A/n the last few days has been pain free, so the muse has been talking to me again about this story. Thanks to all for your patience while RL has interfered.
And Hey Dad
Here's a riddle for yah
Find the Answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I...
The Riddle
Five for Fighting
Stella stood in the small break room gaping at Flack, who was holding Louie Messer in his arms and looking utterly serene. He looked at her, and she almost laughed when his face went red as newly ripe cherries. He gave the baby back to Danny and opened his mouth to speak. She cut him off by saying, "Ah wait right there, I'm going to get my camera."
"That's very cute," Flack said miserably, fiddling with his watch and looking at the floor.
"Oh come on Don… you looked very domestic." She teased with a large grin.
"Yeah well it this gets around…"
"…you'll never live it down. I know," Stella interrupted moving to put an arm around him. "Don't worry I won't say a thing, and I think Danny will keep his mouth shut too."
Danny just waved at him weakly, not listening. He was just glad his son was sleeping again.
"Did you come in here for a reason, or are you going keep teasing me till he wakes up again." Flack asked nodding in the direction of the baby.
"Actually I do have news. The trace I found in your house Danny matches the trace we took from the victim in the park. Its brick dust. "
Danny stood slowly and crossed the room to Louie's carrier. He put the baby down as carefully as he could and turned to face Stella.
"So its brick dust, how does that help us?" He said testily. He pushed his glasses up his nose and sighed, his head pounding.
Well it's too much of a coincidence that the same trace was found on both crime scenes. I did a check and there are a lot of construction sites that are laying brick, but you have to think that Lindsay is still in the city. There's no reason to think otherwise. I checked with the bricklayers unions at the sites. There is a construction site in Queens where two men didn't show up for work. Neither called in sick..."
A light went on in Danny's eyes. He interrupted her, "Our victim, Jimmy Dobson was one of the men that didn't show up right?"
"Yep, apparently he was involved in a fight with the foreman a week ago, and would have lost his job, but the union stepped in as he'd never caused trouble before." She finished still smiling widely.
"What was the fight about?"
"I don't know, but when I tried to find the foreman, he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth as well." Stella commented, she stood next to the baby's carrier and was softly stroking the little Louie's arm.
"Well… let go find the guy. Come on Flack… you're the detective, we gotta find him." Danny was halfway out the door when Flack said, "Danny where are you going?"
"Oh I don't know… maybe to do my job and find my wife," he said very sarcastically, turning to confront his friend, his hands fisted at his sides.
"Um… why don't you let Stella and I handle that while you look after your baby." Flack said with raised eyebrows. He gestured to the baby, and nearly laughed at the look of chagrin on the CSI's face.
Danny moved toward the baby at the same time a young officer poked his head in the door and informed him that Mrs. Houdersheldt was with him and insisted on talking to Danny.
She pushed past the younger man and engulfed Danny in a rib breaking hug. "It occurred to me that you might need this." She held up a paper bag and Danny tried to pretend he understood what she met.
"We'll leave you to your guest." Flack said, leaving with Stella. Danny winced at the sound of their laughter fading down the hall.
"Thanks Mrs. Houdersheldt, but what is this?" He pointed to the bag and she smiled broadly at him.
"Well you can't very well take care of that little cutie with out something for him to eat, so I found this in your refrigerator." She opened the bag and removed several bottle of breast milk that Lindsay had pumped out.
As if on cue Louie began to cry. Once again he was unable to quiet his son till his neighbor took pity on him and showed him how to heat the bottle in the microwave and feed the baby. He was amazed that his son actually ate from the bottle. Mrs. Houdersheldt explained that babies that were breast fed often go on hunger strikes rather then eat from a bottle. Fortunately his son seemed to inherit his father's love of food no matter the form it took.
"He's eating!" Danny said with delighted surprise as he sat down on the couch. More importantly the baby was quiet, except for the noise he made sucking hungrily at the nipple of the bottle.
"Of course he is," Mrs. Houdersheldt said, not at all surprised with this development. She even laughed when Danny looked at her in horror when she told him the next step was to burp the baby and then check to see if he needed a diaper change.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheldon tried to make it from the lab to Mac's office without running. He didn't want to give into the panic that was making his heart race, but he couldn't help it.
He walked as fast as he could down the hallway, completely ignoring some of the lab techs he ran into along the way including Sherry, an assistant pathologist he had his eye one. He didn't see her puzzled look when she said hello to him and he ignored her.
Finally he got to Mac's office. He knocked once of the door and entered without waiting for his boss to say "come in."
Mac looked up in surprise to see the normally calm CSI's rush into his office and slap down a file folder on his desk.
"I have the results on the lock I brought back from Danny's house."
Mac picked up the folder and opened. His eyebrows went up when he read the contents. "Is this right?"
"I checked it three times to be sure. There's no doubt, whoever took Lindsay used a lock release gun to gain entrance to their house." Sheldon said his dark eyes clouded with fear.
"Great, that's just wonderful. We've got a kidnapper with access to a tool that only law enforcement uses." Mac said pinching the bridge of his nose. "Damn it!"
He looked at the younger CSI and said in his sternest tone. "I don't want this getting out. I'm going to leave IAB out of this for as long as I can. I hope we can get her back before we all get taken off this case.
"So you agree that the kidnapper is a cop or federal agent?" Hawkes said his tone bleak. He sat wearily down on the couch in front of Mac's desk and watched his boss carefully.
"We can't assume that, he may have connections to law enforcement, a lock release gun could have been stolen, and there is any number of reasons. Hawkes, we can't tell Danny about this, he is already in a tail spin over this. I won't upset him further by the revelation that one of our own could be behind this."
"But shouldn't he know it seems…" He hunted for the right word. "It's cruel!"
"No… it would be worse if he knew. Anyway we don't know for sure." Mac insisted he had the look that Sheldon always referred to himself as the "ex-marine" look, the one that allowed no nonsense in the lab.
"What do you want me to tell him if he asks?" Hawkes asked, curious as to what Mac would come up with for an excuse.
"He won't ask he's too busy with Louie." Mac answered sitting ramrod straight in his chair.
Hawkes grinned in spite of the situation. "I bow to your superior talents, Mac." He said and watched a tiny smile cross the older man's face.
"Well I figured that I had to keep him distracted, or he would be out there running around trying to find Lindsay and possibly getting himself hurt or killed. You know how he is Sheldon."
"Yeah, I know. I don't blame him." He added simply and watched the smile leave his boss's face.
"Neither do I…" Hawkes saw the brief debate in Mac's eyes to say more then the hardness returned to his gaze.
"Come on, let's get to work. We need to find out where that lock release gun came from."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lindsay bolted to her feet when a key rasped loudly in the lock. She looked around frantically for something, anything to use as a weapon. Her eyes fell on the sharp edge of a crumbling block from the wall that lay on the floor. Who ever had readied this place for her had been careless. She snatched it up and shoved it in the pocket of her jeans just before the door opened. Her hands were still bond in front of her so she would wait her chance.
The door swung open, and despite her fear she made herself look at the man in front of her. He was tall and beefy with black hair and dark glittering eyes. Those eyes weren't quite sane and she took an involuntary step back.
The man held a gun on her and he gestured with it towards the door. "Get going!" He ordered reaching out with his free had to yank her to him.
"It's time to make sure that your husband finds us."
"But…" She was pushed hard out the door.
"Shut up and walk." He walked behind her and she could feel the gun in the small of her back. She didn't dare try to fish out the possible weapon she had found.
He shoved her again into the room next to the one she had been in. He picked up a disposable cell phone and dialed a number.
"We're going to call your husband and if you want to see your baby again, you'll do exactly as I say." He kept the gun on her. She looked around, and saw they were in a very small room with a computer on a metal desk and one chair in front of it.
"Detective Messer? Who I am isn't important. What is important is that I have your lovely little wife right here with me and if you don't do as I say, she'll come back to you in pieces. Don't threaten me, I make the threats, I tell you what to do!
He pulled Lindsay closer and told her to talk to her husband. "No tricks you got it!" He whispered in her ear, his breath stank of garlic and alcohol.
She said breathlessly into the phone. "D-danny!"
A/n lock release guns are used by lock smiths but at one time were only used by law enforcement. I've changed it to fit the story.
