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: Please, Please, Please review and let me know what you think!

Chapter 12.

Pain

Cory woke up the next morning with a faint headache. In her mind she could still see the pictures of the woman who had been brutally cut up. She was still feeling the affect that the stress that the previous couple of days had put on her.

As she was brushing her teeth, she heard her cell phone ring. Quickly she spit out the foam and answered her phone. "Reid."

"Cory. It's Danny. Detective Maka found Valdez and she's bringing him in for questioning. Do you want to join us?"

Cory thought about it for a moment and realized how much she wanted to question Valdez herself, but couldn't. She would have to be content with watching the interrogation. "Sure. Give me thirty minutes to get there."

--

Cory walked up to the interrogation room, holding a cup of Starbucks coffee in her hand. Lindsay was waiting outside for her. "You're drinking coffee? I've never seen you drink coffee before."

Cory nodded her head. "I don't normally, but it's been a rough couple of days and honestly…I need the pick me up." Cory looked through the two way glass and saw Danny and a beautiful Asian woman interrogating Valdez. "Is that Detective Maka?"

"Yeah. She's temporarily assigned to our team until Flack recovers." Lindsay turned her attention back to the interrogation. Cory took the hint and also turned to watch.

"So, Mr. Valdez. Do you know why you're here?" Detective Maka started.

Valdez chose to answer cockily. "All I know that that your fine ass showed up on my doorstep. Baby, I'd follow you everywhere." Detective Maka rolled her eyes.

"Hey! Scumbag." Danny tried to deflect the man's attention to him. "You ain't here to hit on the Detective. 'Sides, she's so far out of your league you couldn't get her in a dream."

Detective Mata looked gratefully at Danny at that comment. She continued, "You're here because you're prints were found on a dumpster where some bloody clothes were found."

Danny put a photo of the dead woman on the table. "Have you ever seen this woman?"

Valdez looked at the photo. "Naw, man. I've never ever seen her."

Danny looked at the man. "Then how you explain your prints on the dumpster where the knife that was used to cut her up was found?"

"I don't know, man. Where was the dumpster at?" Danny gave him the location. "My homies and I were hanging there. I used it to throw away my McDonald's bag."

Danny seethed silently. Valdez knew exactly what to say to keep from incriminating himself. Valdez kept smiling, cockily. "So can I go, now?" Valdez started to get up.

Danny abruptly pushed him back down. "Not so fast slick. See this piece of paper in my hand? It gives me the right to take a DNA sample. So open up." Danny held out a cotton swab. Valdez reluctantly opened his mouth and Danny took the sample.

Detective Mata focused her attention on Valdez. "You can go, but Valdez? Don't leave town."

With that, Valdez sauntered out of the interrogation room.

Danny and Detective Mata walked out of the interrogation room after Valdez walked out. Danny saw that Lindsay and Cory had been watching the interview. "So, whadda think?"

Cory looked at Lindsay. "He definitely knows something. I saw a flash of recognition in his eyes when you showed him the picture, Messer." Lindsay nodded her assent. "I'd be willing to bet money that he was there. I don't know if he's the one who cut her up, but he was definitely there."

Danny looked at Cory, seeing the look of a hunter in her eyes. I wonder if she knows how sexy that look is?

Cory continued, ignoring the look of lust in Danny's eyes. "Call me when you get the results of the DNA test. I have to get to work." Cory turned and walked down the hall to leave.

Detective Maka looked confused. She had not missed the look that Danny had given the unknown woman. "Excuse me? Who was that?"

Lindsay was the one that answered her, seeing that Danny was still occupied watching Cory leave. "Special Agent Corrine Reid from the FBI. She's the agent in charge of trying to bring down Mala Suerte. She's been our consultant on a number of cases connected to Mala Suerte. With the information that she has, she's been able to help us catch a number of criminals."

Detective Maka looked at Lindsay. "Oh. So I take it if a case involves Mala Suerte, she'll be involved."

"Yeah. She's an important source of information regarding the gangs' doings." Danny broke out of his trance long enough to answer Maka's question. "I'd better get this to the DNA lab so we can run the comparison and see if in fact it was Valdez's clothes that we found."

Danny and Lindsay left to go to the lab.

--

Cory walked into the FBI building a little more cheerful than the previous day. She saw Andrew and he made a point not to tease her. "Hey, Andrew. Sorry about yesterday. I was just in a bad mood and I took it out on you. I'm sorry."

"That's okay, Agent Reid. I kinda figured that you'd had a bad day."

Cory had a smile on her face when she walked into her office. Her office phone rang as soon as she entered. "Reid."

"Cory. It's Travis. I want to set up a meeting with Liz and Byron today so we can decide when to hit Mi Casa."

"Ok. When?"

"3 o'clock. My office."

"I'll be there." Cory rubbed her eyes as she put down the phone. Damn. I really don't think this raid is a good idea. It feels like a set up. There is just not enough evidence to warrant the raid. I have more than enough evidence to raid three other locations! Why is Travis ignoring my advice?

--

Promptly at three p.m. Liz, Byron, Travis and Cory were sitting in Travis's office. Travis was the first to begin talking. "We're here because I believe it's time to raid Mi Casa. The level of potential drug trafficking has increased in the last couple of months and this should be what we need to knock out the base of the pyramid."

Liz looked up in surprise. "I thought we didn't have significant evidence to prove the trafficking charges."

"We don't have a lot of evidence, but we have enough that the judge is willing to sign the warrant."

Cory spoke up. "Travis, I still think this is a bad idea. I feel like Ortiz is trying to set us up. If we screw up here, we could set ourselves back months in the investigation."

Liz nodded her assent. "I agree. It's too risky. What do you thing Byron?"

Bryon had been listening quietly. "Travis has a good point. If Mala Suerte is vulnerable right now, it's a good risk. This could be the one thing we need to bring them down."

Cory shook her head. "Ok. We're at an impasse. Travis and Byron want to raid Mi Case and Liz and I are against it. Travis, you have the final decision. Whadda want to do?"

Travis thought for a long time and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Cory. I know you are against it, but I just have a feeling that this might be a big thing. I can't ignore it. We will raid Mi Casa tomorrow."

Cory let her face become devoid of emotion as she placed some folders on the table. "Fine. It's your decision, but you might want to look over these files. We have significant evidence to raid all of these locations." Cory stood up and walked out of the office. As she walked back to her office, she muttered in her head about the stupidity of the decision that was just made. Maybe I'm being too cautious. Maybe Travis is right. He does have more experience than me and that's the reason he is my supervisor. He's worked hundreds of gang cases over his twenty-nine year career. I think I'm just to close to the case. I need a vacation.

By the time she had finished her mental soliloquy, she had reached her office. With a sigh Cory sat down at her desk and grabbed a Dr. Pepper from her mini-fridge. She pulled out her purse and got some ibuprofen.

Just as she had swallowed the pain medicine, Cory's cell phone rang. "Reid."

"Hey, Cory. It's Lindsay. I thought you might want to know that we got the DNA results back. It's a match to Valdez. The clothes I found are definitely his clothes, covered in the victim's blood. Detective Maka is bringing him back in, in cuffs this time."

Cory smiled a little at that. "That's great news, Linds."

"The only problem is that we know there was more than one person at that apartment. Someone else was there when that woman died. There is just no evidence to prove it. The only evidence in the apartment points to Valdez. Yet we have an eyewitness that puts a second person there. It's just frustrating."

"See if you can get Valdez to talk. If he does, you can widen the investigation," Cory advised.

"I know. I just don't know if we'll be able to get him to talk. Judging by past interrogations, he's smart. If there was someone else there and the person is higher up in the gang, we'll never get them."

Cory understood. She'd had that feeling when she had interrogated some of the lower level members of the gang. "You won't know unless you try, Linds. There has to be a breaking point somewhere."

"Thanks. I'd better go. Do you want to have drinks tomorrow?"

"I'd like that. I may be a little late, but it sounds like fun. Where do you want to meet?"

"We can go to Ray's."

"Okay. See ya there. I should be there by midnight. Bye." Cory hung up the phone, knowing that Lindsay was feeling very frustrated. She was frustrated herself. She decided to go home have some wine and try to forget about her day.

--

It was late when Cory arrived at the preparation area for the raid. They had to wait until the restaurant closed in order make their raid. Cory stood outside the van. She had already put on her bulletproof vest and was busy checking her gun to make sure it was ok. "Travis. Are you still sure about this? I still say this is a trap."

Travis nodded his head in frustration. "I have heard your concerns, Agent Reid. I've made the correct decision." Travis's voice left no room for negotiation.

"Fine. I'm ready when you are."

Travis made sure that everyone was ready and signaled for the plan to go into motion. In a well trained effort the squad surrounded the now closed restaurant. Travis and Liz were in the lead, with Cory and Byron right behind them.

As the team broke down the door, Travis yelled "FBI!" The four people entered in the standard flanking procedure. There was no one in sight. The building was empty.

Cory looked around in confusion. "What the hell is goin' on? Where is everyone?" She shook her head in disbelief.

Travis also looked stunned. "I don't understand it. There are always people here this late. This place just closed. How could everyone had left without us seeing it?"

Cory was seething silently. Damn it!! When will Travis learn to listen to me!! I knew this was a setup, but no…he won't listen! Cory just shook her head as she walked out of the building. She knew that if she tried to talk right now she would say something that she would regret.

As she walked out side, she felt her cell phone vibrate. She looked at the caller ID and realized that it was Lindsay. "Reid." She tried to be calm when she answered the phone, but some of her frustration seeped through.

"Cory? It's Lindsay. You okay?"

"I'm fine. What's goin' on?"

"Are we still going for drinks?"

"Aw, hell. I forgot. Linds? I really need to go to the gym and work off some steam. Wanna join me?"

"Sure. Where?"

Cory gave Lindsay the location of her gym and told her that she would meet her there in thirty minutes. She removed her gear and called out to Travis, "I'm going home!"

Travis waved bye, knowing that she was going to blow off some steam.

--

Lindsay got to the gym before Cory. She waited outside for a few minutes then saw Cory walk up. "Sorry I'm late. I forgot that traffic is bad all the time here."

Both women walked into the surprisingly low key gym. Cory led Lindsay to the locker room where both women changed into work out clothes. When the woman walked out, Cory immediately went to the punching bag and started throwing punches.

Lindsay looked at Cory, aggressively attacking the bag. "Someone I know?"

Cory looked up. "Naw. It was just a bad day at work." She paused from punching for a second. "You know. Mac gave me some advice a while back. He told me to always follow the evidence. That the evidence would never lead me astray. So I've been doing that."

She paused again and punched the bag a couple of more times. "I went back over all the evidence in the Ortiz case. I identified three different targets…" She punched the bag a couple of more times, with more force. "But do we go after the targets, I picked? No. My supervisor goes with a completely different target and what do we find?" Cory attacked the bag with more force. "Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch!! A waste of three months worth of work down the drain."

Cory continued to take out her frustration on the bag. She didn't stop until she was exhausted and dripping with sweat.

Lindsay looked at her new friend. "Are you sure you're okay? I've never seen you this upset before."

"I'll be fine. That's why I said to come here. I needed to work off the steam." Cory smiled tiredly.

Lindsay returned the smile as she walked over to the treadmill. "Glad I could help! Now let's go run on the treadmill…My legs could use come work."

The two women continued to work out, slowly draining the stress of the day from their bodies.

screaming-poetically- i'm glad you loved the chappie! the rank was was really talking about was seniority...i'm so glad that you like cory now! (blushing) i'm a favorite author?

chili-peppers-i'm glad you like the plot...it's been churning around in my head for a while now!

axellia-i know...my muse is beingvery mean...but sometime in the future they will be happy (shaking my fist at my muse in defiance!) hope you like this one as well!

bluenose-glad you delurked! i love new reviewers...y'all really make my day!