CHAPTER 1 – HAMSTER

Dirty stockings on the floor covered by a shirt and a little bag of a local Chinese restaurant. A glass broken made red liquid dropping from a table and going to the floor, dirtying the tiles which were not very beautiful anyway (flowery things...). A smell of something like burning plastic and sweat afflicted the room and the absolutely fantastic idea to make it facing the sun made the room hot as hell. The rolling shutters were down but because they NEVER shut down completely, a little gleam of light would touch your face if you have the balls to sleep in the devastated single bed of this room.

But where are we? What is this room for?

Is it maybe the ante-room of a dentist's study?

Is it the bedroom of a college student that decided to do his science project on strong resistance materials?

Is it maybe a place where someone was killed with a not-so-good wine so he chocked to death?

Is it a crime scene where a young man killed his woman only because toasts stuffed with grape jam make him go to the toilet at the speed of light?

Or is this the purgatory or the tenth level of hell where there are the old men that when they see someone who they had seen years ago they say "I saw you when you where little like this! How you are grown!".

No, it's only the bedroom of a CSI agent.

Detective Eric Delko's room was a complete mess since Calleigh went his house last night. They played Monopoly, of course. The Chinese food in the plate became the color of green grass when a dog pisses on it, and also the smell was like it; the red wine became a permanent presence in the room because it was pretty much absorbed by the tiles cement, donating it a strange color, a kind of red tone that doesn't exist in nature. Probably even the wine was made with grapes that doesn't exist in nature.

Eric was sleeping in a position that made him and the bed a plus symbol. His head was pointing at the floor and his feet were on the floor, making him a weird c-shape.

This beautiful scene was completely destroyed by the terrifying sound of doom: the ringing of the mobile phone.

"Sgrunt" tried to say Eric trying to find his Nokia blindly with his hand.

"Here is Horatio, get your ass here in 5 minutes". "Tum Tum Tum Tum".

A simple message, a simple order, a more simple question: where?

Fuck, I'm calling him.

"Holly street nr. 52" said Horatio at the phone with Eric.

Shirt, trousers, stockings, shoes watch, wallet, sunglasses and... oh forgot the underpants!

Shirt, underpants, trousers, stockings, shoes watch, wallet, sunglasses and car keys. Ready to go!

Finding the street is not a problem, the problem is finding the boss. In Holly street there were so many cops Eric thought it was an action movie directed by Spielberg, but then here he is... Horatio Caine (sunglasses and everything).

"Eric"

"Horatio... What do we have here?"

Speedle was already taking photos of the victim and of the location, Calleigh was trying to find some evidences and Alexx was talking with the dead body.

"We don't know his name, but we know that was killed with a stab in the breast".

"Two stabs and eye removal, probably he was still alive when they teared his eyes" said Alexx.

"Thank you..." said sarcastically Horatio.

The corpse was pretty big and strong, an adult man over 40 with a strange tattoo on the neck. On his breast there was a very large cut with some dust around it mixed with blood. His eyes had no look, he had no eyelids nor ocular bulbs, the killer must have teared it before killing the man. What a horrible way to die.

"Ok guys, go to Hamster and arrest him" said Horatio.

Calleigh stood up and looked at Horatio in a expression that can be summed with the expression: "What the fuck?". Eric knitted his eyelashes and said Calleigh's face expression, Speedle stopped doing photos and tried to comprehend Caine's bizzare phrase. Alexx continued talking with the corpse.

"What's the problem? Hamster is guilty. Go to him and arrest him, he will confess his horrible crime".

"We didn't talked about choking death" said Calleigh.

"What?"

"Did the victim ate a hamster?" asked Eric while Speedle put a hand on his elbow.

"What? Not hamster the pet! Mr. Joel Hamster!"