Okay, so I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time. But I'm not abandoning this story. In this chap, we have LS bits, and lots and lots of case. There's a poem in here that I wrote. It's not my best, but it serves its purpose… so, anyway, enjoy.

People thought that John didn't notice what was going on with his detectives, but he saw everything. He didn't feel the need to announce that he did, but he knew when something was wrong, and there was something clearly wrong between Lilly and Scotty. And Stillman knew how they were, the huge fights weren't going to take them down, the fights about mistakes they made on cases, and other such things—no. They were young, sometimes painfully so, and nothing could rip the two of them apart better than a good personal fight. Two years ago with Rush's sister had taught him that, even though he wasn't really supposed to have noticed it.

Stillman had hoped that by sending his two youngest detectives to Boston, he would help to squash the ill feelings between them. After all, coming back a few days ago, he had never seen the two so amicable, so… comfortable. It made for a good working environment for the detectives to like each other on a personal level, years in the Philly PD had taught him that. And Rush and Valens had the makings of a detective all-star team—if they managed to make it to that place without killing each other first.

One look at the two trudging their way back into work that morning showed clearly that his ploy hadn't worked. Scotty, chivalrous by nature, did not hold the door for Lilly as he usually would have, but he doubted Lilly would have accepted the gesture anyway. Lilly didn't slow up her rapid strides to accommodate Scotty's jock walk, and everything about their positions screamed to the world that they were two separate detectives, not the dream team they had been for three years. Well, hell. You couldn't fix everything.

By now, Stillman had made his way over to their desks. "Well?"

"He's an ass," Lilly said at once, "An ass who thinks women are playthings."

So the guy had hit on her. An indulgent smile found its way onto John's lips. He liked all of his detectives, but he had a particular place for Lilly. She was the only girl, and one of the youngest, and thus became everyone's little sister. She hated that, and it struck John that that might be one of Valens' problems with her. He was used to happy women, giggling women, women who let him take the lead. And Lilly Rush as a person was not, and never would be, that type of person.

"Is he our killer?"

Lilly gave a shrug. "He's not above doing awful things for his own advancement. And people don't have much value to him. He could be."

John nodded to take that in, but Valens interjected. "He's not our killer. Renee never called him."

John turned, surprised by the vehemence in his voice. "And how do we know that?"

Lilly swiveled around in her chair, indeed, wondering how they knew that.

"Renee's mother, she went to see Randall that day. She had Renee's phone."

"So, all those calls…"

"Makes sense, doesn't it? Her mom's calls."

"Well," John said, "This changes everything. It means…"

"It means Kate knew Renee was going to be in that park."

Oh, man. Lilly was practically leaking fire out of her eyes, at eye level with Scotty's elbows. Any harder, and John swore that Scotty wouldn't have elbows anymore. He though about saying something to smooth it over, but ended up deciding that Rush and Valens were big kids. They'd have to either work it out, or—he didn't want to think of the alternative.

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Vera and Jeffries joined them at their desks after that, not noticing the war in Lilly's eyes. She didn't want them to notice it. She just wanted to murder her partner. Was that too much to ask for?

"Open forum," Lilly said. "Who's our killer?"

"James."

"James."

"James."

Jeffries gave a smile. "What about you, Lil?"

Lilly gave a labored sigh, and bit her lip, hard. She stared at a tiny speck on her desk, a stain from the Chinese food she and Scotty had shared a few days ago. Her eyes closed. She considered the players—Kate, James. Or suicide, which she doubted.

"The mother."

Lilly knew she took a dim view on mothers, but she'd earned her suspicion. And anyway, Kate had never struck her as a grieving mother. She had tried to forget Renee existed, tried harder than most people would have, as if she was trying to erase something else along with her. Like how she died in the first place.

"Why, Lil? Her own kid?"

Lilly shook her head a bit, blinking tears back. God, she needed to sleep. "Mothers have something in them. Resentment… some do, anyway. Kate has it. All that detachment… she could kill Renee and not realize the impact until later… months, years…mothers don't always mean the damage, at first."

Scotty temporarily forgot they were fighting, and put a hand on her shoulder. It's okay, Lil, he wanted to say, but something in him couldn't. Lilly seemed to think of something, and abruptly turned to her computer.

A secretary came in, holding an envelope they all immediately recognized. The ME's results, in record time, if Scotty did say so himself.

"So, the residue on Renee's cheek," Scotty read, "Lipstick. And unless James has got some pretty big secrets, Kate was wearing it."

"What have you got, Lilly?"

She turned, and her three male counterparts saw inexorably that Detective Rush was back, and Lilly was gone.

"James's financial records. Me and Will, we couldn't believe that kids car. I mean, a college kid! You should've seen it."

"So?"

"So James has been getting five thousand dollars a year from an account under Kate Hutchinson's name."

Vera's eyes widened. "That bitch is paying him off! Is it too late to change my vote, Lil?"

"Never too late, Nick," Lilly replied, "Never too late."

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An hour later, they had James and Kate separated into different interrogation rooms, and stood outside, trying to devise the best play. Good detectives, Stillman had told them all, didn't just interrogate people without planning it. They had a blueprint, a map. It wasn't set in stone, but it kept the discussion on task.

"What do you think?"

Lilly had no pen, and chewed on her lip instead. "I'll take Kate," she said after a while. "Alone. The neglected kid routine. Guilt points, what do you think?"

The other three didn't say anything. None of them thought it was great for Lilly's overall psyche, but none of them could think of anything better.

"You take it, Lil," Stillman said. "But if it gets too much…"

She refused to even let him finish that sentence. "It won't." Lilly gave them a spicy smile, pulled a face, and disappeared into Kate's door.

Kate was head-to-toe neat, not a hair out of place, clothes so starched it was scary. Lilly hated mothers like that. She always assumed it meant they spent more time on their own fulfillment, and less on their children's. It was an unfair prejudice, but she wasn't sorry for it.

"There are a few things we need to straighten out, Kate."

"Things?"

"Minute details." That was how she'd play it, she decided. Get the small stuff, build it up, and go for the gold.

"The day Renee was murdered, she made a few really strange calls…"

"We don't know that."

Lilly smiled her saccharine smile. "Pardon?"

"We don't know that she was murdered."

"Right, right. Well, on the day she died she called your cell, did you talk to her?"

Kate screwed up her perfect face, clearly trying to remember the calls she had made.

"Yes, I talked to her."

"She called your church, too, any ideas why?"

"No."

"And the florist?"

"I don't know."

Lilly circled the room some more, and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Your office, her best friends house when she wasn't home, the florist, the church, James. Know what I think?"

"Enlighten me."

"I think she didn't have her phone that day. I think you did."

"No, she called me, remember?"

Got her. It was a reason Lilly did this job, to catch people in lies. Yes, all the justice and the redemption and the American way was nice too, but the looks on their faces… priceless.

"You have to wonder about people who lie about things that don't matter. The call was only ten seconds, you didn't talk to her. You didn't even pick up. You were calling your phone to look for it. That's not a crime, Kate."

Kate settled into her chair a bit.

Time to give her an out, for a second. "I have a theory," Lilly said. "I think that people automatically lie to police officers because they think they'll get persecuted, or they do it out of spite, or whatever. It's a reflex. But I can assure you, Kate, I'm not here to make your life any more difficult than it has to be."

"I'm sorry, detective."

"So, you did have it?"

"I did."

It was coming together, Lilly could feel it. She could do this, she had to do this, and she was born to do this job.

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Vera was feeling more than just a bit impatient. He was a murder cop, and not only a murder cop, but a veteran one, for god sakes. Why, then, did people think that he didn't know when they were lying? He didn't get it.

James had a child's loyalty to his mother, even though she was using him, even though she had left him behind. Even though she had gone to drastic lengths to ensure that no one would ever find out about him. Vera didn't understand that, either.

"Why would you protect her? She's not gonna protect you, James."

"She's my mother, detective. And there's nothing to protect."

Vera shook his head more fervently. "She doesn't give a damn about you."

James swallowed, and his Adam's apple bobbed. Apparently, he knew that. "I don't want to talk about my mother anymore."

Nick nodded, he could take that. James would talk soon enough, with a little help from Rush and Kate. He figured it wouldn't hurt to soften him up for the blows.

"Okay, we don't have to talk about Kate. Let's talk about Renee."

James looked surprised, and it took Vera a second to understand why, before the answer smacked him, hard. He'd put Renee out of his mind as a person. He'd only known her for a few weeks, and she'd become more and more distant since then. Now, Kate was real to him, and Renee wasn't. Maybe that, Vera thought, was how he could live with himself. He could work that.

"What about her?"

Nick took the snapshot of Renee from The Awakening. James looked at it for a second, two. Then five. Then a minute, three.

"She wanted to write," he breathed. "She wanted to write stories and poems and essays that inspired people. The world just wasn't big enough for her."

Vera shuffled through a set of papers, and found a poem Renee had written, the September before her death, in the high school Literary magazine. It told of promise, it dripped with life. And it said exactly what James had just said about her. He began to read it out loud.

"'Sometimes, when I ride in a car, I

think all the oxygen in the world

isn't enough for my giddy lungs.

I run above the streets, and watch

the trees turn to clouds, and the sky-

scrapers to smoke. I am clear as

the click of a mouse, and engines

don't make enough gas to power me.

As the wind strokes my hair, I

reach my hand through the window to reach

for nothing and everything. For

my dreams, which are mine, and

intangible as air. Sometimes, when I

ride in the car, I know the truth,

that I am ambitious,

and boundless'."

"She could have done it, James," Vera said. "Done whatever she decided to."

James was crying in that way that said he was doing his damndest not to, and he looked up some. "She talked to me like I was somebody, you know?"

Vera knew.

Emotional interviews weren't exactly his forte, but he had an understanding of people. And people, he thought, by and large had an inherent sense of justice. "Then do right by her, James. Do right by her."

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"I wanna know something, Kate," Lilly said. "If you can help me."

Kate looked nonplussed. "I'll, uh—I'll help you any way I can."

Lilly stopped her pacing suddenly, and sat. Her long blonde hair streaked in her face, her pale skin was flushed, her dull eyes flashing, her top crimped and not ironed. Outside the box, Scotty shivered involuntarily. Lilly was beautiful, in this really unusual way. A shame it always hit him when she was shaken and haunted and didn't like him very much.

"I want to know…" She licked her lips, leaned up, and swallowed hard. "I want to know how you decide which of your children to murder for your sins."

One more chapter will wrap it up, guys! Then, probably an epilogue, because those are fun. I really like getting your reviews, so please keep them coming!