Beckett supposed there were worse ways to have her night interrupted but as she and the family had barely cleared away the pasta dishes and contemplated dessert in the distant future, she supposed it was a good time to get interrupted. Though the downside of that, she realized, was that it meant her one-on-one dessert with her husband would have to wait.

But Ashley had sounded desperate and begged Beckett and Adam to meet her at the Starbucks around the corner from her home. She'd told her parents she was going to meet Sarah; when Beckett met Adam outside the specified location both saw the two girls sitting together in a window seat of the coffee shop.

'What do you suppose would have rattled Ashley enough that she'd call us like this?' Adam wondered aloud, and Beckett shook her head.

'Only one way to find out.'

Beckett opened the door, held it for Adam and placed her order for a mint-chip frappuccino for herself and a strawberry-creme for Adam before joining the young women at their table.

'Detective, thank you for coming.' Ashley stirred what Beckett sniffed out as a hot chocolate while Sarah held her hand in the supportive way all women seemed to be born with. 'Both of you. I...I found something at home I think might be important to your case.'

'Okay.'

Ashley hesitated, faltered a little but Sarah gave her friend's hand a squeeze. 'It's okay, Ash, they'll understand.'

'Right. I...you remember I told you my parents have been fighting a lot right?'

'Yes, you said they're more interesting in keeping up personal appearances than helping the police solve your professor's murder,' Adam prompted her.

'Well, they were fighting even louder this afternoon, after you guys left and my dad stormed out, and my mother was crying in the bathroom before she took off too, like I wasn't even there. I went into the bathroom I knew she'd been using and I found this in the trash.'

Ashley reached into a plastic shopping bag and produced the box for a home-pregnancy test and the capped wand that went with it. I read over the instructions and it's pretty damn clear my mother's pregnant.'

'How does that fit in with our investigation, Ashley?' Beckett asked her.

'The digital read out says she's about seven weeks pregnant so I backtracked on the calendar and realized that would have been in the middle of July, when my father was conveniently gone to Switzerland on business for two whole weeks. The same two weeks I was spending most of my afternoons studying for my AP test or volunteering and my mother conveniently had plenty of time to be banging her mystery man.'

'So what do you want us to do with this?'

Now the young woman's eyes filled up and two fat drops rolled down her cheeks. 'I...you said this afternoon if I should remember anything about the afternoon I heard my mother and her lover?'

'Of course, anything you can remember.'

'Shoes. I remember the shoes in the hallway, and...' Ashley dissolved into sobs now, putting her forehead on her folded hands on the table. 'They belonged to Professor Hill.'

'You're sure of that?' Beckett asked her. 'Enough that you'd say it in front of a jury and risk the defense tearing it to pieces?'

'Yes I am.' Ashley lifted her head and sniffled heroically. 'I kept trying to think about how the hell something as simple as overhearing your parent have sex could be so damaging, and it wasn't until I was looking for a pair of my shoes and saw my father's that it came back to me.'

'Can you describe them for me?'

'Black Italian loafers, pound-imprints, no fringe or tassels but they had the unique silver disc on them with the initials WH scripted on them. I remember it because I was thinking how smell and awful my dad's shoes are, why doesn't he ever upgrade his fashion like Professor Hill once in a while.'

'Adam,' Beckett said quietly and Adam stepped away to check with CSU if such shoes had been found at Hill's apartment. When he was out of range she leaned across the table and looked Ashley directly in the eye. 'Does your mother or father know that you know she was sleeping with Professor Hill?'

'Dad still doesn't know about the affair and I bet my mother will try and convince him this baby is his up until he sees its cute black face coming out of her very white vagina.' Ashley sniffled again, and Sarah passed her some napkins. 'My mom was pretty rattled by what you said this afternoon to her, about secrets with the victim but she keeps trying to act like something isn't terribly wrong. I...should I not have told you this?'

'No, quite the opposite. This gives us more reason to look at your mother as a suspect.' As if to prove her point, Beckett dialed Lanie at the morgue - she knew her friend was working nights and would give her any information she could. 'Lanie, it's me.'

'Hey girl! Weren't you supposed to be having some kind of family night tonight?' Lanie asked.

'Stuff on the Hill case came up. Listen who is working DNA and hematology on the Hill case?'

'Micah Sanderson, same as always. Why, what's up?'

'You still have the body?'

'Yeah, it's not going to be released for at least three days according to the letter of the law.'

'Good. Make a note and run it to see if there were any signs the victim had sexual intercourse within the twenty-four hours preceding his death. I've also got some evidence I want to bring by for Micah on the case as well.'

'Sure thing, girl. He's on nights tonight anyways, so you might be able to catch him if you swing by within the hour.'

'Thanks.' Beckett hung up her phone and took both the box and the pee-stick. 'Ashley, I need to take these into evidence, and I need to ask you one more very important question.'

'Okay.'

'When does your mother take her spare?'

'She takes it first thing in the morning so she can check on equipment in the gymansium and the dojo, and...oh no, Detective, no. This is my mom we're talking about!'

'I will need to speak to your mother now, in an official capacity,' Beckett told her, as gently as she could, 'and in the meantime, I would reccommend staying with a friend for a few days until this matter is resolved. Someone you trust.'

'Oh man.' Ashley's eyes went even more red as her tears started up again; beside her Sarah continued to flex her palm against her friend's.

'She'll stay with me Detective,' Sarah said with the kind of quiet authority both Adam and Beckett expected out of someone far more wordly than a sixteen year old girl. They watched her point a figner at Ashley when she opened her mouth to presumably protest. 'No arguments. We'll go together to you place, put together your kit and then you'll stay tonight with me, maybe even tomorrow. You know my parents won't mind.'

'Alright.'

'Detectives was there anything you need more?' Sarah asked, and Adam shook his head.

'No that should do it. We have things to take care of on our end before we can ask more questions,' he told her, and Ashley drained her hot chocolate, dabbed at her mouth with her paper napkin.

'Okay. What...Do you know if we get to go back to school soon?'

'No, we'll be talking to the deputy headmistress and the headmaster before any decisions are made.'

Ashley nodded qu9ietly, then gave a small laugh. 'You know, the last little while I've been using school to escape stress. It's routine and structure, you know? Now school is the stress.'

Beckett nodded, thinking of how after her mother's death and she'd gotten her act together after her near-miss with a pregnancy scare that she'd thrown herself back into her studies and become a model pupil once more. Much the same way her family and her job were her constant, so many kids never realized how school was their constant until the routine was disrupted. She pointed at the items Ashley had put on the table and looked at Adam.

'Still think the kid's responsible?'

'I never said he was, I just think he's involved somehow.'

'Fair enough. Go to my car, get a baggie so we can take this to Micah at the morgue.'