Chapter 26

Bobby arrived first, setting the coffees and the Danish into their proper morning places on their desks. In another 15 minutes, Alex arrived, her face freshly flushed from her morning run. For appearances, they said 'good morning,' as if they hadn't seen each other already that morning.

Just as Bobby's lips curled around the sipping hole of his paper coffee cup, he noticed a new email pop up on his screen. He read it quickly, and leaned forward to type a response. After he clicked 'send,' he leaned over and dug a thick file out of the large drawer by his right knee. He plopped it on his desk, and Alex looked away from her computer.

"Cold case?" she asked him.

"Yeah. The Hopkins case. I just got an email from ballistics. They got another bullet that looks to be from the same gun." Opening the file, he transferred a number of pages into his binder, along with a clean pad of ledger paper. Then he dropped the file back into his desk and zipped the binder shut. "I'm going over there."

She smiled at him, and went back to her report. The Hopkins case was his alone, from the days years ago when she had been on maternity leave. She wouldn't try to nose in on it unless things started heating up.

"Thanks, Jose," Bobby said.

"Hey, you know. You asked me to keep an eye out." He pulled up a side by side image of the bullet casing from the Hopkins case and the one from the current case. The scrapes on the casing appeared identical.

"They match," said Bobby.

"We're doing measurements to be sure, but, yeah, I think it's a definite match." Jose turned and looked Bobby in the eye. "And… there were trace amounts of blue gel."

Bobby cocked his head.

"I sent it to trace, they're running a chemical analysis."

There was a spark in Bobby's eyes. "Thanks, Jose. I'll head over there next."

They hardly saw each other all day. Bobby ran from one science team to another, learning about the similarities of this new case and his cold case. Alex finished her reports in the morning and had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon.

They finally met back at their desks at 5 p.m. "He's back," Bobby announced. He briefed her on his day's work.

She looked over the new information, then glanced up at him. "Let's go talk to the Captain."

He grabbed his information and followed his senior partner into the Captain's office. After a polite knock at the open door, they walked in. Ross finished his phone call and looked up at them.

"We want jurisdiction over a case," Alex said. She showed Ross the paperwork Goren had gathered. "Looks like one of Bobby's cold cases is getting warm again."

Ross looked it over and glanced up at Bobby. "I'll make some calls," he said.

Alex showed him her box of pills. "One week," she announced.

He grinned. "Are you sure? I thought it used to be a month."

"Of course I'm sure. I asked. One week." She took the pills back to her room and put them in the medicine cabinet. When she returned, he was chopping vegetables. "Need any help?"

"Nah, that's okay."

Alex smiled. She took off her shoes and carried them into the living room, where she put her feet up and perused a magazine. Soon the aroma of a rich soup was calling to her. She wandered back to the kitchen and found him stirring the pot. "Smells delicious," she said.

He turned the heat down. "Give it a while to simmer, and it'll be out of this world!"

She leaned over the pot and sniffed, and he wrapped his arms around her, kissing her cheek.

She leaned back against him, enjoying his strength. She turned her head, and he kissed her lips. "How long does it have to simmer?" she asked, turning her whole body to face him.

They kissed again. "As long as we want it to."

She stretched her arms up until her fingers tangled in his hair. She pulled him down to meet her, and they shared a fiery kiss. She loosed her fingers and slipped her hands down to where his jaw met his neck. Greedily, she kissed him again. Then she turned him loose and walked to the bedroom, turning back twice to see if he was coming.

He stirred the soup one more time, then checked that the heat was low enough. Then he hurried back to the bedroom.

Robert Goren was a man in love. He lay next to her in the growing dawn, smiling at the memory of her skin against his lips. Last night had been mind-blowing. Out of condoms, they'd pleased each other in other ways, and he was still overwhelmed with the emotions of it all. He would never move again. He would never leave this bed, her scent, the radiance of her skin.

Bobby took a deep breath and smiled. She stirred, and he snuggled even closer to her. He kissed her bare shoulder.

Alex smiled. "Morning," she said lazily.

He kissed her shoulder again. "Morning."

His plans never to leave her side were dashed when she slid out of his grip and went to the bathroom. Bobby rolled onto his back and sighed. Hearing the shower start, he gave up on his little dream completely and got up to make the coffee.

Bobby went home long enough to shower, shave, change clothes, and pack a bag that included condoms in case they stayed at her place again. He took a few minutes to tidy up in case they stayed at his place again. Finally satisfied with the state of things, he headed out the door.

She was reading through the Hopkins file when he dropped her Danish on her desk. He handed her the hot cup of coffee and she thanked him, same as always.

"Heard from Ross yet?" Bobby asked.

She shook her head. "He's not in. Check your messages. Maybe they called you."

Bobby picked up his office phone and pushed the message button. After entering his code, he listened and took some notes. He looked up at her with a grin. "We got it. We need to go to the 3-2 and get briefed. Then we can check out the crime scene."