MIAMI : ONE YEAR, ELEVEN MONTHS AGO
The front door of the small apartment opened slowly. The apartment manager quickly got out of the way of the police and Calleigh. Natalia hung back, speaking to the small oriental man. The apartment was sparsely furnished and spotless. A policeman started down a hall and stopped at the first door. He pushed opened the door and she covered him. The bathroom was empty. There wasn't even a shower curtain hanging. They moved to the second door and opened it. The bed was stripped of bedding. The closet was empty. The officer and Calleigh moved to the last door and opened it. Calleigh slowly stepped into the room, staring at the shrine. It had every newspaper article and picture that had ever been printed. Mixed in with were internal crime scene photos that had Ryan in them.
Natalia came into the room. "Calleigh the manager said…" She trailed off, staring at the shrine. "This is…"
"Bad." Calleigh finished.
"It gets worse," Natalia added, remembering what she had come into tell Calleigh. "The landlord said she was placed here by The Village."
Calleigh sighed. "So Chrissie was either a serious drug addicted, mentally unstable, or both."
Natalia nodded, but she couldn't take her eyes off the disturbing shrine.
Eric typed in Chrissie's name and it populated on the screen before him, Natalia, Calleigh, and Horatio.
"There. He arrested her for speeding and possession when he was still on patrol," Eric said. "She had escaped The Village that morning and he noted in the report she appeared to be high on coke or heroin."
"So she just picked the first man that she saw and he happened to be it?" Natalia asked.
"No." Horatio's eyes narrowed. "Someone who is delusional needs something to set their fixation off on a person. My guess is something happened during the arrest. We're going to need a warrant to search her room and get her records from The Village. Get it, Eric."
Eric left to do as he was asked. "Ms. Boa Vista, pull up the report of his arrest. See if you can find anything that sounds unusual about it."
She left, leaving Calleigh and Horatio. Horatio touched the mouse and scrolled through a very long list of drug related charges and arrests.
"Chrissie Mandais… You are a very busy drug dealer…" Horatio told the screen.
"Maybe the kidnapping was really about drugs," Calleigh suggested.
"I don't believe so. Some of the gifts she sent were too personal for this to be about drugs. But it does explain the monetary gifts."
"We didn't get anything off them, Horatio. No drug trace and they weren't marked as stolen."
"Then they were well laundered. This woman must be well connected."
Calleigh turned to him. "So well connected that she could make Ryan disappear."
He looked up at her. "We won't believe that, will we? We will believe that we will find him. Somehow."
Calleigh looked back at Chrissie's rap sheet. Not even Horatio's words were consolation. This woman was mentally unstable and well connected – a deadly combination that could not possibly end well for Ryan.