A/N: Chapter 4 of my story is now up! I don't own CSI:NY or any of the characters. Remember to read and review. Thanks.
Chapter 4- Oh So Close
"Hawkes, you want to drive or I'll drive?" Danny asked.
"You could drive," Hawkes said, getting into one of the cars.
"Damn, I just realized I'm still hungry. Wanna pick up something along the way or when we're coming back?" Danny asked.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Hawkes said.
"You know, this stuff is starting to make sense to me now," Danny said.
"What are you talking about Danny?" Hawkes asked.
"The killings of the graduate students. The killer drives around in a taxi, picks up the victims and takes them somewhere so he can kill them then dumps their body somewhere," Danny said.
"Yeah, but isn't there a male and female killer?" Hawkes asked.
"That's another problem. The female killer is only responsible for one of the victims while the male is responsible for the others," Danny said.
"This doesn't really make a lot of sense then," Hawkes said.
"You're right maybe the female found out about the killings, confronted the murderer and asked him to join in on the action," Danny said.
"I guess we'll find out when we catch him," Hawkes said.
"At least our field of suspects just got narrowed down from several thousand to a few hundred then the list will get narrowed down to less than a hundred," Danny said.
"Yeah then we still need to catch this guy," Hawkes said.
"I'm sure we'll get him Hawkes. The killers are bound to mess up somewhere," Danny said.
"Then we'll get them and get justice for the victims," Hawkes said.
"He's gonna be in there for life unless the judge decides to give him the death penalty," Danny said, pulling in front of the taxi agency. "Well, here we are."
"What exactly are we going to ask them?" Hawkes asked.
"Just leave that to me," Danny said, walking up to a man in a booth. "Hey man," he said, knocking on the booth window to get the man's attention.
"Yes, what can I do for you gentlemen?" the man asked.
Danny showed his badge. "Sir, we're with the New York City crime lab and we need some information from you so we can solve a case."
"Sure, what information do you need?" the man asked.
"First of all, I want to know the names of all taxi drivers currently employed by your agency, their age, their taxi numbers and their license plate numbers," Danny said.
"Give me a minute to print that," the man said, turning to a computer. "Is there anything else I can help you with while that information is being printed?"
"Yeah, do your drivers operate in specific areas or are they're not restricted to operating in certain areas only?" Danny asked.
"We allow each driver to operate wherever they want but for times such as rush hour, we send more taxis to certain areas," the man said.
"Is there a way you can track where each driver goes?" Danny asked.
"We can do that for when they are working but once their off-duty sign goes on, we cannot track them anymore," the man said.
"So can you tell me which drivers have been in the vicinity of Greenberg University in the past week or so?" Danny asked.
"Yes, I can do that and give you the amounts they received for each passenger," the man said, giving Danny several sheets of printed paper. "That is the list of all drivers, their ages, their taxi numbers and their license plate numbers. Give me a second for the other information."
"Each driver is also assigned one of these pens right?" Danny asked, holding a Uni-Ball Vision black ink pen. "Then they use this type of paper right?" he asked, holding up the sheet of paper.
"Yes, we give each driver one of those pens then the paper is used to record where passengers were picked up and dropped off," the man said, giving Danny another print-out. "Here is the information you requested," he said, giving Danny two pages of paper with information printed on it.
"And your name is?" Danny asked.
"Juan Morales. I work here every day in this same counter from 8 in the morning until 6 at night," the man said.
"Thank you Juan. You have been extremely helpful to our investigation. We may come back later and speak with you again," Danny said.
"Come back anytime guys, I got nothing to hide," Juan said, reaching under his desk. "Oh wait a minute, next time you guys are in a taxi run by our agency, give this to the driver. It's good for a free trip," Juan said, leaving the booth to give Danny and Hawkes a card.
"How can we tell if the taxi is run by your agency?" Danny asked.
"We have the rights to operate in Manhattan from 34th Street to 125th Street. So any taxis you see in that area is one of ours," Juan said proudly.
"Thank you Juan," Danny said, shaking hands with Juan before he walked away with Hawkes.
"That guy sure was helpful," Hawkes said once he was in the car.
"Yeah, now we just have to sort through all this information," Danny said.
"Hey Danny, why don't we stop for some food first," Hawkes said.
"How does McDonald's sound to you," Danny said.
"It'll be sufficient for me," Hawkes said.
After eating lunch, Danny and Hawkes went back to the lab to continue looking through the information. Danny found five taxi drivers who were old enough to have applied to Greenberg University ten years ago, applied there and got rejected and frequently picked up passengers from that area. After writing down the names of all five suspects, he entered their names into the crime database to see who had been arrested before. Out of the five suspects, only one had been arrested before. Danny eliminated that suspect then looked at the remaining four names. Julio Derosas, Nathan Vincent, Johnny Pirozzi and David Cooper.
"Hey Danny, what do you have so far?" Stella asked, coming into the room he was in.
"There's four suspects who could be the male killer," Danny said, looking at the names.
"Great, that doesn't really tell us too much and we're not looking for the female yet, I presume," Stella said.
"You don't happen to know where grad students have classes at Greenberg University would you Stella?" Danny asked, looking over a map.
"I have no clue where they go," Stella said.
"I think it's time that somebody headed back to Greenberg University to get more information from the staff there," Danny said.
"You want to go there now?" Stella asked.
"Yeah, we might as well so this case can be over with," Danny said.
"Alright Danny, I think we're all going to be working late again tonight," Stella said.
"I'll be back later," Danny said, leaving the lab and heading down to the garage. Danny got into a car and drove to Greenberg University, which was twenty minutes away from the lab. Since he wasn't sure where grad students took courses, he decided to park near the registrar's office and ask them. Danny walked into the office and a female secretary looked up from her desk and smiled at him.
"How can I help you today sir?" she asked.
"Hi, my name is Danny Messer and I'm with the crime lab. I'm here because I want to know all the buildings where grad students take courses and I want to know the addresses of those buildings," Danny said, showing his badge.
"Uh, I'm going to need a minute," the secretary said, walking away from her desk.
While the secretary was away from her desk, Danny began to think about Lindsay yet again. 'I wonder how she's doing, she was so tired when I left her today. The hell with it, I'm definitely going to drop by her place later just to check on her. Then maybe I can tell her what I was able to accomplish today,' he thought, realizing he had to admit his feelings for her soon. 'This case has been taking a toll on everyone. This is fucking insane. There gotta be some place where we can be able to catch the bastards cause they fucked up then this will be over,' he thought, as the secretary came back holding a map and a piece of paper.
"Mr. Messer, this is the location of all the buildings used by grad students to take courses in," she said, giving him a map with some buildings circled. "This paper contains the name of the building, the classes held in that building and the addresses," she said, giving him the paper.
"Thank you for your time ma'am," Danny said, leaving the office. Before leaving, Danny checked out the buildings where grad students took classes then he observed the direction traffic was moving on all the streets that bordered the buildings. He made notes on the map the secretary gave him then got back into his car and turned on the engine. It was now well past 5 in the afternoon and Danny sighed. This was the fifth day in a row he had been working overtime and he was getting extremely tired yet he knew they had to solve the case. Danny drove back to the lab and went back in the room he had been in for several hours that day.
"Hey Danny, found anything new?" Hawkes asked, entering the room.
"I got some information that I need to look through," Danny said.
"Mac told us that this case is our top priority. All other cases can be handled by other detectives. Mac also said the mayor is refusing to pay overtime now," Hawkes said.
Danny groaned when he heard the news. Even though he wasn't a big fan of the mayor, he now had another reason to hate him. "You gotta be fucking kidding me Hawkes."
"Danny, Hawkes isn't fucking around with you," Flack said, entering the room.
"Wait, so why the fuck are you guys still here?" Danny asked.
"That's cause we wanted to go get drinks and wanted to see if you were interested in going with us for a few beers," Flack said.
"Nah, sorry guys, I'm gonna write down the info I need then I'm gonna go check on Lindsay then I'm going to look over this at home," Danny said, holding the maps and papers.
"Alright good luck on that," Flack said, patting his back.
"You guys enjoy yourselves," Danny said, making copies of the papers and maps. Once he was done making copies, he put the copies in a folder then went to the locker room and put the folder in his bag. It was now past 6 and Danny decided to leave. He went downstairs, hailed a taxi and got in, telling the driver Lindsay's address.
"My friend, we meet again," the taxi driver said from the front.
Danny leaned forward in his seat and saw it was the taxi driver he had talked to earlier that day. "Oh hey man, how are you?"
"So did you catch the killer yet?" the taxi driver asked.
"I'm afraid not. We have four suspects but we don't know which one did it yet," Danny said.
"Why can't you arrest all four of the suspects?" the taxi driver asked.
"Oh that's because we need to have a reason to arrest them. Right now we don't even have a reason to get their DNA, fingerprints and all that," Danny said.
"Well good luck with the case my friend. I hope you catch the killer soon," the taxi driver said, stopping in front of Lindsay's place.
"Yeah thanks, how much do I owe you?" Danny asked.
"Don't worry about it. Trip free of charge," the driver said.
"Thanks a lot man," Danny said, slipping the man a five then getting out of the taxi. He walked over to the front door of Lindsay's apartment building then found her name and pressed the button next to it. After a few seconds, he heard a buzzing noise and he walked into the building. He then walked up to her apartment and knocked on the door. Finally, the door opened and Lindsay stood in the doorway looking at Danny. For a second, nobody said anything. Finally, Lindsay moved forward and hugged Danny tightly, and he returned her hug.
A/N: So, how was it? Yeah, lame ending I know. Leave a review, you know you want to;). Oh and I took so long to update cause I'm mad. Someone got a lot of explaining to do and he better do it soon.