At six-fifty-three, they had their footage from Riley; at seven-oh-two, they were in Beckett's ride and speeding to the hospital to confront Elaine Hammond. They barreled past the nurse at the reception desk who tried desperately in vain to warn them that visiting hours were over and they would have to leave. Beckett barely registered her voice in her ears, and they were in the elevator, formulating a game plan while the nurse pounded desperately on the doors.

'I talk,' Beckett said, staring at the numbers light up with every floor they passed.

'I figured.'

'You need to let her see just how infuriated I am that she thought she could pull this kind of shit on us and get away with it.'

Esposito nodded, sucked in a breath as the elevator doors opened and Beckett stalked out like a heat-seeking Predator to the nurses station. She slapped her badge on the counter, braced her hands.

'Elaine Hammond, she still in her same room?'

'Yes, but- oh you can't go in, her doctor is in there now on nightly rounds!'

'Watch me.'

Beckett whirled away and moved to the room; she was thankful Elaine was in a private room because that way she didn't disturb a roommate when she shoved open the door, put her hand on her weapon holstered on the small of her back. Elaine was in bed in her own pyjamas, having her blood pressure read by the physician in scrubs.

'We just came from a little chat with Aurora, Elaine, and you might think you're pretty good but our lab guys have very good tools at their disposal. Some might even say they're the best. Like this.'

Beckett held up a clear bag that had the Dante Brunetti boots in them. 'Our people determined that it was your feet in these boots when Victor Hammond was stabbed. You swapped her shoes when you arrived at the hotel, you made sure she left wearing the boots you had on when you killed your husband.'

'Aurora killed him, for me,' she said innocently. 'She wouldn't let him get away with everything he'd done to me.'

'You may have convinced yourself of that, and taking those pills to make sure we didn't look too closely at you as a suspect was a nice try but like I said, my people are very, very good.'

Beckett produced from her field bag the UV-light photo of the murder weapon knife. 'B-12 vitamin dissolved in vinegar. Easy household spy weapon with your prints lighting up like a Christmas tree. The same prints found with smears of blood in them as you adjusted your hold on the knife when you plunged it into the still-breathing Victor Hammond.'

'You many wanna stop that, Doc,' Esposito murmured to the physician. 'It'll screw up your charts.'

'My reading says one-sixteen over seventy-two.'

Beckett continued to stare at Elaine, who had gone very still. 'Of course it does because she isn't panicking, she's planning Doctor. How am I going to spin this, what's my next move. Well, I'll tell you right now. You are going to get dressed and you're going to be released from this hospital AMA, and taken to the police station.'

'Detective,' the doctor interjected, 'this woman is on highly-controlled substances to stabilize her emotions.'

'You think so? Go ahead, do a quick blood panel. I'll wait.'

'Detective Beckett.' Finally Elaine spoke. 'I can understand how you'd want to implicate me in this, but I can assure you that it's not in my nature to kill someone.'

'I believe it is. I kept trying to figure out why the hell someone as smart as you, who handles the money for the household would put up with the kind of crap Victor put you through and it hit me.' Beckett leaned forward, hand still bracing on her weapon. 'You used your background as a CPA and notary public to draw up the prenup according to his wishes. You knew once the money started piling up divorce wasn't an option, so you set up your own sister once you knew that you'd cleared the million-dollar mark on the murder clause.'

There was a thrumming silence as the women squared off silently; Esposito let his hand drift down to his own sidearm in case Elaine suddenly went full fruit-cake and tried to strangle Beckett with the IV drip in her arm. The tension finally broke when Elaine was the first to blink and a small little smile graced her lips.

'How will you prove it? A pair of boots and a knife with Aurora's prints? Is that all you've got, you stupid bitch?'

'That's just he tip of the iceberg. But you'll get to wait to hear about that, because that's the lawyer's job.'

Elaine said nothing, remained cold and impassive as Esposito stepped up while Beckett recited the Miranda rights to Elaine Hammond and he put the handcuffs on her. Though Beckett knew it was bad form, this broad had really pushed her to the edge, and she couldn't resist getting in a little jab.

'Who's the bitch now, Elaine.'

It was nearly eleven when Esposito finally made it home, but with good reason. Elaine Hammond had lawyered up and had no problem being held in the tank until Monday when he and Beckett were back on duty to continue wrapping things up for Ian Link and his boss.

Esposito tossed his keys into the bowl by the door, stowed his gun and went into the kitchen for a drink. He caught sight of the note on the fridge door and grinned.

I have a treat upstairs. Come and get it, big boy. xx, M.

As he'd called her to let her know he was on his way home, Esposito uesd the trip to the second floor to muse over what she might have cooked up for them. But before he went into his own bedroom, he made the rounds to his children first, starting with Max. Much like his mami, Max moved around a lot in his sleep and would have probably rolled himself right out of bed if not for the guard.

'Love you, Max Power,' he murmured, kissing his son's brow.

The twins were next, and it appeared that it was going to be laundry day the next day as Esposito had to pick his way around little lumps of tangled clothes. Trini was nicknamed the Hurricane for a reason, he thought as he gave his little girl a kiss on the cheek and repeated it for his big man. 'Love you, Hurricane and Lion.'

Finally he made it to Tessi and his heart broke a little when he saw that Tessi had tucked herself into bed with Arturo's neon-green collar clutched in her hand as she kept Crush in a hammerlock. He made his way to her bed, combed her hair with his fingers.

'I know you miss your buddy, princess,' he murmured, then stopped when Tessi snorted herself awake, blinked bleary eyes at her father.

'Daddy, that you?'

'No, it's Ponce de Leon.'

'You're silly. Did you get the bad guys?'

'Yes.'

'Yea, good job Daddy.' Tessi thumped her head back on her pillow. 'Night-night.'

Her little eyes closed, and Esposito gave her head a little kiss. His tots looked after, Esposito went to his own room and grinned when he saw that it wasn't hot sex with Meredeth that awaited him tonight, but Meredeth in bed wearing cute jammies watching Shark Week on DVD while a platter of cold-cuts, cheese, coleslaw and ciabatta rolls waited on the bureau. On his beside table was a pitcher of what he knew was sparkling mango juice with ice to keep it cold.

'Mere, you are the best wife in the world. I love you so much.'

'I love you so much right back. Now, let's eat.'