Greed Chapter 3
Horatio and Frank headed back to the lab where they met their current suspect, Martin Filler. The man didn't look well. He appeared to have got into several fights, most likely recently. He had a black eye and a cut under his right eye, a broken left arm, and he looked as if he was in pain. Horatio entered the room and the man looked up at him.
"I didn't do it," he said immediatly.
"Mr. Filler, I haven't even asked you any questions yet," Horatio stated. "What is it that you didn't do?"
"I didn't kill, Seth," He explained. "I admit I took the money from his safe, but I'm not the one who killed him."
"So your saying you walked into your friends how when he was already dead and broke into his safe?" Frank asked.
"I didn't hear anything from inside," Martin stated. "I figured he wasn't home and I knew he had a large amount of money in his house. Seth never trusted banks. I just really needed the money."
"What for?" Horatio asked.
"I owe a lot of money," He replied, simply. "I don't know why, but when I went to Vegas about three weeks ago I decided to do a little gambling. I know that doesn't seem strange, but after the first game of poker it's like something came over me. For some reason all I could think about was money. I started gambling more. I played every game in that casino and I lost everything. So I found an underground poker game and played with them, but when I couldn't pay them back I got desperate. I've never been a man who cared about money before, but suddenly thats all that mattered. Two days ago one of them men from that game found me, he beat me until I thought I was going to die and he said that if I didn't pay back what I owed that he would kill my family. So I stole the money from Seth's safe. I know it was stupid and I accept responsablity for that, but I swear I didn't kill Seth. You have to believe me."
"I do Mr. Filler," Horatio stated. "You say that you started acting out of character for you?"
"Yes," Martin replied.
"Do you remember anything that happened right before you began to feel obsessed with money?" Horatio asked.
"Horatio," Frank started. "Do you think this has anything to do with what's going on with Jesse and Ryan?"
"I think it might," he answered.
"Um, I'm not sure I remember," Martin stated. "There was so much going on around me at the time. I seem to recall finding something strange and then blue light. I just thought it was some kind of light changing in the casino. Are you saying that I am not the only one who has experianced something like this?"
"You are not," said Horatio. "And if you are standing in front of me without those thoughts now, it means that perhaps these effects wear off."
"Am I in trouble for stealing that money?" Martin asked.
"You are," said Horatio. "But I'm going to see what I can do to help you Mr. Filler. We are going to keep you in holding for now. You will be safe there for right now."
He nodded as the officer in the room lead him out. Horatio watched as they took the man down to holding, just as Calleigh, Walter, Natalia, and Ryan came in with some of the evidence from their most recent murder. He walked out to meet them and Calleigh said something to Natalia and walked over to wear Horatio was standing.
"How did it go?" He asked.
"We got a lot of evidence to go through," Calleigh stated. "It's going to take a while, but I had to send Ryan out of the house because he was trying to convince us to let him take the left ovr money in the safe. He has been acting strange all day."
Horatio didn't say anything at first. He realized that the way Ryan was acting seemed similar to how Martin said he was acting. Calleigh looked at Horatio worried.
"What is it, Horatio?" Calleigh finally asked.
"We found the man who took our victims money," Horatio explained. "He is not acting strange, but he claims that recently he began to become obsessed with money and gambling. To the point where he got himself into some trouble."
"Do you think they are related?" Calleigh asked.
"Our suspect said that he remembers a flash of blue light just before he began feeling strange," Horatio explained. "I noticed something strange this morning. Ryan had almost a blue glow in his eyes."
"What does this mean, Horatio?" Calleigh asked. "And could this happen to the rest of us?"
"I don't know," Horatio said. "But we are going to find the source of this before they get to all of us."