Chapter 5.

Mac stood outside the interrogation room, waiting for Don. About an hour ago, Dario Young had been arrested outside the pizza parlour where he worked. The man who had murdered Lindsay, who had run her down in the street and left her there to die, might just be sitting just feet away from Mac. The thought filled him with anger mixed with excitement mixed with doubt. Because something about the notion of Dario as Lindsay's killer still didn't sit right, but he couldn't put a finger on why. He rubbed a hand tiredly over his eyes. He wanted this to be over. He wanted to be able to tell Danny they'd found Lindsay's killer, and he wanted to go home. He was fast approaching utter physical and emotional exhaustion.

'Mac, you ready for this?' Don asked, appearing behind him and slapping his shoulder.

Mac nodded.

'Let's do it,' he said.

They entered the room. Dario Young sat with his feet up on the table, looking more like he was kicking back at home than sitting in a police precinct.

'Get your feet off my table, you little punk,' Don snapped. Mac simply stared at Dario coldly.

Dario laughed and sung his feet down.

'Jeez, man, what've you two got your panties in a twist for?'

Mac sat down opposite Dario while Don stood leaning against the wall. Mac studied the young man. He was cocky, and evidently found the whole situation amusing, but he lacked the hard eyes Mac had seen in other young murderers.

'We found your DNA on several joints and beer cans in a stolen vehicle, Dario,' Mac said.

Dario shrugged.

'Hey, man, I didn't steal it. It was just sat there on the street, doors unlocked and everythin'. Someone had already hotwired it, even. I just took it for a little ride. Thought it would be fun. Smoked some weed, had a couple beers, it was good.'

'Good?' Mac said, his voice dropping to an icy coldness that caused a flicker of sudden wariness in the teenager's eyes.

'Well, yeah, man...it was just a laugh...I just...'

Suddenly Don was there beside Mac, slamming his hands down on the table and leaning right into Dario's face.

'YOU GODDAMN LITTLE BASTARD, YOU THINK MURDER IS A 'LAUGH'?' he yelled. Mac gently pulled his friend back.

'Don, easy.'

'I swear to you, Mac, if this little punk thinks killing Lindsay was 'fun' I'm gonna...'

'I know,' Mac soothed, 'Just step outside a second, okay?'

Don glared at Dario, then nodded and left, slamming the door behind him.

When Mac turned back, the teenager looked suddenly much less sure of himself.

'What's he mean 'murder'? Who the hell is Lindsay? She own the car?'

Mac placed a picture of Lindsay on the table and pushed it across to Dario.

'You know her?'

'Nah, man, who is she?'

'She was a cop, Dario. Her name is Lindsay Messer. She has a husband and a five year old daughter. She was pregnant with her second child when she was run down in the street and killed. In the car you went joyriding in.'

All the colour now drained from Dario's face, and he looked visibly upset.

'What? No, no, no! Look, man, I mean, um, Detective. I stole the car, and I smoked the weed and drank some beer in it and drove it too fast. But I did *not* kill a cop. I wouldn't do that! I wouldn't kill *anyone*, especially not a cop and a pregnant lady! My sister is pregnant! I swear to you, I didn't kill her. I'll do anything, anything to make you believe me. Give you DNA or whatever you want. I'll even tell you who gave me the weed and the beer, but please, I swear on my sister's life, I did not kill this lady. I'm a thief, not a goddamn murderer!'

Mac saw that for all his attitude, Dario Young was nothing more than a kid with a bit of a wild side and a fondness for beer and weed. The fear and shock in his voice, in his entire body, was genuine.

'Okay, Dario, I believe you,' he said, and the young man slumped back in his chair with relief.

'Good, 'cause I didn't do it!'

'I said I believe you. You said you'd do anything to prove you didn't do it?'

'Yeah, man, anything, anything. God. I heard about that lady cop being run down. I didn't know that that was the car that someone killed her . I'd never'd touched it if I knew it was, like, a murder weapon!'

'Tell me where you found the car. Exactly where you found it.'

Dario told Mac he'd found the car a couple of blocks from his own house, behind an abandoned old grocery store. He gave him a rough street address.

'It was parked in this tiny little lot round the back of the place. I go there to smoke pot and drink sometimes, 'cause it's quiet and no one can see you from the street. It backs right onto the river.'

'Tell me everything you can remember about the car, the condition it was in when you found it, anything you noticed,' Mac said.

'Um, okay, well, the front was all smashed up, which is why I noticed it. Apart from the fact that you don't normally see cars there, unless people are in them, making out and stuff. I went over to check it out, and the doors were unlocked. It had already been hot-wired, so I figure some guy stole it and then crashed it and got scared and bailed. It'd be a good place to dump a hot car, no one'd see the damn thing unless they went looking. I decided to have a shot at firing it up. It worked, I was thinking, shit, I didn't expect that ' 'cause of how messed up it was. I decided to take it to this...um, dude I know. You take him old smashed up cars and he strips the parts and gives you cash. So I sat in it for a little while and had a couple beers, then I headed for this guy's place. Only the fucking car gave out on me about five blocks later so I dumped it.'

'Do you remember anything else about the car?'

'Um, lemme think...it was pretty clean inside despite the front being all messed up...and...oh, the guy who boosted it musta been a big dude 'cause the driver's seat was way back and I had to adjust it so I could reach the pedals.'

Something in Mac's brain made the connection then. He asked Dario a couple more questions, but now he was even more certain that the kid was guilty only of stealing a car, joyriding in it, smoking a little pot and drinking underage. He hadn't killed Lindsay. Which left them right back where they'd started.

xxxxx

Half an hour later, Mac stood in front of his team in the conference room at the lab.

'Mac, is it true we let Dario Young go?' Hawkes asked.

Mac nodded.

'Yes. I'm certain he didn't kill Lindsay.'

'But what evidence have you got that he didn't do this? He was all over the car, Mac,' Hawkes said.

Mac nodded. 'Yes, he was. And that bothered me right from the start. Lindsay's murder was cold and calculated. Whoever killed her planned it, meticulously. Dario Young is not a planner, not at this level.'

Jo nodded,

'I have to say, Mac, you're making a lot of sense. I've talked to Dario's mother and sister, and his probation officer. They all say Dario's a wild kid and does a lot of stuff he shouldn't, but he's no killer. I'd expect that from the family, of course, but his probation officer was every bit as sure that Dario wouldn't commit a planned, cold-blooded murder like that,'

'I get that,' Don said, 'I doubt Dario plans much more than where to get his weed and beer. But if he's innocent, where the hell does that leave us?'

Mac heard the angry frustration in Don's voice, and understood it. They all felt it.

'Not quite back at the beginning,' he said, 'We do have a suspect still.'

'Who?' Hawkes asked.

'That tall guy from the restaurant?' Adam piped up.

Mac smiled at him.

'Well done, Adam. Dario mentioned that when he got to the car, he had to move the seat forward so he could reach the pedals. Which explains why his fingerprints are on the seat adjustor. He's just over 5ft, and Don, what's the owner's height?'

Don flicked through his notebook.

'The same,' he said, 'They're both short guys.'

'So I'm guessing our perp was about six feet tall,' Mac said, 'Which matches our estimated height on our mysterious possible stalker in the restaurant.' He tapped a couple of buttons on his laptop, bringing up a still from the security footage from the restaurant, showing the tall man who seemed to have been stalking Danny.

'Adam, I need you to go back to the car and go over it again. I'm sure that somewhere in that vehicle, our killer left a clue. Even if he wore gloves and a hood so he didn't leave hairs or fingerprints, he'll have left something of himself behind.'

'On it, boss. I'll go now, unless you need to tell me anything else?'

'No, Adam, you can go.'

Adam left.

'Hawkes, I want you to go over that footage from the security camera at the restaurant. See if you can get anything more on this guy who seemed to be following Danny. Jo, I want you to use that FBI trained brain of yours to see if you can work us up a profile of our killer now we've ruled Dario out. Don, I need you to go to the initial dump site where Dario found the car. See if you can find any security footage from nearby businesses, or any witnesses. I'll come with you and check out the parking lot for traces of the car, just so we can confirm Dario's telling the truth.'

The air of hopeless frustration that had hovered, cloyingly, in the room when Mac started the meeting, had dissipated now, replaced by a fresh sense of purpose. The anger was still there, rippling through all of them, but it once again had a target.

Everyone left except Jo. She touched Mac's arm as he left.

'Mac, have you eaten today?'

Mac thought, then shook his head.

'Why don't you swing by Christine's restaurant and get something, and see her?'

'I can't just...'

'Mac, we have a suspect, but working out who the hell he is is going to take a while. Just drop by Christine's on the way to the car dump site, and grab a coffee and a kiss. Right before you called us all in here, I called Ellie and Tyler, just to say hi. It helped a lot. You deserve a little time to yourself in the middle of all this, Mac.'

Mac smiled at her. He realized suddenly that along with the tired, angry, frustration he felt, and the desperation to close this case, the worry about Danny, the concern for the others, he was hungry, and he desperately needed to see Christine. She seemed like the one good thing in the middle of all this hell, along with Jo and the others.

'Thanks, Jo,' he said. 'Call me as soon as you hear anything?'

'I will. Let me know what you find at the car dump site. And let's hope we can get some footage from cameras in the vicinity. I'm thinking our perp either had a second vehicle parked at the dump site, or he fled on foot. Either way, anything we find is another step closer to this bastard.'

Mac nodded.

'I think I'll get some food for Danny and Lucy as well and swing by Danny's place. Let him know where we are, keep an eye on him. I'm worried about him, Jo. I've been where he is, and...'

He couldn't finish, couldn't begin to describe the empty darkness of the place he'd found himself after Claire died, the utter sense of despair and loneliness and sheer, vicious, grief.

Jo flinched a little at the pain she saw in Mac's eyes. It was all too easy to forget what he'd been through, because he kept himself so tightly together usually, so controlled. It was only at very rare moments since they'd met that she'd seen a look like this come into his face. It was almost identical to the look she'd seen in Danny's these last couple awful days. The only difference was that Danny's grief was a fresh and raw, while Mac's was an older, infinitely sadder, more defeated kind. She stepped forward and hugged him on impulse. He hugged her back.

'What's this for?' he said.

'Just because I adore you, Mac Taylor, and I adored Lindsay, and now she's gone, and I just wanted you to know I'm here, and remind myself that you're here too.'

'Good reason,' he said.

They parted.

'Say hi to Christine for me, and call me to let me know how Danny and Lucy are.'

'I will.'

xxxxxx

Mac tapped lightly on the glass door of Christine's restaurant. It was closed, but she was working, getting things ready for opening for dinner service. She turned from where she sat at the bar, going over paperwork of some sort, and her face lit up as she hopped off the stool and hurried to the door. Mac felt a familiar warmth fill him at the sight of her.

'Hey,' she said as she let him in and closed and locked the door. They kissed, and she took his hand, leading him to a table. He sat, and she said,

'Wait here,' then disappeared into the kitchen.

Fifteen minutes later, she re-appeared with two steaming plates balanced on a tray with two steaming mugs of coffee. She set it on the table before him, and Mac's mouth watered.

'Shrimp and chili linguini and coffee,' she said, handing him a fork.

'How did you know...'

'Because I know you. I know damn well you forget to eat during big cases. And you look exhausted, Mac. How are things?'

Mac chewed a mouthful of the delicious pasta and took a swig of coffee.

'This is incredible,' he said, gesturing at the food.

'Thanks. You know, sometimes I wonder if you only love me for my food.' she joked

'I love everything about you, Christine,' he said softly, seriously.

She blushed, leaned over and kissed him lightly.

'I know. Now stop changing the subject, and tell me how things are.'

And he did. He told her about Danny. About the others, how he could sense them barely holding on at times. About how the case had seemed to be nearing closure, and how that had suddenly been swept away. His frustration, his anger, and his concern for Danny came flooding out, a tide of words and emotions he couldn't keep back.

Christine listened. When he'd finally finished, she squeezed his hand. Her grip was firm and sure, utterly unwavering.

'I'm so sorry, Mac. I honestly can't imagine how hard this is for you. I wish I could make it easier. You know I'm here, right? You can tell me anything?'

Mac brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.

'I know. I just...I miss Lindsay, so damn much, Christine. She was like ...like a kid sister to me. I watched her grow, as a CSI and on a personal level. I was there when she and Danny got together, when they got married, when she gave birth to Lucy, when she found out she was pregnant again. You know, she was so...tough, and quirky. Annoying as hell sometimes but she...the lab just feels wrong without her. I miss her. And I'm scared I'm going to let her down by not being able to find the bastard who killed her, or I'll fail Danny by letting him go over the edge.'

Christine's hand tightened on his, and her other hand cupped his cheek.

'You won't let either of them down, Mac. You're going to find who did this, I know it. As for Danny, with you and the others looking out for him, there's no way he could go 'over the edge'. Don's told me how it was you who saved him from doing that after his girlfriend was killed. He said he didn't just teeter on the edge, he actually went over, but it was you that pulled him back. Oh, he said the others were a massive source of support as well, but he's adamant that without you around he'd have lost everything. Despite the incredibly high standard you hold yourself to, Mac, I simply can't imagine you letting anyone down.'

The utter certainty in her words surprised Mac, and bolstered him. The self-doubt that seemed to have flooded over him in a suffocating black wave was pushed away. It was still there but it no longer held such awful power in his mind.

He leaned across and kissed Christine, his kiss deep and tender.

When they parted, he stroked her cheek.

'What would I do without you?'

'Eat rubbish and be far too hard on yourself and work way too much,' she said.

Mac smiled.

'Probably. I hope your faith in me is proved right.'

'Of course it will be. I know you, Mac.'

Mac kissed her again, then said,

'I better go, I'm going to swing by and check how Danny and Lucy are holding up. Then I'm meeting Don at our primary dump scene.'

'You better take some food for them,' Christine said. 'I'll make up some food for Danny and Lucy that he can just heat up when they're hungry.'

'Thanks,' Mac said.

'Tell Danny I'm thinking about him, and give Lucy a hug for me. Call me if you want to talk. I understand if you can't come over tonight, but promise me you'll try and get some sleep when you send the others home?'

Mac nodded, though he doubted just how much real rest he and the others would be able to get until Lindsay's killer was caught.

xxxxxx

Half an hour later, Mac pulled up outside the abandoned store where Dario claimed he'd found the car. Don was leaning against his own vehicle, sipping a coffee. Mac got out of the car and headed towards him.

'Sorry to leave you to get this started on your own.'

Don shook his head.

'Don't worry about that. I already spoke to the owner of the tyre store,' he gestured to the business directly opposite the abandoned grocery. 'And the businesses down that side. Four of them have cameras out front that will hopefully show this bastard dumping the car. There's no coverage of the actual parking lot itself, but our guy would have had to leave the scene by coming up that alley there,' he pointed to the wide alleyway leading down the side of the store, 'because these businesses back directly onto the river. Dario said he came down the street from that end, right, then down the alleyway to the lot?'

Mac nodded.

'Then the footage from the businesses opposite should confirm his story too.' Don said.

'Thanks, Don,' Mac said, 'so, what have we got on this side of the street?'

Don listed the businesses on the same side of the street as the store they stood outside, and they divided them up between them, Don taking the ones to the left, and Mac those to the right.

'How are Danny and Lucy?' Don asked.

Mac sighed.

'Lindsay's dad's with them now. Danny was sleeping when I went to see them. Robert said he's a mess, but he's just about holding up, more for Lucy's sake than his own. Lucy...she's just crying a lot and asking why Lindsay can't come home.'

Don smacked his clenched fist into the side of his car.

'Damn it, Mac, I want this bastard. I want to make him feel just one iota of what he's put Danny and Lucy through. Hell, I want to rip his head off with my bare hands, only that would be too merciful.'

Mac felt his own frustrated fury rise in an echo of that he heard in his best friend's voice. He remembered Lucy's pale, drawn, confused face as she sat huddled in his lap, clinging to him as he'd talked to Robert Monroe.

'Oh, we'll get him,' he said. Don heard the cold, implacable certainty in Mac's voice. Despite the fact that Mac was his best friend and the person he trusted above anyone else in his life other than his sister and Jaime, he was suddenly reminded that Mac Taylor was a very dangerous man to cross. However tough their killer might think he was, he was in for one hell of a nasty shock when they found him, and he faced Mac. Don gave a savage grin at the thought. A firing squad would be less intimidating.

'What?' Mac asked.

'Oh, I'm just looking forward to watching you in the interrogation room with this bastard when we bring him in,' Don said.

Mac nodded.

'Well, I want you to do that one with me, Don, so you'll have a front-row seat.'

Don's savage grin widened.

'Excellent.'

xxxxx

An hour later, Mac entered the final business on the street where the store stood. It was a corner bodega. The other businesses had been some help, three had given him footage from front-facing cameras. He approached the bodega counter, identified himself, and asked the owner if he remembered anything. He showed him photos of both Dario and the mysterious man from the restaurant.

'No, I don't recognize either of them,' the middle aged man informed him, 'But I do remember something. About 9pm, just before I was gonna close up, this guy came in. Big guy, about six foot, maybe taller. About this guy's height, actually,' he tapped the photo of the man in the restaurant. 'He seemed all kind of excited. I thought maybe he was high, but his eyes looked normal. He asked for some cigarettes, Marlboro Lights, so I reckoned he was jonesing for a cigarette and that's why he was all edgy.'

Mac felt excitement flare in him.

'What was he wearing?'

'I'm not sure. A baseball cap, and one of those hooded things, which I think was green. He'll be on the footage from my camera here,' he pointed to the ceiling behind the counter, 'and the outside one as well. Oh, and he was wearing those thin leather gloves you can get, you know, like for driving? Don't see the point myself.'

Damn, that explains the lack of fingerprints, Mac thought.

'Did you notice anything else about him?'

'Um...he had green eyes. Not sure about hair, he had his hood up over the baseball cap, like all the kids who want to look tough, y'know? I thought it looked dumb, 'cause this guy had to be at least 45 years old.'

'Could you pick him out of a line up?'

'Maybe. I don't know though.'

'Okay, sir, thank you,' Mac said, 'Do you have the footage from that night?'

'I'll get it for you, Detective.'

Five minutes later, the bodega owner handed Mac two discs.

Mac thanked him and gave him his card in case he remembered anything, then left the bodega.

He got to his and Don's cars just before Don, coming the other way, arrived.

Don had gotten pretty much the same results as Mac, some footage from some of the businesses' cameras, though none of the businesses on his side had been open at the time Lindsay had been killed and the car dumped. Together, he and Mac walked down the alleyway behind the abandoned store. The parking lot was small and deserted. Mac found and collected some shards of glass that he hoped would be a match to the car that had killed Lindsay.

He just hoped that Adam would find something he'd somehow missed in the car itself on his previous examination, something that would provide a definite connection to their killer. The hoodie and gloves and cap accounted for the lack of fingerprints or hair, but the guy had to have left something of himself behind. At least, Mac fervently prayed that he had.

xxxx

Mac sat in Jo's office and handed her a coffee.

'Thanks,Mac,' she said, gratefully. They talked briefly about Danny and Lucy, and the arrangements for Lindsay's funeral. Her father and Danny wanted to delay it until the case was closed.

'I can understand that,' Jo said.

Mac nodded.

'I just hope we can find this guy soon. It's been three days, Jo. If we don't find this guy soon, we may have to go ahead with the funeral anyway - Sid can only keep her body in the morgue for so long.'

He winced at the idea of Lindsay in one of Sid's drawers. It was so simply, utterly wrong.

'You have Hawkes working through the footage you got from the area where we believe our perp originally dumped the car, as well as from the restaurant showing the guy we believe was stalking Danny. Plus Adam is literally going over every inch of that car. He's going to take it apart if he has to. He'll find something, Mac.'

'He is good,' Mac agreed. 'So, how about you, how's that profile coming?'

Jo took a bite of the donut Mac had also brought her, and nodded.

'If we go on the assumption that the guy from the restaurant is our killer, we're looking at a Caucasian male, about 6ft 2'' tall. From the evidence we've got so far, he's a planner. He stole the car some time prior to the attack. He was presumably following Danny around, and when he saw him go into the restaurant, he checked it out and got a time and place Danny and Lindsay would be there. That gave him an exact time and place for a hit. He's smart enough not to do it near the lab or the precinct. This, along with evidence from the crime scene and the vehicle itself, suggests he was deliberately targeting either Danny or Lindsay.'

'Which means he wanted what he thinks of as 'revenge' on one of them for something he perceives they did to him.' Mac said.

'Right. And given that he didn't bother with threats or anything, but instead carefully planned a 'hit' like murder for some time, it must be something big. This isn't someone they put away for shoplifting or that Danny cut off when he was driving. This is...'

'Personal,' Mac said.

'Yes. He either feels Danny or Lindsay did something terrible to him. Or...'

'Or to someone he loves,' Mac finished for her. 'I mean, sometimes we can tolerate someone hurting us, but the idea of someone hurting someone we love is unbearable. I know that when those bastards took Christine, if they had killed her...'

He trailed off, not wanting to express the terror and fury he'd felt when Christine had been kidnapped. What he'd wanted to do to the men who had taken her.

Jo nodded.

'I know. If anyone ever hurt Tyler or Ellie, I'm not sure seeing them go to prison would be enough.'

'So, what's our deeper motive?' Mac asked, 'Who is it that hates Danny or Lindsay enough to murder them? We've eliminated the most obvious suspects.'

Jo frowned.

'I guess we have to go over their personal and professional lives with a fine tooth comb until we find a motive. Or hope Adam or Hawkes find something.'

Mac nodded.

'Want to get started on that while we wait for Adam or Sheldon to get back to us?'

Jo agreed.

They decided that as Mac had worked with Danny and Lindsay longest, he would go over previous cases they'd both worked, and contact Lindsay's former boss in Montana if necessary. Jo would talk to Robert Monroe and Danny, if he was up to it, to see if she could find any sign of someone from either Danny or Lindsay's personal lives who might hold a grudge.

xxxxx

Mac rubbed his hand over his eyes. He threw the file he'd just been looking at across the room. It hit the wall and fell to the carpet, papers and photos falling out. He'd spent the past two and a half hours going over cases Danny and Lindsay had worked, and so far had found nothing. He heard a light knock on the door, and looked up to see Sheldon, who looked as tired and frustrated as Mac himself felt. He gestured him inside.

'Please tell me you have something,' he said, indicating the tablet in Sheldon's hand.

Sheldon slumped into the chair opposite Mac's.

'You want the good news or the bad news?'

'Bad news first,' Mac sighed, 'Get it over with.'

'I still don't have our perp's face,' Sheldon said, 'He's all over the footage from the various cams, but he's a sneaky, smart son of a bitch. Wears a hoodie and a baseball cap and keeps his head down, even in the bodega when he's buying cigarettes. All I have is a slightly more complete description of him.'

'Is it the guy from the restaurant?'

'Very possibly,' Hawkes said. 'But I can't tell for sure.'

'So, what's the good news?'

Hawkes tapped the screen of the tablet and handed it to Mac.

'The first set of photos show the car that killed Lindsay being driven down the street where it was dumped, a short time after the attack. You can see the damage. The live video footage shows him driving the car down the alleyway, which we know only leads to the parking lot behind the abandoned store. The next set show him coming out of the alleyway and heading the opposite way down the street, and him in the bodega. See what I mean about how he keeps his face hidden?'

Mac nodded. The footage showed a tall man He wore a green hooded sweater, from under which poked a red baseball cap brim, and worn looking jeans. He also wore the kind of driving gloves the bodega owner had remembered. That was it. Mac swore.

'Dammit, why is it we can never get this bastard's face?'

'Tell me about it. I tried to get an image of him through the windscreen, but with the damage to the windscreen and the tint to the side windows, it's impossible to get more than an outline and that damn hoodie and cap make it even harder. The third set of photos on there show your guy Dario coming along, about an hour later. He goes down the alleyway, then drives back out in the car ten minutes later. He was easy to identify.'

'Well, at least we can eliminate him as a suspect for definite.' Mac sighed. 'Good work, Hawkes. Why don't you go home now? Get some rest.'

Sheldon nodded.

'If you're sure that's okay. I'm gonna pick Stella up at the airport when she gets here in a couple days, and she's staying at my place, so I better get started on tidying the place up a little.'

Mac nodded.

Hawkes left. Mac sighed again and started going through the files, determined to spend the entire night doing so if he had to. He was into the third file from the seemingly endless pile teetering on his desk when he heard pounding feet coming up the hall. He looked up. Adam burst into his office. His face was red, his eyes alight, and he was panting.

'Adam?'

'I...know...I could have...just...called,' Adam said, as he caught his breath, 'But I was too excited. I got him, Mac. I got the bastard.'

'Tell me,' Mac said.

'Well, I practically took the car apart inside. Pulled out the seats and everything, looked for rips in the fabric of the seats. I also looked closer at the carpet, in both the front and rear footwells. I found a small rip in the rear footwell on the driver's side. It's right up against the bottom of the rear passenger seat on that side, you can hardly see it. I ripped up more of the carpeting, and found this.'

He held out an evidence bag, and Mac grinned when he saw what was inside. A cigarette butt.

'Please tell me you got DNA on that and that it doesn't match Dario Young or the owner of the car.'

Adam grinned.

'I did get DNA. And a match just came back. And it's not Dario's or the car owner's. I also had Flack check with both Dario and the owner - neither smoke tobacco cigarettes - the owner doesn't smoke at all and Dario only smokes pot. We have no evidence of anyone in the car with Dario, and the owner says no one else other than him has ever been in that car - he's only had it two months.'

'Adam, who's is the DNA?' Mac asked, impatiently.

Adam's smile faded then.

'You're not going to like it, Mac. But it does make sense. I wish it didn't.'

Mac was concerned at the sudden seriousness that seemed to have come over the young lab tech.

'Who is it, Adam?' he asked, much more gently this time. He found himself somehow dreading the answer.

'The DNA on the cigarette butt is a match to a man called Patrick Sandoval,' Adam said.

xxxxx

Hi, guys. Thanks for reading, and I hope you liked it. I'll try and update soon. Apologies again for the slight delay, damn real life can be so distracting!