"What have we got?" Alex Eames asked as she entered the alley way which people were streaming in and out of.

"Well…Caucasian, Jane Doe and beaten to death and that's about all I can give you," the tech said before gesturing to the body they had reached.

Only the figure was prominent as a girl, probably a pretty one… well at one point in time, but now her face was bashed in to the point it was unrecognizable as such. Other than that, it was hard to tell anything other than maybe height, her hair, which was a sick brown color from the all of the dried blood, and her eyes. Alex wasn't sure if they where removed or just beaten to a pulp with the rest of the girl's body.

"Detectives!" An anonymous voice announced from behind them. "One of the cops found this dumpster diving," the voice continued as another tech came into view, holding a wallet covered in dried blood.

Before Alex could even reach for the wallet Bobby had gotten there and almost had it out of the bag. She had gotten used to his antics. She now found them funny, whereas most people would find it rude what he just did. She turned her attention back to the body waiting for Bobby to announce who she was or at least show her an ID or something.

"It wasn't a mugging; everything's in here. Money, Credit cards, driver's license," Bobby started before handing Alex the leather wallet.

The driver's license showed just as she had expected—a pretty young woman, even in her license photo, in her early twenties. But what made her heart nearly stop was the name "Anna-Maria Ashford." She prayed that it wasn't the Anna-Maria Ashford she knew about, but in reality she knew it was exactly who the girl was.

Ashford, Ashford and Byington was one of the most well-known law offices in New York. Founded in the late nineteenth century by John Ashford, the law office grew from a job in some guy's basement to having offices all over the world and millions of employees. The current partners of the firm were Albert Ashford, his younger sister, Candice Byington, and Albert's eldest daughter Anna-Maria Ashford. Anna-Maria was a twenty-eight year-old law genius. From what Alex had heard from Carver's rants the Ashford's didn't just hand out partnerships to the first child with a law degree in their family. No, they had to prove themselves and Anna-Maria had an amazing record with winning cases.

"She's the Ashfords' daughter," Bobby said, pulling out a bar association card from one of the card slots.

"Great. Lawyers… make my day," Alex said sighing.


Bobby watched as Alex looked close to slamming her head into her desk. He knew she was trying to find a way to reach Albert Ashford to alert him of his daughter's death, but by the looks of it she was getting nowhere fast. He knew this case was going to be a difficult one already the runaround they were getting just trying to notify the deceased's family.

"Look, I don't give a flying fuck about his privacy just tell me where the hell Albert Ashford is!" Alex yelled into the phone before slamming it down.

"You know, detective, you could have asked me," Ronald Carver's voice said with an amused ring to it.

"Yeah, if you know where Ashford is you better tell me now before I kill someone else," Alex growled from beneath her arms.

"Albert Ashford goes golfing at noon everyday while his wife socializes in the club house," Carver said before looking a bit concerned. "Why do you need to talk to Mr. Ashford?"

"His daughter was murdered last night," Bobby intervened before Alex could throw something at Carver.

"You're joking," Carver said, looking between the two, hoping it was a joke.

"No. Anna-Maria was beaten pretty badly before and after she was killed," Alex piped in after she had regained her temper.


Alex sighed as Albert Ashford entered the room and sat next to his wife. She always hated breaking it to the families that one of their loved ones had died. Especially the parents. They always seemed to take it the worst. She couldn't imagine losing a child like that. But she had to tell them anyway and ask if they could think of any reason that their child deserved this.

"Yes, what is it?" Albert Ashford questioned, the lawyer in his nature breaking through immediately.

"Mr. Ashford, we're very sorry but your daughter, Anna-Maria, was found murdered this morning," Bobby spoke up, relieving Alex of the duty of telling this to the family.

Alex saw it immediately. Mrs. Ashford went slack, suddenly looking as if all the Botox she had pumped into her previously flawless face had just disappeared. Mr. Ashford's lawyer demeanor suddenly changed as he all but fell into the couch next to his wife.

"That's impossible. I talked Anna last night. I rode home with her," Mr. Ashford said, sounding like all of his fight had suddenly left him.

"I'm sorry, but we have to ask. Was there anyone in particular that would want to hurt Anna?" Alex asked, suddenly feeling sorry for the lawyer.

"No… our clients were usually for us and she was loved by everyone," Mr. Ashford whispered.

"Oh god George… George!" Mrs. Ashford all but screamed as she suddenly lurched forward crying.

"Who-who is George?" Bobby asked Mr. Ashford, knowing now Mrs. Ashford would be of no help.

"George is Anna's fiancé," Mr. Ashford answered, pulling his wife to him.

"We'll leave you two alone… if I may though, where can we find George?" Alex asked, standing.

"He and Anna lived together… he's been in Japan since last month. He was set to return next week," Mr. Ashford said.


Bobby could sense the tension rolling off of Alex. George Bannerman was flying home from Japan immediately to answer questions about his fiancée. And they were nowhere with suspects. Mr. Ashford was right; all of their clients were for the law firm and Anna hadn't even been threatened in her whole time as partner with the firm. Of course, this was getting frustrating for both detectives but he was too focused on getting any hint of who would want to kill this woman than worrying about his own state of mind.

"Eames," Alex announced into the telephone that apparently had been ringing. "Alright, thanks. We'll be down soon."

"What?" Bobby asked, looking up.

"ME has a full report for us…" Alex answered as she started to put on her coat.

"Your girl was pregnant," the ME announced, drawing the blue covering back up over Anna's face.

"You're joking?" Alex asked, looking at the lump in the blue that was the girl's face.

"Nope. From the size of the fetus I'd say three months. Along with that, while I was going over her, I found tan fibers in most of her wound," The ME said before holding up an evidence bag, adding onto the statement: "they're carpet fibers."

"So it was a dump job," Alex mused.

They hadn't been sure it was a dump job. There had been blood all around Anna when they found her. But it was obvious with carpet fibers in her wounds that she had been attacked inside a building and then while still alive and bleeding dumped in an alleyway, left for dead. Alex couldn't help but wonder if Anna was conscious the whole time. The thought made her visibly shudder.

"No one considered that. Maybe her apartment?" Bobby suggested looking at the bag, which he was now holding.

"We haven't looked there," Alex said and with that, took out her cell phone.


Bobby looked over at Alex as she got into the driver's seat of the car. She looked ready to collapse in his opinion. He also knew that by asking if she was okay would warrant a kick or possibly a knee somewhere men usually don't like being hurt.

Sure enough, the original attack had happened at Anna's house. There was blood all over the girl's living room and hallway from the door. They left the techs to dust for fingerprints when he even admitted there was nothing other than the fact that Anna let whoever killed her in. There was no forced entry, so at least that gave them a bit of a clue; she had to have known the person. But when he looked through her date book he realized there where a lot of persons Anna knew enough to let into her house.

"You know, after all these years, I would think that one crime, at least one crime, would make sense to me," Alex announced, starting up the car, breaking Bobby out of his reverie.

"I think it's good that they don't—it means that we're not capable of doing anything like that," Bobby suggested, turning sideways in his seat to look at Alex.

"If this was someone who knew her, they had to have known she was pregnant, that she had a fiancé, and the fact that everyone loved her," Alex stated sadly. She didn't even know why this girl's death was bugging her so much.

Bobby didn't respond and instead thought on what Alex just told him. Jealousy, one of the biggest killers. Alex was right. Anna was beautiful, successful, going to be a mom, she had a fiancé, and she was loved by almost everyone she met. Even Ronald Carver admitted that Anna Ashford, one of the main reasons he lost cases, was a sweet and intelligent girl. Maybe all the hatred that went into this murder was jealousy instead of rage at something the girl had done.

Author's note: Sorry about ripping up the last chapter. But unfortunately I just could not work with that set up. But thanks for all the reviews on that one anyway! I hope you all like this one better! Oh also I got a new computer so hopefully the updates will come quicker now that I can devote all my time to my computer... (I don't think that's healthy)