In the Criminal Justice System, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups, the police who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders, these are their stories.

It was a busy day in Central Park as two joggers went about their morning jog whilst talking amongst themselves.

"I'm telling you Irene, that boy's no good for her." The younger of the two joggers said as the two women jogged down the path. "What she sees in him I'll never now!"

"Oh relax Mandy, she'll find someone better soon enough." The older of the two women responded as they continued to jog down the path, after a few minutes though they spotted a pair of feet sticking out from underneath a nearby bush. "Oh really? A drunkard at this hour?"

"Let's just move on." Mandy responded as she shook her head before jogging ahead of the older woman, however she took one look back and let out a horrified gasp. "Oh my god! Irene, call 911!"

"What?" Irena asked before jogging up to catch up with her friend and seeing what she saw, the heavily mutilated dead body of a male rock fan. "Oh sweet Jesus! No!"

*sometime later*

By now CSU was on the scene and had cordoned off the area of central park where the body had ben found, and Fontana and Green were on the scene.

"Man, what a mess." The older detective commented as he looked at the body, his thick Chicago accent ringing out. "Do we have an ID?"

"Yep, found it in his wallet, names Ritchie Francs." The medical examiner responded as he showed Fontana the ID. "He's got a Guitar World employee badge in his wallet, that's how we IDed him."

"Guitar World? That new guitar shop that opened a few months ago?" Ed asked as he walked up to Fontana and looked at the ID. "Only twenty-two, you hate to see it."

"I won't have an official cause of death until I get him to the lab, body's too damaged to tell just from looking at him." The medical examiner responded as he motioned to the body. "He's been dead for a couple of hours tops I'd say he passed between four and five am."

"Anything else you can tell us? We want to retrace his steps, starting with his place of employment." Fontana responded and the medical examiner nodded.

"Just one, it seems to have been a dump job, not seeing any indication that he was killed here." The medical examiner responded and the two detectives nodded before they started to walk off.

"Not even replaced Briscoe for a whole month and I'm already getting a heavy case." Fontana responded as he walked alongside Ed. "You know where this shop is?"

"Yeah, not that far from the park either let's go." Ed nodded in response before they walked off.

*a bit later at guitar world*

The two detectives entered the store and had to admit, they were impressed by the variety of guitars on display as they walked around.

"These are some nice-looking guitars." Fontana commented as he looked at the guitars on display before noticing one with a unique shape. "Never seen that before."

"That's a Gibson Flying V, really popular with the metalheads." A female voice rang out and Fontana looked over seeing a petite, pretty young woman with shoulder length messy black hair, blue eyes and a tattoos down her arms and piercings on her eyebrow and navel, the latter of which was visible thanks to her crop top. "I should know, I play one myself! Anyway, are you interested?"

"Not on a policeman's salary I'm afraid." Fontana responded as he held up his badge and the young woman nodded as she folded her arms. "Detective Joe Fontana, NYPD, I understand that Ritchie Francs worked here?"

"Yeah, he just started a couple of weeks ago." The young woman nodded as she brushed some hair over her shoulder right as Ed approached them. "Why? Did something happen?"

"Is there somewhere quiet we can talk Ms.? We don't want to disturb your customers." Ed asked and the young woman nodded before leading them away, it was at that point that Ed recognized the young woman. "Wait, aren't you Kirsty Mason?"

"I go by the surname Gallagher these days but yeah, I was wondering how long it would take for one of you to recognize me." Kirsty sighed as she glanced over at the two detectives. "Then again, I did notice Lennie's absence."

"Detective Briscoe retired last year." Joe explained and Kirsty nodded as she got the idea before leading them to the back. "So, how do you know Ed and his former partner?"

"It's a long story, but I got tangled up in the investigation of a cop killing three years ago." Kirsty sighed once they were out of earshot of the other employees. "Ed can tell you the details if you want but I wasn't in a good place back then, glad to report that I've turned my life around."

"Trust me, that's not a pretty story and we are on police business so no real time to catch up." Ed responded with a nod before showing Kirsty a picture of Ritchie's body. "He was found dead earlier, any idea where he went."

"Fuck, even three years later death seems to follow me around!" Kirsty sighed before handing Ed the picture back. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much, Ritchie was working the night shift as part of his training and I came in to relieve him a couple of hours ago." Kirsty added as she leaned against the wall. "He seemed jumpy but I put that down to the amount of coffee he was drinking to stay up."

"Do you know what time he left exactly?" Joe asked and Kirsty paused as she thought back to the last time she saw him. "The time of death was between 4-5 am."

"I think it was just after 4:30, I'd have to double check with my boss because he arrived just as Ritchie was leaving, you mind if I go fetch him?" Kirsty asked the two detectives and they nodded before Kirsty walked off.

"So, what's her story?" Joe asked as he turned to Ed. "She doesn't seem capable of killing a cop if you ask me."

"We suspected her at first but she ended up being framed by her ex, who was one of the ones who was responsible." Ed responded and Joe nodded as he got the idea. "She's basically a reformed juvenile offender who got in way over her head, and nearly got killed for it."

"No chance of her being the killer this time?" Joe asked and Ed shook his head. "We will have to ask for her alibi anyway since you mentioned that she has a juvenile record."

"That record was for shoplifting and drug possession, both of which are things I haven't even thought of doing for years now." Kirsty responded as she returned to the detectives with an older, long-haired guy. "Anyway, Frank these are the detectives from the NYPD I told you about."

"And that would make you Kirsty's boss?" Ed asked and Frank nodded. "Kirsty said that Ritchie Francs left here around 4:30am?"

"Yeah, right after I came on shift." Frank nodded as he stepped forward. "Shame what happened to him, he was a good kid."

"You can't think of anyone who'd want to do this to him?" Ed asked and the two employees shook their heads.

"Nope, like I said, Ritchie was a good kid." Frank responded and Kirsty nodded in agreement. "He had a not-so-secret crush on Kirsty here but the same can be said of most of the younger employees."

"And I keep telling them that I'm not ready to date yet." Kirsty sighed as she shook her head. "But yeah, aside from having to occasionally turn him down for dates, I never had any problems with Ritchie."

"As for me, he was a good kid, new to the whole guitar thing but eager to learn, both in terms of how to play and how to sell the things." Frank added as he turned to Kirsty. "Not unlike Kirsty when she first applied here."

"And I'm still learning how to do both." Kirsty sighed before she shook her head. "Someone had better let his family know."

"Leave that to us, now this is just a routine question but can anyone account for you whereabouts?" Joe asked and Kirsty nodded.

"I've been in the store for most of the morning, the other employees can back me up and the security cameras can too." Kirsty responded as she glanced up towards her boss. "Frank spends most of his time in the back office but he doesn't leave the store early unless it's an emergency."

"And trust me, it would have to be an emergency for me to leave early." Frank nodded in agreement and Joe nodded as he wrote down his notes. "We will assist this investigation in any way we can, just tell us what we need to do."

"For now the best thing you can do is let us do our jobs." Ed responded before handing Kirsty and Frank a business card each. "But if you think of anything, you can call me on that number."

"Will do." Kirsty nodded before the cops left.

*later at the NYPD*

Once the cops returned to the precinct they found out that Ritchie's body had been sent down for an autopsy and the evidence (what little there was) at the scene had been sent to forensics.

"I'm telling you LT, had no idea that Kirsty worked at that guitar shop." Ed commented to Anita Van Buren as she read the report from the shop. "She's been under the radar since she was taken in by Rebecca Gallagher's family, but from what I can tell? She's doing a lot better than she was when we first met her., for one thing she didn't make a run for it when Joe identified himself."

"I'm happy for the girl and I'm sure Lennie would be amused by that but we've got a bigger problem." Van Buren responded catching the attention of the two cops. "The MO for Ritchie's murder sounded vaguely familiar so I checked with some other precincts, it looks like we might have a serial killer on our hands."

"How many other victims so far?" Joe asked and Anita checked her notes.

"Counting Ritchie? Three, the other victims were in Brooklyn and Harlem." Van Buren responded as she showed the reports to the two detectives. "And before you go calling our little success story safe because Ritchie is a man, the other two victims were both women, thankfully there was no sign of sexual assault but the MO and Cause of Death match Ritchie otherwise." Van Buren added and the two detectives shared a look. "And on that note? Cause of Death was a gunshot to the back of the head, mutilation was done postmortem."

"I'd better warn Kirsty, then again the victims seemed to be retailers working a night shift, she's been working the day shift at that guitar shop." Ed responded after reading the notes. "Wouldn't hurt to warn her all the same, she was almost a murder victim once and I doubt Kirsty is in any hurry to go through that again."

"I'll send some uniformed officers to the store to inform Kirsty and the other day shift workers of the situation, for now I need you two focussed on the case." Van Buren responded as she started to walk away. "I'm already talking to the other precincts about forming a task force, if there is a serial killer loose then we had better put a lid on it before word gets out to the press and they cause a panic."

"Where do you want us to start? Because right now, the only thing we have to go on is the fact that Ritchie happened to work in the same shop as a former murder suspect." Joe responded with a frown and Anita nodded. "And from what I've seen? That girl doesn't seem capable of killing anyone, never mind everything else tied to the case."

"Much as I believe in not judging a book by it's cover? From what I remember Kirsty was a petite, skinny girl, Ritchie is quite a bit heavier than her." Van Buren responded as she shook her head. "Unless she's been working out in the three years since I last saw her? We can cross Kirsty off the suspect list by virtue of the fact that she wouldn't be able to carry Ritchie to the dump site."

"The only changes I saw was that, aside from her being old enough to drink, Kirsty's grown her hair out a bit and has had tattoo and piercing work done, she's off the list." Ed responded as he shook his head ad Van Buren nodded. "I guess we can start with Ritchie's family."

"Ritchie's parents will be coming over to ID the body, you can start there." Van Buren nodded before she walked off.

*a bit later, back at the store*

Since Joe and Ed left business had returned to normal at Guitar World and Kirsty was hard at work trying to sell the customers on the guitars.

"I can just about play Smoke on the Water and Iron Man but I'm over here trying to sell this guy on a guitar used by Dave Mustaine, I guess that's what I get for trying to learn guitar so I'd be better at this job." Kirsty thought as she watched the guy play some basic riffs with her arms crossed. "So, are you interested in buying or just playing that guitar?"

"It's a sick guitar for sure but I don't know if it's the right one for me." The customer responded and Kirsty barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "But I'm sure you'll help me out beautiful!"

"I swear to god, this guy is deliberately dragging this out so he can hit on me." Kirsty thought with an annoyed sigh as pinched her nose in response. "Look, I've got other customers to tend to, your playing seems solid but unless your going to buy a guitar I'm going to see if I can find a customer who came in here to spend money." Kirsty responded as she went to walk off and the guy stopped her.

"Okay, okay, I'll buy this guitar, sorry for trying to keep you company." The customer responded and Kirsty grinned before leading him to the counter to process his purchase, but when he went to buy the guitar? "What the hell? My credit card got declined!"

"Why am I not surprised?" Kirsty thought as she glanced down at the card machine which indeed read "card declined". "Do you have other cards you can try?"

"Err, yeah, just give me a sec." The customer responded as he dug through his pockets and produced two other cards, both of which were declined. "I swear, this never happens to me!"

"I'm sure you say that to every girl you disappoint." Kirsty muttered under her breath and fortunately for her, the customer didn't hear her. "I don't know what to tell you man, but if you can't afford that guitar I can't sell it to you." Kirsty responded as she shook her head and the customer dejectedly put the guitar back and left the shop, it was at that point that Kirsty realized Frank was watching her. "The guy didn't take the hint, and I'm not just talking about the guitar either."

"Forget him, he's tried that stunt with every new female employee that's at least average looking, he won't be back." Frank responded as he walked over to the counter and Kirsty nodded. "One of these days I'm going to ban him from my store."

"And one of these days, a guy around my age will enter the store and not think with his man parts upon seeing me." Kirsty responded as she shook her head getting a laugh out of Frank. "And I'll still take that over my ex treating me like eye candy and framing me for a cop killing he committed!"

"Eh forget him, you're a better person than he'll ever be." Frank assured Kirsty and she grinned in response before the door to the store opened again and two uniformed police officers stepped in. "Can I help you gentlemen? We were visited by detectives Fontana and Green earlier."

"This is a follow up I'm afraid." The younger of the two officers responded as he approached the counter. "We have reason to believe that Ritchie's murder wasn't an isolated incident."

"What? Like a serial killer or something?" Kirsty asked but upon seeing the look on the officers' faces her face dropped. "Oh shit, you're serious aren't you?"

"I'm afraid so ma'am." The older of the two officers nodded grimly as he stepped forward. "Do you have anywhere we can talk in private? We don't want to disturb your customers."

"Follow me." Frank instructed them before they followed Frank to the back of the store.