A/N: Thank you all for reading and reviewing and thanks to Tanith 2011 for her great Beta reading. The story is coming to a close, I will try and upload the epilogue over the next few days.

Chapter 10

As Mike had suspected nothing conclusive happened until the day of the funeral. A few more cousins and business associates who had been hanging around the Funeral Parlour and the Ianelli residence had been positively identified and ruled out, but the Fallen Angel himself seemed to have vanished into thin air again.

"And what if he is not there?" Steve asked, squirming under Mike's hands that were busily fixing his tie for him. "Hey, don't pull it so tight, you're strangling me!"

"I don't know how anyone can tie a decent knot with these wide ties!" Mike grumbled but obligingly loosened the knot. He felt a bit guilty that he had forgotten about the black and blue bruise that still spread round Steve's neck. "Of course he'll be at the funeral. It's his mother, after all!" Mike tried to reassure Steve, though he was as nervous as the younger man, who was pacing the hotel room. "Will you stop that and just settle down! We'll be leaving in half an hour. Enough time for a cup of coffee." Mike knew that Steve would fall for the ploy and show off his newly rediscovered skill of lifting a cup to his lips. Although the right shoulder was much more mobile now, the left shoulder would remain out of action for another couple of weeks. Again, Mike felt an overpowering desire to get hold of Ianelli who had caused all the pain and mental anguish to the man he loved like a son.

Mike and Steve were not the only members of SFPD who attended the funeral of Rosa Ianelli. Another six plain clothes detectives were observing all exits, while Mike and Steve were on the gallery upstairs. Steve shook his head. "I'm really sorry, but I can't spot him, Mike."

"Don't worry, Buddy Boy. We'll get him at the reception later on. I never really expected to make an arrest in the church."

Steve looked at him with some doubt. He felt uncomfortable, very uncomfortable, with the whole situation. He knew that his present fitness levels left much to be desired, one arm in a sling, the other shoulder still quite stiff and painful. He wasn't even able to carry a gun! Then he was extremely apprehensive about recognising Ianelli at all. Unfortunately a lot of Mike's plan depended on just that. What worried him the most though, was Mike himself. Mike was determined to get Ianelli, no matter how. Steve understood that this was his partner's way of dealing with what had happened to him, but he didn't like it one bit. Mike was like a pressure cooker ready to blow a gasket and Steve didn't know if he would be able to deal with it. He shifted uncomfortably in the pew. Mike's behaviour was so out of character. For the first time ever, he didn't seem to realise they were in a church and Mass was in progress. Steve knew well that his friend was a practising Catholic. He pulled at Mike's sleeve with his good hand. "Mike, maybe we should go and secure a spot with a good view at the grave," He suggested.

Mike agreed and they went ahead, so that they could see the funeral procession moving along. "As a good Italian son, he should be one of the pall bearers. I wonder if he has got the neck to do it…" Mike thought out loud.

"But Mike, we couldn't really do anything at the grave side either…" Steve put it to Mike.

"Can we not?" the Lieutenant replied, dangerously calm. "Did he give any consideration to decency when he chained you to the tree?"

Steve sighed. As he had feared all along, this was going to be personal…

He kept quiet and considered keeping mum for the time being if he recognised Ianelli, but it was a moot point, nothing about the gait or posture of any of the pall bearers or mourners struck a chord with him. He shook his head and looked at Mike. "Sorry… they are all walking so unnaturally stiff, like soldiers at a parade."

Mike patted his arm. "Don't worry, they will all loosen up and move normally at the reception in the church hall."

Oh yes, the church hall, where Mike's "cunning plan" was supposed to spring into action…

The caterers had just left; the big church hall was decked out for the social occasion. There was a buffet with finger food, bowls of nibbles and drinks liberally distributed on every small table and on all the window sills. Alf, the elderly caretaker who had known Mike Stone for a long time, had readily agreed to do him a little favour, even though it meant sweeping up a lot of sunflower seed shells after the reception. "Ah well, if he thinks an Italian get-together after a funeral needs sunflower seeds… Who am I to deny the people their little taste of home!" he thought and smiled fondly, when he remembered how his mother had insisted on a German speciality, plaited sweet bread, for his grandfather's funeral when he was a child. "I would have never thought Mike cared so much about the Ianelli family…" He put the last bowl down and left the room, very pleased with a job well done.

Fifteen minutes later the room had filled up, and within half an hour spirits were high, there was laughter and chatter going on, everybody tucked into the food provided and the bar was well frequented.

Mike and Steve stood in a corner where they had a reasonably good view over the whole hall. Mike noticed how pale and tense his young partner looked and felt awful that he had to put him through this. He noticed that Steve's eyes were glued to a man in his forties, talking animatedly to one of the cousins. He had a bowl of sunflower seeds in one hand while he deftly opened them in rapid succession with the other..

Mike didn't need to hear Steve's breathless: "That's him, Mike! I'm absolutely sure!" He had recognised the Fallen Angel at the very same moment. How could he not have remembered? It all came back in a flash:

The cold face of the man who tightened the chain around Steve's neck while Mike listened helplessly to Steve's ragged breathing. The blinding crash when he steered the car off the road to distract Ianelli and give Steve a chance to break free. The split second when he was out cold, which gave Ianelli enough time to drag Steve out of the car. Then Mike's horror and bottomless rage when he saw Steve lying on the ground, his arm unnaturally twisted and Ianelli's foot resting on Steve's shoulder. The cold, mocking voice asking for Mike's gun and the handcuffs and Steve's scream, when Ianelli stepped on his shoulder. Then the impact of the gun barrel on Mike's head… and the screams he had heard over the last couple of nights, when Steve had woken up from the nightmares that were plaguing him.

Ianelli must have felt two pairs of eyes boring into him; he hurled the bowl in their direction and made for the door, Mike in hot pursuit.

All conversation in the room stopped at once, then screaming and shouting began, tables were overturned to block the way the suspect had taken and a loud wail came from Maria Ianelli. "Nooooo!"

Steve felt paralysed for a moment, then he gathered himself and ran after them as fast as he could. He felt seriously unbalanced with one arm in the sling as he had to dodge knocked over furniture. Still, it didn't take him long to catch up with the fugitive and his pursuer. Breathing hard, he inched closer. Mike had Ianelli at gunpoint and Steve was alarmed when he saw the expression on Mike's face. He barely recognised the normally friendly features and the blue eyes were like slivers of ice.

"Just give me an excuse, you scum of the earth! Leaving an injured man cuffed to a tree. How would you like to experience some of that pain yourself?" the voice sounded cold and menacing.

Ianelli barely dared to breathe, his hands were shaking.

"Mike, it's alright, I can take over now." Steve had almost reached his partner, who didn't acknowledge his presence at all.

"I'm not finished with this excuse for a human being yet. I'll pay him back for all he did to you. Eye for an eye…" Mike growled.

"Mike, didn't you tell me some time ago that all this eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth business stopped with the New Testament?" Steve alluded to a sermon he and Mike had heard together, when due to a lost bet Steve had accompanied Mike to Mass and they had discussed the homily later on. Steve, who had always had issues with some of the rather bloodthirsty and harsh readings of the Old Testament, had liked Mike's explanation that with advent of Jesus the need for revenge was overwritten.

Mike looked at him briefly without taking the gun off Ianelli, but something in his expression changed.

"I mean, there is no need, really, he'll get his just desserts here on earth soon enough!" Steve held out his hand for the .38. "My arm is good to hold the gun while you cuff him. I can't do that with one arm in a sling," He suggested calmly.

It seemed as if Mike woke up from a trance. Keeping the gun pointed at Ianelli he carefully put it in Steve's outstretched hand, guiding it in the right direction. He quickly grabbed Ianelli's arms, twisted them behind his back and slapped the cuffs on Ianelli's wrists, making sure they were tight and secure. He only gave them one furious jerk. Then he turned to Steve and said with a wink, "I think you can put the .38 away for now. We won't need it!"