A/N Sell, you asked what "Bullwinkle" was. In the 60's, there was an American cartoon called "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show." Rocky was a squirrel, and Bullwinkle was a moose. So basically, they were calling Bobby a moose.

Chapter 65

He was courting her. Their kissing had opened the door again, but she was still distant, still afraid to trust him again. When Bobby thought about it, he was simply grateful that Alex was willing to give him another chance.

It was the year he turned fifteen. His Uncle Mario swooped in, lived in the house with them. The guy worked at the grocery nine to five, and did magic shows at night. Bobby was big for his age, and he took him along most nights, teaching him the trade and telling him stories of the big time.

Bobby, already entrapped by the circumstances of his dysfunctional family, was easily swept into the dream. With magic, fame, fortune, and happiness could be his. He wouldn't have to worry about his family any more. He could make enough money to take care of them all.

He liked magic, too. The first week Mario stayed with them, Bobby was astounded by what the man could do. Mario told him that girls loved magic, too, and Bobby and Lewis signed up as apprentices that very night.

Bobby worked the clubs with Mario, hefting the equipment and keeping the interested members of the audience away from the secrets hidden backstage. His Uncle paid him in equipment and supplies he could use for his own magic show. Most of it was small stuff: cards, a tophat, scarves. But the night his Uncle brought him that guillotine, Bobby was giddy with joy. He and Lewis spent two weeks in the basement, cutting off each other's heads. They had plans to enter the school's talent contest and pick up a few girls after they won it.

Then his mother slipped into an episode. Mario had never seen her like that, and he argued with her, which only made it worse. His mother came down to the basement, saw the guillotine and declared that her brother was Satan himself. She lit the thing on fire, declaring that it should go straight back to hell. Mario, Bobby, and Frank barely kept the house from going up in flames. Bobby took his mother up to her room and tried to calm her down while Frank convinced Mario it would be best for him to go.

That was the end of Bobby's apprenticeship in magic. He still did the slight of hand tricks, to please a child or impress a girl, but he hadn't gotten into the big stuff, the real illusions, since.

Until now. Now, Alex had opened a door, and chance had provided an opportunity, and he was courting her with magic tricks, every chance he got. He'd seen her smile more since they started on this case than he had in a year.

Bobby made a fiver disappear in the elevator and handed it to her as they entered the ME's office. Their faces transformed from happy to serious as they approached Miles Stone's body.

"I've done thousands of autopsies, and I've never seen bowels this empty." She went on to explain that he looked as if he'd been in a box for a month. Apparently, the IV he was on had given him the bare minimum of nourishment. When Alex asked about the lack of blood from the stab wounds, Rodgers told her that no matter how emaciated he was, he would have bled a lot upon being stabbed.

"So what killed him?" Bobby asked.

"Heart attack. An arrhythmia brought on by prolonged acute malnutrition."

"He starved himself to death," Alex said, and both Detectives turned to look at the body once more.

"Then why wasn't he in the casket when they opened it?" Bobby pondered aloud.

They headed back upstairs then, hoping to get more information out of the Great Carmine in holding. When they got there, however, the magician was nowhere to be found.

"Officer, where's the old man?" Bobby asked the guard.

"He's been here all…" the officer glanced around in surprise. "I was… He couldn't have just disappeared."

Bobby walked over and checked the lock on the cell door. There was no sign it had been tampered with. Bobby looked over at Alex and gave her a nod. "Well… he is the… Great… Carmine."

"I guess we underestimated him," she said, turning back to Officer Jones.

They sent for the Captain, who brought in a key and handed it to the guard. "Tell us what happened, Officer Jones."

"The old man asked for some coffee," he said, tucking the key back where it belonged.

"So you brought him some," Ross said.

"Handed it to him through the bars!"

Bobby paced around. He was already figuring it out. "Was his hand steady?" He asked, holding his own out in demonstration.

"No, he had the DT's. He spilled coffee all over himself, and me."

Bobby lifted a glass of water and demonstrated. "So, it was like… shaky?"

As the man said "Sure," Bobby spilled the water all over him. "That's what I was saying."

"Hey!" cried Jones, jumping back.

"That's my fault," said Goren, who then grabbed a napkin and tried to help clean the officer up. "I'm very sorry."

"I got it!"

"Here. Let me just help you out. You want to do it? Fine." Bobby shook his head and backed off, putting his hands on his hips as he looked back at the Captain and his partner. "It's… I'm sorry. And then you helped him… you know, what, helped him wipe it up, I guess."

"Yeah," said the young officer, who only then realized that he no longer had the cell key.

Bobby reached out and pretended to pull the key from his ear, which caused Ross to chuckle. "Here."

Jones rolled his eyes. He knew he was in for it.

The detectives and the captain went on to discuss how Carmine had used the misdirect to escape. Ross told them to find Carmine and ask about his mysterious assistant, who they had yet to find. Jones moved for the door, and the Captain stopped him. "And Officer Jones? You and I aren't done yet."

Carmine's house was full of magic supplies. As Alex rattled off a list of what she found in his trunk, Bobby approached with what seemed to be a soup pot. He showed her the empty pot and the equally empty lid, then jammed the two together, and when he opened them again, he offered her a pot full of brightly colored handkerchiefs. He smiled with excitement, and she smiled too. Bobby laughed and set the pot down, then pointed to what looked like a large dollhouse.

"This is a doll house illusion," he told Alex and Detective Farley. "I wanted one of these when I was a kid. Look at that." Bobby folded down the front of the house, revealing a small and empty compartment. With a flick of his wrist, a magic wand extended to its full length in his hand, and he eagerly poked the wand inside the house. His smile faded, however, as he heard something in the knocking of the wand. He raised up to his full height, and upon seeing the look in his eyes, Alex's smile drifted away as she assumed a more wary posture. Her weapon was easily within her reach.

Farley saw the change in Eames, and she straightened, too. Bobby closed the front of the house, then after a moment's pause, pulled the chimney off. The house burst open and the Great Carmine climbed out of it.

"You can't take me back to jail again," he told Goren. "I swear I didn't kill Miles."

"Yeah, we know," Goren said, holding his hand out in front of him. When Alex threatened to bring him in for escaping 1PP, he gave them a teddy cam he had on the shelf to help them find his missing assistant. He told them she'd worked for Dean Holiday.

In the car, Alex gave Bobby a smile. "It was brilliant, Bobby. I've never seen a trick like that before."

"It was pretty good, wasn't it?" he said with a grin.

"How come you didn't keep going with magic?" She asked.

He rubbed a hand over his thick beard. "You know, why didn't I do… half the things I ever planned to do?"

"Your Mom?"

He nodded. "Just another sad story in the Goren family album," Bobby said with a shrug.

"Well…" Alex said after a moment's sadness. "I think you could have made it."

His smile returned, and his eyes had a sparkle when he looked at her again.

They got the pictures printed from the teddy cam and took them out to show them to Dean Holiday. He was in his dressing room, preparing for a show in Atlantic City. He denied knowing Miranda. "She wasn't with him last year when he came backstage."

As the stage manager gave him a two minute warning, he pointed out a photograph on the mirror to Eames. Alex looked and put it in Bobby's waiting hand. "Carmine said he hired her because she worked with you. She knew your act."

He changed his jacket and explained that she probably got it off one of numerous websites about him.

"This girl," Alex said, "she duped Carmine."

Holiday couldn't pass up a chance to stick it to them. "He may not be as sharp as he used to be," he said, "although I did hear he escaped recently from One Police Plaza." The man couldn't suppress his grin. "Is he really a suspect?"

The detectives maintained their serious demeanor. "You think he's beyond that?" Bobby asked.

"Carmine's old school. Stone's illusions are way too advanced for him."

"ME told us Stone really was buried alive, no trick," Goren continued.

"Believe me, detective. You ask any true magician, there is always a trick."

He stood in the hall outside the elevator on the first floor, where he'd suddenly turned to face her. "C-can I…? You mind if… I thought maybe we…"

Alex gave him a tiny smile. "I'm having dinner with my sister tonight, Bobby."

"Oh. Okay. That's- that's good."

She touched his arm. "I'll see you tomorrow." He put his hands in his pockets and nodded at her, looking at the floor as she walked away.