Chapter 21

"It's warm out here, that's what I love about this city this time of year."

"That's not the only thing I love about this city." Nathan replied as he winked at a young woman who they strolled by. "This city is so big that the cops have no idea where we are. You know we have to be their top priority right now."

Carl nodded. "We need to get somewhere where we can keep up on the news. We have to be one step ahead of these cops in order to stay out of jail."

"We're already one step ahead of those bastards. They haven't caught us yet."

"I know Nate... I just want to be smart."

"We just need to stay out of sight during the day and at night do what we're doing now. This is New York City; there are millions of abandoned buildings that we have yet to explore. We just can't stay in the same spot night after night because cops are always going to check there first. Plus our faces are plastered everywhere so people are bound to tell them that they saw us."

"Check it out," Carl said and knelt down next to a small puppy that had started smelling their feet. "Hey little guy,"

"What in the hell is that?" Nathan said with a disgusted look on his face. "Dude, are you sure that isn't a damn rat or something?"

"It's a Chihuahua." Carl said as he held the dog and stood up.

"Percy! Hey you have my dog!" They heard from across the street.

The two men looked over as a young blonde girl ran in front of a taxi and over to them. An older woman followed with a bright smile on her face. "Oh thank heavens!" The older woman said.

"Is this your dog?" Nathan asked and looked at the teenage girl who was taking the puppy from Carl.

"Yes! Thank God you grabbed him! We were taking him for a walk and he ran out the door before we were able to grab him!" The young girl said with a bright smile on her face.

"That's a killer accent you got there..." Carl said and looked at the older woman. "Where are you guys from?"

"England," she answered then looked over at Nathan. "We arrived only a few days ago and we don't know these streets very well so we're glad that you guys stopped him before we got lost around the city looking for him." She ran her hand over the dog's coat. "Well, thanks again. Good day to you," she smiled then ushered her daughter across the street toward their building.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Nathan asked as they watched the women from where they stood.

"We're already going to hell," Carl said with a chuckle.

"How did it go?" Bosco asked.

Faith closed the door of the RMP and turned her body sideways so she could fit comfortably in the hard backseat. "It was all right I guess," she said with a shrug and looked at her husband who was driving 55-David as Ty sat in the passenger's seat. "Baker told me that I got the best scores of my career."

"Really," Ty said with a smile and glanced over his shoulder at her. "Good for you, Faith."

"I guess."

"So you're already to go back to work on Sunday?"

She searched her brain then let out a sigh. "Yeah, I picked up my uniform from one PP yesterday and the shrink cleared me."

"Are you excited to get back out there?" Ty asked.

"Yeah... I'm excited to have a purpose again. I could never do the housewife thing and just be at home."

"You do have a purpose Faith." Bosco said softly.

"You know what I mean."

"Are they keeping you on midnights still?"

"Yep, back to my regular assignment." She said and looked down at her hands. "Just like nothing happened."

"Do you know who your driver is going to be?" Bosco asked.

"My Lieutenant has ordered me to stay inside the Precinct for the first week to get my back into the groove. So I'll be riding a desk for a little bit until I get assigned a driver." She replied.

Bosco nodded and looked at his wife's face in the rearview mirror. "I like that better I think."

"I'm not going to be looking for them Bos," she said as she made eye contact with him. "There are detectives on this case looking for them. I don't need to add insult to injury and try to arrest them myself." She shook her head. "The vigilante thing isn't my style."

"So I hear that you guys are getting a new pad."

Faith smiled when the subject was finally changed. "Yeah, my best friend's family owns a couple of buildings around the city and they were nice enough to put us in this four bedroom condo that would be probably well over eight grand a month for around our price range." She nodded. "I'm excited to get out of the scene,"

"Scene?"

"She calls our apartment now the crime scene." Bosco mumbled.

"Oh," he said and gave them both a nervous look.

"I'm fine guys... Once I we move I will be more than fine." She shook her head and looked out of the window as Bosco turned on to their street. "Thanks for the ride guys."

"No problem, see you around boss." Ty said and smiled at her.

"See ya Davis," Faith chuckled as Bosco opened the door for her and gazed into her eyes. "I'm fine babe."

"I know... You say it so many times that you would think one of us would believe it." Faith looked down at the ground with a smile. "I'm gonna try to get off on time tonight... Wait up for me. I'll bring home some Chinese or a late night snack... Or I don't know something." He smiled at her.

"That would be nice."

"55-David!"

Faith looked at her husband's radio when it came to life. "David," Ty said into his radio.

"55-David take a possible assault at eighty sixth and Bleaker on the third floor! Neighbor claims to have heard screaming and loud noises."

"Dammit," Bosco said softly.

"55-David we got it!"

"Go," Faith said softly and began walking towards the building. She watched as Bosco jumped into his squad and ripped off down the street.

"A double homicide?" Swersky asked.

"That's what it looks like boss." Ty answered.

"Someone needs to get Boscorelli out of here now!" Sully shouted.

"I'm not going anywhere!"

"You are too close to this case!"

"I'm not going to fuck anything up! My wife was a victim!"

"That is exactly why you need to take a step back and get the hell out of here right now!"

"No one is going anywhere!" Swersky shouted.

"Thank you lieutenant!" Bosco said and glared at Sully.

"Sir with all due respect, he is too close in this case! You know that it is all connected! Her off duty gun is laying on the ground next to one of the victims!"

"You got something against me Sullivan?" Bosco asked.

"Shut the hell up Boscorelli!"

"No I'm sick of you being in my face and trying to tell me what to do!"

"I am your Sergeant!"

"That does not make you God! You are a rank above me! You're not the boss!"

"Knock it off!" Swersky yelled the loudest of all the men. Hank and Sal looked over at the four as did the crime scene techs who were dusting for fingerprints. The medical examiner, who was kneeling next to one of the blonde victims, looked up at the four men and shook her head. "Listen to me... Everybody needs to shut the hell up! Sullivan, I already have Sergeant Christopher arriving on the scene so I need you and Officer Gusler to get back to the house." He glared at the man as he scuffed and walked away. "Davis, you need to escort Officer Boscorelli to the Precinct and relive him of his duty then report back here forthwith."

"What?" Bosco shouted.

"Three days, no pay! Now get the hell out of my face Boscorelli!"

"I didn't do anything!"

"You want me to make it a week? Go ahead and push me! I'll make it an entire month! You do not talk back to your superior officer Boscorelli! This one is getting written up! Now get out of my face!"

Bosco stared at his boss and shook his head. Ty put his hand on his partner's back and they both walked out of the apartment. Swersky shook his head and walked down the hallway to the main room and looked at the two women lying face down on the floor. "Lieutenant?" Sal said as he made his way over to him.

"We have a little drama going around in our house." He said and shook his head. "All right, what's the story?"

"It's definitely your rapists."

"So we know that that is her gun then?"

"Yeah we matched the serial numbers. I was sure they would have scratched it off but they didn't. We aren't dealing with geniuses here. They don't clean up their crime scene. It's almost like they don't care if they get caught or not." He shrugged.

Swersky nodded and looked down at the younger woman. "So have we figured out who they are yet?"

"Alice and Catherine Baker," Hank said as he held up the passports. "I talked to the neighbors and they had just come here from England. They had only been here for a few days."

"This is an almost identical crime scene as Faith Boscorelli's except these women had a single gunshot wound to their heads." Sal added.

"Both were raped and sodomized," the medical examiner said as she rose to her feet. "Their clothes were ripped off of them; fluid is present plus a lot of defensive wounds. The mother fought hard... Probably for her daughter. I won't know all of their wounds until I get them into the morgue, but they definitely died from their gunshot wounds."

"Son of a bitch," Swersky said and put his hand on his forehead. "This is bad. This is real bad. We need to find these bastards! They are messing with us! They are killing people now and laughing in our faces!"

"Listen... Lieutenant it is twice as hard to find someone who doesn't want to be found. Their accounts are frozen and their flagged, so in case they try to access their money, they can't. We have twenty four hour surveillance on their apartments and most of their friend's houses. We are doing the best we can with two guys who don't have much. They hide in thin air..."

"They murdered a seventeen year old girl and her mother! They raped one of my Sergeants! Finding them needs to be priority number one with every damn cop in this city!"

"Talk to one pp about this boss... Not us." Hank said with a glare in his eye.

Faith wrapped a vase in newspaper and walked over to an open box to put it inside when she heard keys in her front door. She looked at the door oddly as it opened and Bosco walked through. He gave her an annoyed look before he closed the door behind him and threw his duffel bag on the floor. "What's wrong? Why are you home so early?" She asked softly as she set the vase inside the box.

"I'm putting in for a transfer."

"What? Why?"

"Sullivan."

She looked away when he said the other man's name and let out a sigh as she walked to the kitchen to wrap more of her things. "What happened Bos?"

"I need you to sit down." He said sternly.

"I want to wrap all these glasses before I call in for dinner."

"Faith! It's important! Just sit down!" He yelled.

"Okay," she said as she walked over to the couch and slowly sat on it. "What's the matter with you?"

"The assault call that Davis and I got when we dropped you off," she nodded. "It was a rape, homicide."

Faith blinked slowly and nodded. "All right, and what does that have to do with me Bosco? My therapist said that I cannot identify every rape case with my own. So that's what I'm trying not to do right now, but the way you're talking is making me feel like I should. Or you're just trying to tell me something..."

"The victims had a gunshot wound to their foreheads... And a weapon was recovered at the scene." He paused as he stared into her blue eyes. "Your off duty gun was at the scene."

Her hands immediately went to her mouth as she stared at him. "Who were they?"

"Faith..."

"Who were they Bosco?" She screamed.

He shook his head and looked down at his own hands. "A mother and her daughter from out of town I think... I didn't get that much info before I was kicked out." He let out a sigh and watched her as she shook her head. "We are going to get them Faith. I know this is going to make one pp come down hard on Swersky and Elchisak to put more guys out there!"

"How old was the girl?"

"I don't know and if I knew I wouldn't tell you! You don't need that in your head!"

"If I would have fought them harder than none of this would have happened! I should have shot them both when I had the chance! I should have carried my gun with me!"

"Stop blaming yourself right now!" He shouted and she stared at him. "This is not your fault! Just stop it!"

"I need to get back to work. I need to start helping!" She ran her hand through her hair and stared at her husband as he stood up. "Wait... what happened again? Why are you home so early?"

"Oh... I got suspended for three days because I yelled at Sullivan in front of everybody."

"Why did you yell at Sullivan?"

"He wanted me to leave the crime scene apparently because he thought I would screw everything up because I'm married to you! I'm sick of that fat son of a bitch never giving me the benefit of the doubt! He thinks I'm this giant explosive who is ready to explode at any time! I wasn't even getting in the way of anything! I was canvasing the building and putting up crime scene tape!"

"Sullivan has been on my list for a while now." She said as she stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"I'm sick of him trying to run my life. I need to get out of there."

"Well wherever you go there is going to be a Sergeant who is going to boss you around a lot whether you like it or not." Bosco shook his head and took his t-shirt off and walked into their bathroom.

To Be Continued...