Part II

The next morning at the debrief Brian walks in at 6:45 to find Dom already there and waiting.

Dom had to laugh at the beach bum meets professional world look Brian had adopted. He wore a tie and jacket with tattered jeans and Chuck Taylor's. Knocking back a glass bottle of Coke.

Not that Dom was exactly suit and tie himself, but still.

"Looks like we're early to this party."

Brian enters the room and sits across and further down the table then Dom. They wanted to be able to cover as much space as possible and start reading the people working this case. They'd need allies but more importantly they wanted to know who were on the 'assholes to avoid' list.

When the meeting begins they are presented with all the crimes and evidence again. Where each and every lead took them. Nowhere.

The criminal profile of their killer. Mousy small White male. Due to Brian and Dom's investigation and conclusion the suspect was small, it was now believed that the killer was using a paralytic agent on his victims to subdue them. The latest body was being tested.

Motive. They had to find the connection between these men and they'd have the motive. Dom suspected that all these men knew each other or used to in some capacity and our killer was a part of it.

Dom wanted this meeting over so he could get to work. The killer was long gone from Chicago by now, he needed to figure out where he would be next so he could be there first.

Across the country Letty walks into her penthouse apartment. She comes inside the enormous living space and drops her duffle inside the door and kicks off her boots.

She sets to the tasks of looking through her mail. All of it junk for 'resident of'. She tossed it all through a shredder to be burned in a bit.

She walks down the hall to the kitchen and pulls a beer from the fridge and takes a long drink. Leaving the cap on the counter and heading into the would be dining room. Instead of the table and chairs and fancy china were flat screens attached to surveillance equipment. There were also computers on a desk in front of the monitors.

The only other thing was a large cabinet against the side wall.

"Hey Shiloh," Letty greets her roommate or a better term would be her little sister. "What's going on?"

"Nothing with me," the small blonde girl answers.

Shiloh had the look of a twelve or thirteen year old girl instead of a twenty-two year old woman. They had been in each other's lives since they had met when Letty was ten and Shiloh was seven. Letty had always looked out for Shiloh the way her own older sister had looked out for her.

"How was your detour?"

"Successful."

"Good to know." Shiloh says to Letty. "Can you take a job?"

"Yeah, as long as it's quick. There is some art showing I want to attend in three days."

Shiloh hands Letty a file. It has a picture of a man inside. His routes, schedules and any information that it was possible to gather on him. Within seconds Letty knew this man inside and out.

"He's in Los Angeles for the next two days." Letty smirks. "This will be simple."

Letty looks over the information one more time and then tosses it all into the fireplace.

"Thought so. I'll have the money within to the hour."

"I'm going up to the greenhouse."

Letty leaves Shiloh to seal the deal and walks upstairs to her bedroom. She strips down and takes a shower. After she does she dresses quickly and finishes the beer she had left on her dresser.

She walks outside onto the rooftop of the building and looks down of the busy city. She walks across towards another door on the roof into the greenhouse she's built.

When she steps through the door of the indoor garden she closes her eyes at the scent. It's filled with the scent of thousands of exotic flowers. She moves into the room more and closes the door behind her.

She walks around touching the petals on the flowers and seeing which ones are in need of attention today.

This garden was how Letty kept the chaos in her head from bursting through to the surface.

It was a safe haven from everything that was wrong in her world.

Three nights later at an art gallery in LA, Dom walks into an art showing. There was a woman who was here that he had to see.

Once inside the building he starts to look around among the faces in the room. He couldn't find who he was looking for. He stopped to look at the artwork on the walls and was in awe. He couldn't believe the beauty in these paintings.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye he catches sight of a woman looking intently at a painting in front of her. She was gorgeous and immediately distracted him from his search. She was out of place among the cocktail dresses and champagne glasses.

She was in a cocktail dress and she wore the required high heel footwear. But over her dress was a faded cut off jean jacket.

Dom approaches her. "Hi."

Letty blinks out of her daze and looks over at Dom.

"Hello."

Letty smirks and turns back to the painting.

"It's a nice piece."

"It is."

"I…"

"Dominic!"

Dom turns away from Letty seeing his father standing behind him. Dom breaks into to large smile and opens his arms to his Dad.

"Dad!"

The two share a warm hug as Dom's mother walks over to the two men.

Dom turns back to Letty to ask if he could talk to her in a second but she's gone. He looks around for a second and doesn't see her anywhere.

He hugs him mother and kisses her on the cheek.

"Isn't it amazing?" she gushes. "I mean look at these paintings."

"She is so talented!" Anthony agrees with his wife.

Mia walks over to them with her arm interlocked with Brian's wearing a smile.

"Are you talking about me?" she asks her family.

"We're so proud of you Mia!"

"I wish my grandbabies could be here!" Tony says.

"They came before the showing and looked around, but they needed be in bed."

The family stands talking and walking through admiring all Mia's work.

At the end of the night Dom stops in front of the painting that had enraptured the woman that had done the same for him. Mia walks up beside him and nudges him.

"You like that one?"

"Yeah, I think I want to buy it."

"Too late big brother, it was already purchased. See the sold tag?"

Dom looks at the tag and whirls on his sister.

"Who bought it?"

Mia tries to think. "Oh some woman. She was at my showing in New York too. She comes early and picks a couple pieces and leaves discreetly."

"I didn't see her in New York. I would have remembered her."

"That would require you to be on time for something. Why are you so curious about her?"

Dom smiles down on his sister. "I want to meet her. I didn't get a chance to talk to her."

"I don't think she talks much. I mean she doesn't really mingle and she doesn't eat or drink. Just picks her paintings and leaves."

Dom stands thinking about Mia's words.

"What's her name?"

"I don't know."

"But you'd have record of it on your purchase slips."

Dom's eyes light up as an idea forms in his mind.

"Let me deliver her paintings."

Mia shakes her head. "No! I'm not going to help you stalk someone! Especially someone who actually buys my work. I don't want you scaring her off."

"Please Mia." Dom puts his hands together and begs his sister. "Please please please! I'll be good. I swear. I promise. You have my word!"

Mia mulls it over and over and thinks about the possible outcomes. In the end she had to give in to him.

Her brother was only interested in his work. No matter how many pretty girls he pulled under him at night, none of them were enough to distract him from psycho killers for more than a night or two.

"Okay, I'll tell you. Don't cross the legal boundaries of privacy please!"

"What's she going to do? Call the cops?"

A/N - Thanks everyone for reviewing the first part of this. Seeing the reviews in my inbox really made me really happy today. I had a big smile with every new message.

I hope you guys like the rest of this story. I'm very happy with how it turned out!