Chapter 1

The early morning sun streamed in through the doors at the end of the concourse causing the straggle of exhausted travellers to shade their eyes as they emerged from the depths of the airport. It was still relatively quiet so there were plenty of cabs in the queue. Jacko lifted his eyes from his paper and swallowed the last of his coffee as his fare threw in an old army kit bag and settled into the back seat.

"Well, well, well. Look who it isn't. Good mornin' to yer Detective Taylor!" he grinned. "If you don't mind me saying so you're lookin' a bit rough!"

Mac Taylor felt rough. He ran his hand across the stubble on his chin and grimaced as he smelt the coffee on his driver's breath. Right now he'd kill for a cup of coffee.

"Morning Jacko. I'm surprised to see you here. It's not often you do the airport run. How are you doin'?" It never ceased to amaze him that in a city of 8 million people and over 13 thousand taxis that he could run into Jacko as often as he did.

"Can't complain. How come you're here so early? You canno' be on the Washington flight. Doesn'a land for another 5 minutes." he asked as he pulled away and flicked on the meter. "Home is it?".

Mac nodded. "We were due in last night but technical trouble grounded us till this morning. Spent the night in the departure lounge. No coffee shop open due to staff shortages and an electrical short on the plane meant no hot drinks. I'll be glad to get home." Mac leant back in the seat to rest his aching neck and closed his eyes.

"Ah! Missing the caffeine huh? Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings Detective but getting back to yer place is gonna take a while. There was some big fire down that way last night and the traffic's still backed up in a three block radius. That's why I took an airport run to get out of it!"

Mac grimaced. All he wanted was a coffee, a shave and a shower in that order. He thought for a moment. He always kept a change of clothes in his locker at the office. He wondered if he could sneak in without anyone noticing. It was rare that he wore casual clothes to the office and was certainly never seen unshaven. But he'd only end up being late if he tried to get home.

"Jacko, change of plan. Take me straight to the office."

"Right yer are Detective. Why don't catch one of them ther' power naps? I'll have yer there before yer can say Jacko." And with that he pressed on the accelerator and began to hum along to the tune on the radio.

Mac closed his eyes but sleep wouldn't come. He opened his eyes again and glanced out of the window. They were just passing a hoarding with a brightly coloured advert for a well known chain of diners featuring a smiling girl with a coffee cup and an "All you can drink!" slogan. He closed his eyes again until he felt the cab stop at traffic lights. He glanced out of the window and realized they were right by a coffee shop already crowded with people grabbing an early breakfast on the way to work. The woman sitting nearest to him lifted a steaming cup to her lips and closed her eyes with a sigh as she sipped the dark liquid. Mac huffed and grabbed the newspaper that had been left on the seat.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me!" he said under his breath as he realised that it was the economic section that had been abandoned, it's headline standing out from the other text : "South American Coffee prices to rise again!"

It wasn't long before they arrived at the office. Mac smiled and paid Jacko the fare, wished him a good day and entered the building. It was still pretty early so Mac didn't expect many people to be around. With his bag tossed over his shoulder he badged through the gate and waved a good morning to the security officer whose look of surprise didn't go unnoticed by Mac. Guess he must look somewhat different in faded jeans and leather jacket together with his five o'clock shadow that looked nearer seven o'clock. He ran his hand through his tousled hair somewhat self-consciously wishing he'd combed it in the cab.

The elevator chimed it's arrival as a couple of uniformed officers stepped out so Mac jumped forward and punched the button for his floor totally unaware that both officers had skidded to a stop and were staring in amazement at the now closed doors.

Stepping out of the elevator, Mac headed straight into his office. Most of the labs were still in darkness, unsurprising at this early hour though Mac thought it unusual not to see anyone at all. There were usually a few night staff left working and a few early risers. He threw his bag down, and hung his leather jacket on the stand. He punched a key on his computer and flicked through the pile of files on his desk, the top one had a pink sticky note with "urgent" written on it. There were also several multi-coloured sticky notes attached to his desk. "Jo!" He glanced at the screen of his computer. "You have 37 new messages." it announced. Mac sighed. "Oh what the hell!" He decided now was not the time to think about his caffeine addiction so he headed towards the break room.

As he wandered down the corridor he could see that the break room lights were on and he could hear the distinct sounds of someone speaking but other than that everything seemed abnormally quiet. As he rounded the corner he was astonished to see a large number of his staff gathered around listening intently to Jo Danville, his second-in-command.

He slowed down instinctively as he approached the group, his trainers soundless on the corridor floor. He listened intently in order to catch Jo's words.

"I know that the next few hours and days are going to be difficult for all of us..." Jo was saying. Mac's pulse speeded up a little as she continued. "But we must remain focussed. We need to do our jobs and bring whoever did this to justice. It's what he would have …..." Jo's voice trailed off as Mac came into her line of sight.

For a moment she looked like an animal caught in the headlights of car. Her facial expression was one of shock and disbelief. As the crowd listening to her realised something was wrong they began to turn around. There were gasps and expressions of shock that caused Mac to halt abruptly and take a step backward. Something was very wrong.

Everyone was staring at him like they'd seen a ghost. As Mac surveyed the crowd he noted that more than one of them had tears in their eyes. In fact, several, including Lindsay who was now standing closest to him, were openly crying. Time suddenly seemed to stand still. He suddenly felt very self-conscious and he ran his hand down the back of his hair wishing desperately that he'd had time to change.

"What is going on?" he asked in a voice louder than he intended as a sudden feeling of dread clutched at his stomach. The atmosphere in the room was so tense his skin began to crawl and he felt a wave of panic wash over him. He tried to pick out his team among the crowd gathered there. Sheldon was staring at him his forehead creased in a frown, his mouth slightly open. Jo seemed frozen to the spot. Danny had his arm tight around Lindsay's shoulders and Sid was running his fingers through his hair as he did when something perplexed him.

Mac was about to demand to be told what the hell was happening when Lindsay suddenly launched herself into his arms.

"Oh my God! Mac!"

Mac stumbled slightly, instinctively wrapping his arms around her as she buried her face into his shirt.

"Lindsay, what's wrong? What's happened?" Mac felt sick. Putting his hands on either side of her face he lifted her face towards him and was astonished to see her smiling up at him as tears streaked her face. "What …." his voice trailed away as Adam came stumbling into the room.

"Whoa! Boss! You're ….." stammered Adam. Mac turned to stare at him. "You're... You're not dead!"

"What?"