Flack looked Stella in the eye. "How long have I known you Stella? How long?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know. A while though," Stella said, her eyes looking down at the table.

"A long time. Don't lie to me, Stella. Did you do it?" he asked, cutting past the details and getting straight to the point.

"No, Flack, I wouldn't do that. I loved Lindsay just as much as you all did." Stella said, now fidgeting with her hands.

"I believe you Stella, but if you are lying to me about even one detail, so help me," Flack said threateningly.

Stella nodded meekly and grew quiet again.


Mac looked at Peyton with a similar amount of saddened suspicion.

"Peyton...tell me you understand where we're coming from." Mac demanded.

"I do, but..." Peyton trailed off.

"Peyton, you just happened to be back in town in time for her death. You happened to be at the park shortly after we discovered her body. All of the evidence corresponds to you," Mac said.

"Mac...I didn't even know the girl. Why would I kill her? Plus, you know just as well as I do that Stella is also fully implicated. So why do you insist on making me out to be the only possible killer?" Peyton said, obviously emotionally wounded.

"Peyton, you know this isn't personal. I'm just trying to get the bottom of this and I would appreciate your cooperation." Mac said, pleadingly. "Just work with me here."

"Fine. You want to know the truth? I'll tell you it," she began.


Stella looked up at Flack.

"You want to know something Flack? And I don't care how bad it makes me look. I just need to get it off my chest," Stella said, tearing up a bit.

Flack simply nodded, urging her to keep talking.

"I loved Lindsay like a daughter, but I was so jealous of her. So unbelievably jealous. She just had that unbelievable knack to solve every case. I could do all of the grunt work. Collect all of the evidence. Analyze everything. Interview everyone. Do absolutely everything myself, but she still seemed to be able to click that last puzzle piece into place right before I did. It aggravated me so, but...you have to believe me Flack," she said, tears steadily streaming down her face. "I'd never kill Lindsay. Ever."

Flack nodded again. "Stella, you know I believe you. You know we all believe you, but you also have to look at this objectively. How is everyone else going to see this?"

"I understand," Stella said sadly and went back to looking down, her thick curls masking the sorrow that her face held.


Mac looked at Peyton. "This better be damn good, Peyton."

"Oh. It is," Peyton said calmly, her voice even. "I hated that bitch. She always got what she wanted and she could never leave anything for the rest of us. Who solved every damn case? Her. Who got the love of that Danny fellow? Her."

It was at this point that Danny noticed his fist was clenching and he was gritting his teeth. "I'll kill that bitch," he muttered.

"And who got the everlasting admiration and focus of the boss man, Mr. Mac Taylor?" Peyton continued. "Her. She got everything and I was sick of it. That is why I left, Mac. I couldn't stand seeing her succeed even further anymore. But unfortunately, I didn't get the immense pleasure of killing her. Lord knows I would've loved to, but I didn't. You're looking at the wrong girl in me, Mac."

Mac just looked at her, showing absolutely no emotion. "You absolutely sicken me," he said with more hatred in his voice than he ever thought he could muster.


After both of the ladies confessed their inner secrets in relation to Lindsay, Hawkes and Danny discovered the breakthrough they had been looking for and tried to get Flack and Mac's attention. The evidence results had come in and the killer was now known.

Lindsay's killer was about to be brought to justice.


Mac walked back into the interrogation room holding the lab results he had just received and sat back down across from Peyton.

"Congratulations, Peyton. You've been cleared," Mac said somberly.

"I told you I didn't kill the bitch." she said with a delighted smirk, standing up and glaring at Mac.

"Even if you're not a killer, you're still disgusting and hopefully one of these days, you'll get punished for that," Mac said, fighting back the bile that threatened to rise up and spew across the table.

"You say the sweetest things, Mac," Peyton laughed, walking to the door of the interrogation room, opening it and stepping out.

Unfortunately for her, before she took two steps out, she had a very pissed off Danny standing in her face, glaring daggers at her. If looks could kill, she was nearly certain that she would be dead right now.

"How dare you call her that!" Danny screamed at her, his voice raised.

Mac rushed over to the scene and called out in a loud voice, "Doctor! Get Danny out of here!"

The Doctor grabbed Danny's arm, dragging him away from Peyton and toward the morgue.

"Let me go! That bitch deserved to get her ass kicked!" Danny said, squirming to try to escape from the Doctor's clutch.

"That's no way to deal with it though. You're in a crime lab. The number of witnesses that could see you and allow her to press charges..." the Doctor said, trying to calm Danny down.

"I don't care! That bitch deserved to die!" Danny said, running on the adrenaline he had built up over the course of the day's events.

The Doctor never had a chance to respond to Danny's declaration, as he ran into a familiar face.


Minutes before, Flack had went back into the interrogation room with Stella and sat across from her.

"You couldn't just tell me the truth, could you?" Flack said, clearly annoyed.

"What are you ta-" Stella started to say, but was interrupted by a very angry Flack.

"The evidence is right here Stella! Your hair! Your fingerprints on the pen! Your footprint! It's all pretty damn clear to me that you did it!" Flack said, hovering over Stella, invading her personal space.

"I didn't mean to!" Stella screamed, hysterically crying. "She just...I don't even know. Lindsay and I were walking to go pick up some take out. It all started off innocently enough. Lindsay had just cracked a really tough case and she was pretty excited. But then...everything changed. She got all smug and started rubbing it in and normally, I would just laugh it off, but...something...I don't know Flack. Something just...overcame me and I felt this insane sense of anger, so I reached into my purse and grabbed the first thing I found: my tweezers. I just couldn't stop. I just kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing."

Stella started to cry even harder and felt herself physically shaking, her shoulders trembling and she felt as though she could nearly dry heave.

"She just...fell. And then the anger dissipated and I looked down at her body and saw what I had done. I couldn't tell anyone. Danny would have killed me. So I ran as fast as I could and threw the tweezers into a nearby dumpster and then acted like nothing had happened when everyone got there. I'm so sorry," she finished, tears running rapidly down her cheeks and soaking the tendrils of hair that covered her face.

Flack sighed and stood up, taking Stella with him, reciting the familiar words that both of them knew so well. "Stella Bonasera, you're under arrest for the murder of Lindsay Monroe. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney..."

Rose and Hawkes just looked on in sheer horror.

"I can't believe she'd do that," Hawkes said quietly, staring straight ahead in shock.

"Yeah...she seemed so nice," Rose mused under her breath, turning toward the door to go and try to find the Doctor. But, by a stroke of luck, she didn't have to go very far to find him, considering as she stepped out, she ran directly into him.