A/N: I'm back. Sorry, that it took me almost half a year to write the eighteenth chapter, but I finally did it.
I'm not going to bore you the reasons why it took me so long.
But I want to say that if I calculate correctly it should be only four chapters more and I hope to write them quickly.
But now Enjoy the chapter.
The lab was strangely quiet at 3 pm when Danny came back from church. He had processed the crime scene for three hours and he hoped that Adam or Kendall had found something from amongst the evidence he had sent to the lab, but he frowned because Mary, not Adam or Kendall, was processing his evidence. He knew that he was going to have another wit fight with her and he wasn't in the mood for that.
"Goddamn."
"Don't swear in my lab, Messer."
"It's not your lab."
"When I'm in this lab, you don't swear." Danny frowned; Adam and Kendall were processing Stella and Sheldon's crime scene evidence across the room.
"So, what have you got for me?"
"I looked thru her bag; she had everything that a woman needs, nothing strange. Oh, and I checked the keys she was staying at the Waldorf."
"Who was paying the bills, she herself, or her company."
"Messer, it's your job to find that out." Danny made a face to her. Mary smirked; she was getting under Danny's skin again.
"I also cleaned the cover of the matchbox you found." Danny stepped closer; he had found a matchbox under the bench near the body.
"So what is on it?"
"Lachesis."
"What? Show me."
"Here." Mary looked puzzled when Danny took a closer look at the box. "Shit, it can't be."
"What is it?" Mary was so interested that she didn't even scold Danny for swearing.
"Lachesis is Flacks uncle's restaurant."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure I have eaten there many times."
"The murderer knows Flack well."
"Yes and it also has another meaning, Lachesis is the Greek goddess of destiny, the measurer of lifelines."
"It's symbolical in both ways."
"Yeah, by the way, talking about eating, would you want to go out to dinner with me?" Mary looked at Danny as if he was crazy.
"Messer what did you inhale in that church?"
"Nothing!"
"Then you're serious?"
"Yeah, I want us to have dinner sometime, together."
"Tell me, why would I want to go out with you?"
"I don't know, maybe because I'm handsome, funny and quick-witted."
"Messer, I'll let you in on a little secret, even if I was threatened to be tortured with hot pikes and thrown into a pit with king cobras, I wouldn't go out with you."
"Why not!?" Danny asked with genuine amazement, he had been so certain that Mary would agree.
"Because you have one of the biggest egos I ever have seen. You think you're Gods greatest gift to womankind."
Danny watched her in shock, "So you're saying no?"
"Of course I'm saying no and I think that you should leave me alone now. I have some processing to do and Mac said that he would be waiting for you in the morgue when you get back in." Danny shook his head in amazement and walked out.
The next moment Adam stood beside Mary, "Why did you say no, I know you want to go out with him."
Mary smirked, "I'll let him fry a little, I want him to see that not every woman is as loose as he thinks."
"You're mean!"
"Yes, I know that, but hey, that's the way I like it." Adam walked back to Kendall with a smirk on his face and a minute later they both started laughed hard.
Lindsay leaned on to the kitchen door; dammit she should kill that bastard when they get him. Just as they were getting Flack back, he had started pacing like caged lion again.
"Donno?"
"I don't know what to do anymore."
"What to you mean?" Lindsay stepped closer and saw Flack taking a step back. Not this again!
"Everyone I care about is getting hurt. It seems like that I shouldn't love at all."
"Flack, stop it right there. Think what you're talking about. Everyone deserves love; don't let that bastard get into your head. We will get him and he won't hurt you anymore. Try to get it through that thick skull of yours – this is not your fault, none of it is."
Flack shook his head and started pacing again. Lindsay frowned; it was time to call in the cavalry.
She walked into the kitchen and called the only person who could help her at that point. "Hey, could you do me a favor."
Mac was talking to Sid in the morgue just as Danny stepped in.
"Hey, you wanted to see me."
Mac turned, "Yeah, I thought you should be here when we look over the body."
Sid looked, "I don't have anything to tell you that you don't know already. She has been dead three or four days like Melody and Olivia."
"Let me guess? She died of a cocaine overdose?" Mac looked Samantha's arms.
"You guessed right. She was raped just like the others; the rapist used condoms so no sperm. There isn't any hair or fingerprints either. Nothing!"
"What about the words." Danny felt cold shivers go up to his spine when he looked at those words.
"That is one of the sickest thing I have ever seen. As much as I could tell he has used same sharp object he used on Olivia's body and washed her body clean after writing."
"Do you have anything new to tell us? Most serial killers would have slipped up by now."
"No, but I'll work on it and let you know as soon as I find something."
"Thanks Sid." Danny walked out with Mac.
"You got something from Mary?"
"You mean besides the usual sarcastic responses and a huge ego crushing?"
"Yeah." Mac smirked, that's why he liked Mary – she was able to hold her ground with Danny.
"Samantha's keys are from the Waldorf and the matchbox I found is "Lachesis's""
"Could we make it so that you didn't tell me the last thing?" Mac massaged his temples, this day was just getting better and better.
"Sorry Mac! What did you find out?"
"She has only a great-aunt who lives in Australia and who is 96 years old, no other close relatives. She hasn't kept in touch with any of her friends she had three years ago. I hadn't had time to call Los Angels yet."
"So we are back in the beginning."
"No, not yet, take Sheldon and go search her room, he and Stella just got back from their last case."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'll make some calls."
Lindsay sighed; she had convinced Don to take a nap an hour ago so she could put her plan into action. If she was right, her boyfriend should sleep a half an hour more that should give her and her and her partner in crime time to finish planning. She hoped that it would work. She knew that raising Don's spirit, when he had buried himself into a dark hole, was going to be hard but she hadn't given up before and she wasn't about to start now.
"Lindsay!" A quiet call came from the living room, just in the nick of time to execute her plan.
When Flack woke up half an hour later the apartment was quiet, usually when Lindsay was there he could hear her when he woke up.
He walked out of the room. The apartment was dark, the only light came from the living room; he stopped in shock as he stepped in. There were on only two lamps on – one beside the couch and other beside the armchair; two armchairs had been dragged closer to the coffee table and Lindsay was sitting on the couch wearing a vest on a white blouse and a black hat. Just like in the old gangster movies where the characters played poker.
"Donny! Welcome to monopoly night, we thought you should relax a little."
"We?" that was the only thing what Flack registered from that sentence.
"Uncle Doe, am I really invisible?" April was sitting smilingly in one of the armchairs; she was dressed like Lindsay.
"I just didn't see you there," Flack laughed and pulled April into a strong hug, "So would one of you like to explain all of this."
"I think Lindsay should to that, because it was her idea."
Flack let April go and sat in the other armchair, "So?"
"Well I though that we should to something fun. So I though I could organize you a poker night like in the old movies. Then I thought why a poker night, monopoly night would be much more fun and April came to help me with it. So here we are." Flack could only smirk. His Angel and his sunshine lifted his mood. It all looked really like the old poker game scenes but the cigarettes and whisky were replaced by lollypops and dark lemonade.
Flack looked at Lindsay, "Thank you."
"No problem."
"Let me guess, you'll be the banker again?" Don asked With raised eyebrow.
"Of course! April didn't want to be and she will tell everyone who would listen that you cheat."
"I do not."
"Yes you do, uncle Don, now shut up and play. You may even have the racecar."
Flack looked at her strangely; April's left eyebrow went high "What?"
"You're giving me the racecar? Freely?"
"Yeah and so?"
"That won't do, squirt."
"Why not, uncle Don?"
"Because you have to fight me for it, that's the tradition." April smiled at him wickedly.
"Okay, I want the racecar."
"You can't have it, its mine."
"Why must you always take it?"
"Because it's mine, my own, my precious." Flack did perfect impression of Gollum.
"You're crazy, you know that uncle Don."
"Oh I'm crazy, look who's talking."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean."
"Really April, you're my niece and you can't understand something so simple?"
April sent him a mock expression of angriness, "I'm not crazy, uncle Don."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are."
Lindsay looked with amusement at Flack and Aprils bickering. It seemed like Don was back at last, then she remembered how many times she had thought that, but she hoped. Lindsay chuckled as she looked at Don and April, there sat the man who called her and Danny kindergarten children. If that is not sing of recovery, then she was Dalai Lama.
Hawkes and Messer stepped into Samantha's hotel room at the Waldorf.
"So what did you got from the reception desk?" Sheldon put his kit down.
"That Samantha registered into hotel for three weeks, a week and a half ago and also that she hasn't been in for a week."
"So he has a pattern. He kidnaps them, tortures them for three days and then kills them." Sheldon walked to the bed.
Danny walked to desk by the window, "We have her computer, do you think maybe we could get some answers from here."
"Maybe, you can never be certain with women, they save things that men think useless." Sheldon mumbled and examined the bed sheets with ultraviolet lamp.
"Yes, usually the things what men think useless are actually important."
"There aren't any bodily fluids on the sheets. I'll go and look around in the bathroom."
"I'll examine this room, because it seems like I have to give this thing to Zack. She had her computer under lock and key."
After an hour Sheldon and Danny meet up again in the middle of the room.
"So, what did you find?" Danny put a plastic bag into his kit.
"The bathroom is like all bathrooms, normal things for personal hygiene, and only one set of fingerprints. I think there are Samantha's."
"Same here, no personal effects, only the computer, it seems like she came here and planed stay only few days, but why then would she reserve this room for three weeks. I found also one set of fingerprints and one red hair, but I am afraid that those are also Samantha's."
"Lets go, we can't do anything else here." Sheldon grabbed his kit. As he headed for the door, he suddenly noticed something.
"Danny, didn't you see this?" Sheldon crouched down and picked up a white piece of cloth from under the cupboard.
"It was so against the wall that I didn't notice it. What is it?" Danny asked standing next to Sheldon.
Hawkes smelled the cloth, "Chloroform! Is he getting sloppy?"
"No, I think he left it on purpose. Mac and Stella found one from Melody's apartment. He is sending us a message, and I think it say's, "You can hunt me, but you can't find me.""
"I think you're right, but that means he took her with him from here and if I know correctly Waldorf has video cameras on every floor." A hopeful smile formed on Hawkes face.
"I call Mac; you go and find hotel chief of security." Danny smirked.
Don was looking at the ending of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and he wardrobe". April had fallen a sleep forty-five minutes ago by his left side and Lindsay an half an hour later by his right side. He couldn't feel his arms anymore but he was happy. April had kicked both his and Lindsay's butts in monopoly and as the winner she wanted to watch Narnia.
Flack felt like his own self again, a feeling that had eluded him for a long time. His Angel and Sunshine had finally accomplished what they had tried to do for weeks – bring back the Don Flack they all knew and loved.
April shifted herself into a more comfortable position when in the movie Mr. Tumnuse put a crown on Peter's head.
Flack shook his head; he didn't know where he had been lost – he had fallen into some kind of a depressive black hole that had closed its walls around him so hard that he had forgotten how to be himself.
It was all starting to come back; he remembered that the most important thing in life wasn't him – but his family, friends and team. His eye shifted on the pictures on the bureau, there was something different about them, he had felt it a week ago when he had looked them. However, his brain hadn't registered what it was then. Nevertheless, now he saw it, Lindsay had added a picture of herself amongst the other. Discovering that something clicked inside of him, at last detective Donald Flack Jr. had pulled himself together, put every piece in its right place, and it felt good.
Don kissed Lindsay gently, when in the movie Professor and Lucy walked out from the spear room, "Wake up sleeping beauty, it is time to put the kid to bed."
Lindsay stirred, when she opened her eyes she was confused about the place and the words. Then she recognized the room and saw Flacks smiling face, "Oh, hey."
"You slept through the ending of the movie."
"Sorry, I was tired."
"You're not the only one." They both looked at sleeping April.
"We should wake her." Flack pushed a stray lock from Aprils face.
"Why?"
"Because I cant lift heavy things until the end of next week and she is too heavy for you."
"She is nine years old, how heavy can she be?"
"You would be surprised."
"You know I can walk myself." Suddenly came a voice from Flack left side.
"You should be sleep." Don frowned.
"I was until you started arguing about how heavy I'm. Every decent girl wakes up to that."
"Very funny, now go to bed."
April rolled her eyes, "Yes, uncle Don." She started going but stopped at the door and walked back and kissed Flack on the cheek, "I love you, uncle Don. Good night."
"And I love you to. Now scoot." April ran out from the door.
"You should be in bed too. You have to go work tomorrow." Don looked at Lindsay.
"You're right. Come on." Lindsay pulled Flack up.
In another part of the city a man was smiling, a little bit more and he would finally have his revenge.
