Aiden could see that his boss was tired, the dark circles under her eyes a telling sign that she wasn't sleeping well…or simply wasn't sleeping at all. He didn't know her well enough to push buttons to get her to talk, but he did know her well enough to know that she was going to blow if she heard what Kenny was saying. The man just simply couldn't keep himself from commenting repeatedly on the victim's resemblance to their boss. Shep hissed at him any time she caught him, but it didn't seem to do any good. He found it odd that they hadn't seen any photos of the bodies as they'd been found, but seeing the face of the woman…well, he wasn't surprised. Vera, he was sure, didn't want them getting images in their heads that would make it hard for them to face her.

Though it would seem Kenny already had images. Aiden rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Kenny!" he growled. "If she hears you," he warned.

Kenny shrugged his shoulders. "She's off in another world," he muttered as he pointed to Vera's office where she sat staring at something on her desk.

"How would you feel if you found a dead body with your face?" Aiden asked just as Shep walked in. "Got anything?"

Shep sighed and shook her head. "Just news that the man's poor mother was rushed to hospital a few moments ago."

"You'd better go tell the boss. She'll want to know."

Shep nodded and stared across the room at Vera. She knew this case was taking a toll on the woman, though Vera hadn't said anything. It would stress anyone to have a murder victim with their face. Billy had asked her to keep an eye on Vera which led her to believe this was bothering the woman even more than she was letting on.

Shep had known the minute she saw Hellen's face after walking into the bedroom just exactly why Vera had asked her to keep what she saw under her hat. Being in the military she'd seen a lot of blood and gore, and terrible things, but this…this wasn't war. This was just two people who had been enjoying a bit of love making when someone came in and robbed them of their lives. She still felt ill when she thought of what Billy had told them, that the woman had watched her husband be brutally murdered. Billy had discovered that the woman had been held back by the neck, probably an arm wrapped around. They'd gotten lucky that skin had been found under her nails which meant that she'd at least tried to fight and had clawed her attacker. But it hadn't done her any good. It might have even angered the man more and made him do more to her husband than he'd intended.

Who was she kidding? This wasn't a planned attack. Or at least, not planned down to the very minute. The pattern of the wounds, the amount, all of it led them to it just being a reaction to what he'd walked in on. The murder might have been planned, sort of an if I can't have her, neither can he sort of thing, but the murderer couldn't have known he'd find them in bed making love. He'd more than likely intended to murder her and leave her for the husband to find to make him suffer for taking or keeping Hellen away.

Shaking her head, she made her way to Vera's office. Making sure to close the door behind her, she waited for her boss to notice her. "Boss?"

"Hmm?" Vera murmured then looked up. "Oh, Shep. What is it?"

"I just received word that Martin's mother was taken to hospital after collapsing."

Vera rubbed a hand over her face. "I was afraid that would happen. Poor old dear."

"The man, Mr. Dern, he said that he'd been in contact with the daughter. It seems that she called when she couldn't reach either of her parents. Her and her husband were waiting at the airport for Martin to show up as he'd promised to pick them up. They've just come back from their honeymoon."

Her eyes sliding shut, Vera shook her head. "Did Mr. Dern tell them?"

"No, Anne did just before she collapsed."

"That's a lousy end to a wedding trip."

Shep nodded then sat down and looked at her boss. "Ma'am," she whispered to get Vera's attention.

"What?"

"I'm not nosing about, but are you alright? Billy asked me to check on you. He's worried."

Vera rolled her eyes. "Worrier, that man."

"I'd say he cares about you. He's known you longer than any of us has. Give him a call and get me off the hook?"

Vera chuckled at the look Shep was giving her. She should be upset with the younger woman for being nosey, but she'd gotten herself off by using Billy. Smart woman. "Fine, then. Go on. I'll see to Billy."

"Do you want me to go to the hospital?"

"No, Pet. I'll go after I've talked to Billy."

"Didn't you looking like her daughter-in-law upset her?"

"I had thought about that, and had nearly decided to send you to tell her, but it had to be me. I found them." Vera looked down at her hands. "The poor dear actually told me that it helped. I suppose she feels that I'll do a good job investigating since Hellen looks like me."

"But what about the daughter? Will it upset her?"

"I don't know, Pet, but if anyone is going to talk to Anne, it needs to be me." Vera looked up and smiled tiredly at Shep. "Go on now. Talk to their neighbors and see if there's been any sort of disturbance in the last few months. Someone had to have seen something. Get Kenny to," she shook her head. "No, you go to the clubs and make the employees talk. Have Kenny go talk to the neighbors."

Shep smirked. "You don't think Kenny would be a bit distracted at the clubs, do you?"

Vera huffed at that and made a shooing motion with her hands. "Get out of here or I'll tell Billy you aren't doing your job."

Shep sighed. "How did you know?"

"I know Billy. Worrier, remember?"

VS

Billy looked up when he heard the door to the morgue open. He wasn't really surprised to see Vera down here, but he was surprised by how tired she looked. Holding out his hand, he took hers and tugged her toward his office, pushing her down in a chair before sitting on his desk in front of her.

"Vera, you aren't sleeping," he dove right in, no sense letting her try to deny things.

Vera scowled at him. "You'd be wrong there, Billy."

"You look like hell."

She rolled her eyes. "That does a lot for a woman's ego."

Frowning at her, Billy knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his. "Vera, you're a beautiful woman, no matter that you don't wear makeup or have your hair in some fancy do. You have dark circles under your eyes that aren't usually there. I know this case is bothering you. Hell, I'd be handling it far worse than you if I'd found a dead body that looked exactly like me."

"Well, the body doesn't look exactly like mine. She has a figure."

"Stop. I know what you're doing." Tugging gently at her hand to get her to look up at him, Billy held her gaze. "Tell me. You know you can trust me. We've known each other too long, Vera."

Biting her lip, Vera studied her friend. She knew she could trust him, why else would she have nearly pleaded with him to work this case? But if she told him, would he think her as mad as she was beginning to think she was?

"You say I'm wrong about you not sleeping," he started for her, trying to encourage her to talk.

"I'm trying to sleep, but…"

"What is it?"

Backing out of telling him, Vera sighed and shook her head. "Just this case. We're not having much luck finding any clues. The best that we have are the shoe print and the skin from under her nails, but what good do they do when we have no suspects?"

Billy knew Vera wasn't telling him the truth, but he let it slide, not wanting to push her because he knew she'd clam up and never talk to him. "I've found all that I can. Right now it's just a matter of cleaning them up so the family can see them to formerly identify them."

"Can you make sure the sheet stays over their necks? I don't want the daughter seeing that."

"I can. I'll do my best to make Martin and Hellen look less brutalized."

Vera nodded then stood. "Thank you, Billy."

Billy stood and squeezed Vera's hand. "I'm your friend, Vera," he whispered then watched her go. His friend was troubled, he could see it hidden in the depths of her dark eyes. He knew she had nearly confessed what was really bothering her, but something had held her back.

"What's going on?" he whispered as he lost sight of her through the doors. The strongest woman he knew was slowly crumbling before his very eyes and pretending like nothing was wrong. He suspected she was having nightmares, who could blame her? He knew if he'd walked into a scene like she had, and found himself staring down into his own face, he'd be a walking nutter.

Of course, he was having his own issues with this case. It was hard to see his friend's face on his table, in this sterile environment, her eyes closed, face froze in a look of horror. Every time he had to look at the victim and her husband, the more he hoped the murderer wound up being killed fleeing arrest. He'd seen some gruesome murders in his time, and when he learned the reason for the murder, he could half way reason it out in his mind. This time, he shook his head. No matter how hard he tried, nothing he could come up with was fathomable for this sort of violence. Murdering a couple in the throws of passion, well he'd actually had a case like that before, but they'd both been shot and weren't well…anyway, it wasn't like this.

Then his mind wandered back to Vera.

He might just have to call in some help if she didn't tell him what was wrong soon because what she'd told him just now was maybe only a facsimile of the truth.