Anna was, to put it shortly, nothing less of surprised when she got home and no one was there. Rebecca has left a note on the table again, so her absence was explained. Jack, on the other hand, had claimed to have something to do and had vanished into thin air. She was half-tempted to call him, but decided not to, figuring that it was best to leave well enough alone.
Besides that, she had things to do, which included going over a few things for Connie and Amanda. She could keep herself occupied until someone else came along. The phone rang and she reached out and hit the speakerphone button.
"Hello?"
"Got a minute?" Trevor's voice came over the line and Anna rolled her eyes.
"For you? Always," she said, half-joking. "What do you want?"
"Just to check on you," came the reply, "You didn't look so good when you left."
"You noticed?" Anna asked, and made a face. "Damn. I was hoping that no one would."
"Well, of course I was going to notice, I work with you every day." Trevor trailed off for a moment and then went on. "How goes it?"
"Well, Judge Donnelly's barred cameras from her courtroom, thank heaven, so it should be smooth sailing. We've got a little less than two weeks before the actual trial begins."
"Well, that's good. Any news on whether or not Rebecca will have to testify?"
"No. They're still working on it. Odds are that she probably won't, if the police can't find the second guy."
"They will," said Trevor, "You just can't stop hoping for it. Heard from Danielle or anyone else?"
"Danielle called while I was on the ferry coming home to the island," said Anna, "She sounded distracted, though. Probably working on another case."
"Yeah, probably. It's been a while since any of us have picked up one of those."
"Yeah, it has. I hope you all don't think that you can't because of this."
"It's not that. It's just…a matter of being there for those that matter to you, y'know?"
"How profound. I'll keep that in mind." Anna took the call off speakerphone and got up, wandering into the kitchen. "You know, I never really used to notice how big this place was until people started living with me."
"Anna….Well, the place is big, I'll give you that much."
"Just because you don't approve of my relationship doesn't mean you have the right to be snarky about it."
"I'm not. I'd just rather not see you hurt."
"He's not going to hurt me." Anna pulled a carton of milk out of the fridge, along with a bottle of chocolate syrup. "I appreciate your worrying, Trevor, but don't. Everything is fine."
"Suit yourself, but don't say I didn't warn you," said Trevor. "You sure you're feeling all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, I promise. Quit worrying. You're starting to sound like my sister." Anna pulled a spoon from her silverware drawer and started stirring. "Anything else you wanted to talk about?"
"No, that's about it," said Trevor, "You need anything, you let me know?"
"I will," said Anna, "Promise. And you know it goes both ways."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll talk to you in the morning."
And with that, he hung up. Anna rolled her eyes again and switched her own receiver off, leaving it on the counter as she took a sip form the glass she held. The kitchen door opened as she leaned back against the counter, and there was Rebecca.
"Oh…hey," she said, upon noticing Anna, "Is Dad here?"
"No, he had something to do in Manhattan," Anna replied, "You hungry? I was thinking of making something, ordering out…whatever you want to do."
Silence. She wondered for a moment if she had pushed too hard, but after a minute, Rebecca offered up a faint smile.
"Actually, pizza sounds really good right about now," she admitted.
Anna grinned and reached for the phone again. "Where from?"
The first thing that registered with him when he woke up was that it was dark out. The second thing was that he wasn't on Staten Island, with Anna. There was an empty place in the bed, a lamp on the bedside table casting a faint light over the room, and pants that were obviously his on the floor.
He reached for them, pulled them on, and then got up. It was past midnight, he noticed, upon looking at the alarm clock .Anna was probably already asleep. The thought of her made a guilty feeling settle over him and he knew exactly why. Footsteps caught his attention, and he looked up to see Kelly in the bedroom doorway, drinking coffee.
"I was wondering when you were going to wake up," she said, quietly. "There's coffee if you want any."
Jack blinked, still having not adjusted completely to the light. "You're wearing my shirt," he said, in reply.
"I know." Kelly trailed off and then glanced over towards the window. The curtains were drawn. She walked over and opened them, not that there was really any light outside, given the time. "So, what'd you tell her?"
Funny how she knew the routine so well, Jack thought, though he wasn't exactly surprised by it. "I told her I had something to do."
"Someone, more like," Kelly said dryly. "Why is it that this always seems to happen to you?"
"Let's not go there." The guilty feeling had returned. He wondered when it had gone away, and wondered why the hell it had in the first place.
"When does the trial start?" It was an obvious attempt to change the subject, on Kelly's part, and he said nothing to object it.
"Just short of two weeks," he said. "Are you planning on showing up, or are you going to keep hiding in this house of yours?"
"I'll be there," said Kelly, "I want to watch Galinet hang as much as you do. And I think I've had my fill of this damned house for a while."
"Of course you have," Jack said dryly. "But notice how it takes something like this to get you to decide that."
"I didn't hear you complaining."
She had a point, and he knew it. Effectively silenced, he leaned back against the headboard, since he was still sitting on the bed, and gave her a look.
"There's a reason it didn't work between us the first time," he told her, and she nodded, sitting down in the window seat and looking over at him.
"I know. But then, you never came across as the sort to stick with one person for longer than you had to."
"Things change."
"Then why are you still here? For that matter, Jack, why'd you even bother coming around again after the first time?"
It was a good question. He didn't know why he was still there, other than the fact that Kelly had on his shirt, which meant that technically, he couldn't leave. And he wasn't particularly sure about why he'd come back, either.
"You know this was a mistake," Jack said finally, and Kelly gave him an amused look.
"You say that now, but do you really mean it?"
"Don't play games with me. This was over before it began, and don't try to jerk me around over it."
"Wouldn't dream of it." Kelly got to her feet and wandered into her closet. "You can have your shirt back in a minute."
His cell phone rang as the closet door closed. Reaching for it, he glanced at the caller ID and felt his heart drop as he flipped it open.
"Hey," said Anna's voice, "You crashing at your place, then?"
"Yes." The lie slipped from him easily, and he silently cursed the ability for that to happen. "It's late, didn't want to wake anyone up. Is Becky with you?"
"Yeah. She's watching a movie, eating popcorn…we had pizza, you missed out." Anna trailed off, and on her side of the line, frowned slightly. "You sound distracted about something, you all right?"
"I'm fine. Just tired. I'll probably come back out to the island in the morning," Jack replied. "Everything ok out there?"
"Everything's great. I'm just starting to notice how big this stupid house is without other people here, though. Guess I've grown used to having people around."
She sounded so happy about it that it hurt to hear her talking about it. "Well, if you get tired of it…"
Anna laughed. "I don't think I'll get tired of it anytime soon," she said, and then, "You'd better sleep. See you in the morning?"
He nodded, and then remembered that he was not in a place where she could see him. "Yeah," he said. "I'll be there in the morning."
And then she hung up, and he found himself wondering exactly why the hell he wasn't already there.
"Murder one carries the death penalty," said Nina, and Ed looked over at her. They were still sitting in the squad room, because neither of them had anything better to do. It had been a while since Anna had left, with the files that Connie and Amanda had asked her to look over, and it didn't appear as if either detective was going anywhere anytime soon.
"Yeah," he said, "It does. What does that have to do with anything?"
"Galinet murdered a cop. That's an automatic murder one charge, which means if a jury decides that she's eligible for the death penalty, it's likely she'll be sentenced to death row," said Nina. "Now, tell me this. What one thing is most likely to make a perp least likely to cooperate with us?"
"Having the death penalty on the table," said Ed, and then, "I still don't see where you think you're going with this. Fellowes already said she's not dealing. Branch isn't going to let her."
"Yeah, Branch isn't going to let her if it involves parole within the next twelve to twenty-five years after we convict her," said Nina. "But I'm willing to bet that Branch will authorize Fellowes to deal if it involves life in prison with little possibility of any parole, instead of putting her on death row."
"You must be on something," said Ed. "You do realize that in cases like this, any deal that might go through has to be put in front of the families first, right? Tell me which one of the families is likely to go for that."
"I don't know, but it's always worth a shot. We've got nothing, Ed. If we can't find Galinet's accomplice, then we're screwed."
"We're already screwed. Finding him isn't likely to do us a lot of good. If anything, he'll insist on complete immunity before he says one word about all the crap Galinet made him do. Besides, Fellowes won't be dealing with him anyway; Novak will be."
"Rebecca hasn't yet said anything to the Special Victims Unit; how the hell is Novak dealing with him?"
"That's in the DA's office, not the department. All we gotta do is find the guy and it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon."
"Well, it's bound to happen sooner or later. We haven't been pulling all nighters for nothing. He'll turn up."
Silence. Nina had sounded a lot more confident than she felt, and she knew it. They'd already tried with Galinet's brother, and had gotten nothing. It wasn't exactly likely that they would get anything from any of the other family members, either. None of them had shown any willingness to cooperate.
"We've at least got to talk to Fellowes and see what she has to say about that theory," said Nina. "I'm sure that if the families know she'll go to prison for the rest of her life, they'll be fine with whatever deal goes through."
"Yeah, and if it gets to the point where Fellowes has to deal all the way down to twelve to twenty-five with parole in seven?" Ed asked skeptically. "I don't know. It's too big of a gamble, even for me. I'm not willing to take that chance."
"And if it's the only chance we have at getting something? Then what?"
"You know as well as I do that if Galinet's going to give up her accomplice, she's gonna want the murder one charge gone, and she's gonna want everything else dealt down to man one. That's not gonna happen."
Another silence. Finally, Ed looked over at his partner again and sighed. "All right," he said. "We'll talk to Fellowes, but don't say I didn't tell you if she tells you to forget about it."
"That's all I'm asking," said Nina. "If it doesn't work that way, then at least we'll know that we tried."
"Trial's just short of two weeks. We're dealing with Judge Donnelly. If we can find this guy before then, it'll probably be a miracle."
"Then that's just what we'll have to keep our fingers crossed for."
