It's Not the Way I Planned.

The morning after, as Dani pulls over in front of the LAPD building, Charlie opens the passenger door and enters the car.

"Don't say anything" Reese reminds him, while staring straight ahead.

There is a lot of traffic along the way to the crime scene, and they're forced to go at a snail's pace.

After having spent fifteen minutes hearing horns, radio news, good music, bad music and Charlie masticating something like two apples, a pear and a banana, Dani turns the radio off and grumbles.

"Okay. Stop not saying anything, but, above all, stop chewing!" She turns to him and watches as a smile of victory appears on his lips.

Reese makes a grimace.
"Oh my god. You knew it!" is her incredulous comment.

"What?" mumbles Crews, his mouth still half filled with banana.

"You knew I'd have asked you to stop not talking just to make you stop chomping that fruit!"
Hearing herself makes Dani think that sometimes she sounds just like Crews.

"You are starting to sound like me, you know?" Charlie manages to say after having gulped down the last bite.

Her dark glance tells him he's touched a raw nerve.

"Okay. I'll stop not saying anything." Dani rolls her eyes and Charlie continues "I saw Tidwell this morning, before you picked me up." He pauses on purpose.

She doesn't comment.

Charlie nods.
"He was still wearing the clothes he wore yesterday…you know, the suit you bought him, the one which he looks good in, the one I'd like to know-"

"-Crews…"

"Sorry." An apologizing gesture with his hand "I know: 'go straight to the point'."

"No," she makes a face, "I'm not sure I want to hear this."

"But you have to." He raises his eyebrows, " Not only he was still wearing the suit he wore yesterday, but I think he had an hangover." Charlie pauses to make sure she's listening. " I don't think he went home yesterday night…"

Dani frowns.

"Yes." He confirms the word with a nod, "Reese, he knows everything. I think it's better for him if you talk to him. I mean, it's better for both of you if you talk to him! Just…just look at you this morning: you're pale, you're worried, you're-"

"-he came to my apartment yesterday evening," Dani says while taking a bend too fast.

It's Charlie's turn to frown.

She corrects the curve.
"He came to tell me he knows I'm pregnant, I told him it won't be a problem soon, and then…" she pauses

"…then?" he asks

Dani purses her mouth.

"Then what?" Crews presses, fearing the worst.

She pulls over near the crime scene and turns the engine off, leans back against the headrest still avoiding looking at him.
"Then he started to say…things…" an indefinite gesture with her hand underlines the deliberate vagueness she's put in her words.

"Things?" Charlie tilts his head, turning in his seat , a questioning look in his eyes.

She knows she's told him to stop repeating her last words because it's really annoying, but right now she simply hasn't even the strength to think about it.

"Yeah, you know…things…" she makes a grimace trying to reframe the question.

"Okay." He nods yes patiently. "Things. Like, for example…"

Just then Bobby appears at the window.
"Here you are, finally! Miss Winterspoon and Mr. Robinson are waiting for you in the house, as you two asked them to, and I think they're becoming nervous, so, if you want to catch them…" he gestures towards the house with his thumb.

"We're coming!" Reese says opening the door.

Crews blinks once, shakes his head and exits the car door too.

xxx xxx xxx

These are the facts: the murderer hasn't planned to kill the victims, it was a sudden rage, probably raised by an unforeseen event.
"He" or "she" used a knife, a weapon that both men and women could have used.
The knife has every sort of fingerprints on it, but Miss Winterspoon's and Jake's were the most definite.

Mafalda Winterspoon, the eccentric middle aged suspect, had an affair with the dead woman, and it ended badly a year before. Then recently the two of them have apparently resumed relations: they have discovered they can be only friends, after all.
Jake Robinson's mug shot has been pinned to the board in the station since day 1. He was so easy to suspect: a bank robber, he did time twice in five year and he was involved in organized crime, too, as drug dealer. And he was the dead man's best friend.

Now Crews and Reese know the dead woman was expecting a baby, this information leads them to a new track: did Mafalda and Jake know about the pregnancy? Was that the motive for the killing?

Their plan could be summed up like this: put the pressure on, set the trap, lock them up.
The best way to make them nervous was to ask them to meet in the victim's house: blood and outlines of bodies work wonders sometimes.
At first, the questioning was routine, but Dani and Charlie weren't prepared for the obvious surprise Mafalda and Jake showed when they learned the female victim had been pregnant.

The two Detectives exchange a look.

"Do you think there is actually someone who knows she was pregnant?" Charlie asks them, frowning.

"I don't know…" Mafalda answers slowly while Jake shakes his head.

"Do you think one of the victims could have been not…" Dani struggles to find the right word but then decides that simpler is better "…happy about the pregnancy?"

Charlie looks questioningly at her.

Jake looks at Mafalda."They weren't married, but they were a couple." He states.

"Why would a happy couple not want a baby?" Miss Winterspoon asks puzzled.

"I don't know…" Dani starts saying, knowing perfectly well she does know it indeed, "…problems about money, or freedom, or fear for the future, for the commitments, for mutual feelings…"

Mafalda shrugs her shoulders.
"I don't know that. But one thing I know for sure: they had the only thing they need to be happy even with an unexpected baby."

Dani feels like she needs the end of this sentence like she needs air.
"And what would it be?"

"Love."

xxx xxx xxx

They sit on the hood of their unmarked car.
Charlie is eating some mango and Dani is staring at the beautiful landscape in front of them. This is their usual way to talk about the cases.

"Maybe the knife wasn't the first weapon…" Crews starts to say, raising an eyebrow and putting a slice of mango in his mouth, chewing pensively.

"I don't understand…" Reese frowns, looking at him.

"I mean," he manages to say swallowing the bite "maybe the murderer killed or…subdued them both in some way and then stabbed them with the knife, using the gloves, leaving no fingerprints on it-"

"-knowing we'd have investigated only the owners of the fingerprints we'd have found..." Reese completes his sentence.
Then she tilts her head and raises the index finger "…that means the murderer actually knew the knife had Mafalda's and Jake's fingerprints on it-"

"-and that means we have to find someone who has something against not only the victims, but even against Mafalda and Jake" ends Crews, nodding yes slowly.
He looks at her.

"Yes…" she's nodding too while turning slowly her face toward him.

Their eyes meet and the two of them stare at each other for a moment.

"He said he loves me." Dani finds herself confessing out of the blue.

Charlie looks at her for a while, then smiles.
"I'm not surprised, I imagined that."

She doesn't look away.
"I left him."

He tilts his head, closing briefly the eyes.
"I'm not surprised either."

Dani nods yes repeatedly tightening her lips.
Charlie knows her so well: he's the only one who would react like this, give her support instead of questioning her sanity.

"Crews. Do you think it's true?"

"What?"

"That thing Mafalda said…" Dani starts to explain with great effort "I mean…he loves me…" she gulps "…that's really all I need?"

Charlie has no doubt.
"No."

"No?" She stares questioningly at him, knowing that he's going to say something she doesn't expect.

"No-" he continues, "-you loving him…" Charlie watches as Dani frowns "…that's all you might need."

TBC