He opened his eyes slowly and groaned as he lifted his heavy head from his chest, eyeing Gianni as he ambled closer to him. He closed his eyes with a defeated sigh and waited for the sweet embrace of the dark nothingness to cover him once again.
His wish was denied as Gianni grabbed a fistful of his hair and slapped him twice across the face in an effort to rouse him. "Now, now. No sleeping on the job, Detective Kelly."
The force of the less-than-friendly slapped made his ears ring and caused stars to float across his vision. He was utterly spent, mentally and physically exhausted and he doubted he would even feel whatever torture technique his captor decided to use on him next.
"What do you want?" he croaked as he stifled a cough that began to form in his parched throat.
He raised his gaze as he heard the barrel of a revolver being spun; They're going to put me out of my misery, at last. The relief was short-lived as Gianni loaded a single bullet into one of the chambers and spun the barrel once more.
"We're going to play a game of Russian roulette. You have a one in six chance of me shooting you if you don't give me what I want. That sounds like pretty fair odds, doesn't it?"
He said nothing, letting his weary head fall back down to his chest. "Do what you want," he said breathlessly, at this point he knew he was past caring what happened to him.
Ignoring the words of his bound and helpless prisoner, Gianni spun the barrel again and locked it into place, lining the redhead up in his sights as he spoke. "First question, where did you meet Agent Collins?"
"I don't remember," he mumbled, keeping his head down as he screwed his eyes shut and waited for the impact of the bullet in his flesh as he idly wondered how much it might hurt to get shot. He visibly tensed as he heard the hammer being cocked and the trigger pulled, precious moments passed and it suddenly dawned on him that he was still lead-free.
"Why did you betray my father and uncle, how much did the FBI offer you?"
"I told you, I don't remember."
He braced himself again as the sound of the hammer being cocked filled the deathly silence in the room, the noise of the trigger being pulled seemed almost too much to bear. This time he felt the muzzle of the gun pressed flush against his right shoulder and let out a sigh of relief as he was once again spared.
"The odds are getting shorter now, Detective Kelly; I would start talking if I were you. Tell me where I can find Agent Collins."
"I don't know."
This time he felt the gun being pressed on his left thigh, should the bullet be in the chamber he prayed that Gianni hit his femoral artery, knowing that he would be dead in minutes. Why the hell would I know that?
Nothing was heard except the click of an empty barrel, three down and three to go. His odds of coming out of this torture session lessened drastically by the minute.
"We know he's in Miami. Tell us where we can find him."
His head shot up this time as anger surged through him, "I told you that I don't know. Why don't you just get it over and shoot me!" he shouted as he began breathing heavily and coughing uncontrollably.
Gianni held the revolver to his temple this time; he prayed that this time it was the kill shot.
"No," he whispered as he realised that he was still alive, his head dropped back towards the metal chair he was bound to.
"Last chance, Detective Kelly. Where is he?"
He felt the revolver being ground into his groin, wincing at the pain the gun was causing to such a sensitive area of his body. "Please, I don't know. I can't tell you what I don't know."
He squeezed his eyes tightly shut as he waited for the searing pain to flow over him, the Malucci's emasculation of him would be complete should the bullet be in the barrel that was currently lined up to fire.
He waited, and waited. Although he heard the click, he was yet to feel the pain of the bullet entering his body. 5 out of 6, he knew his time was up; the next shot would be for real.
"Gianni, Danny needs to speak to you," a voice called from the doorway.
"Tell him I'm busy," he growled in response as he began pondering on where he would place the bullet in the body of his prisoner, tapping the side of the gun on his chin as he did so.
"He says it can't wait, he needs to speak to you now." The disembodied voice at the other end of the room was insistent.
"We'll continue this later," he told the redhead as he stalked from the room, signalling for the lights to be cut as he left.
The various members of the team began to shuffle into Horatio's office, having all received the same text message from their temporary leader, they stood to attention as Calleigh entered the room, closely followed by Kyle.
"Thank you all for being here," she began as she stood behind Horatio's desk, trying to exude confidence and professionalism. "I know you've all been working hard on trying to find some fresh leads for us to follow. Let's hear what you've got."
"We processed the SUV that patrol spotted out by North Bay Village and found something interesting on the underside of the chassis."
All eyes in the room fell on Ryan, "I found fragments of a particular type of mussel shell lodge in the rear axle. I sent it to Travers for further analysis."
"Anything useful come back, Ryan?"
"I hope so," he replied as he brought up a picture on the tablet he was holding, showing it to the other people in the room. "Travers says this type of mussel is only found in freshwater lakes, primarily Lake Okeechobee according to the chemical breakdown of the shell. I know it's not a lot, but maybe it's a place to start looking."
Calleigh felt a few small embers of hope begin to ignite within her heart, "That matches up with what Dave told us about the birdsong on the video clip. What else do we have?"
"I took some tyre impressions from the driveway, I didn't hold out much hope that we'd be able to get anything useful but I managed to match one partial to a Ford E Series van. I ran a search on any stolen E Series models; it came up with four possible matches. Andy and I are going to run them down; could we borrow a few uniforms, Frank?"
"Whatever you need, Delko, you got it. Take as many men as you need."
Calleigh cleared her throat to speak," I ran all four bullet casings; there were no matches in IBIS. Looks like they're pretty much a dead end at the moment, I'm waiting to hear back from Mac Taylor at the New York crime lab to see if there have been any guns reported stolen that might match the calibre of the bullets. We're clutching at straws on that front I'm afraid." She turned to look at Walter, hoping he had better news for her.
"We managed to trace the money that was paid to Fuentes to the Dade Mutual Bank, after a little gentle persuasion they were more than happy to provide us with stills of the men who withdrew the money." The large black man raised an eyebrow at Frank who returned it with a scowl.
"I put an APB out on the men in the CCTV images; it's been circulated to all law enforcement agencies state-wide as we as all local and state news broadcasts. If those weasels show their faces, we'll find them."
"Thanks, Frank. I know you and all of your men are doing everything you can."
"Don't mention it, Calleigh. I've got my men working day and night to find Horatio."
She gave herself a few moments to process all the information before coming to a decision. "The Malucci's have given us an ultimatum which means we have twenty-four hours to track them down and bring Horatio back. The best lead we have right now is concentrating our search on the area surrounding Lake Okeechobee. I want you all to follow up on what you've been working on, bring me a solid lead to work with."
Eric waited until everyone had left the room as he stood watching her with his hands crossed over his chest.
"You have something you want to say, Eric?"
"Are you sure that's the best idea, Calleigh? What if it's another distraction meant to send us on a wild goose chase?"
"The evidence is pointing us towards the lake; Horatio's running out of time. We need to do something."
"What if it's not the right move, are you prepared to gamble with Horatio's life, with Kyle's?"
"I don't have any options here, Eric!"
He walked towards her, "There are other options, and you just can't see them at the moment."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Look, you've been up for nearly two days straight. You're tired and you're biting the head off of anyone who comes near you. Maybe you need to take a backseat for a while."
"Horatio left me in charge of this team; I have to lead it in his absence. I'm doing the best I can here, Eric!"
"Maybe you're not the best person for the job right now," he suggested, trying to keep the tone of his voice non-confrontational.
"You think I'm not fit to lead the team?" she asked, incredulously. "You think you could do a better job?"
"This is exactly what I mean; you're out of control, Calleigh. I just hope you're not making a huge mistake."
"Get out," she shouted as her hands shook with fury, "Now!"
A feeling of intense rage washed over her, with one swift motion she swept the entire contents of Horatio's desk onto the floor. Breathing heavily, she forced herself to get a hold of her emotions, knowing that she still had one more card to play.
Pulling out her phone she stabbed in a number that she hoped she would never have to call again, the sound of the voice on the other end had always put her on edge and left her feeling uneasy.
"Ah, Miss Duquesne, so nice to hear from you. I've been watching the news, it seems as if you have a problem, doesn't it?"