Madison Bellows- (:P) Hawkes as Beyonce, lol. I'd forgotten I'd written that! You're right, that is an image!

miss wizard of oz - um... yeah, probably so! Ugh, I don't even wanna think about the pile of dishes. But they're gonna have to get done.

Aphina - lol, I'm trying to keep a balance of things at the moment, considering what I'm about to do to the lot of them.

laplandgurl - I certainly believe in guardian angels - I'd be crazy not to! I think he's getting used to the idea, although if they pop up out of nowhere I think they'd still get him.

RK9 - Yes and no. There were just bunnies, and now there's a guy. Kinda. But that's a road I can't go down! I do have plans for Sheldon to meet someone, but it isn't Maddy. I can have far more fun winding her up!

SD - Thank you! All the kids I've been around of late are over thirteen (I'm guessing mental ages don't count! lol) so I've been really conscious about that! Good luck on the move! I only wish I could move to Houston!!

meadow567 - thank you!

demolished- soul - I'm all about the details, lol. It certainly did. The only hugs I get these days are off my (well, he's not my boss, because he works in a different department...) at the job I like! And don't worry, Hawkes will be released in this chapter!

sparkyCSI - Kinda did... over worked it and it conked out! lol. I HAVE THE DAY OFF!! (Can you tell I'm happy about that?) And I have so much stuff to catch up on (:s)

We've still got spoilers (although I'm pretty certain this is the last chapter with them for a while!) and I still have a marvellous (and patient) beta!

What The Eyes Can't See

Chapter 162: You might as well save your goodbyes

Taylor stalked back into the bedroom from her bathroom, muttering not-so discreet curses about how a ghost had watched her shower.

'Are you alright?' Flack asked her, mildly amused.

'I am so salting his remains and burning his ghostly ass,' Taylor fumed.

'Dare I ask who you're talking about?'

'The ghost, who thinks it's alright to watch me shower.'

'Tay, sweetheart, his body hasn't been released, so you can't really do that – not that I'm approving of grave desecration.'

'Who said anything about digging him up? I'll do it in the morgue,' she told him, pulling a skirt on.

Flack bit back a smile. 'How about I take Cordelia in?'

Taylor threw him a grateful smile. 'That would be brilliant.'

Consequently, it was early when she got in. The only person around was Lindsay, who was in the process of making a cup of tea.

'You look like you haven't slept a wink,' Taylor told her from the doorway. 'And I don't mean in a good way.'

Lindsay looked over and smiled wearily. 'Can't say I did. Neither do you.'

Taylor shook her head. 'Not much. And it didn't help that ghost made me rush through my shower.'

'Taylor,' Lindsay snapped. 'Is now really the time to be playing around?'

Taylor frowned. 'Huh?'

'Sheldon is in Rikers, and Flack's dad is creeping around the lab like he's the grim reaper, and all you can do is talk about the damn ghosts!'

'You should switch back to the coffee,' Danny said, slightly surprised, as he joined the two women in the break room. 'Less caffeine.'

Lindsay slammed her tea onto the table so hard, it slopped over the side. 'That's right – take her side,' she snapped at him, plonking herself down at the table.

Behind her, Taylor raised an eyebrow at Danny. In return, he shrugged at her.

'I think I could do with a mug of that,' Taylor muttered as she watched Danny set the coffee machine going.

By the time Stella walked in, clutching tightly to a folder, the room had the same atmosphere as a tomb – like someone had died.

Stella looked around at the sombre faces. 'Guys, come on. Look, if there was something we could do, Mac would let us know.' Taylor snorted, but Stella continued, 'In the meantime-'

'Yeah, we work,' Lindsay finished.

Stella nodded. 'Right.'

'Come on, Stell,' Danny objected. 'The peep show guy's a drug overdose. End of story.'

Taylor shifted uncomfortably. 'Yeah, I don't think so.'

Although Lindsay rolled her eyes, Stella nodded her agreement. 'Someone placed that gun up his nose. I think there's more to the story.' She placed the folder onto the table in front of Lindsay. 'The green trace we found on out vic? It's clothing dye.'

Lindsay flicked the folder open and stared down at the photograph in front of her. 'Well, from the dye pattern on his neck and his collar bone, it looks like it was new clothing. Sweat a little bit, it rubs off on you skin.'

Stella sighed. 'That's exactly where the story stops making sense. The specific dye is found in a high end clothing line.'

'Maybe that's why he was naked,' Lindsay suggested. 'Maybe he was desperate for a fix, he was going to sell the clothes for drugs.'

Taylor stared over at the photograph. 'Did he have a ring on him?'

Stella looked over at Taylor and cocked her head thoughtfully. She leaned over and grabbed the folder, flicking through the various documents in it. 'No. Nothing.'

'Maybe it was theft?' Taylor shrugged. 'He keeps showing me a ring.'

Lindsay snorted. 'Did you find something on the boxer shorts?'

Stella nodded, handing the folder back. 'The analysis of the trace came back as disinfectant.'

Danny took a swig of his coffee as he handed a mug over to Taylor as the machine had finally finished brewing. 'Well, that makes sense. We found or vic in the peepshow booth. They have to clean up once in a while.'

'They don't have to,' Taylor muttered. 'You just kinda hope they do.'

Lindsay shuddered. 'True, but according to the report, the stains weren't smeared, they were gravitational drops. Almost as if someone was kneeling over him.'

Stella looked over at Danny. 'Peeping Tom.'

'Peeping Tom,' Danny agreed with a slight nod of his head.

'Let me know if you find anything regarding a ring,' Taylor muttered.

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Taylor sat at a computer chewing at her lip as she tried to poke a pencil under the cast in an attempt to relieve the itching that was driving her mad. It wasn't working. She was close to calling it quits and head home for her knitting needle when Mac walked in.

'What are you doing?' he asked her.

Taylor turned around slowly. 'Trying to find something in the Casey Case – not that I think you missed anything,' she added hurriedly. 'But I feel useless and it's not like Hawkes is being accused of murdering the ghost who keeps bugging me, and there's nothing I can do there. I just feel useless,' she finished.

Mac frowned. 'I was actually talking about that,' he said, pointing at the pen.

'Oh,' Taylor mouthed. 'Itch?' she shrugged.

Mac walked in and shut the door behind him. 'Why does it look like you've turned this office into your own?'

Taylor looked around. It certainly had her stamp on it. 'Does it actually belong to someone, because I have never been kicked off either of these computers? But if it's a problem, I can go.'

Mac shook his head. 'Taylor, I need your help.'

'Huh?' Taylor blinked, a little taken aback.

'I need you to go see Hawkes.'

'Why?' Taylor asked. It wasn't a problem; she was just curious.

Mac sighed. 'Casey visited him, and I need to know what was said to him. IAB won't let me near him.'

Taylor lean back in her chair, frowning. 'What makes you think I'll be able to?'

'I've spoken to a friend at Rikers. You were there yesterday.'

Taylor nodded slowly.

Mac shrugged. 'You can see him. Your name hasn't been blacklisted.'

Taylor nodded again. 'I'll go now.'

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An hour later, Taylor settled down into the uncomfortable plastic chair opposite Hawkes and smiled brightly. The smile remained frozen on her face as she spotted a familiar transparent person standing just behind him, staring sadly at him.

As Hawkes lifted the phone, he turned, looking at the spot she was staring at. 'You alright?' he asked her.

Taylor shook her head slightly. 'Oh, yeah, sorry. I spaced out.' She inhaled deeply. 'I heard Casey paid a visit.'

Hawkes nodded, scowling. 'Yeah, and the guards just let him walk out of here.'

'What did he say?' Taylor asked.

Hawkes shook his head. 'Nothing.'

'Really?'

'Nothing at all,' Hawkes repeated. 'Other than claiming to be my legal representation.'

Taylor frowned. 'He didn't tell you anything at all?'

Hawkes managed a small smile. 'You sound like Mac.'

Taylor's frown deepened. 'What do you mean by that?'

'He was here this morning asking the same question.'

Taylor's mouth dropped open. 'I beg your pardon?'

'He came to see me this morning,' Hawkes repeated himself, carefully – Taylor looked like she was about to explode.

'He. Was. Here?' Taylor asked, trying to keep her temper under control.

Hawkes nodded slowly.

'What the hell is going on?' she exclaimed.

Hawkes shrugged. 'Can't say I'm being told much in here.'

'Sheldon, I think I need to go and see Mac.' She glanced over at Maddy. 'Look, someone's watching over you, you know.'

Hawkes sighed as Taylor disappeared. 'It really doesn't feel like it.'

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It took another hour to get back, and by the time she did, Taylor was fuming. She stormed up the steps so fast that she almost barged into Flack.

'What are you doing here?' he asked her, surprised.

Taylor stopped and looked up. 'Helping. Or at least trying,' she told him.

'You're supposed to be with Hawkes.'

'Yes, well, Mac was sending me out on a little goose chase, and I'm going to find out why,' she told him, angrily.

Flack sighed and pulled her to one side, out of the way. 'It wasn't exactly him who sent you,' he admitted.

Taylor looked at him in disbelief. 'He came in and asked for a favour… oh,' she realised. 'It was you?'

Flack nodded, slowly, hoisting the papers he was carrying, up. 'Yeah.'

'Why?!' Taylor exploded.

'Because Casey made contact, okay,' he told her.

'But I could have helped,' Taylor told him.

'Taylor, you are not a cop,' Flack shot at her. 'Look at who and how Casey has been killing, framing. If you'd have been around, you would have ended up at that hotel, and best case scenario, we'd just be looking at a hostage situation.'

'I wouldn't have gone,' Taylor retorted.

Flack just shot her a pointed look.

'Yeah, alright,' Taylor admitted. 'I would have. But that's not the point.'

'What's not the point, Taylor? The fact that I want to keep you safe? The fact that I promised your niece Casey wasn't going to hurt her.'

Taylor looked at him, confounded. 'Cordelia? Do you really think I was going to pull her out of school and take her along to meet a psychotic serial killer?'

'Taylor!' Flack exclaimed, exasperated. 'You get hurt and she looses another mother figure. Do you not think that's going to hurt her?'

Taylor felt the frustration leave her like someone had undone a balloon. 'Oh,' she muttered, sagging slightly. 'I hadn't thought about that.'

'I know,' Flack sighed. 'But you're going to have to start doing. Cordelia is part of our life now. It's not just me who's going to miss you.'

Taylor glared at him. 'I so want to be mad at you right now. What are you doing?' she nodded at the papers.

Flack bit back a smile. 'Heading out to canvas the area. I've just sent pictures out to the stations and airports, but I'm going to head back to the hotel – someone might have seen him. What about you?'

Taylor scoffed. 'Oh, I'm still going to yell at Mac – for doing your dirty work.'

Flack smiled. 'Later, Taylor.'

By the time Taylor made it upstairs, she had lost the will to yell at Mac – she had begrudgingly admitted that Flack had been right. She back to the computer she had been working on early and brought the article up she had written all those years ago. (She had told the ghost that waving a ring in her face wasn't helping, and she was ignoring him until he gave her something else to go on. So now, he was stood with Aiden, glaring at her.)

'Flack's got photos of Casey at airports and train stations, and he's also notifying the Jersey State Police,' Danny's voice carried in.

Stella walked into the room, a little ahead of Mac and Danny. 'Shane left his cell phone on. We should be able to narrow down his location.' She smiled at Taylor and headed to the other computer. She hit a few keys and brought a map up. 'Okay, right now he's still in Manhattan.'

Danny looked over at the map. 'He knows we're looking for him, so why's he keeping his cell phone on so we can track him?'

Mac shrugged. 'He wants us to find him. He's playing a game.' He walked over to Taylor's computer and looked at the screen. 'That's his brother's case?'

Taylor nodded. 'Yeah, this is a picture of the bartender he shot. Eyewitness testimony, no physical evidence, jury deliberated fifteen minutes and convicted Ian Casey of murder.'

Danny looked over and did a double take. 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's the ring. The one Peeping Tom found in the peepshow booth.'

Taylor frowned and squinted at the screen. She then turned and looked at the ring the ghost was waving so eloquently at her on his middle finger. 'Whatever prescription you have, I want it,' Taylor muttered. 'That's the same ring.'

Stella leant over and brought up a zoomed in image of the ring. 'What's the bartender's ring doing next to the dead junkie?'

'Guys?' Lindsay walked into the room. 'You're not going to believe this. Kendall just told me that the gunshot residue in the wound of Kelly Jones is a mach to the residue we found in the nose of the peepshow junkie.'

'So you're telling me the both of these cases are connected?' Danny asked.

'He's not going to stop,' the semi naked ghost nodded solemnly.

'The nearly naked body, the peepshow guy, is the shooter?' Taylor asked, surprised.

Both Mac and the ghost nodded. 'African American, 5 foot 9, dark hair, dark eyes. Perfect description of Sheldon Hawkes.'

Danny slumped into the chair next to Taylor. 'And Casey set it all up.'

Stella nodded. 'And all he needed was to find someone crazy enough to go along with it.'

Taylor looked over at the ghost. 'Or desperate enough,' she muttered.

Danny scowled, looking completely disgusted. 'Sick bastard was willing to kill an innocent girl for a nickel bag.'

'Casey planned every detail,' Mac added. 'He takes the money from the robbery, heads to where he knows Hawkes is going to be jogging; makes the transfer'

Taylor looked at them. 'So can't we take this to Internal Affairs? Surely there's a chance that the charges against Hawkes will be dropped?'

Stella shook her head. 'Sid could only find GSR on the peepshow vic's nose, not on his hands. We can't prove that he was the shooter.'

'Prints on the gun might,' Lindsay suggested.

Mac nodded his agreement. 'Prints on the casing still in the gun might.'

Taylor looked at them, puzzled. 'So surely, all we need to do is find the murder weapon?'

Mac looked at her. 'Yes. And Shane Casey has it.'

'Oh,' Taylor sighed as the computer Stella had been using to track Casey's cell phone burst into life.

The five of them looked over. 'He's at 148 Seely Street,' Stella announced.

Taylor cocked her head and pointed at her own screen. 'That's the scene of the crime. The Old English Ale House. That's the bar where his brother shot the bartender.'

There was another beeping, and this time a message popped up on Stella's screen. 'I know a thing or two about going to bat for your brother,' Stella read aloud.

Danny frowned. 'That's what I said to him.'

Mac nodded. 'He wants you to prove his brother's innocence. But we just found the evidence that proves his guilt. That ring.'

The computer beeped again, this time producing a new message: Send Messer. Alone.

'Let's get going then,' Taylor declared, jumping to her feet.

'You're not coming,' Stella told her.

'Don't you have somewhere to be, anyway?' Danny asked her.

'What? Like, oh, Rikers?' Taylor asked, sending a pointed look in Mac's direction.

'No, like school,' said Danny. 'Cordelia?'

Taylor glanced at her watch and swore. 'What is so difficult about remembering a seven year old,' she muttered to herself as she walked out of the door.

------------------------------------

It was some unearthly hour in the morning when Flack rolled in, half conscious of the fact that, being so late, he would probably be better of heading to his own apartment, rather than Taylor's. But on the other hand, he reasoned, Taylor would have killed him if he hadn't have woken her and let her know what had happened.

As it transpired, Taylor was anything but asleep and pretty much pounced on him as soon as he walked in through the door.

'Well?' she demanded.

'You are aware it's nearly three, aren't you?' Flack asked.

'Yeah, and I have been waiting for 12 hours for someone to call me and let me know what's happened. I swear, it's like the crime lab was swallowed up into a black hole, void of any cellular service!' she exclaimed.

'All charges were dropped, and Hawkes was released a few hours ago.'

'And what about Casey?'

'In Rikers, personally escorted by myself and Mac – which is why I'm back so late. We didn't want another rookie babysitting him. But I don't think he was going to run.'

Taylor let out a long sigh, suddenly feeling exhausted. 'The ghost came to see me earlier. His name was Jason Carter. I text Stella, but she didn't reply.'

'I think she was picking Hawkes up from Rikers,' Flack told her.

'So someone got him?' Taylor asked, breathing a sigh of relief. 'I should call him.'

Flack shook his head. 'He's probably tucked up in his own bed. It is three.' He yawned. 'Speaking of; I think that's a very good idea!'

This is happy Axellia - this is my first day off in 10!! (I know, I can hardly believe it either!) And the best bit is that there are two days of the year the place is completely closed and this is one of them, so I can't get called in!! The house, however, needs tidying (:c)

Happy Easter, y'all... and if you don't celebrate Easter... well, I hope you have a good weekend!