"Eric, I want you to listen to me. I'm disappointed in you for lying, but I'm not ready to lose you as an agent. I want you to sit tight and wait till I call you, understand?" Horatio told him as Eric was leaving the building with the last of his boxes. Eric nodded and took a long look at the building he had come to regard as a second home. With any luck, he might not have to say goodbye forever.
"Keats, I want you to come with me to Chuck DeGrassi's house. Chuck is the brother of the late Carlos DeGrassi, one of our victims." Horatio took her by the hand and led her to his hummer. He put on his signature shades and gave Keats a smile that spoke volumes.
"Do you have a plan under your sleeve, H?" Keats asked teasingly. Horatio said nothing, but his happy silence as he drove answered her question better than mere words.
Chuck DeGrassi was the Personal Assistant of the Mayor's Secretary. He lived in a villa overlooking the harbor and was quite well-off considering his only occupation was to stir coffee and spread cream cheese on bagels. His brother's demise and the circumstances surrounding it gave Horatio the upper hand, and ultimately better bargaining power.
"Were you aware that Carlos was using cocaine, Mr. DeGrassi? Is that why you severed all ties with him before serving on the mayor's payroll?" Horatio gave him a steely-eyed stare. DeGrassi flushed and dug the end of his cigar in a $400 ashtray.
"What my brother does with his time is his business. I make it very clear to my superiors that I do not consort with him." DeGrassi wiggled his fingers, making his gold rings sparkle in the Miami sunshine.
"Are you also aware that your brother was involved in a drug-smuggling ring that took an erroneous turn the other night? His body and the bodies of eight other men were found. I think the exchange went sour. How about you?" Horatio placed his palm on the side of his hip and leaned closer to DeGrassi, who had been lounging in a deck chair since they'd arrived. DeGrassi squirmed under Horatio's harsh glare.
"I…I didn't realize…" He began in broken Spanish. Keats began to see the relevance of his inquiries.
"How much does a personal assistant of the Mayor's Secretary get paid, Mr. DeGrassi? Enough to surpass his boss in living expenses?" Keats smiled, sensing that they had him cornered.
"You were the kingpin of that smuggling ring, weren't you, DeGrassi? It's easy to transport your precious cargo unseen when the Mayor's signature is on it. Isn't that right, DeGrassi?"
Horatio sat in the driver's seat of his hummer while Keats sat beside him in shotgun. The air between them was one of utter satisfaction and humor. A few seconds later, Horatio's cell phone rang and he flipped it open with vigor.
"Lt. Caine speaking…Yes, I was hoping you'd make that arrangement. Good to hear from you. I appreciate your cooperation, Mr. DeGrassi." Horatio ended the call and gave Keats a meaningful look. He then dialed the number to Eric Delko's cell and waited.
"Eric? The Mayor of Miami has given you an official pardon. You've got a clean slate and I expect you to use it. No more mistakes, Eric. I also expect you to pull a double shift to make up for your day off. By the way, you're welcome."
Horatio gave Keats a wink and she grinned with extreme pride. Horatio had to be one of the greatest men she'd ever met in her life.
"What about DeGrassi? Aren't we going to arrest him?" Keats asked.
"That wasn't part of the plan. The corruption at state level will have to wait while we sharpen our claws, June. We'll get them someday."
"Welcome back, Delko." Keats hugged Eric close to her, extremely grateful that his fate had been a merciful one. Eric had returned to the Lab immediately and within a few hours it was as though he'd never left at all.
"So DeGrassi supplied the drugs, and the brother was more or less a messenger along with Mike and that other guy…right?" Keats made a few notes in the case file with the help of Ryan Wolfe.
"That other guy? I hope you're not putting that in the file." He said smugly.
"Well what's his name then, smarty?" Keats made a childish face at him.
"Anthony Fuentez…I struggle to grasp how you came so highly recommended." Ryan quipped. Keats stared at him in shock with her mouth open. Taking advantage of this, Ryan brought his lips to hers. Keats closed her eyes, everything else fading away.
Maxine Valera had noticed a severe change in Boa Vista's mood, but hadn't really cared to wonder why…until Natalia exhibited some rather unhealthy tendencies.
"He would say that! Damn him. Damn all men!" She would mutter to herself. Valera kept out of her way for the most part, but curiosity got the better of her after a time.
"Something wrong, Natalia?" She asked while they furthered the blood work from the Stedman Pool Hall case. Natalia threw her hands up and screamed.
"He never even let me finish, the bastard! I should be the one warding him off with a stick and a can of mace!" She yelled.
Valera backed away very slowly.
"Cooper? Can I ask a dumb question?" Keats knocked on the door and waltzed in, taking a seat beside him. Cooper shrugged, trying to shake the fact that he still adored her like crazy.
"How come a beautiful woman like Calleigh Duquesne isn't married or seeing anyone? She's funny, kind, intelligent, resourceful…Heck, I'd marry her. She's wonderful!" Keats blurted out, kind of wishing she'd left the last part out. Cooper glanced over at Keats thoughtfully.
"I think most people are more or less married to this Lab. In Calleigh's case, I think she's been burned too many times. She wised up, I guess." Cooper had never really considered why she wasn't involved with someone. Calleigh just seemed too smart for it.
"That's incredibly depressing…I think everyone deserves to be happy and in love. Working at Miami Dade is great and all, but at the end of the day, you want to come home to someone who cares. Right?" Keats' face took on an almost childlike and innocent glow as she imparted her romanticized notions of love that she had carried all throughout her young life. Cooper was hard-pressed to find anything wrong with that.
"Right…" He said, gazing at her fondly, if a bit sadly.