Law & Order CI: Riddle Me This

Chapter Two

Author's notes: previous disclaimers apply! Thanks to the five reviewers who are excited to see Bobby and Maria back in action! And yeah, blucougar57, it really is Aunty Eames! Lol!

Bobby Goren arrived at work the following morning to find Whitfield's medical records waiting for him on his desk. Dropping his coffee, Goren picked up the file and began to read. Half an hour later, Eames arrived, looking slightly flustered.

'How come you're in late?' Bobby asked indifferently, sipping his coffee as she dropped into her chair.

'My private life is no concern of yours, Bobby.'

'I'm afraid it is, Aunty. When I married your niece, I made it my business.'

'Oh God, Goren! She's my step niece! Her father married my sister! Stop calling me Aunty!'

Bobby sniggered behind the files as Eames rolled her eyes.

'You still didn't answer my question.'

'Being a married man, Goren, I'll leave it to your warped imagination.'

'Oh good. You were off hacking limbs from Portuguese hookers with your cross-dressing fiancée.'

As the two bickered, Deakins approached the partners with caution. The last thing he needed was to get involved in another mid-morning, caffeine-fuelled squabble.

'Did you get Whitfield's medical records?' he asked carefully. Goren lifted his eyes to the Captain.

'Yeah, I did.'

'Well?'

'According to this, Whitfield had a history of depression, but there is no record of a recent prescription for medication.'

'So he was getting it under the counter?'

'Most likely, unless it was someone else's medication.'

Deakins regarded the detectives with a look of determination.

'I suggest you get onto the family, pronto.'

Lydia Whitfield looked nervous. Not that she meant to, but the overall impression that Goren got when she first let himself and Eames into the family home was nervousness. She wasn't a particularly handsome woman, but she was tall and bottle-blonde with watery eyes. She was barely shorter than him, now that he thought about it. The willowly woman regarded the detectives with a degree of anxiety, as if she were afraid of what they would do next.

'Please, m-make yourself comfortable,' Lydia said, plumping up some cushions on the non-intentional retro couch. Eames smiled and took a seat, resting comfortably, while Goren perched on the edge, binder open and pen in hand.

'Mrs. Whitfield, h-how long were you and Tommy married?' he asked, clicking the pen. Lydia Whitfield sighed, casting her eyes to the ceiling.

'Too long, I think. I stayed with him because he promised me things. Promises of a better life. Promises, it was always promises with Tommy. He was never home, always with that girl, his "literary agent". Bah, as if I didn't know what was going on between those two.'

'And what about his depression? We saw that he had been treated for it, but there were no recent prescriptions for the anti-depressants that were found in his system,' Eames asked, leaning forward. Lydia swore softly.

'That bastard. I asked him if he'd been taking my pills a week ago after I found half a bottle gone. He denied it, of course, but I guess it caught up with him.'

'We found rat poison as well as traces of the anti-depressants.'

'Really? So it wasn't an overdose, like I thought, then?'

'No. He received sufficient dosage of poison to kill a horse.'

'Yowch.'

Goren stood up. He didn't have the time for idle chit-chat with the widow. That was Eames' department. He moved gracefully across the room, taking in his surroundings and noting careful points about the room. He stopped near the arched doorway, near a bookcase that was partially empty, save for only a few books and a large framed photo of Lydia, Tommy and a small boy. Goren picked it up carefully.

'Is this your son?' he asked, cutting through Eames' questions. Lydia, who hadn't noticed the large detective move away, jumped slightly.

'Err, yes, that's our son. Donovan. That was taken some years ago. He started middle school this year.'

Goren grinned sheepishly and pointed at her with the photo.

'Donovan, interesting name. Your husband's idea or yours?'

Lydia turned to Eames, an exasperated expression on her face.

'I really fail to see the relevance of your partner's question, detective.'

Eames gave her a thin-lipped smile.

'Don't worry about him, he's just been married. He's about to start his own family, therefore can't keep his nose out of everyone else's.'

'Indeed. Well, I'm really sorry, detective, but I have to run. If you give me your card, I'll call you if I think of anything to help you with the investigation,' Mrs. Whitfield said, ushering Goren and Eames to the door. Goren turned and gave the woman a rather disarming smile.

'Could we possibly have the name and address of Tommy's literary agent?' he asked politely. Lydia was taken aback.

'S-sure, though I don't see why you would want to speak to her,' she replied, reaching over and grabbing a business card from the bookcase. She handed it to Goren resentfully. He smiled and exited the building. On the way back to their SUV, Eames pulled her partner aside.

'You think that this lit agent had something to do with Whitfield's suicide?'

Goren appeared to see right through her for a moment, chewing his bottom lip thoughtfully. Then his eyes focussed on hers.

'Not sure. I'll know when we get there.'

'One thing though, did we leak an overdose theory?'

'Don't think so.'

'Sure, I was Tommy's literary agent,' said Harriet Jackman, puffing casually on a cigarette. Eames watched her partner turn green with envy and smiled.

'We just want to know about your relationship with Tommy, Miss Jackman.'

Harriet laughed and tapped the ash from her cigarette on the side of the ashtray.

'What's there to say? I gathered that you must know about the affair Tommy and I were having. Well, I signed him to the publisher only a year ago. He brought me the draft of the book and asked me to look over it. Well, it was fine, but you didn't argue with Tommy. He had a temper that was shorter than the wick of a tea candle. So we ended up in bed together.'

Goren straightened his tie and peered at her through his sunglasses.

'That's it? You two slept together?'

Harriet nodded, slightly unnerved at Bobby's sudden interest.

'Yeah, why? Look, if this has anything to do with me, I'd like to know,' Harriet said, brushing her red bob away from her shoulders and staring back at Bobby. Goren shrugged.

'Just curious. Miss Jackman, did Mr Whitfield ever confide to you that he was suffering depression?'

Harriet laughed.

'Who, Tommy? Nah, he was on a high. This book was supposed to be our line out. He said that when he had the money, he was gonna leave that dead-beat wife of his. Said that he'd had enough of her and that he wanted to be with me. Well, I wasn't gonna say no, was I? I got a kid and I could sure use a guy with a pay check in my life.'

'Where were you on Monday night?'

'Tommy came and saw me. Said that since the book flopped, he couldn't leave his wife. He depended on her money, see? We argued and he left.'

'One last question, Miss Jackman. Have you purchases rat poison in the last month or so?'

Harriet Jackman stared at the detectives, then shrugged.

'I guess so. I live on a block with a big ol' shed out the back. I've had some problems with vermin the last year or so, so I've been getting poison and laying it down each week.'

Eames stood up and shook the agent's hand.

'Thank you, Miss Jackman, we'll be in touch.'

'So the victim and the mistress argue the night that he's killed and she is known to have purchased rat poison. We don't know how she might have got the depression medication from the Whitfield's cabinet, but then again, perps have been arraigned on far less evidence.'

Goren groaned, rolling at the ADA's passe remark. He looked Carver squarely in the eye, his brown eyes flashing.

'Look, I don't believe that Jackman is anything more than a bright girl in with the wrong person at the wrong time. She was too forth-coming with her evidence. She wasn't lying.'

'Can you prove that?'

'Jackman lives alone. She inherited her parents' house when they died in a car crash two years ago. No siblings.'

'Then unless you can give me some solid evidence, detective, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to issue an arrest warrant for Miss Jackman.'

'How long do we have?'

'Forty-eight hours, starting now. You better get your skates on, detective.'

'So what now?' Eames asked her partner as he slumped into his chair. Goren rubbed his chin.

'Now? Now we go home to our respective partners, have a semi-restful night and come back tomorrow morning, hoping that we have some new evidence waiting for us.'

'That's a bit much to hope for, isn't it?'

'Maybe, maybe not.'

'Fair enough. I got a tonne of paperwork to get through, though.'

'Speak for yourself,' said Bobby, grabbing his coat and winking at her. Eames sighed as she watched her partner's back retreating towards the elevators.

'Might've guessed,' she muttered, turning her attention to the mountain of files that lay on her desk.

Eames clicked open the lock to her apartment and found her fiancee, Daniel Burfield, snoozing on the couch with the remote in his hand. Gently extracting it from his grip, Alex switched the television and kissed her husband to be on the cheek. Daniel jerked awake.

'Wha-what? Oh, hi sweetheart, how was work?' he murmured, pulling her down into his lap. Alex wound her arms around his neck, happy to be home.

'Mmmm, not bad. You?' she asked, ruffling his rusty hair. Daniel laughed.

'Eh, what can you do? The boss is tougher than nails and the work has to be done yesterday, but we seem to be getting through okay.'

'Yeah, I hear you. We're working this one case at the moment, sheesh, you'd reckon Goren actually thought that this was a murder case. He's barking up trees that people... normal people wouldn't even think of.'

Daniel sat up and looked up into Alex's eyes.

'Did you ever think that Goren's, well... I don't know how to say this without offending you, your partner or your niece...'

'What? Just say it.'

'Well, it just seems to me that Goren's a bit of... well, he's a... cradle-snatcher.'

Alex let her arms drop and stood up, glaring at her partner.

'And I suppose next thing you're gonna say that Maria married her sugar-daddy, is that it?' she shouted. Daniel leapt to his feet.

'That's not what I meant!'

'Daniel, I'm only going to say this once, so I want you to listen to me closely. My partner is not a cradle-snatcher. He broke up with Maria shortly after they started going out. It was me who put them back together. Goren has been alone for so long now, I couldn't stand it any longer. Maria was headed down the same track. I couldn't just... just sit by and watch my niece follow the same track as my partner! They're happy together, they understand each other. As for being a sugar-daddy, Goren gets the same pay check as me. Maybe a little less. He's far from being a sugar-daddy.'

Alex stopped to draw breath and found Daniel staring at her in the dark. She swept her blonde hair away from her face.

'What?'

'I... I'm sorry. I didn't understand.'

Alex sat down beside her fiancee and rubbed her face. She felt Daniel put his arm around her. She lifted her face to his.

'Dan, let me tell you something. If I didn't trust Bobby with my life, I would've killed him before I let him anywhere near my niece. So just trust my judgement, okay?'

Daniel kissed her forehead and pulled her to him. Alex snuggled against his chest and looked up at him. Daniel smiled.

'Okay.'