Disclaimer- I own nothing
Blue Oyster Cult - Don't fear the reaper - Reminds me of Gary because he was in Stephen king's film 'The Stand' and they played this song for the opening scene.
Warning for this chapter, I did go a little heavy on the interrogation so if you don't like that part, don't read it.
Memo: I have used Sas Dumone in this, even though her case isn't until season 7...just disregard it, I added that because it fits in with Lindsay's emotional feelings about the case at hand. And everyone get a load of In ruins by Fol Chen, amazing song, anyway, there are two versions I know of the song, the instrumental they used on the show and the original, you can find both on youtube. :)
Lindsay had been having a rough day, triple homicide, someone had decided to go loco on a family and their six year old daughter, not something you get used to seeing, dead kids. They still hadn't found the killer, Lindsay had examined every piece of evidence in front of her and still had nothing, the frustration was eating at her, she had to come up with something, one thing that could nail Travis Daley, the man they had in custody.
The kid, Kennedy James had the worst injuries, Lindsay gussed the killer like inflicting pain on those who couldn't do anything to stop them, it made her feel sick to the pit of her stomach.
She had only the clothes Kennedy had been wearing, her mother and father Rachel and Jordan James' clothes, but they weren't telling her anything that particularly stood out. Lindsay had pulled a few prints off of the plastic tarp that been used to cover Kennedy's body, but there were no matches in CODIS or any other criminal databases, this killer was out of the system, what puzzled her was the fact that someone who had no priors, had been in no trouble whatsoever suddenly got up one morning and decided to take the lives of an innocent family. She shook her head, a headache coming on, she packed the evidence back into the box and gave it to a lab tech to be brought back into the evidence vault.
"Lindsay, did you find anything more from the tarp Kennedy James was wrapped in?" Danny asked, running up to meet her where she stood in front of the elavator bank. Lindsay sighed heavily and shook her head.
"Did you and Flack get anything out of Daley in interrogation?" Lindsay asked tiredly, Danny's face crumpled with anger and he leaned against the table, folding his arms.
"Everythings there, motive, his hatred towards the family. He and Jordan James hadn't got on since high school, not since Jordan stole Daley's girlfriend in senior year. I guess people never get over things. Daley says he didn't do it, but no DA would prosecute him if there's nothing to put him at the scene. God damn it! We need to find something!" Lindsay sighed and put a hand on his fore arm.
"We'll catch him Danny, I'm gonna go get a coffee, I just gave the evidence to Harlyn, go and grab it if you want." He nodded and walked out of the room to find the evidence.
Lindsay found the break room empty and sighed, she'd secretly hoped she'd run across Mac sometime today, but she hadn't yet, maybe he was taking a day off, which would be odd considering the triple homicide they had on their hands. Maybe he was out with Flack and Hawkes searching for more leads on who killed Rachel, Jordan and Kennedy James. There was one thing that had her re-thinking everything, since when had she began to feel this way about Mac, he was her boss for gods sake...but when she thought of even his name her heart skipped a beat.
She sighed and walked up to the counter top and put the kettle on to boil, once it was done she made herself a cup of black coffee, extra strong, that was needed at the moment. Some time later, she'd finished a small book that had been lying on the table in the middle of the break room, She didn't look up when Mac walked in, hell she didn't even know who it was until she looked up, Mac gave her a warm smile, made himself some coffee and sat down next to her. Lindsay could practically smell him he was that close. He could feel the tension too, He certainly liked her, and having her this close made him want to do something about that.
"Jordan James and Travis Daley didn't like each other at all, maybe that's sort of an explanation on why he killed them." Lindsay said, breaking the silence.
"Oh I don't know, Danny got pretty worked up in interrogation trying to get more out of him, something tell's me Daley's in on what happened, but didn't do it himself, just wants to take credit for it. Maybe he's got a theoretical gun to his head." Mac mused.
Lindsay nodded, maybe that was why...but why would anyone want to take credit for murdering two parents and a six year old. Did Travis Daley take joy in bending over Jordan James' dead body, finally finding out he'd been killed for what? stealing his senior year sweet heart?
She sipped some more coffee and looked at Mac, he seemed deep in thought, he looked up and looked right back at her.
"What?" He asked, then smiled as blood filled Lindsay's cheeks, he'd caught her out.
"Nothing, I was just...I...never mind." She said in a whispery voice. Mac smiled and took her hand in his which made her look up at him shocked. She had never gussed Mac returned the feelings of affection she had towards him, they stared at each other silently until a lab tech came in, Mac smiled and slowly pulled his hand away.
Lindsay knew that most work relationships had to stay personal, private even, and she understood that, but wasn't really one for secrecy, maybe a little, but not totally.
"Lindsay..." Mac said, pulling her out of her day dream.
"Yes?" She asked, putting her professional face back on which made Mac laugh at how quickly her facial expression transformed.
"You really are something else." They sat staring at each other for a few moments, Mac's eyes were impossibly deep, a most beautiful shade of green, she could stare into them for hours. Mac loved her eyes too, they were a honey brown colour, not something he saw every day when it came to eye colour, he remebered Sid telling him something about eyes and how they are formed and the colour and other things a few months back, but all of that was wiped from his mind as he stared into Lindsay's eyes.
"We better get back to work, as much as I enjoy your company." Mac trailed off, smiling at Lindsay.
She snapped out of her trance and got up, "Yeah, sounds perfect." before giving him one last smile before leaving the office.
Mac's cell began ringing, he sighed glanced at the caller ID, Reed Conrad. He hadn't heard a lot from Reed in the past few years since the Taxi Cab serial killer had held him captive and slit his throat. Reed had taken himself out of the blogging world too, chosing a safer job.
"Reed, what's wrong?" Mac said, his voice a tad hard.
"Nothing is wrong Mac, I just thought I'd call you considering we haven't spoken in a while. How's life."
Mac sighed in releif. "Life is good, especially at the moment." he said in a lighter tone.
"A special lady I should know about?" Reed asked in a humorus tone. Mac smiled to himself, He wondered how Reed had the ability to pick up on information that he didn't know was correct or not, but still asked anyway.
"No...but there's a special girl, She's not mine though." He heard Reed laugh, "Ahh, I had a feeling there would be."
Mac shook his head, of course Reed had a hunch, they had been closely connected after the cab serial killer, they had learnt a little more about each other.
"Any interesting cases at the moment?" Reed asked, chaning the subject after Mac had been silent for a while.
"Yes, triple homicide. We have a guy in cusdody, we just need to find some evidence to pin him to the crime. A young family, six year old girl and her parents were killed because the male victim apparently stole the girl off the killer in high school."
"You'll do the right thing Mac, you always do." Mac frowned, what Reed had just said had nothing to do with what he'd just said.
"What do you mean Reed?" Mac asked, but the line was silent.
"The girl, Lindsay. You'll do the right thing." Reed listened for Mac's reply, waited patiently.
"I know...thank you Reed, I have some paper work to do, so I'll catch up with you sometime later this week?" Mac asked, going through the James family homicide case file as he spoke.
"Sure, goodbye."
Stella walked into his office and dropped a file on his desk, he opened it and saw a mug shot of a man with graying blonde hair and steely green eyes. Steven Richmond, 37, had a rap sheet for domestic abuse, assult, theft, public indecency, the list goes on.
"Steven Richmond had a connection to Travis Daley back in the day, I think Richmond might have been the accessory.
"A large step up from domestic abuse and all of the other things this crook has been pinned on, well we'll put him away for murder if the evidence is right."
"Yes. I'll have Lindsay and Adam go back to the crime scene again and see if there's any evidence that indicates Steven Richmond was there."
"I found a hair and a partial, I guess it's not much, but it's something." Yelled Lindsay, Adam raised his head down the hall and shouted back, "That's good, Mac will be happy we found something, just hope the evidence matches up."
"Yeah, hopefully." Lindsay placed her magnifier back into her kit and rose from crouching on her knees, crime scene clean up hadn't been yet and there was still a lot of blood in places, she decided not to look though, she couldn't bare to think about poor little Kennedy.
Kennedy had been a good child, everyone at her school, parents, friends had said she was a star, and Lindsay's heart ached because that young star would never prosper because of some whack job out there, Mac had always said to try and keep the cases from getting personal, but with this one, she just couldn't help it. She found herself crying quietly when Adam walked into the room.
"What's wrong Linds, why are you crying?" He asked, walking closer and placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Kennedy, everyone said she was the cutest little girl, that she was a star, it's so sad that her life was taken away from her at such a young age...I'm just, I can't...I feel so sorry even though it's not my fault."
"Everyone has one or two tough cases in this job Linds, I feel you, remember when I saw Sas Dumone die right in front of me on that chat website, I never looked back at that site ever again after that, I just, I couldn't, it made me remember Sas so clearly, so your not alone in this."
Lindsay smiled and hugged Adam, once the little emotional hug was over they packed up and got into the avalanche and headed back to the lab. Adam thought of something that would get Lindsay's mind off of the case, and bingo, it happened.
"Don't you ever wonder how much money Mac spends on replacing this very car a year, and how many he has bought. Ever since I met Mac, this has always been his choice of car. Maybe he had a thing for chevy's back in the day." Adam mused.
Lindsay smiled, "Yeah, I think he bought three last month, I think out of his own money too, I know the NYPD budget only covers so much, but they are good trucks, bullet proof and all, specially designed for our job." she laughed. Ah, mission accomplished.
"Yeah, I know Flack and Danny always fight over the spare keys that are on that hook in Mac's office, Stella always steals them first though, she always manages to sneak past Danny and Flack when their arguing, and by the time they notice, the keys are gone and so is Stella." laughed Adam.
"Boys and their cars, I guess things never change, do they?" she smiled, feeling slightly better than before.
Once they were back at the lab, the elevator dinged and they got off and walked straight into Mac's office.
"I found a hair and a partial, I'm going to run them through CODIS and AFIS right away, anything to get this son of a bitch." Lindsay said before abruptly walking out of the room before Mac could even reply.
Adam glanced at Mac's confused face and shook his head, "She's on a roll today, she wants to find and put away the killer, it's personal for her. She told me earlier how she could hardly bare to think Kennedy James would never be now because of some crook."
"She has a big heart, I'll talk to her." Mac strode out of the office and into Danny and Lindsay's office to see Lindsay bent over her computer, tapping her nails impatiently on the glass table.
"Your not trying to scratch my 7 thousand dollar glass table now are you? Those things are made for extreme weight and can stand most corrosive chemicals." He smiled when she stood up straight and stopped immidiately.
"I'm sorry Mac, the computer network must be down today, everything's slower than usual." She said, glaring at her computer screen.
Mac grabbed her and and pulled her a tad closer, he put a finger under her chin, making her look at him.
"Adam told me how you took thing when you were back at the crime scene, about Kennedy."
She sighed, bowing her head. "I just want to make things right."
"We will, putting the son of a bitch who killed the family away is a start, that's all we can do sweet heart."
Lindsay blushed at his pet name but tried to hide it to no avail, Mac smiled, she was cute as a button. "I know we can't help taking things personal sometimes, but there's not a lot we can do, I'll take you to their funeral if you'd like."
Lindsay glanced up, teary eyed. "Yes, I'd like that."
"Ok then, I will find out the date and time." With that, Mac left the room, leaving Lindsay alone, she glanced at her computer, the print belonged to a Steven Richmond, as did the hair, happiness filled her and she ran from the office.
"Mac!" He turned around and walked forward, she handed him the papers and a smile graced his features.
"We're in luck Lindsay, thanks to you." She smiled, and they both walked into Mac's office, he needed to make a very important phone call to the DA.
Don stood in the corner of the interrogation room, eyeing Richmond with very obvious disgust, whilst Mac sat directly in front of him.
"Why, Yes you may have had some beef with Jordan James, but that does not justify what you did, you killed a six year old girl, her mother and her father. I bet you feel great don't you, maybe you don't feel guilty now, but eventually you will, and it will eat at you until you can't take it anymore, unfortunately for you, they have maximum security at rikers."
Richmond hadn't said a word for the full hour they had been in the room, Don hadn't said a word either, he stood silently in the corner of the room, staring at Richmond with dark un-sympathetic eyes.
Suddenly Richmond stood up, slammed his palms against the steel table, bad idea, that would hurt.
"Will you get that guy to stop staring at me. I didn't kill those people either, you got nothing on me!" Richmond yelled.
"Oh on the contrary, we have a print that puts you there, a hair, your previous history with Travis Daley and Jordan James, even Rachel, she was your first love, and Jordan James swooped in and took her, what did that make you feel like, made you feel like a chump for loving her. So you thought you'd wait a few years until they'd built a family of their own, only for you to tear it down around them, and the end game of taking their lives. You make me sick." Don shouted, making Richmond flinch.
Mac stood up and threw a picture on the table, a picture of Kennedy's body they had photographed at the scene, Richmond pushed it away, obviously feeling guilty.
"This is what you did. You killed a sex year old girl! A defenseless little girl who had no idea what was coming, infact she saw you kill her mom and dad, how do you think she felt when you were coming towards her, then you finally killed her. And according to the autopsy report, you inflicted the worst injuries possible on the child, you shot her multiple times non-fataly, because you knew she'd beg for you to kill her, even though she probably didn't because she was six, and didn't know what to say!" Mac said, raising his voice.
"You wanted to take everything away from Rachel, she was still alive when she saw you kill her daughter, she bled to death shortly after, imagine that, the last thing you see, someone killing your own flesh and blood. And what's worse is that you had Travis Daley help make sure they wouldn't be able to fight back. Your going to Rikers for 25 to life buddy, and your friend Daley's going the same because he was an accesory." Don yelled.
Richmond finally caved, bowing his head.
"I wanted to make her feel the heart breaking pain I felt, as I stood over her daughter and killed her, and Jordan, he never saw that coming."
"Another thing, Rachel was pregnant, and you and your buddy Daley beat her to a pulp. I'm sure you didn't know she miscarried, though you probably thought the blood had seeped down from her gunshot wounds."
Richmond shook his head, guilt collapsing him.
"I hope you rot in hell for what you've done, and I hope you drop your god damn soap in rikers." Don said before they both walked out of the room.
"Cheers!" the whole team clanked their glasses together, it had been a tough week, but not the case had been put to rest, and Steven Richmond was being sentenced to death at some point, people like him shouldn't live after doing something so brutal.
Mac sat quite close to Lindsay, which everyone noticed, he wrapped an arm around her waist and glanced down at her.
"If you hadn't have found that evidence, Richmond would still be on the streets. Cheers for Lindsay!" everyone clanked glasses again and cheered.
"Thank you everyone, I just have to say that I know I haven't been here long, but you are all my very good friends, I'm glad I met you." They all cheered again and raised their glasses, everything had gone the way she had hoped it would.
A few hours later Lindsay was alone in her apartment, having just got changed for bed, everyone had gone home a few hours after drinks at the bar, she was about to turn the living room light off before she heard a knock at her door.
She walked over and glanced through the peep hole, Mac stood in front of her door with no die or jacket, three or four buttons unbuttoned on his shirt, his hair slightly messy, he looked good though. She opened the door and stood side.
"Hey Mac, what are you doing here..." she trailed off as they both sat on her couch.
He smiled, "I Know I'm drunk...but I have to say this." He said, running a hand through his hair.
"I can't even think of what to say..." He sighed and moved closer, placing a hand behind Lindsay's head and capturing her lips with his, he waited a few seconds until she started to respond, he pushed his tongue into her mouth and they made out until oxygen became a problem.
"Woah.." She mumbled, slightly dazed.
"Yeah...well, now you know. I like you Lindsay." He smiled before leaning in for another kiss.
Eventually they fell asleep on the couch holding each other, a tough case had brought the big boss and the rookie together. Surprisingly, they were okay with that.
