The hunted
The Manhattan skyline shone vividly in the night sky, but the rain that was falling lightly over the city of New York blurred the edges of the buildings. The sound of thousands of tyres passing through the water that had settled on the busy roads and the non stop twitter of horns gave a feeling of normality to the citizens of the bustling metropolis; some like Danny Messer found this sound comforting. The young CSI walked purposely towards the entrance of the crime lab his hands in his pockets, his arms huddled into his body, the collar of his coat turned up in a vain attempt to shelter himself from the damp cold weather.
As Danny went to enter the building he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end… someone was watching him. He glanced nervously around him just to see the crowds of people with umbrellas surging past each other on both sides of the street. He tried to shake the feeling off, something had sent a chill down his spine and a sense of foreboding settled heavily upon him. He entered the building and continued his journey to his place of work walking past fellow co workers carrying files and coffees most of them on their way home after a long hard day. He felt strangely dazed like he was on autopilot his mind still struggling to break away from the feeling he had experienced only moments before. Before his concentration snapped back to the present he found himself covered in scalding hot coffee and falling not so gracefully to the floor. He let out a strangled sound as he hit the floor.
"Hey look where your going, Jesus!!!!" Hissed the unfortunate women Danny had absentmindedly barreled into. Who also was now partially pinned underneath him.
"Awww crap ime sorry." He said sheepishly as he picked himself up and proceeded to offer the woman a hand up. Which she angrily accepted
"Whatever." She muttered and stalked off pausing to ditch her now crumpled and empty coffee cup in a bin.
At this everyone who had paused to gawp at the embarrassing situation unfolding in front of them pretended indiscreetly to be very interesting in various walls, floors and ceilings. Danny now having collected himself stormed off in the direction of his office muttering obscenities under his breath ignoring the stifled laughter that resonated throughout the corridor.
Mac saw the younger CSI storm in and couldn't help but crack a smile when he saw the giant coffee stain that practically covered his disgruntled co-workers shirt.
"Had another altercation with the coffee machine I see." Mac said in a calm even but slightly mocking tone.
"Don't you start." Danny said slightly peeved.
Just then Stella appeared from no where clutching some files and soon her neutral expression had turned into one of amusement.
"You know you're meant to drink the coffee Danny." Stella said smiling
"Laugh it up guys, anyway have you called me in for a reason or did you just want someone to point and laugh at." Danny said all annoyance leaving him replaced by a feeling of humor at his current situation.
"Well obviously you're here for our entertainment but we thought it would be nice if you could help us out on a case that just came in." Stella replied deftly
"A body has been found in an abandoned warehouse a few blocks from here, and judging from the police report it's pretty messy crime scene so were going to need all hands on deck to go over it." Mac said in a distinctly business like tone.
"What do you mean messy?" Danny asked raising his eyebrow quizzically
"As in the vic has been hacked into tiny little pieces, flack said that it looked like something out of a horror movie and more sinister is the message the killer has left but we wont find out what that is till we get down there, flack said that we needed to see it for ourselves. " Stella replied
"So Danny why don't you go get cleaned up whilst we wait for Lindsay and Hawkes to show up." Mac added
Danny shuffled off to the locker room to change into something dry; he always kept a couple of shirts in his locker in case the need arose. As he entered the locker room he mulled over what Stella and Mac had just told him, between the sinister message and the strange feeling of being watched he had earlier he couldn't help but feel that something was definitely amiss and he feared that this murder could be just the beginning.
He opened his locker and quickly located a clean shirt, quickly removing the damp coffee saturated one that he had been wearing he slipped on a crisp white shirt hurriedly fastened the buttons grabbed his jacket and slipped smoothly out of the locker room leaving his locker partially open in the rush.
By the time he arrived back where he had first met Stella and Mac Lindsay and Hawkes had arrived,
"Right we all good to go??" Mac asked eyeing everyone in the group
Everyone gestured in the affirmative and the group of CSI's exited the building and stepped out into the cold rainy night not knowing that the case that lay before them would test each of them to they're limits………