Ms. Evanovich owns her characters and I own mine. They mingle together to create this story and neither of us makes a penny off of it.

The morning meet began similar to how the last two had gone. Everyone was on the same page. We needed to catch who did this and keep them from doing it again. Sure, during the evening there had been a lot of fun and laughter, but as soon as dawn rose serious people convened over muffins and Mickey waffles to plan our next move. Well, as serious as you can be with Mickey waffles.

Ranger got to his feet and smiled, "all right. We had a good meal last night and if you look up on the board you'll see that we've divided what we know," he said with a grin and those imaginary parentheses surrounding the word know, "into two groups. The things we know are facts," he motioned toward the magnetic board to one column, "and the things we suppose." He motioned toward the second column. "Now, we need to figure out how many of the things we suppose we can confirm or prove wrong and figure out who did this. Ideas?"

Cal looked up in surprise and then nodded, "okay. I know we suppose that Jake loves…loved Sandy and he wasn't the killer because his DNA was left prior to the kill, but we haven't been able to prove it or…well, whatever."

Ranger nodded.

"I made a few calls this morning. Jake wasn't at the park on the day of the murder. He was at a photo shoot at Daytona from 7AM to after dark. I have confirmed his alibi. He is not the doer. We can move him and our suppositions to the fact side of the board."

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Ranger grinned and moved the paper from one side of the board to the other with the magnet attached. "That fact opens the door to more suppositions and possibilities wouldn't you all agree?"

Everyone nodded.

Kate waved at him, "Manuel and I took another look at the time of death and the second sample and factored in the lazy swimmer aspect to our timeline."

"And," he nodded with a grin.

She grinned up at him, "and we can put our second contributor at the scene within minutes of her death. He has to have at least been there when she died or he left her so quickly before that it's not reasonable to assume he wasn't there."

"Got it," he jabbed the air toward her and moved the second contributors DNA to the middle of the board. "It's not fact…but it's hovering close."

Everyone laughed.

Padma stood, "I've mentioned before that I think she was raped before."

He nodded.

"And I believe…supposition, I know," she rolled her eyes, "that your second doer is the man who raped her previously and that he's the one who has been menacing her as well. As for proof," she sighed, "I can offer only behavioral analysis and my own personal experience."

Gabe reached for her hand and kissed her fingers.

"Oh Padma…no," I whispered.

She smiled at me and her eyes welled. "I've had almost as much therapy as you have," she smiled. "Her behavior over the last several months mimics mine after my rape almost exactly."

Ranger nodded thoughtfully, "Padma…may I be permitted to ask…"

"Anything you need," she nodded vehemently.

"You say your behavior and hers were similar?"

"Very similar," she nodded, "lifestyle notwithstanding."

He nodded, "was yours…was it a stranger or acquaintance?"

She grinned, "Someone I knew."

He nodded with a grim smile, "a friend?"

"A friend of a friend," she agreed.

"Stephanie…this works with your theory," he said meeting my eyes.

I nodded.

"Share with the rest of the class," Cal said seriously.

Ranger nodded to me.

I got to my feet, "if I was to profile this case…" I glanced over at Brian.

"Please do, you've got a huge success rate."

I nodded with a slight smile. "All right, I believe that our perpetrator is between 28 and 31. He is taller than average, over six feet but not as tall as most of you," I waved toward the men in the room. "He has dark hair and eyes. He is attractive, friendly and successful in business. He hasn't had much success in relationships though and I'd lay odds that somewhere in his past are restraining orders or…perhaps big ole payoffs."

"Payoffs," Brian frowned.

"Our perp believes his shit don't stink," I raised a brow and everyone in the room laughed.

"The bean heard that," Lula muttered with a smile and everyone laughed again.

"Too true," I nodded, "sorry about that bean. Don't say shit, it's a bad word." Everyone laughed. I smiled and refocused. "He believes he has the right to behave this way which suggests a spoiled and privileged background. If it's already accelerated to rape and possibly murder, there is no way this was his first trip to the rodeo."

"My…what colorful language you have today Mrs. Manoso," Mitch teased.

"Just getting started cowboy," I grinned. "Because we know there were two people involved…okay," I rolled my eyes, "we suppose there are two people involved in the murder," I tapped the board where the donor paper was, "I believe he has a…soul-mate, if you will, that is perhaps participating with him or perhaps working against him depending on their dynamic and his partner's true feelings." I reached up and moved the smaller hands to the middle. "I believe they know each other and well."

"A sick romantic triangle," Natalie frowned.

"Or quadrangle," I said pointing to Jake's photo. "Most of us believe those smaller hands belong to a woman now don't we?"

Everyone nodded with a grin.

"So either his," I tapped the donor's card," actions of sexual intercourse with our victim caused her to act out her rage on Sandy because she was jealous of her, they worked in congress to achieve a mutually beneficial end or…"

"Or," Ali raised a brow.

"Or it was tit for tat," I put my hands on the table in front of me, "either way, it bodes badly for Jake."

"How is that," Tank asked with a frown.

"If it was a love triangle…of sorts," I shook my head, "then our perp…the donor will not have achieved his goal of making Sandy his and will be furious and need to make someone pay. The logical choices in that case would be our unknown woman or Jake…because he will want to hurt someone else who touched her or because he'll want her to pay for taking his toy away."

"What about this working together thing," Lula frowned. "Some kind of ménage a trois?"

"Exactly like that," I put my finger to my nose. "They had a common goal, a third partner if you will. If Sandy was the chosen one and rebuffed them, they would definitely feel the need to kill her. You know how psychos are?"

"Oh hell yeah," Lula sighed.

"As to the…the quadrangle…"

"Tit for tat," Ranger muttered.

"She killed his toy, so he'll kill hers."

"How do you know she'd be fixated on Jake," Kate frowned.

"They…the perps…would come together because they have common agendas."

"To make them pay for not loving them," Padma said softly.

I reached over and squeezed her hand, "exactly."

"So where does the logic take us now," Ranger asked.

"As Padma has said, it's an acquaintance."

He nodded.

"And at least the man isn't employed by Disney," Brian pitched.

"I'd agree with that," I nodded.

"But someone knows and recognizes her, has her schedule, knows her every routine…that's someone who she knows well," Ali said seriously.

"Right," I agreed, "and that has to be someone she knows and trusts…or she at least once trusted."

"Oh shit, oh shit," Ali's hands shuffled through papers on the table in front of her. She lit on one page and ran her finger up and down the columns and then raised her head triumphantly. "They're not there."

"They're not there," I grinned at her.

She shook her head.

"Share with the rest of the class," Mitch grunted.

"Right, right," Ali grinned. "Okay…so Sandy's Facebook page is super public. Jake's her friend, Amanda's her friend, Joanna's her friend…but," she grinned and waved the page in the air, "on her MySpace account…they're not there. Jake is there…and he's there full throttle, but the girls…Amanda and Joanna are not."

"Is there any way to find out if they've ever been her friend on MySpace?"

"Through the administrators with a court order," she shrugged and then grinned, "or the back door…a person could conceivably find out there."

"Lalalalalala," Ranger said putting his fingers in his ears.

Ali cocked a brow at Ranger and looked at me.

"Plausible deniability," I rolled my eyes at her.

"Gotcha," she nodded and grinned.

"What is our next step," Ranger shook his head.

"We need to talk to Amanda," I said seriously.

"Amanda," Lula frowned.

"Ariel," I grinned. "Ranger and I both agree that Joanna…er…Sleeping Beauty wasn't being forthright, we need to see if Amanda has anything to add."

"Okay…Ali…continue, also continue going over that footage even though Brian told me it appeared that our suspects may have known where every camera was and either disabled the ones that could identify them or avoided them successfully," Ranger winced.

"That takes a little techno-savvy wouldn't you agree," Mitch asked.

"It could take a lot, or they watched a lot of MacGyver or any of the later Mission Impossible movies," Gabe said with a shake of his head.

"Good point," Mitch sighed.

"Connie," Ranger said, "head on back to Jack's office and cross reference any complaints within the cast with persons who aren't in the cast, but know someone in the cast."

She nodded.

"Cal and Woody, you've got airport detail. You pick Jake up at 1300 hours and bring him in to our facility. Natalie, make sure with Karen that we have a room for him and let's make sure he has what he needs. Tank, if you'd meet with him at that point and just impress upon him that he needs to stay put for his own safety."

Tank nodded.

"After you have Jake safely delivered Cal, Woody, Brian, Kate, Padma and Natalie head back underground and start asking questions about friends and boyfriends of any of Sandy's friends or acquaintances that gave them the creeps or a bad feeling or anything they may have heard. Don't talk to Joanna or Amanda though."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Ali said, "They're both off today.

He nodded. "That's good. Lula, I need you to keep digging and running checks on Sandy's life. Do not leave any stone unturned. If you see something hinky," he grinned, "check into it. Trust yourself."

She grinned and nodded.

"Stephanie and I are going to see Amanda. Everyone knows what they're doing, right?"

"Yeah," they shouted.

"Let's find us a killer…or two," he said.

Amanda's duplex in St. Cloud, another suburb of Orlando, was much nicer than Joanna's apartment. It wasn't as neat, but it was nicer and what was inside it was a little nicer.

I glanced around the livingroom before looking at Amanda with a soft smile. "How are you holding up?"

"Okay," she sniffed. "I mean as well as you can be when you've lost one of your best friends in the universe."

She patted her hand. "I'm sorry you didn't get to go to the funeral."

"I couldn't afford it."

"Jake was able to go to the memorial service and he said it was lovely."

Her jaw tightened, "did he? I'm glad he was there."

I glanced over at Ranger.

"Amanda, Joanna…she shared something with us when we talked to her last that made us a little uncertain that what we were hearing about Jake and Sandy's relationship from him and a few others wasn't quite the whole truth. She was reticent to share with us, but felt that in the interest of the investigation we needed all the facts." He leaned forward to meet her gaze, "do you have anything else you want to tell us?"

She stared at him for a moment and then burst into tears.

I moved over to the loveseat and put my arm around Amanda in comfort and met Ranger's eyes with a slight lift of her brow. "Come on Amanda, it can't be that bad."

"It's just that…Sandy was getting scared of Jake," she sniffed. "She said he was stalking and threatening her. She said he…he'd forced himself on her and then threatened to kill her or her friends and family if she told."

"Oh my gosh, how horrible," I blinked. "How did this happen? When did this happen?"

She sighed and reached for a tissue from the coffee table. "It was a couple of months ago. He started getting super demanding and told her that she needed to stop hanging out with me and Joanna because we were a bad influence on her. That's the real reason we didn't see each other for a while. He was keeping us apart. The only time I saw her was at work and then only if he wasn't around because he watched her all the time. She said it seemed like he thought she was his possession and he talked about them getting married and moving to some back woods place up north where he was from. She was terrified."

"How did she handle it?"

"I'm not sure she did," she sighed. "She would sneak around and see me and Joanna and tried to come up with a way to get away from him…I mean we all tried to help her, but he wouldn't let her go. She was too scared to go to HR or to the police or anything. She was planning to go home sometime this summer and just not come back…you know. She figured she could hide out in Trenton."

I nodded.

Her eyes got big, "she said that there were a lot of mobsters and shit in Trenton. Is that true?"

I winced, "some. Trenton has it's fair share of the family there."

"The family," she whispered wide eyed. "Anyway, she said her mother's family was connected and she'd be safe there."

Ranger raised a brow at me and I made a slight face at him before turning back to the girl, "I suppose it's possible. I mean most people in Trenton are connected or know someone well who is."

"Do you," she breathed.

I smiled, "of course."

"Oh my God," she grinned. "That's so amazing."

"If it's true, she'd have been safe there. The family takes care of their own," I said quietly.

"And if she's connected," Ranger said grimly, "it means the family will be here soon to take of whoever hurt her."

"Or whoever they suppose could have," I agreed.

"Oh my gosh," she blinked and shook her head. "Well, I'm certainly glad I'm not on the list of suspects then."

"Absolutely," Ranger grinned.

She blinked at him.

"Don't pay any attention to him," I glared at my husband. "Sometimes he can't help just showing off how pretty he is."

She nodded and smiled, "and gosh but he surely is."

I smiled and turned to study her, "yea…but he's mine."

"Of course," she waved her hands. "But trust me, you're going to have problems with that one. He's way too good looking for his own good. Guys who are that good looking are nothing but trouble."

I laughed, "He was certainly trouble to start with."

He growled slightly.

I laughed and got to my feet. "If you think of anything else Amanda, call us, okay?"

"I will, honest," she nodded and hopped up to follow us to the door.

"Let us know if you need anything," Ranger said leading me to the car.

"Be careful," she said and closed the door.

Ranger settled me into the passenger's seat of the car and walked around and got in and started the car and backed out of the driveway, "well," he asked as we drove away.

"She was all over the map. I mean how do you go from practically sobbing and mournful to fascinated with the mob to ogling my husband? There's something off about her."

"Yea," he smiled. "But she's right. I am really good-looking," he said smugly.

"And really big-headed," I rolled my eyes.

"What else Babe," he said when he stopped at the stop sign. "When you were looking around, there was this look on your face that…"

"There's something not right about the girls' apartments," I said thoughtfully. "I can't put my finger on it, but there's something…off."

He nodded and patted my thigh, "you'll get it Babe. You always do."