"Alright guys, this is Detective Messer from the NYPD. He's a cop who solves crimes." She looked at Danny to affirm what she was saying. "He's here to see what you can do, let's not disappoint him." Danny waved a hand at those students who turned to look at him and then he turned his attention back to the front of the room. "When I came in this morning I found this." She turned around and raised a map that was covering the front board.

There was a note: "I've been noticing the class pet in your room. I didn't have one, so I took yours." The kids turned to look at the empty place on the counter where the class hamster usually say and then back at Ms. Monroe.

Before he knew it, the room went into motion. The kids congregated into small groups and were getting to work. One group was comparing the note on the board to samples of handwriting they had from people in the building. Another group was taking photos of clues and items they thought were important. One group was looking for prints and another was looking over the area where the cage was. The kids milled around and did their part in the investigation.

He watched the room and wondering if this is what he and his co-workers looked like at a scene. He was watching so closely that he didn't see two student approached. "Excuse us, but we need your shoe print. We need to eliminate you as someone who did this." Danny was appalled. How could they think he did this? He gave the prints. A few minutes later, when two kids came up to him with an ink pad and a cruelly printed 10 card, he just held out his hands. They expertly rolled his fingertips in the ink and made perfect prints. Before walking away, one of the students handed him a baby wipe for his fingers. As he was trying to get the ink off, he saw Ms. Monroe laughing at him.

Twenty minutes later Ms. Monroe called the class back to their seats. "Alright, what do we have?" Reports started coming in from around the room. Danny felt like he was back at work with what he was hearing.

"Handwriting closely matches three people in the building."

"Footprints in front of the cage are a size 8 woman's gym shoe."

"Fingerprints were too smudged to be usable."

"There was black powder left on the counter where the cage was."

Lindsay listened closely, as did Danny. "Okay, what is next"

"Cross reference the handwriting matches to anyone that wears a size 8 show, woman's of course and then try and figure out where the black powder fits in." Danny was too wrapped up to notice that he was the one who gave the answer.

"Thank you Detective Messer." The kids went back to work.

***

Mac looked at his watch later in the afternoon, trying to figure out what was taking Danny so long. He should have been back to the lab hours ago. Quickly he texted Danny to find out what was going on. He was surprised to get a message back from Danny saying that he was still at the school and that if Mac needed him, just call.

***

The classroom was quiet, the halls were quiet and the kids had gone home. Danny was still hanging around helping clean up and listening to Ms. Monroe explain what else the kids were working on during their unit. Tomorrow would be their test.

"That was amazing. I've seen a lot of things and that was…I mean I once knew this guy in the Bronx who could blow out a candle with his…"

"Det. Messer" Lindsay called hoping to stop his train of thought.

"Huh…oh, call me Danny. These kids found and processed the evidence and it led them to a suspect. The copy lady did it and those kids figured it out….Wow. That's a group of kids who won't be asking 'do you want fries with that.'" He shifted a bit in the small student desk. "Okay, your principal mentioned that you have taught baseball science and this. What else do you teach?"

She sat down in a student desk next to where he'd sat down and stretched his feet out. "I teach science and math through practical real life applications. We learn about animals, plants, sports, and science on the job. Crime science fit into that category." She pointed to the hamster cage that had been returned to the kids. "I'm either teaching tomorrow's CSIs or better criminals." Danny laughed at her last comment.

"What did you do with baseball?"

Lindsay rose from her place and retrieved a binder on a shelf in the back of the room. Returning, she set it on the desk in front of him. "We talked about friction, throwing a curve ball, reaction time when swinging at a ball." Lindsay flipped through the student made pages explaining all the topics she was talking about. The last page really caught his attention. He had no words and just pointed questioningly.

She very casually looked at what he was seeing. "Oh, that?" She rolled her eyes. "That's nothing." He was awestruck and staring at her expecting answers. "What?" She questioned. "We took a field trip to a Yankees game when we were done with our unit." She raised her shoulders trying to shrug it off. She could see how amazed he was at the photo.

"Yeah, but that's you and your class with THE Yankees."

"We wrote them a letter about what we did and they invited us to a game. We were allowed to run the bases and got some pictures." She kept her tone light as if to say 'can't everyone do it?'

Danny started digging in his wallet for one of his cards. "You call me next time you go on one of these trips. I've lived here all my life and have never been that close." He handed her his card and then stared at the photo again. Closing the binder and sliding it back towards her he continued, "What other sports do you study?"

She thought for a minute and then started counting them off on her fingers. "Basketball, football, pool, and hockey."

"And you go on a field trip after each one?" She nodded." Yea, definitely call me, I'm there." He looked at his watch. "You teach pool? Do you shoot pool or just teach it?" He leaned up on his elbows.

"I've played before. It's been a while, but it's a game of physics, angles, and force." She got lost in thought. "Gosh, I haven't played since moving here."

"From where?"

"Bozeman, Montana. Born and raised, and until about five months ago, I worked there too." She stood to start closing things down for the day and getting ready for the next.

He was too busy thinking. "Would you come shoot a few games with me?" He had no idea what her situation as, but this was a good way to find out.

"Sure, what d'ya have in mind?"

He wrote down an address on a scrap of paper from a pad on her desk. "Tomorrow night okay, maybe around 7:30?"

"Sounds good."

He collected his coat and kit. "Thank you Ms. Monroe for allowing me to visit today. It was…" He nodded looking around the room remembering what he had seen. "..it was awesome. I feel like I might be out of a job soon with these guys coming up."

She laughed and placed a comforting hand on his arm. "Don't worry; they all want to play baseball after we went to that game." Her hand lingered a little longer than she planned, "and call me Lindsay."

"Until tomorrow night then, Lindsay." He left the room and walked down the hall.

She stepped into the hall to watch him go. To her surprise, he turned back to make eye contact. "He looked back."