"Hey Montana tox screen is back." Danny walked into the room with his head down.
"Happy New Year to you too Danny." Flack said.
"Sorry. Happy New Year." He replied handing Lindsay the tox report.
"I thought you didn't start until eight this morning." Flack questioned.
"He couldn't sit home alone when I got paged last night." Lindsay read the report. "How can she have a 0.0 blood alcohol count?"
"I guess whatever that alcohol smell was what was in the glass." Danny remarked.
"Champagne." Lindsay replied. "And not the cheap kind."
"What about her clothes?"
"Haven't checked those yet."
"I'll just stand here and wait for someone to remember I'm in the room." Flack stated.
"Sorry." Lindsay apologised. "We've got a woman who died in a bathroom when her throat was slit with a champagne glass."
"A champagne glass?" Flack questioned as Lindsay's cell phone went off.
"Monroe." She answered. "No a champagne glass… Seriously… I guess we'll be heading back to the hotel…. Thanks Sid."
"What did Sid want?" Danny asked.
"He found green glass in the wound. He says she throat was probably cut with a champagne bottle rather than a glass."
"Okay, on three." Danny told her. "One two three."
Danny pulled rock, Lindsay pulled paper.
"Damn!" Danny muttered.
"Ha!" She broke into a big smile.
"Did I miss something?" Flack inquired.
"Danny gets to go dumpster diving if necessary." Lindsay replied. "I'm driving."
"You drove earlier." Danny pointed.
"Which is why I still have the keys. See you later Don."
"Yeah."
CSI NY CSI NY
"So Sid what can you tell?" Lindsay returned after they had gone back to the hotel to retrieve the bottles. Danny had had to go into the dumpster and was currently taking a shower.
"She died of exsanguination caused by her carotid artery being slashed."
"By green glass."
"I sent the glass I pulled out of the wound upstairs."
"So some slashed her throat with a green glass bottle and then covered the broken champagne glass with blood."
"It's possible that someone realised that the champagne glass would shatter and used something strong like the bottle." Sid hypothesised.
"Was she facing her attacker or did they come up behind her?" Lindsay inquired.
"I'd say from behind." Sid pointed out areas of the wound.
"Would a woman have enough upper body strength to do something like this?"
"If she was a weightlifter perhaps." Sid replied. "From the angle and depth of the wound I'd say you're looking for a left handed male, who is at least six feet tall."
"Could she have been on her knees?"
"There are no bruises on her knees, there are a few defensive marks, but the wound suggests she didn't have time to react."
"So it was someone she knew and trusted."
"I sent her fingernail scrapings to DNA." Sid added. "This was not the way she would have wanted to start the New Year."
"How did you celebrate New Years?"
"With a woman I met a few weeks ago. Lovely lady charming, beautiful."
"Good for you."
"How did you spend New Years?" Sid inquired.
"Danny was trying to get me out of my shirt when my pager went off." Lindsay replied.
"Was he succeeding?"
"We'll never know." Lindsay shrugged. "You know you're to blame."
"For Danny trying to get you out of your shirt?"
"For Danny and I being together. Do you remember when you told me that Danny called me Montana because he had a crush on me? That was a catalyst for us being together so I guess I'm trying to say thank you."
"You're welcome." Sid replied.
"I should get back upstairs."
TBC