She just watched as police officers took statements. Crime scene investigators went into the house and came out again.
Calleigh's and Eric's eyes met as he came out the house. He made his way over to her not happy with the news he had.
"Calleigh..." he said quietly waiting for her to respond. "I'm sorry" he whispered.
"CALLEIGH!"
She spun round to see Horatio running from the hummer. He quickly made his way over to her and wrapped his arms around her. She responded by wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his chest.
"What did you find Eric?" he asked holding Calleigh.
"Not much H, they're still dusting for prints and looking for traces of any DNA but so far we've got no trace of anybody else in that house, but we did find this" he said carefully handing over a flat evidence bag, a piece of paper trapped inside.
Horatio carefully took the bag and looked at the picture on the paper.
"Calleigh, sweetheart..." he whispered carefully trying to turn her around to look at the picture that was addressed to her. Calleigh took hold of the bag and gently stroked her fingers over the scribble of orange crayon. Next to him was a smaller scribbled circle of bright yellow crayon. Calleigh let out a sob as she gently touched the last circle on the picture, a little scribble of yellow next to the bigger one. To anybody else looking at the drawing, they would think it was a bunch of scribbles on a piece of paper, but to Phoebe's Mommy and Daddy it was special, it meant something.
"We woke up this morning and she was holding the picture of herself from when she was born. I keep it on my nightstand, I asked her what she was doing and she asked who it was; I said it was her when she was a tiny baby. She doesn't know I carry a more current picture in my purse all the time. She said she was gonna draw me a new picture for my nightstand so I'd have a brand new picture of her." Calleigh said tears now rolling down her cheeks.
"Well you can keep hold of that, it's already been processed. " He said and Calleigh nodded.
"Thanks Eric, where's Lilly?" he asked the babysitter suddenly coming to mind.
"She's over there" he answered pointing to the ambulance, "She took a blow to the head, suffered mild concussion. I'm gonna go take her statement now if you wanna come and listen."
Horatio nodded and directed Calleigh over to the back of the ambulance.
Seeing Calleigh and Horatio, Lilly's eyes began to water as the guilt washed over her. "I'm so sorry" she whispered.
"It wasn't your fault" Calleigh said climbing onto the ambulance and putting her arm around her.
"Lilly, we need to know everything you did after Calleigh and Horatio left for work" Eric said slowly mindful of the concussion she was suffering from.
"Well okay, Erm...I gave Phoebe her breakfast and then took her upstairs to get dressed...I asked her what she wanted to do today and she said she wanted to go to the park so I said we'd go after lunch. She wanted to play with her birthday toys so we just sat in the Living room and we played with the peppa pig set...she gets hours of fun out of that" Lilly said with a small smile.
"Phoebe said she was hungry and I hadn't even realised that 2 hours had passed. I asked her what she wanted for lunch and then went to make myself some soup and Phoebe wanted some spaghetti shapes. She asked me if she could sit in the kitchen with me and draw you a picture" she whispered looking at Calleigh. "She said she promised you one, something about your night stand" she whispered looking at Calleigh who held up the picture. "Yeah, that's it. When I was almost finished I told her to finish up so she could wash her hands and that's when she went to put her picture in the Living room on the coffee table ready for when you came home. When she ran into the hallway I heard her talking to somebody, I went out and saw the man standing there... and that's when I got hit" she said whispering the last part.
"I'm so sorry Calleigh" she whispered her voice shaken.
"It's okay, we're gonna find her" she answered putting her arm around their shook-up nanny.
When Lilly finished her story, Horatio had grabbed a pair of gloves and went up to the house. Horatio found Ryan in the hallway brushing print powder over the table.
"Mr Wolfe have you got anything?" Horatio said trying to stay professional but knowing that this case was way too close to home to be able to keep up his professional persona.
"Hey H, I'm really sorry about what happened" he said, it was weird hearing Horatio's voice weak like that. He quickly got his focus back and quickly told Horatio what he'd discovered.
"I've got a lot of prints all over, I'm guessing a lot of them are You, Calleigh and the small ones will be Phoebe but I'll run them all anyway just in case our kidnappers put their hands on anything, Lilly said he didn't go any further than the hallway but the paramedics said Lilly was struck over the head with something" he said pointing towards the small vase that had been collected and sealed in a plastic bag ready to go back to the lab. "I'm gonna see if our partner left any prints or DNA on that."
"Thank you Mr Wolfe, this was quick but it was organised, they knew Calleigh and I would be out and that Lilly and Phoebe would be defenceless, he just grabbed her and ran" he whispered.
Horatio exited the house and went back over to his wife who had just climbed out of the ambulance and sent Lilly off to the hospital for further examination, she wanted to make sure Lilly was really okay and hadn't suffered any further damage.
"This was quick and easy Calleigh, they targeted her" Horatio said the anger clear in his voice.
"Horatio do you think this was about revenge?" Calleigh said the worry obvious. "Somebody was watching us Horatio, I just knew it! Did you get those plates back from Tripp?" she asked.
"No, I asked him to run them but we got a call out so I'm not sure whether he did" Horatio said scanning the street for Frank. Seeing Frank across the street at the neighbours, Horatio and Calleigh went over to catch up to him.
"Frank!" Horatio called getting an immediate response.
"H, I've got nothing man, nobody saw anything till it was too late. The car was already gone by the time they came out" he said quickly.
"Frank did you run those plates from this morning?" he asked.
"Yeah I left the search running when we got the call out on that shooting this morning. I got a description of Phoebe's clothes from the Nanny, I'm gonna put out an amber alert on a missing two year old girl, Calleigh can you get me a recent picture?" he said turning his attention towards Calleigh, who he noticed was having the hardest time keeping it together.
Calleigh didn't even get chance to move when Horatio pulled a picture of Phoebe from his suit pocket. It was only 2 weeks old and had been taken on Phoebe's second birthday. Seeing the pictures brought back memories of that day for Calleigh.
2 weeks ago
"Okay are you ready to blow the Candles out?" Calleigh said smiling. A happy little girl was sitting on her knee a Peppa Pig cake with 2 big candles sat in front of them both. Horatio sat on the other side of the table with a camera ready and waiting to snap a photo when she blew out the candles.
Horatio, Calleigh and the team had all sang 'Happy Birthday' to Phoebe and now she was taking time to think of a wish.
"Otay" she shouted and quickly took two breaths to blow out the candles and Horatio quickly snapped a picture.
A chorus of 'HIP HIP HOORAYS' where sang and then Horatio cut the cake.
Once they'd all had cake Horatio told Calleigh to stand with Phoebe so he could take a picture of them together for the photo album. Calleigh had snapped one of him and Phoebe earlier in the day. Phoebe was ecstatic on both photos, she'd got lots of presents for her birthday and had received a pair of Lelli Kelly shoes from Ryan, who she'd already, deemed her new 'best friend'.
They'd had fun that day, talking and laughing and getting to know Ryan a bit more, all of them a little more comfortable about accepting him into the team once they knew him better.
Phoebe had worn a yellow playsuit which had originally been put with a pair of white sandals but had soon been changed when she'd gotten Ryan's gift.
Calleigh had worn a very nice pair of figure hugging denim jeans with a blue blouse and a pair of blue pumps to match. Horatio had stayed casual with simple pair of jeans and a button down shirt with casual black shoes.
Weekends like this were special to the team, they had a hard job and when they did see each other it was mostly under professional circumstances. Seeing the team relaxed and enjoying themselves was so rare, it meant a lot to each of them. Horatio had been the biggest surprise to them all. The strong, confident Lieutenant Horatio Caine they saw at work quite literally stayed at work. When he walked through the front door he was Horatio – caring husband and loving father. The first time the team went out after Phoebe was born was the kicker, Horatio became a huge softy with his little girl, and he was wrapped around her tiny finger. It never bothered any of his team, in fact they enjoyed seeing him like that – he was happiest when he was with his family and he cherished every second of it because of course, you never know when it could all be over.
Calleigh had gone off into her own world thinking back to her daughter's birthday, she didn't hear Horatio talking to her.
"Calleigh?" he called out to her. Calleigh came back to reality and looked at Horatio with an intense gaze.
"How are you doing this?" she asked her voice almost accusing, seeing Horatio was about to question her she cut him off. "How the hell can you be so calm right now?" she asked her voice getting louder as though she really was angry. "Our daughter is missing and you're acting like nothing is wrong! STOP ACTING LIKE EVERYTHING IS OKAY!" She shouted tears had suddenly come pouring out and she was making no effort to stop them. "OUR LITTLE GIRL IS GONE AND I DON'T KNOW HOW YOUR BEING SO CALM WHEN I'M STRUGGLING" she yelled at him.
Horatio looked behind Calleigh and noticed that everyone around them had stopped. He motioned to Tripp who quickly ordered everyone back to work.
"Calleigh, sweetheart" he whispered pulling her gently to him. He felt her resistance and gently tugged a little harder until she gave in and wrapped her arms around him seeking the comfort and warmth he gave. "I am struggling my hardest to stay calm right now and not tear this city apart to look for her, we have to trust that the team will figure this out" he whispered.
"I don't have faith in that right now, I just want my little girl home" she whispered. He could feel her tears through his shirt.
"I know Calleigh and we're gonna get her home" he said gently rubbing her back. He knew exactly where her mind was going and he knew he had to get her away from that place. "Calleigh don't start thinking the worst okay, Phoebe will be home before you know it" he said and gently kissed her head.
"I can't help it, this was organised they planned this to the very last detail, we may never see her again" she whispered. That last sentence was too much for Calleigh and she broke down crying into Horatio chest.