Disclaimer: I obviously do not own CSI: NY. I just own my car, my laptop and my crazy muse who seems to want to write 4 different stories at a time. I also do own any characters that you do not recognize. You can borrow them if you ask permission first!

A/N: Here's the next chappie!! Thanks to all who reviewed. As always, please R&R. My muse loves the attention. :D The inspiration for the title comes from Gary Jules' "Mad World" from the Donnie Darko soundtrack. If you haven't heard it...Go listen! Much love goes out to Aphina and Axellia for being the best beta's a writer could ask for!

Chapter 34.

It's a Mad, Mad World

When Danny and Stella got back to the lab, they began to sift through the multitude of evidence that they had. Marty sent up the victims clothes and Stella was processing them.

"Good Lord," she muttered as she pulled the forty-eighth hair from the victim's jacket. "How much hair is on this?" She kept muttering under her breath as she continued to pull the fibers off. She was so intent on her work that she didn't hear Mac walk in.

"Hey, Stel," he said. "How's it going?"

Stella's head shot up in surprise as she shot a warm smile to Mac. "I haven't seen so much hair on a vic's clothes in forever. I've pulled almost fifty hairs off the jacket alone."

"Human hair?"

Stella shook her head. "I think the majority of it is, but I'm sure that there are some animal hairs as well. I need to get Kendall to run them."

Mac smiled at Stella, loving the way her face lit up when she was investigating. "In that case, this should help. Marty sent up her fingerprints and I had Adam run them for you. Your vic goes by the name of Pamela Shelton. Married to Dr. Reginald Shelton. He's an anesthesiologist at Trinity."

Stella looked up and saw the gleam in Mac's eyes that always made her shiver. "Thanks. Is Angell bringing him in?"

Mac nodded. "Yeah. He was at the hospital in surgery. She has to wait until he gets out. We still on for dinner tonight?"

Stella smiled softly. "Of course. What do you feel like tonight?"

"Thai. Definitely Thai food."

Stella nodded as her beeper went off. "Marty's got some results. See you at seven, Mac."

Mac gave her a secret smile as he turned to leave.

Stella and Danny arrived in the morgue at the same time. Stella smiled at Marty. "Give me good news," she asked him.

Marty smiled at her. "I can definitely tell you that this was not an accident." He turned the victim's neck to the side. "See that puncture wound? She was injected with something that immobilized her. Resulting in her falling to the ground. The actual COD is crush asphyxiation. She was trampled to death."

Stella raised her eyebrows. "Wow. Do you know what was injected into her?"

Marty shook his head. "Not until the tox screen gets back," he said with regret.

Danny smiled. "I've got that answer for you. The syringe contained traces of Vercuronium Bromide."

Marty looked up in surprise. "That's a non depolarising neuromuscular blocking agent." Marty looked at the blank look on both of their faces. "A muscle relaxant used during general anesthesia. It becomes effective in about ninety seconds."

Stella felt a light go on in her head. "Thanks, Marty," she said as she turned to walk out of the room. Danny quickly followed her.

"Stel? That make sense to you?"

Stella smiled. "Our vic is married to an anesthesiologist. The category is murders. For five hundred, the answer is the most likely suspect."

Danny smiled. "What is the so called loving husband?" Danny replied cheekily. "We bringing him in?"

Stella nodded. "Angell is just waiting for him to get out of surgery."

Danny grinned as they made their way back to the lab, eager to gather more evidence to put the man away.

Cory stood in the alleyway for fifteen minutes after she hung up with Alexis. She was reeling from the revelation that her mother had an affair. Feeling betrayed, she walked out of the alley and down the street, not paying attention to her surroundings.

As she walked up the street, she felt someone brush into her and felt her purse slip off of her shoulder. Quickly looking back, she noticed a teenager walking away with her purse. You've got to be kidding me! Can this day get any worse? Quickly, she took after him, drawing her gun from her holster. "Stop! FBI! Stop that kid!" she yelled, hoping to get some help from bystanders. She noticed the shoppers just ignored her shouts. Growling in frustration, she took off after him in a run. She dodged around the shoppers, the kid's lead increasing. Channeling her earlier anger at her mother, she put on a burst of speed, just as he was turning the corner.

She rounded the corner after him and noticed that he was blocked by a group of elderly women. Grinning, she quickly grabbed him and threw him to the ground. "First off, idiot," she said panting. "If you're going to steal someone's purse, try to pick someone who is not a cop!"

Quickly she cuffed him, and then sat him down on the sidewalk. She grabbed her cell phone out of her purse and quickly called it in. She studied the teen, realizing that he couldn't even be driving age yet. "So, what's your name?" she asked him.

The boy just ignored her. "So, don't really want to talk. That's fine. Let me point a couple of things out you did wrong here. First off, if you're looking to steal someone's purse, pick someone who is going into a store. Oh, yeah, and don't pick the person who happens to be an FBI agent!"

The teen was still silent when the patrol cruiser pulled up. The officer got out and walked up to them. "You called in an attempted robbery?"

Cory smiled. "Special Agent Corrine Reid, FBI," she said, extending her hand. "The perp grabbed my purse, I ran him down. Not willing to talk to me, so I don't even know his name."

The office smiled. "Office Leland," he said grasping her hand briefly. He then leaned over and helped the teenager up. "Come on, son. Let's get you settled."

Cory watched. "May I come with you to the station? I need to file a report and I want my handcuffs back."

The office laughed and after the would be thief was settled in the backseat, he opened the passenger door for her. "Here you go."

Cory got in quickly and they were soon on their way to the station to make the report.

When Stella got back up to the lab, Angell still hadn't arrived with Dr. Shelton. She and Danny walked into the lab, where Kendall was processing the vic's clothes. "Got anything, Kendall?" Stella asked.

The blonde looked up and smiled. "Couple of things, Stella. First of all, this woman had way too many hairs on her clothes. The majority on the jacket is human hair, but I found some on her panties that is a cat hair. A Siberian cat, to be precise."

Danny looked at her. "Cat hair, huh? Who gets cat hair on their underwear?"

Stella cocked her head. "Someone who lives with a cat?"

Kendall nodded her head. "That's what I thought until Marty sent up a hair that matched the cat hair. He found it in her pubic hair."

Stella raised her eyebrows at that. "Okay. People in the city are just strange." She was about to continue when she saw Angell walking down the hall. Angell gave her a nod and pointed to an interrogation room. "Danny? I think our suspect is here. Let's go crack him."

Danny laughed as he followed her out of the room.

Cory quickly filled out the report on her mugger and smiled at Officer Leland on her way out. She sighed as she got out into the cold November day. She stared up into the sunshine, feeling an icy feeling come over her that had nothing to do with the temperture. She pushed aside the anger at her mother, instead she focused on the information that Cruz had given her. Feeling her mind begin to process all the information, she walked towards the subway, to go to FBI Headquarters.

When she walked in, she noticed that the offices were relatively busy. She smiled at a couple of agents while she walked to her office and once inside, pulled out her notepad to begin brainstorming.

Why am I so important to Montoya that he wants me dead? That was the first question she wrote down. She remembered her earlier conversations with Lydia about how they thought the reason that Montoya was targeting her was because she was affecting his profit. The more she thought about it, the less she believed that was the reason.

She kept writing questions and thoughts down, but after half an hour, she realized that all she had was random meanderings. Sighing in frustration, Cory put down the pen. "I just don't get it," she muttered.

"Don't get what?" Lydia asked from the doorway.

Cory looked up. "Why Montoya wants me dead. It doesn't make sense. I ran the numbers and compared to other task forces that have been targeting him, the dent I made in his bottom line is negligible. Barely a drop in the bucket. So, why me? Why am I so damn threatening that he puts a ten million dollar hit out on my life?"

Lydia sighed. "I have no clue. How do you get in the mind of a criminal who is thousands of miles away and who has never been to the United States?"

Cory shrugged. "Ya got me. I've been trying to figure out how exactly I could have crossed paths with anyone associated Montoya. The only connection I can come up with in The Martinez Brothers. Javier is dead, Hector is in the wind, but maybe I can get something out of Gabriel. He does want to put Montoya away."

Lydia nodded. "You want me to go pay him a visit?"

Cory nodded. "Yeah. You might get more out of him than I do. Let me know what you find out."

Lydia nodded and turned to walk out of the room.

"Hey, Lydia? Be careful," Cory called after her.

"Always."

Stella and Angell walked into the interrogation room to find a distraught man in scrubs. He looked at them. "She's dead? Pam's dead?" he asked, tears glistening in his eyes.

Stella looked at the Dr. Shelton. "I'm sorry, but yes."

Angell looked at him, knowing that he was their prime suspect, but didn't want to scare him off. "Do you know anyone who would want to hurt her? Did she have any confrontations in the last couple of days?"

Dr. Shelton shook his head. "Not that I know of. Everyone loved Pam. She volunteered at the soup kitchen, held fundraisers. She was trying to make the world a better place."

Angell jumped in for the kill. "So the two million dollar life insurance policy that you had on her was for nothing?"

Dr. Shelton looked up in shock. "I loved my wife. I had the same policy on myself. I wanted to make sure that if anything happened to either one of us, then the other would be provided for. There's a provision in her will that stated that if she were to die, that half of the life insurance money would go to help the poor."

Stella looked at him, not believing his story. "Do you know what Vercuronium Bromide is?"

He nodded. "It's a muscle relaxant that is used in surgery. It prevents the patients from thrashing around on the table. Why?"

"Because you injected her with it before the store opened."

Dr. Shelton looked at her in shock. "That's not possible. I left the house at five-thirty this morning. I had an early surgery scheduled. I was at the hospital by six and in surgery by seven. I hadn't even left the hospital until she brought me here."

Stella sighed. "You didn't even take a bathroom break?"

He looked at her in disbelief. "Maybe five minutes. Shouldn't you be trying to find the person who killed my wife?"

Stella and Angell shook their head, knowing that they were at a dead end. Stella looked at him. "We'll need your fingerprints and a DNA sample to rule you out as a suspect."

"Fine. Anything I can do."

After collecting the evidence, when Stella was about to leave, something prompted her to ask, "Do you have a cat?"

"No. Pam was allergic."

Stella nodded, disguising her surprise. "Alright. Thank you for your time and don't leave town." She walked out of the room, her frustration rising.

AN: So Happy late Thanksgiving to all my readers in the US! And, Go Cowboys!!! (Sorry, they are 10-1 and have a major game with the Packers coming up!!) So, what does everyone think?

Soccer-Bitch - Wow. I feel kinda old now. My prom was in '95! Happy b-day to your nephew! I'm glad you liked the chapter. It was fun to write. I've got so much planned for the rest of the story...I don't know when it's going to end!

Aphina - Air of mystery is my fav. I like to suck people in. Yeah, I was so surprised when I wrote about her mom having an affair...It feels like ages ago when I wrote that!! I'm going to work on the next chapter over the weekend and then maybe see if we can get anywhere with GH. It was so nice to be able to IM with both of y'all on Thursday! Hopefully, we'll all be online Sunday (Cheryl said that she will be on at night) so we can nail down a plot outline!

CSI Junkie - What was familiar? It's been so long since I've written it, that I'm not sure! I don't know if I'd really have the guys cook Christmas dinner, but I haven't made it that far yet, so you never know what will come up! I'm glad you liked the chapter!!!

Note to all my lurkers...I love you guys! Even if you're not reviewing, knowing that you are reading, just makes my day!