see the lump in her throat, she was on the verge of breaking down. 'They would have to be dating a long time if she is on the verge of the an emotional breakdown.' He thought to himself, all he could was give a weak smile, they would have to dating of over a year to get this kind of reaction from Calleigh. At work it would seem like they were friends, he never saw them giving longing glancing at each other or flirting with each other when they were alone in the lab, and there were a few times the two got into heated arguments about cases. At most he would have pegged them as friends and not lovers.
Horatio was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Calleigh start sniffing, through his peripheral vision he could see that Calleigh had put on her sunglasses and was looking in the glove compartment for napkins.
Although he knew the what the answer would be, he still had to say something to let her know that he would be there if she ever needed. Licking his lip and taking a slight breath he heard the words leave his lips "Are you okay Calleigh?"
"I'm fine" Calleigh said with another sniff. "I know what Natalia is going threw, being kidnapped, not know if help is on the way." 'praying to god, that she isn't taped to chair stabbed and shot' a comment that she made to herself.
Horatio nodded knowing that she would tell him about their relationship when she was ready. The rest of the car ride was silent till they finally made it to Nathan's.
They both got out of the car and made their way over to the store, once inside Horatio took off his sunglasses while Calleigh kept hers on.
Calleigh looked around, this place seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it. A tall lean young man in his early twenties came out from a door behind the register. He was wearing dark jeans a white t shirt with oil on it.
Looking at Horatio and Calleigh's gun and badge he smiled and said "What can I do for you officers?"
"We are looking for the owner of this shop." Horatio said looking around the store.
"Well you're looking at him, Nate Mulder." Nate said with smile as he extended his hand for a handshake to both Calleigh and Horatio.
"Well Mr. Mulder, can you tell me if a champagne color Hummer like the one out there made it way on your lot this morning." Horatio asked pointing to his Hummer.
Nate looked outside and stared at the Hummer for a while before shaking his head no. "I haven't seen a Hummer like that this morning." He said now returning his gaze back to Horatio.
"Okay, are you sure? Because our tracking device says the Hummer was here for about twenty minutes before it left." Horatio said carefully studying the man.
"If it did come by I must have been in the back working" Nate said pretending to be confused.
"Well is there anyone that was working up front at the time?" Calleigh asked.
Nate shrugged his shoulders "Maybe" Nate turned around yelled "Drew!"
A few moments later Nate was joined by a shorter man with bigger muscles and was wearing a black tee shirt with jeans and black baseball cap that was on backwards. "Yeah" he said.
"Cops what to know if a Hummer exactly like that one came on to the lot this morning for about 20 minutes?" Nate said.
Drew looked out the window for a few moments till finally he shook his head and said, "I didn't see it"
Calleigh gave out a sigh, and looked over to the door were the guys had just come out of, there hanging on the wall was a garnet and gold flag with a fire truck on it. Then it hit her way this place looked so familiar.
"You wouldn't be lying to us would you Nate?" Calleigh asked, while taking off her sunglasses to study him carefully.
"Why would I lie to you?"
Calleigh shrugged, "I don't know, maybe someone you knew brought the Hummer because they know you are the best chop shop in Miami and right now Hummer parts really valuable. But you opened the hood saw the tracking devices and the Police Department symbol and got scared and sent it away."
Nate and Calleigh entered into an intense stare, until Nate broke it. "I don't know what you are talking about. This is a repair shop for people with exotic and custom cars and motorcycles. People think that it is a chop shop, but it's not, and the last time the police raided this place they didn't find anything, it just made me lose a lot of business." Nate replied in a cold tone.
Calleigh took a step closer, "Listen, a police officer was kidnapped this morning. If she dies I will make sure that police raid this place on a daily bases till you close down" Calleigh continued "Oh and let me tell you, if they find out you had something to do with it, they will make each raid is a living nightmare because you were one of the people responsible for the death of one of our own."
"Get the fuck off my lot" Nate replied.
Horatio shook his head and handed Nate his card, "If you hear anything give us a call" Horatio said before leaving.
Calleigh and Horatio got back into the Hummer, and made their way back to the lab in complete silence.
Back at the lab Walter and Dave sat in the AV lab stumped.
"Okay it's not her computer user name and password, and not her badge number. What do you think it could be?" Walter said as he plopped down in his chair.
"I don't know, but we only have one guess left" Dave said while running his fingers through his hair.
They sat in complete silence till Horatio and Calleigh, soon followed by Eric and Ryan, joined them.
"Gentlemen, how is it going?" Horatio asked looking at the computer screen to see 'Sign in Error Wrong Password' on the screen.
"Not good H, we are oh for 2 right now. What about you, any leads at the car shop?" Walter asked.
Horatio just shook his head no.
Turning to Ryan and Eric, Walter said with sigh "Please tell me you guys have something..."
Ryan smiled, "I found traces of the Castrol 10w 60 all over the engine and on the hood of the car."
"Castrol oil... they use that in exotic cars don't they Eric?" Horatio said never taking his eyes of the computer screen.
Eric smiled and gave a slight nod "That's correct H"
"Looks like Mr. Mulder was lying to us" Horatio said.
"It gets better, we found only three sets of fingers on the car. Natalia's, Nate Mulder, and a Brian Falco." Eric said.
"Falco..." Horatio continued "Falco as in..."
"The owner of Caballero Rivero Woodlawn Funeral Home. Yeah." Eric interrupted.
"Okay then, we have some questions for Nate and Brian" Horatio started to say.
Horatio looked over to see that Dave had his back turned to the computer keyboard. With a look of confusion Horatio took a closer step to the computer screen.
"H?" Walter said looking at him before looking at the screen also.
All the team members had their attention to the computer screen. They watched as the mouse moved by itself over to the user name and password block. They watched as the words BV35 filled the user name and ten circles fill the password. The screen went dark for a few moments till an image popped up, that had them all shocked.