Johnny Eames POV

I sat quietly at the table while Lupo made the call to Ross.

"Can you get us jurisdiction?" he asked. "Yeah, he knows that. Uh huh. I will. Okay, thanks, Chief."

He hung up and looked at me sternly.

"You should've called it in immediately," he stated.

"I know."

"And you should've stayed at the scene."

"I know," I said again.

I tried to keep from sounding irritated.

Because I deserved every bit of tongue-lashing that he felt like giving.

I was putting him and Ross in an awkward position.

But I'd had to ask.

Because I was kicking myself in the ass for doing something so stupid as to admit to the Sundberg woman that I'd followed her.

Why had I told her that?

Because she'd portrayed her husband as an inattentive ass who was going to try to screw her out of alimony?

Or was it just because she was pretty?

"Chief says we can go out to the scene with you and check it out. But you are not allowed to touch anything," he told me. "Me and Bernard will do the investigating."

"Of course," I agreed quickly.

I was just glad that Ross wasn't going to toss this to the 2-7. The idea of Sean catching this case…not only would it be humiliating for me, but he'd also undoubtedly catch a lot of flack from his new partner.

"Okay, well let's get this show on the road," Bernard said. "Lupo has to be done by five to meet his future brother-in-law."

"Well, you know, if it doesn't work out," Lupo said.

"Connie's brother is coming to town?" I asked, grateful for the temporary shift of focus.

"Yeah, he wants to evaluate the guy who's boffing his sister," Bernard said conspiratorially.

"Hey," Lupo protested, but Bernard started laughing and I shook my head at the two of them.

"We won't keep you from that. If we're not at a good stopping point by five, then me and Bernard will take over," I said. Then I looked at Bernard and flashed him a smile, "Right, Son?"

"Sure thing, Pops."

Thirty minutes later, the three of us went up the front steps of Sundberg's townhouse.

"The door wasn't locked when you got here?" Lupo asked me.

"It wasn't even closed all the way," I said. "That's why I went on in."

"So he was expecting you? When was the last time you spoke to him?"

"I called him at seven-thirty this morning. I told him that I'd be over in a couple of hours."

"Did you tell him what you had?"

"Not specifically, but I said that I had some photos for him."

"How did he sound?"

I thought about that for a minute.

"Short," I replied. "Distracted."

"Was he always like that or just this morning?"

"I'm not really sure. I only spoke with him the one other time. The day that he hired us."

"And you closed the door when you left?" Bernard asked me.

"Yeah."

They nodded at each other and then opened the door.

"NYPD! Mrs. Sundberg?" Lupo called out.

"I'm telling you," I whispered. "She's not going to be here."

"Stay here," Bernard said forcefully.

"But…"

"Okay, you can follow us, but don't touch anything," Lupo added.

I trailed behind them as they headed for the kitchen, which was where I'd found the body.

"It's pretty warm in here," Lupo remarked. "Was it this warm earlier?"

"Yeah. I think so. Maybe."

I couldn't be sure. And it was driving me crazy.

How long had I been a cop? So why was I having trouble with the details?

"Well, he's definitely dead," Bernard commented.

I hadn't been retired too long to pick up on that. Not when there was blood and gray matter splattered onto the floor.

They both gloved up and then bent down near the body.

"He's in full rigor," Lupo said after experimentally touching the man's arm. "What time did you find him?"

"It was two minutes after ten," I answered. "And then I came straight to 1PP."

"It's almost noon now," Bernard said, looking at his watch. "If we say that he's just going into rigor, then that puts time of death around nine."

"And what time did Allison leave your office?"

"Uh…a few minutes before seven."

"And you talked to him at seven-thirty?"

"Right."

Lupo looked across the body at Bernard.

"So she would've had plenty of time to come here and kill him and then get out of here before you showed up."

"I guess so. Although I didn't tell her when I was coming. In fact, I made it sound like I was heading over there right after she left."

"You told her you were getting ready to leave?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "She kept hanging around, like she wanted to get more information from me, and I just wanted to get rid of her, so I told her that I had an appointment with her husband."

"So either this woman has some serious balls and she came home to confront him, even knowing that you were on your way…" Bernard began.

"Or it was someone else entirely," I filled in. "Right?"

But Lupo shook his head.

"We need to get Rodgers out here and pin down this TOD."

"What are you thinking?" I asked him.

"I'm thinking that maybe it's warm in here for a reason."

Alex POV

A thorough search of Dominick's apartment proved interesting.

First of all, there was a duffle bag next to the door. His pry axe was in the duffle along with various other work-related items.

It was clean, but not too clean.

Besides, what kind of killer would use it and then wash it and put it back?

His apartment showed no signs of a struggle. He wasn't the best housekeeper in the world, but it wasn't overly messy.

Of course, there were drugs. I'd opened the kitchen cabinet and found that the top plate on the stack of dinner plates contained a mound of coke.

I guess since he lived alone, he didn't work too hard to hide it.

Next to the pile was a razor blade and the plastic casing of an ink pen.

"Looks like he'd hooked up with Johnson recently," I remarked as I held out the plate to show Bobby.

"What would you put that at?" he asked. "An eight ball?"

I gauged the amount of cocaine on the plate and then nodded my agreement.

"That looks about right. Maybe a little more. So if he got his coke, why would he kill his dealer?"

"Very good question," Bobby answered, offering me a wry smile. "Maybe he didn't have the money to pay for it."

He started opening and closing the kitchen drawers while I made a pass through the living room.

"I'd say that he was flush for cash," I commented after opening a box that was on a bookshelf. I pulled out a thick roll of bills.

"So maybe he killed Johnson and took his drugs and money."

"But why? He had a good job," I said, and then I glanced around the room at the modern furniture and obviously new electronics. "Unless he was doing business on the side. Do you think maybe he was starting up a clientele of his own?"

"I don't know. But if he and the dealer had a beef, how did they both end up dead? And why is the dealer missing?"

"And where's the dog?" I asked suddenly. "Kevin said that Dominick gave him a key so he could come and get his dog."

"I think that was code for stash."

"Oh."

Yeah, I probably should've considered that, but I guess deep down I still didn't want to admit that Kevin was into this lifestyle.

What was wrong with my family lately?

Cathy, and now Kevin…

"So let's walk through it," Bobby suggested as he joined me in the living room. "Dominick was due at work at ten o'clock."

"But whenever he left here, he didn't take his bag. He wasn't planning on going to work at that point."

"So you think he left sooner and just never made it back?"

"Maybe."

"What do you think about that stalker story?"

"I think cocaine can make you paranoid," I responded. "If he looked out the window and saw the same red car parked outside, maybe he'd convinced himself that he was being watched. It's not a stretch."

"You know what's really got me stumped is that the dealer's body was moved. Do you think it's possible that Kevin was wrong?"

"You mean you think the guy wasn't dead?"

"Wouldn't that make more sense? I mean, why take that body somewhere else and leave a different body. If it's a good place to leave the victim, what does it hurt to have a second victim already there? Even if Dominick's killer is not the same guy as Johnson's killer…it just…it really doesn't make any sense at all, does it? Why kill Dominick somewhere and then take him to that alley?"

"Because it holds some significance to the killer?" I suggested. "Or to the victim."

"Kevin said that's where some of the deals were done. So that's where Dominick routinely met up with Johnson."

"So they met, and Dominick bought Kevin's drugs and then either killed Johnson or left and someone else killed him. Then Kevin saw Johnson's body, and he left. At what point did Dominick get killed?"

"You know, if it was anyone else, I'd say that Kevin went looking for Dominick and maybe they got into an argument."

"And what? Kevin pulled out his axe and hit him with it repeatedly? Come on, Bobby."

"I know. That's why I'm saying if it were anyone else. But it's not. It's Kevin. And we both know that he didn't kill anyone. Aside from that, there was no blood. Not on him or in his car."

"Okay," I said with a nod. "But let's say that your theory is right."

"Alex, it's not…"

"No work with me here. Because surely Kevin wasn't the only one buying drugs through Dominick. So let's say Dominick bought for someone else, too. And that guy went looking for him, found him, and killed him. Taking him back to the alley might make sense, in a twisted sort of way, and it's a pretty decent spot to leave a body because of the area being so trashy, but even if you assume all of that…why was the other body moved? Wouldn't it make more sense if we'd found a dealer and an addict, both dead in the alley?"

"It would've made a whole lot more sense," he agreed. "And the other question is this. If the dealer really is dead, then where is he? Why hasn't he turned up yet?"

"So maybe Kevin was wrong," I conceded. "If he was strung out and then panicked because he thought the guy was dead…I don't know."

"We need to go back to the alley and look around. Maybe we'll find some people willing to talk to us. What are the odds that Kevin was the only one who saw Johnson in the alley?"

While we'd been talking, I continued to search along the bookshelf and the various hiding places in the living room.

I ended up finding a total of thirty-five hundred dollars in cash, what appeared to be roughly ten more grams of coke divided equally into three bags, and then the most interesting thing of all.

"Bobby," I began slowly as I picked up the piece of equipment.

"What is it?"

I turned around so that he could see what I had in my hand.

It was a digital camera, and it had been sitting on the window ledge.

Bobby joined me in the middle of the room as I powered it on and then switched the mode so that I could scroll through the pictures.

There were seventeen photos currently on the memory stick.

Six were of guys at the firehouse. I recognized a couple of them, including Kevin.

Seven were downright pornographic, shots of him with various women in a vast array of sexual positions.

"I wonder if these women knew he was taking their pictures," I muttered as I moved through them.

And then I had to pause for a moment at one in particular which was a shot of Dominick with not one, not two, but three naked women.

"What guy would need three women at a time?" I asked rhetorically. "Most men can't keep it up long enough to please one woman, much less three."

Bobby chuckled as he continued to look over my shoulder.

"You are asking the wrong man, honey."

"Good answer. So are these all just his sexual exploits, or…oh, hey, look at this."

The last few shots appeared to have been taken through Dominick's window, looking down at the street.

The object of the photos was a red car, parked out front.

And in the very last picture, a man was visible.

It was grainy and impossible to make out his face, but he was leaning against the outside of the car and his head seemed to be turned in the direction of the window.

Like a man had been outside watching.

TBC...