Chapter 1

The biting cold wind sent the discarded newspapers whirling into the air, slapping against the damp concrete walls of the dimly-lit alley. Sheldon Hawkes shivered and hitched his collar higher as he picked his way round the numerous puddles heading towards the flashing lights of an ambulance and the group of uniformed police officers standing beside a number of large green dumpsters haphazardly stacked along the wall.

"Hey buddy! Long time no see!". One of the uniformed officers detached himself from the group stepping towards Sheldon, his hand outstretched. "You were quick getting here."

"Danny!" exclaimed Sheldon, breaking into a big smile as he shook the offered hand. "Was in the neighbourhood." he said with a smirk.

"Ah! Let me guess. A romantic evening with the delightful Camille ?" said Danny waggling his eyebrows up and down, a big grin lighting his face.

"Yeah! Great little Italian place Mac told me about. The Fettuccine Parmigiana is out of this world. So what have we got?" The words tumbled out of Sheldon's mouth cutting Danny off before he could delve any deeper into his personal affairs.

Danny grinned and he and Sheldon pushed past the other officers and turned to look at the body of a dark-haired young woman leaning against the far side of one of the dumpsters. Placing his case on the ground, Sheldon pulled gloves from his pocket and began a cursory examination quietly giving voice to his thoughts: "Early-thirties, slim, not unattractive, hair dishevelled with traces of blood on the left hand side, blue wool sweater, jeans and black leather ankle boots, no jewellery, no purse, no coat ...this looks more like a man's coat ..." Lifting a long, black, wool overcoat that had been laid over her Sheldon could see her hands clasped over a blood-soaked cloth that was probably blue before the blood had changed it to a dark crimson colour. Lifting it gently away he could see a small puncture wound. "Single stab wound to the stomach. Looks like she bled out. We got an ID" He sighed at the loss of another young life.

Danny was nodding as he concurred with Sheldon's assessment. "Not yet. 911 got a call 20 minutes ago from Mrs Liebowitz ..." Danny half-turned pointing to a portly lady huddled inside an enormous red overcoat standing to one side talking animatedly to Detective Don Flack who was looking somewhat bemused by the constant stream of words flowing from the woman's mouth and her wildly gesticulating hands.

"She wasn't too coherent. It seems she was on her way to work as the evening cleaner for Beckman and Hansen. Apparently she always uses the side entrance..." continued Danny swivelling on his feet to indicate a door a few feet away. Sheldon followed his gaze and noted a guitar case propped up against the wall. "Odd" he thought his eyebrows knitting together but his attention was redirected back towards Danny as he continued.

"She says she saw three men. One was running away from her in this direction..." Danny paused to point down the alley towards the street where Sheldon could make out an officer standing behind crime scene tape and a number of people standing around talking animately and in particular, one man with dark hair and a moustache straining to see what was going on. He shook his head in disgust at the rubber-neckers and turned back as Danny continued, "...carrying a large bag or bundle. The other two guys were slugging it out here…" Again Danny paused to show Sheldon a spot a few feet away. Flicking on his flash-light the former ME shone the beam over the lid of a metal trash can that had been knocked over, immediately noticing blood on the rim and the handle.

Danny continued : "The second guy yells at her and takes off in the same direction as the first guy. She then notices the vic, ducks into the doorway over there and dials 911. No ID on the vic, no murder weapon. Basically that's all I know. I got my guys seeing if there are other witnesses but as far as I can tell there's only Mrs Talk-yer-ear-off over there"

Sheldon again glanced towards Don who appeared to be trying to stem the flow from the evidently very vocal Mrs Liebowitz. "Okay! I'm confused. So which of our three perps killed her and where's the third guy?"

"Not too clear on that one. Let's see if Flack has managed to glean anything extra." Danny grinned as Flack approached puffing out his cheeks and rolling his eyes.

"Wow can that woman talk!" Don glanced back towards the lady in question who gave him a little smile and waggled her fingers at him. Don smiled briefly and quickly turned back towards Danny and Sheldon, a look of undisguised horror on his face. "Not one word." he ground out as Danny and Sheldon attempted to cover their smirks.

"So Don, what did your new girlfriend have to say for herself? Hope she making more sense than when I talked to her." grinned Danny.

"Get lost Messer! Haven't you got some poor rookie to go torture?"

Before Danny could tease some more, a young officer came up "Sarge?" and Danny turned away but not before nodding at Sheldon and Don who both noticed the rueful look on his face.

"He misses this doesn't he?" asked Don quietly indicating the crime scene with a wave of his hand.

"Yeah, yeah he does! So what did you learn?"

"To be honest, not much more than Danny got out of her when he answered the call. She didn't get a good look at the perps. They were too far away. They had their backs turned to her most of the time. It all happened too fast. Yada yada yada." Don rolled his eyes and flicked back through his notebook before continuing.

"But she was certain that there were three of them, all white males, and of indeterminate age. All with dark hair and dark clothing. The first was running away when she arrived. She's adamant that he was definitely carrying some kind of big bag in his arms as he turned and stopped to watch the other two who were fighting. One guy dressed in a long black coat floors the other with, and I quote, 'one of those cool Ninja moves with a trash can lid just like in the movies." At this point Don stopped to laugh. "I got to put that one in the book" he said referring to the book kept at NYPD recording all of the crazy and amusing statements given by witnesses. "I mean ...a Ninja with a cool trash can move? The guys back at the precinct will love that one." He shook his head in amazement.

Seeing Hawkes' shake of the head and raised eyebrows he cleared his throat and continued. "Then get this, when the third guy goes down she says our Ninja takes off his coat and scarf and bends down by the dumpster. After a few seconds he gets up, looks her straight in the eye, yells at her to call 911 before running off in the same direction as the first guy. She then sees the vic. She was too scared to approach so she ducked into the doorway to make the 911 call. It seems that the third perp must have recovered enough to make his get-away while she looked in her purse for a phone as when she dared to look again he was gone." The look on Don's face was enough to make Sheldon look at the purse in question.

"What has she got in there? The kitchen sink?"

"Doc! You don't want to go there!" Don grimaced as Mrs Liebowitz rummaged in the oversized bag for some obviously much needed item.

"So is our second perp a good guy? I mean, laying his coat over her? Telling her to call 911?"

Don shook his head. "I don't know. It could be a robbery gone bad. She has no purse. No jewellery. No ID. No keys. Maybe the first guy stole her bag, stabbed her and ran off. Then some do-gooder wades in and takes out the other bad guy and goes to help the vic. But why run away? Why not stay with the vic himself and call 911? He could maybe have saved her if he'd have stayed. Doesn't make sense."

"Hey guys. What's up?" Don and Sheldon turned to see Adam or what they assumed was Adam from the voice, the actual person hidden from view behind several layers of garments, a woolly hat and an impossibly long scarf.

"You sure you're dressed warmly enough Adam?" Don sniggered.

"Ah come on. It's like Antarctica. I'm frozen. The wind cuts right through you." whimpered their favourite lab-rat as he cast an eye over the vic and the crime-scene.

"Stop snivelling and start processing. The sooner we get out of here the sooner you can get back to your cozy little trace lab. Besides it looks like rain." Sheldon laughed as Adam continued to hop from foot to foot. "Start with the lid of that trash can over there. It seems that one of our perps was using it Ninja style. You might be able to get a decent set of prints."

"OK … wait ….how do you use the lid of a trash can Ninja style?" asked Adam.

"How come you're out here anyway?" asked Don ignoring the question.

"Oh! Jo called. She and Lindsay haven't quite finished with the bodega robbery over on Weston and she made it very clear that we weren't to call Mac. It's his first night off in over two weeks." Adam put on his best I'm-almost-as scared-of-Jo-as-I-am-of Mac look. "Bet he's home curled up in the warm with a beer watching the Jets game."

Don smiled as Adam continued to grumble to himself about the cold and how he wished he was home. Little did they know that Adam couldn't have been further than the truth.