He went over the open case files sitting on his desk again, he had read over them three times already, but nothing was sinking in. He still wasn't sleeping; everything that happened in the past month was still weighing heavy on his mind. Eames walked in and placed a cup of coffee on his desk, he glanced up, "Thanks," he raised the cup up to her in appreciation, "And good morning."
"Good morning?" she quizzed, "Doesn't look like your having a good morning," as she sat across from her partner. She understood he wasn't sleeping so concentrating wasn't easy for him these days. But he wasn't the type to share his feelings. In the last year he had lost his mother, his brother and found out his real father was a serial killer that would make anyone stay awake at night. Ross had suggested he take time off, but he refused. Money was tight and he wanted to work as much as he could to pay off his debt.
He didn't answer her; he just nodded and buried his head back into the case files trying to concentrate as he reread them for the forth or fifth time.
Captain Danny Ross walked in and tapped Goren on the shoulder; "I need to see you in my office." Both Eames and Goren got up from their seats and followed him. "Just Goren," he instructed. Glancing over his shoulder but not making eye contact with either of them.
Eames and Goren shared a quizzical look. Goren wondered what he had done now. Seems lately he had been getting called in for doing something wrong, maybe Ross would order him to take time off. He didn't want to stay home; home was too quiet too much time to just think. Thinking right now was too painful. He walked into Ross' office.
"Close the door Detective," instructed Ross, " and have a seat. I know you have been having a rough time and you have been handling it as best you can. When Eames ran the credit check on you, we discovered you are shouldering a lot of debt."
Goren held back the urge to stand up and say it was none of his damn business, remembering what he went through those weeks when they thought he killed Frank. But decided to listen to what the Captain had to say, he held tightly onto the arms of the chair.
"The Chief of D's called me, asking if I knew of any good Detectives looking for extra cash and I thought of you. There is a witness coming to town to testify in a trial against Danny Moran. Right now she is in witness protection, but she will be in town for a week. They need three cops to take shifts eight hours each. We could work it with your time here that way you could still get your regular pay and paid for this job as well, that's if your interested," explained Ross.
"Yes, when, where┘," Goren started, he quickly stood up from the chair. This was the type of diversion he needed.
"I will call the Chief and he will have the man in charge contact you. For now just get back to work," instructed Ross. He stood up and shook Goren's hand.
Goren looked down as he shook the Captain's hand, "Uh, thanks." Then he walked back to his desk and sat down. He went back to looking at the open case files.
"Everything ok," question Eames.
"Fine," he responded. He wasn't sure how much he should tell her, but didn't want to keep anything away from her. "Just an extra after hours job I will be doing," he said without further elaboration.
Eames picked up on his desire not to give her further details, "Oh, ok," and she got back to her paperwork.
A few hours later he received a phone call from FBI agent Mark Wilson. Instructing him to be at FBI headquarters at 6pm that night. He wasn't sure why but he was really looking forward to this, something different, something to take his mind off of what was going on with him.
The day seemed to drag on, the anticipation of going to this meeting made concentrating on his work even harder, Eames even noticed.
"Why don't you just leave a little early, go home, clean up, grab a bite to eat, and by then it will be time for you to go to the Federal Building. I will finish up here," Eames insisted. Noticing her partner was actually slowing things down instead of helping her.
"Yeah maybe your right," he replied looking around his desk. He gathered up the papers he needed put them in his binder closed it and started to walk away. He looked back at his desk with hesitation, he looked at Eames, ran his hand through his hair.
"Go! See you tomorrow," she ordered and pointed to the exit. After he left she just shook her head and smiled.
He arrived at his apartment walked in; he really hated this place. He always told himself he would do something with it, remodel, decorate, but why, nobody was going to see it, he had no visitors, he was all alone now. His "friends" didn't visit anymore guess he was just too depressing. He tossed his keys and cell phone on the kitchen counter by the main phone, checked the answering machine, "surprise" no messages again. Tossed his coat on the sofa and headed for the bedroom. Sat on the edge of the bed, ran his hands across his face and through his hair. Opened his bedside drawer and put his gun in his gun safe. Kicked off his shoes, took off his clothes and head for the bathroom. He turned on the shower, looked in the mirror wondered if he should shave, decided not to. As he stepped into the shower the hot water felt so good he just closed his eyes stood there for a moment and let the water run down his body. He thought about all the years that had past, the chances he had that he let slip away; he wouldn't have to be alone right now. But he always put career first and then there was his mother, Frank, and now they are gone. Now there is his father, his DNA. He needed to quit thinking; he pushed that out of his mind. After he finished his shower and got dressed he fixed some left over Lasagna he had from the night before and turned on the TV. He avoided the news too depressing, he turned it on the history channel "Ice Road Truckers" interesting career he thought, but I hate to drive. He finished his dinner and cleaned his dishes grabbed his cell, keys, service weapon and headed for his meeting.
In the lobby of Federal Plaza he was waiting with two other men one was older than him the other was about his age. Agent Mark Wilson came to greet them, asked for their ID's and badges. Then requested that the follow him into the elevators, he didn't say a word.
They arrived in basement of the building and Agent Wilson led them to a room where 4 other men waited with fingerprint cards, swabs and cameras.
"Sorry for the secrecy gentlemen but this witness is very important to the US Attorney's office and we have to make sure about each and every one of you. Your Captain's have given you the highest regards and we have checked you out and everything seems fine but as a precaution, we want DNA, fingerprints and pictures of all of you. Then we will start the meeting, so line up," instructed Agent Wilson.
"Why the hell is all this necessary?" barked Detective Warren Brown, the detective who was Robert Goren's age.
"Just a precaution to make sure everyone is who they say they are, three witnesses have already been murdered. This one is our last and we want to make sure nothing else happens. Now this is all I am going to tell you, if you want out, I will escort you out," Agent Wilson said calmly. He looked to Goren, Brown and Detective Nelson Evans the older Detective. "That goes for any of you."
"Let's just get this thing going. Where do you want to stick that swab?" laughed Evans. As he proceeded to the front of the line, Goren went next then Brown.
After they were completed they were led to another room a conference room. Three spots had folders in front of them. They each took a spot with a folder.
"You will need to familiarize yourself with what's in this folder cause you can't take it with you. You cannot discuss anything you read in this folder outside this room. Do you understand," demanded Wilson.
Everyone nodded.
"You are not to tell anyone who you are guarding or where you are going to. You are to make sure you are not being followed," instructed Wilson.
"Belle femme" said Evans when he opened the folder. "To bad I am too old," he laughed.
"We are not here to run a dating service," snapped Wilson.
Goren opened his folder, she was beautiful, no beautiful wasn't the word, she was down right gorgeous. Long wavy blonde hair, dark green eyes, and pale porcelain skin, he had seen those eyes before but didn't know from where. He ran his fingers over the picture. He was never a man who got turned on by visual stimulation but something about this picture seemed to drain the blood from his head into his groin. He snapped out of it when Agent Wilson began speaking again.
"All you need to know is her name is Jessica. She and three others witnesses Danny Moran gun down 5 men on a street corner. The other three witnesses were shot in their home the youngest was 10. We can't tie those three to Moran but we are sure he had it done. Danny Moran is into drugs, prostitution and illegal gambling. He doesn't want to go to jail and he will have Jessica killed if he gets to her. We have her set up in witness protection with a new name and life, but we need to bring her back to testify," explained Wilson.
"How about any of her family are they coming too," asked Brown.
"Jessica is single no family," added Wilson. "We will set up three 8 hour shifts, 4am-12 noon, 12 noon-8pm, 8pm-4am. If you want we can draw straws or if you want to discuss it," questioned Wilson.
"I'm a morning person I could take the 4am," said Evans. Looking at Goren and Brown.
"I could take the Noon shift if that's ok with Goren," said Brown.
"That's fine with me," said Goren.
"Good I thought we would have problems with that. This should be finished by the weekend so we should only be 4-5 days tops. If it goes into the weekend I will have some of my guys take the weekend shift to give you a beak. She will be arriving tomorrow; I can't disclose whose shift it is on till 1 hour before. I will call and give you the location when she arrives and you will have an hour to get there, so have your bag packed. Inside your folders you will also find pictures of Moran's known associates look over those. I will give you a few minutes to look over everything and then you are free to go and I will see you tomorrow when she arrives. Let me remind you how important this is. Moran has killed many people, women and children it doesn't mater to him. This is our chance to get him behind bars. This witness is very important to us," implored Wilson as he looked at Jessica's picture.
Goren wondered was Wilson's relationship with Jessica purely professional by the look on his face. He wondered how closely he had worked with her, for how long. He found himself jealous of any relationship they might have. How could any man work close to her and not be affected? Maybe Wilson picked men older than Jessica because he would be jealous. Looking at her picture she was probably only 32-34. He began to think this isn't going to be as easy as he originally thought. Luckily he would only be there during her sleeping hours.
Everyone got up to leave Agent Wilson asked Detective Goren to stay behind.
"Do you need to pick up anything at home," he asked. After everyone else was out the room.
"Uh, what," asked Goren.
"She is arriving in an hour. We are going to the hotel to check it out before she arrives, your on duty detective," explained Wilson. He patted Goren on the back.
"No, I have everything I need," answered Goren.
"Good, let's go. Oh and I should warn you, Jessica is a night owl, but she doesn't talk much," informed Wilson, as he led the way out the door.
Oh great he thought it's going to be a long night.