Chapter Fifteen Methods and Madness

The air around Steve seemed to freeze as he looked down at the face of his waitress. His hand still rested on her shoulder, but his eyes were fixed on what had happened to her hair. She had worn it back at work, it used to bounce around in its pony tail and somehow he had felt that it always showed her personality, now that hair was gone, and so was she.

"Take her away, Amanda … but … be gentle with her." Steve turned, suddenly embarrassed by his show of emotion.

"I always am, Steve, but this time I'll be even more so." Amanda didn't really know what to say, she had known Nadine by sight, and had spoken to her a few times at Bob's, but that was all. She knew that Steve would be alright, that his professionalism would return momentarily, and so she smiled at him and then moved over to where Rae was standing, a look of pain in her eyes. "Rae, when you get her personal details can you send them over to me?"

"What? Oh, yeah, sure, no problem." Rae was silent for a moment and then she seemed to shake herself back to the present. "Do you have any idea how long she's been dead?" For an instant Rae remembered how kind the girl had been, how she had tried to hide from her the fact that her husband was sitting in the barbeque restaurant holding hands with another woman. "I saw her Friday evening if that helps."

"I would guess that she was killed sometime last night. There are some flies and bugs around, and she has the beginnings of rigor, but you know as well as I do that I can't be specific about it." There had been a little small animal activity, and Amanda was even more relieved than usual that Nadine's face hadn't been touched.

"That'll do me for now, thanks." Rae paused for a moment and then carried on talking. "Amanda, is Ron in town right now?" The FBI agent was engaged to Amanda, and had transferred to the Los Angeles field office to be closer to her. His job took him all over California though, so he was still on the road a lot.

"He is, I'm delighted to say, and for the whole week too. Why?"

"We need a profile on this guy; there is no way that all these quirks don't point in one direction or another. He helped us with Werner, and we need him again."

"Ok, I'll tell him you're gonna call, but I expect you'll get to him before I do." Amanda watched as the gurney was carefully manoeuvred through the small gate at the end of the pathway. "I need to go; I should have the initial report by lunchtime tomorrow, maybe a little later. I'll call the station."

"Thanks, and I'll leave a message on Ron's voice mail." Rae watched her friend leave the grassy bank she was standing on and then she walked across and placed a hand carefully on Steve's arm. She didn't want to embarrass him but she had to know he was ok. "Steve, we need to go speak with Mr Dingus, but I can go on my own if you would prefer."

"No, no, I'll come, but you talk ok?"

"Sure, that's not a problem. Steve, we will get this guy, it may take a while, but we will. I'm sorry I was so negative earlier. Nadine knew you, and she liked and trusted you, we won't let her down."

Steve smiled at her, it was only a small smile, and it took a lot of effort, but he appreciated her words.

. . . . . . . . . .

The photos were now in the album, the clothes neatly packed away and Dominic lay down on his bed and closed his eyes. He could see Nadine laughing with him as they drank red wine and lounged together in her apartment, could see her beautiful body as she had waited for him in her bedroom. The cat had flown at him when they arrived, horrid, furry little rat of a creature, but she had shut it in the bathroom and that had been the first problem solved.

He still didn't feel entirely happy about the whole thing; it hadn't all gone as it should. He had tried, had done everything in the same order, just as he always did, but somehow this time it was different, it hadn't felt right. He wouldn't be tricked again, the next time he would make sure of that.

. . . . . . . . . .

Rae had surreptitiously put a call through to Officer Eve Hoban to find out where she and Steve were going as Randall had omitted to make a note of the address before his partner left. Rae thought that now wasn't the time to mention that to Steve. When they had walked back to Steve's car he had made his way silently to the passenger side and so Rae had climbed into the driver's seat and waited for him. For a moment he sat silently but then he turned to look at her.

"You're not gonna move to another partner are you?" The words were almost a plea, and Rae felt the presence of hot tears behind her eyes.

"No, I don't think anyone else would have me!" Rae didn't smile; she had a feeling that sometimes what she had just said was true.

"Rae, I know now isn't the time, but you and Jesse, if you need to talk …"

"Steve, he's your best friend, let him come to you knowing that I haven't. That you're there just for Jesse, I get the feeling a friend is gonna come in real handy for him round about now."

Again there was silence for a minute or two and then Steve looked over to his partner. "You know we can sit here as long as you want, but I think we're expected at the Dinguses."

"Steve," Rae spoke his name and then waited.

"Yeah?"

"You have the keys."

. . . . . . . . . .

Erica Dingus was a large friendly looking woman in her early fifties. She had on a plain light blue dress which was covered by a very flowery apron. She had waved her husband and son off for an afternoon of fishing just after a late lunch and relished the fact that now the house was empty she could get some plans organised for the social event of her year.

When the doorbell chimed just over an hour and a half after the boys left she'd answered it while her mind was full of the best place to hire a band who would sound much better than the one that Lorraine Morley had booked for her, none-too- successful, barn dance the previous month. The fact that her husband of twenty-six years and her twenty-three year old son were standing there with a female police officer had shocked her into total silence until she had made tea, put cookies on a doilied plate and taken them all into the living room.

Now though, it was just the three of them again, and silence was not a problem any longer.

"You brought a police officer to the front door of my house. What will the neighbours think? Mavis was doing her yard work, she would have seen the car, seen you get out of it, why didn't you park in the next street and come through the gate in the back?"

Hank let her get the ranting out of her system; he didn't think that now was the right moment to tell her that a little later in the day two detectives would be coming up the front path to speak with both himself and Dillon.

Erica had gone to take a nap after that, and father and son had sat and worked their way through the plate of cookies, not really knowing what else to do. They had then spent the late afternoon together, saying very little, but each knowing that the other was reliving the awful moments when they had realised that there was indeed a dead and mutilated body right there in front of them.

The doorbell cut through the silence of the house causing both men to jump. Hank rose slowly to his feet and made his way out into the hallway. The house was, as usual, spotlessly clean, but he knew that when Erica came down she would apologise for the state of it. He opened the door and saw a small, pretty woman with shoulder length brown hair, and a taller, dark haired man. "Yes, can I help you?"

"Mr Dingus?" It was the woman who spoke. "I'm Detective Reagan Yeager, and this is my partner Lieutenant Steve Sloan, LAPD, we'd like to ask you and your son a few questions." She had her ID in her hand and he scrutinised it before answering her.

"Sure, come on in." Hank stood back a little and waited while the two law enforcers entered his home.

Steve had tried to clean off his shoes after he got out of the car, using the bottle of water and the towel that was in the trunk, but now although a little cleaner they were wet and smelly and as he looked around the spotless hallway he knew he had to leave them outside. "I'll just leave my sneakers on the porch." He ducked back out before anyone could answer and then padded into the house in his socks.

"Hank, Honey, did you get the door?" Erica's voice floated down from the second storey and he could hear her moving about.

"Yeah, don't worry, I got it." Hank indicated which room he was using and followed the two strangers into it. His son stood as they entered and Hank could see that the male cop was about the same height as him. "This is my boy, Dillon. Can I get either of you a drink, coffee, maybe?"

"I'm fine, thank you, Steve?" Rae looked at her partner, she didn't know whether he would like a drink or not. She had to admit he looked as if he could do with one.

"A coffee would be good, thank you." He retreated back into silence and Rae knew that unless she indicated to him he would sit quietly while she asked the questions. She also knew though that he would be taking mental notes of everything that was going on, the body language of the people they were with, the way they listened, and then answered questions, the way they interacted between themselves.

Hank went through a set of double glass doors at the end of the room, and returned almost immediately with a jug of black coffee, two cups, some cream and sugar all on a round tray. "There you go. I brought an extra cup just in case."

"Mom would be proud!" Dillon smiled as he spoke and Hank shook his head.

"Sir, I know that you spoke with Officer Hoban, both at the scene and here, so what I really need is to go through what happened again, take all the details down, but I'll try to make it as painless a procedure as possible." Rae had taken her notebook out of her jacket and she had written the date at the top of a clean page. She had the names of both men also noted down and was ready to begin. As she opened her mouth to ask her first question a woman entered. Steve got immediately to his feet, and was amused to see that both Mr Dingus and his son looked less than happy

"Hank, did you offer our guests some drinks, oh, I see you did." The woman made herself comfortable in one of the easy chairs and smiled. "I'm sorry I wasn't here to welcome you and I hope you will accept my apologies for the state of my house."

"That's not a problem, Ma'am. I'm Detective Yeager, this is Lieutenant Sloan, we, ah, we need to speak with your husband and your son."

"That's fine, you go right ahead." Mrs Dingus seemed to make herself even more cosy in her chair.

"Erica, I think that the detective means that you should leave." Hank looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"Do you; is that what you mean, dear? This is my house after all." The woman bridled a little at her husband's words.

"Ma'am, I realise that, but we really do need to speak with them privately." It was Steve who spoke, he had a feeling that this woman, who seemed nice and very protective, not only of her family but also her home, was unsure of what to do, rather than out to actually cause problems.

"Oh, of course, of course, I am so sorry, I've never been in this position before, and I so want to do everything right, please accept my apologies, I am so very sorry." Erica stood up and looked around her as if not sure how to actually get out of the room. Hank, his heart suddenly full of love for his wife, moved over and put an arm around her.

"Honey, why don't you go and put a call through to your sister, you haven't spoken to her in a while. Just don't mention this, and you can talk all you want." Hank's words seemed to break through her confusion and she nodded her head and walked out into the kitchen.

Rae waited until the room was comfortably quiet again and then she cleared her throat. "Mr Dingus, Sir, can you tell us what happened this afternoon?"

"Um, yeah, what did you want to know?" Now that they were actually ready to talk Hank found that he had no idea what to say.

Rae smiled; she knew that this would be hard for them, it was hard for her, and she dealt with death and destruction on a daily basis. "What I need to know is just what happened, why you were on that walkway, what you saw, who you saw, both of you."

The conversation seemed to flow a little better after that and both Dillon and Hank Dingus related everything in the order in which it had occurred. They were both good witnesses, and by the time Rae had finished her questions she had almost all the information she needed.

"Can you tell me where you both were, from about lunchtime Saturday until now?"

"Yeah, I was working yesterday. I'm a salesman at a car place in town; I finished at five and came straight home. I had a date last night; I left here at seven and got in just after eleven, why?" Dillon spoke easily, and it was obvious that he had nothing to hide.

"Mr Dingus?" Rae looked over at the elder man.

"I was home yesterday, I don't work on the weekends, Erica was planning her social and I did the accounts, correspondence, that sort of thing. Apart from doing a little work in the garage I didn't leave the house."

"And today? Before you found the body?" Rae didn't like this part of her job, not when she was pretty sure that the people she was asking were innocent.

"Not a lot. We all got up and went to church, and then once we were home I helped dad in the yard for a bit, but … um …" Dillon stopped talking, suddenly uncertain of what to say next and looked at his father.

"Just tell them, Son, it's nothing major." Hank smiled, he appreciated his son's loyalty.

"Dillon? Do you have a problem telling me where you were today?" Rae was unsure of why things had suddenly ground to a halt.

"No, no, Ma'am, it's just that, well, we were working in the yard, and Mom, she's organising a church social right now, and, well, I guess we were just a little noisy, she came and shooed us off. Told us to grab our things and go fishing, that she couldn't hear herself think, and her dance would never be better than Lorraine's if we didn't go get out of her hair … oh, God …" For a moment Dillon could only see the body of the woman, her hair hacked from her head.

"We grabbed our stuff, put a meal into a picnic carrier and walked off towards the lake. The fishing is good all year, and we knew we could sit there for a few hours and let my wife get to grips with her panic." Hank finished off the tale for his son, as he saw the greyness of shock descend on him.

"Ok, well I think that just about covers it for now. If you could write down the name and address of your date last night, and her phone number, Dillon, that would be great, and Mr Dingus could you please let us have the name of your pastor and the address of your church?" Rae handed two sheets of paper to the men in front of her and waited patiently while they did as she had asked. "Thank you. I doubt if we will need to trouble you further, but if we do, well, we'll be in touch."

Both Rae and Steve stood then and shook hands with the two men. They could see that the reality of what they had seen was hitting home now, and Rae smiled at them. "If you don't mind me suggesting it, it might be a good idea for you to both arrange to go see someone, a counsellor maybe, or a member of your church. What you saw was awful, and you really need to talk it through."

"She was dead, wasn't she?" It was Dillon that spoke. "I … I knew not to touch her, but there was so much blood. She was already dead when we found her, we … we couldn't have saved her?" Tears clouded his vision, but he ignored them.

"No, there was nothing you could have done, she was definitely dead." Rae was pleased to see Hank put his arm around his son and hug him, although neither man realised it yet, they had been lucky in the fact that they had found the body together. Not only did it help corroborate the facts but it meant that they could offer support to each other.

The four people moved towards the hallway, and Erica Dingus joined them, she smiled apologetically and looked with concern at her family. "Did you do ok, was what you said alright?"

"Ma'am, we have all the information we need, I doubt that we will have to trouble you again." Steve cut in before either of the other men could speak. He was tired, he felt dirty and he wanted to go home; right now he had had enough of the day, and even a few extra pieces of conversation would be too much.

Rae sensed his tiredness and she opened the front door herself. "Thank you for your hospitality, we'll see ourselves out now." Quickly, because it had begun to rain whilst they had been inside, she made her way down to the sidewalk where she climbed in the driver's side of the car and waited for Steve, who had stopped to slip into his shoes after shaking hands with the two witnesses, and then he too turned and joined her.

. . . . . . . . . .

His dreams had been of dark places, there was no light, but he knew that people were there, knew that they were watching him, waiting for him to make a sound, to call out for help, but he wouldn't, couldn't, do that, they would hear it, be more angry, and he would be scared, no that was wrong, he would be terrified, he was already scared.

The air was cold, he was cold, he tried to wrap his arms around himself, to maybe get a little warmer, but there was something stopping him. Something, no not something, but someone.

He was being moved backwards, he could feel pressure on him, on his throat, his wrists, he tried to fight but he couldn't, why couldn't he fight? Suddenly he found his voice, found the strength he had been lacking. "No!"

"Jesse, Jess, it's ok." Mark had heard the sounds of struggling, as if someone was trying to fight to get away from something. He had just entered the room when Jesse had cried out and sat up in bed, the perspiration pouring off him, his eyes open but unseeing, and his hair plastered to his head. Now he crossed to his friend's side and placed a hand on his arm.

There was someone there, with him, so close that they could touch him could call him by name, and the terror was all encompassing. He tried to move away, to get as far from the hands and the voice as possible, but the chains were still there, on his arms, his neck; they held him ready for whatever punishment was coming his way. "No, please, please don't, not my hands, I'm a doctor, please."

"Jesse, it's me, it's Mark." He heard a sound and turned his head to see Alex standing in the doorway, his eyes heavy with sleep.

"Mark, what's going on? Is there anything I can do?"

"No, no, go back to bed. I think that the fewer people he thinks know about this the better." Mark still had his hand on Jesse and he could feel him shake under his touch.

Alex just nodded his head and with an extremely heavy heart he turned and went back to his part of the house.

There were more voices; they were talking together, one asking the other if he could do things too. He couldn't fight two of them, he had to get away. The feeling of the chains disappeared, the bars were gone, and he was in a room, with a bed and a window, if he could just get to the window. "Let me go, I won't tell, just please, please, let me go." The tears and emotion sounded in his voice, and then he felt the pressure increase on his arms. "No, I promise, but don't hurt me, they left me, I won't tell, don't hurt me."

"Jesse, listen to me." Mark's voice took on the tone he used when trying to get recalcitrant patients to take their medicine. "It's Mark, you are in no danger, you're at the beach house, do you hear me? You're at the beach."

"Mark?" The voice was familiar, Jesse could feel the relief flooding through him, maybe he had won, had escaped from the dangers and Mark had found him and brought him home. "Mark, help me." Jesse didn't know why he asked, but he knew that if anyone could, it would be Mark Sloan.

. . . . . . . . . .

The sun came up over a slightly damp and chilly Los Angeles, the rain of the previous evening being replaced by a brighter Monday morning. Steve stood on his balcony and watched the night being replaced by the colours of the day, which were glorious in places as the beautiful golds and oranges of the occasional tree covered with autumn leaves were caught by the sun's rays. His heart was still heavy, and he felt an enormous weight of responsibility and failure which he couldn't shake off. Sleep had been elusive, as he had known it would be, his mind going over different times that he had worked with Nadine, had laughed with her, or pulled faces over difficult customers. He thought of the Radcliff's who would be at Bob's tonight, as they always were on a Monday, Nadine had enjoyed a good working relationship with them, chatting and laughing as she took their orders, making small talk which had become slightly more as they had returned again and again. The repercussions of any death, whether natural or violent were many, and this time he was going to be privy to most of them.

"Steve, Honey, are you all right?" Jo was sitting up in bed, her hair falling in heavy curls over her shoulders, it was mussed up from sleep, and as Steve turned to her he was left breathless by her beauty. "What, what's wrong?" She saw him stop for a moment and just stare and she was concerned for him.

"Plenty of things, but right now, nothing, I was just thinking how lovely you are."

"Oh." Jo didn't know what else to say, she was flattered and embarrassed and just thrilled all at the same time. "You're not so bad yourself." She guessed it was a bit lame, but at least it got a smile. "You were tossin' an' turnin' all night, somethin's on your mind, an' you know I want to help if I can." Steve had arrived home a little after ten the previous evening, tired and not wanting to make conversation. He had called her from the precinct to say that he and Rae would be working on the initial findings in their investigation but would be home as soon as the paperwork was underway. Because of the lateness of the hour Eliana and Anneya had been put to bed in the nursery by Michael and Jo and then Rae and Steve had simply carried the two sleeping children back to Oak Place and laid them carefully in their own room.

"I'm sorry, did I keep you awake?" Steve came back into the room but stood a little distance from his wife.

"For a while, I was just worried about you, why don't you come back over here, an' maybe I can at least listen to what you have to say." Jo patted the bed with her hand as she spoke, and was relieved when Steve moved over and climbed back underneath the covers.

"I'm sorry I wasn't good company last night, and I feel bad that I disturbed you." Steve had stretched his arm along the back of the bed and Jo snuggled up to him, the feeling of his skin against her cheek one of her favourite sensations.

"It doesn't happen very often, an' I can always go for a little nap when you are workin'. Steve, what's wrong?" Jo reached up with her hand and gently traced a finger down his cheek, feeling the roughness of his early morning stubble beneath it.

"You know we got called to another killing last night, the same MO as two others we have, well the victim, I knew her, you knew her." For a moment he stopped talking.

"Who?" Jo's voice was soft, almost a whisper, and she found that she was holding her breath until she knew what her husband had to say.

"Nadine Browton …" Steve waited, he knew that Jo would know who she was.

"Oh, Steve, she was only nineteen, not even twenty until after Christmas, an' she was the only girl in a family of six children." Jo turned her head towards Steve's chest as tears sprang up in her eyes. She tried not to cry, knowing that Steve felt badly as it was, and she didn't want to make it worse.

Steve looked down at the slightly mussed up hair of his wife as she rested against him and he marvelled at her knowledge. He had liked Nadine, had taken her on himself, but he had known none of what Jo had just said, and his heart swelled with pride as he realised that Jo wouldn't have seen herself as any different to those who worked at Bob's, but would have gone out of her way to be as friendly and interested in them as she was anyone else she came into contact with. He held her a little tighter, enjoying the feelings that she had given him.

Jo felt Steve move and she took a deep breath, she was upset, but she knew that he was hurting too, and she wanted to help all she could. "He will make a mistake; will do somethin' that'll put you on his trail."

"He shouldn't have to make a mistake; we should have him in our sights already. Three women are dead, four, if you count the mother who killed herself after her child died and we still don't know who he is. Rae's right, we aren't getting anywhere!" Steve could feel all the insecurities that an unsolved case always brought out in him rising to the surface; the anger was just a mechanism to let them free.

"So go an' do what you do best, work it out, sort through what you have an' find this guy. Did you go talk to your dad about it yet? Or Jesse? Honey you need to take a step back for a minute, this case is no different to the other serial killers you have had in the past. But right now you are just too close to see that."

Steve nuzzled his face down into her hair and kissed Jo gently on the top of her head. "Yeah, I guess you're right, and I will, but right now, maybe just another five or ten minutes in bed wouldn't hurt."

. . . . . . . . . .

The lone jogger on the beach had caught Jesse's eye as he sat drinking his second cup of coffee of the day. It was only eight o'clock and he had a little more time before he needed to leave for the hospital. It was a forty minute journey, supposedly, but he was hoping that as he didn't have to start until ten that he would miss most of the early morning traffic.

He had heard Mark leave at half five, and had been surprised to receive a phone call from him just after seven. Jesse had assured him that he was fine, and that he would see him in the ER later. Alex had also checked on him, and although slightly embarrassed that his bad dream had caused both his friends to wake up, Jesse had been gratified to know how much they cared.

The scenes from his nightmare were fresh in his mind, and they scared him still. Sometimes he couldn't remember what he had dreamt, just knowing that they were bad was enough, but this time he could see the darkness, feel the chill that had wrapped around his body, and suddenly, needing to do something, even if it was just sit in traffic Jesse stood up and headed for the shower. He needed to keep moving, keep thinking of other things; otherwise he knew that his demons would overwhelm him.

. . . . . . . . . .

"Eliana for goodness sake leave your hair alone." Rae carefully smoothed down her daughter's plaid skirt and pulled up her white socks. The braids that she had done that morning with the little girl sitting on the stool in front of her mommy's dressing table mirror were still in place, but Eliana kept pulling at the ends of them, twisting them round her fingers and trying to suck them.

"Hurts, Mommy." She looked up, hoping that her mother would relent and let her have her hair loose like normal.

"I know, sweetie, but the school prefers you to have it up, and this way it will be out of your way when you do all that wonderful painting and playing you get to do here." For a moment Rae looked at Eliana and felt her heart constrict. The little girl had been so excited about going to pre-school that she'd had an asthma attack before she could even take her medicine that morning. Now though she was fine again, it was just Rae who was still getting over it.

Rae carefully put Anneya down on the ground next to her sister; there wasn't that much difference in their heights, certainly not two years worth. Her blonde hair was over her shoulders now, and Rae could see Eliana looking at it with envy. "Neya stay, have hair up and stay." Her lower lip quivered as the little girl realised that not only was her Mommy going to disappear, but her sister too.

"Honey, I know that she would just love to stay with you, but she can't, she isn't old enough yet, but as soon as she is, well then you can come together, ok?" Rae decided that it would be sensible to go and ring the bell now, and so she took hold of Eliana's hand with her left, and Anneya's with her right, and then walked up to the front of the building.

There was a large sign in red lettering which said 'Friends Pre-School' and an old fashioned bell was hanging next to it. Rae picked Eliana up and let her pull on the string and they heard the ringing inside the hallway.

Two minutes later the doors opened and a friendly looking young woman in her early twenties smiled at them. "Good morning, and you are Eliana aren't you? We've been waiting for you to start today."

The little girl looked up at the woman in front of her, and then back to her mommy, all of a sudden she wasn't at all sure about this, and it showed.

"Mrs Travis, would you like to come on in, and we can fill in the necessary paperwork and show Eliana where she will be hanging her coat and leaving her shoes."

"Sure, thank you, Miss … I'm sorry, I don't know your name."

"My name is Miss Helena, and I work in the office, but Eliana will see me around and about, and sometimes I even get to come and read you a story!" Helena made it sound as if it was a big treat, and Rae could tell that she was already winning her shy daughter over.

Once Rae had paid the bill for the first month, double checked all the information that the school had, mentioned the asthma attack that morning and explained that Eliana's daddy wasn't at home with them at the moment and should be put at the bottom of the contact list, the three of them and Miss Helena walked on down the hallway to where they could see other childrens' outdoor clothes. On one of the lower rails was a hook with a picture of a baby deer next to it. The label underneath said, in printed words Eliana Travis. Eliana, who had been practising her name both at home and with Sally smiled and pointed at it. "That's me."

"It is, well done." Helena smiled too and indicated that Eliana should sit down on the bench next to her peg. "You need to take your outdoor shoes off and put on your slippers; you also need to hang your coat on the hook. This has to be done every day before you are allowed in the classroom, ok?"

Eliana just nodded, she was concentrating on undoing the Velcro fastening on her new shiny red shoes. They came just over her ankle and had velvet flowers across the bar at the front and a padded collar around the top. Eliana had loved them the moment they entered the store, and nothing else would satisfy her. In the end Rae had given in, even though she had planned on getting plain black and boring.

Rae stood there, wanting to help her little girl, but knowing that she must learn right away to do it herself, and she had to smile as first the shoes were put neatly underneath the seat, then her soft shoes were carefully put on her feet. She then unbuttoned her cardigan and carefully hung it on her peg. The little white blouse that Rae had put with the skirt now showed off her daughter's brown skin and for a moment Rae thought her heart would burst with pride, but then as she listened to her daughter she knew that there was more, much more to come.

"I ready now. Yana see her teacher, peeze."

Miss Helena nodded her head and then opened the door to the classroom. There were five or six other children already in there, and they all stopped what they were doing and turned as they heard the sound of someone entering. A slim and smiling lady came over as soon as she saw Eliana and crouched down in front of her.

"And you must be Eliana Travis, my name is Miss Amy, I'm very pleased to meet you." The woman held her hand out to Eliana and Rae felt a lump form in her throat as her little girl took it and very solemnly proceeded to shake it. Once that had been done Miss Amy stood up and turned to Rae. "Hi, Mrs Travis, I'm very pleased to meet you too."

Eliana was tugging at Miss Amy's skirt, and so she turned and smiled down at her. "Honey, I'm talking to your Mommy right now, you will have to wait your turn." The words were said kindly, but immediately Eliana's eyes filled with tears. Once again Rae knew that she couldn't intervene and she refrained from even making eye contact with her daughter.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't get to come with Eliana when she had her visit day, but she has told me so much about it that I feel I have already been here. It won't usually be me who picks Eliana up, but you've met Sally, and Eliana knows only to go with her, her daddy or me."

"Yes, thank you, I had seen that on her records. Now, what was it you wanted to say?" Miss Amy looked down at Eliana, who, much to Rae's astonishment, had waited to speak.

"Neya, Neya stay too, look." Eliana pointed at her sister, who had moved away from her mother as soon as they entered the room. She was now sitting at a small table and was working quietly on one of the jigsaws.

"Oh, my, I am so sorry. I let go of her hand because I knew she would be safe." Rae had to chuckle to herself, her youngest daughter would be right at home here if she could leave her; maybe not for the entire morning, but definitely for a half hour or so. "I think it's a good job I brought some candy with me. Eliana, Honey, Mummy has to go now, and it will be Sally who picks you up today, but I'll come get you from there later, ok?"

Eliana just nodded her head and two large tears escaped and rolled down her cheeks as her chin began to quiver. Rae took her daughter into her arms and gave her a big hug and a kiss on her forehead. "You will have a wonderful time, and I want to hear all about it, I love you, Sweetie."

"I … I … uf you too, Mommy." Eliana carefully wiped away the tears with her fingers, and then, Rae, feeling very tearful herself went over and tried to extricate Anneya from the jigsaw table.

. . . . . . . . . .

The sound of a coffee cup being slammed down on a desk caused Cheryl to look up from her work wondering where it had come from. She didn't have to look very far, Steve was now mopping up the drink that he had spilt and not looking pleased about it.

"Hey, would you like me to get you another cup?" She stood up and moved over to where her friend and ex-partner was standing and picked up the now half empty mug.

"Yeah, better make it black, hot and strong." Steve didn't even look up, but moved some more papers and then groaned as he saw the coffee make its way a little further across his desk.

"Rough night?" Cheryl looked at him sympathetically; she'd only been in about ten minutes herself, but she had been immediately aware of all the negative energy coming across the room at her.

"Yeah, the worst, we had another victim in the Red Rose Killings," Steve didn't know why he called it that, but somehow it seemed to fit, "and I know … knew her. She worked for me at Bob's."

"Oh, Steve, I am so sorry, I'll go get you that drink." Cheryl didn't really know what to say. She had read the details of the two other killings, most people in the room had, and she knew that Steve would be affected by the case, the violence of it, the pointlessness and the waste, now though she knew it would be even worse, because it had just become personal, and Steve Sloan could get overwhelmed by personal.

"So, you did decide to turn up today then!" His voice cut through the air, loud and hard and Cheryl swung round wondering who was getting the rough end of his tongue.

"I had to take my daughter for her first day of pre-school. I booked the time off last week, Lieutenant, but I'm prepared to work my lunch hour if you're feeling pissy about it." Rae had reeled back at the unfairness of his words, but she could tell that speaking to Steve kindly would just about finish him off, and so she gave as good as she got, fetched herself a cup of tea and then returned to her desk without another word.

Cheryl put the coffee down on Steve's now dry desktop and paused for a moment as she passed Rae. "Nice one, but I wouldn't push him today."

Rae looked up and smiled. "No, I won't, he'll cope though, he always does."

"Yeah, thank goodness." Cheryl continued walking before Rae could say another word and so she pulled the file from the previous evening from her tray and began to go quietly through it, stopping only to take a mouthful from her herbal tea, or surreptitiously check on Steve.

Steve had decided that although he really should be working on Nadine's murder, just for a while he needed to look at something else. The file on Elizabeth Masters' murder was on the top of his pending tray and he picked it up and began to flick through it idly. There was something missing, they weren't seeing the whole picture, and the trail was getting colder and colder, but not solving this one was unthinkable, and so, appreciating the quiet surrounding him Steve began to read through all the information once more.

The squad room was quiet and busy, Captain Newman was sitting in his office, his own paperwork piled up to the side of him, but for a few minutes he had been watching the men and women under his command. He had seen the coffee spill on Sloan's desk and the reaction from Cheryl. He had also heard the altercation between Rae and her partner, and smiled; both women knew just how to deal with him, although the Captain doubted that Steve realised that.

The murder rate in Los Angeles was dropping, although the burglary rate wasn't dipping quite so successfully, and it wasn't unusual for the phones to be quiet for a while these days, but it was out of the ordinary for the room to be so calm, and he was tempted to walk through, just to liven it up a bit, but he resisted and turned back to his own work. He had a seminar to deliver the following week, all week, in Chicago, and Steve would be moving into his office while he was away. If it was just a day or so then anything that had to be dealt with could be done at his officer's own desk, but an entire week, that was too long, he would never find anything ever again if it had seven days to migrate to Sloan's desk.

With a smile Jim Newman picked up the top folder and began to read through the personal details of some of the men and women he would be speaking with and his office too fell into a thoughtful silence.

The sound of a cell phone ringing had broken the concentration of a few of the cops just after twelve thirty. There had been one or two interruptions during the morning, but everyone in the room had realised that there was a hush over the precinct and all of them had taken the opportunity to get to grips with difficult or tedious pieces of work, and clear backlogs which had been waiting a long time to disappear.

Now though, as Rae spoke, the atmosphere changed again, and this time it was almost back to usual. Two other phones rang at the same time, three cops realised that it was lunch time and they were starving, and the afternoon mail was brought up.

None of this registered with either Steve or Rae though, but for different reasons entirely.

"Detective Yeager… Yes, that's me too … No, Ma'am, I use this phone at work, but I don't use the name Travis … Reagan, my daughter is Eliana and she started at your pre-school this morning … no, I appreciate the safeguards you have in place … she did? Oh, that's wonderful, thank you so much for letting me know … I'm sure I will, and I guess I'll get the stains out eventually … thank you again … no, I always answer it that way but it is me… Yes you too, good bye."

Rae folded her phone away with a smile; Miss Amy had called her just to let her know that her daughter had had a wonderful morning and gone off happily with her carer and her sister just a little while earlier. Eager to tell her partner her news she looked up a smile on her face but stopped speaking almost before she started.

"That was … what, what's wrong, Steve?"

"I think I just realised where we are going wrong with the Masters case."