Disclaimer: I obviously do not own CSI: NY. I just own my car, my laptop and my crazy muse who seems to want to write 4 different stories at a time. I also do own any characters that you do not recognize. You can borrow them if you ask permission first!
A/N: Okay. So this is NOT a happy story, so if you are looking for DL fluff, you might want to go check out my other stories, Inflaming the Senses or Sadeness. I don't own the song title, that comes from the song: .45 by Shinedown. Happy reading!
Chapter 4.
Staring down the Barrel of a .45
Stella finished processing all the evidence from the scene, unhappily since what little evidence that was recovered had been compromised by the water that Lindsay had been immersed in. She played with a medallion that had been found, but was unable to identify it. Sighing in defeat, she walked into the office that she and Lindsay had shared, hoping for a stroke of inspiration.
She sat down at her desk, wondering what exactly had caused the younger woman to go out drinking, to drink enough to put anyone in a stupor and then get in a cab when she was intimately familiar with the cabbie killer case. I don't think it's a simple as a fight with Danny, she thought. Something else must have happened.
After sitting there for a few minutes, she decided to see if she could get into Lindsay's computer, praying that something on there would shed some light on the final few hours of the woman's life. Keeping her fingers crossed, she typed in Lindsay's user name and then guessed at the password. Smiling as the computer booted up, she shook her head. Come on, Lindsay. Montana? That was way too easy.
Navigating to the email account, she discovered that Lindsay had emailed herself pictures from her phone the previous night. Hoping that they were pictures of the killer, she pulled up the jpeg files, only to discover that the pictures looked as if they were taken inside of an apartment. She furrowed her brow, knowing that it was not Lindsay's apartment, and then when she saw the pool table, she knew that it was Danny's. Shaking her head, she burned the files onto a disc to take to the A/V lab, so that she could enlarge the pictures to pick up the details.
Grimly she walked into the lab, where Adam was trying to get photos from traffic cameras. He had his iPod plugged in, but was not dancing to the music as he normally did. He jumped as Stella lightly touched him on the shoulder, turning around with a pensive look on his face.
Stella nodded as he took the ear bud out of his ear. "Adam, I have to photographs that need to be enhanced."
Adam looked at her. "I'm supposed to be searching the traffic cameras for any possible pictures of cabs," he told her uncertainly.
She shook her head. "I know. This is for Lindsay's case. I found some photographs that she emailed herself from her phone last night and I'm hoping that they contain a clue to what had happened."
Adam nodded. "Okay," he said as she handed him the disc. He quickly uploaded all the pictures and displayed them on the large monitor in the back of the lab, figuring the more privacy that they had the better. He looked at the pictures, clearly the inside of an extremely messy apartment, but not knowing where. "Is that from the killer's apartment?"
Stella shook her head. "No, it's Danny's place. Although, I've never seen it this messy before; he's an admitted neat freak," she replied, not taking her eyes off of the screen. "Look on the coffee table, are those condoms?"
Adam made a few keystrokes and enhanced that area. "Yeah and they look like they are used."
Stella just shook her head again as she let her eyes roam over the next set of pictures, which showcased Danny's bedroom. "It looks like a tornado hit the bedroom, the mattresses have been thrown across…" she trailed off as she noticed something. "Adam, enhance the left hand side of the third bedroom picture. Enlarge it."
Adam complied with her demand and glanced at the screen to see what Stella had seen. It was a shattered picture frame with a picture of Danny and Lindsay in it. "Why is that important?"
Stella got a steely glint in her eyes, sensing that Danny hadn't told them the whole truth about the fight and turned to stalk out of the room. "Thanks, Adam."
Adam just stared at her retreating back, wondering what was important about the picture.
--
After Hawkes informed Mac of their findings, they slowly made their way through rush hour traffic to Cactus, not knowing what they were going to find. Each thought for a moment that the bar was the last place anyone saw Lindsay alive, but didn't want to voice that opinion.
As they pulled up to the little hole in the wall, Hawkes looked around. "This isn't too far from her apartment," he stated sadly.
Flack nodded. "I know. It's only two blocks over." He sighed as they exited the vehicle, a picture of Lindsay tucked securely in Flack breast pocket. "Why would she take a cab, Hawkes?"
Hawkes shrugged. "Maybe she was just too drunk," he ventured. "We know that her blood alcohol was three times the limit. Maybe she just didn't have a choice."
Flack thought that over as they walked into the dim building. He strode purposely to the bar and looked at balding man. "Were you working last night?" he asked him, all business.
Lou looked at the two men, knowing that they were cops from the way they were holding themselves. "Yeah. What can I do for you, Detective…" he trailed off.
"Flack and this is Dr. Hawkes," Flack returned, removing the photo from his pocket. "Did you see this woman here last night?"
Lou looked at the picture. "Sure. That's Lindsay. She's a regular here. Is everything all right? She left her cell phone here and I need to get it back to her. If you know her, can you return it?"
Flack closed his eyes briefly before letting out a deep sigh. "I know her, but she was murdered last night."
Lou let out a shocked gasp. "What?!"
Hawkes nodded. "It looks like she was a victim of the cabbie killer."
Lou felt ice drop into his stomach, knowing that if she was, he was responsible for her death. "Oh God. I didn't even think of that when I called her a cab. She was too drunk to walk home and I didn't want her getting attacked," he muttered as tears came to his eyes.
Flack felt a wave of rage wash over him. "You didn't think?" he snarled savagely.
Lou's head shot up at his tone. "No, I didn't. All I know is that Lindsay drank damn near a bottle of Jack by herself and could barely stand."
Hawkes put a restraining hand on Flack's arm and interrupted, "Do you know why she drank so much?"
Lou sighed. "She didn't want to talk, but she said that she had just found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her. I got busy with other customers and didn't realize that she had drunk as much as she had." He propped his elbows on the bar and rested his head between his hands. "I should have just had Max walk her home," he said morosely.
"Who's Max?" Flack snarled.
"The bouncer. He's not in yet, but I can give you his address. He's the one that put her in the cab." He pulled a piece of paper towards him. "Maybe he saw the bastard."
Flack nodded his thanks and accepted the piece of paper, reeling over the information that the man had given her. Danny was cheating on Lindsay? I'm gonna kill Messer the next time I see him, he thought savagely. Sighing he looked at Hawkes, "You up for going to see the bouncer?"
Hawkes nodded. "Let's go."
--
Mac, in the meantime, had been working over every single contact he had, only to come away with no more information he started with. Finally, he broke down and contacted his step-son, Reed. He had met with Reed, a confrontation that had ended up in Reed storming off, and now he was sitting at his desk, trying to figure out what to do.
His phone rang and he picked it up on the first ring. "Taylor."
"Mac? It's Reed. Listen, I thought about what you said and I want you to meet me at my apartment. I'm almost there."
Mac sighed in relief. "I'm on my way," he said as he got up and left.
Twenty minutes later, he was walking into Reed's building, only to find his backpack on the floor in front of his apartment. Sensing that something was wrong, he grabbed a pair of gloves and carefully studied the backpack, seeing residue of some sort on the outside. Knowing that it was a clue to get to the killer, he carefully scraped the powder into an evidence bag, and with his heart in this throat made his way back to the lab.
--
Flack and Hawkes made their way up the dilapidated walk up with no small annoyance. Shrugging to themselves, they finally exited the stairwell on the fourth floor and looked for the appropriate apartment number. Walking towards it, Flack felt that something was wrong and carefully placed his hand on his gun. Nodding to Hawkes, he took the lead.
When they reached the apartment, the door was slightly ajar. The two men looked at each other, with Hawkes standing back out of the line of fire. Flack drew his gun and carefully pointed it in the crack of the door. "Max? NYPD. Are you okay?" he called out, his voice devoid of emotion. After getting no response, he carefully nudged the door open, automatically scanning for intruders. "Stay here," he ordered Hawkes.
Hawkes nodded, setting his case on the floor and getting a pair of latex gloves out, while Flack cleared the apartment. When Flack called out the all clear, he picked up the case and walked in to find a murder scene. The body of a large man lay facedown on the floor in the living area, the telephone cord wrapped around his neck. He approached the man and felt for his pulse. "He's dead," he confirmed. "Can't be more than a couple of hours, though. The body is still warm."
Flack nodded as he pointed to the carving on the back of his neck. "Looks like our boy, same marks on the back of the neck."
Hawkes shook his head, "Yeah, but why is this murder different? The rest of the victims were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning and he was strangled."
Flack shook his head. "I don't know, but maybe he wouldn't willingly get into the cab and I'm willing to bet that he saw the cab driver. That makes him a witness, a loose end that the killer had to get rid of."
"That makes sense to me," Hawkes said as he began to process the body and the rest of the scene.
"I'll call it in and get a uniform over here to baby-sit the body until a coroner can arrive, so once you get all the evidence we can head directly to the lab."
Hawkes nodded, intently studying the scene to make sure that he got all the evidence. An hour later, the uniform had arrived and both Hawkes and Flack were leaving the scene, sensing that the killer was getting more dangerous.
AN: Wow guys. 30 reviews total. I'm in shock!! Can you keep it up? My muse keeps hanging on to this story and as of right now, I have 2 more chapters planned after this. Hopefully, she'll let me end it then!
soccer-bitch - Thanks!
GRACE5 - You just might get your wish with how pissed my muse is at him! Thanks!
princessg - Feel free to knock away! You know that I'm not going to spare him any pain!
ladyerudite - Thanks! They do tend to rally together in those cases, although I can't say how long they be in it together since everyone is about to find out what Danny did! I think I actually feel sorry for him (if my muse gets her way!). :D
Maddy - Well, if you need your angst fix, you've come to the right place! This is just not a happy story and it keeps getting more melodramactic! I'm hoping that my muse will let me free from this long enough to write on The War at Home!! Thanks!
nikkinicky420 - You'll find out next chapter since my muse kinda went on a tangant with this one (you were really supposed to find out this chapter, but alas, I bow to the greater creative powers of my dragon muse. LOL)
war123 - Honestly, I don't know the answer to that, since I'm basing a lot of this off the show. In my opinion (with what has been presented on the show), I think he cares for her, but it seems like once he stopped chasing her, his feelings changed. I'll probably have him deal with those feelings somewhat in the next chapter. Thanks!
prplerayne - No worries! It really was a twist. I surprised both of my betas (which is hard to do, since we seem to live in each other's heads!) but I think it was a necessary twist to really put Danny through some major trauma. (Can you tell I was pissed with the whole cheating storyline?). I'm glad your addicted!! Thanks.
Brown Eyed Girl - I understand the lurking, but please as you make your way through the Cory series, drop a review every once and a while and let me know what you think! :D I hope you like this one!!