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Since he was waiting for a report from his detective, Paul Drake, Mason decided to accompany Tragg to visit Hamilton Burger after the odious task of booking Alexandra Mullen. Tragg had warned Burger that the arrest was coming out of respect for the younger man he'd worked with for so long now. Tragg though was rather miffed that he'd been nearly dead last to find out about a certain relevant aspect to this case that had provided a motive. If Tragg hadn't known Burger to be a better man than that, he might have wondered if Burger was in on it; that is if Alexandra was guilty in the first place. Still, Burger hadn't told him about the baby…

They found Burger at his apartment. It was neat and tidy; a tad spartan though, much like Burger himself. The normally uptight, upstanding district attorney had apparently decided to overindulge on this particular occasion. He was halfway through a bottle of whiskey and what appeared to be a new pack of cigarettes. Mason and Tragg looked at each with concern as they entered the apartment.

The three of them exchanged the usual niceties, but it was clear that Lt. Tragg couldn't wait to interrogate Burger about why Burger hadn't said anything to him about becoming a father.

"Do you know what that looks like now?!" Tragg said incredulously. "If I had any evidence that you could possibly be implicated with Alexandra, you'd be right down there next to her!"

"He knows, Tragg," Mason said softly, hoping to calm Tragg down. It was unusual to see these two so downtrodden and emotional. Or at each other's throats. Even seeing them lose case after case to him, Mason had never seen such defeated body language among either one of them.

Burger took a long drag off his half finished cigarette and exhaled a large smoke plume into the living room.

"I just found out Friday night myself, Tragg!" Burger said with frustration and thinly concealed anger. Granted, Alexandra and I aren't exactly proud of ourselves for being in the situation we're in, but we weren't trying to hide it from you. I felt it was best to refrain from saying anything until she and I had made some decisions first. For obvious reasons, it was harder for her to conceal it from her friends at work."

Tragg let out a soft sigh. "I- I'm sorry, Hamilton. It just works against you two right now and I'm not thrilled about that."

"I know, Tragg. Don't worry about it, okay? I'm sure Perry will pull a rabbit out of his hat again somehow."

Mason smiled a bit smugly at that, though he felt no amusement at the circumstances. "I'll do my best, Hamilton. Are you going to be alright tonight?"

"I'll be fine, Perry. Don't worry about me. It's Alexandra who needs you right now."

W^^^W^^^W

Mason arrived back at his office to find Drake waiting for him, cigarette in hand as usual.

"So I talked with Evelyn Walsh again. She did overhear this Bobby Mackey kid tell his counselor, Ruby Avery that Burger was the district attorney who prosecuted his older brother's case and had him sent to prison. She had been sitting at the front desk when Burger arrived and Mackey and Avery exited Avery's office."

Mason smiled slightly. "Alright. I'll make arrangements to have Mackey called as a witness. Tying him to the crime though… Keep watching Mackey, Paul. I need something more concrete than a theory."

"You got it," Drake said as he rose from his chair and disappeared in a hurry.

Della strolled in a few minutes later with take out. "No rest for the weary, I take it?" She chuckled as she set up the table near the window quickly. And yes, you're eating before you run off to your next adventure."

"You're always thinking of me, Della. And who said anything about a next adventure?" He smiled in that innocent way he had.

"Uh huh," she said, giving him a knowing smirk as she finished laying out dinner. It had gotten to be a habit for them to eat practically all meals at work anymore.

"Della, you've gone all out this time. What's the occasion?"

This time it was Della who smiled innocently. "Does there have to be an occasion, Perry?"

"No, I suppose not," the stocky man said as he helped her with her chair and then sat down across from her. He regarded Della for a long moment. The long hours working together day in and day out had made her a steady, comfortable, and trustworthy companion. There were days though when Mason felt that given how much of their personal lives they sacrificed for their work that it wouldn't hurt to become romantically involved themselves. The amount of time they spent in each other's company practically guaranteed it would happen sometime. But then he thought about the hell that Burger was going through right now and wondered if he could successfully navigate the treacherous emotional waters of enduring something like that with Della involved.

He wanted for both he and Della to be happy. It was a conundrum that made his head hurt.

W^^^W^^^W

The next morning Drake reappeared in Mason's office.

"Already?" Mason smirked.

"Already," Drake confirmed seriously. "I followed Mackey last night. I tracked him right back to the building that Avery's body was found. He was searching the parking lot and around the building for something. If he's the culprit, he might be looking for something he's missing and thinks now that the fuss had died down he can look for it. Fortunately, I got to it before he did. I think."

Drake handed over a small black address book. "I can't say for certain that's what he was looking for, but it was the only thing that seemed to be worth retrieving. I found that in the grass just outside Alexandra's office window."

Mason took the address book and flipped through it. "It looks like it might be Alexandra's, but I'll have to ask her. And Mackey didn't see you looking around there."

"I doubt it. I was stuck at a red light for a few minutes, but when I caught up to him at the building he was searching near the front door. Whatever it was he was looking for, I didn't want him finding it so he could get rid of it so I pulled into the parking lot and the kid greeted me and pretended to not realize the office was closed. He went back to his car and took off. I didn't see him swing by again."

Della frowned thoughtfully. "Why would he even think to go back there though? Even to look for something? Wouldn't he have assumed with all the investigations going on there recently that something he'd lost there would have already been found by someone else?"

"Hope?" Mason pondered thoughtfully. "Hope that if it had been lost outside it might have been overlooked since all the action took place inside Alexandra's office."

"But Alexandra herself could have lost that address book." Drake said. "I don't know for sure that is what the kid was after."

Mason smiled enigmatically. "I'll just have to ask Alexandra then. Thanks, Paul."