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Without knocking Ryan entered his lover's office and sat down in the guest chair. Horatio looked confused at him and Ryan handed him a photograph of a dog; a Golden Retriever.
"Her name is Cassie and she needs a new home." Ryan said, "She's 6 years old and her previous owner passed away four weeks ago; the owner's sister can't take the dog since she's allergic."
"And you know this how?"
"Walter knows the sister." Ryan said, "It's perfect for us; she doesn't need training and she's used to being alone during the days since her previous owner was a doctor and also a workaholic."
Horatio looked at the photo. He and Ryan had already made up their minds about having a Golden Retriever, but couldn't decide if they should get a puppy or a grown dog.
"We'll need someone to walk her during lunch though, a long walk so she doesn't get restless." Horatio said.
"Walter knows someone who can do that for just a few dollars a month." Ryan said, "A student that needs some extra cash."
"Okay." Horatio said.
Ryan lit up like a lighthouse.
"Really? We can take her?" He asked.
"Sure." Horatio smiled.
Ryan got up from the chair and threw himself into Horatio's arms for a hug. The older man chuckled at his eager lover.
"She's going to fit right in." Ryan grinned, "I'll go buy some dog supplies and food after work."
"When can we get her?"
"Today if we want to."
"Then let's do it." Horatio smiled.
Ryan grinned and left the office. He really liked dogs but his parents had never let him have one when he was growing up and after that he had just never thought about getting one as much as now. He made a promise to himself to work as little overtime as he could from now on too, someone needed to make sure to get home to the dog after the shift had ended to take her for a walk and give her food; Horatio was the one most likely to be working late since he was the supervisor so Ryan would have to make sure he got home.
Putting the photo away he entered the ballistic lab looking for Calleigh. He found the blonde woman in the gun vault organizing her guns after she had cleaned them. She didn't fire guns anymore since she was pregnant; instead her assistant did that, but she did do paperwork and processed guns after they had been test fired.
"Hi Calleigh." Ryan said, "How's the little one?"
Calleigh smiled and rubbed her five month pregnant belly. Everyone knew that the pregnancy had been quite hard on the woman; she still had morning sickness, trouble sleeping and her back and hips hurt. But she managed to stay cheerful most of the time and if she was having a bad day it was usually Eric who took the full blow of her mood swings.
"Kicking like always." Calleigh smiled, "What did Horatio say about the dog?"
"He said we should take her in." Ryan grinned, "We'll be picking her up today; I got to thank Walter for telling me about her."
"That's great! I want a dog too, but I'm guessing I'll be busy enough with a baby soon."
"Maybe when the baby is older you and Eric could get a dog."
"Nah, Eric isn't a dog lover. He's more into cats; says it's less work with a cat." Calleigh said, "He never met the cats I had back home in Louisiana; they were monsters."
Ryan chuckled and then helped Calleigh put some weapons in the places they belonged. When they left the gun vault Calleigh handed Ryan a report that she knew he wanted.
"I'll see you later, Cal." Ryan said and left.
-I-
"Achoo!"
Eric looked at Natalia as she blew her nose. He looked terrified and Walter and Natalia frowned at him.
"What?" Natalia asked.
"Stay away from me; if I get sick then Calleigh will get sick and if Calleigh gets sick she will kill me." Eric said, "I had to sleep three days on the couch last time I got a cold because the bug jumped over to her too and she got mad. I've seen her mad before, but when she's pregnant it is ten times worse."
Natalia smirked and walked closer and closer to Eric while he tried to get away.
"She's coming to get you." Walter laughed.
"Achoo!"
"What are you even doing at work when you're sick?" Eric asked.
"I'm going home actually. Horatio told me to take the rest of the week off." Natalia said, "Not that I'm complaining; I need to rest."
"Well, get better soon." Walter said.
Natalia waved goodbye to the two men and they got back to processing some fingerprints and DNA off a kitchen knife used in an attempted murder. Suddenly their beepers went off.
"A murder in Coconut Grove." Eric said, "All hands on deck I guess; well for those who can."
Walter and Eric put their things away and met Ryan in the garage; they got inside their hummers and drove to the address that dispatch had given them. Horatio and Frank were already there waiting for them.
"Where's Alexx?" Ryan asked, as he ducked under the crime scene tape with Eric and Walter behind him.
"She's just finishing an autopsy before going here." Horatio said.
"Victim's name is Terrence Laughlin, age 32; he lives in downtown Miami and was walking on the beach with his girlfriend Mariah Fredrickson." Frank said, "When she got behind a bush to... use the um, toilet, someone showed up and killed him."
Horatio bent down to get a closer look and although he wasn't a medical examiner he was pretty sure he knew what had killed the man.
"The girlfriend found him lying like this." Frank said and nodded towards a crying woman standing with a police officer behind the cordoned area.
Horatio straightened up and looked around the beach.
"There are shoeprints leading towards and away from the body." Horatio said, "Two sets, one I'm guessing belongs to the girlfriend."
"I'll follow the other set of shoeprints to see where they lead." Walter said.
"Make sure to make a mold out of it too." Horatio said, "Eric and Ryan you process everything around the body."
"What do you think killed him?" Ryan asked.
"A snapped neck, but let's see what Alexx says." Horatio said.
Horatio let his team get to work while he approached the girlfriend.
"I'm Lieutenant Horatio Caine, I'm sorry for your loss, but I need to ask you a few questions; did you hear or see anything?"
"No, nothing. I was behind a bush so I couldn't see anything, but I didn't hear anything either." Mariah said.
Horatio nodded and noticed that the waves were making a lot of noise so it wasn't surprising that Mariah hadn't heard anything.
"How long would you say you were gone?" Horatio asked.
"About four minutes maybe." Mariah shrugged, "Three even."
"Do you or Terrence have any enemies?"
"No, not that I can think of."
Horatio nodded and thanked her for her time. He went back to Frank and the Texan could see that his friend was thinking.
"Whoever did this had to have been very quick." Horatio said, "He could have come up behind the victim, snapped his neck and left within a minute."
"He must have attacked him just as the girlfriend disappeared behind the bush." Frank said.
"Yeah, but how did he leave the scene so quickly?" Horatio asked, "She would have probably noticed if a car had been here."
"I can answer that." Walter said, as he came back to the crime scene, "He used a bicycle. I found tire treads indicating that further down the beach behind some trees; he could have used it to get on the road."
"And the road can't be seen from here." Horatio said, "But he attacked from the other way."
Horatio pointed at the shoeprintss leading towards the victim and not from. Walter followed them together with Horatio and they soon found the place where the killer had waited for Terrence to be left alone. They continued following the prints leading away from the hiding place to a bus stop; the killer had probably used the bus to get to the beach area.
They went back to the crime scene.
"He, or she although I think it's a man, probably took the bus to get here." Horatio said, "He had either hid the bicycle behind those trees over there earlier or he stole it from someone else."
"We've had no reports on bicycle theft so he probably put it here before the murder." Frank said.
"So he planned it all." Walter said, "But he couldn't have planned for Mariah Frederickson to hide behind a bush to pee."
"He must have been waiting for the perfect opportunity." Horatio said, "Or planned to kill them both if necessary."
Horatio heard someone calling for him and looked over at Mariah Fredrickson, she was waving him over and he approached her together with Frank.
"I remember this one guy that approached Terrence last week." Mariah said, "I never met him, but Terrence told me that this guy had told him to choose between me and his brother."
"Why?" Frank asked.
"I don't know. According to Terrence this guy was talking about how it was his divine mission to do this, an angel had told him that he had to put people through tests before he could take on his big challenge and then if he succeeded he would go to heaven." Mariah said.
"Great, we got a psycho on our hands." Frank muttered.
"What would have happened if Terrence had made a choice?" Horatio asked.
"Whoever he chose to live would have lived; the other person would have been killed." Mariah said, "And if Terrence didn't make a choice in three days he would get killed instead."
"Thank you." Horatio said.
A police officer took Mariah to a car to drive her home. Horatio looked confused at Frank.
"Either this guy is playing or he really does think he is on a mission from an angel." Frank said.
"Some people believe they are." Horatio said, "It only makes it harder for us to catch him and for him to stop."
"This is not going to be his first victim." Frank sighed.
"Not at all."
They saw the ME van arrive and walked back to the body just as Alexx got out of her car. She greeted everyone and then knelt down next to the body of Terrence Laughlin.
"I don't need to look very much to say that he's got a snapped neck." Alexx said, "I don't imagine I will find anything else that would be cause of death, but I'll know more after the autopsy."
"Anything else?" Horatio asked.
Alexx checked as much as she could and even turned the body over, but she couldn't find anything.
"Nothing." She said and then saw a note on the ground, "To Lieutenant Caine." She read from the back of the note.
She handed the note to Horatio and the team stepped closer to him; all of them suddenly got a gut feeling that this was going to be a particularly bad case.
The note said:
Are you proud of what I've done?
"Um, okay." Horatio said.
"We should start going over your old cases." Ryan said.
"It might not be someone from an old case." Eric said, "H has been on the news so anyone could recognize him and target him."
"So we got a guy that thinks he is on a mission from an angel and who also wants you to be proud of him?" Frank asked, "Should I check with mental institutions to see if they're missing a patient with an illusion about angels?"
"Yeah." Horatio said, "I'm going back to the lab to process this note."
"Be careful." Ryan said.
"I will be." Horatio smiled.
-I-
When Horatio got home later that night he was greeted by big fluffy Golden Retriever. He smiled and let the dog sniff his hands and legs. Ryan stood in the kitchen doorway and grinned.
"You must be Cassie." Horatio smiled at the dog, "Hi there girl."
Cassie wagged her tailed; Horatio patted her and then gave his lover a kiss.
"Anything from the note?" Ryan asked.
"Nothing. No prints, no DNA; absolutely nothing." Horatio sighed, "How long have you and Cassie been home?"
"Two hours. She's explored the whole house and seems to like it here." Ryan smiled, "Kyle came over for a quick visit and he wants me to tell you that he wants a dog too."
"Translation; he wants me to buy him one for his birthday." Horatio said.
"Yep."
Ryan and Horatio went to the living room where Horatio slumped down on the couch and stretched his body, Ryan sat down next to him. Cassie approached him and put her head on his lap. Horatio scratched her behind the ear.
"I don't like this killer, H." Ryan said, "He's after you."
"We don't know that for sure."
"Well, he wants something from you."
"Yeah, he wants me to be proud of him." Horatio sighed, "I can't remember ever coming across someone like that before."
"He didn't leave any evidence behind except his shoeprints either. He's good at covering his tracks and that scares me." Ryan said.
Horatio kissed Ryan's brow.
"It'll be okay."
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