Chapter 50

After a few more kisses, Alex had lost all sense of time. The only thing she was aware of was that delicious pull Bobby had over her. She slipped her hands behind his back and ran them slowly up and down. She snuck them up inside the tail of his shirt, under all the layers.

The sensation of her hands against his bare skin made Bobby pause in the kissing. He closed his eyes with a smile. Alex brought her hands around to his chest, and he moaned in appreciation. Bobby started to unbutton his shirt, his lips and his nose hovering against the crown of her head, until she finally tilted up to look at him again. Their lips met once more.

He discarded one shirt and then Alex pushed the other up until Bobby yanked it over his head. He felt her warm breath snared in the hair of his chest as she kissed her way across him. He pressed his hips closer, aching for the contact. His long fingers tugged at her sweater, sliding it back over her arms. She shrugged out of it, and he pinched at the hem of her blouse until the fabric was tucked into his grasp. She let him pull it over her head.

He kissed her on the lips and then down her neck. His lips reached her breast just as he freed the clasp. She wriggled her arms and dropped the bra to the floor with the rest of their clothes. Her breath was sharp as he suckled her.

She regained enough of her senses to reach for his belt. As his mouth moved against her nipple, she moaned in pleasure. He gasped a couple of times as her fingers slipped from the clasp of his pants to brush against his throbbing cock. As the pants started to fall away, his lips broke contact.

Alex watched him lick his lips and they both paused long enough to shuck the rest of their clothes to the floor. She took him by the hand and led him to her bed.

Bobby got in, looking to her eagerly, and reaching out with one hand as she climbed in after him.

She caressed him, her eyes glowing with desire. "Turn over," she whispered.

He did as he was told, stretching out on his stomach, turning his head against the pillow as his arms folded around it.

Her hands, firm yet soft, kneaded his muscles until they were like putty. Finished, she leaned down and kissed his ear. Her warm breath jolted him back to full attention. Bobby turned, taking her in his arms. As his tongue danced with hers, his stiff cock found its way between her legs, as if it had a mind of its own.

It only took a few bumps before Alex was dripping with desire. She drew back from his kisses and looked deeply into his eyes. Bobby's hand steadied his cock and she sank over him slowly.

It took every ounce of effort he had not to rush things. With great restraint, he moved slowly, feeling her open slowly to accommodate him. Bobby saw the red flush spread up into her cheeks, and he lifted a hand to touch her there. Their eyes met, and she smiled.

Gently, slowly, his hand urged her to lie down. Still inside her, they turned to their sides. They made love lazily, hands caressing over the gentle thrusts, until the urgency overcame them both.

She rolled to her back and he kissed her before taking her again, deep and hard.

Afterwards, she lay beside him, feeling the back of his knuckles drifting gently against her arm. Alex was content. She could feel herself drifting to sleep, but she remembered her recent revelation about how hard it was for her to share her feelings. "I love you, Bobby," she managed to whisper before she fell asleep.


"She what?" Alex was trying to shake out a couple of aspirin from the bottle with one hand. Bobby walked through, took it from her, handed her two, and took two himself before pouring a cup of coffee. "Where did she get it? She won't say." Alex threw Bobby an exasperated look. "Anonymous. Fine. Yeah. I got it. Have 'em bring him in. We'll interrogate him first thing." She hung up and sighed.

Bobby waited patiently while Alex downed her aspirin. "Ross. Apparently someone gave ADA Niles the murder weapon. Anonymously."

He pressed his lips together, but said nothing.

"It belongs to Lou Cardinal."

"Of course it does."


Cardinal sat at the table, and Alex laid the handgun before him on top of the evidence bag with a clunk. "It's yours," she said.

"It's legal," he told her. Goren stood behind him, hands in his pockets, leaning against the wall, wondering if this interrogation would do them any good. "It doesn't matter, it's a murder weapon."

"I swear, I gave them blanks to scare people. And I warned Josh, 'Stay back, even a blank can cause powder burns.'"

Alex looked over at Bobby. They had found blanks in Snow's apartment. Bobby sauntered forward as he spoke, his hands still in his pockets. "Evidence and testimony, it all lands on you. You… armed them, and sent them to Kip…" Bobby gestured with his hand to emphasize his point.

"So… is somebody gonna maybe ask me why… I would want the guy dead?"

"Kip was competing with you. Running his own book," Alex explained.

"Every year there's some twinkie like him. One season and they're gone. No one kills them!" He sat back a moment, but a new thought popped into his head and he leaned forward again. "And I sent them to his home, not to that crib where he was banging Angela."

Bobby squinted slightly and glanced over at Alex. "Kip and Angela were sleeping together," she said.

"So?"

Alex looked to Bobby this time, then back at Cardinal. "So maybe you had a more personal reason."

He grinned and shook his head. "Not Angela."

"You got her the Escalade," Bobby said.

"Yeah, because she's a dynamite lay. But that's it. I got a wife and three kids. Family is everything to me."

It was everything Alex could do not to scoff at him. She pulled a face, rolled her eyes in Bobby's direction, and said, "The fact she was having sex with Kip McGonagle didn't bother you?"

"He was one of many. You start killing over Angela, it's gonna be a large body count."


"The deal was immunity for her." ADA Niles was very displeased that the detectives had called her in, and even more so that they wanted to speak to Angela. She looked over at Ross. "I told you the gun was given to me anonymously."

"Yeah, well it didn't take much to put it together, who gave it to you," Goren said.

"We want to talk to her," said Alex.

"No. I promised her immunity."
"Fine. She gets immunity, but we need to talk to her." Bobby spoke this time, pacing the perimeter of the conference room as he did.

"Why? What is the big deal? Lou Cardinal is behind it. It's his gun. You told me yourself that Kip McGonagle was taking away his business. That's motive."

Bobby nodded. "It is, but it's weak. And like he said, there's one like that every year."

"Detectives… my job is to prosecute criminals. You handed me Cardinal, and I'm going after him. What do you want from me?" She looked first at Goren, then at Eames, then at Captain Ross.

"We want to get the guy who murdered McGonagle!" said Eames.

Ross cleared his throat, and the group effectively retreated to their corners. "We want to be sure… that whomever you prosecute… is the right one."

"We don't want someone to get away with murder," added Bobby, and he turned to stare at the venetian blinds.

"Fine. You talk to Angela, and then what?"

"We follow through with the information she gives us," answered Alex with a shrug.


"Tell us how long you worked with Lou Cardinal," said the ADA.

"Three years. We met in Atlantic City."

"E-e-e-exactly what did you do for him?" Asked Goren, pacing around the edge of the room.

"A lot… He wasn't… very appreciative." She gave them an embarrassed smile, and Bobby couldn't help but grin. He put his hands on his hips and simply smiled at Angela. She sounded like a little girl.

"Kip McGonagle owed Lou money," said Alex. "Why would Lou want him dead?"

Angela shook her head, deep in thought. "For reasons… that were personal…. Me…" She shrugged after giving her suggestion.

"Oh, really? Because Lou told us that you weren't worth killing for." Bobby said it quietly, but looked her square in the eye at the end of his sentence.

"So? So what?" She shrugged. "He's not gonna talk to you the way he talks to me."

Bobby gave her a little smile, and a half shrug along with his nod. Alex spoke next. "How did you know about Kip's apartment on Market Street?"

"I took Josh there when Lou said to find Kip… and… uhm…" She threw a look at Goren, who smiled back with an inquiring look of his own. "Okay, so I knew where to find him." She shrugged again. "But I swear, I never thought Kip would end up dead."

They wrapped up the interview, and ADA Niles walked the woman down to the elevator while Goren and Eames shared their thoughts with the Captain. He stepped back out, caught the lawyer in the hall, and escorted her back to the conference room. Politely, he shut his door. "We think immunity for Angela was a mistake," he said.

"It's obvious that she's lying," Bobby explained.

"What's with you people?!" Niles exclaimed. "She brought us the murder weapon!"

"And a story that conveniently hangs… everything… on Lou Cardinal."

"Where it belongs." She stared. "She witnessed the crime! She'll testify that the gun, the ammo, the order to shoot Kip MgGonagle all came from Lou."

"A-a-and wouldn't that put Josh Snow in the perfect position to make a deal?" asked Bobby.

"Quid pro quo is an accepted part of criminal law. Learn to live with it, Detective." She gave them all a glance before she left the room.

Bobby almost called out to her, but decided to drop it. She had Cardinal in her sights, and she really didn't care if he committed the crime or not. Somehow, the eyes of both detectives fell on their Captain.

Ross frowned. He didn't like it, either. "So, if Josh Snow killed Kip McGonagle, you'd better find some evidence or get a confession out of him before he makes his deal," he told them.

With a nod, the two detectives got to their feet and went out to their desks.

"I gotta eat something," Alex said, raking her hand through her hair. "You coming?"

Bobby shook his head. "I'm not hungry."

He had that distant look in his eyes, the one that said he was working the case. She didn't argue with him. "Be back soon," Alex said. He nodded and grunted something in reply, and buried himself in the paperwork inside his binder.


When she returned, he was in the conference room again, surrounded by evidence bags and newspapers. Bobby's pencil was in his hand and he was working furiously.

Alex recognized it all right away. "Further research of Josh's apartment?" she asked.

"Yeah, Josh's betting numbers," Bobby explained. On the white board behind him was a bunch of scribbling, numbers and equations hastily written during a flurry of thought. Bobby looked up at her, frowned, and ducked his head back down. "Odd for a guy who swore he didn't believe in luck."

"Well, maybe his wife's death changed his beliefs."

"Yeah, but this is more recent." Bobby read over the paper in his hands again. "He's trying to work winning numbers combinations."

"Don't people usually bet numbers they find in their daily lives?"

"Yeah… real gamblers believe they can help providence… uhm… with a little effort." He got to his feet. "Josh picked 1-8-6-4, it's written all over the margins of these papers. They're all dated two weeks before Kip's death… and he bet it several times a day."

"What do you think it is?"

"Well… Josh would have wanted something that was mathematically challenging, right? Something with four digits." He stood by the white board now. He turned to it, showed her the ideas he'd toyed with. "The square root of 1864 is 43.17406." Alex pulled a face and Bobby kept talking. "But the cube root of the digits, of 1, 8, 64… are 1, 2, 4."

"124. 124 Market Street, that's Kip's apartment, where Angela was seeing Kip… You think he was jealous?"

"I-I-I… I don't think he was jealous. I think he was trying to build a hand against Lou… that he found out that she was cheating… and then when the cops investigate the crime, they think that Lou has a motive to kill Kip."

Alex gave him a tiny smile, then buried it behind a frown. It felt good to figure things out, but it was a murder, and that was never something to smile about. "You talk to the Captain?" she asked him.

"No, I wanted to run it by you first."

"I think it's good. I think we tell Ross."

He followed her to the Captain's office. The filled him in. "He's not without a certain brilliance," said the Captain, gathering up his things as he prepared to leave for a meeting. "And you think all this relates to Josh's past?"

They followed the Captain through the squad room. "Well, his father used him as a poker prodigy," Bobby explained. "And then the man who killed his father, he took him in for the same purpose."

"He had very mixed emotions when we sent his mentor to prison," Alex added.

"So then… Lou backs him, takes over the mentor role… it doesn't explain why Josh is sandbagging him." Ross looked back at them, waiting for the answer.

"Well, could be he wants to break away from father figures who controlled him. He's thinking that if he reclaims his life, he'll reclaim his game."

"It's working," said Eames. "We've got a case on Lou, and nothing on him."

"There's still a major piece missing." Ross paused to push the elevator button. "How does a gun loaded with blanks kill Kip McGonagle?"

Bobby put his head down and sighed. "I don't know. I'll bet Josh will play that card, though."

"Maybe that card won't hold up." As he stepped into the elevator car he told them, "I think it's time to force his hand."

The elevator doors shut, and Bobby turned to Alex.

"How the hell do we do that?" she asked no one in particular.

Bobby touched the small of her back and muttered, "C'mon."