A/N: The Eddie Willows' case will pick back up this chapter. Hopefully Mark and the team will have some answers soon.

A month later …

Mark sits in Brass' office sipping on a single malt scotch.

Brass says, "So since the undersheriff pulled you guys off of the Eddie Willows case I started doing some digging. It seems weird that he pulled the plug that quick."

Mark asks, "Have you found anything out?"

Brass replies, "Maybe. This has to stay completely off the record for now though. It looks like the undersheriff has stock in the record company Eddie worked for. It might be nothing but a business investment. If you ask me though I think more digging needs done. I know you took it really hard so I figured maybe we could work on this together off the record until we have something more concrete."

Mark says, "Yeah definitely. How can we pull this off though without the undersheriff getting suspicious?"

Brass taking a sip of his scotch says, "The biggest thing is not letting Ecklie get wind of it. If he knows the undersheriff and sheriff will know about it."

Mark asks, "What about surveillance?"

Brass filling his and Mark's glasses again replies, "We would have to be really discreet. Unmarked cars that aren't police cars. Which makes communication difficult, but at the same time we don't want it picked up on any scanner. That also means no department issued cells or other electronic devices."

Mark takes a drink of scotch the amber liquid warming his insides and asks, "How dangerous could this get? I'm still fairly new. My guess with you thinking the undersheriff is involved makes me think you've thought he was dirty in the past not just this case."

Brass drains what is left in his glass and replies, "Let's just say I've not always agreed with his protocols, just like him pulling the plug on this case. Yes, it was probably running cold but we should have been given at least a week before anything was said. I also know better than to voice my opinions though."

Catherine walks into the break room and finds Greg reading a surfing magazine.

Catherine says, "Hey Greg. Have you seen Mark? I was going to see if he was ready to go."

Greg shakes his head and responds, "I saw him with Brass, but that was a while ago."

Catherine pulls out her phone and sends a text.

Catherine: Hey where are you? Are you ready to go?

Mark is looking over some of the information that Brass pulled on Undersheriff McKeen when his phone buzzes. Mark sees its message from Catherine and sighs.

Brass asks, "Catherine?"

Mark sitting the information back down on Brass' desk replies, "Yes."

Brass says, "We will pick this up later. Trust me if there's any relationship advice I can give it's do the exact opposite of everything I did. Working and not paying attention to my relationship was one of those things."

Mark finishes his scotch and chuckles and says, "Thanks for the advice partner."

Mark walks out of Brass' office and towards the locker room, he sees Catherine standing outside of the locker room.

Catherine says, "There you are. See you outside?"

Mark responds, "Yeah just let me go to my locker."

Mark gets in the passenger seat of Catherine's SUV and gives her a kiss.

Catherine says, "You were with Brass."

Mark asks, "Yeah how did you know?"

Catherine laughs and replies, "Greg said he thought he saw you together and the fact that you taste like scotch confirmed it."

Mark laughs and responds, "Can't get nothing past you."

Catherine teases, "I'm not Assistant Supervisor just based on my good looks you know."

Mark says, "I cannot wait to go home and relax in my recliner, I am beat."

Catherine says, "Yeah I heard you an Archie had to take apart ten computers."

Mark laughs and responds, "Oh it's up to ten now? It was really five."

Catherine says, "So Brass must really like you, he just doesn't share his scotch with anyone."

Mark says, "Yeah we were discussing cases and then he was giving me relationship advice."

Catherine chuckles and says, "Brass was giving you relationship advice? I mean I love the man but his marriage was worse than mine."

Mark smiles and says, "Don't worry he was telling me to do the exact opposite of everything he did. Tonight he said stop working and go home with you."

Catherine says, "Well that is good advice."

An hour later Mark is sitting in his recliner staring blankly at the TV. Catherine notices this and finds it odd. They have been officially living together for a month; even though in reality it's been much longer the only thing that has really changed in that month is the addition of Mark's things in the house. Catherine still can't read all of Mark's emotions yet but she does know even though he's tired he at least reacts to what is on TV. Something is bothering him and she has the feeling it has everything to do with the fact that he was in Brass' office before they left. Catherine doesn't want to push Mark; he shares everything with her in due time. It took a while but she finally got most of his train wreck relationships out of him. She didn't need to know but Mark needed to get that stuff out. Kerri and Elizabeth told her how much that his past bothers him and the fact that he hates to discuss it unless he is in the presence of someone he really trusts.

Catherine gets up from the couch and walks behind Mark's recliner and puts her arms around him and kisses his temple, this wakes him up from his deep thoughts.

Catherine asks, "You are quiet babe, are you ready to go to bed?"

Mark leads Catherine to the side of the recliner and pulls her to him. Catherine cuddles into his side as Mark squeezes her in a tight embrace.

Catherine pulls Mark's face towards her and asks, "Are you ok?"

Mark replies, "I am now."

Catherine smiles although knowing she doesn't have the whole story yet and kisses Mark. She thinks about going to Brass but realizes Brass wouldn't give her much insight either and besides she feels as if she would be going behind Mark's back.

Pushing the thought in the back of her mind she looks up at Mark suggestively and says, "I hope you're not too tired to join me in the bedroom … and I don't mean to sleep."

Mark gets out of his recliner and chases Catherine into their bedroom.

A few hours later …

Mark is watching Catherine sleep. She is on her side with her back to him. Mark cuddles up to Catherine and kisses her bare shoulder that is sticking out of the sheets.

Catherine stirs and rolls over to face Mark.

Catherine places her right hand on Mark's cheek and sleepily says, "I thought you were tired babe."

Mark just smiles and responds, "Well someone got me all wound up earlier."

Catherine chuckles and says, "I honestly have no idea who that would be." She closes the gap between them and kisses him.

Between kisses Mark says, "Oh of course you don't."

When they separate Mark yawns.

Seeing this Catherine says, "Ok whether I got you all wound up or not you need to get some sleep."

Mark nods putting his arms around Catherine and drifting off to sleep.

The next day …

Mark is at home and Catherine is at work. Every once in a while, they have opposite days off. Mark usually doesn't enjoy it but he is taking advantage of this time alone to do some research on Eddie's case. He is in the basement where he has a makeshift office set up.

Mark decided to go through some of Eddie's records first to see if there was anything to tie him to the undersheriff; besides the undersheriff having an investment in the record company. Looking at Eddie's financial records he notices a large sum of money going out of his account several times a month.

Picking up his cell Mark dials Brass and asks, "Hey Brass can you talk?"

Brass replies, "Yeah I'm in my office what's up?"

Mark says, "Would any flags be raised if we looked further into some of Eddie's financials? I found some rather large sums of money going out of Eddie's account each month from the print outs we had on the case. I just don't know if we can track it without being tapped into our databases."

Brass responds, "I wouldn't think so. I know a lot of that information was pulled already but was never used. Let me grab some files and I'll head over. I'm due for a lunch anyway."

Mark says, "Great. See you soon."

Mark is hoping the information he needs was already pulled because in that case they wouldn't have to risk any flags going up in the system in case the undersheriff has any of the databases tracked for any of the people connected to the case.

Twenty minutes later Brass arrives and they are in the basement combing through the financial records that were pulled and never viewed before the case was closed.

After a while Brass says, "I found more of those transactions you were talking about. They are all going to one account. The account belongs to a local bank. One of the managers is a buddy of mine. Let's drive over and see if he can help us out."

At the bank …

Brass and Mark pull up to the bank.

Brass turns to Mark and gives him a run down, "Before we go in here we should be able to get this information from this guy and not have the information spread around that we were in here. Just in case though to throw the trail a bit let's act like you're a detective and not a CSI."

Mark says, "Got it."

As they walk in the bank a teller asks, "Can I help you gentlemen?"

Brass replies, "Yes. Is Chuck Adams around?"

The teller says, "Certainly. Let me tell him he has visitors."

A few moments later a balding middle aged man in glasses and a suit walks out and says, "Jim good to see you. Let's go to my office."

Brass and Mark walk into Chuck's office and he closes the door behind them. Chuck motions for them to take a seat in front of his desk.

Chuck asks, "What can I do for you Jim?"

Brass replies, "I need a personal, off the record favor. Do you think you can look up an account for me?"

Chuck asks, "Off the record? I take it you are digging for something to get a warrant?"

Brass shakes his head and replies, "No, just following up on a case. A hunch I have more than anything so you see this isn't official. I have a vic's financial records and I notice that several times a month large sums of money are transferred into an account here and I was wondering if you could tell me who is the owner of the account?"

Chucks sighs and says, "I will do this only as a favor for you Jim. Normally I'd need a warrant. Next time I get a traffic ticket though I hope it can be waived."

Brass says, "You got it." Brass hands him a slip of paper with the account number on it.

Chuck says, "I'm going to write the name of the account holder down on a slip of paper that I will accidentally leave on my desk."

Chuck punches in the account number and writes down the name on the account on a post-it and walks out of the office nodding to Brass.

Brass nonchalantly picks of the post-it and motions to Mark to walk out of the office.

Once they are in the car they look at the slip of paper and it reads, Sparky Miller.

Brass says, "Sparky is a PI that works here in the Vegas area. I wonder why Eddie had a private detective on his payroll?"

Mark asks, "Should we pay him a visit?"

Brass replies, "Sure it's just a few blocks down."

Brass pulls up in front of the office Sparky rents out to do his PI work.

Brass and Mark walk in the front door.

Spark looks up and greets, "Captain Brass what are you doing? Did you come here to see how real detectives work?"

Brass chuckles and responds, "Yeah right Sparky. I have a question though. What was Eddie Willows having you do?"

Sparky furrows his brow and says, "That name doesn't sound familiar to me. Let me look through some files though."

Brass says, "This guy was paying you thousands a month, I doubt you would forget someone like that Sparky."

Sparky says, "Nothing is coming up in these files Brass. Do you have a picture?"

Mark goes through the case file and hands a picture of Eddie to Sparky.

Sparky looks at this and says, "This guy doesn't look familiar to me at all. I'm sorry Brass."

Brass scoffs, "I'm sorry I'm having a hard time that you have no idea who Eddie Willows is yet he was paying you thousands of dollars every month. You're going to have to do better than that."

Sparky responds, "I get paid by firms and corporations a lot, not by the actual person I meet with. Did he work for someone like that?"

Mark answers this time, "Sin City Records."

Sparky looks through some more records, "I'm not seeing anything from them either."

Brass sighs and asks, "Is there any way you can trace payments so we can figure out who set up this investigation?"

Sparky replies, "Yeah but what are you gonna do for me?"

Brass says, "You can call me next time you need a database search, how's that?"

Sparky pretends to think on it for a bit and responds, "I guess that would be ok. Do you have the account number that was paying me?"

Mark hands over a sheet of paper and says, "The highlighted one."

Sparky looks into his records and says, "Yes I found it. Looks like this was given to me by … oh wow. Brass I don't know if a database search is going to cut it this is huge."

Brass getting irritated spits, "Look Sparky either give it to me or I'll find something to bust you for, I'm sure you are doing something illegal that I could easily find."

Sparky sarcastically says, "Gosh fine you are so testy." Sparky looks at Mark and says, "I'm sorry I honestly don't know how you deal with him."

Brass rolls his eyes and says, "Sparky we don't have all day give me something."

Sparky responds, "Fine. I'm printing you what I have on this file. This case was given to me by Undersheriff McKeen."

Brass asks, "Really?"

Sparky replies, "Look I'm done pulling your chain."

Brass asks, "How often do you do work for McKeen?"

Sparky replies, "A few times here and there."

Brass asks, "What was McKeen having you do?"

Sparky hands Brass the file and responds, "I was doing some surveillance and checks on Catherine Willows. Ah I see she must be in relation to the Eddie you asked me about earlier."

Mark quickly answers, "He's the ex-husband."

Sparky says, "Ah. Yeah well McKeen just said he wanted some information for a friend, wouldn't really say what."

Brass looking rather consumed in the file says, "Thanks Sparky. We'll be back to follow up."

Sparky sighs and says, "Of course you will."

Brass and Mark return to Brass' car.

Mark says, "Well you may be right about the Undersheriff."

Brass responds, "Yeah. Why in the hell would Eddie want McKeen to have Catherine followed?"

Mark says, "Well he wasn't exactly happy that Catherine was dating me. He would make all kinds of threats about taking Lindsey away to her if she didn't get rid of me. Eddie would badmouth Catherine and I, Lindsey got very upset over it. But I guess Eddie did this stuff all the time, everyone said it would blow over."

Brass says, "We'll have to see what this case file says but maybe Eddie went to McKeen since he was invested in the record company and he knew Catherine and he figured that McKeen could find something."

Mark asks, "But why didn't Sparky know Eddie? It seems like McKeen wouldn't want his name on stuff."

Brass replies, "Well, glancing at these papers legally he's not. Sparky got the initial call from McKeen … Eddie was covering it financially. And knowing Sparky he's not the most squeaky-clean guy, if I didn't have stuff on him he wouldn't have given that up so quickly. Trust me McKeen maybe dirty but he's not dumb."

Just then Brass gets a radio call, "Captain Brass you are needed at a scene at the Horseshoe downtown, please respond."

Brass presses the talk button on the radio and says, "10-4. I have a rider I need to drop off be there in 30."

Brass instructs, "Well we will save this for another day. Take the case files with you and see if you can dig anything up."

A few minutes later Brass pulls into the driveway. Catherine is getting out of her car and waves at Brass.

Brass says, "How nice Cath is home."

Mark asks, "Yeah. Should I tell her anything? I know we said this was between us but with Eddie and McKeen having her followed I feel like I'm obligated."

Brass replies, "I wouldn't say anything quite yet. Just tell her you were riding with me, that really isn't a lie Mark."

Mark nods and gets out of Brass' car and Brass drives away.

Catherine says, "Hey there." Mark gives her a kiss. "What were you and Brass up to?"

Mark replies, "Oh just did a quick ride along with him and talking cases. He came by earlier on a break and we got to talking and decided I should ride with him a bit."

Catherine walking up to the front door says, "You working on your days off. You'll burn out if you don't watch it, we work too much as it is."

Mark laughs.

Catherine says, "Well I'm going to take a shower I'll be back down soon."

Mark walks downstairs to the basement and puts the case file they got from Sparky with the rest of the stuff in his makeshift office.

Mark wanting nothing more than to be close to Catherine and not think about his case for a while decides to join her in the shower.