A Family at Last

Chapter 1: A Family Tie?

"Where is she?" the man demands, thrusting a knife in the woman's face.

"I don't know," the curly haired woman says, shaking with nerves. "Please… let me go."

"What did you do with the baby?"

"I put her in an orphanage. But she's thirty-five now. She could be anywhere. Maybe she left New York."

"Give me a name."

"What are you going to do to her?"

"Nothing," he says, backing away.

"Why do you need a name then?"

"I just want to talk to her."

"Why?" she asks.

"Does it matter to you what I do?"

"She's my daughter. Of course I care."

"She's my daughter too. I never even saw her." The man walks around her chair slowly. "If you care so much about her, why'd you give her away?"

"Because I could barely support myself, let alone a baby. You didn't even care about what happened to us."

"What did you name her?" The woman doesn't answer. "You know something, and you're keeping it from me."

"No, I haven't seen her since I put her in the orphanage."

"What orphanage?"

"St… St. Basil's."

"When's her birthday?" he puts the knife up to her neck.

"April 23, 1971."

"And what is her name?" Again she doesn't answer. "Tell me her name, or I'll kill you."

"Stella. Her name is Stella," the woman starts to shake again.

"Thank you," he says. "Now, what else do you know?"

"She's… still in New York City. She's a detective for NYPD."

"You've been a great help. Now I'll be able to find her," he says. Then, before she can protest, he slits her throat, instantly killing her.

Family

Mac stands next to the body, observing the crime scene in front of him. He doesn't notice as Flack walks up beside him.

"Mac," the blue-eyed detective says, "nobody knows anything. I've talked to all of the neighbors. And Lindsay is on her way here now."

"Good," he says, still staring at the body.

"Is something wrong?"

Mac looks up. "No. I'm fine. Any ID on the victim?"

"No, I'm still working on that."

"What would you like me to do?" Lindsay asks, entering the small apartment.

"You can start photographing," he says, taking a swab from his kit. He swabs the blood around the woman's cut on her neck.

Lindsay takes out her camera and begins photographing the body. "Clean cut. No hesitation to kill her."

Both continue their work quietly, gathering everything they find. "I've got a print," she says, holding her fingerprint brush back to study it.

"Could be the killer's. We'll run it when we get back." Again, Mac glances at the body on the chair.

"Is there something wrong, Mac?" she asks, putting the lift in her case.

"No." Lindsay comes to stand next to him. "Does she remind you of anyone?" he asks, glancing at her.

She studies the body for a moment. "Yes. She kind of looks like… like…"

"Stella?" he holds up a photograph of her from his wallet.

"Yeah. Could this be a sister… or maybe even mother?"

"It's possible. Do you know… about her childhood? Where she grew up?"

"No. She's never mentioned it."

"Stella grew up in an orphanage. Her parents left her. Why, we don't know." Mac studies her picture for a moment before placing it back in his wallet. "She can't be involved in this case at all. And for now, I don't want her to know about it."

A/N: Compared to the last story I put on here, this one does end happy, or at least not with a character death. I forgot what I was going to say... This one should also be updated everyday so I can get it all up before May 2. I still have to post the last two chapters of whatever it's called. Anyway, I got in a fight with dance teacher today about wearing a hat for my pirate dance. The hat we order is back ordered so she went out and bought one. I refuse to wear it so now I have to wear a bandana type this on my head and one of those fake humongous hoop earrings. I don't recall pirates wearing earrings in the movie but okay. I'm still not happy about that. Luckily she won't be able to make me wear anything else next year with Phantom of the Opera because we already have the mask. It's my brother's birthday tomorrow, but his party was today becasue my dad won't be here and he has a soccer game. He just got a bunch of sports stuff. I was trying to take pictures but it didn't work because my cousin was always in the way. I did get one of his cake though, which he'll probably want as his desktop because that's what he had before. It can't be on there now becuase it was deleted when the computer died. Shoot, I lost all my Washington DC pictures too and the flood on our street. Oh, well. I have to reistall all my camera stuff still. I going to shut up now. Maybe I'll go color for bio. Please tell me what you think so far. I hope alerts start working soon. Thanks.