Dusting, poking, picking…the CSI crew were hard at work looking through the dollar bills, box and note for any clues that might lead them to who sent it. After about five hours of searching, they had come up with nothing, making Mac to his wits end.
"I can't believe this, there's gotta be something!" Mac shouted in anger.
"I don't know, this guy is good, Mac," Danny replied.
"Yeah, but we're better. No matter how good they may think they are, they always leave some sort of clue and we're not going to rest until we find it!"
Jo then watched with worry as Mac stormed out of the lab and into his office, sitting down in his chair with his face buried in his hands. "Uh, I'll be right back," she told Lindsay, walking out the door.
Cautiously, Jo opened the door to Mac's office, slowly making her way inside without so much as a flinch from Mac. "Mac? You alright?"
With a sigh, Mac turned to look at Jo. "I'm fine."
"Really? You could've fooled me."
"Jo, just drop it. I said I'm fine."
"No, you're not."
"What's it to you?"
Her mouth slightly dropped, Jo leaned down on his desk until she was in direct eye contact with him, letting him know that she wasn't playing around. "What's it to me? Listen to yourself! I feel like I don't even know you anymore. Ever since you've come back to work, something's been different about you. You're more distant, you lose your temper and you're lying to everyone who cares about you! Now I don't know what's going on but either tell us or quit it with the attitude!"
As if a spark was lit under him, Mac shot up from his chair, anger evident within his eyes. "You know what, I'll act how I want to act. In case you haven't noticed there are two kids who just died and apparently whoever's doing it is out to get me! That good enough for you, Miss Nosey?!"
Standing there as if she had just been slapped in the face, Jo fought back the tears that threatned to form, and responded with anger and frusteration in her voice. "You know what? You might as well have died in that hospital. Because the Mac Taylor I knew and worried about in that hospital is gone. And I don't know who this is, but I don't like him. Not one bit. So do me a favor and let me know when the old one is back. Otherwise, I'm done."
In rage, Jo stormed out of his office, leaving a stunned Mac behind. Had he really changed that much?
With a sigh, Mac sat back down at his desk. "What's wrong with you, Mac? This isn't you."
As he pondered his thoughts, his eye caught his ipad. He turned it on, suddenly brought to the last thing he was doing on it, which was naming certain colors. Why was he acting this way? Jo, Christine and all of his friends were there for him during his six months of recooperation and now he was shutting them out.
He then turned his attention to Claire's picture on his desk and gently rubbed his thumb across it. "Maybe I should've just gone with you. I don't feel like I belong here anymore. What do I do, Claire?"
"Mac! We got something!" Lindsay said, rushing in Mac's office with Danny.
Snapping out of his trance, Mac sat up. "I'm all ears. What'd you find?"
"Well we didn't see it before because it was faded, but I managed to bring up the print that was on the side of the box, and the company that the box is from is an abandoned warehouse over on Lexington and third."
"Good work, Lindsay. Let's go!"
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"Okay, now we don't know what kind of situation we're walking in to, but we need to proceed with extreme caution. This guy's already killed two kids and threatned me, and there's no telling what he could do next. Now let's move!"
Upon Mac's order, Mac, Jo, Lindsay, Danny, Flack and some uniformed officers slowly and cautiously made their way inside the building, looking out for any signs of trouble. As they went further in, Mac's attention was suddenly brought to little drops of blood trailing along the hard cement floor, leading them to a big room with glass windows and the strong scent of bleach filling it.
"Bleach. He must've covered up something," Flack said.
Holding out her flashlight, Jo looked through the reflector on it, scanning over the floor and walls. "Well, looks like our killer missed some spots, cause these are certainly blood spots."
"This must be our primary crime scene," Mac pointed out. "Alright, let's start proc-"
But before he could finish his sentence, Mac was interrupted by a hail of gunfire shattering the windows and bringing everyone down to the ground….
