Unprocessed Evidence

1x17 – Simple Man

by Bookwormdragon

Disclaimer: Neither the CSI: Miami Universe nor any of the Characters in the CSI: Miami Universe belongs to me. No profit is made from this story on my part. No copyright infringement is intended.

“Listen, this is not about the case anymore. Now, it’s about winning.”

There was a part of Horatio that could understand this sentiment. He was a competitive man, after all. He liked to win. But he took a certain amount of comfort in the fact that he had never allowed his desire to win to overshadow Justice.

Gaining Justice for the victims was always more important than mere winning. Ensuring that an innocent man was not convicted for a crime he did not commit was paramount, regardless of his personal dislike for the man in question.

It would be easy to give in, to stop looking, to do what Don wanted. After all, as Don had pointed out, that was what appeals were for. His duty was simply to testify to the evidence at hand; it was the jury’s duty to weigh that evidence and determine guilt or innocence. Either way, his hands would be clean, technically speaking. And honestly, even with this possible new evidence, he personally believed that Lorenzo Escalante was guilty. There was just something about the man that rubbed him the wrong way.

No one would blame him if he got up and testified. The new evidence wasn’t conclusive; it could merely be a coincidence or the work of a copycat. Testifying right now might not be unethical, but that didn’t mean it would be right.

If he took that step, if he compromised his own principles like that, where would it stop? Next time, would he discount evidence because it wasn’t saying what he wanted to hear? Would he allow his personal feelings to outweigh the truth?

Already, he was tempted by the thought of bringing Justice to those who were currently out of his reach. A little manufactured evidence here, some lost evidence there. He could do it. He could do it and never get caught, he had all the necessary knowledge and access, knew how to be careful. Once begun, it would be so easy to continue. So easy. And once he started down that path, he would never stop, he knew enough about himself to admit that.

But if he stepped onto that path, he wouldn’t do so alone. His people trusted him to a degree that was both humbling and a little frightening. Calleigh, Speed, Alexx, maybe even Eric: they wouldn’t question his actions, wouldn’t look too closely until it was too late, until they were in too deeply themselves. It wasn’t that they weren’t moral people, they were. But they wanted to trust him, to believe in him, and that desire would blind them to the truth until they were as tightly caught in the web of lies as he would be.

And that was something he just couldn’t bring himself to do to them. With great power comes great responsibility, as the saying went. His team had given him their loyalty and trust, and it was his duty to be worthy of that gift. For their sakes, he would resist the temptation to take the easy path. It just wasn’t worth the cost.

“Well, you know what then? We're not on the same side.”

At the end of the day, winning wasn’t everything.