1. Chapter 1

**I've started writing this story a while ago, and though I had faith in it, I have about 5 stories currently in-progress and I swore to myself I wouldn't post another one until at least one of those is finished first. So this story stayed on my laptop, occasionally being worked on when I was blocked out on all my other stories. **

**But like all good rules that I place for myself - this one was meant to be broken too. I took a look at this file today and realized I have 13 chapters already written and figured - what the heck, I should just post it and get it over with! My desicion process was also helped by the fact that my Supernatural story is pretty much written from begining to end (although, I'm one of those people who need to feel a pen in their hands and paper under it to get creative so the entire story is in several notebooks scattered on my desk and will still need to be typed on the computer at some point!).**

**I hope you enjoy this! This was written before S4 began and so my story still has Payton in it and none of the crazy stalker thing they have been laying out for Mac in the s4 episodes so far.**

* * *

Detective Stella Bonaserra parked her SUV as close to the police tape as she could and stopped out of the car. It was approaching on midnight but the lack of sunlight did nothing to alleviate the heat wave that had been hammering the city for the past several days. The air was sticky and humid and she could already feel her clothes starting to cling to her body merely a minute after stepping out from her air conditioned car. She grabbed her kit from the back seat and made her way over, ducking under the yellow tape and flashing her badge before heading over to Flack who was already there, talking to some uniformed officers.

"Hey Flack, what have you got?"

He motioned for her to follow him but before they could go any further she saw his expression change to a smile as he noticed something behind her. She turned in that direction and smiled a smile of her own when she saw Mac make his way under the yellow tape.

"Hey Mac!" She greeted "How was London?"

"Cold, wet and wonderful" He answered with that trade-mark curve of his lips before quickly diverting the attention back to the case and away from his personal life by asking where the body was. Flack led them into the ally where the body of a young girl was sprawled face down on the pavement, a gun in her outstretched right hand.

Stella gloved up and crouched next to the body "Female, looks about 20 something years old" She padded the girl's pockets and came up empty "No wallet, no purse…"

She trailed off when something caught her eye. Mac gave her a curious look but she ignored him and waited.

Then she saw it again

The girl's finger

It moved

"Oh my god!" She exclaimed and quickly tore off her gloves and reached down to check for a pulse on the girl's neck. It took a few seconds and even then it was so faint she could barely make it out - but it was definitely there "This girl is still alive! Call EMT! Get an ambulance over here NOW!"

* * *

"What the hell happened?" Mac turned angrily to Flack as soon as the paramedics pulled away from the scene with the victim "That girl lay bleeding in that ally for 20 minutes longer than she should have!"

"The first officer on the scene checked for a pulse, says he found none!" Flack shook his head and Mac could see that the young detective was just as angry as he was "But trust me, he and I are going to have a long heart to heart a little later tonight with a little tutorial about checking for vitals"

Mac nodded and headed back to the ally where Stella and Hawks were busy going over the crime scene and picking up evidence.

"So, what have we got?" he asked.

"Well, before the paramedics took her away I took a peek at the wounds; she was shot once in the abdomen. The gun from her right hand was recently fired and then there's this…"

She handed him a piece of paper already placed in a clear evidence bag.

"I'm sorry, I can't take it, I had to do this…" Mac read off the paper and frowned "So what do you think? She shot herself?"

"Committing suicide by shooting yourself in the stomach in the middle of a dark ally?" Stella wondered out load, the theory not sitting right with her.

"I don't think so" Hawks interjected from where he was examining the brick wall a few feet away "Because I just found another bullet in this wall"

"We still have no ID on our vic" Flack reported as he joined them "I checked with dispatch there are no fresh missing persons reports matching her description"

"Stella, go to the hospital, check on our vic and process her as soon as possible" Mac instructed "We need to find out who she is…"

"So you're not thinking suicide?" Stella asked

"I don't know yet and until we know for sure what happened here we're treating this like any other case"


	2. Chapter 2

Mac stood by his desk and looked around him through the glass walls at this lab. As much as he enjoyed his little impromptu vacation to London it was good to be back. There were still signs of the explosion and the events that lead to it around the lab - most of the glass walls had been replaced but a few were still missing, the walls that had been collapsed by the explosion were still being re-painted, there were still construction workers milling about here and there even in this late hour - the restoration of the NYPD crime lab being top priority for the city.

"Well hey there" Mac lifted his head and smiled at Payton who was leaning against his door frame with a smile gracing her lips.

"I am actually somewhat proud of you" She teased "You waited for 3 full hours from the moment we got back from the airport to go back to work"

He smiled at her but didn't offer an explanation - there wasn't one needed. She knew what his work meant to him and he knew that she felt the same about her own work. It was one of the things that brought them together in the first place. It was one of the things that made them fit so perfectly together.

"So I figured I'd come by pick up a shift of my own, maybe offer my help…" She came into his office and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Unfortunately, there's no dead body for you to work on"

She frowned "But when I called the office they said you were out handling a murder victim in an ally"

"Stella found a pulse" Mac told her "That girl was lying in that ally bleeding for more than 20 minutes, dozens of cops around her, nobody helped her…"

"That's so awful" Payton seemed truly mortified by the story. He loved that about her - her obvious empathy for the victims "Is she going to be alright?"

"She's at the hospital, we don't know if she'll make it"

She moved her hand to caress his cheek and gave him a sad smile. "I'll stick around for a little bit… I'll be there if you need me"

He nodded, thankful for her understanding and for the comfort she was providing him. He reached out and pulled her closer planting a kiss on the top of her head, then watched as she made her way out of his office.

* * *

Stella paced the waiting room and ignored the annoyed looks the duty nurse was sending her way every few minutes. She hated hospitals. They brought back painful memories that she tried her best to avoid.

She'd already gotten the girl's cloths from the ER and sent them back to the lab. Now she waited for a chance to process the girl herself - provided she made it through surgery. Otherwise, it would be the job of the medical examiner's office.

It took another hour of wearing a hole in the carpet until a doctor dressed in scrubs made his way out and headed over to her introducing himself as Doctor Sloan.

"She made it through surgery and as per your request I got you your bullet" He informed her as he handed her the bullet in a small glass jar "but she lost a lot of blood and she's currently in a coma, we're pretty sure she'll wake up eventually but there's no way of telling when"

"I need to see her Doctor Sloan" Stella informed him "We still have no idea who she is or what happened to her - I need to check for trace…"

"The girl stable but her condition is still pretty fragile…" The doctor started protesting but Stella cut him off quickly.

"Doctor, I promise I'll be extremely gentle but if we don't get what evidence we can off of her now - it might be lost forever and we'll never find out what happened in that ally."

The doctor seemed to consider this for a moment before finally nodding his head and agreeing.

"I'm going to insist there will be a nurse present throughout your examination to make sure you don't aggravate the patient"

She nodded and retrieved her kit then made her way to the ICU where the girl lay in a bed connected to several tubes and beeping machines. The duty nurse was already in the room and gave Stella a curt nod as she entered. Stella took a moment to look at the victim from her place by the door. The girl was beautiful, slender with flowing brown hair that was spread on the pillow, framing her face, high cheek bones and full lips completed the picture.

She took out her flashlight and stepped closer, carefully going over the body. She noticed a small cut on the left cheek and what looked like a bruise starting to heal on her jaw line. - indicating that the girl had had a fight with someone at some point in the last few days. She photographed both bruises but a closer examination of the wounds revealed no other trace from the wounds. When she got closer to the girl's face to check for trace on her bruises she noticed a small hickey on the girl's neck and took out a q-tip to swab the skin around the mark hoping to get traces of saliva that would give them some DNA evidence.

She took out a q-tip and swabbed the girl's right hand to check for the presence of GSR. She frowned at her results. The swab indicated that there were traces of GSR on the girl's hand but the trace wasn't where it was supposed to be - concentrated only on the girl's thumb and no where else.

She checked under the girl's finger nails but found nothing other then paper cuts and several ink stains on her finger tips, so she proceeded to take the girl's finger prints. Maybe they would get lucky and find her finger prints in the system somewhere.

She took a deep breath and stepped away from the body for a moment. There was one last thing she had to do. The mark on the girl's neck indicated a sexual encounter either related to the attack or right before it - as unpleasant as it was, it had to be checked out.

"Nurse, would you please page a doctor in here, preferably a female doctor" She informed the woman who still stood motionless by the door "We're going to need someone to perform a pelvic exam and collect a rape kit"


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey Montana" Danny greeted as he entered the lab behind her and the mere sound of his voice made her smile broadly.

"Danny, what are you doing here?" She asked as she turned around to meet him. It was a long two weeks recovery period after that day he was held hostage in the warehouse, she was with him almost every night as soon as she got off work. He grumbled a bit, complained about not being a baby, not needing her to take care of him, but she knew he secretly enjoyed the attention. Technically, he wasn't supposed to be back at work until the next morning.

He took a look around to check they were alone and lowered his voice as he came into the lab, stopping merely inches from her body "I woke up all by my lonesome… made a few calls, they told me you're here, I figured I'd come in and keep you company…"

She smiled again "Three weeks and you already can't live without me Messer…"

"You got it Montana… just don't go spreading it around, don't want you ruining my reputation" He teased back and gave her a small swat across her ass. She laughed and gave him a little shove to put some distance between them - No one knew about them at the lab yet and even though it felt wrong to lie to her friends and colleagues it also gave their relationship an extra air of excitement. She kinda liked that the two of them had their own little secret.

"So what have you got?" he asked, getting them back to the case.

"They found a dead body in an ally downtown, only she wasn't really dead" She filled him in. "She's in the hospital now."

He nodded then gestured with his head to the evidence lying on the lab table "And this?"

"We found a gun in her hand, It's a Smith and Weston revolver 45 caliber and there are two bullets missing in the chamber. The serial number has been filed off and there are two sets of prints on the handle but no hits in CODIS so far"

"So we've got a big fat nothing so far" Danny concluded.

"Not from the gun" She replied and he could tell from her tone that she saved the juicy details to last "I found a receipt in the front pocket of her jeans in the clothes Stella sent over from the hospital…"

She showed him a small piece for paper stained in blood that was already sitting under a protective glass. The blood was masking most of the writing on the small piece of paper - making it impossible to read where it was from. He stayed by Lindsey as she took the glass and placed it under the special lamp then waited while she fiddled with the different light spectrums in order to try and bring out the writing underneath the blood.

Finally enough of the letters were made visible for them to read.

"Well, it's not a credit card receipt" Lindsey said, slightly disappointed.

"But it's from the NYU book store" Danny read the heading at the top of the receipt "So maybe our vic is a student?"

* * *

The next day - NYU campus

"Excuse me" Flack walked in to the campus book store and flashed his badge to the two students working the cash register before pulling out the picture Stella took of the victim in the hospital last night "I was wondering if you know this girl?"

"Sure." The young boy quickly nodded "That's Jessie. I mean, Jessica Bancroft. Everybody knows her, why? Is she in some kind of trouble?"

"She was attacked last night" Flack replied as he wrote the name down in his notebook. "What did you mean when you said that everyone knew her?"

"Jessie is kind of popular around here, she's a nice person though, not really stuck up like a lot of other popular girls, she's a good student too, top of her class…"

"You seem to know a lot about her" Flack raised an eyebrow at the young guy "You two good friends?"

"Not really but like I said, she's a nice girl and a good student which means she comes in here a lot to buy books, we talked a few times…" The guy gave Flack a slightly embarrassed smile "Plus, she's kinda hot…I made it a point to talk to her when she came in"

"Do you know of anyone who might want to hurt her?" Flack asked his finale question

"Not really" The boy shook his head "I mean, I knew her, but I didn't really know her if you know what I mean… She did come in here with her roommate a few times… her name was Alison something…"

* * *

"Hey Stella do you have anything?" Mac asked as he came into the lab and saw Stella hard at work in front of the computer screen.

"Our vic had traces of GSR on her hand"

"So maybe she did shoot herself in the stomach" Mac theorized

"But the pattern of GSR residue was strange, so I did a little reconstruction of the crime scene here on the computer" She indicated at the screen and Mac leaned in to get a better look "I put in the diameters of the ally, the position of our vic when we found her and the location of the bullet we found in the wall…" She pressed the enter key and let the simulation run as she explained "I tried this simulation a hundred different ways. The only way for that bullet to end up in the wall at that angel and the GSR to end up in that pattern on her hand is if she fired that gun when she was already lying on the ground"

"So she's on the ground, bleeding to death, and she fires another shot at the wall?" Mac frowned

"Or maybe she was trying to shoot at her attacker and missed…"

"She didn't miss entirely" Hawks said from the doorway having heard the last exchange. He smiled at their confused looks and walked in handing Mac a page of results. "I found microscopic traces of blood on the bullet we found in the wall. DNA does not match our victim. Now there wasn't a lot of blood on the bullet so I'm thinking who ever she was aiming at, she must have grazed him"

"Any hits in CODIS?" Stella asked even though she could already guess the answer on her own.

"Nothing. Whoever this is, he isn't in the system" Hawks shook his head and all Stella could do was sighing in frustration.

* * *

"So Alison, you didn't notice your roommate was missing?" Flack asked the roommate, Alison Bates, once she let them into the apartment. The girl had been hesitant at first but after he and Danny showed he their badges and told her that her roommate had been found in an ally and sent to the hospital she started tearing up and allowed them in.

"I just thought she was pulling an all nighter in the library or maybe even met up with a guy. Sometimes she didn't come home all night…it happened before…I didn't think…"

Flack took the opportunity when the girl stopped to dab her eyes with a Kleenex to ask another question "Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt her?"

"No!" the girl was adamant "Everyone liked Jessie! She never hurt anyone!"

Flack exchanged a look with Danny, knowing that the next question would be a hard one, hoping maybe Danny would step up and ask it for him. Danny shrugged and Flack took a deep breath before turning back to the young girl "Alison, do you think Jessie would hurt herself? Was she depressed lately? Did she ever talk about suicide?"

"No…" She trailed off for a second and Flack could tell that his question had hit a spot

"Are you sure?"

"Look, lately, Jessie had been acting a little strange. Like she was preoccupied or something. I tried to get her to talk to me but she said she just had to figure out a few things. Something was bothering her but there was no way she would hurt herself! She wasn't the type! She was fun, she loved school, she had tons of friends - she'd never try to kill herself"

Danny interjected and asked for permission to go over Jessie's room. Once she pointed him to a room at the end of the small hallway he nodded at Flack and went over to take a look.

"Alison do you know how we can contact Jessie's family? Next of kin?"

"There's only her father, but I wouldn't hold my breath" Alison replied with obvious disdain "He's some hotshot business man, he's always traveling. He and Jessie haven't even talked in over a year…"


	4. Chapter 4

Danny opened the door and walked into the room that belonged to Jessie Bancroft. The room wasn't big and the furniture was pretty standard - a double bed, a closet and large desk with a laptop. He checked the drawers, not knowing exactly what he was looking for but figuring he'd know it when he saw it. The room seemed undisturbed - books and papers were carefully stacked at the edge of the table, a few clothes were discarded in and around the laundry hamper. Nothing indicated a struggle took place anywhere in the room.

The top drawer of the desk was locked so he looked around the desk and finally found the small key at the bottom of the pencil holder. Once he opened the drawer he found a leather bound notebook and a small key on a silver chain.

"Found anything?" Flack asked from the doorway once he joined him

"I don't know, maybe." He opened the notebook and flipped the first few pages which were covered in handwriting and had several pictures and magazine cutouts glued to the pages "This looks like a diary. Maybe it will tell us what she was doing in that ally in the middle of the night"

"And the key?" Flack indicated to the key that was in Danny's other hand

"I don't know" he turned to the roommate who was standing just behind Flack peering over his shoulder "Hey Alison, so you know what this key is for?"

Alison came closer and took a better look "I don't know…it looks like a locker key"

"A locker key?"

"Yeah, they rent out lockers over at the student union but Jessie never said she had one. It's strange because I have a locker there, I go there all the time, Jessie never came there with me…"

"Alison here says that Jessie said something about growing up in Park Avenue, I had the desk officer check it out but there are no Bancroft's registered in that neighborhood" Flack reported "I'm thinking I might just head up there anyway, knock on a few doors, flash her picture around to a few people maybe someone knows the family"

"Give Stella a call she'd love a trip to Park Avenue, home of the rich and famous" Danny joked, still examining the key in his hands.

"What about you?"

"I think I'm going locker hunting…" Danny replied and flashed Flack his trade mark grin.

* * *

"Hello Stella" Payton greeted once she caught up with her in the hall "The rape kit from the hospital just arrived at the morgue by mistake, I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of having a little peek"

"Of course not" Stella smiled, the whole English-politeness thing was just so adorable "It's probably for the best anyway – I have the feeling only doctors can decipher doctor's handwritings"

"Ah, so that is why you lot always come down to get our findings in person and refuse to wait for the written report…" Payton teased back and Stella chuckled as she took the offered file from the her hands

"So what's in here I should know about?"

"Well, there was sign of recent sexual activity, but there were no vaginal tears and no indication of forced penetration. The rape examination was inconclusive but there are definitely traces of a sexual encounter. There were also traces of lubricant often used in condoms and no traces of semen"

"So it's possible she had consensual sex with someone not long before she was shot…" Stella concluded.

"The doctor who preformed the pelvic examination estimated the sexual encounter took place about 2, maybe 3, hours before she was shot and I have to concur with her findings" Payton supplied.

"According to Flack the roommate didn't mention anything about a boyfriend" Stella mused "So who was she sleeping with?"

"Well, the rape kit did produce a foreign pubic hair…"

"And I also have traces of saliva from the love bite on her neck…" Stella nodded enthusiastically.

"So I guess you'll be busy in the DNA lab for the next several hours" Payton smiled at her and Stella quickly bid her farewell and started rushing down the hall. Payton turned and started heading on the opposite direction when Stella's voice called after her and she turned back to.

"Hey Payton, I almost forgot, how was London?"

"Well, the conference was boring and tedious… everything else…"

"Everything else was cold wet and wonderful?" Stella asked with a knowing smirk, echoing Mac's words from the day before

"Exactly" Payton smiled back and waved goodbye as she headed towards the elevators. Stella watched her with a smile on her face for another second before turning around and rushing over to the DNA lab

* * *

They got lucky pretty quickly. The first two doors they knocked on produced nothing but maids who either weren't speaking English or preferred to pretend not to speak it in order to avoid being questioned. The third door though led to an old lady who apparently had no qualms about being the neighborhood's resident gossip/know it all. She recognized the picture of Jessie Bancroft almost instantly and had no hesitations about telling Flack and Hawks exactly what she thought about Jessie herself and the family in general. When Flack managed to get in two words edge wise, he asked her for the exact address and managed to politely extract the two of them from her clutches before having to endure another 20 minutes marathon of juicy gossip regarding the neighbors and their activities.

They walked up the few steps that led to the brownstone house and Hawks pointed at the name under the doorbell, drawing Flack's attention to the fact that the name written there wasn't Bancroft. They exchanged a confused look and debated turning back, figuring the old lady had gotten her houses mixed up, but after a second thought (and since the idea of going back to have another chat with that old gossip wasn't at all appealing) they figured they'd take a chance and show the picture to whoever lived in the house.

The door was answered by a young woman with long blond hair, perfectly manicured nails and a revealing outfit that did nothing to hide her perfect figure. _'ah, the trophy wife'_ Flack thought to himself instantly.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked sweetly even though the sweetness did nothing to hid the suspiciousness in her voice.

"I'm Detective Flack from the NYPD, this is Detective Hawks" They flashed their badges and Flack took out the photo out of his pocket yet again "Do you know this girl?"

"Of course I do, that's Jessica, she's my step daughter" Flack wondered for a second how she could say the words step-daughter with a straight face considering the girl was probably about the same age as her but he pushed that thought away almost instantly "Why? What did she do?"

"When was the last time you saw Jessica?" He ignored her question

"Jessica doesn't come around here anymore; she and her father aren't really on the best of terms if you know what I mean…" She leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms across her chest. Hawks, who had been silent up until that point, noticed a nasty bruise on her upper arm that looked to be several days old.

"Excuse me Ma'am, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get that bruise on your arm?"

"Oh, that thing? Bumped into the refrigerator door… nothing to it" Hawks nodded, pretending to accept her answer, but even from a distance he could tell that she was lying. That bruise looked nothing like an accidental collision with a door, it had a specific shape to it: The specific shape of a bruise caused by someone grabbing the woman's hand way too roughly.

"So Jessica hadn't come by in a while? Are you sure about that Ma'am?" Flack pressed on, remembering the few bruises Stella found on their victim

"Of course I'm sure, besides, my husband John is on a business trip, so there was really no reason for Jessica to come by anyway…"

"Do you have a number where we can reach your husband?" Hawks asked. Suddenly, talking to Jessica Bancroft's father seemed to get a lot more complicated than a simple family notification.

* * *

Lindsey paused mid-step as she walked down the hall when she noticed Danny sitting at a table in the lab staring at a box that was sitting on the table in front of him. She walked in and gave him an amused smile "What's going on here Messer?"

"This box was inside the locker Jessie Bancroft owned at the student union"

"Ok, so what's the problem?" She joined him and leaned her elbows against the table next to him.

"This is locked box sitting inside a locked locker, the key to the locker was sitting in a locker drawer in her desk… this is a normal girl, a university student and she's got a system of three keys to get into this box… what the hell was she so paranoid about?" Danny mused

"Well what ever it is, the answer is likely to be inside this box" Lindsey replied "Do we have a key?"

"No, we didn't find a key on her and there wasn't another key in her room that I found"

"Well, then we're just going to have to break into it" Lindsey concluded with a small smile.

Danny nodded and smiled back at her and the two of them got to work. They dusted the box for finger prints first finding several sets of prints all belonging to Jessie Bancroft. Danny then proceeded to pick the lock on the box, which was a fairly simple task.

"Hey Montana, take a look at this" He called Lindsey over once he saw what was inside.

The box was filled with documents and pictures. The one thing that caught Danny's eye was a file that was among the documents - an official NYPD case file.

Lindsey reached in and pulled out the file, opening it to the first page "This is a case file from 1996, a woman named Hanna Danvers drove her car off a cliff, police ruled it suicide by car…"

"What is this girl doing with a case file from 11 years ago?" Danny took out the rest of the documents in the box and went over them "Look at this, there's pictures, reports from a private lab hired to re-test the evidence, computer generated images of the crime scene re-creation… it looks like she's been working on this case for months…"

"This case was obviously important to her" Lindsey said thoughtfully "Some of this stuff is official documentation, confidential police material. How the hell did she get her hands on this stuff?"

"Is this the stuff from the locker?" Flack asked as he came in and joined them "Does it got us anywhere?"

"We don't know yet" Lindsey answered truthfully. "Any news from the hospital?"

"Jessie Bancroft is still in a coma" Flack answered "I found the family, talked to the step-mother, Missy, who's only 29 years old. Can you imagine that? Marrying a woman only 7 years older than your own daughter?. Anyway, I got a hold of the father; he's on a business trip in Hong Kong. He says he has meetings until late tomorrow night but that he'll do his best to catch a plane back here as soon as he finishes up wining and dining with his Japanese clients. What a piece of work this guy is! I don't care what's going on between you and your kids, one of them ends up shot in the ICU? You get over there as soon as you can! But I guess Mr. John Danvers is a whole different kind of father"

"Hold on a second did you say Danvers?" Danny asked, urgency in his voice "I thought our vic's last name was Bancroft?"

"Apparently Jessie Danvers changed her last name and took on her mother's maiden name - Bancroft" Flack consulted his notebook.

Lindsey opened the file in her hands again and looked at the pictures with a new found interest "Here it is. Hanna Danvers survived by husband John Danvers and daughter Jessica, 12 years old. She was investigating her mother's death"


	5. Chapter 5

"Hawks, you got anything on the suicide note we found in Jessie's hand?" Mac asked as he went into the graphology lab.

"You still think this might be a suicide?" Hawks asked with a frown

"I don't know… on the one hand the roommate said she seemed preoccupied lately maybe even depressed, on the other hand we have a bullet saying there was another individual in that ally…"

"Being preoccupied or a little depressed doesn't automatically mean suicide… I mean do you remember being 22? Everything is depressing when you're 22…" Hawks argued earning a chuckle from Mac

"Which is why I'm looking to the evidence to give us a definitive answer…"

"Ok, so I compared the handwriting in the suicide note we found in our victim's hand to the handwriting from the journal Danny found in her room" Hawks pulled the two images on the monitors in front of them "The suicide note was written in capital letters which made the comparison a little difficult but luckily for us our victim is very careful about using capital letters in her writings. I matched letter for letter - and I have to say - the two handwritings are very different. The pressure points are all different, the lift points are in completely different places…"

"So she didn't write the suicide note…"

"The thing is Mac, the suicide note itself had inconsistencies in it. Look at the letter 'A' in the word 'can't' and the letter 'A' in the word 'had'…" Sheldon zoomed in on the two letters in question "The pressure pattern in the two letters is different. Every person has a distinctive handwriting, a distinctive way to write each letter - these two A's were written in a completely different way"

"So the note was written by two people?" Mac asked in confusion. This case was beginning to feel like a weird kind of dance - one step forward, two steps back.

* * *

LATER THAT NIGHT

She found Mac standing outside Jessica's room in the hospital, watching her through the glass as she lay motionless in her bed. There were several kids by her bed, some of them holding hands, some of them crying. From Flacks description she could recognize one of the girls as the roommate, Allison, and the others must have been classmates. She didn't say anything as she came and took a position by his side, but she could tell from the small curving of his lips that he was aware of her presence almost immediately. She looked at the girl for a moment and had to swallow the lump in her throat – the whole situation, standing here in this hallway with Mac – it all brought back that awful day of the bombing when they spent hours waiting to see if Flack would survive his injuries.

"How is she?" She finally asked, her voice a mere whisper.

"No change yet" he finally un-glued his eyes from the girl and turned to face Stella "Have you got anything?"

"Maybe" She replied and handed a file over to him ""Maybe" She replied and handed a file over to him "I went over her journal, the only guy mentioned by name in there is a guy named Michael. From what she wrote the two of them were more then just good friends. Listen to this "I spent the night at Michael's, things are going so good, he makes me feel so good in spite of everything."

"So maybe this Michael is the one who left the DNA sample on our victim" Mac agreed "Seems like we should talk to this guy"

"Flack already talked to the roommate. Seems like the only Michael she can think of is a guy named Michael Hobbs, but as far as she knows - Michael and Jessie were just 'good friends'. Flack tracked down his ID, he works as a graphic designer for an ad agency"

He opened the file she handed him and examined it for a second "Michael Hobbs, 24, has a pervious juvenile record that was expunged when he turned 21 … Doesn't really seem like the murdering type…"

"He was sleeping with her, maybe they had a fight, things got out of hand. She has bruises on her face that are a few days old – maybe he smacked her around and she got tiered of it…" she offered with a shrug. The truth was, considering the criminal record on the Hobbs guy, which consisted mostly of petty crimes that were non-violent in nature, she had her own doubts that the guy would turn out to be their attacker. But like Mac always said – everything is connected – and the evidence indicated that Michael Hobbs knew their victim, intimately. It was worth checking in the very least.

"Let's go find Mr. Hobbs and find out!"


	6. Chapter 6

The Next Day

"Hey Stella!" Danny called out from his lab when he saw her pass by in the hall and she changed course and entered his lab "Did you find that Hobbs guy yesterday?"

"No, we went by his apartment last night but no one was home" Stella shook her head "We asked the neighbors but no one has seen him. Flack is putting out an APB and he's going to try his office a little later. Did you get anything off the documents in her locker?"

"Well, something Montana said yesterday kind of stuck with me… you see this file and these crime scene photos?" He indicated to a stack of documents sitting in front of him on the desk and she nodded "These are official police records, and not copies either, these are the real shebang, the real deal. So I'm thinking how could this girl get her hands on this stuff? I mean, this is a closed case so it's going to be stored in the archives, but even then, it's not open to the public, and unless our vic staged a robbery of the ppolice archives that I haven't heard about…"

"Then how did she get her hands on this kind of material?" Stella completed his train of thought

The two of them pondered the issue for a moment before Danny suggested "Maybe I should just run the prints on this file – maybe that would tell us how is ended up in Jessica Bancroft's hands…"

"Danny, this file has been handled by tons of people: detectives, coroners, clerks down in archives…"

"Yeah but most of them handled this file a long time ago…" Danny finally had a plan starting to form in his head "If I can check and compare the degradation of the oils in each one of the finger prints I might be able to figure out who, besides Jessica Bancroft, handled this file last…"

"It's still a lot of work, Danny. And even then, there's nothing to say she didn't just steal this file somehow…" Stella was still skeptical

"Yeah, but it's a start…" Danny insisted.

Stella gave him a little pat on his shoulder and a sympathetic look and left him to his work.

He took the folder and removed the papers that it contained then started dusting the surface for prints and lifting the ones he found using the adhesive tape. After each time he lifted a print he swabbed the print to analyze the oils in the print. By the time he was done he had more than 30 different prints on the table in front of him.

"This is gonna be one long day!"

He loaded several samples into the mass-spectrometer and decided to use the time while the machine was doing it's magic to head out to the break room and get himself a fresh cup of coffee. He made his way down the hall but stopped just outside the door to the break room when he saw Lindsey sitting at one of the tables, a cup of coffee in front of her, and a faraway look on her face. He recognized that look - he'd seen it before, when things were bothering her, when the case back in Montana was starting to get to her… that look did not mean good things.

"Hey Linds'" he said softly as he came in and took a seat next to her "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing Danny, I'm fine!" she lied, but by now he knew her well enough to tell when she was lying.

"No, no, no. Don't do that. I've seen that look before, the one that says you're a thousand miles away. I woke up this morning and you were already gone… what's bothering you?" He insisted.

She sighed and pushed the folder that was sitting on the desk in front of her towards Danny "I just keep thinking about Jessie Bancroft… We found these letters in the lock box in Jessie's locker…"

"Dear Sir. In regards to the case file no. 38325 dash 97, the findings of the police department in that investigation were incorrect. I believe that a further examination of the case and the evidence will show that the death of Hanna Danvers which had been ruled a suicide, had in fact been a murder. I'm asking for your help in seeing justice done. Mrs. Hanna Danvers was a prominent and beloved member of the New York community and her death should not be allowed to go unpunished…" Danny flipped open the folder and read of the first sheet of paper in it.

"There are over 50 of these letters here… addressed to the detectives on the case, the police commissioner, the district attorney… She wrote a letter to anyone she thought might be able to help her" Lindsey informed him, her expression a mixture of sadness and anger. "No one listened to her."

"In the end she just went and did it herself" Danny realized

"Danny, the first letter is dated from 1999. She was only 14 years old."

* * *

Hospital 

Mac and Stella made their way to the front doors of the hospital in a hurry and joined Flack just inside the doors in the hall.

"I went by Michael Hobbs' office this morning, He wasn't there but a co-worker told me he arrived this morning and left in a hurry a few minutes later saying he had to go to the hospital" Flack informed them as they made their way up to Jessica Bancroft's room "I already notified hospital security. They're keeping an eye on him but keeping their distance…So far he hadn't made a move against her…"

Mac nodded as the three of them got off the elevator and headed down the hall. They could see Michael Hobbs through the glass window, his head was in his hands and it looked as if he was crying. The three of them drew their weapons and slowly made their way into the room, coming up behind Hobbs.

"Michael Hobbs?" Flack asked once the guy was surrounded

He lifted his head and looked at them with a confused look on his face "What's going on?" he stammered

"Mr. Hobbs we need to ask you a few questions about what happened to Jessica Bancroft…" Mac explained, not moving his gun away from his target.

"Wait..Wait…you think I did this?" Hobbs looked genuinely shocked, but all three of them had already seen suspects who turned to be guilty as hell feigning shock and confusion in so convincingly that they'd be eligible for an Emmy nomination.

"How about you just come with us quietly and we'll all just have a nice little chat down in the station…" Flack suggested.

Hobbs took a slow look around him to assess his situation then his shoulders slumped and he nodded his head, agreeing to come quietly.


	7. Chapter 7

"Mac, wait up!" Danny jogged down the hall to join his boss "I heard you got a suspect down in interrogation…"

"Yeah, but we don't have enough on him though. We have DNA telling u he was with Jessica Bancroft before she was shot but we have nothing linking him to the ally and nothing to indicate he had a motive for killing her…" Mac shook his head.

"Well, I think I might be able to help you with that…" Danny smirked "I ran the prints from the official case file we found in the lock box, and let me tell you there were plenty of them. I checked the degradation of the oils to find the most recent print that didn't belong to our vic and Boom! I got a match!"

He handed the file over to Mac with a triumphant smile "His name is Henry Buford, works down in archives. Clean record, practically a boy scout so I'm thinking what would make a single guy, an upstanding member of society, risk his career and hand over a confidential police file?"

"A beautiful young girl promising sex…" Mac smiled back, arriving at the same conclusion.

"Boyfriend Hobbs finds out Jessie is running around doing the nasty with someone else - and you got yourself a motive!"

"We need to talk to Mr. Henry Buford…" Mac handed the file back to Danny.

"Two steps ahead of you boss, already got him cooling his heals down in the interrogation room…"

"Lead the way!"

They made their way downstairs and headed for the small interrogation room where Henry Buford was already seated looking nervous and uncomfortable. They walked in and took a seat at the table in front of him.

"What is this about?" his voice actually squeaked as he spoke.

Danny ignored him opening the man's file and reading "Henry Buford, 27 years old, administrative assistant at the New York police department archives department. Administrative assistant… Wow that's a big title! Tell me Henry, what does an administrative assistant do exactly?"

"I log files, catalog them, file them in their proper place…"

"What about this file?" Mac placed the police file taken from Jessie Bancroft's lock box on the desk and pushed it towards the man "Did you file this case file in it's proper place?"

"We have hundreds of files down in the archives Detective" Henry replied after a quick glance at the folder "I don't read them, I can't really be expected to remember every file I've ever handled…"

"Come on Henry!" Danny raised his voice slightly "We found your prints on this file…"

"Like I said - we have hundreds of files down in the archives, I take the files, I log them in the computerized database… I must have touched more then half of them…"

"What about this girl Henry?" Danny placed a picture of Jessica Bancroft on the table right next to the police file "You ever touch her?"

Mac could see the man in front of him pale visibly and a sideway glance to Danny told him the younger CSI caught the reaction as well.

"Let me guess…" Mac leaned in "A beautiful girl comes up to you, maybe in a bar, she strikes up a conversation, you have a few drinks…"

"You're starting to think maybe you're going to get a little something something and then she asks you to do this one little thing for her…I mean, what's a little favor between two special friends" Danny finished the story and Mac had to hide his smile at Danny's typically colorful choice of words.

"Look, yes, I knew her, her name is Jessie something… we met in a club a few month ago, she came on to me, we went out a couple of times." Henry finally gave in "She was a student in NYU she was taking a course in criminology or something and she asked for my help…"

"She asked you to get the file on Hanna Danvers for her" Mac already knew the rest of this story

"She said she read about it on the internet, that it'd be perfect for a paper she had to write. So I gave her the file, I was trying to impress her…"

"Did you sleep with her?" Danny asked to which Henry nodded, looking down in embarrassment.

"But after you gave her the file, she dumped you" Mac pushed further. When Henry didn't respond he knew that his suspicions were confirmed. "We're gonna need to know where you were two nights ago between 10pm and midnight."

* * *

DNA lab

"Hey Adam tell me you've got a match" Lindsey waved the pleasantries as she walked into the lab

"Hold your horses the missy" Adam replied with a smile "You can't rush the master at work"

"Well, Mac has the suspect down in interrogation room and we need to know if the DNA sample he gave us matches the one found in the rape kit from our victim"

"Speaking of which, any news from the hospital?" Adam asked. By now everyone in the lab already knew what happened in the ally with the victim. Even with these people, who'd already seen practically everything, the idea of a young girl bleeding out with dozens of police officers around her and no one reaching out to help - was difficult to swallow.

"Still in a coma" Lindsey shook her head sadly "And with every hour passing the chances of her waking up…" She didn't need to finish her sentence.

Just then the machine behind them beeped and Adam gave her a small smile as he pulled the sheet of results from the printer "Survey says - DNA found inside the victim is a positive match for the sample we got from out suspect!"

"Adam, you were right - you are definitely the master!"

* * *

"Now this sure is a nice place" Hawks commented as he and Stella stood in the doorway to Michael Hobbs's apartment. The place was spacious and decorated with obvious good taste. High ceilings, hardwood floors, large bay windows overlooking the garden with long cream colored curtains that reached all the way down to the floor. Most of the living room area constituted of open space but there were two couches and a wooden coffee table in front of the small fireplace with large pillows and a soft rug. Off to the right side of the living room the kitchen was all stainless steal and high end appliances with a small counter and two bar stools. On the other end of the living room there was a door that Hawks guessed lead to the bedroom.

"I'll start with the living room, you take the bedroom" Hawks suggested and Stella nodded with a smile and disappeared in that direction.

He switched on his ALS flashlight and started going over the living room area, looking for traces of blood or bodily fluids - but found none. He noticed two coasters on the coffee table and a quick look in the dishwasher in the kitchen revealed two wine glasses, freshly washed. When he made his way back to the living room the pictures on the mantle of the fire place and went closer to investigate. He took another look around the living room then made his way to the bedroom to check on Stella.

"I've got nothing in the living room which points to a struggle or a rape - no blood, no semen" He reported once he got into the bedroom.

"Well, I've got semen here" Stella indicated at the large bed "But no signs of a struggle"

"There is a half opened bottle of wine in the fridge, two coasters on the coffee table, two glasses in the dishwasher…"

"Sounds like a romantic night at home…" Stella concluded as Hawks took a look around the bedroom and frowned.

"No pictures of Jessie in the bedroom…" He murmured

"How is that significant?" Stella frowned

"Well, there are pictures in the living room. Jessie appears in several of them, one is from a trip somewhere, one is from what seemed like a high school graduation ceremony…"

"So?" Stella still couldn't get where he was heading with this particular line of thought

"Pictures of friends and family go in the living room, pictures of girlfriends go in the bedroom…" When he saw Stella's bewildered look he chuckled "It's a guy thing…"

Stella laughed and shook her head "Well, I don't think 'it's a guy thing' constitutes as viable forensic evidence, so keep looking…"


	8. Chapter 8

Interrogation Room

"Mr. Hobbs, tell me about your relationship with Jessica Bancroft" Mac began the questioning while Flack leaned against the wall behind Michael Hobbs.

"Jess and I've known each other since we were kids. She spent almost every day in my house since we were 7 years old, we grew up together. She's my best friend"

"That's some kind of friend Michael." Flack commented from his place by the wall "We found your pubic hair and your saliva on her body."

Michael didn't reply and Flack moved closer until he could lean right next to Michael's ear "So what happened Michael? Your good friend wouldn't do the nasty with you and you tried to kill her for it?"

"I'd never hurt Jess." Michael replied angrily "Yes, we slept together. We slept together a lot over the years. We were together two nights ago…

Mac placed a photo of Henry Buford taken from his employment record on the desk in front of Michael "Michael, do you know this man?"

"I've never seen him before" Michael said after a short glance

"His name is Henry Buford" Mac supplied "A few month ago, Jessie was sleeping with him too."

He checked Michael's face carefully for a reaction but the man in front of him remained stone faced.

"That doesn't make you jealous Michael? You're girlfriend stepping out on you like that?" Flack asked.

"Jessie wasn't my girlfriend" Michael said weakly, his shoulders slumped in resignation "It wasn't like that. We were friends; sometimes we slept together, no strings attached."

"Did you know that Jessie was looking into her mother's death?" Mac asked him.

Michael hesitated for a moment before answering "Yeah, I did. She only began to work on it seriously about a year ago. I told her she should let it go, but she didn't listen to me."

Flack opened his mouth to ask another question but Michael quickly cut him off "She came over that night to see me before I went out of town for the day. I headed to the train station to catch a night train to Washington right after she left. I checked into the hotel in Washington as soon as I got there. You can check."

When Mac and Flack remained silent he leaned in and placed his elbows against the desk "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to go back to the hospital to be with my friend."

* * *

"Mac" Danny stuck his head through Mac's office door "No dice on our archive man, just talked to Flack and his alibi checks out - he was with friends the entire evening clear across town. What about your guy?"

"He admitted to sleeping with out victim last night but claims it was consensual sex between friends"

"Ah, the friends with benefits thing… Nice. You believe him?" Danny flopped down on the couch and pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly.

"Flack's checking out this alibi right now but my guess is he didn't try to kill her"

"So two suspects and neither one of them is our scumbag…great!"

Just then Stella opened the glass doors and stepped in with Lindsey and Hawks in tow. From their glum expressions Mac could tell right away they had no good news to report.

"We just finished going over all the evidence from the ally a second time" Stella reported as she took a seat in one of the visitor chairs in front of his desk "We got nothing"

"Two days of work and we're no where closer to catching whoever did this" Hawks said solemnly from his place leaning against the door while Lindsey sat on the arm of the couch beside Danny.

Mac took a look at the erasable board in his office that listed all the evidence from the current case, then turned back to look at his team. For the most part their expressions mirrored the same emotions he was feeling: anger, sadness, confusion, frustration, and helplessness. But the expression on Danny's face was somehow different.

"Danny? What are you thinking?"

"I think we're not looking in the right place" Danny said slowly as all eyes turned to him

"Danny we looked through the ally, we looked at her room… we should probably look at Michael Hobbs' apartment again but other than that…" Lindsey objected.

"That's not what I'm talking about" Danny shook his head "I keep thinking about the keys. Three hidden keys, one of them we still haven't found, a lock box inside a locker that nobody knew she owned - all this just to hide a few documents. This kid was afraid someone would find out what she was doing, and I ain't talking no general fear either. She was afraid of someone very specific"

"Who ever she thought killed her mother…" Lindsey started nodding, her voice and expression starting to show excitement that wasn't there a few minutes ago.

"So maybe our victim was hunting down a killer and got a little too close for comfort" Mac agreed, suddenly seeing the case from a fresh perspective.

"So we find whoever killed Hanna Danvers" Stella began and looked over at Hawks who finished the sentence for her "And we find whoever shot Jessie Bancroft."

"Ok, new strategy" Mac reached a decision "Stella, Hawks, we'll stay on Jessie Bancroft. Danny and Lindsey you look into the Hanna Danvers murder file. Lets see if there are any points of connection…"

* * *

Mac's apartment

He walked in and immediately started shrugging off his jacket. He rolled his shoulder and moved his head from side to side trying to get the kinks out of his neck when he heard the sound of someone moving in his kitchen. He hesitantly walked over and peered through the doorway, his hand inching towards his gun just in case, the sight made him smile instantly.

Payton was standing over the stoves stirring something in a large pot. Her back was to him and she didn't seem to have noticed him so he used to opportunity to admire her for a little while. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a white dress shirt that he recognized from his closet while her hair was pulled up to a messy ponytail. Her feet were bare and she was tapping them in tune with her humming as she cooked.

"Well, this is certainly a nice surprise…" He finally commented with a small smile, making his presence known and she turned to him with a wide smile on her face

"Well, then my mission here is accomplished!'

She came over and put her arms around his neck, drawing him in for a tender kiss that lasted several minutes. "Keep going like this, and we'll never make it to dinner" He growled when they finally came up for air and she laughed a throaty laugh that only ignited his desire even more.

"I thought since you and the team have been working so hard, and the lack of a body meant I have no way of assisting, I'd play the dutiful girlfriend and have dinner ready by the time you got home.."

He kissed her again, marveling at her ability to provide him with so much comfort so easily, and her ability to know exactly when he'd need it.

A few minutes later, dinner was long forgotten as they made their way to the bedroom.


	9. Chapter 9

Danny's Place - The next morning

Danny woke up and rolled over, expecting to find Lindsey's body next to him in the bed but finding empty space instead. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, the two of them got back from the lab a little after 2 am the last night and fell asleep almost immediately, but 4 hours of sleep weren't nearly enough. He climbed out of the bed and padded out to the kitchen still in his boxer shorts where he found Lindsey sitting at the counter, absently swirling her spoon in a bowl of cereal.

"You know Montana, I keep waking up without you in bed I'm going to start thinking you're hiding a really bad case of bed hair from me or something…" He teased then made his way over to the fridge, taking out the orange juice and pouring himself a glass.

She smiled weakly but didn't answer and her came closer and placed his arm on her shoulder "Hey, Linds, talk to me… come on…"

"It's just this case." She finally said, leaning into his touch "This girl has been trying to find out what happened to her mother for 10 years Danny. I just know what it's like…to live with that kind of thing for so long…"

He sighed and planted a kiss on the top of her head. He knew that his case would be hitting a little too close to home for Lindsey the minute they found out what Jessie Bancroft had been doing in her spare time. There was nothing he could do about it - it was just the job, and he had to let Lindsey deal with this on her own and just be there for her as best he could.

"Montana, look, I know this case brings back bad memories, but there's just one thing you need to remember ok?" He placed a finger under her chin and raised her face until she met his eyes "We caught the guy who killed your friends in Montana, and we're going to catch this gut too…"

She nodded and gave him a small smile but he didn't fool himself to think that his few words would change her feelings or make the bad memories go away.

"I'm fine Danny, really, I am" She gave him a kiss and got up from her seat "Now get a move on - the two of us start showing up late to work, Mac might just start asking himself why…"

She gave him another smile and disappeared in the bedroom and he managed to take another gulp of his orange juice before he heard the shower being turned on, giving him a very nasty idea.

"I'm sure Mac wouldn't notice if we're just a little bit late…" He murmured to himself before heading over to join Lindsey in the shower.

* * *

Lab

"Hey Mac" Flack caught Mac in the hall just as the older CSI came into the building and headed to his office "I checked Hobbs's alibi and it checks out. Hotel reception has him signing in at just about midnight. So unless he has a secret jet to get him from here to Washington in less than 3 hours - there's no way he shot our vic…"

"So he was telling the truth" Mac nodded, he already suspected Michael had nothing to do with Jessie's shooting, the alibi checking out only confirmed his suspicions "He had sex with her but he didn't shoot her…"

"So what else do we have?" Flack asked as they stepped into Mac's office

"Not much, Danny and Lindsey are going to look into Hanna Danvers's death see if there is anything there that might help us… Stella and Hawks went through Michael's apartment and didn't find any trace of a struggle, and there were no signs of a struggle at her own apartment but Stella found bruises on her face that seemed to be a few days old…"

"So our vic had a fight with someone… might be completely unrelated to whoever shot her" Flack theorized

"You're forgetting Don" Mac said with a small smile "Everything is connected"

* * *

Park Avenue

"So Hawks, I get a call telling you to meet me here but you never explained what exactly we're doing here…" Stella asked as she joined Sheldon on the curb in front of the large brownstone house.

"Our vic had a fight with someone a few days before she was shot and Mac wants us to find out with whom"

"Ok, but what leads us here?"

"When Flack and I were here before I saw a bruise on the arm of the current Mrs. Danvers" Hawks explained as they made their way up the stairs "She claims she bumped into the refrigerator door but I know a contact bruise when I see one and this bruise was definitely not the result of bumping into anything…"

"Young stepmom, issues with a mother that died on suspicious circumstances, I bet there are a lot of unresolved issues between the two of them…"

Hawks nodded as he rang the doorbell and a few moments later the door was opened by Missy Danvers "Mrs. Danvers my name is detective Hawks I was here yesterday, this is detective Bonassera. We need to ask you a few questions. You mind if we come in?"

The young woman nodded and led them inside lavish house to the living room "I already told you detective, I haven't seen Jessie in a long time, I have no idea what happened to her…"

"How did you get the bruise on your arm Mrs. Danvers?" Stella asked

"I already told you" The woman didn't bat an eyelash "I bumped into the refrigerator door"

"Mrs. Danvers we're from the crime scene unit" Stella sat opposite the woman in one of the chairs, giving Hawks the opportunity to quickly scan the room while Mrs. Danvers was distracted "We know how to identify bruises. You're bruise wasn't caused by clumsiness. This kind of bruise can only been caused by someone grabbing your arm with enough force to cause the blood vessels under the skin to burst."

"I told you how I got the bruise on my arm" Missy gave Stella a determined look "I have nothing more to say. Now if you have anymore questions I'm going to have to call my lawyer"

She rose from her seat and went to the other room where Stella could hear her picking up the phone and placing a call.

"Stella, look at this" Hawks called her over and indicated at the rug "There are a few drops of what looks like blood on the carpet here…"

Stella quickly kneeled and pulled a q-tip from her kit, swabbing the drops and spraying the q-tip with luminal "It's definitely blood…"

"Well it seems like we have grounds for a warrant at the very least" Hawks said with a smile

An hour later, and over the firm objections of both Missy Danvers and her lawyer who showed up merely fifteen minutes after his client placed the call, a detective arrived with the to search the Danvers home. Mrs. Danvers was taken to the station for questioning, protesting and yelling all the way to the squad car. The lawyer made a few more attempts at threatening and arm twisting before Stella kindly reminded him that his client was now on her way to the precinct and might benefit from legal council. Finally alone, Stella and Hawks began processing the scene.


	10. Chapter 10

"Mac, Danny and I just started working on the files Jessie had in her lock box" Lindsey sounded almost breathless as she caught up with him in the hallway. "Right off the bat we've got something…"

She handed him a file and he looked over it then frowned "What am I looking at here Lindsey?"

"Jessie Bancroft hired several companies to do all kinds of tests - crash test simulations on the car, redo the tox reports… she was smart about it too, I'm guessing she divided the work so no one would really realize what she was trying to do. I started checking into the companies that she hired I figured maybe we can talk to them, get their findings, see if they uncovered something we missed the first time around…"

"And?" Mac prompted as the two of them got into the elevator heading down

"One of the companies didn't check out. Jessis hired a company to do handwriting analysis on the suicide note found in the car - I checked the company's website and something about it looked a little fishy so I dug in a little deeper - the company doesn't really exist. The site was set up 2 months ago through an offshore server, there are no documentations of a business by that name ever getting an operating business license from the state of New York, no tax returns no nothing…"

"So someone was running a scam and maybe Jessie found out…" Mac concluded

"The name of the company's manager is Jeff Shelby" Lindsey informed him "I put the name through the police database - no hits yet, but this is a sophisticated scam so maybe our guy just hadn't been caught yet…"

Lindsey followed Mac out of the elevator and the two of them stopped just outside the interrogation room where the current Mrs. Danvers was waiting along with her lawyer and what looked like a very impatient Flack.

"Good work Lindsey. I'll have Flack put out an APB on Jeff Shelby see if we can't bring him in here to answer a few questions. You and Danny keep digging into that case file…"

"Is that the second wife?" Lindsey asked as she looked at the woman sitting inside the interrogation room "God, she seems so young…you really think she could have shot her step-daughter?"

"That's what I'm going to find out…"

He handed the file back to Lindsey and walked into the room stopping for a moment to tell Flack about Lindsey's latest discovery and watching as the young detective excused himself and stepped outside to place the call that would begin the search for Jeff Shelby.

"I want to go on record and say that my client already told your officers all she can regarding her step-daughter and that we'll be answering no more questions" The lawyer quickly stated pulling Mac's attention back to the woman in front of him.

"Fine, don't say anything, why don't I do the talking?" Mac took a seat "Your stepdaughter was found shot in an ally three nights ago with bruises on her face that were a few days old, about as old as the bruise on your arm there. My team is going over your house as we speak and we already found blood on your carpet… my guess is it's going to match Jessie's DNA. So what happened? The two of you got into a fight? You hit her?"

Mrs. Danvers opened her mouth to say something but her lawyer placed a restraining hand on her arm "Like I said, my client has nothing to say."

Mac saw a look pass on Mrs. Danvers's face but she listened to her lawyer and remained silent "That's ok, we'll just let the evidence talk for her…"

He got up and walked over to the door and joined flack who was standing just outside "We're going to take a few pictures of the bruise on her arm and see if it matches Jessie's hand"

* * *

"Alright Danny are we ready?" Lindsey asked from her place by the computer and looked expectantly at Danny who was occupying the seat beside the other computer screen.

"Just about" Danny murmured and hit a few more keys, inputting the last bits of data into the computer simulator. "Ok, ready to boogey"

"Ok, so we put all the information from the case file into this simulation, the make and model of the car, the weather and road conditions at the night of Hanna Danvers' death…"

"The legal limit on the road is 60 miles per hour" Danny nodded "So let's start by assuming Mrs. Danvers was driving according to the law and put the estimated speed at 60 miles per hour"

He hit a few more keys and the two of them watched as the simulation displayed on the big screen. The car on the screen went down the road then veered off and jumped off the side, smashed into the railing and flew of the road into the ravine. Lindsey hit a few keys and waited as the computer calculated the distance between the point where the car landed and where the car initially jumped off the road.

"Ok, this ain't right" Danny grabbed the accident police file once the numbers appeared on the screen "according to the police file the car landed 10 feet from the edge of the road, this has her at 35 feet at least"

"Maybe she hit her brakes before the car went off the road" Lindsey theorized

"Nah, look at these photos - there's no skid marks, no evidence she was trying to hit the brakes"

"Who doesn't hit the brakes when their car is going off the road?"

"Tox reports say they found traces of valium in her system, there was a bottle of booze in the car - maybe she was already unconscious or sleeping"

"But there was no trace of alcohol in her system and the levels of valium weren't high enough to cause a woman of her weight and height to pass out like that…"

"Ok, so maybe she was just driving under the legal limit. Try putting in 40 miles per hour, let's see where that gets us"

Lindsey inputted the new data into the computer, watching patiently as the simulation ran it's course a second time. This time the distance was calculate by the computer to be 23 feet from the road. The two of them exchanged a look before turning back to the computer - the next hour or so was spent inputting different speeds into the simulation and watching as it ran over and over again until the simulation finally matched what was found at the scene of the accident.

"Ok, so according to this simulation the speed of the car was about 22 miles per hour before it went off the road" Danny summarized "That's weird. I mean who drives this slow on deserted highway in the middle of the night? Especially if you're trying to commit suicide - wouldn't you gun down the gas pedal and try to get it over with as soon as possible?"

"But it's not out of the realm of possibility" Lindsey sighed "It doesn't preclude the possibility that she drove the car off the road intentionally"

"So what does that leave us with?"

Lindsey leaned against the lab table and looked at him with a sad look, fresh out of ideas.


	11. Chapter 11

DNA LAB

"Adam, tell me you've got good news for me…" Stella patted the young tech on the back as she came into the DNA lab.

"For you Stella, always…" He smiled and raised his eyes from the lens of the microscope through which he was looking and walked over to the other side of the lab where he pulled a file from the stack on his desk "I checked the blood you found at the Danvers home against the blood sample they took from Jessie Bancroft at the hospital…"

"Come on Adam, don't leave me in suspense here"

"The two samples were a perfect match" Adam replied triumphantly

"You should have seen that house Adam, it was spotless. And Missy Danvers doesn't seem like the type to do house work. She has maids - trust me." Stella said thoughtfully.

"What does that tell us?" Adam frowned.

"It tells us that Jessie Bancroft bled in that house sometimes in the last couple of days. There's no way the maids would have missed that spot of blood for long."

"Then I guess our vic and the step mom had a little cat fight…"

Stella nodded and headed out to the hall, throwing Adam a thank you behind her back, and nearly avoided colliding into Lindsey.

"Wow, Lindsey, where's the fire?"

"What? Oh, Sorry Stella. I was just heading to the AV lab for some handwriting analysis"

"I thought you and Danny were working on the Hanna Danvers case" Stella pointed to the note in Lindsey's hand which she recognized as the suicide note that was found in Jessie's hand. "What's with the suicide note?"

"I'll show you" Lindsey gave a small mysterious smile and headed for the AV lab, piquing Stella's curiosity.

"The Hanna Danvers case doesn't have much in it" Lindsey explained while she prepared her little demonstration "The victim was found behind the wheel of the car, there was a bottle of booze next to her and valium found in her system, a suicide note and the testimony of the husband that said she was depressed and suffering from emotional problems. The police ruled it a suicide almost immediately and closed the case."

"But you don't think it's a suicide?"

"Actually, I'm not sure yet" Lindsey hesitated "But look at this…"

She placed the scanned image of the note found in Jessie's hand on the far right screen then pulled a picture of the Hanna Danvers' suicide scene on the far right screen.

"Do you see it?" The smile on Lindsey's face told Stella that there was something she was missing but even after taking another careful look at the two images nothing popped out and she shook her head and frowned.

Lindsey turned back to the consul and zoomed on the image of the suicide scene. On the passenger seat, next to Hanna Danvers' hand and the half empty bottle of alcohol lay the suicide note

"I'm sorry, I can't take it, I had to do this" Stella read out loud "That's the exact same note we found in Jessie's hand!"

* * *

"You called me down here Flack?" Mac asked as he approached the young detective's desk in the bullpen "What's wrong?"

"Seems like Mr. Danvers finally decided to grace us with this presence" Flack replied as he got up from his seat and led Mac to one of the interrogation rooms down the hall "And apparently he's not to happy about the little Mrs. Being brought in here for questioning"

Flack opened the door and allowed Mac to see the man in question. He was tall and broad shouldered with graying hair and steely blue eyes, dressed in an expensive Italian suit. To Mac's surprise he was alone, having brought no lawyer along.

"I demand to know what the hell do you people think you're going" he said angrily, rising to his feet and slamming this palms against the desk as soon as both Mac and Flack walked into the room "Dragging my wife in here, asking her questions without me being present…"

"Your wife is an adult the last time we checked Mr. Danvers, we don't need to ask for your permission to question her" Mac stated "She had her lawyer present as per her request. Her legal rights weren't violated at any point."

"I swear to you by the time this is over I'm gonna have your badge…" Danvers hissed

"Why don't you have a seat Mr. Danvers" Flack suggested in a calm tone that had an edge of warning in it "Before you say something you regret"

The man huffed but sat back down, crossing his arms on his chest in a defiant posture.

"Your daughter was found shot in an ally 3 days ago Mr. Danvers, you took your time getting here…" Flack didn't bother trying to hide the note of criticism in his voice.

"Like I already told you over the phone I had business meetings that couldn't be rescheduled. I came here as soon as I could…" Danvers said nonchalantly.

"No you didn't" Mac interjected "Your clothes are fresh and ironed, your hair is wet and you had a recent shave. I can smell the colon you used"

The man looked at Mac in irritation "So what? It was a long flight from Hong Kong, I stopped by my house to take a shower and get a change of clothes…"

"You also came in here and started making a fuss instead of heading to the hospital to check on your daughter" Flack pointed out. When Danvers merely shrugged Flack went on "You know I've been getting constant reports from the hospital and your daughter's friends have been visiting round the clock practically from the moment they found out what happened. Yet you don't seem to be in a rush to go to her side…"

"Her friends?" Danvers almost spat the words "What friends? You mean Michael Hobbs don't you? Let me tell you something, if you're looking for suspects, that's where you should be looking! I bet the little punk didn't tell you he had a juvenile record did he? The boy has been nothing but trouble since they were kids."

He leaned closer and actually smiled at Mac, looking smug "Wish I could say that he's the one who was dragging Jessie down with him but truth be told, that girl had been in some kind of trouble or another since she was a teenager. Would have gotten herself a juvenile record all of her own if I hadn't bailed her out more times than I could count."

"That's a hell of a way to talk about your daughter" Mac said dryly

"Look, I love my daughter, I do. But she's always had a habit of attracting trouble and no matter how many times I tried to help her she just wouldn't listen to me"

Mac nodded and noticed Hawks standing outside the interrogation with a file in his hands. He excused himself and got up to leave the room, Flack following him close behind.

"Model father" Flack muttered as soon as the door was closed behind them. Mac simply nodded and turned to Hawks expectantly.

"I just finished the analysis on the bruise mark on Mrs. Danvers's arm. I went by the hospital and took a cast of Jessie Bancroft's hand" He handed a file with computer generated images to Mac as he spoke "there's no way Jessie's hands caused that bruise. Too small. The hands that caused the bruise on Missy's arm were much larger…"

"Like the hands of an older man…" Mac said thoughtfully, turning back to look at Mr. Danvers through the glass.

"I see where you're going with this Mac but I gotta tell you I don't see Mr. Danvers here letting us take a cast of his hand out of the goodness of his heart" Flack told him "And I don't think we have enough for a warrant"

"Yeah" Mac nodded as an idea came to his mind "But I think I know someone who can fill in a few blanks"


	12. Chapter 12

THE NEXT DAY

"Hey Hawks, sorry to drag you out of bed this early in the morning, I know you've been working late last night" Detective Angel greeted from the top of the stairs, looking down at him over the railing "But I thought you'd wanna see this…"

Hawks smiled at her and made the rest of the way up the stairs to the third floor.

"I hear you guys are looking for one, Jeff Shelby, in connection with that girl who'd been shot 3 days ago. Well, I just found him for you…"

She moved out of his way and allowed him to look through the open front door which led to the apartment behind her. A man was lying in the middle of the living room in a pool of his own blood.

Hawks nodded and went into the apartment, kneeling next to the victim. "He doesn't look like the picture we pulled off his file…"

"That's because his name is not really Jeff Shelby." Angel replied and handed him a stack of driver's licenses bound in a rubber band "We found a bunch of fake ID's including one under the name Jeff Shelby. We're trying to find out his real name but it's going to take a while to sift through all these fake ID's"

"This can't be a coincidence…"

"Plus we found this in the trash can under the kitchen sink" Angel handed his a small purse. He opened it to reveal an NYU student ID under the name Jessie Bancroft.

"Looks like several stab wounds to the chest and abdomen." He returned his attention back to the body. He took out his flashlight and looked closer at the victim noticing a spot of blood on the sleeve of his shirt. He pulled the sleeve up slightly to reveal a small grazing wound on the victim's shoulder. "This is definitely our shooter. This is the man who tried to kill Jessie Bancroft. I think I'll need a little help processing this…"

He pulled out his cell phone and stepped away from the body to make his call. The voice on the other end answered after only two rings sounding sleepy and groggy.

"Lindsey Monroe"

"Lindsey!?" He frowned for a second but then his face broke into a sly smile "I was actually calling Danny…Any ideas where he is?"

There was a moment of stunned silence then some rustling in the background and a few choice curse words that made his chuckle.

"Hawks? What do you need?" Danny's voice sounded sleepy as well with just a tinge of embarrassment that made Hawks smile even wider.

"I need you to help process a scene… we found Jeff Shelby, he's dead…" He rattled off the address quickly for Danny to write.

"I'll be there in 20 minutes…" Danny was on his way to hang up the phone, hoping to avoid any further discussion - he wasn't that lucky.

"Oh and Danny, when you get here, you and I are going to have a really long talk!"

* * *

Hospital

Mac walked slowly into the hospital room and watched the scene in front of him for a second. Michael Hobbs was sitting in a chair by the bed, his hand clasping Jessie Bancroft's palm and his lips were moving in a silent prayer as he drew their linked hands closer and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles. Suddenly, Mac felt like an intruder, like he had no right to stand there and watch this intimate moment.

He cleared his throat to make his presence known "Hello Michael, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a few minutes. Do you mind if I buy you a cup of coffee?"

Michael didn't reply, nor did he take his eyes off Jessie, as he rose from his seat and moved to follow Mac out of the room.

A few minutes later the two of them were walking around the small hospital garden, each with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. The heat wave finally broke sometime during the night and a cool breeze was dancing between the small trees finally making it possible to breath without feeling like your entire throat and lungs were being set on fire.

"You were trying to tell me something the last time we spoke" Mac finally spoke "I didn't get it then, but I'm starting to now. You said that Jessie spent most of her childhood with you, that she was at your house practically every day"

Michael nodded, his gaze fixed on the soles of his shoes.

"Jessie was at your house because she didn't want to go home didn't she?" Mac pressed on "Because her father was beating her mother…"

"I only saw it a few times. I was just a kid, I didn't really understand it until years later" Michael said softly after the longest pause "Everyone knew something was happening. Mrs. Danvers would show up with a new bruise practically every day and the excuse of being clumsy can only get you so far, but nobody said anything. You see, things like that don't happen in Park Avenue. Harlem, Brooklyn maybe… but not Park Avenue. After a while he simply kept her inside the house. She wasn't allowed to go anywhere. He hired maids and assistants and paid them big bucks to keep quiet and everyone said what a lucky woman she was to have such a loving husband who takes care of her"

"And then Mrs. Danvers killed herself"

"Jessie never believed it. She was adamant about it. She couldn't believe her mother would ever leave her alone with him…"

"Michael" Mac asked hesitantly "Did Mr. Danvers ever assault Jessie? Did he hit her?"

Michael was silent again for a long moment. Mac could understand his hesitation - this wasn't his story and he was debating himself how much of his friend's trust should he betray - so he just waited patiently until the young man made his decision.

"She tried to spend as much time out of the house as she could… but there were times…Once, I think we were 13 or 14, for some reason we were hanging out at her house that day, he wasn't supposed to be home. We were just horsing around you know? Having a tickle fight or something…I was sitting on her, like, pining her down, we were both laughing and he just burst in, practically took the door off it's hinges. It happened so fast, he just lost it. He grabbed her by the hair and I swear to you, for a few seconds there her feet weren't even touching the floor. He kept screaming at her that she was a slut… we were just kids, we weren't doing anything like that Detective Taylor! I swear!" He turned to Mac his eyes big and pleading, looking young and terrified.

"It's ok son. I believe you…" Mac placed a reassuring hand on Michael's shoulder to comfort the young man even though deep inside his own anger was staring to approach it's boiling point. He couldn't imagine the kind of terror this young man witnessed to cause him to be so terrified.

"I wanted to help her" Michael continued his story "To get him off of her, but she just screamed at me to get the hell out of there. I never figured out if it was because she was too ashamed to let me see what was going to happen or because she was afraid he'd beat the crap out of me too - but I did, I got out of there. She didn't come to school for 3 days after that and when she finally did she had a shiner on her face the size of Kansas… We never talked about it though, I never asked and she never volunteered any details…"

Mac nodded slowly and the two of them kept sitting on that bench for another half hour, neither one of them saying anything. Finally, Michael got to his feet and Mac got up with him and started escorting him back towards the hospital. As they reached the doors, the young man turned to face Mac, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Detective Taylor, I need you to know something… I know what you must think of me, and of Jessie… sleeping with me, sleeping with that guy from the police station…and I'm guessing Mr. Danvers already told you about my juvenile record…" When he saw Mac's expression he let out a bitter laughter "Yeah, he loves throwing that in my face. Look, Jessie's parents being what they were and my parents being away 90 percent of the time - the two of us grew up pretty much on our own. We were curious kids and there was no one to set any rules… we did a lot of crazy things, stupid stuff, shop lifting, got arrested for disorderly conduct for going at it in central park when we were 17, graffiti on the side of a building… we were just kids. We grew up since then, got our act together. Jessie isn't a bad person, she's wild and she certainly has no hang-ups about sex… but she's not the trouble maker her father makes her out to be…"

"I'm not here to judge Jessie or you" Mac interjected, stopping Michael's attempt at an explanation "I know that she was your friend, and you stuck by her no matter what. By everything you just told me… a friend is exactly what she needed. That's all I need to know about the two of you…"


End file.
