When Rebecca walked into the room where the wallet was, Mac watched as she slipped some gloves on and opened it again looking at it. "What exactly are we looking for Detective Manx?" Jo still hadn't caught on and she was using her formal name as they all knew she was handling the case with care. When Rebecca managed to open a photo compartment she watched as papers fell out. "Receipts?"
"No. My brother didn't keep receipts. These have meaning," she began before Mac and Stella helped her unfold them. "They're letters," she mused. Mac looked at them all and then revealed one. "It's aged. Think we can lift the ink and see what they said?"
"We can," Mac promised. As Rebecca left the lab she stood outside and smiled as she saw Stella walk over to her. She knew Mac wasn't too far behind. "How'd you know that your brother would have letters in his wallet pocket?"
"I didn't," she confessed. Mac and Stella both looked at her. "I used the one thing I always swore I'd never use in another case again. Instead of my brain I let my heart talk. Talon's cold hearted, to be sure. But he doesn't lack a heart."
"So you hoped that somewhere he'd slip up and leave something behind that we could use to peg him," Mac responded and she nodded. Glancing over the street, Rebecca had to smile. "You held hope again. Something that you swore never to do."
"Not since I felt betrayed by those I let in," she admitted with a nod and turned to Mac. "Hopefully my small open chance of hope? Gives you something you can use. I'm going to Talon's turf. He's dead. It might be my one chance. I'll take Danny and Hawkes with me."
"Good call," Stella mused before seeing the two of them come down with their kits and handing Rebecca her's. "See if you can't find someone in that turf that might have wanted him dead," she advised and they nodded getting into Mac's Avalanche and driving off.
Hawkes took Rebecca's one hand and smiled as she hesitated before slowly resting her hand in his. "It's okay. You don't have to if you really don't want to," he promised and she smiled squeezing his hand which made him smile. She drove carefully and kept the police lights off and even used the 'Brainy Shades' that Mac had purchased for the Avalanche. "You really take advantage of those."
"Low profile is preferred. Danny do we have that large as hell briefcase?" He revealed it and she smirked. "Put all our cases in that. That way we slip in without detection. Only pull badges if necessary," she warned and they nodded at her. When they were walking through the alleys and up to Talon's place, they watched as Rebecca picked up a weapon she carried that was not her service weapon. "That way it doesn't look bad on the NYPD since ballistics," she began.
"No use your service weapon. We're here and can verify what happened," Hawkes answered and she nodded before pulling it out and yanking open the door to see the place was empty of people but clearly lived in. The plates were scattered around and then there were papers. "Well your brother wasn't clean."
"I was different than him. I was raised by the Diners and then in a way? By Mac and Claire before Stella came into his life. They were constantly in my life even though I didn't live with them," she admitted looking at Hawkes before walking into the bedroom. Danny had noticed a table full of papers and then looked them over and smiled sadly at them.
"Hey Doc," he called over and Hawkes walked over to see what Danny was looking at. All the newspaper clippings had to do with Rebecca in one way or another. She was either in the picture or she was featured in the article. "Academic prodigy joins the NYPD Crime Lab with heavy recommendation from Crime Lab Director Mac Taylor. She's going to be an addition to the lab that nobody has ever expected before with her new views of the world compared to people who have been in this industry for years says the face of the Crime Lab."
"That's the article from when I first began my career with the lab," Rebecca noted as she looked out at them. "If it's there it could be nothing. We have anything of value?" Danny looked at her and she chuckled hollowly at him. "We have to deduce that Latin money. They were not there by accident. Says so in the bill."
"Maybe it wasn't them that it was referring to. You even said that. Your mother has a record. Maybe your mom and dad being on the site of 9/11? Was no accident," Hawkes answered looking at her and she chuckled at that. "You have to face the facts. Maybe your brother is collateral."
"If he's collateral? Then what's that make me? Talon, my mom, my dad and Jeremy. They are all dead," she responded flatly looking at them. "I think you're analyzing that a little too closely Sheldon," she confessed before she revealed a rag with blood on it. "Now this? I think we have a smoking gun."
"Could you not?" Danny looked affronted and she smirked kissing her fingers before tapping her derriere and walking out with the evidence bag. "Alright, I've seen weird cues from Lindsay and Jo. But what exactly was that?"
"Kiss my ass," Hawkes and Rebecca answered at once and he looked at them both. Rebecca smiled and got into the Avalanche and drove over to the lab and handed the bag with the rag to Mac.
"Want to explain the relevance? Could have been a nose bleed," Mac responded.
"Talon never bled badly. Not like that. For him to bleed he was seriously hurt. That or his attacker as Sid showed no defense wounds that would cause bloodshed. So I think we may have DNA of the suspect," she mused.
"We'll run it through DNA. In the mean time? You get back to your apartment and pack," Stella warned looking at her and Rebecca almost had a daring look in her eyes. "Pigaínete brostá mou kai o Mac sas kánei na metaniósete pou agnoísate tis odigíes mou."
"English?" Rebecca actually looked lost and Mac didn't hesitate to sneak a picture of her confused face.
"Don't argue with her," Mac advised looking at her. "She's right. Go pack up and we'll come get you when we're finished," he informed. She nodded and grabbed her kit and took off quickly. When Hawkes knew it was safe he nodded at Mac. "So what was this bigger piece of evidence you guys found?"
"I think Rebecca's a piece of collateral damage. The bill? Might have meant her father or mother," Hawkes began before smirking as they took the elevator down to the garage part of the lab. "We had this transported when Rebecca wasn't looking. It's a billboard of all Rebecca's appearances in the papers. They were on a table but we pinned them up so we could all see. Prints were checked for but nothing. Also it's not circled or anything. But there were sticky notes that we took off." Mac took them and then read them aloud.
"She looks like Brody. If mom weren't so drunk and drugged. Why didn't dad see he had a keeper? She has to think I hate her. I wish that aunt Tori was here to take away the pain of the warrior in the family. The beatings, assaults and it all," Mac read.
"Is this in reference to Rebecca?" Stella was shocked before she watched as Mac moved a clipping that a photo slipped out and it was of a bruised and battered child. "Child is female, aged probably 6 or 9," Stella mused before Mac glanced and covered his mouth. "Don't tell me."
"This is Rebecca," Mac identified pulling out the picture of Rebecca and Mac holding onto each other at the towers. "She's always been good with makeup. Claire watched as she clearly was a rookie at one point. We'd see her near the towers and you'd see makeup. But slowly it became blended really well. So this must have been the little girl under it all."
"You'd think a girl with those bruises would strike a person," Stella mused looking at Mac. He shrugged at that and then looked at the image. "It's like what you told Darius, isn't it? That there are a lot of people with worse stories than him? Yet they never harmed anyone," she added.
"So what do we make of the other notes? What did Talon mean?"
"I think he wanted Rebecca to hate him. Because if she hated him, she wouldn't look into him much. She'd love him and want to defend him but wouldn't dare go near him. Talon wanted assurance that Rebecca wasn't too close to him in case he got into the crossfire of what happened. So to protect his sister? He created a ruse. I'm starting to think the Manx family was more of a family of elaborate thinkers than they let on. That includes Rebecca," Mac responded.
"Meaning?"
"Rebecca out of all the things to bring us back? She picked the rag. She was able to detail out her brother's body's faults. He doesn't bleed easily unless seriously hurt. You don't just know that. Also her detail about drugs? A lie. Subpoenaed Don Flack Sr's records and some of what Rebecca says is true. Some are not. The drugs? A ruse. Don Flack Sr got the drugs thanks to an anonymous tip from a child who wrote a note in purple crayon. Also another thing. Why didn't we think about looking for another compartment in the wallet? How did Rebecca know that Talon wouldn't just keep receipts? She thought and fleshed out a profile. Meaning she was able to use small little details that Talon let her see and build out who he was. I'm thinking that Rebecca and Talon? Are more alike than we will ever know."
"Mac, the letters are starting to lift ink and we'll have those on your desk by morning. But I think there's a formerly undercover Taylor that needs you," Lindsay warned and Mac chuckled putting his hands up and following Stella out.
When Mac arrived at Rebecca's apartment he knocked and watched as the door opened after the first tap and he pulled his gun with Stella and walked in to look around, only to see blood. "Mac," Stella called out in alarm. He ran over to see Rebecca face down on the ground with a phone in her hand. "This is Detective Bonasera. I need EMS at 436 Cliffside Drive and put a rush on it. We have an officer down in her home and she's bleeding heavily," she reported.
"Roger that, EMS is on its way," the dispatcher reported. As Stella put her radio down she grabbed a few more towels from a drawer Rebecca had one time pointed out and helped Mac hold them to her stomach.
Mac then noticed Rebecca's eyes opened a little. "Becka? It's Mac. We're right here and EMS is already on its way," he promised before he saw Hawkes, Danny, Adam and Flack. "We hadn't even called you yet."
"Rebecca didn't answer her phone and that's not like her after 20 times. So we hurried over anyways. Is she conscious?"
"Barely. She's bleeding," Mac responded before watching Hawkes hurry over to her and start tapping her face. "Hawkes it might be best for her to not talk right now and focus her strength on staying awake," he advised.
"Maybe but we need an idea of what happened," he answered before doing a quick light test. "Rebecca? Can you hear me?"
Weakly Rebecca managed to nod. "Did you recognize your attacker? The door doesn't look to have been forced open," Flack continued.
"He left the escape," she groaned in pain as she glanced towards the window. "He knows."
"He? Your attacker was male?" She again nodded and Stella closed her eyes as she felt tears in her eyes. All the negative impacts on Rebecca's life were from males in her life. "Hawkes and Mac? Go with her. We'll stay here and process her apartment. See if we can't get anything."
"Vault," Rebecca muttered before she lost consciousness. Mac was about to try again when EMS arrived and he helped them get her onto the gurney so she could be transported to the hospital.
Meanwhile, in Rebecca's apartment, Danny and Lindsay were processing her room while Stella and Hawkes took the kitchen. Jo was at the door and living room. "It doesn't make sense. We go to Talon's turf and she's fine. We turn our backs for maybe 30 minutes and she's bleeding out on the floor," Danny mused.
"It means that someone knew she was onto something. They didn't want her to be either," Jo responded looking at her. "Rebecca didn't directly answer the question about her attacker being someone she knew, but they had to be. Hawkes had the only other key and he was with us. Rebecca must have either invited him in as she was arriving back or soon after she returns, her attacker shows up," she mused.
"Then we need to know who all knew where Rebecca lived or if someone was stalking her," Stella answered.
"Hawkes can ask the people here when he returns. He's a building resident. But did anyone else hear what she said? Vault. What does that mean? Where is this vault?"
"No idea as it's not here. Her bedroom looked practically untouched. Her uniform was on the bed as she wore it to work today and clearly changed. Meaning she really knew the person if she was in casual clothes," Lindsay mused.
"Then we find them," Stella answered with no-nonsense in her voice. "She may not be mine, Mac's or Claire's biologically, but still. Nobody hurts our daughter and gets away with it."