A/N: Sooo sorry for the delayed update! Real life got in the way and got way too hectic. I hope you guys are still with me on this one. Please R&R!

"This place is supposed to be his home?" Frank Tripp asked as he stood in the middle of the front room. They had ended up at Edward Jones' loft, near to downtown Miami. "Looks like he brought his work home. He wasn't married, was he?"

"I don't think so." Calleigh replied as she surveyed the place, returning back into the main room from her tour of the place. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if he spent most of his time at home working. There's almost nothing personal around here at all. Wardrobe's full of suits, bathroom has the bare minimum and the kitchen is almost CSI clean."

"So, he was a workaholic?" Tripp questioned dryly, resting his hands on his waist as he did so.

"From what I've found," She began, shifting through a few letters that were neatly organised on the desk by the window. "I'd say that if we want to know more about our victim, we need to go to the heart of his passion."

"His work place?"

"His company." Calleigh corrected, holding up a letterhead that was headed with a company logo and signed already with the victim's name. "'Edward Jones, Director.'"

"Do we have an address?" He sighed heavily, watching as the CSI bagged a few items that may become useful in the future if they needed it.

"Yep." She handed him a bagged letter that was clearly addressed to their victim.

"It's not far from here." Tripp stated, turning the letter over and back again. "'Sophomore Techs.?'"

"I'm guessing a technical company of some kind." She said lightly, snapping off her gloves and packing up her kit. "I'll call Natalia and see if she can clue us in on what to expect at 'Sophomore Techs."

"I just hope they're not really sophomores." He grumbled as they left the victim's loft and made their way down to the Hummer that they had arrived in. "That's the last thing I need; a load of college kids."

Calleigh had to laugh at his words, knowing that despite the disgusted tone, he knew as well as she did that the chances of there being any college students was pretty low. In all honesty, she was glad that was true. It was never nice when a young person got themselves on the wrong side of the law, especially when they were lucky enough to have a whole future in front of them.

Climbing into the passenger's seat of the MDPD issued car, she waited until they were moving again before digging her cell phone out and dialling Natalia's number. Leaning an elbow against the window pane, Calleigh rested her head against her hand as a familiar voice greeted her only seconds later.

"Boa Vista." She answered, clearly not having seen the caller ID before she had.

"Hey, Natalia. I need-"

"Calleigh! I'm so sorry about earlier." She cut her off, guilt colouring her words as they sped out. Calleigh could hear her take a breath to calm herself before carrying on. "I took a late lunch break and I was on the phone-"

"It's alright, Nat. I understand." This time, Calleigh interrupted her, laughing lightly as she did so. "Don't worry about it."

"Still, I'm sorry." Natalia repeated before letting out a small sigh that could only be described as relieved. "Anyways, what can I do for you?"

"I was hoping you could possibly run a quick background check on a company. 'Sophomore Techs.'." She informed her, slipping back into work mode. Glancing briefly out of the windshield, Calleigh wasn't too surprised to see many people littering the footpaths and the beach down below to her right as they sped past. "It's where our victim worked and owned."

"He was a company owner?" Natalia asked in shock. "Wow. Explains the smart clothes."

"Might also give us a motive."

"Ok, I'm searching it." She told her briefly. "Oh, I also got something else from Tara. Apparently, there was some post-mortem bruising on the victim's legs. It looks like he was tied up by something, or was held rather tightly."

"Held tightly?" Calleigh repeated, sitting up straighter as she thought back to the scene that morning. "Like if someone had held him around his legs to keep him straight while hanging him up?"

"Could be." Natalia murmured, considering the words. "But how could someone have a grip around our victim's legs, and be able to tie him up a good 6 feet off the ground?"

"The same way they got the body from the car park to the pier." She explained, piecing together small facts that she could draw on. "With the help of someone else."

"So we're looking for two people, not one?"

"That's what it seems like." Calleigh exhaled. Finding two people was a lot harder than just the one, especially when they had no primary crime scene to go on at that moment. "We'll have to see what the evidence says first."

"I'll see if I can find anything to fit that theory with that we have so far." Natalia said hurriedly as she went back to the original reason why they were on the phone. "Alright, 'Sophomore Techs.'. Looks like a pretty legit company. Started in 2000 by Edward Jones and his college roommate, hence the name 'Sophomore Techs. They do computer engineering and programming. Business seems to be doing well."

"A good business always opens the door to enemies. Who was the roommate?"

"A Tony Mathers." Natalia responded, carrying on before Calleigh could get another word in. "And before you ask, he can't possibly be a suspect. He died 2 years ago. Plane crash in Michigan."

"You know me too well." Calleigh laughed. "Ok, we're almost here now, so I'll have to see you back at the lab. Thanks, Natalia."

"I'll let you know if I find anything else." The other CSI told her before they hung up as the car came to a stop in the car park of the company building.

"Place doesn't look too busy." Tripp commented as they stepped out of the Hummer and made their way to the main entrance.

"It's past 5. Everyone's probably left or leaving." Calleigh concluded, blinking a couple of times as her eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness that being indoors brought.

Making their way to the reception counter, it took only a small exchange of words and a glimpse of their badges before they were heading up to the top floor of the tall building and to the offices of the victim's and the assistant director's. The elevator ride wasn't long, but there was an obvious tension in the air as the leggy brunette receptionist stood in front and centre of them as an escort.

With a quiet ping, the doors opened and they were able to step out onto the floor. The receptionist guided then without another word; going past an empty desk and to the end of the corridor where there was a large frosted glass door, currently shut. Sarah, the receptionist, knocked on the door twice before twisting the door handle and opening the door for them.

"Thank you." Calleigh said politely whilst Tripp simply nodded his thanks.

The first impression that Calleigh got from the huge office in front of her was that it was very modern. There was a whole wall that was made up from a single piece of glass; giving them all a beautiful view of downtown Miami and then some. Comfortable leather couches lined a corner with a few others scattered around in a neat co-ordination that retained the professional look. The desk right in front of her, parallel to the window wall, was filled with papers and both a laptop and a computer. There was nothing but work on it; that much she could see from standing where she was.

"Officers. What can I do to help you?" A man's voice appeared from their left. As they turned towards it, Calleigh finally noticed the door in the wall that led to another room, most likely another office. "I assume you are hear about Edward, right?"

"Yeah. How would you know that?" Tripp asked suspiciously, eyeing the man carefully. He was dressed smartly; dark suit that looked equally expensive as his shoes, shirt and tie. There wasn't a hint of a tan on him, but with the sun-kissed blonde hair that was undoubtedly styled every morning to perfection, Calleigh guessed that he was simply a man who didn't tan easily.

"I had someone call in." He replied, words slowing down as confusion intertwined with his words. "He's been missing since this morning."

"We haven't had a call." Calleigh informed him, watching as surprise shone clear on his face.

"Then why are you here?"

"We found Edward Jones' body this morning." Tripp answered him.

"Oh, my." The other man gasped, eyes widening for a moment before he pulled his composure back together again. Clearing his throat, he loosening his tie slightly before speaking once again. "Where? How?"

"On the beach a few miles from here. And we're not sure yet on the how." Calleigh said this time, lying with the latter while watching him closely. "I'm sorry, Mr…"

"Carter. John Carter. I'm the assistant director of Edward's company. I have been so since the beginning." He informed them offhandedly. "I can't believe it. He was just here yesterday, talking about the future of the business."

"When did you have someone call in his disappearance?" Frank asked him, changing the course of the conversation back onto what they needed.

"Um… About noon time." John shrugged with a single shoulder. "It wasn't unusual for him to take some time in the mornings to sort a few things out, out of the office. His driver came to me and said he hadn't had a call to pick him up, and that's when we started to get worried."

"Do you know what he was doing last night?" Calleigh questioned him softly, eyes raking around the room with subtlety to try and find anything out of place. "Where he was? Who he might have been with?"

"No. I honestly have no idea." John shook his head before freezing as if a sudden thought had just struck him. "But his diary would have everything in it."

"Is it here?"

"Yes. He had two copies." He explained, making his way over to the desk as she followed him. "Ever since he had to lay off Rachel, his PA, he's had to make sure he remembered everything himself. Kept one copy at the office and the other on him at all times. If there was something he had to do, or someone to see, it'll be in there."

"Could you tell me where it is? We're still in the middle of an investigation-" Calleigh began, pulling a glove on one hand as she did so.

"Right, right, of course. Wouldn't want to compromise evidence and whatnot." He replied hastily with a small smile, pointing to the top drawer of the desk. He earned himself a curious glare from the officer who still stood in the middle of the room. "I've read it in many articles online or in the papers, about jeopardising cases…"

"Is this it?" Calleigh asked, turning his attention back to her as she pulled out a maroon, suede bound book.

"That's the one." He assured her. "It'll have everything that you need to know about his schedule yesterday, and even today."

"Thanks." She nodded, placing it down onto the desk before opening it up. Vaguely, she could hear Tripp asking the assistant director more questions, footsteps resounding away from her and towards the middle of the room. Knowing that the detective could handle and question Carter himself, Calleigh flicked through the pages of the diary until she reached the current date.

There were a few pencilled memos, along with a couple of appointments written in a blue ink pen. Lifting her eyes up, it didn't take more than two seconds to see the pen that she guessed the victim had used to write in the book. Quickly letting her eyes gaze around the desk, Calleigh wasn't sure if she was surprised or not to see that it was as bare of personal effects as his home had been.

Turning back to the diary, Calleigh flipped back a page to get to the previous day. The schedule didn't seem too different; a few pencilled in memos with another couple of appointments. However, this times, there was something that popped out. A familiar name had been written down in blue in the 1pm section, followed by the name of a posh local restaurant that she knew was popular with businessmen, a business name and a number.

"Excuse me, Mr. Carter?" Calleigh interrupted them, standing up straighter as she did so. "Do you know a Daniel Sullivan?"

"Yes. Edward had lunch with him just yesterday." He confirmed for her. "Danny was a good friend of his. They had been discussing a merger of their businesses for the better part of the year now."

"Ok." She merely replied. "We're going to have to take this with us."

"Sure, anything you need. We're more than happy to cooperate."

"Well, in that case," Tripp started with a gruffness to his voice. "I'd like to have a word with the driver."

"Of course. I'll go and call him. Excuse me a moment." With that, he turned around and headed back to his own office. This time, however, he left the door open, allowing them to hear the low, inaudible murmur of his side of the conversation.

"Who's Daniel Sullivan?" Tripp asked Calleigh as soon as the other man was out of earshot.

"He's the guy that Ryan's been trying to find information about." She informed him, only to receive a raised eyebrow in response. "He was found in the Everglades this morning."

"He owns a business too, right? How could they not have found information about him?"

"I really don't know." Calleigh answered honestly, knowing that it sounded as weird as it seemed to the older man. "But at least now they have a business name and number to go by. I'm going to let him know, see if it'll help their case."

"You better let Horatio know too. We might be looking at a double homicide now." Tripp told her as she began to turn away, a smile curving on her lips that told him that she had already thought of that. "I highly doubt these two are coincidental."

"Me either, Frank."

...

Eric walked hurriedly through the semi-busy corridors of the crime lab, quickening his pace when the DNA lab came into view. He had received a page from Valera only a minute or so earlier, and with also nothing else to go on, he had replaced the pictures of the crime scene back into the folder again before making his way over.

"Please tell me you have something I can use." He almost begged the short haired lady.

"Hello to you, too." She replied dryly, reaching out for a print out and practically shoving it at him. "Here. I got you a match from the drop on the sneakers."

"To the victim." Eric deducted from the comparison that the page showed him.

"Something you can use?" Valera mimicked sarcastically, turning to face him and crossing her arms loosely, resting her hip against the counter that she had been working on.

"Yes. Thank you." He chuckled while tapping the paper against the palm of his other hand. "So the owner of these shoes had been standing opposite to where the victim had been shot, and now that we've found the blood on the shoes-"

"Making him the killer." The analyst finished off for him, her mood coming back to her normal chirpy self. "I did good."

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves." Eric warned her jokingly. "Thanks for these-"

"Hold on. There's a bit more." Valera cut him off as he began to turn away. Picking up another piece of paper, this time an official evidence sheet with a sticky note attached of her own handwriting, she handed it to him. "One of the samples you sent me wasn't blood."

"You sure?" He asked, eyebrows scrunching up in confusion while alternating between reading the paper in his hand and her.

"Considering I work in a DNA lab, Delko, I'm pretty sure I know when I find something without any DNA." She informed him with a huff.

"Right. Sorry." Eric apologized, taking a wary step back from her. "So, what was it?"

"I don't know. Like I said; it wasn't my area of expertise." Valera told him slowly, going back to her work as she did so just as she heard the familiar ringing of a cell phone.

"Where is it now?" He asked, taking out his phone and flipping it open.

"I sent it down to trace for you already, because I knew you guys needed something, and soon." She filled him in, rolling her eyes as he simply flashed her a smile and a nod after answering his phone. "You're welcome, by the way." Valera called as he made it past the threshold of the lab.

"Thanks, Maxine." Eric's laughing voice floated back to her as he began to make his way down to where Travers was no doubt analyzing his evidence. Going slowly this time, he turned his attention back to the call that he had already picked up. "Sorry. You were saying…?"

"I was saying that I'm beginning to think that people are ignoring my calls." Calleigh said. Although her voice was serious with the sense of professionalism, the hint of wry was clear to him after having known her for so long. "Where's Ryan?"

"Um… The last time I checked, he was heading down to see Tara." Eric informed her amusingly as he urged himself not to laugh at her tone. "He probably lost reception on his cell or something."

"Yeah, maybe." She muttered, her words covered by the sound of paper rustling.

"Why did you want Ryan, anyway?" He asked her curiously, slowing down his pace when he realised that he was getting too close to the trace lab.

"I might have a lead for your case." Calleigh told him. Even though he knew that she couldn't see him over the phone, his eyebrows shot up as shock hit him and passed within a split second. "Daniel Sullivan, right?"

"Yeah. What do you have?"

"He owned a small business. I have the name and number. Him and our victim, Edward Jones, had lunch just yesterday." She explained to him. "It also links the two cases together."

"You thinking a double?" He sighed, rubbing his forehead with his thumb.

"I'm thinking that we need to find out some more about the victims first." Calleigh emphasised, and Eric knew that, although rare, there were sometimes such things as a coincidence. In a county like Miami-Dade, with the many businesses, there was a chance that these two in particular were the only connection between the cases. As the scientists that they were, the only conclusions that they could make would have to be based on hard evidence if they wanted it to stand up in court.

"Alright. I'll let the others know." He replied slowly, resting a hand on the door that led into the room that he had been intending on entering. "Send me the info and we'll get started on a background check. See if anything pops up that might suggest a link with yours."

"Tell Natalia. She might be able to point you in the right direction." She instructed him, making him smirk at the order that she had masked as a suggestion. It was a small part of the whole that made her Horatio's second in command.

"You got it." Eric answered, knowing that she was right. "Anything else?"

"Nope. We'll be back soon, hopefully with something more to go on." Calleigh said, and he could hear her inhale deeply over the phone. "I've got a feeling this is going to be a long one. For the both of us."

"Me, too." He agreed, resisting the urge to sigh himself before a certain thought flittered through his mind. "I guess this means the bet's off then."

"Why would you say that for?" She asked him, exaggerated confusion playfully colouring her words.

"Well, if we end up working together on this, then it's kind of irrelevant." Eric expanded. He finally entered the trace lab after hovering outside for a while, realising that it would probably look very odd to anyone who was watching him.

"'If' being the key word. Let's see what we have first." Calleigh repeated, laughing gently as a low flirty tone took over her words. "You're not getting out of it that easily."

"Ok, ok." He laughed and shook his head before remembering that they were both still at work, and on the phone in public places. "I'll see you when you get back then."

"See you then."

Hanging up after hearing the dial tone in his ear instead of Calleigh's voice, Eric kept a hold of his cell and approached where Travers was bent over his workstation. He didn't get closer than 4 feet before he spotted the smile that was playing on the other man's lips, and as he looked up at him, it was clear as to why he was looking so amused.

"What?" Eric asked him, hoping his voice sounded more casual than defendant like he suspected it did.

"What? I didn't say a thing." The British man replied earnestly, stifling his smile as Eric merely continued staring that made him finally buckle under the heaviness of it. "I'm, uh… I'm not quite done with the sample yet. It won't take long, though, so you're welcome to stay."

"Alright." He simply replied, resisting the urge to roll his eyes and let the other man know to mind his own business. Turning around and perching on the edge of one of the stools, Eric turned back to his cell phone that was in his hand and pressed the speed dial number that would get him Horatio. It wouldn't take long for him to relay the information to him, and then to Ryan, and then Natalia. Sighing as he brought the phone up to his ear, he couldn't help but to agree even more with that Calleigh had said. The day, and the case, was definitely going to be a long one.