Sammy and Ilna - brrrr it's cold here in NJ but my heart is warm being in the REAL World with you both.

And Sammy - thanks for giving me so much help that this is a virtual co-write :), the case stuff would be very weak without you're incredible input! Thanks again!

REALMcRollers - your kind words and heartfelt feedback is never taken for granted. Thank you all.

An Eye For Details

Steve sat heavily on the sofa and leaned in to kiss Catherine.

"Is she fast asleep?" She nodded at the monitor as he placed it on the coffee table.

"Out like she did PT," he said with a tired smile as he reached for the beer she'd set out with dinner.

"So …" She faced him fully. "The case went sideways?"

She'd known immediately when he got home that the investigation of a missing arms dealer had hit a roadblock. Steve's expression made it evident the second he entered the house. He'd kissed her appreciatively when she offered to make dinner so he could spend a little extra time with Angie, and took the baby up to bathe and put her down. While his muscles were less tight than an hour before, frustration was still in his eyes.

"Yeah," he said as he ran a hand over his face. "It's … hinky, as Danny would say. The guy's an arms dealer with a history that goes back to mob ties in New Jersey in the early 90s. Which is where his bodyguard originated. If anyone knew his boss' whereabouts, he did. We had the bodyguard at a boat slip on Ala Wei."

"Where is he?" She placed a hand on his thigh as he shook his head. It had been a long couple of days for the team.

"In a body bag. He drew on Danny then he fired at Kosuke - there were civilians all over the place." He ran a hand behind his neck. "So our one lead's dead in the water."

"Ah. Sorry." She could tell by his expression he'd been the one to remove the threat to the HPD officer and civilians. "If he was Diamonelli's guy I'm sure he wasn't going quietly."

Armando "Manny Diamonds" Diamonelli was a billionaire ten times over who rose from being a made man in the Bonatato crime family to an international arms dealer when he escaped a hit that killed the capo and most of the family's "soldiers". While the rest of the survivors either swore allegiance to the new regime or went underground, Manny fled first to Europe, then to the Middle East before resurfacing on Oahu two decades later.

"Especially if he knew something about Diamonelli just disappearing while six BATF agents and the FBI were on him like glue." Steve huffed. "Danny and I saw him enter the house ourselves. There's a load of surveillance footage, and the son of a bitch is in the wind."

Catherine tilted her head in thought. "The wife is still at the house?"

He took a bite of steak and nodded. "Natalie Diamonelli. Still there," he said after swallowing. "She called in a missing persons - still insists he never came home from a run Saturday morning. Meanwhile, his buyers did an about face when they got wind he was gone and the FBI and BATF lost a huge bust."

"Where's the shipment, then?"

"That's the 64 thousand dollar question. No one's too choked up about one less scumbag on the island - least of all me, but where the hell is the weapons cache? There's no rival activity, he's head of an enclave, and if he's dead, where the hell's the body?"

"Let's see the reports," Catherine said as she turned on the tablet. After a few minutes of studying them and asking a question here and there, she glanced at Steve.

"What's that room?" She pointed.

"A wine cellar. They used it for storage, too. No weapons, nothing lit up with luminol, either."

"What's in the freezer?"

"A slaughtered pig. Vegetables, frozen waffles, a couple gallons of ice cream, and a bottle of stolichnaya."

"An entire slaughtered hog?" Her brow furrowed slightly. "That's a lot for two people."

"According to his wife he had a beef allergy. Bad enough he carried an EpiPen. So pork's the only meat he ate. We actually checked the meat but it cleared as animal parts."

Catherine made a humming noise.

"What?" he asked.

"So then what's in the house freezer?"

"In the upstairs kitchen?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Pull up the list, HPD and FBI did a room-by-room while we were at the dock. It should be available by now."

"Stew. Beef stew. All labeled." The brown eyes lit inquisitively and then sparked in a familiar way.

"Maybe so it didn't cross contaminate allergy wise?"

"Why so much if he's allergic? This says twelve containers."

He sat up, his posture suddenly straightened. "There're twelve containers of stew?"

She tapped the image on the screen and he knew immediately what she was thinking.

He pulled out his phone and when it connected, he told the agent who answered, "Have the containers of stew sent to the lab ASAP."

Catherine was accessing additional reports when he ended the call. "Okay, so if it is him, where'd she kill him?"

Steve indicated an aerial schematic of the house.

"Here." He pointed to the property's expansive back porch. "We got a luminol hit on the porch near the outdoor kitchen but there were all kinds of stains because they fed a cat colony. Cats would pee all over the wood to mark territory. The lab didn't have a rush on it because the techs figured a low level hit was probably the cat urine." Steve looked at her with undisguised pride and clenched and unclenched his fists.

She shook her head with a smile. "Go. Call Max and have him meet you at the lab."

He opened his mouth and closed it before grinning. "You're amazing, Rollins. Anyone tell you that today?" He kissed her before he stood.

"Only one person, but he's the one that counts most." She smiled. "Go, Angie and I will see you later."

He kissed her again and was out the door.

Steve entered their room several hours later to find Catherine and Angie snuggled on their bed. The baby was awake and sought his face when he sat at Catherine's side and said "Hey, baby girl. Your mommy's a genius."

Catherine placed a hand on his face to receive a kiss. "Stew, huh?"

"Stew." He grimaced slightly. "Actual stew, it wasn't just labeled like that. She cooked him."

"She hated him that much?" she whispered, running a hand over Angie's head. "Ugh."

"It wasn't about hating him." Steve stood and shucked off his clothes, donning shorts and a t-shirt before rejoining his wife and daughter.

"Natalie Diamonelli was originally Natalie Sokol, but before that she was Natalia Sokolov. Her father was Andre Sokolov out of Little Odessa back in the day."

"Russian Mob?" Catherine's brow rose.

Steve nodded. "Danny said when Andre Sokolov died, the funeral director told his buddies about the eight-pointed star tattoos on his chest." He referenced the mark that belonged to the highest rank of the Russian underworld. "Next thing he knew, he was a customer at his own funeral home. Looks like Natalie missed the family business. She contacted her own arms buyers, planned to increase profits and keep a bigger percentage. When Manny found out and challenged her, she killed him."

"And dismembered him."

"And …" Steve shook his head. "You know, I've see a lot of sick bastards, but she cooked his corpse."

"She cooked her husband," Catherine echoed with a small grimace.

"With carrots and potatoes. He's in the twelve Tupperware containers in Max's lab as we speak." Steve shook off the image before reaching for a cooing Angie. "Do you know what happened tonight?" he asked and kissed the baby's cheek, causing her to smile. "Your mommy solved a murder and caught an arms dealer." He looked at Catherine over her head. "From the sofa."

She smiled and shook her head. "I bounced ideas and brainstormed with your daddy. We're pretty good at that. But he arrested a very bad lady."

"Well oiled machine, Rollins. As usual." He stood to put Angie to bed and held her out for a kiss from her mommy. "We did good."

Catherine smiled at the baby as he placed her in the bassinet. "We always do."

# End thanks for reading

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