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He sat in his office, staring at the computer. There were a pile of reports sitting on his desk that he knew needed signing off but each time he tried to turn his attention to them he soon caught himself brooding over his argument with Calleigh. "It wasn't an argument" he told himself as he scowled at his computer, "You were a bastard to her, go and apologise"
The knock on his door took him by surprise; his heart skipped a beat at the thought that it could be Calleigh standing on the other side. "Come in" he said as he straightened the collar of his shirt. His face fell when he saw Eric Delko standing in the doorway.
"Hey, H. Sorry to disturb you but I thought you'd want to know the canvass of the local neighbourhood turned up nothing"
He sighed as he fiddled with the files on his desk, "Ok Eric, thanks. We knew it would be a longshot anyway"
"Tom says he's nearly done on the autopsy. Are you gonna go down to the morgue or should I?"
Pulling his game face on he stood from his desk and straightened his jacket, "No, I'll go. I need you back on the Ramirez case anyway"
They had known each other for a long time, brothers in law for years and close friends for even longer. Horatio had taught his young charge well, as Eric could clearly see something was not right. "H, you ok? You seem kind of distracted lately, is there something I should know?"
Plastering what he hoped would be a reassuring smile on his face he walked closer to Eric and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Everything is fine, brother. Thank you for your concern"
Eric frowned, clearly not at ease with the other man's explanation. "If there was something wrong you'd tell me, right?"
"Of course I would" he smiled as walked past Eric and out into the corridor, it didn't take a CSI to see that the smile failed to reach his eyes.
"Ah Horatio, so nice of you to join us" Tom Loman remarked as he pulled the latex gloves from his hands and threw them in the bin.
"What have you got for me, Doctor?" he responded as he walked closer to the corpse lying on the autopsy table. Standing side on in his usual stance he fiddled with arms of his sunglasses.
"As I surmised at the scene, 9mm to the upper chest. Bullet tore through his heart, hit one of the intercostal ribs and ricocheted back towards the lungs. The young man didn't stand a chance; he was likely dead in minutes"
"Calleigh has the bullet?" It seemed a pointless question to ask, he already knew she was in possession of it.
"She came and collected quite some time ago. She should have her analysis for you soon"
He dreaded having to go to her lab; he had no idea what to say to make up for his earlier indiscretion. He hadn't meant to take it out on her but the endless phone calls and the visitor in his office this morning had gotten under his skin and irritated him. Now Eric and Calleigh were asking questions that he couldn't answer, the less they knew the safer they would be. His thoughts turned back to the present case, "Any luck with an ID?"
Tom handed him the personal effects that were found with the body, "Angel Lopez, 22 years old according to his driver's license. I've taken fingerprints and DNA swabs, hopefully something will pop up on him" The doctor narrowed his gaze at the other man, noticing his fidgeting. "I can get these run up to the lab if there is somewhere you need to be, Lieutenant"
"Do that please, Dr Loman" he replied as he walked from the morgue, his mind clearly elsewhere. The medical examiner shrugged his shoulders and returned to his work, brushing off the other man's behaviour as a quirk of his personality.
The walk to Calleigh's lab was a long one, he silently prayed that his phone would chirp and he would be called away to another crime scene before he had a chance to reach her. He chided himself for being cowardly, "Just go in there and apologise you stupid old fool"
He stood in the doorway for what seemed like an eternity. "You going to stand there all day or come in?" she asked in that melodic southern drawl of hers, he could not mistake the cold tone in her voice.
"Calleigh, Dr Loman said you have the results in the bullet he retrieved?" he asked as he walked awkwardly in to the room, deliberately avoiding her gaze.
She looked up from the microscope she was bent over and narrowed her eyes at him, "Judging by the striations we're looking at a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. The bullet Tom pulled from the body is a 9x23mm Winchester. Popular with gang bangers due to the easy reload"
"Good work Calleigh. I take it you'll be able to match the bullet to the murder weapon?" He groaned at himself, what a stupid question. Of course she would, she was his bullet girl.
"Find me the gun and I'll match it to your bullet" was her blunt reply, still clearly hurt by their earlier confrontation. He stood by the door once more, fiddling with his sunglasses. He looked as if he were about to say something but he remained silent. "Was there something else you wanted?"
He flinched at her words, feeling them cut into him like razor blades. "Calleigh" he began before struggling to finish his sentence, "About earlier…."
She cut him off before he had the chance to speak, "You made your point quite clearly. What you do outside the lab is no business of mine" She turned her back to him before the tears spilled from her eyes.
"Calleigh" he began again, appealing to her to hear him out. He growled as his cell phone rang, sighing he pulled it out and answered it. "Caine" he ground out as he continued to watch Calleigh from the corner of his eye.
"Sorry H, its Eric. Is this a bad time?"
He could hear the uncertainty in the younger man's voice and took a deep breath as he attempted to put a lid on his growing frustration. "No, it's fine. What can I do for you?"
"We've had contact from a possible witness. Says he wants to talk about the Lopez shooting. Figured you'd wanna be there when he pay him a visit"
"Talk about bad timing" he thought as he told Eric he would meet him at his Hummer in ten minutes. He walked over to Calleigh and placed a hand on her shoulder, he pulled it away as if he had been burnt when she flinched away from the contact. "Calleigh, please. We need to talk, come and see me in my office when I get back"
Keeping her back to him she willed her voice to remain steady, "Go and interview your witness. I'll think about it"
"Calleigh" he implored her, "Please, give me a chance to apologise and explain" He sighed defeated as she bent over the microscope once more, clearly signalling that the conversation was over.
The journey back to the neighbourhood of the Lopez crime scene was made in virtual silence; Eric kept sneaking glances at his boss. He could see that the man was brooding over something, he could tell by the way Horatio stared out of the passenger window that he was deep in thought. Years of experience had taught Eric never to disturb his brother in law when he was in this kind of mood, prodding him to open up and talk would likely lead to him getting his head bitten off. Horatio Caine was not a man prone to histrionics; he was rather the kind of man who would sit and brood on an issue rather than scream and shout about it. He would take the anger and pain and internalise it, giving off the image to the outside world that everything was fine. Eric knew him better than that.
"We're here" Eric said as he put the Hummer into park, "3315 Cedar Avenue"
Horatio nodded and got out of the vehicle, putting his sunglasses on before taking in the scene with his hands on his hips. Taking a look at the broken wire fencing and rusting swing in the front garden he got the distinct impression that this was not a well-to-do area. "Did we get a name for our witness?"
"No, he just said to meet him at this address"
"Let's be cautious, Eric" he said as he popped his gun holster open and placed his right hand on his weapon. "This could be a trap"
"Got it, boss" the younger man replied as he followed Horatio up the path and towards the house.
Knocking on the door Horatio called out, "MDPD. Open the door please" He looked at Eric as they both heard the barking of what sounded like a rather angry and vicious dog. It took a second knock but eventually the sound of chains being removed could be heard from the other side of the door.
A young Hispanic boy, no more than sixteen years old stood in the doorway. "Maybe you should have put your sirens on too, then the whole neighbourhood would have heard you" He looked terrified as his eyes darted from Horatio and Eric to the street outside, "If I get seen talking to you I'm a dead man"
"Let us in son and we can talk in private" Opening the door wider he let them in before quickly shutting it behind them, "What's your name, son?" Horatio asked as he re-holstered his gun.
"Pablo" the young boy answered as he led them to a dingy living area, the room had not seen a duster or hoover for months. Cans and bottles of beer littered the floor, the fearsome dog that had barked at them earlier was happily munching on the leftover takeaway pizza lying on the floor.
"What can you tell us about the shooting, Pablo?" Horatio asked as he tried to find a clean space to sit down, glancing around the room he thought better of it.
Pablo opened his mouth to speak when he was stopped by an angry voice coming from the kitchen. "Pablo, you idiot! What did you do?"
"Shit, it's my brother. You have to leave now!" the young boy said clearly in a panic as he tried to push Horatio and Eric from the room. "Please go, before he sees you!"
It was not in Horatio Caine's nature to leave the young man in such a dangerous situation, walking slowly into the hallway he signalled for Eric to follow him. He crept towards the kitchen, placing his hand on his gun as he walked, "We don't want any trouble here, we just came to talk to Pablo" he tried to reason with the stranger.
As they walked in to the room they saw Pablo's elder brother standing by the back door with a large kitchen knife in his hands. One look at the clothes and the tattoo on the man's neck told them that he was a member of the local gang. "Put the knife down, son. No one needs to get hurt"
Fear and panic overtook the young gang member as Horatio inched closer to him, "Stay back pig! Don't make me use this on you" he warned as he waved the knife in front of him.
"You're not going to do that. Pablo needs you, you won't be that much use to him if you're in jail" Horatio responded as he took his hand away from his gun, signalling that he was not a threat. "Put the knife down and we can talk about it"
It seemed as if Horatio's words were getting through to the gang banger as the hand holding the knife began to shake. Just as the young man began lowering the knife a brick came flying through the kitchen window, shattering the glass and sending it flying everywhere. Eric drew his gun as Horatio kept his attention on the man in front of him; panic surged through the young man as Horatio attempted to remove the knife from his hand. Swinging his head forwards he made contact with the lieutenant's face with sickening force. He ran from the house as Horatio fell to the floor, hitting his head on the corner of the table on the way down.