CHAPTER 4: LONG DISTANCE

Wednesday, December 6
11:48 pm

"I forgot to ask, did you get to your session OK last night?" Lennie asked the next night as they reached their new crime scene at the river's edge.

"Yeah, fine," Rey said shortly. "What do we have on this guy?"

"Uniforms found a guy dumping a body into the river, that's all I know."

"I love a slam dunk. Especially late at night," Rey got out of the car and they approached the body. Pretty straightforward, thought Lennie as he listened to the uniform. Apparently some dumb mook named Carl Thurston had been picked up from prison in Virginia that morning by his brother-in-law Ronnie. Carl was off to a great start reintegrating into the community, judging from the gunshot hole in Ronnie's stomach and the fact that Carl had been caught trying to get rid of his body.

They joined Carl in the squad car and, predictably enough, Carl began by asserting that it was all an accident. Pretty straightforward, thought Lennie again, suppressing a yawn.

"Detectives! There's something you oughtta look at," a young uniform poked his head into the car.

"What?" Rey asked.

"We found another one."

"Another what - body?"

"Actually, another two thirds. Female. No hands, feet... or head."

"Where was she?"

"About ten yards downriver from the first one. Caught beneath some underwater piling."

Lennie and Rey turned to their perp. "How many people you kill, Carl?" Lennie asked him curiously.

===

Thursday, December 7
9:30 am

"LT, you're sure?" Rey asked as he and Lennie left the IR where their fine citizen was confined.

"Thurston was released yesterday. The other body's been in for 24 hours." Van Buren handed Lennie the fax she'd received from the Virginia prison and he sighed. So much for their slam dunk.

"And brother-in-law Ronnie was fresh when they found him," Lennie recalled. "As in, less than an hour."

"Can I see that fax?" Rey held out his hand for it, skimming through the preliminary report on Ronnie's body. "There's something there..." Lennie started to hand it to him, then stopped, nonplussed, as he realized that Rey's wedding ring was gone. Rey looked up at him questioningly, still holding out his hand. "Lennie? The fax?"

"Right," Lennie handed it to him quickly.

"You wanna get yourself a coffee or something?" Rey asked distractedly, now comparing the two documents. "Damn. No such luck."

"What?"

"I thought maybe there was an inconsistency, but I think it's just a typo. Anyway. Let's go see Rodgers, see if she's got anything else for us on the headless woman."

===

"We're talking about one very sick individual here, Rey," Lennie mused as they left ME Rodger's office.

"The perp?" Rey asked, grimacing in distaste. Not that most of the people they chased down were saints, but there was something really sick about a guy who had sex with a woman and then dismembered her while she was still alive.

"No, Rodgers," Lennie replied, and Rey chuckled.

"What makes you say that?"

"You have to be a little bizarre to go into that line of work, don't you think? Digging around finding semen and breast implants in headless torsos?"

"Hey, we're off to track down the headless torso's name by finding out who put those implants in her, so don't you think most people would say the same thing about us?"

"Point taken," Lennie laughed.

===

Friday, December 8
11:30 am

"Carmella Raggo," Lennie said into the payphone. They'd tracked down every implant doctor in the city and had them contact all of their patients. All appeared to be alive, except for three: Carmella Raggo, Stacey Rudman, and Heidi Ellison. Lennie devoutly hoped the body wouldn't be Ellison; Van Buren said she was some sort of famous producer or something, dating some actor. Lennie smiled, remembering Van Buren's slight embarrassment when he and Rey smirked at her rather detailed knowledge of high society gossip. Anyway, famous murder victims were a monumental pain in the ass to investigate; too high profile, too much opportunity for public mayhem.

Rey scanned apartment listings dispiritedly as Lennie tried to track down their headless lady candidate. Upon closer examination of the separation agreement he'd signed, he was finding his housing options a little limited. Not that Deborah had been unfair at all when she decided how to split his salary, but it didn't leave him with much once she and the kids took their share. What was it somebody had said to Lennie once? If you wanna get rich, stay married. Paying for two households from one income sucked, especially considering New York rents.

Unfortunately, staying at his sister's place much longer was just not an option. He and his sister got along just fine, but her spare room couch and her husband were really getting on his nerves. Besides, it was way past time to acknowledge that, in spite of Father Morelli's reassurances, this was not a temporary situation. Even if Deborah did yet another about face, it was way past time to get a place of his own.

Brownlee, 555-2398. One of the only affordable one-bedrooms listed in Manhattan, close to the Queensboro Bridge out to the kids, but it seemed a bit too good to be true. He took out his cell.

"Miriam Brownlee," a breathless voice chirped.

"Yeah, I'm calling about the apartment you have listed in the paper-"

"Oh yes, it's still available," Brownlee said enthusiastically.

"Says here it's a one-bedroom?"

"Yes, well, it is, really - I mean, the curtain between the kitchen and the bedroom is just like a wall, really, and it's sooo cute too," Brownlee's voice burbled on and Rey sighed. Sure, one bedroom. Probably a lot like the places he and his friends lived in, in college - small and cramped, with 'creative' use of space - ie, the toilet in a closet and the living room turned into two bedrooms.

"No thanks, I'm looking for a real one bedroom," he said, trying to be polite.

"Oh, OK, good luck! Bye!" Brownlee chirped, and hung up. Rey put his cell phone away.

"What am I gonna do, Lennie?" he said, discouraged. "After I'm back out what I'm paying Deborah, I can barely afford a studio."

"As of two weeks ago, Carmella Raggo was dancing in a place called the Rialto on Northern Boulevard," Lennie told him, taking out his car keys. "So the split's a done deal?" he asked.

"Who knows. But this twist in the wind routine is getting tired," Rey said in disgust.

"I thought if you said enough Hail Mary's all was forgiven."

"God forgives you. Not your wife."

===

10:30 pm

"So did you ID the headless woman?" Lisa asked that night as they tidied the kitchen together after dinner.

"Nah," Rey muttered. Carmella Raggo was alive and well, stripping for a living and calling herself Monique, and Stacey Rudman apparently didn't answer her phone but was also alive. The only one they hadn't contacted yet was Heidi Ellison, who was supposedly on a private island near Bora Bora and couldn't be easily reached. Her assistant said she'd called Tuesday around 5:45pm from her gym, so tomorrow they were going to check out the private plane that was supposed to have taken her to the island and make sure she'd made it to the flight after her workout.

He glanced at his watch. 10:30pm. Damn, he'd missed calling the girls at bedtime again. He should probably e-mail Deborah to let her know that he might be late to pick up the girls tomorrow, depending on how long it took to track down the pilot.

"So what did you do the rest of the day?"

"Huh? Oh - did a search for another case." The Whatney case. The case that started the night that Deborah split and just wouldn't go away, he thought bitterly. They'd spent the afternoon searching for evidence tying Dorning to Crazy Mike McDugan or Randall the Candle, to no avail. And during the search Jamie had told them that some idiot judge had thrown out Enrique Flores' hospital bedside confession for the Ganz/Tashjian case, too. Rey sighed heavily.

"A new case?"

"Old one." He started to wipe the kitchen counters, brooding.

"Rey... what's wrong?"

"What?" Rey asked, slightly startled.

"You haven't said more than two words together in two days."

"I've been busy."

She pursed her lips, ignoring his brush-off. "You haven't called the girls at bedtime since Tuesday, either. And where's your wedding ring?" Rey continued to wipe the counters silently. "Nalo... talk to me, bro," she said gently, and Rey smiled slightly at her use of his old nickname. His childish rendition of his own name when he was a baby, which had stuck far past babyhood, but which none of them had used in years. He put the wipe cloth away before finally giving in.

"I took it off."

"The ring? Why?"

"Deborah served me with separation papers on Tuesday." Lisa made a small sound in her throat, putting down a pot half-washed. "I signed them."

"Why?"

"What was I supposed to do?"

"I... I thought counseling was going well." Rey shrugged. "So that's it?"

"Looks like it," Rey said heavily, and she sighed. "What? You're the one that said good for her-"

"I know, I know, it's just... I thought she'd forgive you, eventually, after she made you squirm for a decent amount of time." She picked up the pot again, started to scrub at it half-heartedly.

"Nope," he said dispiritedly. "Although Morelli keeps saying this isn't final, there's still hope, yadda yadda yadda. He actually said it might be helpful, give her a 'sense of control'," Rey blew out his breath bitterly. As if Deborah didn't have all the control already.

"It may help, you never know. Sounded like she was pretty civil when she called about the kids this weekend."

"Yeah, I guess so," Rey shrugged, tired of the topic. Tired in general. He glanced around the kitchen. Everything tidy, everything put away. "I'm gonna go to bed."

This would kill their mother, Lisa thought sadly as she watched him go. The apple of Mama's eye, heading towards divorce. Mama had been devastated to find out about Rey's informal separation, but she'd clung to the hope that it was just temporary. Hoping that just one of her children would go back to being her image of what a good Catholic should be: decent, church-going, happily married. Jorge's divorce and Lisa's own shaky childless marriage didn't make Mama very happy, although she tried not to be judgmental, but for years Rey at least had given her no worries, no feelings of guilt that maybe she hadn't raised him right. So much for that.

He'd been such a hell-raiser as a little kid. Their mother used to despair when he got into fights with other boys, mouthed off at the nuns at school, broke his toys. The only area of his life where he hadn't been a source of dismay to his parents and irritation and amusement to his older siblings was in his role of big brother, which he took very seriously, zealously overprotective of their littlest sister Josefina.

Then Josefina had died in a car accident when she was ten and he was twelve, and they'd all had a tough time with it, but it had hit him particularly hard. He'd been a different kid after that - a good student, well-behaved, respectful, serious. He still occasionally got into fights with the other kids, but nothing like before. And later, he'd done the usual college boy routine of rowdy parties and a long string of casual girlfriends, but still managed to keep a good average and attend church fairly regularly.

Then he'd met Deborah. Lisa had seen her little brother go from a handsome guy who flirted with every girl he met, a stereotypical college boy with a well-filled little black book, to happily married man, overnight.

He'd fallen for Deborah almost immediately, fallen hard and head over heels. She was the first - the only - woman he'd ever spoken of to Lisa. He'd asked her, two months after they'd started dating, whether she thought it was too soon to ask Deborah to marry him. She'd stared at him in amused shock, sure that this had to be a joke, but he was serious. He'd popped the question and Deborah had said yes, to the dismay of his college buddies who wondered what the hell had happened to him. And Lisa had never seen Rey so happy, so sure of anything. The day of their wedding, they both positively glowed. His college pals had to admit that he looked happy, even as they bemoaned the loss of his freedom and bachelorhood at such a young age.

And now he'd screwed all of that up. Just like his father and brother before him, he'd put some slut ahead of his wife and a cheap quickie ahead of his vows, and fucked up his marriage and his life.

Poor Mama. First Pop, then Jorge, and now Rey. This wasn't her fault, but she was going to blame herself. She always did.

God damn Curtis men, Lisa thought bitterly. Castration was too good for them.

===

Saturday, December 9
1:30 pm

"You sure you don't mind?" Lennie asked Rey. They'd spent most of the day working already - going to the airport to find that Heidi Ellison never showed up for her plane to Bora Bora, then back to the precinct to tell Van Buren what they'd found and call Ellison's gym. Now they were going out to see whether a head a wino found in a bag belonged to Ellison.

"I need the overtime," Rey said casually.

"Yeah, but... you know, you can go see your kids if you want. I can do this myself," Lennie said as he parked.

"Nah," Rey said, getting out of the car. He'd kind of welcomed the work this morning, not too eager to see Deborah right now. The fact that she'd been uniformly pleasant on the phone ever since he'd signed the papers was grating on him somehow.

Lennie and Rey approached the site, bracing themselves. Ugh. There it was - the stench of badly decomposing human. It literally took your breath away, Lennie thought, trying as much as possible to breathe through his mouth.

"Lennie, you ever get used to that smell?" Rey asked, covering his mouth and nose.

"Never. Ever," Lennie replied. He glanced over behind one of the squad cars, where a young cop was bringing up his lunch, and nudged his partner. "Hey Rey, you know how you can tell who's the greenest cop at a gory crime scene?"

"How?"

"He's the greenest cop at a gory crime scene," he nodded towards the puking rookie, and Rey grinned. A uniform waved them over to a stairwell and Rey went down while Lennie went to talk to the poor bum, still sitting at the top of the stairs. Lennie nodded sympathetically while the guy stammered out his story, looking over as Rey finally came up with the bag.

"I - I was just looking for recyclables," the wino finished, still somewhat shaken. Lennie looked into the bag.

"I don't think this qualifies."

===

Tuesday, December 12
11:30 am

"You've had a busy couple of days, haven't you?" Van Buren commented as she skimmed over Lennie and Rey's reports. They both smiled tiredly.

"It's all just good solid police work, Lieu," Lennie said modestly.

"Uh-huh," Van Buren said. "And a lot of luck. So how did you do on the leads Ellison's assistant gave you? Did you check out the ex-husband and her personal trainer?"

"Eddie Newman and Evan Grant? Well, we went to Ellison's apartment right after her assistant ID'd the head. Detective, uh," Lennie consulted his notes, "Miller, from the 1-6, was there - said Newman used to slap her around. She never pressed charges, but he was called there twice. So that's a possibility. But like the assistant said, it seems they were OK since their split. He's directing a movie at her studio, so they had to play nice. Besides, he's out in LA. We did find out she was alive at 7:30, called the doorman to let him know she'd be gone for a while. But nobody saw her leave, and her car was still in the garage. And she was killed in her apartment - probably on her bed, and sliced and diced in her tub."

"What about the personal trainer?"

"Evan Grant," Rey took over. "Looks better than the ex. The bag her head was found in didn't have any prints, but it came from a wine store around the corner from his gym."

"Does he have an alibi for that night?"

"Says he was out rock-climbing in New Paltz," Rey said skeptically. "Alone."

"He's also got a chip on his shoulder the size of Rhode Island," Lennie remarked. "And the secretary at their gym said that he and Ellison left around the same time the day she died."

"She couldn't say there was anything going on between them, but she did say that apparently Ellison got him a part in a movie."

"Good," Van Buren nodded. "And the Whatney case?"

"We arrested Harold Dorning a couple hours ago," Rey said, immensely relieved. Hell of a case, but it was finally winding down. "His son rolled on him - said he admitted to burning the factory down, told him Whatney was trying to extort him. We also arrested McDugan, still trying to find Randall."

"And the new one you caught last night?" Van Buren asked.

"Looks pretty simple," said Lennie. "Peter Triandos, found strangled with a Christmas decoration in his own home, 'tis the season. Old rich guy, pretty young wife..." Van Buren looked at Rey, waiting for him to defend the grieving widow. Lennie grinned. "Even our local Defender of Womanly Virtue likes her for it."

"Really?"

"He just doesn't wanna have to buy me another deluxe pastrami sandwich," Lennie explained. "We saw a picture of the happy couple and he actually bet she was his granddaughter." Van Buren chuckled at Rey's naivete and Rey smiled slightly, acknowledging their ribbing.

"So she looks good for it?"

"Best so far," Rey said. "Although she put on a pretty good act, crying and everything, and she wasn't actually home last night, she was at a night club. There's a few other candidates, like his butler and a bunch of college students who were there for some kind of dinner that night - Triandos was putting them through college. But we're pretty sure it'll come back to her."

===

Thursday, December 14
4:45pm

It was coming back to the pretty widow, Lennie thought with some satisfaction a couple of days later, driving to Hogan Place. For a while there, it had seemed that the evidence was leading them away from her, since there had been some kind of tiff between Triandos and one of the college students' fathers. The guy had even swiped a black mink jacket from the Triandos home as he was being kicked out, although his son had brought it back.

Which was when Rey had noticed something a little hinky - the grieving widow, who had presumably been out during this little brouhaha, had been wearing a little black mink number when she came in. So unless she had two identical jackets, she had to have been home that night.

"So, after we talk to McCoy about Grant, you wanna start tracking the Mink Widow?" Lennie asked as he found a parking spot.

"We probably won't have time," Rey said dubiously.

"It won't take long," Lennie said, eager to go forward on the Triandos case, since the Ellison one was stalled. Shortly after talking to Van Buren on Tuesday, they'd found out that Evan Grant had an assault conviction against a girlfriend eight years ago and that Latent had found his prints in Heidi Ellison's apartment - on her vibrator. They'd gone to Grant's apartment to ask him to submit to a blood test to match against the semen, but found that he'd left for LA, presumably for a job. They'd tried to get in to see McCoy about getting an order to track him down, but McCoy had been tied up in court and they'd been tied up with the Triandos case, so this was the first time they'd been able to get together.

"Come on, we'll just talk to her limo driver, it won't take that long," Lennie urged.

"I gotta go early today though," Rey said. "Olivia's school is putting on their Christmas play at 6:30."

Lennie grimaced. While Rey's separation meant that he could put in a lot more overtime, sometimes it was a pain in the ass because what time he did spend with his kids usually wasn't flexible.

"Deborah's not going to the play?" Lennie asked curiously.

"No, she's going too."

"And that's OK?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Rey asked, a little puzzled. Lennie shrugged, going into Hogan Place. Maybe Rey's counseling was good for something after all - you wouldn't have caught Lennie and his ex in the same place for any money after they went their separate ways.

Rey followed Lennie into the building, realizing that maybe that was a little weird, going to a social function with somebody you'd just separated from. But it hadn't seemed like a big deal when they talked about it. In fact, everything had been pretty low-key since Saturday evening, when he'd finally spent some time with the girls and ended up having to interact with Deborah as well. It had been OK. Their counseling session on Tuesday had gone smoothly too, as they discussed him taking the girls for the whole weekend once he had his own place.

Deborah seemed to be going out of her way to be polite and pleasant, ever since they'd signed those damn papers. As mature and reasonable now as she had been childish and irrational before. While that had bothered him at first, now he was starting to appreciate it. Life certainly was more pleasant when your wife didn't always look at you like you'd wrecked her life or speak to you in a voice that could freeze stone.

Maybe she did need a sense of control. Maybe being separated was a good thing, for now.

And maybe going to a school play, like they did when they were a real family, would remind Deborah of how good things were when they were together. And if she got enough reminders, maybe eventually she wouldn't want to be separated any more.

Maybe he should stop wishing she'd come around and just be grateful that she was willing to let him spend more time with his kids. Just concentrate on trying to be the best part-time father he could be, try to compensate for not being there every day by just trying to be there as much as he could.

Or maybe he should just look forward to seeing his daughter on stage, seeing if she remembered the lines he'd helped her memorize on Sunday.

Rey dismissed Deborah from his thoughts as they went into McCoy's office.

===

"Don't forget I gotta leave early, Olivia's got that play at her school tonight," Rey reminded Lennie as they entered the precinct after their meeting at Hogan Place. Productive meeting - McCoy had suggested they fly to LA and confront Grant. Request the blood test in person.

"Yeah, no sweat, I'll type up the interviews," Lennie said, taking out a newspaper. "He-e-ey, LA Today: 78 and sunny. Can't hate that. Maybe this guy'll fold right away and I can take you out to Santa Anita. Or maybe they're running in Hollywood Park. Which, by the way, is nowhere near Hollywood."

"Hey, pack your bags, Borough approved," Van Buren called out from her office.

"When?" Rey asked.

"8:00 tonight."

"Unbelievable," Rey said in disgust, sitting on his desk. The wheels of justice grind slowly - except when they suddenly run over what little personal life you have left.

"What, tell 'em it's work, Olivia'll understand."

"But that ain't gonna do it."

"Rey, all I know is you're young, unattached, devilishly handsome, and we're going to LA," Lennie said enthusiastically. "If that isn't destiny, what is?"

Rey picked up his phone to call Olivia. Yeah, she'd understand. She'd understand that the father she hardly ever saw any more couldn't even make it to her play. Damn it.

===

Friday, December 15
11:10 pm

"Hey this is police business - will you just open the damn gate?" Lennie asked the gate guard at Mattawin Studios the next day. He was hot and tired from spending hours in a cramped airplane seat, disoriented from the bright sunlight, and this asshole was giving them a hard time.

"I don't take orders from you. And you're not making any friends with that salty language," the guard said importantly. "Now pull over there." Rey laughed at Lennie's disgust. He was just as tired, but amused at Lennie's exasperated scowl. It was so rare to see Lennie lose it.

"Can you see about getting that damn cell phone of yours to work out here?" Lennie asked as he parked the car. Rey flipped it open, shaking his head at Lennie's technical ignorance.

"It's not rocket science, Lennie. You just transfer the number to a new location. And watch your salty language," Rey ducked the slap Lennie threw at him and grinned as he waited for their contact at Mattawin to pick up.

===

"Detectives Briscoe and Curtis? Hi, sorry I'm late," called out a pretty young woman as she drove up in her cart to where they were waiting, still outside the studio gate. She got out, shaking hands with Lennie as she introduced herself. "I'm Leesa Lundquist, VP of Production," she shook hands with Rey and Lennie noted with amusement that her eyes seemed to get a little sparkle as she gave Rey a discreet once-over. And, even more amusing, so did Rey's. "Ben Hollings wanted me to personally escort you. Just leave your car there and we'll take the cart."

"I don't think we can all fit, though," Rey said, eyeing the small cart.

"Oh, sure we can, come on, get in," Lennie shoved him in next to Lundquist, and got in next to him. "All right," he nodded with satisfaction, enjoying Rey's discomfort as adequate payback for the 'salty language' crack.

===

3:12 pm

"If she doesn't get that court order, I'm gonna bust Grant in the nose and let him bleed on my shirt," said Rey in frustration a few hours later.

They'd gone to see Grant, who was training some actress Rey had never heard of, but sure seemed to thrill the hell out of Lennie. Grant had declined to give them a blood sample. No big surprise. He had given them a credit card receipt for the hotel he'd stayed at that night, but he couldn't account for his whereabouts between leaving the gym at 6:50pm and checking into the hotel around midnight, other than "I drove to New Paltz, got lost, had some dinner". And he had a bandage on his neck that covered what he said was a climbing injury, but looked like scratch marks to Lennie and Rey.

It looked very good. They were very close. A blood sample would nail it down. But Jamie Ross said they had to wait for a court order.

Damn lawyers.

"Can I ask you a favour?" Leesa spoke up.

"Sure," Rey smiled at her.

"Feel free to say no. We're developing a script about New York City detectives. If you could just take a look at it, and tell me what you think?"

"I'd be happy to," Rey thought of something and turned to Lennie. "Um, you know, we should probably talk to Eddie Newman while we're waiting for Ross."

"Go ahead, we - we can discuss it when you're done," Leesa said apologetically.

"Hey, why don't you take him to dinner, go ahead, pick his brain all night," Lennie said helpfully. Rey looked from Lennie to Leesa quickly, startled and off-balance.

"That would be great," she was smiling at him. "I don't expect you to do it for free - we can work out some sort of consulting fee?"

Rey swallowed hard, terrifically uncomfortable with the situation Lennie had put him in. He managed a smile for her. "Not eating with Lennie is payment enough."

He impatiently suppressed his unease at the thought of dinner with this woman. It was just payback. She'd not only let them into the studio and taken them to Grant, she'd also told them Eddie Newman was directing the star who was now using Grant as a personal trainer. And she'd agreed to find out whether Ellison had indeed agreed to get Evan Grant a movie role or not, and what had become of that. So she wanted to pick his brains about cops. Tit for tat, fair was fair.

Never mind that she'd also been sending out little signals at him the whole time. Never mind that he'd found himself reaching for his non-existent wedding ring a bunch of times to remind himself that he shouldn't send any signals back. Like he'd done a million times over the years since he'd gotten married. It was a common enough situation: you meet an attractive woman, you feel a little something, you're pretty sure she feels a little something, you remind yourself you're married and it doesn't go any further than that.

Except that the absence of that damn ring was a vivid reminder that it had gone much farther, once. And for that very reason, he couldn't really remind himself he was married. Because he wasn't, really.

It's just dinner, he told himself impatiently. Relax.

===

Monday, December 18
7:00pm

Rey punched in Deborah's number, hoping she'd be in. They'd been missing each other the whole weekend, so he hadn't had a chance to talk to the kids since he'd left. Not that he'd had much time to worry about that - he and Lennie had been running around LA for the last couple of days, trying to do what they could for the Ellison murder. Talking to her ex and her shrink, still waiting for that court order for Grant.

The ex, Eddie Newman, had described Ellison in glowing terms, and seemed pretty blasé about the idea of his ex-wife being involved with Grant. Pretty blasé about working in the same studio as Grant, too. Which sounded odd to Rey - he couldn't imagine anyone wanting to work even indirectly with a man who was sleeping with his wife or ex-wife. The mere thought of that made Rey's skin crawl.

Newman also claimed to have been with his shrink the night of Ellison's murder. So they'd gone to see the shrink. Who, incidentally, was also Ellison's shrink, and had done counseling for both of them before their split-up. The guy confirmed Newman's alibi, but wouldn't give them any information about Ellison and Grant. Claimed that was privileged.

Damn doctors.

They'd finally gotten a court order for Grant, then got the blood - and immediately had it whisked away by some hotshot lawyer, hired by some star who was friends with Grant.

Damn celebrities.

Consequently they hadn't really had time for anything so minor as calling Rey's kids or even going for that dinner with Leesa Lundquist. Although he was supposed to go to dinner with her today. Rey glanced up at a knock on his door. Lennie.

"TV in my room's not working," said Lennie.

"Help yourself. Ross says they'll be going at it with Grant's lawyer tomorrow morning."

"Curtis residence," Deborah's voice came on the line.

"Hi... Deborah," he still had to stop himself from automatically calling her by any of the endearments they had used with each other for years, he realized irately. You call your wife hon, or baby, or whatever. Your co-parent who is rapidly becoming your ex-wife is just Deborah.

"Hi Rey," she answered, "How are you doing?"

"I'm OK, you?"

"Good, good," she answered politely.

"Uh, listen, can I speak with Olivia please?"

"Um - Rey, it's past bedtime. Did you want me to wake her up?"

"No, no, don't, don't wake her up, I forgot about the time difference. How did she do at the play?"

Deborah laughed, "Oh, she did pretty good. She was a little bit nervous, but she was good."

"Oh that's good. That's good."

"Yeah, you could actually hear her, not like the other kids."

"OK. Um, listen, can you just - please tell her I was thinking of her and, and, let the girls know I love 'em." It was so inadequate compared to what he wanted to say. How could he really be a father when he wasn't in their lives every day any more?

"Of course. I'll tell her."

"Thanks."

"They know you love them, Rey," Deborah paused for a moment. "We all do. Good night," she said quickly and hung up, and Rey felt his eyebrows rise in surprise.

"Good night," he answered the empty line automatically and hung up, somewhat puzzled. 'We all do'? What was that supposed to mean - argh! He put his head in his hands, laughing at himself. God, what the hell was life coming to when you were analyzing what your wife said for hints about how she was feeling from across the continent. When you couldn't even take a throwaway comment at face value. Of course they all knew he loved them, and that included Deborah. It didn't mean a damn thing. The problem wasn't whether he loved her or not, and whether she knew it or not, the problem was that she felt she couldn't trust him.

"The kid'll be OK," Lennie told him, oblivious to Rey's confusion. He turned back to the TV. "Rey!" he turned up the volume and they watched a spot on the news about their case.

"...Mattawin executive Heidi Ellison. Sources tell KNBC News the investigation has moved to LA, where New York City detectives have questioned unnamed suspects and appear to be close to an arrest."

"We are? Oh good!" Lennie quipped.

"Where do they come up with this crap?" Rey asked. It always made him wonder, every time one of his cases wound up on the news, how wrong the reporters got the story. Made him doubt everything he saw in the media.

"Ah, beats me," Lennie answered, getting up to turn off the TV. "So uh, what time is Leesa picking you up?"

"Oh, damn, I forgot." Right, dinner with Leesa. He suddenly realized he wasn't even dressed. "You know what, she doesn't know what room we're staying in - you wanna keep an eye for her while I get ready?" He took a shirt out of a drawer. Getting ready for a date, god he hadn't done this in years. Hopefully he could remember what to do. Clean shirt, shave... anything else? "See what you got me into?" he asked Lennie, irritated.

"Yeah, I got you a date with a good-looking woman, I'm a real sonofabitch. Here she is," Lennie called out from the door. Crap. Hadn't combed his hair - well, it was short enough it didn't need combing... aftershave? Uh... tie or no tie? No, ties were for work. Brush teeth?

"Rey's just...powdering his nose," he heard Lennie say to Leesa, then heard them talking to each other as he finished up. OK, good enough, he decided, feeling inexplicably nervous and giving himself a mental shake. He left his room.

"Hi."

"Hi," Leesa smiled at him, and he smiled back.

"Uh, Leesa's got an idea," Lennie explained that Leesa thought they might be able to get a good deal at a better hotel, and the awkwardness of the whole date scenario was covered by their calling the other hotel and making arrangements to go there. Thank god - this flea-fest had not endeared either one of them to it. They deposited their things at the new hotel - much, much, much better class, Lennie practically salivated at the luxurious room - and then dinner couldn't be put off any more.

And then they were off to the hotel restaurant. On a date. Like he was sixteen or something.

===

"That sounds pretty good," Rey commented as Leesa finished telling him about A Tale of Two Yogis, the children's film that Eddie Newman was directing. "I'll have to take my kids to see it when it comes out."

"You have kids?" Leesa was slightly surprised.

He hesitated for a moment. "Three girls." He caught her glance at his hand, looking for a wedding ring.

"How old?"

"Six, four, and two," he said, smiling. "You have kids?"

"No, I've got my career. And a cat," she joked. He chuckled. "Must be tough being away from them." He shrugged. "How does your uh... wife feel about you being on a long trip out of town?" she asked delicately.

"We don't make trips out of town very often," he said, extremely uncomfortable.

There was an awkward moment before Leesa apparently decided it wasn't any of her business and picked up where they'd left off. "I'm just glad it's being made. Kids' movie or not, it's wonderful to actually have something in production."

"What do you mean?"

"We spend most of our time just scouting, and hearing pitches, and turning them down. Finding reasons to turn them down. It's bizarre," Leesa said pensively. "When I first started, I wanted to make great movies. Then it was just good movies, and... now I'm happy if any movie gets made. Truth is, we're in the business of not making movies." They chuckled, and he sipped his wine. "Well, listen to me," Leesa said self-deprecatingly. "Aren't the rules of the game I get you to talk about yourself? Here I am, talking about me?"

"Don't stop on my account, I - I think it's interesting."

"What's interesting is you don't act like you need your ego flattered." Leesa smiled, "No one's tried that one on me yet, it's very attractive." She ducked her head shyly.

"I'm glad I haven't lost my touch," Rey teased.

"No you haven't, Detective Curtis," she said, her voice low, and Rey smiled but looked down, discomfort vying with unexpected pleasure at hearing that tone in her voice.

"So I hope, uh, Lennie wasn't too offended that we didn't ask him to join us," Leesa said, breaking the suddenly heavy silence.

"Are you kidding?" Rey grinned, a little relieved. "When he found out he had a Jacuzzi in his room he forgot all about us," they shared a laugh. "We really appreciate all you've done for us. It's been a big help."

"Believe me, you'll be a bigger help to me if you can save this script from the banal."

"Ninety percent of all police work is banal."

"Read it. If you have ideas, you could come on as technical advisor..."

"I'd do it for nothing," Rey said easily.

"That is so refreshing."

"Forget it. More wine?" he offered.

"Absolutely," she grinned.

===

"So if you need anything else you got my numbers, right?" she asked him as they left the restaurant.

"Yeah, all seven of 'em," he teased, and they shared a laugh, Leesa leaning against him, a little bit tipsy.

"I know. It's ridiculous." She steadied herself as they reached the curb. "OK. Thanks. Thanks again." They stood awkwardly for a moment, neither one really knowing how to end an evening that had teetered between business and flirtation the entire time. Then she looked down, opening her purse, "Just find my valet ticket..."

"Oh, you - you have your car," Rey remembered.

"Yeah, I - I showed you the way here."

"Leesa, I don't think you should drive," he said, and she looked a little startled, then smiled.

"Oh, you'll just have to believe that I - I didn't plan it this way, OK?" She drew closer to him, and he felt a shiver run through him as she ran her fingers up his arm and he caught the scent of her perfume. Move away, he told himself half-heartedly, this isn't supposed to happen... but somehow he was moving closer instead.

She touched their lips together and oooh, that felt really, really good. He instinctively started to respond, enjoying the softness of her lips, the excitement of her body heat just from this slight contact, the promise of more - and then his brain finally kicked into gear and he pulled back, murmuring, "OK, wait, wait-"

"Because you're married, I'm sorry-" she began regretfully.

"Actually, I've been separated for two months. I'm really attracted to you..." boy was that the understatement of the year. He felt better than he had in a long time - nice woman, smiling, attractive, interesting conversation, no complications, no fighting... just like how things had been with Deborah for so long.

"No, I understand..."

"I'm, I'm just, trying to sort some things out right now." With Deborah, he reminded himself firmly. The mother of his children. The woman there was still a chance he could stay married to.

The woman whose face he was having a little difficulty remembering at this particular moment in time.

"I'll get a cab," Leesa said easily, then seemed to realize something. "Oh damn. I have this breakfast meeting at 7 am tomorrow on the other side of town, and if I go home, I'm gonna have to come back here at 5:30 to get my car."

Lead us not into temptation, Rey thought in dismay as he tried to keep his resolve firm. Now what? He thought over options quickly. Well, they did have two rooms paid for... "Take this, it's my room key, 912, it's all yours," he handed her his key. "I'll stay with Lennie."

===

Lennie swore under his breath as he got out of bed to answer the door. Who the - oh. Rey. What the hell?

"Hi, sorry - did I wake you up?"

"No, I hadn't gone to sleep yet. What's going on?"

"Um, Leesa's, uh, she had a bit too much to drink, so she's gonna - I told her she could stay in my room. You mind if I stay here?"

"Oh - sure, no problem." Lennie motioned to Rey to come in, and went to the linen closet to get him sheets to put on the couch. "She couldn't take a cab home?"

"Nah, she's got a meeting like really early tomorrow morning, she didn't want to leave her car here and have to come back for it."

"So... how'd it go?" he probed as Rey started to arrange the sheets.

"Good, good," Rey grinned.

"Nice dinner?"

"Yeah, really nice."

"She the only one who had too much?" Lennie smirked. He hadn't seen Rey this relaxed in a long, long time.

"Uh..." Rey thought for a moment, "Nah, not really - I'm just not used to wine. I usually drink beer," he chuckled a little sheepishly. "Besides, I didn't have to drive anywhere. She did."

"You glad you went?"

Rey grinned and said nothing. Lennie smiled to himself. His partner was looking pretty happy - happy even for a normal person, which, for Rey, was the equivalent of giddy. And considering how down Rey had been lately, this was a huge improvement.

"Come on, you can't leave it like that," Lennie said, "I set you up, I get to hear the details."

"Yeah, OK, OK, I had a nice time on my date," Rey laughed, "And that's it, Lennie. I don't kiss and tell."

"Is that just an expression, or is that a little more information than you meant to give?" Rey shook his head, amused but not rising to the bait.

"We had a nice time," he repeated as he took his shirt off.

"Not that nice," Lennie teased. Rey glanced at him questioningly. "Hey, if it had been that nice, you wouldn't be staying here."

"Why not?"

"She would have asked you to stay in your room too, Rey?" Lennie said with mock patience, realizing it was too cool in the room for just sheets and going back to the closet to get a blanket. "That's how things often work out on dates, you know."

"Oh, she did. Well, she didn't, but she wouldn't have minded if I'd stayed. I just - you know, it wouldn't have been right."

"What?!" Lennie exclaimed in dismay as he took the blanket out of the linen closet. Now he'd really heard everything. "She wanted to shack up, and you turned her down?"

"I told her I was married," Rey tucked the sheets into the couch.

"Why?! Rey, you should not disappoint this woman. I mean, she's provided valuable information. And she looks great."

"Come on, I'm not gonna take advantage of the situation," Rey protested, getting ready for bed. "She didn't plan on getting drunk."

"Oh no? She's a woman, Rey, and she's a Hollywood player. She started strategizing the minute she saw you," Lennie trailed off as Rey took the blankets from him and lay down on the couch. Rey wasn't listening. "Besides, if we get that court order, we're back on the plane to New York and that's it."

"Good night, Lennie," Rey said firmly, and turned out the light.

Lennie gave up and went to bed, annoyance warring with amusement. "She didn't plan on getting drunk" - Rey had to be one of the most clueless men he'd ever met when it came to women. He'd noticed it in the course of their work, that Rey's first reaction to any woman was always naïve belief. He was willing to go after female suspects once he'd been proven wrong, but Lennie and Van Buren, who both had enough cynicism about women to make James Brown proud, had often teased him about it. When it came to women, Rey had a blind spot big enough to hold a Mac truck. Deborah must have had a very happy marriage before Rey's affair.

'She didn't plan on getting drunk.' That poor girl had to be wondering what the hell just happened. Lennie hadn't missed the way she'd beamed at Rey when they first met, like a kid with a new toy. She'd practically glowed TAKE ME NOW at him. And Rey had definitely been interested, but Lennie knew he'd need a little nudge in the right direction, since Rey seemed permanently stuck in look-but-don't-touch mode. So he'd nudged - hell, he'd practically shoved - them into a date, and now... there was his partner, sleeping on his couch in this damn hotel, while this beautiful, available, willing woman slept alone two floors down.

Unbelievable. What was it Donnie Cragen said? Unbefreakinlievable.

Once again, Lennie wondered how the hell that girl in the Park had ever managed to score with Rey. Just how traumatized he must have been that day to even notice her. She must have had all the subtlety of a Times Square hooker. Or maybe not - maybe that was what had gotten through to Rey. Maybe after all the obvious and easily deflectable come-ons he got, she'd done something different. Maybe she'd pretended she was a lesbian. No, that would probably offend Rey rather than turn him on, as conservative as he was. Maybe she'd spiked his drink or something. Agh, who knew.

That poor girl, alone in Rey's room. She probably had no idea what hit her.

Inexplicably, Lennie found himself recalling a line from Zorba the Greek, which he'd seen with some very artsy girlfriend in college. "God is forgiving, but there is one sin that he will not forgive. If a woman calls a man to her bed, and he will not go." Maybe he should tell that to Rey, Rey being so concerned with God and all.

Maybe not. He chuckled, thinking of the trademark dour, humourless look Rey would give him if he shared that particular piece of movie wisdom. No, definitely not.

===

Tuesday, December 19
9:30 am

This must be why Rey was so happy to be married, Lennie mused the next day. Good-looking his young partner might be, but he must not have actually gotten anywhere with anybody before meeting his wife. Because here was his idea of how you impress a girl: have her take you out to dinner, leave her alone in your hotel room, and then ask her to let you pick through her garbage.

They'd woken and found out that the judge had quashed the court order for Grant's blood. They were somewhat dismayed to have wasted all those days in LA until Rey remembered the scratch marks on Grant's neck the first day they saw him, and the fact that Grant had tossed his bandage into a trash can after showing them the wound. So Rey had the bright idea to go rooting through the studio's garbage.

And Leesa Lundquist seemed as charmed by that as by everything else that Rey had done. Lennie suppressed a sigh. Nice enough girl, but apparently not too bright.

"Well, I don't know what it is, but you guys get a better class of garbage out here," Lennie remarked as he rooted through the dumpster. Coffee grounds, fast food wrappers, and paper. A few videos here and there. Not as many crack pipes and used condoms as Lennie usually dug through. Ooh, and one of the videos was for a movie that had just come out in the theatre.

"I think I got it," Rey said from behind him. He gingerly picked away some soiled tissues, and exposed a bandage with a spot of blood in the middle.

===

1:00 pm

"Quite a boat," Rey noticed one of the pictures in Leesa's office, where he and Lennie awaited the results on the blood test for the bandage. "Whose is it?"

"Mine," Leesa said with pride. "It's a Catalina 42."

"How far can you go on it?"

"On this boat? You can go around the world. If you had more time I'd take you out for a sail," she smiled at him. The phone rang.

"Lundquist." She listened a moment. "Yeah, he's here. Lennie? Hold on," she told the person on the phone as Lennie hurried over.

"Yeah," Lennie said into the phone. Pause. "Thanks. We'll wait here." He hung up. "Grant's prints were on the bandage. His blood's a match for the semen," he said with satisfaction.

Good. They got him. And now they could... they could go home.

Rey looked at Leesa, reading concealed disappointment in her face. Realizing abruptly that he probably looked the same way.

No, that wasn't right. He shouldn't be feeling this. Even though it had been pretty nice to be around somebody who wanted him there. And it didn't feel so nice to think of leaving her.

She's an LA movie producer, you're a New York cop, he reminded himself. You're from different worlds. It's not like anything could've actually developed. Besides, you're married.

He realized as he left her office that the last point had seemed like an afterthought.

===

Author's Notes for Obsessive People Like Me: This chapter contains a scene from the LA Trilogy ep D-Girl, where Rey mentioned that he'd been separated "for about three months." Which is a really neat trick if you follow the actual black cards, since by canon he counted November 16 to December 18 as three months. In my story, he said "two." My Rey can count.

Oh and I really apologize for the confusion caused by two Lisa's in this story. Rey's sister was never named in the series, but I named her Lisa a long time ago in another story. Had I known that someday I would be writing about a time in his life when Rey stays at his sister's place for a while and meets a character named Lisa Lundquist, I would have named the sister Beulah or Azimuth or something. Mea culpa. I've respelled Lisa Lundquist's name Leesa in order to avoid confusion and unintentional squickiness.