"Yes sir." Mac nodded subconsciously as he listened. "I understand. It's already our top priority. Of course."

Mac hung up the phone with a sigh. He hated the media. Media created pressure, pressure led to haste, haste led to mistakes. And as much as he hated the media, he abhorred mistakes. Mistakes led to all kinds of problems. Problems that were harder to clean up later.

Stella nudged the office door open. "You hungry? I thought we could grab a bite to eat while my prints were running."

"Where is everyone?"

"In the lab. Why?" Stella followed Mac down the hall to the elevator. "Mac, what's up?"

"The chief called."

"Oh." Stella grimaced. The Chief only got involved if it was something big. Big like their case was about to be the evening news.

The lab was buzzing with activity when Mac and Stella walked in.

"Can I have everyone's attention?" Mac called out in the voice of authority tone he hated using. The activity stopped and everyone turned to listen. "I have just been informed that the media knows about the murders and they are going to publish the information."

"What's there to publish?"

"I believe their version is that New York City is being victimized by a deranged serial killer who is cutting up his victims and eating them." Mac said grimly.

"You forgot the punchline." Danny jumped in. "NYPD has no clue about the identity of this killer or who his next dinner will be."

"Something like that."

"Brilliant."

"I have assured The Chief that these killings are top priority. He wants on the hour updates." Mac looked around the tables. "Please tell me I'm going to have something to tell him in an hour."

"I wish." Danny sighed.

Mac grabbed a stool. "Then let's talk it out. What we know, what we don't know. Everything." Stella handed him a pad of paper and a pen.

"We know that both murders happened in an unknown location and were dumped where they were found." Lindsay started. "We can tell that from the lack of blood at the crime scenes."

"Good." Mac wrote a couple of notes. "Next."

"We know that the killer knew what he or she was doing when he removed the organs." Sheldon chimed in. "Lack of hesitation in the cutting. And he or she used something very sharp. No tool marks. Also, we know from the lack of lividity bruising that the victims bleed out a lot, which suggests that they were alive when the organs were removed."

"Okay. What about trace?"

"Nada, zip, zilch. Nothing on either body came from a place that wasn't the dump site. Not a hair, a fiber, a speck of dirt. And not even a smudged partial on the bodies."

"Which suggests that they were wrapped in something that the killer took away."

"A large piece of plastic maybe."

"Perhaps." Mac nodded to Lindsay. "Identity of the victims."

"We got fingerprints." Stella pulled copies out of her file folder and slide them to Mac. Danny followed with his. "But no hits in AFIS. And no hits in CODIS on their DNA."

Mac sighed. They had nothing. His team had been working for almost two days with nothing. No wonder the media was planning to tear them apart. He wanted to say something encouraging. He knew they needed it. But how could he say anything when their trouble was that they had nothing to work with. They were scientists without any science. Hobbled. He could feel the strain around the table. It was so heavy it was pressing down on all of them.

"Dammit." Danny hissed.

"Danny?"

"This blows, Mac. Seriously blows." Danny voiced the feeling they were all having. "We got the media spreading stories that are for once more true than untrue but still make us look bad. We got nothing on who this freak is. And we got two bodies downstairs we can't even notify the next of kin cause we got no clue who they are."

"If you'd answer your phone." A voice from the door startled them.

Danny's hand reached for his phone which was missing. "Must have left it in my bag."

"Do you have something Tyler?" Mac reached out for the folder the tech was carrying.

"Lucas Clark." Tyler said with a slight grin. "From Montreal. He's a student at Chelsea. Good kid. Always calls home on Sundays. No matter what he's doing. Mom's a bit of a worrier"

"Moms can be like that."

"When he didn't call last night, Mom panicked. Filed a missing person's with the local police. Precinct 12 over by the campus got it this morning. They checked the school. No one has seen Lucas since Friday's classes."

"So why didn't they call the police?"

"Lucas was known for taking spontaneous trips home."

"They just figured he was gone for the weekend."

"P 12 sent us a copy of the report per our request for all missing persons fitting the loose descrip of the victims."

"Fingerprint match."

Tyler nodded. "Dentals are on the way."

"Good. We'll wait to inform the family until we are certain. Good work, Tyler."

"Anytime."

Mac scooped up the case files. "There's nothing we can do without evidence. Keep working on identifying the other victim."

"What about the media?"

"We had two bodies in less than 12 hours and nothing since then. If this really was a serial killer, we would have likely found more by now."

"So we just add those to your pile and hope it was something personal." Danny asked.

"I'm afraid so."