CSI Miami Fan Fiction "Raymond's Christmas Carol" (Fanfic format)
Chapter 3—"New Friend, New Trouble"
Raymond had a new friend. Bob Gormanson was the same age as Raymond; Yelina met him one day after school. She soon suspected trouble: Bob, who tended to favor all-black clothes, seemed to be hiding something—Yelina couldn't figure out exactly what. He also seemed to have rather large amounts of money for a seventh-grader. Bob was at the house one day when Yelina came home and caught both young men with wine coolers. A heated argument between mother and son over trust resulted after Yelina told Raymond that his friend was no longer welcome. "I don't care who bought the alcohol, Raymond! Both of you are underage—what if you had been in a car and were in an accident?" Yelina told her son. When reasoning failed, she put her foot down, telling him, "Look, I do not care what your friends are doing! I don't want you around him, and I don't want him here!"
Raymond angrily locked himself in his room. An exhausted Yelina, wondering what she was going to do, sat down wearily on the couch. So little time before Christmas break—she couldn't be with Raymond all the time. A de-spairing Yelina, after getting a cup of coffee, finally reached for the phone and called Horatio at home.
Horatio and Marisol arrived shortly at Yelina's house. Yelina was glad to see Horatio; maybe Raymond would listen to him. They listened patiently as she explained Raymond's recent behavior, including the alcohol and the argument. Marisol, who was sitting next to Yelina, saw that her sister-in-law was about ready to cry. She reached out to Yelina, telling her soothingly, "Go ahead-cry if it'd make you feel better."
Horatio took a look around the dining room table. Raymond and his friend had left the evidence of their misdeeds behind. He looked at the wine-cooler bottles; the brand –Tanique-was unfamiliar. Maybe Eric would know the brand. Horatio looked towards Raymond's room, then back towards Marisol. "Yelina," he said gently, "you stay with Marisol. I'm going to talk to Raymond myself." He headed towards his nephew's room while Marisol stayed to talk to Yelina.
He knocked on the bedroom door—no answer. "Raymond!" Horatio called loudly through the closed door. Horatio tried the knob—the door was locked. He knocked again, louder this time. "Raymond, open the door!" Horatio demanded in a voice that would accept no opposition.
A few seconds later, the door opened. A scruffy-looking Raymond had been expecting his mother and more arguing, and he wasn't up for either. "Uncle Horatio! How long have you been here?"
"Long enough to find out the trouble you're in," Horatio replied as he entered the cluttered bedroom and closed the door, leaning against the doorframe. "What's this about you and the alcohol?" Horatio asked.
Raymond walked over to the window. "I told Mom that I didn't buy the alcohol—my friend brought it over," Raymond protested.
"That doesn't matter, Raymond," Horatio countered, concern in his voice. "You're underage; you could have been arrested just for having it at all. Your mother is worried about you and very upset. Who's the friend?" he asked.
"Why do you want to know that?" Raymond asked. Horatio noticed a growing restlessness and irritability, an edginess, in his nephew's voice.
"Raymond," Horatio answered with a bit of anger in his voice, "your friend brought the alcohol, which tells me that someone is selling it to minors, or buying it for them. Either you can tell me how it got here, or I'll find out another way—but I will find out." Raymond, silently shaking his head, looked out his bedroom window. Horatio stood up—he sensed a troubling change in his nephew. He'd have to get the information from Yelina. "Think about what I said, Raymond. You are heading down a bad path." Horatio left Raymond to think about his warning and went back to the living room.
Horatio did get the information he needed from Yelina. He also carefully packaged the bottles and took them with him. He would have Maxine test them; perhaps DNA would give him more information about Raymond's friend.
Next morning, at the lab,…..
Horatio carried the small box of Tanique Strawberry Wine Cooler bottles to the DNA lab for Maxine to check. He requested that the report be on his desk as soon as possible. Maxine went straight to work on the bottles.
Horatio went to another lab and began several searches through the department databases for several things: stores recently been cited for selling alcohol to minors, people recently arrested for buying alcohol for minors, and minors arrested for trying to buy alcohol. "Bad enough what we get from the adults under the influ-ence,….," Horatio muttered unhappily to himself as he waited for his results. He was so preoccupied with what he was doing that he hadn't heard his brother-in-law enter the lab.
"What's going on, H?" a concerned Eric asked.
"Raymond has a very troubling new friend," Horatio replied. He explained what happened at Yelina's house
the night before to Eric. "I'm waiting for Valera to finish with the bottles. I haven't seen the brand before, though. Have you heard of 'Tanique'?"
"Raymond and alcohol? That doesn't sound good," Eric said, as the printers beeped. Eric picked up the reports from the printer. "Thirteen stores busted for selling alcohol to minors, twelve people arrested for buying for minors,…." Eric noticed a familiar name on the lists. "Well, look who's here! Albert Engleberg, one prior for buying for minors. And Bobblehead MiniMart for selling to minors."
Horatio looked at the address for the mini-mart and frowned—right near Yelina's house and Raymond's school. The owner, Michael Davenberg, had two points against him within the last year for selling to minors; one more would result in the store's alcohol-license suspension.
"I don't think there are many places selling Tanique, though—it's a pretty exclusive brand, mostly in the clubs," Eric noted. He entered the distributor's name and tried cross-referencing that list against all the stores and clubs in Miami. The resulting list yielded largely clubs—and Bobblehead Mini-Mart. Eric thought a visit to Mr. Davenberg was in order.
A records check on Bob Gormanson followed: two priors for possession of stolen property. "Yelina said that Bob had rather large amounts of money for a young man," Horatio noted. Bob lived with his parents; Eric said that he and Natalia would talk to the Gormansons.
In the meantime, Ryan and Calleigh continued working on the Safe Haven burglaries. The burglary pattern didn't follow the usual order of compass points. The Bobbo's West store reopened, as Eric predicted, on the Friday after the burglary. If the South Beach Graham's was going to be hit, then it would be (according to the pattern) on December 10th. But oddly, December 10th came and went—and no burglary. "Another quirk in the puzzle," Eric thought. That left December 17th and December 24th—and the two radio stations were planning their big Christmas broadcast on December 19th from the South Beach Graham's, which didn't leave much time.
Ryan, particularly, was curious as to how Albert Engleberg was able to get to all three crime scenes before the rest of the Miami media.