Thanks to everyone who is following this story. I especially appreciate all those readers who take the time to review my work; Hi Lisa :)

In answer to a question from Akalittlered2, yes, this is at times hard to write, it deals with something very dark and it's dark pretty much all the way through, the things that SVU deals with are by their nature disturbing.

This is a lot darker than my Intersecting Lines 'verse stories, which balance the dark with a lot more happy, sexy and fun times.

However this story does serve a purpose, one which will be explained in Intersecting Lines Book 3, which will start posting as this one is wrapping up. We have another 20 or 25 chapters to go before this one ends though.

Thanks for hanging in there with me; I truly appreciate every one of you and the time you take out of your day to read my stuff.

Breaking Barriers Chapter 35

Mac

New York might be the city that never sleeps but in my personal, and what I'd consider well-informed opinion, the Crime Lab was the place where the paperwork never stopped.

I sighed as I signed off on another report, happy that it was good to go to the detectives and District Attorney's waiting on the evidence inside. So many cases depended on the work the Crime Lab did, forensics were a key part of many cases, the work they did helping send criminals away for their crimes.

The individual cases came and went but the paperwork never stopped. Mind you, some cases were worse than others, some because they were especially horrific, others because you couldn't close them, I had my own collection of unsolved cases, the ones that stayed with me no matter how many other cases came and went, the ones I saw on the bad nights when I couldn't sleep, the ones where I pulled out a bottle of good aged bourbon and sat and drank and brooded.

The North-side Rapist was one of them, the Skyline Strangler; a series of top floor murders across Harlem was another, then there was the Lost Girls case where girls were being kidnapped and shipped all over the US, another bad one, it looked like this one involving Lysenko was bidding to join those cases on my personal roster of failed cases, we had nothing and the case was slowly but surely grinding to a halt as the victims died off and we chased fewer and fewer leads.

The would-be assassin who had gone after Benson and Cabot had proved to be a dead end, quite literally, I'd eventually arrived to see the aftermath of the fight, Benson had done a number on him, obviously it had been a kill or be killed situation and she'd been utterly ruthless in her desire to protect her partner.

Benson had been checked out by the EMTs and proclaimed unhurt apart from some bruising and scrapes, but I'd seen the dressing gown she'd been wearing inside an evidence bag, saturated with blood, fortunately none of it hers.

Benson and Cabot had both taken a few days off the case after the attempt on their lives, not that anyone begrudged them that. in Benson's case that meant a debrief by the Department's investigatory team and mandatory counselling, while Cabot had taken a few days to be there for her partner, together they'd spent time helping each other deal with what had happened.

I smiled a little sadly, from what I'd seen Cabot and Benson were devoted to each other, Kate Beckett had filled me in on a little of their back story and I have to say based on what I'd heard I envied them each other, that sort of relationship doesn't come along all that often, I sure wasn't going to bitch about them taking a few days for each other.

I glanced at the clock on his computer screen and grimaced, it was almost 8 pm and I'd been here for over 12 hours catching up on the overdue paperwork only I could sign off on while Benson, Beckett and Shaw chased the case; I should probably head home, I needed the sleep. In fact I was kinda surprised Jo Danville hadn't been in to chase me out, she worried about me, the thought making me smile; she was a good friend, one I deeply appreciated. I shut down the computer and grabbed my stuff, shrugging into my coat and heading out the office door as my keys, cell, and all the other daily paraphernalia of life got distributed into the various pockets.

I went to turn left towards the way out when I saw a flash of movement to the right, in the lab up the end of the hall, it was Jo, still working away. 'That explain that then' I thought. Perhaps I should return the favour and chase her out for a change.

I walked up the hall and leaned in the doorway, seeing Jo looking back and forwards between a microscope and a computer screen, obviously she was comparing something. I watched her work for a few more seconds, appreciating her commitment to solving cases once again then broke the silence.

"And here it was I thought I was the workaholic night owl" At my voice Jo's head came up and she turned to smile tiredly at me.

"Normally you are, I suppose I'm picking up your bad habits" I nodded and wandered a few step closer.

"Then maybe we should both call it a day then" Jo frowned, then looked back at the computer screen.

"I'm kinda in the middle of something here…" I nodded as she trailed off and prodded gently.

"Oh, what exactly?' Jo waved at the microscope and shrugged.

"I was going over the report on Lysenko's clothes, in particular his shoes" I nodded, people's shoes could be a treasure trove of information, the soles picked up and retained all sort of stuff.

"And you found something interesting?" Jo waggled her hand as she replied.

"Not sure, one of the techs flagged some abnormal particulate matter that didn't fit. He mentioned that there was some unusual concentrations of asbestos on several pairs of shoes so they tagged it for my attention" We exchanged a look, asbestos was nasty stuff, especially if it was in particulate form, if inhaled in sufficient quality it could lead to Mesothelioma, a particularly unpleasant lung disease that was usually fatal, as far too many miners of the stuff had found out last century.

"So what did you find?" Jo shrugged as she replied.

"There's definitely asbestos particulate there but it was some of the trace elements that were also present that had me intrigued" That caught my attention.

"Oh?" Jo turned back to the screen as I wandered over as she started explaining her reasoning.

"There are small trace elements of carbon, lead, zinc, chromium, pigments, old ones, plus some others that I was trying to identify" I raised my eyebrow, it was an unusual combination…

"What do you think?" Joe made a 'who knows' gesture as she replied.

"I was trying to work that out when you walked in" She slid her chair back and waved at the microscope. "Be my guest" I smiled at her courtesy and walked over, bending to look into the eyepiece, adjusting the focus a bit to sharpen it up for my slightly different eyesight. There sure was a mass of elements there, all mixed in with dried mud, I frowned, all those components suggested something. Standing I looked back over at her.

"There's a lot mixed in with all that mud" Jo nodded as I pressed her. "You said old pigments" At her nod I continued. "How old?" Jo turned to the computer and switched pages.

"Based on the spectrometer analysis and the lead content, we're looking at pre-1940s through to the 1970s" We shared a look at that piece of info, a building of that vintage was bound to contain asbestos, something I clarified.

"None newer than the 1970s though?" Jo shook her head as she replied.

"According to the lead content, no, nothing" I felt my eyes narrow as I thought that through. That also suggested an old building; lead wasn't used in modern paints anymore, health regulations saw to that. Not painted for over 40 years suggested an abandoned or neglected building, mind you there were plenty of those in New York State. I looked up at Jo and spoke.

"You mentioned other trace elements?" She nodded, picking up a folder and started reading them out.

"Carbon, lead, zinc, chromium, perished rubber, the pigments, asbestos, rust particles, looks like rusted steel and iron, a lot of minor trace elements like sulphur and hydrogen and nitrogen" She tossed the file back on the desk. "Something's bothering me" I nodded in sympathy; I knew what she meant; that nagging feeling telling you that you were missing something important.

"So where had you got?" Jo leaned back in her chair and got comfortable as she spoke.

"Old building; has to be for the amount of asbestos…" I nodded agreeably; another substance that was part of a bygone era. "…probably abandoned for a long time, the rusted steel and iron suggests the elements are getting in to accelerate the corrosion" I stared off into the distance as Jo kept going, trying to fit them all together. "The carbon could have been from a fire, but I'm not getting particles that you'd expect from a wood fire, the perished rubbed doesn't show signs of fire, soot or scoring so it wasn't that, though the hydrogen and nitrogen particles are contra-indicated" I looked round and snagged a seat, it was obvious that we weren't going anywhere and might be here for a while.

Three hours later we were still at it, the lab's garbage disposal containing two delivered pizza boxes as we finished off coffees while cross referencing data. Jo looked up from the computer.

"Maybe we've been looking at this all wrong" I tilted my head to look at her and asked the obvious question.

"How so?" Jo pulled a face as she replied.

"I thought that carbon was evidence of some kind of fire, but maybe it wasn't" She waved her hand around. "What else does carbon come from?" I shrugged at the rhetorical question then pushed on to answer it.

"It's everywhere, it's one of the most common elements" Jo nodded.

"Sure, but here in New York in an old building?" I thought that for a moment over then shrugged as I replied.

"What are you getting at?"

"Coal" She smiled. "It was used for heating for decades, every major building used it for the boilers in the basement. "It was phased out given how dirty it was, most boilers now are gas or electrically powered, so we're maybe looking at a place that was shut before coal was phased out" I thought that over for a while then spoke quietly.

"Let's have a look at the spectrometer report again" We checked and rechecked the various analyses before Jo finally looked my way and spoke up.

"It's coal alright but it's lower grade coal, today the preferred coal for power generation is anthracite-style coal, it's got a lot higher thermal efficiency than the stuff we've got here" I nodded as I answered.

"That tallies with the age of the paint, it's an older building that was using older coal" I scratched my jaw, feeling the stubble there under my fingers before continuing. "So we're looking at an older, probably abandoned building that used coal back before the 1980s" I frowned. There were a lot of particles there for some basement building heater, something I pointed out to her. "The high percentage of coal particles suggests more than just a residential building's coal-fired boiler though, I mean it's by far the largest element in the sample" Jo glanced my way and nodded.

"Maybe an industrial building that had its own boiler or power generation equipment, I mean a lot of places back in the early 20th century generated their own power" I suddenly stilled, something she'd said was bugging me…

"Say that again" Jo looked perplexed at my question.

"What?" I made a rewind gesture as I explained.

"What you just said, the last bit" Jo looked a little perplexed as her brow furrowed before she answered.

"I said lots of placed burned coal for power, back when electrification was being rolled out, they burned coal for electricity on site" The light suddenly came on for me, power generation….

"An old building, no longer used and rusting; full of asbestos and coal but rusting to pieces, lots of coal burned there to generate power, what does that sound like to you?" Jo pondered my question for a long moment then looked up.

"I don't know; maybe an old railway yard or power plant?" I nodded then explained what I was thinking.

"What about an old power station, there's a couple on the island and some more throughout the state that fit the bill, abandoned and rusting out" Jo thought that over then nodded.

"It does fit the bill, lots of coal burned there for power, lots of asbestos and the rubber would have been used for insulation throughout the power generation system" Realising we had a real lead here I sat up straight and spoke.

"I should get a canvas going…" I trailed off as I looked up at the digital clock on the wall, grimacing at the time before finishing. "…later today" Jo looked up to see it was just after midnight and smiled tiredly.

"Good idea, now though I think it's past my bedtime" I smiled.

"Good point" I stood and stretched to relieve an aching back, too much time spent hunched over looking into scopes or screens. "Let's regroup around nine and we can get a canvas of potential premises underway" We stood and I waited as Jo collected her things and got packed up. Finally she grabbed her coat and looked at me.

"You think it might mean something?" I shrugged before answering.

"It's more than we had a few hours ago, so I'd call it something" I smiled tiredly; it'd been a very long day. "We'll know later today" I waved us towards the door.

"Let's call it a night and we'll see what we've got once we get back in" Jo nodded and headed for the door, smiling tiredly as she passed me.

"Sounds good to me"