Chapter 10

Bobby went into the office in the afternoon and found Logan slumped over the paperwork at his desk. "Hey," said Logan cheerfully. "We picked up Marsh, but he's not talking. Too scared."

Bobby coughed into his sleeve. "Let me deal with that. What about the Lexus?"

"Tracking it down now. Only 4 more pages of licenses that begin with APX to go."

"Sorry, I should've got the whole thing."

Mike just stared at him. Nobody but Goren would have noticed the first three characters of that license plate, much less the whole thing. The car wasn't in the least bit suspicious until after they pieced together what happened. "Well, next time," he said, not feeling the need to get under Goren's skin today. Logan went back to reading.

Bobby picked up the phone and made arrangements to interrogate John Marsh.

Marsh was sitting in the interrogation room, this time in an orange jumpsuit. He looked resigned about his fate. His lawyer sat next to him.

Goren entered, binder in hand. He sat down across from Marsh and looked squarely at both men. Then he cleared his throat. "Before we start," he said, "I just want to thank you… for saving my partner's life."

The lawyer looked up with interest. Marsh's expression didn't change, but he made eye contact with Goren again.

"She's… uhm… more than just my partner, and… well, thank you."

The lawyer perked up. "What are you saying?" he asked.

"Well," Goren began, "He's too scared to tell anyone, but just before we found her, I received an anonymous call telling me where to look." He smiled at Marsh. "It was him." He smiled at Marsh again. "Eames is grateful, too. She told me to give you her thanks, as well."

The lawyer looked at Marsh. "You did this? This could change everything for you."

"Well, no it won't," Bobby said simply. "Because… he's too scared to make it public. He wanted to play ball with the big boys, but all he managed was to be the bat boy."

"I never wanted to get involved at all," he hissed.

Bobby sat and waited for him to continue.

"It was Marty's problem. But then I had to get wrapped up in it." He looked at Detective Goren. "I don't want to get killed, too."

"I don't want you to get killed, either," Bobby said quietly, and he meant it. "What you need to remember is that they have people on the inside and the outside of prison." Bobby sat back and rubbed his neck. "The question is: where will you feel safer?"

The lawyer spoke up. "I can make a deal with the D.A.'s office, we can find a way for you to avoid jail time."

Bobby's eyes bore into Marsh's. "The D.A. will deal with you. You saved my partner's life. You did the right thing."

Marsh took a deep breath and shuddered. Tears slipped down his cheeks as he spoke. "It was Mangin. He's a friend of Bernasconi. And those other guys, the ones who… hurt your partner. They're friends of his, too. But Mangin's the killer. We dropped her at the house, and left her to wait for him. He was going to take her out, the same as Ehrlanger." He sobbed hard. "I never wanted to get mixed up in all this! I just didn't know what to do!"

Bobby scrawled names in his ledger, copied them on another paper, and handed the note to the uniformed officer at the door. The uniform took the note out to the detectives in the bullpen and then returned. "Go through it one step at a time," Bobby said, ready to write every word.

"Bingo," said Logan, reading the license plate on a blue lexus. He got on the radio and called for backup. Within minutes, a whole team of cops moved in on the house, weapons at the ready.

"Dennis Mangin!" Logan shouted. "Open up, police!"

The door didn't budge. Mike stood out of the way as some other men rammed it with a rod. Then he and some other officers stepped inside carefully. Mike went upstairs, as the other officers shouted "clear!" in the rooms they were in.

Mike saw a bedroom door was ajar. He sidestepped to it and tapped it open with the nose of his gun. As the door opened wider, Mike saw Mangin trying to climb into the top of the closet. "Mangin!" Mike called. "Police! Come down!"

The man continued climbing. Mike stuffed his gun in his holster, ran over, and jumped. He caught Mangin around the thighs and both men tumbled to the floor. The uniformed officers pulled Mangin off Logan, cuffed him, and patted him down. Mike got to his feet and brushed himself off.

"Dennis Mangin, you're under arrest for multiple counts of homicide. You have the right to remain silent…"

Bobby helped Alex out of the car. He kept his arm around her as they walked into their apartment building. Bobby unlocked the door and Alex entered. He followed her into the bedroom and helped her take off her shoes.

"Bobby," she said firmly, "Give me a minute."

He nodded. "I'll just… go get the rest of the stuff out of the car…" He turned and went out the door.

Alex pushed herself up to a standing position. She wriggled out of her clothes and opened her top dresser drawer, looking at her sleepwear. Then she shoved it shut and opened Bobby's 2nd drawer. She extracted his navy blue NYPD t-shirt and slipped it over her head. She was about to get into bed when Bobby returned.

He grinned. "I haven't seen you wear that in a long time," he said.

She shrugged. "It's comfortable." She climbed into bed and he tucked her in. After a few minutes of changing, he crawled into the bed next to her and spooned her, putting his arm over her waist.

Bobby kissed her bare neck.

She put her arm over his and stroked it gently. "Comfortable," she repeated.

Bobby's eyes caught the reflection in the mirror of the window. The snow fell steadily and covered the city like a soft white blanket. He thought of the word again, and all the negative connotations he'd conjured up before were replaced by the beauty of it. Sometimes silence was healing. Snow could insulate people from the harsher cold. It could illuminate what lurked in shadows. Snow could conceal all the imperfections, and create magnificence, if only for a night.

The End