Author's Notes: I wanted to give a little more detail to Ruth Carlton so I googled how to describe a beautiful woman. Several results came up, naturally, and I settled on one that I thought might fit best into this story. Even though I changed some of the wording, added some of my own, left some original wording out, I failed to capture the site or the userid of the original author. Sorry. If I manage to find it again, I'll update these notes with that info. /Found it! User Mali W asked and ikdj jnwd replied (a decade ago!) on yahoo answers

And I really did not intend for this fic to have so many chapters (although some of them are pretty short). And I fully intended for this one to be the last. But I think I got just one more to go and that'll be the end. Thank you all for your comments, reviews, suggestions, and interest. Stay safe and be healthy

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There was just something unreal and eerie about Ruth Carlton. She may have faked being mentally unbalanced but her sallow complexion and piercingly-sharp gray eyes did less to convince anyone otherwise. Her eyebrows arched over the curve before dispersing onto the bridge of her dainty nose. The lips, thin, had the strangest curl to them, making an observer believe that a high-pitched witch's cackle would soon be released. The young woman's face, framed by pin-straight ebony locks falling to her hips, would almost place her in the beautiful category if it were not for her leanings toward murder and deceit. Overall, she was truly an unearthly beauty - one of the deadliest kind.

"What will become of her?" Chad asked as he watched Ruth, strapped to a gurney and flanked by armed unis, being placed into an ambulance.

"She'll be reevaluated by a real psychotherapist," Jo told him. 'Would you like us to drive you over to the hospital to be with her?"

Chad turned a painful smile to her. "No, thanks. I may be still in love with her but I'm not stupid. She and I have nothing - had nothing," he dejectedly revised his statement. "Do you guys need me for anything else?" he asked them, frowning.

"No, not right now," Hanson replied. He handed him a card with his contact information on it. "We'll be in touch."

Chad took the card and pocketed it. He turned to walk away then abruptly turned back around and asked, "Say, where's the other guy that was with you, the guy with the accent?" He glanced up at the building then back at them. "When I heard those gun shots, it worried me. He's okay, though, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, he's okay," Jo replied. She swallowed and forced a smile. "Thanks for asking." Chad nodded and walked to the curb and hailed a cab. She felt Mike's eyes on her and she slowly turned to him with her lips pressed together, her eyes hitting no higher than the knot in his tie.

"Okay, Jo," Mike began, his voice lowered. "Where's Henry? What the hell happened up there? And stop sayin' he's fine. He took five bullets before he … he just … vanished!"

"Let's … talk over here," she told him. They walked over to their assigned vehicle and got into it.

vvvv

Abe leaned against the door jamb with his hands in his pockets while his father finished grooming his hair in front of the bathroom mirror. "Was she mad?" he asked when informed that Lt. Reece should not be called for a pick up from the river unless it was an absolute emergency.

"No, just greatly embarrassed to see one of her male colleagues … in the buff," Henry replied. "She said it was a task best left for either you or Jo to perform."

"Why didn't I think of that?" Abe teasingly responded. He swallowed his grin at his father's reproachful look. He stepped back to allow his father to exit the bathroom and enter his bedroom. Abe resumed his stance against the bedroom door jamb, his hands still in his pockets.

"So, Jo's partner now knows about your condition, too," he said, nodding his approval. "That completes the circle." He smiled at his father as he armed into his suit coat.

Henry turned to face his son and sighed. "What's done is done. I'm sure he has a ton of questions for me, though." He walked up to Abe and said, "Even so, I feel … good about it."

"Heyyy, that's the spirit, Dad!" Abe declared with a wide grin. "You got a good group of people you can trust to always be there for you," he added. After I'm gone is what he dared not utter for fear of deflating his father's bubble of confidence. He followed him down the stairs and when they reached the shop's entrance door, he noticed something.

"You forgot your scarf. I'll go back up and get one for you."

"No, that won't be necessary, Abraham," Henry told him. "Jo is holding it for me along with my watch."

Abe's grin returned even wider. "Her and that watch of yours," he sing-songed while wagging a finger at his father. "She's one special lady." He tamed his grin into solemnity. "You and she really need to talk, Dad."

Henry lowered his head to hide his blush and drew in a deep breath and released it. "You're quite right, my boy. Of course, it would help greatly if we could manage not to be interrupted when we do sit down and talk."

Reminded of the night he'd interrupted them after she'd dumped Isaac Monroe and come to the shop to tell Henry that she'd rather get lost in Paris with him instead, Abe became suddenly animated. "Look, how was I to know that you guys were just about to let loose on each other? I'd just found out some bombshell new information about Mom after 30 years!"

"Abraham!" Henry got his son's attention and placed his hands on his shoulders. "It's all right. Don't worry about that anymore." He squeezed his shoulders and left the shop to hail a taxi.

Still a bit perturbed, Abe closed the door muttering to himself. "Not just me. Dead people. Phone calls," he added with an upward swipe of his hand. "Not just me."

vvvv

As a result of what had happened in Chad's and Ruth's apartment, Werner was taken into custody and brought downtown for questioning. But because they were legally married, they knew that Ruth would not be compelled to testify against him. Instead, she maintained that she had acted out of fear and in self-defense against Chad, claiming that he had both mentally and verbally abused her while mismanaging the restaurant's funds and blaming it on her.

"I simply reacted out of fear," she maintained, stone-faced. "It's not my fault that you all believed him and sent a decoy in to fool me." She shot a glare at Mike. "If that man's dead, whoever he is - that's on you guys."

"You don't deny that you and Werner jumped the broom five years ago," he stated.

Her gaze danced away from his. "Doesn't mean a thing. People break up all the time and don't get divorced. I found Chad and he just proved not to be the right guy for me." Her gaze snatched back to his. "And Pat's a competent professional. We haven't done anything wrong," she asserted.

On the other side of the glass, along with Henry and Reece, Chad stood and watched with a heavy heart. "Can't believe what a fool I've been," he quietly berated himself. "She's lying on me and protecting that, that creep!"

"So, you and … Pat … never schemed to off Chad Boseman and cash in on the million-dollar insurance policy on him?" Mike asked.

"It was on the business," she emphasized.

"Yeah, but if he was to die, the surviving business owner - you - could cash in that policy and live large."

"So? It was his restaurant when I met him. I just helped him to expand it," she countered.

"Well, ya know," Mike drew out as he stood up and raised the blinds on the adjacent wall to reveal Werner seated at a table in the next room and writing on a legal-sized notepad. "I think hubby might be singin' a different tune."

Ruth stiffened as she watched just as her husband finished writing and pushed the pad over to Jo. She quickly read over it and then, nodding, held it up so Mike and Ruth could see. Ruth stared at her husband, who stared back at her and then lowered his head, averting his eyes away from hers.

Mike smirked as he closed the blinds again and sauntered back over to stand by his chair. He shook his head when Ruth asked to be cut a deal. "Too late," he said and motioned for the uni standing near the door to take her away.

"There's something you don't know about him," Ruth blurted out, referring to her husband. Mike raised a halting hand to the uni and nodded for her to continue. "It was all his idea. I saved all of our text messages. All of our emails. They're in the cloud," she said, her pained words laced with anger.

Mike looked over at the mirror to the spot where his colleagues and Chad would be standing on the other side. He looked back at Ruth. "We'll check all that out," he said. "But I'll put in a word to the DA about goin' easier on ya if you give us the truth about Chad."

She appeared caught off guard at that. Swallowing, she sat back in her chair and lowered her eyes to her hands. "Chad … never harmed me and he wasn't responsible for the restaurant's failing. In fact, he did everything he could to try to make both the business and our relationship work. To tell you the truth, if I hadn't been married to Pat … if I hadn't already sunk myself into this dirty scheme …. Chad and I probably could have had a real shot at a real relationship." She swallowed again and smiled and chuckled unexpectedly. "Dizzy Ruthie, true to form, blew it again," she stated, referring to herself.

Reece and Henry looked at Chad. Hers from sympathy, Henry's more from empathy. At the end of Nora's life, imprisoned in her old age for having accidentally shot and killed Anna Peyton while trying to kill him and expose his secret to the world, she had also displayed remorse and much regret for her earlier mistreatment of him by having had him committed to an asylum. So many wasted years apart, she'd told him. If only she had believed him, she'd said with much regret. Yes, if only, Henry told himself. Things would have been much different between them. But since she hadn't believed him and after all the years, decades spent apart from each other, he had long since abandoned thinking of them as husband and wife.

Chad huffed out a sigh and washed his hand down over his face. "Time for me to go," he quietly told them. But Henry could tell that the young man had made his own decision about him and Ruth. One that now excluded her from his life. "Will I be called to testify at any trial?" he asked before leaving the room.

"Most likely not," Reece told him. "They're facing attempted murder, conspiracy, embezzlement, attempted insurance fraud, among other things. I expect them both to plead guilty. If they do, they'll just be sentenced. No trial."

Chad nodded somberly. "Guess I'll shut down the restaurant - sell it if I can - and try to start over again somewhere else. Just not in New York," he said.

Henry had read over the umbrella policy and was reminded of something. "Excuse me, Chad. But are you aware that the policy also pays off if one of the owners is rendered incapacitated or no longer able to perform their duties? That includes any attempt to willfully victimize or extort the other owner for financial gain." Seeing that he had Chad's full attention, he continued. "In which case, the victimized owner could claim half the policy's worth, $500,000. That should be more than enough to settle your company's accounts."

"Gosh, I … never really read it all the way through," he said, finally showing a more relaxed smile. "Thanks for telling me, Doctor. That'll help a lot." They shook hands, he nodded his goodbye to Reece, he left.

"So, do you have a law degree, too?" Reece asked Henry as they left the small viewing room.

He chuckled. "No, no. I merely read it out of curiosity. When I read that particular clause, I knew."

"Knew what?" she asked.

"That Werner had plans to take their scheme a step further once Chad was out of the way. It's not in the policy but the fact that he would be Ruth's surviving spouse - "

Reece couldn't believe her ears. But it was coming from their ultra-observant ME so it clearly made sense. "He had plans to ditch her once Chad was dead and she had cashed in on the policy."

"Yes," he replied. "I don't believe he actually had planned to kill her in order to obtain control of the insurance money. You see, New York is an equitable distribution state in the case of divorce. All he had to do, as her therapist, was to declare her insane and keep her locked away in some institution. He most likely never planned to divorce her, therefore, making claim to the entire windfall instead of just half."

"While he lived the high life spending the money." Reece closed her eyes and shook her head. "I'm like Mike now: what is wrong with people?"

Just at that moment, they both became aware of Jo and Mike behind them. Henry slowly turned around to face them and Reece parted from them with a smile and "good job". Even though a million questions were running through his mind, Mike could tell by the looks in their eyes that his two partners needed some privacy. He patted Henry on the arm and began to walk away, stopping to look over his shoulder when Henry called his name.

"We should talk," Henry told him. "I know you have some questions, so … please come by the shop later on after work. Okay?"

"Sure thing," Mike replied. He smiled and continued his trek toward the bullpen.

Henry turned his attention back to Jo. She bit her lower lip and lowered her eyes. They both jostled up against the wall to get out of the way of two unis each passing by in both directions. They decided to duck into a nearby breakroom where they found themselves alone. They leaned against the counter near the sink as they gazed longingly into each other's eyes. There was time now, just a bit; and enough privacy for them to gaze a little deeper, a little longer. Jo reached down into her jacket pocket and produced his gold pocket watch. She held it out to him.

"You left this," she said, blinking back tears.

He smiled and took it from her. "Thank you." He clipped it back into place on his person.

"And this," she said, holding out his thin scarf neatly rolled up. "Not used to seeing you without one of these," she said, laughing softly. He reached for it but she shook her head. "No. Let me." She unrolled it, stepped closer to him, and lifted it over his head. He bowed a bit in order to make it easier for her to place it around his neck and felt as honored as someone being knighted by the queen.

She seemed to make a big fuss about making it "look right" and then suddenly stopped, grabbing onto both sides hanging down. He could tell by her tight-fisted but trembling grip that the whole ordeal had taken a toll on her and he was sorry for that. So sorry. He placed his hands over hers to calm their trembling. She looked up into his eyes, her cheek muscles and lips twitching in an effort to keep her tears from falling.

"Jo, darling - "

"He could have worn armor," she said about Chad in a wavery tone and pulled harder on the scarf.

"We would have had to wait for that," he told her. "The time was right for us to catch them at the right moment in the middle of their shady plan."

"Mike could have gone in," she said, offering an alternative scenario.

"He's a devoted husband and the father of two young boys," he countered. "If her aim had been off - we would never have forgiven ourselves, I would never have forgiven myself for not standing in and taking that gunfire. Who else among us could have survived it?"

She started to shake her head. "I don't - ." She released the scarf and clamped her hand over her mouth, the first few tears rolling down her cheeks. "It was so gruesome to see you that way, Henry. You were … you were … " Dead is what she couldn't say and he didn't want her to say it.

"But I returned. Just as I told you that I always do," he gently assured her. "That's the way it is with me; living with me." He rubbed his hand soothingly up and down her back, only then realizing that his arms had encircled her waist. She closed her eyes and her arms encircled his neck. They closed their eyes and held each other. No daylight between them. He kissed her on her cheek as she softly cried, then on the side of her forehead and hugged her closer, his cheek pressing against hers. He surprised himself at his next words.

"I love you, Jo." He tensed when she abruptly pulled away and looked him directly in the eyes. Had he said the wrong thing? Something she had not cared to hear? Had he put too much faith in what he thought might be a blooming relationship with her?

She squeezed her eyes shut and a wide grin spread across her face. She opened her eyes and did her best to calm herself so she could speak. "I love you, too, Henry," she managed to choke out between sobs. Happy sobs, though.

He closed his eyes and opened them, relieved and happy beyond words. His thumb caressed along her jawline and she tilted her head up in anticipation of her lips meeting his. Just as their lips met, a jubilant voice rang out amidst whistles and clapping. "There you go, there you go!" one jubilant voice was heard to rise above the clamor.

Interruptions, always interruptions! As they released their embrace, Jo grabbed him by the hand and shoved her way past the small but happy throng, pulling Henry with her. He ruefully began to wonder if interruptions were also part of his curse.