Disclaimer: I am not Anthony Zuiker. I do not own the characters of CSI: NY. I do own anyone you don't recognize including victims, bad guys and random characters, so don't steal them! I will put the characters back where I found them, unharmed.

AN: Okay guys. This just came to me after reading some of the more ridiculous stories that are being posted on this site right now. I am not basing this on any writers, but it is just against bad writing in general! Hopefully this won't be a long story, but I may not update very often. Just warning you! Many thanks to both Aphina and Axellia for looking this over for me!

Poisoned Pen

© SparkyCSI

Chapter 1.

The Sweet Smell of Death

Danny Messer and Lindsay Monroe walked up to the crime scene tape to the sight of a uniformed officer bent over vomiting. Lindsay looked at Danny with her eyebrows raised. "Either he's a newbie or this scene must be gruesome," she stated calmly.

Danny returned her look with his trademark smirk. "I got 20 on he's a newbie," he shot back with a grin.

Lindsay winked. "You're on Messer," she said with a grin.

At that moment, they saw Flack walk out of the building, with a handkerchief around the lower part of his face, his complexion slightly tinged green. Lindsay shot a look over her shoulder to Danny. "I win," she smirked.

Danny just studied Flack, who shook his head in horror.

Quickly they stepped under the crime scene tape and walked towards the open door. Once there, Danny gallantly let Lindsay proceed in front of him. Taking a breath, Lindsay walked into the small apartment and stood in shock. "Oh my God," she murmured under her breath as she surveyed the blood splattered over all four walls.

In the center of the room lay a partially charred body. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the body looked like it had been cut numerous times before being set on fire. Ignoring the rolling in her gut as the unmistakable sweet smell of burned human flesh assaulted her, she walked over to her boss, Mac Taylor, who was already snapping pictures.

Mac looked up and saw the stunned expression over both of his CSI's faces. "Not a pretty sight," he stated in a matter of fact manner. "Body appears to be female, but the burns are too extensive for a visual ID. Sid will have to get us some DNA. Danny, I want you to process all of the trace around the body. Whoever did this was cunning. Nothing else in the apartment is burned, save a small area around the body." He turned to Lindsay. "Lindsay, go through the bedroom, see if you can find some identification there."

Both Danny and Lindsay nodded and quickly went to work. An hour later, Sid had taken the body back to the morgue for an autopsy and Danny had finished taking the trace around the body. He was now taking fingerprints off of every available surface.

In the bedroom, Lindsay had found a purse with a driver's license in it and studied the picture carefully. She is so young, she thought as she looked at the brunette in the picture. Checking her date of birth, Lindsay realized that if she was in fact the dead body, she had just hit her twenty-second birthday. Shaking her head, she bagged the evidence and turned to the laptop which was sitting on the bed.

Carefully, she opened the computer up, but it seemed to be password protected, so she bagged it to see if Adam could help her out. She studied the bedroom carefully while taking photos; she wanted to make sure that she didn't overlook any evidence which might be a crucial clue to who their killer was.

When the three investigators were done, they walked out of the apartment, gulping in clean air with gratitude. Lindsay shuddered. "That was horrific," she said quietly.

Danny nodded before handing her a twenty dollar bill. "Here ya go, Montana."

Mac noticed the exchange and looked at them in confusion. "What was that for?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly before answering, "When we got to the scene, we saw a uniform tossing his cookies. I bet he was a newbie, Montana said it was gruesome scene. She won."

Mac shook his head. "Actually, call it a tie. That was a new officer. First dead body," he stated.

Lindsay shook her head while she handing the money back to Danny as the got in the SUV to return to the lab.


When they got back to the lab, all three began to catalogue the evidence. Looking at the laptop, Lindsay smiled as she took it to Adam. "Hey, Adam," she said brightly. "I have a project for you."

Adam Ross looked up from the slide he was analyzing. "Hey, Lindsay."

Lindsay set the laptop on the table next to him. "This is the laptop from our vic's apartment. I turned it on at the scene, but it's password protected. Anything you can do to help?"

Adam smiled. "Maybe. Give me a bit to finish up this for Stella and I'll look into it," he responded easily.

Lindsay just nodded as she got a page from Sid. "I'll see you later. Sid's got some news for us," she said as she walked out of the room.

She met Danny at the elevator and in silence they rode down to the morgue, hoping that Sid had managed to get some DNA from the charred body. They walked in to find Sid, staring at the body, a look of disbelief on his face.

"Sid? Whadda ya got for us?" Danny asked.

Sid looked up and snapped his glasses back into place. "Not a lot. I did manage to get some DNA and sent that up to the lab to test. Cause of death is asphyxiation. She was choked to death. The cuts and burning were all post mortem. Whomever did this was completely thorough. The burning seared the edges of the cuts, so I can't tell what kind of blade made them. Fingerprints aren't going to be helpful, since the pads of the fingers were burned off," he shook his head. "At least all of that was done post mortem, so the poor girl didn't feel it. I hope you find whoever did this."

Lindsay looked down at the remains. "I don't think I've ever seen anything so brutal and yet there were no signs of forced entry. She knew her attacker, Danny. She had to have known them."

Danny looked at her, shaking his head like she was. "And there wasn't that much useful trace at the scene. Maybe Flack will have some luck with the interviews." He turned to Sid. "Thanks, Sid."

Sid smiled before stating, "One more thing. There were signs that she had been moved after death, but before she was burned."

"Great," Lindsay muttered. "Now we have to find the primary crime scene." She shook her had as she turned around and walked out of the morgue.


Flack nodded again as he talked to the old women who lived about the apartment where the body was found. "Okay, so Mrs. Andrews, you say that you heard a loud noise about two a.m. this morning?"

"Yes, dearie. But that's not unusual. The nice girl that lived there was a night owl. I swear, when she first moved in, I had to knock on her door several times to get her to quiet down. We're such a quiet building and we like to keep it that way. She had been the perfect tenant after that. Occasionally I would hear her come home, but in the last year or so, she had been quiet herself."

Flack nodded appropriately. "Do you know what she did for a living? Did you ever see her arguing with anyone?" he asked.

Mrs. Andrews thought for a moment. "I never did see a young man come around, although there were several young women. I always wondered if she lived," she hesitated before continuing, "an alternative lifestyle, if you get my meaning."

Flack suppressed a grin at the woman's choice of words. "Yes, ma'am. Did she ever argue with any of those women?"

"Not that I ever saw," she replied. "I wish I could be more help, Detective." She looked at Flack and noticed the lack of a ring. "I say, you are one of the most polite young men that I've ever met. And handsome as sin to boot. I think that you and my youngest granddaughter would get along very well. Are you in a relationship?"

Flack looked up from his notes quickly, trying to think of a comeback. "Um…no ma'am, but my job schedule makes a relationship difficult. I don't want to put any woman in that position. Thank you for your time, Mrs. Andrews. You have a nice day," he said trying to escape.

Mrs. Andrews just nodded before closing her door.

When Flack got to the crime lab, he had mostly gotten over the woman trying to set him up, but was still chuckling at her boldness. He walked into the lab, to find both Danny and Lindsay bent over microscopes looking at trace. "Tell me you have good news," he said without preamble.

Lindsay looked up with a smile. "Partially. The DNA that Sid got from the body matched the hair that I got from the brush, so we are assuming at this point that the body is that of Monica Jacobi."

Danny took up the thread of the evidence from there. "From the background check that we ran, she is clean. Nothing in the police database, not even a parking ticket. She worked at a publishing house, as a junior editor. We were just waiting for you to get here to go and see her boss at work. Did you get anything from the interviews?"

Flack chuckled again. "Other than an offer for a woman to set me up with her granddaughter? Nothing useful. She was a quiet tenant, they never saw a man with her and the woman thought she might be gay because of that." Flack rolled his eyes as Danny smirked and Lindsay stifled her giggles behind a hand.

"Really? A date?" Danny asked. "You should take her up on that offer, Flack. You've been living like a monk recently."

"Don't start, Messer. Just because I have a more discriminating taste than you do, hardly means I've been living like a monk." He turned to Lindsay, who was doing her best to stay out of the conversation. "Lindsay? Do you want to go with me to her work?"

Lindsay nodded while taking off her gloves. "Sure. I'm done here anyway," she said as she turned around and smirked at Danny. "Have fun, Messer!"


Flack and Lindsay walked into the small publishing house, McMurphy Publishing, and soon were meeting with the owner, Richard McMurphy. After they flashed their badges, he looked at them in concern. "How can I assist you?"

"Do you have an employee by the name of Monica Jacobi?" Flack asked.

"Yes, she is on vacation right now. Is she in trouble?" he asked with concern in his voice.

Flack sighed. "We believe she was found dead this morning. We are trying to make a DNA match."

Mr. McMurphy looked at him in shock. "Monica's dead? How? Why? She was such a sweet girl. Very promising career ahead of her."

Lindsay looked at him. "What did she do for you?"

He shook his head. "She was my junior editor. Although, she wanted to become a published writer. She said that she took this job so that she could improve her writing." He snorted. "Like she needed to improve! She was one of the most talented writer's that I've ever met. She had just brought me the first chapter of her novel, which I have here, and I am over the moon about it. I wanted to publish it for her, so I gave her two weeks of vacation so that she could work out a rough draft. That was on Friday."

Flack raised his eyebrows. "Really? Did she have any enemies?"

Mr. McMurphy shook his head. "Not that I know of. She was a very quiet introverted person. Didn't make friends very well. As far as I know, she didn't even go out. I kept telling her that going out and living her life would improve her writing; it would give her a life basis to draw on for her characters." He thought for moment. "Oh, God. She told me Friday that she was going out to a club with one of her old college friends. Dear Lord. If that's what caused her death then I'm responsible for pushing her into it!" He looked like he was in shock.

Lindsay smiled at him with sympathy. "We don't know anything yet. Do you know what club she was going to or who the friend was?"

He thought carefully. "I think it was Club Blue and her friend's name is Samantha. I'm sorry I don't know her last name."

Flack wrote the information down. "That's okay. You given us some place to look for now. Thank you."

Mr. McMurphy stood up and shook their hands. "I hope that you find who did this, Detectives."

Flack smiled. "We will," he promised as they left the room.


AN: So, what'd y'all think? Is it worth the effort? Please read and review!!