EPISODE X:

I WANT TO PLAY A GAME WHITH YOU

Jo looked at the mail received that day and found a letter from Sinclair, she opened it with trembling hands and she read the contents of it

"I've heard rumors on Pimpernel and the fact that she's trying to kill Taylor.

They offered me to return at work occupying my old place and I accepted! Taylor henceforth will be under my command, so then I'll handle the case!

See you soon!

Det. Brigham Sinclair "

Mac came in just at that moment in the office of Jo “I’m disturbing you?"

"Not at all! There is one thing I must tell you!" she began standing up "Christine is now safe!"

"Thank God!" he said sighing "But there's more... I see it from your eyes! What is it?"

"Sinclair returns! He knew of Pimpernel and wants to take the reins of the situation, as well as his old job!" she handed him the letter kindly "Black on White!"

Mac looked up from the paper "He understood that everything that passes by email or phone may be found! I will be happy to work with him again as the boss!"

"You do not mind losing the position that you have earned?" Jo asked seeing Mac towards the door

"No!" Mac said opening the door

"Now where are you going?"

"What day is today?"

"The 22!" Jo said

"What day of the week is it?"

"Friday!" Jo replied again

"Where am I going exceptionally this Friday night?" he asked with quiet look

"Please, no! You cannot go to Cozy! Anything could happen to you!"

"I need detach and to vent! I do it for the Iranian band, that case they have solved a few weeks ago!"

"I understand that it is a thing already programmed, but you have to pretend like Christine is dead and that the funeral has devastated you!" Jo reminded him

"I'll do that too!" he said coming out.

Mac entered the Cozy's night club taking a big breath and keeping on the face his sunglasses

"Hey Mac! I didn’t think you were coming!" the drummer said welcoming him behind the stage

"Hello Noah! At first I didn’t think to come but I have neither the energy to work nor the ability to stay at home!"

"David jumps tonight!"

"So nothing guitarist and main voice! We'd all be in trouble if I had not come!" Mac smiled forcibly

"Yes, but not completely!" Noah said "Do you remember Jill? Your former university partner who works as a researcher for lung cancer?"

"Why do you ask me if I remember her? I invited her to see some of our shows!" Mac said thoughtfully

"Because she is here tonight to talk with you: she would like to join the band!"

"Tonight I don’t feel to do it!" Mac explained

"Take the opportunity and tell her directly!" Noah said pointing to the woman entering

"Hey Mac! It's been months since we've seen with our old company!" Jill said, a woman with black eyes and dark chestnut long hair

"I missed several meetings of old college buddies!"

"I'm sorry for the moment you're going through!" she said looking him in the face "Promise me you are gonna play tonight without those sunglasses!"

Mac smiled and got ready to go on stage.

Danny looked at one last time an investigation into the Pimpernel then took the phone and dialed a number "How are you?"

"Fine!" Lindsay replied at the other end "I'm beginning to feel sleepy, but Lucy is still overactive exactly like Sid! What time do you come back?"

"Soon I just have to close a dossier!" he replied looking at some lab technicians leaving it

"See you later then and thanks for calling me! I'd be asleep!"

"Don’t use Sid as a pillow! Hold on I'm coming to relieve you! For 22.30 I'm there!" he hung up the phone and deposited the CSI coat on a hanger putting his jacket over his green shirt with short sleeves.

He went out into the street and was stopped by a frightened girl "Are you a cop?" she asked frightened

"Yes, I am a Detective! What's going on?"

"I have cellphone’s dead battery and I couldn’t call 911! I saw someone at the cemetery of Trinity Church rummaging in one of the graves!" she said terrified

"Okay, now we will solve the situation!" he said putting his hand on the phone "I'm Detective Messer! I need immediate reinforcements to the cemetery of Trinity Church at 50 Fulton St!"

Flack and Jaime watched Danny stationary on a grave

"Look here!" he said

"Franklin Wharton!" Flack smiled "And there is also a pimpernel!"

"Why am I not surprised?" Jaime asked

"Lieutenant Colonel of the Marine Corps! Third commander of the Marine Corps!" Danny read

"Doesn’t she ever get tired of persecuting Mac?" Flack snorted

"As long as he wouldn’t be dead, she won’t stop!" Jo said bringing the kit "Danny, you don’t answer the cellphone and Lindsay got worried!"

"I warned her that I was in charge of the case!" he replied

Flack put the cellphone to your ear "I want you to supervise the Detective Mac Taylor! Don’t show yourselves! He mustn’t know that an escort is protecting him! Currently he is in Cozy"

"She has desecrated the grave without leaving fingerprints and has taken something!" Jo snapped

"Our deceased Marine has definitely lost his mind for our killer!" Danny exclaimed.

Mac helped Jill to stand up

"I'm sorry!" the woman smiled

"Of course I cannot let you go home alone! Does your ankle still hurt?" Mac asked considerate

"A little! Of course the doctor could do something more than tell me to put ice on it!" she said smiling "The Cozy has always been a peaceful place! Who would have thought that it would be broke out a fight? Luckily there were more cops than you!"

"I would say that we have avoided the worst!" Mac said raising his hand to hail a cab "First, give your address!" he said by opening the door and then close it again.

He put his bass guitar in the trunk, walked around the car and sat down beside her

"So how did I go?" she asked as the car drove off

"You have a beautiful voice! I'd say you've earned a place in the band!" he smiled in response

"Perfect! Now I hope that my son will not make me go crazy in the next few days!" she said pleased of her result

"Do you have a son? How many years he has?"

"Five years! His name is Alan Gary! His father and I got divorced and now he is by him for a few days!" she said seeing the building of his house "I arrived! I cannot wait to go to bed and sleep!"

"What a coincidence! I arrived too! The next building is my house!"

"Really? We are neighbors and we don’t even know!" Jill laughed

"Typical of the big cities!" Mac said paying the taxi driver and getting out first to help her got down.

Mac took the bass from the trunk and watched the cab move away, "Jill, wait here! I leave the bass guitar to the front desk in my building and then I'll help you climb the stairs! "

Jill was alone and her phone rang "Hello?" No answer "Who is speaking?" and on the other end hung up.

Mac ran back a few minutes later with the phone to his ear "Hello? I know who you are! Why you don’t answer?" he walked over to Jill hanging up the mobile "As soon as I catch her, I swear that I’ll switch off her the desire to make these jokes!"

"I received a phone call similar to yours before!"

"Let us go into your house and call my colleagues! If it is who I think it is, she isn’t joking! She's chasing me to kill me!"

Mac and Jill took the stairs "Which floor?"

"Fifth!" the woman replied "I cannot reach it up to there alone!"

However, Mac had already turned and took her in his arms "In this way you won’t have problems!" and he began to climb.

Mac put down Jill in front of the door that she opened and closed it behind her as soon as they were inside

"Finally we can call!" Mac said "Hell no phone coverage!"

"Mac there is a package here!" Jill said pointing to the glass coffee table in the living room "It's for you!"

Mac came up and touched it with an umbrella that he had taken near the door "Let's get out of here!"

"It can’t be opened! It's locked!" Jill yelled trying to snap the lock, Mac tried as well to break through the heavy door without success" I would say it is appropriate to open the package!" Jill suggested

Mac opened the package and found a DVD "Where can we watch it?"

As soon as Jill came back with the laptop, Mac inserted the DVD and clicking on play he saw a black figure with a balaclava and a pair of sunglasses with mirrored lenses sitting on a chair "Detective Taylor! I thought to have a little fun before our meeting! I changed the lock inside the house, you are officially locked in!" Mac watched the monitor without getting upset "There's a bomb in the kitchen, it is connected to the gas and the timer was activated as soon as you close the door behind you! There is only one way to stop it: take the key that opens the lock to reach the controls of the bomb and disarm it!" Jill began to worry continuing to listen to what the mysterious woman was saying "There are three keys hidden in the apartment and there are several clues to find them. It's up to you to choose with which one open the lock and with which one the door! If you use the wrong key to open the lock the bomb will explode!"

Mac frowned listening to the last words of Pimpernel "The timer was two hours at the beginning, then do a quick calculation of the time you have! If you are lucky you will arrive to the hospital and you will save yourself, after inhaling a good dose of gas! By the way Detective: you play well!" the video interrupted and the computer began to emit sparks. Mac had protected behind the couch with Jill.

"Farewell evidences!" Mac said clenching his teeth "Let’s try the keys! We have about an hour and a quarter!"

Jill nodded and went limping to the bathroom and opened the door slightly "Mac! I found one!" she exclaimed.

Mac walked over to the bathroom door and saw the floor full of mousetraps all ready to shoot. The key was in the middle of the room and was resting on one of the traps

"There is no room to put your feet! If we snap a trap there will be a chain reaction!" he said crouching on the floor looking at traps better

"Yes, but if we snap all of them with something? We could enter quietly and take the key!"

"The idea is not bad! There is only one thing we do not know: where the key will end?" Mac asked "You have the toilet open! We should have to hope it doesn’t end up in the drain!" he said putting himself to observe the traps "I’ll get in! Get ready to close the door as soon as I get out!"

"How many traps will you snap?! You are completely insane!"

"Do you want to save yourself without going to the hospital?" Mac asked seriously, Jill nodded "So we must do as I say!"

Mac stood up and took a deep breath, he was a flash of lightning to come in and grab the key between the noise of the first traps that snapped. He left the room with a couple of traps on the arm "Fortunately I have the jacket!" he said to Jill showing the key and the traps hanging from his sleeve "Let’s try the others! We have an hour!"

Jill began searching in the lounge but Mac found a second clue in the kitchen doorway:

“Do not open the door before you got two keys!”

It was engraved in the door

"Jill there is one in the kitchen, but we must find the other one before!"

'Why?”

"I think it's a trap!" Mac replied

"I know where the key is!" Jill said reaching Mac limping "In the storage room! The door has a design on it!"

The door would open to the outside and when Mac looked inside shivered covering his face with his hand "Shit! I'm sorry, but that's what's in your storage room! Do you have gloves?"

"Yes! Under the kitchen sink!"

"Find something to protect the hands: a rag, a dress..."

Jill went to the bedroom "She has sealed all the closets!"

"Great!" Mac said noting from his watch that another quarter of an hour had passed "At this point I can’t see other solution!" but Jill had her hands in the muck in search of the key

"Taken!" she said triumphantly and tried to clean it as much as possible "One's left!"

Mac took the second key and went to the kitchen door "Which of the two will open the door?"

It lacked almost half an hour when the time expires, and Mac looked at the carvings on the keys: a –S- and -H-

"Now it is clear!" Mac said taking the one with the –S-, and opened the door.

Jill came over and watched the barbed wire rolled for any kitchen. Above the table there was the third key

"I have to arrive at the table and then move in the direction of the sink!"

"Can you avoid the barbed wire?" Jill asked

"Without a rifle in hand and proceeding calmly, yes!" Mac said putting the two keys in his pocket.

Jill watched him bend down and try to dodge the wires "Fifteen minutes, Mac!" she told him when he came to pick up the key and she watched him move quickly towards the sink.

When Mac arrived at his destination found himself in a narrow corridor of wire and it was impossible to completely get close to the doors under the sink. Ahead of him there was a grid in which his hands barely passed. He cut his fingers opening the doors and his blood began to flow, drop by drop, on black tiles. He tried to find the lock that would have blocked the timer and opened a box to get the last key.

When he had to select the key to use blanched "Jill, how do you manage with the argument?"

"Pretty well!"

"I need you to tell me which of the two remaining keys to use: -H- or -open padlock-? Knowing that the open padlock means nothing to me and that instead the -H- is the initial of a colleague of mine kidnapped" Mac pointed out

"Um…" Jill began to think "I'd use the -H-! Before, when you used the -S-, seemed to have a meaning for you!"

"Perfect! We have five minutes!" Mac said watching the timer "Whatever will happen, I'm sorry that you've been involved in this matter!" he said inserting the key and turning it.

Flack and his men saw Mac stuck in the kitchen with one leg caught in barbed wire "How did you know where I was?"

"Simple: I made you follow an escort after the Pimpernel has stolen the head of a dead Marine since 1818!"

"You're talking about, perhaps, of Franklin Wharton?" Mac asked seeing Danny get there with the reflex

"Flack is speaking precisely of him, Mac!" Danny said taking pictures of the room "But I do not see the connection with you other than the fact that he played an import role in the Marine Corps!"

"Age!" Mac said looking at Danny photographing in his direction "Franklin Wharton died at fifty-one years old, I was born November 1, 1963!"

"You have turned fifty years old this November...” Flack did a quick calculation "She took someone who has approximately your age!"

"And that he died in the line of duty! She wants me to do that end!" Mac concluded while Adam arrived "What are you doing here? You should not be in the lab?"

"Actually, I should be in my bed by ten minutes to cry and remind me that my world sucks without Stella! Instead I preferred to make sure you were okay!" he said taking the nippers "Now I will try to free yourself and to gather evidence at the same time!"

Flack opened the closet door "That stinks! Was it you, Mac?" he said covering his nose with a handkerchief of white linen

"It's definitely a joke out of place, Flack!" Mac ruled from the kitchen

"I tried to raise your spirits! I'm not the one with the metal sticking in the leg!"

"Rather it, how is Jill Andrews?" Mac asked

Danny came up to Flack photographing the closet and smiled "Who is this Jill? She looks cute!"

"Danny!" Mac silenced him "I should do my job and help you now!" he complained still sitting on the ground with Adam that cut a wire at a time

"At this moment, Mac, you're the victim and we do our work: we’ll bring you to the hospital for a check, we’ll question you, we’ll bring you home, we'll sneak you in bed with a cup of chamomile and you sleep with an escort out the door!" Flack concluded

"We make a move, Adam? It’s already three o'clock and if you do not want Mac celebrate fifty years in that position, you have to release him!" Danny joked

"Mac's right guys! Stop it! “Adam growled

'Keep Calm, Adam!" Mac said with a low tone "Answer my questions: how is Jill Andrews? You have to find her a safe place? Have you notified the ex-husband and his family?"

"Don’t worry! She is here below to do check her out! The boys Flack will bring her to her mother, who has already been advised!" Danny said looking at the face of Mac a natural way "There is absolutely nothing to fear! Everything is under control!" and as soon as he just finished that sentence to say there was an explosion outside the window.

Flack looked out the window "The ambulance has just exploded!" he shouted to one of his men "Call 911! Hurry up!”

Mac looked at the audience with a threatening air "This is your concept of All-under control! -?!" he shouted "Who has done the inspections outside?" no one answered.

The next morning Sinclair appeared in the office to Mac "Taylor, the chief of the Bureau has made me more pressure this morning to recover my old place now!" he looked at the shocked expression by Mac "Odd that he didn’t know anything about it to you!"

Mac's expression changed and he was on the verge of wrath "The Chief of the Detective's me now! Ones higher up should contact me first! I would like to understand why I'm always the last to know things!"

"They do not do this, if they know that the case on which you investigate concerns you closely!" Sinclair said "Actually, my early retirement has already been revoked! So I'm going back to my old position, and you to yours!"

"It means that, to do no matter what I should ask to you permission first?" he asked frowning

"Yes and I will accept only written requests by your hand!" and saying this he left.

Jo looked at Mac from the outside and sighed shaking her head.

Danny looked at Lindsay lying on the couch with Sid "He doesn’t look so good today! It's better if you stay at home!"

"So, let's review the situation a second: you found yourself having to investigate the disappearance of the head of a dead man who if he were alive today would have two hundred forty-six years. Me who am struggling with Sid who has a strange fever and doesn’t eat I take care of Lucy that has become overactive as well!"

"Be quiet!" Danny assured her "I'll be home before the end of the turn!"

"It's not that! It's just..." she began to observe the child "Danny!"

"Lindsay! What's going on?" he asked fright

"Sid has something wrong! Take me to the hospital!" Lindsay screamed.

Flack received a phone call while he was with Jaime to arrange the paperwork

"Yes, Danny!"

"Flack! Can you come to the hospital? Sid is sick! Lindsay and I do not know what to do! I'm scared because they said that maybe it's meningitis, and they do not let me in!" he said in a low and trembling voice

"All right, I'm coming! Try to stay calm!" he said looking at Jaime and added "Are you coming too?"

"Where?" she said leaving the practice she had been working on the desk

"I'll explain As we move!" Flack replied taking the car keys.

Jo saw the two Detectives get out in a hurry "Where are you going?"

"Danny and Lindsay are in the hospital! Sid is bad!" Flack replied

"I'm coming with you!" she said leaving the practice in her hand to a policeman "They should be included in the dossier of Jill Andrews and then bring it to the Scientific to Detective Taylor!"

Flack and Jaime were not able to keep calm Danny and Lindsay.

Mac saw the situation suddenly fall and Jo joined him

"You're finally here, too! Maybe, you make them reason!"

"What's going on?"

"Sid have been diagnosed with meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis! Lindsay and Danny are desperate!" Jo said "Sheldon and Adam, are stuck in the lab with Sinclair to explain the case!"

Danny looked up scared and worried along with Lindsay "Mac! You came!"

"How could I not be there?" Mac said hugging them

"I do not know what happened! We were just talking! I was on the couch and then..." Lindsay said between sobs

"Be quiet!" Mac assured her looking into her eyes

"Hello Danny, hello Lindsay!” a familiar voice that made my blood run cold to Mac said "Hello everyone!"

"Peyton?" Mac asked turning to look at her

"It is really me!" she said remaining serious

"What are you doing here? I knew it was returned to teach!" Mac said

"Actually, I'm a surgeon and pediatrician here in the hospital now! I have dealt with Sid, with my colleagues pediatricians and other doctors, and we have already started antibiotic therapy that now you'll have to follow too! Sid will recover!"

"Thank you, Peyton!" Danny said hugging her

"If you want, you can see Sid, but by yourself!" Peyton said "He cannot stand the noise and light!"

"See you later!" Danny said hugging friends one by one and gathered there for him and then going with Lindsay towards his son's room

"How much time has passed, right Mac?" Peyton admitted

"Quite a lot! So many things have happened in three years!" Mac smiled

"However, I do not know the new member of your team! You must be the -new- Deputy Supervisor of the Lab!" she said looking at Jo, who was more and more curious "Peyton Driscoll!" she said stretching her hand

"Jo Danville!" she replied introducing herself and shaking her hand "You worked at the forensic morgue?"

"Yes, and I was a great friend of Sid! I knew that he passed away from Isabella! She and I always keep in touch!" she said with a light of sadness in her eyes

" Peyton !" a female doctor said "Your daughter has been sick in kindergarten ! They just called!"

"Why should anything ever happen ? Can you replace me? "

"Go ahead and do not worry! I told you on purpose!" the other replied kindly

"Now, if you'll excuse me , I have to change clothes!" Peyton said melting dark hair.

Mac followed her into the hallway, leaving Jo with an expression somewhat surprised

"Peyton , have you got a mate?"

"No, I'm alone!" she said walking fast

"Then, how can you have a daughter ?"

"I don’t think that these are business that concerns you!" Peyton said opening the door of the locker room

"Yes, I am interested in!" Mac whispered picking up the door and looking into Peyton’s eyes asked "Is she my daughter?" Peyton looked him up to see his face without speaking "Answer!"

"And even if she is? What would be different?" she said giving him a slap on the hand that was holding the door "It was me that no longer wanted you in my life!"

"You've excluded me in automatically from the life of our daughter!" he said in an angry tone

"A daughter who is now ill!" Peyton reminded him

"All right! Go to her! We'll talk about it some other time!" Mac replied calming down

"Thank you!" Peyton replied closing the door.

Mac returned to Jo with repressed anger on his face

"So Mac? What you had to say of so important to Peyton?" Jo asked him

"I have a daughter!" Mac said in one breath

"I'm sorry, but I cannot understand how it is possible! Do you want to tell me everything from the beginning? "Jo asked.

Flack was talking with Jaime sitting not too far from Jo and Mac

"What do you think Mac and Jo are saying?"

"Jaime, I do not care right now!" Flack smiled kissing her

"It's interesting for me!" she smiled "That Peyton seemed to be too on familiar terms with Mac!"

Flack drew back "Why do you always manage to see everything?"

"It's part of our job to see things! Now tell me about Peyton and Mac!"

"Or: how it all ended with a letter left from London after a year of romance!" Flack smiled preparing to go on, but he had to stop because of a message by Angela "You'll find them in the next episode! We have to go! Notify Jo and Mac!"

They approached and heard Mac conclude the speech "I thought she would stay after that night, but..."

"But she left you again!" said Jo

"Too bad is that a little girl is born!" Mac said becoming thoughtful and gloomy

Flack gasped "Wait! Are you already a father?!"

"Apparently!"

"Didn’t you know it?" Jaime asked in surprise

"If I had known, I probably would have convinced her to give us another chance! It was Peyton that didn’t want to tell anything to me!" Mac explained with the air of a beaten dog

"At least the name that she gave her, she would have told you!" Flack cried

"No, I don’t even know that!" Mac seemed about to explode

"However, the job is waiting for us!" Flack said "Angela and Adam have found an IP address that could be that of the video message! We're going to check! Jo, lead Mac to the lab and try to revive him because Sinclair wants to meet him! Apparently he received other pressures!" Flack emphasized.

Mac was with Jo in the Sinclair’s office

"Given that you've just been downgraded, Taylor, and I'm back at the head of the Detective, I declare you officially out from the case of -the Scarlet Pimpernel- and you will be protected by an escort twenty four hours a day!"

"Boss I..." Mac tried to answer back

"Nothing to do! I gave you an opportunity with the support of the other Chiefs of Bureaus and the Chief of the Department and you've wasted it!" he said in a harsh tone" I was told that you didn’t even once contacted the Assistant Chief Gerrard!”

"I can assure you, Boss, that Detective Taylor did everything so that the case would turn at the end as quickly as possible!" Jo intervened

"This doesn’t mean that he is still failed in his duties! It is already so if I have not taken the distinctive!" he said opening the door "These two cops are the indoor building escort and in other indoor locations! With them there will always be two police cruisers when you will move for work and other chores, Taylor!"

"What can I say to convince the Department that I have done my duty?" Mac asked

"Nothing! You just have to abide my orders!" Sinclair hissed. He turned then to the agents "I want that each of his movements is reported to me! No mistakes or I will fire you!" he thundered.

"And they say that New York has decreased the rate of homicides? You can see that they do not even know where they get the numbers!" Flack ruled looking at a woman's body in the lake in Central Park "With this poor girl we are at two cases in the same lake!"

"Yeah, I remember when Mac had given order to drain the lake to catch the gun of a murder! Adam had found the second gun!"

"-Another gun, another murder!- I can still hear him!" Flack smiled

"How many murder weapons?" Adam asked approaching the scene with Angela

"Are you sure that your computer has not melted?" Jaime asked

"I swear to you that the IP address was carrying here! I immediately recognized the castle and everything else and I do not want to believe it!" Adam defended himself

"Anyway, now we are here and we have to investigate!" Jaime said

"What will happen now with the return of Sinclair?" Angela asked

"Mac returns to have only a job and he is expelled from the case! That at least is what Jo wrote to me!" Flack said waving the cellular

"To the delight of all those who had looked bad his promotion!" Adam said and the others looked at him bewildered "The voices inside the lab between the technicians and the other Detectives who passed for news on the cases were anything but estimation to Mac!"

"To think of it he is skipped exactly seven degrees within the department! If I was not his friend, I probably would be angry too!" Flack said

"That's nice to hear the shocking truth about me!" Mac said appearing behind them with Jo "You were here for the castle and the IP address! To me, however, were assigned the case of the woman who died in the lake!" he said putting down his briefcase with the kit for the investigation "You will be under the supervision of Jo and Sinclair, henceforth!" he said looking at the woman's body "Where is Hawkes?"

"Stuck in traffic on 5th Avenue!" said Flack

"Anyway, no one knows or saw anything! We have only one witness: her boyfriend who fell asleep with her under the tree!" Jaime said

"I guess they were both drunk!" Mac hypothesized

"He definitely! She who knows... " Jaime said

"Who goes with Jo and who with Mac?" Flack asked

"I'll take the case of Mac! I want to know what happened to the girl!" Jaime said looking at Mac and the corpse in front of him.

Danny stroked his son's right arm while the left Lindsay "Your mom and your dad are here with you! Hold on!"

"Little Sid Anthony Messer!" Lindsay smiled "I know you can do it!"

Peyton came into the room, forcing a smile "So Messer family?"

"Peyton!" Lindsay exclaimed happy "How are you?"

"Well! But by the time I prefer to talk about work: therefore, antibiotic therapy is begun well. Tomorrow morning a pediatrician will pass to complete the diagnosis! You are undergoing antibiotic treatment to reduce the risk of infection. Better to undergo Lucy as well!"

A nurse came in without knocking "Your daughter is better and is looking for you!"

"Thank you! Tell her I'll be right there!" Peyton smiled

"You have a little girl too?" Lindsay asked

"Yes! Aubrey Mackenzie! She has two and a half years!" Peyton smiled

"What a beautiful name!" Danny said "However, Mackenzie reminds me of another name familiar to me..."

"Yes, my daughter is the daughter of Mac as well, I think!" Peyton confessed

"Mac has a daughter?" Lindsay said surprised making sure not to scare Sid "He knows it?"

"He discovered it by accident today! The only reason why I didn’t say anything to him is that I wanted him out of my life and that one of Aubrey!" Peyton explained "The fact that now he knows it doesn’t change things!" she smiled and concluded by saying "Now I’ll go to my daughter!"

As soon as the door was closed Danny said "I don’t really know what she means with: - is the daughter of Mac as well, I think!-!"

"I do not want to say anything bad, but I think Peyton has made the wrong move hiding the existence of the little girl to Mac and luckily Christine is not here to drown even this stroke!" Lindsay said.

Mac and Sheldon examined with Isabella the victim's body "A woman aged between twenty-five and thirty years and, according to the information that you have provided me, she died this morning at three o'clock! Oh and there's another thing!" Isabella said with emphasis "She is not who you thought she was!"

Mac peered at her "What?"

"We have before us an unknown woman and not Romilda Bownes!" the girl said "But I'm not surprised that the boyfriend has recognized her! They are identical!"

"Identical in the sense that they are two perfect impersonator!" Mac remarked "You forgot to tell me one thing: how she died!"

"Of course! There is no trace of petechial hemorrhage and this is what I found in the stomach, "she said, passing a shard of glass to Mac

Sheldon stared at the fragment "Good job! What happens if you ingest the glass?"

"You cut the esophagus and stomach, causing you bleeding and thus ending! Small problem: she has not ingested it, at least not as you see it!"

"There were other tracks in the stomach?" Sheldon asked

"I found traces of plastic in the stomach, what little is left well..." Isabella smiled awkwardly.

Mac looked at Sheldon and smiled "The fragment is entered thanks the enclosure that protected him!"

"Since it is not very large, it can be assumed that this is an exchange with something else, such as a tablet or a candy!" Sheldon deduced

"I'm sure it's something like a tablet! Given that the residues are blue!" Isabella explained "Go to Romilda’s boyfriend and clarified the situation! He is the key to understanding what happened to the real Romilda and who we have in front of us!" Isabella said

"Do you want to become a detective too?" Sheldon asked ironically

"No! Is enough for me graduating in advance and have since childhood IQ scores above average!" she smiled happily.

Jo looked at Mac and outside the glass wall of the lab, she took a deep breath and entered

"Hello Mac!" she said putting down his jacket and putting on a white lab coat

"Good evening to you Jo!" Mac said without looking up from the microscope "Nothing at all about the unknown girl that we have below! On the other hand I have written Romilda Bownes in the register of missing persons!"

"A nice prize!" Jo quipped "I have a few things to tell you in private..." she said pointing to the policemen on guard with her eyes

"Of course! I’ll arranged the evidence and we’ll go to my office!"

Sheldon and Isabella were settling medical reports

"I've lost some of things lately!" the man said as he picked up a box with heavy folders within

"What?" the girl asked wiping the sweat on the forehead with the sleeve of the sweatshirt

"When did you graduate? I was convinced you were here for an internship and you'd graduate in two years!"

"Lie!" she said biting her lower lip "I sent a letter to Mac the week after my father died and I has been accepted here!"

"Let me guess, Mac has convinced responsible of the morgue to give you confidence!" Sheldon said

"In fact!" she smiled "You have to do?"

"No, I wanted to see how Jo was and if I could help!"

"What a sentimentalist!" Isabella said with sickly sweet voice "I wanted to ask you if you came with me to pay a visit to Sid!"

Mac looked at Jo "Anything else? Only that I must submit myself to the appointment freeing me of the stock next week?"

"Nothing else Mac!" Jo said disconsolate "I wish I could have been more helpful but...”

"No! You did your best!" Mac said sitting at the desk

"Since you're sitting, I would also tell you that I saw your possible daughter while I was at the hospital to Danny! Peyton was taking her home! Her name is Aubrey!"

Mac winced "You saw her really? How is she physically?"

"On almost three years ... brunette hair and she doesn’t look anything like you!" Jo concluded

Sheldon came in at that moment, in which Mac said "Are you telling me that my daughter doesn’t resembles me in anything?!"

"Daughter?" Sheldon said surprised "What's going on?"

"The former girlfriend of Mac had a daughter and she never told that to him! Now, however, he came to know about her existence and wants to meet her!" Jo hurried to explain "Former girlfriend? You're not talking about Peyton!" Sheldon suggested "She was the last you saw because Aubrey Hunter dumped you the next day when Peyton left your home!"

"She’s just talking about Peyton!" Mac muttered "I need to get out of here! I'm going home! I do not want to see Peyton and my daughter now! I'm too tired and don’t want to risk a quarrel!"

"The two dudes out here what do they do?" Sheldon asked

"They will come with me!" Mac snorted getting up

"The case you are working on is tiring you, not the possibility of already being a father! Rest and you'll see that it will get better!" Jo encouraged him

"I hate to be under close surveillance!" he said indicating the police at the door “In a few days I'll need you to bugger them off!"

"I will do my best to help you!" Sheldon said

Mac smiled and left the room.

The next day Mac took the file of the victim of the lake in Central Park from the desk and confronted all the pictures, the similarity with Romilda Bownes was truly amazing. Mac didn’t take his eyes off from any of the signs that the body had during the autopsy before and after being cleaned and stitched up when the work has been completed

"We had in store the DNA of Romilda Bownes!" Angela exclaimed entering "Too bad we didn’t know the reason for his presence! With some research and skill, that's why!" and she placed the paper under the nose of Mac who took it without looking up at her "In these cases we usually say: -Good job Angela! I'm proud of you! -" but Mac remained expressionless "Boss?"

"I'm fine! It's just that -obscene acts in public- isn’t anything that can be useful!"

He took the paper and placed it in the dossier, which he put at the edge of the desk

"Thou shalt not serious?" Angela asked surprised "There must be something that escapes us ! In short, you cannot put the file in the unsolved cases!"

"I'm going to talk to Romilda Bownes’s boyfriend. I’ll inform him that his girlfriend is on the list of missing persons!" Mac said going out of his office.

Angela stared at the file to the edge of the desk and reached out her hand to take it, but she withdrew it immediately "Damn!"

"Where's Mac? Peyton has just arrived!" Jaime asked entering "What's going on Angela?"

"The pile of Mac’s unsolved cases has now a dossier in addition!" she said leaving angrily "Ah! If you are looking for him go to the Central , he went to tell Mr. Evans that we haven’t found his girlfriend yet!"

Jaime looked at Mac’s deskwork and with a resolute gaze came forward with strong picking up the dossier and left.