They all stared at the image on the screen for a moment……….
'Right, Danny, Viv I need the two of you to get me everything you can on Robert Kenilworth, and whilst you're at it I want a complete background check on Maggie', Jack saw the surprised looks on the faces of Sam, Danny and Viv at this dictate and waited a moment to see if he was going to get any objections but none came. Waving a hand toward the screen he continued, 'and find out who the hell he is'.
He turned to Sam, not quite meeting her eyes, 'Sam, you and I will check out Robert Kenilworth's apartment', with that Jack abruptly turned and left the tech room.
Sam stood for a moment staring after him; he hadn't met her eye, he had looked uncomfortable………… she groaned to herself; she had known that eventually they would have to discuss what had happened on Monday night but surely he wouldn't expect to talk now, not with all that was going on. She saw the questioning look in Viv's eyes and the concern in Danny's; she smiled weakly, shrugged her shoulders awkwardly and edged toward the door, 'I…I'll see you both later then', she could feel their eyes watching her as she headed toward the elevator to meet Jack.
Viv and Danny headed for the bull pen after printing off a copy of the image of Maggie's attacker. Danny placed it on the suspects' board and turned back to his desk, only to find Viv stood behind him blocking his path. The look in her eye told Danny what she wanted to know before she had even asked the question;
'What's going on between Sam and Jack?'
'How would I know?' he gave her his best 'wide eyed innocent' look. The look she gave him in return told him she didn't buy for one minute that he didn't know something.
He sighed, 'OK, look, I don't know much. I saw them at Luciano's on Monday night; Jack was holding her hand and it looked like a fairly intense discussion. I asked her about it and she said that she knew what it looked like but she swore nothing was going on, and that's all I know.'
Danny could see the disapproval on Viv's face, 'Come on, they're both single, if it puts them both in a better mood….' He trailed off seeing the disgusted look she was sending him;
'They have rules about this sort of thing for a reason. If it gets out, and it will get out', she shot him a look before he could interrupt, 'Jack will lose his job and Sam can kiss goodbye to her career too, not to mention that it places a lot of strain on the team.'
Danny started to laugh, 'places a lot of strain on the team? It can't 'place more strain' than at the moment…..ever since Martin and Sam split Jack's been acting like a complete jerk around her'
'Exactly, and can you imagine how it will be if they start seeing each other again?'
Danny shrugged, 'well I guess that one of them would have to transfer, I mean, like you say, they can't see each other officially if Jack's her supervisory agent and I assume that neither of them is stupid enough to think they could keep it secret for long.' He pointedly let his eyes stray toward the pictures on the board; 'Why don't I pull together the information we have on Robert and you get going on Maggie and tech will let us know when we have something on that print'
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Sam sat staring out of the side window as Jack drove them to Robert's apartment; she sensed he wanted to talk and hoped against hope he wouldn't start now…………
'You've been avoiding me'; by his tone he could have been commenting on the weather, but he wasn't, this was about what had happened on Monday and Sam felt herself tense.
She turned slightly so that she could see him out of the corner of her eye; he looked relaxed as he kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead but she knew he wasn't. She hesitated, the desire to prevaricate was strong, but………..
'Yes'
Jack snorted and turned to look at her, 'Well that was honest'
Her mouth twisted into a reluctant smile and she glanced at him, 'Yes'
'Sam we do need to talk'
'I know Jack but do you really think this is the time or the place'
'So when is?'
Sam glared at him, 'well for a start when we aren't investigating the attempted murder of Martin's girlfriend'
'That bother's you doesn't it? You said you were over him' his tone was accusing
She stared open mouthed at him for a moment, the unfairness of the accusation having rendered her speechless, but not for long………… 'He's a friend for god's sake; he's sitting next to his girlfriend's bed in the ICU waiting to see if she's ever going to wake up and you want to talk about……………..', she was struggling to get the words out and contented herself by turning angrily away from him and staring out of the side window.
'You recognised his jacket…….'
'Oh for god's sake', she was shouting now, a furious look on her face, 'of course I recognised his jacket, I saw him wear it often enough, or would you rather I told you about all of the times I stripped it off him before we screwed each other senseless'
He stared at her, shocked by her outburst. She glared at him; 'No, thought not, so can we park the car and go and look at this apartment and leave this discussion until a more appropriate time.'
Jack parked the car and they sat in silence for a moment. Without looking at her, Jack opened the car door; he hesitated before getting out; 'we do need to talk Sam'
The slamming of her car door was the only answer he got.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
'How are you getting on with the phone records?' Viv glanced across at Danny. He was sitting at the conference table surrounded by paper and looking increasingly fed up. Seeing the disgruntled look he threw her she smiled; 'that good huh?'
'None of this makes any sense at all', he pulled open one of the files, 'I've cross checked the two calls that we know Robert made to Maggie against his cell phone and apartment phone records and neither of the calls came from those numbers. Then I looked at Maggie's phone records and both of the calls actually came from a pre paid cell phone' Danny ran his hands through his hair as he looked at Viv
'So are we saying Robert didn't make those calls?'
'Well the calls came in at the times Maggie told Martin about so someone made them and I can't think about why she would lie about who made them, anyway Martin heard one of them'
'Hmm, but Martin wouldn't necessarily recognise Robert's voice would he' Viv was looking thoughtful.
Danny shrugged, 'true, but I have found a call that was made to Maggie that did originate from Robert's home phone', he pushed a piece of paper across the table to Viv, 'it was made two days before she left Washington to move to New York at 2:29am and lasted 20 seconds so either it went to the message service or she hung up on him'
'Can't imagine why she'd hang up on him if he called her at 2:29am' Danny grinned at the sarcasm in Viv's voice.
'OK, so we have an unidentified cell phone; do we have a breakdown of the calls made to and from it?'
'Yes, and it gets weirder; the prepaid cell only received calls from one other number which was also a prepaid cell phone and, other than the two calls made to Maggie, only called that same number. I've checked the records for the second pre paid cell, and it was only used to make and received calls to the first pre paid cell phone', Danny glanced at Viv and saw she was looking confused, he continued, 'not only that, the numbers are only one digit apart, and just to finish the whole thing off, neither cell was used prior to two weeks ago and neither has been used since 2pm yesterday, one and half hours after Robert was last seen.'
'If I wanted to be able to contact someone but didn't want anyone else to know I was speaking to them, or that I was speaking to them so often, I would use a prepaid cell, wouldn't you?' Viv stared at Danny, who was nodding his head in agreement.
'I'm trying to find out where they were bought from, hopefully that might help us establish who bought them but if they paid cash we're going to be struggling' Danny groaned, 'other than that though the phone records don't show anything unusual, how are you getting on with the background check on Maggie?'
Viv sighed, 'again, nothing to raise any red flags. She's never been in any trouble with the authorities, she pays her taxes, no traffic violations, excellent academic record and contributes to a number of charities; the only thing I can find is a stay in a clinic after her first year at law school'
'Drugs, alcohol?' Danny looked surprised
'No this is a clinic that specialises in treating stress and depression', Viv shrugged her shoulders at Danny, 'maybe law school got too much for her and she needed some help'
'Maybe'
The phone rang and Viv picked it up; 'Johnson'
She listened for a moment, 'thank you.' She put the phone down; 'we have an ID on the man who attacked Maggie. His name is Kevin Brown and he has a record, including possession, theft and assault'
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Jack and Sam approached Robert's apartment cautiously. The scene of crime officers were waiting for them plus a couple of NYPD uniforms.
'Has there been any movement from inside?'
'No sir and the doorman confirms that Mr Kenilworth hasn't been back to the apartment since he left for work yesterday morning'
'OK, Sam you take the left side, I'll take the right'; Jack nodded to the uniformed officer, 'when you are ready'
The uniformed officer kicked the door hard and it flew open; Jack entered first, with Sam close behind; it was obvious that the apartment had been ransacked, drawers were open, and letters and paper littered the floor. They moved methodically through the rooms checking each in turn until only the bathroom off the master bedroom was left.
Jack threw open the door...'one down'
Sam arrived to see the sight that had greeted Jack; a man was lying in the bathtub, he was obviously dead although there was very little blood to be seen, however the thing that caught Sam's attention was the jacket he was wearing
'That's the man who attacked Maggie' she stared at him, noticing how his face was twisted in pain.
Jack nodded and opened his mouth just as his cell phone rang
'Malone'
'Oh hey Viv' he listened, then 'right well we know where he is…………….'
He looked at Sam and indicated toward the body in the bathtub, 'meet Kevin Brown'
