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: "Drill Down" is an accounting term that means to take the data and to find out where the source is.

Chapter 7.

Drill Down

A couple of weeks had passed since Cory's conversation with Mac. Mala Suerte's gang activities had been off the radar. Cory had slowly deepened her investigation into the team that had access to all of the evidence she had received. She had investigated into their personal lives, finding nothing out of the ordinary. She decided it was time to take a harder look at the actual computers.

She walked into the computer lab saying hello to John. "Do you mind if I take a look at the last computer that was seized?"

John gestured to a computer. "Knock yourself out."

Cory sat down at the computer and turned it on. She decided to get to know John a little better, so that she could try to find out if he was the mole.

"So, John, how long have you worked here?"

"About 3 years, after I graduated from MIT," he responded vaguely.

Cory decided to press some more. "MIT? I'm impressed. Why the FBI?"

John looked up at that. "It's in my blood. My dad was an agent. He was killed when I was 12 by a gang he was investigating. Ever since then I've wanted to try to put away the jerks that killed him."

Guess that gets him off my list. Cory furrowed her brow at that. "I'm sorry to hear that." Cory went silent as she pulled up the accounting software. She looked into the journal entries and found that the data that was missing on her copy was also missing on the hard drive.

"Hey, John?"

"Yeah."

"Is there a way to recover deleted records? I know that once it's deleted it's not really gone, it's just waiting to be rewritten."

John walked over to the computer. Cory got out of his way and he typed in a line of code. "This is weird. Normally you can recover the info, but it looks like whoever deleted this set up a virus to completely overwrite the information as it was deleted."

Cory sighed. "Can you tell when it was deleted?" She hope to try to narrow the search.

John typed in a line of code. "Here you go."

Cory looked at the date code and realized that the data was deleted the day before the raid happened. "That's odd. The only people that new we were going to raid that warehouse were me, Travis, Byron and Liz. The mole must be one of them."

John looked at her. "Did that help?"

'Yeah, it did. Can we do this on every computer we have seized from Mala Suerte in the last 6 months?"

"Sure."

Cory and John worked on the other 12 computers that the FBI had seized. Cory found out that on all except for one of the computers, the data had been deleted less than 24 hours before the raid.

Cory consulted her notes. The only computer intact was from a fairly small raid that Liz and Byron had no connection to. Cory shook her head in denial. While she didn't know Byron really well, she and Liz had become good friends in the last 5 months. She decided to go back to her office.

Cory had just stood up and was gathering the papers that she had made notes on when her phone rang.

"Reid."

"Cory. It's Flack. We have situation."

--

Cory showed her badge to the uniform cop posted outside of the crime tape, then ducked under the tape to walk in. She walked toward the building and saw two cops getting sick beside their cars. As soon as she entered the building, the smell of decomp hung in the air.

Flack met her at the door. "Brace yourself…its pretty bad in there."

When she walked into the apartment she drew in a shocked breath as her stomach recoiled in horror. Blood was everywhere. It covered the walls, the floor, and the furniture. "Oh my God! This is a bloodbath! Now I know why Flack stayed outside!"

Lindsay and Hawkes looked up at that. "Yeah, it's pretty bad."

Hawkes spoke up at that. "The vic's have been dead for approximately a week. 5 Hispanic males between the ages of 16-20."

Cory looked down at the dead bodies. The men had been had been brutally tortured.

Hawkes was listing their injuries while he worked. "All of their fingers are broken, both legs broken and five GSW's to the chest."

Cory turned her head at that. "Are the shots in a cross pattern?"

Hawkes looked up. "How'd you know?"

"It's classic Ortiz. That's his signature. Whenever he kills to send a message, he uses that pattern." Cory looked at the two victims farthest away from her, recognition flashing in her eyes. "That's Perez and Valenzuela." She took a closer look at the other three victims. "Lindsay, aren't these the other men that the women singled out from my pictures?"

"Yeah. They are. I'd be willing to bet that they were killed because Ortiz found out that we were on to them." Cory turned to walk to the other bodies, stepping over congealing pools of blood while she walked. She was obviously looking for something.

Lindsay followed her. "What are you looking for?"

Cory looked over her shoulder. "The message."

Lindsay raised her eyebrows. "What message?"

"Every time Ortiz kills someone like this, he leaves a message in blood. Something cryptic. Something that he knows that I will know is from him, but still not leaving any evidence that it was actually him. Sorry…that doesn't make sense does it?"

Lindsay shrugged her shoulders. "It does kinda. He wants you to know he's responsible without leaving any evidence to convict him."

Once Lindsay said that Cory spotted a blood trail that looked a little too ordered. She followed the trail of blood into a bedroom. As soon as she walked in, she found what she had been seeking.

On the wall behind the bed was the message. It read, "Good help is so hard to find. Enjoy!"

Hawkes and Lindsay walked up behind her as she read the words.

"Boy. This guy is psycho!" explained Hawkes.

"Is he just trying to toy with you, Cory?"

"Yeah. He's obsessed with me for some reason." Cory was cryptic with that last remark. She thought she knew the reason, but was not prepared to air it. "We done here?"

Hawkes and Lindsay looked at each other. "We've collected all the evidence that we can."

The three people left the apartment and prepared to go to the crime lab.

As they got outside, they met up with Flack. Cory noticed that Flack briefly checked Lindsay out. It wasn't obvious, just a quick glance up and down, but Cory smiled at that. "So, y'all going to the lab?" The others just shook there heads. "I guess I'll meet ya there. I came in my own car today."

--

When Cory got to the lab, she found Lindsay in the DNA lab, alone, muttering to herself.

"What's wrong Lindsay?"

"It's just Hawkes. We get back to the lab and he just disappears, telling me that I can handle the DNA by myself. Do you know how many samples that I have to run? Without help, I'll be here half the night!"

Feeling bad for the woman, Cory offered to help, even though she had no training. Lindsay calmed down at that. "That's ok. I'll just let you print the results."

Cory decided to probe a bit. "So, what do you think of Flack?"

Lindsay frowned at that. "I don't know. I haven't really spent a lot of time with him. When I first saw him, my jaw dropped. He is so gorgeous. He's cocky and arrogant and so entirely sure of himself. But he's also sweet, kind and loyal."

"So you like him?"

"I don't know him well enough to sort out my feelings. Why do you ask?"

Cory looked up slyly at that. "I saw him checking you out at the scene. I wondered if there was more there."

Lindsay blushed at that. "Really?"

"Yeah, really. You should go for it. I have pretty good instincts about who will make good couples and I think that y'all will."

Lindsay sighed. "I just can't ask him out. It's just not like that where I come from. I mean, I'm from a small town."

Cory patted her shoulder. "I understand. I could never ask a guy out either!!" Both women laughed at that and decided to get back to work.

A few hours later Lindsay had finished processing all of the blood samples. All of the samples had come back to the victims.

Flack walked in just as the women had finished reviewing the results. "Anything new?"

Lindsay shook her head no. "All of the blood samples came back to the vic's. There was no foreign DNA present."

Hawkes walked in just as Lindsay was talking. "There were no foreign fibers, hair or trace either. The killers must have cleaned up afterwards."

Cory spoke up at that. "They've had practice. We caught a couple of underlings on evidence that we found at the scene. They know what to clean up and how to prevent the evidence from being left. The last three killings, this one included, all had been cleaned."

Flack saw how dejected Cory and Lindsay looked and tried to cheer them up. "On the bright side, the human slave case is closed. With all of the suspects dead, there is nothing more to do."

Lindsay countered him. "That may be closed but now we have a multiple homicide that that is going to stay a mystery."

"Linds….look on the bright side! These men were scum. While there families may miss them, the world is a better place without them," Flack said, still trying to cheer her up. He hated to see her upset. Her smile always made him feel better.

Cory decided to make her exit. "Y'all. I have to go. I was in the middle of researching some data for the Ortiz case when you called. I still have to go back to the office and get my notes. Call me if you get anything new." Hawkes, Lindsay and Flack all said good-bye.

--

Cory walked back into office after everyone had left for the day. She sat down at her desk, slipped her shoes off her feet and grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the mini-fridge that she had behind her desk.

She closed her eyes in happiness as she started drinking the soda. She rolled her neck, popping out the tension and she reached for the notes she had written in the lab earlier.

Shit. All of this is pointing to either Liz or Byron. There is so much I don't know about everyone here. I've only been here for five months and I still feel like an outsider.

Cory sighed as she realized that she had enough evidence to start a discreet investigation into the team. She decided to take the files to the director the next day and see what she could get investigated. Turning off her light, she grabbed her coat and decided to go home.

--

Cory walked into the office the next morning in a somber mood.

"Cory!" She turned and saw Travis walking up to her. "Why'd you leave so suddenly yesterday?"

"Oh. Detective Flack called about a possible homicide involving Mala Suerte."

"Was it?"

"Yeah. Ortiz's signature was all over the killings. Same way the others were killed. Broken fingers, legs and shot in the chest in a cross pattern. The victims were the men the NYPD was looking for in the human slave case." Cory turned to walk into her office. "See ya later. I have work to do."

Travis said good-bye as Cory closed her door. She set her things down on the desk and sat there, not believing what she was about to do. Slowly she picked up her phone and dialed number.

"Yes. I'd like to speak to Agent Michaels, please. This is Agent Reid."

"Agent Michaels? Hi. This is Agent Reid, the SAIC of the Mala Suerte case. I'd like to meet with you in regards to some…unsettling discoveries that I have made. 2pm? That's great for me. Thank you, sir." Cory put the phone down. I hope I'm up for this. I'm going to be branded a pariah if I'm wrong about this. I just want to catch Ortiz. When this is over, I'm taking a vacation and relaxing somewhere that I don't have to lift a finger or think about anything!

--

Gathering her courage a little later in the day, Cory took the scenic route to Agent Michaels's office. She meandered for a bit, since she didn't want anyone to know what she was doing. Once she arrived, Agent Michaels's assistant showed her into the office.

Cory extended her hand and Agent Michaels shook it. "Good afternoon, sir. I'm Agent Reid."

"A pleasure to meet you, Agent Reid. I hear that you are most dedicated to solving the Mala Suerte case."

"Yes, sir. I really want this bastard to pay for what he's done. That's why I'm here. I believe there is a mole feeding him information."

Agent Michaels looked up at that. "Do you have any proof?"

Cory put the file she had been holding on his desk. "Yes, sir. That's why I'm here. I was going over some old data, trying to get a new perspective and hopefully a new lead. I discovered some inconsistencies with data. Blocks of data were missing from the files that I was receiving."

"What types of data?"

"Blocks of journal entries. The books were not balancing. So I decided to go back to the computer itself to make sure there wasn't something wrong with the upload. With the help of John I discovered that not only were the hard drives corrupted, but it was impossible to find the deleted data. We should have been able to recover the deleted data, because really it's just moved pending to be rewritten. However, whoever deleted the data, inserted a virus which immediately rewrote the data to make it unrecoverable. We were able to pinpoint when the data was deleted."

Agent Michaels looked impressed. "When was it deleted?"

"Out of the 12 computers I investigated, 11 computers had corrupt data. We determined in all of the corrupted computers the data was deleted approximately 24 hours before the raid."

"Who has access to where the raids are going to take place?"

"There are four people. Myself, Travis Miller, Liz Jeffries and Byron Chambers. We all decide the day before which business we are going to raid. No one else is informed until a couple of hours before the raid." Cory looked Agent Michaels straight in the eye, silently willing him to agree with her.

"I see your point. I'll definitely start an investigation into all four of you. I must include you, you understand that, right?"

"Yes. I am willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the son of a bitch is caught. He's killed at least three agents. I want him to pay. Just be as discrete as possible, I don't want him to get wind of our suspicions and bolt."

"Agreed. I'll put a team together to poke around into everyone. I will have to keep you out of the loop until you are cleared, however. If you find anymore evidence, can you bring it to me?"

"Sure. Thanks for your time, Agent Michaels." Cory got up and returned to her office.

axellia-i'm glad you read it "hot off the presses" :) but to answer your question-yes, i'm actually an accounting major (if i ever finish school that it!) and i'm glad i was able to introduce you to seven channels! they are an amazing band from Dallas that unfortunately have parted ways(sobbing uncontrollably)...i will miss them but look forward to their next projects!

chili-peppers-glad you like it! more to come!

screaming-poetically-finally fm radio starts! it's almost just a tease here, but i promise in 8 & 9 there will be a lot more! i hope you enjoyed it!