The bleakness of the implications of Adam's theory temporarily left when Ryan walked in to the AV lab in CSU to see riley in fine first-time daddy-to-be style - he was trying without much success to get Andrews with her adorable little bump off her feet. Andrews, being Andrews, was naturally refusing to be ordered around.

'Stop hovering.'

'I'm not hovering, but you've been on your feet enough already today.'

'It's ten-thirty, Riley, I've got another five hours to go.'

'And you've already been around solvents and chemicals since seven this morning. Sit down.'

Ryan only shook his head - he'd been the daddy like that once and his wife had been just as stubborn as Andrews was, if not moreso. Still, it was fun to watch the Cheese Whiz get his ass kicked by his knocked-up fiancee.

'Ribaldo Leonardo Fontina, do not make me use your middle name again. I don't like it one bit.'

'Alright, alright.'

'But I wouldn't mind a little footrub.' Now, because she knew she'd won Andrews sat down, propped her feet on the rolling footstool and wiggled them back and forth. 'We are feeling a little tired now that you mention it.'

'I told you,' Riley teased her, sitting down to attend to her feet, then looking up when Ryan rapped his knuckles on the doorframe. 'Hey, check my outbox, I got what you need all set.'

'You're a diamond, bro.' Ryan found the file and the disc in the outbox, then grinned at Andrews. 'How's the bump, mama?'

'Hungry. The bump wants a turkey club and fries for lunch,' she informed Riley who grinned.

'I'll call in a few favours.'

Ryan left them to their cute devices, thought about how excited and anxious they were at such a joy. It made his thoughts circle back to the case, all the questions the parents and the children would face about their identity made his head hurt, so Ryan had no choice but to shove it aside for now.

He could - would - grieve for them later. Right now he had his job to do to wrap this unholy shit-storm up.

He returned to the conference room to see Adam and Esposito bro-dapping knuckles with Watkins, Adam giving the young pretty officer a shoulder squeeze by the neck.

'You are a genius, Watkins. You hear that Ryan?' Adam beamed like a little boy who'd finally gotten the right answer in math class. 'This woman's going to be the next Chief of Police. Tell them what you figured out.'

'I figured out where Charlotte was skimming money from,' she started and Ryan grinned widely.

'No shit?'

'No shit. Charlotte was transferring her own trust-fund out into a third-party account so it looked like Melissa had been hacked and then taking the money from the third-party

'That's not the best part.'

'The third-party is a joint account she had with Corey Shelley.'

'And sometimes it falls right into your lap.' Ryan came over and dapped knuckles with Watkins himself, then held up the disc. 'You wanna watch it on video?'

'Sure. Where's the popcorn?'

Ten minutes later, they were crowded around the viewing screen watching Riley's neat editing work with Watkins' requested popcorn being passed around. The first angle Riley was covering was the little hallway from the street into the reception room. At eight-forty-four, there was the movement of the door and they watched as Corey Shelley walked in; Adam's eye immediately went to his right hand where he appeared to be trying to hide the fact he was clutching something.

'What's that in his hand,' he asked to no one in particular. 'Ryan pause it.'

'Sure.'

Ryan did so, and Adam hopped up from his chair, squinted at the screen. 'Zoom a little? Right...there! Stop!'

Adam pointed to it and grinned when he saw what it was. 'Watkins, tell me that's a scalpel and I'll be making my wife very happy tonight.'

'Wife?' Esposito lifted his eyebrows, pretending to be surprised. 'You and Lindsay elope or something?'

'You know what I mean,' he sneered jovially.

'Lindsay will be a satisfied woman because that's not just a scalpel, that's a ten-blade. The most common surgical tool, not just used in hospitals but in biology labs too.'

'Corey's pre-med, he'd have plenty of access to them in labs,' Esposito pointed out.

'Yes he would and it wouldn't be questioned if he took one home by 'accident' in his work-kit, would it?'

'Keep playing the vid, Ryan,' Adam told him and the group continued to watch as they saw Corey shove open the door, leaving it wide enough for them to see Melissa at the desk and Corey on his feet, pointing at her and letting loose what appeared to be a long pent-up verbal firestorm. Melissa, amazingly, remained cool as a cucumber sitting at her desk with her hands folded. Only when Corey pulled something from his pocket and showed it to her did Melissa react and leap to her feet, storming around the counter and drilling her index fingertip into his broad chest. Whatever it was they said - there was no audio since it was a surveillance footage only tape - must have been the deal breaker, because Corey let the scalpel slip to the floor and he backhanded Melissa.

It was a nasty fight and they could see that it was not going to end well as Corey and Melissa grappled, and he finally succeeded in wrapping his dinner-plate sized hands around her throat, shaking and squeezing until they saw her legs stop moving. With an amazing amount of control after so violent a fight, Corey retrieved the scalpel he'd dropped and lowered it to Melissa's face. Even Ryan and Esposito, seasoned homicide veterans of nearly twenty years, had to look away until he was finished. When the disc went to black, then the menu of the next angle option, the entire room let out a breath they'd been collectively holding.

'Well, it looks like we've got our killer,' Watkins said simply. 'But...'

'Yeah, there's a big ol' but in there isn't there?' Ryan agreed.

'Why go to all this trouble to get rid of Melissa if Charlotte and Corey were planning to run?' Adam mused aloud.

'Maybe they thought it was the only way they could expose Melissa completely, so that no-one could get to her files and alter them?'

'Good idea Watkins, but she was fairly well insulated. The fact she limited the number of people who had access to them helps us out a great deal,' Ryan said, wheels turning in his head. 'My gut still tells me that Charlotte isn't so innocent in all of this and we need to figure out how. Okay. Okay, here's what we're going to do. Watkins, call Markaway, tell him you and I are coming with video footage to back up a warrant for Corey Shelley's arrest. Espo, you and Adam are going to find Charlotte and bring her in for formal questioning. I don't care what tantrums she throws, you get her ass here, you hear me?'

'Yes sir,' they chorused, Espo adding, 'Honey-Milk ever tell you how hot you are when you're in charge.'

'Bite me, Javi.'

'That's falls into your wife's To-Do List, not mine.'

On that cheerful note, Esposito left while Ryan finished give out his orders. 'Adam, once we get the warrants from Markaway, you and Watkins are going to arrest Corey while I talk to him about the federal side of things.'

'Arrest him?' Adam tried not to get excited. 'Like, I'm the leading officer?'

'You got potatoes in your ears or what?'

'No, sir, Detective. Let's go Watkins.'

They scuttled off and Ryan took one more look at the frozen image from the video surveillance, shook his head.

'Sounds like you're having a pretty exciting day, sweetie.'

'I'm going on my first solo arrest, I'd say that's damn exciting.'

Lindsay laughed as she listened to Adam, giddy as a little kid, while she poked at what was pretending to be a Greek salad - three olives, a couple of chunks of onion and two cherry tomatoes in a bowl of lettuce was not a Greek salad. 'Well, that sounds more productive than my day, I-'

'Lindsay!'

'Gotta go. Love you.' She hung up, saw Cannell standing in the doorway.

'Let's go, incoming trauma.'

'Okay.'

Lindsay dumped the remains of the sad little cafeteria salad into the trash, followed her resident out to the ambulance bay of the ER and was right there with Cannell as the paramedics fired off statistics.

'White male, age twenty, multiple stab woulds to the chest and upper back, found in his dorm room of Hudson U.'

Cannell barked orders while Lindsay looked into the large man's wide eyes, his pupils the size of pinheads with shock. 'Sir,' she told him, 'we'll do our best for you. What's your name?'

'Cor...ey,' he gasped out. 'Corey Sh...Sh...ell...ey.'