Chapter Thirty: Get Another Boyfriend

They spent hours pouring over the crime scene. Officer Jesup was dispatched to this location when the call came in about a carjacking. He was supposed to have back-up but the officer called into provide it had gotten stuck in traffic, even with his siren blaring. That left Jesup on his own to handle the crime. Nobody was quite sure what happened next. They were still trying to get an understanding off the evidence left at the scene. The footprints in the sand told them that at least three people had been involved, including Jesup. Speed tried to get molds of the shoe prints before the wind and water erased his evidence. And it wasn't all that easy to cast prints in the sand to begin with. Good thing Calleigh had some hairspray in her kit for just such occasions. Detective Tripp was talking to a man in a brightly colored shirt and khaki shorts. Supposedly he had come across the scene, had seen two guys overpower the officer and force him into another car. He'd been quick to call 911 but the car was gone before officers arrived at the scene. The one good thing was the fact that the guy got the license number off the car. Even as he worked Speed knew that it would be pointless. The car was going to turn up without a doubt but they would find it had been ditched for an entirely different set of wheels.

So now they were working against time to find Hagen and Jesup.

He hoped that both guys were alive, if not well.

The noonday sun beat down on them as they worked on the sand and the grass. He wiped the sweat off his brow with his arm, dying for a bottle of water. When he took a break, waiting for his cast to set, he looked around the scene. Calleigh had been busy processing the car with Ryan while Delko dealt with whatever had held Horatio's attention at the palm tree. Their boss was near the Hummer on his phone. Maybe he was taking a call from the mayor or making a call, bringing some strings. Horatio knew people in high places, people with power. Sometimes they were willing to help because Horatio had once helped them. Others were willing to help because they knew the lieutenant had dirt on them. Horatio couldn't be bought but would wait quietly on the sidelines until he obtained enough evidence to lock someone up. Until then he would use whatever gains possible to get justice. Not that he would go out of his way to blackmail someone. He just reminded them that it was in their best interest to help the police. It would look good in the long run.

His boss had his ways.

"You done with those casts?" Calleigh asked, her southern accent too cheery for the day.

He looked up at her from where he was crouched in the sand. "Just about. Find anything in the car?"

She held up an evidence bag. "I think this gum wrappers might be the best thing. There's no hair, no fibers. I've been all over that darned thing and didn't even find a fingerprint. Ryan hasn't had any better luck."

"These guys know what they're doing."

"That they might, hon, but they don't realize just how good we are at our jobs," she smiled.

Speed touched the casting slightly to find that it had dried. He gently removed it from the sand and flipped it over. The shoe impression was the best he was going to get. "That's the last one."

"Well why don't run them to the lab for you?" Calleigh suggested. "I was headed that way with hopes of getting something off these wrappers."

"Sure," he said, standing to gather the rest of his evidence. Then he would head over to the Hummer and see if maybe there was a bottle of water lurking somewhere within. He could really use the refreshing liquid.

--

Calleigh had dropped off the evidence in the proper rooms and had just left the gum wrappers with Valera in DNA. She was hoping to get something back on them. They had to find Officer Jesup just as much as they needed to find Hagen. Time was starting to drag on and she knew that the longer they hung on to him the less likely they would find him alive. Hagen didn't exactly have a way with words. He would piss them off, push them so far that they would…She tried not to think about it. Horatio would push them, would use everything in his power to get back his officers. The may not have worked exclusively for him like the members of the lab but they were an integral part of them nonetheless.

She walked into the breakroom, heading for the fridge. She grabbed a bottle of water and sat at the table, her mind on Hagen. She had loved him at one point; maybe she still loved him to some degree. All those times that he tried to convince her the job was risky had ticked her off though she understood that he only said those things because he worried about her. She worried about him, too. His career had gone down hill since the death of his partner, Horatio's brother. It must have been hard to walk around with that shadow always looming over his shoulder. She could tell that Horatio didn't have it any better. But he was an upstanding guy. Sometimes Hagen did questionable things. Like removing evidence from a crime scene. Or holding a gun to her head.

"Calleigh!"

She jumped as someone yelled her name, nearly knocking over the bottle of water on the table top. She swam out of her thoughts to see that Jake was standing across from her. "Oh, hey…"

"That's all you have to say? I've been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes," he remarked.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking."

"About?"

"Hagen," she said before realizing that it would be a mistake.

He frowned. "Seems like you do a lot of that."

"He's my friend," she defended. Hagen had always been a sore spot in their relationship. No matter how many times she tried to tell him that she and the detective were just friends he never seemed to get it through his thick head.

"You spend an awful lot of time thinking about your friend," he used the last word loosely.

She glared at him, anger boiling to the surface. "What is your problem lately, Jake? So what if I have a past with Hagen. He is a member of this team, has been longer than you. He is my friend. And I have every right in the world to worry about him. There's no telling what those maniacs have done to him."

"You're so hung-up on him that you don't even notice I'm here. I had to yell to get your attention, Calleigh."

"So?"

"Maybe he's not your friend. Maybe you still have feelings for him."

"Jake…"

"No," he said, shaking his head, holding up his hands. "I'm done here. I don't want to compete with him. I am done with this. Get yourself another boyfriend, Calleigh. I'm done." And he walked out the door without giving her a chance to say anything in return.