Authors Note: Sorry it took me a while to get this chapter up. I gave up on my beta (you know who you are) a while ago so all mistakes are mine and I apologise for any that have crept through, I'm kinda tired. Thanks to Steph, lily moonlight and aforzenheart412 for the reviews.

Chapter 2

Don once again found himself at work early but this time it was more by choice than force. Danny and Lindsay were both already there as well, the two of them were in their shared office talking and Don knocked as he went in. The greeting he got wasn't an enthusiastic one but given that they'd all been working until late last night without finding a single lead it wasn't surprising. Jess had still been working on finding the pimp when he had finally headed home with assurances from her that if she didn't turn something up soon she'd call it a night.

"Either of you heard from Jess this morning?" Don asked and they both shook their heads.

"But we're about to," Lindsay said nodding toward the door and Don turned seeing Jess heading their way.

"So I finally got a lead on Ramiro," Jess announced, the victory in her voice overshadowed by tiredness and Don felt guilty once again for going home last night. "I checked Amy's arrest record; five out of the six times she was arrested were in the same place so I headed down there and started asking questions. The girls were less than forthcoming until I threatened to arrest them on the spot and leave them in a cell over night."

"I'll bet you fit right in Angell, have fun did you?" Danny questioned with a grin that disappeared when Lindsay elbowed him in the ribs.

"Don't knock it Messer, I got some good offers there," Jess replied and Don was glad he kept his outward reaction to that down to just a stiffening of his posture and a flash of annoyance on his face. He'd never been particularly possessive but then again he'd never been a lot of things before he'd met Jess. "Ramiro Craven, he's got a rap sheet a mile long," she finished handing them a file.

"Did you get home last night?" Don questioned as he let Danny and Lindsay look through the file.

"Yeah, I went home after I got the name and came in early this morning to follow it up," she told him and then continued when he kept looking at her. "I got a few hours sleep."

"This guy looks like a real piece of work," Danny said as he continued to look through the file with a frown.

"At least we've got a current address on him," Lindsay pointed out.

"I was just about to go talk to him," Jess nodded.

"Let's go then," Don stated as he stood up straight and headed for the door. He heard Jess say something to Danny and Lindsay but didn't quite catch what it was since he was already heading down the corridor. Jess caught up with him by the elevator and Don looked at her as the doors closed and they waited for it to reach the bottom floor. She looked tired and he knew the few hours of sleep she claimed to have had weren't restful. "You eaten yet?"

"I grabbed a snickers from the vending machine," she told him with a smile and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"I don't think that counts as breakfast," he stated and she shrugged.

"It was that or MnM's," she replied and he shook his head.

"We'll grab breakfast after we talk to Craven," he told her and cut her off when he could see she was about to protest. "I'm hungry, I want to eat, I'm being completely selfish here," he continued and she smiled and shook her head as she stepped out of the elevator. They made the drive to Craven's last known address and weren't surprised to see a group of barely dressed women in the corridor outside his apartment. They knocked on the door; waiting the few seconds it took for another half dressed woman to answer it.

"Detectives Flack and Angell, NYPD," Don introduced and the woman, girl really since she' couldn't be older than 18 smiled at him, giving him the once over.

"What can I do for you, Detective," the seductive tone did not go unnoticed. He didn't need to bother glancing to his left to know that Jess was probably trying not to roll her eyes, not that it would matter if she did, the girl didn't seem to have noticed her.

"We're looking for Ramiro Craven," Don stated and the girl gave him a half smile before stepping back to let them into the apartment. "Then I suppose I'd better go get him for you."

She disappeared from the living room and Don looked around at the girl's who almost seemed to be part of the furnishing and he wondered how many of them were just young teenage runaways like Amy had been. Some of them were ignoring the police presence, others were whispering quietly to each other and the rest were... giving Don rather interesting looks that Jess would probably make him pay for later.

"Detectives," Craven greeted as he entered the room with the girl that had answered the door behind him. He was a good looking guy, softer in appearance than his mug shot suggested and Don could imagine him using it to his advantage, using charm and looks to get girl's to trust him. "Emily here tells me you want to see me. I can assure you now all these lovely ladies are here of their own free will and nothing illegal is going on here."

Don feigned confusion and looked at Jess. "Did I miss the memo where prostitution became legal?" he questioned and she shrugged.

"There is no prostitution going on here and I resent the implication," Craven stated indignantly.

"Yeah sure, look we're not here to bust your little... business here," Don stated and Craven narrowed his eyes at them in both curiosity and wariness.

"We're here about a murder," Jess stated "Amy Greenwood's body was found in an alleyway this morning."

"Amy's dead?" the girl by his side, Emily, questioned.

"I was wondering where she was, she didn't check in the other day after she finished up with her client," Craven stated. "What happened to her?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," Jess replied and Craven's eyes widened.

"You don't think I had anything to do with this?" he asked. "I'm running a business here, why would I kill one of my girl's."

"Maybe she did a little business on the side, wasn't cutting you in," Don suggested and Craven shook his head.

"She knew better than that, she's been working for me for the last couple of years. When I found her she was living behind a dumpster, I gave her a job and a roof over her head, I gave her a chance," Craven stated as though he'd done some great civil service by turning a young girl into a prostitute.

"Yeah, I'm sure she was real grateful," Jess said sarcastically.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Don questioned deciding to go for a different tactic; this one was getting them no where.

"Sunday afternoon, she was set up with a new client, he'd been with one of my other girl's once before and he wanted someone different. She was supposed to meet him at a motel, spend the night and check in with me in the morning. I didn't see or hear from her after that," Craven informed them.

"And you didn't find it suspicious that she just disappeared?" Don asked and Craven shrugged.

"Girl's disappear all the time, go to blow off steam, get ideas in their head, forget to check in, they always show up again eventually."

"Do you have the name of the guy she was supposed to meet?" Jess asked.

"No way, I start giving names to the cops and I lose clients," Craven replied shaking his head.

"Okay, that's fine, then how about we arrest you and see how your client's like that instead?" Don suggested pulling out his handcuffs. Craven stepped back away from him and put his hands up defensively.

"Alright, hey, there's no need for that. Guy's name was Alan Dole, I have the address of the motel he wanted to meet Amy at in my records, I'll get it for you," Craven said walking over to a desk in the corner of the room and sifting through papers, Don bit back a sarcastic comment about him keeping records. "Here it is, the guy's names on their too as well as the time of the meeting. I had nothing to do with what happened to Amy. She was one of my best girls, men always wanted more of her, she made me a lot of money."

"Where were you Tuesday night, between 10 and midnight?" Jess asked and Craven smirked as he looked at her.

"I was with two of my girl's here, I'm not into the idea of keeping my hands off my own merchandise," he stated.

"Did he just admit to being a pimp?" Jess questioned looking at Don.

"Absolutely not, I asked them to go shopping for me earlier in the day," he told them smugly as he put an arm around Emily's shoulders. "You know detective," he continued looking over Jess with an expression Don didn't care for. "You get tired of being a cop I got a job for you right here."

"We'll be in touch," Don told him and he was aware of the note of possessiveness that had creeped into his tone which thankfully seemed to have gone unnoticed by his suspect whose eyes were still on Jess. The two of them left the apartment, not speaking until they were back in the car and on their way back to the station.

"Think he's telling the truth?" Jess questioned as she looked at the information scribbled on the small piece of paper Craven had given them.

"I don't know, let's track down this Alan Dole and see what he has to say and call Danny, give him the address of the hotel," Don suggested and Jess nodded pulling out her cell phone.

It had taken some convincing and Lindsay making threats of arrest before the motel owner had started to co-operate. He'd pulled out his records and found the number of the room Alan Doles had hired for Sunday night. He confirmed that Dole had arrived but didn't remember seeing Amy Greenwood. He'd spent the entire walk to the room insisting that he'd had no idea what Doles had been planning to use the room for. Danny was glad when they made it to the room and could send the motel owner away.

"That man annoys me," Danny stated as he walked into the motel room with Lindsay behind him. He'd originally been planning to bring Hawkes with him but he'd been called to another scene so Danny had dragged Lindsay out of DNA where she'd been processing evidence for an old case. He hated motel rooms, he hated trying to process them because they were a mess of DNA and trace evidence and sometimes it was hard to tell what was evidence and what wasn't.

"In all fairness, I think I made him nervous when I threatened to arrest him," Lindsay pointed out.

"We have a warrant and he wasn't co-operating," Danny reminded her. "If you hadn't threatened to arrest him I would've."

Lindsay smiled as she put her kit down by the bed. The other advantage of making him nervous was that not only did he become co-operative but he suddenly wanted to tell them every minute detail he thought was important, including the fact that the room hadn't been properly cleaned since Saturday even though it had been used twice since. It was probably breaching several health and safety laws but it meant any evidence that was left on Sunday night might still be there.

"Alright, I'll do the sheets," Lindsay said giving the bed a disgusted look.

Danny nodded and started looking around the rest of the room; he pulled out a pair of pink panties from behind the bedside table which looked like they'd been there for more than just a few days. There was a half eaten sandwich under the bed that looked to be about a day old and he got a few sets of fingerprints off the door handle. He was about to head through to the bathroom when Lindsay called for him.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this but I think the only thing on these bed sheets is a couple of sweat stains," she told him and Danny looked at her sceptically. "They're actually pretty clean."

"Well, that makes one part of the room," he said and headed through to the bathroom while Lindsay bagged the sheets. The bath and sink were both stained; in another surprise the toilet was actually clean. He was pretty sure he saw a cockroach skitter across the floor but it was gone before he could be sure.

"Yo Montana, I think you can knock this off out places to stay list," Danny called as he searched the small room for anything that might be useful. He didn't find anything so he went back to the bedroom where Lindsay was flipping over the mattress to reveal more of the same lack of evidence. "I don't think there's anything here, I'm not even sure our vic made it this far, there's no evidence of her being here."

"Maybe Flack and Angell will get something out of Dole," Lindsay sighed and shook her head. "It's like a ghost committed this crime."

"Let's just get what we do have back to the lab, if nothing else we can rule it out as useful," Danny stated and Lindsay grabbed her kit and the evidence bags with the sheets in. "I'm starting to think it might be a good idea to cancel those dinner reservations for tonight."

Lindsay gave him a sympathetic look. "Probably, unless Dole hands us the murder weapon and confesses to the whole thing then I doubt we'll be closing this case too soon."

It turned out Alan Dole was a married middle aged man who owed his own small, moderately successful business and had three children, one from a previous marriage. He had a nice house in a nice neighbourhood and a wife that if Jess was honest seemed kind of out of his league. She couldn't understand why a man who seemed to have everything needed to risk it all and hire a prostitute. She and Don walked into the house being led through to Alan's office by his 15 year old daughter while his wife finished bringing in the groceries from the car.

"Dad," the girl said as she walked in to the office. "There are cops here to see you."

Dole looked surprised but smiled and thanked his daughter who went back to helping with the groceries. "What brings you here Detectives?"

"Do you know this girl?" Jess questioned showing him the picture of Amy.

Dole visible paled. "I'm guessing since you're here you already know that I do. She's dead?"

"She was found murdered yesterday, the last time she was seen she was on her way to meet with you," Don informed him and Dole looked at him blankly for a moment before answering.

"She never showed, I went to the hotel, waited until about 2am and then I came home. I would've demanded my money back but I couldn't find Ramiro, her pimp, he usually has breakfast at a cafe a few blocks from here. A friend told me he ate there and that was how I met him. He hasn't been there in the last few days though. I never actually met Amy, I only recognised her from the picture Ramiro showed me when he suggested her," Dole explained and Jess made a mental note to ask Craven why he'd changed his breakfast habits since Amy Greenwood disappeared.

"Where were you Tuesday night, between 10 and 12?" Jess questioned.

"I was here; I had a presentation to make to a client yesterday so I was up more of the night putting the finishing touches on it. My wife can confirm that, she kept sticking her head through the door to make sure I was still alive. She didn't go to bed until a little before midnight," Dole told them and then looked panicked for a moment. "Just, please don't tell her why. I love my wife, I don't want her to know, it would destroy my family."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you started hiring prostitutes," Jess stated. Dole opened and closed his mouth a few times as though he was trying to come up with a good enough excuse and failing.

"I know it was wrong, my wife is very... she doesn't like to experiment in that area," Dole said looking anywhere but at the two detectives. "Please, I love my family; this would destroy it, my kids..."

"We'll need to check your alibi with your wife, we'll try not to mention your connection to Amy Greenwood but we can't make any promises. If you're involved in her murder however, there's nothing we can do for you," Don told the man. As much as Jess disliked it the investigation would be much easier if they had his co-operation and if trying not to rip his family apart would get them that then she was willing to make an effort.

"That's all I ask," Dole said looking at the floor.

The waitress put two breakfasts down in front of them and left to take the orders of the three business men that had just walked in chatting about the stock market. This was probably the best chance either of them was going to get to sit down and eat if the current state of the case was anything to go by. They had no solid leads, Dole's alibi had checked out; his wife confirmed that he was home at the very least until she went to bed at midnight which meant he couldn't have committed the murder. They'd managed to keep from telling his wife that Amy had been a prostitute and that her husband had hired her. Don had a feeling though that if they went back to ask more questions she'd be curious and suspicious enough to start asking some of her own.

The two girl's Craven had claimed to be with that night had also backed him up, their testimony might not hold up well in court but for now it put Craven in the clear. He was thinking about looking further into the father, just because he claimed not to have seen his daughter in the last few years didn't mean it was true and he'd already proven himself a liar.

"So in conclusion we have no suspects and no evidence unless Danny and Lindsay found something in the motel which seems unlikely since according to Dole Amy never made it there," Jess summarised as they discussed the case in the back corner of the diner.

"That sounds about right," Don replied understanding her frustration. Usually by this point they had something, a lead, a suspect, some small piece of evidence, something to go on, right now they had nothing.

"Maybe this we should talk to Craven's other girls, if she was friends with any of them then they might know something," Jess suggested between mouthfuls of bacon.

"Good idea, after we're finished here we can check in with Danny and then head back over to Craven's place," Don agreed though he doubted that if Craven had anything to do with the murder that they'd be too eager to co-operate. It didn't hurt to try though; one of them might just give them something useful to go on. They fell into comfortable silence then, both of them content with eating until his cell phone rang. "Flack."

"It's Danny, we've got another body."

TBC