II.

Special Agent Vivian Johnson was sitting at her desk writing her report on the most recent case, when she saw the door to her boss' office being opened. From afar she watched her co-worker Danny Taylor more or less storming out and heading down the corridor towards the elevator. Although she'd had no chance to see his face, from the way he moved she could tell that he was furious.

For a moment she was tempted to go after him, but she quickly decided against it – for several reasons; first of all she knew from experience that it was probably useless anyways, second was he was long gone and she wasn't quite fit at the time being due to her recent heart surgery and so she'd never catch up, and last – and most important: being honest to herself she really didn't feel like dealing with his bad mood right now.

She'd just focused on the report again when from the corner of her eye she saw the door being opened again, and now it was Jack Malone, her boss, who stormed out. Now, this is starting to get ridiculous, she thought as she watched Jack coming her way.

"Hey Jack!" she called out to him ignoring the fact that he was wearing his don't-talk-to-me-face. "What's going on?"

"Nothing. Got the report done? I need it as soon as possible", he growled.

"Jack, I just started writing it. We wrapped the case up only less than one hour ago, and I spend fifteen minutes in your office talking to you about…"

"Yes, I know, I'm sorry…" Jack admitted, sounding a little contrite. "I did mean to… well, rant at you like that. It's just that… well, we're all not quite ourselves these days…"

Vivian sighed, thinking about Danny. Thinking about Martin. "Yeah I know." For a while she considered asking what had happened in Jack's office, then abolished the idea.

Jack, though, must have read the question in her mind, or maybe it was written all over her face – more than likely it was, she realised after thinking about it.

"Your wondering about Danny, aren't you?"

"Well, he came storming out of your office and walked down the corridor almost bumping into several people. You know Danny, he never bumps into people, unless he wants to – to provoke them."

"Well, maybe he did want to provoke them. The way he was when he left I guess, he would have been happy to vent his anger on somebody."

"What the hell did you say to him?" Vivian asked. She knew Danny, better probably than anybody else in the office, and she knew that his anger would usually not come unfoundedly. There was always a reason.

She had come to know the younger agent as being a friendly, easygoing and generally happy person, who was famous and popular among colleagues for his usual good mood and his charismatic and sympathetic way of dealing with other people. She knew, though, on some days it was a mask he wore, to hide other emotions, since he wasn't the kind of person who'd share his problems with everybody – but on most days, his cheerfulness was genuine.

Vivian was pretty sure about that since from what she knew about his past, he wouldn't have made through his rough childhood and troubled teenage years if it hadn't been for that natural cheerfulness that had made it possible for him to get back up from however deep he had fallen. And he'd fallen really deep.

If he'd get angry – which of course did happen once in a while – he'd blow up and get over it just as quickly. And it didn't happen without a reason. But Jack seemed reluctant to tell her what the reason was and so Vivian decided to wait until he might be willing to talk to her. She was going to be patient. No trouble for her.

Nonetheless she was worried about Danny. And about Jack as well. Something had happened between them, and especially Danny hadn't been the same at all since she'd come back after her heart surgery. She'd noticed before, when he'd turned up at her home, once, to say hallo, after she'd been released from the hospital. He'd seemed different; nervous and edgy. Not a surprise, actually, after what he'd been through, being ambushed and all.

But he just didn't seem to get over it – and that was what had Vivian worried the most.

"I… handed him a new assignment. He didn't like it. That's all."

"That's all?"

"From what he said I gathered that he thought I wanted to get rid of him here", Jack finally added, with a sigh.

"And? Did you?" He was avoiding to look her in the eyes, and that made Vivian curious.

"Maybe, I don't know."

"Jack…"

"Look. He messed up. Twice. Really, really messed up. I don't know what to do with him, he's been a different person lately. I sent him to Dr. Harris but he says he doesn't need a shrink, and if he goes to the appointments, she tells me he's being uncooperative, doesn't let her help him. I don't want to have fire him because he keeps screwing up, so I hope this case and the relatively little pressure it'll put on him will help him get his head straight. That's all I can say." Jack rubbed his eyes, and Vivian noticed for the first time that day how down and exhausted her boss looked. She decided to try and cheer him up by giving him her warmest smile.

He smiled back, thankfully.

"Anything new on Martin?" she asked for a change of subject.

"Not much. As far as I know, he's doing well – given the circumstances. He'll be back in about three weeks or so I think."

"That's good to hear."

"Yeah…" Jack yawned and walked away. Vivian stared after him for a while then went back to writing her report.

………………

Detective Lilly Rush walked down the busy streets towards the FBI-headquarters, feeling slightly uneasy. She couldn't say for sure if it was the city that made her so uncomfortable or the case she was working on. She had felt bad about it from the first moment but since she'd got out of her car thirty minutes earlier at the motel the agent she'd spoken to on the phone had suggested – it was just a few blocks away from the FBI building – the uneasiness had increased.

She took a look at her watch, almost 4.30, she was supposed to have arrived ten minutes ago. Shaking her head while wondering why lately everything just seemed to wrong she quickened up her pace, realising how that made her fit in perfectly, hurrying down the streets, as most people did.

Lilly had always found New York impressing but also a little intimidating. She couldn't say for sure whether she liked the city or hated it, but there was most certainly nothing in between. There was this certain attractiveness it had, making her feel drawn towards it, but also its anonymity and mercilessness drove her away.

When she noticed she had reached to building she'd been aiming for, she quickly checked to assure it was the right one – all buildings looked so alike here – before she entered and walked towards the reception. This place was as busy as the streets outside. Men and women were walking in and out all the time, nobody took the time to look at her.

Except for one man she suddenly noticed. He was watching her from the far end of the room, face expressionless or so it looked from where she was standing. He was also the only person who wasn't hurrying to get somewhere, he made more the impression of someone waiting for somebody else. This had to be her contact. Lilly was confused; she had expected somebody older. This man was only around thirty, thirty-five at the most, from what she could tell.

Obviously he'd also figured out by now who she was because he walked up to her with a few quick steps, stopping right in front of her and looking down at her. He actually had to look down at her, something Lilly wasn't at all used to.

She thought of her usual partner, Detective Scotty Valens, who she could easily look straight into the eyes when they were standing opposite eachother. Lilly would have preferred having him here with her now but he'd had to stay behind in Philadelphia, following up a different lead to the case.

"You Detective Rush from Philly?" the man asked now and a pair of dark, piercing eyes bore their gaze her into own.

Lilly took a deep breath, catching herself thinking that this man reminded her of what she'd thought of New York City only minutes before; impressive and intimidating. That, especially the second attribute, was probably not just due to his height, but also his taut features that still lacked any sign of showing emotion.

Tall and slender, though, he was certainly attractive, too. That made her angry, maybe because it was about the first thing that had come to her mind when she'd first noticed him.

Attractive?

Lilly was shocked. Where had that thought just come from? Hastily she opened her mouth to say something. "Yes, Detective Lilly Rush. Hi."

He extended his hand to grab hers for a very quick, firm handshake. "Danny Taylor. My boss sent me to meet you. You're late", he said, shortly.

She just nodded, feeling anger rise inside of her. She didn't like him. She couldn't even have said why, but there was something about him that made her feel very uneasy.

Lilly wasn't particularly fond of good-looking men, in her experience they usually knew about their good looks, making them arrogant and difficult to get along with. And she was almost sure Special Agent Danny Taylor was no exception to that – Hell, even Scotty isn't really an exception! – and she briefly wondered if the fact that he was Special Agent Taylor and she was just Detective Rush would make things even harder.

Forcing herself to stay professional she finally asked: "So… shall we stand here all day or go up to your office to talk things over? – By the way, do you have a cafeteria or something because I haven't had lunch; I'm starving."

The slightest hint of a smile appeared on Taylor's face and his voice sounded a bit softer than before, as he spoke. "Well, no cafeteria, I'm sorry. There's a few vending machines down in the basement, where you could get a coffee and a chocolate bar, but I'd highly recommend you to get something proper. There's a coffee shop just 'round the corner from here, where they make good sandwiches. We can talk about the case there."

Lilian agreed, not yet daring to relax around him.

………………

A good ten minutes later they sat opposite eachother at one of the tables at the commended coffee shop. No words had been exchanged on the case so far, since Lilly was still too busy wolfing down her food. Danny Taylor watched her, seemingly amazed. She was sure she could actually detect a hint of amusement around his eyes.

Lilly knew what made him amused: she didn't look the type of woman who you'd normally expect to wolf down a sandwich like that. Her skinny frame and pale, porcelain like skin gave her a delicate appearance, which tended to make people underestimate her. She had experienced it several times in past. Sometimes it annoyed her, but it was actually more often than not an advantage.

"Hm, these are really good." Finally Lilly swallowed her last bite and climbed out of the booth she was sitting in a little awkwardly. "Gonna go and get another one."

As she did so she took a look around. This place was nice, small and comfortable. She guessed that during the lunch hours it would be crowded. Now, though, only half of the seats were taken. She ordered another sandwich and a coffee at the bar, waited for it to come up and made her way back to the table.

The second sandwich was gone, almost as fast as the first. She could feel Taylor staring at her and when she looked up at him she noticed that he was giving her the first real smile since they'd met thirty minutes ago. "Where do you put all that?" he asked, looking her up and down, and as the smile was reaching his eyes now, he suddenly looked a lot more sympathetic than before.

Lilly just shrugged. "Most of it I put into the job. Burns a lot of calories, this job… – Let's talk about the case", she changed the subject.

Taylor sighed but nodded. The smile was gone and Lilly thought that she was probably right about the first impression she'd had on him. He'd thought he could impress her with that charming smile of his, maybe flirt a little. It didn't work so he decided to go back to being cold and unfriendly.

Charming? Did she just think of the word charming?

Keep focused, Rush, she told herself and started to unpack her notes on the case from her briefcase. "That's all we've got so far…", she mumbled, but it was more directed to herself.

"So?"

"Huh?"

"Would you mind filling me in on the murder case you're investigating?" Taylor's voice sounded impatient now, he'd arched up his eyebrows in expectation.

"Yeah, sure… um… 1991 Mrs Dina Larstrom…" she was interrupted by herself, reeling, as she tried to pronounce the name: "…Lar-sh-trome… Las-strom… I don't know how pronounce that name… however, she was found in her apartment, dead. Back then everything pointed towards the conclusion that she had committed suicide; she'd died from an overdose of sleeping-pills, her husband, Ole La… well, her husband had died three months earlier in a plan crash when he was going to visit his family back in Sweden – so there's the motive – and she'd even left a suicide note. The case was not further being investigated… until three days ago."

"What happened?" The question sounded genuinely interested, Lilly had to admit that.

"Well", she went on. "A woman came to us last week. She lives in the neighbourhood of where Dina used to live. She told me and my team, that he'd had a few neighbours over for tea, recently and they'd talked about Dina. It was the anniversary of her death, I think. One of the women had said, she thought, that maybe if Dina's next door neighbour and close friend Amy Bradfort hadn't been out of town that weekend, the suicide might not have happened."

"And, let me guess, Amy Bradfort wasn't out of town, right?"

Oh, seems that you're smart, Agent Taylor, Lilly thought, but aloud she said: "Yes, that's what the other neighbour, Sally Lager, told us. She said that she had seen Amy Bradfort in a shop on the other side of the town, but Amy had said she'd been in San Francisco the whole weekend to visit her daughter."

"And this Mrs…Lager, right? She seemed credible? Because old women tend to gossip, you know…"

There was now this undisguised arrogance in Taylor's words that made Lilly furious and she decided she wasn't going to have that. "Agent Taylor, we are more than qualified to verify that what she was saying was true. We found other witnesses that saw her and…"

"And how come, your Mrs Lager didn't come forward before?"

"She didn't know, that Amy Bradfort should have been in California until she heard about it last week."

"You believe her?" The cockiness was gone but his tone still sounded sceptical.

"As a matter of fact I do. So will you let me finish or not?" she shot back, involuntarily aggressive.

He raised his hands as to defend himself. "Okay, okay, sure… go on!"

"Well, we talked to a few people and followed Amy Bradfort's trace to New York. But we couldn't find her here, instead we found out that the FBI was looking for her, too. So I made a few calls, and finally had your boss on the phone, Agent…"

"Malone."

"Malone, right. And that's why I'm here. – So, what have you found out about her?"

"Not much. She has lived here in New York for almost eight years, paid her taxes, went to work every day, had no children. But there was a neighbour she's been very close to. That neighbour was the last person who saw her before she literally disappeared without a trace."

Lilly finished her coffee and got ready to go. "She seems to have a tendency to be close to the ones right next to her… doesn't she? Guess, we need to pay that neighbour a visit."