"Please tell me you're joking," Ryan exclaimed incredulously. How could anyone have been so stupid as to hang their only real suspect in a murder case out to dry like that?
Granted, the man was gang-affiliated and had a long rap sheet, he was certainly no choir boy, but had he deserved the fate that had befallen him in the early hours of this morning?
Stood over the corpse was the bulky figure of Tom Loman, giving the body a cursory inspection before it would be transported back to the morgue for a full autopsy. "Cause of death is likely the gunshot wound to the face," the doctor mused out loud as he pushed his glasses further up his nose with a gloved hand.
"Ya think?" Frank shot back, clearly unimpressed with the doctor's ability to state the obvious.
One look at what remained of Jesus Fernandez showed that some kind of handgun had been forcefully placed into his mouth before it was fired. Not much remained on the mouth and jaw on the body, a gaping exit wound at the back of the skull was ringed with small pieces of brain matter, as was the scorched grass he was lying on. Although the matter of death was gruesome, it appeared that Jesus hadn't suffered for long before being executed.
"There is no need for sarcasm, Detective," the M.E shot back tartly as he resumed his inspection of the body. "Perhaps you'd like to join me in performing the autopsy?"
The burly Texan was in no mood to play games this morning, he bit back on the urge to retort in kind and instead waved his hand and turned his back on the prickly doctor. "I guess it's pretty obvious what happened here, I'll leave you two to process the scene."
"You heading back to base?" Eric asked over his shoulder as he bent down to open his kit.
"Yeah, I gotta go bang some heads together."
The two CSIs watched Frank storm off and slam his car door shut before screeching down the road back towards the department.
"He looks pissed," Ryan commented as he began photographing Jesus before he was placed in a body bag, ready to be transported back to the morgue.
"This is not gonna go down well, Ryan. Fernandez was our only lead on the Simpson case. Now he's dead and it looks like a gang hit, the last thing we or this neighbourhood need is another turf war."
"You think it was a Mala Noche hit?"
"He's got the stamp," Eric answered as he pointed to the tattoo on the left arm of the corpse. "If one of our lot put the word out that he was running his mouth off….this is exactly the kind of thing the Mala Noche's would do to send out a message to anyone who was thinking of talking to the cops."
"Keep your mouth shut or we'll shut it for you…..permanently," Ryan suggested as he placed his camera down, watching two assistants from the coroner's office lift the body onto a stretcher and carry it away.
"Exactly. Word's gonna get round real quick, things could get ugly."
Ryan gave his colleague a tight nod of the head, having added incentive, if it was needed, to search and process the scene as quickly as possible. There had already been a great deal of bad blood between the MDPD and local gangs in this neighbourhood of the city, the situation was a powder keg primed and ready to explode, and when it did, too many people were likely to be caught in the crossfire.
The two of them had sat quietly in the shift supervisor's office for the past few hours, both of them concentrating intensely on the reports in front of them, reading through and signing them off before placing them on an ever-growing pile in the middle of the room. The atmosphere was quiet and strained, neither of them wanting to discuss the rather large elephant in the room.
Truth be told, Calleigh had let out a sigh of relief as Horatio left the office in search of coffee, promising to bring her back a cup of the strong black liquid on his return. She could certainly do with some fortifying right now, yesterday and the events of this morning had taken more out of her than she realised.
She hoped that she had finally talked some sense into him, and had felt reassured when Horatio gave her his word that he would not let recent events with his ex-wife cause him to take a step back in the progress that he had been making up until now. Horatio was nothing if not an honourable man, once he had given his word he would not be swayed from keeping it, even under the most trying of circumstances.
Still, he had been quiet and distracted at breakfast, only stroking Moses with little in the way of the attention that he usually bestowed upon the cat. Moses had tried everything to get his master to take notice of his feline prowess, nothing seemed to work as he continued to stroke the cat as it sat in his lap, his eyes distant as he no doubt got lost in another memory from his past.
He had declined her offer of a lift in her Hummer and chose to take his own, perhaps a wise choice knowing that he had an appointment with his therapist in the afternoon. It had also afforded both of them time to think, she had not left his side for almost two days as his emotions and confusion over his past and present lives threatened to overwhelm him. She had stayed with him continuously, tending to his needs, much in the way she did when he had been so badly hurt.
The pain wasn't physical this time, his mental anguish was perhaps worse. At least with broken bones and cuts they could be reset and stitched, healing quickly with time. Wounds of the heart were always so much more difficult to repair, it could take years sometimes for people to recover from extreme emotional trauma, and sometimes not at all. Just because the injuries were not visible, it didn't mean that they did not exist.
At least he had taken her up on the offer of taking yesterday to rest and let her take care of him, something that he was usually loathe to do. She had seen the exhaustion in his eyes as he recounted the events with his ex-wife, she knew that if left to his own devices he would not have taken the time to mentally unload as he had with her. He would have chosen to internalise it, store it in his memory banks for another day when he could use it as an excuse to berate himself.
It was a sign of the trust that he placed in her, that he allowed her to watch over him as he sought to get some of the rest that he so desperately needed. It had only been a few short days ago that he had spoken of his need for space, but yesterday he had looked so weary, as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders. Words were not necessary, she could see the pain in his eyes and knew that he would not ask for her support, she wouldn't make him ask either, knowing that despite all he had been through, that he still had a desire to keep his dignity and pride intact.
She had pulled him to her wordlessly and he had accepted the peace and tranquillity that her embrace offered, knowing that she would not think less of him for it. After all the things that he had been through, he had deserved a little peace, and she was happy that she could offer him at least something that would serve to make his burden a little easier to carry.
His mask of professionalism had slipped back down this morning, experience telling her that now was the time to step back. He had made his feelings clear last week when he gently, but firmly, reminded her that he was not a helpless child that needed taking care of, but a grown man who was able to stand on his own. It was that balance that she was slowly learning, when to step up and take control and when to take a step back and let him work things through on his own. She could see the quiet desperation in him and had given him the support he desperately needed, all the while not pushing him to open up or talk unless he wanted to, understanding his wordless instructions to give him space, denying herself her instinctive desire to want to protect him.
She had wanted so badly to stop him from meeting with Laura, knowing that it would likely end in disaster for Horatio. It pained her to see what his ex-wife had done to him, how she had tried to systematically break down his defences, to break him down into the shell of the man that he had been so recently. But she had stood back and let it happen, knowing that Horatio had to do it for the sake of his own sanity and their future happiness. She had stood back and watched him falter, knowing that he wouldn't thank her for interfering, even though her only wish was to protect him. She stood back and let it happen, knowing that he would return to her and she would help him silently pick up the pieces. Both of them knowing, yet never speaking of the fact that he had come to lean on her so heavily.
The sound of the door opening made her flinch as she realised how lost in her reflective mood she had become. Her hand instinctively travelled to her chest as she covered her heart.
"Sorry, didn't mean to make you jump."
The smile on his face was the one that she found so endearing about him, that boyish little grin that lit up his eyes and made him look as if he were in the mood for being naughty. "I swear I'm putting a bell on you and Moses when we get home."
He arched an eyebrow in response as he held up two Styrofoam cups and brown paper bag in his hands. "I brought you a little present from the deli across the park," he told her as he looked into the bag and lifted out a double chocolate chip muffin with extra chocolate frosting, placing it before her on the desk along with her coffee.
"Be still my beating heart," she sighed dramatically as her eyes lit up at the chocolaty treat.
It warmed his heart to hear those words, usually they were only reserved for the weapons she handled in the ballistics lab, but it was a boost to the ego to know that he had created such a feeling of pleasure inside her with his simple gift. He found himself getting lost in the sensual way she went about devouring the muffin, feeling a stirring in his loins as she licked at her lips salaciously, removing the chocolate frosting that had stuck there with such grace that he found his eyes closing at the prospect of what that tongue could do to him too.
"That was delicious, Horatio. Thank you." He came back down to earth with a thud as he watched her fold the paper case into quarters before throwing it in the wastepaper basket by the desk.
"My pleasure, Ma'am," he returned while trying to sway his mind from the lustful thoughts he was having about her. This is not the time or the place, he chided himself mentally.
She could see how distracted he had become once more, but she was more than glad that he had been thoughtful enough to buy her a muffin with her mid-morning coffee. His gift was a small gesture of thanks for her staunch support of him over the last few days. Horatio much preferred to be a man of actions rather than words, she took the gift as a sign of his gratitude, knowing that he would prefer not to speak of what had transpired.
Separating their professional lives from their personal was something new to both of them, but she was silently pleased that she had managed to find her groove when dealing with the stubborn man before her. So much of the understanding between them was said without words, and she was quickly learning to anticipate his need for space and freedom, which he in turn thanked her for in his own unique way.
The realisation dawned on her that perhaps too much stock was put into spoken words when it came to a relationship, when two people truly understood and loved each other, words were not always necessary. Too much talking would inevitably lead to arguments that would be enough to put a strain on any relationship. When two people truly loved each other, they would know instinctively when the time was right to give each other space and would seek to comfort their partner should things go wrong, never preaching or berating them for making the wrong choice.
Horatio had made it clear that for their relationship to work she would have to treat him as an equal and she had hoped that she'd managed to accomplish that over the past few days. He hadn't pushed her away or turned tail and run, and so she was confident that they were heading in the right direction.
He too had been making a real effort, it had taken a great deal of courage for him to admit to kissing his ex-wife, knowing that such an admission could have potentially ended their own relationship before it had ever really started. It took immense strength to admit to the flaw in his character that had almost seen him raise a hand in anger at Laura as she continued to badger him into submission. It had taken even more mettle to finally push her away and turn his back on a life that he once had with her.
Despite his need for freedom and independence, he had let his emotional barriers down with her, making concessions and placing his faith in the woman he loved. For a man so used to being emotionally distant, it was a huge step forwards, relinquishing control like that had not been an easy thing for him to do. His trust in her was also a declaration of his love, so very few people ever got to see the real Horatio underneath the image of the stoic Lieutenant, even fewer were ever witness to his true vulnerability.
His gesture with the muffin was so sweet, and so like the Horatio she had always known, the way that he looked at her with that boyish shyness that was so endearing about him, as if he were not used to displaying much in the way of affection to other people. Such emotional awkwardness was understandable when one considered the traumas that he had suffered, how he had been forced to turn his back on the ones he loved and live a life of solitude, making the people who cared about him hate him, telling himself that it was for their own good and the only way to keep them safe. For so long, he had been forced to keep such a tight lid on his emotions that he was now faced with the fact that he was unsure of how to process such alien feelings when they presented themselves once more.
Loving someone and sharing your life had not been something that Horatio had to consider for many years, the closest he came to sharing his heart with another had been with Marisol, a relationship that had ended disastrously, and for all the wrong reasons. It had served to make him even more reluctant to risk his heart with another, it had already been bruised and battered beyond recognition, along with the rest of him. Yet despite the trauma his heart had suffered, he still possessed the ability to love another, even if he wasn't fully cognizant of it himself.
It was almost impossible to forget how to love once it had happened to you, it was just something that stayed with you, despite the passing years and the increasing heartache, the damage that it received had not hardened his heart to the point where he could not love at all. Even if he wasn't sure of the emotions or whether to trust them, he was still capable of reciprocating the love that she felt for him. And he would do it in his own unique 'Horatio' way, not a man to make grand gestures of love, he would show her in ways that only she would understand, to show just how much she meant to him.
There was nothing grandiose about their relationship, they were just two adults, equals in their partnership, understanding each other and never demanding more than the other could give. Theirs was a relationship that would be built on trust and understanding, a relationship whose actions would speak far louder than any words.
They must have been staring at each other, lost in their own thoughts. A loud knock on the door disturbed them from their reverie. The imposing frame of Frank Tripp stood in the doorway as they both looked at him expectantly.
"I'm glad I caught you two together," he said as a way of greeting, placing his hands on his hips to emphasise his harried mood. "We got a situation on our hands."
"What is it, Francis?" Horatio enquired as he stood to face the detective.
"Jesus Fernandez was shot dead this morning."
"We heard," Calleigh added as she too stood up from her chair, placing the pile of reports to one side.
"Yeah, well it's just got worse. Turns out Jesus has a step-brother." The two CSIs gave him a blank look, he knew he'd have to spell it out for them. "You ever heard of an animal by the name of Cesar Donato?"
"He was convicted for the rape and murder of a young woman, we worked the case when I first came to Miami."
Frank nodded his head at Horatio, surprised that the Lieutenant remembered the case so clearly in light of his recent head injury. Of course he would remember, this is Horatio we're talking about. Damn guy remembers every victim from every case.
"Well our friend Cesar was released last month on good behaviour, believe it or not." The look that his two colleagues shot him left him in no doubt that they were highly dubious about Cesar's ability to keep his nose clean while in jail. "My guys say the word on the street is that he knows it was us that set his little brother up and that he's pissed and looking for revenge. Cesar's got a lot of connections to the Mala Noche, I get the feeling that this is gonna turn real ugly real fast."