Wow. I can't believe how fast this story was over. This is the last chapter. There's only an epilogue to follow. But more to that later. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

Chapter 11

Ryan met with Frank in front of the flat half an hour later. Frank had the warrant. "Took me some talking to get it, but even judges seem more willing to give us a warrant if there's a cop involved. How's she, by the way?"

Ryan shook his head, "Still comatose."

Frank didn't say anything, but Ryan had been working with him long enough to know the man was angry. "Okay. And this guy here, what's the deal?"

Ryan filled him in quickly, "And I think we might get lucky in his flat."

Frank nodded, "Then we'll better hurry up!" The two entered the building and got up to the forth floor. There, Frank knocked on the door, "Miami Dade Police. Mr Walton, open the door!" No response. Ryan gave Frank a look which he returned. "Don't look at me like that, buddy. You're younger than me."

Ryan sighed, but nodded. "Mr Walton? Are you there?" Since there was still no response, Ryan kicked the door in. "I wonder why I'm always asking. Did you notice those criminals are almost never at home?"

"And if they are, they take the time we ask to jump out of the nearest window." Frank took the lead and entered the flat with his gun drawn. Since it was just one room, he had quickly cleared it. "What a mess! And what's that smell?"

Ryan walked around, "I'd say five day old take away not stored in the fridge. Chinese, if you ask me."

"Yeah, smells like a dead dog alright." Frank walked around while Ryan prepared his camera. "Is there anything we're looking for in specific?"

"Indeed. Q-Tips and anything that could provide the DNA of a third person involved, like vaginal fluid, saliva, you know."

"Yeah, I know. Well, if you're looking for Q-Tips, I suggest the bathroom. Or, as I will call it from now on, that little room in there with the over flooded toilet and with no window."

Ryan gave the bathroom a look, "This is disgusting. And I have seen a lot of disgusting things in my life."

"Get over it, kiddo. The faster you're done here, the faster we can go and nail the bastard."

Ryan had to admit Frank had made a point. He scanned the flat thoroughly, and got lucky under the bed. "Now, look what I found!"

Frank answered, "A dead animal? A dead person?"

Ryan crawled deeper under the bed, "Nope. I found a box of Q-Tips. Our Q-Tips. The ones we have usually."

"So?"

"Valera told me our Q-Tip firm had delivery issues; that's why we got the new ones." He got back out, covered in dust. "That's revolting." He checked the box. "Unopened."

"What's that mean?"

Ryan frowned as he usually did when he was thinking. "Walton must have had access to our Q-Tips. Do you know how they are delivered?"

"Truck."

"Okay, so, he must have gotten to the truck. But then again, there's only one box here. Where did the rest go?"

Frank shrugged, "Don't know. Wait, I call Valera and ask her." He took out his cell phone and called Valera. "Maxine? It's Tripp. Yeah. Listen. Your Q-Tips come with a truck, right? Yah. We found one box of your regular Q-Tips here, but we're missing the rest… I see. So, you got a truck full of new Q-Tips? And nightshift, too? Okay. Yeah, thanks." He hung up. "She got a truckload. So did the nightshift."

Ryan bit his lip. "Okay. But this not of our concern right now. I'm sure we'll find them. What we need is proof that Walton was the one to compromise the Q-Tips with Mame's DNA. So, we need Mame's DNA." He looked around. "Nothing."

Frank ran a hand over his bald head, "Are you sure we're looking at the right place?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he cannot exactly store truckloads of her blood here. The fridge is broken."

Ryan nodded, "True that, but we're not talking blood, we're talking epithelials, saliva, anything colourless. We could try the dumpsters."

"Or, we ask your little friend how her guy could have gotten her DNA."

Ryan grinned, "And people say you're getting old."

Ryan sat down opposite Mame two hours later. By now, Mame had turned from the self confident woman he had known into a wreck. "Please tell me you found something to clear me."

Ryan nodded, "I think we did. We found your DNA on some unused Q-Tips that were delivered by the firm your ex-boyfriend works for. We found his fingerprints on a box of our regular Q-Tips. Now, we need to find out how your DNA ended up on the prepared Q-Tips. But first of all, do you know if Walton owns any large storage place?"

Mame thought about it, "No, I don't think so."

"Okay. Now, how could Walton have gotten your DNA?"

Mame sighed, "He lived at my place before we split up. But I doubt he could have…" Then suddenly, her eyes opened up wide. "That night when I returned from Ron's party… I think somebody was in my flat when I was gone."

"What makes you say that?"

"I don't know, it was just a feeling I had. I think the curtains were misplaced, and some little things looked different from how I remembered them. I thought it was just a feeling, but now…"

Ryan nodded. "We'll find that out." He got up, left the room, and gave Natalia a call. "'Talia? Can you go over to Mame's flat and check for any signs of forced entry? Yeah? Thank you."

Natalia came back with the result an hour later. Both she and Ryan sat down in front of Mame again. "Congratulations. You're cleared."

Ryan could literally see the weight being lifted from Mame's heart. "Really?"

Natalia shower her a picture, "This is the lock of your front door. The traces are small, but they're there. Somebody entered your flat." She showed another picture. "This is your bed frame. I found a cotton fibre. Your ex boyfriend swabbed your bed frame. The wood is perfect for finding epithelial cells. That's where he got them from."

Mame shook her head, "I can't believe it. That he would really do all this."

Ryan couldn't help but felt a twinge of pity, mixing with sheer relief. Not only was Mame innocent, it also meant she never tried to use him. "I'm sorry. But the good thing is, you're cleared. You're free to go."

"And that's exactly what I will do now. Thank you. Both of you." She got up and shook both Natalia's and Ryan's hand.

When she had left, Ryan's cell phone rang, "Yeah, Wolfe? Frank. You found what? Where? I see. What made you go back there? Valera? She found what? Yeah, okay, I'm coming." He hung up. "Now, look at this. Our lab rat Valera did some digging of her own."

"What did she do?"

"She swabbed the box the Q-Tips came in. She remembered that on Wednesday, the delivery of the Q-Tips that was supposed to come, was postponed to Thursday, and concluded that our guy got his hands on the truck before he managed to get his prepared Q-Tips to the lab. So, she swabbed the box she had and brought her findings to Travers, who detected gasoline and ash."

Natalia's face turned into a wide grin, "The old house that had burned down. Our first crime scene."

"Exactly. Tripp went back to the scene and found the remainders of a box. Remember, we found it too, but thought they belonged to the owner."

Natalia nodded, "Yeah. Now it all makes sense. Chris Walton decided to revenge himself on Mame because she dumped him. So he sabotaged the delivery. I talked to one of the guys at our firm earlier, and they said somebody from the lab called Fulana Perez- and I tell you, that joke is getting really old- has signed for the delivery. But apparently, it never reached our storage room. In the meantime, he broke into Mame's flat and swapped her bed frame. The next day, he delivered his Q-Tips to us, telling us our regular firm had delivery issues and they had asked his firm to jump in."

"How do you know that part?"

"Valera told me this morning when I asked her about it. We should seriously listen to our lab rats more often. Anyways, he then destroyed the evidence which would incriminate him in the house. So, everything was good, and he knew we would find Mame's DNA on it." She breathed out. "The case is over."

Ryan noticed he felt relieved too. "Yeah, it's over." He got up. "Can I leave the paperwork to you? There's something I wanna do."

"You wanna visit Nicole, right?"

He nodded, "Yeah. Somebody needs to tell her how the case turned out."

"True. Say hello to her from me and Maxine."

Ah, everything's good now.

About the epilogue: Gooniegirl3333 says she's looking forward to the chapter when Ryan visits Nicole in the hospital. Now, I never planned to do a chapter about that. After all, Nicole is just an OC, and like you, I hate when a story is too much focused on an OC. I wanted to do it Miami style and just forget about her like Speed and Jesse were forgotten by the writers. But if many of you say that they want a Ryan visits Nicole in hospital chapter too, I will of course do it. Please take your time when you review and just say Yay or Nay.