Danny's Place - The next morning

Danny woke up and rolled over, expecting to find Lindsey's body next to him in the bed but finding empty space instead. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, the two of them got back from the lab a little after 2 am the last night and fell asleep almost immediately, but 4 hours of sleep weren't nearly enough. He climbed out of the bed and padded out to the kitchen still in his boxer shorts where he found Lindsey sitting at the counter, absently swirling her spoon in a bowl of cereal.

"You know Montana, I keep waking up without you in bed I'm going to start thinking you're hiding a really bad case of bed hair from me or something…" He teased then made his way over to the fridge, taking out the orange juice and pouring himself a glass.

She smiled weakly but didn't answer and her came closer and placed his arm on her shoulder "Hey, Linds, talk to me… come on…"

"It's just this case." She finally said, leaning into his touch "This girl has been trying to find out what happened to her mother for 10 years Danny. I just know what it's like…to live with that kind of thing for so long…"

He sighed and planted a kiss on the top of her head. He knew that his case would be hitting a little too close to home for Lindsey the minute they found out what Jessie Bancroft had been doing in her spare time. There was nothing he could do about it - it was just the job, and he had to let Lindsey deal with this on her own and just be there for her as best he could.

"Montana, look, I know this case brings back bad memories, but there's just one thing you need to remember ok?" He placed a finger under her chin and raised her face until she met his eyes "We caught the guy who killed your friends in Montana, and we're going to catch this gut too…"

She nodded and gave him a small smile but he didn't fool himself to think that his few words would change her feelings or make the bad memories go away.

"I'm fine Danny, really, I am" She gave him a kiss and got up from her seat "Now get a move on - the two of us start showing up late to work, Mac might just start asking himself why…"

She gave him another smile and disappeared in the bedroom and he managed to take another gulp of his orange juice before he heard the shower being turned on, giving him a very nasty idea.

"I'm sure Mac wouldn't notice if we're just a little bit late…" He murmured to himself before heading over to join Lindsey in the shower.

Lab

"Hey Mac" Flack caught Mac in the hall just as the older CSI came into the building and headed to his office "I checked Hobbs's alibi and it checks out. Hotel reception has him signing in at just about midnight. So unless he has a secret jet to get him from here to Washington in less than 3 hours - there's no way he shot our vic…"

"So he was telling the truth" Mac nodded, he already suspected Michael had nothing to do with Jessie's shooting, the alibi checking out only confirmed his suspicions "He had sex with her but he didn't shoot her…"

"So what else do we have?" Flack asked as they stepped into Mac's office

"Not much, Danny and Lindsey are going to look into Hanna Danvers's death see if there is anything there that might help us… Stella and Hawks went through Michael's apartment and didn't find any trace of a struggle, and there were no signs of a struggle at her own apartment but Stella found bruises on her face that seemed to be a few days old…"

"So our vic had a fight with someone… might be completely unrelated to whoever shot her" Flack theorized

"You're forgetting Don" Mac said with a small smile "Everything is connected"

Park Avenue

"So Hawks, I get a call telling you to meet me here but you never explained what exactly we're doing here…" Stella asked as she joined Sheldon on the curb in front of the large brownstone house.

"Our vic had a fight with someone a few days before she was shot and Mac wants us to find out with whom"

"Ok, but what leads us here?"

"When Flack and I were here before I saw a bruise on the arm of the current Mrs. Danvers" Hawks explained as they made their way up the stairs "She claims she bumped into the refrigerator door but I know a contact bruise when I see one and this bruise was definitely not the result of bumping into anything…"

"Young stepmom, issues with a mother that died on suspicious circumstances, I bet there are a lot of unresolved issues between the two of them…"

Hawks nodded as he rang the doorbell and a few moments later the door was opened by Missy Danvers "Mrs. Danvers my name is detective Hawks I was here yesterday, this is detective Bonassera. We need to ask you a few questions. You mind if we come in?"

The young woman nodded and led them inside lavish house to the living room "I already told you detective, I haven't seen Jessie in a long time, I have no idea what happened to her…"

"How did you get the bruise on your arm Mrs. Danvers?" Stella asked

"I already told you" The woman didn't bat an eyelash "I bumped into the refrigerator door"

"Mrs. Danvers we're from the crime scene unit" Stella sat opposite the woman in one of the chairs, giving Hawks the opportunity to quickly scan the room while Mrs. Danvers was distracted "We know how to identify bruises. You're bruise wasn't caused by clumsiness. This kind of bruise can only been caused by someone grabbing your arm with enough force to cause the blood vessels under the skin to burst."

"I told you how I got the bruise on my arm" Missy gave Stella a determined look "I have nothing more to say. Now if you have anymore questions I'm going to have to call my lawyer"

She rose from her seat and went to the other room where Stella could hear her picking up the phone and placing a call.

"Stella, look at this" Hawks called her over and indicated at the rug "There are a few drops of what looks like blood on the carpet here…"

Stella quickly kneeled and pulled a q-tip from her kit, swabbing the drops and spraying the q-tip with luminal "It's definitely blood…"

"Well it seems like we have grounds for a warrant at the very least" Hawks said with a smile

An hour later, and over the firm objections of both Missy Danvers and her lawyer who showed up merely fifteen minutes after his client placed the call, a detective arrived with the to search the Danvers home. Mrs. Danvers was taken to the station for questioning, protesting and yelling all the way to the squad car. The lawyer made a few more attempts at threatening and arm twisting before Stella kindly reminded him that his client was now on her way to the precinct and might benefit from legal council. Finally alone, Stella and Hawks began processing the scene.