The next morning, Mac was up at 5. He and Stella both had to be in to the office by 8, so he knew she would be up early and get an early breakfast. He got a shower and got dressed and headed to Stella's apartment. He wanted to arrive by 6:15.

Mac walked up to the door. He hoped Stella was already up. He started to knock on the door, but then it opened. Stella gasped, as she was startled for a moment. "Mac, what are you doing?" she asked.

"I wanted to take you to breakfast," Mac said.

"Oh, okay. I was just about to head out."

"Good thing I caught you."

"Yes. You could have called you know."

Mac smiled. "Yeah, I guess I should have."

Stella locked her door, and they went out to Mac's car. "So, where are we going?" Stella asked.

"To my favorite diner," Mac answered.

"Oh. Another one of those little unknown places."

"I guess."

Mac drove over to a small diner and they went inside. "At least it's warm in here," Stella said.

They sat down at a table. The waitress came to their table and took their orders. "Orange juice?" she asked.

"Yes," Mac said. "And coffee."

"Me too," Stella said.

The waitress went back to the counter. Mac looked at Stella. "I asked you down here so we could talk," Mac said. "I thought about this half the night."

Stella just waited for Mac to go on. Mac looked out the window. He didn't really know how to say what he wanted to say. The waitress brought their orange juice and coffee. "Thanks," Mac said. He fixed his coffee, and thought while he stirred it.

"Just tell me," Stella said.

"I'm going to," Mac said. "I just…I don't know what's wrong with me."

Stella touched his face. "There's nothing wrong with you, Mac. You loved Claire." Mac looked into her eyes. "That's not wrong," Stella said. "I don't expect you to just forget her, but I do want to love you."

"I want you to," Mac said. "I…" Mac thought. "I thought about what I wanted to say all night, and now I can't get the words to come out my mouth."

Stella sipped her orange juice. "This is good," she said, trying to get him to relax.

Mac nodded. "It always is. It's fresh squeezed."

"I can tell. I think I'm eating an orange."

Mac smiled for a moment, but then he became serious again. "I love you, Stella," he said. He felt like he had to force the words to come out. "I feel such fire when we kiss, it scares me."

Stella shifted in her seat. She had not expected him to say that. "I feel it too."

Mac looked at her. "I want to let myself go into my love for you, but my heart drags me down. I can't get past this wall. I can see over it now, but I can't get over it."

Stella squeezed his hand. "You don't have to feel nervous or pressured," she said. "I love you just the way you are. We'll get over this wall together. I'll climb up on this side and you climb up on that side and we'll stand on top together."

Mac smiled at her. "Metaphors."

"They're wonderful tools when you don't really know how to explain something."

"Sometimes I think maybe it hasn't been long enough. Does that sound crazy?"

"Mac, I haven't been through what you've been through. I can't begin to tell you what you should feel. I know that I want you to be comfortable with our relationship. I don't want you to think you have to rush into anything. I would never do that to you."

"I want our love to be real. I know we have a lot of passion, but I want more than that."

"I think we already do. We have friendship too. We understand each other. We've been working together for five years."

"I still have nightmares about that day."

Stella swallowed. She had nightmares about it sometimes herself, but she knew Mac's must be worse. Stella's phone rang, and brought her out of her thoughts. She took it off her side, just as Mac's phone rang. Mac looked at her, as he read the text on his phone. "Subway?" he asked.

"Subway," Stella replied. "So much for breakfast."

Mac shook his head. He wanted to eat. He looked up just as the waitress was bringing their orders. "Can you put that in carry-out?" Mac asked.

"Sure," the waitress said.

Mac and Stella got their food and drinks in carry-out and went out to the car. They ate on the way to Grand Central, which was almost across town from where they were. When they arrived, there were lots of people around. Flack was waiting at the bottom of the stairs when Mac and Stella came in. "You ready for this one?" Flack asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Mac said.

Flack led them over to a small janitor's closet in the terminal, which had water all around the outside and inside. The body of a man was in the closet. "He's the janitor," Flack said. "He didn't show up for work this morning, and he was found here."

"Who found the body?" Mac asked.

"Maintenance. This guy usually cleans the other side of the terminal, so he was over here to clean up this big spill, and when he opened the door, 'Boom'."

Mac looked at Don. "Boom?" he asked.

Flack smiled. "Hey, it's a good slang term."

"What is all this water?" Mac asked, gesturing to the floor.

"Apparently, he had been mopping, and he came to the closet for something."

Mac got his camera out and took pictures of the whole area. "Anybody see anything?" Stella asked.

"I haven't found anyone who saw anything," Flack said. "I think this must have happened during the night when the place wasn't so crowded."

Stella looked at the door of the closet. "Doesn't look like the door was forced open," she said. "You think someone killed him after he opened the door?"

"Could have," Mac said. "Looks like blunt force trauma to the back of his head."

"So, this guy opens this door, and someone clobbers him from behind. Why?"

"That's where we come in." Mac finished his pictures and squatted beside the body. "Looks like he was hit only once."

"How could something like this happen right here and no one sees it?" Stella asked.

"Whoever did it was supposed to be here, I guess. They just shoved him in here and shut the door."

"Or maybe they had help."

"Who would want to kill a janitor?" Flack asked. "What? Did he forget to mop?"

"I think this is about something a lot worse than mopping," Mac said.

"Any ideas about the murder weapon?" Stella asked, as she squatted beside Mac. She could smell Mac's cologne. It made her want to get closer to him, but she was on the job now.

Mac could smell Stella's perfume. It smelled like sweet roses. He thought he would buy Stella some roses. He remembered he had intended to buy Claire roses that day…He always took roses to the memorial he had in the graveyard. He always said, "These are the roses I should have bought sooner."

Mac shook his head. He had to get his mind on his work. He couldn't keep those memories out of his mind sometimes. He looked at the wound on the back of the victim's head. "Definitely a hard blow," he said.

"You don't think he was hit more than once?" Stella asked.

Mac took closer pictures of the wound, now that he had moved the body. "It's kinda hard to tell, but it looks like only once…maybe a baseball bat or something like that."

Stella stared at the wound, unable to keep from noticing the close proximity of Mac to her, and that delicious smell. She pushed her hair behind her shoulder and looked at the wound on the victim. "I think it looks like he was hit with something more narrow than a bat," she said.

"We'll let Doctor Hawkes take a look. He'll be able to tell."

Stella thought of Peyton. She would be sure and accompany Mac to the morgue for this autopsy. She would not let Peyton get close to him, now that she was getting him to open up to her. Stella knew it had taken a lot of courage for Mac to admit what he said this morning.

Mac had the ME move the body out of the closet. He examined the victim's clothes, while Stella looked around the closet. "I think you were right," Stella said. "I believe he was killed right here after he opened this door. There's blood spatter here on the wall."

"He didn't have any ID on him," Flack said. "I'm waiting for the Superintendent here to give me a name."

"You mean to tell me he doesn't even know the guy's name?" Mac asked. "And he works for him?"

"He says he employs hundreds and can't possibly remember every one of them."

"Well, he better find this one."

Just then, someone came to the crime scene tape. "I know him!" the man said.

Mac looked at the man. He walked over to him. "And you are?" Mac asked.

"I'm John Orr. That is Jason Timber. He's worked here for thirty years."

"You work with him?"

"Yes, I did. He taught me the job. He was going to retire in about a month."

Mac frowned. "Does he have a family?"

"Yes, he has a wife and three daughters."

Mac wrote that down. "He didn't have an ID on him," he said.

"This could have been a robbery. Jason always carried a lot of cash around. Anybody could have found out about it."

Flack came over to them. "The guy who found the body is over there," Don said, pointing to a guy sitting on a bench sipping coffee.

Mac looked at the guy. "I'll get to him," he said.

Mac looked back at John Orr. "Where were you around two this morning?" he asked.

"I was home," Orr said. "You don't think I killed him?"

"I don't know anybody here."

"Well, I didn't kill him."

"Good. Then you won't mind giving us your fingerprints."

Mac looked at Don. "Take his prints," Mac said.

Mac walked over to the guy who found the body. "I understand you found the body," Mac said.

"Yes," the man said.

"Your name?"

"Charles Hester."

"Did you see anybody around here?"

"No, not except passengers."

"Did you know that Jason Timber carried a lot of cash with him?"

"Just about everyone knew it, I guess."

"Did he flash it around?"

"Not exactly, but when he took his wallet out, you could see that it was fat."

"Did he ever have any trouble with anybody?"

"Not that I know of."

"Nobody has complained about his work or anything?"

"They wouldn't complain to me if they did."

Mac wrote all that down. "Thanks," he said.

Mac walked back over to Stella. "I want to see this Superintendent," he said. "Did you find anything else?"

"Nothing that looks like it could have been used as a murder weapon," Stella said. "There's nothing in there that has any blood on it except some spatter. That water spilled and practically covered the floor in there. It had cleaner in it, so it could have washed away anything that was on the floor."

"You got samples of the water?"

"Yes."

"Get that mop bucket too."

"I've got it. There was no trace of blood on it. It must have been outside the closet when he was killed."

Mac nodded. Just then, Danny Messer walked in. "Hey, sorry I'm late," Danny said. "I got caught in traffic out there."

Mac explained the situation. "I want you to go out and search for the guy's wallet and the murder weapon," he said.

"I'm on it."

Mac headed for the Superintendent's office. The door was closed when he got there. He knocked on the door. Someone jerked the door open. "I told you…" the man began, but then he stared at Mac.

Mac showed him his badge. "I'm Detective Taylor," he said.

"Oh, come in."

Mac went into the office. "I want to know what you can tell me about Jason Timber, the guy who was murdered out there," Mac said.

"Jason Timber. Yes, he was about to retire."

"Has he had any trouble with anyone?"

"Not that I know of. John Orr was going to take over his job, which pays more money than what he gets now. He was just waiting for Jason to retire."

Mac wrote that down. "Maybe he got in a hurry."

"Well, he only had one more month to go. Why would he kill him?"

"Jason Timber's wallet was missing. I was told he carried around a lot of cash in it."

"Yeah. I told him he shouldn't be carrying all that money around. He just liked having money with him."

"There's always a debit card."

"He didn't like using cards. He was one of those who didn't trust technology."

"Alright."

Mac left the office and went back out to the terminal. He was beginning to think this was a robbery that turned into murder. He went out to his car. Stella had everything in the car already. They went back to the lab to analyze evidence. Mac hoped they could figure out something that would lead them to the murderer. "I think this was a robbery," he said to Stella.

"So do I," Stella agreed.

"Hopefully, Danny will find something."

Danny was searching around the alley behind the terminal. There were three dumpsters out there, and numerous garbage cans. Danny wondered how much garbage came out of this place. He searched around the alley first, and he soon found a wallet in one of the garbage cans. He shined his flashlight on it. It definitely belonged to the victim. His ID was still there. Danny put it in an evidence bag and put it in the forensics kit. He searched some more, but he didn't find anything that looked like a murder weapon; nothing with blood on it, so he headed back to the lab with the wallet.