Disclaimer: I am not Anthony Zuiker. I do not own the characters of CSI: NY. I do own anyone you don't recognize including victims, bad guys and random characters, so don't steal them! I will put the characters back where I found them, unharmed.

AN: Here's the next chapter! Thanks to all who read and reviewed! Please continue to R&R, it helps my muse! Many thanks to Aphina for being a great beta! Okay guys, I want to give you a head's up. I'm mega swamped at work right now, so this may be the last chapter (but, knowing my muse, it'll just mean that I get all of these great ideas and just will have no time to write!) For those reading Deja Vu, I do have chapters prewritten, so y'all are good on that for a while!

Chapter 2.

Another Body

When Flack and Lindsay got back to the lab, Danny was sporting his trademark smirk. Lindsay looked at him with an eyebrow cocked. "Okay, Messer. Whatcha got?"

"How much you want me to tell you?" he returned.

"Stop clownin' Messer. Whatcha got?" Flack broke in.

"Vic was burned with an acetylene torch. That's the good news. Bad news is that it's fairly common and was probably purchased at a home improvement store."

Lindsay shivered a bit. "That explains why the apartment wasn't burned," she started when Mac walked in.

"Hey, boss," Danny called out.

"Danny, Lindsay. What do you have?"

"Vic was burned by an acetylene torch and was strangled to death. This was personal for whoever did this," Danny responded instantly.

Mac nodded. "What do we know about the vic?"

"Name's Monica Jacobi, twenty-two years old. Quiet girl, not much of a social life. Worked at a small publishing house as junior editor. Wanted to write for a living. Perfect employee," Flack summarized.

"Her boss just gave her two weeks of vacation after reading the first chapter of her story to work out a rough draft. He didn't know anything was wrong," Lindsay finished.

"Any enemies?" Mac asked.

Lindsay and Flack shook their heads. "Not that we know of," Flack answered. "We are trying to track down a college friend of hers—" Flack trailed off as he consulted his memo book. "Samantha something. They were supposed to go out to Club Blue on Friday."

Lindsay looked at Mac. "I tried to get into her laptop, but it was password protected. I left it with Adam, so I'm about to go see if he's cracked it yet. Maybe her email will give us a clue."

Mac nodded. "All right. Keep me updated. I have another case with Stella, so just call if you find anything."

The three nodded before going their separate ways. Flack to try and find Samantha, Danny to continue processing evidence and Lindsay to talk to Adam.

Adam was slightly dancing along with the music on his IPod when Lindsay walked in. She stopped and watched him for a moment before stifling a giggle and tapping him on the shoulder.

Adam jumped when he felt the tap and looked back sheepishly. An expression of relief flickered across his face when he realized that she wasn't Mac. "Lindsay!"

"Have you gotten anything off the laptop yet?" Lindsay asked, shaking her head.

Adam shook his head. "I haven't broken the encryption yet. Whoever wrote this is good—very good."

Lindsay nodded and looked at the laptop. "Why such a hard encryption? She didn't have a high profile job. She was just an editor!" Lindsay asked in surprise.

Adam shrugged. "Got me," he paused as his computer beeped. "Got it. Let me log in now," he said as she sat down in a wheeled chair and rolled over to the laptop. After a few keystrokes, the wallpaper came up on the laptop. It was a picture of a piece of parchment and a quill. "Interesting background," Adam commented.

Lindsay nodded. "Pull up her email and see if she has an address book. We are looking for a person called Samantha."

Adam nodded as he pulled up the email program. "Wow. She was organized. Look at all the folders and subfolders and fifty-two new emails!" He shook his head in disbelief as he pulled up the address book. "Got it. Samantha Miller."

Lindsay wrote the name down and turned to leave, calling out, "Thanks, Adam!" over her shoulder.

Lindsay called Flack on her way to her office. "Hey Flack. We got a name off her laptop. Samantha Miller." She paused for a second. "Okay. I'll keep you posted. Bye!"

She shook her head as she watched Danny process more evidence. He looked up and winked at her. "Hey, Messer. Need help?"

He just waggled his eyebrows as response, then shook his head. "Naw. That was the last of it. There's nothing in the evidence that can narrow it down. Even the handprints from around her neck were compromised by the burning, so we're stuck."

Lindsay sighed. "This sucks," she finally drawled before looking at her watch. "Wanna go for a drink?"

Danny smiled and shook his head in agreement. "Let me get cleaned up. Ray's?"

"Yeah. I'll meet you there and see if you can redeem yourself at pool," Lindsay snarked as she walked out of the office.

A dark figured flitted down the street, keeping to shadows, feeling people's eyes pass over them. The figure passed, a wry grin gracing their face, as eyes covered by sunglasses studied the building across from them. Settling into the shadows, the figure studied the steady stream of people entering and leaving the building, waiting to see the one silhouette that they were looking for.

Danny studied the table, the beer that he'd been nursing dangling between his fingers as Lindsay cleared the table again. "I don't get it, Montana. How can you beat me three outta five games? That just ain't right."

Lindsay laughed softly. "What else do you think there is to do in the middle of winter when there are fifteen feet of snow on the ground? I played with my brothers every day. They said that they never want a guy to "show" me how to play pool." She rolled her eyes. "I'll admit, it was an easy way to earn spending money during college!"

Danny laughed along with her. "Good to know. I'm glad they did that. That was one of my favorite ways to pick up a woman during college." He smirked as he winked at her. "Lucky for you, I've come to appreciate a lady that can beat the snot outta me at pool."

"Whatever, Messer," Lindsay started until both of their cell phones rang. "Well, that's it for tonight," she sighed in resignation.

"Yup," Danny replied as he set the bottle down. "Let's go."

When Danny and Lindsay walked into the crime scene, they looked around at the similarity between it and Monica Jacobi's apartment. They looked at each other and in unison said, "Same killer."

Danny nodded as he pulled out his phone. "Mac? Yeah, it's Danny. I think we might have a serial. Got it," he said somberly as he hung up. "Mac wants us to process this within an inch of its life. Find any and all parallels with Monica."

Lindsay nodded as she snapped on her gloves. "I'll take the bedroom," she said walking out of the living room that was permeated with the smell of burned flesh.

Danny studied the body and its layout. It was placed in the same approximate area as Monica's body as well as having the same visual feel to the cuts and burned. As before, only a small area around the body was burned, but the flesh of the body was burned to a crisp. He carefully pulled up trace from the carpet, bagging every single hair he could find before spraying Luminal to find any trace blood.

Once done with that, he pulled out is fingerprint kit and started on the door before dusting every single surface in the room. There were hundreds of prints, he noted dispassionately, keeping his frustration and fear of having a serial killer on their hands locked safely away in a corner of his mind.

In the bedroom, Lindsay was having no more luck. She looked at the pictures that graced the wall and nightstands, noting that the current occupant of the apartment seemed to be a slightly overweight thirty year-old, with no close male ties. The only men in the photographs looked as if they could be family.

She opened the purse, which was resting on the floor beside the bed, and extracted a wallet. "Candice Fitzgerald, age thirty-five. Who did you tangle with?" Lindsay asked quietly before turning to the laptop.

The laptop booted up after a couple of minutes and Lindsay was relieved to find that it was not password protected. Grinning, she glanced at the icons on the desktop and decided to bag it for further analysis at the lab.

Finally, she grabbed the evidence and walked back into the main living area. "I found a driver's license. Looks like our vic is Candice Fitzgerald. Find anything?" she asked Danny as he picked up his evidence as well.

"Pretty much the same as the other apartment." He sighed. "I don't like this, Linds. Not at all."

She shook her head. "Neither do I, Danny. I've got this bad feeling in my gut that this is far from over."

Danny looked at her, his eyes mirroring her concerns. "Me, too, Lindsay," he said softly as they left the apartment.

AN: Wow, thanks for the great response guys! I'm actually writing this one to match with the canon of the show but I'm not shoving it in your face. Basically, this is all about the case. :D

xdannyx - Thanks!! You were the first review!! Woot! (:p)

LaUrIsHa-just me - Thanks! I'm glad you like it so far. (:D)

CSI junkie - Oh, it's definitely going to continue. My muse is too crazy to let it lie. It's strange not to be writing Cory, though! This should be less than 10 chapters (crossing my fingers!)

Maddy Bellows - How was your Mardi Gras? It's definitely a fun story to write. The layout is somewhat similar to my original story that I can't seem to get my muse to get off her butt to finish...Maybe this will give her inspiration!!