"Chief, chief…"

Brot called Jesse over, excitement in his voice.

"Sir, we have a way in! Alpha team reports one of the missing civilians attempting to clear door one."

"The stairwell close to the Patterson ward!" exclaimed Jesse. "Do we have an identity on the civilian?"

"The nurse, sir, McColl. She appears to be drugged but Sergeant Defoe is talking her through it."

"That is good news." said Jesse patting the detective on the back. "Send team Gamma as back up."

"Very good Chief." said Brot, unable to hide the optimistic grin on his face. They were one step closer to shutting down Ricky Torres.

"Chief!" a new voice was calling for his attention. Jesse looked up to see Natalia striding across the hospital lobby with a file in her arms.

"Natalia." exclaimed Jesse, calling her over to a cleared work station.

"Chief I have the coroner's report." She said putting down the file.

"So I take it the dead body in the morgue wasn't Ricky Torres." said Jesse.

"According to the report yes it was. But when Dr Van Garrden, the Llanview coroner called back he said that the report was very shoddy, only the bare minimum for what was required for an ID. There wasn't even any DNA testing done. So the doctor when back through the report. Comparing dental records he can categorical announce that the body is not Ricardo Torres."

"So who was the dead man?" Jesse asked.

"You were right, sir," said Natalia, "It was Teddy Mason. The coroner didn't even have to look at his dental x-rays for a match. Mason had a blue dragon tattoo on his back; his body still did despite the damage they tried to do with the ice pick.

"How did the first corner miss that?"

"Sir, it was a relief coroner that dealt with the case, and I don't think she did… miss it I mean. I have a theory that this is a lot bigger than Ricky Torres cheating death."

"Go on." said Jesse leaning against the desk.

Natalia straightened her back before launching into her discoveries and what they theoretically proved.

"Firstly Teddy Mason was Ricky's cell mate before he was killed." Natalia pulled Mason's photo from the file. "He was a minor criminal with only nine months left of his sentence. His long hair, beard and the fact, that isn't shown in this photo, that he wore pebble lens glasses after damaging his eyes playing with flammable chemicals means his was the perfect fall guy. From the reports I've read, the guy had no friends and no one to miss him. He was the perfect persona for Ricky, the master of disguise, to imitate… to become."

"But for what reason?" asked Brot.

"It seems straight forward to me." said Jesse. "You cut your ten year sentence to nine months and then you start out again with a new identity and no past. But you think this is bigger than just Ricky trying to dupe the criminal system."

Natalia nodded.

"You see there was no reason for a competent coroner to identify Mason's remains as those of Torres…"

"Well then we bring that doctor in for questioning!" said Jesse.

"The thing is, sir, we can't. The coroner who identified Ricky Torres' remains died in a motorbike accident just two weeks after the autopsy results were published. Her house was then robbed and vandalised two days after her death."

"So Ricky had outside help." said Brot.

"Yeah," said Natalia, "And that got me thinking. His attempt on Zack's life; although there is no direct evidence, it is strongly suspected that he was working for Mr Slater's Casino rivals. Now if he is a hired gun, who's to say he hasn't found himself a new employer?"

"Okay, but if he was using the Mason persona as a disguise to get out of jail scot free, why break out? And why create this farcical hostage situation? If he wanted revenge on Kendal, or the Kane Family as a whole, why hold up in such a public location when it would have been easier to hit and run?" Jesse looked pensive. "No you are right, Natalia, I think something bigger is going down."

"Well, chief, I might have your answer to your first question; the reason he broke out." said Brot grabbing Teddy Mason's file from the pile on his commandeered desk. "I noticed when I was first going through Mason's file that he was actually due for parole last week, only it was delayed by the riots. He would face charges along with everyone in that prison for disorderly behaviour which would add at least another three months to his sentence. Maybe Ricky broke out because his employers were on a deadline."

"But why would his employers, if they even exist, hire him to take the Kane family hostage?" sighed Jesse in exasperation.

Theory was all well and good, but they still had too many questions and not enough answers.

…