In my copy of this story I typed the comments of Rae's 'admirer' in a different font. However, I can't seem to download that, so I have put the day in bold in front of each part of the story that refers to this. I hope this is clear. If not feel free to e-mail me. Thanks.

1st Thursday

It didn't feel like they'd been in bed more than about twenty minutes when the phone rang, and Rae turned and tried to switch her light on. Nothing happened. She sighed and tried to look at the clock; it was three thirty in the morning! Great, this has got to be either the station or the hospital.

"Detective Yeager… Hi, Steve… oh my, when was that?" Rae paused; she had a pained look on her face, and was running her fingers through her hair. "No, that's fine, is it ok if I get Jesse to drive me? I'll see you soon." She looked over at the sleeping form of her boyfriend, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Jess, sweetheart, I know you've had a long day, but I need a favour."

"What, what is it, Rae, are you alright?"

"I take it you didn't hear the phone then?"

"No, what phone?"

"This one, doofus! I need you to run me to the station. A cop's been killed, Steve and I got the call."

Jesse struggled up in bed, he really hadn't heard the phone, and it was taking him a while to wake up. He looked over, saw Rae was already out of bed and putting her clothes on. She slipped into her jeans, grabbed a pink sweatshirt to go over the top, ran her fingers through her hair once again, and headed for the bathroom. Since it had only been about five and a half hours since her last shower, she just brushed her teeth, and then came back into the bedroom. Jesse was now up, and putting on the clothes he had worn the day before.

"Hey, at least you get to come back to bed, looks like I'll be working for the rest of the night, and on into tomorrow! Oh, and my light isn't working by the bed."

They walked down to Jesse's car, and he pulled out onto the almost deserted street. At least it wouldn't take long to get there. "So how come you and Steve got the call on this one, I thought you were concentrating on the Call Girl murder?"

"Well, we are, but somebody has to do it. We were on call and Steve said that the Chief asked him personally, so I guess we really don't have any choice. He also said that he doesn't know him. Apparently he doesn't work out of North Hollywood; his station is in Van Nuys. So even though it's another cop it isn't that personal." She paused, "I'm not too sure how I would do on personal right now."

It wasn't long before Rae and Jesse were pulling into the parking lot at the station, Jesse walked inside with her, and up into the squad room. Steve was on the phone as they walked in, and he waved them both over. "Yes, Sir… No, she's just arrived, Sir… she's without transportation at the moment…I'll fill her in now, and then we can get on our way, goodnight, Sir…" Steve put the phone down. "Pleasant dreams, Sir!"

Rae walked over to Steve's desk, and Jesse followed behind her, he didn't want to leave her just yet. He was hoping that he could talk to Steve about her car. "Steve, could I have a word before you leave?" He started to walk away hoping that his friend would follow, and was immensely relieved when he did just that. "I heard about what happened to Rae's car. She doesn't seem to be too badly effected by what happened, but it scares the heck out of me! You know that she's going to get it re-painted, and carry on using it!"

"Good, that's what I'd do, too. If it's somebody who knows her, or at least sees her in her car then it'll show them that she hasn't be scared off by what happened. I think it's the right thing to do. I'm sorry, but I've got to go, Jesse."

Steve went back into the squad room, and walked over to Rae. "We need to get moving. I'll brief you as we go. It shouldn't take us too long to get to Van Nuys at this time of night." They got into Steve's car and headed out into the darkness. "The victim's name is Mario Santos, he was a motorcycle cop, thirty years of age, married with two young children. We have to go see the widow in the morning. I arranged it for nine. Is that ok?"

Rae nodded and then a thought struck her. "I guess I won't be seeing Dr. Dobson tomorrow morning then?" She glanced at her watch. "Sorry, this morning. Could you remind me at about eight to phone, and let his secretary know I won't be in?" She shut her eyes, she knew that she wouldn't have any time for the sleep her body craved, but at least she could make the world go away, for a little while.

Steve pulled over to the kerb, outside the park where the body had been found. They made their way to where they could see other cops, and showed their I.D. "The body's over here, Lieutenant," a female officer shone a flashlight over towards a mound under a tree, and they followed behind her. Amanda was crouched down beside the body and she turned and smiled.

"Hey, guys, we must stop meeting like this."

"What have you got for us, Amanda?" Steve was cold and tired, he wanted to be anywhere but here, so the words came out a little sterner than he had intended.

"Thirty year old male, Hispanic, shot once through the heart, not much more to tell at first glance." Her voice was taught. Nobody liked the idea of a cop killer. The body, which was still in uniform, was face down in the dirt; over on the path Steve could see his motorcycle. Amanda waved over the two men with the gurney; they lifted him up, turned him over, and laid him down.

"I know him!" Rae looked at the body. "Steve?"

"No, sorry, Rae, I've never seen him before, where do you know him from?"

"Well, you may not know him, Sir, but on Monday night he had his gun pointed at the back of your head!"

"What! That was a cop?" Steve was stunned.

"I don't suppose there are any witnesses floating about to be interviewed?" Rae saw Amanda shake her head. She looked back over at her partner. She didn't like what she saw and hurried across to him. "Steve, Sir? Are you ok?"

"He was a cop. He would've killed me, Rae. If I hadn't co-operated he would've killed me." Rae put her hand on his arm.

"I know, I thought he had at one point. Come on, Sir; let's go sit on that bench while we wait for the body to be moved. We can't really check the area while it's still here."

"Do you feel that I'm a better cop than you, Detective?"

"Maybe, Sir, you are on your own patch after all." Rae stared at him. Where did that come from?

 "Do you think that you owe me some sort of unearned respect?"

"No, Sir." Rae had no idea what he was talking about.

"Then stop calling me, Sir, it annoys the hell out of me!" Steve had a face like thunder.

"Yes Sir..., Sorry, Lieutenant."

She guided him across the park; they sat together on the bench and watched the scene in front of them.  After about five minutes she looked at Steve. He was sitting very still, although his temper seemed to have cooled some.  She began to think out loud hoping for a response. "You know, there's got to be something big involved in this case somewhere, something worth killing three people for, four if you include Santos' partner who I shot. You know I wondered why he called him his partner at the time, I thought it was because I'd used that word just a minute before him, but I guess I was wrong about that, it was a word he was used to using himself everyday."

Rae sat quietly, but her mind was racing. She'd forgotten that she was speaking her thoughts to get Steve involved in the conversation; she was on autopilot now. This was how she worked on her cases. So far what had they got? A prostitute and magazine model, a newspaper deliveryman, and a traffic cop! There didn't seem to be a connection. She tried it another way. One showed off or sold her body, one delivered papers and one protected the community. Wait, cut it down further, showed her body, delivered, and protected. "I've got it, I've got the connection!"

Steve, who obviously had no idea what she was thinking about looked over at her, "What connection?" He'd been miles away, reliving the feeling of that gun on the back of his neck. When he'd been told to kneel down, he'd been sure that he was going to be shot. To find out now that it was another cop, he shuddered and heard Rae begin to speak again.

"The connection between the three murder victims. Kelly Brown, prostitute, she showed her body in magazines, Ethan Norville, van driver, he delivered them and Mario Santos, cop, was the protection." She stopped, suddenly it didn't sound so obvious, she looked at Steve. "Lieutenant?"

He smiled at her and she breathed a sigh of relief; he had a feeling that she might be right. "You know we've got to get into those CD's. Maybe now that we have an idea what's going on we can have another try at breaking the code. He turned and saw the gurney disappearing through the trees; Amanda came over to her two friends.

"Steve, Rae, I'm going now. I'll look at Mr. Santos in the morning. Give me a ring and I'll let you know what I've found out. Are you ok, Steve?" she looked concerned.

"Yeah, Amanda, I'm fine. It's just a bit of a shock to find out that Santos was a cop that's all."

"Rae, I'll give you a ring at the weekend, the boys keep asking me when we're all going to meet up again." With that she was on her way, they both watched her as she headed to the coroner's wagon and then they returned to the subject at hand.

"Right, let's see if there's anything here, then we can return to the station." They spent the next hour looking over the grass where the body had been and the surrounding area. It was obvious that he'd been shot where he was found; there was blood in the grass, no scuffmarks, and, of course, his motorcycle was still there. They looked at the two sets of footprints that led from the path over to the tree and they took molds of them both.

The sun was beginning to rise as they headed back towards the car. They got in and sat for a moment in silence. Steve turned to Rae, "I'm sorry, Rae, I guess I lost it for a moment. I just couldn't believe that another cop could do that. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I'm fine again now."

"Hey, it never happened, ok? Do you think we could grab a bite to eat on the way to the station, I'm absolutely starving?"

Steve looked at his watch, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea to me. The guys we need to speak to about the CD won't be in until nine, and we're supposed to be talking to Mrs. Santos by then."

They picked up some bagels and hot chocolate on the way back, and ate them as they drove. Rae's mind was working overtime. If there was an organisation it would appear that it was in crisis. There must be a way to infiltrate it somehow, but her knowledge wasn't sufficient to work out a plan on her own. Steve looked over at her; he was beginning to understand how she worked. While they had been sitting on the park bench, and she'd been thinking about the connection between the three of them she'd been almost completely still. Occasionally her hand would run through her hair, but apart from that she had been in a world of her own, and as he watched her he could see that she was going through the same process again. Then a small smile appeared on her face. He knew that she was going over things her way, so he said nothing. She'd tell him soon, probably when they got back to their desks.

They walked back into the squad room and across towards the coffee machine. Rae looked over towards her desk and to her surprise saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the top. She smiled to herself, oh, Jesse, how thoughtful. She walked over and picked them up.

The card said, "To my English Rose, we will be together forever"

Rae walked over to the phone, and dialled Jesse's number. "Dr. Travis," his voice was heavy with sleep.

"Hi, sweetheart," In contrast Rae's voice was animated, "I'm sorry if I woke you, but I just wanted to thank you for the beautiful flowers, they were a wonderful surprise, but I told you our disagreement was over. We're fine again."

"Hey, wait up a minute, Rae, I didn't send you any flowers. I would have if I'd known they would make you happy, but it wasn't me."

"Oh," suddenly Rae felt uneasy, "Oh, I better go. I'll speak to you later, Jess." She put the phone down. She looked at the flowers again, and then she turned round, put her fingers in her mouth and whistled. The room was completely silent in a split second.

"Sorry, guys, but did anybody see who delivered these flowers?" Nobody said anything. Rae was feeling jitterier by the minute. "Ok, sorry to interrupt." She sat down in her chair, and picked up the card by its edges. There was no florists name on it. She opened her drawer took an evidence bag out, and slipped the tag in it. She looked up to see Steve staring down at her.

"You know, Jesse didn't like what happened to my car. I thought maybe it was a one off, but if he didn't send these, then who did?"

"Go and ask the Desk Sergeant if he saw anything." She got up from her desk and walked out of the room. When she got out of sight of her partner she leant up against the wall for a second, and ran both hands through her hair. Then she took a deep breath, tried to look carefree, and headed for the stairs.

"Hi, Detective Yeager, how's it going this morning?" Bob was on duty again, in fact it seemed he was always there.

"Don't you have a home to go to, Bob?" Rae smiled at him, and placed both hands on the desk. "What time did you start your shift?"

"About, Oooh," he checked his watch, "Three hours ago, why?"

"Did you see anybody bring me in some flowers? I've no idea what time, sometime after I left here last night, and before I got in this morning."

"No, sorry, we haven't had any deliveries, if that's what you mean, maybe you have a secret admirer?"

"Bob, did you hear what happened to my car?"

"Yeah, what a shame."

"Well, I don't think I want a secret admirer!"

"No, I see what you mean. If anybody asks me anything about you, I'll let you know, ok?"

"That would be great. Thanks, Bob."

She knew that she would have to be satisfied with that, so she headed back to her desk, and to the work she needed to do.

As she sat there she looked over at the clock, it was just after seven she got out a pad from her desk, soon her head was resting on her arm as she wrote quickly, and neatly across the page. She had all her impressions of the last three and a half days, plus the basis of a plan to infiltrate the gang, ok, so I don't know if it's a gang, but I can't think of another word, if their information so far was correct. When she looked at the clock again it was ten past eight. She picked up the phone and called Dr. Dobson. She heard Helen's voice on the other end of the line.

"Dr. Dobson's Office, can I help you?"

"Oh, hi, Helen, it's Detective Yeager, look I'm really sorry about this, but I'm going to have to cancel for today. Steve and I were called to a new case this morning, and there's no way I'm going to be able to get in to you. My plan is to be there tomorrow though."

"That's OK, Detective, in your line of work I guess it's to be expected now and again. I'll pass your message on for you. Have a nice day!"

Rae smiled, so people really did say that then! She looked back at her pad. She'd been doodling while she'd been on the phone, and without really realising it had drawn a rose; she grabbed the pencil by the side of the pad, and scribbled it through. Then she went over to the computer, and started to put her ideas into a document on there. Once that was done, she screwed up the piece of paper with the rose on it, and threw it in the bin. She picked up the flowers from were they were laying on the floor. They gave her the whim whams, but she still couldn't throw them away, she decided to take them over to the hospital later. Without the tag nobody would know what their original purpose had been. Heck they'd been for her, and she didn't know what it was!

Steve wandered over to her. He had seen how deep in concentration she'd been since she'd returned to the room, and he hadn't wanted to intrude, but they needed to get a move on if they were to get to Mrs Santos' house in time for their appointment. He put his hand on her shoulder, and she let out a gasp.

"Oh, Steve! Sorry, I was deep in thought. I guess it's time for us to leave, isn't it?"

He nodded and they walked out together. Rae had the flowers with her; she planned to drop them off later, before they got back to the precinct. As they went out into the hallway she saw Martin Robertson and Phil Levington talking, she raised a hand in acknowledgement to them both, and carried on her way. When they got to the lobby she walked over to Bob. "These are the flowers, I suppose they still don't ring any bells?"

The Desk Sergeant shook his head. "Nope, sorry, Detective, I can't help you I'm afraid."

They walked out to the car, she put them on the back seat, then she buckled herself in and thought about how they were going to face the grieving widow of a cop who'd attacked a colleague.

Thursday I saw her coming out of the precinct this morning; she was carrying the flowers I sent her. I'm so glad that she liked them. She was dressed better today. I guess my note on her car let her know how I feel about clothes like that. My little camera took a picture of her carrying her flowers, an English rose, no doubt about it.

As they drove along Steve and Rae discussed the link they thought they'd found. "Rae, d'you remember what you said when we first went into Ethan Norville's apartment?" Rae shook her head.

"If I sat and thought about it I probably could, but not off the top my head, no, Sir, sorry, Steve, slip of the tongue, why, what did I say?"

"You said, 'nice apartment, for a delivery man,' I did a bit of digging. That apartment would set you back about $1,800 per month, and there aren't that many facilities in the building, no gym or pool or anything. I don't think he should have been able to afford that on his salary."

"What was Kelly Brown's place like?" Rae couldn't remember what the file said; she'd been a little bit pre-occupied at the time.

"It was nice, very nice in fact, but it's hard to tell whether a call girl could afford that type of apartment or not. Somebody else could've paid for it. You know, I'm not sure what her bank details said, I'll have to double check that. Wow!" Steve let out a long whistle. He drew the car up outside a very nice house. It was white, and had two four wheel drive cars on the driveway. There were pillars going up either side of the entranceway, and probably enough bedrooms for the entire traffic division. Steve looked over at Rae. "Nice house, for a cop!"

"There's some serious money in this business somewhere, we just aren't finding it yet."

They got out of the car, and walked up to the door. They'd already decided that Steve would do the talking. Neither of them had wanted to be the one to talk about how her husband had been killed, and they felt it better that the attack on Monday night stay their secret for the time being. Steve rang the bell and they waited. A tall raven-haired woman answered the door. She was dressed in black jeans, and a black t-shirt. They could see two young children playing in the room directly behind them.

Steve took out his ID and smiled at the woman. "Mrs. Santos?" She nodded, "My name is Lieutenant Steve Sloan and this is Detective Reagan Yeager."

"Lieutenant, you're not from Mario's precinct are you?"

"No, ma'am, but it's about your husband that we're here."

Rae put her hand on Mrs. Santos' arm, "Could we talk inside the house do you think?" Rae couldn't help but have a sympathetic tone to her voice and the woman immediately picked up on it, she was obviously distraught. Her hand went to her mouth and her eyes filled with tears.

She backed into the house and then led them into a very spacious and airy room decorated in yellows and golds. She sat on the sofa and Rae made sure that she was close to her. She turned to her partner and Steve began to speak.

"Mrs. Santos, I'm sorry that we have to invade your privacy at such a difficult time. As he looked at the young woman in front of him who must be about twenty-five years old, had two young children to look after and had just lost her husband, he disregarded what the man had done for a moment, and felt a deep sadness for this family.

Mrs Santos looked over at Steve, took a deep breath and then said, "How did he die? I didn't get much detail from the officer who called earlier, Lieutenant, did he come off his bike?" Steve shook his head.

"He was shot, Mrs. Santos, murdered."

Rae looked over at the clearly shocked woman. "Is there anybody I can phone to come and stay with you, Mrs. Santos?" The woman nodded.

"My purse is on the table in the hall, the address book is underneath it. My mother's name is in there. Her surname is... Hudson, sorry she just re-married." Rae got up and went out into the hallway. Steve saw her go and then he turned back to the woman sitting in front of him.

"Will I be able to see him later? I'll need to identify the body won't I?"

Steve nodded. "I'll get somebody from Mario's precinct to go with you if you would prefer.

"Yes please, thank you, Lieutenant."

Steve took a breath, "I'm sorry to have to ask you these questions, but I just need some facts from you. Do the names Kelly Brown or Ethan Norville mean anything to you?"

She shook her head. "Mario had many friends that I didn't know about, Lieutenant. It may sound corny, old fashioned, or just mind numbingly boring, but all I wanted was to be a good wife and a loving mom to my kids. Mario was very seldom here, but when he was we had a good marriage. If they were friends of his, I wouldn't have known about it. I'm sorry."

The room became silent. They could hear Rae out in the hallway explaining gently to the person on the other end of the line, that she was needed here, as soon as possible. A few minutes later she returned to the room. "I spoke to your mother, Mrs. Santos, she said she will get in the car and be here in about three hours. Do you have a friend who could stay with you until she arrives?"

The widow shook her head. "There's really no need, Detective, I'll be fine for a short while. Besides, I need to talk to my children, without anybody else being here."

"Do you have any idea who could have done this to your husband, Mrs. Santos?"

The woman looked up with large, tear filled eyes. She shook her head. "I don't think so, he always looked forward to going to work. I know he was a cop, but I never thought of a motorcycle cop as being a particularly dangerous occupation. If he'd been in homicide, or narcotics then I would probably have been a nervous wreck."

"You have a beautiful house here, Mrs. Santos, you must be very proud of it." Rae smiled over at the woman.

"Yes, it's lovely, isn't it? We've only lived here for about eighteen months. Mario just came home one day and said that he'd been working things out and we could go and look for a much nicer house than we were living in then. And trust me this is much better than before."

"I hate to ask this, Mrs. Santos," Steve paused, "But do you think that Mario could have been working two jobs, or anything to pay for this."

"Do you mean like something illegal, Lieutenant?" Her voice was edged with steel as she spoke, but he didn't lose eye contact with her.

"Yes, Mrs. Santos, I mean something like that. I'm just fishing around at the moment, but this is a very beautiful house for a cop to own. I know I'm causing offence, but I'm just trying to do my job."

"I think I'll terminate this now, Lieutenant. If you wish to speak to me about my husband any more I'll meet you at your station with my lawyer present." She stood up and indicated with her hand that they should leave the room.

"Yes, ma'am, I'm sorry. I will get one of your husband's colleagues to contact you about viewing his body."

As they walked back towards the entry hall, Rae turned around and said, "Mrs. Santos, I realise that you're very shocked and this is a terrible time for you, but if you do think of any information that might help us to find your husband's killer, I hope you'll contact us on one of these numbers." She handed over her card, which had the squad room and her cell phone number on it. Then she turned and left the house.

As Rae got into the car, she pushed her cards back into her pocket. "That's the first time I've given anybody one of these." She smiled at her partner as he put the call through to the station to arrange for Mrs. Santos to see her husband's remains. Then he started the car and they headed back towards the station.

"You know, I think we need to get a look at his bank records as soon as we can."

Rae looked over at him. "I didn't have time to get Norville's details yet. But I think we should do Santos first."

It took them two hours to find a judge and get what they wanted. An hour after that they were sitting in the squad room looking at bank statements that most cops would recognise.

"The only thing that's odd about these is that there are no mortgage or rental payments on them. If I hadn't seen where he lived these are just the financial records I would expect to see. We need to get into his safety deposit box."

Steve was shaking his head as he looked at the figures. He agreed with everything that Rae was saying, there had to be more. Steve got on the phone to arrange a meeting for a second warrant. He was a bit doubtful about how lucky he would be. He was extremely fortunate, the judge was very helpful and soon he was arranging with the bank manager to arrange to see the safe deposit box.

Rae stood up to get a drink for each of them, and looked over Steve's shoulder at the figures on his pad. She rubbed her hand over her eyes. Her late night and early morning were beginning to catch up with her. Her phone began to ring in her pocket and she answered it. "Detective Yeager… hello… is there anybody there?" she shrugged, switched it off, and put it away.

They drove to the bank, and met with the manager, there was no problem in getting the safety deposit box brought up them. They sat alone in the manager's office ready to go through it. Rae put a pad on the desk and got ready to take a note of all the items inside. For all she knew it might be virtually empty, but she had decided to be an optimist.

"Wow!" She wasn't disappointed. The box was full of paperwork; they started to go through it, with Rae writing a brief description of each one on the paper. After a while she decided that it was a futile exercise, they would need to take everything back to the station.

"Oh, she must have known that he was bringing in way to much money for a cop! According to these deeds, the house is paid for in full. So are the cars, they have savings accounts, current, and deposit accounts. And I would put money, if I had any to spare, on the fact that there are other things hidden in here too."

She smiled over at her partner; Steve had been tapping on a calculator while Rae was talking. "He has just over a million dollars in these accounts. I wonder whether the IRS has any information on him. He looks like the kind of guy they would love to audit! And I know just the person who would love to do it too!"

Rae looked over at him. She had no idea what he was talking about. She shrugged her shoulders and carried on reading. "Hold on, we might have something here. He's been paying a monthly amount to a real estate agent. Now, unless he is looking to buy more property and has been paying a retainer to this guy, I would say that there's a rental property out there somewhere worth looking at."

"The address is only just down the block, seems strange to come all the way across from his own precinct and go right close to ours. Still makes it easier for us." Steve smiled.

There wasn't much more to see, but there was something else to catalogue. Two keys, one looked like a front door key. The other one like it would open a lock up or a storage bin of some kind. Rae looked through the paper work again. Here we go, she held up an invoice from the real estate agent. On the top were the addresses of two properties. She showed it to Steve. He walked out of the office and she could see him talking to the manager who had been waiting just outside the door in his secretary's room. In the interim Rae had packed everything back into the box and arranged to meet with the real estate agent. "We need to take this with us, Mr. Unger, my partner Detective Yeager will give you a receipt."

Once they had finished their business at the bank they got back in the car, and headed for the company address on the invoice.

"That wasn't just down the block. It wasn't far, but we needed the car!"

"You're getting lazy, Detective, how about a run along the beach later? Looks like you could do with the exercise. Remember, you might have to get back into those jeans, Sheree!" Rae stuck her tongue out at her partner and they walked over to the Real Estate Office. "Osborn Properties – Don't make a move without us!"

They entered the office, and were met by a very efficient looking middle-aged lady. "Yes, Sir, Madam, may I help you?"

"We're here to see Mr. Osborn, he's expecting us."

"Who shall I say is here Mr. and Mrs.?"

Rae smiled, she looked at Steve and he nodded. "Ah, that is Lieutenant Steve Sloan and I'm Detective Reagan Yeager."

They saw her open the door at the end of the hallway, and heard her announce, "Mr. Osborn, there are two police officers who say they have an appointment. Very good, Sir, yes, I'll hold all your calls." She walked back down towards them and said, "You may go through."

Steve smiled at Rae and said, "After you, Mrs. Sloan!"

"Why thank you, Mr. Yeager!" He held the door open for her and they went into meet with Mr. Osborn.

"Detective, Lieutenant, how can I help you?"

Steve briefly outlined the case they were working on, explaining that they needed to know whether the two addresses they had were the only ones Mario Santos had been renting from him. He also wanted to know how long the rental was paid for. He double-checked that it had been paid in cash each month. When they had the information Mr. Osborn gave them the keys to both properties and they walked back past the secretary without a word. They didn't mention that they already had keys.

They got into the car and Steve picked up the phone. "Hey, Dad, it's Steve, listen we're about to go and look around a lock up, we could do with another pair of eyes. Ours are getting a bit heavy." He gave Mark the address and arranged to meet him there.

Rae's phone rang; she took it out and answered it. "Detective Yeager… hello, is there anybody there?" She banged the phone with her hand. "That's the second time that's happened to me today, maybe I ought to get it checked. Could we pick up something to eat, Steve? I don't know about you but I need some lunch, even if it is," she looked at her watch, "almost five pm!" They stopped at a convenience store, and got some sandwiches, some bottled water, and a couple of apples. Once they arrived at the first location they sat eating their meagre fare until Mark arrived.

Steve unlocked the garage, the up and over door slid up silently. The garage was full, but neat. On the left hand side there were packs of magazines. Steve picked up a packet, his gloved fingers slipping on the plastic wrappings. They looked like the latest edition, there was a picture of Kelly Brown on the front and it had a black border all around it. Next to the magazines there were three stacks of cartons, which all said printers ink on them. On the right of the garage was a very complex looking printer. They had found the hub of the business. Or one of them. There was no way you would make a million dollars in this one location.

Rae sat down on the stool, which was by the printer. She was watching Mark. He hadn't said anything since they entered the garage. He walked around looking at any and everything. She was fascinated. When he'd told her who he thought the murderer was in their last case she'd been astounded, astounded but relieved, as it confirmed her own theories, but she still couldn't see how he'd worked it out without all the evidence before him. Now she was beginning to get an idea.

After about five minutes Mark looked over at his son. "Can I open one of these packets son?" He was looking at the magazines.

"Yeah, sure, what are you hoping to find?"

"Do they have advertisements in them?"

"Oh, yeah, for stuff you wouldn't imagine in your wildest dreams, or nightmares, why?"

"Because if they have advertisements there'll be a copy date. If we go back to the other magazines we can see if the copy date was before, or after Kelly was killed. If it was before then it was an inside job, by either the magazine staff or anyone associated with the production of it."

Rae shook her head. She was pretty sure that she wouldn't have thought of that, at least not yet.

Mark continued. "This is issue thirty one, so somewhere between twenty five and twenty eight should have the copy date for this issue. I wonder where he gets his paper and his printer's ink. Unless he's buying a large amount this must be bought off the shelf." They left the garage, Steve locked it up, and got on the phone to get a couple of black and white's down to take all the stuff back and put it under lock and key. Steve also arranged for a guard to be posted overnight.  Then they headed on to the second location.

They pulled up outside a very small unit. It wasn't very far from the first location, but there was enough distance between them for them to appear unrelated. Steve unlocked the door, and they walked into an office. There was a desk, a computer, filing cabinets; everything you would need except staff. Steve looked around. "Don't touch anything, I'm going to get the lab boys down here, I want this place dusted." He took out his phone, and wandered outside.

It took the lab an hour to send somebody down and another hour to dust the place, by that time Rae was almost asleep standing up. She'd had three more dead phone calls, she wanted to switch the thing off, but she knew she couldn't. All she'd had to eat all day was a bagel, two sandwiches and an apple; she was tired, hungry and irritable. Finally they were able to re-enter the office.

"Ok, Rae, you start on the desk, Dad, d'you want to look at the filing cabinet? I'm gonna see if I can get into this computer." They worked in silence for about thirty minutes before Rae's phone went off again.

"WHAT? … Oh, sorry, Jess, no, no, it's just that I've been getting dead calls all day and I thought it was another one, my phone didn't recognise your number… I'm going to be at least another two or three hours, why? Oh, great, look can you ring her back, and ask her to slip the papers through your door? Then I can sign them when I get home and she can sort them out tomorrow. Then I'll see if I can change my day off to Monday, and we can get it sorted, what do you say? Ok, yeah, I love you too, bye." Rae switched off her phone, and slipped it back in her pocket.

"Hey, guys, guess who gets to sign the lease on her own place tonight?"

"Really, Rae, are you sure you're ready to do that, sweetie? You know you can stay with us or Jesse for as long as you want, don't you?" Mark looked concerned. He stopped what he was doing, and walked over to her.

"Mark, Steve, I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me, but I really need to do this, besides, I'm only moving as far as the apartment next to Jesse, so I think I'll be all right." She had a broad grin on her face, as much as she loved being with her friends, there was something about being able to shut your front door at night, and be safe in your own little nest. She'd missed that.

Mark walked back over to the filing cabinet, and Rae carried on searching through the desk. She ran her hand over the underside of the top inside the drawer and her fingers felt something stuck up there. She took the three drawers out, lay on the floor and looked up into the cavity above her. She got up again, peeled the tape carefully back and retrieved an envelope. "I think I may have found something."

The envelope was sealed so she held it up to the light, and could see that its contents were away from the top. She picked up the letter opener and gingerly started to slide it across. Then she took the piece of paper out, unfolded it and laid it on the desk. There were three 'words' on it. rotubirtnoc sreilppus and stnuocca.

"Ok," said Steve, sounding very confused. "All contributions gratefully received, what does it mean? Looks like gobbledygook to me."

Rae and Mark looked at each other and shrugged. Rae wrote the 'words' down three times on separate pieces of paper, they all sat and looked at them. Suddenly Rae got a glimmer of an idea. She began to write something, Mark looked across, and she knew he'd got it too.

She smiled at him, "Do you want to tell him or shall I?"

"What, what? Tell me what? Oh great, now you're ganging up on me, you've both solved it haven't you, and I don't have any idea."

"Well, son, you are up against the medical consultant to the police department and the most famous detective in L.A. what do you expect!"

"I tell you what, I'll give you a clue. The last one is accounts." Rae stopped talking and looked at him. Steve looked at the last word, then the other two, and then a smile worked its way across his face.

"And there just happens to be three of them, and there are three CD's. We cracked the code! Contributors, Suppliers and Accounts. Did we find anything else of use yet?"

"Well, the filing cabinet has a lot of nothing really. Letters to advertisers, also letters from other magazines where I guess they advertised themselves, but that's about it. The computer has really replaced the filing cabinet, especially when you've got things to hide." Mark shut the drawer he'd been looking in. The two bottom drawers had been completely empty, and there'd only been a handful of things in the top one.

"How about you, Rae, did you find anything else?" Steve looked across at his partner, and could see how tired she was.

"No, just what you would expect to find. Pens, pencils and rulers. Lined pads, telephone message pads, I tried to get an imprint but it didn't work. Couple of packets of gum, one packet of menthol cigarettes and a photo of somebody's dog. That's it, sorry. The other drawers have printer paper in them, envelopes, general stationery, as I said, just what you'd expect to find. There was nothing else taped to any of the drawers either, because I looked." Rae tried to stifle a yawn, but all she achieved was to make Steve and Mark yawn too. "Sorry, guys."

"Well, I can't get into this computer, I'll have to take it back to the station and have a go there, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow for that little job. I'll just arrange for a guard to be posted here tonight as well, and then I think we can call it quits for today."

Rae looked over at her partner. "Could you drop me home? I'm still Tom-less remember? Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to arrange for him to be re-painted."

"Why, what happened to your car, Rae?"

"Oh, sorry, Mark, didn't Steve tell you? Somebody scratched TRAMP! down the side of it yesterday, so I have to get a new paint job. I was not impressed, my lovely little car."

"I can run you home, Rae. Steve is as tired as you are; let him go straight to the beach house. How will you get into work tomorrow?" Rae smiled at her friends concern.

"I have to see Dr. Dobson tomorrow at eight thirty so I'll get Jesse to run me into the hospital. I'll be fine, Mark, don't worry about me."

They walked out of the office together. Steve joined them. "Did I hear Dad say he would run you home, Rae?" She nodded, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow then, can you get in a bit earlier than normal?"

"Yeah no problem, I'll come straight in after I've finished at the hospital." With that Mark guided her to his car and Steve walked over to his own. As Steve opened the door he saw the flowers still in the back. He picked them up and turned, there was a dumpster just beside him on the sidewalk, he put them in it and got into his car.  They went in different directions, Mark and Rae chatted lightly until they drew up at Jesse's apartment block. "Thanks, Mark, I guess I'd better go and sign my lease, could you come up and witness it for me?"

"Sure, Rae, it would be my pleasure." She leant over and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you, it'll be nice to have my own front door again." After Mark had witnessed her signature, and that of Miss Diego, he left Rae, and walked back down to his car.

She let herself into Jesse's place, and turned the light on. She walked over to the window and waved. She saw Mark's car draw away, and then she sat down with her copy of the lease in her lap. After a little while Rae wrote a short note to Jesse, and clambered into bed. She was too tired even for a shower; she would deal with that in the morning. She was almost asleep before her head hit the pillow. It had been an extremely long day.

Thursday I had to send her another note today. All I see her doing is kiss people. Her doctor friend, her partner and then the dad of her partner. She just doesn't realise that it isn't correct behaviour for a person in her position to be seen kissing people all the time. I keep having to take pictures of all this kissing. I rang her today to let her know, but she sounded busy all the time. I found her card screwed up on the front step of the house they visited this morning, I saw the lady who lived there throw it out of the door just after they'd left. I knew I was there for a reason. It was to get her cell number, now I can contact her whenever I want, and hear her voice whenever I feel like it. I hope she gets her letter in the morning. I saw her drive home with Mark Sloan; I guess she feels that her little car is telling her a few home truths at the moment!