"I had to kill him to protect my family; that cheating bastard was ruining everything we worked so hard for!" cried out Analie Kusmanis defiantly as a police officer stood her up and cuffed her.

"No, you did that all on your own." Replied Horatio as he walked out of the interrogation room, right into a flustered-looking Natalia Boa Vista.

"Ms. Boa Vista, a word, please." He gestured toward the door of her lab, and followed her inside. "I understand that you took a trip to the hospital this afternoon," he said, trying to remain calm.

Natalia bit her lip. Here it comes. The final straw. "Ben told me that Ryan was in surgery; I thought I should visit him." That's right, stick to the truth.

Horatio nodded. "Well, you see, the problem with that is that we were without your services during your absence. Ms. Wallace had the situation at the hospital under control, and you took off, leaving us one Lab Tech short. So you see the position that puts me in." His voice was calm and even as he dictated the speech he had mentally rehearsed since Benny had told him about Natalia's presence at the hospital.

"Yes, Lieutenant Caine, I realize that, but I couldn't help but think that if I was in the hospital, I would expect people to come visit me." She knew it was lame, but what was she supposed to say, 'I had to make sure that Ben wasn't putting the moves on him'?

Horatio smiled. "In the future, I would ask that you please take your duties here more seriously." He said as he nodded in a dismissive way, then walked out the Lab, leaving Natalia hanging onto her job by a thread.

It wasn't long before Eric sauntered in. "Hey, I was looking for you." He said flirtatiously, hoping not to sound entirely desperate.

Natalia gave him her best smile. "Here I am." Her interest in Ryan was on the rise, but she had an undeniable chemistry with Eric that everyone seemed to notice. "I was just out running some errands. But…how can I help you?" She didn't see any reason to tell him that she had been visiting Ryan in the hospital.

"We got a few reports of body parts found in the area, so we checked it out and ran DNA, and apparently it matches an old case of yours from Wyoming?"

"Ah." She nodded. "Ryan and Ben found some, too. Looks like this guy—" she checked the sheet. "Keith Gordon, is in pieces across the country. The odds that he's alive are becoming slimmer with each test I run." And it was true. Besides the piece that Ryan and Ben had found, Eric had three portions of Gordon's body, and there were reports in Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Georgia.

"How much of his body has been found?" Eric asked.

"You'd have to see Alexx about that. The other states gave up their pieces of him without any hassle. I guess they figured no one would ever be able to figure this out." Natalia shrugged. She didn't expect the case to be solved, either.

"Alright, thanks, Natalia." He allowed his eyes to linger on hers for a beat longer than necessary, just to let her know that he was still interested.

"Sure." She, too, was reluctant to break the eye contact. But they finally did, and she watched as Eric walked towards the elevator that would take him to the morgue. Now that is a fine piece of man.

"Hey, Alexx, you think I could see what you've got of Keith Gordon?" Asked Eric as he pushed open the heavy door to the morgue, where Alexx stood by the sink, washing her hands after a particularly lengthy autopsy.

"Sure, but I don't know what you think you'll find. Not much left of him." She complied as she walked towards a drawer that contained the man's remains. She pulled open the drawer to reveal exactly what she had promised: not much. Two toes, a large chunk of thigh, a piece of hip, a few metatarsals, the piece of flesh that Ryan and Benny had found, two rib fragments, a jaw fragment with a few teeth, what looked like a piece of his nose, and a large clump of hair with the scalp still attached.

Eric suppressed his gag reflex. "This is all we've got?"

"Sorry, baby, but whoever killed him did their homework." She looked down at the drawer sadly. "Didn't they?"

Eric thought for a moment. "Killed him? So he's definitely dead."

Alexx laughed. "This much damage, I'd be surprised if he didn't die from infection alone. And the lack of hemorrhagic tissue indicates that he was chopped post-mortem."

"Alright. So we're looking for a murderer."

"Probably a lefty."

"Oh yeah? How can you tell?" Eric was intrigued.

"Well, I don't know if it'd be admissible in court, but the incisions seem to be made from right to left, indicating a left-handed surgeon." Alexx was now closing the drawer and making her way toward the sink to wash her hands again.

"Alright, so that narrows it down to ten percent of the population. Anything else?" He didn't try to hide his disappointment.

"C'mon, baby, give me a little credit." She pulled a file from a cabinet above the sink. "I found some blood on the surface of one of the tissue samples, and it seemed out of place, so I swabbed it and sent it to Maxine. Here's the report." She handed him the folder, smiling.

Eric read it slowly, then grinned broadly. "Alexx, you're a lifesaver." Realizing the irony in this statement, he smiled again. "I owe you one." He nodded at her and walked quickly from the morgue, excited about the findings.

Knowing that the case was originally Benny and Ryan's, he tried both of their cell phones, but with no luck. Both phones were off. He checked his watch and laughed. It was almost seven o'clock; he rarely stayed so long after shift. Figuring he would pick up on the case tomorrow with Benny and Ryan, he grabbed his stuff from his locker and, smiling at Natalia as he passed her lab, headed home.