Disclaimer: I am not Anthony Zuiker. I do not own the characters of CSI: NY. I do own anyone you don't recognize including victims, bad guys and random characters, so don't steal them! I will put the characters back where I found them, unharmed.

AN: Here's the next chapter! Thanks to all who read and reviewed! Please continue to R&R, it helps my muse! Much thanks go to Aphina for betaing this for me!

Chapter 4.

Escalation

Flack walked back into the bullpen with two names on the paper that Adam had given him. How am I going to convince these two women that I really am from the NYPD? He sat at his desk, thinking about how best to approach the women that the first victim was emailing. Making some calculations and researching the world time zones, he discovered that it would be easier to reach the woman in South America first. With the decision made, he quickly dialed the international number. "May I speak to Cassie Jones, please?" he asked calmly when the phone was answered. He didn't have to wait long, within seconds the woman was on the line. "Ms. Jones. My name is Detective Don Flack with the New York Police Department."

"NYPD? Why are you calling me?" Cassie asked in confusion.

"Do you know a Monica Jacobi?" Flack answered. He could feel her confusion over the phone.

"Monica? I meet her on the internet and we became fairly good friends. Is she in trouble?" she asked with an edge in her voice.

Flack sighed. He hated this part. "I'm sorry to say that she was found deceased a couple of days ago. When was the last time that you spoke to her?"

Cassie took the phone away from her ear and stared at it in shock. "What? Monica's dead? Um…" She trailed off for a moment before realizing that he had asked her a question. "Sorry, I'm in shock here. Monica is, I mean was, a great person. I got an email from her on Friday morning, but she never responded back to my reply. I thought she was just immersed in her novel. Why?"

Flack shook his head. "We're trying to find the person that murdered her, but I'll admit I'm a little out of my depth. We've found evidence that she had a cyber enemy. I writer called CandiLovesWilliamTheBloody on a fanfiction website. Do you know anything about that?"

Cassie sat down heavily in a wooden chair, while twisting a strand of chocolate colored hair around her finger absentmindedly. "Ah, yes, I'm very familiar with that writer. Please, my dog could writer better than her!"

Flack laughed at the sardonic tone in her voice. "Is there anyone that she talked about? Someone she was afraid of?"

Cassie thought for a moment before responding, "Not to my knowledge. We did manage to talk four or five days out of the week and the only person that she was having problems with was that bloody writer. I can understand that. I reviewed one of that woman's stories only to get a reply back saying that I was stupid. I left it at that, but I know that Monica took it a little further. I told her that she was wasting her time by flaming the girl, but she just lost it after the girl reviewed her story saying that it was the worst piece of fiction that she'd ever read. Monica was furious."

Flack started when he heard the world flame. "What do you mean by flaming? I've never read any fanfiction, so I'm a bit lost here," he admitted honestly.

Cassie laughed softly, forgetting who she was speaking to for a moment. "In the fanfiction world, flaming is writing a nasty review for someone that includes absolutely no constructive criticism. Normally most good writers, when critiquing, offer ideas for how to make a story better, but occasionally you'll get a writer who just says nasty things. Why is that important?"

Flack refrained from telling her the grizzly way that Monica had been killed and instead said, "I'm just trying to learn more." He was interrupted by a page on this phone. He looked down, saw the address and felt his heart sink. "I'm sorry, I have to go, but if I have any more questions about fanfiction, can I call you?"

"Sure." There was a slight pause. "And Detective, please find whoever did this. Monica was a very talented writer and…she was my friend. No one deserves to be murdered," Cassie ended with some emotion.

"I will, Ms. Jones. I will," Flack assured her.

Danny, Lindsay and Adam were sitting in the lab, going over theories when the page came in. Both Danny and Lindsay looked at their phone, with Lindsay gasping in surprise as she recognized the address. "God, that's Samantha Miller's place. Shit," she muttered shaking her head. "We were just there a couple of hours ago!"

Danny looked at her in surprise and worry. "We gotta catch this guy, Montana," he said forcefully as he stripped off his lab coat and grabbed his kit.

Lindsay nodded as she did the same. "Let's go."

Flack arrived at the scene to see Danny and Lindsay climbing out of a crime lab SUV. Flack nodded to both of them wearily as he walked towards them. "I have some interesting information. Something that might explain why the victims have been burned."

Danny's looked at him expectantly before asking, "Okay. Why have the vics been burned?"

Flack smiled. "I just got off the phone with Cassie Jones and she explained that there is a term in fanfiction called flaming. It's when a reviewer leaves a nasty review on a story. Basically bashes it."

Both of the CSI's nodded. Lindsay bit her lip before venturing, "That makes sense. All the evidence is definitely pointing to this being a revenge killing." She shook her head before starting to walk towards the building.

Flack and Danny shared a glance before nodded to each other. "We've gotta catch this killer, Danny."

Danny nodded. "I know. It's escalating. If we don't catch 'em soon, more people are going to die." He paused for a second. "On the bright side, the quicker that the killer works, the more likely it is for them to make a mistake."

Flack nodded before realizing that Lindsay had already disappeared into the building. "Lindsay's going to make us look bad," he said with a nod of this head.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck before walking towards open door a couple of steps behind Flack. They walked into the apartment, Flack feeling regret, to see a familiar scene. Blood spatter decorated the walls; a burned body lay in the center of the living room. Lindsay was already taking pictures, a grim look on her face.

She looked up as they entered the room. "I can promise you, she was still alive when we were here, Flack. These burns are fresh, less than an hour old."

Flack nodded. "I'll go canvas the neighbors, see if they heard anything," he said, quickly stepping out of the room.

Danny looked at her, seeing the suppressed rage in her chocolate eyes, feeling her guilt and regret. He gave her a reassuring look before crouching down to open his kit. Snapping on a pair of latex gloves, he withdrew his flashlight and began to look for any sort of trace that could pinpoint who their killer was.

After Lindsay was finished with the pictures, she walked into the bedroom, unsurprised to see a laptop on Samantha's bed. Quickly, she opened the laptop. "Thank God, no passwords," she muttered as the desktop became available. Curious, she opened the email to see if there were any emails from the fanfiction website. She didn't see anything in the new emails, and her email folders were not near as organized as Monica's were. Sighing in defeat, she closed the laptop and bagged it as evidence and continued to search the room to find any connection to the killer.

Flack began knocking on doors, hoping to find anyone who saw something. He knocked on the first door, the apartment to the left of Samantha's and was greeted by a harried looking woman with two screaming children in the background. She wasn't paying attention as she opened the door; instead she was turned scolding the boy for pulling on the girl's hair. "Scott! I've told you once before, if you pull on her hair one more time, you're going to time out." Sighing she turned back to the door and looked at Flack in confusion. "Can I help you?"

Flack flashed is badge. "Ma'am. Did you hear anything unusual this afternoon?"

The woman looked at him in shock. "No…but with these two, I wouldn't be able to hear an atomic bomb if it went off outside of this apartment. What's going on?" she asked as she peeked out the door. She let out a gasp as she saw Sid wheeling the body out of Samantha's apartment. "Oh, God!"

Flack followed her gaze and grimaced a bit. "Did you know Samantha Miller?"

The woman nodded her head slightly. "Just from passing in the hallway. I must say that she never complained about the noise my kids tend to make. She was a nice girl."

"Did you ever see anything unusual? Someone hanging around. Something out of place."

The woman laughed. "Seriously, Detective, the only time I get out of this apartment is when my husband has a day off, which is very rare. Otherwise, I have no life. I do remember seeing her with a brunette on Friday. It looked like they were going out, which is not unusual for her. She went out to the clubs every Friday night, but I'd never seen the girl before." She paused as the girl behind began to cry again. "I'm sorry, Detective, but I've gotta go."

Flack nodded as she closed the door, taking notes on his memo pad and then with a sigh, moved down to the next door to begin the process over.

Danny was studying the rug next to the body when the flashlight picked up a flash. "Boom! Montana, I think I got something!" he called out in glee.

Lindsay walked out of the bedroom, her eyebrow raised. "Find something?"

Danny nodded, picking up a strand of black hair with his tweezers. "Black hair. Obviously not the vic's since she was a blonde." He glanced at her with a smirk on his face. "Find anything in the bedroom?"

"Laptop. I bagged it for Adam to look over. Not much else," she muttered, her frustration seeping into her voice. She was about to say more when Mac walked in. "Hey, Mac."

"Lindsay, Danny," he said cordially. "Is this the same perp or copycat?"

Both sighed, but Danny answered Mac readily. "Looks like the same perp, but I did find a hair this time. Whoever is doing this is escalating. They're getting a sloppy."

Lindsay nodded. "We have some information about a possible suspect, but we don't have any evidence to tie them together yet."

Mac crouched down next to day, staring at the rug which retained the outline of the dead body. "The press is becoming interested in this. We need to close this case before the city panics," he cautioned them.

Both Danny and Lindsay looked at each other, knowing that the press would run with the serial and soon the city would begin to erupt in fear. Silently, they gathered the evidence and left to go back to the lab.

AN: So? What did everyone think??

Aphina - I keep meaning to ask you about your Adam dream! You really piqued my curiosity at that! I know about the pantamine! I was so thinking that when I wrote it! It's like watching a horror movie and you're screaming out "Look behind you!" (lol) I like Adam dancing, I'll use that some more. Can you send my muse back now? I miss her!!

LaUrIsHa-just me - Yes, I have. Thankfully, not a lot, but there have been a couple that have really irked me. But I don't mind...it just makes me a better author! Thanks for the review and have you written anymore?

CSI junkie - See, when I was in school it was "This is your brain. This is your brain on Drugs. Any questions?" Lord, that brings back memories! But I digress...I like focusing more on the cases, too. The relationship stuff is great, but sometimes I just want a case!

Maddy - My muse has been really hard to pin down lately. I thinks she's on vacation in Bora Bora or something. I miss her and want her to come home! I don't have any of this planned out, so it's open to go any way right now! I have a vague storyline in my head, but it keeps changing every time that I write a new chapter!!