Scotty arrived at work the next morning feeling particularly unenthusiastic. It had been a couple of weeks now since they had actually had a case to work and it was driving everyone crazy. They had now completed all their paper and had gone through a couple of hundred old case files. He hung his coat and scarf over the back of his chair. He then continued over to Stillman's office.

"Hey boss, please tell me we have a case, or anything that will be even slightly challenging?" He didn't think his eyes could take much more reading.

"No nothing yet, I'll tell you if we have anything come in."

With that he went back out and got a cup of coffee from the break room before sitting at his desk. Just then Lily arrived.

"Hey Scotty, we got anything yet?"

"Nah nothing," he replied, "well not yet anyway."

"Damn, that means more case files. You want some coffee?"

"No thanks, I'm fine," he said showing her his mug.

While she was getting coffee, he went and got two boxes out of the storage room so they could start work. He sat one of them by her desk and placed the other one on his own. It was marked S. Gallagher 10/92. He opened the box and took out one of the files.

Sharon Gallagher was a 32-year-old Caucasian female born June 13th 1960. She was married to Pete Gallagher and they had a four-year-old son, Matthew, and a two-year-old daughter, Kellie. Sharon was stabbed to death on the 22nd of October 1992. The case file had been summarised to the police's knowledge at the time. The report read like this- Sharon had returned home with Kellie after dropping Matthew off at pre-school. Her husband was at work (he worked for Virax, a software development company), his presence there was verified by two colleagues. The stabbing was so violent and irrational that the forensic psychologist who had assisted the police said it seemed like a very personal murder.

Everyone who had a motive had an alibi and everyone they interviewed with no alibi had no foreseeable motive. Must have been frustrating as hell for the investigating officers thought Scotty.

He had become so engrossed in his case file that he hadn't even noticed that Lily had come back into the room with her coffee and had started to read through the case files out of the box he had placed by her desk.

"Scotty, you got anything there?" She said spinning around on her chair so that she was facing him when he turned around.

"Huh, ahh… I'm not sure," he said his mind still wandering through what he had read.

"Okay, you just seemed very into what you were reading, so I thought you might have something."

"Nah I was just thinking about it, I mean they don't seem to have anything on this at all. It was a crime of passion and yet they couldn't come up with anyone who had motive and didn't have an alibi. And the evidence got them nowhere. The only blood found was the victim's; there were no hair follicles, skin cells, or unusual fibres anywhere. The only thing they found were prints on the handle of the knife. They were run through all the databases and came up with nothing. The prints were compared to all the suspects, the family, everyone one who was involved."

Lily slide her chair over to his desk and together they examined the autopsy reports, evidence bags and statements collected by the police.

"Anyway what did you have?" he asked her.

"Murder of a 24-year-old accountant, they had hit a dead end until some guy confessed to the murder although there was no evidence pointing towards him. He was arrested and charged with the murder but then later changed his plea too not guilty. The charges had to be dropped because there was no evidence connecting him to the crime and apparently his confession wasn't enough."

"Do they know if he was actually guilty in the first place?" asked a puzzled Scotty.

"I'm not sure, I haven't read right into the reports yet."

Just then they were interrupted by a call coming from the phone on Lily's desk.

"Hello. Oh alright. Yeah I'll come right out and see him. Thank you. Bye." She hung up the phone and looked over to Scotty. They've got somebody whose waiting to see me in reception.

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Nah it will be okay, I'll tell you if I get anything."

She left the room leaving Scotty alone once again with the boxes of files.


Out at the front desk the receptionist informed Lily that she had let the man wait in one of the homicide interrogation rooms while they checked to make sure she was available to see him. She walked over to the room and through the door.

"Hi, I'm Detective Rush, you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah I'm PC Hughes, and I was told you're the one to speak to in regards to cold cases." Lily wouldn't have taken this guy for a cop. He was young looking with blonde hair, brown eyes and an athletic build. She figured he must have just come off a shift as he was still at the station but was not in his uniform.

"Yeah that's right, why did you want to see me?"

"Well we busted this guy today for dealing pot and when I entered his prints in the system it came up with a match to an unsolved homicide from a few years back. I thought you guys might be interested."

" Okay then, I'll need to talk with that guy. But first can I get you to write down what case it was from so I can pull the files?"

"Yeah alright."

He jotted down the name of the victim and the date of the murder onto a piece of paper.

"Thanks for that PC Hughes" she said smiling. Finally she and the team would have something to work on.

"Anytime, and you can call me Dave" he said smiling flirtatiously at her.

"Well thank you Dave," she said before exiting the room. She couldn't believe it she had just been flirted with by someone who looked like he was just out of high school. She felt flattered by it and smiled to herself.

Lily decided that before she told Scotty she would at lease try to find the box out of storage so they could get to work. She looked through the storage room and couldn't find it anywhere. Then she remembered Scotty had taken to boxes in this morning. Maybe will she had been talking to Dave he had got another box out.

"Hey how did the interview go?" asked Scotty when he saw Lily come back into the room.

"Rather well actually, except I can't find the box that I'm looking for."

"Well what's the name maybe I have it here." Lily was right, he had gotten another couple of boxes out of storage.

She looked at the piece of paper in her hand and then read it to Scotty. "S. Gallagher, 10/92."