5. Reluctant Acceptance
He said nothing. Not a word escaped from his lips as the thought of his newest allies slowly began to dawn on him. Disgust, anger, worry- Horatio had no idea what to think as he walked over to Alexx's yet-to-be-cleared body and knelt down next to her. His hands fingered his sunglasses, looking up and seeing Eric's leg near his head. His feature morphed into some sort of sad smile. "Eric. I know how much she meant to you."
"This
is the primary crime scene," he told his boss, seemingly to be oblivious to the comment made. "But we don't really have much of a crime scene to actually clean up." He bit his lip, eyes scanning the area. "There's gotta be some sort of clue in here. Anything at all that could connect this to something else..."
Horatio stood up, slipping on his sunglasses. "Better start looking, Eric. The killer's in the wind, and he's not going to stop until we
make him stop."
The other male CSI watched Horatio leave the crime scene, his heart sinking. Typical Horatio- he showed no sign of allowing his emotions get the best of this case, even though it did involve a CSI. Even right now, though, he seemed more blank than Speed's death. Even then, he showed a bit more anger towards Stetler, but right now... he just didn't seem to
care. And frankly, this worried Eric a lot. He took out his camera and snapped multiple photos around Alexx's body, frowning suddenly. A note lay next to her body, but it had partially soaked up the blood.
He bent over and picked it up with a gloved hand, cocking his head and trying to make out what it could have said. It read up at the top 'Horatio Caine...' then nothing else. He glanced down at Alexx's body, simply staring down at her closed eyes and taking a deep breath. "I miss you already, Alexx. Wish you could hear me or something, but H isn't himself. He's not even arguing with Stetler, much less
Julia."What was running through his mind? What was he thinking right now...?
- - -
The team members gave their boss a stunned look. He had
not just said what they thought he had said.
Even Horatio looked pained as Ryan gestured to the inside of the house in a fury. "You're kidding. H, tell me you're joking about this!"
"I wish I could, Mr. Wolfe, but right now, I can't. I'd do anything but joke about matters like this." He turned his head towards the outside and sighed "She was there at the lab when this all happened. She's not a suspect. And unfortunately, she's looking for my son as well. I have... I have to allow her to be an ally with us in finding the person who took Kyle
and killed Alexx."
Calleigh shook her head. "There's gotta be a different way out of this. Horatio, she's behind the death of Kathleen Newberry still, remember?!"
The redhead looked down at the grass. "I know what I said, Calleigh. And that leads me to my second reluctant acceptance on the time for the time being." He closed his eyes, ready for the wave of words to overcome him. "I have to allow Stetler on the team for a little while."
But nothing came. He glanced up at his team, and he wasn't surprised to find that each and every one of them had their jaws dropped open like a school of fish. Not one of them could actually believe their boss was allowing his two worst enemies on their side for a while. It seemed extremely out of character for this man to make either Stetler or Julia a seemingly-honorable member of the day shift. The foursome looked at one another with shocked looks in their eyes and back at their boss.
Finally, Natalia stated with worry, "Horatio, Stetler and Julia aren't exactly the best people to be with us right now."
"I understand that, Miss Boa Vista. But given the circumstances, we have no choice but to accept their help. Yes, I hate Stetler, and yes, I think Julia is still behind that murder with Ron, but we have to accept their help. There's no other way. You don't have to like it at all. You just need to embrace the fact that they want to catch her killer
and find out where my son is." He turned back to the grass. "Now, we have a case to solve. Let's go."
Calleigh crossed her arms. "Does Julia know about any of this?"
Horatio didn't reply. He merely walked back onto the lawn and glanced up at the sky. The sun still gleamed, but thunderclouds slowly rolled into view, ominous and full of whispering souls. He looked down at glanced at his hummer.
Julia knew, all right. And she was just as unhappy as everyone else was. In fact, she was furious. Julia had nearly shouted at him for three minutes straight about having to deal with "those idiotic team members of his." She ranted, she raved- it had not been one of the most pleasant moments in the lieutenant's life, to say the least.
He knew he was going to get ripped into by two women in his life sooner or later.
Better be sooner. He hopped into the vehicle, and the engine roared to life. He backed out of the driveway and drove off to the crime lab, his head torn with mental emotion.
- - -
By this time, Kyle was on his knees and attempting to stand. Ron was taking great amusement out of watching this little act and sat in the chair, leaned back and fiddling with a knife in his hand. "You know, you're not going to be able to get out of here," he told the boy rather cheerfully, gesturing to the door. "It's locked, and only I have the key."
The boy felt a trickle of sweat run down his cheek. The humidity in the room was starting to get to him as he continued to struggle with his bonds. If he could just loosen this rope a little bit more, he would be able to maybe,
just maybe, make a run for it. Perhaps he could do it when Ron was asleep or something... But for now, he'd have to settle with slipping the rope off his wrists. Kyle grunted and spoke to the killer, voice dripping with venom. "Why? What did I do to deserve this?"
"Look, you're Horatio Caine's son. He's a martyr in the eyes of the whole city. If anything, this will be breaking news coverage about this, and maybe he'll be seen as a failure for once!" Ron laughed roughly, his finger stroking the blade. "You know, I can't wait to see your father come by and try to save you."
Kyle clenched up in hatred. How
dare that man insult his father like that! Horatio was a hero-
his hero. Sure, he might not have said it a lot of the time, but still... Kyle had a great deal of respect for his father. He held him very high regards as not only a law enforcement officer, but a caring a loving individual in his life. Sometimes, he was perhaps too caring about him and his mother, but he understood the reason for it now. He was trying to protect them from him.
From
Ron, who had seemed to lost his head entirely.
"You want to know why I hope he tries to save you?"
Kyle gritted his teeth.
"Because then when I kill you, I can watch the light in his eyes die."
The teen opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He began to slowly inch away from the door as Ron stood up and stepped forward slightly. "I hope I can watch him break down completely when he sees that his only son has died- the one light of his miserable life, gone before his eyes. And then, I kill him, too."
Time seemed to stand still. But in reality, it didn't.
It was still only 11:30 AM.