Okay friends, this chapter is honestly really short and I usually make them much longer, especially for this story, but I have been so busy again and I needed to give you guys something to work with SO here is a small snippet. A longer chapter to come I promise!
Calleigh put on her sunglasses as she got out of the Hummer and walked up to the scene. Elliot was standing against another Hummer being questioned by Ryan as he handed over his cell phone. Calleigh approached and watched as officers searched the house. Ryan turned around and looked at her with a devilish grin.
"Just seized his cell phone, care to do the honors?" Ryan asked as he offered her Elliot's cell phone. Calleigh looked at the man who stood in front of her. He looked nervous, a little bit of resemblance to Bryan, but not much. Calleigh put on a glove and took the phone, immediately going to the "recently contacted" list. She scrolled for only a moment before she got to a call from Bryan, the day before the court house shooting. She felt anger wash over her body. There was a call made minutes after to a Franklin Gregory.
"Ryan, do me a favor, look up Franklin Gregory in the system" Calleigh said flatly. Ryan nodded to an officer who came and stood next to Elliot while Ryan opened the trunk and opened a laptop. He typed for a while and waited before turning back around to Calleigh.
"Got a match, only prior is for a speeding ticket in '08" Ryan read. Calleigh looked at Ryan for a moment, needing more. He turned back around as an image loaded. His face sunk into that of disgust. "But I can tell you, based off this photo and what I saw, this is our shooter" he practically spat. Calleigh was so close to losing it. No priors but was a trained sniper? Whoever this guy was, he was working under the table and off the streets. High pay type jobs, those for the wealthy.
She took a few steps forward, so close to Elliot she could count the beads of sweat collecting on his forehead. She watched as his eyes glanced to her badge. "You realize, I am the person you tried to hire to have killed?" Calleigh spoke in such a calm and steady voice that Ryan almost had to think about whether he should be worried. He stood behind her and watched carefully. Elliot stared at the ground, sweating more and more. "You realize that makes you an accomplice to attempted murder? That's not even taking into account the fact that two officers were injured" Calleigh went on. Elliot finally looked up at her. "You're going to jail Elliot, I really hope it was worth it". She finished as she walked away, back towards the Hummer. She climbed in quickly and pressed her hands against her cheeks, trying to cool her face. Confronting the man who took part in trying to take her life, a man she had never even knew existed, was hard. She took another breath and looked at her reflection in the rear view mirror. This was finally it. She just had to tough it out a little bit longer. She drove back to the lab, cell phone as evidence and handed it to Walter as she walked in. "I need everything you can get off this phone" she said firmly. Walter nodded and found a cord to connect the phone to one of many computers and got straight to work. Calleigh walked back out and headed to the break room. She needed to take some time to breathe.
Calleigh leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes for a moment. Just a little longer. She reached up and rubbed the scabbed area on her head where her stitches had finally faded. She couldn't sit any longer, it made her feel guilty. Deep in the back of her mind she knew that this wasn't her fault, but looking at it as a whole, none of this would have happened if she hadn't been targeted. She opened her phone and dialed her fathers phone number. She spoke to him for a little while, never once mentioning the case or anything that had happened for that matter. It was better he didn't know. She always feared that anything worrisome would send him to drink again, and he was doing so well this time. An hour went by without her even noticing and she said her goodbyes to daddy dearest. Hearing his voice always made her feel a little more whole. Even though he wasn't as close, he still made her feel safe. Calleigh sighed with a smile after listening to her father talking about his endeavors with his new job at a law firm and his 90 day clean token. It was a good thing in her life. She slid the phone into her pocket as she stood up from the couch. She rubbed her hands on her pants and walked back to the layout room where she was hoping she could assist in something to keep her mind busy.
She swiftly opened the door and watched as Natalia sealed a final bag and placed it in a box. She looked up and smiled at Calleigh. "Hey you, I thought you were out on the scene?" She said cheerfully as she signed her name on the log and sealed the lid over the box of all the evidence.
"I was, they didn't need as many hands as they thought so I just brought back our main piece of evidence!" Calleigh explained. She walked over to the table and picked up one of the boxes to help Natalia bring them to the front to be stored.
"Thank you" Natalia thanked her as she grabbed two more boxes and the two walked towards the door. "So what was our main piece?" Natalia asked. Calleigh smiled.
"Cell phone. Checked it in advance, there's a call to Bryan, and a call to Franklin Gregory. No priors that were relevant but Ryan identified him as the shooter. Just have to match the dental records to that of his and confirm it" Calleigh explained. Natalia smiled at her friend, it was nice seeing her empowered again.
"Nice call!" Natalia commented as they passed the boxes off to the officer behind the counter. Natalia signed off again on a form and turned back around with Calleigh.
"And the clothes?" Calleigh asked.
"All matched as they should" Natalia commented. Just as the words left her mouth they saw Walter peep his head out of the tech room. He waved them over and shut the door. Calleigh and Natalia looked to each other and quickly head to the room he was in. When they entered there were three phones on the table. Well, two whole phones, one that was quite destroyed.
"Whatcha got here Walter?" Calleigh asked as the two approached the table. Walter smiled widely.
"Well, a friend of mine brought in Bryan's cell phone earlier. The torn one belongs to Franklin, destroyed in the shoot out. And the third is Elliot's" Walter explained. Natalia raised an eyebrow when Walter mentioned a friend, no sooner did Horatio come into the room, nodding at Walter as he did.
"I could only pull a few strands of information off Franklins' phone. His recent calls, a few text messages, and this" Walter said as he put an audio track up and hit play.
"Frank, I need you to be at the court houses at 8, your date is with the short blonde. Meet with you after". The audio file cut off from there. The voice was defiantly Elliot's. Calleigh stood silently for a moment, as did everyone else in the room. It was chilling to hear.
"We matched to audio to Elliot's voice easily as well as his phone number. So we have Elliot's down at least for assisting a murder attempt. But that's not all. Bryan's phone had everything deleted off of it, but his call records show he called Elliot minutes before Elliot left the message for Franklin. All there's left to do now is get Elliot to confess that Bryan asked him to arrange it, and that he hired Franklin" Walter finished.
"And it appears we're just in time" Horatio said as he looked past his team, through the window. The rest turned around to follow his gaze, watching as Ryan walked Elliot back to a questioning room.
By the time Calleigh had turned back around Horatio had already caught her gaze. "If you want to, the interrogation is yours, if not, I am more than willing" he said quietly. Natalia and Walter pretended to find interest in something else in the room so it didn't seem as though they were waiting for her answer. They didn't want her to feel pressured at all. Calleigh gave a tight mouthed smile as she placed her hands on her hips.
"I think I'll take it, quicker this is done, the quicker it's all done" she said in a tone that almost sounded sad. They all knew better than to think that though. They had all been through enough, it wasn't fair to take judgement on another. Horatio nodded and watched as Calleigh left the room and headed down the hallway to meet with Ryan.
Elliot had just been seated in the chair, one hand cuffed to the table. Ryan exited the room and met with Calleigh.
"Do we have anything solid to hold him on? Because right now I'm just using conspiracy to commit murder and we both know that won't hold for long if he lawyers up" Ryan explained while simultaneously hoping that Calleigh had something for him.
"We have a voicemail from him requesting Franklins' assistance in my attempted -" Calleigh cleared her throat for a moment. "Yes, we have plenty to hold him on" she finished. Ryan frowned at his friend. He hurt for her, but she was doing well so far.
"Are you conducting the interrogation?" Ryan pried further. Calleigh responded with a nod instead of her usual confident response. If there was one thing Calleigh loved it was her guns, and a good interrogation. She was almost up to par with Horatio. But something was off about her response, as if she didn't want to do it, but she needed to. "Want some company?" Ryan added on.
Calleigh ran a hand through her blonde locks. "You know, I think I might just take you up on that" she replied. Ryan smiled back at her and opened the door to the interrogation room. He watched as Calleigh walked in first and looked back over his shoulder. Natalia, Horatio, and Walter all stood in the layout room, watching and waiting to see what would happen next. It was sensitive to try and pry information from a suspect without them wanting a lawyer. They needed this confession more than anything. This was it.