Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of "CSI:NY"- they belong to Anthony E. Zuiker and CBS.

Author's Note: Hope what's comin' makes sense. Enjoy!

CHAPTER NINE: Motive

August, 1988

Two weeks before the fight with the Pelham boys

"Hey Messer!"

Danny tossed his cigarette on the ground and looked up from the wooden stairs. "Hey! Sassone!" he mimicked with a grin as he flipped his baseball cap backwards.

Amanda Sassone came up to join him, wearing a pair of shorts and a jean jacket over a pink tanktop. She was tossing a baseball back and forth between her hands. She lobbed it at Danny, who caught it. He overhand pitched it back. "What are you doin' down here?"

"Sal's in the back with Louis and Sonny and Zabo," she said, rolling her eyes. "I love Sal, I do. But when he gets around my brother, he turns into a mini-Sonny." She grinned. "Lord knows we don't need any more of them in the world!"

"That's for sure," Danny agreed. "So what…you decided to come hang with the outcasts?"

She threw the ball back, narrowly missing his nose. "Better than hanging with them," Amanda sighed. "The cig smoke and booze is so bad I'm gettin' secondhand smoke AND drunk by association! Oh, and right now Sonny's chewin' Sal's ass for something. Half the time I can't figure out why my brother set me up with Sal Cuccione in the first place." She sat down, cross-legged on the cement below Danny. "You're so lucky you're gettin' out of here, Danny."

"Not for another three years," Danny argued. "Til then I'm still stuck here."

"But you're getting out," Amanda said again. She sighed, leaning back against the trailer. "That baseball scholarship's the best thing that ever happened to you-to anybody around here. I wish I could get out of here."

Danny let the baseball fall to the ground. It rolled, coming to a stop in front of Amanda's feet. "There's no reason you can't, Manda," he told her.

She snorted and waved her arm around. "Uh, I don't know if you've noticed, Danny, but my brother is the head of Tanglewood."

"And this affects you…how?"

She sighed, twisting the ring on her finger. Danny wasn't supposed to know, but he did, that Sonny and Sal Zabo had held up a Pelham grunt and his girlfriend a week ago, and the ring Amanda wore was the girlfriend's. "Sonny had given it to his sister. "Dad's in prison. Mom's disconnected." She looked up at him and gave him a sad smile. "Someone needs to try to bring him back to the good side."

"It doesn't have to be you," Danny told her.

She bit her bottom lip and nodded. "No one else wants the job so...yeah, it does." She stood up. "I'm gonna walk back to Sal's. You mind letting him know where I went?"

"Yeah," Danny said unhappily. Then he said, "Hey."

She turned., buttoning up her jacket. "What, Danny?"

"I'll miss you."

She smiled sadly. "I'll miss you too, Danny."

"Where is Amanda Sassone now?" Hawkes asked Danny after he finished his story.

Danny glanced over at Flack. "Amanda never made it back to Cuccione's. Two Pelham bruisers were out lookin' for a fight, and they found Sonny's little sister and Sal's girl." He looked at Flack. "They raped her, Flack. They had their fun, and then they left her on the curb. Sal found her, took her back to her brother." He looked at Flack. "That's why they were in that parking lot," he said. "Sonny, Sal and the rest of them…they were lookin' to beat up a couple Pelham boys." He sighed. "I should have stayed. I should have helped Manda's sake, hell, her honor, I should've been there." As her friend, he thought miserably. He'd almost forgotten about that night until now. Why didn't I think of this sooner?

"Danny, if you had gotten involved, who knows what would have happened," Stella pointed out, but Danny only shook his head.

"I never saw Amanda after that. When I'd go to Sonny's place to see her, he told me she didn't want anything to do with me." He sighed. "I don't know what happened to her after that. I never saw her again. Three years later, Sonny popped that drug dealer, Louis called me a disgrace…and I went to play baseball and never looked back."

"Adam, run a search for Amanda Sassone," Mac said. "Property, phone records, anything you can get your hands on."

"Got it," the tech said, and disappeared from Mac's office, just about nailing Blake in the process. Then he smacked his forehead, and skidded back to Mac's office. "Um, I just remembered I've got some stuff running in Trace-"

"I'll take care of it," Stella cut in, and Adam nodded, nearly tripped over backwards, and hustled out of the room again.

"Danny, you and Flack go back to Queen of Mercy," Mac instructed. "If we get something, we'll let you know. I don't think your brother's still a target, but we can't be too sure."

"Got it," Flack said, and he and Danny headed for the elevator. As they stepped inside and the doors closed, Flack offered Danny a smile. "We're gonna get her."

And Danny allowed himself to smile back, just a little. He wouldn't smile for real until his girls were in his arms.

But they were close.