Chapter 4
"You can't be serious." Ross said.
"I am dead serious sir, this is definitely Wallace." Goren said.
"First of all detective, you are no longer assigned to this case and for very good reason, and secondly, I have reviewed the file you have obtained from on Nicole Wallace, and she is many things I am sure, but she doesn't match the profile we are looking at for these killings. Now, Detective Goren, I understand you have been under a lot of stress lately, and so I suggest that perhaps you go ahead and take some time off, before it becomes mandatory that I send you on a leave of absence."
That's when he looked around for Eames to support him, but she wasn't in the office. She wasn't even in the squad room, she hadn't been there the whole time, not for six weeks. Not since that fateful night when he sat watching surveillance tapes of that god-damned video store, the whole while his partner was being tortured and killed. She never made it out of that dungeon, and when Goren finally broke Jo Gage, and she told him about killing his partner and his best friend, he simply didn't listen, and when Alex's father picked out white roses to cover her casket at the funeral. Goren just filed that away in his mind, and refused to accept that she was gone.
She wasn't there when he went to see Mike at the flowershop, and she never spent a single night at his home. She was gone, and Goren couldn't move on. Maybe part of him felt like Nicole was the one involved in these murders because who else would place white roses on their victims, the same roses that were at her funeral. Who else would call Goren out in the middle of the night to Eames old apartment, empty and yet still had her scent lingering in the air. Who else could go so far just to see him slip a little further into the abyss.
Chapter 5
"Okay, so the flower shop owner said that sales increase approximately six weeks ago when two people purchased the exact same amount of flowers from her, we know one of them was John Eames, and the other was a white female, mid to late thirties, blondish brown hair." Logan said.
"Don't you find it the least bit odd that someone made nearly the same order of flowers at the same flowershop around the same time as Detective Eames funeral. And then who ever this is, more then likely our killer placed one of these flowers in Detective Eames old apartment." Wheeler said.
"Yes, I do find it disturbing. Not simply because the situation has Goren in knots either. There is something that the owner of that shop didn't tell us. I wouldn't be surprised if Goren knows though."
"Do you think we should talk to him about it?" Wheeler asked.
"Detective, Goren and I do not have the most amibical relationship. I am sure though if this had anything to do with Jo Gage, or Detective Eames is murder, Detective Goren would be all over it." Logan said.
"They were pretty close." Wheeler asked.
"Goren had kind of a bad reputation before he was partnered with Detective Eames. It seems like she was the only one who could and would work with him. Everyone else is either afraid of him, or thinks he is just too crazy to be an officer of the law."
"And what about you Detective Logan?"
"I think that what they had was something you don't find, in marriages or in partnerships anymore. They had a remarkable trust and underlying friendship. They were probably soulmates."
"So you think they were involved?" Wheeler asked concerned.
"No so much on a sexual level, but yeah they were definitely involved."
"He doesn't seem to be doing very good."
"Have you ever been in love?" Logan asked.
"No."
"Okay, well all I can say is that man over there just lost his best friend, his better half, and pretty much his only reason for existing on this planet, and what is worse is she would still be alive and well if someone he already knew for many many years just had not snapped. Goren brought Jo Gage into Detective Eames life, and no matter how un-rational it is that he feel responsible he will and does."
"So I guess the only other thing to wonder is whether or not he will be okay?"
"No, the only other thing to wonder is who would wait six weeks, kill three women along the way and then leave a white rose on Detective Eames mantel and call Detective Goren about it." Logan answered
"Goren thinks it's this woman Nicole Wallace." Ross said approaching his two detectives and interrupting their long debate on Goren's mental stability.
"I have to admit that makes the most sense." Logan said. "As far back as I remember this woman Nicole Wallace has been a thorn in his side, she seems to latch herself on too cases in ways to make Detective Goren annoyed more then anything else. If she is as half as smart at he thinks she is then she probably followed the Gage case, and when news broke that Detective Eames was the fourth and final victim Nicole would have been upset, but she would have also seen it as a way to get to Goren on a different level."
"Why do you assume that Nicole would have been upset by Detective Eames murder?" Ross asked confused.
"Not upset that Detective Eames was murdered, but upset that she couldn't use her as a bargaining chip. She would have seen it though also as a way to get to Goren I am sure. Like I said this makes a lot of sense."
"Find her, bring her in and lean on her hard… I want to know if this woman is playing with one of my Detectives, and if she is find some reason something to stick her with, she is going to have to pay for what she has done." Ross said.
Logan and Wheeler nodded and then rose from their seats and headed out the door. Logan noticed as they were leaving the squadroom that Goren had straightened up his desk and had left, presumably for the day.