Authors Note: Still getting settled in here at University but I've decided I really miss writing so here's an update for you all. It's the penultimate chapter, next one is the last, kinda sad to see it end. Sorry for the wait but I've just had no time to sit down and write and do it justice but I hope it was worth it. Special thanks to; Runner043, jessicaflack, CSI4lyfNCIS13, afrozenheart412 and moonqueen19 for the reviews.

Chapter 11

Mac leaned back in his chair allowing himself just a few moments to close his eyes. Danny had called him from the hospital an hour ago, Lindsay was fine, the bullet had only grazed her arm, albeit badly. The doctor was happy to release her from the hospital and Danny was waiting around there to take her home, even if Lindsay was protesting about it. There had been no sign of the brothers since Don and Angell had chased them out of their mother's apartment.

The two detectives were both working on tracking them down and Mac wished he could offer them more help but with Danny and Lindsay both out and Hawkes and Adam working the armed robberies case it was just him and Stella. The night shift were doing what they could to help out, taking on all the minor cases but they were as exhausted as his team at this point.

He heard his office door open and immediately sat up and opened his eyes to see Stella looking at him with amusement. "Sleeping on the job Mac?"

He sent her a glare but otherwise chose to ignore the question and gestured to the file in her hands. "You got something."

"A house," she told him handing him the file and he gave her a raised eyebrow as he waited for further explanation. "It belongs to Marian Vega, she was married to Dominic Philips but she kept her own last name. She died last year in a car accident but the house is still in her name. I had a couple of uniforms inconspicuously check the place out and they said they saw men in the house but couldn't be sure it was the brothers."

"And nobody else is living there now?" he questioned, hoping this was it.

"Uniforms also spoke to the neighbours, the house has been empty since before Marian died last year," Stella replied with a small smile.

"Call Don, let him and Angell know, I'll meet you downstairs," he instructed and she nodded as she left his office.

Don and Angell were already there when he arrived, parked down the street from the house where the brothers probably were. The uniforms that Stella had sent here were also nearby, having been joined by two others, staying out of sight. Mac parked the car behind Don's and got out, meeting Don and Angell in between the cars, the uniforms headed over as well.

"The curtains are all closed, so we can't get a positive ID on the brothers but there's no reason for anyone else to be in there," Don told them and Mac nodded as he grabbed his vest from the car. Don and Jess were already wearing theirs and Stella was half way through putting hers on. He looked over at the house, the garden was overgrown, weeds were wrapped around the fencing and grass had grown so high it covering part of the front door.

"We'll go in the front, you guys take the back," Mac ordered and then split the uniforms, two going in the back, two in the front. They crept up to the front door, counting on the closed curtains to conceal their approach and hoping none of the brother's happened to look out at that moment. He and Stella stood at opposite sides of the door, the uniforms behind her. A few seconds later he'd kicked in the door; thankfully it was old and gave relatively easily. He and Stella rushed in, guns drawn and the brothers were clearly taken by surprise as they hurriedly tried to reach for their own weapons.

"Drop it, drop it," Mac shouted, his eyes scanning the room, only three of the brothers. He heard the back door crash open just as Dominic tried to make a run for it, followed by shouts from Don and Angell. Joseph gave up quickly, he had barely picked up his gun when he dropped it on the floor and held his hands up, surrendering. Craig tried to shoot one of the uniforms but the shot missed and Mac quickly tackled him to the ground with the aid of the uniform he'd tried to shoot. Don and Angell came in from the back dragging Dominic with them, his hands cuffed behind his back as he struggled to get loose, shouting profanities at his captors.

"Where's Kyle?" Stella questioned but no one answered her. Dominic was handed over to the uniforms and Don and Angell went to search the rest of the house for the missing brother. The rest were dragged out of the house, Kyle and Dominic were immediately put in the back of the two squad cars that the uniforms had left just out of sight.

"Where is Kyle?" Mac asked Joseph, knowing that out of all the brother's he was the most likely to talk. He didn't answer though, just shook his head in resignation, he knew they weren't going to be walking away this time. "You start answering questions now and it might make things a little easier on you."

"He's not here," Joseph replied. "I don't know where he is, but he's not here."

Joseph was put in the back of a car then and a few minutes later Don and Jess came out of the house. "He's not in there."

"We've got three of them, that's a start."

The brothers were not co-operating, not that Jess had been expecting them to. Don was talking with Craig, they'd managed to get a sample of his DNA, it had already been sent to the lab and hopefully they'd have the results back shortly. Stella was in with Dominic who was apparently refusing to speak at all. Since Joseph was the most likely to break Jess and Mac were both interviewing him, they had all the time they needed with him now and he was already beginning to crack under the pressure. All the brother's had lawyered up, which had delayed any questioning and Kyle was still in the wind.

"I've told you I don't know where Kyle is, he left Marian's place about an hour before you guys showed up," Joseph repeated and Jess was fairly certain he was telling the truth, about that much at least.

"My client has already told you several times that he doesn't know the whereabouts of his brother," the lawyer sat beside Joseph told them.

"Tell us about the women, were you involved in their murders?" Mac asked and Joseph's eyes widened.

"No, we didn't..." he began but Mac cut him off.

"We have DNA," he stated and Joseph slumped back in his chair, defeated.

"I didn't do it, I wasn't involved in any of that," he replied, shaking his head. The lawyer tried to stop him talking but Joseph kept going. "I drove the car a couple of times, when they dumped the bodies. I helped clean up sometimes, but that's it, I never hurt those girls."

"Then who did?" Jess asked, sitting forward slightly but Joseph had stopped talking again at the insistence of his lawyer. "Remember what we said when we first came in here, first one to talk gets the deal, you think your brothers aren't going to be tempted by that?"

"Family sticks together," Joseph stated as though it was a phrase that had been drilled into him and he was just repeating it. He sighed, resignation and defeat clear to see. "Our dad used to say that all the time, when we were growing up, no matter what was going on, he'd always say that. Then this whole thing started and Craig said it, Dominic said it, I really had no choice, family sticks together, it's the rule right?"

"Who killed those women Joseph?" Jess asked him again, the lawyer didn't bother to protest this time, he knew the confession was coming with he liked it or not.

"Kyle," Joseph replied, staring at a black mark on the table. "It was Kyle, he's sick, it's like he needs it, he can't stop himself."

"Tell us what happened," Mac said, letting Joseph confess in his own time rather than push and make him shut down again.

"He was always troubled, you know?" Joseph began. "Even as a kid, he'd get into fights, was constantly in trouble at school. He started dating this girl, Sally, they were together six years, high school sweethearts, except that he beat her. We knew what he was doing, we talked to him a couple of times, tried to talk some sense into him but we never stopped him. Then one day he beat her so bad she nearly died, it was a wakeup call for her I guess, she left him, moved away."

Joseph shifted uncomfortably in his chair, biting his lip and picking at his fingernails. "Kyle didn't take it well, he was so angry but we had no idea... He kidnapped some girl off the street, I don't know who she was, she was about eighteen years old, pretty, or so I'm told. He raped her and killed her, he was so angry he didn't know what he was doing. He called Craig, told him everything and Craig helped him to cover it up. Cleaned the body, dumped her somewhere, I'm not sure where, I never asked for the details."

"Then he suddenly had a taste for it, he went months without hurting a soul but eventually he just couldn't hold it in anymore, he attacked a girl on the street but she got away. He spoke to Craig again and Craig knew he wasn't going to stop but Kyle is messy, he doesn't have the self control to not end up getting caught. So Craig came to me and Dominic and asked for our help, said the Kyle wouldn't stop, that we had to find a way to help him."

Joseph paused, he was getting more and more uncomfortable as he spoke and Jess could tell he was about to get to his part in it all. "And that's what you did, you helped him?"

"We tried talking to him, we tried putting him into anger management classes but he went to the first one and then stopped going. We knew what he was going to do, Craig and Dominic, they said there was only one thing we could do now, I didn't want to but... family sticks together. Craig and Dominic chose the victims, women who were nobodies, the lowest of society, prostitutes, drug addicts, people no one would miss, people who didn't mean anything to anyone. We kidnapped them and took them to Kyle's home, we..."

"Keep going," Jess encouraged when it became apparent Joseph was struggling to continue and she knew what was coming next.

"They were kept in the spare bedroom, tied up, Kyle would... rape them, hurt them, until he couldn't hold back anymore and he'd kill them, stab them to death," Joseph stopped talking and put his head in his hands and they gave him a moment to collect himself. He eventually took a deep breath and sat up straight, it was clear he'd cried but he seemed to have pulled himself together again. "We cleaned up afterwards, washed the bodies, cleaned the room, burned anything that might implicate Kyle. Then we dumped the bodies wherever we could without being caught. Craig and Dominic did most of the work they moved the bodies, washed them, dumped them, I just helped with cleaning and driving sometimes."

"What about Ashley Hail, where does she fit in?" Mac questioned and Joseph paled at the mention of the young girls name.

"That was never meant to happen," Joseph replied. "Kyle had seen her before, he took a liking to her, he wanted her. We told him no, she wasn't a nobody, she wasn't a drain on society, we told him we'd find him someone else. We went out to find someone, we brought back two girls, one interrupted us so we had to take them both. While we were gone, Kyle went to find Ashley, followed her out of her house, to a friends, waited until she left, until she was alone, then he murdered her."

"That's why you were at the construction site that day, she wasn't like the other women, she was going places with her life," Jess said, thinking back to when she and Don had seen Joseph at the construction site after Ashley had been killed.

"If we hadn't helped him, if we'd turned him in, that girl wouldn't have been killed," he stated. "It's our fault she's dead. I couldn't do it anymore after that, I couldn't just walk away after Kyle killed someone, I dunno, maybe I wanted to get caught, I just wanted it to stop."

Don found Jess sitting on the bench in the locker room, staring at the floor with a thoughtful expression. She looked tired and after talking with Mac he could understand why, Joseph's confession wouldn't exactly make good bedtime reading.

"He confessed then," he stated as he sat down next to her and Jess nodded, sitting up straight with a sigh.

"In horrific detail," she replied, he knew she and Mac had been in there for over an hour with Joseph after he'd started his confession and he was well aware that Mac had spared him many details when he'd spoken to him about it. He was about to ask her if she needed to talk but she cut him off. "Trust me; you do not want me to talk about it."

He smiled slightly. "You know I'm going to have to read the confession anyway right?"

"Then enjoy your last few hours of blissful ignorance," she said and sighed again. "I've seen some crap on this job Don, it goes with the territory but just thinking about everything these girls endured, I don't know, this one is just getting under my skin."

"It's gotten under everyone's skin, even Mac is looking a little off colour at the moment and I thought there was nothing that could faze him," Don told her earning a small smile in response which was quickly followed by a growling noise from Jess's stomach that made them both laugh. "You know, it's just hit me that neither of us has eaten anything today."

"Not my fault Lindsay and I were called away from the vending machine before we could decide what chocolate would make a good breakfast," Jess replied and Don rolled his eyes.

"I have to finish up with Craig Philips, the DNA just came back from the lab and he matches the hair found on Maria Thorpe, but do you want to go and grab something to eat afterwards?" he questioned and she shook her head.

"I'll head out and get us both something now, I'll be back by the time you're done with Craig," she told him as she stood up. He nodded as he stood up as well and after a quick glance around to make sure no one else was in there he kissed her.

"I'll see you in a bit," he said as he left the room and found Mac waiting for him. "You wanna join me while I throw DNA evidence at him?"

"That's why I'm here," Mac replied and the two of them walked into the interrogation room Craig was being kept in. Craig was still sat there looking smug, as though he'd won something and Don was going to enjoy wiping that look off his face

"We have DNA that links you to Maria Thorpe," he told Craig who shrugged.

"Doesn't mean I killed her," he replied.

"No, but Joseph confessed," he stated as he took his seat again, Mac sitting beside him.

"You're lying, he wouldn't betray us like that, family sticks together," Craig stated and Don saw Mac smirk slightly.

"Joseph said that too, your father used to tell you that right, while you were growing up," he stated. "So when Kyle called you and told you what he'd done to that girl he'd kidnapped you went straight over there to help him, you cleaned up, you got rid of the body, no one ever came looking, you thought you'd gotten away with it. Until Kyle tried to attack another girl, that's when you had to get your brothers involved, she got away, she hadn't identified him but Kyle wasn't going to stop, was he?"

Craig looked nervous now, "Joseph wouldn't..." he trailed off, not so sure of himself now.

"But he did, he told us how you tried the legitimate route first, anger management, family chats but it didn't work, so you found another way to help him. You picked his victims, people who wouldn't be missed, people who you saw as a drain on society. You kidnapped them; you brought them to him and let him do whatever he wanted to them for a couple of days before he killed them. Then you cleaned up, you dumped the bodies and you went looking for a new victim."

"That son of a bitch," Craig exclaimed, clearly talking about Joseph and not Kyle.

"You seemed to be committing the perfect crimes, we had no evidence, nothing to link us to you, until Ashley Hail," Don stated. "Kyle wasn't concerned with clean up and evidence, he wanted what he wanted and he took it without a thought to the mess he left behind. Then Joseph's conscience started catching up with him."

"We told him he couldn't have Ashley, if he'd just listed to us we wouldn't be here now, Joseph wouldn't have gone to the crime scenes, you never would have linked it back to us," Craig explained, still looking slightly smug. "He wanted her though, and nothing we could say or do would change his mind, once he picks a girl, nothing can stop him. I suppose I should offer you my condolences now."

Don narrowed his eyes, alarm bells ringing in his head. "What are you talking about?"

Craig smiled. "That pretty little cop, what was her name... A... Angell, that was it. He picked her out days ago, we told him no, she's a cop and that would draw too much attention, we were already suspects, we'd never get away with it. As I'm sure you can guess, it didn't really deter him."

Don was out of his chair and walking out the door, cell phone in hand before Craig had even finished talking, Mac on his heels as Craig laughed in the background.

Jess didn't answer her phone.

Jess stepped out of the car, she'd opted just to get her and Don a sandwich for now, hopefully tonight they'd be home and they could order in some real food then. She locked the car just as her cell phone started ringing. She grabbed it, seeing Don's name flashing on the screen but before she could answer it she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She hit the floor, barely feeling the impact as everything went black.

TBC