Chapter Five

1x05 - Ashes to Ashes

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When Eric told him that there was nothing in the car, nothing that they could use to hold this despicable man responsible for his crimes, Horatio didn't want to hear it. He didn't. Unfortunately, as an adult, he couldn't stick his fingers in his ears and sing "la, la, la" until reality went away, but he wanted to. This was not a reality that he wanted to accept. It wasn't right, wasn't fair, wasn't Just.

If anyone deserved Justice, it was this woman and her innocent, unborn child. Their souls cried out to him, pleading for Justice, for peace. And he couldn't provide it. He, who had dedicated his life to speaking for the dead, speaking for the victims of hatred and violence, couldn't speak for these two innocent souls. He knew the man was guilty, he knew, and yet he couldn't touch him. He couldn't touch him.

From hard-won experience, Horatio knew that this was going to be one of those cases. It was going to torment his sleep, populate his nightmares, press on his soul. It was going to follow him for years, until he either brought the killer to Justice or one of them died. He hated these cases, he really did.

Patting Eric's shoulder in reassurance, Horatio was struck with a brilliant idea: if he wasn't going to find peace concerning this case, why should Douglass? Recent advances in technology made it easier than ever to predict what the child of two people would look like, and Jeremy just happened to be quite skilled with these types of reconstructions.

Three hours later, as he watched Douglass walk out of the interview room looking a little sick, he felt both disappointed and satisfied. He had hoped that the man would crack under the pressure and confess, but he was apparently made of sterner stuff. Pity. Still, he would make sure that the man would never be able to forget his crime: every year on his unborn daughter's birthday, Douglass would find another picture in his mailbox. After all, Horatio had a whole folder full of pictures, and it would be a pity to waste Jeremy's hard work. The picture of the girl on her 18th birthday was especially touching, in his opinion - she would have looked just like her mother.

And when the man finally cracked under the weight of his crime, Horatio would be there to speak for Lisa and her daughter.

Until then, he would keep the faith.

He would not forget.