I love interrogations and interview scenes in CSI, I hope I got this right! Thank you so much for the reviews for the latest chapter, they really spur me on to write more...

--

A disheveled young woman sat directly across from Mac Taylor in the dingy interview room. She stared at the table with wide eyes that were glazed with tears.

"Frankie."

She jumped at hearing her own name. She looked up to meet Mac's gaze. Her hair was the same shade as the Jane Doe, but really other than that there were no similarities.

"I need you to tell me what happened the morning you disappeared." Mac said once he was sure he had Frankie's attention. "Two girls are dead, your living room was trashed and your best friend Ellie is being blamed for it. If you know anything, which I'm pretty sure you do, you have to tell me." Frankie remained silent as she stared at Mac. There was fear in her eyes and Mac couldn't tell if it was because she had committed this crime or because she was too terrified about the whole ordeal to talk. Mac sat back in his seat. He glanced up at the two way mirror. He knew Flack was behind it as he had to drag him away from trying to interview Frankie. Flack's passion to put injustices right was still burning, but it seemed he was now beginning to realise that his sister was the one he needed to fight for.

"Who does the male blood belong to? Who have you been sleeping with?"

"I don't think thats any of your concern." Frankie retorted.

"It is if he's involved in this somehow or if he's a potential witness."

Frankie slouched in her chair and folded her arms. Her fear was gone and had been replaced by indignation. She seemed offended by the question Mac had asked and had completely forgotten why she was scared.

"Great." Mac thought. "She's angry and will clam up even more now." He rose from his seat. "If you're protecting someone I will find out. Ellie will be here soon, lets see if she can't convince you to talk." And with that he left the room, slamming the door behind him.

--

Aiden had just broken into a run as she collided with Stella in the corridor.

"Woah, slow down there!" Stella grabbed onto Aiden's arms to stop them both from falling.

"Sorry Stell, but I think I got something."

The smile faded from Stella's face as she looked at the files in Aiden's hand.

"Lets go to Mac." The two women were in the break room in no time and Mac glanced over his cup of coffee at them.

"Mac, I think I got something." Aiden said as she sat down on the sofa next to him. "I found a few similar matches to the male DNA and managed to narrow it down to 3. Those 3 happen to be brothers. The brothers Vitale."

"Vitto, Angelo and Pasquale?" Mac asked as he got to his feet.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Aiden asked as she let her boss take the brown files.

"I worked on a big bust that involved their family about 7 years ago. Angelo was the only one of the 3 bosses who ended up in jail, though the other two have done time before. He was released in November by the looks of his record." Mac handed them to Stella's open hands.

Stella gasped. "Quite extensive charges they've been brought up on, since they were pretty young it would seem." She paused a few moments to scan over the last file. "So our unknown male is a son of one of these men?"

"Yes, I think its most likely Angelo's, his DNA shares the most alleles." Aiden added.

"Okay, if you two get on tracking down any Vitale children that there are, I'll go back to Frankie and see if this little bit of information will refresh her memory."

--

"So Frankie...was the Vitale kid an accomplice? Or did he attack you too? You seem smart, not the kind of girl who would be stupid enough to have unprotected sex. Did he force you in your own bed?"

Frankie gave a twitch. It seemed Mac had hit a sore spot.

"He did, didn't he?" Mac leaned in closer to the trembling girl in front of him. "You can talk to me, or I can get Detective Bonasera in here if you'd prefer to speak to a woman."

"It wasn't like that." Frankie mumbled. She was itching at the bend in her left arm and her nails were bitten down to the quick. Flack, who was safely behind plate glass noticed this too and moved closer to get a better look. Adam had joined him, having only seen one interrogation before.

"She looks like an addict to me." he said, reading the detective's mind.

"Took the words right outta my mouth." Flack added quietly.

"What was it like?" Mac pressed Frankie for more details. She seemed on edge. Did she need a fix? Now was a good time to get the information he needed to come closer to solving this case. Frankie broke down and held her face in her hands.

"He fucked it all up." she said thickly. "He was so good to me when we first met, but he persuaded me to try some heroine." Frankie sat back up, a disgusted look joined the tears on her face. "I can't believe I fell for him."

"Who?"

"Johnny, Johnny Vitale. He spoiled me with the money he made taking over his father's drug smuggling."

"Now would be an appropriate time for a 'Boom' from Danny." Adam muttered.

"Yeah." Flack replied, almost in a whisper.

"So was this a drug related crime?" Mac asked as Frankie continued to sob.

"Not exactly. I had been out all night with Johnny and Karen."

Mac interrupted. "Who's Karen?"

"She's the other girl...who...who got hurt. She was an old friend of Johnny's from school and through his family. She was starting to clean up."

"So, how did she get hurt?"

Frankie shifted in her chair. She ran a hand over her face, trying to dry it off.

"I came back to the apartment to get the coke I'd been holding for Johnny. He'd been ripping off his dad and wanted to sell on what he had. Crystal must have heard Karen and Johnny making noise and came out of her room. I don't know how it got so far, but Crys and Karen were going at it when I came back from my room. Next thing I know, Karen's head smashes off the coffee table and Johnny has a blade in his..." Frankie trailed off, overcome once more by tears. "He just keep stabbing and stabbing, I couldn't stop him..."

"You get the stuff together, I'll go get rid of this." Johnny was brandishing the bloodstained knife in Frankie's face. He had blood all over his sleeve and his own hand was cut. Frankie was shaking violently. "NOW!" Johnny shouted, making her jump to her feet. He left, slamming the door behind him.

"Who is slamming the door at this time in the morning?!" Frankie turned to find Ellie with a towel wrapped around her. "Frankie, what the fuck? What...what happened?!" Ellie had spotted Crystal on the floor. She ran to her side, but it was too late. Ellie suddenly realised her hands were covered in blood, and her knees buckled under her. She looked ill and Frankie ran to the sink to get her a glass of water. She glanced at the box of drugs, sitting on the dresser. There were baggies of assorted powders and pills. In a split second, she snatched up a bag with what she recognised as date rape pills and spilled several into the glass. She watched as they fizzed and dissolved into the water.

"Here, drink this." Much to Frankie's surprise, Ellie gulped the water down. The result was almost immediate and Ellie quickly became drowsy. If she could just get her out of the room before Johnny came back, she might be able to stop her getting involved.

Just as Frankie got Ellie to the bathroom, Johnny burst in through the apartment door.

"I saw some kid knocking the door, we don't have time to dump the body. We have to get out of here, right..." he stopped dead as he spotted Frankie dropping Ellie into the bath.

"Johnny, its okay...I knocked her out. She doesn't know a thing." she pointed to the glass on the coffee table.

"BULLSHIT!" he roared, throwing the glass across the room. It shattered under the couch.

"I put pills in there. She won't remember a thing."

Johnny strode into the bathroom. "Lets just help make sure she doesn't talk." He opened the bathroom window as wide as it would go. Wind brought snowflakes in, that landed in the warm bath water and melted instantly.

"Johnny, you can't!"

"I can and I will. Now get the drugs' we're leaving."

Mac sighed and got to his feet. He signaled to the uniformed officer outside the door to come in. She handcuffed Frankie and took her to the door. Flack had sent a text to Stella to tell her to track down Johnny Vitale. He stayed put until Frankie had been led away, afraid of what he might say or do if he got near her.

--

Several blocks away, Danny and Ellie were huddled up in a taxi. The sun was beginning to set and the cloudless sky meant they were in for a frosty night and they were certainly starting to feel the cold closing in.

"I wish this traffic would move and we'd be in the warmth already." Ellie muttered, snuggling in close to Danny as their breath hung in the air.

"We would manage to hail the one cab with a broken heater." Danny replied as his phone alerted him to a text. He pulled it from his coat pocket and read aloud.

"We know who attacked Ellie's friends. Frankie told us everything. My parents are here - they'll be waiting outside."

"It take it that was from Donnie?"

"Yeah, seems he's stopped blaming you anyway."

Ellie let out a huge sigh. It was like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and Danny felt her physically sit up straight. Her tired eyes brightened and the green in them seemed more vibrant - like the Ellie had he always known.

"I can't wait to see my Mom and Dad." she said quietly. "It feels like I haven't seen them in ages when it was Thanksgiving that I saw them last."

"What, not at Christmas?" Danny asked.

"No, I celebrated that with Donnie. Just me and him."

"Well it won't be long now til you can see all of them." Danny said, placing a gentle kiss on Ellie's cheek.

--

The traffic soon shifted and Ellie climbed out of the cab as it pulled up outside the precinct building. Danny had refused to let her even so much as pay half and stood at the drivers window, waiting on his change. She glanced up the grey stairs and saw her parents waving from a window on the ground floor. Ellie couldn't help but grin and a warmth filled her entire body, despite the cold. Just as she raised her own hand to wave, something heavy hit the side of her head and sent her crashing to the ground. She blinked hard a few times and tried to get up, but failed. She could hear a struggle going on around her. As Ellie managed to compose herself and lift her head from the freezing ground, a fist made contact with her jaw and she smacked her head on the pavement.

"Ellie!" she heard Danny yell. She had just enough time to see her own blood pouring onto the crisp white snow, before everything went black.