An hour later Flack frowned, he had just landed on Boardwalk with a hotel.

"How the hell that happened, you didn't have any money!" he looked at April, who smiled her innocent smile, "When you were distracted with singing along to "Born to be wild." I and Lindsay made a deal, I sold her Atlantic avenue for 350 bucks and then I could afford the hotel, so pay up."

"That's not fair."

"Using Messer's words, who said that life must be fair," Lindsay tapped her finger on the table and smiled. Although Flack was still upset, he was really happy that Lindsay and April got along so fine.

"My father," it all amused Flack a lot, there was a childish happy sparkle in his eyes, and Lindsay started to play along.

"Oh, your father, and I thought it was your mother."

"My mother has said something about life too, but I forget what it was." April looked up, "Grandmother says that life is easy, but people tend to make it difficult."

"You have a smart mother Flack."

"Yeah, I know."

Half an hour later Flack and April looked at her, "How did you do that?"

"What?" Lindsay was confused.

"How did you beat two Flacks?" Don looked at her with his big round eyes.

"I need to correct, I'm only half a Flack, but that's not the point, only Flacks beat Flacks in the game of monopoly."

"The girl is right."

"I used my brain and little strategy."

"Hey, Uncle Don," April smiled smugly at Flack, "I think you have found your match."

Flack stared at his niece, "Do I need arrest you again?"

"NO!! Uncle Doe," Lindsay looked at Flack, she had never heard such nickname, but he just shook his head and said with his eyes-only that she shouldn't ask, "Can we go for a walk?"

"Yeah, but are you against if Lindsay comes with us?"

"No, I'm not against it, but if she is, then…" there was strange sparkle in April's eyes, and devilish smile on her face.

"You are in Linds, aren't you? We could show you how New Yorkers spend their day off." Lindsay looked at Flack no-one had called her that way for years, she liked it, she saw something in Don's eye that she hadn't seen in the morning. He needed to talk to somebody, but the things he needed to talk about, weren't things what nine-year-old girl would understand.

"Ok, I'm in, show me how real New Yorkers spend their day off."

At their backs April threw her fist in the air, whispering "Yesssss!"


Bianchis had a beautiful old house, similar to the Flacks' house next door. Beside the staircase was a little stone angel, child-like, head and hands in prayer. It was a sad picture. Especially knowing what tragedy had recently happened in their family.

"They have lost a child before Melody." Stella looked at the little figure.

"How to you know?"

"It is common to put a little angel outside the house or into the garden in memory of the child they have lost." Mac understood their grief, although he hadn't lost a child. Sometimes he wished he had a child, then he would have someone, who was similar to Claire.

Middle-aged woman, with cried eyes, came and opened the door, "Yes?"

"Hello, Mrs. Sophia Bianchi?"

"Yes?"

"I'm detective Mac Taylor and this is detective Stella Bonasera, we are from the CSI and came to talk about Melody." Mrs. Bianchi stepped from the door, "You're Donny's friends, come in," they followed her to the living room. The house was as beautiful inside as it were outside. Everything was colorful and warm, everywhere were books, pictures and flowers. Every inch of the house made them feel as if they were at home and welcomed. It was very different from the apartment were Melody lived, "Can I offer you some tea, I just made."

"Yes, please." Mac answered for both of them. When Melody's mother vanished to the kitchen, Mac looked at Stella, "I don't understand, why girl who had grew up in the house like this could live in apartment like that?" Stella didn't have time to say anything else, because Mrs. Bianchi came into the room again, she gave both of them a cup.

"So how could I help you?"

"We have some questions about Melody?" tears came to the older woman's eyes, "Ask, maybe I can help somehow." Mac glanced at Stella, who understand and gave a weak smile at Sophia, "Did your daughter have a boyfriend?"

"No, she had only one boyfriend after Donny, no more."

"Did she have any enemies?" that question startled Sophia, "Enemies? Enemies… my girl, no, she was the sweetest, kindest girl you could ever found. She didn't have any enemies." Sophia was crying again, all that was hard for her, no one had ever prepared her for that her two children could die before her. Stella put comforting hand on her back, "Mrs. Bianchi, I can't say that I know what you feel, but I know that it hurt much." Sophia looked at her, "Thank you dear, I take myself together, so I could answer your questions."

"We think your daughter might have had an OCD. Could you tell us about it? You may think that it isn't connected, but in order to find the person who did this to your daughter, we need to have as much information as possible." Pain came back to Melody's mother's eyes, but she pulled herself together again, "It's a long story."

"We are here to listen. Please," Mac drank the tea.

"Okay, when I was 16, I had Melody, her father left me and I raised her by myself. When I was 22 I met and married Edward Bianchi, who later on adopted her. We tried for years have another child and after eight years it happened we had a son Tyler. It all happened 7 years ago. Once Melody was babysitting him, she looked aside for a moment and when she turned back he saw Tyler playing on the street. She saw a car coming and how Tyler got hit by a car. When we got back home, there were police cars, ambulance everywhere. Melody hadn't let go of Tyler, she was covered with his blood and Tyler was dead. After that she changed. She sold the apartment she had, and bought that one. She always blamed herself in the accident. She changed from a social and popular girl to someone who avoided being with people. Doctors couldn't tell, why her OCD developed, but it happened. She didn't want to have anything or anyone around her. She avoided this house and always wanted us to come to her place. She wasn't anymore the Melody we raised." She sighed and tears came back to her eyes. Mac and Stella stood up, "Thank you Mrs. Bianchi you were a lot of help. We can show ourselves out."

When they were in the car Stella sighed, "Poor woman, lose two children in one decade."

"Yeah, let's go back to the lab, maybe Danny and Sheldon, got more information from her co-workers."


Central park was a beautiful place, birds were singing, children were floating their toy boats, people were jogging or just walking and talking to each other. It was weird to walk next to Flack, Lindsay thought. Usually when she walked with a guy who was so tall, she would have felt strange, but with Flack it was all right.

"Uncle Don, can I go to that playground," April wanted to leave those two alone.

"Of course, but stay near so I could see you and don't talk with strangers."

"Okay, uncle."

When April ran away, Lindsay looked at Flack, "So tell me, what's with Uncle Doe?"

He sat on a nearby bench, "Well, when April was 4 years old, I and her dad, who is a lawyer, were talking about one case, where I caught John Doe. He was a serial killer, yet a rather intelligent and clever one. And April thought that we were talking about me, and she started to call me uncle Doe, years later she understood who John Doe was, but for some reason, she still likes to call me that." Lindsay smiled, everything, these two did or said showed, how much they loved each other. She suddenly saw April running towards them, "Uncle Don, Uncle Don," she took a breath, "Could you buy me a red balloon? Red reminds me of Christmas."

"Yeah, ok," Flack took few bucks from his pockets and gave those to April, "get yourself an ice cream too."

"Lindsay what does red remind you?"

"Red always reminds me of Rolling Stone's logo."

"What about you, Uncle Don?" Flack closed his eyes to think what red reminded him, and first thought that came up, was Melody's body. Blood was everywhere and he saw her open eyes. Even there he saw blood. He shook his head, " Umm…red reminds me always your grandmother's red tea pot, yeah, now go on and get that balloon or I want my money back." April was little disappointed, she had hoped for something more extravagant. When she ran to the balloon seller, Lindsay glanced at Don, "I know what red reminds you."

"You do? Of course you do, I just said what it reminds me"

"No, it reminds you blood."

"How do you know?"

"Because I saw your face," Flack frowned; Lindsay took his hand, strangely it fit perfectly, but Flack didn't notice that, "When she asked what red reminds me, I saw Melody lying in her blood. I don't want to talk about it. Okay."

"I understand. Let's talk about something else. Now, you are 29 years old, right, and your sister is two years younger, so then 27. And April is 9 years old. Your sister had her when she was 18? Quite young."

"You are right. When she was seventeen she started dating Patrick Douglas, our childhood friend, who was year older than I am. In the middle of her senior year she got pregnant. I'm her older brother and you know how most high-school relationships end up, so I had a little chat with Patrick, but luckily he is a decent guy and had already planned to marry her, even before Camille was pregnant with April. Now they're happily married and beside April they have a three year old son Sean."

"Tell me about your childhood friends, you have mentioned them today for at least three times. You seem to be really close with them."

"Camille and I had four friends and we all lived on the same street. You can imagine how much trouble can six kids, who are about the same age, cause. There were two boys: Patrick, April's father, and Colin, he was my best friend in high school, and two girls: Melody and Lauren. Patrick was the head of our gang, he was older and much bigger than us, and others were his followers. Patrick and Colin were those two with whom we drank together for first time; I told you about it, if my grandpa had kept our secret, we all would have had a big trouble. Colin's dad, just like mine was a policeofficer and Patrick's father was a well-known lawyer. When we all went to high school, we all sort of split into couples, Colin and Lauren, Melody and I, and of course Patrick and Camille."

"What has happened to them all?"

"Patrick and Camille are married, as I told you, Patrick works in the law firm McLeod, Saunders and Douglas. He continued his family's tradition and so did I, Camille opened a book store in Manhattan. I think you have been there," Lindsay nodded, "Colin is a businessman, he has been travelling around and lived for three years in Boston, but two months ago he moved back to New York, but we both have been too busy to meet." He fell into silence, Monroe looked at him, he suddenly seemed much older and weathered, " But what happened to Lauren?"

"Lauren died. She was 20. She had a cancer."

"Oh, I'm sorry, poor girl. The girls of your group have been unlucky. I'm sorry, Flack."

"Yeah," but he saw April running towards him and he smiled. April came with a balloon; she had finished her ice cream, "Uncle Don, you promised that we would go to movies today?"

"Yes, I remember, so what to you want to see?"

"There is one I really want to see, "Flushed away.""

"What's that about?"

"I'm not sure, but Hugh Jackman is gibing his voice to one of the characters, he is so cute."

"Who?" April looked at him as he was crazy.

"You really don't know?"

"No."

"Oh, Uncle Don, you are so old! " she ran away. Lindsay stared at Flack, Don didn't understand anything, "What?"

"You really don't know, who is Hugh Jackman?"

"No!" Lindsay laughed.

"Oh, when was the last time you went to the movies? You don't know one of the best actors in Hollywood. I think half of the women have a crush on him."

"No, I remember the times when girls had crushes on Nicolas Cage, John Travolta and Johnny Depp."

"Oh, we still have crushes on them, but you can never have too many good-looking actors," then she smiled, "But April is right, you are so old." Then she took off after April.

"Women"


Mac and Stella stepped out from the elevator; Danny and Sheldon were walking towards them.

"Hey, Danny!" Stella shouted, devilish smile on her face.

"Stella! Shush!" Danny and Sheldon grabbed their head.

"Oh, still got hangover?"

"Yeah, you can see it very well"

"That's good! Next time you are drinking you'll remember that you've got to come to work the next day!" Stella said that a little louder than she should.

"Stella, why are you doing this? We have never and I mean never been mean, well not especially mean with you," Danny and Hawkes looked at her innocently and still holding their heads.

"Because Flack isn't here, and he certainly would use that opportunity. And now I'm doing his job."

"Ok, stop tormenting them. Did you get anything useful from her co-workers?"

"Well, she didn't have any enemies, as they know. She was always a perfect worker. Though, they said that she was always really friendly and all that, but she preferred to be alone. Therefore her co-workers don't know much about her personal life. Everybody respected her too much and didn't ask why she was like that. "

"Her mom said the same vary thing," Stella agreed.

"Anyway, no boyfriend, she was a workaholic; she had two close friends they knew about: Patrick Douglas, that's Flack's brother-in-law, and Colin Macbert, he is also Flack's friend." Sheldon looked from his notes.

"So first we must ask Flack about them, before we go and question them, I think Flack should do that at least at first."

"You are right," Danny nodded.


When Flack was buying them a hot dog, April cornered Lindsay, "I'm so glad you're dating my uncle, all the other women he dated were two legged goofballs. My mom said that they have an intelligence of a doorknob."

"I'm not dating your uncle. We are just friends and co-workers."

"Don't you like him?" April was bit disappointed, but if Lindsay had looked closer, she would have seen that sparkle that meant that she won't stop until Flack and Lindsay are dating, married and have 3 children.

"No, I do like him, he is a great friend, "The little girl confused her, what was she supposed to say. April looked at her and kept the eye contact.

"But why not to date him then? Don't you like him enough for that? I think you do!" Lindsay couldn't answer her, because Flack was coming back with their meals.

"So, you two, eat up your lunch and when you're done, we are sending Linds to her home."

"Okay, Uncle Don." When they started walking towards Lindsay's house, Monroe was quiet, April's words made her think about their friendship and what did she really felt for Flack. Did she really like him that way? Probably April was just bit manipulative. She suddenly noticed that they were already at her place.

"It was really nice to meet you April."

"It was nice to meet you too, Lindsay. I hope we'll start to meet more often," she winked to Lindsay. Flack saw that, but didn't understand what it meant.

"See you at work tomorrow, Flack."

"Yeah, Linds, have a nice night. I hope you get more sleep."

"You too, bye."

When Lindsay had closed the door, April and Flack started to walk towards the subway.

"I like her, uncle Doe."

"Yeah, really?" Flack grabbed gently her neck from the back.

"Yeah, she communicates with me on the same level."

"What was This supposed to mean? All others do too."

"No, uncle Doe, all your girlfriends are talking to me as if I was still 3-year-old, but I actually guess it is because of their limited vocabulary, but Lindsay treats me as a big girl, only you do that too."

"I see." They walked in silence.

"Uncle Don, why won't you date her?"

"April, we are just friends and co-workers."

"Really?"

"Really"

"Yeah right." April said that and took off; Flack waited for a second and ran after her.