She pulls up to their old apartment building and parks the car across the street due to the construction that is going on around the building. The building has gone through some changes since she's been here last. And that is her problem. She hasn't been here in such a long time it's actually sad. She should have been back to visit sooner. Getting out she locks the car up and walks across the street. When she gets to the front door, she hits the buzzer for her friend. Seconds later a man's voice is heard through the small speaker.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I'm looking for Mary Anne. Is she home?" Kate asks.

It seems that the man on the other end of the speaker is not going to answer her or he is put off by her request but after about 30 seconds she hears this instead.

"Can I ask who this is?" The distorted voice asks through the small speaker

"This is Kate Castle. I am Mary Anne's friend."

"Well Kate Castle, Mary Anne's friend, she is not home right now."

"Do you know when she will be back?"

"Listen lady is there something I can do for you, I am kind of busy right now and I really don't have the time to talk to you right now."

"Yes, there is. I want to talk to Mary Anne Janowski and I am not leaving until I do!" Kate demands.

"Well, that's impossible because right now she is at the Isabella Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Queens. She had a stroke about five months ago. You're welcome to visit her if you need to see her that badly."

"Can I ask who in the hell this is?"

"I'm her son lady. Now leave will ya." He said disgustedly.

She's back to her car and driving away before she gives her actions another thought. She'll take her son's advice and go to the nursing home to see her. She is her friend and nothing will ever stop her from doing that.

Xx

She keeps going over it in her mind and can't believe that Mary Anne had a stroke. Sure, she was getting older and this could happen to anybody but to her, Mary Anne was a strong woman. She remembers the last time that they were together her whole family was there (Alex was only an infant at the time) as well as her sister and her sister's daughter. What she never remembers her having is a son and that's what's got her thinking. She never remembers seeing pictures of a boy growing up in Mary Anne's apartment just pictures of her sister and her sister's children. As she slows down to the red light that's coming up, she needs to find out what is going on. She hangs a U-turn in the middle of the street and then speeds back to Mary Anne's building. If she's lucky she could still catch him and Mary Anne would be safe in her apartment. She knows where the spare key is kept for her apartment and all she needs to do is gain access to the lobby to get into the building. She brings her police issued Charger to a screeching halt and leave it double-parked in the middle of the street with the engine still running.

As luck would have it, Mrs. Kirkpatrick is leaving to go shopping and recognizes Kate as she runs back up to the door. Being the considerate woman that she is she holds the door for her.

"Thanks, Mrs. Kirkpatrick," Kate says as she runs past the older woman.

"You're welcome, dearie. Go get 'em."

She runs up the staircase and gets to the second floor. Mary Ann's apartment is the third one on the left across from Rick's old apartment. Once she is in front of the door, she kneels down to grab the spare key that's under the mat in front of her door. Knowing that there could be something wrong inside she pulls up the pant leg of her jeans and takes out her Glock 42 .380 APC that's in her ankle holster. She leans in to listen for any sounds coming from the condo but hears nothing. She hopes that there will be no need for it but it never hurts to be prepared.

She reaches for a door handle and tries to turn the doorknob and to her surprise, the handle twists and the door opens without the key. She pushes it open slightly just to survey the situation that's in front of her and hopefully, this will all end with just a simple arrest.

But what she sees hardens her heart and at the same time, it increases her heart rate substantially.

Her friend Mary Anne is duct-taped and bound with rope to a chair at her kitchen table. Not knowing what to expect and to keep her silhouette as invisible as possible she pushes the door open closes it and crouches down before the suspect and sees her at all. She takes in the situation at hand and knows that this will end one of two ways. Either with an arrest of the suspect or her suspect severely injured because there is no way that she will let anything happen to her friend or herself for that matter. She quietly makes her way around the wall that is adjacent to the front entry door and stopped where it ends. She sees that the suspect is rifling through Mary Anne's fire-safe box on the kitchen counter. She knows that that's where she keeps all of her hard cash, stock certificates, and the deed to her condo.

She can see the terror in her friend's eyes as they lock together with each other from her spot across the room. And instantly her face becomes very relaxed in the knowledge that her friend is there to help her. It is almost as if she knows everything will be just fine.

"Lady there has to be more than just this! I know that you are hoarding away your cash so tell me where you are hiding it all." The thief says as he holds up two small fistfuls of bills from the fireproof box. Kate can see that this will be something that needs to be dealt with swiftly. She moves from the corner of the wall and hides behind Mary Anne's recliner. From here she gets a better view of what she's dealing with. She sees an older .38 caliber Smith & Wesson most likely a police-issued weapon lying on the kitchen table. She pops up and looks at her options long enough not be seen by this guy. She lowers her body quietly back down to formulate a plan but as she does Mary Anne speaks.

"All the cash I have is in my box as you can see. I am an old woman and I live on a fixed income. All I have is in that box." Mary Anne said sternly.

"Yeah well, I'm sure you don't mind if I don't believe you."

Kate kept watching for an opportunity to get in and surprise this guy and not cause anyone any injuries. Watching for a little bit longer she thinks that she has a plan. But that is until Mary Anne has other plans for her.

"Listen, lady, I know that there is more cash here…. somewhere. So make it easier on yourself and tell me where it is then I can kill you with a clear conscience."

The thief did not believe Mary Anne and decided that she was lying to him and he turned to search her condo for more money or other valuables.

Mary Anne was no slouch. Her mother and father raised a very strong little girl who grew up to be a person who'd take no one's shit at all. As the thief walked past her, she stuck her leg out between his feet as he walked away, he faceplanted his head right on her very fine Italian ceramic tiled kitchen floor.

Kate knew that this was her opportunity. From the side of the recliner, she jumped out and advanced towards the kitchen before he could get back up. As she approached the guy he was already up and had taken his gun from the table at a speed that she thought was superhuman. Knowing that this situation was going to end badly she raised her weapon and pressed it against the side of his head saying this,

"You had better think really hard about your next move because if you even think about pulling that trigger, I will end you without even thinking about it."

"Prove it, bitch!" The suspect screamed out never lowering his gun that was pointed at Mary Anne.

Kate knew a person who was bluffing and this guy was one of them. So to make him reconsider she cocked the hammer on her Glock that rested against his head pushing it harder into his skull to prove her point.

"Is this proof enough? Because if it isn't the next thing we will see is your brains splattered all over that wall right there." Kate said.

The thief considered his options and knew that this was not a situation he could win. He slowly lowered his .38 back onto the table and raised his hands in the air. Kate slid his gun to the opposite side of the table and it fell onto the floor out of his reach. She did not have her cuffs on her but instead, she noticed the roll of duct tape that was still on the kitchen table. She pulled his left arm down and then his right and rolled the tape around both of his wrists and sat him down in the kitchen chair.

"You're under arrest for armed robbery and breaking and entering. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as I have told them to you."

The suspect nodded.

"I need a verbal yes or no answer not the nod of your head," Kate demanded as she put her back up weapon back into her ankle holster.

"Yes. Just who in the hell are you lady?"

"I'm a captain with the NYPD. 12th precinct to be exact. And you my friend just tried to rob the wrong lady."

Kate called Ryan at the 12th and had the suspect transported, processed, filed the charges against him and brought to holding all within an hour.

Xx

"Mary Anne, are you okay?" Kate asked as she cuts the duct tape from her wrists and the rope that's around her torso that held her to the kitchen chair.

"I'm fine Kate. Nothing gets me more riled up than someone who wants to get something for nothing." Mary Anne says as she rubs her wrists.

"I'm glad that you're okay. If you need some counseling for what happened here today, I can arrange for someone to come and see you if you think it would help."

Mary Ann hmphed at her suggestion.

"Kate I was raised in a house with four brothers and two sisters. I have my ways of dealing with things like this. I'll be fine don't you worry about me. Can I ask why you're here?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot with everything that was going on. I need to talk to you about Rick in a sense."

"Alright let me put the kettle on and we'll have some tea and talk."

Xx

Fifteen minutes later Kate was sitting down across from Mary Anne taking the first savory sip of her tea.

"Mary Anne I need some information if you have it."

"What about Kate?" Mary Anne was intrigued now.

"Someone is trying to take out my husband and maybe his whole team."

"What do you want to know?"

"I need to know who would want to kill him."

"Kate that could be a very long list. Many people have been incarcerated by Rick for their crimes. He has made many enemies.

"I know that he has a lot of enemies but there has to be one that stands out from his past. Can you think of anyone who might fit the bill?"

"No, but I am not aware of his whole history. I knew of his ties with the IRA but that was so long ago and severed those ties before he came to the U.S. I'm inclined to think that most of the people Rick knew then are long gone from this earth."

"Mary Anne whoever this was could have taken out me, our children, Rick and his whole team with a car bomb."

"A car bomb you say?"

"Yes, why?"

"No, it's nothing. He's dead now."

"Who is?"

"Daniel O'Connor. But you'd know him better as Colin. He's the one who came after Rick years ago. Since he's dead now it can't be him."

"Wait you think that Daniel could have done something like this?"

"Kate that man was a genius but he used his brainpower for evil. Were he alive yes, I know that he would be capable of doing something like this. For him, it would be mere child's play."

"Well, it's a good thing he died in the explosion that day."

"I read about it in the papers. He died the way he lived, a sad broken man."

"I'm glad that he never had any children to pass his crazy onto. Now that would be a whole different situation to deal with."

Mary Anne stilled knowing that she might be right. She needed Kate to leave and quickly. She wanted to check out something that she knew could not be the truth but there was always that possibility. She still had a connection to Belfast and she needed to make a call.

"Kate dear, I'm afraid that with your unexpected visit and me almost being robbed has tired me out some. I see that you are finished with your tea. Be a dear and please clear our cups on your way out?" Mary Anne asks.

"Sure thing Mary Anne. I'm glad that I could stop you from becoming another statistic earlier."

"Thank you, Kate. You have saved me in so many ways, ways you'll never know about."

Kate takes the teacups and places them on the counter by the sink. She waves goodbye to her friend as she leaves the condo. By the time she gets to her car, she realizes that her friend has given her the good old brush off. Now she has to find out why.

Xx

Mary Anne hopes that what she's thinking won't be true because if it is her friend and their family are not safe in the least. After she checks to see that Kate has indeed left, she picks up the phone and calls a person she knows who'll give her the answers she needs. The phone rings and rings with no answer. She quickly checks her watch to see the time and knows that someone should be home. Just as she is about to hang up the call connects.

"'ello Aibreann?"

"Mary Anne is dat you?"

"It is me friend. 'ow 'ave you been?"

"Ahh you know I can't cahmplain. Sence it's been damp me arthritis 'as been actin oehp.

"I am there wit you I 'ave de same affliction. 'ow are yar cheldren doin?"

"Dey're doin joehst fine all grown oehp and livin deir own lives."

"Glad to 'ear it. do you 'ave time for a chat?"

"I do. Niall wahn't be back oehntil soehpper."

"Good. I need to talk to you abooeht sahmeone you might know in Belfast."

"Who might dat be Mary Anne?"

"Niamh 'oehstahn. (Huston) She's sahmewhere in Belfast."

"Aye dat she is. I know o' 'er. What do you want to know?"

"Ded she ever 'ave any keds?

"She ded. why do you ask?"

"Lad ahr lass?"

"Lad. 'e shooehld be in 'is mid-twenties by now."

"Ahh 'eavens no. I 'ave a bad feelin abooeht dis."

"Why?"

"Because I dink 'e's goin after me friend 'ere in de states. Do you recall 'is name?"

"Chad, Charles... no Cahlin dat's it!"

"Aibreann I really need to go. Boeht I'll talk wit you soon den we can 'ave a good lahng chat."

"Mary Anne take care naht to get yooehrself into too much trooehble. I know you too well."

"I'll be carefoehl. Good bye to you Aibreann."

"Goodbye, my friend."

Xx

Mary Anne hangs up and thinks about what she needs to do next. Now that she has a name, she can search for Colin's mum. But she is no detective and that leads her to believe that giving this information to Kate would be best. Knowing that she and her family could be in a lot of trouble she pulls up a search engine for finding people in the Republic of Ireland without any trace of her doing just that. She pulls up the site and is shown the opening page.

Welcome to Free People Search Global Northern Ireland page, one of the largest Free People Search for Northern Ireland.

Mary Anne types in the name Niamh Huston into the blank search box hits enter and then taps her fingers on her table while she waits for the results to load. It doesn't take that long before she has a list of three women with that name on her laptop screen. This is perfect she thinks to herself as she clicks on the first name. She reads the person's age, address and quickly moves to the next name because this woman is in her eighties. The next name she clicks on is of a woman who lives too far North and has five children. The last name is the one she hits the jackpot with.

Niamh Huston gave birth to a boy in October of 1999. On the birth certificate, the father's name is blank and she was given a pass on paying the larger of the bills for giving birth to her son by the hospital. She did have to pay for the medications that they both needed after he was born and that was a lot. She has an address in Belfast and according to the website phone number as well. The address is 12 Mica Drive in Belfast. It is an area is she knows quite well. The flats there are almost on top of each other it's small but big enough to survive on practically limited funds.

What she needs to do is tell Kate what she's thinking but she still needs to do more research before she can. She wants this to be a slam dunk and if this the offspring of Colin and he is the one who is threatening them well then, she will make sure that he can't hurt anyone else again.

Xx

Colin had listened very well when he was taking his computer classes as a child. He had also listened very well when the hacker that he had known had given him many many secrets of the trade. And it has paid off in spades. He gets an alert on his cell phone and he quickly takes it out to read who had tripped his firewall. The alert system that he had added to the website through the back door of People Search Global Northern Ireland has given him the IP address of someone not that far away.

He triangulates the IP address through, of all things, Google Maps and what he comes up with is an address in Manhattan. He's in the process right now of building the bomb for his swan song. This will be his masterpiece he can feel it. But what he needs to do is take care of some business that could possibly put a kink in all his plans. He moves from his workbench to his desk, flips open the laptop lid, and pulls up the address that was last searched for by last by the IP address listed on his phone. The person who had searched for his mother's name, address and phone number would not see the dawn of the coming day.

He decided that an explosive end to whoever this person is will be a no-no. Too much attention could be drawn to himself. He can't be involved in another bomb type of death so close to him killing Kyle. He decides that this person will meet their fate by a poorly maintained pilot light. It is amazing what you can find someone's house to kill them without them even knowing it. It can be anything from as common as household chemicals mixed in the right proportions to a faulty gas line to an appliance. Leaving his masterpiece for when he returns, he leaves his Brooklyn apartment and takes the subway to within walking distance of the building that has committed the web search. Walking slowly to make sure he has the right area he takes out a scanner that can scan every IP address in the building and turns it on. He's in luck because whoever performs this search lives on what could be the second floor.

He needs to get inside the building and as he looks up from his scanner, he sees an older woman leaving the building and makes for the front door before it closes. She was even kind enough to hold it for him when she told him not to run to get inside. Once he is on the second floor, he starts scanning each unit as he walks down the hallway. By the time he gets to the third one on the left, the signal he is seeing is a spot-on match for the IP address that did the search. The door is locked but that's not a problem for him. He pulls on powder-free nitrile examination gloves and looks at the lock. This will be too easy. Once he picks the lock, he is surprised to find an older woman asleep on the recliner in the living room. He moves cautiously and quietly through the apartment. Entering the kitchen, he looks at the stove and the gas line connection to it. To get the gas to flow quickly he opens the door and extinguishes the pilot light. Then he unscrews the line to the stove to really get the place filled up with the invisible gas. He needs to make sure that she won't wake up if his plan is to succeed. Seeing a very large vase on the nick knack shelf he picks it up to break over her head.

As he reaches for the vase, he sees something that makes his blood boil even more. On the shelf next to the vase are pictures of people. He studies them closer and there is a picture of the bastard and his family. He's startled by what he hears next.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my home?" Mary Anne shouts out as she tries to get out of the recliner.

The next thing she knows the man in her home is charging at her. As he does he is raising his arm up with the vase in his hand. She can't stop what she knows will happen next and the next thing she feels is a very heavy vase smash down on the top of her head. She is rendered unconscious instantly and falls back into the recliner.

Colin is pleased with the way everything worked out. Now he only needs to add one more touch to complete his plan and escape before everything goes up in flames. Knowing that the gas that is now filling the apartment is heavier than air it's moving from bottom to top and with the size of this apartment, he guesses that there should be about fifteen to twenty minutes before it is completely filled with gas. He returns to the kitchen to search for two items. First, he needs some duct tape and a box of wooden matches. He finds what he needs pretty quickly and returns to the entry door. Once he faces the door, he peels off three of the same lengths of duct tape.

He opens the door and rips off the striking surface of the matchbox and tapes it to the door jamb. Then he puts a small horizontal fold in it at 90⁰ to hide the rest of the striking surface. The match he has is one that has antimony (III) sulfide to make it burn more vigorously. Gauging the gap between the door and the door jamb he uses two of the smaller pieces of the duct tape and tapes the match to the door itself. He makes sure that the match is right against the striking surface and slowly closes the door as softly as he can being careful to cause no friction between match and striker.

Checking his work, he is happy with the result. He sees no security cameras except the two that are outside facing the entry door and the street. He avoided them when he entered and will do so when he leaves.

Xx

One hour later…

"Mary Anne it's Gail. Gail Kirkpatrick. I'm just back from the market with your things. Are you okay in there?"

Mrs. Kirkpatrick calls out against the closed and locked door to her friend's apartment. Hearing no answer, she trudges back down to her own apartment lugging the half-gallon of milk and a small container of orange juice for her to get her emergency key for her friend's apartment. Once she has it and has climbed back up the stairs, she thinks the smells something foul but dismisses it because the building they live in is having the hallways on the upper floors repainted.

She comes back with the key and the items Mary Anne wanted places the key into the lock, unlocks the lock in the handle and twists the doorknob. The second she pushes the door open the match that's taped to the door rubs against the striking material and causes friction. The gas that has now filled the apartment from top to bottom is ignited and the whole apartment along with Mary Anne Janowski and Gail Kirkpatrick and any evidence DNA or physical that Colin might have left behind has just been obliterated. The entire second floor is engulfed in a huge fireball.

Xx

The FDNY has already requested two more alarms in addition to Engine 33 and Tower Ladder 9 when the Battalion Chief had arrived on the scene of the fire. In the next ten minutes Engine 55 from Broome street, Engine 28 and Ladder 11 from 2nd Avenue and Ladder 20 and SOC Rebreather 1 from Lafayette Street were on scene. The fire was extinguished in close to two hours with only the loss of two entire floors the second and the third. Once the scene was secure the arson squad started their investigation.

What they found was that the supply line was disconnected from the stove in apartment 2F and a makeshift ignition system had been made by using a match, the door, and door jamb. They automatically called in the BDU to look into the cause with more specialized equipment. They would not relinquish their investigation to them but the BDU would report directly to the Arson Squad with their findings.

Xx

The second he had heard the address come through the earpiece of the phone he was holding he turned pale and clammy. He needed a minute or two to recover then he would call his best men to go to his old address.

"Smitty, Baez, and Charlie I need you in the conference room ASAP," Rick called over the intercom system that was heard all over the BDU house.

"We have a job to do for the FDNY. I need you to be focused, on point and efficient. It seems that they need a definitive answer as to why a gas main had caused damage and possibly injury to an apartment in lower Manhattan."

"Okay boss." Was said from all three men and they were grabbing their gear to head out to the truck.

Rick was pulling up his truck to the scene of the fire with two additional trucks behind him. He did his best to keep his emotions in check. He knew a lot of people here and he hoped everyone made it out in one piece. Sadly this was not to be.

"Captain Castle, I'm Deputy Fire Marshall Holloway. What I need you and your team to do is to collect all biological and physical evidence from the scene. We were only to ascertain so much and we need more to nail this sick bastard."

"Was anyone killed in this?" Rick solemnly asks.

"There were two female victims recovered." The Fire Marshall pulls out his notebook and flips through a couple of pages before he gets to the one he needs. "A Mrs. Kirkpatrick in 1C and a Ms. Janowski in 2F."

Rick turned to face his men and when he did, he saw that Smitty and Herman had let tears escape from their eyes. They too knew the women that had perished in this fire.

TBC