A woman with a stroller opens the front door struggling with carrying the shopping bags. She closes the door and turns to see a man lying with a pool of blood around his head.

She screams.

*Opening Credits*

Mac ducked his head around the lab door and called out to the man engrossed in the computer screen before him.

"Danny!"

The blonde head shot up in the direction of his boss's voice.

"Just got a call from Flack – dispatch received a 911 call to report male body corner of Park and East 124th. Let's go!"

Quickly saving and closing the file before him Danny grabbed his kit and cell phone before following Mac out to the elevator.

Arriving on the street they were greeted with a familiar sight – police cars, FDNY ambulances and the crowds gathered with morbid fascination at the latest spectacle.

Exiting the car they were greeted by Detective Flack in his usual no nonsense manner.

"Six-thirty this evening Sarah Master, the nanny, arrives back with the baby." Flack gave a casual wave in the direction of the ambulance as he spoke. "Says she's been in the park all day comes home to find Mr Maxwell bludgeoned in the lobby."

Making their way up the steps Danny snorted in distaste at his best friend, "Bludgeoned? Get the feeling we're unnecessary here Mac!"

"Yeah yeah Messer whatever – when you've done the job as long as we have you start to notice these things but by all means be my guest!" He motions into the lobby.

Ducking beneath the police cordon Danny exhaled a whistled breath. Before him lay the body face down on the tiled floor hands out slightly above his head with a thick pool of drying blood on the right hand side. Beside the body lay a statue covered in blood. Quickly raising his camera Danny shot off a couple of overall pictures before delving into the scene.

"Okay Flack I'll give you this one but no more spoiling the surprise!"

"So what do we know?" Mac cut short the friendly banter clearly not in the mood for any delays.

Danny caught the motion as Flack raised his eyebrows just a fraction then immediately returned them to their rightful place as he reached for his memo book.

"Lowell Maxwell, 34, works down town as a financial consultant – married to Cherie Maxwell also works in finance, both trust fund kids hence the million pound home and nanny. My guys already spoke to the doorman in his office building, he left work around 5:15 this evening said everything seemed normal."

"Till he got home and someone used his head a target practise."

Danny was now squatting down in the lobby carefully noting, marking and photographing each piece of evidence. Someone had really done a number on this guy.

"He works down town, trying to take the subway at that time of day could have taken at least 45 minutes to get home. Nanny didn't make the call till 6:30 right?"

"Yeah dispatch logged the call at 6:32."

"So what happened in that mystery half hour?"

Continuing to examine the lobby Danny retrieved his tape recorded form his kit and let his instincts take over as he spoke, "The blood spatter indicates on clean blow to the back right hand side of the head, body position suggests he was walking away from his attacker. Level of drying at the edge of the blood pool indicates T.O.D, to be around 6:15 only approximately we will need coroner to confirm."

Outside Mac and Flack made their way over to the ambulance, in the back sat a girl in her early twenties. She had long brown hair and deep chocolate eyes a baby, no more than two, perched on her shaking knees.

"Miss Master?" Flack initiated.

Her lower lip began to tremble as she raised only her eyes to meet Mac's.

"Miss Master I'm Detective Mac Taylor, Head of the New York Crime Lab, I wondered if you could tell me a little about what happened today?"

Shifting the toddler slightly in her lap she began to rub his back soothingly more so for her it seemed than him.

"I arrived this morning at 8 o'clock as usual. Mr Maxwell had already left. Mrs Maxwell was just getting ready to leave Oliver was waiting for his breakfast so I started on that."

She paused and took a shaky breath; the baby gave a whimper of recognition at the sound of his name.

"After breakfast we walked to the market for some groceries did a little window shopping too. We came home for lunch then I had arranged a play date at in the afternoon. We met up with some other nannies and babies in the park. We left the park and picked up dinner on the way home. When we came in…he was…Mr…he was just lying there."

As Sarah began to cry softly the little boy ceased his movement and turned his head away from Mac into her shoulder. Lowering down to the same height Mac gentle rubbed Sarah's shoulder a little – she had been through a lot today.

"I know this is difficult but any other information you could give us could be crucial. Did you see anyone? Hear anything? Even something a little unusual?"

Sniffing back another sob Sara wiped a tear trailing down her cheek.

"The only unusual thing was that Mr Maxwell was home, he usually isn't home till after 7. Mrs Maxwell is always home first."

At that Flack heard a scuffle behind him, expecting to see a uniform officer scuffling with an over zealous journalist he was taken a back to see a striking blonde striding toward him.

"Sarah? What an earth is going on!"