Hellen felt nervous as she lit the candles about the bathroom, the sensual smell of her bubble bath filling her nose and tempting her senses. Finished, she turned to the tub and let her robe slide off her body before carefully lowering herself into the steaming water.

Taking a deep breath, she lifted the book and began to read the passage that had aroused her the most. Propping the book up, she closed her eyes as her hand slid down her thigh, dipping below the water.

Hellen blinked as she came out of her memory and looked across at her therapist. "Maybe it had summat to do with being in the bath, but it didn't feel so dirty. I know it's not, but," Hellen shrugged. "I can't help how I feel. It still feels wrong."

"Did anyone ever tell you it was dirty or wrong? Maybe at your convent school? Or maybe your mom or dad?"

Hellen's hands fidgeted in her lap. "I don't remember."

"What was your first sexual experience? It doesn't have to be intercourse. Just a kiss maybe? The first time someone touched you. Do you remember?"

"I was fourteen and George Brandon kissed me outside the flower shop."

"Was it good?"

"Mmm, yeah. I was glad someone fancied me."

"Why wouldn't someone fancy you?"

Hellen shrugged. "I always felt kind of," she bit her lip, a memory she'd suppressed coming back to her.

"Kind of what?" Lana asked gently.

"I was twelve and with me sisters in the park tossing a ball about. The ball flew off into the bushes and no one else wanted to go after it, so I did." She fidgeted with her hands and crossed her legs. "A man grabbed me before I could get the ball. His hand," her voice cracked. "He put his hand between me legs. I screamed and he ran off. I had to have an examination and this police woman," she shook her head. "Me mother only cared that I was still a virgin. She told me never to talk about it because it was dirty and filthy and no one would ever want me if I did."

"And you felt soiled."

Hellen nodded. "Always," she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "That's always how I've felt."

The ringing of her phone startled Vera awake. She stared at it as she tried to calm herself down. The feelings from the dream were still washing over her, bringing back memories of her own that she'd rather not dredge up from her past. She hadn't thought of that particular incident in decades, it had been a one off that never happened again, but it was enough that for the first time since she'd started having these dreams, she understood what Hellen had gone through.

"Hello?" she half shouted then scowled as she ended the call. "Wrong number and at this time of night!" she hissed then looked down at the book that had fallen to her lap. "Well some help you were." She slammed the book shut and chucked it across the room.

Shaking her head she gave up and got up. "Might as well go get a swim in while it's quiet." Fussing around in her piled up things, she found her suit and an outfit to wear then went about readying herself to go out, putting things in a bag to take with her to get ready for work after she was finished at the club.

This was going to be another long day. Vera could feel herself starting to crack. No sleep could do that to a person.

VS

Aiden stared at the TV and shook his head. "The boss isn't going to like this," he muttered as he shut it off and got up to finish getting ready, planning to be at work on time for a change. His ringing phone made him pause. "Hey Shep," he greeted the caller. "Yeah, I saw it. How'd that slip by? Do we have a leak? She isn't going to like this." He listened to Shep's concerns about their boss, all of which were the same ones he had, though he suspected that Shep knew more than she'd told any of them. "I'll be there in twenty."

Moving to his bedroom after ending the call, Aiden thought about Shep and how she seemed to be acting a bit protective of the boss. He suspected the woman knew more than she was letting on about what was going on with Vera, but he wasn't going to bother her for details. He knew that Shep had seen the bodies, being the first on scene, and he knew that she was disturbed by what she'd seen. He knew that the couple had been making love, but that couldn't possibly be what had bothered the DC. The blood wasn't the problem, either. Shep was the least squeamish member of the team besides Vera.

It had to be the missing details that had been left out of all of the reports from Billy about the bodies. None of them, save Vera and Shep, had seen even photographs of the bodies from the scene, all they'd been allowed to see were the photos of the scene after the bodies had been removed. As for the couple, the only pictures they'd seen of them were ones from the home that they'd taken so they would have faces to remember that they were looking for people, not just victims and statistics.

No matter how hard he tried, Aiden couldn't fathom what either woman could have seen that shook them, but it had to have been bad because Vera wasn't sleeping, no matter how much she denied the fact and assured them of the opposite. Shep seemed to always be watching the boss and when she wasn't doing that, she was hissing at Kenny any time he made some remark about the similarities between Hellen Kingsley and Vera.

Aiden shook his head. The man just couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut. None of the others on the team ever said anything, but they listened eagerly enough. He knew that the younger team members mostly thought Vera to be, well, ugly and a terrible shrew. He'd heard them whispering about her, how they could see why she was alone – a spinster. One had even said, "Why would a man look at that?" which had angered him, though he'd kept his mouth shut.

The woman could be harsh, that was true, but she didn't deserve that sort of talk. He'd never met anyone, man or woman, that could think as fast as Vera Stanhope. She saw things that were overlooked and immediately started processing them in a way that he still didn't understand. He'd found it frustrating when he first came to work here – that ah hah moment she'd have that would leave everyone else sitting and staring dumbly after her as she rushed out of her office, slinging her Mac around and stuffing her arms in the sleeves, shouting out orders as she disappeared from the incident room.

He rolled his eyes. She was also careless with herself. He still felt sick when he thought of her climbing up on the wall to talk a man down from killing himself. He hadn't even been working with her that long and yet he'd felt a panic well inside when she'd stumbled and it looked as though she was going to plunge over the edge herself. Of course, he now knew that she hadn't stumbled at all, that she'd tottered herself on purpose to get just the reaction out of the man as she'd received.

How she had known he would reach out to save her, Aiden still had no clue. But then again, he never knew how Vera knew the things she seemed to. He didn't know her like his predecessor had, so he didn't know her background, but he'd learned a bit just asking, though he knew that if he wanted to really learn about her, Billy Cartwright would be the one to ask. He also knew enough to know…he would get nothing out of the man that betrayed Vera's privacy. There was more to that friendship that any of them knew, he was sure of it. He wasn't about to go digging around to learn what because the last thing he wanted to do was disappoint Vera anymore than he had done on numerous occasions.

VS

Billy carefully turned the sheet back, making sure to keep Hellen's neck covered. He caressed her hair into a neater position, his heart hammering once again at the striking resemblance to his friend. "Don't you worry," he whispered as he caressed another strand of hair into place. "She'll find who did this to you." Moving to the other table, he turned the sheet covering Martin down, again making sure his neck was covered. He couldn't cover the marks on the man's face, those were impossible to hide, but he'd made sure to clean them and the man's face and hair. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

He wasn't one to talk to his so called patients, but this case had him whispering things to both of them as he processed their wounds and any evidence that had been left behind. He was having trouble sleeping at night, so he'd turned to what he always did, women. He knew that as much trouble as this was causing him, it was much worse for Vera. There was something that she refused to tell him, something that seemed to be haunting her.

Had something happened before she'd called him to the scene?

Had she seen something and not realized it?

What he'd seen on TV this morning, before coming to work, had angered him. How dare they! The murderer was still out there, and if he was as deranged as the crime scene made it seem he was, dear god above. Vera was in danger.

The realization struck him hard and he gripped the side of the table to steady himself. Finally in control, he moved to where he'd laid his phone down. Dialing her number, he waited for her to answer and frowned when he got nothing but her voice mail.

"Damn it!" he hissed then dialed Aiden's number. "Aiden," he practically shouted when the young man answered on the third ring. "Vera's in danger. Those damn reporters this morning…the maniac knows she looks like the victim."