"Detective Brady, Detective Brady," the young doorman behind the desk said again.

Hope had been in the middle of asking him a few background questions on a security breach that occurred in one of the apartments in the building, but her attention was distracted by the reflection of the young blond head she'd seen flash in the mirrors lining the walls behind the doorman's desk. She whipped around in time to see the blond head disappear through a door that led to what she knew was the residents' private garage. Hope was quite certain that it was Abigail that she had seen. But what business would Abigail have in this building, she wondered. The who's who of Salem made up 95 percent of the building's residents. She knew her young cousin didn't move in those circles so it was a mystery to Hope as to what had brought Abigail here. Maybe, it had to do with hospital business. After all, she knew that quite a few hospital board members had homes here. She also knew, since it was her business to know every detail about the DiMeras, that one of their personal lawyers had a home here, too. At that thought, the niggling unease she had felt on first observing the interaction between Abigail and EJ at Arianna's christening and watching him trail after her at Will and Sonny's engagement party returned. She had thought then that there seemed to be some sort of intimacy between the two of them. Hope had pushed the thought away, however, as being totally implausible. It wasn't the intimacy of two friends that she had seen when she looked at them, but two people who were in tune with each other, lovers. As she turned back to face the doorman, she heard the quiet chime of the elevator and looked up as the doors opened to see EJ stroll out and head towards the same door that Abigail had gone through a few minutes before. Everything fell into place for Hope then and she realized that niggling feeling of unease had just become a reality. Abigail and EJ were lovers and she knew that this was not going to end well for any of them. Secrets had a way of never staying buried for too long in Salem.

Hope wrapped up her interview with the doorman, tucking her notes into her bag before walking away. Stopping suddenly, she decided to ask him a few more questions, and retraced her steps back to the desk and the doorman who was looking at her inquiringly.

"Did you forget something, Detective Brady," he queried in confusion.

"I did have a few more questions, but not about the previous incident we just discussed."

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you about the high profile of a lot of the residents here."

"No, you don't. I'm well aware of that," the doorman responded, still trying to figure out where she was heading with this conversation.

Deliberately putting her hand on her waist, she managed to make her shield attached at her belt visible to the doorman before leaning in conspiratorially towards him. Hope was really good at reading people. It was a skill that had taken her from rookie cop to senior detective in the Salem PD and she knew the best way to get the answers she wanted it was to remind him that she was in authority here.

"These questions have nothing to do with the security breach at the apartment we just discussed, but they are about the security of apartments that I know are secondary homes for some here."

"Well, then, I'll be happy to answer any questions you have for me," he replied enthusiastically, a little too much for Hope.

"We've had concerns down at the Salem PD that the first security breach may not have been isolated incident so we just wanted to check up on a few residents who aren't here throughout the year." Holding up her hand to stave the question that he was about to ask, Hope continued talking. "It's nothing to worry about, we just want to leave nothing to chance. I've already gotten all the information on everyone, except-"

At this, Hope took her notebook out of her bag and flipping through the pages, pretended to be looking for a name.

"Ah, yes, here it is," she said as if she had found the name she had been looking for. "Mr. Andrew Mason in PHC."

"I wanted to know when he was last in residence and if they've been any complaints from him that anything was disturbed in his apartment."

Hope held her breath while she waited for his answers. She only had one reason for asking these questions. She just wanted to know how long Abigail and EJ had been coming here. It would give her an idea of how long this had been going on, although she had her suspicions that it must have all began before Arianna's christening. The way EJ had held Abigail that day as she questioned her about Nick, with his hands around her shoulders constantly stroking and rubbing them, had made Hope think that he was offering Abigail support. She had been way to distracted by Julie's hysteria that something dreadful had happened to Nick to really pay attention to it. She had simply filed it away in the back of her mind, intending to bring it up later with Abigail, but when she had seen Abigail and asked her if everything was okay, the answer had been yes. She needed to know as much as she possibly could because she intended to talk to Abigail and, this time, she would not be brushed off.

"Mr. Mason has not been in residence for almost the whole year. He usually comes in when he has business to take care of and there haven't been any complaints."

"So no one has been in the apartment for almost year, then?"

"Well, I'm not sure if I should be telling you this," he said reluctantly, his gaze constantly wavering to Hope's badge. "Mr. Mason gave permission to his boss to use the apartment, a Mr. DiMera."

The doorman thought about it for awhile before leaning even closer to Hope, adding in a hushed tone, "He in turn left an extra set of keys for a young woman who's met him here a couple of times. Please don't tell anyone that I told you about her, though."

"Oh, don't worry," Hope assured him. "This is confidential and won't go any further."

"You've been very helpful," she added in parting.

Hope waited until she had reached the privacy of her car before calling Abigail and leaving her a message. The sooner she was able to talk to Abigail, the better it would be. Maybe, she would be able to help Abigail see that being involved with EJ DiMera was only going to ruin her life, especially if Sami found out because she would come gunning for Abigail and wouldn't rest until she'd gotten her pound of flesh and then some.

…

EJ drew up sharp when he came out of the bathroom and saw Samantha perched on the foot of his bed. It surprised him, seeing her here. She hadn't been in this room since she had stopped sharing a bed with him over the whole Kristen mess. Lately, their relationship had been thawing somewhat and they had actually been getting along a lot better, but she still hadn't invited him back into her bed. He realized, with a jolt, that the thought hadn't even crossed his mind in a long time. Not since, he had first been with Abigail and now just the thought of sleeping with Samantha again suddenly left a bad taste in his mouth. Shaking his thoughts off, he approached her, wondering at the same time what she it was she wanted now.

"Samantha," he said as he rummaged through his drawer for a shirt. "What can I do for you?"

"Do you always have to think that I want something, EJ?" Sami said with a sigh.

In fact, she did want something. She had thinking of ways to bridge the gap between them which seemed to widening ever further. On the surface, everything seemed fine. They were talking again, even being nice to each other, but EJ hadn't tried to work his way back into her bed. It was a fact she found a little worrisome, especially since he didn't really seem to care how all the planning was going for their wedding. Oh, well, she knew that trying to keep Abigail's interest in Nick's disappearance had taken up a lot of his time, but Nick had come back and went off to New York a few weeks after that. She supposed whatever was keeping him so busy and distracted had to do with DiMera Enterprises and that old bastard, Stefano. God, how she hated the DiMeras. She had no use for any of them except for EJ, of course, and Chad.

"I don't want anything," she said as she rose from the bed and came to stand in front of him. "Just wanted to see if you were still heading to Will and Sonny's bachelor party tonight. You rushed out of the office so fast today that I really didn't get a chance to talk to you."

"I'm getting ready to go right now and, yes, I will be on my best behavior, Samantha. Isn't that the real reason for your foray into my room?"

Sami had to admit that was one of the reasons she had come to talk to him. Lucas would be at the party and she knew the history these two shared. Lucas disliked EJ intensely, for obvious reasons, and tolerated him, at best, because of her and Will. Sami just wanted to make sure to remind EJ not to antagonize Lucas. She didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

"EJ, try to get along with Lucas tonight. For Will's sake."

"Samantha, I assure you, I'll be on my best behavior, okay," EJ replied exasperatedly.

"I'm sure you will be, honey, and from what Gabby's said it should be a fun. She, Abigail and Chad really worked hard at it."

"Speaking of Abigail," Sami said a little hesitatingly.

"What about Abigail?"

EJ stopped in the middle of putting on his shoes to look up at her curiously.

"I just know that Chad wants to get back together with her, but I don't know if that's going to happen going by Will told me."

Seeing EJ stiffen, she hastened to add, "I think she's seeing someone."

EJ took deep breath and looked at her questioningly and there was something else in his eyes, but she couldn't point out what it was exactly. It was probably concern for Chad. DiMeras were loyal to a fault and EJ would do about anything to protect his family from hurt, especially Chad.

"What makes you say that? I wasn't aware you and Abigail had become confidants," he said a little sarcastically.

"We're not. I told Will that part of the reason that Chad had come back was for a second chance with Abigail. Then Will said that Abigail had told him, after some pushing, that she was seeing someone. Except-"

"Except what?" he asked her ominously.

"Except that whoever this guy is, he seems to be making her unhappy and he's some mystery guy. At least, that's what Will thinks. He said she didn't seem very happy and she refused to even tell Will his name. I don't know, maybe Chad will be good for her right now. Why are acting like that?"

Sami had finally taken notice of his tone and his reactions to this bit of new about Abigail. She could understand concern for his brother, but he acted almost like this was something personal to him.

"Acting like what?" EJ asked as he headed to the door with her trailing in his wake.

"I don't know you seem a little upset by the whole thing, like it's personal to you or something," she finished breathlessly as she followed him down the stairs.

Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, he turned around and replied, "Because I happen to think Abigail is a good girl and I don't like to hear that she's not being treated right. Maybe, if she's having problems with this guy, then we should encourage Chad to step away."

"Why are you so determined to keep me away from Abby, big brother?"

Whipping around, they both observed Chad leaning against the study door. He had probably heard their entire conversation as they made their way down the stairs. EJ really didn't want to have this discussion in front of Samantha. In fact, he didn't want to have this discussion with either of them about Abigail, especially since Samantha had questioned why he had been so affronted by what she'd said. He didn't like hearing that Abigail was unhappy in any way since he knew that he was the guy in question who was making her unhappy.

"Chad, I really don't want to talk about Abigail with you. Or you, Samantha," he added as he saw her open mouth. "Can we all agree to drop the subject of Abigail?"

"Right, great. Now if you're ready, then let's go," he said to Chad who had finally pushed himself off the door and had come to join them at the foot of the stairs.

EJ observed his brother closely and he was beginning to suspect that something was odd with Chad's behavior lately. There were moments when he had suddenly looked up and caught his brother staring at him angrily and, whenever, he cautioned Chad about leaving Abigail alone for the present, he had seen flashes of rage as well in his eyes. If he didn't know better, he would assume that Chad knew something about him and Abigail, but there was no way he could possibly know that. Still, something was different with his little brother and had been different, he realized with a start, since Will and Sonny's engagement party. Abigail and him had been together that night and he looked at his brother, searchingly, trying to see the truth in his eyes, but Chad's eyes gave nothing away. If Chad knew, EJ reasoned to himself, there was no way he would keep it a secret. By nature, DiMeras were a secretive bunch, especially when they were planning vengeance on someone who had done a wrong to them, but that wasn't who Chad was at all. He was more likely to have confronted him if he had somehow found out. Besides, Chad didn't have it in him to plan the best way to destroy someone who had hurt him. All the same, EJ would be a little more watchful of Chad. With a quick kiss on the cheek for Samantha, EJ turned and followed Chad who had already gone out the door.