All three looked at Foster, puzzled. If Elizabeth was the murderer, then why would she be the one murdered?

"It's time we gave the Sanford's another visit," Cal said, getting up to leave. "Don't be so sure you were right, Torres," he added, seeing the small smirk flickering across her face. She quickly frowned after his statement and looked at him in disbelief. She hated how he always read her like that, always trying to embarass her. "You two go to the hospital and see if anyone there saw someone enter the room the nurse was being held in." Before anyone could argue, he left the room along with Foster.

"It's like I live at the hospital," Eli commented as he left the room with Ria. "I haven't been away from there for more than an hour."

"Hey, want to get some dinner after we check the hospital?" she asked, surprising Eli. He was the one who usually asked those type of questions. "The trip to the hospital shouldn't take long, and we were interrupted last time…"

"Sure," Eli replied, still stunned. "This is turning out to be the best day of my life, whether I'm in the hospital half the time or not…" Ria smirked at his statement, having the slightest guess as to why it was his best day…


"Hey, we're here to find out more about Elizabeth Marlow. Did any staff members happen to see someone entering her room before she was killed?"

"Um, I don't think so, the nurse who was tending to Mrs. Marlow was on lunch break," the secretary Ria was talking to replied while biting her lip anxiously.

"The nurse wasn't on lunch break," Ria stated at the secretary's lie. "Where was she?"

"Leah didn't know she was a killer!" the secretary exclaimed. "She didn't know, and she let her in the room…"

"Do you know who it was?"

"Um, what?" the secretary said, caught off guard. "Why would I know who the murderer was, Miss Torres?"

"Well, considering that your eyebrows raised along with the question, you do," Eli remarked, causing the secretary to turn to him, bewildered. "It's a sign of lying. You also seem to be calling the guy who came in a 'she', so you apparently know the gender of the murderer. That's called distancing. Uh, people usually check in to the secretary, which would be you, before seeing a patient, also, so…"

"Okay, okay!" the secretary said. "I saw her! She came in earlier, I thought she was going to see her son, but that didn't happen, now did it? Instead she went to see Mrs. Marlow, said she was a friend of hers.."

"It was Kim Sanford?" Ria asked, bewildered. It wasn't Rick, but Kim? The secretary nodded shamefully. Rick must've known something, though. Ria thought. He must've known it was his wife, because of all the lies he was telling us.

"Okay. Yeah, it was Kim Sanford who killed Elizabeth, according to the secretary…"

Ria stood outside the hospital, listening to Loker talking to Lightman on his cell phone. Despite the sinking feeling that she still had about Dupree never waking up, she was glad that she was getting closer to Eli. She needed someone to help her though losing Dupree, and she always thought of Eli as interesting. She had secretly liked him, everything, from his radical honesty to his hair.

"Yeah…" Eli put his phone away and turned to Ria. "He never says bye or anything, just hangs up."

"You've just noticed that?" Ria said with a smile, remembering the one time she had to call Lightman, and how he hung up before she was done.

"Well, no, but it's been happening a lot lately, since I had to call him about the case a few times."

"What did Lightman have to say?" Ria asked. She hated being unaware about what was going on.

"Oh, Lightman seemed like he knew what happened, didn't care to explain it to me, but...I think everything's solved. Well, no more involvement from us, anyways." The two started walking towards Ria's car. "Should we get pizza?" Eli asked after getting in his car.

"Sure," Ria said, remembering about the dinner they were going to together.


"This is a date, right?" Eli asked, hardly shocking Ria. He always spoke what was on his mind, after all.

"Well, if you want it to be," Ria replied, she took another bite from her pizza.

"This is actually my first date in a while," Eli said randomly as they each took another slice of pizza. "I normally never get a second one."

"I wonder why," Ria said jokingly, then took another slice of her pizza.

"Being honest all the time is worth it, though." Eli said, seeing what Ria meant.

"All the time?" Ria asked, remembering his lie to Foster.

"That was for a good reason," Eli said, knowing what Ria was talking about. He really didn't want to talk about that at the moment. He didn't want to lie to Foster, but he couldn't let Hollin go to jail for his daughter. She needed the punishment, not her father.

Eli's phone started ringing, and he looked at the caller id. "It's Lightman," he said in surprise. He expected Lightman to leave them alone for the rest of the day. According to Ria's expression, she was shocked, too.

"Hello?" Eli said, answering the phone. What did Lightman want?

"I need you and Torres to go back to the hospital," Lightman's voice called from over the phone.

"I thought you said the case was finished?" Eli said, looking up to see Ria staring at him.

"I have an idea, yeah, but you need to go with Torres to see Trent again. He might've been lying about seeing Seth Marlow."

"Okay." Eli turned to Ria. "Guess where we're supposed to go?"

"The hospital?" Ria didn't need a confirmation for her guess, just a look at Eli's expressions.


"Were you lying when you told us that Seth Marlow was the murderer?" Eli asked Trent.

"No," Trent said, glancing suspiciously at the two. "I was telling the truth."

"You don't seem to be so confident about that," Ria said, noticing the tone of Trent's voice. "Did your mom tell you to blame him?" Shock flittered across the boy's face, quickly replaced by fear.

"What? No, she didn't!"

"She killed your brother, Hayden, didn't she?"

"I don't know why." Trent said sadly. "She tried hurting me and Hayden, tried…killing us. She tried shooting me first, but I ran. Hayden tried to help me, but she shot him. She never abused Owen, not much." A tear went down Trent's cheek. "He hated it, he knew she was hurting us, so he…he killed himself." He took a deep breath, then went on: "Dad saw her do it, abuse us, once, and he got into an argument with her. He thought she stopped, and he thinks he could've stopped it all, prevented Hayden's murder, Owen's suicide. Dad wanted everything to be okay, didn't want Mom to go to jail or anything, so he didn't tell the police about his…his suspicions. Mom told me not to tell, sent the nurse to give me notes about my sister, but..."

"Thanks, Trent." Ria said as she left the room with Eli. Trent looked like he was getting upset, and they had the confession they needed.

"Finally, the case is almost over." Eli said, relieved, as they walked out into the lobby. Before Ria could reply, a brown-haired nurse came rushing over to her.

"Miss Torres," she said hurriedly. "Dupree, well, he just woke up."

"What?" Ria asked. After hours of waiting, he actually was consious again? "He woke up?"

"Yes, just now. He still won't be able to leave the hospital for a few days, but you can still visit him."

"Okay," she said, turning to Eli. Eli noticed the uncertainty in her voice; it was like she didn't believe this was happening, or that she didn't want to.

"I'll wait for you out here." Eli replied to her gaze. He took a seat in one of the waiting room chairs as Ria followed the nurse to Dupree's room. He had been so close, but then Dupree came out of his unconsciousness. He didn't want Dupree to die, but…

She'll definitely go back to him, Eli thought hopelessly, the past few days buzzing around his head. Sure they were good, but he didn't think they would be good enough.

Eli looked through the magazines and picked one up. He should try to keep Ria out of his mind, whether it actually worked or not.


Author's Note: Sorry for the lack of update; I hope you like this chapter anyways. Sorry if there's any mistakes: I didn't have time to check over it much, but I decided not to keep you waiting and put this up anyways. There's only a few chapters left after this one, and hopefully the next one will be up soon. Thank you so much for all of the reviews!!! I really appreciate them!