Captain Woods's eyes scanned the page of the file in front of him, fascinated by the information. Snapping and growling, both the governor and senator had left with their entourage. It was not as if Senator Griffin could send a lawyer to defend his deceased son, who was charged with assault and attempted rape. He had promised to pursue getting Raven charged with murder, and Governor Bellerose had promised a lawyer for her family free of charge. Lily had been released from police custody for the time being, while Raven was speaking with her mother under surveillance.

Woods flipped over the page and began to read the one under it. He had though he'd heard of Dominic somewhere before other then as the governor's son. He was right. Dominic had a case file of his own. It had been three years ago, when Griffin and Bellerose had competed for Florida's seat in the Senate.

Dominic's hobby may be skateboarding with Cody and several others, but his love was baseball, and he was a member of the local high school's varsity baseball team. It had been after practice at the school's field. His bodyguards had been wiped out before Dominic realized what had happened and three men had taken him into their sedan, hands cuffed in front of him, dazed after one of them smashed his gun against the young man's head. They had intended to hold him for ransom against his father.

It would have worked had Cody and Raven not been present. They had stayed after school with several of their friends to work on a history project Dominic had already finished. A parent had picked up the rest of her friends, but Raven had her own car, so she and Cody had been going to it when they'd seen Dominic be shoved into the car.

Raven had called the police as they ran to towards the sedan in the parking lot.

"9-1-1, what is your emergency?"

"There is a kidnapping in progress at South Miami Senior High School," Raven had told them briskly. "Three men in a black sedan, probably armed. They're on SW 53rd street about to leave the parking lot. Send units."

Then she hung up. Woods had read the transcript of the 9-1-1 call already. It was brisk and to the point, her tone free of crippling panic or fear that would normally cloud the thinking of someone in her situation.

The teenagers had picked a creative approach for stopping the sedan about to leave with their friend. Ducking between rows of cars, Cody had jumped in front of the sedan as it started to speed away and chucked his thick, hardcover history textbook at the windshield. There was no chance for them to shoot and the windshield had cracked, startling them. The driver had turned the steering wheel too hard and slammed into another car, halting their attempted escape.

The driver and one other man got out, guns in hand, but Cody had already vanished among the cars. Raven had chucked a stone she had picked up at the driver, striking his head and dropping him. She had a good arm, she had said during police questioning, a side effect of using a slingshot. She knew she had to get rid of the driver first so they couldn't escape. Gunshots had knocked out the window of a nearby car she jumped behind and Cody whistled, drawing the gunman's attention to him.

When the third gunman tried to get out of the sedan, Dominic tackled him. Both had fallen to the asphalt and Dominic had reached the gun first. He had shot the gun's owner at almost point blank range, knocking him against the sedan. The men hadn't been wearing Kevlar, not seeing a reason for it. Spitting up blood, he had tried to grab for Dominic, only for the teenager to shoot him again. It had been such close range police had found Dominic splattered with the attacker's blood.

His partner had stopped aiming for Cody at the sound of gunshots and turned towards Dominic. Cody tackled him before he could bring his gun to bear and the two struggled briefly before Cody was thrown backwards by the larger man. When he raised his gun to shoot him Dominic pulled the trigger three times, shooting him in the back.

The driver had returned to his senses as Raven searched for keys to Dominic's handcuffs in the car. She had drawn her switchblade, holding it in a reverse grip flat against her forearm to shield it from sight. He had grabbed her by her jacket and she had flipped the blade into a forward grip, stabbing him in the stomach. She had kicked him in balls as she scrambled out of the car. While the driver had been doubled over she delivered a vicious roundhouse kick to his head, this time knocking him out.

It was fortunate it had been so late in the day. The other students had gone home. When police arrived they found Cody and Raven sitting on either side of Dominic. The gun and handcuffs lay abandoned on the ground. The governor's son had been trembling, Cody and Raven silent and exhausted. It was the first time any of them had seen bodies.

Mechanically, Raven had been cleaning the switchblade with her jacket. She had told officers she needed to. The blood would rust the blade. Her father had warned her.

She told them she had fought to protect her friends so they didn't get shot, and to keep Dominic from being kidnapped. If she hadn't acted, who knew what would have happened to him. Raven would do it again to protect her friends. She had very much inherited her father's fighting spirit, but there had been something wrong with how calmly she had said it. It shouldn't be so easy for her to bare her blade against another human.

The ability to separate feelings from muscles as one attacks took most killers years to develop. That was why Woods believed criminals didn't start out killing people, but worked up to it as their crimes worsened. There were exceptions however. Some were born with the ability to do it. There was something wrong with their minds, psychologists said. They could separate their emotions because they felt no empathy for those they killed, and no regret afterwards. They were rare killers. The exact term for them was psychopath.

The men Dominic had shot had died, but the one Raven stabbed survived until he was taken to a hospital and stabilized. When he was able to be moved, police attempted to take him to their precinct. A sniper had shot him in the head when he left the hospital. They had found the sniper nest, but never the sniper. The cover-up succeeded and the case had gone cold. Griffin had become senator, though Bellerose would become state governor the next year.

A theory had circulated that Griffin had been behind the kidnapping attempt, the entire thing done to coerce Bellerose to drop out of the race for senator. There had never been proof however, and the investigation turned up nothing. Either Griffin had not been involved or he was very good at keeping his hands clean. Woods found the idea interesting since it had not been the first time Griffin's name had been offered in conjunction with illegal activities. Bribery (both accepting and giving them), fraud, blackmail, even one charge of murder. Kidnapping had been added to his assumed resume.

Raven had killed Peter Griffin. Peter's father had been intent that Raven had murdered his son in cold blood instead of self-defense, but could offer no reason why she would do so. Dominic had given plenty of reasons why Peter would force Raven to kill him to protect herself and Lily, her friend who had been in the same house as her. Lily had also recounted past incidents of Peter overstepping his bounds.

Raven had told them of an incident during a bonfire held by her class not that long ago. Peter had put his arm around her shoulders while she'd been looking over the sea and wouldn't let go of her, so she'd twisted his hand, nearly breaking his wrist, to get him to release her. He'd been drunk despite being underage. Jeremy, Amber, and Ashley, all friends of hers, would be able to concur what she said. She even said to find Claire Jenkins, Peter's last girlfriend, if they wanted another opinion.

He began replacing the pages in the file. Woods could not act against Griffin without proof, but perhaps he could use the senator's intent to press charges against Raven to his advantage. He didn't know if Raven had deliberately killed Peter, if she was one of those rare killers. Whatever she was, this was a rare chance to deal with Griffin. He would take it.

Woods reached up and touched the wreath-and-wings pendent that hung under his shirt. Kira was busy fighting Near and handling other matters, but that would not stop Woods from doing his duty to uphold the law. His first concern was putting Griffin behind bars where he could do no more harm. Then he would wait until Kira had time to judge him and see if he deserved to die.

He closed the folder and set it to one side to see the one beneath it. This file contained the details of Cody Sharp's suicide. With the exception of adults and Peter, everyone he had spoken to said there was no way Cody would kill himself. That included everyone who knew him well enough to call him a friend, and Woods would trust the friends' beliefs over those who only distantly knew him.

Someone knocked on the door to his office. Woods glanced up with his hand on Cody's folder. Woods kept the door open at all times, requesting his officers simply knock when they entered. It was Anderson, the officer who had been speaking to Raven. She had her hands full. This was a profoundly different kind of interrogation then trying to match a body with a killer. Raven had been frank about how she had killed him and that it had been self-defense. It was clear she was guilty. Anderson had to figure out the intent behind the kill – defense or murder?

"The defense attorney sent by Governor Bellerose for Ms. Grayson has arrived," Anderson said, "he says his name is Noah Bryant. He wishes to speak to Grayson."

"He can," Woods told her.

Another officer approached behind Anderson. "Sir, there's a reporter from the Miami Herald here. He wants a statement from you about the murder of Senator Griffin's son. There's also a crew from NBC news station."

Woods had been expecting something like that. The son of a wealthy senator killed by a middle-class student he had supposedly assaulted? The media were going to have a hay-day with this.

"Tell them I'll give them a statement at 5 o'clock," Woods informed him. That was two hours away.

He nodded, but before he left a third police officer came to his office.

"Sir," he greeted Woods, "we just got a call from the units we have at the Grayson house. Senator Griffin has sent over private investigators who want to look at the crime scene and Raven's room."

Griffin wasted no time. Woods sighed, placing a hand over his face for a few seconds. It was going to be one of those days, was it?

"Do they have a search warrant?" Woods asked.

The officer shook his head.

"Then it depends whether Mrs. Greyson wants to let them search," Woods told him. "She's speaking with her daughter. They'll have to come to the station and ask. Don't let them in the house before then."

The three officers backed away to carry out their orders and Woods was finally free to look back at the folder. He paused before he opened it, realizing he'd just sent the private investigators and Raven's attorney into the same room. Then he shrugged. Oh well. They'd have to work it out sooner or later. A case like this was probably going to end up with state-wide attention, if not national. He was slightly tempted to watch what would likely be a memorable argument between lawyer and investigator, but he shooed the selfish thought aside and opened Cody Sharp's folder.

*Snicker.* Oh boy, lawyers and investigators. That'll be something to watch.