Chapter Seven: Meeting Aiden Burn

Danny woke up early the next day. He reached for his glasses and saw that the time was seven thirty, and he realized he had completely forgotten to set his alarm. Though he was glad he hadn't, he wouldn't want to wake up at five and have to wait to call Lindsay to tell her that they would go see Aiden today. He hurried to get dressed and then picked up the phone, dialing Lindsay's number, when he heard a sudden knocking on the door. He laughed, seeing that Lindsay had remembered what they were going to do that day, and he put down the phone and hurried to answer the door.

"Wanted to get an early start, Montana?" he asked as he opened the door.

Lindsay smiled at the mention of her nickname. "You haven't called me that for a while now," she said.

"I can call you that more often if you like," said Danny.

She only smiled again. But the subject was soon changed. "I was thinking that we could head up to Sid's restaurant and go have some breakfast first."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "We just went out to breakfast yesterday."

"But yesterday, we didn't realize we'd meet up with each other there," said Lindsay. "And I'll pay, it's my treat. I just thought it would be a good idea that we eat first before we go see Aiden. Maybe this time Maggie will be happy."

Danny laughed. "Yeah, it'll be the first time. We'll have to tell Sid."

The two left his apartment, walking down to Hammerback Café for breakfast. They both ordered the same thing they had the day before, and surprisingly, Sid came over to talk to them again, claiming that he actually saw Maggie smile that morning. Both Danny and Lindsay were glad they had Sid, out of all the people who used to work at the crime lab; Danny agreed that Sid acted the nicest to him and Lindsay. Stella would be at the bottom of his list, she had changed big time.

After they had finished their breakfast and Lindsay paid the bill, they said their goodbyes to Sid and drove off to 620 Eighth Avenue, where the New York Times Building was located. And to both Danny's and Lindsay's surprise, they were able to speak with Aiden with no problems at all. It was almost odd to shake hands with Aiden again; Danny never thought he would see her again.

Lindsay held up the copy of the New York Times with the article about the fire that had claimed the New York Crime Lab. Aiden looked at it suspiciously and frowned. "I'm sorry; I don't remember ever writing that. I mean, there wasn't even a fire at the New York Crime Lab."

"Are you sure?" asked Lindsay.

Aiden nodded. "Actually, that newspaper was never distributed." She picked up another newspaper. "This was the newspaper for Tuesday, June 24th."

Lindsay took the newspaper and flipped through it, seeing that everything was the same except for the cover story. It didn't make sense, and now she was about as confused as Danny had been when he first found out about the article in the newspaper.

"Where did you get that newspaper, anyway?" Aiden asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"It was delivered to my apartment," replied Lindsay, still confused.

"Well, I for one didn't deliver that newspaper to your apartment," said Aiden. "And I didn't write that article. But it bothers me that someone wrote an article under my name. And to tell you the truth, I don't know why anyone would have done that…"

"Did anyone have access to your computer?" Danny asked, finally speaking for the first time since they had been introduced to Aiden. He almost felt like a CSI again, asking a suspect if they knew why anyone would want to kill the victim.

Aiden was shaking her head. "I mean, I had thought that no one would have access to my computer. Most of my stories are on my laptop, which I take home every night, and then I load them up onto my computer here. But I can't think of anyone who would want to write that story. One, there wasn't a fire at the New York Crime Lab, and two, everyone here gets to be part of the paper. Unless someone wanted to get their chance to write a cover story and get attention or something like that…"

"Do you know when someone would have had the time to access a file on your computer?" asked Lindsay.

"During the night hours, probably," replied Aiden. "But security's really tight around here, so they would have to be good at sneaking around…"

"And someone must have written this story on Monday night?" asked Danny.

"Yeah," Aiden agreed. "It was a cover story for the Tuesday newspaper, so it had to be written some time on Monday. Do you two know why this was written in the newspaper?"

Danny only mumbled, "Um," and couldn't think of anything else to say. Lindsay, however, had an answer for Aiden's question, an answer Danny should have easily thought of.

"I don't know," she said. "It surprised me, too, I hadn't heard of the New York Crime Lab catching fire recently."

A sudden ring came from Aiden's cell phone. She quickly looked at the caller and said to them, "I've got to go. But if you do find anything more about this newspaper article, could you call me? Here's my number…" She handed Lindsay a piece of paper and then said, "I would like to know the person behind this article. I just hate that someone had written under my name…"

Lindsay looked at the phone number on the paper and nodded. "Thank you Aiden, for taking the time to talk with us. I promise to call you if Danny or I find anything new."

Aiden nodded and then walked back to her desk. Danny and Lindsay then left the New York Times Building. As they walked back to Lindsay's car, they continued to talk on about the newspaper. "So if Aiden didn't write the article, then who did?" Lindsay asked.

Danny shook his head. "I don't know. It could be anyone who works for the New York Times."

"Well, whoever it is, they obviously know about the fire. It's just odd that someone at the New York Times would write under Aiden's name, especially if they already write their own stories in the paper…"

"Maybe they wanted to write a cover story, just like Aiden said," Danny said. "But then again, they would still have to know about the fire. And why make only one copy of that newspaper?"

As they walked up to Lindsay's car, CSI Megan Johnson came out of a door from a nearby store and exclaimed, "Danny!"

She immediately hugged him, which caught both Danny and Lindsay off guard. In her head, Lindsay was thinking; want to introduce me to your new girlfriend, Danny?

"Hi, Megan," Danny managed to say as she released him from her embrace. "Um, what are you doing here?"

"I was just shopping," said Megan. She looked at Lindsay curiously. "Who's this?"

"The name's Lindsay Monroe," Lindsay replied coldly.

"Well, it's nice to meet you." She turned back to Danny. "I was going to tell you that I actually convinced Audrey to let you work as a CSI. Isn't that great?"

Danny nodded. Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Maybe you could let Lindsay work with me as well?" asked Danny, looking at Lindsay.

"I'll have to ask Audrey," said Megan with a shrug. "Anyways, Audrey wanted you to come to the crime lab and meet her in her office. You might want to hurry, though, I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner…"

"That's fine," said Danny. "I'm just glad to have my old job back."

Megan nodded. "Well, I'll see you at the crime lab Danny."

She walked away from them, and Lindsay immediately turned to Danny. "It's like she didn't even acknowledge my presence. 'I'll see you at the crime lab Danny.' No byes for Lindsay."

Danny laughed. "You're not jealous, are you, Montana?"

"Jealous?" questioned Lindsay. "No, I'm not jealous. But don't you think it was kind of odd how she just showed up out of nowhere after we left the New York Times Building?"

"She didn't show up out of nowhere," said Danny. "She came from that shop over there."

"But she just showed up and then said you got a job as a CSI. Didn't Detective Mayor say yesterday that she didn't want you in the crime lab again? What, she all the sudden had a change of heart?"

"I guess," said Danny. "Honestly, Linds, it's sounds as if you believe Megan's the one who wrote that article." He stopped when he realized what Lindsay was thinking. "Wait, you don't think Megan wrote that article, do you?"

As Lindsay opened the door to her car, she nodded. "Maybe I'm just being too paranoid, maybe I don't trust her. But don't pull the jealousy card on me Danny; I just think it's odd that she came out of nowhere. And you getting that job so quickly, it just doesn't seem right."

Danny shook his head. Just as he was about to get in the car, Lindsay put out her hand and said, "Don't you have a job to attend? You wouldn't want to keep Megan or Audrey waiting, right?"

"What, you expect me to walk all the way to the crime lab?"

"You could use the exercise," Lindsay said with a quick look at Danny. "Bye, Danny." She quickly got in her car and drove away, probably back to her apartment, Danny thought. He shook his head, glad to know that the crime lab wasn't that far away from where he was. But he wished he had taken his own car, instead of Lindsay's. Oh well, he thought. I could use the exercise anyway.

But one thought still bothered him. Lindsay did have a point; Megan had come out of the shop so suddenly after they had left the New York Times Building. She may have been spying on them. But why she would do that, Danny didn't know. And Audrey had had a quick change of heart. Why was she all of the sudden allowing him to work at the crime lab, especially when just yesterday she had wanted him away from the place?

Danny shook that thought away. No, Lindsay just didn't trust Megan. Maybe she was jealous, but she didn't want to admit it. Besides, Megan didn't know Aiden or anything about the fire. She wasn't involved in any of this.