Lupo POV

"That woman is a piece of work," I mumbled to Bernard as we left the interrogation room. "She finds her husband dead and she just leaves him there. That's cold."

"Uh huh," he agreed. "And for some reason the boyfriend stole the cell phone. Now why would he do that?"

We'd asked Allison that, but she swore that she didn't know.

And really, we weren't a hundred percent sure that he'd taken it. We just knew it wasn't at the house, and that a man had spoken with Johnny on the phone.

We'd also asked her why she hadn't called the cops.

"What good would that do? He was already dead."

"Didn't you want to find out who did it?" I'd asked her.

"I had a pretty good idea."

"So what was your plan?" Bernard asked. "You were just going to leave him there?"

"I knew that old-guy investigator was on his way over. But I couldn't just stand around and look at him like that. There was so much blood."

"So instead you went to the spa."

"Hey, if finding your husband dead doesn't warrant the necessity of a good massage, then I don't know what does," she'd replied reasonably.

"When was the last time that you saw Armando?"

"That morning," she'd said.

"He was with you when you went to the house?"

"No, he was there when I got there."

"Let me guess. He had a gun in his hand."

"No," she said, waving me off as though I was ridiculous. "But he didn't look upset by the fact that Richard was dead. He said that it was fate, that now we could be together."

"Was he actually in your house?"

"Yeah, I gave him a key."

"When?"

"A couple of months ago."

"Why?" I'd asked her. "Why in the world would you give your lover a key to your home?"

"He knew Richard's schedule," she'd said. And then she dropped her voice and held my gaze. "See, we liked to play these games sometimes. You know, where he'd pretend to be breaking into the place, and then he'd tie me up and…"

"Okay, we get it," I'd interrupted. "So you had no idea beforehand that Armando was going to kill Richard?"

"No. I mean, I knew that he wanted me all to himself, but I didn't think he'd kill him."

"But he knew that you'd lose your money if Richard divorced you."

"Well…yeah," she'd said with a shrug.

I'd had to take a break at that point.

"Let's drop Ben off at the courthouse and then pick up Armando," I said to Bernard.

He nodded in agreement as we went into the observation room.

"Where's Johnny?" I asked Ben. I'd fully expected to find him in there, even though I'd never heard a knock on the window.

"I haven't seen him," he said. "Wow, she really sold out her boyfriend, huh?"

"Uh huh," I agreed. "I'll be curious to hear what he has to say."

"You don't believe her?"

"That she found her husband dead on the kitchen floor and then she went to the spa? No."

"She needed a massage, Lupes," Bernard said with a grin. "Because finding your husband dead is stressing."

The three of us went down the hall, heading for the squad room, and I very nearly slammed into the back of Bernard when he pulled up short.

"Who is that?" he mumbled slowly. I looked past him and saw a woman sitting at Alex's desk.

"I don't know but she'd better get her ass out of that chair before Alex catches her," I replied.

I gave Bernard a shove to get him moving again.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked the woman.

"I don't think so," she said as she flipped through a case file. She had a badge clipped to her blazer which showed she was homicide out of the 2-7. "I'm waiting for my partner."

"And that would be…"

"Not really your business," she answered in a sweet tone that belied her words.

She finally looked up from her file and I watched her as she looked Bernard over carefully before shifting her gaze to me.

"My partner's just looking out for you," I told her conspiratorially. "Because if Detective Goren comes back and finds you sitting at her desk…"

"She knows I'm here."

She went back to reading her file and Bernard looked at me, but I just shrugged.

We had more important things to worry about.

I called for a uniform to come and sit on Allison while we were gone and then I picked up my coat from the rack.

"Come on, Ben. I know it's a little early, but I don't know how long we'll get held up with Armando, so we're going to have to take you to the courthouse now."

"It's going to be boring, isn't it?" he asked me. "Motions, sidebars, objections…"

"You want me to say that my future wife is boring in court? I don't think so," I finished with a grin.

"Yeah, Lupes, weren't you just telling me how incredibly not boring she is?" Bernard asked me as he grabbed his coat. "Oh no wait…you weren't talking about in the courtroom, were you?"

"That's great, B. Throw me under the bus after I stood up for you with the cute detective," I replied as I led the way to the elevator.

"You think she was cute?" Bernard asked me.

"I think you think she was cute," I answered.

"What makes you say that?"

"I've seen many a visiting detective in our squad room. I've never once heard you offer your assistance."

"Hey, I was just trying to be cordial," he insisted with a casual shrug. "Who do you think she is?"

"The badge said 2-7. Want me to call Loo and find out?" I offered. "Or I can text Alex and ask her who's the hottie sitting at her desk."

"Or you can mind your own damn business," he suggested when he saw me pull out my phone.

"Now why in the world would I want to do that? It'll only take a minute to send Alex a text…"

"Guys, shouldn't you be thinking about how you're going to find Armando?" Ben interrupted.

"Maybe, but this is more fun. You think he didn't ride my ass for weeks when he found out about Connie?"

"It wasn't weeks," Bernard denied. "And this isn't the same thing. You were keeping your relationship a secret from your partner."

"And from her brother," Ben added.

The elevator opened up in the parking garage and we went to the SUV.

"It is strange though, don't you think?" I asked, changing the subject since I was suddenly the target.

"What's strange?"

"We saw the Gorens and the Logans more when we didn't work with them than we do now that we are."

"Oh," Ben said. "The Logans. I forgot. They stopped by the observation room while you two were in with Allison."

"And?"

"They said something about wanting to help you guys on this case, but then while they were talking, Mike got a call. I guess it was from the chief or something, because then he said never mind and the two of them left."

"Huh," Bernard said. "Well, we almost had help."

"Hey, you've got help. I don't need to go to court," Ben insisted.

"You want me to tell Connie that you aren't interested in seeing her at work?" I asked him.

He rolled his eyes at me and shook his head.

"It's not that I don't want to go. It's just that I feel invested in this case. What if you break it wide open while I'm sitting in the gallery?"

"It doesn't usually happen that fast," I told him. "We'll be lucky if we can even track him down today. I'm sure he's not just sitting at home waiting for us."

"So I can work with you guys again tomorrow?"

I glanced at Bernard and shrugged.

"Tell me again when you're going back to Miami?" Bernard asked Ben.

"Saturday. Think we can solve it by then?"

"We'll see what we can do," he told him. "I mean, anything to promote New York tourism, right?"

So we dropped Ben off at the courthouse and then headed for Queens to the address of Armando Smith.

"So which do you think is fake?" Bernard commented. "Armando? Or Smith? Because you know those two names don't go together."

"You can ask him as soon as we find him."

We drove in silence for several minutes as I let my mind wander.

And it wasn't on the case, which is where it should've been.

It was on Connie and our conversation from this morning. I'd wanted to ask her about that guy, the one who'd hit her. Because I knew that she'd mentioned before that she'd mostly only dated lawyers until me.

So now I was wondering if I knew him.

"Hey, Lupes," Bernard said. "She was cute, don't you think?"

"The girl at Alex's desk? Yeah."

I wanted to tease him about his obvious interest, but I remembered how supportive he'd been when I was making myself sick over proposing to Connie, so I held back.

"Girl. So you think she's young?"

"She's a detective. She can't be but so young. Thirty at least, I'd guess."

"Thirty," he repeated. "Remember when thirty seemed old?"

"You mean when we were on the other side of it?" I asked on a laugh.

"Yeah," he said thoughtfully.

"You're not that much older," I said.

"I'm forty-three," he stated. "That's miles away from thirty-anything. Wait until you hit forty and you'll see what I mean."

"So in three weeks I'm going to have this brilliant new insight?"

"You're going to be forty?" he asked. "I knew your birthday was coming up, but I didn't know it was that one. Damn, Lupes, you're old."

"Yes, thank you," I said. "But we got off track here. Are you sure you don't want me to call Loo?"

"Nah," he said, shaking his head. "We've got work to do. Hey, I wonder what happened with Johnny."

"You think he chickened out because he didn't want to run into Alex?"

"That would be my bet."

Liz POV

I'd just gotten a report from the lab which pertained to Mike and Carolyn's case when Danny came into the morgue.

For some reason, Andrew, who had been cleaning out the sinks, suddenly left in a hurry.

"He's an odd kid, don't you think?" Danny asked me as he crossed the room and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

I hummed my agreement and continued reading over the document.

And it wasn't that I wasn't happy to see Danny.

I was.

But it was possible that I'd just found something extremely important.

"I can come back," Danny said.

"No, just give me another minute."

He wandered away from me as I finished up.

"I'm sorry," I said. "But Mike and Carolyn have been working that John Doe, and I think I might have just ID'd him. I need to give them a call."

"Call Alex or Bobby," he said. "They took over that case. The Logans are off and running on another one."

So I pulled out my phone to call Alex, but she didn't answer so I sent her a text message.

I may have an ID on your John Doe.

I set my phone down on the counter and then gave my husband my full attention.

"I'm not sure if I can go to lunch," I told him, assuming that was the reason for the social call.

"Is Andrew bringing something in?"

"No," I answered quickly, although I wasn't sure if that was entirely true.

The fact was that Andrew had been bringing me lunch a lot lately. Although in my defense, I'd never asked him to.

He just sort of showed up with it.

"Danny," I began, but he waved me off.

"I didn't come here for that. I came here because I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

He crossed the room again and came to stand right in front of me. It was close, considering that we were at work, and I found myself backing slightly away. He put his hand on my arm.

"I told the commissioner that I needed some time."

"Time for what?"

"Vacation. I want us to go away, just the two of us."

"A vacation?" I repeated. That had to be about the last thing I'd expected him to say.

We'd never gone anywhere with the exception of Niagara Falls where we'd gotten married.

Danny rarely even took a Sunday off of work, much less a week day.

And he was only a few weeks into the new job.

"You can't take time off," I added. "There's too much going on right now."

"I did. It's done."

"But, I can't take it either," I insisted. "Do you know how many autopsies I have scheduled already? And the list grows by the hour. Danny, I can't."

"You can. There's never going to be a good time. We just have to do it."

"When?" I asked.

"This afternoon. If we leave now, we can go home and pack and be on the road by two."

"To where?"

I felt as though I was two steps behind and all I could do was stand there and stare at him.

But he smiled at me and stepped closer, putting his hands on my cheeks.

"I got us a room at a lodge in the Catskills. Just me and you, for five days, with no outside distractions."

Then he leaned in and kissed me, chastely but firmly, with his hands still holding me in place.

I was in shock.

The gesture was romantic and grand and…just not like him, and yet at the same time I felt a sense of panic about the whole idea.

What would we do for five days?

More of what we did last night, I reminded myself.

That wouldn't be a bad thing at all. Last night had been pretty damn good.

But undoubtedly, we'd also talk.

That was why he wanted us to go away.

He wanted us to have a chance to heal.

Together.

If I said no it would be like saying no to my marriage.

And maybe not literally, but ultimately, isn't that what it would be?

I'd be saying that I wasn't willing to set aside my work to save my relationship.

Was I?

Could I really do this, just toss aside all of my responsibilities to run away with him to some cozy little room in the mountains?

He was still close, still watching me carefully while his thumbs caressed the sides of my face. He seemed a little unsure of himself despite his decisive words.

He's afraid, I realized.

"What do you say, Liz? Are you with me?"

What was it that Alex had said to me last night?

If you love him, then he's worth it. If you push him away because you're scared of everything that might happen you'll only end up regretting it.

And I wasn't so naïve as to think that love conquered all.

It doesn't.

Sometimes two people can love each other and it just doesn't work out.

But this wasn't going to be one of those times.

"It'll take me thirty minutes to organize things here," I said, finally returning his smile. "Can you wait for me?"

"For thirty minutes? I'll wait for you for however long it takes."

TBC...