Kat was busy looking over her emails when she a man standing in the doorway of the squad room. He was tall, middle aged, and, as far as Kat could tell, wasn't nervous to be there.

"I was told I should talk to a Detective Miller?" he said. "Do you know where he is?"

"I'm Detective Miller," she smirked. "Follow me, we can talk somewhere a little more private".

He nodded and followed her into the room. Kat pointed to a chair for him to sit down and she shut the door.

"So Mr. Bern, can you tell me anything about Matilda you think I should know?" Kat asked.

"No Detective, Matilda and I weren't particularly… close," he said.

"Because Matilda thought you were trying to fire her grandfather?" Kat asked.

"Detective," he scoffed. "When I became the general manager of the team after my father retired, Matilda was upset. She and my father had the same ideas of how the team should be run and she didn't like the fact I was going to change things."

"But one of those changes wasn't firing Coach Waters?" Kat asked.

"Of course not!" He said. "Coach Waters has led this team to twenty years of success. We are the most respected team in the NBA and I would never do something like firing him, but Matilda liked consistency and she thought I was a threat to that."

"Mr. Bern, I'm going to be honest with you, we can't find many people who had a motive to kill Matilda," Kat said. "You were one of the few people Matilda had been arguing with at the time of her death."

"And you think I killed her because we had argued?" He asked. "Detective, we argued but I knew Matilda since the day she was born. How could you think I could do this?"

"When you have a job like this, people's actions cease to surprise me," Kat said.

"Then you should know people have a motive when they kill someone," Mike said. "We didn't get along, but I had no reason to kill her."

Mike was busy looking at his phone at the birthday party for Coach Waters. The house was crowded with basketball player, family and friends, but he was busy catching up on emails as he stood against a wall.

"Busy destroying my grandfather's career?" he heard a voice from behind him. He turned around to see Matilda standing behind him, sipping a glass of water. She looked angry, but she seemed to always be angry around him.

"Of course, what else would I be doing at his birthday party?" he snorted.

Matilda came in closer to him, looking around to see if anyone was watching them or listening to them. She turned back to face him and gave an exasperated sigh.

"Look Mike, I don't want to fight anymore," she said. "I want to trust you again."

"You have no reason not to trust me," he sighed. "Dammit Matilda, when did this happen to us? When did you start to think I was out to get to your family?"

"I wouldn't be so paranoid if you weren't going around telling people your plans for the team after my grandfather is gone," she replied.

"I apologized for that Matilda, you know that," he said. "I didn't mean it like how you took it all, but I'm sorry it offended you."

"Look Mike, let's just leave it, okay?" she said. "I just don't have the energy for this anymore."

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she scoffed.

"I'm serious Matilda, you look exhausted," he said. She looked paler than he remembered and her hands seemed to shake as she held her glass.

"I have a baby Mike, of course I'm exhausted," she laughed.

"Of course that and your job," he said, but the smile quickly faded from her face. "Does that have something to do with it Mat?"

"Don't call me that,"she replied sharply. "My job is fine."

"Squire giving you a hard time?" he asked. "He can be pretty tough sometimes."

"Squire's fine," she replied, not making eye contact with Mike. "I need to go talk to my husband."

"Have a good night," he told her, but Matilda was already moving through the crowd before he could even finish his sentence.

"That was the last time Matilda and I spoke," he told Kat. "We might have not gotten along, but I hope Matilda knew I cared about her."

Scotty knew he didn't like Steven Squire. He wasn't sure why, but he just didn't. He came off arrogant to Scotty, but it was that kind of arrogance Scotty knew came off as charming to other people for some reason. Now Scotty and Lilly were talking to him in an interrogation room, trying to get something out of him. Kat had told them what Mike Bern had said, and they just had a feeling Steven knew more than he had told them before.

"Do you really want us to believe Patrick was taking bribes and you didn't know about it?" Lilly asked as she and Scotty sat in front of him.

"Of course not Detective!" He said. "If I had any idea what he had been doing I would have fired him. I would never have let that kind of behavior stand."

"We know Matilda knew about the bribes and we know she had come to you before when she had suspected there was somethin' wrong with the referees," Scotty said. "I would say it's a pretty safe bet to think Matilda had come to you when she thought Patrick had bribed a player."

"I didn't know," Steven said firmly.

"I don't believe you," Scotty said. "Someone choked Matilda until she died and I know you know something you aren't telling us."

"Even if I did have something to tell you, why would I?" Steven scoffed.

"Because I will spend the rest of my career following you until you slip up," Scotty said, staring into Steven's eyes. "I am not letting Matilda's family never know what to happen to her."

The room was silent for what seemed like hours. Steven was shaking at this point, clearly not the same arrogant man he had been when he had walked into the room. Lilly knew Scotty was getting to Steven, so she decided to come in as the good cop.

"We know you didn't want to hurt her," Lilly said softly. "Just tell us what happened. Just tell us how that night got out of hand."

"I didn't hurt her, I didn't hurt her I swear," he said softly, looking down at his hands. "I didn't want her to get hurt. I told him not to hurt her."

"Why did Patrick hurt her?" Lilly asked but Steven shook his head.

"No, Patrick would never hurt her," Steven said, his voice cracking.

"Then who?" Lilly pressed. "Who did this to Matilda?"

Sorry about accidentally having the name Nick instead of Scotty in this last part. I was a little tired when I wrote it and had probably been watching some SVU :)