Danny's cell phone rang a week later when he was trying to identify a fiber found at a crime scene. "Messer," he answered officially. He didn't recognize the Caller ID so he wanted to be on his best behavior in case it was somebody important.

"Doesn't it worry you that your wife and daughter are home alone all day long?" a hoarse male voice asked without even introducing himself.

"What? Who is this?" Danny asked, very confused. "How did you get this number?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the voice continued mysteriously. "Lindsay and little Sophia might not be as safe as you think. This is New York, Detective Messer."

"I'm aware where I live, thank you very much." Danny said crossly, a bubble of worry rising in his chest. "Who are you?" he asked again.

"Just a concerned citizen," the man said with a laugh, "They might not be safe," he repeated and the line went dead.

Danny stood there with his phone in his hand, unable to process exactly what had just gone on. They can't be in any danger, he told himself, Lindsay's smart; she can take care of herself. She'd never let anything happen to Sophie. He thought for a moment more, and then decided to call home, just in case. Nothing's wrong, I'm just calling to say hi, he thought urgently, trying to make himself believe what he was thinking, while really beginning to panic. He dialed his home number and waited. It rang and rang, but nobody picked up. He walked out of the lab and headed towards Mac's office, while still listening, hoping desperately that Lindsay would pick up. He finally heard her voice, and gave a sigh of relief, but his relief was short lived. It was the answering machine. "You've reached Danny, Lindsay and Sophia Messer," Lindsay's recorded message said, "We can't come to the phone right now, but if you leave your name, number and a short message, we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks and have a nice day!" Danny couldn't help but smile. It was so like Lindsay to say 'have a nice day' in their answering machine recording. He approached Mac's office and was again forced to face reality.

"Mac!" he blurted out, "I got this phone call and I didn't know who it was and they said that I should feel bad about leaving Lindsay and Sophie at home and that they aren't safe and that I should check on them so I called them and Lindsay didn't answer," he said all in one breath.

"Whoa, whoa!" Mac said with a slight laugh, "Slow down Danny, I didn't catch a word of that."

Danny took a deep breath. "I got this phone call," he said, "I don't know who it was, he didn't introduce himself."

"What did he say?" Mac asked.

"He said that I should feel bad about leaving Lindsay and Sophie at home and that they might not be as safe as I think."

"And?" Mac prompted.

"And then he hung up. I think it might be Clay."

"Did you call Lindsay?"

"Yes," Danny gulped, "She didn't answer."

"Did you try her cell?"

"No." Danny tried to relax. Maybe she just stepped out of the house for a moment, or maybe she was feeding Sophia and didn't get to the phone in time. With shaking fingers he dialed Lindsay's cell phone, but it went to voice mail. He then called both his home phone and her cell phone again, growing more and more worried by the moment. "She's not answering!" he said, suddenly hysterical, "What if he did something to them? What if they're in trouble?"

"Danny, calm down. I'll send a squad car over to the apartment. I want you to go with them, and Danny stay calm. If there is something wrong," Danny's eyes grew wide, "I'm not saying there is," Mac clarified, "I'm just saying that IF something is wrong, you need to stay calm and rational."

"Ok," Danny said, trying the yoga breathing Lindsay had taught him when she went through her yoga obsession phase. Miraculously, it seemed to help a bit.

Within fifteen minutes, Danny and the uniforms pulled up to the apartment. They rushed inside and up the elevator. Danny unlocked the door and hurried inside. "Lindsay?" he called, praying that she would answer, "Lindsay are you home?" The apartment was silent. Danny rushed from room to room trying to figure out what was wrong. "The diaper bag is here," he informed the slightly confused cops, "she never leaves the house without the diaper bag!" Their stroller was broken, so it was no surprise that it was sitting in the corner of Sophia's room, but that didn't give him any comfort at all.

"Detective Messer?" one of the cops called from the kitchen. "I think you should see this?"

Danny ran to the kitchen. "What?" The cop pointed to two red splotches on the linoleum floor. It was blood.

A/N Dun dun dunnnnn….. I love cliffhangers…when I know what's going to happen next. Lol. Don't worry, I'll update soon!

xoxo

Lia