O.K., I'm back again, the office is swirling, the next meeting is just waiting for me, the schedule for today is set with lots of things, BUT..... this is the time I gonna update the story. Today we gonna get some more info about the case on one hand and about Stella and Calleigh on the other...
Hope you enjoy...
Chapter 36Now a friendlier working-atmosphere entered the lab again. Lindsay assisted Calleigh with the bullet-fragments of the old case, Stella coordinated the assembly of the boarding-lists Ryan had asked for and Danny, Eric, Mac and Horatio went into Mac’s office to plan the investigations in one of the quarters of the
Jarhead-gang. Therefore they had taken the files of the old case with them, which soon gave Horatio the name of the killed sub-chief and…
“There’s only one relative left.” Danny was already afraid that after such quite a long time even this trace would have become cold.
“The name of the sub-chief was Jason Byrne,” Mac read the name out loud, so Danny could check the data-base for it.
“O.K. here he is. He died in 1989 by a bullet. Your predecessor thought he could have become a victim of a gang-quarrel, Mac, which was quite common in the late 80ies,” Danny explained. “No info about the reasons behind that all.”
Horatio stood right behind him and read the details until he found the name of the relative: “There was a cousin, younger than Jason. Norman Byrne. His trace got lost in 1992. Maybe this happened because he’d changed his name.”
“What about his insurance-number?” Eric asked.
“Nope, no recent activities. - But that doesn’t mean that much. It’s quite easy to change your name and even to get a new social-card if you’re just paying enough for it.” Danny checked the details again.
“How old was Norman, when he became the guardian of the killer?” Horatio asked.
Danny scrolled to the point with the date of birth and said silently: “Sixteen.”
Mac and Horatio looked at each other and Mac spoke out, what Danny and Horatio only dared to think: “Then he was still a teenager, when he had to accompany a killer whose job was to kill his own cousin.”
***
In the lab Calleigh had finished her work on the bullet and gave Lindsay the evidence back to lock it down in the archive again. Stella went over to her to look at her results.
“Wow that was quite fast. And… the winner is?”
Calleigh grinned about this intro of Stella and answered: “It definitely IS our weapon and concerning the content of your data-base this rifle is already used quite often in a lot of similar cases: sniper, gang-background, all happening till 1991. There the traces gets lost and reappears after round about 15 years.”
“So, also the old case Horatio is involved in belongs to this series. – I’m hoping Mac and Danny are able to find out something which is useful BEFORE they enter the tribal area of the gang.”
“Even if they only find out half of the details, it won’t stop Horatio from searching for the sniper,” Calleigh said and her smile vanished again.
“May I ask you a question, Cal?” Stella’s mind was working on this since quite a long time.
“Sure,” Calleigh gave back.
“Since when… since when are you together? I mean, Horatio and you.”
Calleigh could not detect a false intention behind it and answered with a little smile: “Since round about half a year. – But we’ve known each other much earlier… without noticing that each of us was interested in the other. … Why are you asking?”
“I noticed how good you know Horatio’s story,” Stella said.
Calleigh studied the surface of her hands for some seconds before she explained: “Well, most of the devils of his past he reveals only one by one. Better said: every time an old devil appears...”
“That could become exhausting.” Now Stella knew why Calleigh did not hesitate to travel to New York and why she and Horatio had been so pale this morning.
“You say it. – Horatio’s only talking very seldom about his family. Well, an abusive father and the gang-background of the family isn’t a subject you would love talking about.” Calleigh’s smile got a bit wry, but Stella understood at once.
“But why are you asking? It couldn’t be only the interest in Horatio’s and mine relationship.”
Now Stella hesitated a bit and started to wring her hands as she always did, when she got nervous.
“Me and Mac… It seems as if… there’s something one… one could call a relationship sooner or later.”
“Oh wow, there’s no way to express it more complicate, Stella,” Calleigh teased her a bit and smiled from one ear to the other.
“I’m not that fond of relationships among colleagues,” Stella continued explaining.
“Stella, you better just ask yourself two questions: #1 Are you able to stay as professional in your daily job as before after you’ve noticed your interest in Mac?”
Stella nodded silently and added: “I had to manage it this very morning and it worked well.”
“O.K. then, #2 Do you love him?”
Stella went down to the bottom of her heart and soul, kept quiet for a certain time and then returned back from this point very deep inside of her and said: “Yes.”
TBCNext update will be posted tomorrow...