Murder in Miami

Okay, this is my first fan fic. Hope people like it. Excuse the inconsistencies, I was writing this fuelled by caffeine and adrenaline for the past week at unreasonable hours of the morning! Also excuse typos and spelling mistakes!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from CSI: Miami though I really wish I did.

The weather was very unusual. It was raining. For once, the sky wasn't blue and blazing with a hot sun. It was grey, cloudy and pouring with rain. Drivers slithered past on wet roads, spraying irate pedestrians as they drove through puddles. People hurried through the streets with unfamiliar hoods tugged over their heads, and stood in the fronts of shops or the lobbies of buildings complaining about the weather. Not that the rain was doing much for the heat since it was still very warm.

The weather might be different from usual but some things always stay the same and one of those things is murder.

'You're late,' Calleigh said as Ryan approached.

He set down his kit. 'Sorry. Traffic was really bad on the way. The weather seems to have taken everyone by surprise.'

'You're lucky this is one dead found inside, then.,' she said. 'Owner of this nightclub. One of the cleaners found him earlier, called it in.'

'You're not staying then?' Ryan said, frowning.

She smiled. 'No. I got another call about five minutes ago. You're on your own on this one.'

'Great,' he muttered.

'You'll be fine,' she assured him. 'Just ask if you need any help. Alexx is out the back with the body. See you later.' She waved as she walked away.

'Hey there boy,' Alexx said without looking up from the dead body on the floor. 'How's that eye?'

'Better than it's been for a while,' Ryan said, grinning. 'How are you? Enjoy your vacation?'

'I came back wondering why I don't go more often,' she replied.

'Thanks for the postcard.'

'You're welcome, honey. Got presents for everyone too. Yours is back at the lab.' She smiled at him. 'You get it when you solve this case, how about that?'

'Sounds fun.' He looked down at the body, adjusting his camera. 'What do we have?'

She gave him a hard look. 'You're pulling a triple, Ryan. You're on overtime, aren't you? There something wrong?'

'No,' he said, averting his eyes in a manner which told her that he was lying. 'I just wanted something to do. Eric broken his ankle a while ago so he's confined to the lab and I'm taking over his field work. Mind you, he's still on crutches but almost healed so it won't be for much longer.'

'You sure that's all it is?'

'Of course I'm sure.' His face took on the hard expression it did when he didn't want to talk about something. Alexx gave him a piercing look and he had to look away. However, she didn't push the subject.

'Mr Moore here died of blunt force trauma to the head,' she informed him. 'Liver temp puts time of death at about three this morning. Several blows to the head with some cylindrical object. Last one cracked the skull, you might be able to pull some impressions off of it once I've got the skull ready for you.'

'Thanks.' He took a couple more photographs.

'Tell me what you see,' she said.

Ryan crouched down beside the body, eyes narrowed in concentration. 'Blunt force trauma to the head,' he said thoughtfully. 'High velocity blood spatter, more than one blow, spatter on the floor and the wall,' he pointed, 'and there is a massive void.' He took a couple of photos of it. 'Means someone was standing there, maybe our killer which means we should be able to get blood evidence off of their clothes.'

Alexx nodded. 'That's all obvious, Ryan. You see anything else?'

He took another look around. 'Table and chairs knocked over, broken glass and a broken bottle. Evidence of a struggle.' He examined the victim's hands. 'Defensive wounds, but some attack wounds as well. There was a fight.' He picked up a piece of glass. 'There's blood on this, and saliva on the other glass. We might be able to pull DNA off of them.'

'Good. See anything else?'

He squinted at the body. 'Fibres,' he said suddenly. 'All over the victim's shirt.' He removed several of the fibres and put them into an evidence bag. 'Red,' he observed. 'Maybe trace can pull something up on these. Could be nothing, though.' He got up. 'I'll take a look around and see you can at the lab. You good to go?'

She nodded. 'We should get this boy back to the morgue and see if I can find anything else out about him.'

'I'll see you back there,' Ryan said absently, too busy photographing to wave. Alexx shook her head with a wry smile.

He barely noticed Alexx leaving, he was too absorbed in examining the crime scene. The club was called Broken Glass, a relatively new and pretty popular club that had been under investigation for selling alcohol to underage teenagers and for selling illegal absinthe at private parties. He reflected for a moment on the irony. The owner, a Mr Max Moore, had been wealthy and not at all popular. Word had spread fast in Miami that he had influential friends and enemies and had seriously annoyed people who should never be annoyed. Now it looked as if one of them had finally taken care of him.

'This is the cleaner who found the body,' a police said to Ryan, bringing a man walking close behind him.

Ryan looked around. 'Hi,' he said. 'Can you tell me what happened?'

The cleaner nodded. He looked rather shaken. 'I came in at eight this morning,' he said. 'Like I usually do. I got the cleaning stuff out, like I usually do, and I came in here. Then I found him.'

'You came in here first?' Ryan said.

The man nodded. 'I always come in here first,' he explained. 'Mr Moore tends to come in early so I try to get his office cleaned before he gets in. Means I don't disturb him when I clean.'

'Right,' Ryan said slowly. 'Can you verify that?'

'How do you mean?' the cleaner said warily.

'I mean can you prove that you came in at eight?' Ryan said patiently. 'Not any earlier?'

The man shrugged. 'Well, you can take a look at the security camera. I always park my car around the back, so that'll tell you.'

'All right,' Ryan said. 'That'll do for now but we might need to talk to you again, okay?'

The cleaner nodded and left.

Ryan continued to process the scene. He wasn't aware of how much time had gone by until the police officer came back and said to him, 'There's two women who are wanting to come in. They say they're his wife and daughter.'

'All right, I'll come and speak to them,' Ryan said. He walked outside where there were two women stood outside, arguing with another police officer.

'Can I help you?' he asked politely.

The woman glared at him. 'And who are you?' she demanded angrily.

'CSI Wolfe,' he said. 'Can I help you?'

'We want to see my husband,' she snapped.

'I'm afraid you can't,' he said. 'I can't let you into this crime scene and your husband's body has already been transported to the mortuary.'

She drew herself up. 'Young man, do you have any idea who I am?'

'No,' Ryan said, trying to remain calm. 'And I'm afraid that I can't let you into the scene. But I do need you to answer some questions.'

'About what?'

'About your husband's murder.'

The glare she shot him was enough to make him drop dead. 'Why on earth would you want to ask me questions? Am I a suspect? How dare you?'

'It's standard procedure,' he said, gritting his teeth.

'I hardly think I would murder my own husband,' she hissed.

Ryan resisted commenting that the majority of murders were committed by someone the victim knew. Often spouses. He merely gave a hard smile and said, 'Can I ask where you were at about three this morning?'

'I don't have to answer that,' she said coldly.

'I'm afraid you do,' he said. 'Or else you will become a suspect.'

She looked angry and then said, 'I was at home. Watching television, actually.'

'Can anyone verify that?' he asked.

'I can,' the daughter said. 'I came in at two this morning. Mom was still up.' She gave him a smile. 'So you see? I can verify it.'

'And where were you until two?' he asked, ignoring the smile.

'At a nightclub,' she said. 'Strobe Lighting. You know it?'

'Yeah.' He nodded.

'Can you verify that?' she continued, obviously flirting now.

'I will be,' he replied, unsmiling.

She nodded, hands on her hips, smiling at him. 'You're cute,' she said. 'You wanna go out some time?'

'No,' Ryan said shortly. 'I'm the CSI investigating your father's death. Don't you think comments like that are inappropriate?'

She laughed. 'Oh, well. It was worth a try.' She winked. 'And I don't give up easily.'

'Come on,' Mrs Moore said tightly. 'We need to go.' She cast Ryan another furious look and swept away. Her daughter followed, shooting Ryan a flirtatious smile.

Ryan sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was seriously tired and knew that what he really needed was to go home, get some rest and come back tomorrow. But work was preferable to not doing anything. Besides, although he knew Horatio wouldn't object to him taking a day off, especially since he was pulling a triple shift, he didn't want to leave the other CSIs in the lurch by wandering off home.

His mobile rang. He took it out of his pocket, glanced at the caller ID and cancelled the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket.

He took another look around and bit back a sigh. It was going to take ages to finish processing this scene. Normally he would have enjoyed the challenge, but not today. He have another sigh and set to work grimly.