Bobby POV

Monday morning came about as fast as it usually does.

There's a reason why that particular day has a bad reputation, and just because it didn't necessarily indicate the start of the work week for us, that didn't make me like it any better.

Today was still going to be a challenge.

We'd left Banta's apartment yesterday evening and gone back to 1PP to gather the rest of the evidence from Stahl's house.

In light of the latest information, I didn't think that the Bureau suspected that they'd given us anything worthwhile, but I also didn't want to take a chance on them reclaiming the boxes.

Once we had those loaded in the SUV, we went to the morgue.

Rodgers was analyzing the specimens she'd recovered from Banta's body.

"Your agent friend identified one man as Gino Bisetti?" she questioned when we walked in.

"That's right."

"Well, she's not leading you astray. He left his DNA all over the victim. Skin cells, hair, blood…"

"Blood?" Alex asked.

"Uh huh. He might want to consider using a weapon to beat his victims rather than his bare hands. There was blood and tissue embedded in the wounds on Banta's face."

"Anyone else?" Logan asked.

"Yes, but he's not in the system. I have an unidentified male perpetrator."

"That would be the other guy on the tape," I concluded thoughtfully. "Okay, so what does that tell us? We already knew it was Hassan and his men."

"Well, I have one theory," Rodgers said. "If you're interested."

"I'm interested in everything you've got," Logan told her.

I know he didn't mean that suggestively, but now that I know they're sleeping together, I couldn't keep from barking out a laugh when she raised an eyebrow at his statement. And yeah, so my slip into the unprofessional probably had more to do with lack of sleep than anything else, but still…

"You know what I mean," he added. "Let's hear your theory."

"Well, the binding bothered me," she said. "Like you pointed out, why bother tying him up like that after the broken fingers, not to mention the dislocated elbow and shoulder. There's little chance that he was fighting back at that point."

"Okay," Alex said encouragingly. "So why tie him?"

"What if they didn't mean for him to die? It was a punctured lung. They might not have realized that. Maybe they tied him up because that's how they wanted you to find him."

"Alive," I stated. "For the purpose of what?"

"I don't know," she admitted with a shrug. "Maybe he gave them what they were after."

"After an hour? Statistically speaking, a person will either give up information in the first fifteen minutes or not for days," I told them. "And Banta seems to me like a first-fifteen kind of guy."

"So they got the information and then they punished him," Alex suggested. "They made him pay for putting Hassan in that situation to begin with.''

"We're missing something," Logan said. "He had Stahl's bank records, but he didn't touch the money. He let them into his apartment. He had a relationship with Hassan."

My brain was on overload as we all quietly pondered the possibilities.

"We need sleep," Alex said at last.

"Tomorrow will be another day in Major Case," Logan reminded her. "Goren and I have the Schuler case and you have…everything that you do."

"We'll work it out," she said. She looked at Logan and tipped her head towards Rodgers. "You're going to her place right?"

"Uh huh," he agreed. "What about you two?"

"We'll get a hotel," I said.

"That's silly. I've got room," Rodgers insisted. "You'll stay with us."

So that's what we did. It was nearly ten o'clock by the time we got there, but that still left us with the possibility of eight hours of sleep, so I was ecstatic.

Of course, the brain doesn't always comply just because it's time for rest. In fact, that's usually when it stages a revolt. As tired as we were when we arrived at Rodgers' place, within fifteen minutes, I was wide awake and so was everyone else.

So instead of going to bed, we convened in the living room.

"How would Hassan know to hire Italian muscle?" Alex pondered aloud.

"Criminals know criminals, right?" Rodgers replied.

"I guess," she agreed. "I just thought that Hassan was a necessity killer. I mean, he had his father killed so that he could take over. He had Ross killed because he was trying to undermine his plan to set up the private police force. Beemer, because he was investigating Stahl's involvement."

"So why Banta unless he posed a serious threat?" I finished. "And why would he be desperate enough to hire a professional? Surely he has devoted followers who would willingly take Assaf and Najjar's place."

"That's my point," Alex said. "Bringing in Gino just doesn't make sense."

"You think he's that five thousand dollar wire?" Logan questioned.

"That could be a down payment," I agreed. "But Alex is right. Those two should be running in completely different circles. What would make Hassan hire Gino in the first place?"

"I don't know, but there was something else in Stahl's apartment," Alex said. "If Banta stole the bank statements, then he could've just as easily stolen other things. And the bank statements were still there, in plain sight, at Banta's apartment. Hassan wasn't worried about them or he would've taken them."

"And if he saw them, it means he probably closed out that account you found," Logan remarked.

"Right. And he obviously has more, so closing one account isn't a big deal to him. No, it has to be something else."

"I've been thinking about that. Stahl collected more than five million from Hassan in less than a year."

"Five million?" Rodgers repeated. "She was doing more than giving him information."

"Like what?" Logan asked. "Like she was a kept woman?"

"I think she had dirt on him. They were holding each other by the short hairs," Alex said suddenly. "And whatever she had, Banta stole."

"But how are we ever going to find it? The FBI has taken over the crime scene," Rodgers said.

"I don't know," Logan said, getting up from the chair. "But right now, I've got to get some sleep."

He held out his hand to Rodgers, helping her up from the chair.

"Thanks for putting us up, Liz," Alex said. "We'll start fresh in the morning."

So that was what we did.

We got a good night's sleep and then we hit the ground running.

Only we ran into a snag before we could hit our stride.

Logan and I had only been at our desks for a few minutes when Chief Moran came through the squad room.

"Trouble at four o'clock," Logan muttered to me.

"Looks to me like it's trouble at seven forty-five," I replied wryly.

And maybe I'd been hanging out with Alex too much, I don't know, but I did manage to pull a chuckle out of Logan.

I watched carefully as Moran knocked on Alex's door and then went into her office.

"At least he knocked," I said. "If he was really mad, he would've walked right in."

Alex POV

The night at Rodgers' house had been restful.

There hadn't been too many nights in recent history where we'd been allowed to sleep for so many hours in a row, so when we climbed into bed, the knowledge that we had seven hours before the alarm was enough to block everything else out.

I didn't think about Hassan or Banta.

I didn't care about the size of the bed we were in or the fact that I had nothing clean to put on in the morning.

I didn't even ponder the unusual hum of the furnace or the steady creaking of the bed in the adjacent room.

Okay, I did comment on that, but only briefly.

"Should we time him?" I whispered to Bobby.

"No," he said as quiet laughter rolled through him. "But it does make me feel like the old married man, considering I don't have the energy to compete."

"I hope you don't mean that."

"Which part? The old or the married?"

"The idea that you need to compete. I'm fine with you feeling married."

"Yeah?" he asked, shifting me so that I was lying on top of him. I rested my cheek against his chest and closed my eyes.

"Definitely."

"So maybe we should leave New York," he said in a low, rumbling voice. His hand stroked idly over my hair as he continued the fantasy. "We could get married on a beach in Italy, maybe buy a villa in a seaside town."

"What would we do?" I murmured, enjoying the picture he was painting.

"I'll be a fisherman and you can work on your tan…"

"I'm unemployed?" I asked in feigned horror.

"Okay, maybe not," he said, chuckling again. "You can be the Vice Questore Aggiunto and I'll be one of your poliziotti."

"That almost sounds dirty," I teased.

"It pretty much means we'd be doing the same thing there that we're doing here," he admitted.

"Yeah, it's tough to even fantasize about anything else, isn't it? It's just what we do. Although I have to admit, I like that part about the Italian beach."

"I like the part about us being together as long as we both shall live."

"That part," I said as I reached up to kiss him. "Is not a fantasy."

"It's my fantasy," he countered.

"It's a fact," I promised.

I kissed him again, and then settled against his chest and closed my eyes.

It felt like only a minute had passed when the alarm went off. I woke up in the exact same position as I'd been in when I fell asleep.

"You're going to have a permanent imprint of my face on your chest," I said apologetically as I got out of the bed.

"You don't hear me complaining, do you?"

We showered and then dressed in yesterday's clothes. Bobby had a clean suit in the locker room at work, and I had a fresh blouse, so at least that would be something.

We each downed two cups of coffee while standing in Rodgers' kitchen, and then we got ready to leave.

"I'll make another pass on the evidence," Rodgers told us as we all walked outside together. "I'll be in touch."

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting in my office, trying to prioritize the growing mound of paperwork, when Moran knocked on my door.

"Please tell me what's going on with this federal disaster," he said when he entered my office.

"Where do you want me to start?"

"Agent Banta is dead?"

"Yes, sir. The feds have taken over jurisdiction."

"They're allowed to investigate one of their own," he said.

"Of course. But with Banta's murder, Casteel has decided to remove us from the case altogether."

"He requested the assistance of Major Case."

"Yes, sir, as it pertained to the apprehension of Khy Hassan."

"And has he been apprehended?"

"No, sir."

"Then it looks to me like NYPD still has jurisdiction. I don't want some hush-hush cover up going on when this case has our name on it, do I make myself clear?"

"Absolutely. I couldn't agree more."

"Don't worry about Casteel. I'll take care of him," he assured me.

"I appreciate that."

"What are Goren and Logan working on? Judge Schuler?"

"That's right. They have a possible lead on tracking down the…young lady…who was with the judge just prior to his death."

"Hand it off. I want those two going full bore on Hassan. Who's your next best?"

He caught me by surprise with his vehemence over the case, but I was glad to see it.

"That would be Wyatt and Yuille."

"Yuille? Are you sure?"

"He's sharp. He knows how to get the job done. He and Wyatt have made amends and they're working quite well together."

"Fine. The Schuler case is theirs. Call all four of them in here for a full briefing ASAP and then get back on that Hassan case."

"Yes, sir."

Moran turned and headed for the door, but then he paused and looked back at me.

"Was Banta killed as payback for the setup?"

"That's one theory, yes."

He nodded crisply, but then his expression softened and he asked, "You're not staying home alone, are you?"

"I'm not staying home at all," I promised.

"Good. Watch yourself, Captain."

TBC...