A:N: Thanks to 72NewYorker525, YumaWolf, and dopeyidiot for your great reviews. I appreciate them a lot. Sorry this one took a while to do. I was stuck doing research on several bits of this story.

Snakes in the Garden

Taylor looked over at Bonesara as the phone clicked indicating the other line was dead. His face showed his worry just as Messer walked back through the door. He was worried about why she wouldn't talk. She had to be in deeper than anyone thought if she was sneaking around to call them. Messer looked at both of them before he brought his folder up to show he had something for them. He noticed that both Taylor and Bonesara looked rather shocked at whatever had just happened, but he didn't bother asking what it was that had them shook up.

"Hey Mac," Messer began and they both looked over at him. "I got something you need to see."

Taylor nodded to him and Messer turned and left while he looked back to Bonesara. "Find all the men named 'Nick' that own a strip club in the area that the Tanglewood boys are at. He'll probably own one on Fifth if she's still workingat the same club." She nodded andleft to head off to the lab to run a search for theowner.Taylor went off after Messer to see what he had found out about the other victims. "What did you find Danny?" He questioned him as he entered the room.

Messer looked over his shoulderto watch Taylor enter the room. He motioned to the clothes whenTaylorgot closer to the table."I got blood and a lot of it as you know already. I sent some over to Aiden to see if it matches any of the other victims. However the blood that I'm talking about is isolated on the front of the victim's shirt," He pointed to the area involved, all located on the breast area of the shirt. "So I'm guessing someone was held against this vic."

"Why couldn't of it had been the vic's blood?"

"Because the vic was shot in the side," he moved his hand to a hole in the shirt. "Here...and the blood is concentrated there while this blood concentration is on his chest. Aiden will have the results in an hour at the most. I sent them to her a few minutes ago."

"Which victim is this?" Taylor asked him.

"He was found in the room with the two women. His name is Blake Grisdale." He told him. "Evidence of the blood on the floor in the other room with the two strung up put down that one of the blood samples taken was not a match to anyone else's in the apartment."

"So," Taylor began with a slight sigh. "This man was on the opposing side with our murderer. So we have two murderers then."

Messer nodded to him. "The only question is why didn't they kill Connors if she was there."

Flack entered the room with an upbeat pace. "Well I can't help you with that but I found something very interesting about Miss Connors."

"Let's hear it." Taylor told him.

"Yeah we need something good compared to what we've been finding lately."

"Well I don't know if you'll like this Danny." Flack told him and Messer looked at up him waiting to hear what he had to say. "Your relative papers came up on the computer and she is related to Jacob Hemm." Both Taylor and Messer stared at him as though he was insane. "On her mother's side. He's her uncle. After her parents were killed he claim custody over her."

Hemm stood in Taylor's office. He knew that Taylor had been looking in on his undercover cops records. He wasn't happy about it either, but it wasn't why he was there. Taylor had actually called him in for some reason or another. If it was involving his dead undercover officer then he would have several particular words that he had picked out before hand for him.

Taylor entered the room and Hemm put his hands on his hips out of annoyance of having to be there. "What the hell's going on Mac? I thought I told you not to look into the death of Natasha Connors."

"How did you know it was Natasha Connors I was going to talk to you about?" Hemm looked to the ground when he realized his mistake of saying Connors' name. "You are going to tell me what I need to know about her and why you didn't bother telling us anything about her as well."

Hemm crossed his arms across his chest. He wasn't at all pleased to be talking about the u.c. "To be frank Mac, I told you not to go looking for her and you did. You can just piss off."

"She's not dead is she Jacob?"

"No shit." He snapped back at him rather annoyed. "You listen to me and you listen good Mac.."

"No, you shut up now Jacob and you listen to me." Taylor told him, impatience rang in his voice. Hemm glared at him for telling him to be silent. Taylor leaned over his desk and glared at him. "You're undercover cop contacted us or would you know her better as your niece?" Hemm gave an annoyed sigh before he continued. "How the hell did you get her into the u.c department when she is only nineteen?"

"That's none of your business." He informed him. "She didn't do anything to the CSI's so leave her be."

"She is one of the only two living witnesses to our murder case." Taylor told him, noticing Burn walking towards his office.

"All you have is a piece of paper and a badge." Hemm retorted at him when Burn walked into the office. "Nothing more."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Burn began with a smirk. Taylor looked to her as did Hemm. She handed Taylor the folder. "The blood on the vic's shirt is no match to anyone that we found but the blood is probably female."

Taylor looked over at Hemm. "You know she was there." Hemm stood his arms still crossed across his chest. "Aiden will you go help Danny with the rest of the victims clothing?"

She nodded. "Sure thing Mac."

He waited till she left the room before he continued to question Hemm over the u.c. "Where is she and why do you keep hiding her?"

"I honestly don't know where she is."

"Jacob."

"I honestly don't." He told him. He could hear him being or at least trying to be sincere with what he was saying. "When I give Natasha her assignments I don't usually hear from her for months or at least until she sends an emergency signal to us that she's in trouble or when she has her person in custody." He gave a sigh, his hand moved to his face and he shook his head. "I'm guessing that since you know I'm her uncle that you also know that I've custody over her since she was sixteen?"

Taylor nodded to him. "How did you get her into the police academy?"

"Pulled a few strings." He told him with a growl. "She was extremely smart for her age and physical. She was on the track team, the hockey team, and the rugby team. She had told me she wanted to be a cop so I pulled a few strings to get her in." He looked at the ground. "I got custody of her when her parents and older brother died. We didn't get along well after they were killed, still don't, she loves the job though so she deals with me."

"Why did she fake her own death?"

He shrugged. "Said she was getting in deep, didn't want to be recognized as a cop so we said she was burned to death."

"Is there any place we could talk to her?"

He shook his head. "She hates cops coming in on her turf. I won't even send my cops in after her unless she calls for it. I can't help anymore Mac." He told him with a groan. "She's working three cases and is close to getting one of the guys we need to close it."

"How does she submit her reports if she won't get close to the cops?"

"She leaves them in places and we pick them up." He informed him. "Mostly tapes and video shit. She does what she has too to get the job done. I'm not helping anymore Mac. Stay the hell away from her."

"I can't do that." He told him. "She's a key witness in a murder investigation and we need to speak with her and I don't care if she is in the middle of a case or not she needs to come in and speak with us about what she saw that night when the murders took place."

Hemm shook his head and began to walk out the door. "I can't help you Mac." He stopped just as he was about to leave and turned back to him. "Don't ask anyone over at my department to help you. They have orders not to. Just leave this one alone. The guy who did the killing will probably in custody in a matter of days anyway. Lay off it till then. After all the CSI guys may mistake her for someone who she isn't." With that he left the room and the department, hopefully for good.

Taylor made his way to the morgue. He needed to talk to Doctor Sheldon Hawkes about the victims and whether or not any of them were on Connors hit list. He had managed to get a list, not too many names but enough to learn that she had to be fairly good at what she did. He had seven names that the department would give him of who she was after. Possible more. He looked at Hawkes as he began to pull out one victim.

"Tell me something good Sheldon." He began while he walked over to the victim.

"Well," Hawkes began as he pulled the white blanket over the first male victims face and upper torso. Taylor recognized the face of the man. He was one of the two victims that were hanging in the room where the badge had been local. "Two different blades where used on this man, Eric Keels."

Taylor could see the differences between the different stab wounds. One was about an inch wide while the other was about an inch and a half. "Two different attackers."

Hawkes nodded. "But I found something interesting that wasn't made from a knife." He brought the blanket lower. Three long thin scratches running down his abdomen. "I thought at first that he got a little too ruff between him and the woman in the room, Rebecca Wilks. Her brother was Jake Wilks, the slit throat victim. But when I went to check for any skin under her fingernails all I got was someone else's beside Eric Keels. It doesn't match any of the other victims either."

"Male or female?"

"Male."

Taylor thought for a moment over what could have happened that night. "So she fought against the attacker."

"None of the other victims have any of Eric Keels skin under their finger nails." Hawkes told him with a quiet sigh. "So either the undercover cop you're looking for scratched him either that or your murder did."

"You said that his name was Eric Keels?" Taylor questioned him and he nodded. He looked down at list then back up at the body. "He was one of the people she was suppose to take into custody. So she goes to take him into custody and it all went wrong. The question is where did it go wrong. Thanks Doctor Hawkes."

"Any time." He told him as Taylor walked out of the morgue to head back to the lab.

Taylor walked down to the lab where Bonasera, Burn, Messer and Flack all stood over looking the evidence and photos of the crime scene. They were debating where the killer stood and where the undercover cop stood. Taylor looked at all of them, his eyes told them he was wondering why all of them where in one spot at the same time. "Tell me one of you at least has good news."

Flack looked at everyone then went first. "No one down at the Undercover Department will talk about her. As far as they know she's dead. I figure a couple have to know if she still alive or not."

"She is still alive." Taylor told him. "She called us via a cell phone earlier today. Which reminds me, Stella?" He looked over at her as she looked up from her papers. "How did she give you that phone?"

Bonesara thought for a moment. Over the meeting she had with Connors at the costume. Analyzing every detail, trying to recall everything that had taken place while they were in the store. She had been discussing things that involved the u.c, well herself really, when she had gotten mad and left in a huff. When she left... Bonesara looked over at him. "When she left the shop. She smashed her shoulder into mine. She must of had the cell in her hand then dropped it into my pocket. What happened with Jacob?"

"Jacob Hemm is Natasha Connor's uncle on her mothers side." Taylor told them. "And she does not like him that much for some reason. He told me only that he had helped her get into the academy and told us to stay away from her." He looked to Messer. "She is also handling three cases not two."

"Hey I don't get everything that the u.c's hide in their databases." He told him defensively. "The vic holdin' her was named Kevin Gribs. He has gun shot residue on his hands and mixes of four different donors blood. Two I couldn't match from any of victims that we found, one male, one female. Aiden found that out and just gave me the result of the male, gave you the female result a while ago when Jacob was in your office."

"Aiden, Danny you go back do to the crime scene and make sure that we didn't miss anything." Taylor told them before he looked to Bonesara. "What about Nick?"

"I have the only one Nick that owns a strip joint down on Fifth where the Tanglewood boys were known to hang out." Bonesara told him with a smile. "Should we go and strip search him?"

"I think he gets enough of that at night as it is." Messer smirked off.

Taylor, Bonesara and Flack walked into the Fifth strip joint cleverly named the Fifth Strips or rather stupidly named. Taylor had brought Flack along since he had dealt with the undercover cops before. He didn't want to have to worry about having to deal with any problems with any other U.C's either. It was quiet but then again it was three o'clock in the afternoon. Girls were scattered around the club, lazily sprawled out on the couches and other pieces of furniture scattered across the club. Some were smoking, others drinking and talking aimlessly it seemed at times. Nothing really caught their glances for a moment.

But something soon did. A young blonde with piercing yellow eyes staring intensely at them. She had a cigarette in her hand, partially smoked. Silver rings decorated her hands, bracelets as well. All up and down her arms. Her make-up was on dark and she had several different piercings all over her body. Nose, eyebrows, huge hoop earrings. A tattoo on her ankle. Something was odd about her. The way she looked at them. Anger was in her eyes for them being there. She got up from where she was sitting, her cigarette in her mouth as she walked over to them.

"We're not opened 'til eight." She told them in a thick Russian accent, her yellow eyes stared at them. Rather hatefully. It was obvious that she was not at all happy to see them. "And we don't allow you in 'til then so you can turn around and leave the way you came in. Come back at eight and you'll get your show then."

"We're not here for that type of business." Flack informed her as he flashed her his badge. The young woman gave a glare at Bonesara then looked back to Flack and Taylor. "Do you happen to know Victoria Hicks?"

She shook her head, her lower lip pouted out a little bit. "No." She thought for a moment as Bonesara handed her a photo of the lighter blonde haired Hicks. The woman took the photo from her hands . "Black Diamond?" She told him with a questionably concerned sigh. She looked back up at them. "You're lookin' for Black Diamond? Why?"

"Yes," Bonesara stated for him. "Where you close to her? Do you know where she is?"

She shook her head at them. "B-D bugged out before I ever came. Probably about a month ago. I've only seen photos of her dancing." She handed the photo back to Bonesara. "She was one of Nick's favs if you get what I mean."

Taylor nodded to her. "Miss, what is your name out of curiosity?"

"Victoria Anderson a.k.a. Eastern Diamond." She told them with a smile. "B-D was the best in Nick's place before I came along. He named me after her."

"He names you?"

"He gives us our dance names." She told them with a nod. Her face was still stern and harsh. "He likes his snakes. Eastern Diamonds and Black Diamonds. I actually got bit by an eastern diamondback rattlesnake before. Had a boyfriend who liked to hike a lot. Got bit coming back to the main lodge, got bit right while I was walking." She gave a coy smirk. "Another reason why he gave me the name."

Taylor's eyes suddenly focused on her abdomen. She was the only girl to have it cover up. All the rest of the women in the club were wearing their show types. Something, probably a bandage, was sticking out from underneath the tight leather shirt. On the bandage was a dark red color, more than likely blood. "What happened to you?" He pointed to where the bandage was sticking out. "Were you injured recently?"

She opened her mouth to explain but something interrupted her. "Vic!" A male's voice shouted from behind her. She turned and looked in the direction of the voice. "No business til eight! Why the hell are they here?"

She turned and shouted back. "They're cops Nick!" He walked out of a back room and headed over to them. He was a well-built man, early thirties perhaps, dark black hair with blonde highlights. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist kissing her on her neck. She gave a stupid grin at his advance on her. "They're here about B-D."

His hands stopped feeling her body and looked up at them. "I'm Nick Braker." He told them with a little shock at the mention of Black Diamond. He looked at Anderson as he began to release her from his grasp. "Go to the back, I'll be back there in five." She nodded to him and walked off. He watched her walk back to the room before he turned back to him. "What's up with Vic?"

"She's missing." Taylor informed him as Braker crossed his arms at them. "When did Miss Diamond leave your employment Mr. Braker?"

He thought for a moment. "Before Eastern showed up." He told him with a sigh. "Probably four, five weeks ago. Said she was moving to Miami for a couple of years. She had a deal with a porno guy for the next two or three years. Can't wait to see her topping the adult film section."

"Do you know anything that could help us in our investigation?"

He shook his head. "Well," He looked up at them and smirked. "She was a good ride."

Messer and Burn walked back into the room where the badge had been found. Pools of blood and blood trails still covered the floor. Almost everything had been taken in as evidence so if they were looking for anything it had to be incredibly hidden. Messer moved into the room first. His eyes searched for something that could have been easily looked over when they were first processing the scene and considering they had literally turn the place apart looking for evidence, it seemed impossible that they could have missed anything. It had been known to happen though, so they would look the whole scene over again.

"So we're looking for something that we can't see." He began as he pulled on his gloves. "Like looking for a needle in a hay stack."

"Not really." Burn told him with a smirk as she pulled out on of the scene sketches that Flack and Taylor had done. She moved to stand next to him. "Look here." She pointed to the shoe print traces. "The smallest pair of shoe prints went to this window." She pointed to a nearby window. "And they stop there put there was no evidence of a forced exit."

He looked at the window. "Well let's see if that's where someone got away." He opened the window and looked out of it. He could see a trail of blood. "And someone did." He climbed out of the window and onto the fire escape. "So..this is how she got away."

"You think it was the undercover cop?"

"Well the shoe print probably matches hers." He told her. "So, theundercover realizes she's been made and needs to bolt. Why would she shut the window behind her though?"

Burn looked closely at the edge of the window. "To stop someone from hitting her." She pointed to stab marks on the wood. "Someone was after her."

"And got her too." Messer pointed to some blood splatters on the walls outside of the rooms on the buildings brick. "I got blood splatters that form in a line. Says she got stabbed then it was yanked out of her rather harshly."

"Let's take a blood sample back to the lab." Burn told him. "Make sure it is the U.C's blood."

He nodded to her and they began to take samples of what he was hoping was blood from only a minor injury. With the fact she had called them early that day and where she was working a major injury on the job would be a probably when it was made visible.

"Well that was not helpful at all." Flack began with a sigh of annoyance as they entered the lab from being down at the strip club. "Didn't learn a thing."

"Are you so sure that we didn't?" Taylor told him.

"What do you mean Mac?" He questioned him as they stopped to finish the discussion.

Taylor looked up at him. "The woman who called the cell phone went by the name Viccy. Viccy is short for Victoria and she had a thick accent."

"You think that Victoria Anderson is actually Victoria Hicks?"

"Both being Natasha Connors." Bonesara voiced in, her hands on her hips..

"How can you be sure?"

"Victoria Anderson said she got her dance name Eastern Diamond because she got bit by an eastern diamondback rattlesnake right?" He questioned him to make sure he had hear correctly. Flack nodded to him as he crossed his arms. "Something that serious would have to go into medical records."

Messer walked out to them from his lab. "It did." He informed them as he looked down at the medical records for a moment. "These things were murder to get hold of." He looked up at them briefly then back to the folder. "She was bit about a year and a half ago by an eastern diamondback rattlesnake when she was hiking the everglades. She got a five hundred milligram dose of the venom from the snake."

"Holy crap.." Flack said aloud. "The girl's lucky to be alive. Isn't the lethal dose is like seven hundred?"

"No that's the maximum those snakes can dish out." He told him pulling out another file on rattlesnakes. "The lethal dose is one hundred for a healthy human." He looked back up at Taylor as he handed him one of the folders he was carrying. "She should have died, luckily whoever she was with had a cell on him."

"It says that the bite left her in a coma for a little over a month." Taylor stated as he read the doctors report over the incident. "She now has an immunity built up against the venom."

"Lucky her." Flack mumbled as he began to walk off. "Anything you want me to look up?"

"Find out what the third assignment is that she has." Taylor told him. "Once you do, take Danny to go find her and see if she has any time to give an statement over what happened at the apartments."

"I still have some more info for you Mac." Messer told him and pulled out a photo of the wall outside the apartment from the second folder he was carrying. "Found her blood outside on the fire escape. I'm guessing it was her means of escape. The blood splatters indicate she was cut on the way out."

"That explains why she had the bandage on at the club." He told him. "Good job." He told him and began to walk away. "Now all we have to do is find the rest of the snakes that are in this woman's life and bring them to light. I'm going to take the phone apart see if I can't get a trace on it."

"I'll see if I can find out who the man was that was with her the day she was bit by the snake." Bonesara told him as she walked off as well. "He may help us find her if they're still close."

They all had their assignments to do in order to solve what she was. Now the only problem was trying to find what supposable couldn't be found.

A/N: Please no flames. Thanks again to 72NewYorker525, YumaWolf, and dopeyidiot again for the reviews. Please do review.