Chapter 34

Tommy's cousin DeeDee was very cooperative. She answered all of their questions, speaking vocally since she was holding her baby in her arms at the same time. They found out the baby recently had a naming ceremony, and that she was born deaf, which was cause for great celebration. They also found out that Tommy had a sister who was able to hear, who left the community when she went to college. They also found out that Malia had failed to attend the party with Tommy.

Eventually, they decided to bring in Malia and Tommy and interview them together, so they could split them apart. The interrogation room was prepared. Peter sat beside Alex across from the suspects and Bobby was at the end of the table, in a chair he'd brought in at the last minute.

Tommy tried to pin it on Larry, but Malia alibied Larry. As the conversation progressed, they uncovered Tommy's prejudice against the hearing. Since his sister had abandoned him, he couldn't stand the thought that Malia, after surgery, might do the same.

Bobby rose from his seat and started speaking sign language for himself. His motions were slow and deliberate, but his words were clear. He exposed how Tommy had killed the doctor because the young man thought he was screaming. With a crushed larynx, he hadn't been able to make a sound, but Tommy hadn't known that, and he'd killed him anyway.

Peter translated the whole thing for Alex's benefit, and then stepped in when Bobby struggled to explain that Mallory couldn't scream. After the confession, the uniformed officers came in and cuffed Tommy. Bobby halted them, asked them to cuff him in the front so the man could still talk. In that instant, Peter understood something about Goren. He hadn't been trying to take advantage of the deaf all along, with his eavesdropping. He had simply been trying to get at the truth. That was the job of a detective, after all. Lyons folded his arms and looked away from Malia, who was crying. He was horrified that the crime had been committed by a deaf man. It sullied the image he had in his mind of the safe haven, the cocoon of safety his deaf parents had created for him.

Bobby closed the door and dropped into the chair between Lyons and Eames. They would have to question Malia a few minutes longer, until they had enough information to drop the charges against her.

Lyons was no threat to him, but Goren was glad to see him go. Alex was kind, as always, only tossing a glance Bobby's way as she told Peter maybe they'd cross paths again. Peter was no fool. He knew that glance held some kind of meaning. He shook his head, said goodbye, and offered Goren a hand before leaving them for good.

Bobby started in on the paperwork right away. He had big plans for the evening. He wanted to spend some time with Alex before going to see his mother. He didn't look her way, but he grinned under her stare.

"How did you learn to sign, anyway?" She asked him.

Finally, Bobby's eyes broke away from the computer screen. There was an amused spark in them. "Oh, uh… it was a girl I knew..."

She smiled. "Of course it was."

He leaned forward, perfectly willing to open this little window into his past. "There was a cluster of deaf students in my literature class in college." Without thinking, he accompanied his words with sign as he told the story. "Elaine was one of them. She always seemed to have some kind of rebuttal to my comments in the classroom."

Alex's grin widened. "You dated her?"

He blushed and nodded. "For a while. But then I started into criminal justice and she stayed in psychology and by the end of the semester we hardly saw each other."

"Have you heard from him?" Alex asked.

Bobby shrugged and shook his head. "I don't wanna talk about Frank tonight," he said.

She didn't want to accept his answer. She was trying to get him to open up, after all.

Bobby shook his head and took her hand. "It's not like that," he explained. "I just wanted tonight… to be about you and me."

She smiled at his charm, and when he bent down, she kissed him.

"I don't deserve you," he whispered at the end of the kiss.

"No. None of that talk," she said. "I want tonight… Bobby, I want you to forget all that…doubt." Alex kissed him again.

They continued to speak in between moments of closeness. "That's hard for me to do," he admitted. "I'll need your help."

"To know you're…" she ran her hands over his chest. "…sexy?" Alex spent a few minutes caressing him, her eyes following the trail of her hands. She culminated the move with a deep kiss, her tongue mingling with his.

Bobby was panting.

"To know I love you?" She said then, and kissed him again. "Oh, Bobby. You deserve this," she said, running her hands over him again as she nuzzled his neck. "You deserve this and more."

He groaned and returned the affection she was showing him. As his lips searched hers, his hand settled gently on her hipbone. Alex relished the warmth.

They were half naked when Bobby's phone interrupted them. He forced himself to pull away and rummaged through his suit pockets until he found it. Seeing the name on the display, he frowned.

"Goren," he said. "She is? She did?" He sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. "Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was coming up tonight anyway, I'll just… I'll leave now. Yeah. Thanks." He ended the call and looked over at Alex apologetically.

Before he could explain, she pulled her shirt back on. "It's okay, Bobby. Go. Your Mom needs you."

He ran his hand through his hair, as if he had some kind of decision to make. He nodded silently, and got to his feet, snatching his clothes back up off the floor.