Spinelli woke two days later feeling uneasy, but he couldn't understand why. It wasn't physical; his cold was fading. It was a gut feeling that something was going to happen. Then he remembered. The test results would be in today.

He wondered if he should call the hospital. Thinking that Nadine would call him when the results came in, he decided against it. Nurse Johnson was frequently annoyed by his presence, like a lot of people seemed to be, and he didn't want to seem like a pest. He never meant to be a pest, but somehow that was frequently what he managed to do. He decided instead to focus on compiling the list of everyone who was unaccounted for at Wyndemere the night of the black and white ball. Not only did Stone Cold need to find his sister's killer, but if by some chance someone else other than Prince Nikolas or the Demented Denison of Darkness had killed Noble Emily, Spinelli didn't want anyone else to be hurt.

As he looked over the completed list before giving it to Stone Cold, the entire nightmare from his perspective replayed in his mind. He hoped it had been Zacchara who had killed Emily because if it hadn't been, someone he knew might have. It was possible that Johnny had strangled her, but that didn't feel right to Spinelli. He considered carefully the possibility that his judgment might be impaired by his feelings of hatred and jealousy for the Unworthy One, who had originally suggested that Johnny was Emily's killer. His first impulse was to discount anything Logan said on principle. He knew that was not the Stone Cold way, but hadn't managed to master total objectivity yet.

Even forcing his hatred for Logan aside, Johnny still didn't feel like the killer. Why would he come to save Lulu only to kill someone he didn't even know? That left Nikolas, or Anthony, or someone else no one had even considered yet. Anthony was insane; he killed for the fun of it, and he was Stone Cold and Mr. Corinthos, Sir's enemy, so it would make sense for him to kill someone they loved just to try to intimidate them.

The killer had also gone after the Valkyrie, but Anthony was threatening Stone Cold and the Maternal One at the time she was strangled, and Johnny had saved her. Lulu had seen him try to save her and he had seen the strangler fleeing the scene. Spinelli shook his head decisively. Jealousy of the Crabby Commando aside, Johnny was not a logical suspect.

There were times when Logan had been unaccounted for, supposedly looking for Anthony, or Lulu, or doing something else. Spinelli forced himself not to dwell on Logan's absences, knowing he couldn't be impartial. Logan had beaten him up, forced a kiss on Lulu, grabbed her, Nadine and the Valkyrie and cheated on Lulu with Maxie. Spinelli had overheard someone at Kelly's talking once about how Logan had slammed Maxie against a wall the day after Lulu found out about their bet. Logan did have a history of violence, but Spinelli knew intellectually that that didn't necessarily make him a killer. But Carly wanted Logan to stay away from Lulu and Emily had yelled at him earlier that night for bullying Spinelli. But again, that wasn't proof that he had tried to hurt either of them. Spinelli hated to admit it, even only to himself, but his instincts also argued against Logan being the killer.

The Clean Cut Cadet had been absent for much of the ball, but Spinelli had no reason to think he was the killer. Where was his motive? If it had been Logan, he had motive, but there was no proof that he had opportunity.

Johnny had been known to pull out a gun without provocation, but he would have had no reason to kill Emily, and Spinelli thought if he had he would have used his gun; there would have been no need to strangle her. His only motive, aside from the fact that he wasn't completely sane, although he was much better than his father, would not really have been a motive at all. Spinelli and Jason had surprised him the day they found him in the barn with Lulu and he had pulled out his gun. If Emily had surprised him in the ball room, he might have threatened her with the gun, but Spinelli seriously doubted he would have strangled her.

He hoped it wasn't Nikolas. He couldn't imagine living with the guilt of killing someone he loved, even if he didn't remember and wasn't in his right mind when he did it. As well as the fact that Nikolas was Lulu's brother, Spinelli didn't want him to have to go to prison for something he didn't even remember doing.

Lucky had been absent for a while, but he would never kill Emily; they were best friends. Lucky wouldn't hurt Emily anymore than Spinelli would hurt lulu.

That thought gave him a pang of guilt. He had hurt her, but only to keep her from getting herself killed. She had forgiven him and admitted that she'd forced him to do that, but he prayed she would never put him in that position again.

Spinelli had been in the stable with Elizabeth and Nadine, then Stone Cold had brought Lulu. Logan had come briefly to take Lulu to see her sick father. Georgie and Maxie had been in the North Parlor after the Ball Room until Coop had brought them to the stables. Then Spinelli, Coop and Logan had gone to try to help fight. Somehow Spinelli had gotten separated from the others when they had run after distracting the evildoers. By the time he had found his way back to the main entrance, the helicopters had come.

With everything else going on, the cops asking questions, the medical personnel helping the sick and injured and finding Nadine to make sure she was safe, it had never occurred to him to ask Logan or Coop where they'd gone after they'd been separated. Apparently Logan had told Lulu's father and stepmother what had happened to Emily, but Spinelli had no idea where Coop had gone. But again, there was no reason to suspect Cooper of being the strangler.

Spinelli gave the list to Stone Cold when he came down for breakfast and discussed it with him. His mentor seemed surprised that Spinelli didn't suspect Logan, but said he was glad he realized his objectivity was compromised and took that into consideration. When the discussion was over, they still only had the two logical suspects, Nikolas and Anthony, and maybe Johnny. Jason wasn't ready to discount him yet, until they had real evidence that proved inconclusively that he was or was not, the killer.

Just after Stone Cold left to discuss the list with Mr. Corinthos, Sir, Spinelli's cell rang. It was Nadine. The results were in and she asked if she could come over.

He waited nervously, trying to focus on his video game. His mind wouldn't stay in one place. It seemed like forever before she knocked, but he knew it had only been a few minutes.

"Hi," she said, looking as nervous as he felt.

He smiled at her and motioned for her to come in.

Nadine didn't know why she felt so nervous. Spinelli was a good man and would make a great dad, if he was the dad. But if he wasn't, who was? Would she be able to find him? What would she do if she couldn't?

That was the reason for her nervousness, she decided. She wasn't sure she could abort Jolene's baby, but she didn't know if she could raise a baby on her own either, especially one that wasn't hers. But how could she put her sister's baby up for adoption; the baby was still family and didn't ask for Jolene to do any of what she did,. He or she especially didn't ask to be conceived accidentally.

If Spinelli was the father, he had already told her he wanted to raise the baby and was prepared to do whatever was necessary to prepare to be a father. What if she found the father, if it wasn't Spinelli, and he didn't want anything to do with his kid?

"Never mind that for now," she ordered herself in her professional voice. She was startled to find the professional voice in her head had taken on tones of Epiphany. "Just open the envelope and find out the results of this test; you and Spinelli will both feel better once you find out one way or the other. Quit speculating and just do it."

Spinelli watched her face carefully as she read the results and was surprised at the relief he saw there. What did that mean? Was he or was he not the father? Was she glad he wasn't? He discarded that thought almost immediately. She had kissed his forehead and told him that if he was the father, he would be a good one. She wouldn't have told him that if she didn't believe it. After all, this was her niece or nephew.

She smiled up at him and showed him the paper.

"There's no doubt about it, Spinelli. There is a 99.98 percent chance. You're the father of my sister's baby."