As always, the usual disclaimers apply...

Chapter 9 The Suspect

Eames looked up from her desk when Goren entered the squad room the next morning. He was bearing 2 cups of Starbucks coffee and wearing an apologetic face.

"I'm so sorry I had to run out on you like that yesterday," he said as he set the steaming cup in front of her.

"Apology accepted," Eames smiled at him. She took a careful sip of the hot liquid and sighed as she realized it was her favorite latte. "mmmmmm….apology really accepted."

Goren smiled as he watched her enjoy the coffee. He took off his coat, hung it on the rack behind her and moved around their desks. Pulling out his chair, he sat down and opened his binder.

"Care to fill me in on what you learned after I left," he asked.

Eames decided it would be best not to ask about Frank at this time; her partner was in a fairly good mood, and she wanted to take advantage of it and move forward with this case. "Well, Ms.Wainwright filed the missing person's report. It seems that Laura's husband has been out of the country on business. He got in late last night, so he should be available to come in for an interview. Ms. Wainwright was watching Laura's son while she went running in the park that morning, and when she wasn't back by 9, Ms. Wainwright became worried and called the police."

Bobby was busy scribbling notes in his binder and didn't look up as he asked his next question. "What about phone calls and financial records? Have we learned anything there?"

"Phone calls show normal activity. All the calls she made were to places you'd expect: Overseas, presumably to her husband; the office where she works; her parents; her girlfriends; the nanny; several stores, and the bank. Nothing strange or unusual. Her credit card statements seem OK, too. Nothing popped out at me there." She handed over the phone records and credit card statements before he could even ask.

"I did notice something I wanted to ask Mr. Wainwright about when he comes in later today. Both Laura and Trey have life insurance policies in the amount of 5 million dollars."

At this information, Goren looked up and whistled. He leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, and stared at the ceiling. "What about the husband's financials? Any odd bank transactions or credit card charges?"

"No, I haven't seen anything there yet. I just started on those when you walked in."

The two spent the next hour poring over Trey Wainwright's phone records, bank records and credit card statements. Again, nothing out of the ordinary jumped out at either one of them.

"This case is very puzzling," Goren finally said. "Neither one seems to have any reason to want the other one dead, yet here we are with Laura's violently murdered body in lying in the morgue, and all of Manhattan demanding her killer's head on a platter."

"I'll call down to the morgue and see if Rodgers has found anything else," Eames said. "Why don't you call the labs and see if they have any results for us yet?"

Eames was just finishing up with the ME when her partner suddenly sat up straight and looked at her excitedly. "You did? What else? That's great! Can you send all of those reports up here right away? Thank you."

Eames looked quizzically at Goren.

"The lab found traces of chlorine on her clothes. The kind used for swimming pools. They also got a hit off AIFIS on the fingerprints. We might be able to wrap this case up by the end of today."

"Well, that is good news," replied Eames. She approached her next question cautiously; unsure if this was the right time. "While we're waiting for the reports to get here, can I ask you a question?" When he didn't respond, but merely looked at her, she pressed on. "How is Frank? We never caught back up with each other yesterday, and I've been meaning to ask you."

Goren sighed and ran his hand through his graying curls. "Frank is Frank. He got himself beat up pretty bad in a bar fight night before last. He was close to death when they found him. The doctors say he'll be fine, but he's going to have a long hard recovery. His spleen and liver were bruised, 6 ribs were broken, his left hand was smashed……" Goren's voice trailed off, and then he swallowed hard and continued.

"His legs were badly scraped and bruised, but nothing broken. He's in ICU right now. They had him in exploratory surgery when I got there. They were checking for internal bleeding and trying to determine if he would need to have his spleen removed. The spleen and liver should heal and everything else looked okay….

"No one knows how long he'll be in the hospital this time. His blood alcohol level was really high. They were almost not able to do the surgery because of it, but he kept showing signs of internal bleeding….it was his spleen, but they were able to clamp that off and stitch the vessel……."

He was looking down at his desk with a pained expression on his face. When he looked back up at her, there were tears in his eyes. "I can't keep doing this, Eames. I can't keep rescuing him if he's not going to do his part…."

Eames looked at him understandingly. "But you can't NOT rescue him, either, Bobby. That's not you. Your family means too much to you."

Once again, Bobby found himself utterly amazed at his partner's insight and understanding of his situation. How had he gone for so long without realizing that about her? "Thank you," he said to her.

"For what," she asked him, a little confused

"For being so understanding about things. Things with me and my family, I mean. I really appreciate it."

Eames was caught off-guard by his remark and didn't know what to say. She gave him a feeble half-smile and looked down at the desk. Goren watched her for a minute more, then he, too, looked back down at the notes on his desk.

"Bobby," Alex said softly.

"Huh?" He didn't look up, but kept reading his notes.

"Bobby," Alex said, a little more forcefully this time.

When Bobby looked up at her, Alex continued. "Bobby, have you told Captain Ross about Frank? Do you need time off this afternoon to go to the hospital?"

"I called him from the hospital yesterday. He said I could take all the time I need, but there's not much I can do, really. Frank is in good hands and just needs time to heal. I do want to go by this afternoon during visiting hours, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind, Bobby. I'll even go with you if you want me to," Alex told him.

Before Bobby could answer her, a technician from the lab approached them. He was carrying a manila envelope. "Detective Goren," the young man asked Bobby. When Bobby looked up, the man handed him the envelope. "These are the lab results you requested."

"Thank you," Bobby said, taking the folder from him and looking over at Eames. "Well, let's see what these can tell us," he said, pulling the papers out of the envelope and placing them on the desk.

"This is interesting." Bobby indicated the sheet on top with a wave of his hand. "The blood results show two blood types present; one is the victim's, and the other is the assailant's. The assailant is Type O."

He flipped to the next page. Eames moved around to his side of the desk to look over his shoulder. "The victim's blood work is all normal; tox screen is negative except for birth control pills, nothing unusual there. Here's something interesting; the other blood sample, the one belonging to the assailant, popped positive for cocaine and alcohol." He handed the page to Alex.

"Cocaine and alcohol that early in the morning? Must be a hard-core user. Y ou said something about AIFIS," Eames asked him.

"Yeah, I've got it right here. James Murphy, 27, white male, sexual assault, attempted rape, and rape. Five years ago." He looked up at Eames. "There's a restraining order on his rap sheet from 7 years ago. It was filed by Laura Edwards."

"The victim," Eames said stunned. "I think we need to pay Mr. Murphy a visit. Don't you?"