"I should've told you about the money sooner, shouldn't I?" Marie asked when John confronted her that night at a bar.

"It wouldn't make a difference," he replied, "You're too young for me and I've no interest in marrying again."

Marie laughed and collected her soda from the waitress at the bar. "You're funny, Munch."

"First time I've heard that," he said as he ordered a drink, "Anybody else hears me talk they call it weird."

"Weird, funny, crazy, eccentric, tomato, tomahto, it all balances out," she replied as she took a drink of her soda.

"Hey!" Elliot called as he walked up to them.

Marie threw her arms in the air over her head and said, "Don't shoot, it's caffeine free…I know being pregnant I really shouldn't be drinking any of it…but that's my weakness."

"We've been looking all over town for you," Elliot told her, "The doctor said you checked out of the hospital AMA."

"What would be a few more hours?" Marie asked, "I hate hospitals…when I have my baby I'm doing it at home…at least there I'm acquainted with all the germs…in hospitals you have 300 sick people and they can spray all the damn Lysol they want there are still germs floating around."

"I hear that," Munch said, "You know I had to stay there once when I got shot."

"Who shot you?" Marie asked.

"It's a long story…"

"Where did they shoot you?"

"In the ass, alright? Anyway, I was in there for about a week, I kept going in and out of consciousness from holding my breath whenever possible. They love to go on about their sanitary equipment and their sterilized conditions but you have people in there with chickenpox, measles, tuberculosis, 700 strains of the flu…"

"Just like when you go to the dentist," Marie said, "They see people with herpes, cold sores that are filled with viruses that have a tendency to burst open during dental procedures, they have patients come in who have AIDS, they stick their hands in the patients mouths, get their saliva on their hands…if they extract anything there'll be blood with the antibodies…"

"That's why any time I go to my dentist," Munch told her, "I make him put on a new pair of gloves while I'm watching."

"I know but you can't ask them to sterilize their operating tools in the hospital while you're watching," Marie replied, "They don't like people questioning their work."

"No," John shook his head, "As though having a degree holds a person above a standard than human being and prohibits them against making any mistakes."

"That's one area where you have to love lawyers," Marie said, "It's because they fought for malpractice suits with large payoffs that doctors had to start taking real precautions with their patients in the first place."

Elliot stood in between these two people, looking from one to the other, listening to what they had to say and all of it sounding the same. Olivia entered the bar and walked up to them and asked Elliot, "What's going on here?"

"I have no idea," he replied, "I'm flashing back on the Twilight Zone, and it's like the 5th Dimension was specifically reserved for what goes on inside Munch's mind."

"Hi Olivia," Marie said, "What're you doing here?"

"I had a hunch I'd find everybody here," she replied.

"Munch told me what you found out. I should've told you guys about the money before, shouldn't I? I know it'll look bad if they think I have something to hide."

"I'll be honest," Olivia told her, "I have no idea what the defense could possibly do with that. Their angle was that you were claiming rape to get a cash settlement out of Ryan...I don't think we've ever had a case where the victim was a millionaire and the attacker was barely scraping by. If anything I'd think that would work in our favor."

"What did you do with the money anyway?" Munch asked, "Maybe Ryan tried to get you out of the way so he could get to it."

"I hadn't thought of that," Marie said.

"Is it in a bank account?" Olivia asked.

"Oh no, I don't trust banks," Marie said.

"That's smart, neither do I," Munch told her, "They take your money, lock it up, then they don't give it to you when you need it, and do you know why?"

"Oh no!" Elliot exclaimed as he tried to get past them, "I can't put up with this again, I can't listen to this again, I'm getting out of here!"

"Marie, what did you do with that money?" Olivia asked, "You're obviously not using much of it, we've seen the house you're living in."

"I try to keep a low profile," Marie answered, "I've been poor all my life…I got millions of dollars now, of course," she turned to John, "You know they cut it in half for taxes." She turned back to Olivia, "But I live within my means and I have the rest of the money socked away where nobody can get their hands on it."

"Well, if it's not in the bank, where is it?" Olivia asked.

"In an account at a Bible college I know of…they keep the money, it makes twice as much interest as it would in the bank, and I can get it out at any time. And you know they say give God 10% and you'll get more in return…ergo He's giving me a lot more than the banks, or anybody else for that matter."

"So it's possible Ryan didn't even know about the money," Munch said as his drink finally arrived.

"Hmm," Marie swallowed a drink of her soda, "Might be, I just stuck around long enough to collect it and then I moved on…nobody in Jersey had enough time to even get acquainted with me. I think he just wanted to kill me so nobody could blow the whistle on him for rape because he knows if he's forced to register, it'll be permanent and then everybody's going to be watching him until he dies."

"How much money do you have with you?" Olivia asked.

"$50,000 at the house," Marie answered.

Munch spit out his drink and choked a couple of times.


"The good news is," Olivia said later that night at the station, "Ryan is still in the tombs so he can't possibly get to Marie right now."

"Maybe not but the odds are he's got at least one pal around here," Lennie suggested, "Who would help him out if he thought it was worth the trouble."

"I don't know who…nobody will own up to knowing this guy, let alone being friends with him," Olivia replied.

"And therein lies your problem, because you don't know who to watch, so this guy could be out there anywhere, and your victim's just gone home to an empty house."

"Well," Casey offered, "We know that since he was arrested, he's had no visitors besides his lawyer…and as far as we know he hasn't tried to make contact with anybody."

"Which is nice," Lennie said, "But it still doesn't mean you're out of the woods. He could have made contacts with a friend prior to his arrest…remember, he had all of the night following the accident, and early the next morning to do something before he was arrested."

"You better watch it, Lennie," Cragen warned him, "You're starting to sound like Munch."

"Speaking of which, where is he anyway?" Fin wanted to know.

"He didn't come back with us," Olivia said as she took out her cell phone and dialed Munch's number.

"That's the last thing I need," Cragen said, "That walking pencil disappearing on us."

"Captain," Elliot tried to keep from laughing at that remark.

"I've been going three days without any sleep, alright?"

"We could go talk to the neighbors again," Fin said, "See if we missed anything. Somebody's got to know this guy."

"It could be," Casey replied, "But since nothing has happened to Marie since his arrest, it could just be that he's working this alone."

"He's got his phone off," Olivia told them, "Obviously whatever he's doing he doesn't want any disturbances."

"And just what in the hell would that be?" Cragen asked.


Munch had escorted Marie back to her home half an hour ago. But ever since he'd left, something had been eating at him that he'd made a mistake, that he needed to go back. He turned his cell phone off so that nobody could reach him at an inopportune time and he headed back for the house. There were no lights on and he could hear no noise from inside. He knocked on the door a couple of times but there was no response. Testing the knob he found it unlocked and he quietly stepped in, pulling out his gun incase it turned out he needed it when he got in.

"Miss Baron?" he called out. No answer so she clearly wasn't immediately nearby.

Munch inched his way through the front hall and into the dining room. He'd only been in the house very briefly to get her things and hadn't bothered much with the downstairs, so he didn't know where everything was. He took two more steps forward and he kicked something that made a loud noise. When nobody called out from anywhere in the house, Munch decided it was safe to see what had happened; he took a small flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on. He held the light on what he had kicked and saw it was one of the dining room chairs, it had been knocked onto the floor and rested on its side. Munch shone the light throughout the room and saw several things had been knocked over and ransacked.

"Marie?" he called out, a bit louder, "Are you in here?"

He inched his way through the room and was about to back into the kitchen when he felt the presence of somebody behind him. Turning around quickly, he saw Marie standing behind him with a large glass bottle raised over her head, as though she meant to brain him with him. When she saw who it was she dropped the bottle and let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh Munch," she said as she threw her arms around his coat, "I'm so glad it's you."

"What happened here?" he asked.

"I don't know," she replied, "After you dropped me off, I came in…the lights were out…I went to go check the fuse box but the room was an obstacle course. I about killed myself trying to get through to the kitchen. I got a flashlight and saw somebody had come in and about torn the whole place apart. I went to find the fuse box, but I heard somebody come in, and I thought he'd come back. I've searched all over this place, I can't find anybody…I think I've been going in circles trying to find him. I'm worried I'm going crazy, do you think I'm crazy, John?"

"Of course not," he replied, "Is anything missing?"

"Not that I know of," she said, "I think whoever did it, just did it to scare me…look how everything's thrown around…these aren't the careful movements of a thief trying to find some loot…whoever did it did it blindly and violently to send a message…they're trying to scare the hell out of me…and it's starting to work."

"Go get your things," Munch told her, "Pack your clothes, get your money, pack up whatever you'll need in the next few days, I'll call the department."

Marie made her way through the dining room into the hall and up the stairs. Munch turned on his phone and hit the number on his speed dial. "Captain, send a squad car and CSU over to the address I have written down on my desk. Somebody broke into Marie's house and ransacked the place."


Two hours later everybody was gathered back at the station.

"CSU checked for hairs, fibers, prints, something that can clue us in to who broke into the house," Olivia said, "So far they haven't turned up anything."

"Well whoever it is, I have all the proof I need that it wasn't a robbery," Marie opened her travel bag and took out a folded row of large bills, "The money was still in my bedroom."

"Yeah but they said nothing was disturbed upstairs," Elliot said, "Only on the first floor. Which could mean that whoever it was, just didn't have time to finish the job, maybe something happened and he had to get out of there quick."

"Unfortunately there's no way of telling when the break-in occurred," Munch told them, "And I didn't pay any attention on the downstairs when I went over, so it could've happened anytime between the night she was admitted to the hospital, and tonight before I took her back."

"Well I hope that they find something soon so I can get back there and go to bed," Marie said, "I've been up all day."

"Marie," Elliot said to her, "You're not going to be able to go back there tonight, you're going to have to stay somewhere else. Is there somebody you can go to, a friend maybe?"

She shook her head, "No…I really don't know anybody that well. I guess I'll have to get a hotel room for the night…at least I can afford it."

"I'll go with you," Munch told her, "I know the perfect place where you can lay low for the night and nobody will think to look for you."

"Thanks, John," Marie replied, "I really appreciate it."

"Once you're done there," Cragen said, "You might as well call it a night too…doesn't look like there's anything else that can be done until we hear back from CSU and that won't be until the morning at this rate."

"Thank you, Captain," Munch said in his usual smartass tone and grumbled on his way out the door, "1 o' clock in the morning, fine time to end the dayshift."

"That's the curse of a government job," Marie told him.

"Don't get me started on the government," John said.

Olivia laughed tiredly as the door closed behind them, "Those two really seem to be made for each other."

"Which could be trouble for us," Cragen told them, "Now that the word's gotten out the vic is a millionaire, the press is going to be all over this."

"Well," Olivia commented, "At least they're paying attention to the victim for once."

"It could become a big can of worms though if it looks like anybody from this department has it in for the suspect," Cragen responded, "Or if they appear to be close to the victim."


"This is a nice place, John," Marie said as she looked over the current residence she'd be staying at for the night.

"Lennie thinks Ryan might've put somebody up to breaking into your house," Munch told her.

"He may be right," she answered.

"Well, if there is somebody else out there, they're not going to come here tonight," he assured her, "You'll be safe here."

"Thanks."

John went to pour them a couple of drinks and while he was gone, Marie fished through the pockets in his trench coat, and she pulled out a photograph of a blonde woman. Munch came back and found her with the picture.

"She's pretty," Marie said, "Is she your daughter?"

John almost laughed, "Not hardly, her name is Gwen, she's my ex-wife."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too, for her."

"Why?"

"Well she married me after all," he told her, "For another, she's schizophrenic…and she alternates between taking her medication…and not taking it."

"You know, not a lot of guys keep pictures of their exes on them."

"I've been married several times," John said as he took the picture from her, "Gwen's the only one I wonder if I made a mistake leaving."

"Well what does Gwen think about it?" Marie asked, "Are you two still close?"

"We keep in touch," he answered, "Sometimes are better than others."

"You don't fool me, John," she said, "You can act like a hardboiled cop who just doesn't give a damn anymore…but you know that's not true…you're just an old softie."

"Only with women and children," he confessed, "And if you breathe a word of it to anybody, I'll lie like a dog."

"You're a good man, Munch," Marie said, "So I was hoping I could ask a favor of you."

"What's that?"

"When my baby is born…I…I want you to be the godfather…I don't know or trust anybody else well enough to ask them…but you I know I can trust."

"You might want to reconsider," John said, "I never had kids because I didn't want them to have the responsibility of putting up with me, I can't imagine I'd do much better as a godparent."

"You'd do just fine," she told him, "You're the only person I can trust, John."


7 o' clock in the morning, ordinarily Lennie Briscoe hated days that started this early; but when it meant dropping in on John Munch unexpectedly, he couldn't wait. Cragen had announced they hadn't heard from Munch since he left the night before, so Lennie volunteered to go to John's place and get his bony ass out of bed. When he turned the front doorknob he was surprised to find it wasn't locked.

"Hello?" he poked his head in, "John, since when did you start getting careless?" No answer. Lennie pushed the door open and stepped into the house. It was dark, and quiet, but he expected it was always like that.

"Yoo-hoo," he called up the stairs, "Anybody home?"

Still no response. Lennie got on the first step and was about to go up to the bedroom and give John the rudest wakeup call of his life; but then he heard something coming from the living room.

He didn't pull his gun but he kept his hand close enough to grab it out in a moment's notice as he inched his way through the downstairs of the house. He turned a corner and went into the living room. It was still dark…too dark to make out much of anything. Lennie felt along the wall for a light switch. The panel had a knob on it that had to be pressed to turn on the overhead lights, but Lennie hit the knob several times and they wouldn't come on. So he slinked over to the window and turned the rod on the Venetian blind to let the early morning light into the room.

"Rise and shine you lazy…" Lennie turned around and saw who was in the living room, "Oh my God, John!"