Summary: A murder case brings back a painful past for Horatio and for a while he becomes a suspect for the murder. Fortunately he has his best friend to help him through it.

Author's note: This is not a story full of action. It's been a long time since I wrote something and I feel a bit rusty. This is a story of friendship, of opening up and trusting people.

-I-

It was Monday morning and already the team were scattered through Miami. The extremely hot weekend seemed to have caused several homicidal rages among people and as a result the team had four murder cases. Horatio and Walter were handling a double homicide, that seemed more like a murder-suicide but you couldn't be sure until you had checked everything.

Eric and Ryan were handling a murder case that was particularly gruesome and bloody. Calleigh and Natalia were handling cases on their own for now. To say that it was a busy start of the week would be an understatement. Frank has his hand full as well; helping the team with their cases. Even though he did have help from his detectives and officers he was still a bit stressed.

Horatio and Walter were under a bit more pressure than the rest of the team as their case involved a well- respected judge. As always when the case involved someone that the police department's bosses felt was an important person they put Horatio on the case. He knew that his phone would pretty much be ringing non-stop because of it; since everyone wanted this case solved quickly and hopefully without anything embarrassing written in the press.

"This seems like a pretty clear case to me." Frank said, observing Walter and Horatio analyzing the scene.

"Do share, Francis." Horatio said.

"Simple… Judge Gordon stabbed his wife to death and then killed himself by cutting his throat. All the blood leads from her body to his and the knife is still in his hand." Frank said.

"Well, I agree but this could be the case of someone staging a murder-suicide to get back at the judge." Walter said, "I mean Judge Gordon wasn't exactly the most popular judge among criminals, was he?"

"True. But he hasn't dealt in anything more serious then some breaking and entering in years." Frank said, "Last I heard was that he had some uh, private business that wasn't really good for a judge to have."

Horatio and Walter knew that Frank meant. Rumors had spread that Judge Gordon liked girls. Especially younger girls; just old enough to not me underage. However, it did not look so good for a judge who had once sentenced hard-core criminals to jail, to be into borderline illegal things in his private time.

"Check into that Francis. Check if any of his so-called girl-friends were underage, forced into having sex with him or anything else. Also check if any of the men and women he sentenced to jail for serious crimes have recently been released." Horatio said, "And see if you can find out if the rumors about Judge Gordon and young girls are a fact and not just rumors, and if that caused some problems at work for him."

"You mean like him getting fired and the deciding to kill himself and his wife?" Frank asked.

"Exactly like that." Horatio said.

Francis nodded and left. Horatio and Walter stayed at the scene and worked mostly in silence. The whole team were so in tune with each other that words were hardly ever needed when they processed a scene together.

-I-

Across town Eric and Ryan were in a single-room apartment that had seen better days. There were moving boxes everywhere and they had learned from the landlady that the man renting the apartment had moved in just a week ago.

They hadn't found any sort of identification on their murder victim and the landlady claimed she didn't remember the name or could remember where she had put the contract for the apartment. She said she would go look for the contract "at some point" and left it at that.

Hopefully John Doe could be identified through prints or DNA; if he was in the system of course. It was a scene with blood all over the place. John Doe had not died quickly and had suffered a severe beating before having his head smashed in with a blunt object that was not found at the scene. The body was with Tom Logan at the morgue and he would most definitely find many torture-like wounds on the victim's body.

"Man, there is blood even in the ceiling. Somebody really had in for John Doe." Ryan said, as photographed everywhere.

"He sure pissed off someone. I wonder if that is why he moved to Miami. To get away from someone that wanted revenge or something." Eric said, "Which strengthens the possibility that he is in the system."

"Or… it could be a mistaken identity." Ryan said, as he checked his phone," Just got a text from Frank saying one of his detectives found out that the guy previously renting this apartment was a local drug dealer and left just the day before John Doe moved in."

"So, it could be that John Doe happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time." Eric said and swabbed some blood.

They worked a while in silence after that. The walls, ceiling and floor were basically covered with blood and it took a long time for them to finish. The good news was that with all that blood, trace and fingerprints they found there was a lot of evidence and hopefully some of it belonged to the murderer.

It was past lunch by the time Eric and Ryan finished collecting evidence. Both were pretty much soaked with sweat and feeling like they could eat a horse. They drove back to the lab to unload the evidence and then joined Calleigh and Natalia for lunch. Walter and Horatio were still stuck at their scene questioning witnesses.

"Poor Frank is running around between all our crime scenes. He's got some of his officers and detectives to help out, but they also have their hands full with other cases." Natalia said.

"It's one of those days that you wished you had chosen another career." Calleigh sighed and the others agreed.

It was often that the team felt that they had a shitty day, but this was one of those days. The hot weather wasn't helping either. They were used to hot weather, but today was a bit extreme; everyone was a bit on edge and feeling exhausted.

-I-

It was late afternoon when Eric went down to the morgue to hear what Tom had found on John Doe. The cold in the morgue was a welcome relief from the heat and Tom greeted Eric with his usual cheery smile.

"This man went through a lot of pain before he finally died." Tom said, "I found wood splinters in his head wound indicating that maybe a baseball bat or similar killed him; I already sent everything up to the lab."

Eric could see now that the body was washed that John Doe's face was almost completely disfigured and he was covered with wounds pretty much all over the body, at least the part that Eric could see.

"Both John Doe's ankles were broken, as well all his toes." Tom said, "He was stabbed repeatedly with something small but sharp, but without hitting any vital organs. His fingernails were all ripped out and his eyelids cut off."

"Whoa, somebody really had it in for him." Eric said.

"Oh yes. He has been kicked and beaten all over the body. His nose was broken and both shoulders dislocated." Tom continued, "Also they carved a word into his back."

Tom turned the body and showed Eric the back of the victim. There was the word "coward" carved deeply into the flesh.

"And he was alive through all this?" Eric asked.

"Yes, when whoever killed him started hitting his head with something blunt and made out of wood, it didn't take long to finish him." Tom said, "I estimate that John here is at least 70-75 years old."

"Jesus… I say whoever tortured him is the coward." Eric said.

"I agree." Tom said, "I also estimate that he was dead at least 24 hours before he was found."

"Did you take his prints?" Eric asked.

"Sent it to the lab." Tom said.

Eric nodded and thanked Tom before he left. The theory that John Doe had been in the wrong place at the wrong time seemed more and more plausible. Eric and Ryan had found out some more about the tenant that had lived in the apartment before John Doe.

That man was named Jake Hannigan and he was born and raised in Miami. He was also a drug dealer. A week ago, he had suddenly moved out of his apartment without telling anyone why or where he was going. The theory was that Hannigan had pissed off the wrong person and that person had mistaken John Doe for Hannigan.

Eric was deep in thought when he entered one of the evidence labs where Ryan had already begun processing.

"Hi Eric, I'm running the victim's prints though the database. Hope we get a hit." Ryan said.

Eric updated Ryan on Tom Logan's findings and Ryan's eyes widened as he listened. As far as they knew, which wasn't much, John Doe was a regular old man and had probably moved to Miami to enjoy retirement; not being tortured and killed.

"Seems that nobody heard anything either." Ryan said, "He had neighbors next door and they must have heard him being tortured."

"Well, Frank went back to the landlady and she said that the neighbors have been out of town for two weeks. Also, most people in that neighborhood tend not to hear when people scream or fight." Eric sighed, "They're too afraid to intervene. They just pretend not to hear or see anything."

"Well, maybe if someone had heard John Doe he would still be alive." Ryan muttered.

Eric agreed, but unfortunately the reality was that people were too scared to even call the police most of the time; in fear of having someone come after them for it. And if someone had tortured an old man as bad as they had John Doe then it was understandable that people were afraid. Most likely the people who were John Doe's neighbors knew who the murderer was and knew that it was best if they didn't interfere in his business.

The computer beeped and Ryan went to check if he had gotten a hit on the fingerprint. Eric continued going through John Doe's clothes and personal belongings; checking for more prints, trace or DNA that could lead to the killer.

A few minutes passed before Eric noticed how silent the room was and that Ryan had yet to share if they had a hit on the fingerprints. When Eric looked at his friend he saw how pale Ryan was. His eyes wide as he read something on the computer screen.

"What is it Ryan?" Eric asked.

"We uh… we got a hit on the prints." Ryan said.

"And?" Eric said.

"John Doe is uh… a former convict. He got out of jail two months ago in New York. He was in jail for murdering his wife and the attempted murder of his two children." Ryan said, his voice shaking.

"Well, who is he?" Eric asked, "Spit it out, Ryan."

"His name is Dean Caine."

"Caine?"

"Yes."

"Is he related to H?" Eric asked.

"Yes… the children he attempted to murder were his sons Horatio and Raymond Caine." Ryan said, "I have the old case file right here on the computer."

"He is H's father?!" Eric exclaimed in shock.

Ryan nodded and when Eric joined him to read about what Dean Caine had done that had landed him a spot in a New York prison, he wished he had never felt sorry for the old man.

What they read made both Eric and Ryan's blood run cold.

To be continued…