Flack was frustrated, he still had two more weeks to go before he could go back to work and he couldn't even seek solace from a bottle because he still had one week of meds to go. All this boredom and inactivity made him so bitchy that only Lindsay could stand him for more than a couple of hours; everyone else ran screaming from him. His brooding was momentarily stopped by the doorbell but it returned as he saw Danny grinning at him after opening the door.

"It's your day with me, right?" Flack groaned

"Now what gave you that idea?!"

"Maybe the smirk on your face and the pizza box in your hand!"

"Oh the little detective is still in you."

"Grow up, Danny."

"I can't if you're sulking like this."

"I don't sulk."

Danny rolled his eyes, "Yes you do. Now eat the pizza and after that we are going for a ride."

Flack made a face at him and grabbed the box, "You're a pain in the ass you know that?"

"Look who's talking." Danny followed Flack into the living room. "Oh God, she was right."

"What now?" Flack hated that everyone thought they knew what was best for you when you are ill.

"Montana just warned me that you have gone crazy and are cleaning everything, she was right." He looked around the room; vacuum cleaner was still connected and the room was filled with strange boxes.

"Man, you should see someone." Flack just gave him the New York hello.


Flack was in a foul mood. As he looked out of the car window he started to sulk again and Danny decided to blow some life in his best friend.

"So you're coming back to work in two weeks?"

"Yeah, so?"

"It's going to be fun."

"Why? You're not going to drop a bucket of pink paint on me again, are you?"

"No, I'm going to see how you kill de Boise."

"Why should I kill de Boise, has he done anything to me."

"Oh I don't know, maybe because he's hitting on Montana."

"What!?" That was the response what Danny had hoped.

"After learning that Montana was your girlfriend, he is trying every line in the book to enchant her."

"He is what?" Danny saw the glint coming back to his friends eyes.

"You heard me the first time."

"Oh, now I'm definitely going to kill him."

"Good because you don't have to hide the body or the evidence. Me, Montana, Mac, Stella, Sheldon, Adam and Mary are going to hide them for you."

"So he has made some "friends" in the lab."

"Definitely, we all love him to pieces." Flack started laughing he hadn't done that in days.

"So would you tell me were we're going?"

"I'm going to show you a car I think I'm going to lease."

"So you are going to get a new car?"

"Yeah and I want to have your opinion about it."

Flack had been quiet all through the test drive listening to Danny praise his choice.

"So, what do you think" Danny asked with the biggest smile possible.

"You want to lease yourself a Mercedes?" Flack asked as they sat back into their car.

"Yeah, I'm pushing the paperwork through so that I could get it for my birthday next week."

"A Mercedes, Danny."

"Don't growl, Donno. It's going to be my car not your's." Their little bantering was stopped by Danny's pager going off. "Hey, I'm supposed to have the day off." Flack smirked, that was a part of his job he didn't miss.

"I'm going to have to take you back home." Danny said hitting the gas pedal, "They have a homicide and shortage of CSIs."

"Don't worry about me." Flack hoped that he could have some peace and quiet.


Danny arrived on the crime scene same time as Lindsay.

"So what do we have?"

"I didn't get the details but de Boise is here, he'll tell us."

"Oh, I'm not in the mood for another lecture on how bad we are in our work." He said grabbing his kit from the car.

"So you haven't heard the news yet?"

Danny synchronized his step with Lindsay's, "No."

"I'm going to enjoy this, there's finally something I knew before you." The smile lit up Lindsay's face.

"Oh, don't be so smug and just tell me what you know."

"De Boise just submitted a transfer request to Chicago."

"You're kidding?" He looked at Lindsay's face, "You're not kidding; we'll finally be rid of Buckface."

"Danny!" Lindsay scolded but started laughing as well.

"So let's talk about other things, how's Flack?"

"Grumpy as usual."

"I thought as much. I hope that when he comes back to work in two weeks he will be back to his old self:"

"Don't get your hopes up, we have irritated him for too long, he'll find a way to make our lives miserable."

"That's my Donny." Lindsey smiled.

"Well, well Messer and Monroe" said De Boise interrupting their little conversation as he stepped out of from the church.

"And a good day to you too." Lindsay smiled sweetly but in her mind she was thinking out ways to murder that goddamn detective.

"Hello Lindsay, what are you doing tonight? Maybe we could go out and have dinner." Danny stiffened, that goddamn Buckface was hitting on to his brothers – Danny considered Don has a brother – girlfriend, but he let Lindsay handle him.

"I'm sorry Carl, but tonight I'm going to sit before TV with my boyfriend drinking wine and eating Uncle Ralf's lasagna." De Boise mouth was hanging open, he had tried for four weeks ask Lindsay out but she always said no, he couldn't understand what did Flack have that he didn't.

"Carl, would you please tell us about the case."

De Boise quickly got himself together, "All that I can say is that we're dealing with one sick bastard." Walking further down the aisle Lindsay and Danny understood what he meant by that. Before the altar there laid a body of a woman. She was stripped naked and place there with her hair covering her face and her hands and feet spread apart.

"Danny, doesn't this scene remind you of something?"

"A little too much, I hope we're wrong."

De Boise interrupted their discussion again.

"She was found this morning by father Jones. The only things that we found at the scene were her keys and purse but no ID. The church is open 24/7 and neither Father Jones nor the night guard saw or heard anything."

"Danny, I think it's time to call Mac."

"Montana wait, lets process the body first. We don't know if we're right yet."

De Boise left the two and went to talk to the priest. "Father Jones."

"Yes." The priest lifted his head from prayer.

"I'm detective de Boise. Can you answer some questions?"

"I can try but I can't promise anything." De Boise sat beside the priest on the bench.

"Let's begin from last night. When did you leave?"

"Well, I left around 9 pm after checking everything, Tom Wearn the other guard was still on duty; Rich Howard replaced him at 11 pm. I left through the side door that is always kept locked. Everything was normal."

"What happened this morning?"

"I came in at about 10 am, I start taking confessions at 11 am, Rich had just left. Then I saw her, lying there before the altar."

"And the side door was locked when you came in."

"Yes."

"Thank you. Could you tell me where I could find this Rich Howard?"

"He is sitting two rows back."

"Here's my card if you remember anything else." De Boise walked to the night guard.

"Rich Howard?"

"Yes." The man seemed more bothered by the murder than the priest.

"I'm detective de Boise, could you answer a few questions."

"I can try."

"So, you arrived at 11 pm?"

Howard looked the Jesus painted behind the altar, "Yes, after Tom left I checked everything, the side door was locked and there was no body before altar. The night was quiet, two women came and left at around 3 am and that was all."

"Everything was quiet. I didn't even saw her there, I learn about the body when father Jones called me."

"So nothing happened."

"No, sorry." De Boise scowled, maybe Lindsay was right and that woman there was one of Flacks – It seemed like that.

"Thanks, here's my card if you remember anything."

In the mean time, Lindsay and Danny were finishing processing the body and the scene.

"There's nothing here, Lindsay, she is wiped clean."

Lindsay lifted her eyes from the camera, "So should I call Mac?"

"Wait a little I'll turn the body around then we'll see." Lindsay stepped closer.

"Oh god."

"That sick bastard. Make that call, Montana."

"You know her?" She had had a bad feeling about that case from the beginning.

"Yeah, she's Samantha Fitzryan. Don dated her three years ago." Danny closed his eyes – the message engraved on the stomach of this poor woman would hunt him forever. "Well Flack, you forgot to protect your back. Still believe in God?"

Danny had liked Sam, she was wonderful woman, but she had moved to Los Angeles for business, and the long distance relationship didn't work for them. Now she was lying dead in a church in New York City with her body being used to mock God and Flack.

"So this is our secondary crime scene?" Danny turned around, Mac stood behind him.

"How did you get here so fast?"

"I came to help you with this case, seems that my feeling was right."

"You suspected that it was another one against Flack?" Lindsay looked at the face off the young woman who had been before her.

"Yes, the murder scene description was too familiar. Lindsay, you can have the rest of the day off, go and tell Don." Lindsay only nodded and left.

"Carl did you get anything from the priest and the guard."

"No, as usual no one saw or heard anything."

Mac rubbed his face. "Danny, if you're finished processing the body send it to morgue and send the evidence to Mary, then come to my office. I'll try to find some of her relatives."

"Right boss."


Don was lying on the couch, watching Jake and the Fatman second season from the DVD, Colin had given him all 5 seasons for his birthday because it was his childhood favorite, being one of the reasons he became a cop. He was in the middle of "Why can't you behave?" when his cell rang, the number was hidden but at that moment he didn't care.

"Yeah, Flack."

"Now is that a polite way to answer a phone, Flack?" That voice – Don sat up immediately.

"What to you want, asshole?"

"Just to talk! I heard that you and your precious team aren't getting any closer to figuring out who I am. Poor, poor policemen, how can you be so simpleminded?"

"Who are you? How do you know these things?"

"It's for me to know and for you to find out. I'm closer to you than you think and at the same time so far, far away."

"Goddamn it, don't play riddles with me?"

"But I enjoy it. Tell me Flack did you really think that I'll go after Lindsay first. You're a fool, but hey, that's what I like about you. So I made you a present, I think Lindsay found her. Enjoy." The phone went mute. Flack was in shock. The only thing he could do was look at the phone. Few minutes later it rang.

"Yeah, Zack did you get anything?"

"Sorry, the call was still too short."

"Thanks anyways."

"Your welcome."

Don closed the phone, another one but why, who was this guy? Why the hell did he want to hurt him? What had he done to deserve something like that? Was it because he was a good cop or did he hurt someone in his teenage years.

"Donny?" Flack came out from the haze he had been so immerged in that he hadn't even heard when Lindsay came in.

"Who did he kill?"

"What?" Lindsay didn't understand how Flack could know that she had come to tell him about another murder.

"Lindsay, who did that son of a bitch kill?"

"Samantha Fitzryan."

It hurt, so much. Again because of him, some crazy had killed a good woman, "Why her!"

"I don't know Donny."

"How did he do it?"

"Like Melody and Olivia. But this time he was crueler?"

Flack lifted his eyes, "What to you mean?"

"He left you a message carved into Samantha's stomach."

"What?" Flack was lost for words; the pain was so great that he couldn't breathe. He closed his eyes and read to ten, he felt Lindsay's hand on his back.

"What was the message?"

"Well Flack, you forgot to protect your back. Still believe in God?"

"He knows me well, too well."

"What are you saying?" Lindsay sat beside him and hugged him tightly.

"My mother raised me as a catholic, hell my roots are Italic an Irish - it is in my blood to be a catholic but I never was much into it, I went to church to please my mother, I believe in god, but not the way that true catholic should. I don't go Mass and I haven't been to confession in a long time. My mother has accepted my way, thank heavens she's more liberal in relational believing. But the murderer knows that and uses it against me. That's what the riddle meant."

"What riddle."

"He called me, that's how I knew he had killed someone and gave me a riddle – "I'm closer to you than you think and at the same time so far, far away."He meant that he knows everything about me, but for me it's hard to find him or he could be meaning something completely different." At that moment, he started to cry and Lindsay held him tighter. The tough New York cop felt like a little boy in her arms.


Somewhere in the city a maniac was smiling, everything was going as planned. Soon it will end and he will finally have his revenge.


A/N: So here is te chapter 17, I hope you enjoy. But the chapter 18 will be delaied, because I'm going to take a trip for nine days, and I don't take my laptop with me, but I promise to take my notebook with me so I try to write it in there and post as soon as I can. And again enjoy, there will be 5 or 6 chapters more and then come the end.