Alex POV

Bobby and I had an ulterior motive for wanting to go by the lab.

Not that we don't understand and appreciate the importance of this case, and we certainly aren't taking it lightly, but picking up the lab report was going to provide us with a good opportunity to say hello to Liz.

Well, hello and whatever else might need to be said, because the fact that Ross was seeking out detectives had me worried.

Especially since, after he realized he couldn't ask me and Bobby, and Mike and Carolyn were clearly still out on their case, he ignored the rest of the crew in Major Case, preferring instead to hit up Sean and Lauren.

Which suggested that it was something of a very personal nature.

"Let's see how fast we can get in and out of the lab and then we can go corner Liz," I commented as we entered the building. "It'll probably be another hour or so before Mary gets back anyway."

"I think Christina's holding out on them," Bobby said. "She has to know something. I mean, she knows enough about the Albanians to warrant being in Witsec and yet she can't tell us who's behind this?"

"Knowing that it's the organization in general and knowing which specific individuals are involved are two different things," I reminded him.

"Yeah," he agreed as he pushed open the door to the lab. He caught my eye as I walked past him and he said, "But I still think she knows."

"Mary will let us talk to her."

"She didn't want us to know where she was taking her," he pointed out.

"She's trying to stick to protocol, or at least as much as she can."

"Detectives," Scott called out. "Sorry to make you wait. And really, there wasn't much worth waiting for."

"You didn't find anything?"

"Oh, we found all kinds of things," the CSU tech said as he handed over a thick report. "But knowing you two, I'm not sure it's anything you haven't already figured out."

"Don't keep us in suspense," I said, because I've been around Scott enough to know when he's got something. And despite his disclaimer, I was pretty sure he had something of interest.

"Well, we found trace amounts of your victim's blood in the stairwell, so that's how he got her out."

"You're right. We already figured that out," I said.

He smirked at me and said, "Okay, but did you know that she grabbed the doorframe of the fire exit?"

"So she came to as he was taking her outside," Bobby said. "And yet she didn't scream."

"Or at least, no one's admitting to having heard her," I said. I took a moment to try to imagine the scenario. "But you know, maybe she was more concerned with fighting back. I mean, I don't know if I would've screamed either. Most likely, I would've focused on trying to get free."

I wasn't thinking about Jo Gage as I made the statement, but once the words were out of my mouth, Bobby caught my eye and I could tell that's what he was thinking about.

Again.

And I guess I didn't need to say most likely, because the fact is that I didn't scream, not even when I regained consciousness and found myself blindfolded and bound to a hook in the ceiling.

I think it's the training we go through.

My first instinct was to get loose, and I'd bet that was Anna's too.

"Okay, so, the blood on the desk is your victim's, as was the hair," Scott continued uneasily, obviously picking up on the undertones in the room. "Prints pulled from the doorknob belong to the victim and EADA Cutter."

"That's it? No unknowns?" Bobby asked, giving me a subtle nod and then shifting his focus back to the report.

I have to give him points for not dwelling on my long-past abduction.

"Not on the door," Scott confirmed.

"So the killer wore gloves," I said reasonably. "It's not like we expected to catch him because he's got a sheet."

"Hang on," Bobby said. "Not on the door? Does that mean that you found unknown prints somewhere else?"

"It means I found prints somewhere else, but they're not unknown," Scott said with a smile. "I found a few partials in the kitchen."

"I'm sure we've got all kinds of partials in our kitchen," I commented.

"And in the bedroom," the tech added. "On the nightstand and on the headboard."

"Not Cutter's?" Bobby questioned, flashing me a curious look.

"No. Some former Coast Guard guy named Derek Gilmore."

I sighed heavily, wondering what in the hell poor Anna had been thinking.

Because prints on the headboard were tough to write off as something innocent.

And don't get me wrong – I'm not judging her for her personal life. I honestly don't care if she slept with every guy in Manhattan.

But she shouldn't have been sleeping with the guy who was the undisclosed boyfriend of a witness.

I mean, some rules can be broken, but that wasn't one of them.

We finished up with Scott and then went down the hall toward Liz's autopsy suite.

"What do you think about all of this?" Bobby asked me quietly.

"I think she was a confused woman. I mean, she was calling Christina, she was sleeping with Derek, and she was trying to date Mike Cutter…what was her objective there? I'm wondering why she tried to bring Cutter into it at all. And you saw that nightstand…there wasn't any dust on it."

"Which means that she'd cleaned fairly recently."

"Uh huh. And Gilmore's prints were still on it, so she had him over there recently. After she started going out with Cutter."

"Maybe she knew she was wrong," Bobby posed. "Maybe she was hoping that she'd fall in love with Cutter and it would help her break away from the bad situation she'd gotten herself into."

"Well, he did say she was almost like two different people, wanting him one minute and then pushing him away the next."

"She felt conflicted," he stated thoughtfully. "How did Cutter meet her? Do we know?"

"No," I answered. "Do you think it matters?"

"I'm not sure, but let's find out anyway."

I started to go through the door to the autopsy suite, but Bobby's hand on my arm halted my progress.

"Are you okay?"

"Me? Absolutely."

"I mean, thinking about Anna. It doesn't…"

"Bobby, the thing with Jo happened a long time ago. Are we going to relive it every time we run across a similar situation?"

"No. I just wasn't sure if…"

"Be sure," I interrupted. "That happened in another life."

"Good," he said, giving my hand a squeeze. "Now let's go find out what's happening in Liz's life."

I paused another moment, going up on my toes to give him a kiss on the cheek, appreciative of his sensitivity to my feelings, and then I led the way in to find Liz.

"Oh, you're kidding me," she said when she saw us. She whipped off her gloves and tossed them onto the table. "He doesn't waste any time, does he? I guess that shouldn't surprise me, although I honestly didn't expect it to be you two. Aren't you busy enough with Mary's case? You really want to put in OT dealing with my thirty-year-old crime?"

"Um…what?" I asked.

"Danny didn't tell you what this is about?" she asked as her gaze bounced back and forth between me and Bobby.

"He didn't tell us anything at all," I said.

"Then why are you here? I'm not working on anything for you."

"It's a social visit," Bobby explained.

"But now I think we need to hear about this thirty-year-old crime," I added.

"Oh, it's nothing," she said dismissively.

"Obviously it's not," I argued. "What's going on?"

"You know, I just told the story to Danny, and if you're not the detectives he asked to look into it, then I'm going to have to tell it again to someone else, so…"

"Give us the abridged version," Bobby said, not wanting to let her off the hook.

Because she looked like maybe she didn't sleep last night and her movements lacked her usual fluid grace.

"Yeah," I encouraged. "Because you know Bobby. He might have an answer for you before you even finish explaining the problem."

He smirked at me as Liz rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Not this time," she said. "There's definitely some digging that needs to be done."

"For the purpose of what? What did you do?"

"And why does it matter since it happened thirty years ago?" Bobby added. "What's the need for detectives?"

"Exactly," I agreed. "Thirty years ago, I was…let's see…partaking in underage drinking, driving without a license, trespassing…"

"Alex," Liz said, shaking her head.

"Wait, I'm not done. Um…criminal mischief…public indecency…"

"Really? Public indecency?" Bobby asked me with interest, and Liz finally started laughing.

"Why doesn't it surprise me that you were a hellion as a teenager?" she questioned.

"As a teenager?" Bobby repeated dubiously. "You don't need to quantify that. She still is one."

"I haven't broken a law in…hours, at least," I asserted, enjoying the fact that Liz was still smiling. Because she'd certainly looked a lot more tense a few minutes ago when we walked into the room.

At least now she was starting to relax a little.

"And which one was that? Public indecency?" she teased.

"Well, it's a nice day," I answered with a grin. "And you know how I like to do it outside."

"Okay," she said, waving her hands as she chuckled again. "This conversation has devolved rather quickly, hasn't it?"

"You needed a laugh," I told her.

"Yes, I did. Thank you."

"And she's kidding about this morning," Bobby said.

Liz looked at me skeptically and I nodded.

"I'm kidding," I agreed. "We were inside, so no laws were broken."

"Uh huh," she replied. "That's what I thought."

"So…your need for detectives?"

"I got two phone calls yesterday," she admitted. "One was a man, and one was a woman, and both of them asked for me, using my maiden name."

"For the purpose of what?"

"I don't know. I didn't admit that it was me. But one call came here, and one came to the house, so whoever it is has more information than just my name. Danny's going to pull the phone records and find out who called the house, and knowing him, he's getting permission from the chief ME to pull our records here, too."

"What are you thinking?" Bobby asked her. "What made you deny that it's you?"

She sighed heavily and moved over to sit down on an empty gurney.

"At first, I thought it was an old boyfriend. I mean, it was a woman, but I thought he was behind it. I thought he…wanted something from me. But I went to see him this morning, and I'm sure it's not him."

"What did you think he wants?"

"I thought this was the abridged version," she said smartly.

"It's more complex than I expected," Bobby admitted.

"Yes," she said, nodding slowly "Yes, it is."

She trailed off when my phone started buzzing. I glanced at it and saw that it was a text from Lupo.

We found the car. We have a photo of one suspect. We have the dead body of another suspect, and we believe there's a third still out there.

"Three," Bobby said quietly after I read the text aloud. "I didn't consider that. Okay, um…I'd like to see that car. Find out where they are and ask them to wait for us."

"Hey, Doc!" an assistant said as he entered the room. "Can you make a run? There's a DOA in a trunk out in Willow Park."

"Sure. Get the van ready, and I'll be right there," she responded.

"Dare I guess Willow Park?" I asked rhetorically as I typed in the text.

Where are you? We want to come check it out.

"Do you think Anna killed him?" Bobby asked. "And why would they leave one of their own in the trunk?"

Willow Park. Come on – we'll wait. We've got the three B's.

"The three B's?" Liz asked as we all headed for the exit.

Bobby held the door open for us and said, "Bullets and bodies and blood."

"Oh my."

TBC...