A Time to Heal Chapter 2: On the Trail, a csi: new york fanfic

Disclaimer: I am not Anthony Zuiker, Ann Donahue or Carol Mendelsohn. All the characters of CSI: NY are not mine…I'm just borrowing them for a little bit. I promise that I will put them back, exactly the way I found them when I'm done….Oh, Cory Reid is mine and I will take credit for anything she does. :)

A/N: The song is "Shivna" from Riverdance. Also…Wow. 131 hits! But only 2 reviews! I'm glad people are reading this. I'm updating a little sooner than I had planned because my week is going to get crazy for the next couple of days, but I should have chapter 3 up no later than Saturday.

Chapter 2.

On the trail

Cory finished compiling all of her data on Mala Suerte and condensed it to burn onto one CD. While the files were burning she went to Travis' office.

"Hey, Travis. I'm going over to the crime lab now. If you need me, just call my cell."

Travis looked up. "No problem. Maybe you can get some good information and we can tie this all to Carlos Ortiz and take him out."

"Not likely. He's too smart for that. Is there anything that you think is too sensitive to disclose to the detectives?"

Travis shook his head no. "Just be careful. Call me when you are ready to leave and I'll have Agent Frazier come and make sure you get home alright."

Cory rolled her eyes. She had hoped that Travis had forgotten all about the bodyguard thing. "Really, Travis. I don't need a bodyguard. Ortiz really doesn't want me dead. I thought about it and I think that this was just to try to scare me."

Travis looked at her sternly. "I don't care. You are going to have a bodyguard. End of discussion."

"Yes, boss."

Cory went back to her office, picked up her things and the newly burned CD and left to go to the NYPD crime lab.

When Cory entered the crime lab, she approached the receptionist. "Hi. I'm Special Agent Corrine Reid. I'm here to see Detective Flack or Detective Messer."

"Yes ma'am. They left word that you were to be allowed in. Here's your visitors badge. They are on the 38th floor."

"Thank you." Cory turned and got into the elevator. When she got to the prescribed floor, Detective Messer was waiting for her.

"Follow me."

Silently, Cory followed the good-looking, sandy-haired detective. She decided that he was little abrupt for her taste. Man, can't he even say thanks for coming? She continued to follow him into a small lab that had computer equipment in it.

Danny looked back to see that Cory was following him without question. I wonder what Flack sees in her? She cute, but different from the women that he normally dates. Maybe it's because she knew what kind of gun was used just by sound? That is a little unusual. Or maybe it's just that sexy drawl she has.

Danny motioned her into the computer lab. "Here's where you can set up. I'm assuming that since you are not carrying a file that you brought everything on disk, right?"

Cory glanced at the detective with surprise in her eyes. "Yeah. How'd ya know?"

Danny smiled. "I am a CSI."

Cory laughed. "Sorry, it's been one hell of a day and I'm kinda running on fumes right now. I should have thought about that."

Danny was startled by her laugh. Wow. That's a great laugh. He turned back to her. "So you ain't from around here are ya?

Cory smiled this time. "How'd ya guess? More CSI work?"

"Nay, not everyday you talk to a Feebie with a Southern accent in New York City."

"I'm from Dallas. I moved up here temporarily to try to bring down Mala Suerte. Detective Flack, are you ready for all the information I have?"

Danny looked over his shoulder at her comment. "Glad you could join us Flack. Mac and Stella should be here shortly."

Just as he said that, Cory noticed the two CSI's she had seen that morning walking towards the room.

As they walked in, Flack introduced everyone. "Mac, Stella, this is Special Agent Corrine Reid from the FBI. Agent Reid, this is Detectives Mac Taylor and Stella Bonasera."

She shook both of their hands and said to the group, "Nice to meet you. You know, y'all can call me Cory."

Flack looked up. "Ok, Cory. I'm Flack, Messer is Danny, Detective Taylor is Mac and Stella is well Stella."

Mac spoke up. "What kind of information do you have for us?"

Cory looked around the room. "I don't know what you know about Mala Suerte, so I brought all of the history and a list of known gang members.

"The gang started in the streets of LA. It was your typical Hispanic gang. Heavy into drug trafficking. From there, they moved east; making a stop in Dallas. The gang grew in numbers until one leader was identified."

Cory pulled up a picture on the monitors. "This is Carlos Ortiz. He's the accepted leader of all of Mala Suerte. He started in the gang in high school in Dallas. He worked his way up the ranks until he led the Dallas division of the gang. Five years ago, he moved to New York. Four years ago, after the death of all the top members of the gang, he took over as leader." She sighed.

"This was not a good thing. He is a vicious killer. It is suspected that he put out hits on the leaders of the gang in order to take over. Since he assumed the leadership role, the gang's criminal activities have grown in diversity. Now instead of just being in the drug trafficking trade, they are also suspected to be in the arms trade and human slave trade."

Danny interrupted, "Human slaves?"

Cory answered him grimly. "That is just a suspicion right now. I do know one thing for sure. He is completely ruthless. He has no qualms about killing his subordinates. For that reason, we have found it impossible to flip any of the members. He rules by terror."

"Do you have an undercover agent working on the inside?" This question came from Mac.

Cory shook her head no. "We've not been able to infiltrate the gang at all. The two agents that tried wound up dead less than 24 hours after going in. Needless to say, we are not risking anymore agents."

"Why do you think they killed the vic this morning?" Stella asked.

Cory sighed. "I have two theories. One: they were trying to kill me and missed, which I think is unlikely. Or two: they wanted to scare me. I am the lead investigator on this case and also the one who is most likely to bring their demise."

Flack asked, "Why?"

"I'm a forensic accountant. I have been tracing the money trail pretty heavily for the last 5 years. I almost have enough evidence to prove money laundering, but I keep getting stonewalled. It's entirely possible that they have mole inside the FBI."

At everyone's startled glances, Cory continued. "Look. You guys know that the Italian Mafia has cops on their payroll. Mala Suerte is trying to become the new Mafia. Oh, and another thing…There is only one way out of the gang, once you're in. Death. We had a member a couple of years ago that was going to flip. Ortiz ordered a hit on him and his entire family. The family was killed within a day and the gang member a couple of hours after that."

All of the detectives looked shocked at that. Cory responded to their looks of shock. "I told you Ortiz was vicious."

Cory went back to the computer. She pulled up another file. "Here is the most current list we have of known gang members. I took the time to highlight the ones that could have committed the murder this morning. I hope that helps."

Mac responded, "That will be a great help. Danny did you get anything from the gun?"

"There were no fingerprints on the gun…"

Cory cut him off. "What about on the shell casings?"

"I was just about to test them for prints when you showed up. I'll go do that now." With that, Danny left the room.

Cory looked up. "If you don't have any other questions to ask me…" At the negative shake of Mac's head she continued, "I'm going to go home and try to get some sleep." She pulled out her phone and called Travis to let him know she was ready to go home.

"My bodyguard will be here in a couple of minutes. You got a restroom I can use?"

"Follow me," said Stella.

Cory followed Stella down the hall and into the restroom. "Wow. Pretty nice for a bathroom."

Stella smiled. "It's not much, but it's good. Do you like working for the FBI?"

Cory walked out of the stall. "It's great. I love my job. I get to catch the 'bad men'. It's the most rewarding career I could have chosen."

Stella watched as the younger woman splashed water on her face. "How long have you been in New York?"

"About 3 months. I moved up here right after Thanksgiving. I'll have to admit, I was intimidated at first. It's just so much larger than Dallas."

Stella laughed. "That it is. What do you miss?"

"The Mexican food. Hands down. That is one of the best things about living in Texas; there is great Tex-Mex. I also miss my family and oddly enough the weather? I probably won't miss that come summer if I'm still here though!"

Cory's cell phone rang at that time. "Reid. Ok. I'll be right down." She turned to Stella, "Well, my bodyguard is here, so I'm going home. I gave Flack my card so if anything comes up with the case, feel free to call me."

"Bye." The two women parted company at the elevator.

Mac walked into the ballistics lab. "Got anything, Danny?"

"I was able to pull a partial print off one of the bullet casings. Ran it through AFIS and it comes back to Guillermo Garcia. He is on the list that the Feebie gave us. Been with the gang for a year; this will be the first suspected murder connected to him."

Mac called Flack. "Flack. We have a suspect. His name is Guillermo Garcia."

"OK, Mac. I'll go pick him up."

The suspect was sitting in the cold chair when Flack and Danny walked in.

"So Guillermo. Know why you're here?" Flack asked.

"Man, I don't know. You just getting your kicks?"

Flack looked at the kid. "Nope. You're here because your fingerprints were found on a gun used to kill a woman this morning. Where were you from 7 to 8 am?"

"Chillin' with mis amigos…homey."

Danny spoke up. "Why don't I believe that?" With that he spread out two photos on the table; one of the victim and one of Cory. "Do you know either of these women?"

Garcia did not even look at the pictures. "Nope."

Flack grabbed his head and made him look at the pictures. "Look again."

Garcia pointed at the picture of Cory. "That's the bitch that's trying to lock up Carlos. I don't know the other one."

Danny was fast losing patience. "Ya sure? Because to me she sure looks like the woman you killed this morning while trying to kill Agent Reid."

"I never tried to kill that bitch. I was just there to scare her." Both Danny and Flack smiled at his lapse. Garcia looked up and realized that he had messed up. Like all the other members of Mala Suerte before him, he decided to confess and not to say anything about the gang.

"Ya wanna talk now?" Danny asked.

"Fine. I thought I would try to scare the bitch into backing off. I followed her and once that woman had walked past her, I shot that woman. I never realized that the bitch was packing heat. I ran. Threw the gun into an alleyway."

"Were you ordered to kill that woman by Carlos Ortiz?" Flack asked.

"No man, I did everything on my own. Ortiz had nothing to do with it."

Flack and Danny continued to interrogate Garcia for hours, trying to get him to break down and give them something to go after Ortiz with, but he refused to flip on Ortiz.

After the interrogation was complete, they sent him down to central booking. Flack also made sure to put a call into the FBI to let them know that Cory was not in danger.

The first thing that Cory did when she got home was take a hot bath to try to relax. Oh, God. This has been a horrible day. Why did that woman have to die…Why does Ortiz do this to me? When she got out of the bath, she decided to try to relax some more. She went to her CD player in the living room and put on the Riverdance soundtrack, knowing that would help to relax her.

She went into her kitchen and fixed herself a chicken salad. Sitting at the bar in her kitchen, she quickly ate. As she was washing up after dinner, her one of her Favorite songs from Riverdance came on.

"A BhennÃ¡in, a bhÃºireadÃ¡in, a bhÃ©icedÃ¡in bhinn
Is binn linn in cÃºicherÃ¡n do nÃ tÃ 'sin ghlinn
A BhennÃ¡in, a bhÃºireadÃ¡in, a bhÃ©icedÃ¡in bhinn
Is binn linn in cÃºicherÃ¡n do nÃ tÃ 'sin ghlinn

A dhraignÃ©in, a dhelgnachÃ¡in,
(dil, dol, doh, roh day)
A mhinÃ©in na chonaire
(dil, dol, doh, ray)
A dhrisÃ©oc, a dhruimnechÃ³c
(dil, dol, doh, roh day)
A chaillech, a chuirrechennach in raga for ech?

Cory sang along even though she did not know the words. After she was done with the dishes, she went into her living room and got a book from the shelf. She decided to read for a little bit to further unwind.

When the CD ended, she decided to go to bed. She crawled under the covers and minutes after her head hit the pillow she was deeply asleep.

When her cell phone rang a couple of hours later, Cory wasn't sure what it was. It rang 3 times before she realized it was her cell phone and answered it. "H'Lo?"

"Cory?"

"Who's this?"

"It's Flack and Danny."

Cory blinked. "Oh. What's going on?"

Danny was the one to answer her. "We caught the guy who killed that woman this morning. It was Guillermo Garcia. He confessed that he killed her to scare you."

Cory chuckled. "If that was the plan, then he failed miserably. All he succeeded in doing was to piss me off."

Danny and Flack laughed in return. Flack said, "We wanted to let you know that we informed Agent Miller so that he can pull the bodyguard that you love so much away from you."

"Thanks, Flack." Cory's tone became serious. "Do you know when Valerie's funeral is? I want to go and pay my respects."

Flack understood. "I don't know, but I'll find out for you."

"Thanks, Flack. I'm going back to sleep now. Just call me when you have the details. Night."

Both men replied, "Good-night."

After they got off the phone, Danny looked at Flack. "You like her."

"No, I don't. But I do understand her. She feels that woman's death was her fault and she is trying to make amends."

"It's more than that, Flack. She's not you normal type."

"What is my normal type?" Flack shot back peevishly.

"Model gorgeous, no brains. She has the brains but not the typical model looks."

"Whatever, Danny. Besides, I already have someone that I'm lookin' to date."

Danny tried to get Flack to tell him who he was interested in, but to no avail. Finally, he gave up and they both went home.

chili-peppers-you're my first review! thanks. glad you like it.

Pnkrckprncss-thanks! glad you like is so far…i plan on updating every 2-3 days as my work schedule allows.