Authors Note – This is my first CSI New York fic so you may have to bear with my while I get a feel for it. I aim to update pretty regularly but RL has a habit of keeping me busy, pesky thing. Just a little warning, there are small mentions of sexual assualt in the fic but it is only mentions of it. I hope you enjoy the fic and feedback is loved and appreciated.

A Deadly Desire

Chapter 1

Don had barely made it through his shower that morning before he'd gotten a call from Captain Wentworth. A dead body had been dumped in an alleyway and since he was supposed to be starting work an hour later the good Captain took it upon himself to ruin breakfast and call Don in. Wentworth was new and so far he wasn't doing a good job of impressing Don. He'd had to grab some toast on his way out of the apartment and eat it en route, he wasn't happy about it. He got out of the car, stepping under the crime scene tape and into the alleyway. Danny and Hawkes were both knelt down by the body of a young woman. She'd been pretty, blonde hair and blue eyes that were now staring at him lifelessly. She was naked, wrapped in nothing but a white sheet stained with blood and covered in bruises.

"What have we got?" he asked catching both men's attention.

"Female vic, probably around 18 years old," Danny stated glancing up at Don only briefly. He knew Danny had worked late last night to close his last case; both he and Stella had still been going through files when he'd left for his date with Jess. He looked exhausted now.

"Exactly how late did you work last night Danny?"

"I got home about six hours ago," Danny told him "But Gregors is behind bars and shouldn't be getting out for at least twenty years. It was worth it."

"Looks like she took a pretty nasty beating, cause of death is probably the cut throat," Hawkes stated as he examined the body. "She's in a pretty advanced stage of rigor; I'd say death occurred last night, some time between 10 and midnight."

"Sexual assault?" Don asked and Hawkes nodded grimly.

"Looks like it but that'll be up to Sid to confirm."

"Who found the body?" Don questioned.

"Restaurant owner, he was expecting a delivery this morning, opened the back door and found our vic," Danny told him nodding his head toward the open door a few feet further down the alley. "Jess is already talking to him."

"Where is she?" Don questioned wondering briefly how he hadn't noticed her on the way in and how the hell she got to crime scene's so fast. She'd only left his place an hour ago to pick up some things from home before heading into work. Hawkes pointed back out of the alley "Find anything useful here?"

"Not so far," Hawkes told her. "It looks like whoever did this might have washed the body before they dumped her here."

"So this is definitely not the primary crime scene?" Don asked.

"No blood anywhere but on the vic and the sheets, no signs of a struggle and there's cuts around her wrist, she was probably tied up and for some time," Hawkes explained and Don nodded.

"Alright, if you guys don't need me down here I'll go canvass the neighbourhood, see if anyone saw anything," Don told them turning to leave the alley and spotting Jess across the street talking to a man he assumed was the restaurant owner. He walked over to them coming to a stop beside Jess.

"I've never seen her before, I have no idea who she is or what she'd be doing behind my restaurant," the man was saying and Jess nodded her head.

"Have you seen anything suspicious in the last few days, anything out of the ordinary?" she asked.

"Nothing, I run a good business, there's no reason for that girl to be dumped anywhere near my property," the restaurant owner stated obviously getting annoyed. He kept running a hand through his hair, glancing around him as though he was expecting someone to jump out at him. Don had learnt pretty quickly in his career not to just put it up to the shock of finding a body.

"Alright thank you Mr Sandal. You have my card, if you remember anything else, please call," Jess said politely and then turned to leave with Don.

"I take it you didn't get anything useful," he said and she shook her head with a sigh.

"He's never seen her before; he only got here a few minutes before finding the body and didn't see anything suspicious."

"Danny and Hawkes are still checking the scene but so far they're coming up empty. Hawkes is estimating TOD to be late last night, between 10 and midnight. The restaurant would still have been open then," Don said thinking out loud and Jess glanced at the building. "We should talk to anyone who was working last night."

"I'll get their names," Jess said looking over at the apprehensive restaurant owner.

"I'm gonna go knock on some doors, maybe someone else saw something," he told her. He stared at her for a moment, narrowing his eyes. "How'd you get here so fast?"

As usual she didn't answer the question just smiled and walked away. "I'll go see if I can find out who our girl is."

It had taken him at least a good few hours of knocking on doors, waking people up and interrupting morning routines to learn that no one had seen anything. It had still been early and most people had been unaware that a body had been found near their homes. It was with a heavy and long suffering sigh that he dropped himself into his chair at his desk. He was still working on nothing but the toast he'd had on his way out of the apartment that morning and his stomach was being very vocal about its unhappiness.

He'd had a text from Danny on his way back to the precinct, they'd found nothing useful at the crime scene other than the white sheet the vic had been wrapped in which they'd taken back to the lab. They'd taken a few other bits and pieces too but wouldn't be surprised if it had nothing to do with the case, it hadn't exactly been the cleanest of alleyways and most of it had probably been there long before the body. Poor Lindsay had been dragged into dumpster diving to check for a murder weapon or anything that might give them a clue as to what happened. Even after being in the city for years now the poor girl still got some of the worst tasks on offer.

A cup of coffee and brown paper bag was placed down in front of him interrupting his thoughts and the smell was a heavenly reminder of one of the things he loved most in life. He looked up as Jess leaned back on the edge of the desk and decided his day was getting better.

"I was passing the coffee shop down the street," she told him and he thanked her as he opened up the paper bag and pulled out the still warm bagel. "We got an ID on our vic, turns out she's in the system," she continued handing him a file. "Amy Greenwood, 17 years old, she was busted a couple of times for soliciting."

"She's a prostitute?" Flack questioned scanning through what little information was in the file.

"Looks that way," she replied.

"So maybe a client didn't feel he was getting his money's worth," Don suggested. He wasn't one to jump to conclusions but throwing theories out there never hurt.

"Maybe," she shrugged. "I was about to go inform her family."

"I'll come with you," he told her standing up and grabbing his coffee and bagel to follow her. "I got squat from canvass, no one saw a thing."

The drive was quiet, Jess drove while Don was content to eat his bagel and drink his coffee finishing them just in time to arrive at the apartment building Amy Greenwood's father lived in. It was a run down building, Don was sure he saw a rat run passed him but decided it would be best not to turn around and find out. Jess knocked on the door of the third floor apartment and immediately there was movement inside, shuffling, footsteps and what sounded like glass bottles clinging together. The door opened, a man his forties, light brown hair and blue eyes stood there rubbing sleep from his eyes and looking like he'd spent a night and possible a morning out on the town.

"Malcolm Greenwood?" Jess questioned and the man narrowed his eyes, giving her the once over before looking at Don.

"Yeah," he replied, his voice gruff.

"I'm Detective Angell, this is Detective Flack with NYPD, may we come in?" she questioned and after looking at them both warily for several moments he stepped back and allowed them through the door.

The apartment was a mess, as Don had expected it was covered in empty beer bottles and take out boxes. There air was stale and Don decided he was going to refrain from touching anything especially when he saw a bug crawl out of a mug on the floor near the couch. Jess it seemed had come to a similar decision, she didn't move further from the door than she had to but it wasn't like she could hover in it to make a quick get away when she was here to tell him his daughter was dead.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this but your daughter Amy was found murdered this morning," Jess stated and Don was surprised at the lack of emotion he detected from the older man.

"I always figured if she turned up again it would be dead," Greenwood said as he grabbed another beer bottle from the fridge. "She was always getting herself into trouble, could never learn what was good for her."

"When was the last time you spoke to your daughter?" Don questioned, he had a feeling he knew the answer.

"I don't know, about two years ago, one morning she went off to school, didn't come back," Greenwood told them.

"You never contacted the authorities, filed a missing person report?" Jess asked and he shook his head.

"The school called a couple of times asking where she was but I told them she'd gone to stay with her mother. They can't have been that concerned, I'm sure they had a file somewhere that told 'em her mother was dead but I never did hear from them again," he explained and Don bit back any response he might have had.

"Why would you lie to the school?" Jess questioned and got a non committal shrug in response.

"Look, if she wanted to be stupid and run off then that was her business, I didn't need you cops hassling me about it," he stated drinking his beer and obviously getting agitated by their intrusion.

"Do you know of anyone that would want to harm your daughter?" Don asked.

"Like I said, hadn't seen or heard from her in two years, wouldn't know anything," Greenwood replied and Don glanced at Jess, they both knew they were getting no where here.

"If you think of anything, please call and I'm sorry for your loss," Jess said, the last part more out o habit than anything else, as she Don headed for the door. They left the apartment and Don felt a great relief as he stepped out into the New York air, he suddenly felt like he needed to take a shower.

"That was almost a waste of time," he said as he got into the car, this time taking the driver's seat without even thinking about it.

"We know she ran away from home, and we have a fair idea of why," Jess stated getting into the car next to him. He gave her a look and started the car, hopefully Danny and the others had something because so far they were turning up nothing.

"We got nothing from the sheet, the blood belonged to the vic, Lindsay came back with a whole lot of trash and found nothing useful in any of it," Danny explained. The lack of evidence in this case was already annoying him and the case had barely begun. "I was about to go down to autopsy to see if Sid found anything."

"No need, I just came from there," Hawkes stated as he joined Danny and Don in the hallway. "He hasn't done the autopsy yet, apparently Mac and Stella's case took precedence, and they've got more than one victim, he was just getting started on Amy Greenwood. There was nothing on the body though, it had been washed and I mean thoroughly, other than muck and grime from the alleyway there was nothing, no trace, no blood, nothing."

"No blood?" Don questioned. "The sheet she was wrapped in was covered in it."

"Maybe she was on the sheet when she was killed, the killer washed her off to get rid of any evidence that could lead back to him and then wrapped her up in the sheet to dump her," Danny suggested. "But other than blood the sheet was clean."

"What about murder weapon?" Don questioned.

"We're still working on that but we're definitely looking at some sort of blade. The cut throat was the ultimate cause of death but there's a good chance one of the two stab wounds would have done the job anyway," Hawkes explained and Don nodded his head slowly, frustration obvious on his face.

"Well, we've got no witnesses so far, other than the restaurant owner that found the body, Jess and Lindsay have gone to talk to him again, I'm sure he knows more than he's saying," Don told them as he left the room.

The restaurant was nice, Jess hadn't seen it earlier but under different circumstances she might have considered convincing Don to come here with her. She asked one of the waiters where the owner was and he hurriedly pointed her to the kitchen in the back before running off to serve a table. She and Lindsay dodged the rushed staff through to the kitchen which seemed even busier than the front had been but that might have been because it was a smaller space people were rushing around in.

"You'd think a murder victim being found in the alley would be bad for business," Lindsay stated quietly as they spotted Gregory Sandal amongst the cooks.

"Not in New York," Jess replied the two of them making their way over. "Mr Sandal."

Sandal looked up at hearing his name, his eyes finding hers and a look of annoyance crossing his features as they reached him.

"What do you want now, I already told you everything I know," he said turning his head to shout at a waiter that had picked up an order before it was ready to be taken. "This is a really bad time, can't this wait until after closing."

"I'm here investigating a homicide," Jess stated simply. "No, it can't wait."

He didn't look happy about it but he relented. "Alright but not in here." He led them out of the back door into the alley where the body had been found and for a moment his eyes landed on where the girl had been. He tore his gaze away and turned back to them. "Alright, what do want?"

"I want to go over what you know," she told him not flat out accusing him of lying earlier but she had the distinct impression that he had been.

"I already told you, I don't know anything, I don't know the girl, I don't know why she'd be left behind my restaurant and I didn't see anything other than her body lying there," he stated running a hand through his hair.

"Are you sure about that Mr Sandal?" Jess questioned and he gave her a look of outrage that she'd even consider him being a liar. She cut him off before he could start spouting protests and declarations of innocence. "Because if you're lying to me or have been withholding information that's obstruction of justice and interfering with a criminal investigation, that's a crime."

"Alright," Sandal said looking slightly panicked now. "I know who the girl is, her name is Amy, she's a prostitute, I... was with her a few times. I didn't want to say anything before because I was afraid it would make me a suspect and...I don't want my wife to find out."

"Can you tell us where she worked, where you picked her up?" Lindsay questioned.

"It wasn't like that; I didn't just drive down the street until I found someone. I met with a man, her pimp, he set it up," Sandal informed them. "His name was Ramiro; I don't know his last name. That's all I know I swear, I have no idea why someone would leave her body behind my restaurant, I paid Ramiro upfront, treated Amy right..."

"You can go, before I change my mind," Jess stated and watched as Sandal all but ran back into the restaurant. She turned to Lindsay who sighed and followed Jess out of the alley and back to the car.

"A first name isn't a lot to go on," she stated. "That's if it's even a real name."

"It's more than we had when we came here," Jess replied. "We could ask around, see if anyone knows that name,"

"Know any good spots for finding pimps?" Lindsay questioned humorously.

"A few too many."

She pulled at the ropes tying her wrists to the bed but all it succeeded in doing was cutting more into her wrists. There was no slack, barely enough to move her wrists at all. She was cold but given that she was wearing only her waitress uniform she wasn't surprised. Her jacket was gone, probably taken while she was unconscious and she couldn't even guess what had happened to her handbag. She had given up screaming for help hours ago but she needed to find a way out of here. She needed to get back to Thomas, she should have been home hours ago, hopefully someone had called the police, hopefully someone was looking for her.

She heard footsteps outside the door and she knew he was coming back. The bruises he'd already left on her suddenly started hurting more as though they sensed his presence, knew that there was more pain to come. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't beg, she'd already given him that satisfaction and she wasn't going to give him anymore.

The door opened...

TBC