Chapter Two: How to Turn Your Back on the Ones You Loved
There had been no party, no celebration, and certainly no sorrow filled good-byes. It seemed Horatio had left the Crime Lab without the slightest indication of his decision. The only thing he had done in his last two weeks there was clean out his office and locker, making room for the new Lieutenant.
He now followed Agent Robert Thompson through the Central Intelligence Agency office. He showed Horatio where most of the work was conducted and the garage where Horatio would be able to find most of the tools he would need for explosives and weapons. They took a quick tour through the labs that would become like a second home for Horatio; Agent Thompson's words, not his own. Horatio felt nothing towards all of it, but he hadn't felt much of anything for most of the last three years.
They stopped at a desk surrounded by four cubical walls. They walked through the open door design in the fourth wall and Horatio stared at the small, cheap desk.
"This is where you'll store your personal office supplies and your computer will be located." Thompson explained, "You're permitted to bring in personal effects, but nothing that will be considered a distraction to others."
Horatio looked around the drab gray walls and the pine colored desk. He didn't see how anyone would notice if he went crazy with decorating his cubical, not that he would.
"Now, if you'll follow me, we have a meeting that's starting in five minutes," Thompson said as he briskly walked out of the small cubical. "It might not be what you're used to, but here at the CIA we don't waste time getting involved."
"Oh believe me, Agent Thompson," Horatio said, "We did everything but wait around at Miami Dade."
Thompson gave him a quick and impersonal smile as they continued on. "I'm sure you didn't," he said as he opened a door.
They walked into a conference room and Agent Thompson took his place at the head of the table. Not really sure where to sit, but not wanting to seem as if he wasn't confident, Horatio picked a seat in the middle of the long table between two other agents.
"Good morning everyone," Thompson began, "I'd like to start with welcoming our newest agent, Horatio Caine. He'll be working with forensics on explosives and weaponry."
Everyone looked to where Horatio was sitting. He gave a small smile but it quickly faded as Thompson continued on.
"I'll try to get you quickly caught up, Caine," he said. "We've been tracking what we thought was a suicide bomber, but it seems we might be wrong."
"How many cases?" Horatio inquired as he began jotting down notes on the legal pad in front of him.
"Three so far," Thompson replied.
"Well there you go," Horatio dryly said, "Can't be a suicide bomber. It's impossible for someone to die three times."
A light laughter circled around the room, as Agent Thompson seemed to flush in color.
"What I meant was we thought it was a terrorist suicide bomber group."
"Oh, well that makes more sense," Horatio responded. He wrote something down in his own personal shorthand that only he was able to decipher.
"Thompson- incompetent, possibly hard to work with/for."
"As I was saying," Thompson continued on, "We thought it was a suicide bomber group, but we may be wrong. Recent evidence from the last case revealed it may be one individual acting alone."
"What kind of evidence?" Horatio asked, not caring to wait his turn.
"Fingerprints," Thompson said, his irritation with Horatio evident. "Turns out fragment recovered from all three bombs had the same latent fingerprint impression in a piece of electric tape."
Horatio shot him a look. "You're just now figuring this out?"
"Caine, if you're going to start acting insubordinate already then we may have to reconsider your employment," Thompson snapped.
Horatio shook his head and leaned back in his chair. "With all due respect, Agent Thompson," he calmly said, "I just found it farfetched that you hadn't realized the fingerprints from all three cases matched. I understand if it was only one case, but I do believe if the proper investigation had been performed during the second case the latent fingerprints should have been matched then." He leaned forward, locking gazes with Thompson. "And, as a former supervisor, I find it extremely rude and demeaning to call out a new employee at his first staff meeting, when there's the possibility he still doesn't understand how your facility works."
Thompson stared him down, the anger written all over his red face. "Very well," he quietly muttered. "Why don't you go with Agent Stevenson to the forensics' lab and get more acquainted with the evidence?"
The female agent sitting next to Horatio rose. She smiled at him and Horatio returned it as he stood and grabbed the legal pad off the table.
"Caine," Thompson called after him, "The legal pads stay here."
"Well where am I supposed to keep all my notes?" Horatio inquired, "My new boss didn't tell me I would be needing one today."
He turned and followed the woman with brown curly hair from the room, smirking to himself. They followed a path through the cubical maze and into a stairwell. She stopped and turned to face him.
"Wow," she said with a bright smile, "You must have quite the pair to get ballsy with the boss on your first day."
Horatio couldn't help but return the smile and chuckle lightly. "Yes, well my old team always said I was rather blunt when it came to these kinds of things."
"You mean the total lack of scientific protocol?" Stevenson asked.
Horatio slowly nodded his head. "Well, I wasn't going to say that but…"
"But I already did, so it's safe to go ahead."
Horatio chuckled and again and smiled at her. "Your lab seems to be lacking in scientific protocol," he shyly said.
Stevenson laughed and shook her head. "I will admit, we do. I'm supposed to be the head of the department, but Thompson likes things done his way, so sometimes it gets hard." She smiled at him again and held out her hand. "Agent Lisa Stevenson, forensic analysis and processing."
Horatio grasped her hand and returned the smile. "Lieuten- I mean, well I guess, Agent Horatio Caine, explosives and weaponry."
"Explosive expert," Lisa said as they descended the stairs. "Nice, I like it. Sounds sexy." She winked at him as she opened the door and led him once again into the forensic lab.
Horatio smiled and felt a slight blush form on his cheeks as he followed her into the familiar sounds of scientists working to find the truth.
Horatio looked at the fingerprint covered with superglue fumes under the high intensity microscope. He looked at ridges and furrows, trying to make a visible match.
"Where's the one from the third case?" he inquired as he began examining the second sample.
"It hasn't arrived yet," Lisa said as she began shuffling through case files and evidence.
Horatio looked at her confused. "What do you mean? I thought you said you had three cases."
"We do, but we didn't realize we had three until a different lab scanned the print into AFIS and got a hit from our database," she explained. "They're coming over right now, but I guess the Lieutenant got tied up in a different case. I guess it's been rather crazy over there. The current Lieutenant was just promoted this morning. God knows why they would wait two weeks if they new the old Lieutenant had put in his two week notice." Her phone beeped and she looked at the screen. "And that's security telling me they're on their way down the elevator now. Would you like to join me to meet them?"
"If you don't mind I think I'd rather stay here and continue getting familiar with the cases," Horatio said, peering down the scope again.
"Quite alright," Lisa said with a smile he couldn't see. "I understand you're trying to get caught up with two years worth of work. I'll be right back."
"Take your time," Horatio muttered as he continued examining the fingerprints.
He stared into the microscope, comparing ridge detail and what little tool marks he could see. He heard footsteps approach, but didn't bother to look up from his work.
"Agent Caine," Lisa's voice sounded, "I'd like to introduce you to Officer Duquesne and Lieutenant Wolfe from the Miami Dade Crime Lab."
Horatio straightened up and looked towards the door. Standing there with Lisa were Ryan and Calleigh, evidence boxes in hand. He was shocked to see them, yet everything Lisa had said about the other lab suddenly made sense. How he hadn't realized who she was talking about was beyond him.
Ryan and Calleigh walked over to the lab table and set down their boxes. They each looked at him apprehensively, unsure of what to do. Horatio stepped forward and extended his hand. He shook each of their hands, still trying to process what Lisa had said.
"Ryan, Calleigh," he quietly said, "It's good to see you again."
"How have you been, Horatio?" Calleigh asked in her soft voice.
"Already had my new boss threaten to fire me this morning," Horatio replied with a small smile.
Calleigh laughed softly. "Why does that not surprise me?"
He looked at Ryan, unsure of what to think about the younger man.
"Lieutenant Wolfe," he quietly said.
Ryan nodded his head once. "Yeah, the Chief asked me this morning."
"And you accepted?" Horatio said in a hesitant voice.
"Yes, because I wanted to continue to fight this battle we started."
Horatio slowly nodded his head. "I see," he whispered.
Lisa looked from Horatio to Ryan and back to Horatio. "Caine, do you know these two?"
"I was the old Lieutenant at the MDPD Crime Lab," he quietly said, still unable to break his gaze from Ryan's.
Lisa nodded her head in acknowledgement. "Alright, well I guess we should take a look at the evidence you brought over, Lieutenant Wolfe," she said, walking over to the sealed boxes Ryan and Calleigh had been carrying.
"Yeah," Ryan quietly said, his eyes still peering into Horatio's and his face set in an unwavering expression. "We better get started before someone else looses their life."
"So I'm going to take a guess the tape was cut with just about any pair of scissors you could find in the store," Calleigh said as she examined the electric tape from all three cases under the microscope.
"Well that doesn't really help," Lisa said. "I was hoping this guy had ripped it with his teeth or something more unique."
"Nope, sorry," Calleigh said. "If it had been ripped the edge would be jagged, not smooth and even like it is."
Ryan looked down at the pictures of the fingerprints on the tape.
"Agent Stevenson," he said, "Do you have a roll of electric tape somewhere?"
"Yeah," Lisa responded, walking over to a cabinet.
"What are you thinking, Ryan?" Horatio inquired, still unable to call him Lieutenant.
"I'm thinking about what we've got in our report and the evidence at hand," Ryan explained as he cut two three inch strips of tape. He removed his glove and pressed his left index finger to the adhesive. He looked it over and then turned to Lisa. "Can I borrow your hand?"
Lisa looked at him a little confused, but smiling nonetheless. "Sure, can I ask why though?"
"I need your finger," Ryan said. He carefully pressed Lisa's finger into the adhesive and then looked at the two pieces. "Just as I thought."
"What's that?" Lisa inquired.
"I'm thinking the guy you're looking for isn't a guy at all," Ryan said, placing the pieces of tape on the microscope.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean look at my fingerprint compared to yours." Ryan explained, "See how yours is smaller then mine? The fingerprints found on the tape are rather small, even for a partial."
"So you're thinking our bomber is a woman?" Lisa asked.
"Yeah, it would make sense with what's in our report, too," Ryan said, picking up the MDPD case file. "According to this, Lieutenant Caine saw a female dressed in dark clothing fleeing the scene."
Lisa looked at Horatio questionably. "Is this true, Caine?" she asked.
Horatio nodded his head. "Yeah, I heard her and then followed her outside, but she got away."
"Because someone didn't have the balls to shoot at her car," Ryan angrily muttered.
Horatio shot him an angry look. "I'm sorry, Ryan," he snapped. "I'm sorry that you're still upset that I left the Crime Lab, but it was my time, ok?"
"You left us in the middle of a battle," Ryan nearly hissed. "You left us with an open case that I had to take over, that I hardly knew anything of. I think I have a right to be angry with you."
"But I'm here now," Horatio said. "I'm working with you to close this case now."
"But with a different badge," Ryan muttered under his breath.
"Ok, well let's get through reviewing all this evidence and then we'll go out to lunch, my treat," Lisa interjected, trying to lighten the mood.
Horatio and Ryan locked eyes, the anger firing between them like electricity. Their gaze broke as they turned and continued with their work.
"You think our bomber is a woman?" Thompson asked as he listened to Lisa discuss the evidence later that day.
"Yes, what we've collected and reviewed with Miami Dade suggests it's a woman," Lisa explained.
"That can't be possible," Thompson said, blowing her off.
"Why? Because she's a woman and her place should be in the kitchen?" Lisa snapped.
"Your words, not mine," Thompson repeated as he began moving around his office.
"I think it's entirely possible the bomber is a woman," Ryan interjected.
Thompson shot him a look. "Well I didn't ask for the local police's opinion," he retorted.
"Bombing wouldn't be that far fetched for a woman," Ryan continued. "Most women murderers use distant techniques. They're more likely to shoot someone or commit a hit and run. Men are more likely to commit hands on murders; strangulations, beatings, suffocations."
"But how many women suicide bombers have you read about?" Thompson retorted.
"None, but that could be because they're all dead," Ryan responded.
"Lieutenant Wolfe," Thompson hissed, "I don't need your smart-alecky ways around here. I have enough problems with my own employees."
"He means me," Horatio whispered to Calleigh. She snickered and tried to keep a straight face.
"Until you can provide me with hard evidence that this bomber is indeed female, then we will continue to search for a male suspect."
Lisa scoffed and turned to leave the room. Horatio, Calleigh, and Ryan followed her.
"I can't believe him!" Lisa fumed as they rode the elevator back to the forensics lab. "He's so closed minded! This is way he won't promote me!"
Horatio gently touched her shoulder. "Don't fret," he whispered, "he'll come around."
They walked back into the lab and began packing up the evidence.
"Would you mind if we kept this evidence here?" Lisa asked Ryan. "You know, just so it's easier for us to refer back to."
"Um, yeah, I guess so," Ryan quietly said. "I'm just a little leery because it's still an open investigation."
"Well why don't we just make copies of your evidence logs, reports, and lab results for us and you can take the rest back," Lisa said. "Come on, we'll go do that right now."
"Alright," Ryan said, following her from the room.
Horatio sighed and started packing the evidence on the table back into the CIA evidence box. Calleigh stood next to him and leaned into him. She smiled up at him and he couldn't help but smile back.
"How's it really going?" she whispered to him.
Horatio looked at her and then back at the box he was packing.
"I don't know," he whispered. "I already miss everyone from the Crime Lab."
"It's not too late to go back."
"But what will happen to Ryan? I can't take an opportunity like this away from him."
"Maybe they'll make you Sergeant," Calleigh suggested.
"I don't think so," Horatio quietly responded. "I think they would make me low man on the totem pole again. They'd stick me right back in a patrol car."
"It wouldn't be so bad," Calleigh said in her soft voice. "You'd move right back up to where you were."
"I don't want to go back," Horatio whispered. "I'm happy right where I am."
Calleigh sighed and walked around the table as Ryan and Lisa approached the room.
"Alright, you're good to go," Lisa said with a smile, setting a case file with a thick stack of papers in it. She extended her hand to Ryan and then Calleigh. "It was nice meeting you, Lieutenant Wolfe, Officer Duquesne."
"Like wise," Calleigh said, shaking her hand. She looked at Horatio, a longing expression evident in her eyes. "It was good to see you again, Horatio."
Horatio didn't even look at her. He simply nodded his head as he sealed an evidence box.
"I'll show you to the elevator," Lisa said, leading them back through the forensics lab.
Horatio stood there alone, listening to them leave. He looked up and watched them disappear from sight. He suddenly rushed from the room, but went the opposite direction his former coworkers had. He ducked into the men's restroom and locked the door behind him. He sank to the ground, and, for the first time in two weeks, he cried from the sorrow he felt for leaving the people he called his family.