A/N: Ah, much better...finally found some plot hidden under a rock in my brain.

"There," Alex said ten minutes later, making a show of licking the grease from her eighth slice off her fingers. "Now that I've won the bet, can we get to work?"

Bobby nodded his agreement. "If we're going to stick with the boyfriend theory, we need a better motive than just 'her mother didn't like him'. There's plenty of mothers who don't like their daughters' controlling boyfriends, but they don't all end up dead."

"Not just dead, but beaten and shot," Logan added, "in an expression of rage."

"He really didn't strike me as the type who couldn't control his rage," Alex said thoughtfully. "Seemed more like the slimy, politician type. Problem is, the last time I checked, it wasn't good politics to kill your girlfriend's parents, even if they don't like you."

"Which means that for this murder to have happened according to our current theory," Barek said slowly, "two important factors had to converge: first, the mother had to present enough of a threat that it was better to take his chances and kill her than to let her live, and second, he had to be sure he had enough of a hold over Claire that he could keep her with him even after the murder."

"You know, with just about every girl I dated in college," Logan told them, closing his eyes as if he were picturing the progression of girlfriends, "their mothers hated me. Told the girls that. Pressured them to break up with me. But the thing is, not only did that not make me feel threatened enough to consider violence, but it almost never worked out the way the mother wanted. If anything, having disapproving parents tended to make the girl that much more into our relationship."

"You heartbreaker, you," Barek teased. "But what we're basically establishing here is that something had to go really wrong to convince this guy he had to kill Gabrielle Young, right?"

"It could have something to do with how good the relationship between Gabrielle and Claire was," Alex pointed out. "Everyone agrees that they were very close. Best friends."

Logan stretched his legs out, accidentally kicking Eames's elbow. "Yeah," he said after muttering anapology to her, "but everyone also seems to agree that Claire is perfectly willing to have her boyfriend treat her like a doormat. Obviously the mother hadn't managed to convince her that he wasn't worth it."

"Well, let's forget the specifics for the moment," Barek suggested, slipping off her shoes and bringing her feet up so she could sit cross-legged on the loveseat. "Let's come at it from the other direction. What things can a mother do in a situation like this that would be a serious threat to the boyfriend or his control over the girl?"

"She could threaten to cut off the girl's financial support," Alex volunteered immediately. "There's no way she's paying for college and that apartment by herself, and not only would that threaten his comfort, but it might actually get the girl to do what her mother wanted." Copying Barek's action, she toed off her own shoes, stretching her legs out in front of her and wiggling her toes. "I sure as hell wouldn't want to give up a swanky apartment like that just so I could keep a boyfriend who's a jerk."

"We don't have any evidence that she thinks he's a jerk, though," Goren argued. "Out of everyone we've talked to, it seems like Claire's the only one who doesn't believe he is . . . which might indicate a willingness to wear blinders in this relationship. And if that's the case," he went on, "then she's clinging to those blinders with incredible tenacity. It'll be almost impossible to shake her out of it."

"Should we see if we can convince her?" Logan mumbled, half to himself. "If we can crack her, she'll probably give us everything we need to send him up the river."

Eames shook her head. "I don't think so - at least, not now. If her mother, who she seemed to trust implicitly, couldn't convince her, a bunch of cops who don't know her or Tony aren't going to be able to do it either."

"So then, why'd you say 'at least not now'?" Logan asked, looking at her curiously. "Either we can or we can't."

"We don't know enough about her," Goren cut in before Alex could reply. "There's a chance we could do it, if we hit her in the right weak spot . . . but to do that, we need to identify her weak spots."

"Right," she said with a nod. "What he . . ." Her voice trailed off on a gasp as something sharp dug into her leg. She looked down and found Vidocq, who had apparently gotten bored of exploring the rest of the room. "What he said," she repeated, completing the sentence as she lifted the ferret onto her lap and stroked his head with one finger.

"If we could do something like presenting her with some sort of hard evidence that demonstrates that he's not the perfect boyfriend he's got her convinced he is," Barek mused, "something that's difficult to ignore . . . it might be possible."

"Well," Alex said with a sigh, "we already ran his record. Some speeding tickets, but nothing worse."

Logan, who had been studying the carpet, jerked his head up as if he'd just had a flash of insight. "You ran his record the quick way, right? Searched for convictions, fines paid, acquittals?"

"Yeah," Bobby said warily. "Why?"

"Well, did you look for complaints that had been rescinded, charges that had been dropped, that kind of stuff? If he's as much of a charmer as he sounds like he is, he wouldn't have any trouble convincing girls to not press charges, no matter what he did to them."

Eames raised her eyebrows. "He has a point, Bobby. We didn't do that."

"Would've gotten around to it," he muttered defensively.

Ignoring that, Alex looked at the other two detectives. "So we know to check his record more closely. Now let's do this again - if the motive's not financial, what else could it be?"

"Us," Barek said. Smiling a little at the weird looks that statement earned her, she clarified, "Us, as in, the police. What if he was hitting her, and just being clever about it? No one's checked her, and we've only got the word of her friends - who would want to protect her reputation - to say it's not happening."

"So you're saying maybe he was slapping her around and her mother got wind of it, threatened to call the cops?" Logan translated. "Hmm, it's a definite possibility. Are we sure that no complaint had been filed already?"

"No complaints against Tony Meadows in the last six months," Alex said, trying to picture the print-out that held the information, which was currently sitting on her couch at home. "And none filed by Gabrielle or Norman Young in the same period."

"Ok," Barek said, "so if Mom threatened to call the police, he might see it as simple self-preservation to knock her off, with the added bonus of helping to keep Claire under his thumb. But how did she know? If there are marks on Claire, they've got to be on her torso or legs - areas that her mom's not likely to see in the dead of winter like it is."

"Well, it could be that she noticed something just 'not right,'" Logan suggested, "but then again, I think Gabrielle Young would be smart enough to wait until she had more proof than that."

The quartet were quiet for a while, each sorting through their case history and outside knowledge to identify a likely way Gabrielle could have found out.

"I wonder . . ." Alex murmured, looking speculative, "I wonder if they'd gone clothes shopping recently."

Silence greeted that thought for a few seconds until Barek nodded slightly and said, "That's a good idea, Eames. One of the few situations where she might have seen her partially undressed."

Logan, whose eyebrows had been climbing slowly since Eames made her suggestion, now lowered them in a look of confusion. "Women walk around half-naked when they're buying clothes? Man, have I been shopping in the wrong stores!"

No one laughed, and both women just gave him bored looks. "That was pathetic, Mike," Alex sighed. "We practically handed the joke to you on a platter, and you still managed to kill it."

Barek snickered. "I don't think we'll be seeing him on Comedy Central any time soon. What we were talkingabout, dimwit," she went on, stretching her leg off the loveseat to kick his thigh, "was trying on clothes. Women do that in packs."

"And they . . . walk around the dressing rooms half-dressed?" Goren said cautiously, not completely following their explanation but not wanting to get himself laughed at like Logan had.

Barek and Eames looked at each other, tacitly considering how to answer his question. "Well, sometimes," Barek finally said. "Like if you're trying on a pair of pants and you want to get a clear look at how the waist fits."

"Right. And if it's crowded, sometimes women who came together will share a dressing room - and that entails undressing in front of each other," Alex added.

The two men just stared at them for a second. "Why didn't I already know that?" Bobby muttered peevishly, annoyed with himself for only now realizing there was a gaping hole in his knowledge when it came to women.

"Uh, Bobby," Alex replied, leaning her head back and smirking at him, "it might have something to do with the fact that you're not female and you haven't - I assume - spent much time in women's dressing rooms. It's forgivable."

"I think I'd be more concerned if you'd already known," Barek agreed.

Logan, who had remained quiet while the women spoke to Goren, took advantage of a lull in the conversation now to grin and look from Barek to Eames. "Either of you going to be needing new clothes any time soon?"

Barek rolled her eyes with a groan. "You need some new material for your jokes, Mike. And for the record, you are so never coming clothes shopping with me . . . unless it's clothing armageddon or something, and maybe not even then."

Undaunted, he moved his eyes to the woman sitting by his feet. "How 'bout you, Eames? Need some new pants?"

"If she needs new pants, she's going with me to get them," Bobby said sharply before she could even open her mouth to reply.

"He's probably right," Alex admitted to Logan. Then, looking back at Bobby, she gave him a quelling look and added, "But that really did not need to be said out loud, Goren." His smile faded then, and she felt a little guilty for teasing him. "Besides," she went on, trying to lighten the atmosphere, "there's no way I can afford the kind of clothes you pick out. An Armani girl, I'm not."

"That's Armani?" Barek asked with raised eyebrows, pointing to the suit Goren was wearing.

"Some of it," he admitted self-consciously. Then, before anyone could comment further, added briskly, "But we need to get back on topic. We need a game plan for tomorrow."

"I want to interview Claire," Alex said quickly. "And I want her before we even start thinking about interviewing Tony."

"Her father can probably give us more background information about the relationship," Logan added. "You guys didn't really get into that when you talked to him last time."

"Ex-girlfriends would be great sources of information on him," Barek said. "We could call Claire's friends again and see if any of them know of who he dated before Claire."

Alex nodded, agreeing. "Logan, you and Barek want to talk to Norman Young, and Goren and I will do Claire? Then we can meet up get started on the phone calls together."

"Sounds good to me," Logan said.

Barek nodded. "Me too."

"Great." She moved Vidocq from her lap to Logan's, enjoying the near-squeak he made as the appearance of the animal caught him by surprise. "I think we need to get going, Bobby."

"We do?" he asked blankly, having missed whatever cue it was that had made her decide that. "I mean, uh, yeah, probably."

"Yes, we do," she said simply. "Pizza was a good idea, Barek. Thanks for having us over."

"And you got a paperwork slave out of the deal, too," Barek said with a grin as she stood up and followed them toward the door.

While Barek was unlocking the door, Alex glanced over her shoulder at Logan, whose expression was teetering on the edge of being a pout. "Right, can't forget our new slave!" she said with overdone cheer.

"Shut up," Logan said sulkily. "How was I supposed to know you had a hollow leg?"

"You haven't learned one of the big lessons about dealing with Eames," Goren informed him smugly.

"Oh? And what's that?"

"Never, ever underestimate her." He flipped a hand over his shoulder at Logan in something that resembled a wave, then followed Alex into the hallway. "Thanks, Barek."

"No problem. This was fun," she said, waving off the thanks. "Now, you kids have fun tonight, and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Alex snorted. "Sure we won't. Night."

"Night. See you guys tomorrow!" Barek closed the door behind them, then turned back to face Logan, who now had a ferret in his lap and a cat hanging over his head. "I think my pets just found a new favorite scratching post," she told him with a grin. "Wanna hang around for a while, help me clean up?"

He sighed theatrically. "Great, I'm being put to work already, and my slaving hasn't even started." Still, he pushed Vidocq off his lap, ducked his head out from under Locard's paw, and stood up, giving his partner a smile. "What do you want done?"