A very nice and long new chapter for y'all! Enjoy! I guess I don't have to ask if some can share their thoughts about this story so far in a review, because nobody will :P I can see I have a lot of readers, so I'll just continue this story. And of course, I want to thank Fruitbat again! Can't say enough how much your help means to me :)
Chapter Ten: Half done
Flack and Lindsay went back to the car, extremely satisfied. The doorman of the apartment where Trisha Jefferson's lived, did have surveillance footage of the night the woman was murdered. The doorman had fallen asleep himself that night and apologized for that quite a few times, but Flack and Lindsay were already happy he had the videos. On their way back to the lab, Lindsay called Danny. He sounded distant through the phone, busy trying to figure out the route Mac had driven that day with Nick. The phone call only made Lindsay worry more about her boyfriend.
When they got to the lab, Stella was already waiting for them. She informed them of her findings about the oil and the autopsy. The latter hadn't revealed anything, only that the victim died because of the gunshot. Stella had already examined the bullet and that was were she really got excited.
'Guess what? On the bullet, there were also traces of the oil we found on the vics shirt. And because the cause of death was the gunshot to her head, the man with the oil on his hands definitely has blood on his hands too. He is our killer.' Stella told enthusiastically. Flack understood only half of what the woman in front of him was babbling about, but he didn't care about the explanation. Stella was enthusiastic, so he probably should be too.
'And we found the surveillance videos.' Flack showed the tapes to Stella. 'We won the jackpot.' They all walked to the lab again and began watching the tapes. Flack had bought himself and the ladies some coffee. They all sat down, watching the videos quietly. Each one caught up in their own thoughts and concerns about the case and Mac. After three and a half hours of watching, Lindsay jumped of her chair and pointed to the screen, which Stella had paused.
'Look! It's a motorbike. Zoom in on the brand, Stella.' Stella did as she was told and zoomed in near the handle bars. She also jumped of her chair now.
'It's a Yamaha!' She zoomed in on the license plate. 'IM MASTER'. This time, it was Flacks turn to speak.
'If he resists when we arrest him, we can always arrest him for having the most stupid license plate in whole of New York.' His comment made both ladies smile.
'Can you find out who this Master is?' Flack asked Stella. Stella walked over to a computer and typed the letters. The computer beeped.
'Oh, yeah. Flack, you better not arrest him for his license plate. His real name is Frank Master.' Stella laughed at Flack. Flack's mouth opened in astonishment.
'If I had that name, I would have killed someone too.' Flack left, leaving the women smiling for the second time.
Danny tried as hard as he could not to scare Lindsay, because she was so happy she had found a lead in her case. He and Hawkes couldn't exactly say the same. They had gone to the hospital to question the doctors and other staff. Nobody had seen Mac after they left him alone with the boy. In the room Nick had been examined in, they had found no traces of a struggle or anything what so ever that could help them. The parking lot where Mac's car had been parked during his stay, was clean too. Now they were on the route they thought Mac would have taken to the lab. None of the guys were really in the mood for talking, although Hawkes tried to cheer Danny up a bit. He didn't succeed in that.
When they were half way along the route, at the crossroads where Mac had stopped because of the accident. Hawkes parked the car on the side of the road and they went searching. Evidence of the accident was still visible, although the crossroad was already open again. There was no way they could block off the traffic, so they searched whenever the green light for the pedestrians appeared. After hour of traversing the crossroad again and again, they sat down on a curb, exhausted. Hawkes had found some paint, probably from vehicles hitting each other. Danny had found a broken cell phone, not very likely from the attackers but he bagged it anyway. It was getting dark and both men had resigned to the fact it was impossible to track Mac down this way. Danny was the first to speak.
'I guess this was all for nothing, Hawkes. We won't find Mac this way. I'm losing faith.'
'Danny, we will find him, one way or the other. Mac would never lose faith if someone else was in his position. Come one, let's get back to the lab, we won't get any further sitting here. The more people, the better the chances.' Hawkes helped himself up.
'We can't do anything more! There's no way we can find Mac in time!' Danny was getting angry now, completely tired of this whole day.
Sheldon was surprised as Danny started talking so pessimistic again. 'You can't just lose it like that, Danny. Maybe we did this for nothing, but that doesn't mean it's all for nothing. Those guys are going to make a mistake sooner or later, and then it is our turn. We just have to stay focused.'
Danny scoffed. 'You really wanna sound like Mac, uh? Stay focused, wait till they make a mistake. I'm not just gonna sit and wait like you suggest. These guys are good, can't you see? The only mistake they're going to make is beating Mac to death instead of keeping him alive. Do you want to wait for that?!' Danny was getting really pissed now, but so was Hawkes.
'You are getting way too emotional now, Danny. So when one thing fails, you give up completely? I'm sure Mac will not be very pleased to hear that. If you quit now, Mac will indeed be dead, but not because of those guys, but because of you.' Hawkes knew he was gone too far but there was no way back down now. Both guys weren't aware of the crowd that had gathered around them.
Danny exploded after these words and hit Hawkes hard right above the eye. Hawkes wanted to hit him back, but bystanders stopped both him and Danny. After a couple of minutes, the CSI's were calmed down again and apologized to each other. Hawkes was bleeding a little above his eyebrow but was going to live. Still a little shaky, they got back into their car and drove back to the lab.
Back in the building they came together in Mac's office, being the only place where they could talk quietly. For convenience's sake, Hawkes told everyone he had walked into a lamppost. The others weren't sure they should believe him, but there was a bigger danger now: time. Stella told Danny and Hawkes of their findings and Danny did the same to the women, hardly keeping himself from getting angry again. Nothing further could be done at the moment, so they decided to take a little break until Flack got back with the Master. It was already late and they were all having a hard time keeping their eyes open, but no one thought about quitting. While Stella and Hawkes headed to the break room to get a lot of coffee, Danny and Lindsay went outside the building for some fresh air. Once they were outside, Danny pulled Lindsay into a long hug. She felt his warmth surrounding her, the warmth she had been begging for the whole day. The whole situation had already taken too much out of her and everyone else. When they pulled apart, she looked in his beautiful eyes, tears almost welling up.
'You already know that I love you, Danny?' Lindsay said to the man in her arms.
'I don't mind if you'll tell me another million times.' Danny pulled her closer and kissed his girlfriend passionately. After their kiss, they stayed outside, hugging and convincing one another this would all be over soon.
Right after they were in the lab again, Stella got a call from Flack that Mr. Master was waiting in the interrogation room. They all headed towards the room, only Flack and Stella going in. Hawkes, Danny and Lindsay just stayed on the other side of the one-way mirror. Adam and Sid had joined them there. They all went silent as Stella started talking to their suspect.
'Any clue why we brought you here, Mr. Master?' Stella asked the man in front of her. The guy was in his late thirties and was definitely the guy from the surveillance videos, only shaven this time. The man pretended he was confused.
'No, I have no idea, detective. I can't remember killing anyone the last few days.' Stella reacted quickly on his answer.
'You maybe reconsider that, Frank. Namely, we saw you on the surveillance videos of an apartment house in which a 20-year old woman was murdered. And guess what? We saw your bike too.' Stella self-confidently told the man. He, in turn, tried to hide his disappointment.
'What are you talking about? Which woman? Why would I kill a woman?' He said. This time it was Flacks turn to answer.
'Well, that is what you will tell us. We are always very curious about the reasons why people want to kill other people.' Stella continued after the homicide-detective stopped talking. She showed their suspect a picture of Trisha Jefferson.
'You know her?' The man took a look at the picture and shook his head. Stella tried again, now showing the victims shirt with the oil on it.
'Maybe you remember this shirt then. When you stabbed her, she tried to get away. You grabbed her shirt, this shirt, and left your signature on it: oil.'
'Oil? Right, the oil makes me the killer? Are you guys insane?' The man tried to defend himself once more.
'Yes, it does, because it is the oil that matches the oil in and on your bike, and only your bike. And you also shot her through the head, because she was stronger than you thought.' A lab tech walked into the room at the moment Stella finished her sentence. The guy handed her a file over and left. Stella looked at the file and smiled.
'And you just tested positive for gun shot residue.' Flack took over from Stella.
'So only two questions remain: where is the knife and where is the gun, Master?' Flack came threateningly close to the suspect. The guy looked straight in the detective's eyes.
'No way I'm going to tell you, dude. Take off your fancy suit and go search yourself.' The man said to Flack.
Flack wasn't all too pleased to be called 'dude' and was trying to keep himself calm with great effort, when another knock on the door followed. A man and a woman stepped inside the room. Stella recognized them as two other CSI's who always worked a shift after her. The woman whispered something in Stella's ear and the man gave her their file. They left after Stella thanked them. She then turned around to face Frank Master again.
'It's just getting better and better. Our colleagues just found lots of interesting stuff on your bike, Frank.' She showed him the pictures the CSI's had taken, one by one. She began with the gloves.
'Under your seat, we found these gloves for starters. With blood on them. It will only be a matter of time until we match it with Trisha Jefferson's blood.' Stella studied the guy's facial expressions as she continued, this time with a picture of the knife.
'And look at that, a knife, how surprising! With also blood on it, and probably not your dogs blood.' Last was the picture of the gun. 'I don't need to explain you this picture, do I?' Stella leaned forwards.
The guy didn't get furious, didn't cry, didn't even blink. He just said there, smiling. 'Wonderful job, detective.'
'So you confess you killed her?' Stella asked, wanting him to say it out loud.
'Yeah well, she deserved it. She humiliated my brother by rejecting him. He loved her and she just said no. You don't just say no to a Master.' The man almost smiled now.
Both Flack and Stella took a couple of seconds to let this answer penetrate. After that, Flack pulled the guy up and cuffed him. When they walked out of the interrogation room, he couldn't resist saying one more thing.
'Congrats, DUDE, for being the dumbest ass on the planet.' The man only smiled at this comment.
Stella got out of the room and out of the building to catch some fresh air and to try and compose her thoughts. Half done now, she thought. This sick man will bring us to Mac and everything will be fine again. She looked up to the sky and closed her eyes. Mac, if you are hearing me now, please stay with me alright. You have to stay with me and be strong. It will only be a matter of time and you will be out of this hell and with me. She opened her eyes, still looking up. I can't live without you Mac Taylor, you hear me. I can't live without you… I love you Mac. Please let me free you, so I can tell you I love you. Stella was crying now.
She regained her strength again and was just going to head back in the building again, when she noticed the package. She kneeled down next to it and saw her name written on it. She didn't have the patience to wait for Danny to get downstairs with gloves, so she just lifted up the package as carefully as possible and ran upstairs again. Once she was out of the elevator, she yelled the names of her colleagues.
'DANNY! LINDSAY! FLACK! HAWKES! The lab, NOW!' Everyone inside could hear her yell, and the called ones quickly ran to the lab at full speed. When they got there, they all looked at the package in horror.
'Another one?' Danny asked Stella, who was clearly upset.
'I found it next to the sliding doors. My name is on it, it must be from him again. Picking up a knife Stella sliced through the tape with shaking hands both desperate and afraid to see the contents within." She hadn't even realized that she had cut herself until Danny stopped her.
'Stella, your bleeding, let me do this. You may contaminate evidence on it.' He slowly spoke to his friend. Stella now noticed her bleeding hand and gave Danny the knife. The package contained a DVD box with a DVD inside for the second time. Danny got a weird feeling of a dejà-vu. He slid the DVD into the DVD player and pressed 'PLAY'