"Anne, Love…" Vera started then bit her lip, wondering how she was going to ask her question without arousing suspicions in Anne, making the older woman ask how Vera knew about the incident. Rolling her eyes, she plunged on, she'd tell the truth if she had to. "Why didn't you tell me about Hellen's confrontation with Michael the day she kissed him?"

Anne frowned and looked around to make sure they were still alone. "How do you know about that?" she whispered. "I promised her I wouldn't tell and I kept my promise."

Vera sighed and looked down at her hands. "You'll think me mad, but your daughter-in-law has been haunting my dreams."

"What?"

Looking up at the confused woman sitting across from her, Vera decided she'd tell her everything. "My sleep has been haunted ever since I found your son and Hellen. It's like I'm living her life. She's trying to tell me things, trying to help me, I suppose. That's how I knew to ask about the therapist. How I knew to ask if there was another man. I've learned a lot about them. Your son loved his wife very much. Hellen had started calling him Marty again…he liked that."

"You couldn't possibly know any of that…" Anne breathed as she studied the woman who looked so much like her daughter-in-law.

"Yet I do. I felt it, Anne. I've felt her love for Martin. I've felt her fear. I woke up crying this morning because she'd been crying as she told you what had happened that day after she kissed Michael. She was so afraid but you calmed her. You took care of her. You were a good mother to her, not like her own mother."

Anne gasped. Hellen had told no one but Martin and then Anne herself about…"She told no one about how horrible her mother was."

"She took me there…to the day she told the therapist what had happened to her as a girl, how her mother reacted. Then she took me to the day she told Martin. That's the day it all seemed to fall in place for her. He cried, Anne. Your son cried for his wife, for what she'd been through…for how she'd been treated by her own mother."

"My god, you have seen." Anne whispered as she reached out and laid her hand over Vera's.

"I have. I've hurt with her. I've cried with her. I…"

"You died with her."

Vera shook her head. "Not yet."

Anne closed her eyes. "You've seen my Martin die," she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, yes…I have." Vera shivered at the memory.

"I don't think you're mad." Anne squeezed Vera's hands, opening her eyes and giving Vera a watery smile when she looked up. "When this is all over, will you tell me about them? Tell the children? I think maybe that's why you're seeing so much. Maybe she wants us all to know."

Vera nodded. "I will."

"Did the young man confront her again?"

"He threatened her. He's our only suspect now, but we can't find him because we don't know his real name. When Hellen takes me to the memories, I can never see his face." Sighing in frustrating, Vera turned her hand over and clasped Anne's. "I will learn who he is and I will find him. I have a friend who thinks he can help me with the hauntings. Maybe with his help I can see Michael's face."

"Will that help you find him?"

"It will be more than I have now."

"Thank you for telling me. You've not told your team have you?"

Vera grimaced and shook her head. "No. They'd think me soft in the head."

"I'll not say a word to anyone."

"You're a very kind woman, Anne. Your daughter-in-law was lucky to have you to take such good care of her."

"My Martin loved her, and she loved him." Anne shrugged. "The poor lass needed someone to mother her with the way her own mother treated her. I knew the woman was horrible before Hellen ever told Martin and I anything about her childhood."

Vera stood and pulled her hat out of her pocket. "I'm going to go now. You need to rest and I need to try and learn who did this to your family."

"Be careful." Anne warned causing Vera to stop at the door and look back at her. "If he was insane enough to murder them because of Hellen not giving him what he wanted, you're in danger too. He'll think he needs to kill her again."

"Two of my team have been following me about and watching my house at night when I don't have a friend busting in on me and planting himself on my couch. I can take care of myself, I promise."

"But you have a whole team of people that can protect you. Don't…" Anne sighed and looked down at her hands. "Don't be like Martin and Hellen."

"They went to the police, Anne. They did report it."

"Then I don't understand."

"They took them seriously, but without anything other than their word and the notes, there was nothing they could do. They did a search using the name they were given and no one by that name exists in this area."

Anne nodded. "Thank you for telling me that. I needed to know that they weren't foolish enough to think the man wouldn't do anything."

"You're welcome." Vera whispered and smiled before opening the door and leaving, pulling her hat down on her head. "You were one lucky woman Hellen," she whispered as she thought of the sweet woman she'd just spent the last hour talking to and telling things that she hadn't told anyone other than Hu. Not even Billy knew as much as she'd just told Anne.

What was it about the older woman that it so easy to open up and talk to her?

VS

A thought had struck Vera as she drove to the station and she'd headed straight for Kenny's desk when she entered the incident room. "Kenny."

"Yes, Boss?"

"When you were talking to P and C, did they mention anything about one of their duty vehicles missing?"

"No."

"Call them back. I don't care how many people you have to talk to, I want to know if any of them are missing. Specifically a red pickup."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And don't let them argue. Tell them if they don't know, find out."

"Yes, Ma'am." Kenny answered again and turned to do as he was told. He didn't know what good it would do other than confirm what they already knew, the man wasn't with P and C.

"But maybe he was in the past, Kenny." Vera called from her office as if she'd heard his thoughts.

"How the bloody heck does she do that?" he mumbled.

"Her mind works in ways we can't even begin to fathom." Shep whispered as she looked into her boss' office.

"Well it's right crazy the way it always seems she's in our heads."

"She's spent her life working with PCs and DCs and all sorts. I'm sure she's heard or thought all of it."

Kenny shrugged. "I'd best get to what she wanted me to do before she has me head."

"And wouldn't it be a lovely bookend on her shelf." Shep teased which earned her a glare from Kenny.

"I'll keep it right where it is, thanks."

Shep shrugged and walked away. She had things to discuss with Vera. "Boss," she called as she knocked on Vera's door.

"What is it, Shep?" she asked as he looked up, mischief in her eyes. "And I don't want Kenny's head on me shelf. I'd have to look at his smug face every day if I did that."

Shep couldn't help but laugh as she sat down across from Vera's desk. "You really do hear everything."

"Father always said I had ears like a cat." She frowned. "Made for uncomfortable situations growing up."

Shep snarled her nose. "Oh my."

"Yes." Vera nodded with a scowl of her own. "Now, what was it you needed?"

"You sent Aiden home last night, well early this morning."

"I did."

"How did you know he was there? How did you know it was him and not me?"

"Shep. Remember what you just said to Kenny?"

Shep sighed and nodded. "I do."

"That's your answer."

"But why send him home?"

"Because I don't need to be watched!"

"You do. Why won't you let us protect you?"

"I can take care of meself."

"You keep saying that."

"Because no one is listening and because it's the truth."

"What is it you aren't saying?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Why won't you let us protect you? And don't tell me it's because you can take care of yourself. I've heard that one."

Vera narrowed her eyes then nodded her head to the door. "Close the door."

Shep did as told then sat back down. "What is it?"

"This goes no further. Do you understand me? Nothing. No slip ups, nothing. If you slip up, I'll transfer you."

Shep blinked at the threat then nodded. "I promise."

"There was someone in my past, someone I loved very much, that thought they needed to protect me."

"And?" Shep prodded when Vera stopped.

Turning and looking out the windows, Vera continued, "And he was murdered for his efforts. I still don't know who the killer was."

Shep sagged back against the chair and stared at her boss. She'd been just like everyone else, assuming that Vera had always been the independent woman that neither had, nor cared to have, a man in her life. But what she'd just heard…it changed so much about the woman. It explained everything. "We won't be murdered, Ma'am. I can carry a firearm. I'll take the watch shifts at your house from now on and keep my firearm with me. Does Aiden know any of this?"

"He knows the bit about the unsolved murder."

"But he doesn't know that it was the man your were in love with." Shep whispered.

Vera shook her head. "No one besides Billy knows that…until now that is." Looking back at the younger woman, she held her gaze. "No slip ups. I know what they all think of me, let's keep it that way, shall we?"

"But, Boss, why?"

"It's best if they think what they do about me. Makes it easier to do me job."

Shep didn't understand the logic, but she nodded anyway. "I'll not be saying anything. I'll think of something to tell Aiden as to why we're not going to take turns anymore." She bit her lip. "Maybe I can tell him you feel uncomfortable having your friend to visit with him sitting out there."

Vera scowled. "Nosey, the lot of you. He is just that. A friend of mine and of Billy's. Billy sent the man in his place."

"So he'll be spending the night…" Shep started but was cut off.

"No. Not even on the couch. He comes for dinner and we visit then he leaves. End of."

"Fine, fine." Shep held up her hands. "So shall I give you a couple of hours before I show up for my night shift?"

Vera rolled her eyes. "Fine then. Now off with you."

"Where do you want me to go?"

"Why not go back to the neighbors? Wasn't there one house where no one was home every time Kenny went?"

"Yes."

"Fine then. Go and see if anyone's there. If they aren't, do a bit of poking about."

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking it's a bit odd that no one seems to know anything about where that neighbor is and that said neighbor never seems to be at home."

Shep nodded, following Vera's thinking. "I'll call and let you know what I discover."

"Good." Vera said then called, "And Shep?"

Shep turned, her hand on the door. "Yes, Ma'am?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, Ma'am," she answered and opened the door, a smile on her face as she walked out to her desk. She'd once told her boss that the team ran as well as it did because it came from the top…that was still true. The woman might come off uncaring and gruff at times, and she'd been rough on several of the members that were on the team or had left to go to other jobs, but Shep understood that now. Mistakes led to deaths and Vera yelled and shouted at them for mistakes to keep them from making them again…to keep them alive.