Title: Gossamer Web

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Spoilers: None, for once

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Chapter 7

When he received the vacation request, Horatio really wasn’t that surprised. The past month had been incredibly stressful. He completely understood why Calleigh wanted to take some of her saved-up vacation days. He understood and that was why he willingly approved her request, without so much as batting an eye.

Okay, maybe he batted an eye. Six weeks ago Calleigh and he had been together in what looked like a promising romantic relationship. A month later and they were stuck in this no man’s land, broken up but still forced to spend inordinate amounts of time with each other. Their jobs demanded this full attention but it didn’t mean that the tension wasn’t so thick that you cut it with a butterknife. Of course, it didn’t help matters that it had been a secret relationship so they weren’t allowed to mourn it properly. Instead they had to solider on, take it was day at a time.

It was difficult to have to work with Calleigh each and every day. It was difficult to see her long blond hair spread like a waterfall down her back and know that he could no longer run his fingers through the silky tresses. It pained him to see her in tight black pants and low-cut blouses, knowing that he could no longer touch her soft skin whenever the urge came about. It hurt to no longer hear her laughter, her voice now quiet and lacking the quirkiness that had always characterized Calleigh.

They were clumsily around each other, their former graceful dance now interrupted and ended. Their co-workers could see it, could feel it in the tension that grew each day between them. It was evident in the way that they went to extra lengths to avoid physical contact, in the way that they communicated primarily through cell phone and not through face-to-face interaction.

There were just so many examples of how their break-up was affecting the work relationship not only between them but also between every member of the day shift. The strain that it took to maintain a united façade was pressing heavily on shoulders already too burdened. Horatio hated requiring this of his team members. He hated that they had to deal with the fallout of his and Calleigh’s mistake. It wasn’t fair to them and he knew Calleigh felt the same way. It had probably contributed to her vacation request.

So, for many reasons, Horatio approved Calleigh’s request to take five days off. He remembered the hollow smile she had given him when he had handed her the signed request form. The dark shadows under her listless eyes made him hope that her vacation would allow her to find some peace. He missed seeing the light in her eyes and those lifeless eyes haunted him, making him regret ever beginning the relationship with Calleigh.

Their relationship might have started out mutual but he was older, supposedly wiser. He should have stopped it before everything had spun out of control. Instead he had become caught up with their romance and the warning signs had never registered until it was much too late. Now Calleigh was slowly disappearing and that weighed heavily on his conscience, adding to a burden already over the legal limit.

On her last day before her scheduled vacation, Horatio had travelled down to the ballistics lab, a space that he had been conspicuously absent from in the last month. Her dull green eyes were full of questions but she had remained silent while he wished that she find some happiness during her vacation. She had given him a ghost of a smile, thanked him, and he had left, praying that Calleigh’s vacation would help her regain the part of herself that she had lost. All he had now were prayers. He could only hope that one or two of the ton would actually be heard.

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Monday morning dawned with bright golden sunshine and a cool breeze. Horatio, though, was in his office before the sun had even finished rising. Dark dreams that he couldn’t recall come morning had been plaguing his sleep the night before. He had risen early, ignoring the tired aches in his body, and had headed into work.

The night shift had just been in the process of winding down when Horatio had arrived at the crime lab that morning. A couple of the night shift CSIs had offered him weak hellos, as if they too knew that something wasn’t quite right with the day shift Lieutenant. He had nodded in response to these greetings, not trusting himself to remember names of people he rarely worked with.

He spent the first two hours of the morning going over paperwork, studiously working to keep his mind off the fact that Calleigh was now far, far away on her much-desired vacation. Her absence meant many things to Horatio. On one hand, he didn’t have to deal with the awkwardness and tension that now characterized their relationship. On the other hand, even if he couldn’t have her, at least before he could still see her, still touch her life. Now she was gone, albeit temporarily, but Horatio couldn’t shake the thought that this week was just a prelude to a future possibility.

At eight in the morning, Horatio was paged to a house in the Little Havana neighorbood. Little Havana, Horatio knew, was an ethnic enclave within the county that was mostly populated by Cuban immigrants. The address that was showing up on his pager was near the fringes of the neighbourhood. He left his office, papers in disarray, and climbed into the county-issued CSI Hummer.

The house that corresponded to the address on his pager was a small, one-story ranch-style home. The house was a light yellow stucco color, surrounded by a small but well-kept bright green lawn. Blooming flowers, small scrubs, and white stones decorated both sides of a path that led to the front door. White curtains fluttered in the breeze let in by the open front windows. All in all, it was the picture of normalcy.

That normalcy was disrupted by the police cruisers parked outside, by the couple of people who stood just outside of the bright yellow police tape, watching the scene unfold with morbid curiosity. Kids heading to school passed by the scene, gave it a once-over, and continued on their way, now armed with a cool story to tell their classmates in the minutes before the school bell rang.

Horatio showed the officer standing sentry at the front path his badge and continued up the front walk, mentally preparing himself for whatever he would find. The page had been a DB but experience had taught Horatio to be prepared for a million things when responding to a seemingly simple DB page.

He entered through the open door, already in observation-mode. The short front hallway led him to an open doorway which allowed entry in the front room. Here Horatio found Alexx, her slim body bent over a prone body on the floor.

“Alexx,” Horatio called out in greeting, not surprised when his resident ME didn’t so much as twitch when he called out her name. “What do we have here?” he asked, moving to stand closer to Alexx. He peered down at the body.

Alexx glanced up, smiling her morning greeting at him. When Horatio smiled back, Alexx turned her attention once more to the victim in front of her.

“Single gunshot wound to the chest,” she told him. “You didn’t expect that when you got up this morning, now did you honey?” Alexx said as she caressed the victim’s hair.

“Victim’s name is Adella Martinez,” Frank said as he joined Horatio and Alexx in the living room. Horatio nodded and waited for Frank to continue, knowing the homicide detective would share any other pertinent facts. When Frank didn’t continue, Horatio was left with no option but to ask the questions himself.

“This her house?” he asked, glancing around at the tan couch and oak wood coffee and end tables. The pictures on the walls were bright, colourful, nothing that would indicate why this old lady had been brutally shot in the chest.

Frank shook his head, surprising Horatio. “Nope, the house is registered in the other victim’s name.”

“Other victim?” Horatio asked, interrupting Frank. Frank glared at him and Horatio offered up an apologetic smile. Frank just rolled his eyes, Horatio noted.

“Isabella Garza, twenty-seven,” Frank stated. “She was found unconscious. Paramedics already took her to the hospital.”

Horatio nodded, taking it all in. “Who called it in?”

Frank smirked at that. “A neighbor coming to steal Garza’s morning paper heard something shatter accompanied by a shout. When no one answered the door, the concerned neighbor called 911. Our boys got here, entered when no one came to the door, and found Martinez here in the living room. Garza was in the kitchen.”

Horatio thanked Frank for the information and decided to give the house as customary look-through while he waited for his team to arrive. Leaving Alexx with the body, he headed back to the hallway and followed it to the end of the road, which just happened to be the kitchen.

Large patio doors with the blinds opened let pouring sunshine in, and dominated the far end of the kitchen. The kitchen itself was small but functional. Light faux-oak cupboards and countertops coupled with yellow paint and bright natural sunshine gave the kitchen a light, airy appearance. The homely feeling of the kitchen was disturbed by the small blood pool near the kitchen island. Horatio walked carefully around the dark red spill, heading towards the patio doors.

The doors run length across the far wall in the kitchen. A doorway ended the patio doors and opened into the dining area, which Horatio now saw was connected to the living room area. Large windows dominated that far side wall of that large room and Horatio suspected that those windows did double-time as patio doors. Walking closer to the kitchen patio window panel, he saw that the wooden patio did stretch from one end of house to the other end. Of course, the house was relatively small so this wasn’t a huge patio but it did give a lovely escape route for any criminals.

Horatio turned his gaze to where the window/door meet with the frame as he felt a soft gust of air ripple through his air. The AC was off, so he wasn’t surprised when he found the door slightly ajar.

“Find anything, H?” Ryan asked as he entered the kitchen away, causing Horatio to glance up and lose his train of thought. The brown-haired CSI gave Horatio a sheepish smile when Horatio shot him a slightly annoyed look.

“I think, Mister Wolfe, that I may have found how our criminals entered and exited this house.”

Horatio waited until Ryan was closer to point out the slightly ajar patio door. “See, right here, the door’s ajar. Could be coincidence…” Horatio said before trailing off, allowing Ryan to complete his pattern of thoughts.

“Or it could be the entry/exit point of our bad guys,” Ryan finished, a hopeful look in his eyes. Sometimes Horatio thought that Ryan seemed to resemble a puppy dog quite accurately, always looking for approval. But, then again, Ryan was new and still adjusting and god knows it had been easy for the young CSI. Not only was he Speed’s replacement, he was also having to deal with the fallout of Horatio and Calleigh’s secret relationship.

“Precisely, Mister Wolfe,” Horatio said, desperately waiting to help Ryan build his confidence. Perhaps a little reassurance would help the youngest CSI lose that whole puppy god resemblance. With Calleigh away on vacation, Horatio thought that maybe he could finally get to connect with Ryan and put the kid at ease, for he looked fairly high strung.

“I’ll print it right away,” Ryan said and hurriedly went to work. Horatio sighed, thinking that it would probably take more than a week to make Ryan lose his need to constantly please. Horatio could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on. The headache had been starved by the arrival of a new case but now it was threatening to come on full-force.

With the arrival of his team, Horatio was forced to confront with the reality that Calleigh really wasn’t there. It was hitting it home that she one day might be permanently gone, not just at the crime lab or at another scene. If it had been hard to work with Calleigh after their break-out, how hard would it be to work knowing that she no longer a part of his team? Perhaps he needed to prepare himself for that day.

The sounds of a woman arguing pulled Horatio from his musings. Leaving Ryan with the kitchen to process, Horatio followed the sound of voices to the front door. As he walked down the hallway, he glanced through the side doorway into the living room, giving Eric as a nod in lieu of a spoken hello as he passed by.

A woman in her mid-twenties was arguing with the young officer whose name, Horatio thought, was Jessup. She was tall with long dark hair that fell in loose curls around her shoulders. Hazel eyes and full lips complimented her clear skin and high cheekbones. She was slim, dressed in white pants and a silk royal blue sleeveless blouse. She was, simply put, beautiful. But her eyes were desperate.

“What seems to be the problem, ma’am?” Horatio asked as he came to a stop just behind Officer Jessup. He placed his hands on his hips, pushing back his suit jacket, in a pose that Calleigh had once nicknamed the ‘Horatio Stance.’ He forced himself to push his thoughts of Calleigh aside.

“I was supposed to meet my daughter here at nine,” she told him, which explained the desperation and alarm that he could see and hear in her eyes and in her voice. She brushed back her hair with a shaky hand and Horatio felt a rush of sympathy, and concern. They hadn’t found any a little girl in the house, only the two adult women. Suddenly this case was becoming more in-depth, more sinister.

Horatio nodded at the woman, his eyes full of sympathy. “How old is your daughter?” he asked.

A tear slipped down the woman’s pale face as she answered. “She’s six. Why? Do you know where she is?” she asked, her voice full of pleading to be told something, anything.

Horatio shook his head, his face full of sorrow. “Ma’am, I need you to tell me everything.”

She nodded. “My name is Camila Gonzales. My daughter’s name is Analeigh Gonzales. She’s six. My friend Isabella babysits Analeigh and I was coming pick her up,” Camila said in a rush, nervous hands twitching as she spoke.

“But, instead, I find that Isabella’s house has been sealed off and no one will tell me where my daughter is.” She sounded close to breaking, Horatio noted, and tears were slipping down her face as she talked. “I need you to tell me what’s going on,” she begged Horatio and Horatio felt his heart break.

“I’m sorry Ms. Gonzales but we really don’t have any details,” Horatio stated and the despondent look in Camila’s eyes made him cringe internally. “I can tell you that Isabella Garza was taken to the hospital, but we have no information on your daughter.”

The young lady in front of him nodded numbly, thanking him absently as she wrapped her arms around herself. The headache Horatio had felt building earlier hit him full-force as the reality of the case came crushing down around him. Child abduction cases were always difficult, if that was what this was, and he had to prepare himself for the worst. He wished that Calleigh was here because her presence had always been a comfort during the difficult times. But she wasn’t here so he had to wager it alone.

He laid a comforting hand on the young woman’s shoulder. He glanced over his shoulder and found Frank watching him. With a subtle shake of his head, Horatio indicated to Frank to come over.

“Ms. Gonzales, this is Detective Tripp. I need you to tell him what happened and answer any questions he might have. All right?”

She nodded and Horatio left her in Frank’s capable hands, handing back to the living room. Eric and Ryan were both there, conversing in soft tones. When he entered the room, they both glanced up questionably, their eyes full of inquiry.

“What’s up, H?” Eric asked, breaking the silence. Eric played with his camera’s strap while he waited, a nervous gesture that Horatio had noted in Eric when Eric had first started working for him.

Horatio sighed. “It seems we may have a kidnapped six-year-old,” he said, the bearer of bad news. They now possibly had a motive for the murder of Adella Martinez and the assault on Isabella Garza but child kidnappings were now fun, always some of the most difficult cases.

“Crap,” Ryan said, and Horatio thought that summed it up pretty accurately. Of course, he wouldn’t tell Ryan that. But a part of him had to wonder just exactly what Ryan was learning from Calleigh.

Eric rolled his eyes at Ryan’s understatement and Horatio fought the urge to laugh. It wasn’t that Horatio thought that Eric honestly disliked his newest colleague. No, it wasn’t that. The truth of the situation was that Eric and Speed had been close friends and now Speed was dead with Ryan as his replacement. Eric was keeping a firm distance between himself and Ryan, and Horatio really couldn’t blame him. He had been doing the same thing, leaving Calleigh to train Ryan.

“All right, here’s what we do,” Horatio said, taking charge. “You guys process the scene. I want a thorough game done. Nothing is too small.” Eric and Ryan nodded so Horatio went on. “I’ll be at headquarters, interviewing the girl’s mother. Keep me posted.” With that, Horatio left the house and headed back to the crime lab.

As he drove, he finally felt that passion that had been missing for the month. It would be a difficult case, he was sure, but something about it had revitalized him, re-energized him in a way that other cases hadn’t. Maybe it was because Analeigh was just an innocent little girl, one who didn’t deserve to have her life destroyed. Whatever the reason, he was committed to the case and, for once, his thoughts weren’t straying to Calleigh, a feat in and of itself.

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