She is so in love with him that there's not a doubt in her mind. Thinking back to all the sinful things that he did to her body brings a smile to her face. One that will not that easily disappear anytime soon. After they had something to eat, the three of them hit the town and did a day's worth of assorted activities. They shopped, went to lunch at a small boutique café, and even had the time to take in a movie. But as the movie started the end and they were getting ready to leave the theater, she knew that their weekend was soon coming to an end too. At first in Tom's office when he suggested that they still go out to the Hamptons, she was a bit apprehensive at first. She was an emotional wreck after hearing that Mr. Black had just ordered someone to kill her mother and the only thing she wanted to do was curl up in a little ball and cry. It was he who convinced her that they should still go to out to the Hamptons and she loves him all the more for it now. It seems that he knows her better than she knows herself. As they start walking back to the car from the theater they pass by a small souvenir shop of sorts. Her arm falls from the crook of his arm as she stops to look into the window of the shop. At first, he kept walking but when he realized that she had stopped he turned back guiding Alexis to the window where she was standing. She was just staring at something and he did not know what in particular she had been looking at. The shop had an assortment of little knick-knacks, statuettes, and of course the ever-popular assortment of t-shirts. The store was high-end and he bet nothing in the front window was under $100. Seeing that she was so interested in something on display he wrapped his arm around her waist and gently tugged her to the door to the shop. At first, he thought she was going to resist and not choose anything to buy from the store. The door opens the and the bell chime above them sounds announcing their visit. Once they were inside he showed Alexis where the age-appropriate souvenirs where, and told her to pick out something to remember the weekend by. He walked back cautiously to where she was standing. By the table she was standing at held a very large amount of assorted sized snow globes. There were many globes to choose from. The larger ones were more intricate, and the smaller ones held just a simple scene that defined the Hamptons. He tried to guess what she was looking at, but she was lost in what she was thinking so he waited patiently for her to say something. After looking at just about every snow globe she picked one up that fit in the palm of her hand. It had to be about six inches in diameter and this scene in the globe was one of a family of three at the beach under a beach umbrella with a wave crashing onto the shore. She looked up at him hesitantly hoping that he understood why she selected this particular snow globe. Her fears were eased when he took the globe from her hand, gave it a quick look, and started to walk to the register to pay for the globe. On the way to the register, Alexis came bounding out with something that she found just as interesting. He placed their purchases on the counter took out his wallet and paid. The clerk wrapped the snow globe up to protect it from damage and placed it in a box large enough to hold it. With the globe and Alexis' purchases, they left the shop and to return back to the car. As she watched as the Hamptons faded away from the comfort of the car through the window hoping that they could come back soon. She also knew what they both faced next was something that she hoped his support could get her through.

Xx

"Good morning Mr. Seavers!" Mr. Upton greeted with two coffees in hand at the front door to his office and he notices a very well worn out banker's box sitting on the floor by the door.

"Mr. Upton, it's good to see you so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed early on a Sunday morning."

"You know what they say right Mr. Seavers?"

"No, Mr. Upton, but I have a feeling you're going to enlighten me anyway."

"So true counselor, so true. They say that the early bird gets the worm. But, I'm here this morning to get a snake. Are you ready?"

"More than you know Mister Upton, so much more than you know."

"Alright, then let's get to it."

Tom and Mr. Upton enter his outer office and he quickly checks any voicemail messages that might have been left overnight at his secretary's desk before they enter into the conference room to start going over all the information that Mr. Upton has collected about all of Mr. Black's dirty dealings, unfortunate accidents, attempted murder, and murder plans.

Finding only two messages left by associates of his after they had called it a night late Saturday, he knows that these messages can wait until Monday morning when he comes into work. Rounding the counter and stepping into the conference room with Mr. Upton he notices that he has the banker's box in hand and the pair of coffee cups are balancing on the lid very precociously. Tom grabs the cups off the top of the box before they can hit the ground and he receives a nod of gratitude from Mr. Upton. As he approached the conference room table Mr. Upton places the box on the end of it and lifts off the lid to start going through all the information he had acquired since their meeting with Kate and Rick on Friday. He's curious to know what he's found since he hasn't told him a thing about what he was looking for or how he got it since the meeting on Friday.

The second he starts to pull out the massive files obviously containing a lot of information enclosed within them, Tom's eyes just simply bug outgoing wider with everything he places on the conference table. When he's finally finished he sees that it's going to take them a majority of the day to get through all this information. Tom looks over to Mr. Upton and gives him a look that has to say why us.

"Tom, files to the right and center of the conference table are paper files involving Mr. Black and his unsavory deeds. The compact disks to the left of the files are audio recordings of some of what Mr. Black was into both on his burner phone and his office phone. Now I'm 100% positive that this information will not and should not be used for any legal precedents that we could be able to get Mr. Black accused of, but this information does give us a point we can start off at. I'm not an attorney but I am certain that the information I have collected on Mr. Black will be enough to get warrants issued for his arrest and possibly life in prison. It's just going to take some time to sort through all these files in order to put a good defense together so that he cannot weasel his way out of this. I intend to turn the screws to this man relentlessly."

The first file they review is the file from the couple in Plymouth Park Texas. While there's nothing they can do to get their shop back for them, they note the incident on a legal pad for further investigation. The first serious case is the second file regarding the arson fire in Dallas. Mr. Upton takes out the paperwork, opens up the file, and starts to read what he found to Tom so he can make notes on the legal pad. As it turns out from the official police report the security guard who had leaped from the second story window to save his life from burning alive had not fared very well since his leap. Seeing the information from the police report as to which hospital he was taken to, Tom then pulls out the hospital file for the security guards ER visit. Once he opens it his mouth drops almost to the table. Apparently, when is security guard jumped, he impacted the sidewalk with such force that he broke both of his legs driving the major bones into his hip socket and both hip joints had to be replaced along with his right knee and when he landed he had also shattered his skull. The company that provided his health insurance had given him benefits for the first year for the associated surgeries that took place following his injuries. Mr. Upton reads on and points to the paragraph where the insurance company states that they would no longer provide benefits after a year's time. So, by 2004, this man is basically left hanging out to dry. Since the time of his initial surgery, he's had three others to correct the way he walks. Each time he goes in for any surgery after the insurance has expired set him back to the tune of $45,000 or more. This man is drowning in debt and it's all because of Mr. Black. They finally get to the arson investigators report and find out that the person who set this fire did not do anything to cover his tracks very well. What he basically did was take a five-gallon gas can spread it around the basement of the bookstore and toss a match onto the gas. He watches as Mr. Upton pulls out two sheets of paper from a very thin file folder and to him it looks like an index of sorts. On it, he reads down to the middle of the page and then reaches for the corresponding compact disc. Tom has the disc player with portable speakers sitting between them. He loads the disc and presses the play button. The next sounds that they both hear are that of Mr. Black's voice and the person that he hired to start the fire. The man he hired was called in from another state but the statement he makes once the telephone call gets to the agreement of cash for the job is where they have him. Tom makes a note of it on the legal pad along with the date of the call, the amount agreed upon and what was said. There's probably no way that they can catch the man who was responsible for actually starting the fire but Mr. Black, they have dead to rights now. They are both well aware of what the security guard has gone through since the incident. And while it's so long after his initial injuries they plan on getting the guard a monetary settlement after all of this is over. When it is over they have his contact information and they will tell him what to do in order to go after Black publishing with the evidence they have.

Tom decided that before they got into the third file of the bookshop of the owner that was murdered in Vegas, coffee was much needed. Two hours had flown right by them in the blink of an eye.

"Mr. Upton, would you care for a refill?"

"I'd love one. Thank you, Tom."

"It's fine. I'll be right back."

As Tom retreats, back to the coffee table to prepare their coffees he's not less than halfway to the table when Mr. Upton stops him from walking forward by calling out his name.

"Tom, I think that we have progressed past the use of last names. Please address me as Anthony or Tony."

Tom finishes the short walk to the coffee table his face breaks out into a small smile knowing he's just won a battle. Making the coffee he returns back to the table and hands Tony his cup. After receiving the cup, he lifts it in thanks.

As Tim sits down next to Tony, he's already reaching for the file of the bookstore owner who died. He died from injuries he sustained from being basically run over by a taxi. What Tony has found in his file was that the taxi driver was not a taxi driver at all. Mr. Black had hired him for his talents as a stunt car driver direct from Hollywood. The stunt driver knew how to crash the cab in a fashion that would keep him alive and still take out the store owner. But Tom has to face the facts that anybody hit by a car would not survive this accident no matter what they did. The only silver lining in that cloud was that they had the stunt drivers name and recorded the conversation with Mr. Black regarding payment, time, and method of killing for the bookstore owner. This information along with the arson information would be used against Mr. Black when the time was right. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had classified the case as cold. Even the fashion in which this incident occurred oddly raised red flags for them as well so they never closed the case entirely.

With the evidence, they already compiled on Mr. Black's dirty dealings they now had enough to put him away for at rest of his life. But they still had to deal with Kate's mother's case and this one was complicated, to say the least. The recordings that Tony had found on Mr. Black's dealing with Joanna Beckett were civil to start with. He offered to buy out her shop and make her a tidy profit in the process. But Joanna was not budging on his offer to sell. It has gotten to the point where the phone calls he was making to her became more harassing as time went on. By the time he came short of threatening her over the phone he stopped calling altogether, abruptly. Mr. Black had decided that actions would speak a lot louder than words. He hired an assassin for the lack of a better term and decided that her life needed to be snuffed out when she was alone and no one was to witness the act. Those were his two conditions that needed to be met. She was to be alone and she was not to have any family or friends with her when she was killed. He wanted no one to see this and have it come back on him. The assassin followed her home from work numerous times to get her routine down and to pick the best place to commit his crime in. It seemed that there were plenty of locations to commit this crime and still achieve his goal. He had a very short amount of time from when she left the store after closing up until she reached the subway entrance. After following her on the subway one night he decided that it was easier to take her when she left the bookstore. The walk was even shorter from the subway stop to her house and they were witnesses that always seems to be around when she got to her stop. There was an ally less than half a block away from her store that she passed as she walked to the subway stop. This was a dead-ended alley, and he decided that this will be the best location. Two days later he grabbed her from behind put a knife to her throat and dragged her down the dark alley. He killed her in a way where she could not scream for help from any passer-by walking out on the street. After he stabbed her in the side, he drew the knife across her throat slicing it open and ensuring that she could not call out for help. He lowered her body slowly to the ground putting her on her knees and letting her fall forward. He watched as the blood drained out of her throat, then watched as she took her last breath. He turned and left the alley and as he walked towards the street he only wanted two things; to get away from this place before being caught and collecting his $100,000 for a job completed.

Tony and Tom could only cringe at the way that she had been murdered. Alone with no one by her side when she left this world. When they finished with reading Johanna's they were so confident that this was the icing on the cake. With the information they had, Kate could go to the authorities and present them with what they found and hopefully, it would get a new investigation moving forward.

"Tom, now that we have him from a legal standpoint, we can start with ruining his life while he still out of jail."

"What did you have in mind? From all the evidence I see that we gathered on him we can't do much more than basically end his life now."

"Now that's where you're incorrect counselor. Making him squirm is going to be the best reward yet."

Xx

Their a ride comes to an end and Kate, Alexis, and Rick take the elevator up to the loft from the parking garage. He unlocked the door and they all step inside, exhausted after dealing with traffic they faced during most of the ride home. Rick wants to get back into a normal routine as soon as he can before they go to see Tom and Mr. Upton tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Alexis has school tomorrow so he gets her to take a bath and get into her sleepwear. In the meantime, he and Kate drop their overnight bags in his room before they head back to the kitchen to throw together something to eat for dinner. He decided on chicken piccata which was easy to make and he already had the chicken in the fridge defrosted waiting for him to use, just in case. He breaded the chicken and pan fried the pieces for two minutes on each side and then baked them for ten minutes in the oven while he made the sauce. He added a steamer bag of mixed vegetables that cooked easy. Dinner rolls for a touch and he was finished with his dinner preparations. By the time he got done baking the chicken Alexis will be done with her bath and he and Kate could sit and relax with a glass of wine until she came down. Alexis came down five minutes later he went back to the kitchen to retrieve dinner. Just as dinner was finished and Kate had taken Alexis up to her room to tuck her in for the night, his cell phone rang. Noticing the caller ID so late on a Sunday night he couldn't imagine what Tom wanted to talk to him about. He answered the phone and Tom immediately went into his explanation about why he was calling so late.

"Hi, Tom. What's new?"

"It's funny you should be asking me that Rick. Tony just left about fifteen minutes ago and we came up with a plan that we think will put Mr. Black in the red. So, what we need for you and Kate to do is to come over to the office at the same time and we'll explain everything to you then."

Rick just agrees and hangs up. As Kate catches the end of his phone conversation she looks to him with a raised eyebrow.

"That was Tom, Kate. He says he and Tony have come up with a plan for Mr. Black. He still wants us to meet him at 10 a.m. in his office."

Kate can only let a small smile show and nods her answer…