"Why kidneys and liver?" Murdoch murmured as he studied his murder board. He felt ashamed that he could not give these women justice; his mind not as sharp as it should be and it was not fully on the task at hand.

"Perhaps he wishes to keep a memento of the kill?" Roberts stepped into the room and Murdoch turned to him, with a welcoming smile.

"Doctor Roberts, how wonderful to see you," he knew he was being a little effusive, but right at this moment the psychiatrist was a godsend.

"I popped in to visit with Julia today and she mentioned you might appreciate another perspective on your case," the Doctors handshake was firm and strong, one of the first things Murdoch had liked about him.

"She is, as usual, absolutely right," Murdoch smiled, amending his mental prayer of thanks to extra gratitude for Julia's ever-amazing mind and intuition.

"If you wish to fill me in on the case I have the time for it," Roberts said putting his hat, gloves and cane down on the desk and settling into a chair facing the board. George nodded in greeting and moved to a corner where he could watch and not be in the way.

Murdoch explained what he could, using the board as a schoolteacher would when emphasizing a point. Doctor Roberts listened, nodded on occasion, but asked very few questions.

"I have checked all the suspects alibi's and all of them are covered during one or both the murders, which leaves me without a single clue," he said in conclusion.

"Perhaps because you are looking for one murderer when I think it could be two," Roberts statement was met with a narrow eyed look from Murdoch, and a gasp of shock from George.

"Two?" Murdoch asked, turning back to the board trying to see what had brought Roberts to that conclusion.

"Yes, I could of course be wrong, but look at the difference in the way they were killed, to the way they were operated on. Surely someone who takes such care to make a clean and precise incision, and has such superior knowledge of the human body, would find a much neater and less brutish way to end a life than breaking their necks?"

Murdoch looked at the board again, a small thought starting to form in his head, "how much strength would he require to break someone's neck?" he asked absently.

"I'm afraid that answer I do not have, however I am sure Julia could either tell you or come up with a way to find out," he said as he rose and collected his things.

Murdoch's mind was only half on his farewells as he studied George's map of the footsteps around both bodies. The strangeness of it was suddenly making a lot more sense. They had not taken into account that there were two killers, now with that in mind it was almost embarrassingly obvious. The killers seemed to almost work in perfect sync with each other. There were no stumbling steps, no overlying footprints. It was as if they moved as one being.

"George we need to take a closer look at the Derby twins alibi." He said with a frown.

"How much strength does it take to break the bones in the neck?" It was his first words to Julia as he strode into the mortuary. Julia frowned at him, she had not seen him since they had spent the night together.

Much as she wanted to bash him over the head with a bucket, she realized this was William and she'd long accepted him for who he was. Trying to change him now would be pointless.

"I'm afraid I can not tell you the exact force that would be needed Detective, I do however know of a way you can find out," she said, noting his eyes narrow at her use of his title and hid a smile, "and I am sure George will be glad to help you, especially since he won't have to wear a dress this time."

"How?" He moved closer, almost close enough to brush against her. Julia sidestepped him and put the table between them. The annoyance changed to simmering heat, she had his full attention now.

"It will involve a trip to the butcher for a goat. It's not exactly the same but it is probably the nearest to a human neck and should give you an idea of the force needed to break the vertebrae," she said before pulling a book off the shelf above her small apothecary's cabinet. When she sat down and started paging through it, Murdoch realized that he had been dismissed.

"Julia are you angry with me?" he asked moving up beside her, careful to keep a respectable distance from her until he found out why she was distancing herself from him. He did not want to cross any invisible lines with her.

"Why would you think that Detective?" She asked, still not looking up from her book.

It enraged him. Whatever uncertainty he'd had was burnt away by the sudden overpowering need to get her attention. To make her feel just a fraction of the longing he'd suffered waiting for her to come to him. He reached down and snatched the book out of her hand and closed it with a snap.

"Dete..." She never got to finish that because he grabbed her face and brought his down so close she could feel his breath on her lips. A small warning bell echoed in her head far too late, he was far beyond annoyed.

"You called me William while I was inside you Julia kindly continue, because if you call me Detective again I am going to remind you right here on this chair what we shared, and I don't care who walks in on us," he said it softly, then closed his mouth over hers, his tongue demanding both entrance and surrender.

It made her head swim and her blood burn. His words, his kiss, his hands holding her in place, and his body so close. For a moment she could do nothing but what he wanted her to, but she was a woman of reason, and she had not fought the great bastion of male learning to become a doctor, just to be controlled by her emotions now.

With a hard shove she sent him stumbling backwards against the cabinet, bottles and test tubes tottered and clinked alarmingly.

"I will call you anything I want Detective," she snarled rising to her feet and quickly putting some distance between them. Brave as she was she did not want to put his threat to the test.

"You seem to be capable of threatening me with public disgrace while unable to find the time to be with me in private, why is that?" She said, and then bit her tongue. She'd not wanted to ask that, she didn't want to show how much it had hurt her.

Murdoch's eyes went from enraged to shocked surprise in seconds flat, "You were waiting for me to come to you?"

In that moment Julia could have slapped him and herself. They had both fallen back into the very thing that had brought them to the brink of loosing each other: not speaking out what was in their heads.

"Well yes, it's your house I can't just invite myself over there," she snarled. Murdoch looked as if she had slapped him.

"Your reputation is on the line Julia, that's why I left the when and where of our getting together up to you," he carefully edged towards her and was rewarded when she did not back away from him again. Gently, as if dealing with a very skittish horse, he slipped a hand around her waist and pulled her against him.

"And that house is ours Julia, do your really think I am fixing it up for myself?"

That stopped her heart for a moment and she dropped her gaze from his. She really did not want to fight with him any more, so she didn't tell him the words that were dancing on her tongue, but she knew she had to soon, before things got too messy between them.

"What is it?" He asked lifting her chin up until she was looking at him again. Darn the man for choosing this moment to try and get into her head.

"Nothing, I'm relieved I thought..." she hesitated then shrugged "I'm not sure what I thought, but I did not like it," she sighed, and winding a hand into his lapels brought him in for a kiss. This time she gave herself over to it completely. When he finally stepped back they were both breathing hard.

"Boxers," she gasped. Murdoch blinked at her and shook his head in confusion.

"I read somewhere that the average blow in a boxing match is 800 to 1000 pounds of force to the head. Enough to knock the opponent out but not break his neck, which means it would have to be a considerable force to actually break it," she explained, going back to the book he'd slammed down on the cabinet. She flipped through it and then, finding what she wanted, she brought it back to him.

"The neck muscles are some of the strongest in the human body, which means that unless the girls were unconscious, which we know from Dotty's shoe that she was not, the neck muscles would have automatically tightened and fought against him."

Murdoch looked down at the diagram of the neck and had to admit it would take a lot of pressure and strength to actually snap someone's neck. Quickly he explained Roberts' theory of two killers instead of one to her.

"William..." she hesitated then grabbed his arm "the man that threw me into the carriage was incredibly strong. He picked me up as if I weighed nothing, and there is something else I've remembered. In the short time I was in the carriage, I got the feeling there was someone else in there with me, it was just too dark to see though."

Murdoch tried to control the sudden flare of rage the mere mention of her near kidnapping invoked, but it took a few minutes for him to be able to think past it. When he did another image tweaked his memory.

The mortuary faded away and he was standing in the passage outside the theater dressing rooms. A figure seemed to evolve out of the shadows. Solidifying only briefly in the light as it flowed down the passage and disappeared in the dark corner.

His mind jumped forward.

He was running out his front door, the figure was struggling with Julia...

He was slammed back into the present. Murdoch blinked and frowned, his emotions were interfering with his brain now too.

"William?" Julia had been standing slightly out of the way, careful not to interfere with his thought process, but now she stepped closer. His response was instant and automatic, his arm slid around her waist and he pulled her into his side. Even the gently caressing brush of his thumb up and down the curve of her waist was both affectionate and mindless.

"Julia..." he stopped and turned to her, holding her by the waist with both hands now, she had a feeling it was more to keep her from taking off than an embrace.

"I'm going to take you home now and I will have a constable outside your house. I want you to stay inside Julia, no going out for any reason." He said sternly, giving her a little shake to show how serious he was.

"I thought it was a random kidnapping attempt, but I think the killers are after you."

Julia narrowed her eyes at him then jutted out that stubborn chin, he had to bite back a sigh. He knew that look.

"How long?"

Murdoch tightened his grasp on her waist when she tried to move away. "I won't risk you Julia and I certainly will not let you risk yourself, so the answer to your question is as long as it takes me to catch him." There was finality to his words that raised her hackles and she tried to pry his hands off her waist. He let her go and stepped back, a small victory and she knew with a sigh, her only one.

"I have a job to do William I can't sit at home waiting for you. I will go home tonight but tomorrow morning I am coming to work," and that was her final word on the matter. Or so she thought.

Murdoch watched her for a moment, her raised chin, defiant eyes and her chest rising and falling with agitated breaths, it was too much temptation even for him. With a growl he hooked a hand behind her neck and around her waist and dragged her against him.

"Fight me on this Julia, at your own risk," he said with a snarl as his mouth took hers in a searing, blood heating, toe-curling kiss. When he pulled back they were both panting. He rested his head on her forehead for a second, trying to find the strength to let her go.

"Maybe instead of going home tonight I should ..." she hesitated, there just was no polite was for a lady to ask the age old question: your place or mine?

Murdoch sighed, dropped a regretful but chaste kiss on her cheek with a shake of his head, "I'm tempted but I have no idea how long I will be working. You will be safest at that fortress of yours," he grinned. Julia laughed, he was right she did have a fortress with its very own dragon in the form of Jarvis her butler.

"Go home take a long bath and get an early night. If all goes as planned, you will need all your energy tomorrow night," that was said with more than a hint of dark promise, and Julia shivered in anticipation. His eyes heated.

Murdoch helped her into her coat and hat, then walked her to the police carriage he'd arranged to take her, and the constable assigned to her, home. He watched it until it disappeared around the corner before turning and jumping on his bicycle.

"What are we doing here Detective? We have told you everything we know," Terrance Derby snapped as Murdoch walked into the interrogation room. Murdoch noticed that, despite the fact that he had the twins put into separate rooms, they still both spoke in the plural.

"We just have a few more questions Mr. Derby," Murdoch said soothingly.

He went from one room to the other, back and forth, question after question and in the end he knew without a doubt that the twins were not the killers.

Then he went back to the board, back to studying the evidence.

"What am I not seeing George? What am I missing?" He murmured as Crabtree stepped into his office.

"You do not think they did it sir?" George asked moving up beside him eyes on the board too.

"No. I still want you to double check their alibis, but no, neither of them have the medical knowledge," Murdoch said on a sigh.

"We still have a team of constables walking the grave yard all night?" he asked as he reached for his hat. George nodded, then winced.

"I'm not sure how long they can keep it up though sir, the men are putting in a lot of overtime," George did not need to mention that he was putting in more than his share of overtime walking the graveyard, mostly because Murdoch had spent every night for the last few nights there.

"I know George." He said with a sigh as he moved out the door. He hadn't made it more than a foot from his office when he was called to the telephone.

"William I'm glad I caught you. I am heading for the mortuary now, I think I might have something of interest," Julia's voice sounded tinny over the line.

"Stay where you are Julia, I will come to you," he ordered, his voice coming out in more of a snap than he meant it too, exhaustion making his temper shorter than it should be. There was a moment of silence on the line before "I have already called a carriage. Also you might as well know I sent your constable home, the poor man was dead on his feet, something about walking the graveyard all night?" she said, and then "I'll be there in a few minutes." And she hung up.

Murdoch slammed the telephone down so hard it cracked in half. "Foolish woman!" he snarled as he ran out the door.

He was at the mortuary in minutes flat, just in time to see Julia's carriage arrive. As he crossed the street towards her some sixth sense made him speed up to a run. Julia was just opening the carriage door when Murdoch saw a figure detach itself from the shadows between buildings and step towards her.

"Julia!" He called sprinting the remaining distance between them and slamming the carriage door closed. He heard her screech and a thump as she was knocked back to the plush interior.

"Stay in there." He ordered placing himself solidly in front of the door. The giant stepped back towards the shadows. Murdoch was torn, he did not want to risk chasing him and leaving Julia unprotected, especially now that they knew there were two of them.

"Stop there!" He called knowing even as he said it that it was useless.

"William, let me out this instant." Julia was rattling the door trying to push it open. In the second Murdoch took his eyes off the assailant to hold the door closed he was gone.

He watched the shadows for a moment more, feeling the man's eyes on him. Murdoch opened the door, pushed a spluttering Julia back into the carriage, shouted the driver instructions and stepped into the carriage with her.

"What on earth..." Julia never got to finish; Murdoch grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her, hard. When he finally let her come up for air she was hard put to remember her own name.

"Did I not make myself clear about you staying at home tonight?" He asked remarkably calmly for someone who's eyes were on fire. But since Julia was an intelligent woman, and she knew he was on the brink of a monumental explosion, she kept silent. Besides, she did not want to see what the inside of the jail looked like.

"I'm sorry but I was reading an article on ante mortem and postmortem bruising and I really needed to see if I could perhaps get you a hand print." She said, and heaved a silent sigh of relief when anger in his face was replaced by interest.

"How would you do that?" He asked as he settled back taking her hand in his.

"Well I would need to lift the skin around the neck which will hopefully show the bruises that were inflicted as they died. And for that I would have to be where the bodies are William." She said the last with a little snap in her voice. Murdoch gave her a long warning look but did not order the carriage to turn around.

"I need to clean up and change, then I am dropping you off at home Julia. Your handprint theory will be valuable in identifying the killer's when we find them, but not much help in finding them so that can wait until tomorrow."

When the carriage stopped Murdoch leant out the window looking around, before allowing her to follow him out into the well-lit street. He rushed her into the house, closing and locking the door behind them.

Julia took it all with as much patience as she could muster. She was tired, more than a little sickened by the fact that some madman was after her, and emotionally wrung out. That she had any patience at all was thanks to a lifetime of putting up with overbearing males.

"Have I shown you my latest gadget?" Murdoch asked helping her out of her jacket and putting her hat on the stand beside his own. He stopped there a moment and looked at them, his coat, her hat, together side by side, it looked so intimate, so right, as if not having her things hanging there was unnatural.

"You have a new gadget?" She asked with a grin of anticipation, Murdoch took her hand and kissed the palm a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"I do, however there is one stipulation before I show it to you," he said leading her up the stairs, Julia felt her pulse quicken.

"Oh?"

"You have to be nude to see it," he said it so mater of factly that it took her a moment to realize what he'd said.

Standing in the bedroom, Julia felt the heat humming just under her skin, memories of what they had done in that bed were vividly coming back to her. When he let her hand go and started stripping, the heat turned into an inferno.

"Do you need help getting undressed? I am told I'm a very good ladies maid, " He said cheekily as he sat on the bed taking off his shoes. She raised an eyebrow but did not let him bait her with their previous argument.

Then she surprised the hell out of him by shimmying out of shoes and clothes faster than he could take off his boots.

When he was down to his long underwear she was standing there in her chemise, knickers and stockings held up by sexy little pink ribbons, pulling out her hairpins. It was then that he realized she didn't actually undress faster than he did, he just could not stop staring at her.

"Well? Where is the gadget?" She prompted and his mouth snapped closed, he was very afraid if she put a little bit of effort into it she could probably turn him into a mindless, drooling slave. Then again, he was standing there staring at her with his mouth open and his pants around his ankles. In the instant her hair tumbled down around her, even that little bit of reasoning fell out of his head and he just stood drinking her in.

"William?" She said it with a little stamp of her foot. The fact that it sent an erotic jolt through him strong enough to give him an instant erection actually pulled him out of it, and he turned away until he had his body under better control.

"In the bathroom," he muttered. He could feel her eyeing him with confusion and realized his behavior was just making matters worse. With a sigh he turned back to her, and taking her hand lead her into the bathroom.

Julia frowned at the huge funnel like machine with pipes snaking out of it and along the walls and into another contraption mounted on the side of a bathtub, with a curtain around it. Murdoch moved over to it and fiddled with the dials, then started it up.

It hissed, clanged and gurgled and she automatically took a step back. Murdoch did not seem the least worried as he again turned the dials. She was both fascinated and delighted when water showered down into the tub.

"It's hot?" She asked moving closer to the steaming spray.

Murdoch fiddled with the dials a bit more and the steam disappeared.

"It's called a shower," he said as he dropped his underwear and stepped into the tub. Julia blinked and swallowed; every erogenous point in her body went on sudden full alert.

"Just right." He said and offering her a hand in. She wriggled out of the remainder of her clothing and let him help her in.

The water was delightfully warm, but in the moment her body bumped up against his it could have been raining ice cubes and she would not have noticed.

Murdoch held her for a moment, aroused, aching, but enjoying just being close to her. Julia sighed and relaxed against him, and it was then he realized they were both beyond exhausted. Need, arousal and passion turned down to a simmer.

He took up the washcloth and soap and gently washed her, careful to keep her hair out of the running water. She let him care for her, eyes drooping, her entire body leaning into him. It was probably the first time since she was a child that she had felt this cared for or safe. Even when he moved over her breasts and between her legs, the desire hummed hot and strong, but her body stayed relaxed, safe, content.

"Lets get you dried and into bed, you are dead on your feet." He said as he quickly washed himself and jumped out of the tub.

She let him help her out of the shower, and stood docile and sleepy as he wrapped her into the bath sheet.

"Go get into bed while I turn the shower off." He ordered gently nudging her towards the door. Julia swallowed back a yawn and did as ordered.

Turning the machine off took even longer than turning it on. When he stepped into the bedroom Julia was already under the covers, the wet bath sheet hung over a bedpost. Murdoch resisted the urge to tidy it away. A very lady like snore broke the silence and he grinned.

Hanging his bath sheet over hers, he slipped into the bed behind a sleeping Julia, pulling her carefully against him and enfolding her in his arms. She muttered something that sounded like his name before snuggling deeper under the blankets.

Murdoch held her as he let himself drift into a light doze. He could not spend the whole night with her here in the bed, but he would let her have an hour of peace, and himself too.