In the bullpen the team sat at their desks working through their backlog of paperwork, or going over older files to see if there were any loose ends that might justify opening one of the cases. While it was an important part of the day-to-day business all of them where hoping that they would have a new case to solve soon, or some new piece of evidence as they worked better when focused on a single case. When they heard the phone ringing all of them looked towards Stillmans office full of anticipation. After a few minutes he came out of his office eyeing his team.

"Do we have a new case boss?" Lily asked while the others where listening eagerly.

" Maybe," Stillman replied, " I have to talk with a guy called Danny Miles. He might be a witness in a missing person case, or even two."

With that Stilman went over to one of the interrogation-rooms where a man was already waiting for him. He was rather tall and maybe 60 years old with greyish hair and bright green eyes. He seemed to be a little nervous or had only little time to spare.

"Hello, you are Danny Miles? I am lieutenant John Stillman", the lieutenant said in a calm voice while entering, making Danny nod.

"You told one of the officers something about a piece of evidence you found?" he asked again observing Danny closely.

"There was a message in my shop which I found a couple of days ago and I saw something similar on the news today with a child and a weird message," Danny replied while handing a piece auf yellowed paper to Stillman. "I thought it might be useful" he continued shrugging, "looks pretty old, so I came to you guys, they told me you do old cases? I need to get back to my shop but I can answer questions there if any come up."

Stillman then nodded and replied with his still calm voice "Thank you Mr. Miles, if we have further questions we will visit you." After that Danny nodded and got up to leave, followed by Stillman who left the room after him. On his way back he had a look at the paper Danny had given to him, reading 'Mom, daddy came back! Give Chris a hug!'

With a sinking feeling in his stomache, Stillman eyed his waiting team outside.

He had been a detective for only a few years when he came across the bundle on the street. On inspection it turned out to be a scrawny 10 year old girl that was beaten up pretty badly. He had taken the kid to hospital. While the girl was being patched up he had phone her mother but that proved to be a dead end as the woman had been in a stupor and unable to give any coherent answers. Only the next day she had come to the hospital to yell at the kid and tell him to butt off and that she was going to sort this out on her own, thank you very much! He had been able to talk to the girl afterwards but they never found out who did this to her. Lilly had told him about the note, but it had never been found and back then he had not been familiar with the Cold Cases so he had never connected this case with the vanished child of 1988.

With a sigh, Stillman went over to his team. He wasn't sure if taking this case was a good idea, but they were the best when it came to sussing out the cold ones. None of the other teams had their level of experiance with this type of investigation. And so far no one of the team except from himself and Lilly knew how close to home this case would really be.

"Will, Scotty you go get the file of Lisa Goldman, that's 1988! Vera, get copies of the current case. Talk to Captain Parker, tell him we will make sure his team has access to everything we can piece together from the old files. Maybe it will help them to find Amy Lindt." he ordered with a furtive glance towards Lil. When the news of the missing 10 year old came in this morning, she had barely given any outward sign of recognition. But then the detective was so private, that he wasn't surprised. As he had suggested, she had called the called the officer who was in charge of the case and made sure he had access to her statement. But there was not really much else she could do as no note was ever found and her never actually getting a look at her attacker.

"Okay boss!" they said and went to their assignments. When they had left, Stillman motioned for Lilly to come over to him and held the note out to her.

"The note I told you about...", the detective whispered and ran a hand through her messy hair. She had paled noticably but tried to stay calm and looked up at Boss.

"The owner of the nearby shop found it in the store. Couple of days ago.", Stillman explained and bagged the evidence. "I know you said you didn't see anything back then but if there is anything new you remember tell me Lil. I'm not going to drag your case into the open unless it's really nessicary."

"Thanks Boss!", Lilly replied and headed towards the locker room. "Sorry I need a moment!".

It took Will and Scotty a while to find the box between all the others, letting them remember just how many families where torn forever. Once they had found it, the younger detective pulled the box out of the shelf while Will held some others so they would not fall down. It seemed strange how little the box weighed for it contained the whole fate of a little girl. Checking that they had gotten everything, both of them returned to the bullpen.

"What do we have?" Stillman asked as they put the box on the table. At these words Will took of the lid and she and the others started to unpack the cardboard box, while Scotty took the file and read out aloud. Just as he was getting started, Lilly returned avoiding the eyes of her colleagues.

"Eleven year old girl vanished from a bus-station in October 14th ´88 leaving a note saying 'Daddy, mommy came back! Give the boys a hug!', no signs of blood, struggle or the girls possessions. Lisa Marie Goldman was on her way to school but never arrived." he read out, frowing as he noticed Lilly's pained look. It was barely visible, but he had gotten practise reading her over the years they worked together. Something was clearly wrong with her, but when the raised his eybrows questioningly as he paused reading, Lilly shook her head slightlly without the others noticing, so he continued. "She was last seen wearing a knee-long light blue dress, a white blouse, white socks, leather shoes, a thick long coat in dark blue, gloves and a scarf."

"She was last seen at seven and was gone twenty minutes later," Jeffries added quietly, now taking the file from Scotty. "her mother, who was divorced from her husband a year earlier, had no idea she was missing until the police knocked at her door, it says here." he concluded, pointing at the file.

"And now there is another girl missing. Amy Lindt, 10 years old. Different situation but the girls look similar and so do the notes that were left" Stillman said after Will and Scotty had ended, laying the note from Lisa's box on the table and then added two newer pictures from the file Vera had handed him just before Will and Jeffries had returned: Both girls seemed slender and had blonde hair and blue eyes. Whoever did this clearly had a type! The team took the messages and studied them, and as Vera passed it to Lily she read quickly, giving the notes to Scotty for reading, her hand trembling slightly and cool to the touch when her fingers brushed against Scotty's.

'Daddy, mommy came back! Give the boys a hug!' and 'Mommy, daddy came back! Give Clover a hug!' was scrawled out in a clumsy and slightly shakey child's handwriting.

"Where were they found?" Lily asked not looking at the others.

"Lisa's was found at the bus station where she was waiting for the bus to school. Amy waiting for her aunt to pick her up after socker. The note was pound on the porch of her school." Stillman replied with a serious voice.

Lily remained silent for a while letting the others discuss the matter. This was bad. Really bad. For years she had wondered why she had been forced to write the note during her attack but with two girls missing now she realized just how lucky she had been and how close she had come to vanish that night. After locking eyes with Stillman for a few seconds, Lilly got up silently and went to her desk slowly getting something out of the drawer. The others had to read this but she didn't have the nerve to watch her friends going over her own file, so she just dropped it to the desk and rushed out of the door towards the parking lot. It would have been almost time to go home anyway and she just couldn't face the looks of the others after finding out about this.