The case box for Johnny's murder was heavier than most.

"Well you can't say they didn't put the effort in on this one." Lilly said, examining the box's contents at her desk with Scotty while their boss, Lieutenant John Stillman stood over them.

"This was the case everyone was talking about back in '89." Stillman said.

"No wonder." Lilly said. "John Parker, a twenty-two year old kid found face down in the river, beaten, with nearly a million in unmarked bills on him. That's one people notice."

"'The million-dollar murder', that's what the papers called it." Stillman said. "Aside from the boy in the box, it was probably Philly's most famous cold job. No one could figure it out."

Scotty shrugged. "Doesn't make any sense. If it was a murder, why'd they dump the money in with him? If it was a suicide, then who beat him to a pulp?"

Stillman smiled. "People've been asking that for eighteen years. Cops spent longer on it then most. Even after the leads dried up, public interest made them stay on it. Eventually that faded too."

Lilly nodded. "Leaving behind a mystery."

Detectives Will Jeffries and Nick Vera headed over to the others, the look on their faces showing that they had something.

"We think we might know who that Mr. Monaghan might be." Vera said, placing a mug shot of an unfriendly-looing man on the desk in front of him. "Jack Monaghan, mid-level enforcer for the O'Leary family."

"O'Leary family?" Scotty asked.

"Small Irish mob that operated in the eighties, mostly out of Kensington." Jeffries said. "They got shut down in the early nineties."

"So Johnny's death could've been mob related?" Scotty said.

"A few people thought so." Stillman answered. "But no one could find any connection."

"Here's an interesting tidbit though." Vera said. "Jack Monaghan drops off the face the earth right around the same time Johnny was killed."

Lilly leaned back in her chair. "How'd they miss that in '89?"

"Cops at the time knew Monaghan was gunning for his boss' job." Jeffries said. "They figured O'Leary got wise and buried Monaghan in a rug somewhere. They managed to pinch O'Leary for another hit but with no body they could never get him for Monaghan's murder. He died in prison in '97."

"But now Johnny's grandmother says Johnny had Monaghan's money." Lilly said. "That'd explain how he ended up in the river."

"And if there was some sort of struggle and Monaghan lost the money in the river, that'd piss off O'Leary easy." Jeffries said.

"Is there anyone who could confirm any of this?" Stillman asked.

"We're still looking into that." Scotty said, looking back over some notes he'd pulled out earlier. "In the meantime, we were gonna talk to Johnny's girlfriend, Rachel Wallace. Apparently she lived with Johnny's grandmother and took care of her until she went to Schaeffer Center two years ago."

"Taking care of your dead boyfriend's grandmother for sixteen years?" Jeffries asked. "That's dedication."

"Or guilt." Vera simply said with a facial shrug.


The sparsely furnished Kensington apartment looked to Lilly and Scotty like someone's effort to try and make the most out of very little. Lilly noticed some of the unpaid bills on the kitchen table, catching the word FINAL NOTICE in red letters on some of them. Even a place like Schaeffer Center can get expensive and not leave much left. She thought.

Rachel, now forty, was as attractive as ever, still keeping her hair short but now dressing much simpler in her heavy sweatshirt and jeans.

"Yeah, I took care of Gran, that's what Johnny always called her." Rachel said. Lilly noted the resignation in her voice as they sat down. "They were the closest thing I had to family. She was never the same after he died, and neither of us really had anyone else. Her memory started fading a few years ago so it got harder and harder for me to let her be on her own. Then when she fell and broke her hip, I had to take her somewhere. I felt terrible but I just couldn't keep an eye on her all the time." Rachel shifted on the couch. "Dr. Cheng told me what she said. You're really looking into Johnny's death?"

"We got a new lead and decided to look into it." Scotty said.

Rachel nodded and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound ungrateful. It's just that a lot of people have been interested in this case over the years and most of the time it was for all the wrong reasons. Most people only cared because of the money. They didn't care about Johnny or what he meant to us."

Lilly nodded solemnly. "You said that Johnny'd been acting kind of strangely just before he died?"

Rachel nodded. "It started about a few days before when I picked him up from a job interview at the bus terminal. He had to sell his car so he pretty much relied on me to drive him anywhere he couldn't walk to. When he came out, he had something he hadn't had with him when I dropped him off..."


("Personal Jesus" - Depeche Mode)

Rachel looked around the parking lot from her car until she saw Johnny walking quickly out of the terminal.

She stared at the large brown tote bag Johnny was carrying. Whatever was in it was heavy from the way he was struggling with the bag. Rachel kept her eye on the bag as he tossed it onto the back seat.

"Hey." He said simply as he got in and leaned over to give her a kiss.

"What's in the bag?" She asked glancing at the bag in the mirror.

"Uhhh... I picked up a few things at the thrift store across the street."

Rachel glanced at him. "A few things?"

Johnny shrugged quickly. "Just some clothes and stuff. I figured if I'm gonna be going for some more interviews, I'd better get some more changes of clothes."

As they pulled out of the parking lot, they both heard someone yelling. As they both looked back towards the terminal, they spotted a thin red-haired young man running towards the car, waving his arms erratically.

Johnny's eyes widened. "Oh, crap!" He turned back to Rachel. "Drive!"

Rachel looked at him, confused. "Why, what's going on?"

"It's just some nut who was hassling me inside." Johnny stuttered. "Y... You know what the terminal's like. There's always some weirdos around."

Rachel looked hesitant for a moment before pressing her foot down on the gas. The car sped off before the young man could reach them.

Rachel turned to see Johnny looking back at the young man at he disappeared in the distance. She then glanced back in the mirror at the bag in the back, still confused...


"One thing Johnny could never do was lie to me. I still didn't say anything though. I mean, it wasn't like him to do anything wrong. I trusted him."

"So this guy who chasing after you," Scotty started. "About your age, thin, red hair..."

Rachel nodded. "I told the police about it. They had me look at some photos, but I was never able to make an ID. I don't know if he had anything to do with the money or what happened to Johnny. For all I know, he really was just some nut"

"Well, we've got a few more photos that they did back then." Lilly said. "Do you think you'd be able to recognize him if you saw his picture?"

Rachel looked up at her. "Maybe."


"Rachel picked out a photo of the guy who was chasing after Johnny at the bus terminal." Lilly said as she and Scotty joined the rest of the squad. "Guy's name was Sammy Blalock. Apparently he was a bit of an errand boy for Monaghan."

"Sammy Blalock?" Vera said, looking up from his desk. "I know that guy. Twitchy little jerk. I busted him twice for possession of stolen goods back when I was in uniform." A smirk crept over his face. "He's gonna be real thrilled to see me again."


As Vera and Detective Kat Miller walked towards the docks, Kat turned to Vera.

"So is there anything else I should know about this guy?" she asked.

"Nah, he's pretty harmless." Vera said. "Just as long as you remember every word out of his mouth's a lie."

Kat rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the heads up."

"Sammy!" Vera called out to the forty year-old man inspecting a cargo container, who immediately rolled his head in frustration at the sight of Vera.

"Aw, crap! What do you want, Vera?" Sammy said, pointing to his name tag. "I'm legit now!"

Vera gave him a condescending smile. "We ain't here about what you're doing now. More like what you were doing eighteen years ago."

Sammy squinted his eyes in confusion. "Eighteen years?"

"Specifically when you were working for Jack Monaghan." Kat said.

A look of unease passed over his face. "What, did you guys actually find him?"

Vera shook his head. "Nah, he's still sleepin' next to Jimmy Hoffa. We're here about Johnny Parker. Remember him? The guy they pulled out of the river with the money?"

"I don't know nothing about that." Sammy said nervously.

Vera looked at Kat and gestured at Sammy. "What'd I tell you? Every word."

"Johnny's girlfriend I.D.'d you as the guy chasing them at the bus terminal after he came out with a bag full of money." Kat said, giving Sammy a stern look. "You want to tell us what you were doing there?"

Sammy raised his hands. "All right, all right. First thing you gotta know, it ain't like I was some mob guy. I just owed Monaghan some money. He knew I couldn't pay it so he let me work it off. One of my jobs was dropping off a bag at the terminal. Jack never told me what it was for, only to give it to this guy reading the paper in a specific area wearing red shoes..."


("Orange Crush" - R.E.M.)

As thin as he was, Sammy wasn't in the best of shape and the bag was just heavy enough that carrying it as long as he had was starting to put a strain on his arm. I'll be glad to unload this. He thought.

He scanned around the seating area near Gate D. Monaghan specifically said a guy at that gate with red shoes, reading a newspaper. There was no one like that here though.

Monaghan had made it pretty clear that there was nowhere Sammy could go that Monaghan wouldn't find him if he even imagined taking the money and running, and Sammy believed him. What he hadn't said was what to do if the guy didn't show up. Do I take the money back to him? Sammy wondered. What?

Sammy was leaning towards doing just that when he saw two men emerge from a door with EMPLOYEES ONLY written on it. The older man wearing a suit, maybe the terminal manager, was shaking hands with the other, who had a disappointed look on his face. The younger man, about Sammy's age, caught his attention, particularly the newspaper in his hand and the red shoes he was wearing. Is that him? Sammy thought.

As the older man stepped back into his office, Sammy watched the younger man walk over to a bench close to Gate D and sit down. He looked at the newspaper he was holding and with a look of frustration, threw it into a garbage can next to him.

Okay, Jack said the guy would be reading the paper, not throwing it away. What if this ain't him? Sammy paced nervously. Then again, what's Jack gonna say if I bring the money back and blow this deal, whatever it is?

After several agonizing, endless seconds, Sammy forced himself to make decision and started walking towards the young man.

"This is from Monaghan." Sammy muttered quietly to the young man as he passed him by, dropping the bag on the bench next to him.

A confused look appeared on the young man's face and he looked like he was about to say something, though Sammy hurried away before he could get the chance.

Sammy rushed around a corner but peeked around it. The young man was looking around, confused, for a few moments before opening the zipper on the bag slightly and looking inside. Sammy could see his eyes widening as he saw the bag's contents, and quickly closed it up, looking around nervously.

Why's he so surprised to see what in the bag? The only possible answer left a sinking feeling in his stomach.

I gotta get that bag back! Sammy started back towards the bench when he saw the young man walking towards a security guard. Before he reached the guard, however, the young man stopped and looked down at the bag, appearing lost in thought for a moment, before rushing towards the exit.

No! No! No! Sammy's mind screamed as he raced after him. Sammy followed him out the exit, where he saw the young man jump into the passenger's seat of a car in the parking lot. Sammy ran towards the car as fast as he could, waving his arms erratically. The car didn't stay though, but pulled out of the lot quickly.

"Hey!" Sammy screamed still waving his arms and running after the car for about half a block before he lost sight of it.

Sammy stopped where he was in the middle of the street, exhausted and put his hands on his knees. He looked towards the end of the street where the car had sped off and closed his eyes in frustration.

I'm a dead man. He simply thought.


Sammy shook his head. "I found out later the guy I was supposed to meet got picked up by the cops on his way there. I mean, what are the odds?"

Vera folded his arms and looked at Sammy with a smirk. "So that was Monaghan's money and you just let Johnny take it?"

Sammy looked at him, annoyed. "I didn't really have a choice, did I? I couldn't tell Jack what happened so I skipped town and didn't come back until I heard Jack disappeared. It's a good thing he did too, otherwise, for all I know, it might've been me they fished out of the river with half the money."

Kat gave him a suspicious look. "Wait. What did you say?"

Sammy gave a serious nod. "Oh yeah. Whoever started calling it the 'million dollar murder' was a little off. I don't know who has the rest, but it wasn't a million dollars in that bag. It was two million."

Vera and Kat just looked at each other in disbelief.