Chapter 17

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Sam walked with Danny down the hall toward the bullpen. She sipped the iced mocha from Starbucks in her right hand while carrying an iced latte in her left; Martin's favorite. She was trying hard to focus on her highly caffeinated beverage and not Danny's incessant chatter about teen boys and nudie magazines. He had goaded her during the entire ride back to the office to get her to bet him that Martin would agree about Jeremy. Finally telling him to drop it, Sam walked into the bullpen where Martin sat at the conference table studying what looked like phone records.

She was happy to see Martin up and around after his bout with food poisoning last weekend. When he was feeling a little bit better she left him asleep in her bed while she ran over to his apartment to get him a change of clothes. Then they spent most of Sunday just hanging out in her apartment watching TV. Of course, after their little encounter on her sofa, she would have preferred that they spent the weekend doing something else, but just being with him was nice. She had made him promise to always tell her the truth no matter what and he happily agreed, as long as she promised to never cook for him again.

"Hey." She greeted him as she neared, waving the plastic cup with the green straw and label in the air.

He flashed a wide smile at her and happily reached out to accept the beverage. He took a long drink and moaned his gratitude. Sam laughed at how Martin could find pleasures in the simplest things. After taking another drink, Martin asked, "How'd it go at the Owens'?"

"Well, the parents are hiding something and Danny has come up with his own theory." Sam replied, tilting her head at Danny.

Danny plopped the box from Jeremy's bedroom on the conference table and was about to talk when Viv and Jack returned from their interview as well.

"Does this theory have anything to do with the black eye?" Jack asked.

"Jeremy had a black eye?" Sam asked.

"According to his coach," Viv replied, taking a seat next to Martin.

Danny and Sam exchanged looks when he said, "The father had a fading bruise on his hand. He said he got it at the gym but…."

Jack sat down and leaned back in his chair. "Did Owen strike you as the abusive type?"

"He's pretty aggressive and if my theory is correct," Danny turned and eyed Sam, "then Jeremy's little 'secret' might have something to do with it."

"Okay, what's the big theory, secret, whatever?" Martin asked.

Danny reached into the box and pulled out one of the magazines and tossed it to Martin. "We found a stack of these hidden in Jeremy's room. Look through that and tell me what you think."

Martin went wide eyed as he picked up the magazine and asked, "Um, why?"

"Maybe you'd prefer to look at it in the men's room?" Vivian snickered as Martin threw her an annoyed look.

"Just flip through the pages and tell me if you notice anything unusual." Danny remarked.

"Oh-kay." Martin replied. Sam noticed that he had everyone's eyes on him. He started flipping through the magazine when he stopped and turned to look at the cover and check the date. "This magazine is hardly……used."

Danny smiled smugly at Sam and questioned, "Anything else?"

Martin flipped back and forth through the pages before looking at Danny and saying, "Are all of the rest of the magazines like this?"

Danny nodded and glanced at Sam who was too busy eyeing Martin carefully. Martin looked back at the magazine and said, "So do you think this is why his dad freaked out and might have hit him?"

Danny laughed and smiled at Sam, who blew out a frustrated breath, but it was Viv who spoke up, "What are you guys talking about?"

Martin and Danny replied together, "He's gay."

"Okay, time out. Are you seriously telling me you agree with Mr. Centerfold over here?" Sam asked Martin in disbelief.

"Well, considering the condition of the magazines, Jeremy's age, the fact that the centerfolds are in perfect condition and the pictures he did look at….yeah." Martin looked at her matter-of-factly.

"Thank you, Martin." Danny replied. Sam didn't think it could be possible but he managed to look even more smug than usual as he told her, "Told ya."

Sam noticed that Jack, who was watching the exchange, reached over to take the periodical from Martin and quickly scanned through it. Curious, she asked, "Jack, what do you think?"

Jack looked up and shrugged, "I think it's a valid theory. "

"Great, next you guys are going to tell me you remember the name of your first centerfold too." Sam gave an annoyed sigh.

"Beth Mason – June 1975." Jack calmly replied.

"Starry Knight – Starry with two R's and Knight with a K." Martin smiled at the memory.

"Boys," Viv smilingly muttered, meeting eyes with Sam.

"Well it's good to see you still have a name to go with the image." Sam sarcastically commented.

"Hey, I remember everything about Starry." Martin replied pointedly.

"Oh, yeah like what?" She challenged.

"Well, for starters, thanks to her list of turn-offs: I don't smoke, I floss and I've never been cruel to puppies."

"She sounds so wise." Sam sarcastically replied.

"Hey, don't go knocking Starry. She only posed to earn money to go to Astronaut School." His lips twitched into a grin.

"'Astronaut School'? Please." She rolled her eyes as Martin laughed.

"Hey, Martin's right. Believe it or not but these women are very important to young men. Phoebe's turn-on's were men who spoke a second language, were clean shaven and had a great sense of humor." Danny waved his hand over himself and announced, "Wa-la."

Exasperated, Sam turned to her fellow female agent. "Viv, help me."

"Sorry, I can't, I'm too busy wondering if Reggie has one of those things now." She frowned, pointing to the box of magazines.

"That's why I don't want kids; there's always something." Sam commented while shaking her head. Smiling, she turned in time to see Martin quickly look away and lower his eyes.

Jack was anxious to change the subject and get back to the case, asked. "Martin, how's it going on the father's financials?"

Sam noticed that it took Martin a moment to answer, like he wasn't really listening. "Um, nothing so far, he's as clean as a whistle."

"What about Jeremy's cell phone records?" Jack asked as he tossed the magazine back into the box.

"Other than the fact that he seems to always be on his phone, four numbers come up quite a bit: Liana Cates, Steve Cates, Liana's twin brother, his home and a disposable cell number that I'm trying to track down. His last outgoing call was to this mystery friend."

"He has a mystery friend, huh?" Danny grinned over at Sam who met his gaze. "And the plot thickens."