It is good to hear from you. I have received some very nice messages and I am so glad you like what is happening in this fiction. This story is going to get crazy now, and I hope you are in for a little suspense 'cause that's where its going. Please continue to tell me what you are thinking. I am at a place in life where I would still write the story if no one reviewed. However, it's a treat to be able to know what you think.

Sheila

Something Precious

Chapter 5

He waited until she was over at the coffee machine, and then he joined her, standing at her shoulder. "You doing okay?"

She nodded at him. "I feel like a recalcitrant schoolgirl here, hiding my secret life."

"Recalcitrant…hmm…look that up?"

She grinned, unable to look straight at him. "And I practiced it in a sentence for five minutes in front of the mirror."

"Can I watch the next time you do that?"

"I might even do an interpretive dance."

He chuckled softly. "I'm glad you're having a better day."

"Anything from Mike?"

"Mike?"

"Logan, Bobby. Have you heard anything from Logan?"

"You're on a first name basis now," he said looking at her curiously.

"Yeah, me and Mike and Jimmy and Ron, we're all on first name basis. We hang out down at the pub and shoot darts while you're in interrogation."

"Promise you'll let me know the next time you're shooting darts with Ron Carver 'cause I really want to see that."

She smiled, and then looked away. "This is supposed to be helping me not be so anxious, right?"

"Working?"

"Not really. We can't find Bettina. Logan's having no luck finding Carlos. What are we doing?"

"I think I should go see Nicole…alone."

"Wonderful idea! Why don't you go to Dannemora and let her run you around in circles. It'll work wonders for both of you."

"Alex"

"We complicated things, Bobby. We chose that. Right?"

"Yeah, we did." He looked down at the floor.

"Do you go to see her for a reason or just because you don't know what else to do?"

"I don't know, Alex. I don't know."

She put her hand on his in the squad room, people moving about, someone apt to see it, but she did it without apology. "Do what you think is right. I trust you in all things."

Bobby nodded and waited until she took her hand away.

"Hey!" Both of them turned to find Logan at his desk. "Bettina and Carlos are hiding. I'm convinced of it. I have been everywhere. Swear to God! I hate them!"

Alex smiled and Bobby walked toward him. "We got anything?"

"No, you doing anything here other than playing footsie with your partner?"

Bobby couldn't afford an outburst, and so he moved away from Logan.

"Okay guys, let's sit down and think this out."

Logan nodded. "Let's take interrogation. Nobody'll bother us."

Alex nodded and Bobby turned in a full circle and looked at Alex. He nodded and headed for interrogation room A.

Alex looked at Logan. "I need a minute to finish this note."

"I go in there alone with him?"

"You're a big boy, Mike." She smiled and then returned to her notes.

Logan smirked and headed off toward interrogation.

Her phone rang and she picked it up. "My sister? Are you sure? Yeah, I'll be down. The back entrance? Yeah, I know parking is better back there." Alex hung up and headed for the door. She took the stairs, a promise she made to herself ever since she needed to lose those last fifteen baby pounds. She jogged down two flights and was rounding a corner when she saw him in the bottom stairwell. She looked around but this was the back stairwell and rarely used. His size had always been intimidating to her. She could have run back up the stairs, but she was curious as to what he planned in such a public place. He had never fully explained himself. She stopped cold and looked at him.

"I just wanted to explain."

"Seems to me like you've been expressing yourself just fine."

"Not everything is what it seems."

"Tell me about it." Alex kept her hand on her gun.

"I've always cared about you."

"And I used to believe that."

"Alex, I just want to tell you my side. I wanted you to know that I haven't been against you; not like it looks."

She gripped her weapon, but didn't draw it.

"Can we talk?"

"Yeah, let's go up to the squad."

He laughed. "No, they have seen how I've acted. I'm ashamed."

It didn't set right with her. "Then what do you want?"

"Just you and me. We'll talk. Work it out."

"I don't think so." She kept her gun in her holster.

"I have something you should see."

"Really?"

"Please, things are not what they seem. I can help. I want to help."

"What do you have?" Alex wished she wasn't alone in this stairwell.

"We can't talk here."

"We're not going anywhere. Here is all we've got."

"My car. It's right outside. Captain says I'm suspended if he catches me in this house again."

She didn't move. He took a deep breath. "Lexie, I know about Nicole."

Alex thought about the dangers, but realized more than anything that she needed closure. The confession of knowing Nicole was more than she expected. "We'll talk outside by the door in public."

He breathed a sigh and nodded. He opened the door for her, but she gestured at him to go first, keeping her hand tightly on her gun.

She walked out into the crisp air. The back parking lot was quiet, but she did see a Hispanic woman leaning against a blue sedan and was glad for a witness to keep his behavior in check. The sun was bright, and she squinted. The woman looked toward her and Alex realized with a start that her features were familiar. Panic flooded her gut and she pulled out her weapon not sure to point it at the woman or the man she had once trusted. There was a movement to her right, and then suddenly she felt something sharp and cold in her side and her breath caught in her throat. She swung around to find a third person, but there were strong hands gripping her arm and then her gun fell to the ground.

Voices were sharp and she could no longer keep track of who was there. She leaned against the cold, brick building and her legs folded beneath her. She thought about her gun, but strong arms were picking her up, and the blue sedan was there and then she landed on the cold vinyl of the backseat. Someone climbed in beside her and roughly pushed her to the floor. The voices in the car were loud and urgent and she was jerked against the door when the car turned sharply. An ache in her side was growing louder with every breath; every turn of the car caused an eruption of pain and she moaned loudly. She grasped her side, slippery with a sticky wetness. She saw the glistening red on her fingers and turned away. The car hit a bump and she cried out. Someone hissed, "Shut up!" and a man's shoe connected with her shoulder. The pain was so electric that she couldn't breathe. Everything became grey and she felt like she was floating, and then she sunk into blackness.

………………………………………………………………………………..

Goren felt it almost immediately. Her desk was empty. Logan followed him out of interrogation. "Maybe she's in the restroom."

Bobby nodded, but couldn't speak.

"I'll go check," said Logan running off to the stairs.

Deakins came out of his office and looked at the detective. Bobby didn't look at him. "Something's wrong. I just…I feel it. We've been waiting in interrogation for twenty minutes. Where is she?"

Logan came trotting back. "She's not in the lady's room. Desk sergeant says that a woman came to the desk and told him to call her. Said her sister wanted to talk to her in the back parking lot."

Bobby was taking 4-5 stairs at a time, Logan and Deakins thundering behind him. He burst out the door and scanned the lot. There wasn't a person in sight.

"Shit! Bobby, back away. It's a crime scene." Deakins pushed the big detective away from the doorway. Then he turned to Logan. "Get Crime Scene out here now."

Bobby backed away and stared at the doorway. To the right of the door were patches of pink coloring the snow against the building. There was a slash of red running down the brick. His eyes caught the glint of metal, and he saw a gun in the snow. He crouched so he could see it better. His breath caught. It was definitely Eame's weapon.

"Don't touch it, Bobby."

Goren wanted to say something sharp about how he'd handled more crime scenes than Deakins ever did, but he didn't. A heaviness had descended on him.

Men and women with latex gloves appeared, and someone gently pulled him away from the spot where he was crouching. He turned and saw that it was Logan. Deakins took both of them by the arm and walked them away from the scene. The captain's face was red, and his tone, clipped. "He walked into my house and took her. I'm going to get a car and we're going to go find her."

Logan opened his mouth to protest, but the captain had already sprinted away. He turned back to Bobby. "We got to keep cool heads, Goren. You can take my head off for it, but it's the truth. We go crazy on this and we'll lose everything."

"I don't care about everything. I care about her," Bobby hissed at him and then turned away.

A dapper man with a briefcase walked up. "What's going on here, detectives?"

"Eames has been wounded kidnapped not more than twenty minutes ago."

Carver stared at Logan. "This is Nicole's doing?"

"She's got a police lieutenant in her clutches; an old flame of Eames."

"He did this?"

"Was in the squad room just yesterday promising her payback."

"A cop?" Carver said with a sour look on his face.

"Real piece of work. IA probably has volumes on him. History of abusing Alex years ago. Hates her. Nicole reminded him that she existed." Logan leaned in, one eye on Goren staring at the street only a few feet away. "Everyone's too close to this. Deakins went for a car. Looks like we're going hunting."

Carver looked away for a moment. Then he grabbed a cell, and punched in numbers. "Sally, I have an emergency. Cancel what you can and reschedule the rest. I'm going to need Judge Warren's number…Good." Then he turned to Logan. "Detective, you're going to need warrants, and you need someone with a cooler head around. I'm coming."

"Ah…counselor, maybe I'm overstating things." Logan was distinctly sorry he opened his mouth.

Carver smirked. "I may be 'by the book', but I do understand the urgency here and I've known that woman a lot longer than you have."

Deakins grabbed an unmarked car with a cherry on top. He didn't blink when Carver climbed in after the two detectives. "I need warrants for his office at the precinct and his home. And you're staying in the car."

"Just give me addresses. I'm calling Judge Warren now. And I'm not staying in any damn car."

……………………………………………………………….

Carver strode into the precinct and straight for Sergeant Ryan at the desk. "You should have some faxes for ADA Carver."

"It's a dirty thing you're doing," he growled.

Carver merely plucked the papers and followed the detectives who have already charged upstairs. At the top of the stairs, he could hear Deakins and another man yelling. He saw that Goren and Logan had already headed into Zinsky's office. Without preamble Logan began rifling through drawers.

Carver turned to Deakins and handed the search warrant to the police captain he was yelling at. "We'll be going to Zinsky's home next. We need to find him now."

The harried captain glared at the both of them. "I told you on the phone. He didn't come in today. I suspended him yesterday. But if he did something, you can blame yourselves for harassing him. He's not the kind of man who backs down."

Deakins turned and surveyed the squad room. Raising his voice, he asked for the attention of the room. "A detective has disappeared. Many of you know her, Alexandra Eames. We know she's been hurt, and we have no idea how much time she has. Zinsky's your colleague. I understand that. I wouldn't be too helpful if a bunch of cops out of their jurisdiction started climbing all over my precinct either. But you know Zinsky; you know what kind of man he is. This will end badly. No way around it." He stopped and licked the edge of his lip as if searching for the right words. "She is a good cop, one of the best. And she's a good person. People who know her know that. Help us find her. Help us save her…and him."

You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Detectives looked at one another and then a murmuring rose among them. Finally a young detective, someone who had probably never met her, stepped forward. "He hangs out at Bunny's."

"We know that. We have squads posted there."

Carver grew impatient. "If you hinder this investigation, I will prosecute you to the limit of the law. I promise you."

"He's got a girl on the side. She lives in a high rise on 3rd."

Deakins pointed at him. "I need an address and a name!"

Detectives looked at one another and people began moving.

Goren closed his eyes. This is when he would focus; feel the room, understand the man, but he couldn't. He couldn't feel anything but the edge of panic that had overtaken his gut. Logan looked up from the desk. "Goren! Wake up. Check the shelves on the wall."

"There's nothing here."

"Bobby, don't do this. I'm not doing this alone."

Goren looked around the room once more. "He doesn't plan much, he's impulsive, distractible, probably hasn't completed a piece of paperwork in his life."

Logan stood up. "This means what?"

"He did this without thinking. Got in his car, lured her down the back, hit her and drove her away."

"What do we focus on then?"

"He has a woman in the car and he needs a safe house. Where does he go?"

"The girlfriend."

Goren grimaced. "Really?"

"Depends. Maybe she's young…a submissive. She'll do anything for him. Alex said he likes women like that."

Goren walked to the door of the office. "Hey! I need those bank records."

Deakins barked at a detective and who went to a computer. Carver rolled his eyes and grabbed the phone to get the warrant.

…………………………………………………………………………………..

An hour later, Goren was leaning over a young, blonde woman in a tank top and jeans. She had started out defiant, arms crossed. She said she had nothing to say. Didn't know Robert. Logan came out of her bedroom with Robert's badge and she crumbled.

"Tell me what he said exactly."

"You don't know. Robert can hurt me, and there's no where for me to go."

"He's a cop. I know. But we're cops and we're here, and I promise nothing will happen to you." Bobby gritted his teeth as soon as he said. He had something similar to Alex just the day before.

"He was really angry about a woman named Alexis, I think. She, um, really hurt him, and tried to ruin his career a long time ago. And then she found out he was back, and she is trying to ruin him all over again."

"First off, her name is Alexandra Eames and she's a cop too. Patty, you know what Robert does when he's mad. She was his girlfriend once, and she knows too. But Alex got fed up. She knew she deserved better than being beat up and threatened. She left him and when he wouldn't leave him alone, she fought back. And she won. How do you think Robert felt about that? You really think he was willing to just let it go? Tell me Patty, what do you think?"

"He's not a bad man. He's been through a lot. Maybe she didn't understand him."

Bobby grabbed her shoulders and focused on her face. He felt her shiver, but he refused to let go. "He's a bully and he hurts women, and I can see in your face that he hurts you. You can tell yourself it's not his fault all you want, but I want you to imagine that he has her right now, and there's blood because she fought him and she's scared. She doesn't have her weapon. Imagine what she's feeling. He has all of this anger because she's the one woman who fought back, and Robert's women aren't supposed to do that, right?"

Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she heaved a sob. "He said he was going to take of her for good. I was hoping it didn't mean what I thought it did."

"Where would he take her?"

"I don't know. He doesn't tell me a lot of things. He says I can't keep my mouth shut."

"Can you reach him?"

"No, when he left this afternoon, he said that he'd call me. He was specific that I was not to call him."

Bobby sat back for a moment, his brow creased. "Patty, he left this afternoon? What time did he come and what time did he leave?"

"He showed up at around 9 this morning and he left at about 2."

Bobby slammed his hand down on the table. "That's not possible! Alex was taken at noon. Patty, you're not thinking."

"I don't know. I was out of it, but I'm sure that he left at 2. I watch General Hospital and he was leaving when it started."

"What do you mean 'out of it'.

Patty looked away, but Logan came strolling in with a bag of needles. Bobby grabbed her arms and looked them over. "Where are the tracks Patty?"

"I don't…that's not my stuff."

He grabbed hold of her and shook her. "Patty!"

Terror filled her eyes. "In my thigh. I shoot up in my thigh."

He let go of her, certain he had bruised her. "I apologize. I understand that you were out of it. Maybe you're not sure about the times."

"I don't know. I thought I was. Sometimes I hallucinate. Maybe it was a different day where he left at 2. I get confused."

Bobby dragged his hand over his face and walked away. Logan watched him walk out of her apartment and onto the sidewalk. He kept pacing back and forth, rubbing at his eyes. Logan waited a few minutes before he went out. "Bobby, I gotta call while you were talking to Patty. Desk sergeant gave a description of the woman who told him to send Alex out. She's a Hispanic female, early 30's, long hair, and she has a scar on her forehead."

Bobby stopped and stared at him. "Call them and tell them to show him a picture of Bettina Garcia."

Logan nodded. "I thought of that. Waiting for the call back."

"Bettina wasn't the distraction, she was the weapon." Bobby turned and headed to the car. Logan sprinted after him.

…………………………………………………………………………..

TBC