Eric found the sulking, rotund figure of Andy Sipowicz stalking down the corridor towards the elevator. "I would say good morning but it doesn't look like you're having one," he said amiably as he pushed the call button.
Andy gave him a sour look in return, "I've just had my ass chewed up and spat out by that….." his anger leaving him momentarily lost for words, "….that woman!"
Eric raised an eyebrow and allowed himself a small smirk of satisfaction that didn't go unmissed by the other man.
"What the hell are you smiling about?" Andy groused as he followed Eric into the elevator.
"Welcome to the club, man," he replied, slapping the man on the shoulder as the doors closed.
Unimpressed by the lack of sympathy he was getting Andy hiked his pants up and huffed loudly, "Who the hell does that broad think she is anyway?"
The smile on Eric's face faltered, "She's the one in charge of this team until we get Horatio back." He tried to instil a sense of conviction into his words, believing that they would find their fallen leader in time was all that mattered at the moment.
"You don't have to like her, Andy, just keep your head down and stay out of her way. You really don't want to get on the wrong side of her," he warned as both men stepped out of the elevator as it arrived at the morgue.
"Looks like John sure knows how to pick the ladies," the older man mused as he shook his head slightly only to be caught by the arm by Eric.
"You know about them?"
Looking Eric up and down he shrugged his arm away, "Please, even a deaf, dumb and blind man could see it. John is head over heels in love with her, you can see it in the way he looks at her. Like some puppy that's just lost its favourite bone."
Andy sighed at the look of shock on the other man's face, "She's storming around the place ripping the head off of anyone who has the misfortune to come near her. Don't tell me she'd act like that for just anyone. He'll, she wouldn't piss on me if I was on fire."
The Cuban felt a sudden urge to defend his former flame's honour, "You're wrong about her, she'd be like this if it was any of the team in trouble."
"You're fooling yourself, kid. There's being focused and loyal to your team but she's going way over and beyond. Way over."
"I know Calleigh and I trust her. I trust her to lead this team and to find Horatio," he replied defiantly even though the seeds of doubt were beginning to take root in his mind before directing his attention to the medical examiner.
"What have you got for us, Tom?"
Pulling himself up from his chair Tom Loman greeted the two men brightly; if he'd heard any of their conversation he showed no sign of it. "Good morning gentlemen, you'll be glad to know that I have just completed the autopsy on the third officer."
"What did you find?"
The medical examiner looked down at the papers on his desk as he checked his notes, "Miss Smith found a .38 round in the second officer, and I pulled a 9mm from Officer Valdez a few moments ago. I've sent both rounds to the ballistics lab for analysis."
"What about the fourth vic?" Andy chimed in, feeling fed up at being left on the side lines whilst his partner was out there and in danger.
"I'm just about to start on him now; it'll be up to you CSIs to find the fourth bullet back at the scene. Now, if you don't mind gentlemen, I have work to do." With that Tom returned to the storage units as he began to remove the body of Officer Peters.
"What do you reckon of the chances of there being four different shooters?" Eric asked as he and Andy made their way back to the elevator.
"Sounds about right, there were at least seven of them in the house. They probably jumped on those poor guys before they even knew what hit them."
Eric could sense the sadness in the other man's voice, "There was nothing you could have done, you know."
"Yes I could. I could have stood up and fought and so could John. Why did he just give up like that, without a fight? That's not the guy I knew."
"The things that happened to him changed him, to him, family is everything. He did what he had to do to keep you safe."
Andy ran a frustrated hand over his balding head, "I saw their faces, they should have killed me after that. Why didn't they put one between my eyes too?"
Eric had a suspicion that he already knew the answer; family was everything to the Malucci's too. Horatio's actions back in New York had torn the crime family apart and now they had come back to return the favour. Their kidnapping of Horatio was not only to physically torture him before having their final revenge; they wanted to make the people he cared about suffer too. By leaving Andy alive it meant that the former detective would spend the rest of his days questioning his own actions and wondering if there was something else he could have done to save him. Physical wounds would heal with time; it was the psychological scars that they would all carry for the rest of their lives.
"Hey, Wolfe. Getting anywhere with the cash we found at Fuentes' place?" Walter asked as he shuffled his considerable bulk into the lab that Ryan was currently ensconced in.
The smaller man rubbed his eyes in frustration, "None of the bills are sequential, it's a mix of tens, twenties and fifty dollar bills. There's no point dusting them for prints, who knows how many people might have touched them before they ended up in the hands of Fuentes."
"Doesn't mean we can't still track down where the money might have come from," Walter replied, not being deterred by Ryan's pessimistic attitude. "We know that Fuentes was paid twenty thousand to build the bomb, there was a little over eighteen thousand left when I booked it into evidence yesterday."
"So?" Ryan asked as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"So, we do a little digging and see if there have been any red flags raised by banks and financial institutions here in Miami and in New York."
Walter not-so-gently nudged his colleague out of the way to gain access to the lab's computer terminal. "You know as well as I do that banks are required by law to report any cash withdrawals over ten thousand dollars to the IRS."
"I know what you're thinking, Walter, but these guys are smart. They haven't left us anything to go on so far, they're not going to be so obvious as to drain that amount of money from an account."
"True, but banks are also required to report any suspicious activity on accounts too. All we need to do is get in touch with our friends in the Inland Revenue Service and ask for their help, they should be able to tell us if the Malucci's have been withdrawing large amounts of money recently."
Ryan huffed as he ran a hand over the back of his neck, "Why didn't I think of that? I've been doing this job for years, why didn't I see what was right in front of me?" he asked himself in frustration.
"You're being too hard on yourself, Wolfe. Everyone is worried about H; it's clouding your judgement a bit. You're all looking too hard for what's not there."
Ryan gave his much taller and much bulkier colleague a puzzled look, "How do you do it, how do you keep so calm?"
"I haven't known the guy as long as you have," Walter continued quickly as Ryan opened his mouth to say something, "That's not to say I don't care what happens to him, because I do. You've all been this close-knit team; it's kind of hard to break into the little circle you've created for yourselves."
"Look, Ryan, you guys have been some real bad stuff in your time. You're more like a family than you are a team, when one of you hurts you all hurt. Maybe it's easier for me because I'm not so emotionally invested. I know it's hard by try separating your heart from your head."
"That's easier said than done, Walter."
"I know, but right now it's all we've got." The bulky black man took pity on his colleague, "Why don't you go and take a break, get yourself a coffee and something to eat. I'll make some calls and see if we can track down which bank the Malucci money might have come from."
Ryan nodded his head, knowing that the other man was right, perhaps he did need a break and coming back with a fresh set of eyes. He'd spent most of the night tossing and turning, dreaming of what might happen to Horatio. The older man had put his faith in Ryan when no one else would and even though he'd let the lieutenant down on more than one occasion the man always forgave him and took him back under his wing. He had been the one that Horatio had trusted when he decided to fake his own death, there were countless other times that the redhead had showed unwavering trust in him, a trust that he felt he didn't always deserve.
He felt as if he were letting the other man down, when the chips were down Ryan knew that he could rely on Horatio to have his back. Now the boot was on the other foot and he felt himself trying and failing to live up to the faith that his boss had put in him.