Bobby POV

I knocked on Alex's door and waited for her to call me in.

"We've got a lead on our John Doe's identity," I told her. "We're going to check it out. McIvor is supposed to be here at eleven, but we should be back by then."

I stayed in the doorway, but I watched her closely as she sat back in her chair and made eye contact with me.

"He agreed to come in?"

"He wasn't overly hostile," I replied. "And he didn't seem suspicious."

"Okay. Good. So your list of graduating seniors gave you the hit?" she asked, and then she got up and walked around to the front of her desk and she just looked so…I don't know. I can't describe it.

But a psychologist would probably have a field day with the fact that suddenly all I could think about was grabbing her from behind and bending her over that desk.

It was crazy, really.

It's not like we ever had, or ever would be able to actually do something like that in her office.

But I was now idly wondering if maybe I could buy a desk like this one and have it in our apartment.

Maybe we could recreate the scenario.

"Goren?"

"Yeah…um…yeah, the list. Edward R. Murrow class of 2008. He was kicked out of his house, which is probably why no one reported him missing, and he's been staying at the Bowery in Brooklyn."

"How would a rich NYU student meet up with someone like that?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm hoping to find out."

"Okay. Let me know if you're not going to make it back in time and I'll see what I can do about McIvor," she said. "Oh, hey, Moran sent down one more form that I need you to sign."

As she spoke, she leaned over her desk so that she could reach inside the front drawer.

I shouldn't be staring so blatantly, but I couldn't help myself.

"That's the kind of thing she needs to do more often."

The remark was said by Yuille, who had come to stand next to me in the doorway. It was said under his breath so that I would be the only one to hear and I jerked my eyes away from her backside and instead focused on him.

Only he was still leering at her.

"I'll be finished in just a minute," I said, stepping all the way into the office and slamming the door in Yuille's face.

Alex turned around and looked at me, with the paper in hand, oblivious to what had transpired.

"What…"

"Yuille's waiting," I said in annoyance.

"Okay."

"I don't like the way he was looking at you," I admitted.

I took the paper from her hand and scrawled my name on the dotted line without even reading the document. I trusted that Alex knew what it was and she wouldn't have asked me to sign something sketchy.

"Bobby," she said in a low tone. "You can't be like that. It's going to make you come across as jealous."

"It can't keep going on like this," I insisted. "And our relationship isn't the issue here. He's being disrespectful of his superior officer."

"I agree, but until he does it in front of me, I can't say anything about it. Otherwise, he'll just deny it."

"Alex…" I said in frustration.

"I know. Now here," she said. "Sign this, too."

She put another paper in front of me and I bent over to sign my name.

The page was blank.

"What is this?"

"We're in here talking with the door closed while your partner is still at his desk," she reminded me. "Would you rather they think it's for paperwork purposes or something more sordid?"

"Honestly? I'd rather everyone in this squad room know that we're together," I said petulantly, but then I let out an annoyed sigh and added, "But you're right."

I scribbled on the paper for another moment and then stood up and handed it to her.

She glanced down at it and smirked.

I'd written her a dirty message.

"Get out of here before I can't control myself," she said, ducking her head to hide her smile.

I walked across the room and opened the door, and she called out, "Thank you, Detective. I'll get these to HR this morning and then you should be good."

"Thanks, Captain."

I left her office, purposely bumping into Yuille on my way out.

"Sorry, Goren," he said glibly. Then he went into Alex's office and closed the door.

He certainly didn't have any problem being alone in her office with the door closed.

I was definitely going to have to do something about him.

I marched over to my desk and grabbed my coat.

"Are you ready?" I barked at Logan.

"Yeah, sure. What's going on?"

"Nothing," I answered.

"Yuille?" he asked as we got on the elevator. "I saw you slam the door on him."

"I need to let it go," I said with a shake of my head.

"You're going to stand around while he's beating off with images of Eames in his head? No way. You have to do something."

"If I say something, then it looks suspicious. Why should I care so much? Why don't I just join in the fun? After all, it's just normal male speculation, right?" I asked bitterly.

"No, it's not. Not the way he's doing it. And she's our boss, so everything else is irrelevant."

"Maybe," I agreed.

Because he did have a point.

Even though I'd never been a huge fan of Ross, I still wouldn't have tolerated people bad-mouthing him.

And even though Yuille thought his statements were complimentary, they weren't.

They were an attempt to reduce Alex to being just a sex object.

If he kept it up, then pretty soon everyone in the department would be looking at her in the same way and she'd lose their respect through no fault of her own.

But I tabled thoughts of retribution against Yuille and instead focused on the current matter at hand.

Logan drove us to the Bowery, where we showed the morgue photo of our John Doe.

"That's Damon Cordova," one of the employees told us sadly. "I hoped that maybe he was staying with his boyfriend and that was why he hadn't been back. I didn't consider this…"

"His boyfriend," I said. "Do you know who that was?"

"Adam something or other. I'm not sure of the last name. Damon talked about him for two weeks non-stop and then last Sunday night, when he didn't come back…well, like I said. I thought he was spending the night at Adam's."

"Did Damon have a job?"

"He was working maintenance over at NYU."

"Did he leave any personal belongings?"

"A knapsack," she told us. "I figured he'd swing by for it one of these days. Let me get it for you."

She disappeared down a hall.

"So now we know for sure," Logan remarked. "Adam and Damon were lovers. They were both killed on the same night. Different methods or not, it has to be the same killer. McIvor may have caught them and flew into a rage."

"Or he approached Damon," I suggested.

"Alone?"

"If Adam had been around when McIvor was strangling Damon, don't you think there would be bruising on him from where he tried to stop it?"

"Yeah, okay. I'm with you. Go ahead."

"Alright, so McIvor sees them, but doesn't let on that he knows. Later, he approaches Damon alone, maybe tries to talk him out of being with Adam."

"Or tries to bribe him?"

"Exactly. Damon doesn't go for it and so McIvor kills him."

"And then he kills Adam? Why? He just got rid of the boyfriend."

"Maybe he tried to convince Adam that he wasn't really gay. Then he torments him with the fact that he just killed Damon. But instead of going compliant, Adam gets upset and says he's going to the police."

"Detectives?" the employee called out. "Here's his bag. I guess it's okay to give it to you."

"We'll make sure that it gets to his next of kin," I assured her. "Oh, and the last time you saw Damon...it was a week ago Sunday, right? Did he mention specifically where he was going?"

"He just said that he was going to spend the afternoon with Adam. I'm not sure where. And yes, that was the last time I saw him."

"Okay. Thank you."

We left the Bowery and went back to the car where I opened up the knapsack.

Inside, there was a change of clothes, fourteen dollars and several photos of Damon and Adam together.

"This was all of his worldly possessions, huh?" Logan mused. "He didn't have anything except Adam and that jerk McIcvor had to put an end to that, too."

"Garrett probably thought it was his lucky day. The boyfriend was a street kid whom no one would miss," I said quietly.

"We need to nail him, Goren."

"We will," I said. I checked my watch and saw that it was ten-thirty. "Come on. Get us back to 1PP before he shows up."

"How do you want to play this?"

"I've got an idea about how to set him off."

"Making him mad is the easy part. The trick will be to keep him in the room."

"I think I know how to do that, too."

We didn't get back to the squad room until five after eleven. I'd called Mrs. McIvor along the way and asked her to come down. She sounded surprised to hear from me, so it was a safe bet that Garrett hadn't called her.

"Goren, Logan!" Alex called to us when we got off the elevator.

"Yeah, Captain?" Logan replied.

"Garrett McIvor is waiting in Interrogation Three."

"You got him into an interrogation room?" I asked her.

"Yeah, well, you know…the conference rooms are all being fumigated, so it was really the only private place for you guys to talk," she said with a smirk. "What did you find out about the J.D.?"

"He's no longer a John Doe," I told her. "His name was Damon Cordova and he was definitely Adam's lover."

"That's his?" she asked, nodding toward the knapsack.

"There's not much here, but yeah. It was his. We'll see what we can get out of McIvor and then we'll go notify Damon's family. Oh, and Maggie McIvor is on her way here, too."

"Good," she replied. "Let's wrap this thing up, okay?"

"That's the plan," I agreed.

She went down the hall into the observation room while Logan and I paused at our desks. This was going to be our first interrogation together this go-round and I wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

"Where is Captain Eames?" a voice bellowed. I looked up to see the commissioner striding through the room.

"Sir, she's in the observation room," I said, pointing him in the right direction.

"Detective Goren, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"What's this I hear about you dragging Garrett McIvor down here?"

"We invited him. There was no dragging involved," I corrected.

"And where is he?"

"Interrogation Three," Logan said.

"You've got him in an interrogation room like a common suspect?"

"Sir, right now he is a suspect."

The commissioner glared at us for a moment longer and then stormed off to find Alex.

"We need to hurry," I said to Logan.

We hustled down the hall, but as we passed by the door, we could hear the commissioner.

In fact, we could hear both of them.

"They've followed the evidence!" Alex yelled at him. "And this is where it's brought them."

"He's a goddamn councilman! There are ways of treating men like him…"

"Men like him," she repeated. "You mean men who kill their own son?"

"You don't know that."

"No, but I'm about to find out."

"Your detectives are not going to interrogate him."

"Yes, they are. They've dotted their I's and crossed their T's. If you let McIvor walk out of here without being questioned, then you're saying that he can get away with murder simply because of his political status."

"Nice one, Eames," Logan murmured. "She doesn't scare easily, does she?"

"What do you think?" I retorted with a wry smile.

"Captain, you'd better be right about this. Otherwise you're opening up this department to a lawsuit and I'll see to it that you're named personally."

"Give them twenty minutes," she insisted. "If they don't get anywhere in twenty minutes, then I'll apologize to him myself and send him on his way."

There was a heavy pause and then at last the commissioner agreed.

"Twenty minutes. That's it. And then I'm pulling the plug."

"You heard the man," Logan said. "We've got twenty minutes."

"How long will it take you to make him mad?" I asked him.

"Seriously? Five seconds. Are you going to get him to stay?"

"You just push his buttons. I'll do the rest."

TBC...