Author's Note: As always a huge thank you to SallyJetson for the beta. I have played around a little with it since she looked at it and any and all mistakes are, of course, mine!

Chapter 25 - Silent Witnesses

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

Galileo Galilei

Hawkes put his bag down as his eyes began to mentally record the scene. Stella was crouched down next to the body. He nodded a greeting before getting down to business.

'What have we got?'

'Male in his late 50's; been stabbed once in the neck that I can see, but I was waiting for you before I turned him over.'

Hawkes crouched down next to her, his eyes studying the scene with care as he started to think out loud.

'Doesn't appear that there was a struggle which would suggest that he knew his killer; maybe a wife or girlfriend?'

Stella nodded.

'There are a pile of clean towels on that dresser. They're not the same make as the towels in the bathroom.'

Hawkes frowned.

'That's strange, a hotel as classy as this would have matching everything.' He switched his attention back to the body. 'Do we have an ID?'

'Jen is just speaking to the hotel manager now. She's confirming who the room was registered to and getting any CCTV footage from the corridor. Do you have an estimate for the time of death?'

Hawkes investigated for a moment before looking back at Stella.

'Lividity and rigor would indicate that he's been dead at least 12 hours. Who found him?'

'The maid who came to clean the room.'

Hawkes pulled a face.

'Not a great start to anyone's morning. Have you got all the shots we need?'

'Yes. Shall we turn him?'

They carefully turned the body as Angel walked back into the room. She stopped at the door as she started to speak.

'I've seen the CCTV footage from the corridor. Our vic arrived back at 9:45pm last night after being out of the room all day. Just before 10pm someone dressed as a maid and carrying a stack of towels knocked at the door and was let in. Nobody exited the room for over half an hour, then a woman in a Burqa left. No-one else went into the room or left it until the maid this morning.'

Stella frowned, then nodded towards the body. 'And do we have a name for our vic?'

Angel flipped over the page of her notebook. 'Sure, the room was registered in the name of -'

'Charles Henderson.'

Angel stopped and stared at Hawkes. Stella stared at him too.

'You know him?'

Hawkes stood up, his face showing more emotion than usual. Stella peered up at him.

'Sheldon?'

He looked at her, his eyes dark and troubled.

'Yeah, I know him.'

x O x

Flack stood with his back against the wall, watching as Mac interviewed Ramon Diaz. Barely 18 and full of crap; Flack felt an overwhelming urge to exercise his right forearm down the kid's throat. He forced himself to stand motionless as Mac pushed a cell phone in a plastic bag across the table to the cocky little shit.

'Tell me where you got this phone Ramon.'

Diaz leaned back in his chair, a sneer on his face.

'Don't know about no phone, man.'

'Really? Because we have your finger prints all over it.'

Mac seemed impervious to the attitude Diaz was displaying. Diaz shrugged, the sneer still evident.

'So maybe someone gave it to me, man. Someone who knows I deserve proper respect.'

Flack gritted his teeth. It wasn't time to cut in yet and play 'bad cop'; Mac still had more to reveal.

'Really? Because I think you killed Carlos Ramirez and then took his phone, and I can prove it.'

The sneer wavered a bit and now it was more bravado than cockiness in his voice.

'Don't know who you're talking about man. Someone gave me the phone. Don't know this Ramirez character you're talking about.'

Finally Mac turned in his seat, a look of carefully manufactured surprise on his face.

'Maybe you can help out here Detective Flack? Mr Diaz seems to be suffering from some memory loss.'

Unleashed, Flack surged forward and slammed his hands down on the table in front of Diaz. The shock wiped the remains of the sneer from his face and made Diaz tip his chair back in his effort to put clear space between them.

'The last call Ramirez made before he was killed was to a prepaid cell phone that we found in your possession. We can prove you bought it a month ago and we have the call log which shows multiple calls you made on it to your girlfriend and your mother.'

He kicked the legs of the chair, causing the front legs to thump back down onto the cold tiles.

'You went to meet Ramirez in the alley. You argued and you killed him and you took his phone. You're going away for a very long time, man.

Diaz made one last attempt at appearing unconcerned but his sneer was a shadow of a minute ago.

'You can't treat me like this,' At Flack's snarl he pushed his chair back and appealed to Mac, looking more and more like a frightened child. 'He can't do that, can he?'

'Do what?' Mac looked unconcerned.

'Get in my face like that. I've got rights….I didn't kill that guy…you can't prove I did.'

He was babbling now. Flack knew one more turn of the screw should do it.

'Start talking and telling us what we want to know otherwise you'll be spending some quality time in Rikers, and your fellow residents be looking to get into some far more interesting places than your face.'

He stepped back, confident that Diaz would now talk; Mac leaned forward.

'Well? What happened?'

'Ramirez was messing with my sister. We got into one and I cut his head. He went to the hospital to get it sorted and rang me as he was leaving. Told me to meet him so we could carry on with our discussions. I got there and he was already dead. I kicked him a few times and took his phone. That's it, man. I didn't kill him.'

Mac sat back, his face impassive.

'Why take his phone?'

'He had some pictures of my sister on it. She's only 15. I didn't want anyone getting hold of them.'

'When you arrived at the alley did you see anyone else around?'

'Nah, no-one….well no-one other than some A-rab woman. She looked as if she'd just come from the alley but I guess she couldn't have otherwise she'd have seen him wouldn't she?'

The sneer was creeping back in. Flack moved to stand behind him, noting that Diaz immediately shifted his position in an attempt to keep him in his peripheral vision. He bent his head down so that his mouth was alongside Diaz's ear.

'You saw an Arab woman? What makes you think she was Arabic?'

'She had one of those things on that covers you from head to foot….you know what I mean?'

Mac lent forward, his voice sharp with interest.

'You mean a Burqa.'

Diaz shrugged. 'Whatever. All I know is it could have been J-Lo walking past and no-one would have known under all that get up.'

Flack met Mac's eyes but before either could say or do anything there was a knock at the door and Lindsay appeared, jerking her head to indicate that both men needed to step outside.

Once outside she wasted no time. 'I've just had a call from Stella. She thinks our killer may have struck again.'

x O x

Hawkes opened the door to the apartment, extracting the door key and then closing the door again without making a sound.

For a moment he stood in the hallway listening to the laughter coming from the kitchen. Emily was obviously visiting, which, given the news he was about to break to Lucy, was probably a good thing. He knew he should have told her about her link to these attacks last night but when he had arrived home he'd found candlelight, soft music, his favourite meal and Lucy dressed in some lingerie that had sent his senses reeling.

But it couldn't be put off any longer, especially now. He took a deep breath.

'Hi, it's me.'

He stepped into the kitchen. Lucy jumped up from the window seat.

'This is a nice surprise.' She moved into his arms and kissed him. He tightened his arms around her, holding her close for a moment.

'Sheldon? Is everything OK?'

He reluctantly let her go.

'Sit down, Luce. I've got some news for you.'

She exchanged a glance with Emily but sat down at the table. He took the seat next to her, grasping her hands in his.

'When was the last time you spoke to your step-father?'

She stared at him, clearly surprised. 'He rang me yesterday when Danny was here. I told him where to go. Why?'

He gripped her hand tightly as he broke the news as gently as he could.

'Lucy, he's dead. He was found in his hotel room this morning.'

She tensed and he heard a gasp from Emily.

'What happened? Was it a heart attack?' She searched his face. 'Sheldon?'

'He was murdered.'

'Murdered?'

He nodded, watching her closely. After the initial shock she seemed calm enough. He decided that it would be best just to get the whole thing out of the way.

'Lucy, you know that they have linked Emily's attack with two murders and that they all have a link to the hospital?'

She nodded. He glanced quickly at Emily. From her expression he guessed that Flack had already explained the link to her. He squeezed Lucy's hand as he continued.

'We believe that Charles's murder is linked to these attacks as well.'

She frowned and glanced at Emily and then back to him. 'I don't understand. How is his murder linked to the hospital and to the other murders? He doesn't have a connection to….'

Her voice trailed away as comprehension flooded her eyes and her hand flew to her mouth.

'There is a connection isn't there. That's why Don came over the other day and asked about the orderly who was killed and whether I knew him, but how do you know that this killing is linked? Couldn't it be random? Let's face it there'd be a queue a mile long of people willing to off that bastard if they thought they could do it without being caught.'

He'd always known she wanted nothing to do with her step-father. He'd met him once, at Josh's funeral, and had seen how she avoided him, but he'd never realized the depth of her hatred.

Emily reached a hand out to Lucy and for a moment their eyes met. To Hawkes it seemed that some silent conversation was taking place. He waited until Lucy looked back at him again.

'The initial evidence suggests a link. We won't know for certain until all he evidence has been processed but Mac and Flack need to talk to you. There could be something you know, that you're not even aware of, that might help us.' He turned his gaze to Emily. 'They are happy for you to be there too, in case there are any problems.'

She nodded. He noticed how pale she was; she was clearly as affected as Lucy was by the news. She met his eyes.

'When was he killed?'

He stared at her. The question seemed odd and his investigator's instincts kicked in.

'Why do you ask?'

She continued to meet his eyes steadily but didn't answer. He looked at Lucy; she was staring at Emily too.

'Em?'

Emily turned to look at Lucy, her face impassive.

'You know I have as much of a motive to kill that bastard as anybody. Just thought it might be a good idea to make sure I had an alibi.'

x O x

'So, are they on their way in?'

'Yeah, Hawkes has just called me. Says he needs to speak to us before we talk to them though. Sounded rattled.'

Mac looked thoughtful.

'Rattled?'

Flack shrugged. 'Yeah –'

'Guy's I think I have something here.'

The excitement in Stella's voice as she arrived in Mac's office caught both men's attention.

Stella started to lay out information on the table as she continued to speak. 'I heard about a case in San Francisco that had strong similarities to ours so I called them up and had the information sent over. See what you think.'

Crime scene photographs of two men with their throats cut and of a woman with ligature marks around her neck were spread out on the table. Stella turned to Flack.

'Did you get anywhere with finding out who sent the flowers to Emily and Lucy?'

Flack shook his head.

'Not really. On both occasions the shop owner arrived in the morning to find an envelope pushed through the door containing instructions about who the flowers were for and where to send them. The cash to pay for them was in the envelope, as was the card to be sent with them. The only finger prints we got from the cards inside the envelopes were Emily's, Lucy's, Hawkes and mine. Why?'

Stella didn't answer; instead she pulled out a photo of the message card from Emily's flowers.

'And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Mark 11:25. Forgive me, I beg you. That was the message on the card with Emily's flowers. Now listen to this.'

She extracted a sheet of paper from the file she was holding and started to read.

'Forgive me, I beg you. I thought she was pure, that I was appointed by God to protect her, but now I know she was nothing but a whore who has disgraced her sainted husband's memory'. She looked up briefly to see the reaction she was getting before dropping her eyes and continuing. 'And then the note ends with a biblical referenceAnd when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Mark 11:25'

Stella looked up again, excitement shinning in her eyes.

'Guy's it's the same biblical reference and the same words, forgive me, I beg you. Not only that,' she pushed the copies of the card and the letter across the table to Flack and Mac, 'it's the same handwriting and the person she was protecting was her final victim...'

Stella handed Flack the photo of the victim; lifeless green eyes in a heart shaped face, framed by long chestnut hair. Recognition hit him like a punch to his gut. From a great distance he could hear Stella finish her explanation.

'...Doctor Helen Young.'

He couldn't tear his eyes away. He could feel Mac and Stella staring at him; could almost hear the question forming on their lips.

'Flack?'

Mac reached out and took the photo from his grasp, glanced at it then looked at Stella before they both turned to look at him. He forced himself to speak.

'Neither of you has met Lucy, have you?' They both shook their head. He gestured to the photo in Mac's hand. 'Well you'll recognise her when you do because Dr Helen Young could be her sister.'