AN: This is the last chapter. I would like to apologize for how long it's taken me to get off my ass and post the last few chapters. The story was a beast to edit, and I was starting to miss major mistakes. So I kept putting it off. I'm still going to go back to polish the other chapters, and I'll probably edit the last three again, but I wanted to get them up before I put it off any longer.

Bobby dropped Meagan off at my mother's house and went back to the hospital to attempt to reign Lester in. Meagan dismissed our guards and walked up to the house, looking as chill as she ever did; you'd never have known that two hours before she'd been murderous. She walked up the steps to the house and I opened the door before she had to knock.

My mother took one look at the pink cast on her wrist and frowned. "That must hurt. How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. If you have ibuprofen I'd appreciate some." My mother left immediately to go to her personal pharmacy and Meagan looked at the group of women around the table. "Edna, would you be a dear and find me a knitting needle or something, the cast is damned itchy."
"Of course!" My grandmother jumped to her feet and left the room.

"She's spry for someone who's 3000 years old." Meagan commented and I had to smile. She certainly was. She reached behind her and pulled one of the sigs she kept at her back, out and handed it to Terri, "You should be armed right now. I have no idea what they were thinking letting you out of the building without at least one weapon." She sat tiredly at the table and looked up at me. "What have you got?"
"It's Linda. She's the one doing it. She's got all this hate for you and she couldn't touch you. She would have access to the drugs and she knows how to move a body easily. She had help though and…"
"It was her mother," Meagan said, "Something her father said during my interrogation of him, made me think. He told me Linda had never been level headed a day in her life. Now I don't believe that's strictly true, otherwise she couldn't work as a nurse in the ER, but she is passionate, and she is reactive. Her father pushed her too hard to be something she's not and she's inherited the same loose screws he had. Something will have happened to trigger the first murder. It wasn't as well thought as the others, and a lot of the injuries were post mortem. I think we'll find that she killed the first victim, called her mother to help her clean up the mess. Mom would know what forensic countermeasures to take because she went to law school. She is the calculating one."
"Plus she's a mother and never underestimate how far a mother will go to protect her child," My mom said when she walked back into the kitchen. "I've distracted my own mother temporarily."

She handed Meagan the knitting needle and the bottle of Advil and fetched her a glass of orange juice to wash it down with. Meagan knocked the pills back.

"Would you help me cover up a murder, mom?" I asked.
"I ran over a man in a rabbit suit for you," She reminded me.

"That would be a yes," Meagan interpreted with a laugh, "Please tell me you did it in a Buick? because from what I understand that's the Plum women weapon of choice."

"It was a Buick," I confirmed.

"I'll need the rest of that story some other time," Meagan continued to chuckle to herself. From anyone else it would have seemed mocking, not from Meagan. She was just appreciating our pluck. "Now all we have is speculation. No actual proof."
"Was there nothing on the body this time either?" I asked.
"Chafing on the inner thighs and a photograph that is in Hector's hot little hands as we speak. We always assumed no DNA because of a combination of clean up and the use of a condom. I'm saying what if the reason there was never any condom residue found is because there was no need to use one. If she's wearing a strap on over clothes, she's not going to leave DNA."

"So why bother with the bleach clean up?" Terri asked. "So we wouldn't question the lack of DNA evidence," I suggested and Meagan nodded her head in agreement.

"And because if they left hairs, or trace evidence of any kind, the bleach would effectively destroy it," Meagan said.

"Why don't you just bring them in for questioning?" Burrows asked, "Supposedly you can get a confession out of anyone."

"I can," Meagan replied, "But in this case, I don't think it's going to be enough. Even the most inexperienced public defender is going to say that we are going after them out of some vendetta. I doubt it would take much to get any confession thrown out of court without actual hard evidence to back it up."

"What about the tape from our ladies night?" I suggested, "Can we use that in some way? We have recordings of her hating you."
"Justifiably," Meagan said, "There isn't a person on that jury who isn't going to sympathize with her, and it's a long way from some well placed Jealousy to serial homicide. Not to mention girl on girl rape is very difficult to prove."

"So what are you saying? We can't go after them?"

"I'm not saying anything of the kind. What I am saying is that we are going to have to do something they aren't going to be able to resist. Something that Lester and Ranger are going to absolutely hate, and it's probably not a bad thing that Joe is completely whacked out on Morphine right now." Meagan gave me a significant look and I clued into what she was saying.
"No no no no no no no no… Nuh uh… nope. Bad idea Meagan. You've got a broken arm…"
"Wrist."
"Whatever.. You're in a cast."

"I'll take the cast off. I also have a subcutaneous tracker so we'll know where we're going…"
"No. It's dumb," I protested again, "We know they're dangerous, we know we can't underestimate them. We can't go off all half-cocked… and before you say anything about me doing the same thing, under normal circumstances, these aren't normal circumstance. Not one of us is in top shape right now."

"This is the day to do it; they are going to be so wound up from yesterday, they won't be able to pass up the opportunity, and they have no idea that I'm on to them."

I thunked my head on the table and Lula stared at me, "Terri's armed, I'm more than armed. I'll have you Lula and Burrows as back up. Connie can slip a message to Hector about what I'm doing…"

"And we can't tell Ranger?"
"I'm saying we need to act quickly and Ranger isn't going to be looking at this objectively. He's not going to see skills. He's going to see his brand new wife, and he's going to completely forget who the hell I am and only see the cast on my wrist and think I'm the 12 year old girl he had to protect." She took my hand with her good hand, "Steph, I have done things, and been in situations a hell of a lot worse than this, with much less information. I don't…" she paused, and looked at the floor, "Steph, I know I seem a bit fragile lately, I know everyone thinks I've been a bit of a hair trigger, but I promise you, I'm fine."

"They are going to want to hurt you, a lot."

"Believe me when I tell you, that there is nothing they can do to me that I haven't already experienced before, and I know how to deal with it emotionally. I will be in complete control, and I won't let it get it far enough that I'll be in real danger. They aren't going to kill me right away, they are going to want to take their time, which will give us what we need."

"Do we have any kind of plan?" I asked.
"I have the beginnings of a plan," Meagan said, "Terri, how do you feel like being bait with me?"

"I'm going to need a hell of a lot more details before I can agree to anything," Terri said.
"I'm open to suggestions," Meagan said.

Finding Linda and her mother so we could spring the trap was easy. I mean far more easy than it should have been. Why? Burrows slipped a tracker in Linda's purse when we were at the bar. Why? Because she figured when Linda started going apeshit about Meagan, they were going to want to follow her. Figured if whatever Rangeman was on her, lost her, they'd be grateful for her little microchip hair elastic.

This wonderful little hair elastic is how we found ourselves with two piece of shit looking cars (That were actually in perfect working order and owned by Terri's Uncle Vito) parked in the lot beside Bed Bath and Beyond. Meagan was pretending to get a pedicure with Terri in the nail salon located next to the Bed Bath and Beyond while Linda and her mother were in the Japanese Restaurant next to both. Was it strange that they were having a nice dinner out so soon after the death of Anthony Beals, beloved husband and father? Yeah it totally was. But as Meagan pointed out. They sorta had a few screws loose.

Lula was behind the wheel of a beat up, what was probably once blue, Pontiac Sunfire. I was behind the wheel of a green Oldsmobile so big it made Big Blue seem like an economy car. Burrows was somewhere unseen, watching the restaurant so she could give Meagan the signal that she and Terri should move. Of course a lot of this was going to depend on Meagan's acting abilities and well, I'd been on more than one distraction with her. She was good, it would just depend on how good. The plan seemed like a good one. It really did. I just hoped we could pull it off.
The waiting was killing me, and it wouldn't be long before Ranger and the rest of the guys decided to check our trackers to see what we were up to. I was expecting a call any minute actually.

"They're settling the bill now," Jeanne's voice said in my ear.

"They took so long I could have had a real pedicure," Meagan said with a yawn, "All right ladies, it's showtime. Lula start your engine now. Steph, wait until Jeanne is in the car with you. Jeanne has my tracker, as well as Linda's on her little dohickey. If you lose us check that. Lula, is everything recording correctly?"

"Yes ma'am," Lula said, "And just in case it ain't I'm recording you on my iPhone."

"You're a Rockstar."

"I could be. I was in a band once. I was almost gonna be famous but I gave that shit up. Finding the right stage costume was just too much of a pain in the ass. I mean you should have seen what happened when I wore all them feathers and don't get me started on the vinyl."

I could hear Meagan's smile, "Sweetheart I hear you. But you haven't experienced inconvenience until someone has sprayed your ass with hair spray to stop your costume from riding up."
"Yo they actually do that shit?"

"Yup. And you wanna talk feathers? I once was put in a full body nylon suit and had feathers and rhinestones glued strategically to the nylon. Let's just say that pantyhose don't exactly prevent glue from adhering to your skin and I never really found waxing painful after that night."

I cringed at that thought, "I don't even want to know what you were supposed to be…"

"A black swan of course," Meagan said, "Where are they Jeanne? They are taking their sweet assed time getting to the door."

"Makeup re-application in the restroom. They've just left, they will be at the front door in five seconds. Go now."

Meagan and Terri walked out of the salon seconds before Margaret and Linda left the restaurant. Anyone who knew Meagan in the slightest would know that her appearance was wrong. Two things you learned about Meagan within a couple of days of meeting her were that she never wore a watch and she never carried a handbag. While she wore the bell bracelet Lester gave her a zillion years ago, and she often wore her engagement and wedding rings, she didn't like anything near or on her hands when she was working. The bracelet the only exception. That she covered up with a black wristband. I asked her once why she never wore a watch and rarely wore her rings when she worked. She said the reasons for removing her rings, were two fold, she didn't want them to get stollen if someone got the drop on her. They were extremely tempting. The second reason, and the reason she didn't wear a watch, was because they presented the opportunity to leave distinctive impressions on anyone she fought and she preferred to not leave a trace.

The handbag she didn't carry because she needed free hands when she was working and when she went out socially, Lester always had pockets and she could stuff anything she needed, like lipstick and credit cards in them. Personally I think she did it as an excuse to feel him up in public.

Today however she was carrying a small handbag she'd borrowed from my grandmother. A hot pink satchel that weirdly suited her. She'd modified it slightly and slipped a few cameras into the strap, the buckles and into seams. Basically she was broadcasting from several angles. The watch was one she pulled out of a box of James Bond-y things under the floor of the explorer. It was like one of the ones Ranger gave me a while ago. Press the buttons and she'd start broadcasting in every Rangeman vehicle and control room in the company. That particular watch just happened to be on the wrist that used to have the pink cast.

Terri was similarly attired. I had my Bat signal, Jeanne Ellen had my panic button and Lula had her own panic button. We could call for help if we needed it. I was hoping we didn't need it.

I glanced at my phone, wondering why Ranger hadn't called yet. It was unlike him. I looked back out the window at the scene in front of the car. Meagan and Terri were parked next to Linda's car. Meagan looked utterly exhausted and Terri looked like a concerned girlfriend. They were standing in front of Terri's Mercedes chatting. In front of the restaurant Linda and Margaret were staring.
"Meagan, I don't like this. You should be at home and sleeping; not following me around. I can take care of myself."

"I'm fine," Meagan said, "It's not like the pedicure was stressful. It's just been a long week."

"At least let me drive," Terri said.

"Fine," Meagan replied. "When was the last time you actually slept?"
"For more than an hour at a time? I'd have to say Monday probably," Meagan said with a shrug.

"What did the doctor say when he looked you over?" "Mild concussion from hitting my head on the floor. Now can we get out of here? We're too exposed."

Meagan took a step towards the passenger side of the car and staggered and then dropped into what looked like a dead faint. Terri ran around to help her and that's when Linda and her mother moved. They acted quickly, it was a temptation too great to resist. Linda went rushing over to the car.

"It's okay!" She said to Terri, "I'm a nurse!" She crouched down beside Meagan's body and reached into her purse. Instead of pulling out the stethoscope in the bag she pulled out a syringe and jabbed Terri with it. Terri dropped like a ton of bricks.

"So far so good," I muttered to myself. What happened next was a possibility we'd batted around but thought unlikely. They picked Meagan up first and put her in the trunk of Linda's car, they did not, however frisk her for anything. Her purse was dumped and her defence spray (a dead one grandma had lying around), a pair of cuffs (also grandma's) and a gun (A prop that dad had in the garage. Honestly my family scared me a little.) Were ditched and her bag was tossed into the trunk with her and the lid slammed shut.

"Great." Meagan, completely conscious, muttered, "Where's Terri?"

"The backseat, they aren't bothering to bring her car. Linda is in the front seat with her mother." I replied, "Instructions?"
"Don't lose us. Stick with the plan."

So we did. Linda pulled out of the lot and Burrows slipped into the passenger seat. I started the car and we waited until Linda was out of the lot before I pulled out of our space.

"Remember, stick to the GPS readout and stay back." Burrows cautioned. I've tailed people before and Rangeman trained me but I didn't have nearly the experience at staying hidden as Burrows did, and Meagan was locked in a trunk. I was going to follow instructions.
"They aren't going to Princeton," Burrows said, "And they aren't going to the interstate either."

She was headed to the Burg. "We're going to Joe's house," I said, "She's taking you to Joe's."

"Hear that Lula? Get in front of her and slow her down. Give Terri more time for the drugs to wear off," Meagan said from her location in the trunk. "Steph get to Slater street and park so she doesn't notice the tail. If you think she's not going there, I want you to get back on us ASAP."

"Of course you know it's somewhat strange to be following orders of someone in the trunk of a car. How are you not freaking out?"
"Are you joiking? I would love to be having a full scale panic attack right now, but unfortunately it would be counter productive.I've rescheduled it for later when this is over. Now get to Slater Street and park in the neighbours driveway."

"Doesn't Morelli have a massive dog?" Burrows asked me.

"Yes but my parents are watching him; dad likes to drive him around in the cab."

I pulled onto Slater street and did as instructed, and ducked down in the car so we wouldn't be seen. Two minutes later Linda and her mother pulled into Joe's driveway. We watched as they carried Terri into the house, if they didn't come out to get Meagan in five minutes we were to abort and go in guns blazing. Jeanne had her gun drawn and was more than prepared to do just that, when they came back out and popped the trunk of the car. The next part was important, Meagan was still transmitting. She was going to come around and distract them from Terri. We had them on kidnapping now, for sure, if we could get physical evidence against them that would be better.

"She's good," Burrows said as we watched them carry Meagan into the house.
"Who?"
"The Pixie. She purposely skinned her elbow pretty badly when she fell. Pretty hard to deny she was in the trunk with blood evidence there."

"She's still out cold," Margaret Beals said, "She didn't hit her head again did she?"

"No. According to her chart at the hospital, she's anemic and she's been experiencing random drops in blood pressure. If she's really been up as long as she said she's been, her body has likely just given up. I can wake her."
"No, secure Joe's girlfriend first; I don't want a repeat of the other day."

"Fine," We heard shuffling and then Meagan groaned.

"Shit, she's coming around!" It was hard to say which one said that.

"She's the bigger threat. Remember what happened when dad had her? Help me get her secured to the chair. She can watch what we do to Terri. Nice treat for her."

We heard more shuffling and Meagan groaned again. Meagan was putting up a slight fight. We heard the distinct sound of cuffs, "No behind her back!"

"Like that's going to make a difference." All three of us said at the same time. The sound of a smack came through the earpiece.

"I'm not sitting in the car anymore." I said, "I want to get into position before anyone gets too hurt."

"Agreed," Burrows said.

We got out of the car I went around to the back of the house where I could see into the kitchen at the back. Burrows to the front, Lula joined me around back. "Tink can you give me your position?"

"Where the hell am I?" Meagan said as she 'came around.' "Are we in Joe Morelli's living room?"

Smooth. "You would know wouldn't you? How many times have you been here exactly?"

"I don't know; he's my partner we come here a lot to discuss work. Linda what's going on?" Meagan.

"Aren't you supposed to be some genius or something? What do you think is going on?"

"Listen, Steph told me what you said. I've never had any kind of relationship with Joe outside of work. I don't know what you think you saw in Pino's the other night. Joe was just trying to get a rise out of Lester because Lester whooped his ass at pool. Our relationship is purely platonic."
"Please!" She exclaimed, "You think this is about that? About Joe? You killed my daddy!"

"Your father was going to kill me and he was going to kill Joe; I didn't have a choice."

"I saw him. You could have disarmed him. You could have incapacitated him without killing him. I know you could have."

"I was underneath Joe. I was pinned, I couldn't take the risk. I'm sorry it went down that way; I really am. I tried to talk your father in; I had him convinced to come peacefully and then someone made a rookie mistake. You can ask anyone."

"You killed my husband and all you can say is that you didn't have a choice?!" Margaret shouted, "Tell me, did you have a choice when you ruined his career? Did you have a choice when you made it so the men he respected the most in his life refused to return his calls? You made him miserable and then you killed him."

"After he tried to empty a clip into my head. The entire interrogation was on aud—-" A resounding slap sounded and Meagan grunted with the impact of the blow, "Is that all you really have?I expected more from you. I guess your husband was right, you are just a disappointment."

Burrows and I slid open the back door to the house and slipped into the kitchen while Meagan taunted the serial killers. We needed to be in position in case things started getting out of hand. The list of charges against Linda and Margaret were racking up quickly. Kidnapping, forcible confinement, assaulting a Federal Officer. We stayed out of sight, as we made our way down the hall, towards the living room, and I chanced a look inside. Meagan had them sufficiently pissed off and distracted and they hadn't noticed that the drugs had completely worn off on Terri and she was experimentally flexing fingers. Meagan took punch to the stomach, she took worse from the boys when she was sparing, all the same it probably hurt.
"You've got some practice with this," she laughed, "Too bad you hit like a girl."

"Those other girls didn't think I hit like a girl. The others begged me to stop," Linda said, and hit Meagan in the stomach again.

"Others?" Meagan coughed, "What others? Are you in some Blue Blood Princess boxing club?"

"Don't answer her Linda," Margaret said, "She's trying to get confession out of you. I wouldn't be surprised if she was wired. Strip her."

"That's a bit extreme don't you think?" Meagan laughed. "It's not like a girl goes to a pedicure prepared to be kidnapped." She took another slap to the face for the hell of it, and she didn't even flinch. In fact she looked disinterested, "You guys are getting boring. You do realize I've actually been tortured before? Like for real tortured. Waterboarded, zapped with a car battery… That sucked pretty hard. Do you really think your little love taps hurt? What could you possibly do to me that is worse than what caused the scarring on my back?"

"You've already seen what we do," Linda laughed, "Your new guy? The one they put on you just after Joey disappeared? He looked like he was going to hurl after what we did."

"Jimmy always looks like he's going to hurl at a crime scene; you're going to have to be more specific," Meagan said wryly.

"Linda shut up," Margaret said, "She's manipulating you."

"Oh she doesn't need to shut up; you're already fucked. I mean between what the cops are going to do to you for going after me, and the mafia is going to do to you for drugging and trying to kidnap Terri, not once, but twice?" Meagan said.

"Trying to? Seems to me I was successful this time," Linda said with a snort.

"Yeah but you got your car shot up last time."

"Her body guard that time was a damn sight better than you are."

"SHUT UP!" Margaret yelled.

"She was your first though right? I mean your dad was pretty sure you were too stupid to pull off anything involving a brain, you copied his work right? Thought, hey if I get caught I can just blame it on daddy right? Going after those girls that look like me because he wasn't man enough to go for the real thing…"

Margaret snorted, "Yeah. Like Tony could have pulled off any of that? He'd look for a way to leave a signature."

"All the evidence pointed to him. We're calling the latest killing a copycat and leaving it there. I mean up until that point we had no useable physical evidence. Last killing had a lot of overkill, a nice message with handwriting we can match, let's not forget the evidence left on the body. Whoever did it wasn't exactly as skilled as Tony was. Won't take us very long to solve the mystery."

"You don't have any evidence? What evidence do you have?"
"Like I'm going to tell you that. Let me tell you a little story though. You see I've had to kill people up close and personal before and I've had to do it in such a way that I had alibis and that if my place was searched there would be no physical evidence linking me to the crime. The first time, well you make mistakes right? And it's handy to have someone watching over your shoulder, making sure that you've cleaned up properly. If that person has forensic knowledge it's better. As time goes on you get better at it, then the problem becomes complacency. You think that nobody can catch you, so you start to make little mistakes. Like giving a victim the wrong dosage of your drug, so now you have a witness to worry about. Even if she dies you have to worry about whether or not she's said anything to anyone because then you have two witnesses.

Then there's evidence disposal. While the crime scenes are pristine, what about the tools? I mean our killer is very organized, brings his tools with him. If he's smart he won't clean them at the crime scene. I mean what if he leaves a piece of it behind. He probably takes the items home with him. But by the time he gets home he has the adrenaline let down to contend with. Well what happens then? Does he assume that the likelihood of anyone even considering him as a suspect is so slim that he can wait to wash the toys he brings with him? Or does he get off on the trophy aspect of the weapon, knowing he's untouchable.

If he's ritualistic then the clean up will be part of what gets him off, but this guy isn't. This guy lets rage fuel him. I'm guessing the ritual is tedious."

Linda and Margaret exchanged a glance, they both had paled significantly, "They have nothing Linda. Nothing. She's fishing."

"Are you sure? I mean are you sure? She said she has evidence."

"You have nothing to worry about sweetheart; I promise."

"OF course then there's the DNA under the fingernails of our survivor," Meagan said.

"What?!"
"Impossible. I cleaned her nails after she scratched you," Margaret said.

Meagan started laughing, "You keep telling her to shut up and you're the one who confesses."

"You have to be alive to be a witness. You won't be by the end of tonight," Margaret said.

"I said you were boring right?" She sounded bored and she made a face, "'Oh you're going to get it.' I'm obviously terrified."

"You should be," Margaret said, "We've been thinking about this for years. There won't be mistakes this time, and we're really going to enjoy it."

"Yeah, all right; bring it." Margaret took a swing and Meagan's hand shot out from behind herself and she snapped one cuff onto Margaret's wrist and twisted her arm up into her shoulder blades forcing her to her knees. She snapped the other bracelet on to Margaret's other wrist, all using her uninjured hand. Burrows went to Terri, who was trying to get up. Linda bolted and I took off in pursuit.
We heard an oomph as Lula was pushed off of the front step and into the bushes. Linda had decent head start on me by the time I got to the door and hauled Lula out of the bushes. We ran to the car, Lula slid across the hood Dukes of Hazard style and I popped into the passenger seat. Linda was sprinting down the street and as Lula gunned it and took off after her, I had my hand on the door handle, "Slow down and get me close." I ordered, Lula swerved and just as we got close to Linda, Lula hit the brakes and I popped my door opened, it made a very satisfying thump as it thwacked into Linda, knocking her to the ground.

She groaned as the wind came back into her lungs and I jumped out of the car. She was already face down so I took the opportunity to grab her hands and cuff her behind her back.

"You know, she's not so tough without mommy there backing her up?" Lula said, "I mean that was just a little love tap. I slowed down a lot cause I thought you were gonna jump out after her and I didn't want your skinny ass to get hurt. If I knew you were gonna take her out with the door I wouldn'ta slowed down near as much."

When we got back to the house the Feds were there, loading Margaret into the back of a big black SUV with flashing red and blues. An ambulance was there checking out Terri. It had taken a little too long to throw the drug off, it was a good thing she'd not been necessary as anything other than a witness. The camera in the button of her blouse was pretty handy since they'd left both bags in the back of the car. We had everything from the ambush at the cars to the whole time they were in Joe's living room on video and Meagan's blood was in the back of the car.

Meagan was holding her broken arm up to her chest, the only sign that the fractured wrist was bothering her. "Keys I want to see her keys," She was saying as we approached, "One of the officers produced Margaret's keys, and held them up, "There's a tag for a private gym in Princeton. We're going to find the gym bag there. The lockers are owned by the gym, they should grant you access, if they ask for a warrant call Judge Hastings; he'll give you one."

She kept fending off paramedics until Bobby approached her. He gently pried her wrist from where she was holding it protectively against her chest and he began putting a splint on it. I thought I was the only one who was stubborn about getting help from random paramedics.

"She has serious trust issues," Lula said. I didn't exactly blame her. I mean Meagan was justifiably paranoid. She knew that if Bobby stuck her with something that would knock her on her ass, she'd be well taken care of. I was sort of the same way now.

Ranger went to speak to Meagan while I chilled with Tank. She gave me a significant look and said something I couldn't hear, all of her mics had been either disabled or removed. Ranger glanced over his shoulder and shrugged. He seemed to be agreeing to whatever she was saying. Bobby finished taping her up and seemed to be giving her a stern talking to.

"Bobby is trying to convince her to get her ass to the hospital," Lester said in my ear and I jumped, "Seriously Beautiful; work on it. I wasn't even trying to be sneaky this time."

"Shut up Les," I laughed, "Will she go to the hospital?"

"She'll go when she's closed this down. They'll find the gym bag at the gym like she said. She's going to want the full story, then she's going to sleep for a week. If I have my way, much of that sleeping will take place on a beach under a big fuckin' umbrella."

"Where's the beach?" I asked.
"Can't give away all my secrets Beautiful," he said with a wink.

Ranger returned, "Meagan wants you to conduct Linda's interrogation."

"What?! Why me?!" I said.
"We think she'll open up to you more. People like talking to you and Meagan's only going to antagonize her and she's not in the mood to be the Pixie. She'll be in your ear if you need her. If you want her to, she can just dictate what you say."

"Ok. What the hell."

The whole interrogation thing wasn't what I was expecting. I mean they put Linda in the room, she was cuffed to the table, but instead of letting her sit there stewing forever, Meagan told me to bring her a cup of coffee, in a paper cup and to go in right away. "When you go in there, ask her if she's ok; be as apologetic as you can be."

"I knocked her on her ass and cuffed her in the street; she's not my biggest fan at the moment."

"Tell her I told you to do it; she hates me already. In fact, whenever she gets contentious, you can pass the buck onto me. I've got strong shoulders. I can take it."

I put the earpiece in and walked into the room with the coffee. The jumpsuit didn't exactly flatter her. Given she'd looked perfectly put together earlier I'm sure she wasn't exactly thrilled to see me still looking not half bad. "Are you Ok?" I asked her when I walked in. "No cuts or anything that need looking at?"
"Well you ruined my favourite jeans and I'm going to have one helluva bruise, but I'm fine."
"Oh this is going to be easy. She wants to talk. Just go with your gut Steph," Meagan said in my ear.

"They found the gym bag in your mother's locker and your DNA was found under the fingernails of one of the victims," I said, "Plus, your mother was right; Meagan and Terri were so heavily wired that it's possible that they filmed this evening in IMAX. I was really hoping she was wrong about you; I didn't want to believe it. What the hell happened?"

Linda toyed with her cup and then took a sip, "You got any sugar?" she asked.
"Oh sorry. Yes hang on," I walked over and tapped on the glass to the observation room and a few seconds later someone brought in packets of sugar and some Coffeemate. "I should warn you, you can dope it up all you want, but the coffee doesn't get better."

"Yeah well, I don't imagine my life is going to be filled with gourmet meals from now on."

"You're probably right." I agreed.
"You think I'll get the death penalty?"
"I don't know," I said, "It's a federal crime because you crossed states. I don't know what will happen."

"I'm sure she'll see to it that I fry," Linda said bitterly, "It's her fault you know?"

"Why?" I asked.

"I told you about how my dad was obsessed with her, but I guess you know that all ready," She sighed. "So my dad comes home one day from this business trip in Miami, I don't know how old I was, but when he comes in, he gives mom and I each a necklace. They're gorgeous right? The one he gives mom is this beautiful diamond pendant. Very simple, but the clarity was amazing, hung right in the hollow of her throat. The one he gives me is different, a little more age appropriate. There was this fairy on it, she was sitting on a crescent moon. The moon curved around a compass. My dad, he was always trying to get me interested in outdoorsy things. I figured that he thought the compass might entice me out there."

"Did it work? Did you start hanging with your dad more?"

"It might have," she said, "Except that same night, I'm out with friends and I'm playing with the necklace, and I realize that the fairy moves. I pushed it and it triggered a release and it opened this little secret compartment behind the compass, it was very clever.

Inside the compass was a small bit of paper folded up tight. I thought it was a message from dad. I was confused when I read it at first. I thought the note was addressed to Amanda and I was wondering what the hell was going on you know? Like maybe dad bought me an antique or something. Then I took it into the restroom where there was better light and saw that the letter was addressed to Amada. It means Beloved. The letter said, 'Amada, I always want you remember that you are loved and I hope this always helps you find your way home. Love Dad.' I was touched you know. I mean one of my friends told me what amada meant. Then I saw the inscription on the inside of the compartment. It was tiny, whoever did the engraving was impressive. It said, 'Happy 18th birthday Meagan.' I was so pissed off I threw the necklace away. I left the bar and I was on my way home, on the bus when I heard this girl bragging about a grade she got on a paper. She was a little blonde thing, and she reminded me of Meagan."

"How did you know what Meagan looked like?" I asked.

"Dad used to force mum and I to read these articles about Meagan. He'd show us pictures, made a big deal about how beautiful she was, and when you got to know her like he did, you'd see that it wasn't just a physical thing. I don't see what the big deal is? She's too short and her eyes are too big for her face."
"She's not exactly wrong there. My eyes are rather disproportionately large," Meagan said in my ear. I had to fight a smile.

"What happened with this girl?"
"Every time I looked at her I saw miss perfect, so I followed her home. She wasn't that bright and I followed her right to her building. When she saw me, she asked me if I was coming up to see a friend. I lied and said yes. She let me in and I followed her up to her apartment. She laughed when we went to the same floor. I pretended to look for a key in my bag and when she got her apartment door open I pushed her in. It's kind of hazy after that. I remember hitting her again and again. Calling her all kinds of names. Telling her what I thought of her, pretending she was Meagan. When it was done, I didn't know what to do so I called my mom from my cell phone."

"And?"
"Mom came over and helped me clean up. She made it look like a burglary gone wrong. She said," Linda took a breath, "She said that we could confuse the cops if we cleaned up everything first and staged an obvious robbery. She came prepared with everything. She brought cleaners, she brought a vacuum, she brought a new shower curtain. We took her shower curtain off of the rod and wrapped her in it and then moved her to the bed. Mom took her clothes off of her and told me to leave the room. I didn't see what she did to the body, but I can guess. Then she had me shower and get clean in her bathroom and then she scrubbed the bathroom and put up the new shower curtain. I remember feeling really tired after that. We got out into the street and mom waited until we got closer to home before she dragged me into an alley and pushed me down. She tore my clothes, she slapped me around a bit. Then she took the money out of my purse and told me to go to a bar and claim that I'd been mugged. So that's what I did. I don't know what she did with my phone."

"When happened after that?" I asked. "The police called my mom and she took me to the hospital, we filed a police report. My mugger was never caught, obviously, and mom did such a good job with the staging of the first killing that they pinned it on this serial rapist."
"When did you start sexually assaulting the victims?"

"When dad came home after watching Meagan dance with Lester. He… he hurt mom. Mom was so angry at that point too. We hated him. We should have left but my mom's family didn't believe in that, in fact she would lose pretty much everything in a divorce, so she couldn't. We were all miserable. It was Meagan's fault but we couldn't exactly get at Meagan; not without practice at least. We aren't stupid."

"How did you pick the next victim? Was she random like the first?" I asked.
"No, Mom knew her. She was the daughter of some bitch at the country club. Mom said the daughter wasn't much better than the mother and that the mother could be taken down a peg or two. We planned it more carefully this time."

"Is that when you started using the drugs?"
"They aren't difficult to get you know? But yes. We had everything. I… I didn't rape the girl the first time. That was mom. She… she wanted her to feel what dad did to her because of Meagan… Because of what he wanted to do to Meagan."

"Were all of the assaults a reaction to something your dad did or said?"
"Yeah," she said into her cup, "The next girl, was mine though. That was just after he moved us to Miami."

"Were you just angry because he took you away from your friends?" I asked. She shook her head.
"No, he kept trying to set me up on dates, with men that reminded him of Ranger," she said.

Linda kept talking for more than an hour. Meagan was right; Linda wanted to tell her story. W When I finally left the room, Ranger was waiting for me to take me home. "Where's Meagan?" I asked. "Bobby forced her to go to the hospital to get a new cast," Ranger said as he led me out to the Porsche and I climbed into the passenger seat. I was exhausted, it had been a very long day.

"Is she okay?" I asked, "I mean with what Linda said? She blames Meagan for everything. She doesn't even really blame her father, she claims Meagan forced him to act the way he was acting."

"Linda is a sociopath; so is her mother and so was her father. Meagan knows that and she won't be losing sleep over Linda's delusions. Just like she's not losing any sleep about shooting a crater into Beals' chest."

"She doesn't blame herself?"
"Nope. Why should she? She might blame herself for taking so long to solve the case, but I doubt it. She hasn't really had it that long and the FBI have had it for years."

I nodded again and yawned enormously. Ranger cracked a smile and slipped into his driving zone. I close my eyes for the short drive to Haywood where Julio was waiting for us in the garage.

"Before you protest, I've already checked out Lula and Burrows, you're next," he said to me.
"Why?" I asked, "Nobody laid a hand on me."
" Humour me," he said with a smile, "These guys have made me paranoid and I no longer believe anyone when they say they aren't hurt."

"It's pointless arguing. I've yet to squirm my way out of his random health checks. He'll just follow you around being irritating until you give in," Ranger said, "I need to check in, I'll see you on seven."

He gave me a quick kiss and took the stairs. Julio and I took the elevator to the second floor. It was a bit lazy of us, but in fairness, I didn't think I had the energy to walk the flight of stairs.

We walked through the gym to Bobby's exam room and Julio handed me a plastic cup, "Go pee in that and then come back here."

I rolled my eyes and went to do as I was told. When I came back he had me sit on the table and took my blood pressure. Listened to my heart and checked me over for skinned knees. "Did you fall at anytime? Take any hits?"
"No. Seriously, for once I've come out unscathed. I promise," I said.
"How have you been sleeping?" he asked. "Great actually. Like the dead."

"Good." he paused, "I promised you an explanation; I figured now was as good a time as any. I'll try to keep it brief but I tend to get long winded."
"I like a good story." I said with a yawn, "Really I do."

"Adopting Meagan was a way for her to have her cake and eat it too. Meagan needed someone adult to look up to, to offer her guidance and more importantly, she needed security. Her life was a complete mess and about the only security she had was financial. Her Godfather couldn't take her, Ella, well Ella was going through her own shit. If she'd been asked she would have done it in a heartbeat. She's a wonderful woman and she looked after Meagan her whole life. At the time though, Ella and Luis were trying to start their own family and struggling with fertility issues and it was causing strain on their marriage. The day before Ella took Meagan to meet Ric, she brought her to stay at my grandmother's.
I don't want you to get the wrong idea here, but the truth of that visit was that Ella needed a break from Meagan. Meagan was a complete handful, she didn't really get that Meagan wasn't just grieving, that she was suffering from severe depression. Nobody expects a twelve year old to suffer from it, but Meagan was showing signs of it well before her parents died. Her shrink made note of his concerns in her patient records and informed her parents a few weeks before the car accident that killed the three of them.

When her parents died, the courts decided that until the Emancipation issue was dealt with, Meagan would be fine living in her parents house with the army of staff that looked after her."

"Like Bruce Wayne." I grinned. "Yeah." He smiled back, "So anyways, Ella was supposed to undergo a battery of fertility tests and Meagan's increasing mood swings were getting out of hand. Well there isn't a child out there who Rosa can't cure of bad behaviour so she suggested to Ella, that Meagan come for a visit, so she could figure out what should be done with her. Ella said she wanted her to meet Ric, Rosa thought it was a good idea."
"Why were you there?"
"Apartment hunting," he said, "So everything seems to be okay, when Meagan first gets there, she's a little reserved but that's to be expected. There were a lot of us there. She went to bed early, but she couldn't sleep. She after she thought everyone had gone to bed, she went downstairs for a drink and overheard a conversation between my grandmother and Ella where Ella said that she didn't know what she would do if the courts asked her to be Meagan's guardian. The doctors were telling her that any pregnancy she had would be high risk and if she became pregnant she'd have to quit, or take a leave of absence. She just couldn't look after someone like Meagan anymore."
"Oh God," My hand flew to my mouth in horror.

"Now Ella is wonderful and the part of the conversation Meagan didn't hear was what Ella said right before that. She was telling Rosa how awful it had been for Meagan, and how pissed she was at Meagan's parents for not appointing a guardian for her. She was pissed that everyone that the court approached, for the position was more than willing to take control of Meagan's money, but they weren't willing to take responsibility for raising Meagan. When she said she didn't know what she was going to do, and Meagan missed this part too, it was because she didn't know how she was going to tell Luis, that she could never leave Meagan.

Meagan, was devastated, Ella had been the rock. Ella had been the one to consistently offer her warmth and support, for most of her life. Hearing that she was thinking about quitting was a major blow and sent Meagan into a spiral. Meeting Ric and then Hector the next day didn't help like you'd think it would. In Meagan's mind, a woman she was hoping would be her mother, didn't want her; Meagan relegated Ella to the category of people who only saw her as a paycheque. Then she mets these two boys who she saw as kindred spirits and she loves them both instantly and she knew she was going to lose them when Ella left. So while she's spending the summer at Rosa's while Ella was taking a much needed break to reconnect with Luis and frankly to discuss the Meagan situation, Meagan wasn't actually not healing, she was getting worse.

So the end of August rolled around and she went home to get ready for school. I decided to tag along, see Wayne Manor and all of that. Meagan gets it into her head that since I want to be a doctor I have to learn how to play golf. She was practically playing from the womb so she already knows how and she's going to teach me to play. We'd been playing nine holes a day all week when on the last day I was there, there was an incident with one of her classmates and his father. The kid was the bastard that broke her arm, we were playing slow because I sucked, and we were going to let them play through and they insisted that we make up a foursome instead. I had no idea who the bastard was and Meagan didn't say anything. She went to take her shot and the idiot decided to 'help her' with her swing. She didn't have the blank face mastered yet; you could tell she was terrified of him, so I stepped in and took her home.

She was pissed. Told me she could handle it herself. That I didn't really care about her the way I thought I did, that I would just leave her when Ella did. That we all would because nobody actually wanted her. That her money was what was important, as soon as Ella quit working for her, like she said she was going to, we'd all stop talking to her. That's when she told me about all of the rejections, the people who had been her parents closest friends suddenly disappearing when the courts were trying to find a temporary guardian for her. How she wasn't stupid and that the real reason her parents wanted her to seek emancipation was because they knew that nobody wanted her. Then she threw me out."
"And you left?"
"Sort of. I went to McDonalds and bought her a ton of comfort food and told her that she was crazy. She didn't really have a choice about letting me in either because I still had the key she'd given me. We had a long talk about everything she'd been feeling since her parents died. What she'd overheard in the kitchen, Mark, the asshole from the golf course, everything really. I still don't know what made me say it, but that's when I told her that I was going to adopt her. That I wanted her to be sure that there was one person in her life who would always be there for her.

We called her lawyers the next day. We set up a trust that would cover our living expenses and tuition. I didn't want her to think I was after that money so I made sure, I didn't have access to it and her accountants paid all of the bills for us. The money that didn't go into the trust went into a different trust that her lawyer and the President of MDI were co-trustees of. Meagan could only draw money from that trust with their permission until she was 18. Though to be honest I don't think they ever objected to anything she wanted to do."

"You were so young though; I can't believe that they would have granted it," I said. "I was the answer to a lot of problems. They didn't want to emancipate Meagan, putting her in the foster system would have been a public nightmare, finding someone who was willing to be a guardian wasn't working. She was months away from starting university and I stepped up to the plate, I'd transferred to Harvard, where she would start school in a few months, I was a prodigy like she was so I theoretically could understand how her mind worked and I was volunteering to the job."

"Why the secrecy then?"

"That was actually never our intention. I mean until it was a fait acomplis we didn't want to tell anyone because I'm pretty sure my family would have killed me. Then the press had a field day with the the assumption that she was emancipated and there was this huge spike in MDI's stock. Seriously it was crazy. Everyone assumed that she was going to school for business in the fall. That in a few short years, when she was done school she was going to step in and be her father all over again."

"But that's not what happened."
"No. Before the adoption went through, some serious shit was going down at school, and Meagan was so insecure that she was afraid I'd change my mind about adopting her, if she told me. So I went back to New York, to finish the semester I had left there, Ella was looking after Meagan, and she's got nobody she feels she can tell what's happening; not even Ric, because she doesn't want to risk him telling me. Then one day it gets really bad, Ella is out of town, but she has the rest of the staff looking after her, and Meagan tells them all to go home. She's going to bed early. She talks to Ric, like she always did, but he could tell something was wrong. So he called me and I booted it to the house as fast as I could, and found her in really rough shape, seriously considering, doing the unthinkable. I took her to see Ric right away."

"Why?" I asked, "If you were going to adopt her, why take her to Ranger? Why not stay with her yourself?"

"Before she met Lester, Ric was the only one who could see through the front Meagan put on. I remember there was this one day, she was standing in Hector's living room, talking about this stupid obsession of hers, she had a lot of random ones, and Ranger stood up, walked over to her and hugged her, and she just started sobbing like her heart was breaking, and it was. I mean she'd lost her whole family, and she was still scared she was going to lose Ella. She adored Ella, and if she quit, it would be awful.

Around the time the adoption process was finalized, Meagan approached Ella and told her that she would be okay if Ella wanted to leave, and she'd see to it that Ella had an excellent severance package and she'd completely understand. She said she knew what Ella and Luis were going through, and said she didn't want Ella to have to live with the strain of someone that was as difficult as she was. Ella told her that the only way she'd ever accept a severance package from Meagan, was if Meagan fired her.

Then she would take the money, put it into a bank account and go to work the next day, and wait until Meagan got over whatever tantrum induced such an action. No Meagan wasn't a walk in a park, but unconditional love wasn't exactly unconditional if it meant you only gave it when things were easy. So Meagan said, 'so you wouldn't leave me if I didn't pay you?' and Ella quit on the spot and then called someone who had been trying to poach her for a job and accepted the position. Then she made Meagan her dinner and said that she and Luis were going to move into the apartment over the garage on the first of the month, because it was actually bigger than the little guest house they lived in on the property, and it was closer to the main house. If she was going to have to work somewhere else then she didn't want the ten minute walk on top of a commute, so she could get Meagan off to school in the morning on time and still have time to make it to work.

Then she cussed Meagan out for even thinking that she only loved her for the money. Said there were a lot better paying jobs, that were easier, than taking care of Meagan, but she stayed because she loved her, and told her she'd never accept so much as another penny from her.
The arrangement lasted until Meagan moved in with Hector, and then she told Ella that she bought the building she was moving in to, and figured, that it would be easier for her to get Meagan to school on time in the morning, if she lived in the same building. Luis was made building manager, and paid probably better than anyone else had ever been paid for that job. She's tried to pay her several times sine then and Ella just tears up the cheque or transfers the money back to Meagan. She hasn't accepted a single penny from her since."
"Until now you mean," I said, "Meagan is back at Rangeman. She's one of the owners of the business." "Ella quit the second Meagan came back to work. Ranger has to pay her out of pocket and Meagan pays him back half. But Ella is not on Rangeman's payroll anymore. Ranger thinks it's a pain in the ass, but he gets it."

I grinned, "The other day Meagan walked into the office and dropped a file on his desk and he looked at it and said, 'It's been twenty years; I wish you would work your shit out.' and Meagan said, 'I told her she's made her point, and then some, it's all her.' They were talking about Ella weren't they?"
"Probably," Julio said. "So, there you go, a brief history of Meagan. I adopted her because I was impulsive and suffering from a hero complex. Meagan is a nutcase, but it's well earned, and Ella should be nominated for sainthood for putting up with all of us. Now back to you!" He got up and walked to the table and dipped some strips into my jar of pee. Then he took my heart rate, and had me lie on the table while he pressed down on my lower abdomen for a bit. He smiled again and then opened my chart and consulted the test strips.

"So, I'm taking you off of field work. You can still work in the office and I expect to see you in the gym training, but no sparring of any kind, and I want you to take at least one nap a day, until I say otherwise," he said.

"Umm what? I told you, I'm fine. I didn't hurt anything. Not even a scraped elbow. Lula took more than I did."
"Stephanie," he said, looking at my chart, "It says here that you told Bobby you were thinking of switching birth control because your periods were a bit wonky. Define wonky?" "They were really heavy and I was having breakthrough mid pack, and I was cramping badly. So he told me to stop taking them, to make an appointment with my gynaecologist and in the meantime to use condoms until I got in to see her. Things have been busy, so I haven't had a chance yet."
"And I'm sure you're super careful to always use them…" he said with a smirk.

The truth was, we weren't. Sometimes we ran out and decided to hell with it, and Ranger would pull out, or we'd think it was so close to my period that I probably was fine. It had worked so far. "Has your period been normal since you stopped taking the pill?" he asked. "Yeah, clockwork, though last month it was a super light," I said.

"And your next one is due?"

I checked my watch for the date, and just about fell off of the exam table, "Last Tuesday."

"I figure you're probably about ten weeks along and that your last period wasn't actually a period. Sometimes there's a little bleeding in the first trimester, it's totally normal. We'll do an ultrasound to be sure."

Ranger was sitting at his desk when I walked in to his office and sat down heavily on the sofa. He looked at me and said, "I take it the test was positive?"

"You knew?" I said, shocked.
"Meagan asked me today after the bust if there was a possibility that you were," he said and I immediately wondered if I was already putting on weight, "She had just noticed that your breast were looking 'more spectacular than usual' not the words I would use, but I agree with the sentiment." He said, "How do you feel?"
"I'm scared out of my mind! How do you feel about this?!" Ranger got out from behind the desk and came to sit beside me on the sofa. He pulled me onto his lap and kissed my temple.

"It'll be an adjustment," he said, "But I knew the risks we were taking, and if I were dead set against having more kids, I know plenty of other things we could have done that would be just as satisfying and carried no risk, until you were back on some form of birth control."

"So you aren't mad?" I asked. "Not even a little bit," he said, "I'm just wondering where the hell we're going to get all black baby clothes for when he's on the floor here."

"It could be a girl," I said.

"It isn't," He said. He smiled at me, a full on Ranger smile, and this little ball of emotion formed in the pit of my stomach, anxiety, happiness and excitement all mixing together. Now that i knew he wasn't going to freak out, not that Ranger ever actually freaks out, I could actually enjoy the news.
"I bet you it's a girl," I said.

"I'll take that bet," he said, and then he whispered his terms in my ear and I was pretty sure what he was expecting to get, wasn't something our little fetus should hear so early in his life. Since I had no idea when babies are supposed to have ears or hear things, I put my hand over my belly to protect him from his father's dirty mind.