Logan walked around the rooftop, eyes searching the asphalt. He looked over the edge toward the park. Barek joined him. "I don't know how people can do things like this. I love Central Park.Crap like this gives the Park a bad image," she said.

"Yeah, well, there's lots of scum out there. Sometimes I wonder if we really make a difference."

"We have to believe we do, Mike. Otherwise, why bother? Come on over here and see what they've found."

They turned and walked over to where a CSU tech was collecting samples. There was a large puddle of dried blood near the door to the stairs leading from the roof. A trail of bloody footprints and large drops of blood led down the stairs.

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"So they're taking samples of the blood to the lab and we got pictures of the bloody prints," Deakins reviewed with the two detectives sitting in front of his desk. "And where does the trail go?"

"All the way down the stairs and out into the alley. We found more blood in the alley, but the trail abruptly stops," Barek replied.

Logan frowned distastefully. "Looks like the perp butchered her on the roof, then dragged her down to the alley. He wrapped her in a tarp or a sheet or something. We're now dumpster diving to find the discarded wrap. Captain, I wasn't kidding when I said I'm not going crawling into this bastard's head."

"I don't expect you to, Mike. We recovered two casings from the roof of the museum. They match the slugs we recovered at the scene."

"And the ones recovered from our cops?"

Deakins nodded. "All of you."

Barek said, "We did a search for anything matching this guy's MO. We came up empty."

"Of course. Ok, keep me informed." They got as far as the doorway when he said, "I do have one more question for you two. Why did it take you over an hour and a half to get from here to Central Park West?"

They looked at each other briefly before Logan answered "Traffic."

"Try again."

"If you know something, Captain…"

"I know you were seen down at the hospital with Eames."

Logan frowned, but he still believed what they had done was for the best. "Damn. Look, Captain, no one was telling her anything about Goren. That's just not right. She needed to see him, and he needed her to be there. So we took her down to the ICU."

"What were you thinking? She has been traumatized enough…"

"Right…and not seeing him was traumatizing her even more. I stand by what we did, Captain."

"So do I," Barek supported him. "They both needed it."

"What you did…" Deakins started, then shook his head. "I can't do it. I can't be mad at you. But I do want you to know that what you did could have done more harm than good. Those doctors know what they're doing."

"We know they do. But they don't know Goren and Eames."

Deakins suppressed a smile. "Neither do you two."

Logan frowned at him. "We know them well enough to know that keeping them apart was the wrong thing to do."

"Luckily for you, you were right. They called from the ICU, told me you'd been there. They told me you'd brought her down to see him. And they told me he stabilized about an hour ago."

The detectives looked at one another. "Don't gloat, Mike," she warned.

"Now I want you to tell me why, Logan."

"Why what?"

"Why did you do it? The truth, Mike. It's no secret that you don't care much for Goren."

Logan looked off toward the empty desks that Goren and Eames usually occupied. "I haven't been here at Major Case very long. But you got me the hell off Staten Island, and I am actually getting to like being here. You know I didn't hit it off with them the first time we met. I don't like playing second string to anybody, but I can see how Goren and Eames are the best at what they do. Yeah, Goren can be difficult. I don't even pretend to understand him. But Eames does understand him. It's just not the same around here with them gone. When you told us this morning that he'd taken a turn for the worse, I wondered if they had let her see him. I guessed that if anyone had told her how he was really doing, no one could have kept her away from him. And I thought…the last thing he knew, she'd been shot. And if no one let her see him…hell, I know what I'd think."

"He's in a coma, Mike. He's not thinking about much of anything."

"When I was a teenager I had a friend who was in a car accident. He was in a coma for six weeks. When he came out of it, he told me things that I had told him during that time. He was aware of who was around him, and he heard what they told him. So Goren's heard all of us there...all of us but Eames. Captain, I can't say for certain whether I would take even one bullet for my partner. Maybe I would, in the right situation. Would she do it for me? Same answer. But ever since I came here, if anyone had ever asked me if he would do that for her, I'd have said 'hell, yeah.' I'm not an idiot, Captain. They have a connection I have never seen between partners before. And it works. I've heard all the rumors. I know what folks think about him…about them. No one knows how she can work with him. I ran into one of his old partners a few weeks ago. Three and a half months, he lasted. Said Goren was too…intense…yeah, that's a word I often hear about him. Intense. He said Eames would have to be just as off-balance to stick with him for five years. Well, I don't agree with that. I do agree that he's intense, but he settles down when she's around. Somehow she makes it easier to be around him." He sighed, realizing he'd been rambling. He looked at Barek, then at Deakins. "If Goren dies, none of us can predict what it would do to her. I just don't want to have to pick up the pieces. I don't think any of us do."

Barek grinned. "When did you develop insight, Logan?"

Deakins shook his head. "Ok, give yourself a pat on the back and go do your paperwork. I'm leaving early. I need to go and see how she is."

"Tell her we said hi."