Chapter Seven:

Riley's words came to haunt her later that night as she stared down at the small face of the eighteen year old girl. They'd found out a lot about the poor beauty in the past couple of hours. Her car, full of half the girl's life, was also carrying a few missing pieces of the puzzle. Cassie was a note taker. She had notes about everything from scheduling time to do her laundry to a late night meeting with someone she called 88. The meeting was scheduled in the back parking lot of the warehouse where her car had been found.

"Now if we only had some idea who that could be," she mused out loud.

"Oh, come on. You know we never get the easy ones, those go to the slackers and the kiss asses." He rubbed his hand down her arm, feeling the chill on the skin bared by the tee shirt she'd managed to pull out of her locker to go with the jeans she had unearthed. The morgue was cold, purposefully kept that way to put a temporary hold on decomposition and smell. Even so, the scent of death lingered above the heavy duty air cleaners that ran 24/7.

The morgue always gave her the creeps, the black vinyl bags on top of gurneys lining the walls of the hallways made her think of horror flicks she had watched as a kid where the dead always sat up and walked. That thought sent another shudder through her slim frame.

"Yeah, but just once I'd like to have a bloody knife with a good set of latents on it and a scumbag of an ex husband to match them to." She pulled away from him and walked around the metal table their victim was laid out upon, her eyes taking in every detail of every wound. She studied the pattern, the slight curve upward at the end of every wound stroke, the different areas that were given the most heavy cuts. Now that she was laying here, the blood and gore cleaned from her body, she didn't quite look real. But the wounds were real. He had left the genitals and the breasts alone, preferring to use his hands from the looks of the bruises.

"Look at the size of those hand prints," Buffy said suddenly, startling Riley.

Riley stepped up to the side of the table, staring at the girl's naked breasts. He brought his own hand up, cupping his hand about an inch from the girl's skin.

"Okay, now I know I've seen it all."

The voice startled Riley- who started violently, dropped his hand behind his back and quickly stepped away from the metal table. He turned and saw the coroner, a man who was known for his sarcastic sense of humor and irreverent attitude. "Buffy was just..." He clamped his mouth shut, knowing anything he said would make the situation worse for him.

"Riley, what you and Buffy do on your off time is your own business, but no kinky stuff with my stiffs, okay?" Dr. Rupert Giles laughed as the blonde man turned bright red. And then he turned to the body. "Yeah, that guy had big mitts. Those bruises are something." He put his own hand, now safely covered in a latex glove, over the top of the bruises, his fingers not quite meeting the ends of them. "He had to really squeeze to get bruises that deep and formed in that short amount of time."

Jenna stepped closer, her mouth still twitching from trying not to laugh at Riley's face as he watched Dr. Giles manhandle their victim. "So what killed her doc?"

"The head wound wasn't serious enough to do anything but make her dizzy. None of these wounds are deep enough to kill right away, even the ones that exposed her intestines. So without doing any further work on her, off the cuff, I'd say it was blood loss. He sliced enough so she bled to death." He bent over to study the gaping wounds on the girl's abdomen. "I'd say your weapon was a very long, very sharp single edged knife with a slight curve on the end, see the upward slant?" He pointed it out for Buffy, standing back a bit for her to get a good look. "Now, mind you, this is just preliminary and I haven't had a chance to become better acquainted with Miss Newton yet. If I were to hazard a guess..."

"Please Doc. Your guess is better than mine at any point." Buffy did the obligatory ego stroke knowing her partner was still too red faced to be able to handle it.

"Okay. The head wound was the first shot, first blow to incapacitate. It didn't knock her out but made her dizzy and disoriented. After that, I'd say he stripped her and raped her. Pretty brutally too, considering the damage that I can see. First swipe of the knife happened after the rape, which gave the bruises time to form. Then they came fast and furious while she tried to get away. Finally, she lost too much blood and passed out. See this..." He pointed to a spot under her arm where a small slice could be seen. "Hit her brachial artery. He had to know what he was doing. Hit that, she bleeds out in just a few minutes time."

Buffy backed away from the table, shaking her head. They had a brutal killer who had intimate knowledge of the human body. "Thanks doc," she slipped off her gloves with a snap and wadded them up. "Can you get us copy of your reports, preliminary and final as soon as possible?"

"For you, anything. My lab is wide open for you." He grinned.

She smiled back and started to leave, listening to Riley's grumble and the clanking of tools as Dr. Giles began to work.

The door was just shutting behind them when she heard the first whirring noises of the bone saw begin to cut. She shuddered again. "Ick. I just couldn't do that job."

"But his lab is open wide to you anytime," Riley countered, his tone sarcastic. "He means his pants are open wide to you anytime. Dirty old man."

She flashed her badge at the guard at the gate and he buzzed them out, new procedures since a rash of organ stealing had been going on in the building. After clearing the gate, she turned and glared at him. "You seem awfully interested in any man who is interested in me all of a sudden. Or is even nice to me. You got a problem with me dating, Riley? Talking to other males in this world?" She poked a finger into his chest to emphasize her point.

He rubbed his chest and glared down at the diminutive beauty. "Nah, you date who you want to. I don't got a say in your life. I'm just your partner."

"Oh, don't you just your partner me." She turned and stomped towards the door, seeing the interested look in the guard and the older woman behind the glassed receptionist desk's faces. She threw them open and stepped out into the fresh air, made to smell even cleaner coming from the smell of death they had just been in.

She got to his car, a late model Monte Carlo, and slammed her hands down on the roof.

He threw her a murderous look, checking his paint job for scratches and the body for dents, then glared at her. "Okay, if you're mad at me, you take it out on me. You can pick up a baseball bat and whale the hell out of me, but don't ever touch my car like that again."

She glared right back. "I don't give you problems when you want to take out Eve, even though I know you can do better, don't start in on me and my dates."

"Fine." He popped the lock on his door and climbed in, hitting the door locks for her side as well.

"Fine," she sat in the seat, slammed the door shut and clicked the seat belt into place.

Riley drove at a break neck speed the few blocks back to the precinct, pulling into his parking spot and hitting his brakes at the last possible minute, knowing how much she hated when he drove like that.

They sat there for a second, staring at the brick wall in front of them without speaking.

"I'm so..."

"List..."

They both spoke at the same time. Riley smiled, his mustache crinkling around his firm lips. "Me first?" he offered.

"Yeah, okay."

"I had no right to get antsy about your date with the doc. I just don't want to see you get all hot about some guy and have him mess with you." He reached out and tucked a wisp of her hair behind her ear.

"Apology accepted." Buffy said and then sat back and smiled.

"Well, don't you have something to say to me?" He let his big hand slide down and rest on her shoulder.

"Such as?" She gave him her most innocent expression of confusion.

"Buffy," he growled.

"Okay, geesh. You can be such a child some days." He growled again, his hand tightening just slightly on her shoulder. "Okay, damn. I'm sorry I beat up on your precious piece of junk car."

"Piece of junk!" The outrage on his rugged face had her breaking into peals of laughter, unable to contain it anymore. She put her hand on top of his and squeezed as he started spouting curses at her.

"Okay!" she chuckled. "It's not a piece of junk. It's the sexiest heman car any man could possibly be lucky enough to have. And you are a God when you drive it."

"Better," but he sent her a glare anyway, which was softened by a smile he couldn't contain anymore either.

"So what have you got against Angel anyway?" she asked as he started to get out of the car.

"Do we have to go there?"

"Huh? What do you mean? You have to have a reason for not wanting me to go out with him." She tipped her head to the side, her green eyes quizzical under their thick lashes.

"No," he shook his head at her and grabbed the latch, "this is a heart attack question." He started out the door of his car again.

"A what?" Buffy grabbed his arm and yanked him back.

"A heart attack question." He sighed heavily and sank back down in the seat reluctantly. "It's a question where I'm better off having a heart attack than answering because either way, I'm in for it."

Buffy laughed at that, especially since he actually looked as if he would prefer be struck down dead than get into this conversation. "All right. You're off the hook. But we still need to get over to Cassie Newton's apartment and check it out." She folded her hands in her lap and waited for him to start the car back up.

He drove at a much more sedate pace through almost nonexistent traffic and to the quad of apartment buildings five stories tall that overlooked a huge shopping center. It was one of those places that claimed "One stop shopping". Most of the apartments were dark considering it was a week night and close to midnight.

Riley pulled up in front of the right set of apartments and turned off his car. "God, I hate this part of the job."

"Yeah." She stared out the front window at the lit doorway. "We might as well get at it." Buffy climbed out of the car, slamming the door tight and hearing the werp sound as he locked it and turned on his car alarm. She stood at the door and looked at the buttons sitting next to it. A small slip of paper with the hand written name H. Webster was taped next to the button for 3B. She looked at Riley and then pressed the button, holding it down for a second longer than she probably should have but it was late and this person could be asleep.

Three seconds later, a very loud male voice burst from the speaker at them. "God dammit! What?"

Buffy looked up at Riley who just shrugged, being the big man that he was and waved his hand towards the button. "Ladies first."

"Thanks so damn much." She pushed the button and spoke into the receiver. "Mr. Webster, this is Detective Buffy Summers and my partner Detective Riley Finn. Does a Cassandra Newton live here?" She let go of the button and muttered under her breath, "Detective chicken shit is more like it."

"What's she done now?" the voice asked rudely.

"She does live here then, sir?"

"Yeah. What's she done?" he asked again.

"May we come up sir?" Her voice was polite but firm. They needed to get into that apartment.

"Listen, I got work in the morning and..."

"We promise to keep this as brief as we can sir, but we need to come up and talk to you."

Finally, after what seemed minutes but had to have been only seconds, the buzzer on the door sounded and the lock clicked open. Riley grabbed the door and held it for Buffy and then they trudged up the roughly carpeted stairs. The hallway on the third floor smelled like cabbage and onions and as they passed by apartment A, they could hear the thin noises of someone's TV playing inside.

"I always wondered what these places looked like," Riley said staring at the shoddy carpet and dingily painted walls as he raised his hand to knock on apartment B. His fist landed once and the door was pulled open quickly, startling both of them so that Buffy took a step back, her hand automatically going to her shoulder rig and the grip of her 9 mm.

The man who opened the door was looking a tad rough and unkempt. He stood there in a pair of pajama bottoms and a tee shirt, both of which were stained with brown splotches as if he'd dropped a cup of coffee on them and never bothered to clean it up. He stared at the pair of them, taking a quick look and then coming back for a second longer perusal of Buffy's lovely face and body. The look in his eyes made her wish she had pulled her 9 on him.

"Mr. Webster? Sir, we need to come in and speak to you."

Buffy held open her badge to identify herself without being asked seeing Riley do the same thing. The man turned and led the way through an apartment that held all the cheer and appeal of a boy's dorm in college. And smelled almost as bad. Socks lay on the floor, dirty dishes sitting next to an ancient recliner in the corner, a plethora of sports magazines were sprawled haphazardly over a lopsided coffee table. She took a cautious seat on a creaky, sagging couch cushion when it was offered and Riley perched gingerly beside her.

"What's this all about?" Holden Webster asked, slumping in the recliner and grabbing a pack of cigarettes off a filthy end table.

"What's your relationship with Cassandra Newton, sir?" Riley asked.

"She's my girlfriend. Why? What kind of trouble is she in now?" He heaved a huge sigh, lit the cigarette that was sticking out of his mouth and dragged in a lungful of smoke.

Buffy looked at Riley and then sighed herself. He was useless when it came to this stuff. "Sir, I'm sorry to have to tell you this but Cassandra was killed tonight." She sat quietly and waited for his reaction.

"Aw, shit." He inhaled more smoke and let it stream out of his mouth as he sat forward and stared into his hands. "Killed? Like a car accident?" He looked up at Buffy for the answer.

"No, sir." she said gently. "She was murdered." It was always hard to know just how much to tell a loved one when breaking the news.

Buffy left it at that.

"Shit," he said again, shaking his head. "I told her she shouldn't go tonight." He looked up at Buffy. "That guy killed her didn't he? That guy that she went to meet tonight?"

"Did you know this 'guy'?" she asked quietly, not answering his question.

"No, she came home this afternoon from work all excited. Said this guy came in and told her she was just what he needed for his magazine layout, that he was going to make her rich off her face alone." He laughed ruefully. "Like that could happen. I mean, not that she wasn't pretty but this is real life. I tried to tell her, but she wouldn't listen to me. Stupid kid."

"Where did she work, sir?"

"Next door, at the Magic store. She cashiered."

"And this guy met her through her cashiering?"

"Yeah. She said he went through her lane and thought she was really pretty. He told her he wanted to take her picture and that he would be somewhere tonight to meet her." He blew a long plume of smoke into the air. "When I laughed, she got mad and said she was leaving."

"She didn't mention any names or where they were meeting? Anything like that?" Buffy took out her notebook and copied down a few facts.

"Nope. She just said he was going to make her famous and told me to go to hell. I told her to keep quiet when she came home tonight and if she fucked him, not to bother coming home." He ran his hand through his hair and then over his face.

"Do you mind if we look around a bit, check through her things?"

"She took most of her things with her when she left. I didn't think she was planning on coming back. I threw what else I found in that garbage bag over there." He sat back in his chair and stubbed out the cigarette, lighting another one. "You guys can have it. Listen, she don't have any family, her parents were killed when she was a baby. I don't want to sound like no bad guy or nothing but..." he tried to smile a little as he gestured around the room. "As you can see, I don't live in any palace. What happens to her if I don't claim her body?"

Riley felt gorge rise in his throat. He felt an almost irrepressible urge to slam the guy through the wall. He heard Buffy talking and got up to walk around the small apartment, poking his nose into the other rooms and looking around a little to take time to get his temper under control.

"The county will cover the cost of burial, sir, if no one claims the body."

"Oh, that's okay then." He looked down at her hands that were held stiffly on her lap. "You know, you look like an older version of her in some ways. But not too many. But much better. Prettier. You married?"

Riley couldn't believe what he heard. He stormed back into the room with the intent of picking the asshole up by the tattered tee shirt and seeing how many hits it would take to break the guy's nose. Buffy got up and moved so she stood right in his path, stopping him. "We'll take her stuff now, sir." She pulled one of her business cards out of her wallet and handed it to him, trying not to shiver as he purposefully touched her hand with his when he took it. "If you happen to remember anything else, you can reach myself or Detective Finn here at that number."

"I'll do that, Buffy is it?"

She gave Riley a quick shove that had him turning and picking up the bag and then headed towards the door. "Thanks for your time, sir." She couldn't help the sarcasm and disrespect that laced into the last sir.

They went out the door and Buffy could almost feel the jerk's eyes on her ass as she hurried out of there. For the second time tonight she had a case of the creeps, first at the morgue and now here, but this time was worse. "How can anyone act like that when told their girlfriend was dead?" she muttered hotly. "I mean, you'd even give your Eve chick a decent burial and maybe a tear or two because her impressive bust line was gone. What a fucking asshole."

"Well, hell yeah," Riley said as he shoved the trash bag into his trunk and got into the car. "That rack's worth a tear or two when it won't be around anymore. I mean, Buf, come on. You have to admit, it's pretty damn hot."

"Pig."

"Yep, and got the badge to prove it," he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

She laughed as he started the car and headed back downtown.

He dropped her off at her apartment since there wasn't much else they could get done tonight, waiting until she used her key to get in and he saw the elevator close behind her and then he took off for home.

Buffy's head had barely touched her pillow when she was startled awake by a loud knocking on her door. She got up and trudged through her apartment, wearing the tank top, boxers and socks she'd managed to pull on before falling into bed, rubbing her eyes and yawning hugely. Without even checking the peep hole she opened the door. "Dammit Riley. I just got into bed."

"Well, I could go back with you if you like."

Buffy's eyes popped wide open at the sound of Angel's voice. She had a smart assed answer on the tip of her tongue when she saw he was holding out the bear that she had forgotten in his car the night before. And then she had to grin. The doll was so silly looking with his oversized star and felt brimmed hat. She took him from Angel and turned, motioning for the doctor to come into the apartment. The bear went on the back of her couch along with a couple of others she had there.

"All he needs is a set of bear handcuffs," Angel said.

"Yeah, and a couple of bear prostitutes to bust. So what are you doing here? And how the hell do you keep getting up here without getting buzzed in?" she walked over and pushed him down onto the couch, giving into impulse and following him down to snuggle into his neck. She was tired and he smelled so good, she buried her nose inhaling deeply.

"Well, I realized we'd never set up a rain check date. I could have set it up with the officer you sent over to tell me you were going downtown but I figured that just didn't have the same flare as doing it in person." His arms came up around her, holding her sleep warmed body next to his. "And if I tell you how I get in, I might not get to do this anymore." She was tickling the side of his face with her mussed hair. Angel scooted down on the couch a little, getting more comfortable as she murmured something almost incomprehensible into his neck. He grinned at the little noises she was making as she grouched at his movements. "I think I need to wake you up more often. This is so different from what I'm used to with you."

"After the night we just had," she moaned a little and shifted her rounded bottom on his lap a little, feeling him jerk under her. She had to try hard to keep the smile out her voice as she finished, "I was lucky to get any sleep at all."

"They said on the news that it was bad. They had a fantastic shot of you walking up to the crime scene all dressed up in that black dress and heels, with that get out of my way and don't fuck with me attitude."

Buffy picked up her head and stared at him for a second before putting it back down and grouching, "You're really wrecking my mood here, Doc."

He laughed and squeezed her close for a second, enjoying the soft curves and taut toned body against his. "So do you want to try dinner again?"

She let her fingers walk up the front of his shirt playing with the buttons as she went. She could hear his heart beating under her ear and tried to remember the last time just that sound had made her quite so content. Was she falling for the doctor? "We could do it here," she offered.

"You cook?"

Buffy picked up her head and gave him another dirty look at the incredulous sound in his voice. "I'll have you know that my mother taught me how to cook. It was the only thing she ever really got me to do that was feminine since I had three older cousins who thought they were more like brothers. I mostly just tagged along with them and my dad, but she forced me to learn to cook, and I happen to enjoy doing it." A huge yawn ruined the affronted look she was trying to affect and she belatedly covered her mouth. "Sorry," she grinned at him. "What time is it anyway?"

He looked around the room cautiously for a second until she asked him what he was doing. "Looking for your gun, you don't happen to have it on you, do you?"

"Uh, no. Why?"

"Because I don't want you to shoot me when you find out what time it is. I got called in to pull a double today. It's only 4:30."

She looked at him for a second, trying to figure out if he was kidding her or not. "So what time do you have to be in?"

"I got about five more minutes and then I have to leave," he said, squeezing her tight again for a second before standing with her still in his arms. He aimed in the direction she had disappeared in before and carried her back to her bedroom, laying her gently in the middle of the tangled covers.

"You know," she said as she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down on top of her, "I've had this daydream where you do that, but usually I'm wearing something a little less comfortable than what I have on now and you aren't planning on leaving anytime soon."

"You daydream about me, huh?" He let his weight rest on his elbows and stared down at the inviting elfin face beneath him. "That's just got to mean something, doesn't it? Maybe I should ask one of the shrinks at the hospital."

"You know, Doc, sometimes you pick the wrong things to think about in a statement. So why don't you just shut up and shut me up while you're at it." She tugged on his neck and pulled him close, feeling his lips settle over hers to tease for an instant.

He pulled his head back, gazing down into her sleepy green eyes before kissing her again. This time he didn't stop with a quick touch but took his time, learning the shape of her lips, the way they tasted in the corners, felt as she twisted her mouth under his. When she opened beneath him, his tongue swept in, drinking of the dark pleasure of her mouth, tangling and touching her tongue until they were both breathless. His thigh had somehow insinuated its way between hers, his hands holding onto her hips as they moved under him.

His beeper went off, startling both of them. He pulled it out of his pocket and grumbled at the number, shoving it back in before dropping a kiss on her nose. "That's what I get for you starting things I can't finish right now." He stood and stared at the picture she made stretching against the jade green sheets on her bed. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes half closed with more than sleep now. He could see desire for him in the green depths. Her skin seemed to glow against the dark color, tawny and tempting him, her tank top had somehow gotten pushed up, the skin of her stomach teasing him. Her thighs were smooth and sleekly muscled and his hands clenched, remembering how her butt had felt cupped in his palms. "You're a dangerous lady and I don't just mean because you carry a gun." He almost moaned when she stretched once more, her arms above her head, the tank top threatening to push even higher as she moved. "You need to come and see me today for coffee. Can you?"

"Yeah, I'll kick Ri loose for a while and be there this afternoon." She stretched again as she saw the look in his eyes, feeling a surge of pleasure that came from knowing that a fantastic looking, intelligent, professional man found her utterly desirable and the power that gave her to tease and tempt. "Shouldn't you be going, Doc?" She turned on her side letting him see what his hands had done to her boxers, pushing them up until the curve of her buttocks were exposed to his eyes.

He let out a huge sigh and unclenched the fists that he'd unknowingly made trying to resist climbing back into bed with her. His beeper peeled again and he grabbed it quickly, swearing lightly under his breath. He turned, feeling her eyes on him as he stood at the doorway of her bedroom, taking a last look before he flipped the switch she had turned on when she went to answer the door.

She listened as he went through her apartment, turning off lights on his way out. She stretched again as he closed the front door, hearing him turn the knob to check if it was locked. JShe closed her eyes, feeling his hands on her skin and his mouth on hers and fell asleep no longer worrying about seeing brutalized flesh and spattered blood.