Trouble with Friends

Chapter 17

Horatio could vaguely make out voices and feel the vibration of what seemed to be a moving vehicle as he drifted out of the darkness. Then suddenly his eyes jerked open from pain radianting across his abdomen; briefly confused as to why he felt pain until something hard hit his stomach, involuntarily forcing the air from his lungs.

"Hey", an angry voice shouted, "I said stop kicking him. I want him to be able to function – we might need him." Horatio realized the gruff voice came from behind him.

Groaning, Horatio tried to move his arms, but realized that his hands were bound behind his back.

"Calleigh…" he whispered looking across at her lying a few feet away, apparently unconscious.

The man sitting next to him laughed when he heard the redhead call for the woman. Leaning down close to Horatio's face he sneered,

"She's a real looker. I think I'll have a piece of her later, red."

Through clenched teeth Horatio growled, "You touch her…and I'll kill you."

The man's laughter grew louder as he shouted to someone behind them, "Hey…red here, says he's gonna kill me. Imagine that, considering the position he's in."

Horatio heard three distinctive voices laughing at the comment, but sensed someone sitting close behind him, remaining silent. Unconsciousness threating to once again consume him, he struggled to counteract it, I need to stay awake…protect Calleigh.

The Hummer pulled into the parking lot of Anna's Place and everyone got out and began looking for Calleigh's car. Eric was the first to find her car parked several yards away from the building on the beach side of the parking lot.

"Hey, Calleigh's car is over here, they must be inside." Eric called to the others, feeling relief wash over him for the first time that day.

The rest of the team stayed with the car while Eric and Frank walked toward the entrance of the restaurant. Once inside, the two men scanned the dining room, but didn't readily see the couple they were looking for.

They were greeted by an elderly woman who asked, "A table for two?"

"Um, no ma'am," Frank responded, "we're looking for some friends of ours, their car is parked outside; a tall slender redheaded man and a lady with long blonde hair. Could you show us where they are seated?"

Suspiciously staring back and forth between the two men Anna asked, "What are your names?"

"I'm Sargent Frank Tripp and this is CSI Eric Delko, we're with the Miami-Dade Sheriff's office."

"Ohhh," Anna smiled brightly, after hearing they worked with the Lieutenant. "You are friends of Lieutenant Caine? But I'm afraid you have missed them, he and his lady left about an hour ago." Her happy demeanor then changed to confusion, when it seemed to dawn on her about the car. Pensively she asked, "I don't understand, you say their car, it is still here?"

"Yes ma'am it is. You said they left an hour ago? You're sure 'bout that?" Frank glanced over at Eric and could see the concern in his eyes, the same concern he, himself was feeling.

"Yes, yes, I see them walk away down the beach. Oh, so much in love those two," Anna smiled, remembering the sight.

"Could you show us which direction they went?" Eric asked.

"Sure, come with me."

Anna led the men out on the porch and she pointed down the beach, "That way, I see them walk," pointing to the north. "Then I go back into the restaurant. I think they leave after a little stroll. Perhaps they stop in some shops…there are many in that direction."

"Thank you ma'am, we'll check on that," Frank assured her.

As Frank and Eric walked back to the team, a local sheriff's car pulled into the lot and stopped next to the Hummer. A deputy got out and walked towards them.

"Sargent Tripp?" The young man asked.

"Yeah, I'm Tripp."

"I'm deputy Mark Williams," introducing himself. "I understand a Lieutenant and a CSI from your department in Miami may be in some trouble here in Key Largo?"

"It's very possible. The lady in the restaurant said Lieutenant Caine and his friend walked north on the beach around an hour ago, but their car is still here. We're going to need some help checking out the stores on the beach, just in case they are shopping. Are there more men from your department coming?"

"Two are on their way. We have a limited staff here, not like the PD in Miami, but we'll help in any way we can."

Eric stepped closer to Tripp and asked, "You think they're shopping?"

Frank grimaced and looked over at the beach responding, "Not really, but if they are, we need to find them before the Haitians do."

Walter joined them and spoke up, "There's a possibility that if the Haitians found them before us, that they took them in this parking lot."

"That's possible Walter, but how can we determine that?" Eric asked the big man with a puzzled look.

"Well, for starters, there's an ATM next to the parking lot on the adjoining property and…"

Eric cut him off. "And where there's an ATM there's a security camera. We need the footage for the last couple of hours."

Frank and the deputy got in the patrol car to go canvass the shops, while Eric and Walter walked to the branch bank to find a number that hopefully was posted for people needing help with problems after hours. Ryan and Natalia began searching the parking lot, beginning at Calleigh's car.

The van began bouncing, the ride had suddenly turned rougher and Horatio wondered with some trepidation if their kidnappers were taking them into a remote area in order to kill them. He looked into Calleigh's concerned eyes, which thankfully had opened a short time before, attempting to convey that he was alright, for her not to worry, but he knew she was concerned. The uncertainty of what was about to happen, prompted him to begin silently struggling once again to free his hands. I've got to get my hands free…otherwise we'll be at their mercy.

The van stopped and the two large rear doors of the van opened, allowing the bright sunlight to stream inside temporarily blinding Horatio as to who the men were. He felt a pair of hands roughly grab his ankles and then he was pulled out the doors. Reaching the end of the van floor, he fell to the ground unable to brace himself. Hitting the ground hard on his tender side, it was all Horatio could do to keep the moan in his throat from escaping. Not giving him time to recover from the impact, he was quickly jerked to his feet and for the first time he saw the faces of their kidnappers. Of course he had guessed Miller was among them, but another man he saw in the group shocked him beyond words – Senator Mike Wilkes. I always did think there was something off about the man, now I know he's dirty, mixed up with Miller.

Miller walked up and stood inches from Horatio's face and snarled, "You have something that belongs to me and I intend to get it back."

Horatio jutted his chin out and stared directly into Miller's eyes unblinking and managed to answer, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Miller's fist slammed into Horatio's stomach causing the redhead's knees to buckle, then the two men holding him immediately pulled him up straight and the stretching of his abdominal muscles increased the pain. A sharp breath escaped Horatio's lips when one of the men grabbed a handful of his hair and jerked his head back.

Horatio was about to be struck again when Calleigh screamed from inside the van.

"Stop it! He doesn't know anything about what you're referring to," she shouted as she struggled to sit upright against the wall of the van.

The blonde woman's words caused Miller to walk past Horatio toward the blonde sitting in the doorway.

"What did you say?"

"He hasn't been at the lab since the car accident, I've been in charge."

"Calleigh…no! Leave…her out…out of this," Horatio called out to Miller, trying to draw the attention back to him and away from Calleigh."

"Shut up Caine," Miller shouted, and then returned his concentration on Calleigh. "You're telling me that you took that thumb-drive from my office?"

Calleigh looked him square in the eye and replied, "I did. It's being processed and analyzed as we speak."

Horatio began struggling against the two men holding him; with little result shouting, "NO…she doesn't…"

Miller turned and shouted to one of the men holding Horatio and screamed, "Shut him up!" The blow to his already tender mid-section buckled Horatio's knees and this time the two men holding him let go, allowing the redhead to fall in a heap on the ground.

Calleigh screamed at Miller, "I'll get you the thumb-drive, but only if you stop beating Lieutenant Caine."

Miller laughed at the woman and smirked, "You're a regular little spit-fire aren't you?" Reaching in and grabbing her arm, jerking her up close he growled, "The way I see it, you're in no position to be bargaining with me. Caine will get what he deserves for sticking his nose in my business. The only thing I'll promise you is that I won't kill him, at least not yet, he's too valuable to me right now."

After an hour, Frank and the deputy returned to the restaurant after completing their search.

"Hey Wolfe, any word from Delko and Walter?"

"Eric was able to reach the branch manager and the man arrived twenty minutes ago to give them access to the video footage."

"Have y'all found any evidence in the parking lot?"

"Natalia found a piece of an earring that she's sure is Calleigh's, other than that, nothing."

Frank chimed up, "Well, they certainly weren't shopping. We hit every store for two miles up the beach, nobody's seen them."

After thirty minutes had passed, Eric and Walter rejoined the group, anxious to tell them what the camera had picked up.

Frank spoke up when he saw the two men approaching. "Delko…did y'all get any leads?"

"We did and I've already put out a BOLO on a faded, red Ford panel van. The camera showed Horatio and Calleigh walking toward their car, but when they passed the van, they were each grabbed around the neck and ushered into the back of the vehicle." He looked away for a few seconds before returning his gaze to Frank. "Horatio…uh, it looked like he went limp before he was shoved into the van." Frank blew out a long breath and looked away.

Natalia spoke up with anxiousness obvious in her voice, "What do we do now…just stand here while God knows what is happening to them?"

"I think we need to go back to Miami," Eric stated as he ran a hand through his hair, attempting to steady his nerves.

"But, what if the Haitians took them south to Key West…to a waiting boat? We need to alert the Coast Guard…"

Frank cut the young man off, "And tell them to look for what kind of boat Wolfe? A freighter…a cabin cruiser? What? All we have is a faded red van," he snapped.

"Hey guys…we're all on edge here, but we don't need to waste our energy bickering," Natalia chastised. "We need to focus if we're going to find them," even though she knew the criminals had a big head start. They all knew they had to search for any lead as to where the couple had been taken so, they contacted the Coast Guard and requested any ships or boats on their records heading to Haiti be stopped and searched, and then they began driving back to Miami.

Horatio pushed up, onto his hands and knees, supported by shaky arms and called out to Miller, "Let…let her go. I've got the thumb-drive …um," hesitating a brief second as a wave of pain caused him to lose focus for a few seconds, "it's at my house…I've…got it…at my house."

Miller let go of Calleigh, pushing her back inside the van and angrily walked back to Horatio.

"Horatio…no," Calleigh cried out.

"Well now, you have it." Miller's angry words spewed out as he reached down and grabbed Horatio's shirt, jerking him to his feet, pulling him close to his face he snarled, "I'm not in the mood for games. You'd better be telling the truth, or you won't live to see the sunset and we'll have lots of fun with your lady after you're dead."

Horatio kept his expression confident, he didn't want Miller to pick up on his uneasiness, but in reality, he wondered if what he had in mind would work. The bottom line was that it was their only option because once Miller and Wilkes got the thumb-drive; there was no doubt in his mind that he and Calleigh would be killed.

TBC…