RETURN

Bobby Goren blinked as his eyes adjusted to the bar's dim interior. The mid February day was surprisingly bright and mild, pleasant enough to raise Bobby's suspicions. Nothing good could happen on such a beautiful day. He stood and surveyed the bar. It wasn't, fortunately, a cop hangout, but cops did occasionally visit it to meet with assistant Das and other legal types. It wasn't the sort of place Bobby would've selected for this particular meeting with Bill Hannah, and Bobby wondered why Bill Hannah had picked it. The Bill Hannah Bobby knew had little use for lawyers or the Brass, but he knew that Bill Hannah a long time ago. He dimly recalled Hannah's presence at Danny Ross' funeral, and Bobby remembered acknowledging a gift from the Hannah family to the local mental health society after his mother's funeral. Bill Hannah was one of the few people aside from Alex Eames who knew something about the chaos of Bobby's family.

Bobby moved cautiously through the bar. It wasn't crowded, but dark and full of nooks and crannies.

"Figures," Bobby thought. "Lawyers like to make deals in the dark..."

"Bobby. Bobby Goren. Over here."

Bobby turned to his right. He recognized Bill Hannah's voice, and followed it to a man sitting in a booth in one of the crannies. He was older, of course, his body heavier and his hair thinner, but still recognizably Bill Hannah. His voice was warm, and Bobby realized he was glad that Bill Hannah seemed glad to see him.

"Hannah," Bobby said and shifted his binder from his right hand to his left. Hannah slipped from the booth and stood. He shook Bobby's hand, hesitated, and then pulled Bobby into a hug. Bobby returned the hug, awkwardly at first and then relaxing.

"It's good to see you, Bobby," Hannah said. "It's been too long. Way too long."

"Yea. It has. It's good to see you too."

"C'mon. Sit down and let me buy you a drink. You still drink that expensive stuff?"

Bobby slid into the booth across from Hannah. "I do. Not as much as I used to."

"I've cut back myself. You get older, you know?"

"Yea..."

"You remember that old Captain at the 44th? Always said getting older in this job is an accomplishment."

"Yea." Bobby nodded his thanks to the waitress who placed a drink before him. "O'Hanlan, right?"

"You always had a great memory. One of the many things that make you a great detective."

Bobby noted that Hannah used the present tense. He wondered if his former partner knew that Bobby was no longer a member of the NYPD.

"You were always good at the job," Hannah continued. "Except for the politics. I tried to warn you that might bite you some day."

"It did," Bobby admitted. "It took a while, but it did."

"Politics have bitten a lot of good cops," Hannah said. "And you were always one of the best."

Bobby stared into his glass. "I tried to be. I was lucky for a long time. Had two great captains. And a great partner. They protected me."

"I've heard about that." Hannah sipped his drink. "The only thing I really regretted about leaving Narcotics—and it was a big thing—was that I left a great partner. One that I knew some people in the NYPD didn't appreciate."

Bobby reddened.

"But," Hannah continued. "They're some who did—and do—appreciate you."

"I take it you're in that group."

"Yes. I take it you don't know everything that's been going on?"

Bobby shook his head. "You seem to know I've been away. I just got back in the city yesterday. I gather there have been some shakeups."

"That's a bit of an understatement."

Bobby studied his former partner. Bill Hannah played things close to the vest. He held a reputation as one of the best poker players in the NYPD, and Bobby had lost a few hands to the man before he decided playing cards with Hannah was too harmful to his wallet. Soon after that Bobby began to regard Hannah as a friend. He wasn't certain about how Hannah felt about him until the night Bobby fought through a painful haze to hear Hannah forcefully telling a nurse that no one kept Bill Hannah away from a friend, especially when that friend had just saved Bill Hannah's life. Bobby had drifted back into unconsciousness, partly from the shot the nurse gave him, and partly from his brain's efforts to comprehend Bill Hannah was his friend.

Bobby slowly turned his glass in his hand. "It's been a while since I played poker with you. But you have that look on your face you used to have when you were about to drop four aces on the table."

Hannah smiled. "Well, I've either just been dealt a great hand or gotten dumped on. I've just been named head of Major Case."

Bobby couldn't hide his reaction of surprise and happiness. "Great. Really great. I'm happy for you. Really happy...But..." He frowned.

"I'm not sure what led up to it," Hannah said. "The last captain had nothing to do with the mess. The word is that she was tired of the politics. And maybe some personal issues."

Bobby sat quietly. Politics had hurt him; worse, it had hurt his friends.

"She wasn't a friend of Kenny Moran," Hannah said. "Who I gather isn't one of your favorite people."

Bobby wished he'd kept better track of Bill Hannah's progress through the NYPD. He didn't think Hannah was an associate of Kenny Moran. But Danny Ross once told Bobby that he didn't recognize Kenny Moran as the cop he'd first met when both were new uniforms.

"Well," Bobby said deliberately. "He did give me a second chance."

Hannah smiled slightly. "You've developed some diplomatic skills. Some of Jimmy Deakins must have rubbed off on you."

"That might not be a bad thing." Bobby mused.

"He's told me a lot of you and Alex Eames rubbed off on him. And that was a very good thing."

Bobby stared into his drink. "Eames...Maybe. But me?"

"I can tell you," Hannah said. "Jimmy Deakins' good opinion of someone goes a long way with me. And if anyone is in Kenny Moran's bad graces, I'd say that was a good thing."

"I'm doubly blessed?"

"Yes," Hannah said. "The thing is, Goren, I need people I can trust at Major Case. Some good people have left."

"I heard from Zach Nichols," Bobby said. "When I was in England...On my way back...I met him. I guess it wasn't just the politics that caused him to leave, but they certainly didn't help."

"You know Nichols?"

"Not that well." Bobby liked Zach Nichols, and had started to hope he might be on friendly terms with the man. Bobby had never had so many friends that he could afford to lose one, even a potential one. "But I liked him. An interesting and intelligent mind."

"Great compliment, considering the source," Hannah said. "I'm sorry I'm not going to get to know him."

"What," Bobby said. "Have you been doing anyway?"

Hannah smiled again. "I could tell you, but then I might have to have your brain washed. And I suspect if you told me what you've been doing, you'd have to do the same to me."

Bobby leaned forward, and Hannah got his first really close and clear look at his old partner. His first impression was that Bobby Goren looked good. His face was lean and tanned; his eyes as bright and intense as Hannah remembered. But a closer look through Hannah's experienced eyes caught the dark shadows beneath Goren's eyes, the tension in his shoulders, and the slight twitch in his hands.

"I was completing a mission for a...a friend," Bobby said.

"Was it successful?"

Bobby shrugged. "Depends on how you define success. The people running it thought so."

"And what are your plans?"

Bobby studied Hannah, who'd resumed his poker face.

"I'm not sure," Bobby said. "I've got a bit of a cushion. Thanks to the operation and the package I got from the department to keep me quiet. Considering what's going on, I suppose I could still cause trouble."

"But you won't," Hannah said. "Because you made a deal."

Bobby shifted. "Yea...No need to embarrass the department. Especially when it's so good at doing it to itself."

Hannah finished his drink. "What would you say to being part of Major Case again?"

The question, coming after Hannah's careful approach, wasn't unexpected. Throughout his mission, Bobby wondered what he would do if the NYPD wanted him back.

"I would," Bobby said. "If I could work with one particular good cop."

"Alex Eames."

"Yes," Bobby said. "Things were good with you. But with Eames." Bobby tightly gripped his glass. "She got me. I...I got her most of the time. And even when we didn't get each other, we could talk about it. She'd listen. And I finally learned to listen to her."

"You know what she did?"

Bobby stared at the table. "I...I heard about it. I took off on the mission right after I left Major Case. She wrote me." Bobby's hands splayed on the table. The letter he'd received from Alex filled him with hope and joy when he saw its return address. He'd sent her a brief and totally inadequate note through his handlers to let her know that he was alive and how to reach him if she wanted, and he was thrilled that she responded. And then he read the words written in her neat, precise hand.

"I resigned from the NYPD. Don't blame yourself, Bobby."

Of course he blamed himself. If Alex hadn't had Bobby Goren hanging like an anchor around her neck, she'd be a captain. Maybe even a Chief, even Chief of Detectives. That would have been good for everyone. In his few letters to Alex during his mission, Bobby wrote very little about his feelings. He wrote very little about anything, actually, beyond letting her know he was all right and he missed New York and her.

"I feel better knowing you're alive," Alex wrote him, and he could at least let her know that.

"Do you know what she's been doing?" Hannah asked.

"She's picked up some work from our former captain." Bobby smiled sadly. "Who's been vindicated by all of the mess."

"Rumors are that the department wants him back."

Bobby shook his head. "It won't get him. He's happy. He's got work he likes. It pays a lot more. He gets home every night to be with his wife. He won't come back. Not after the way he was treated."

"And Bobby Goren won't come back unless Alex Eames is his partner?"

"Yes."

Hannah shook his head. "No salary demands? No discussion of benefits?"

"They don't mean much if I'm miserable and don't have the support to do the job," Bobby said.

"Does she want to come back?"

Bobby shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know if she wants to come back at all, let alone work with me. We've never discussed it." In truth, Alex's desire to stay in touch with him shocked and thrilled him so much that he didn't dare to bring up anything. Her letters said little about the NYPD beyond a few comments that Kenny Moran's treatment of her and Bobby was a factor in the Chief's downfall.

"You haven't talked to her yet?"

"Not yet. The mission ended...abruptly. Things moved really quickly." Bobby smiled wanly. "I was under wraps until my debriefing was over. I tried to reach her when I got back in the city yesterday, but she's away with her family for a few days. That time is sacred. I won't touch it."

"She'll be back soon?"

"Tomorrow."

"I can use all the good detectives I can get. I know you. I want you. I thought it would take a lot more to get you back. And I know Eames is a great cop."

"The best," Bobby said. "The best cop. And the best person."

"I'll talk to her," Hannah said. "Do you want to talk to her first?"

Bobby sat for a moment. "Would you still want her if you couldn't have me?"

"With her record, and what you've said about her," Hannah said. "I'd be an idiot to not want her."

Bobby took a deep breath. "Ok. I'll talk to her."

End Chapter ONe

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