Alex POV


I left Mike in his room, locking the door up behind me on my way out. I stood on the sidewalk outside of his door and took a moment just to breathe.

I wanted to call Bobby. I just wanted to hear his voice. I was feeling unsteady and I really, really needed to hear his voice.

The standing joke around the department was that Bobby didn't do so well when I wasn't around. He needed me to function properly.

What everyone failed to realize was that I needed him just as much. I didn't do so well when he wasn't around. And the stress of the day was just making it worse. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours and already I felt like I was only part of a person...like a vital part of me was missing. And I guess it was.

I pulled out my phone, but of course, I still had no service. I sighed and closed my eyes so that I could picture his face. That worked to settle me somewhat.

Which was good because I had work to do.

So I ignored Mike's instructions. And despite the fact that my wet coat had caused me to start shivering uncontrollably, I headed for the motel office. The night shift was on.

"I need to know which guest registered with a green Ford Focus," I told him.

"We don't…"

"Yes you do. You wrote down my vehicle information, so I'm sure you have the others. Which guest," I repeated, flashing the clerk my badge.

I had learned that most people were quick to cooperate when they saw the badge. They never stopped to think about jurisdiction. He looked through his records.

"Robert Goren," he told me after a minute. Of course. Why not?

"He paid cash?" I asked, pulling the registration slip out of his hand.

"Yes ma'am."

"When did he check in?"

"It was real late on Friday night."

"Just one guy?" I asked, handing him back the paper.

"At the time. But since then, I've seen that he has his daughter with him. And another guy, I think."

"So it's two men and a girl. That didn't seem odd to you?"

He shrugged at me as I pulled out the picture of Mollie.

"Is this the girl?" I asked, showing him the photo.

"That's her."

"Do you not watch the news?" I asked him angrily. "There's an Amber Alert out for this girl."

"I don't have a TV," he replied with a shrug. He probably didn't know what an Amber Alert was.

"What room?" I asked.

"I can't…"

"What room," I interrupted, this time pulling my coat back far enough for him to see my weapon. It was a cheap scare tactic, but he was just the kind of guy it would work on.

"14," he said quickly. "But they're not there."

"Where'd they go?"

"Checked out about fifteen minutes ago," he said. Damn, we must have just missed them. O'Neil must have circled back and they'd high-tailed it out of there.

"Do you know where they were going?" I asked him. He knew. He didn't say it, but one look at his face told me that he knew.

"He gave me fifty bucks not to say," he admitted.

"How 'bout this. I won't throw you in jail if you do say," I countered.

"They asked about the next closest motel."

"You can see it from here. Why would they ask that?"

"No, down the highway. He asked how far down 71 before another batch of motels."

"And?"

"Windom. About twenty minutes." They'd almost be there by now. "But he asked about a gas station, too. There's one a mile up the road."

I ran out of the office and went to bang on Mike's door.

"They're heading south. Come on!" I shouted through the door.

I didn't wait for him, but instead ran to the car and started it up.

He pulled the door open, dressed in dry jeans and a sweatshirt but of course no coat since his was still drenched. He hesitated at the doorway and caught my eye through the windshield. He ran back inside of the room for a second, and then came bolting for the car with a sweatshirt in his hand.

"You didn't change," he commented as he climbed in and buckled up. "I knew you wouldn't."

"I'm fine," I insisted as I whipped the car out onto the highway. "The clerk says they asked about motels down South 71."

"Let's go then. Here, put this on," he said, handing me the sweatshirt and taking hold of the wheel.

"Mike," I argued.

"Put the damn thing on. You catch pneumonia and Goren'll kick my ass."

"I'm a Goren. I'll kick your ass," I grumbled, but I did as he said.

With my foot mashed on the gas pedal, I unbuckled and slipped out of my still-wet coat. My sweater underneath was just barely damp, so I left it on pulled the warm, dry sweatshirt over top of it before re-buckling.

"Thanks," I told him.

"No problem. So the clerk saw the girl?"

"Yeah. See if you can get a hold of the State Patrol. We'll probably beat them there, but we should let them know what's going on. 2007 Ford Focus, dark green, Minnesota plate 062BWW."

"The clerk gave you the plate number?"

"Sort of." I had memorized it off the registration slip.

I flew down the highway while Mike tried to get a call through, but he wasn't having much luck. I kept my eyes peeled for the Focus, but at the moment, we were the only ones on the road.

Halfway to Windom, it started snowing.

"That's what we need," Mike commented. Then he started coughing and it was almost a mile before he got himself under control.

"You okay?"

"I think I've got half of that lake in my lungs," he replied dryly.

"After we get these guys, you're going to see a doctor."

"I don't need a doctor."

"Mike."

"Alex."

I sighed heavily and quit. I wasn't really one to make that argument considering how much I hated going to the doctor myself.

"When we get back, Rodgers gets to check you out," I said finally.

"She's gonna love that."

"Yeah, well – hey, look!" I pointed to the east side of the highway. It was a Super 8.

"You think they'd stop at the first one?" he asked as I pulled into the parking lot.

"They would if they trusted that they'd bought off the clerk."

I drove through the parking lot slowly as we looked at all of the vehicles. It was getting dark, and the snow made for poor visibility.

But there it was. Parked in between an eighteen-wheeler and a pick-up. The green Focus.

"Mike," I said, gesturing toward the car as I drove past it.

"Uh huh. I wonder if this clerk will be as helpful as the last one."

We got out and quickly went into the office. I slapped my badge on the counter to get the clerk's attention.

"You just had a man check in," I stated. "What room?"

"Uh…ma'am, with the snow coming down, people are stopping. I've checked in three men in the past fifteen minutes."

I looked at Logan and he rolled his eyes.

"Robert Goren," I told the clerk.

"Oh, yeah. Uh huh. Okay," he mumbled, looking through the paperwork.

"Room 127. It's on the far side."

"Call the cops," I told him as we left the lobby.

"Hey, I thought you were the cops!" he called out, but we ignored him.

We started back across the lot, but Mike had to stop along the way due to another coughing fit. He stepped behind a car to stay out of sight. I kept heading for the room.

I approached the door to Room 127 and listened. I stepped back when I heard footsteps approaching from behind me.

"I know you weren't going to go in there without me," Mike said quietly.

"I'm just listening," I said, avoiding the question. Because I had planned on going in.

"Listening with your gun in your hand?" he countered as he moved around to the other side of the doorway. He pulled out his gun, too.

"I hope it still works," he said with a quick grin. He was making a joke, but I had no doubt that he'd already taken it apart, dried it out, and put fresh ammo in it after his plunge into the lake.

"Ready?"

At his nod, I took a step back and then kicked the door as hard as I could. The frame cracked under the pressure and the door swung open.

There was a mad scramble on the inside. O'Neil had been sitting on the bed, but he rolled across it to the other side and onto the floor.

Woody was standing next to the bathroom door. I prayed that Mollie was locked inside the bathroom because I didn't see her in the room.

"Don't move!" I shouted as Woody started to reach for his bag.

"Get out of there, O'Neil," Logan called out. But O'Neil popped up from the far side of the bed and pointed a gun at me.

"Drop your weapons," he ordered. Yeah, like that was going to happen. We had him two-to-one because Woody was just standing still with his hands up in the air.

"Go ahead and shoot me. And then my partner kills you," I told him. "Either way, you're not getting out of here."

O'Neil kept his gun pointed at me while he considered his possibilities. Mike worked his way around the room, keeping his weapon trained on O'Neil, but watching Woody as well. I stood directly across from O'Neil and aimed for his head.

"Where's the girl?" I asked him.

"There's no girl," he said.

"Yeah, you guys just took a little vacation to Minnesota," Mike replied as he kept easing closer to O'Neil.

"Stay right there," O'Neil said, shifting his gun to Mike.

"Mollie!" I shouted out. "Mollie, it's Alex! Are you in there? Don't come out, just call to me."

"Alex? Bobby's Alex?"

I breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of her voice. She was safe in the bathroom. We had come in at the perfect time.

"Yeah, Bobby's Alex. Just stay there, sweetie."

"What's it going to be, Marty?" Mike asked O'Neil. "You gonna go down for someone else? This isn't your thing. Someone put you up to it."

"The Minnesota police is coming," I added. "If you're going to talk, you should do it now. Because once they arrest you for kidnapping, then you're all theirs. If you convince us you might know something, maybe we can get you extradited to New York."

"It's bigger than you think," he said, starting to waver. "You don't know what you've gotten into."

"I think we do. And we can take him down if you tell us what you know."

Say a name, I silently chanted. Give us a name.

"Shut up, Marty," Woody said.

"No! I came this far with you, but this is fucked up, man."

And then everything happened at once. Just as O'Neil lowered his pistol, Woody lunged for his bag and pulled out a gun. Mike and I both whirled onto Woody, and each of us fired a shot as he pulled the trigger and fired at O'Neil.

Woody went down. O'Neil went down. Woody fired again as Mike jumped on him to subdue him, and for a second I thought he'd gotten him, but it had only grazed him. But it was close. Really close. He had a red mark across his cheek where the bullet had whizzed past.

O'Neil was dead. He'd taken a shot to the head. Woody was bleeding out quickly, having taken two bullets to the chest. Mike got the gun out of Woody's hand and gave it to me before he started attempting first aid.

I could hear sirens approaching, but from the amount of blood that pumped from the gunshot wounds, I didn't expect Woody to make it.

"Who sent you out here, Woody?" Mike asked in a last ditch effort. He wasn't going to get anywhere with him.

I jammed both guns in my waistband and headed for the bathroom.

"Mollie, open the door honey. But keep your eyes closed, okay?"

She opened the door and I grabbed her up in a hug.

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

"No. Where's my mom?"

"We're going to take you to her, I promise. Let's get out of this room, though, okay? Keep your eyes closed and hold my hand."

I led her out of the room and made it out of the door just as the police arrived.

And that was when the real fun started.

We had to explain why a New York detective and a civilian had just shot a man inside of a Minnesota motel room.

It helped that Mike had his private investigator's license.

It helped that Mollie stated that we had saved her. And clearly we had.

It helped even more that Mollie's dad Bill was with the Minnesota State Patrol. As soon as word came through that we'd found her, he drove like a bat out of hell down from German Lake. He was pretty damn grateful that we'd found his little girl, and he was more than willing to go to bat for us.

Still, the cops kept Mike and I separated while they took our statements. And of course, they had to call Ross. I had a feeling he would actually be relieved once Bobby and I left the department. And maybe a little bored.

But finally, after several long hours, we were free to go.

"That dead stripper," Mike said to me as we climbed wearily into the car. "Woody found her."

"He what?"

"He told me that he found the girl's body. Two weeks ago. His report was intercepted and he was ordered to let it go."

"By?"

"Moran."

TBC...