A strange sense of déjà vu washed over Eric as he stood side by side with Horatio in much the same way as they had several months ago when they had visited young Pablo Cruz. Both men stood with their badges and guns on full display and the younger man prayed to God that there would not be a repeat of the carnage that their last visit to a rundown neighbourhood had created. It was at the house of the young witness that Horatio had suffered the head injury that had caused the havoc to unfold all those months ago.

He watched warily as his colleague raised his hand and thumped on the door once more.

"MDPD, open up please."

Finally, a young Hispanic woman answered the door, her dark hair tied back roughly in a ponytail as a lit cigarette dangled from the corner of her mouth.

"What do you want?" she snapped as she readjusted the grip on the toddler in her arms.

Taking his sunglasses off, Horatio stood side-on as he spoke.

"We're looking for Jesus Fernandez, ma'am. We'd like to ask him some questions in regards to an incident in Coral Gables."

She gave the two men a sour look before taking a deep breath and calling at the top her voice causing a dog several doors down to bark in annoyance.

"Jesus! The cops are here. What have you done now?"

A male voice could be heard in the near vicinity of where they were standing.

"Damn girl, couldn't you have told them that I wasn't here?"

"Just because you fathered my kids it don't mean I gotta lie for you, you useless dog. Come and get rid of them."

Eric raised an eyebrow at Horatio as the argument carried on before them until finally Jesus Fernandez made his way to the front door, poking his head out of the porch, looking left and right to ascertain whether he was being watched.

"Jesus Fernandez?" Horatio asked as he looked his quarry up and down.

"Who wants to know?"

"I'm Lieutenant Caine and this is CSI Delko," he explained as he pointed to his colleague.

"We'd like to ask you a few questions, if you wouldn't mind."

Jesus looked at them warily as his eyes darted to the group of men across the road and back again several times.

"I ain't got nothing to say about nothing."

Reluctant suspects who were not forthcoming with information was nothing new to either Horatio or Eric, and the Lieutenant felt confident that he could convince Jesus to tell them what they wanted to know.

"We could do this quickly and quietly or we could take you down to the station right now, I'm sure my colleague Mr Delko would be more than happy to inform your associates across the road at how helpful you were in our enquiries about local street gangs."

Jesus realised that he had little choice than to do what the officers wanted. He let out a defeated sigh and ran a hand over his well-manicured goatee.

"What do you wanna know?"

Horatio gave Eric a brief smile.

"Can you account for your whereabouts two nights ago, Mr Fernandez?"

"What's it you where I was?"

"Because your fingerprints were found at the scene of a murder in Coral Gables, care to explain how they got there?"

Their suspect fidgeted nervously as he stood rooted to the spot.

"I did some work there, I'm a free-lance landscape gardener," he responded confidently a moment later.

Horatio glanced briefly at the poor state of the front yard, weeds and bare patches of dirt covered the lawn and it was clear to see that it had not seen a mower or a rake in at least six months.

He raised an eyebrow at him.

"Is that so, Mr Fernandez?"

"Yeah, you ask the lady who lives there. She'll tell you I did a good job for her a few weeks back."

"I'm afraid we can't do that, Jesus, seeing as Mr and Mrs Simpson are both dead."

Horatio paused for a few moments as he watched for any tell-tale signs of guilt from his suspect as he glanced up surreptitiously from his sunglasses.

"I'm also interested to know how as their gardener your fingerprints were found inside the house."

Jesus Fernandez slowly descended into a ball of nervous tension as he tried to talk his way out of the mess that he'd suddenly found himself in.

"The lady let me use her bathroom, that's why you found my prints."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really."

"Well, Jesus, why did we find your prints in the master bedroom then?"

The Hispanic man's face drained of colour, after taking a moment or two to collect himself he cast a look back into the house and stepped out onto the porch, closing the front door behind him.

"Keep your voice down man," he complained as he listened for signs that his girlfriend had caught wind of his infidelity.

"Ok, ok. So I was doing the gardening for Mrs Simpson and banging her on the side. There's no law against that, is there?"

"That as may be, you still need to account for your whereabouts two nights ago."

"I was playing pool with the guys down at the local bar. Go to Chico's and ask for Cherry if you don't believe me."

The sun glinted regally off of his badge as Horatio placed both hands on his hips and spoke coolly to Jesus.

"You can be sure that we'll check your alibi out, Mr Fernandez. Don't leave town."

"Well, that was a bust," Eric huffed as they made their way back to the Hummer.

"Maybe. I get the feeling that Mr Fernandez knows more than he's letting on."

"You were great back there, you know," Eric smiled as he climbed into the passenger seat.

Even though Horatio was wearing his sunglasses Eric couldn't mistake the disbelieving stare his colleague was giving him.

"I mean it, H."

He waved his comments away with his right hand as he turned the key in the ignition and pulled the heavy vehicle back out into the road before the radio suddenly crackled into life.

"All units be advised, shots fired at Warehouse 14, Righton Avenue. Assistance required."

"That's about three blocks from here," Eric said as he picked up the radio handset.

Horatio gave him a quick nod of the head before accelerating down the street.

"This is CSI One, we're en route. ETA is approximately five minutes."

"Hey, Calleigh."

The voice behind her made her jump as she spilled a small amount of coffee from the freshly brewed pot in the break room.

Grabbing a paper towel she dabbed the scalding liquid from her hands and shook them dry

"I'm sorry," Natalia said as she towards her colleague and began mopping up the mess on the table. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine, I guess I wasn't paying attention. Was there something you needed?"

The DNA expert frowned worriedly at Calleigh as she took in her appearance. The blonde woman had tried to hide it well but it was obvious to another female that she was beginning to look worn and haggard.

She wasn't even sure she should be saying anything or whether she had a right to either.

"I saw Horatio before the start of shift this morning. I bumped into him in the locker room."

Calleigh looked at her colleague blankly and waited for her to continue.

"I walked in on him getting changed…..I saw the scars, Calleigh."

Natalia watched her friend wince slightly.

"He tried to hide them after that but it was already too late. I knew what had happened but I guess I just never expected to see those marks again. I did a pretty poor job of hiding my shock; I think I upset him, Calleigh."

Calleigh could see the tears brimming in Natalia's eyes and took pity on her as she motioned for the other woman to sit down.

"It's true that Horatio doesn't want anyone to see those scars but it wasn't your fault, Natalia."

"I just feel so bad for him," Natalia tried to explain as she let out a frustrated breath.

"He doesn't need our pity, Natalia. He needs us to treat him as we would before all of this happened, ok?"

The Latino woman nodded her head and tucked the loose strands of hair that had fallen into her face behind her ears.

"There is one other thing, Calleigh," she began as the other woman nodded at her to continue.

"I've been summoned to talk to IAB about you and Horatio; I wanted to tell you in person. I'm not going to tell them anything," she finished defiantly.

"Just go in there and tell them the truth, Natalia."

"But what if they try to hang you or H out to dry?"

Calleigh placed a hand on her colleague's knee and gave her a reassuring smile.

"We've dealt with IAB before, and we'll deal with them again. You owe it to Horatio to tell the truth, no matter what they ask you."