AN: I don't own them, I'm just playing.

On a whole, I haven't quite decided how I feel about this chapter. I'm not sure if I conveyed what I wanted, but hopefully you guys enjoy it nonetheless. Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! They make me smile and giddy when I see them waiting for me in my email!

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Rediscovery

Chapter 21

Earlier that day…

Mary Lou finished sweeping her kitchen and gave a sigh of satisfaction as she gave the rest of her house a good quick overview. It was good and clean. It never took her long in the mornings to clean the house. The boys were responsible for their rooms, and that was once a week. It only took a couple hours to clean the rest of the house in the mornings. Even then, it never took long since she rotated what chores were done what days.

This gave her more downtime than she realized. She sat down at one of the chairs at the table in the kitchen and looked out the window at the backyard speculatively. After Kaylee had died, she had continued dancing. Lenny encouraged it, knowing that it was helping with her grief. After the news that she was pregnant the first time, she had stopped teaching. But now…Kaylee was right, Mary Lou thought with a sigh. She had always loved teaching dance. Perhaps it would be a good idea to get back into it. She would talk to Lenny that night and see what he thought, though she was pretty sure he'd tell her to do it.

A brisk knock on her front door got her attention. When she opened it she blinked in surprise. "Joe. What can I do for you?"

"Sorry, Mary Lou, but I'm here on official business." He said. "About the death of Kaylee Henderson."

"Ahh, I see." She nodded. Opening the door wider, she said, "Come in." She took him back to the kitchen. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Yes please." Joe nodded. "How's Lenny?"

"He's fine." Mary Lou poured him a cup and set it in front of him as he sat at the table. She sat across from him. "What do you want to know?"

"Are you aware that we received information regarding Kaylee Henderson this morning?" He asked.

"Yes."

"Do you know what it was about?"

Mary Lou shrugged. "It was in an envelope addressed to the four of us. We watched the DVDs."

"There's more than one?" He looked at her.

"The other one was personal toward the rest of us. There was nothing threatening on it."

"I'm sorry Mary Lou, but I will need that other DVD." Joe said.

"I don't have it."

"Who does?"

"I don't know." If anyone could pull off a blank look to rival Ranger's it would be Mary Lou. Joe couldn't read her at all. He knew one of the women would have that other DVD. He would get it somehow.

Letting out a sigh he asked, "Mary Lou, when was the last time you saw Kaylee?"

"I saw her two days before I was told she had been murdered."

"Was she acting different than normal?"

"No."

"Did she have a fight with anyone?"

"No."

"Mary Lou, I know this is hard for you," Joe said, "But if you want her killer brought to justice you'll have to make sure you level with me."

"I am leveling with you, Joe." Mary Lou replied. "If she had a fight with someone, then we didn't know about it."

"Who is we?"

"Me, Sheila, Pen, and Steph."

Joe frowned. There was something in the old files saying they had disregarded one of Kaylee's friends as a suspect due to hospitalization, but it hadn't identified the friend. "Stephanie was friends with Kaylee?"

"I'm sure the old files tell you that, as well as the video I'm sure you saw. There were several bits with her in it." Mary Lou said.

"Where were you the night Kaylee was killed?" Joe said veering away from that subject.

"I was with Lenny. We went to dinner and a movie." She remembered that night perfectly because he had proposed to her that evening.

"You spent all night together?"

"Yes."

"Do you happen to know anyone who would have had a reason to hurt Kaylee?"

"No, she was pretty shy. She kept to herself or to us or Micah."

"Micah was her boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"Did Micah ever exhibit signs of aggression toward Kaylee?"

"No!" Mary Lou exclaimed. "She was his world. He was devastated when he found out."

"Abusers can be good actors too." Joe told her.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. Like you? She thought bitterly toward all the verbal abuse he'd given to Stephanie throughout the years. "Look, Joe. You had just come back from the Navy when all this happened. You don't know the dynamic of things among the five us at that point. Trust me when I saw Micah never laid a hand on Kaylee in anger. He wouldn't have lived to do it again had it happened."

Joe smiled. "You're pretty defensive on that subject, Mare."

Mary Lou crossed her legs and folded her arms across her chest. "I don't take kindly to what you're implying. If you had been there the day Micah found out you'd understand why he was not considered a suspect for long. But you weren't. In fact I don't think you were even in the police academy yet. I'm pretty sure you had just been bouncing around town boozing up and fucking whatever female you came across."

"Shit, Mary Lou!" Joe looked shocked.

"You don't know anything about who we were then. I know you have a job to do and I will cooperate with you, but rest assured, none of us are going to react nicely to hearing you accuse Micah of something he would never do. She was heaven on earth for him."

Joe nodded, still surprised by the sudden level of aggression and protectiveness that had just come out of her. He had never seen that side of her before and he was definitely going to do what he could to say on the right side of it, especially once he and Steph were reunited.

"You said the five of you were different people. Any tempers fly between any of you that could cause a rift?"

"Oh, geeze, Joe." Mary Lou rolled her eyes. "We're women. We're rollercoasters of hormones. Of course tempers flew between us. None of us would actually hurt each other."

"Not even if one of you was jealous of something one of you had?"

"Not even then." She said firmly.

"Alright, Mary Lou, I think that's it for now. If you remember anything, please call me." Joe said standing. He could reference all the notes from the original investigation, he knew, but he was going to keep talking to the women.

His next stop was the local community center where he found Sheila cleaning up from a class. When he stepped into the room, she looked him up and down. "Detective Morelli?"

"Yes, ma'am." He smiled winningly at her. His smile always worked on women. Sheila simply raised an eyebrow looked him up and down then continued cleaning.

"I'm sure you're here about Kaylee." Sheila said. "I don't know what I can tell that will differ from the truth."

"And what's the truth?" He asked leaning back against a wall folding his arms over his chest.

"The truth is I don't know who killed her but I want that bastard found." She answered. She tried to ignore the anger that built up at the sight of him, but for the sake of Stephanie she wanted to give him a right hook and a piece of her mind. For the sake of all their sanities, she clamped down on the urge and waited for him to continue questioning her.

"That's exactly what I want to do." Joe said smoothly. "I'm just following procedure."

"What do you need to know?"

"Tell me about Micah." He decided to target that angle first.

"Micah was Kaylee's boyfriend. Completely in love with her." She said with finality.

"Did they ever fight?"

"Every couple fights, Detective. My husband and I fought last night, but as you can see, I'm alive and kicking." She said snidely. She wasn't lying. She and Jace had fought when they got home, but they had also made up with some very intense make up sex. "Micah would never have hurt Kaylee. He'd die before hurting her."

"And you don't know anyone else who would want to hurt her?"

"The only people who visibly made enemies were…" She stopped talking and pressed her lips together.

"Were who?" When Sheila glared at him, he sighed, "I can't help Kaylee if you don't tell me."

Sheila continued to stand there glaring at him when the door to the room she was using opened. Jace walked in, gave Morelli a nod as he walked to his wife. "Sheila?"

"Agent Nelson." Joe said. "I was just talking to your wife about a case I'm investigating"

"Is that right?"

"About Kaylee Henderson."

Jace turned and stared him down. "They gave you that case? Doesn't the fact that your ex-girlfriend cause some hindrance for you to think clearly?"

"Stephanie is my wife." Joe corrected, then got down to business. "Mrs. Nelson, I need you to tell me who were the ones likely to make enemies."

"Penelope and Stephanie were the ones most likely to gain enemies." She said finally. Jace slid her hand into his and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Stephanie always attracts crazies." Joe said without thinking. "It doesn't surprise me that she would start then."

"The only enemies they would have attracted would have been scorned women who didn't get the men they wanted." Sheila said with venom.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me." She stepped forward, but Jace's grip on her hand kept her from going too much farther. "Pen and Steph were wild and liked to party hard. You saw the DVD, Detective. We don't know who was targeting Kaylee, or why we were being threatened in a ploy to get her to stop looking into whatever she was looking into."

"I understand there is another DVD." Joe said.

"It's irrelevant to your case, Detective." Jace said coldly.

"I'll be the judge of that."

"I don't have it." Sheila told him.

"The night of Kaylee's murder, where were you?"

"With Jace."

"When did you get back to your dorms?"

Sheila and Jace glanced at each other, giving small smiles of a favorite memory. "Not until the next morning. We'd gone out to Point Pleasant."

"And did what?"

"What a lot of couples do." Jace said.

"That could be a variety of things, Agent."

"My wife's and my sex life is none of your business, Detective."

They spent several more minutes talking. Once Joe left, Sheila turned to Jace. "I think I might have made things really bad for Steph and Pen."

"Don't worry, love," Jace hugged her close, "You know them. They'll rip him a new one if they want."

/\/\/\/\/\/\

When Morelli found himself in front of Penelope's condo, he knocked and waited for an answer. While he waited he thought of everything he'd found out from Sheila and Mary Lou. Both women were absolutely adamant that Micah had no part of Kaylee's murder. The old reports from the case gave the same indication. All questioned said Micah would never hurt her. The cops who had interrogated him all said he hadn't done it. They had been able to read him like a book. Micah had been a broken man in front of all of them. But it didn't mean he couldn't be guilty, Morelli decided.

Then there was the second DVD. What was on it and why did they refuse to give it up? It couldn't be that personal to them if they brought it up.

The door swung open and he couldn't contain the sneer that came to his lips. "Santos."

"Morelli."

"Your master let you off your leash?"

"Something I can help you with?" Lester asked refusing to rise to the bait.

"I'm here to talk to Penelope Thayer."

"Just a moment." Lester said and shut the door in Morelli's face. He grinned as he thought of the pissed off look Morelli was bound to be sporting. He walked to the bathroom where Penelope was washing up. She looked up at him in the mirror.

"Don't even think about it, Santos," She warned. "I'm all for creative sex, but even I'm still in too much pain to try one of those crazy ideas you suggested when we went to bed."

Lester laughed. "Come on, Gorgeous. It'd be fun." He waggled his eyebrows at her. When she narrowed her eyes at him with a smile on the edge of her lips he came forward and kissed her neck. "Actually, Morelli is here. Seems he got the case regarding Kaylee."

"Great." She grumbled. "Alright. Where is he?"

"Outside."

"You left him outside?"

Lester just grinned at her as he followed her back to the front of the condo. Penelope kissed him and opened the door. "Detective Morelli."

"Ms. Thayer."

"Come in, please." She opened the door. "I assume you're here about Kaylee."

"Yes I am." He glanced around the condo noting that she was extremely well off, but then, he thought, any child of Mark Thayer's would have been well off.

"What do you want to know?" Penelope asked walking to the kitchen and receiving bottles of water. She gave one to Lester who kept watching Morelli carefully. Handing the detective one, she opened the remaining bottle and waited for him to begin.

"I'm going to find out the truth, Ms. Thayer. From What I've found out this morning from a couple people, you and Stephanie were quite the wild ones when all of you were in college. So it leads me to believe something you two did pissed off someone who took it out on Kaylee."

"Really?" Penelope leaned back against the counter and nodded slowly, "This is of course completely disregarding the DVD you received as evidence that someone didn't like that she was snooping into something? You automatically find a way to blame this on Stephanie and me?"

"Ms. Thayer—"

"Detective, let me be perfectly frank with you." Penelope set her bottle down on the counter with a hard snap. "Steph and I were very wild in college. We liked boys as much as boys liked us. We were smart, careful and made things known up front that there was going to be nothing more than a one night stand. Every young college man's dream come true. Kaylee had Micah, who adored and loved her more than his own life. Kaylee didn't do anything to warrant an ugly attitude from women who were competing against Stephanie and me for men. And even if she had," She continued on when Morelli opened his mouth to continue speaking, "those women would have had to deal with us. And they didn't like dealing with us."

"You seem pretty certain that Micah wouldn't hurt her." Another one defending Micah and giving him a look at that spoke volumes about how she felt about his attitude towards Micah.

"You'd be a fool to believe Micah would hurt her, Morelli." She snapped. "I'd suggest looking at Kaylee's old stories and see if you can figure out what happened from there."

It hadn't taken long for him to realize that anything he asked Penelope would match everything in her original questioning. In fact when he continued questioning her, he found that her answers never changed. It was like she could remember every detail from that day. Not that he could be surprised by that fact. Anyone who lost someone as suddenly as they lost Kaylee could remember the exact moments of what had happened up to the news and most of the time right after the news.

This is what he found himself contemplating as he sat in the conference room in Rangeman waiting for Stephanie to show up. He had a job to do, and he would do it, but he would make it perfectly clear to Stephanie that she was to stay out of it and that she was expected back home. He was not going to let her wander around doing whatever she felt like instead of being home taking care of him and his needs.

Joe glanced at his watch again. He'd been waiting on Stephanie for an hour. He had been told that she was out and was expected back at any time. Manoso had had the audacity to have him put in a conference room that he couldn't seem to leave. It wouldn't surprise him one bit if Stephanie was in the building.

Finally, the door opened and Stephanie walked in with Ranger coming in right behind her. She sat down across from him at the table. Ranger sat next to her. One of his hands was underneath the table, no doubt on her thigh, Morelli thought angrily, shooting him a glare. It was met with a blank face.

"Morelli." Stephanie said. "What do you need?"

"I'm here about Kaylee Henderson's murder, Cupcake."

"Don't call me that." She replied.

"I can call you whatever I please." Morelli snapped.

"Morelli." Ranger growled. He was damned if he was going to sit here and let Morelli bully her the way he was trying.

"Where were you the night Kaylee was killed, Cupcake?"

"If I remember correctly, I was out with some guy."

"Some guy. What was his name?"

"Dunno." She shrugged.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Morelli demanded.

"I wasn't after his name, Morelli." Stephanie told him. "I was after hard, fast sex and that was what I got."

His blood was boiling. He had always assumed his cupcake had only slept with two men. Him and her ex-husband. The idea of some random man's hands on her pissed him off. Even if it was Manoso's hands. It pissed him off.

"You and Thayer were pretty wild," He said, "Maybe you pissed off someone's girlfriend?"

Stephanie stared at him. Her entire body tensed. Was he actually suggesting in some sick way that she was responsible for Kaylee's murder? That she had partied enough to piss someone off and they took it out on Kaylee? There was such a rush of fury in her blood that she automatically grasped Ranger's hand tighter than she'd already been holding it. It had been a long time since she felt such anger surging through her and she knew if she didn't rein it in fast it would get ugly. Ranger's thumb stroked the back of her hand soothingly, calming her down slowly.

"I'm sure we did piss off someone's girlfriend from time to time, Morelli, but they wouldn't have touched Kaylee. You saw the video. You know they were after Kaylee to stop whatever she was looking into."

"And what was she looking into?"

"I haven't got a clue." She replied honestly.

"I don't believe you, Cupcake."

"It's the truth. None of us knew what she was working on when she died." Stephanie said as calmly as she could. Stephanie shrugged. "She didn't want us to know. We could never convince her to tell us."

Knowing that she was telling the truth he moved along. "What happened after you found out about Kaylee's death?"

"I don't know." She answered truthfully again.

"What?" Joe looked surprised, his cop face slipping but his jealous anger fought its way forward and he couldn't resist saying, "Get fucked senseless by someone, Cupcake? Right after the death of someone who was supposedly very close to you? What a great way to show your grief."

Normally, Stephanie would have let her temper loose, or rather she would let loose the temper that Joe was used to seeing. But the full extent of her actual temper was still simmering beneath the surface and she knew she had to keep herself as calm as possible. She looked at Ranger. "Carlos, can you call Bobby and ask him to bring my medical record here please?"

Ranger flipped out his phone and made the call. While they waited Morelli looked at Stephanie, "Cupcake…"

Stephanie held a hand up. "Not a word until Bobby comes with my medical record."

Bobby came in looking at them in confusion. Stephanie held her hand out for the record, which he handed over. She flipped through the impressive file, rolling her eyes at a few of the records in there, until she came to what she was looking for. Turning it she slid it across the table to Morelli. He looked down at it.

"As you can see, Morelli, right after finding out about Kaylee's murder, I was sedated and put into the hospital." There was ice in her voice. Bobby tried not to shiver, unaware of the true force of her temper, but he knew at that moment being wary was a good thing. Ranger simply gripped her thigh tightly and squeezed reassuringly.

Joe was surprised by the facts that he was seeing. It explained one of the comments in the original investigation, that one of the friends had been sedated. He looked back up at her. "What made them sedate you?"

"I was more vocal with my temper then." She replied simply.

He couldn't contain the chuckle that came forward. "Cupcake, I've seen your temper. You ran me over with your father's Buick."

"Morelli, I'd consider that a mild irritation compared to what my actual temper can do." She informed him, folding her arms over her chest. "I ripped apart my college dorm room because one of my best friends had been murdered. Jace and Lenny broke in and they helped the paramedics sedate me." Reaching over she grabbed the file and folded it back up. Handing it back to Bobby, she said, "Thanks, Bobby."

"No problem, Bomber."

"You could have just told me that, Cupcake." Joe said.

Stephanie let out a harsh laugh. "No I couldn't, Morelli. You're so sure you know who I am, that you wouldn't believe me unless I had actual proof to show you. So I brought the proof."

"There's been mention of another DVD. I need to see it." He said.

"I don't have it." Stephanie answered. "There's nothing on there that will give you any headway into the case anyway."

"Damn it, Stephanie!" He hit the table with his fist glaring at her. "If I have to get a warrant I will!"

"Do it." She replied. "None of us have it."

Joe forced himself to calm down. He had to think like a cop. He knew he would be speaking with Helen later. Helen would help him out when it came to making Stephanie cooperate.

"Kaylee's boyfriend? Any signs of aggression from him?"

"None. Micah would never have hurt her." Stephanie said with such finality that Joe knew pursuing it would only waste time.

"Morelli, you're done here." Ranger said.

"For now." Joe sneered at him as he stood.

Bobby and Tank were waiting outside the conference room to escort him out of the building. Ranger sat back and looked at Stephanie. "Babe?"

"He tried to make me feel guilty." Her voice shook. She met his eyes and he could see the underlying temper snapping in her blue eyes. "He tried to say it was my fault that she died, because of how I chose to live my life then."

"Babe." He reached for her, but she jerked away.

"Don't." She whispered. "I'm so close to snapping, and I don't want to hurt you."

"Come with me, Babe." Ranger grabbed her hand.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"To find an outlet for your anger."

So, any thoughts on what a good outlet for her anger might be? :-)