CHAPTER FOUR: DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD

Lindsay groaned as she swatted at her buzzing alarm.

"God. Five more minutes. Just five more minutes. Please," she muttered into her pillow. She and her new roommate had celebrated her move last night. Extensively. Carefully raising her head just enough to open one eye, she glared at her bedroom window. The sheet she'd tacked up the night before definitely wasn't doing much to block out the glare of the sun.

Note to self: buy room darkening blinds tonight after work.

She buried her face in the pillow once more and let out a brief "rawr" of discomfort.

Coffee. I need coffee. With coffee, nothing can stop me.

Wincing slightly as she opened her eyes, she managed to wrestle her way free from her tangled blankets. Right. Coffee and then shower. She groggily mussed her hair away from her face and padded out of her room and into the kitchen.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" sang out Jess as she moved around the room gathering her things together while simultaneously eating her breakfast of a bagel and a cup of coffee. "I wasn't sure if I should wake you up or not. What's your schedule like, anyway? I mean, I know you said you can work some pretty crazy shifts."

Lindsay blinked and covered her mouth as she yawned. "Coffee," she said in a voice still scratchy with sleep.

Jess' mouth twitched in amusement at her roomie's morning eloquence and poured her a cup of the life-giving liquid. "You're not exactly a morning person, are you?" she asked.

Lindsay took a sip of the marvelous beverage and a look of sheer bliss crossed her face. "I am, now," she said. "All it takes is one sip and life goes from suck to fantastic in 0.6 seconds." She took another sip and noticed her new friend's attire. "Wow, you look pretty great for someone who's going to be doing research all day." Jess was a student at NYU, working on getting her Masters degree linguistics.

Jess blushed, "Yeah well… I have my reasons."

Grinning, Lindsay opened her mouth to ask, but Jess just held up a finger.

"I'll let you know if anything comes of it, but I'm not going to jinx it just yet, thankyouverymuch." Both girls laughed. "For now, though, I have to get my butt in gear. There's a guest lecturer in today, and I want to have a chance to talk to her before the throngs of admirers and toadies surround her and cut off all of her oxygen. I'll see you tonight!"

"Have a good one!" Lindsay called to her as she waved her way out the door. Putting her now empty cup down on the table, she moved onto stage two of the day: shower.

………

She was already taking photos of the body in Central Park when Mac showed up. The man on the bench could have just been resting his eyes, except for the fact that he had blood covering a good portion of his upper body. Looking at the wound on his neck, it was obvious that his throat had been slit, but it wasn't until Mac lifted his head clear off his body that the full extent of the damage was made clear to her.

Wow. Can't say I ever saw anything like that back in Bozeman.

………

Danny Messer followed Stella Bonasera into the crowds at the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy. He couldn't help but smile at the people, the music, the food… Damn. If I wasn't on a case right now, I'd so be sittin' down to some nice cannolis right about now. They were, after all, the best part of the San Gennaro. Looking around, he saw a group of young women in Italian flag tube tops. Heh. Maybe second best. Stella's comments about finding the trail brought his mind back to the scene.

"Right, where do we start?"

Tracking back through the food stains that had been left on the victim's clothing brought them to a pool hall that was in even worse shape than the ones in his old neighbourhood. Man, it looks like the Hell's Angels hosted a brawl in here or somethin'.

Listening to the owner's recital of the events she'd witnessed, he was unable to keep a straight face. Someone's been watchin' a few too many Jackie Chan movies. Or she's been dippin' into the tequila a little early.

………

Back at the lab, Lindsay was going through her vic's clothes trying to find something on it when Danny walked into the Layout Room. Steeling herself, she grit her teeth and glared down at the jacket on the table in front of her.

"Hey Montana! I hear you got a two-fer this mornin' in the park," he grinned at her in that way that just made her want to rub the smirk right off his face and then he leaned his elbows down on the table and looked at her expectantly.

Oh no. I'm not walking into that one, Messer.

"Well, according to fourth grade mathematics, two halves make a whole, so you heard wrong." She couldn't help but take some satisfaction in the fact that he was surprised by her answer.

"Not bad, Montana. Not bad." He still had that smug look on his face as he stood and pushed up his glasses.

What is he even doing here, anyway? Shouldn't he be helping Stella with all of those cues they collected at the pool hall? Obnoxious and a slacker. She shook her head and blew her hair out of her face in irritation.

Danny reached across the table and pushed it behind her ear for her. She pulled back in surprise and looked at him like he'd grown a second head. What the hell was that? He didn't even notice.

"So, you know what the best part of the San Gennaro is?" he asked, looking overtly casual and glancing over his shoulder at the other layout table in the room.

Lindsay went back to her examination of the jacket. "The cannolis."

"Everybody knows everythin' today. Eesh." he muttered under his breath, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, uh. How'd you know 'bout that?"

Setting the jacket aside, she picked up the shirt. "You think I don't know things?"

"Well uh. I just figured, y'know, since you're new in town and all… Here." He set a styrofoam container down on the table beside her. "Can't live in New York and miss out on the cannolis, y'know?" He flashed her another grin. "See y'around, Montana."

What the… was Danny Messer just nice to me? I must have had more to drink last night than I'd thought.

He was almost at the door before she recovered enough to say, "My name is Lindsay. Lindsay Monroe." He just laughed and offered a wave over his shoulder as he brought his tread impression over to Stella in Trace.

………

How the hell did she know about the cannolis, anyway?

He was surprised, and Danny Messer didn't surprise easily.