CSI New York Episode VIII Season 10

EPISODIE VIII: THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL

Flack was on the phone with Jo who listened to him patiently

"The idea of celebrating Mac's birthday, in late, this weekend has been great! By the way what do you bring to his house? The sparkling wine, white or red?" without waiting for a response Flack exclaimed suddenly "Postpone our visit to Mac for a few hours, they killed a man a few hours ago! Come to Central Park!" the Detective snorted

"Consider me already there!" Jo exclaimed closing the communication and slamming on Sheldon "Phone to Mac and tell him I will miss the aperitif!"

"What's wrong?" he asked following her at a steady pace

"Murder in Central Park!" she replied briskly slipping into the elevator looking startled Sheldon follow her

"It's a problem if I join you?" he asked with a smile

"No, but I'd rather you ask me before you do that!" Jo said annoyed

"I'm doing now!" Sheldon smiled

"Have you noticed something?" Jo asked him when the elevator doors broken down from the first floor to the garage closed "You're always very impulsive!"

"And you noticed that we were alone in the elevator?" Shaldon said

"Remember that..." but Jo did not have time to finish the sentence that Sheldon kissed her passionately

"The work is first of all!" he concluded as soon as the elevator opened "It's not just your priority!" he took the car keys from the hand of Jo and jingled them "Your carriage awaits!"

"Witty! There Flack waiting for us with a dead!"she retorted

"Isabella will be pleased!" Sheldon smiled

"Are you sure you want to give the second-level examination of Detective?" Jo asked sitting down on the seat of the transient of a black Chevrolet Captiva

"Never been more sure! I repeat that I want to be able to do more things in this department!" Sheldon explained patiently putting the car in motion.

Flack watched the victim, noting that there were no signs of struggle or no drag. He looked up and saw coming Jo and Sheldon "About time! I thought you would not be over there!"

"Forget it! They are not even the three and there is a hellish traffic already!" Jo said pulling out the gloves "Of course if we had not gone on 5thAvenue...”

"I took the wrong road! We need to discuss it any longer?" Sheldon asked pulling on his protective gloves and leaned over the body

"The new couple, who failed to get an appointment serious yet, it is already in crisis?"

"Flack, instead to be ironic why you don’t help us?" Jo asked impatiently "Before we close this story, before we go to Mac!"

"You know that I think Mac is the first to return to work from his day off, which we solve the case?" Sheldon said examining the body "This stain on clothes, to the wound, it is water" he said moving his jacket and revealing an identical halo on his shirt "And according to the body temperature he has been dead for about three hours!" he shook him lightly on the arm "rigor is not fixed yet!"

"Laurent Jacque Saussure, real estate agent, was born February 12, 1961” Jo had read the information printed on the card company's "Let's get everything to Isabella and Lindsay and go for checks to this company! Not until I took photos of the scene!"

"I'm staying with Isabella in the morgue while you and Flack could go to the company!" Sheldon said slipping his hand into the inside jacket pocket of the body "How strange" he said pulling out his hand "A Scarlet Pimpernel perfectly wrapped in a clear plastic bag!" he examined it carefully but found nothing that would help him "Why a person should wear a Scarlet Pimpernel inside the jacket and not pinned on the lapel?"

"It's probably the signature of the killer ..." Flack theorized

"I hope it is not so!" Jo said "In such cases, nine times out of ten is a serial killer!"

"We be expected he strikes again?" Sheldon asks

"Everything is possible, Sheldon!" Jo said looking around.

Lindsay examined the badge with ultraviolet rays while Danny watched the pimpernel under the microscope "How's the badge?"

"Not bad!" Lindsay said taking fingerprints and showing Danny "There are two sets and then a mark left by a latex glove!"

"It could be Jo?"

"I rule that out!" she said to the pc hacking "It is covered with a green substance and is ...” just got the result she was surprised "Lymph!"

"Oh you'll understand!" Danny smiled "Central Park is full of trees!"

"Yes, but how many Primula Anisodora are there?" she asked showing him the result

"Do we have to do a DNA test to see if there is a match with the primrose I'm looking at?" he asked seriously

"Maybe that's the case ..." Lindsay said nodding

"I do the test and you take the fingerprints through AFIS?" Danny asked

"Deal!" she smiled

"Guys!" Angela called entering "I controlled in the register of the employees of real estate and there is no Laurent Jacque Saussure!"

"That's great! So we are not even sure that that is his real name!" Danny complained

"To be his name, it’s his name!" a man said going into the lab "Just that, the company is the one of Miami!"

Danny smiled "How long Lieutenant Caine! Apparently we will work together again!"

The man took off his sunglasses and smiled "Danny Messer, right?" he said in a respectful tone

"Yes, that's right!" he said taking off the lab gloves

"I do not think instead of remind me of you..." he said heading towards Lindsay

"Lindsay Messer!" the woman smiled presenting

"Very pleased! I'm Lieutenant Horatio Caine!" then he turned to the last remaining agent  “You were not there the last time, but I know you from the newspapers Angela Meyers!"

The girl frowned "You will know then that I did everything to defend my boss!"

"By the way, where is Mac?" he asked in general to present

"He has the day off! We wanted to go to him just solved the case..." Danny said looking at Lindsay rearrange the evidence and the latest results

"With -The Scarlet Pimpernel- is not so simple! He claims victims in Miami from six months and before that in New Orleans..." Horatio sighed "Now there will be three to investigate the Pimpernel and we hope to get it soon!"

"Stella, Mac and you'll be a perfect team, Lieutenant!" Lindsay concluded satisfied "I'm going to tell Jo that Lieutenant Caine is one of us!"

"So, the Detective who took the place of Stella is called Jo!" Horatio smiled "However, I would like to see Mac, you could give me his address?"

"I believe that Mac...” Angela tried to intrude

"Here it is!" Danny said passing him a post-it

"Thank you, Danny!" he said placing it in his pocket "See you tomorrow colleagues!"

"Messer, what jumped in your head?!" Angela shouted "Mac took two days off to recover and you send him the work at home?!"

"Come on Angela! It's an old friend before being a colleague! Try to be not too protected with Mac! He already has a wife and a mother!"

"Danny is right! Horatio is not a colleague whatsoever! I know the whole story!" Lindsay smiled accompanied by Jo.

Horatio got out of the cab and, putting his sunglasses on, walked towards the palace indicated to him by Danny and collided with Christine who was returning home "Excuse me ma'am, I didn’t hurt you?" he said noting that she was pregnant

Christine smiled "Do not worry! We have not clashed so strong!"

"I was passed to visit a friend, they told me that he lives here..." he said straightening his jacket and revealing the distinctive belt without noticing

"He's at home!" Christine said opening the door

"How do you know who I'm looking for?"

"I saw your distinctive!" she smiled

"Wow! What an eye! Congratulations! You're the Mrs.?"

"Taylor! Christine Taylor!" she said entering the hall

"Am I to understand that you are somehow a relative of Mac ... Are you probably the sister?" Horatio asked following her

"Actually, I'm his wife! Whereas you?"

"Lieutenant Horatio Caine of Miami! Will I have to work with Mac in the next few days or maybe weeks!" he remarked regretfully "By now I'm here to see him as a friend!" he said going with Christine in the elevator and taking off his glasses to reveal the ice-blue eyes.

On arrival, they walked down the hall to the door at the end and Christine put the key in the lock, but before she could turn the key Mac opened the door

"Christine, I heard you coming!" he said hugging her and immediately noticed the presence of a man behind her "Horatio Caine! How much time!" he said shaking his hand

"Mac Taylor! I'm glad to find you ... entire..." he said looking into his eyes

"Did you read the papers?" he said making him enter

"Yes, but I did not know you were married and expecting a child!" he said looking at Christine fix the kitchen

Mac smiled "She took care of me during my last convalescences!"

"What misadventure you've lived before the case Beirut?"

"They shot me in the back!" he took her in his hands a list of words on the coffee table in the living room and he stacked them to reorder

"Join the club!" Horatio joked "Is that work?" he asked shortly after stating the words

"I wish it were!" Mac sighed "These are the words that I cannot write anymore since I recovered!" he showed them to him "Usually, I delete one, two per month…”

"It means that in a few months you'll be fine!" Horatio smiled "I was more fortunate than you then! When I got shot I thought I would die! I was saved for a nap!"

"Why did not you tell me the reason for your trip to New York?" Mac asked rising

"-The Scarlet Pimpernel -! The serial killer from Miami who started in New Orleans almost a year ago!" Horatio explained

"He hit here in New York?"

"Today at about 13:15... but they told me that your colleague, Jo, still has to go to the morgue for the report! The body was found only two hours ago!" he said explaining the situation "I met almost all of your team at work: you have a new computer expert and Messer is married to a colleague! Many things have changed since we last saw each other!"

"Yes! And then you do not know the children of Danny and Lindsay!" Mac smiled getting up to go to open the door to which they were knocked

"Mac!" little Lucy screamed glad by skipping to his neck, behind her were Lindsay and Danny with Sid in arms

"Jo arrives later with Hawkes! They have problems with the murder weapon, but you'll see tomorrow!" Danny explained watching her daughter huddle to the chest of Mac

"So she is the first daughter!" Horatio said looking at the girl who frightened doubly pressed against Mac "And he is the second!"

"Who is this guy, Mac?" Lucy asked in a whisper

"He is the Horatio and comes from Miami!" he smiled convincing her to turn to Lieutenant  “Horatio she is Lucy!"

"What a beautiful name!" He said smiling "You're really cute Lucy!"

"Even you put the bad guys in jail like Mac and my Dad?" the small churches

"Yes, I do it too!"

"You look a lot like Mac! You talk just a little more!" the little smiled as she was being placed on the ground by Mac

Lindsay laughed and looked Lucy sit on the armchair and look around curiously.

Christine came in the living room and beside Mac with the phone in hand "Jo is out here and says it has the pizza with her!"

"I love the pizza!" Lucy leaped from his armchair

"We three go out and take the pizzas then!" Mac smiled at Danny and Horatio

"Let's enjoy the quiet before the storm!" Horatio admitted "From tomorrow we will be dealing with a case really heavy!"

In the home even Angela Reed and went in with a bottle of Champagne "The party is here?" the boy asked

"You two do not tell me the right one!" Mac said coming out

"Mac, we have already explained it to you!" Angela snorted

"Do you know why I say so? Because you remind me of me and Claire to our first dates!"

"You're like a father to both!" Reed smiled "You've got to read the article?"

"Yes, but we’ll talk about it later on our own! You will write another one soon!" Mac smiled

Reed grinned "I keep the computer ready!"

Christine took the hand of Mac "Reed goes to get the pizza to your place!" she touched him the bruise with the index on the coasts making him wince "I do not agree on the fact that you go back to work tomorrow, but at least for tonight delegates tasks to others!"

"As you wish!" he glanced at Reed who moved toward the door with Horatio and Danny.

Lucy stood up and began to embrace Christine "But it is true that you will have a child of the age of my little brother?" she asked her

"Yeah baby!" she smiled back

"Do you have a big belly like that had my own mom!"

"Lucy!" Lindsay scolded her with Sid in her arms

Christine laughed "Yes, and it will be bigger than this!"

"Mom does not want to tell me how babies are made and even dad! Can you explain it to me?" she said to Christine and Mac

"Lindsay, not even the history of the bee and the flower did you tell her?" Mac asked

"She never saw the bees pollinate the flowers! How I'll explain that part?!"

Christine sighed "Then tomorrow I'll pick you up at school and we go to the park to see the flowers and the bees!" she looked at Lindsay smiling "If to mommy is okay!"

"Very well! Danny and I both have to work!" she smiled "Then when Mac III will request an explanation similar to this one, I'll be glad to give it to him!"

Mac half-smiled and went to open the door to Jo and other

"Hey Mac!" she smiled hugging him "I missed you today! Especially in the workplace!" she joked looking at the latest signs of beatings on his face. She put a hand on his coasts and saw his lip ripple turning into a grimace of pain "I just touched a bruise on the mend, right?"

"Even though time has passed, if they are touched, they can hurt a lot!" he smiled making her sit in the living room

"Christine!" Jo exulted "How lovely to see you! How are you?"

"Now that we are all ready to celebrate, I feel better!" she smiled at seeing Sheldon, fatigued, arrive with Flack and Jaime who rushed by Christine and Mac

Mac hugged Sheldon and whispered him "Begin to introduce me the case we're working on it!"

"Mac! We agreed!" Christine snorted

"I know, but, if even Horatio is here, it means that it is a serious and complicated!"

"All you need to know is that we will have to do with -The Scarlet Pimpernel-" Horatio said "And his sneaky modus operandi! The remainder of it tomorrow! Unstop the bottle on the table and celebrate!"

The next day, Jo saw Mac advancing toward the room where meetings were held and stopped him "Even Stella has arrived and brought Adam! While Horatio called some of his men from Miami! I know you have studied the whole case, Christine has called me to tell me that last night! I remind you that you are married to Christine and not with your work!"

“What did she say to be specific?"

"To keep an eye on you!" Jo said letting  Mac in the glass room where everyone was already seated ready to start the meeting.

Adam found himself sitting next to Mac and smiled, "Hello Mac!"

"Hello Adam!" Mac greeted him patting him on the shoulder and stood up. He picked up the sheaf of papers of the meeting and scrolling the autopsy report began to speak "-The Scarlet Pimpernel- hit first in New Orleans, then, Stella, you go first! You're the one who knows him best of all!"

Mac sat down and let Stella standing up and to point to the touch screen that lit up at the light touch of her fingers "He calls himself -The Scarlet Pimpernel-, we don’t know anything about him, he leaves no clues, no witnesses and especially he has been operating for almost a year!" she conjured a file with the names of the victims “Victims are seemingly chosen at random, they are of different ages, they did different professions, they lived in three different places..." she showed tem a map "He seems to like to turn our three cities reaping lives, but yesterday it was the first time he killed someone in New York!"

Horatio stood up "We have news of his movements with to those of his victims!" he conjured the tab Laurent Jacque Saussure "The last to die was working in Miami, but this company has recently opened in New York and what we know he had asked for a transfer!"

Mac looked at the names of the various industrial companies "What link is there between all these companies?"

"The last name of the first owner and the owners are not related to each other!" Stella said

"I have done extensive research and I can confirm it to you!" Adam said fiddling with a handheld "I am posting on the screen... and reached!"

Mac stared at the names of the owners “Twelve victims, twelve enterprises twelve owners..."

Flack arrived breathless at the meeting "Excuse me for being late, but I think you all need to see this!" he said pulling out a plastic bag containing a letter "You are his target! Not those who have been killed!"

Mac took the paper in his hands

“I fight the injustice.

I am at the service of my country.

The victims are 12 like the Apostles and you are the Trinity that I need to destroy.

To combine forces against me won’t  help you.

While you're talking about me around a table, I'm preparing my game.

You will soon receive my other news!

I've already moved, now it's up to you!

The Scarlet Pimpernel”

As an attachment there was a scarlet pimpernel, same to that found on the victim at the park

"We are dealing with an executioner!" he concluded by scanning the letter for everyone to see "Flack is right! The objectives are me, Horatio and Stella!"

The hunt for potential assassins that all three knew each led to one name: Henry Darius, who was executed in Miami.

Horatio detached first that afternoon "I'm going to the hotel, waiting for Calleigh. I'm exhausted and I need to sleep!"

Stella continued to investigate with Mac until late at night "Mac go home to Christine! She doesn’t know anything about the Pimpernel and it’s better that you begin to introduce something to her!"

Mac looked at her rubbing his eyes "And what will you do? I won’t leave you to examine old cases of when you were working here, alone!"

Sella took his hands "We sent everyone home! Including Angela and Adam who did nothing but fight all day! In parentheses he bombarded me with messages, until a few minutes ago, and asked me to join him!"

"Not everyone has gone home: Isabella and Hawkes are still trying to track down the murder weapon in the morgue!" Mac said rising from his chair and headed to the glass wall that looked out on the narrow corridor between his office and the window of the skyscraper "Someone wants us dead and we must stop him!" he looked at the street below with the comings and goings of the cars even though it was nearly one in the morning.

"Let's say Sheldon and Isabella of disconnect!" Stella smiled approaching him "Tomorrow, maybe, our mysterious killer will be back alive!"

"I'm afraid Stella, but not for me!" he said hugging her "I'm afraid of what might happen to Christine, to you or to someone of the team!"

Stella wrapped her arms around the neck of his friend and assured him "We'll get him before just about anything would happen!" she pulled away and looked at the blue eyes of Mac "You're too tired and worried to keep working! We are all it!”

Mac nodded "Let's go downstairs!" but he had time to see in the eyes of Stella a veil of anxiety and worry "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm scared too!" she admitted "Because it's definitely something connected with what we have done here together with Horatio!" she took a sheet "Henry Darius has no living relatives and all those who knew him or have died or have behind bars!"

"I'll check also more criminal affiliations here in New York that have come in contact with Henry Darius” Mac reassured her

"You made it throughout the afternoon!" she reminded him

"I will begin again until we come to a point!" Mac said placing the sheet of Stella at the top of his pile of documents "Tomorrow, calmly, we will resume from here!"

In the morgue Sheldon and Isabella had hung the pigs “These things stink most of the bodies that we examine!" the girl complained "What comes closest to our murder weapon is this knife..."

"But the cut is not the same!" Sheldon complained "We have to try to find the exact weapon," he snorted

"Tomorrow morning!" Mac said entering "You are here below since eight hours ago! Go to rest!"

"You have found something?" Isabella asked looking Mac banging with energy his eyes to stay awake

"Nothing!" Stella said with regret "I just hope that Horatio is better and that tomorrow will help us more!"

Sheldon closed the corpse in the freezer "Let's go together to the subway Isabella?"

"Yes, but then we will have to separate!"

"No, I'm going to pay a visit to Jo!" Sheldon smiled "I promised her I would have told her everything and that I would spend the night with her!"

Mac pulled away by colleagues and examined the wounds on pigs “Why was there water on the clothes to the wound?"

"Danny has examined the chemical composition and there were traces of liquid nitrogen, which means that before the water was cold and stored in a cooler!" Hawkes explained "Therefore I hypothesized a kitchen knife or something that could have a connection with the food or biological as the murder weapon"

Stella looked the picture of the wound "It's like the ones I've seen to date: well-defined!" she looked at Mac and added "Which is new to me is the liquid nitrogen!"  she said snorting "I think that the weapon can be a knife of ice!" she concluded upon reflection

"Danny will take to do tomorrow!" Mac said "He will build a blade of ice to prove their compatibility!"

"With which reference values​​?" Sheldon asked

"It seems that we will have to make a mold of the wound on the victim!" Isabella said "But now get all out of here, if we want to follow Mac’s orders!"

Stella walked into the hotel room that had reserved with Adam before leaving and found a letter sealed with a drawstring on the bed on which there was a scarlet pimpernel.

By trembling, Stella took the letter in her hands and opened it, revealing a fine writing paper on which the writing in ink was:

“Amor, ch'al cor gentil ratto s'apprende

prese costui de la bella persona

che mi fu tolta; e 'l modo ancor m'offende.

Amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona,

mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,

che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona.

If you want to see him alive again, come at Central Park now! If I were you, I wouldn’t tell anything to your colleagues. You would not to see him in a bag shredded into pieces right?

The Scarlet Pimpernel”

Stella slid against the wall up to the floor, she took photos with cell phone to the letter and hid it in the bottom of the cabinet, while the letter ended up in her purse.

She closed the bedroom door and walked quickly towards the park, the less desirable place where to go in the middle of the night.

Mac went into the house as quietly as possible. In the darkness he saw a black figure sitting on the couch. He put his right hand on the gun, he stepped back to the wall and with his left hand he turned on the light of the room and pulled out the gun.

Christine turned to him wrapped in her nightgown and was shocked to see him with the weapon in hand "Mac what are you doing?" she whispered terrified

Mac lowered the gun and put it in his belt and sighed "What are you still wake up at two in the morning?! You scared the life out of me!"

"You didn’t answer the phone so I called Jo" Christine said to him terrified "She told me you were still working and that there was Stella with you, but she also told me to be careful and properly close the door!”

Mac ran a hand over his forehead "Forgive me for all these mysteries! It should not be an easy thing to put up with this!"

"Believe me, it is easy if you know what to expect!" Christine stood up and approached him "You just have to tell me what's going on!"

"All the murders of the criminal, that I have to capture with Horatio and Stella, were implemented with the aim to gather all three in New York! We believe it is a matter related to a case of a murderess to which we worked together years ago!"

Christine clung to Mac "It may be that the murderess has escaped from prison and is hunting you?"

"I rule out this because in Florida there is the death penalty in cases like his!" he said holding her "Don’t worry! I will not let anyone hurt you!" he kissed her forehead and lifting her off the ground took her in their room and laid her on the bed "Winter is coming!" he said taking off his shirt and putting on a t-shirt and shorts short

"Yeah! This November is really weird!" Christine said stretching "Fortunately he's fine!" she said pointing to the belly.

Mac lay down beside her and touched her belly with her ​​fingertips "Thinking on his arrival always makes me happy!" he smiled and kissed Christine "Surely, it is the best thing that could happen to us!"

Christine smiled "You become another man when you talk about him!" Mac laughed and put his ear on the belly of Christine "What are you doing? He is perfectly still!"

"I know, but I wanted to let him know that his dad is still there even though he is busy with work!"

Christine turned on her side smile "He knows you're there!"

"Tomorrow, you come with me in the lab, I am more peace of mind when I can protect you in person!" he said rubbing her back "And you have to get up early! Why bring my mother at the airport before! So it is better if you get some rest '"he said turning off the light.

Flack was sitting at his desk with Jaime at his side

"Don, is a serious thing! It was not a simple robbery!" she retorted to her boyfriend and Superior "You're the one who told me that Mac is chasing the Scarlet Pimpernel!"

"How can you say that it was the Scarlet Pimpernel?" he snorted

Jaime slammed on the table a clear plastic bag containing a scarlet pimpernel "Are you satisfied? Send it to the lab now!"

Mac and Christine found themselves witness to the scene and Flack jumped to his feet "Detective Chief Taylor!"

Jaime joined him "Chief!"

Mac smiled "I will be officially promoted within a week! Remember that the relationship between us should not change, so I'm still Mac!"

Christine blinked at him "You didn’t say it to me!"

"Now you know it, but I still continue to do my job as before, only with more responsibility and I have to give an account to all other Bureau!" Mac said crossing his arms

"And when were you planning to tell me it?" Christine asked putting her hands on her hips

"I do want to talk to you, but there has not been the right opportunity!" he defended himself

Flack saw Adam at the entrance of the department and moved away slightly to get noticed.

Adam stepped shivering in the room and slid to Flack’s feet who rushed to his rescue as soon seeing him not steady on his feet "Don! Stella! Stella is gone! I think it was the Pimpernel!"

Flack took him by the shoulders in an attempt to make him feel better.

Mac came to the aid Flack and he lifted up his the head of Adam "Stay awake! Adam hold on, do not give up!"

Jaime was already calling 911 "Detective Lovato! I need an ambulance immediately to the district 12!"

Adam continued to tremble "The Pimpernel took Stella, Mac! Please save her!"

Mac nodded "Don’t worry, Adam! I'll find her!" he took his hand and felt it was almost frozen. he touched his clothes and he found them wet "Don we need to warm him! He risks hypothermia!"

"I undress me! You take off the clothes to him!" Don said to him taking off his jacket.

Christine leaned with Jaime on Adam to help Mac

"The ambulance is coming, hold on!" Jaime whispered to him.

Flack leaned over the body of Adam "I hope this works!"

"It's already working! Adam has a more regular breathing!" Mac said covering them with his jacket and then taking the one Flack "He should already be wormer!"

The paramedics came in with a stretcher and Mac calmed down "Thank God!"

Adam was charged on the stretcher and wrapped in a thermal blanket "It's my fault if Stella has been kidnapped! I promised that I would not get in trouble!" he sobbed

"Adam! Do not think such a thing even as a joke!" Mac silenced him "Think to recover while I search Stella!" Mac followed him up to outside, where he was charged into the ambulance "I'll come to the hospital to ask for help when you're better!" he looked at the ambulance leave with a sad look "I promise you that Stella will live, Adam!"

Christine saw Mac return and leaning against the door frame and thoughtful

"I'll go!" Flack reassured her.

"Don" said Mac just Flack was close enough to him "Take with you Danny and Jaime and go for a site inspection to the hotel room of Stella!"

Flack nodded and walked over to Jaime "Let's go to get Danny! We have a long hard work!"

Mac walked over to Christine and took her hand "Let's go in the lab!" he said "You'll stay in my office!”

Jo was with Angela and Lindsay to monitor the movements of the Scarlet Pimpernel in the computer lab when she saw Mac and Christine, with worried faces, go into the hallway "You keep it alone?"

"Yes, go ahead from Mac! If he has brought Christine there is a reason!" Lindsay said worried.

Jo left the lab and knocked on the office Mac who let her in. "I was worried when I have not seen you this morning on time at the office! I thought something happened to you!" she said to Mac sitting next to Christine and placing her hand on her shoulder as a sign of affection

"Stella has disappeared, at least that's what Adam mumbled before being transported to the hospital with a body temperature lower than average!"

Jo was surprised and shocked "Adam was going into hypothermia?"

"Later Horatio and I will analyze his clothes, we hope to discover something that will take us to the Pimpernel!" he said trying to remain calm

"Why did you bring Christine in the office?"

"Because I'm afraid for her!" he said coldly "I do not feel like have she followed by an escort wherever she goes!"

"And your mother?" Jo asked

"She left for Chicago this morning at six o'clock" Mac said "At home she will be safe!"

"Even I will be away from Mac soon!" Christine chimed "The new house is not completely finished, but it is the safest place where I can stay!"

Jo looked at Mac in the eyes trying to understand

"I bear her there this afternoon and she will be protected by an escort!" he said dismissively to her "Don’t make that face please! You know that that is the right thing to do!"

"I know that, but it seems to me absurd this whole story!" Jo commented "You have stopped living since the Scarlet Pimpernel said that you were his targets and more than Stella is gone!"

Horatio walked into the office without even knocking "I have prepared everything for the analysis!" beside him stood Calleigh Duquesne

"I received an email signed by the Pimpernel, it said simply -The White Rose-. I have done some research and..."Angela said stepping into the office

"Have you all lost the habit of knocking?!" Mac growled

"Take it easy! The situation in which we find ourselves is already quite sensitive!" Horatio said" Go ahead, Angela!"

The girl thanked the Lieutenant with a nod and continued "I think it's revenge on your predecessors who in the 80s arrested a serial killer called by the code name -The White Rose-. She was a contract killer for the government that killed more criminals than any other undercover assassin. She had two years of activity. When she became too dangerous, was arrested in Florida and sentenced to the death penalty! No official news in the papers, just a secret file stored in three copies in the archives by us in New Orleans and Miami!" she took the yellow folder "This is ours!" and handed it to Mac

“Weapon of the crimes committed knives of ice!" he said opening it "About our three predecessors, what do we know?" he asked her

"Two out of three are deaths but your Mac is still alive!" she said handing him the tab "Do you remember him?"

"The day he retired I took his place, I never met him and he was the Deputy Supervisor of that time to show me the lab, before he retired too!"

Jo looked at him "I think it's time to get to know him, Mac!"

"First I want to examine the clothes of Adam!" Mac said "I want to find out where he was!"

Horatio came forward with Calleigh "We'll take care of that! We also briefly investigated a robbery that Jaime has reported: twelve freezers at a store in the southern suburbs of Manhattan. It seems that the Pimpernel has left his signature!"

"Lindsay will rebuild the potential murder weapon with Hawkes and Isabella in place of Danny who went to the hotel where Adam and Stella staying" Jo said to Mac "I'll take care of the paperwork which you were working last night!"

"I shall go to Adam in the hospital as soon as they have finished with the analysis and I will have learned something about the IP address of the email!" Angela said "I owe him apologize again for my behavior yesterday!"

Christine looked Mac "Looks like you can go visit to your predecessor without problems!"

"Yes, but..."

"I'll be fine! I won’t die if I remain alone for a few hours in here!" Christine said "There are cops everywhere!"

"I don’t mean it, I know that I would find you in one piece! I was referring to the press conference for the promotion to Chief of Detectives!"

Christine became pensive "What time is it?"

"At noon" he replied

"You cannot put it off?" Angela asked

"Do you know a way?" Mac asked her

"Reed can keep them busy for a while!" she said smiling "You just have to call him and drop a couple of statements while you go to the hospice!"

Mac was still talking on the phone when he got out of the car parked just outside the senior center "Make something up Reed, I must leave you!"

"It is not that you have told me much Mac! I can hold them at bay for a maximum of thirty minutes!" Reed told him "Try to go back about 12:30! I predict a big mess!"

Mac hung up the phone and went to the nurse on duty at the reception "I'm Detective Taylor, I called to see Mr. Maxwell”

The nurse nodded, "Go into the common room and ask to the nurse," she said, pointing to a door "He should already be there waiting for you!"

"Thank you!" he said before leaving.

Mac entered the room, he saw a pair of elderly talk sitting at couch and two sitting on two different tables

"Excuse me!" Mac said turning to the nurse who accompanied an elderly woman to the courtyard "Can you tell me which of them is Jason Maxwell?"

The nurse pointed to one of the two men sitting at the table "He's waiting for you, Detective! He doesn’t receive a visit from at least three months!"

Mac nodded and let the nurse go.

"Good morning, Mr. Maxwell!" he said sitting in front of him

"Detective!" the man smiled "I'm surprised to see that it got someone your own age! I was expecting a boy of about thirty years with an arrogant smirk typical of today's youth!"

"I am pleased to have exceeded your expectations!" Mac replied putting at ease

"What grade you have in the Department?" the old man churches

"I have recently been promoted to the position of Chief of Detectives, but I continue to be the Supervisor of the Crime Lab!"

Maxwell laughed "My last assignment before retirement! Even when it was all about fingerprints, gunshot residue and, sometimes, DNA!" he looked at Mac smiling "However, you didn’t say your name!" he pointed out

"Mac Taylor!"

"Mac..." Maxwell whispered thoughtfully "It's short for what name?"

"McKenna!"

"A pretty and unusual name for a Detective of your age!" he leaned forward "What brings you to me, Mac?"

Mac came up to him and whispered "The White Rose"

"Why do you ask me to talk about it?"

"I'm dealing with a killer who calls himself -The Scarlet Pimpernel-!"

Maxwell frowned "It's already gone some of your colleagues of Miami or New Orleans?"

Mac nodded "A dear friend of mine, we worked together before she moved to New Orleans four years ago!"

Maxwell leaned back "She won’t die, but the second one will be taken, yes!" he took a piece of paper and a pencil "What I can illustrate is the classic modus operandi of the Rose, the Scarlet Pimpernel may have been taken it!" he designed the three lines "The first objective is kidnapped, the second is killed, and the third, going in search of the second, is conducted in an isolated place where he is killed along with the first!" he said drawing lines on paper “This assumes that the victims to know each other. The relationships are usually close kinship or friendship! The traps in which Rose attracted his victims were well-organized and not left to chance!"

"She never changed tactics?" Mac humbly asked

"Yes, she has changed it with me and my colleagues! When we were given the order to arrest her!" he said letting the tears flow down her cheeks "You kidnapped our loved ones! The daughter of the inspector from New Orleans, my wife and the brother of the Supervisor from Miami!"

Mac realized what had happened in his eyes "I'm sorry!"

"She was the second!" he sobbed "I knew that she would die within a few hours after the kidnapping and so I turned out New York City like a sock!" he laid his eyes on the left ring finger of Mac and pointed to it "I hope you are protecting her right now!"

"I left her in my office and I told her to not move!"

"My daughter blamed me for the death of his mother and, just retired, she sent me here! Do you have children?" Maxwell asked "Always if you do not mind me asking!"

Mac laughed "No problem! However, I will become parent in a month!"

Maxwell turned to the other table where there was another man sitting "How I pity that Ross! He’s waiting for his visit! I feel that his son will not come today!"

"You said Ross?" Mac asked

"The few times that he is conscious and recognizes him also manages to call him by name!" he sighed "Alzheimer's is a horrible disease!"

"What is his son’s name?" Mac asked

"I was waiting for you ask me!" the old man smiled "His name is Adam! A boy somewhat particular!"

"I know! He worked for me until little while ago!" Mac smiled standing up

"Take a good look by anyone and be careful to friends! They will be only weapon against you for the emulator of the Rose!" Maxwell said greeting him

"Thanks for the help!” Mac took his leave

"I wish you to take him before he destroys everything for which you have fought so far!" Maxwell said as the last thing before Mac got up in the car.

When Mac came with the car in the garage of the crime lab sent a text message to Reed: -I’m arriving!-

Reed sighed and replied to the message - Where r u?-

The door to the conference room opened "Here Reed!" Mac said stepping between journalists "Thank you for keeping them at bay!" he addressed to reporters "I grant you three questions, I have a lot of work to do!"

"When next week you will start your new job, what will you do with the lab?" the first asked

"I will keep the direction of the crime lab!" Mac replied shortly

"The fact that the promotion has come shortly after your absolution by the -scandal of Beirut- sounds suspicious, because you went on to play an important role! From Detective to the head of the Bureau is quite a gap! What can you say about that?" a journalist said

"I cannot tell you why the promotion has come after recent events, I know for sure that my predecessor trust of my ability! As for the –gap- I hope I deserve it!"

Mac scanned the crowd of media waiting for one last question, a boy of twenty came forward "What can you say about the disappearance of your colleague from New Orleans?"

Mac said quickly "I have no comment to make about that, unless to say you that I am saddened and I am investigating to find her!" he straightened his jacket "Good day to you all!" and he went out the room toward the elevator to the thirty-fifth floor.

Horatio and Calleigh welcomed him by bringing him the result of the substance found on the clothing of Adam "I inform you that our friend was detained in a large cooler, but we aren’t able to identify the company in which he may have been yet...”

"That's something!" Mac said and walked to his office where he embraced Christine "You must always be careful in everything you do!"

"What have you discovered?" she asked him stroking his cheek

"That the number two is the first to die!" he said "You do not have to be the second for no reason at all!"

Horatio walked into the office "What is the history of the number two? Have you talked to your predecessor?" he asked frowning

"Yes, the White Rose killed three objectives at a time and I am sure that the Pimpernel has used this technique up to now!" Mac said showing the plan drawn by Maxwell "I'll call Jo and I will tell her to meet immediately with all the other in a meeting" he said taking the internal phone" I want a detailed account of all the updates!"

Horatio observed Christine worrying "We'll get him before the next one of us disappear!"

Flack went into the office after knocking lightly on the glass door "We’re returning now from the room of Adam and Stella, there was a message for you in her cell phone and I asked Danny to print it to you!" he clenched his fists and looked down showing a fit of rage

"What else have you discovered?" Mac asked noticing his eyes and clenched fists

"The room was completely clean and we also found the bag of Stella!" he said running a hand on his forehead "In the cell there were photos of a letter that had been sent by the Scarlet Pimpernel, it was attached to the message to you, but there is no trace anywhere!"

"The Pimpernel would not pick up her phone!" Horatio said "Where'd you find it?"

"Hidden in the boards of the cabinet!" Flack said "If we had not found it, we would not have a copy of the letter!"

Jaime walked into the office bringing with him a message "Mac! They found a charred body in the park and they found beside Stella’s documents!"

Mac startled trembling.