Authors Note: This chapter is almost entirely case centric. Let me know what you think. Special thanks to lily moonlight and afrozenheart412 for the awesome reviews.

Warning for mentions of sexual assault, not much but I felt I should forewarn.

Chapter 6

Danny walked into Mac's office, Don already there talking to him about the case. Mac had gotten involved once the third body had shown up and a lot of the lab's resources and personnel were being assigned to the case. Three victims definitely meant serial killer which also meant there would be more bodies to come. He held up the file in his hand, passing it across the desk to Mac.

"Victim is Maria Thorpe, 18 years old, her parents moved here from Mexico when she was just a baby. She's got priors for drug possession, as does her only still living family, her brother," Danny informed them. "Her blood work came back positive for heroin."

"So she fits the same pattern as the other victims," Don said. "Young, pretty and in the system."

"Sid confirmed cause of death was the cut throat, severed the carotid artery," Mac told them. "He counted up nine stab wounds by the time he was done, add to that the rest of the cuts, bruises and burns on the body and it doesn't paint a pretty picture of what these girls are going through while our perp has them."

"We're still thinking it's more than one guy," Don stated as Mac handed him the file. "The actual crime itself is messy and brutal but the cleanup is meticulous, they don't miss anything."

"Except the hair on Maria Thorpe," Danny mentioned.

"Did we get anything on that?" Mac questioned and Danny shook his head,

"DNA confirms it wasn't Maria's but we didn't get a match in CODIS," Danny explained as Mac's office door opened again. Three men turned to see Stella walk in, looking a little flustered, she'd obviously rushed to his office.

"You guys are gonna want to see this," she said, grabbing the television remote from Mac's desk and flicking the TV in the corner on. The news came on, a blonde woman, smartly dressed in a suit stood with a microphone in hand outside the precinct.

"The killer appears to be targeting young woman, kidnapping them and holding them for several days during which time they are both physically and sexually assaulted. Three bodies have been found so far and the police currently have no leads and no suspects," the woman informed them all.

Stella muted the TV as the woman continued, putting the remote back down on Mac's desk. "It's on every news channel."

"And they know a little too much for someone to have just stumbled across the case, they have to have been told," Don stated.

"Try to find out who talked and make sure they don't leak any more information, the last we thing we need is a panic," Mac instructed Don who nodded and left immediately, already pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, probably to give Jess a heads up, if she didn't know already. Mac's phone started ringing; from the look on his face he'd already guessed who would be on the other end of the line. "Track down Maria Thorpe's brother and bring him in, at the very least he needs to be notified and make the identification, see what you can learn from him."

Danny and Stella both nodded and left the room as Mac answered his phone, his entire demeanour shifting, the higher ups were gonna give him hell over this one.

A lead had come through on Stella's other case which apparently was likely to close the case so she'd had to leave to follow that up. Jess had joined Danny in waiting for Maria Thorpe's brother to be brought in; a couple of uniforms had picked him up at the home he shared with his sister. Don was still tracking down the information leak though Jess wasn't sure how much luck he was going to have with that, there was only so much time he could spend on it with a serial killer on the loose.

Maria Thorpe's brother was finally brought in, shouting and protesting that the drugs weren't his, that they'd been planted. He was still shouting as he was forced into a chair in the interrogation room, he stood back up almost immediately, still protesting innocence.

"Sit down Mr Thorpe," Danny ordered, holding the man's gaze until he relented and finally took his seat, hands fidgeting on the table.

"Mr Thorpe, when was the last time you saw your sister?" Jess questions and Thorpe looked between the two detectives nervously.

"A few days ago, why is she in trouble?" Thorpe questioned. Danny and Jess exchanged a look and it was Jess who answered the questioned.

"I'm sorry Mr Thorpe but Maria's body was found in the early hours of this morning," she told him, watching the man's eyes widen as he looked frantically between the two detectives. He shook his head and opened his mouth a few times as though trying and failing to find words.

"How, I mean, was it..." he started, shaking his head again. "Was it drugs?"

"No, it wasn't drugs," Jess told him. "We found heroin in her system but that's not what killed her."

"She was murdered," Danny stated, allowing Thorpe a few moments again to wrap his head around what he was being told.

"Murdered?" he questioned. "No, she... are you even sure it's her?"

"We're sure, DNA confirmed it," Danny told him and the man started shaking his head again, biting his nails, and fidgeting more. "I know this is hard but we need to ask you a few questions," Danny told him. "Did your sister have any enemies, anyone that would want to hurt her?"

"No," Thorpe said, shaking his head again. "She is... she was a sweet girl."

"How about your drug dealer?" Danny questioned and Jess watched Thorpe for a reaction, she knew it was going to be a touchy subject.

"I told you, the drugs weren't mine," he stated adamantly as though for a moment he'd forgotten why he was there, that his sister was dead. He must have remembered though because he sat back in his chair quietly, his eyes staring intently at the table. "We were paid up, we didn't owe anyone anything, not anymore."

"Anymore?" Jess caught on. "So you did owe someone before?"

"We went through a rough patch a few months ago, ended up owing a couple of people some money but it was all taken care of, everyone was paid and there were no hard feelings, they wouldn't kill her now," Thorpe explained.

"Was it normal for your sister to disappear for a few days?" Danny questioned and Thorpe shook his head. "Then why didn't you report her missing, if she hadn't come home, what didn't you call the police?"

"I'd used the last of our drugs, we hadn't even realised we had so little left, she went to score some more and she never came back. I didn't think anything of it at first but then she still didn't come home and I was high, I didn't want to get arrested, I wasn't thinking straight," he explained himself, eyes still fixed on the table in front of him.

"And afterwards?" Danny asked. "Why didn't you report her missing afterwards?"

"I went to a friend's place to see if she was there, she wasn't and I told him that she was missing and I was gonna have to talk to the cops but he said she was probably just out having a good time, she hadn't been gone that long and then I had another fix and..."

As bad as she felt for him, losing his sister, Jess was disgusted. While his sister was being raped and tortured, fighting for her life he was getting high instead of reporting her missing. She managed to keep her tone neutral as she asked him where his sister would have gone for the drugs and then allowed a uniform to lead him away to identify his sister's body.

"I'm seeing way too much of the not so nice side of humanity on this case," Danny stated after Thorpe was gone and Jess nodded her agreement. "So we head down there and see if anyone saw our girl a few nights, see if they saw her leave with someone?"

"Sounds like a plan."

Don walked back into the precinct to see Jess, Danny and Lindsay stood at Jess's desk, Lindsay with several files in hand. He walked over to join them, getting tired smiles and nods in acknowledgement, this case was starting to get to them all now.

"Did you find the leak?" Danny questioned and Don nodded.

"Yeah, it was Johansson, apparently he said something to his girlfriend whose sister is a reporter, next thing he knew it was all over the news, Captain said he'd handle it," Don told them. He hadn't liked having to rat out the other detective but they couldn't afford to have information on a case, especially one as sensitive as this one, get out into the media. "You guys catch the press conference?"

"I did, they used lots of very nice words to dress up the fact that, yes we do have a serial killer, and the police do in fact not have any leads or suspects but people should still feel safe to go about their daily lives however they should exercise some caution," Lindsay summed up the entire press conference with a sigh.

"We missed it, we were a little busy being propositioned by prostitutes and drug dealers," Jess stated and Don gave her a curious look, expecting more explanation. "We spoke to Maria Thorpe's brother, the last time he saw her she'd set out to score some drugs, we went so find out if anyone saw anything; they didn't. Danny got some nice offers though, some of those girls were pretty, looked like they thought Christmas had come early."

Danny narrowed his eyes at the teasing. "How about we talk about the offers you got, there were some pretty persistent men out there and a lot of money being thrown your way."

"I told you before, I get some good offers in those places," Jess replied unfazed. Don however did not find it quite as amusing as everyone else seemed to though he kept his comments to himself.

"Bottom line," Lindsay stated. "We still have nothing."

It was dark and she should have been at home by now but she'd been following up an anonymous tip that had come in, it had turned out to be nothing but it was well passed the end of her shift when she'd returned to the precinct. She had been about to head out of the door when the call came in, a body found in the construction yard, similar to her other victims but not, was what the captain had said before sending her out to see for herself. The wind was blowing making the night air cold and Jess pulled her coat tighter around herself as she stepped under the crime scene tape and joined Danny, Mac and Stella at the body. They'd already been here for a while from the looks of things, several evidence bags were sitting by Mac's feet.

She knew what the captain had meant now, the woman was young and pretty, she'd been stabbed repeatedly, cut; her throat had been slit in the same manner as the other victims. There was no white sheet though, in fact the girl was still partly dressed, her underwear had been torn from her, her t-shirt and skirt bunched up to expose her body.

"Are we sure this is the same guy?" Jess questioned, the similarities were there, but so were the differences. Thinking of the news that morning, the information leaked to the press. "We could be looking at a copycat."

"That was my first thought too," Mac stated, Jess could hear a 'but' coming. "But there's too much detail that the press didn't get their hands on. The stab wounds, the cuts, the throat, the press didn't get any of that."

"Coincidence?" Danny suggested, the sound of his voice suggesting even he didn't believe that.

"Possible but not likely," Mac replied.

"Killer lost his patience, maybe tried to kidnap her and she fought back?" Stella threw in there, a more likely possibility than the others.

"Well if this is our guy then he's messed up cos there's no way this body has been washed down, the evidence has all gotta be here," Danny said as he continued to photograph the scene.

"We're almost done here, we'll get the body sent to autopsy. I've already called Sid, he's on his way back in, this is a priority," Mac told them and there were nods of agreement from everyone.

"Did we get an ID?" Jess questioned, gesturing to the purse that was several feet from the body, a crime scene marker next to it.

"Ashley Hail," Mac told her.

"Who found the body?" she asked.

"Construction worker," Stella answered gesturing to a man stood nearby talking to a couple of uniforms. "He left his coat here when everyone headed home for the day, was coming back for it when they found the body."

"I'll go talk to him," Jess said, walking off to toward the uniforms.

After speaking to the construction worker who unsurprisingly hadn't seen anything other than body Jess had gone to the lab. Sid had made a start on the body, he'd already sent several samples off to be analysed and Jess had followed those to Danny who'd been working in DNA to make sure they got done as fast as possible. She'd stuck around, wanting confirmation that Ashley Hail was indeed another victim.

Danny had confirmed it, the DNA from the hair and semen were a familial match to the hair found on Maria Thorpe. It not only confirmed Ashley Hail was another victim but that they were dealing with more than one guy, brothers by the looks of things. There was still no match in CODIS but Jess felt that they at least had more information than they'd had that morning.

She'd fully intended to go home but found herself walking into Don's apartment instead. It was quiet, all the lights were off and she locked up again before heading through to the bedroom. Don was asleep, he'd left the precinct hours ago and glancing at the clock she realised she should have too. She changed in silence, trying not to wake him which she knew would be an achievement, the man was a light sleeper and any noise or movement around him that was out of place would usually wake him up. She opted for one of his large, oversized shirts instead of her own pyjamas, not just for the fact that it was quicker but his clothes always made her feel better in the middle of a bad case.

She climbed into the bed next to him, laying down and Don's arm immediately went around her, pulled her close. "What time is it?" he mumbled sleepily.

"About 2am," she told him, not bothering to glance at the clock again.

"You're kinda late," he pointed out.

"We found another body," Jess stated watching as he opened his eyes, a little more awake now.

"Why didn't you call me?"

"We weren't sure it was related. It was a random attack, grabbed the girl in the middle of the street, raped and killed her. The injuries and cause of death looked the same though, Sid came back in to do the autopsy and Danny ran DNA from the semen on the body, it's a familial match to the hair from Maria Thorpe," Jess summed up for him, knowing if she gave him much more his mind would start analysing the information and he'd never get back to sleep.

"Confirms we've got more than one perp," Don stated pulling Jess closer.

"Yeah, brothers," Jess replied, closing her eyes and willing the images of Ashley Hail, still so fresh in her mind, away. "Stella's gonna run with the victims name tonight and hand over to us in the morning."

"Guess we'd better get some sleep then," Don replied, glancing at the clock and realising how little of that Jess was actually going to get.

TBC