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 Many thanks to Aphina and Axellia for being my betas!!

Chapter 35.

A Red Herring?

Lydia walked into the prison for her meeting with Gabriel. She calmly checked her gun and badge and was led to a small meeting room. She nodded to Gabriel as she sat down. "How are you doing?" she asked politely.

"Fine. Have you caught the bastard that killed my brother?"

Lydia shook her head. "Not yet, but we are working on it. Your information was very useful. What do you know about Montoya?"

Gabriel stared at her. "Not much. He inherited the cartel from his father. Built it from a small organization to a multinational corporation."

"Why does he want Agent Reid dead?"

"I don't know. I was never that high in the organization to get that kind of information. I know that it is a personal reason, but we never had that conversation. People who ask him personal questions have a tendency to end up dead."

Lydia looked at him, trying to determine if he was telling the truth. "Okay. What kind of information can you give me on him?"

"He's completely ruthless when it comes to the business and his family. He has killed men that his sisters were interested in for a variety of reasons. The main thought behind it is that they were not good enough for them. He had a brother, who was killed by a rival cartel, who was supposed to inherit the business."

"Do you know anyone who might know why he wants Agent Reid dead?"

Gabriel shook his head. "Hector might, but I can't guarantee it. He was in pretty deep with them."

"Where is Hector?"

"Best guess? Columbia. He was moving up the chain of command pretty quickly."

"Do you know any aliases for Montoya?"

"No. Really, Agent Sanchez. I wish I could help more, but Hector kept Javier and me in the dark. He was getting very power hungry. As a result, I'm in jail and Javier is dead."

Lydia nodded. "Thank you for your time," she said as she got up. Leaving the room, she sighed in frustration. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Danny and Stella were in the lab, going over the evidence. "I don't get it, Stella. The husband has an airtight alibi. The surgery was taped and he never left during it. I know this cat hair is important. Kendall said it was a Siberian cat."

Stella shrugged. "Don't look at me. I've never heard of one." She turned to the computer and quickly punched in some keys. "Says here that Siberian cats are native to Russia. Not a big surprise. They are fairly rare in the United States. Price range around $1800."

Danny looked up in surprise. "For a cat! Why?"

Stella shrugged. "I have no clue. I don't get why you would pay that much for any house pet. So if our vic had cat hair all over her clothes and body and the husband is allergic to cats, where'd she get the hair from?"

Danny shrugged his shoulders. "Knockin' boots with someone else?"

Stella raised an eyebrow. "Knockin' boots? You've been around Cory way to long, Messer," she said with a laugh.

"Sorry," he replied without sincerity. "It's bound to happen."

Stella laughed again. "As long as you don't start saying y'all, then I think I'll be alright. Maybe there is some sort of registry for these cats? Can we get a list of people who own them in the city?"

"I don't know. Why don't we have Marty process the body further? Check for signs of sexual activity?"

"Good idea. I'll have him do that if you'll start searching for a registry."

Danny nodded his head. "Awight."

Cory was sitting in her office, still trying to brainstorm reasons for why Montoya wanted her dead. Finally, she gave up and began to pull up financial records for Los Dios. She was pouring over the data, when Cruz called her.

"I have some information for you. They are bringing in a load of drugs. Down on the docks. They want me to tell you that it's arriving at one a.m. on a Cargo Ship named Our Lady of Peace. It's really coming in on a ship called Glencaim at eleven p.m."

"Okay. We'll hit the Our Lady of Peace, but just observe the Glencaim. I don't want to compromise your position. Thanks for the information. Be careful. Keep your eyes open."

"I will."

Cory hung up the phone and pulled out her schedule to see who was available for a sting operation. She quickly drew up two different lists. One for each ship. She was in the process of notifying the agents when Lydia walked in. She held up her hand and motioned for her to sit down. When she finally hung up the phone, she looked at Lydia expectantly. "Anything?"

Lydia shook her head. "Not much. All he knows is that Montoya is after you for a personal reason. Unfortunately, anyone who asks Montoya personal questions has a nasty habit of ending up dead."

Cory furrowed her brow. "That's enlightening," she said sarcastically. She shook her head. "You up to leading an op tonight?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"Cruz called me with some information. A drug drop. Los Dios wants me to go after a ship called Our Lady of Peace, while the drugs are really on the Glencaim. I'll go after the set up, while you watch the other one. I just want information. No interference. Just observation."

Lydia nodded. "I can do that. What time and where?"

"Eleven p.m. and Pier Nine."

Lydia smiled. "It's a date. Although, I'll have to tell Sheldon that I have to bail on our dinner plans." She sighed. "That's the nature of the job."

Cory laughed, completely understanding where she was coming from. She settled back in her chair and began to make plans.

Danny was still hunting down a registry of cat owners when Mac walked in. "Danny? It's almost seven. You've been here for close to twelve hours. Go home. Spend some time with your fiancée."

Danny looked up. "But…"

"No buts. The evidence will still be here tomorrow." He sighed as he logged all the evidence back in and rolled his head to relieve some of the tension in his neck. After he finished logging the evidence, he called Cory.

"Reid."

"Hey, bella. You up for dinner?"

Cory smiled. "Hey. Only if it's bring in. I'm at work and I have a raid tonight, so I'm working all night."

Danny felt a little disappointment at her statement. "How about I bring you dinner? What are you in the mood for?"

"As long as it's not pizza, I'm good. That's what I had for lunch."

Danny smiled. "Alright. I'll be there in about an hour."

An hour later, Cory heard her stomach rumbling. She looked at the clock and realized that it had been seven hours since she had eaten. Shaking her head, she stared back down at the paper, hoping that Danny would arrive soon.

Minutes later, her hopes came true. "Heard someone was hungry."

Cory looked up and saw that Danny was carrying bags of Chinese food. "You are my most favorite person in the world right now. I'm starving!"

Danny laughed. "Bella? You really need to eat more than once a day."

Cory shook her head. "Let's just say I've had in interesting day."

"Wanna talk about it?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Montoya wants me dead for a personal reason, I was mugged and oh, yeah. My mom had an affair before I was born and my dad may not actually be my dad."

Danny sat there in shock, not sure what to react to first. "You were mugged?"

Cory laughed. "Stupid kid. Had to chase him down then arrest him."

Danny looked at her carefully. "Wanna talk about your mom?" he asked as he pulled the cartons out of the bag.

Cory shook her head. "Not right now. I need to have my head clear for tonight."

Danny nodded. "Alright. I have a case where a woman was trampled to death in Saks."

"That's why I never shop the day after Thanksgiving. Crazy people."

They continued to talk about random events. Danny was careful not to bring up her family. Finally, a little after nine, Cory looked up. "Chere? I hate to do this, but I've gotta go. I have some final preparations to make before the dual ops tonight."

Danny nodded his understanding. "What time do you think you'll be home?"

"Late. Four at the earliest."

Danny smiled as he leaned over to kiss her. "Be safe."

"I will. I love you."

"I love you, too," he said as he walked out of the door.

At one a.m. Cory was sitting in the communications booth, going over last minute preparations. She had already briefed her team on possible threats, and was watching with the night vision cameras. "Okay, people. The vans are pulling up. Remember, do not reveal yourselves until they have loaded all the drugs into the vans. I want to make sure we get all of them."

She waited patiently and when all the boxes were loaded into the vans, she called her team in. Taking point, she drew her gun and motioned her team in. All of the sudden, the lights went on and her team strung into action. "FBI! Put your hands up!" she yelled.

Some of the men drew weapons, but her team was ready for that, they quickly disabled the men, with very little gunfire.

After it was over, she looked over the boxes. Opening them carefully, she calculated the rough calculation of how much cocaine was present. "Harrison?" she asked. "Do all of these boxes contain cocaine?"

"Yes. Looks like about two hundred pounds of pure cocaine."

Cory did the rough calculations in her head. "That's a street value of around six million dollars. Nice work. Let's get this back to the evidence lockup. I want all of the smugglers interviewed by tomorrow night."

Cory shook her head, confused. "I don't get it," she muttered under her breath.

"Don't get what?" Lydia asked from behind her.

Cory jumped. "Jesus, Lydia! Where did you come from? I thought you had already left."

Lydia smiled. "I couldn't stay away. That didn't answer my question."

Cory nodded. "This was supposed to be a fake hit. Why sacrifice this amount of cocaine, just to make me believe an informant?"

Lydia shook her head. "I have no clue. I can tell you that the amount of boxes they took off the other ship was about three times this amount. Not all of those looked like possible drugs."

Cory sighed. "This job is really confusing sometimes, ya know that?" She turned and watched her team finish collecting all of the drugs. "I'd better get this logged in. I'm beat and want to do nothing more than go home and sleep for a day."

Working together, both women finished clearing the scene.

When Cory got home, she immediately crawled in next to Danny.

"How'd the bust go?"

Cory started at his voice. "Why are you awake?"

Danny opened his eyes. "I was worried about you," he stated simply while drawing her into his arms.

"It went almost too well," she replied, nestling into his arms while yawing.

Danny noticed how tired she was and placed a light kiss on her forehead. "Night, bella."

"G'night, Danny," she murmured as she drifted off to sleep.

AN: Okay guys...I'm completely over the top that my 'Boys beat the Packers (37-27). WOOT! Although I do hope that Brett Farve is okay. (:p). So, because I'm in such a good mood...Here's an update for you! I'm pretty far ahead as well, so if I get five reviews, I'll update another chapter! READ GOTHAM'S HEROES!

CSI junkie - This is an interesting case. I had fun writing it. I'm really trying to put more Mac and Stella in, but it's really hard trying to give each couple time! I hope that you like where this is going, I have have a lot of interesting things that are going on in the future chapters (which to give you an idea...I've written up to 43 and have plotted 44 and 45 out and I hope to to get those written this weekend!).

Jody - I don't know if you've made it to this chapter yet, since your review was in 13, but yes, this is the same Taylor. I ran a contest in the original story (A Time to Heal) in which whomever made the 100th review could create a character for the story. Axellia won and she said that I could use Taylor. I asked her about a potential love interest for her since Flack and Lindsay were together in my story and she gave me the go ahead to pair Taylor with Marty! I hope that answers your question!

Soccer-Bitch - I'm glad you like it! I'm having a blast writing the upcoming chapters. Thank the Powers That Be for both my betas...They've so helped me out with the plot!

debbs - It does feel like it's a never-ending story! I've got so much planned that I have no clue what the final chapter count is going to be! Darn it, Axellia and Aphina are rubbing off on me!!! At some point, I may decide to break it up into another sequel! I'm glad that it's getting more interesting! (:p)

Axellia - You hadn't read 32? I didn't send it to you?? And yes, you were gone for about a month! That line was a fav for a lot of people (myself included). Yes, you are about 10 chapters ahead. Truly, I'm trying to write, but working 10 hours a day (actually, I only worked 9 today since I left so I could watch the game) is leaving me exhausted! (Hanging my head in shame) Yeah, but what a picture!!! I never asked you to go to the extreme you did, though! I had forgotten about it as well...It was a case to pass the time! So, I got you hooked on Cleo, huh? It is every addictive!

mj - YEAH! You're back! I can't believe that you missed 3 updates!! I'm glad that you are liking it. I've been meaning to ask...what does the (wgf) stand for? Don't worry about being on time...I know that you'll be lurking even if you don't review.

Note to brainDamage...Girl? I miss you!

Note to all the lurkers...It warms my heart that this story gets so many chapter hits and is on so many alerts! Thank y'all so much!!