Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A/N: Here we go, chapter two. I'm in the process of finishing chapter three and (hopefully) starting chapter four. This story should be updated pretty regularly, unlike Whisper (which I am also working on). Enjoy!

(2)

"Danny, what do you think of this?" Lindsay asked, handing a photograph across the table. They were flipping through pages of missing persons reports, searching for someone who resembled their nameless vic. They were waiting for results from the dental scans, and had been flipping through files for most of the morning. The vic had been found in central park, under a bench, stripped down to his underwear and covered in mud.

Danny took the photograph and stared at it. This was it. He looked up at Lindsay, who had begun to read the report.

"'Adrian Carlysle, 18. Last seen on Monday, leaving his parents apartment to go to school. Last person, reported, to have seen him was,'" she looked up, "'The door man.' Guy sounds rich." She said, reading the address of the apartment building. Danny nodded.

"So, how does a ritzy kid on his way to school end up half naked in Central Park?" Danny asked. He took the file from Lindsay and read it over again, and again.

"Shall we process the evidence?" Lindsay asked. She had begun to twitch during the long silence, and she broke it now out of impatience. Danny looked up at her.

"You get started on that, I'm gonna go pay a visit to Dr. Zao. See how this guy died.

"Danny, I've been expecting you," said Dr. Evan Zao. He had taken over as M.E. after Sheldon had been transferred to the field, and Danny wasn't sure if he'd ever get used to the change.

"What've you got for me?" Danny asked. He positioned himself across the table from the M.E., the victim's body lying between them.

"Well, cause of death was Asphyxiation due to Strangulation. You can see the bruising along the neck," Zao pointed out what he saw to Danny, who leaned in closer to look. Dr. Zao lifted one of the victim's arms from the table. "I also noticed these." Danny diverted his attention to the bruises and cuts on the victim's wrists.

"Defensive wounds?" he asked. Dr. Zao nodded.

"Yeah, but get this," he pointed at the fingernails. "What do you see?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Lindsay sighed and stared down at the boxer-briefs that had been on the victim. She had begun to process them, collecting the mud that lined them to send to trace. She barely turned her head when Danny walked into the lab.

"Dr. Zao have anything for us?" she asked. Danny nodded.

"Kid was strangled," he said. "Anything here?"

"Yeah, he's probably a dump job." Lindsay said. She pointed at the caked mud on the underwear. "Central Park's been pretty dry for the past few weeks, and the bench we found him under had yellow grass."

"Which means the sprinklers missed it," Danny said. Lindsay nodded. Danny put a hand on Lindsay's shoulder. "Did I mention that he's got defensive wounds?"

"Anything under the nails?" Lindsay asked in a hopeful voice. Danny sighed.

"That's just it, there's nothing under his nails."