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) Do I really need to tell y'all that Santa Claus is Coming to Town isn't mine? Many thanks to Aphina and Axellia, without whom, this story would suck!

Chapter 54.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

The following day after the Ball, Danny was back in the lab, staring at his evidence, trying to find some way to identify his dead Santa. To say he was frustrated was an understatement. He looked at Lindsay, who seemed to be just as frustrated.

"I don't get it, Montana. How can no one be missing this guy?" he growled.

Lindsay shook her head, going over the problem in her mind. "I don't know. Are we just looking in the New York database or nationwide?"

Danny glanced at his computer. "Tri-state. I'll run the stats nationwide and see if we get a hit, but that's going to take a while." He glanced at her, noticing the glow that she was getting. "So, when are you confined to lab duty?"

Lindsay wrinkled her nose. "After New Year's Eve. Mac wants to make sure that nothing happens to me or the baby," she said with a sigh. "I understand and actually am looking forward to it a little. Much closer to a bathroom."

Danny laughed. "You are going to name the child Daniel, right?"

Lindsay snorted. "In your dreams, Messer. I don't want the poor child to grow up like you," she returned with a smirk.

"I'm hurt!" Danny managed to return without laughing. "Seriously. Do you need anything?"

"Naw. I'm good." Lindsay stood up, pulling the parchment with the names on it back to her.

Danny could see a light come on in her eyes. "What is it? What do you think?"

"What if—what if these names are for real people?" Lindsay got a dumbfounded look on her face. "We've been working under the assumption that this man was playing Santa. What if he was trying to be Santa? Our killer could be on this list!"

Danny stared at her. "It's a long shot, but hell. Do you want the naughty or the nice?"

Lindsay laughed, "I'll take the nice, please."

Danny split up the list and the both settled back at the computer to begin the hunt for a killer.

Across town, Cory was looking at her office phone as it rang. "Reid," she stated in a question in her voice.

"Corinne, what are you doing at work on a Sunday?" Alistair's crisp voice asked her.

Cory smiled. "I could ask you the same thing, Alistair. I expect the answer will be the same. Working."

Alistair laughed. "True. Anyway, I have some news for you. I think we might have found where Montoya is hiding. The information that Agent Sanchez sent over about the satellite phone usage really helped. Using a process of elimination, we believe that he is in Spain."

Cory felt a glimmer of hope flutter in her chest. "Really? What are y'all going to do? Raid? Do you have any contacts?" she asked him in a rush.

"Slow down, Corinne. We are working on verifying those facts right now. I was wondering something, however. You had stated that Agent Sanchez's family is from Spain. I could really use someone there that is more familiar with the case. I was calling to see if we could, um, "borrow" her for a bit?"

Cory shook her head and took in a breath. "Um…I'll have to ask her and we are in the middle of an investigation, so I'll see. Can I get back to you tomorrow?"

"Take the time you need, Corinne. We are still trying to pinpoint a location, so we have the time to spare right now. Ring me as soon as you get an answer."

Cory smiled softly. "I will…And, Alistair? Thanks for your help."

"My pleasure, Corinne. Good-bye."

"Bye," Cory said as she hung up. She shook her head, feeling torn over what to do. Her logical work mind was screaming that she couldn't spare Lydia at the moment, since they were preparing a raid in Chinatown, but her heart—her heart already had Lydia on the plane to Spain.

Finally, she decided to go over her plans for the next week and see if Lydia could be spared. She had two raids planned, one of which Lydia was supposed to lead. She thought for a moment and with some careful planning, she thought she could schedule around that.

Nodding to herself, knowing that she had to follow her heart, she picked up the phone to call Lydia to see if she wanted to take the assignment.

Danny felt like his eyes were going to cross after trying to find all of the people on the naughty list. After splitting them up, he had five names to put correct identities to, Lindsay had seven. He glanced up to see her rubbing her eyes tiredly. "How you doing over there, Montana?"

Lindsay shook her head. "Do you know how many Alex Jones' there are in this city? Four hundred and eight. That's how I'm doing. Unless we get some way to narrow this down, we're not going to be able to find anything," she said in resignation.

Danny nodded just as his computer beeped. He turned around and a smile erupted onto his face. "I think we might have found our guy."

"Really?" Lindsay said, getting up to walk behind him.

"Yeah. His description matches a missing man from Phoenix," Danny said as he picked up the phone. "I'm going to call them and see if they have any fingerprints or DNA that we can try to compare it to."

Lydia hung up the phone and sighed softly. Hawkes looked at her, over their late brunch, with concern in his eyes. "What is it?"

Lydia drew her eyebrows together. "I'm not sure. Interpol has a lead on Cory's mom. They think that she might be in Spain and they've asked that I fly over there to assist them in the search."

Hawkes looked at her. "Okay. So, what's the problem?"

Lydia sighed again. "We just started on a new case. We have raids planned and if I leave that means that the team I was leading would be on shaky ground. We have a couple of people that might be able to pull of the raid, but they've never been in charge before and Cory's concerned that putting someone in there that hasn't done the job could compromise the investigation."

Hawkes nodded his understanding. "Is there a way to reschedule the raid until after you get back?"

"That's the problem. Timing is very important on these and we need to hit them before they realize that we are investigating. It's all going to depend on when Interpol wants me to be there."

Hawkes smiled softly as he picked up her hand. "I have faith in you. You guys will work it out."

Lydia smiled back at him. "I know, but enough work talk. This is the first day off we've had together in a couple of weeks. I want to enjoy it."

Hawkes just laughed as they continued to eat.

Danny set down the phone and smiled at Lindsay. "They have both DNA and fingerprints that they just hadn't had a chance to enter into the system yet. Something about a backlog. They are emailing me the results right now." His email beeped in response. Quickly, he got the DNA results from Adam and began to compare the two.

Lindsay looked over his shoulder at the same time and nodded her head. "Looks like a match. So, what's our vic's name?"

"Anthony Carelli. Formerly from the Bronx. He moved out to California about thirty years ago, hit it big in Silicon Valley and retired to Phoenix ten years ago. Seems that he made a practice of playing Santa during the holidays. He would pick a city, go and hand out cash to people in need."

Lindsay's eyebrows rose. "How much money are we talking here?"

Danny looked at her, shaking his head in disbelief. "100 grand a year. He would give away 100 grand a year to complete strangers."

Lindsay shook her head in amazement. "Wow. So, who would want to kill him?"

"I don't know. Phoenix also sent a copy of his friend and relatives that still live in the city, so I expect that Flack, you and I will be doing interviews." Danny looked around. "Speaking of Flack, where is he? Usually just as we get good news, he shows up."

Lindsay smiled. "He said that he had something to take care of this morning. I think that he was shopping for my Christmas present. This is the first time we haven't been off together in the last couple of weeks."

"Ahhh…" Danny trailed off, clearly knowing what Flack was buying her for Christmas. "Maybe you should call him and let him know what we've found?"

Lindsay just rolled her eyes. "I already sent him a text message," she said as her phone beeped. "And, he says that he'll be here in thirty minutes."

Cory got home from the office soon after talking to Lydia. She stared around the apartment, taking in the fact that she hadn't even decorated for Christmas yet. She thought back to the week before Thanksgiving, the plans that she had made to decorate and sighed as depression settled over her.

She sat on the couch, staring out the window as she reviewed the previous weeks. Shaking her head, she decided to take a nap and drew the flannel blanket down off the back of the couch and over her, as she lay her head down on the armrest.

Cory looked around at the warehouse she was standing in. The familiar surroundings caused fear to clench in her gut. She saw her mom, tied to the chair and the man, Etienne standing in front of her holding the knife.

"Tell me about your daughter, the FBI agent," he whispered threateningly.

"What?" Alexis asked.

"Your daughter, the one that Montoya tried so unsuccessfully to kill. Tell me about her. What are her weaknesses, how can I convince her to help me?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"Help you do what?"

"Destroy America, what else?" he returned smugly.

Alexis' eyes opened wide and then she spat in his face. "Go to hell, you French pig."

"Who said I was French?" Etienne backhanded her before holding the knife to her neck. "Tell me or I take your life," he whispered in her ear.

"Why? Why do you want to destroy America?" Alexis said, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. "And what the hell does my daughter have to do with it?"

Etienne grinned evilly. "She is the key to bypassing the security."

Alexis shook her head. "I'd rather die than help you," she said in between clenched teeth.

Cory turned around as the knife moved, blood squirting from the severed artery.

Cory fell off the couch as she awoke, screaming. Shaking, she wrapped the blanket around her as she sat on the floor, terrified for her mother's life.

AN: And the plot thickens!! So, I'll give y'all this much...The idea of the Santa actually comes from a real life person (who chooses to remain anonymous) that hands out 75,000 each year around Christmas. He literally just walks around a city and searches for people who need money and gives them 100 bills. Nice. I wish there could be more people like this Secret Santa! Anyway...I'm slowing down a work for a bit, so here's an extra chapter!

CSI junkie - I can promise you that it's not just a dream, but the way that things play out may be different. I'm glad you liked the chapter. I'm loving Etienne...he's by far the most evil bad guy that I've planned so far!

Bec0512 - Thanks! Yes, it's definitely the calm before the storm. How big the storm is won't be revealed until the sequel, though. (:D)

Soccer-Bitch - I'm sorry your getting sick! I'm finally healthy again (and back to working out), but I feel your pain! I'm glad you liked the chapter!

Aphina - It definitely does remind us of how distracted she's been and it was nice to have them all out together! I'll admit, I was dabbing away tears when I wrote her speech! I'm going to miss writing her when I finally get done with her story!

Maddy - Being so descriptive is why I would never make as a writer on the show. I'm so wordy and I love to describe stuff! Yes, this chapter brings some of the darkness back (although it is lightened a bit by Danny's case) and things get very dark for Cory! She's so going to need therapy after I'm done with her! Thanks!