The first thing they heard when they entered the squad room the next morning was a shout of, "Yo! Goren, Eames!" from the direction of Logan's and Barek's desks.

Alex and Bobby looked at each other, dropped their coats and files on their desks, and made for the other side of the room. "What's up?" Alex asked, leaning one hip against Logan's desk.

"I got in a little early, so I talked to the father first thing this morning," Barek said, not wasting time on pleasantries. "He gave me a few names and numbers of friends of Claire's." She held out a sheet of notepaper she'd written the information on. "I wasn't sure if you wanted to go directly to the daughter, whether for names or for information, or not at all."

Alex accepted the list from her and scanned it. "Four girlfriends, the boyfriend, and Claire herself. That seems about right, if we're only looking for close friends." She glanced up at Goren. "What do you want to do?"

He looked over her shoulder at the sheet of paper. "Let's just split the friends, two and two. Eames and I will take . . . Jill Barrett," he began, reading the first name on the list, "and Jane Grosse. You guys get . . . Kathryn McCoy and Jessica Wolf."

"God," Barek muttered as she jotted down the names, "I feel like I'm stuck in WASP hell. Don't these people know anyone who's black, or Hispanic, or something?"

Alex grinned. "Apparently not. But hey, it's their loss. I dated a black guy in college who had the most gorgeous skin I've ever seen . . ." she began introspectively. "Hmm, wonder whatever happened to him."

Under any other circumstances, Logan decided as he smothered a laugh, he would definitely have paid to see the look Goren's face was currently displaying. Still, the unspoken code of male behavior demanded that he try to distract Alex before she could punch a bigger hole in her partner's ego. Turning to her, he knuckled her shoulder and teased, "He's probably a billionaire somewhere, sitting at his desk, wondering what happened to you."

Barek started to say something, then stopped to catch a piece of her muffin that broke off when she bit into it. "Mmm," she managed a second later, voice muffled by the food she was chewing, "I know what you mean, Eames. I dated this guy who had a huge -"

"Excuse me!" Logan broke in loudly, waving a hand between the two women. "Save those stories for one of your 'girls' nights.' Me and Goren would like to keep our breakfasts down, thank you very much."

Eames and Barek exchanged an amused look. "Jealous," Barek said with a grin.

"Yep." Alex sighed and slipped her notebook back into her pocket. "What do you say, Goren? Want to go hunt down the first WASP on our list?"

"Huh?" Still wondering about this mysterious past boyfriend of hers, it took Bobby a second to switch back to work mode. "Uh, I mean, yeah, let's go."

"We should head out too," Barek said, looking at her partner. "Whenever you're ready." She lounged against the side of her desk, watching Goren and Eames walk toward the elevators, while she waited for Logan to get his stuff together.

"Ready," he said a few seconds later. "So, uh, Carolyn . . . what were you going to say before I cut you off?"

"You mean about the boyfriend with the huge . . ."

"Yeah."

"Do you really want to know?" she asked with a smirk. At his decisive nod, she shrugged. "It was the late 80s. He had a huge flattop haircut. Why?" she added with wide-eyed innocence. "What did you think I was going to say?"

"Um . . ." Logan looked down at his feet for a second, then back up. "Uh, yeah, it's getting late. Let's get moving," he said quickly, making for the elevators without seeing if she was following.

Transcript of Interview: Jill Barrett

Interviewers: Det. A. Eames, Det. R. Goren

Eames: Can we get you anything before we start, Jill? Something to drink?

Barrett: No. No, thank you, I'm ok.

Eames: Ok, well, let's get started then. Would you tell us your full name and your connection to Claire and Gabrielle Young?

Barrett: Jillian Elizabeth Barrett. I was Claire's roommate freshman year and we're still friends. I don't really know her mother.

Goren: Roommates, huh? So that was before she decided to move in with Tony Meadows?

Barrett: Yeah. She met him toward the end of the year - thankfully.

Eames: Why "thankfully"? He's that nice a guy?

Barrett: Not quite. I meant that it was lucky for me that she didn't meet him until late in the year - otherwise I probably wouldn't have had a roommate. Definitely not one as good as Claire was.

Goren: What makes a "good" roommate? I, uh, always lived alone while I was in school.

Barrett: Oh. Well . . . I was really shy, and Claire's not, but she somehow of managed to pull me out of my shell without scaring me too much.

Goren: Claire's "not shy"? What does that mean, exactly - is she, uh, you know, a party girl? Lots of boyfriends?

Barrett: No! I mean, no more than any other college girl. She liked to go to parties on the weekend and she always had a date when she wanted one -

Eames: You're speaking about her in the past tense. Do you mean that she's not like that anymore?

Barrett: She's still Claire. I don't mean she's did a one-eighty or something, just that since she started dating Tony, she's been . . . less.

Eames: Less what?

Barrett: Well, you know how it is when you have a new relationship and you want to spend every single second with him, and you'll even blow off your friends so you can?

Eames: Sure.

Barrett: Well, they've been together for, like, two years, and she still does that. Not . . . I don't mean she's, like, forgotten that her friends exist, I just mean that a lot of the time when we ask her to do something with us, she'll be like, "Oh, no, Tony wants me to do X with him tonight, sorry!"

Goren: Do you get the impression that those times are her decision, or Tony's?

Barrett: I . . . a little of both, I guess. Like, I don't think he sits her down and goes, "Ok, you're not allowed to go to the movies with Jill," but I think he kind of hints along those lines and then lets her make the actual decision.

Eames: Have you ever actually seen him do that?

Barrett: No, which is why I'm saying that I'm not really sure. It's just . . . an impression I get.

Goren: Well, we know the value of "impressions" in our line of work, so we'll keep that in mind. Has Claire ever mentioned what her mother thought of Tony?

Barrett: Her parents don't like him. Pretty much none of us really like him - her friends and family, I mean.

Eames: And why is that?

Barrett: He's just a jerk.

Goren: He seemed very, uh, well-mannered when we spoke to him and Claire.

Barrett: I know. He's good at that, at making people like him.

Goren: . . . but it's a talent of his, not a real aspect of his personality?

Barrett: Exactly. He only acts like that around Claire when they're with people he wants to impress. And a little bit when they're with people like me, friends. He can be very charming.

Eames: Does he mistreat Claire? Either physically or mentally.

Barrett: He's never hit her. She wouldn't stand around for that, I know that. He's just got too big an ego for his own good, and Claire usually lets him walk all over her, which doesn't help. But that doesn't answer your question, sorry. I don't know if I can really answer it, except to say that if any of us - me, Kathryn, Jessie, and Jane, I mean - ever saw her with mysterious bruises or something, you can bet your ass we'd make her dump him.

Goren: What about her parents?

Barrett: Her dad would go ballistic. Her mom . . . I don't think her mom would ever let her out of the house again unless she was sure Tony was far, far away.

5 seconds silence

Goren: That's understandable. Listen, Jill, thank you for talking with us today. My partner will give you our card - if you think of anything else we should know, don't think twice about giving us a call.

Barrett: Ok. So does this mean . . . are you . . . do you think Tony killed Mrs. Young?

Eames: We don't think much of anything at this point, Jill. We're basically trying to flesh out the way the whole family lived so we can get a handle on where to look closer.

Barrett: As in, look closer at Tony. Well, good, because she deserves better than him. And you can tell him I said that.

Eames: Thanks. The officer will show you downstairs.

Alex sighed and rolled her neck to try to loosen it up. She hated having to sit at her desk, typing, when the rest of the room hummed and buzzed with action around her. "Bobby . . ."

"No," he replied without looking up from the page he was reading. "I did the last batch, it's your turn."

"Oh, come on. Please?"

He shook his head. "You want me to do all the paperwork again, you win another bet. 'Til then, we're switching off like always."

"You're evil." She sighed and saved the file she'd just typed the interview in. "I suppose I have to walk all the way over to the printer and get the copies myself, too?"

"Yep."

She stuck her tongue out at him, knowing he wasn't paying enough attention to notice, then stood up with a groan. "What are you reading, anyway?"

He glanced up at her, then at the short stack of files on his desk. "Homicides between significant others where there was no prior record of domestic abuse."

She used one finger to pull down the top of the folder he was holding so that she could read the first few lines. "So you are. Fine, then - you keep profiling; I'm going to go hand out copies of this morning's interview."

"Mmhm."

Muttering darkly, she stalked off toward the printer in the back of the room. The three copies she'd printed were already lying on the tray and she grabbed them with one hand as she passed, then changed her trajectory and headed for Deakins's office. "Interview," she said, poking her head in the door. "Where do you want it?"

"Depends." The captain took his hand off the phone he'd been about to pick up. "Is it anything good?"

"Nothing momentous, but I have a good feeling about it."

"Front and center, then," he said, patting his desk. "Who is it?"

"One of Claire Young's friends. The boyfriend's starting to look good for it." She set one of the copies down in front of him. "We've got another girl scheduled for after lunch, and Logan and Barek are supposed to be talking to two more."

Deakins nodded his approval. "Good. If you run into Barek, tell her I want copies of theirs too."

"Just Barek?" Alex asked with raised eyebrows. "What, are the female detectives getting reassigned to the typing pool and you just haven't told us yet?"

"Whoa, no offense intended. Keep the sexual discrimination complaint form in the filing cabinet where it belongs. I just meant that Barek's more likely to remember if you tell her."

She gave him a look. "Sure you did. Anyway, Goren and I will check in with you again later." She turned and walked back into the squad room, feeling slightly guilty for jumping on him when she knew he'd had a completely different issue in mind when he avoided Logan's name.

"Eames!"

She looked up at the sound of her name and found Carolyn Barek standing up at her desk and motioning for her to come closer. "Speak of the devil," she muttered as she made her way to the other woman. "What's up?"

"Kathryn McCoy's Irish, first off," Barek said with a grin. "She read us the riot act for daring to think Claire might have something to do with the murder, then told us that the boyfriend's on the moral level of a slime mold."

Alex blinked. "Impressively phrased. Was that hers or yours?"

"Mine. She referenced something less palatable than slime mold."

"Not gonna ask."

Barek laughed. "Good idea. Anyway, Logan's finishing typing it all up now -" She paused as they both leaned slightly around the column between Barek's desk and Logan's and checked that he was still there.

"What?" he said, looking up from the keyboard in startled confusion. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it."

Both women chuckled and moved back to their original positions in front of Barek's desk. "- and we'll get a copy to you guys as soon as he's done," she went on as though there had been no interruption.

"Can you do me a favor?" Alex asked, leaning forward and lowering her voice as though she were about to impart a deep, dark secret.

"Probably," Barek replied slightly suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"Whichever of you brings a copy to Deakins, make a big deal about how it was Logan who did the typing."

That wasn't on the list of possible requests that Barek had expected. "Should I ask why?"

Alex grinned. "I was ribbing him about how he only talked about you and me doing the typing. Made him nervous."

"Damn, you can be passive-aggressive when you want to be, you know that?"

"Of course." She glanced over her shoulder, noticing that Bobby still had his head buried in a file folder, then looked back at the other woman. "Even feminine wiles and a strong right hook can't work all the time."

"Ha!" Caught by surprise by Alex's deadpan response, Barek let out a loud laugh, then immediately slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle it. "Sorry. But you have a point."

"Hey," Logan broke in, leaning around the column the same way the women had a minute ago, "what's so funny?"

Alex shook her head and waved a hand at him. "You wouldn't be interested. Go back to your typing - speaking of which, how much longer before I can get a copy of that?"

"If you're willing to haul your ass over to the printer, you can have a copy now, as long as you bring the other two back here."

"Gee, thanks. Just what I always wanted," she replied dryly. "What do you guys have for this afternoon?"

"Jessica Wolf, between her classes at Columbia," Barek said with a sigh.

"Don't sound so enthused," Alex teased. "Bobby and I are talking to Jane Grosse here at two. Want to meet up at the end of the day to check in and report back to the bossman?"

"Sounds good," Barek said with an agreeable nod.

"Ditto," Logan said. "Now go get my print-outs - ow!" he yelped in mock pain when Barek reached across both their desks and swatted his arm. He shot her a dirty look, then sighed. "Fine, fine. Alex, would you please go get the interview print-outs?"

"Why, of course!" she responded in a cheerfully formal voice. "Barek, I don't see any bruises on him - you've got to tell me what your other strategy is."

Barek grinned at the worried look that appeared on her partner's face. "We'll have a girls night one of these days," she told Alex.

Logan snorted. "And you'll both come in the next day ten pounds heavier from the ice cream and with hangovers from hell."

"Sounds about right," Alex said with a nod. "You're just jealous you won't be invited."

Logan looked put-out for a second before his face took on a thoughtful expression. "I wonder," he said slowly, tapping a finger against his chin, "what Goren would think of helping me stage a panty raid."

All three of the burst out laughing.