AN: While the NCIC that I mentioned in a previous chapter is a real law enforcement database, the one I talk about in this chapter, the Crime Scene Reconstruction Database (or the CSRD), is a complete figment of my imagination. But it sounds cool, doesn't it? And I meant to mention this at the end of the last chapter, but for anyone who was wondering what FUBAR stands for, the BAR stands for "beyond all recognition" and I'll let you figure out what the FU stands for. :)

Continued thanks to all my readers and my betas and continued disclaimers that I don't own anything that isn't a figment of my imagination (now whether those things get used in my imagination is a whole other matter...).

"That's weird," Dominic muttered to himself, staring down at his cell phone. Halfway into the city from the airport he had finally called Kaile only to have the call go straight to her voicemail. Thing was, she never turned her cell phone off. She might not answer it for whatever reason, but she never turned it off. Nobody in the family did since most of them were in law enforcement and it had to be possible to reach them pretty much any time, day or night, and everybody else wanted to keep in contact in case of a family emergency.

"Can't get her on the phone?" Jack asked, briefly taking his eyes off the road to glance at his passenger.

"No." He was trying not to be paranoid, but he had this bad feeling in his gut. Usually his gut was telling him when he was about to get a pitch in his sweet spot, but this time was different. He had felt it a few times in his life; when his Uncle Mac got the call about Stella and tried to say it was probably nothing, when Ella was in the hospital after being shot and everybody told him she would be fine only to have her break out. It was not a feeling he liked.

But who to call? Talking to someone at her precinct could be embarrassing if he was wrong and he was already on shaky enough ground with Kaile. Calling his parents or Mac would just make things complicated and he didn't know if that was necessary yet. Uncle Don was out of the question. Aunt Tessa likely wouldn't be able to find anything out without calling someone else in the family anyway. That left Uncle Sheldon. Dialing his uncle, Dominic tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut that something wasn't right.

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Sheldon flipped back and forth between files. He watched again the CSRD video from the Chicago cases. The Crime Scene Reconstruction Database had been a huge development in law enforcement, allowing other jurisdictions to not just get the information in paper form, but to see the actual crime scene reconstructed in digital form. Smaller police departments didn't have the funding or manpower to create a reconstruction let alone upload it to the database, but bigger cities like Chicago did it for almost all of their murders and some other crimes and it was extremely helpful.

Right now Hawkes had an idea forming in his head that he couldn't quite articulate yet. There was something about the stabbings and the ear mutilation that seemed to be trying to tell him something beyond the deaf angle. He didn't feel like this was a hate crime against deaf women, or at least not only about that. And yet he couldn't say what that other element was.

He looked over at Lindsay as she blew out a frustrated breath. "We don't have anything, Sheldon! The closest thing I can find to evidence that could be used to cast doubt on Jim Munson's guilt is this one hair found on one of the early victims, but it was probably just random transfer since the hair was identified as being female." She got up from the couch where she had been working since Sheldon needed her computer to bring up the CSRD and began pacing. "I know Jim couldn't have hurt these girls! But we can't even figure out why this guy wants to kill these women beyond them being deaf, let alone who the guy is."

And suddenly it clicked for Sheldon Hawkes. "What if it isn't a him?"

Lindsay stopped and looked at him with obvious confusion on her face. "What?"

"What if it isn't a man? What if it's a woman?" Sheldon felt that excitement he always experienced when a case felt like it was coming together. "There was no obvious sexual component to the crimes, right? With male serial killers there almost always is."

Lindsay crossed her arms and cocked her head as she thought through what Hawkes was saying. "Go on," she urged him.

"Okay, and then there's the wounds." He brought up one of the reconstructions. "They're right on the borderline between what is typical depth and angle for either a male or female attacker, so I can understand why the medical examiners defaulted to the more likely idea of the murderer being male, but I think it's just as likely a woman could have made these wounds."

"And we've got that female hair I just mentioned," Lindsay stated, beginning to pace again. "But the locations of all these murders coinciding exactly with Jim Munson's career can't be a coincidence."

"I agree. But what if," Sheldon posited, "the killer is obsessed with Jim? We know he dated the New York victims, so if he dated some of the others or at least had contact with all of them, then I think it's possible the killer saw the women as competition for Jim's affections. It would explain why they were all killed on days when Jim was pitching. If the killer really thinks they're in love with Jim, then they wouldn't want him to become a viable suspect, so they would be sure to give him an alibi."

"Okay, I can buy all of that." Sheldon felt reassured that his colleague and friend didn't think that he was pulling theories out of thin air. "There's still the ear mutilation to figure out."

"Well, just thinking out loud here, what if the killer was angry at the women being deaf?"

"But that doesn't make sense if the person the killer is obsessed with is deaf," Lindsay pointed out. "Why would they be angry at the women for being deaf if they aren't angry at Jim for the same thing?"

"Because…" Sheldon looked down as his brain whizzed through possibilities, then looked back up at Lindsay. "Because the killer isn't deaf."

Lindsay's brow furrowed. "Why would that matter?"

"All of these victims are deaf," Sheldon reminded her. "So, apparently Jim only dates deaf women."

"And if our serial killer wants to be his true love, then she would hate the fact that she isn't deaf," Lindsay finished.

"Exactly." Sheldon started slightly as his phone started ringing from his pocket. Taking it out and opening it up he raised an eyebrow. "It's Dominic," he told Lindsay as he pressed the button to answer the call. "Hey, Dominic, now's not a good time–" He stopped as his nephew asked if he had seen Kaile. "No, but she might be out on a case." He grew concerned as Dominic told him that Kaile's phone was apparently turned off. "That's odd. I'll look into it and give you a call back. If I can't reach your cell, where should I call you?" Now he raised both eyebrows and Lindsay walked towards him obviously concerned. "Okay, I'm in your mom's office. Why don't you head this way and I'll see what I can find out. We'll see you in fifteen minutes." The call ended and Sheldon shut his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"Dominic's in New York?" Lindsay asked incredulously.

"Apparently. And he can't get a hold of Kaile, her phone is going straight to voicemail." Just then the phone on Lindsay's desk rang.

Shooting Sheldon a worried look, Lindsay picked up the phone. "Detective Messer. Deveraux? What?" Sheldon's gut tightened. "Okay. Talk to your lieutenant, then come to my office. Hawkes and I think we have a lead, that our serial killer might be a woman, and maybe you can connect it to what you know of the case."

"More bad news?" Sheldon asked as Lindsay hung up.

"Yeah. Apparently Deveraux can't reach Scagnetti who went with Kaile to talk to Jim Munson. He even went to Munson's apartment and had the super open up the place. There was no one there, but Kaile and Scagnetti's cell phones were lying on the ground." They looked at each other in silence for a few moments before Lindsay picked up the phone again. "Time to start calling in reinforcements. I'll get some of my people to Munson's apartment to process it."

"I'll call Don," Sheldon said, taking his phone back out. He hoped to God they were overreacting, though he highly doubted that, but even if they were, Don deserved to know that something was up with his daughter.