As much as things made sense, at the same time they did not make sense.

Every possible lead they had was drying up faster and faster. Right now the detectives were working on the scraps that they had been dealt with. Mostly it involved looking over and seeing whose alibis stuck and who's did not. It might have seemed derivative and pointless, but Stillman just wanted to make sure that they didn't miss anything like the detectives who had worked the job back in the 80's.

However, something stuck with Scotty. Something didn't feel right in his head but he just couldn't place what it was. Maybe it was the fact that he was still thinking about Lilly and their conversation earlier, or maybe it was the fact that he really was onto something.

Whatever it was, he knew that there was only one way to exercise the thought; Implementation.

Ignoring all rationality that existed within his head, once more he found himself rising from his seat and making his way over to Lilly. Right now he wasn't too sure what it was she was working on, but hopefully it wouldn't have been anything of great importance, because he really needed to talk to her, or sit with her, or just do any number of things in her presence.

Who would have thought that something that had been so many years in the making would manage to snake its way up now, just when everything in a case seemed so dire and pointless?

Hearing the footsteps of what she assumed to be an incoming Scotty, Lilly sat up straight and cleared her throat. All day she had been organising her own thoughts in a response to him and what he was doing. She should have said something sooner like Stillman wanted her too, but how could she really say anything like this to a guy she respected and treated as a friend.

"Hey" Scotty finally spoke as he approached her from behind. In his head he already knew that she heard him coming and so he pretty much was expecting an immediate response from her. There was a slight lag however as it took Lilly a few moments to turn in her seat and give her trademark half-smile.

"Hey Scotty" she spoke, fleeting her eyes across his for a moment before looking back at the screen that was in front of her and looking through the autopsy report one more time, hoping to find something remotely interesting. "What's going on?" Lilly asked out of genuine curiosity. As soon as she spoke the words she was aware of how the actually sounded; forced and unrealistic to her attitude and personality. What else could she have said though?

A small guffaw from Scotty seemed to imply that he had caught her own discomfort. "Trying to find something that links someone to this cold job is like a needle in a haystack" Scotty spoke calmly. "The more we exhaust evidence, the less we get in return."

"Not talking about the case Scotty…" Lilly spoke, annoyance playing in between her words. She wanted to hear it from him. She wanted to know what was actually going on here so that she could navigate her way around it the best she knew how. "I'm talking about you. What's going on with you?"

Scotty stood back, almost stunned by the question. At first he wasn't entirely sure what she even meant but after he thought about it for a short moment, he came back with the same conclusion that Lilly had come back with. Maybe right now wasn't the best time to be going about this. He was obviously overstepping some serious boundaries.

"Can't a guy come over to his partner's desk and say hey?" Scotty asked.

Lilly paused and did another half-smile. "Sure you can, but after the thirteenth time in three days it starts to lose its effect, don't you think?" It wasn't that she was pissed off with Scotty or even upset that he had taken the advances in her head but he had to learn there was a difference between casual work related flirtations, which happened on the daily, and whatever the next step to that was.

Scotty loomed in closer, trying to close the distance to keep it between them for the time being. The last thing he really wanted was for everything to be out in the open, less he be openly mocked by his peers. "So what, I should stop?"

Lilly nodded fiercely, hoping that Scotty would just take the hint. "It's how we work Scotty, I get you coffee and you in turn give me whatever name-brand painkillers you have on hand for any headache that I may or may not be sporting…" Lilly replied. "It's a good system we got going."

"Name-brand" Scotty muttered under his breath. All at once, it felt like the wheels in his head were spinning. The things that they had missed before were now coming clear to him. What he needed to do now was work, work until he found the missing piece that fit in with everything else.

Lilly wanted so badly to say something to stop Scotty in his tracks but right now it seemed like his head was elsewhere and so it would have been rather pointless to say anything in the first place.

There was a short while that passed before Scotty finally said "I think I got it." Just over an hour had passed and all the other detectives were busily working away on their own leads that they felt could at least go somewhere. With the words that Scotty had said, everyone seemed more lax, turning in their chairs to see his expression which seemed like he had something to go on.

Just like that, the race was back on and the case was infused with a new life. It might not have been a totally hot lead, but with the right eye behind it, the evidence pretty much spoke for itself.

Pulling over a file, he wandered into the huddled mass that had been collected with the detectives, Stillman stepping out of his office with the knowledge that something was just about to happen. Quickly skimming through the file, Scotty pulled up a picture of the lead guitarist of the band, before pulling out the picture of the guitar that was found draped around the neck of the body.

"'Metal Dragons' were not the merchandising type" Scotty said plainly, as if it made the most sense in the world. Just as Kat was about to say something to Scotty about how this was relevant, Scotty pointed towards the two logo's on both of the guitars in each picture. "They're not the same" Scotty spoke up.

A little confused by this intake of information, Jeffries raised a brow. "Okay, I still don't get it, mind filling me in the rest of the way Scotty?"

Nodding, Scotty realised he might have just gotten a tad ahead of himself. Dropping the two pictures on the desk, he explained "The guitar on the left was the real deal. Notice how the branding on it loops, sort of cursive like." Jeffries nodded as he took a look at the first picture. "The second is the guitar we found with the body. No cursive. No loops. Very sharp lettering."

Stillman was the next sceptic to step in line. "What does this have to do with the case Scotty?"

"Everything" Scotty spoke fairly confidently. "I took a look around and then I realised that 'Metal Dragons' had never merchandised anything. Sure they sold their CD's, but the odds of finding a shirt or a key chain are pretty much impossible unless they're fakes."

It was then that Vera spoke up. "So you're saying that Delores could have been killed because she walked into a bad merchandising deal?" The whole thought was a little ridiculous for him, but he could see from the look on Scotty's face that he was not finished with the evidence just yet.

"Maybe. I don't know." It wasn't the best motive that was sitting on the table, but he was far from through. "Anyway… when we asked Cassidy to give her insight…"

"She was wearing a 'Metal Dragons' shirt." The memory instantly clicked into Jeffries memory. He had found it a little odd for her to be wearing that shirt at that exact moment; sure she had worn it so they could identify her, but it was a tad in bad taste. "It had the sharp lettering on it" Jeffries added.

"Exactly" Scotty added.

Stillman closed in ranks to the gathering. "Hold the phone. Anyone could have made those shirts, what makes you think you know who did."

Scotty nodded again. "Well I took a look through Cassidy Freeman's criminal record and at the front it looks clean…" he started "But you take a look and Miss Freeman has a restraining order put on her by not only Maxine Caldwell, but also James Reinhart, the bassist for 'Metal Dragons' for alleged stalking"

"So two thirds of the band had a problem with Cassidy Freeman. The one third that doesn't also happens to be involved with her" Lilly added.

"The final nail on the coffin though is this." Scotty then turned his screen to show the detectives. From the first view it just looked like a fairly basic book cover, but when you looked closer, you could see the sharpness of the letters share a similar quality with those of the shirt and the guitar. "Written by Cassidy Freeman… cover art by Cassidy Freeman" he ended.


The fact that she was here had surprised her somewhat. In the stillness of everything, she liked to think that she was innocent and that she had reasons for doing the things that she did. Then again, didn't everyone profess the same thing.

Difference here was that Cassidy Freeman thought of herself as a totally innocent party in this whole mess that had come up. The fact that she remained calm despite her location seemed to echo this fact. The only thing the detectives could say for sure was that she was either a fairly cold old woman or she really did have nothing to hide and seen this all as a massive mistake.

They had all made up their minds as to what she was right now. She was just like any other person who felt like they had a reason to do what they did; it didn't save her soul, it just highlighted the cracks for the entire world to see.

The time had come for Jeffries and Vera to put the grill on Cassidy Freeman and see what happened to show up. Innocent or not, she was hiding something. Sooner or later it would come out, but the detectives would have rather heard the whole story sooner than be kept in suspense for one minute longer.

Standing at the other side of the desk, both detectives looked down on the seated woman who had done her best to remain as relaxed and as composed as possible. Whether or not she actually felt this way was a different situation entirely.

"You had us fooled Cassidy" Kat spoke, folding her arms across her chest. "I mean if you ask me, I thought you were the last person I'd ever see in this box." That was a fairly accurate conclusion she had come to. Out of the suspects they had, Cassidy just seemed like the last person who would have pulled something like this off. "Bravo on keeping your face straight the whole way over by the way, don't think you flinched once."

The elder woman nodded. "Well I'm an innocent person with nothing to hide, so maybe I didn't 'flinch' because I knew that truth would prevail in the end." It was only then that she let her beady eyes fall on Kat, the lack of empathy in them obvious to her from the get go. "Say what you will but you detectives have nothing."

Whilst that might have been true to some extent, they actually did have something in the ways of the evidence that Scotty had gathered, not to mention the restraining orders that had been placed on her. All they needed to do was get her to confess; once they did that, everything would fall into place.

"Oh but we do have you" Kat replied.

Jeffries forced the open file in front of Cassidy, the picture of the skeletal remains of Delores with the guitar sitting on the top. "The guitar found with Delores doesn't have the same style as the band, but…" with that, Kat opened her own file and threw down a few pictures "they do have the same style as some of your ventures."

Kat began, pointing at each picture in succession. "Failed craft store in '86, Same in '92, Same in '04."

Judging from the look of Cassidy's face, she certainly did not appreciate being reminded of some of her past ventures. All in all, she didn't look angry enough to fly across the table, but she could tell that she was bubbling just under the surface.

"Dried blood on the guitar tells us that she had it around her neck at the time she bled out" Jeffries scattered on. "Which means, that right now, you were the last person to see Delores Lafferty alive."

There was a slight snort from Cassidy as she looked between both of the detectives. "Yes, I did brand the guitar which, yes, at the time was a cheap knockoff, but I could have given that to Delores at any point in time over any number of days. Just because you say she had it on her when she died doesn't mean that I was there."

"Except that's not possible" Kat added. "Delores didn't know how to play so what use would she have for it?"

Jeffries nodded. "Makes a lot of sense to me actually, get rid of the body, get rid of the knock off in one foul swoop"

Anger was rising in her and both Jeffries and Kat could see it just below the surface. "What exactly are you trying to imply here detectives?" The look on her face was practically priceless, like she was about to crack like fine china under the force of something heavier.

"That you knocked her clean out of the picture with the guitar you branded." Jeffries replied.

Of course they all knew this was not the case. Had the guitar been the weapon then there would be more blood on the guitar and some sign to say that it had been swung full force at a person's head.

"I did no such thing" Cassidy feigned innocence.

For a moment there was silence. Then Kat spoke up again. "What was it that got to you in the end? Was it the fact that you could have lost contact with your future husband or was it the fact that one of your little ventures had failed for the last time"

"For all we know there could be a whole lot more than what we're seeing he-"

"STOP!" Cassidy roared, rising from her seat with such speed that it toppled over behind her. The way she looked now was so much different from the calm woman they had initially met. What replaced her was someone who was envious and full of rage, willing to do whatever was necessary to stay ahead. "Leave my husband out of this!"

They had found their trigger switch, and now it was only fair that they try to use it against her. "What makes me wonder is that the other members of the band filed restraining orders against you and he didn't. Think he took any of the credit in the false merchandising game?"

Before he even had a chance to respond Cassidy spoke up. "She was stubborn." The words themselves meant hardly anything. "She was a stubborn, silly, little girl who refused to let anything go." There was a short pause. "If I tell you everything, you leave my husband's name out of it…" The hero worship seemed to fuel her every action by this point. Even if he was a deceased man, Cassidy still idolized him more than she should have.

Kat and Jeffries nodded.


It had certainly been a long night for Delores. Above the whole "last gig in Philly for a while", there was the whole thing regarding Miles and then the whole break-up thing that she had with Michael. The night had went from height to height, making her dizzier each time and quite honestly, she wasn't sure she could take much more.

Thank god that everything had actually died down due to the rain. The storm had come in thick and fast during the last few minutes of the concert. Of course that wasn't enough to stop these guys. "The Show Must Go On" and all that nonsense. It made sense to those guys but it never truly made any sense for her.

However, in spite of all of that, Delores still felt somewhat responsible for not being with the guys tonight. She was supposed to be working and instead she got roped into a whole big thing and then that whole big thing escalated exponentially as time went on. Clearly the only thing she could really do now was to help tidy up all the bits and pieces.

All the other crew members had headed off, probably trying to get away from the heavy downpour that fell everywhere. There were some minor splashes on the stage but it really wasn't anything that wasn't manageable.

Most of the real work had been done already, just to ensure that no one came along and just started to steal pieces of equipment, or to shield them from the ongoing downpour. It might not have felt like much, but to Delores, doing meaningless grunt work like this was one of the few highlights of the night.

From the corner of her eye she saw something. It was enough to force her to turn instinctively, almost knocking herself back on her ass in the process. The whole thing would have looked comical if anybody was actually looking, but as Delores got to her feet she breathed a sigh of relief knowing that it was just Cassidy. Harmless little Cassidy Freeman. Was she a bit creepy, yeah, Delores would be the first to say that, but the fact that she kept out of the way just made her appreciation less stalker-y and for fan-y.

"Christ Cass, ya nearly gave me a heart attack" she spoke, laughing all the way. Maybe it had something to do with the transpired events, but she couldn't help but to be a little bit jumpy right now. "Ya really should let people know your there."

Now that she had stepped into the light more, she could see that Cassidy was walking towards her with a guitar slung around her neck. The whole thing just struck Delores as odd and forced laughter out of her as she tried not to mock her at this moment in time. The guitar itself nearly hung off of her, the long strap not helping with the small frame that Cassidy possessed.

"Cass, I think that might be a bit too big for you, dontcha think?" Delores added.

Cassidy gave one of her signature smiles before raising the guitar in the air and bowing out of the strap. "That's why it's for you." The way that she had said it so matter of factly seemed off putting to Delores. What the hell was she going to do with a guitar anyway? It wasn't like she could play.

"Don't think that'd be the best idea if I'm honest…" Delores spoke, raising her arms in defence as she continued to tidy up.

"Scrivens wanted you to have it" Cassidy spoke. Instantly Delores felt a little bit sick in her mouth. "He's actually giving one of these to all the roadies. Sort of a thank you gift from him and Freddie."

All of a sudden Delores felt a little sicker. She had never held a proper conversation with the lead guitarist, mainly because every time she tried to talk to him, he would slur out another unintelligible response. She could tell that Scrivens was the brain power behind this whole idea. It never even occurred to her that Cassidy could pull off something like this.

"Tell him he can keep his 'hush-money' guitar" Delores spoke, a little bit of anger seeping through as she turned away and started to pack up the drum kit.

The mood in the room changed with that single comment. Before her eyes, Cassidy changed drastically. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Delores snapped back round to face Cassidy who looked totally peeved off right now. If she could say anything to calm her down she would, but not at the expense of not being truthful to who she was; that had already cost her far too much tonight. "What I mean is I know what I'm going to do now… I know what I need to do."

"And that's what exactly?" Cassidy questioned, the hostility in her voice bubbling up a little more with each passing second.

"I need to tell someone what he's being doing. I need to tell someone. Anyone. All I want is for it to stop." In her mind Scrivens had gotten away with far too much and quite frankly she wanted out. She didn't want to be a part of this if it meant trading in her conscience for a cool leather jacket. "The cops have to know."

Quickly, Cassidy felt her whole world slipping away from her. Piece by piece was falling to the ground. Delores was gonna tell about the whole merchandising thing. She'd found out. How could she let that happen. If she told the cops then things would go to hell. There went another venture. Her future with someone she cared about. Idolized.

No. She couldn't let that happen.

The rage in her only grew with each passing second as she picked up a nearby stool. All she needed to do was send a message to her. Make her see that she loved him. "YOU CAN'T TELL!"

With all the force she could muster, she took her first swing, hitting Delores square on the side of the head. Without any resistance, she took to the floor almost immediately, unconscious for the time being. It looked like it was all over, but Cassidy knew in her head that she couldn't let her get back up.

"YOU CAN'T TELL!"

Another swing, blood sprayed everywhere, some even splattering on the discarded guitar.

"YOU CAN'T TELL!"


["Faithfully" by Journey]

Walking through the bullpen with the detectives close behind and cuffs on her back, Cassidy couldn't help but to think at how far she had actually fallen to get here. The detectives who were absent from the box gathered in time to see Cassidy as she was lead out of the department, readied for her life on the inside.

After Cassidy had passed, both Scotty and Lilly shared a look, lasting only a moment before they both turned away. These issues were unresolved.

Back at the bar where Maxine Caldwell worked, she tried her best to fake a smile, knowing that the mystery that had once plagued her band was now done and dusted. She remained apathetic as she poured another drink for a gentleman who appeared to have had one too many. Licking her lips was all she could do to sedate the demon that existed within her.

At the store where he worked alongside his son, Miles Reardon tried his best to put on a brave face as he glared up at the television set in the corner, showing that the case of the woman he had once cared for was now solved. Nodding softly, he turned his attention back to the front, ready once more to greet a new customer who had come in with their child.

Down in the evidence room, Vera walked with pride as he held a new box under his arm, ready to mark it as a closed cold job instead of a missing person's case. Hoisting the box on top of another, Vera then took out a marker, writing down Lafferty, D. before lightly tapping the box twice with his fist

Out on his porch, Michael Ramirez looks through an old photo album, knowing full well that the events that transpired in them would never again come to pass. As he flicks through them, he stops at the last page and lets the back of his hand gently caress the final picture he and Delores had taken together. Looking up from his own position, he seen a shadow of the woman he loved, standing across the street from him, wearing a sympathetic smile. Rising to his feet, the shadow disappeared as a car rolled past, leaving Michael with a weak smile himself.