Author's Note : One reference of mild language contained within. Thanks for the reviews Sugary-Sweet-Lemon-spy and Lamby.

Scene Two

Detective Don Flack met the head of the New York Crime Lab, Detective Mac Taylor as he pulled up in the Avalanche outside the building that housed New York's latest homicide crime scene. Flack went straight to the boot to pull out Mac's silver case that contained his forensics kit whilst Mac paused to adjust his shades and removed the keys from the ignition.

"Hey Don." Mac greeted the younger man as he shut the door of the car behind him, a zap of the key fob locking the door. "How're you holdin' up?"

To be fair, Mac noticed, Don didn't even flinch. He was made of tough stuff. Ever since the death of his girlfriend and colleague, Jess Angell, Flack had been a shadow of his former self. No longer the wise-cracking, smart-assed, go-getter of previous times, Don had become as obsessed with work as Mac himself. It worried Mac, as Don's friend, that he could see so much of what he had been through after the death of his wife. But there was no stink of alcohol permeating the air between them as there had been on previous occasions, Flack had shaved three days in a row and a little life had returned to his eyes, which was a definite improvement on recent times.

"Better." Flack answered honestly. He chuckled as Mac stifled a yawn. "Long night?"

"Covered a lot of ground and got nowhere." Mac grimaced, then smiled sideways at Flack. "You know how it gets sometimes. So... you sounded puzzled on the phone earlier, you wanna clue me in?"

"You and I have seen some pretty weird shit in our time, Mac, but this one?" Flack raised his eyebrows as he opened the door to the building for Mac. "Good luck."

Mac led the way across the foyer, past the security desk and hit the call button for the elevator. Something in Flacks voice made Mac stay silent. All in all, Mac was a patient man. He knew that Stella Bonesera, Danny Messer and Sheldon Hawkes were all up at the primary crime scene already and that they would be more forthcoming than Flack. The elevator doors opened to reveal a plush lift with oak-effect panelling and a lush, red deep pile carpet. Without even noticing the surroundings, Mac and Flack took the long ride up to the penthouse office suite.

The elevator doors opened straight into the lobby where a blonde woman was sat on a low sofa talking to two uniformed police officers. She was clutching at a tissue, and had quite clearly been crying. "Lisa Dunbarr." Flack announced quietly. "Left the office at 18:00 last night, claims she went to a restaurant and on to a club afterward. She found the vic when she came into the office this morning at 07.30. Called 911 straight away."

"Seven thirty? Seems a bit early for a receptionist?"

"P.A, Mac, P.A." Don chuckled softly, careful not to offend their witness. "Reckons she gets compensated for working longer than normal hours, if you know what I mean?"

"You think they were involved?" Mac read from Flack's suggestive tone.

"Hard to say." Flack paused as his cell rang. "Excuse me." He waved Mac on into the office.

As Mac walked through the door, he passed Hawkes taking prints from the door handle. Hawkes greeted him softly, which Mac returned. Danny was taking samples from something on the window frame. Stella was taking some final shots of the body. Like the lobby before it, the office was remarkably clean and tidy, no signs of struggle except for the body lying on the floor. Stella finished up, and then put the camera back in its case before turning to greet her friend and boss.

"Hey Mac."

"Senator Robert Kelly." Mac pulled on a pair of latex gloves and knelt beside the body. He touched the gelatinous substance covering Kelly's eyes, grimaced as it glooped about his fingers and came away in faintly green strings. "What's this?"

"No idea." Stella shrugged. "I've taken some samples to go back to the lab. But what you should really see is this."

Kneeling down at the Vic's side, she picked up both his arms and pulled them out in front. Mac's eyes opened wide as he realised that one arm was at least eight inches longer than the other. Confusion wrote itself across Mac's face even as Hawkes chimed in to say he'd never seen anything like it. Mac touched the longer arm almost hesitantly. The skin felt leathery, slack, whilst below the surface the arm itself was spongy, when Mac removed his finger the indentation returned to how it had been before. He looked at Stella, seeing her face pale as she looked at it, and grimaced as their eyes met.

"That has to be the weirdest thing I've ever seen."

"Agreed."

"What do you make of it, Hawkes?" Mac threw the question over to the Doctor.

"No idea. I'm as curious as you, seeing as Senator Kelly seemed fine at that press conference last week, both arms in working order."

"He used his right arm to fend off a journalist." Mac nodded. "And it definitely didn't look like this."

"I'd like to work with Sid on the autopsy of this one, if it's ok with you?"

"Sure." Mac agreed easily. "I'll be eager to hear your findings."

"Looks like we've got the same stuff on the window as on the eyes, Mac." Danny announced from across the room, sensing that they all needed to get away from the subject of the Vics very strange arm. The substance stretched as he took a final sample. "Gross."

"Pulled a number of prints from around the room." Hawkes added. "We've taken Lisa Dunbarr's prints and Sid'll take the Vics during autopsy for comparison and reference."

"Anything else?" Mac asked, not sure he wanted to know.

"Found an empty syringe beside the body and... footprint on the ceiling do ya?" Danny pointed to the corner of the ceiling nearest him. Mac frowned as he looked upwards, taking in a strange dirty mark on the ceiling. He turned his head almost upside-down to try and get a better look. Danny laughed. "You see it now?"

"Looks almost four toed." Mac commented, raising his eyebrows and pulling a face that registered shock but also acceptance. He'd seen stranger things today. He glanced over at the doorway as Flack entered the room.

"CCTV footage doesn't cover the office, but building security is burning the footage from the elevator, foyer and lobby for us. Lisa Dunbarr claims this door was open when she arrived this morning. And that the elevator was on the ground floor. Look like our perp left via the elevator."

"Hawkes, dust the elevator for prints? Danny, take the samples you've got back to Lindsay and Adam in the lab..." Mac's voice trailed off. His eyes had gone back to the body. The second arm, whilst staying the same length as before, had gone leathery and spongy like the first. Mac prodded it, only to get the same reaction as before. "What the hell?"

Hawkes was by the side of the body in a moment. He manipulated the body in several different ways, the quickly dropped the arm back to the Vics side. "Mac, this body's degrading. I've never seen anything like it, but there's a risk we will start losing evidence, fast."

"Get it back to Sid, Hawkes." Mac instructed, frowning deeply. "I want a full work up on what's going on, get prints before they degrade too, tox screen, pictures, the lot. I don't want to lose anything that might give us a lead on our killer."

"On it." Hawkes gestured to two uniforms hanging around outside the crime scene and Mac watched carefully over the three men as they manoeuvred the body into a bag and removed it from the scene. Danny, without prompting, handed his samples over to Hawkes before he left and went to dust the elevator after Hawkes and the body had gone.

"So we are assuming this is a homicide?" Stella asked Mac.

"Weird is what it is." Flack chimed in. "But there's no evidence of a murder weapon here, no signs of struggle, wallet and ID still on the body, so we might just be looking at the worlds strangest natural causes."

"Maybe." Stella responded. "But the vic was a senator so he'll get the full work up until we find out, right Mac? Mac?"

Mac had turned away from his colleagues to look about the scene without replying. Stella suspected that Mac was having one of his super-intuitive moments until she caught him looking out the window. She crossed to him to find he was watching an eagle flying in the distance. Mac was frowning again, and even looking remotely confused.

"What is it, Mac?"

"That bird," Mac pointed into the distance, "it was a bald eagle, and it was sat on the stonework out there, and I'd swear it was watching us."