It was a bad morning for Lilly. She was up way too early, and once having woken could not get back to sleep. And then, she'd nearly had a heart attack when one of her cats had wandered off out of sight for the fifth time that week. She turned out to only be hiding in the vestibule, but still, Lilly was in no mood to go into cardiac arrest and die that day. After all, she had to be in to work by nine.

Then, the coffee machine had stopped working, and even after that, she ran out of shampoo, forcing her to tie her hair back in that clip she'd sworn herself to retire two years ago. She left a piece of it in her face for defiance, a reminder to herself and everyone around her that she may have been a cop, but she was still a woman—a fact that she had recently been asserting, for no other reason besides that she didn't have anything better to do.

She was forty five minutes earlier leaving the house than usual, figuring on using the extra time to buy breakfast and get the cup of coffee that she so desperately needed.

After being shoved around in the long line at Metropolitan café for more that twenty minutes, she finally ordered a poppy seed bagel, and an extra large coffee. Yes, extra large. She needed it to accompany the awful morning she was having.

As she fished out her cash from her purse, a voice behind her said, "It's on me." A black-sleeved arm reached over her and laid five dollars on the counter. She knew that voice. And suddenly, things were looking up.

"Hey, Scotty… thanks."

"No worries. I probably owe you at least twenty dollars anyway."

"Thirty-five, last I counted." At his confused face, she laughed. "Joke, meet Scotty. Scotty, meet joke. You don't owe me anything."

He followed her to the booth in the corner, a spot where Lilly always sat in the mornings.

"There a reason you're here this early, Lil?"

She decided to spare him the details of her morning, realizing that a man wouldn't understand the reason why it bothered her so much. "Up early."

"Hmmm…"

"So what about you? You're usually late… god knows how many times I've covered your ass."

"I actually didn't sleep at all."

"Oh…" Lilly raised her eyebrows suggestively. "You have some sexy brunette keeping you up? Janie, perhaps?" Janie was a new receptionist working in the records room, and it was common knowledge that she had a thing for Scotty. Made sense, Lilly thought. All things considered, Scotty was a pretty decent guy. Decent and physically attractive, which never hurt anyone, including her.

Scotty raised his eyes to hers, and Lilly realized the utter stupidity to that question. It wasn't like she'd ever want to know, anyway.

"You don't have to…"

Scotty laughed. "I'm sorry. I just had to see your expression if I did that."

She reached her arm across the table and shoved him, as hard as her petite frame would allow. "Not cool, Scotty."

"Besides, recently I've been more partial to blondes. Recently." He locked his brown eyes with her blue ones, raising an eyebrow. This was classic Valens. He flirted with absolutely every eligible woman he came in contact with, some of the ineligible ones, too. Lilly knew this, but she couldn't stop the inexplicable warmth that spread through her. A lesser woman might have blushed, but Lilly simply smiled.

"Good, so have I."

A glance at the wall let Lilly know that it was time to get to the office. The extra large coffee on the table had barely been touched, but Lilly felt more energized than she had in at least a week just from the expression on Scotty's face.

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There were basically two types of weeks for the Philadelphia Cold Case Squad—ones so busy that they could barely find time for breaks, and ones so boring that there was nothing to do but take breaks. This week was one of the latter, a five day span in which the team had done little but update paperwork. And, eventually, update updates of paperwork. All things considered, Lilly hated these kinds of weeks, and by the end of them, she was so desperate for a case that she'd take one in North Dakota if it was offered. Who cared if it was a little out of Philly's jurisdiction?

And so she was relieved when she saw a young woman sitting in the lobby, and overjoyed, when she saw Stillman's nod toward her.

"Detectives Rush and Valens." She introduced them.

"Hi… I'm Laina Hutchinson. I'm here about my sister… she died three years ago."

Valens spoke up. "Renee Hutchinson. Found dead in Fairmount and thought to be a suicide."

"It wasn't."

Lilly, well versed in current events as she was, had no idea what the hell either of them were talking about.

"How did she die?"

"At the bottom of a ditch in Fairmount. Teenager, guy working the case decided it was a suicide, closed it pretty quick," Scotty answered.

"Maybe too quick?"

The girl looked at the pair of them, staring hard, trying to get her point across. "I knew my sister. She wouldn't have… I was thirteen when she died, detectives. My mom's been keeping me from coming down here ever since then, but I know. I know she didn't do what everyone says she did. Please, detectives."

Lilly exchanged a look with Scotty, who, with a shrug of his shoulder, seemed to indicate, why not?

"We'll look into it."

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Lilly ran her hand across the row of boxes stacked across the records room.

"Hulder, Hurricane, Garrison… she's not here, Scotty."

"You sure? It was just three years ago, it's gotta be…"

"I'm old, Scotty. Not blind."

Scotty laughed. "You're definitely not old."

"Not old? I'm older than you, kid."

"Four years! And you won't ever let me forget it."

"It's not a big deal now, thirty two and thirty six, but when I'm forty and you're my age, you'll be holding that cake that says 'Over the hill'."

"Alright, Gram. Scoot over so I can see if you're losing your vision."

But after Scotty failed to find the box as well, the two of them sat, stumped, for a moment.

"Lil, maybe it's in one of the folders?"

"If that's all they've got on it, then I'm gonna have to say that Laina made a good call on this one."

And of course, not too far into the box, lay Renee's Case folder, thin even for that, labeled 'Hutchinson' on the front. Scotty opened it and began to read. "No interviews, no suspects, no hunches, no witnesses… a small unidentifiable residue was taken from her cheek and never tested… leaves you to wonder what the hell they did do."

"Lead officer on the case?" Lilly chirped.

Scotty turned to the front page. "A Gregory Johnson."

Lilly sat at the computer nearby, and typed in the name. "Fall 2003 was a bad season for this guy. Divorce, Custody battle… a DUI that was later resolved, you know what that means."

"Swept under the rug."

"Of course."

"Looks like today's gonna be a bad day for him too. What say we drop Gregory a little visit?"

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It was two o'clock by the time Rush and Valens were sauntering into the 29th precinct, attracting looks from the other cops in every direction. Both were more than a bit uncomfortable, but the two walked to the front desk.

"Detectives Rush and Valens. We're here to see a Gregory Johnson. He in today?"

As the kid at the desk pointed numbly past Lilly, a voice from behind her spoke up. "That's me."

Lilly smiled her thanks to the kid, who nodded slowly back, gawking at her as if he'd never seen a female in his life, or at the very least, in the workplace, which was probably more accurate.

"We need to discuss a case with you, is there somewhere private we can go?"

Johnson laughed, "Anything you can discuss with me can be discussed with everybody else."

Scotty tried, really, really tried, to be nice. "It's best if we do this in private."

"What? Best for me to have witnesses, I say. Come on, you talk to me here, you don't talk to me at all."

Lilly pushed through the crowd of police officers crowding Johnson and Scotty, and laid a hand on Valens' shoulder that he knew meant, I got this.

Poor guy, Scotty thought. There was nothing worse in the Police Department for a guy cop than getting their asses handed to them by a woman. And Lilly, delicate-looking and pretty as she was, just made the punch that much worse.

"It's about a 2003 case, Detective. Do you remember what happened in 2003, because I'd be happy to refresh your memory." Lilly leaned closer to him, but as her voice got quieter, it got more intense. "Look, I had a bad morning today and I'm not feelin' particularly merciful. But I'm gonna give you one shot, detective. Do not make me embarrass you."

Johnson seemed to have forgotten Valens was there, and instead, stared down Lilly, evaluating her seriousness.

"There's a little courtyard out back."

"Good man," Lilly replied.

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Scotty left no time for small talk. "We're looking into the death of Renee Hutchinson, November, 03. And we couldn't help but notice how thin the file is."

Johnson shrugged. "Point?"

Lilly leaned forward. "This case was everywhere for a minute. Everyone was talking about it, and it just strikes me as strange that there would appear to be so little work on it."

"You read my file. You know what was going on with me then. I just…"

Scotty nodded. "I know, you were distracted. Look, we're not here to bash you. And we're willing to keep this quiet. Just give us whatever you know."

"One thing I noted, right before I closed it… a friend of the family moved away a few days after she died."

"So?"

"So, they were lifelong friends with these people and they didn't even stay for the funeral. Strikes me as odd."

"You got any names on that?"

"The Myles. Their daughter, Jayla, was the girls' best friend."

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"Hey Lil," Scotty called. "Come look at this."

Lilly put her latest newspaper on the girls' death down, and headed over to Scotty, who was on the computer. She placed her chin on his shoulder and began to read the page he pulled up.

"You found our girl."

"I knew I was good for something."

Lilly laughed. "Oh, shut it. Jayla didn't go too far, only six or so hours away… working in a night bar in Boston."

"And the boss has got train tickets for us… looks like we're spending the night away, Lil."