News of Sid's discovery had spread like wildfire through the lab and when Mac called an emergency meeting of the team; their suspicions about the seriousness of the events were confirmed. As each of the team entered they found Mac standing at the front of the evidence board with a serious frown on his face. Mac watched his obviously curious team enter one by one. First Danny and Lindsay then Adam then Hawkes then Flack and Angell and then finally Jo took her place round the table.

Once sure that everybody was comfortable, Mac began to speak. 'By now you'll all know about Sid's findings. The taunts that were written on Alison's body are the trademark of a serial killer known as 'the Taunter'. At his words the team straightened and Flack and Lindsay sat forward in the chairs.

'The Taunter? Never heard of him.' Angell frowned slightly.

'It's long before your time.' Mac looked to her.

'I've heard of him. Wasn't he active ten years ago in this city? Killed eight women. I haven't heard anything about him since.' Jo spoke, her profiler training picking up the tight lines around Mac's eyes and the deeper than usual frown on his face.

Mac nodded. 'Ten years ago I was the lead investigator in the murder of this woman, Alina Kojocaru.' A picture of a beautiful young brunette with blue eyes came up on the smartboard screen. 'Alina was twenty-three years old, a refugee from Romania and an art student. To begin with our investigation led us to examine her past in Romania but our focus swiftly changed when we received the results of her autopsy and discovered the taunts written across her body. As you can imagine such a discovery was shocking and led us to start a completely new investigation. Because of the uniqueness of the murder, we searched through the databases for any matches to our scene and found another possible victim, Sandra Harrison.'

Another picture popped up, this time of an African American woman. 'Aged thirty eight, married, two children. Last seen walking home from her work as a chef at a restaurant when she disappeared. She had been stabbed to death three months before in what was believed to have been a mugging gone wrong but after exhuming her body and re-autopsying it, we discovered she too had taunts on her body.' He exhaled sharply. 'It was then that we suspected we had a serial killer on our hands.'

'Yeah I remember this.' Flack nodded, 'The department tried to keep it quiet but it was leaked and it started off a panic and the killings started to escalate.'

'That's right. His final toll was eight women in four months. Victimology was different in every case-different ages, different races, different backgrounds and different socio-economic groups. The only link they had was that they were female.'

'Did you have any suspects?' Lindsay asked.

'Yeah we had four main suspects.' The pictures of four men now popped up on screen. Our first suspect was Jordan Marks, aged 29, a resident of the Bronx, had priors for assault and stalking-related offences.' The picture that belonged to the name was of a brute of a guy, with a fat face and shaven head. Tattoos lined his arms and shoulders, a myriad of ink designs and colours that only added to his ferocious appearance. Mac continued as each team member absorbed the details of the file on screen. 'We ruled out Marks following interviews as we discovered that he had alibis for both murders.'

A second picture popped up. 'Second suspect was Marcus Whaite, 35. He was an English teacher at the college Alina Kojocaru attended. He had been arrested for allegedly attacking a female pupil at his previous work but there was not enough evidence to ever charge him. According to several of Alina's classmates, Marcus had asked her out on a date and she had refused and he had become violent in response. He didn't have an alibi at the time of either murder so we brought him in but he lawyered up and we had to let him go.'

'Third suspect was Hector Gonzales.' The third picture popped up of a creepy-looking pale man with greasy hair and rounded glasses. 'Aged thirty four. He was single, unemployed, fit the profile of being a loner, and had previous convictions for stalking. He became a suspect following an anonymous tip off from a member of the public. We raided his flat to discover that his living room was covered in newspaper cuttings of the case.'

'He sounds like a right creep, what evidence did you have against him?' Jo asked.

Everything was circumstantial so we had no choice but to let him go. Shortly after that the murders stopped.'

'Our final suspect was Ethan Hoe.' A picture of an overweight, balding, fifty plus man graced the board. 'He was connected to our third victim, 54-year old Lucy Laurence who went was found dead three weeks after Alina Kojocaru. They had been having an affair when Lucy dumped him for another man- he had reportedly made threats against her and he too had a history of violence against women including several claims of spousal abuse. We also found a connection to the other victims through his takeaway business which both the previous vics had frequented. However, again there was not enough evidence to pursue it further and then the killings stopped.

'It just doesn't seem like any of these guys fit the typical portrait of a serial killer.' Jo spoke again.

'No but at the time we had very little to go on so we were jumping on any connection. The Taunter always did and to this day, remains a step in front of us.'

'How do we know it's not a copycat?' Danny asked.

'The handwriting on the bodies is identical to the Taunter's and the murder weapon is the same. It can't be a copy cat because we never revealed to the press just how the victims died. We didn't want to create more panic in what was already a difficult environment.'

'What do you need us to do Mac?' Flack asked.

'From now on we need to make this a priority. This is our only case. He's been out there ten years already- we need to stop him before he kills again. Flack, Angell I need you to pursue leads on our original suspects and search whether there has been any murders with similar MOs in the last decade.' The couple nodded. 'Lindsay, Danny, Hawkes work on the evidence. Adam keep pursuing CCTV footage and access the bank records and personal files of Allison Williams- see if anything stands out...Jo use your profiler skills, see what you can make of the original case.'

'Sure thing Mac.' She smiled as the rest of the team got up, leaving the room to pursue their various tasks.

'Mac?' Lindsay called, before she left. 'Who was your partner on the case? It would be useful if they could share their thoughts on the evidence just so we don't overlook anything trivial.' Mac was silent for a long moment. He had been dreading that question, unwilling to even mutter her name. Finally he came to a compromise and cleared his throat. 'Detective Bonasera was my partner on the case.'

Lindsay's expression softened slightly. 'You should give her a call Mac. She can help us.'

The reasonable part of Mac knew that Lindsay was right, but he felt a foreign feeling of anger erupt in his throat at the thought of...Ste...of that woman and he barely resisted the urge to bark at Lindsay. 'No that won't be necessary.'

Lindsay, unaware of the conflict building inside Mac continued. 'She can help us Mac. Give us more insight into this case.'

'I SAID NO LINDSAY.' Mac barked at her, causing her to fall silent immediately and cower slightly at the fury emanating from her boss. 'I'm the boss of this lab, it's my decision is that clear?' He looked pointedly at her.

'Yes...Mac.' Lindsay stuttered out, shocked by his response.

Unwilling to discuss further, Mac stormed off, leaving very shocked CSIs behind. Danny took Lindsay into his arms, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

'It'll get better. He'll call her, I know he will.'

Lindsay nodded mutely, not at all convinced.

He grinned as the woman screamed as he cut another incision into her back, forming the cruel taunts that he got his name from.

Oh how he had enjoyed the notoriety. For ten years he had been in the dark, once more a nobody, but this would all so very soon change and he would regain his rightful reputation. He could see it all so clearly; the terror on the streets, the panic that would sweep the city, the legions of fans who admired his artwork. Everybody would be bowing at his feet, he would be truly unstoppable.

Suddenly a bolt of pain ripped through his back as if to remind him of all that had changed and in retaliation he pressed the knife harder into the girl's skin. She gave a loud shriek, as if sensing how close he was to finishing his masterpiece. They always gave up towards the end, even the strongest of them.

An involuntary grin spread across his lips as he thought of the Detective. He had no doubt she would struggle; and struggle hard. It always increased his pleasure and enjoyment if they did, but she would be quite something else. She would put up one hell of a fight and for that she was very much worth the wait. But he had others to attend to first. He glanced down to the floor next to his feet where the other girl lay, bound and helpless, awaiting the same fate that was moments away from befalling her sister. He then glanced back to the ever-weakening woman in front of him and smiled at the sight of her blood loss.

It was time. Suddenly and ruthlessly, he pierced her with his blade causing both girls to screech in horror before the girl on the table fell silent for the last time. And then he laughed. Come and get me Detective Taylor.