6)

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:NY nor any of its characters.

A/N: Finally :)

Flack entered the lab, waving a sheet in his hands.

"Hey, you won't believe it!," he yelled and presented his typical boyish smile of triumph. Amused by his expression Stella gave him a smile, though she couldn't help destroying the moment.

"Sorry, Flack, you're too late. Sid already told us," she said teasingly and an instant later had to smile at Flack who was pulling a face.

"That this dead guy on the table right there was convicted of murderer years ago?"

"Well he must have," Stella replied.

"So what do you mean?," Flack asked, now complete confusion in his face. "Danny's just processed the DNA, it matches with the one of Jason Parker, convicted of manslaughter years ago. And he mentioned Lindsay knew a little something about that old case. He already told you?"

"No, all we know is what Sid's just explained to us, which is that the reason of death was lethal injection," Stella answered, trying to ignore the body in front of her.

Flack nodded impatiently, still holding the piece of paper in his hands.

"After Danny had finished with the DNA, I immediately tried to find out how that guy could end up here, in New York. Dead. They sent me this down from Texas," he said, handing over the piece of paper to Mac, who quickly skimmed it.

"His execution took place five days ago?"

"Yes."

Stella gave both of them a look of complete puzzlement.

"Hold it a second, guys! You know what that means, right?"

There was no answer, Mac, Sid and Flack waited for her to speak out the thought that had crossed their mind at the same time.

"It means that someone actually dug out the body, took it to NY, broke his bones, inflicted on him all these other injuries and then put him in the middle of some random street."

Still there was silence, caused both by surprise and by perplexity.

"Why would anybody do that?," Stella wondered, who first rather talked to herself, then out of a sudden searched for Mac's eye contact, hoping he could explain to her what was going on.

He looked down at the formerly nameless body, now Jason Parker.

"I don't have the faintest idea," he murmured. "Not the faintest."

---

Just a few minutes later the whole team met in Mac's office in order to get a general idea of the whole case and find the context between Jason Parker's crimes and the confusing situation they had to deal with now.

First of all Lindsay gave her co-workers a short overview of the old case 'Jason Parker', including the most important details about the murders, the victims and the following conviction. In a completely calm and professional way she told them about what she remembered and informed them about the fact that a detective from Montana, Thomas Horne, was killed as well.

While she was all focussed on her report Danny was nervously playing with a pencil and couldn't really concentrate on what she was actually saying.

His eyes were fixed on her the whole time she was speaking, moreover he was absolutely prepared to notice the slightest change in her voice, her expression, her body language.

But there was nothing.

Not a hint of excitement about her behaviour, no flurry.

Nothing.

At least nothing he could sense.

At the end of their discussion which ended at about 10 pm Mac had worked out a plan how to proceed from then on and told each one of his team what to do. Mainly they had wondered what could be the motive for this crime, a crime they couldn't even name. Desecration of a dead body, yes. But what else? If it was really just that, that case was way out of their field of responsibility.

However they all sensed there was more behind it, what they saw now was just a wall of fog, probably hiding something.

Still, there was the question after possible motives.

Hate?

Anger?

Revenge?

Out of a sudden Lindsay had actually come up with a completely different thought.

The desire for justice, a theory that brought up a new group of possible offenders: Parker's family, people, who had probably believed in him up to the end, who had maybe wanted to serve up justice, who were furious about their son's death.

They had arranged that Flack and Jess should interview Parker's parents the following day, while the others would go over everything again, process his clothes, get more information about the old cases.

---

After they had all left Mac stayed in his office for a while.

This was a case so extraordinary even he had no idea how to approach it.

It would be another sleepless night in Mac Taylor's life.

Not the only one for the following days.

---

Lindsay was about to enter the elevator when she suddenly heard Danny shout after her.

"Linds! Hey! Wait!"

She took a deep breath before she turned around and faced him with a big smile.

"What's up?," she asked, obviously intending to sound like bright sunshine.

He folded his arms and craned his neck as he would sometimes do when hypnotizing the pancakes he used to prepare on Sundays to get them just perfect for her.

"Why don't you just tell me?," he asked, pinning her with his gaze, but she refused to answer though managed to return his look.

"Linds," he started off again and stepped forward, leaving only a few inches between them, his voice all soft, though he couldn't hide that certain worried tone he couldn't remember having before meeting her.

"Please tell me what's going on in that beautiful head of yours."

At first moment she couldn't bear his gaze anymore and her eyes wandered off, searching for someone to come along the corridor. But no one was there to spare her this.

When she looked up again she was at the edge of tears, although in contrast to her shaking, vulnerable voice her eyes expressed strength.

"I can't ever talk about it. To nobody. Not even to you," she said and then entered the elevator, leaving him in a state of pure helplessness.