"Central this is 55-David. We have a strangulation victim in the alley on 108th and 6th. It looks like she's been dead for at least a day." Officer Faith Yokas spoke into her radio.

"It's a shame" her partner, Maurice "Bosco" Boscorelli commented as he gazed at the young woman, her shoulder length blonde hair partially covering the ligature marks on her neck. Faith nodded her agreement.

"She looks like she was really hot" he finished.

"Bos! Is all you're about is checking out the closest piece of ass? And dead bodies? That's just gross. Have a little compassion would you?" Faith admonished.

"Excuse me for paying her a compliment. What's eating you anyway?" he asked. Usually Faith understood that Bosco was a little rough around the edges and ignored his brazen comments.

"I just have a bad feeling about this one." She told him, "Women's intuition I guess."

"Right, whatever you say," replied Bosco, who didn't believe in women's intuition anymore than he believed in luck. "Maybe it's more like a cop's instinct."

"Well whatever it is, it's giving me a rotten feeling." She said with finality. They stayed by the body until the M.E. and detectives arrived, when they were assigned to canvas the neighborhood for anyone who might have seen or heard anything. When everyone they talked to had nothing helpful to say, Bosco started to get frustrated,

"A girl is both killed and left in the alley, or at least someone dumped her body there and no one notices anything? For a whole day! What the hell is wrong with people?"

"If she was dumped here I'm not surprised no one saw anything, who is going to look out their window onto an alley? Cats and homeless people make noise down there all the time. It's out of our hands for now anyway, the detectives will find this guy." Faith reminded her sometimes volatile partner.

"Yeah, and when they do…" Bosco left Faith to imagine for herself what Bosco would do to him.

***********************************

Bosco and Faith said goodbye to the others on the third watch when their shift was over and headed outside.

"You want a lift?" Bosco asked.

"No big date tonight? Wow Bos, I'm shocked!" Faith joked. Bosco made a face at her and answered,

"Even I need a break once in a while; I'm not a machine Faith! The ladies will have to find some way to survive tonight without me."

"Couldn't get a date huh?" Faith asked.

"You want a ride or not?" was all Bosco could come up with in reply. He prided himself on his reputation with women.

"Nah, that's ok. I don't really want to sit in the same car where you have tried to get it on with Kim and who knows how many others!" Faith joked.

"Fine, whatever. Have it your way. And she was all over me by the way, until Jimmy showed up." Bosco defended himself.

"It's too bad for you that they got back together." Faith continued to tease Bosco.

"I'll live." he replied sarcastically. The two parted, Bosco headed for his Mustang and Faith headed for the subway. Neither one noticed the man standing across the street, binoculars in hand. As he stared at Faith, a curious and slightly manic smile crossed his lips.

'She's beautiful. The 55th precinct may be full of ego-inflated jerks, but they do have some beautiful women. And soon they'll be mine instead of those so-called heroes'.' He thought to himself. 'The 5-5 better watch out, they aren't as smart or as tough as they think they are and I'm going to be the one to prove it. Not to mention get me three gorgeous women; starting with the officer here.' He chuckled under his break and started to walk slowly to the subway. When Faith stepped onto the train, so did he. He sat across from her and watched her out of the corner of his eye as she stared out the window. When she glanced in his direction, he lowered his eyes to the floor.

'Why is there always some guy who stares at other people on the subway?' she thought. 'It's kinda creepy, but unfortunately not that unusual.' When the train arrived at her stop, Faith and the man stepped off the subway car. As she set out towards home, he followed about a block behind, staring intently at her while trying to remain unobtrusive. She walked up the stairs to her apartment, unlocked the door, stepped inside and closed it behind her. The man took out a pad of paper, wrote down the number on the door and jotted some other notes about the surroundings. His mission apparently accomplished, at least for the time being, he turned to head back down the stairs and headed back to his apartment. Once he got there, he hit the start-up button on his computer. When the screen came to life he connected to the internet and logged on to the 55th precinct's database. After scrolling through several pictures, he found what he was looking for.

"Faith, that's a pretty name" he said to himself and continued to dig for information.