Steve pulled up at the restaurant and parked near the front of the building. He walked over to the patrol car sitting in the lot. The uniformed officer rolled down the window as Steve flashed his shield.

"What can I do for you?"

"It's what I can do for you. I'm here to pick up our witness. You can head back to the barn."

The young officer nodded his head as he reached for the radio, "Thanks man, this has been a really dull shift."

Steve was a little miffed by his attitude. Dull on protection duty was a good thing, but he understood the sentiment as a veteran of too many hours camped out in a police vehicle. After the cruiser pulled out, he walked into the restaurant. His nose, and by extension his stomach, was assaulted by the smell of food. Surprisingly, Mary was still at the desk. She looked him over before shaking her head.

"Well, welcome back Inspector. What the heck have you be up to?"

Steve had purposely ignored the mirror when he left the house and knew he must be a sight. "Tough day at the office, you know. I'm surprised you're are still here, your hours must be worse than mine."

Mary laughed. "Nah, somebody called in sick. I guess you are looking for Lizzy. She's back in the kitchen grabbing a bite." Steve stomach picked that moment to announce its displeasure with his neglect. "Sounds like you could do with some sustenance as well, when was the last time you ate?"

Steve blushed and shrugged, "no idea."

"So why don't you go join her."

"Um, I can't exactly afford this place."

"Don't worry about that. Think of it as a thank you for taking care of our girl."

Steve was torn. It wasn't exactly ethical to accept favors like this, although he knew others did it all the time. He was suddenly really, really hungry, however and knew there were scant offerings in the fridge at his apartment. He attempted to take the high road.

"No thanks. If you can go tell her I'm here…"

"Nonsense, I won't tell anyone if you don't." She gave him a don't argue with me look that would have made Mike proud.

Steve followed the hostess into the kitchen. Lizzy was busy dipping a large hunk of sour dough bread into a bowl of chowder at a small prep counter. She smiled in greeting until he got close enough for her to get a good look at his face.

"What the hell happened?"

"My job." He dropped onto the stool next to the young woman.

Mary went over to the line cook and returned with a bowl of soup and bread for Steve. "There you go, young fellow. Any friend of Lizzy and Mike Stone's is a friend of ours. Eat up. Tourist come from all over the world to eat this. And mums the word." Mary twisted her hand as if she had a key locking her lips.

Steve laughed. "Thanks, Mary. I really appreciate it."

"What was all that about?" Lizzy asked.

"Technically, accepting a free lunch is illegal, but my stomach had other ideas."

Lizzy smiled again and went back to her late dinner while Steve dug in.

After a few moments she paused. "So are you gonna tell me what happened?"

Steve knew this was coming and had continued to debate how much to tell her about the case and Todd's demise. Since the prints from her apartment had been his, he figured at the very least he could tell her the mystery of the break in was solved. She would also find out about Todd the minute she hit school tomorrow.

"We know who broke into your place." He offered between spoons of soup. Mike was right, the food was really good.

"Who?"

"Todd Walters. He came looking for the pictures that Pam left in the locker."

"Why would he want pictures of Gary's paintings?"

"We think he was trying to pass them off as his own, he needed to get rid of the evidence."

"That son of a bitch!" The kitchen staff looked over with interest, Lizzy ducked her head and lowered her voice. "Did he kill Pam?"

Steve wasn't sure how to answer the question. "We're not sure."

"Well why don't you ask him? Can't he take a lie detector test or something?"

"No, we don't do that. Polygraphs are really only used on TV and in the movies. Plus, it would be a little hard because he's dead."

Lizzy dropped her spoon. "He's dead? How?"

"Fell down 2 flights of stairs, one more than I did."

"So let me get this straight, Todd was selling Gary's paintings as his own. He killed Pam because what, she had proof? Did he kill Gary and those other people too?" Her head was spinning.

"That's what it looks like, but it's going to be awfully hard to prove."

She thought it over for a moment and a look of relief crossed her face. "Then it's over, and I can go back to my apartment. "Hang on a minute, you fell down the steps?"

"Yep, but I'm fine." He didn't let her respond before he continued. "What about Jeff. I thought he was going to put you up." Steve wasn't ready for another late night call if they had gotten this whole thing wrong.

"Jeff's a great guy and a good friend, but you went to college. How clean was your apartment when you were an undergrad?"

Steve went back to eating, she had a valid point.

Lizzy pulled some change out of her apron pocket. "I'm going to give Jeff a call."

After several minutes she returned.

"Is everything square?" Steve still didn't like the idea of her going home by herself, but there wasn't a lot he could do about it.

"Yep. He was kinda bummed out. He just got back from skiing and really wanted to tell me about it. But I'll see him tomorrow at school. Funny thing, he asked me if you were giving me a lift home. You just about ready?"

That struck Steve as odd. "Yeah. Wait, how does he even know who I am?"

"Remember you met him after the opening at the deli, Long hair, Mountain Dew and Fritos."

After thanking Mary again, they walked out to Steve's car and made the quick trip back to Chestnut Street. He looked around carefully before he got out and opened the door for Lizzy. On their silent ride, he had been thinking about her questions. Was it really over?

They walked up the steps and Lizzy handed Steve the keys. He flipped on the lights and took a quick look around.

"We seem to be making a habit of this." Lizzy smiled. She was glad to be home, but wasn't ready to be alone yet. "You want to stick around a little bit, I'm sure there's something to drink in the cabinet. It was against Pam's personal code to let the bar go dry."

Steve knew she was stalling but he was barely functioning at this point of the evening. "You sure you want to stay here tonight? I can still take you to Jeff's."

She could see the exhaustion in his eyes and couldn't help but notice how he had groaned when they were climbing the steps. It made her feel a little selfish and guilty. "Yeah, I'm fine. I need to check my assignments for tomorrow anyhow. Do you think apartment rifled and roommate dead will be valid excuses for not doing my homework?"

Steve couldn't help but smile at the question. "I kinda think they will cut you some slack. You want me to write you a note."

Lizzy made a face. "Sure, I can just see it. Dear Professor Eichenmuller, Please excuse Lizzy from all assignments until further notice due to a really crappy chain of personal tragedies. Signed, Steve Keller, SFPD. If this wasn't all so unbelievable, well…" She trailed off and looked at the floor.

"You know what?" Steve picked up her chin.

"No. What?

"You are really something else, Lizzy Grisko. Most people I know would be hiding under the covers, bawling their eyes out after the couple of days you've just had. Here you are going to work, going to school, making jokes, moving forward. It'll take a while, and I'm sure you are going to have some really bad days; days where you can't put one foot in front of the other, but you'll get past this. Trust me."

She looked back at him. "How did you get so smart?"

"Berkeley man, remember."

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Get out of here and get some sleep before you fall over."

"Yes, Ma'am. Make sure you lock up. And Lizzy, really if you need anything, call me," He turned to leave and added with a wink, "but not tonight, OK?"

Lizzy locked the door and she heard Steve check it from the outside. She really enjoyed his company, he was like a protective big brother, if she had a gorgeous, personable older sibling. She smiled at the thought and went to take a shower.

As Steve drove home, he made a silent plea for a quite night.

00000

Mike finally pulled in at DeHaro Street at 11 pm. He had a 9 am meeting at city hall and hoped to have something from the lab by then. They were all working overtime on this one, and he wanted to have some good news for the mayor and the city. He was afraid the powers that be would embrace the death of Walters as the end of the Da Vinci Killer whether the evidence supported the conclusion or not. He cringed at the thought of a premature press conference.

There were still so many loose ends. He regretted the fact that Walters had perished before they had a chance to talk to him. It would have made it all so much easier. Molinaro still needed to be interviewed first thing. His 48 hours were nearly up and he would have to go before the judge in the morning. Mike was confident nothing would come of it, but he would put Steve on the task while he talked to the mayor. Dropping his coat and hat on the couch, he dragged himself up the stairs.

So much about this case didn't make sense. He was fairly certain that Walters was responsible for Pam Woodward's death. His conversation with Campbell had fixed the idea in his brain. Accident or murder he didn't know which. The fraud part of the case would be shifted to Bunco in the morning.

Did he also eliminate Kohler? Maybe, but there was the pesky change in the cause of death. And what about Kearns and Brooks? He thought back to the bookmarked art tome and the references that should have been there.

As he drifted off to sleep he was thinking about Lenny's original profile of the killer. He usually didn't buy into all the psych mumbo-jumbo and even Steve though Todd Walters fit the profile, but something felt wrong.