A/N: Happy reminder: in the world of this fic, Christina has never come to Philadelphia.

Thanks to AndreaB for beta-reading.

"Lost in the Night"

Chapter 3 – "The lover"

Earlier on that same morning, Nick and Will are driving to visit Mary's parents. They still live in the same house they did when Mary lived with them. It's in a calm middle-class neighborhood. They park in front of the Witter's house, which has a beautiful front garden, with several flower-beds. As Nick and Will walk to the front door, they notice an elderly woman working on the garden, in a flower-bed of red roses.

"Laura Witter?" Nick asks. The woman gets up and nods. Nick and Will show their badges. "Detectives Vera and Jeffries, Philly PD."

"How can I help you?" Mrs. Witter asks, looking a little scared.

"We're investigating your daughter's death," Will explains. "We know you hadn't talked to her in a long time, but we hoped you could have some information about Mary that could help us out."

Mrs. Witter's eyes and voice fill with bitterness. "No one had asked me about Mary in a long time." She shakes her head, "I can't believe someone still cares about that ungrateful girl."

"New evidence has showed up in her case." Will offers.

"I don't know anything about her death. I can assure you neither me or my husband killed her." Mrs. Witter says and leans back at her flowers.

Before they can ask her another question, an old man comes out of the house. "What do you want with my wife?" He asks, in an angry tone of voice.

"I suppose you're Carl Witter." Nick says. Again, he and Will show their badges. "We're investigating the murder of your daughter."

"Our daughter died to us in 1974, when she embarrassed our family getting pregnant, and refused to do the right thing and get married." Mr. Witter says, even more bothered than his wife to talk about this subject. "It was clear that she couldn't have a good future."

Nick and Will exchange a look. This is being as hard as they thought it would be, but they won't give up. "Did you have any kind of contact with Mary close to her murder? A phone call, anything?" Will asks.

Mrs. Witter gets up again, and looks at her husband, who just nods. "Actually, she called us, about a week before she got killed." She says. "We were very surprised. She hadn't tried to contact us in the fifteen years that she was gone."

"What did she want?" Nick asks.

"She wanted us to take care of her son." It's Mr. Witter who tells. "She said she was being threatened, and that she was afraid of what could happen to her and the kid."

"Did she tell you who was threatening her? And why?" Will asks. They are getting more than they could ever expect.

"No, and we didn't ask her." Mr. Witter goes on, always with a dry look in his eyes. "I told my daughter had died 15 years before, and hung up the phone."

Nick and Will are speechless at Mr. Witter's words, and at the fact that neither he nor Mrs. Witter seems regretful of doing that.

"That's all we know." Mrs. Witter concludes.

"Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Witter." Nick and Will say and begin to leave. "Be careful with the thorns," Nick adds to Mrs. Witter, who's cutting off red roses.

The woman laughs bitterly. "That's good advice. These flowers were first planted by Mary. Considering that, I wouldn't be surprised if they hurt me badly." She said, getting up and heading to the house.

One more time the detectives are speechless. They stare for a few moments at the red roses, the most beautiful ones in the garden, before leaving to their car.

Later, Lilly and Scotty are having lunch together. "So," Scotty begins, "can I ask about your visitor?" You can tell by his look that he's dying of curiosity.

Lilly shrugs. "You can ask anything, Scotty." She answers. Then, with a smirk, she finishes, "Only I may not answer."

Scotty smiles, "I'll take my chances." He takes one more sip of his soda and asks, "So, who's Patrick Anderson?"

Lilly thinks about the question, like she's predicting that with her answer, a bombing of following questions will come. She looks at Scotty, and finally says, "He's my ex-fiancé."

"You were engaged?" Scotty says; his eyes widen with surprise. Immediately he realizes his reaction maybe wasn't appropriate, but Lilly with a fiancé just seemed impossible to picture.

"Hey, don't be so surprised I was engaged!" Lilly replies, bothered by Scotty's reaction.

"Sorry, Lil." Scotty says, "It's just that you never mentioned anything, and..." He stumbles for words, "Don't get me wrong." He scratches his head and looks down, a bit embarrassed.

"It's fine, Scotty." Lilly can't help smiling at Scotty's reaction. "Anyway, we broke up a long time ago. 9 years."

"What happened?" Scotty tries, knowing this one Lilly probably wouldn't answer.

Lilly sighs. "Lots of things." She pauses. It's clear that she's uncomfortable. She tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear. "And then there was this night, and an incident... with my sister, and...," she stops. She has reached her limit, and she looks down, not able to face Scotty and any other question he might ask.

"Oh." Scotty said. He's speechless. Lilly never even mentioned that she had a sister. Awful possibilities come to his mind, and he regrets making Lilly share even this little bit of a painful memory. "I'm sorry, Lil." He reaches for her hand to make her look at him. She looks at him and her face doesn't show any signs of hurt or pain, but her blank expression says a lot. "If you need someone to punch this guy on the face and tell him to disappear, I'm here." He adds.

Lilly can't help but smile at Scotty's offer. She knows he means his offer, and it gives her a nice feeling. "Thanks, Scotty. I don't think I'll need it, but keep working out after work, just in case."

Scotty laughs. "I'll be prepared, whenever you need." He asks for the bill. They are leaving the restaurant, when he says, "Just one more question, Lil." He's worried he's asked too much for the day, and looks at her. She nods, and he asks, "What does he want after all this time?"

"I don't know yet." Lilly answers, not wanting to share her earlier talk with Patrick.

"Are you giving him another chance?" Scotty insists.

Lilly laughs, "Like I said, I don't know what he wants." She pauses, shakes looks at Scotty, "Well, I can't stop him if he wants to talk to me." She grabs the car keys from Scotty's hands and finishes, "Doesn't mean I have to listen to him."

Scotty just nods. They get in the car and head to the office.

After visiting the Witters, Nick and Will visit Allan Welsh, who works in a fancy and beautiful office building in downtown Philadelphia. According to the information the detectives dug up on Allan Welsh, he works as a financial advisor for companies who are looking for new business opportunities in the city. Among his clients, are some of the most famous and powerful companies in the country.

When Allan learns that Nick and Will are there, he asks if they can meet in the building's cafeteria, which is in the first floor. Nick and Will are waiting for him there, when he arrives with a worried face. "Sorry, detectives. I just didn't expect you to show up here unannounced." Allan says, taking a seat on the detectives' table.

"Is this investigation causing you any trouble?" Nick asks.

"Not yet, because no one knows." Allan answers. He speaks with a very low voice all the time. "But my clients won't be pleased to know I'm involved in a homicide investigation. And worse, the investigation of a hooker's murder."

"I thought it was the investigation of the murder of the woman you loved," Nick replies, sarcastically.

"And it is!" Allan raises his voice for a moment. Then he lowers it again, "But there are other things and people involved, so I need to be the more discreet as possible."

"You know, Mr. Welsh, in an investigation sometimes it's hard to be discreet." Will begins.

"Dirty secrets come up..." Nick continues. "Lies come up too."

"Like when someone doesn't mention that he didn't give a statement in the original investigation... even though he was clearly involved with the victim." Will finishes.

Allan shifts in his chair. He's feeling uncomfortable. "Look, my wife had found out all about my affair. Mary was gone, and my family was all I had left. My wife's condition to stay with me, and keep it all quiet was if I didn't go to the police." Allan explains. "Besides, I didn't think I had any useful information."

Nick laughs. "Mr. Welsh, you were in contact with the victim near her death. You had an affair with her. You don't really think you didn't have anything to do with what happened."

"I didn't, I really didn't." Allan sighs. "Actually, I hadn't talked to Mary in over a week prior to her murder."

"What happened?" Will asks. He and Nick are paying attention to Allan's every expression and word.

"She broke up with me." The detectives see a tear balancing on Allan's eyes as he says that. "Because I didn't want to follow her in the new life she had planned."

Flashback to 1990

Allan and Mary are in a motel room. Outside, you can see the sun rising. They are getting dressed and talking happily.

"We need to talk about something." Mary says, walking to Allan and putting her hands around his neck. "I have a proposal to make." She adds, but through her smile a trace of concern is visible.

Allan, however, sees nothing but her smile and just says, "I'm listening" before giving her a quick kiss.

"Do you want to run away with me?" She drops directly, as if this was a casual think to ask.

Allan is speechless and his previous smile is glued to his face. As he digests the question, however, the smile fades away and their embrace gets loose. "What?" is all he manages to say.

"You know, how we planned, that we would go away, make a fresh start? I think this is the moment." Mary says, caressing his cheek.

"I thought we were going to plan this with a little more advance." Allan says, breaking from their embrace and walking around the room, confused. "There's so many things I need to think about, my job, my family... when are you planning on leaving?"

"I'm looking for tickets to the 20th." Mary answers.

"Of this month?" Allan exclaims. "That's two weeks! You can't expect me to quit my job and leave my family in two weeks." He notices Mary is getting upset and walks to her, and grabs her hand. "Give me a couple of months."

"I can't, Allan. It has to be now." She's clearly sad and disappointed, but doesn't look surprised.

Allan takes a deep sigh. "What about you and Brian go, and I'll stay here for a couple of months, working everything out. And then I'll join you." He smiles at her, glad to apparently have found a solution.

"No, Allan, you have to come with me now." Mary insists, serious. "If you don't come, you won't hear from me again." Her voice is waving as she says that.

"Are you hiding something from me, Mary?" Allan asks, holding her hands tightly, so she won't escape from him.

"I'm not hiding anything, honey." Mary shakes her head, looking down. "It's just the way things have to be." She looks at him, with pleading eyes, clearly her last try.

"You can't do this to me." Allan says, knowing what's coming next.

"I'm sorry, Allan." Mary says, as she picks up her purse, and heads to the door. "Have a good life, baby. Wherever I am, I'll always love you." She opens the door and leaves.

Back to 2005

"I know I should have run after her, but I was so lost and confused at that moment," Allan tells, his voice cracking with emotion. "I thought I could talk to her before she left... maybe work things out... but I she never picked up my calls, and I couldn't find her in the places she used to go."

Nick and Will are surprised at Allan's emotional reaction, but they don't show anything. Will finally asks, "Do you have any idea of what could have happened to Mary take this abrupt decision to leave?"

Allan shakes his head. "No. We had seen each other a few days before that and everything was perfect. I should've pushed to know what was going on, but like I said, I was caught completely off-guard."

Nick nods, checks his notebook. After a while he asks, "Do you know a guy named Dan Smith?"

Allan nods. "Mary's "boss", wasn't he? I never actually met him, but Mary always spoke fondly of him." The mention of Dan Smith makes Allan even more bothered.

"Do you think they were involved?" Will asks.

Allan shrugs. "Mary never said anything to indicate that. Call me naïve, but I always felt they had some sort of a father-daughter relationship." He pauses, and then goes on, "Which doesn't mean it didn't bother me, but I tried not to think about the other men in Mary's life."

"What about your wife? For how long did she knew of your involvement with Mary?" Nick asks, as he takes notes.

"We never really talked much about it, but she said she knew for a couple of weeks. When Mary was killed some newspapers ran the story, and that's when she came to me and said that if I went to the police, I'd never see my son again." Allan explains.

Nick and Will share a look and decide that Allan has given them enough leads for now. "Thanks, Mr. Welsh," Will says, as the detectives get up. "We'll be in touch."

Allan nods and stays at the table, watching his untouched cup of coffee.

Nick and Will are walking to their car. "Now this is getting interesting." Nick says, with a somehow pleased look in his face.

"Mary's abrupt decision to leave makes sense combined with the threats the parents mentioned." Will replies. After a pause, he goes on, "The first time the girl's got something good in her life, she sees everything slipping through her fingers."

Nick shrugs, and with a plain look offers, "One thing I've learned in this job is that some people just aren't meant to be happy." The detectives get in their car and drive off.

To be continued
A/N.2: This turned out to be longer than I expected. I liked it better than the previous chapter – I hope you guys did too.

My heart goes to:

Joutsensydn – I haven't exactly made my mind on Patrick... I have ideas, but I don't want to disclose them now. Heh. Author's cruelty.

Brandi – I'm glad you liked Patrick! Writing him is a shot in the dark, so it's great that you're enjoying.

Snow Ivy – Thanks! It's great that you liked Patrick. It wasn't easy not to "over-write" that scene – there were so many things I wanted to put in there.

Spikey – Yay! I'm glad you're enjoying the Christina-free world. But who wouldn't, right? Thanks for the tips, and answering your question, there won't be any "real" S/L, but you can read my scenes the way you want. ;)

MaryRose – Thanks for reading! I'm glad you like it.