Alex POV


Walter Raleigh's home was a museum.

As a child, I'd always wanted to live in a home like this, but lately I'd come to realize more than ever that a home was what you made it.

Money or not, it was about family and love.

The place I lived in now was home, but just barely.

I'd moved to Forest Hills a year or so ago and although it was nice to be in a place with no memories of Joe, it also had no other memories.

Of much of anything.

Bobby didn't come by very often, although I think that was mostly because his place was closer.

And I was the one chasing him, my mind supplied.

Was that true? Was it always me running after him as opposed to the other way around?

That was something I needed to delve into a little more when I had some time.

Right now, I was supposed to be looking through this old guy's stuff.

"Detective Eames."

It was one of the CSU techs. She was calling from Raleigh's bedroom. I went down the hall and into the room.

"What did you find?" I asked her as I entered the large room.

There was a king-sized bed in the center of the room. On the far side was a stone fireplace, and in front of it there was a sitting area with a couch and two smaller chairs.

The opposite side of the room held two large walk-in closets and then there was a short hall that led to a master bath.

The tech was in the bathroom.

"Medicine cabinet," she told me as she held the mirrored door open for me to look inside. The shelves were lined with pill bottles. "The old man had Viagra and vitamins. That's it. The rest are prescribed to Rhonda Hagen."

"What are they?"

"Xanax. Prozac. Valium. Ambien…"

"Have a few issues, huh Rhonda?" I mumbled to myself as I looked over the medications.

"And birth control," the tech added.

"Great. Antibiotics?"

"Yeah. Azithromycin."

"Drug of choice for Chlamydia. So she knew about it even if Walter didn't."

"An STD?" the tech asked me in horror. "How old was this guy?"

"Yeah. I know," I agreed. "Bag 'em up."

As I went back into the bedroom, my phone rang. Bobby. I held back a smile.

"Eames."

"It's me. Don't be in any hurry."

"I knew you could get her to come here with you," I told him as I walked over to the fireplace. "Ross said no to Logan. I'm not going to tell you what I think. We'll compare notes later."

I hung up and squatted down next to the hearth. They clearly used the fireplace regularly, although considering it was a large drafty house, and it was January that wasn't really any surprise.

I snapped on some gloves and poked around through the ash for a minute before directing another tech to take a sample.

There was no blood found in the house. There was no sign of any struggle. Of course, if Rhonda had done something to him then she would've had plenty of time to get everything cleaned up.

But there wasn't really any sign of a recent clean-up. No vacuum marks. No scent of bleach or Lysol in the air.

In fact, it kind of just smelled like old guy. And perfume.

What was Rhonda's deal with this guy? It had to just be about money. But I'd confirmed that she wasn't in his will, so he would've been more valuable to her alive than dead.

I heard a ruckus from the foyer, so I went down the hall. Rhonda stood there giving me a death glare.

"Detective Eames, you could have called me," she said sharply.

"Why would I do that? You'd already received the notification."

"I live here. You're in my home."

"I'm in the home of our victim, Walter Raleigh. If you have a problem with that…"

"You're damn right I have a problem with that!"

"Hey, Rhonda, settle down," Logan told her. "Do I need to make you wait outside?"

As Logan grabbed Rhonda by the arm, I finally looked at Bobby.

Something was definitely wrong with him.

Something aside from the bruise that was forming along his jaw.

His skin was slightly pale and he was standing awkwardly.

"What happened?" I asked him. I briefly wondered if he and Logan working together was a good idea. Trouble seemed inevitable.

"I kicked him," Rhonda said haughtily. "I'd do it again, too."

I dropped my eyes to Bobby's shins thinking she had given him a sissy kick.

"Uh uh. A little higher," Logan told me, when he noticed the height of my gaze.

I couldn't stop myself. My eyes drifted upwards on their own accord.

There's a reason why I don't make a habit out of looking at my partner's package.

Okay, there are lots of reasons.

But one reason is that once I look, I can't look away. And he was wearing jeans, nicely-fitting jeans, so I found myself analyzing every detail of the lay of the land.

"I'm fine," Bobby insisted and it took every ounce of willpower I had to move my eyes from his crotch up to his face.

He was blushing a deep shade of red, and I was sure that he was going to kill Logan later for telling me exactly what had happened.

And that was fine.

We could be in jail together because I was going to kill Rhonda for potentially damaging the man before I'd had the opportunity to properly examine the merchandise.

Ha. Yeah, because that was going to happen.

See? Reason number twenty-one for not looking at Bobby's…manly area – it makes me think unprofessional thoughts in a completely inappropriate venue.

I really needed to get this thing back on track here.

"Did you arrest her?" I asked Logan in my most professional voice.

"I'm fine," Bobby said again. "I'm not pressing charges. We came here instead."

I was sure that getting kicked in the balls had not been his initial plan for getting himself invited into the house, but he had improvised.

So for now, we needed to take advantage of the situation and make good use of the time. Because there was no one I trusted more to find some remote off-the-wall clue than Bobby. There was no one I trusted more about anything – period.

And anyway, now I would have an excuse to go by his place later. I could check on him. I could offer him some ice for his…jaw.

"The bedroom is this way," I told him as I headed down the hall.

"What did you find?"

"I want you to look at it first."

When I got to the doorway of the bedroom, I stepped aside and waited for Bobby. He was still moving slowly down the hall. In fact, he looked like he'd been riding a horse. For a day or two, maybe. I was really going to have to kill Rhonda.

"Bobby," I said quietly as he passed me, my tone asking him what my voice couldn't.

Are you okay?

"I'll live," he told me with a small smile.

I left him in the bedroom and went back to the foyer where Logan stood with Rhonda.

"We're going to have a little chat," I said. I looked at Rhonda while I said it, but the words were directed toward Logan.

"I'll leave you two alone for a minute," he replied.

He hesitated as though he didn't know if he should leave us unattended. I'm sure he knew I was pissed.

Whether or not I was having improper sexual thoughts about my partner was irrelevant.

And yes, okay, I was having improper sexual thoughts.

But the fact of the matter was that she had assaulted my partner. I wasn't going to just let that go.

I stepped up close to her and gave her a hard stare.

"You got something to say to me?" she asked me in a snotty tone after Logan left the foyer.

I made her nervous when I still didn't reply and she finally broke eye contact. Then she started shifting from one foot to the other.

"What?" she asked, sounding a little desperate now.

"My partner might not want to press charges, but if you pull a stunt like that again, I'll throw your ass in jail so fast you won't know which end is up."

"Jail? Is that your threat?" she asked me. And she had the nerve to take a step closer to me. And yeah, she had me by about eight inches, but I wasn't concerned about that at all.

"Jail will be a best-case scenario for you. My partner won't hit a woman, but I have no problem with it."

Rhonda held firm for a minute, but then she took a small step back. And then she crumpled.

"I'm sorry I kicked him! I just couldn't stand the idea of cops in here, rummaging through our things. Waltie would've hated it. He was such a private man," she wailed.

I stood there, stunned momentarily, as tears streamed down her face. Was she for real?

"Rhonda," I said tightly. "What was going on between you two? I've checked on his will. You're not in it."

He had three kids, all older than Rhonda. He had left everything to them.

"I know," she cried. "But he was going to change it. He said he loved me."

"He was going to write you in?" I asked for clarification. "Instead of his kids, or in addition to them?"

"He was going to leave it all to me."

"What time did you leave on Tuesday?"

"It was about nine-thirty."

"Did you see him before you left?"

"He was still in bed. He had taken one of my sleeping pills the night before."

"So he was sleeping?"

"No, he was awake, but he said he was still tired."

"Okay. So he was in bed. Did he tell you what his plans were for the day?"

"No. I told him that I was going shopping, and then I gave him a kiss goodbye. He said he would see me that night."

"But you didn't tell him when you'd be back."

"No."

"So why would he assume that he wouldn't see you until the night if you were leaving at nine-thirty in the morning?"

She paused for a minute and looked at me. She was a mess, with mascara running down her cheeks and her nose running. If she was faking her distress, she was pretty damn good.

"I don't know. I guess he did have plans. But I didn't ask and he didn't say."

"Okay," I told her. I patted her on the arm and took a step away from her. "Go in the bathroom and clean yourself up. We'll just be a few more minutes."

I met Logan in the kitchen and he greeted me with a grin.

"I thought there was going to be a brawl in there."

"What would you have done if it'd been your partner?" I snapped back.

And yeah, I was a little defensive because I couldn't afford for my reaction to be seen as anything other than professional.

"Hey, you don't have to explain yourself to me. I thought you handled it just fine. What did you think of her story?"

"Were you listening?"

"Yeah."

"She seems legit to me, but I still don't get the attraction. It had to just be the money."

"Oh come on, Eames. You don't believe that love is blind?" he asked me.

"Nope," Bobby answered for me as he came into the kitchen. "We need to compare notes."

"Did you find something?" I asked him. I knew he would. I'd found something, too, but I wanted to see if we reached the same conclusion.

Before Bobby could reply, I heard Logan mutter a curse word under his breath. He dropped his head quickly, but I turned to see what he'd been looking at. Ross.

"What the hell is going on here, Detective?" he barked out to me.

"Captain, I just…" Bobby began.

"Not you," he said sharply. "All three of you – outside."

Well, at least he wasn't going to ream us in front of the techs.

I followed Logan and Bobby outside. Even though I was in trouble, I couldn't help but notice that Bobby was still hobbling.

How hard did she kick him?

"I came here to give you a hand, Eames, since you're working alone. I can see that wasn't necessary."

Was that a question? How was I supposed to respond to that?

"Sir, Logan and Goren came home with the victim's girlfriend."

Okay, that didn't sound good either.

"What I mean is that Logan is an old friend and…"

"Eames. Stop. Logan, you have no business being here. I have not assigned you this case, and I didn't because when I gave Rhonda Hagen the death notification, she mentioned to me that you are a friend. And Goren…I can't even begin to imagine why you're here. You're on suspension. Do you know how bad it would look to the department if they found out you were investigating a case off the clock?"

"Captain, this is my fault," Logan spoke up. "Rhonda asked me to help, and I asked Goren. That was before Raleigh turned up dead. We met her this morning to talk to her about what had happened, and then we just drove her home. We didn't know Eames was going to be here."

"You didn't know."

"No, sir," Logan insisted. Bobby didn't say anything, which was probably smart. He was two months in to an open-ended suspension. He didn't need any more trouble.

"Eames?" Ross asked.

What, he wanted to see if I would go with Logan's lie?

In a second.

"Yes sir. They just arrived a few minutes before you."

Ross stood quietly for a moment, assessing the truth in my statement. I usually tried to avoid flat-out lying, especially to Ross, but I wasn't going to throw Bobby under the bus. I'd brought him into this investigation by suggesting him to Logan, and then again by encouraging him to go to the morgue with me.

"What happened to your face?" Ross asked Bobby after several long moments.

"I got punched," he said ambiguously.

"No kidding, Detective, I can see that. By whom?"

"Me," I spoke up quickly.

Oh my God, I was getting in deeper and deeper. See? This is why I try not to lie. Once you start, you just can't stop.

"You?" Logan and Ross said together.

"We were working on self-defense tactics earlier this morning. It was an accident."

Logan looked at me like I was a genius.

Ross looked at me with skepticism.

Bobby looked at me with deep brown, emotion-filled eyes that rocked my core. It was close to that look he'd given me in Lewis' garage yesterday after I'd rubbed the dirt from his face. It was a look I could get used to.

Maybe a couple of little white lies weren't so bad.

TBC...