Logan POV

Alex might consider herself screwed, but she managed to maintain a good attitude about it.

In the end, she decided that she would say she was housesitting for her sister, who actually was currently out of town, so it wasn't a tremendous stretch.

And surely no one actually suspected her of having an affair with Maas.

I mean, if it had been me opening her door in my underwear…yeah, that might've really spelled trouble for us.

But Stanley had been with a date, a woman who offered to back him up, if the need arose, and admit that she'd been at the apartment with him.

And that he was only staying there for the weekend.

That last part was a little white lie, but considering the bigger lie that Ross was going to try to spread, none of us felt bad about it.

So once we got our stories straight, and exchanged a few text messages with Maas, we decided to have one more round and then call it a night.

"We need to be careful when we go home," Alex commented to Bobby. "What if he shows up at your place?"

"Why would he?" Bobby questioned. "He barely had two words to say to me. He probably can't wait to be my boss again so that he can belittle and degrade everything I say."

"True," she agreed as she leaned into him.

"Well, I don't have to worry about him going to my place," I asserted.

"Maybe we should go to your place then," Liz suggested. "Because it's not out of the realm to think he might stop by my house."

"I don't think so, sweetheart. I won't mind it at all if he shows up on your doorstep, as long as I'm there with you."

"Where else would you be?" she asked me with a smile.

"You know, I'm tired of worrying about Ross," Alex said in annoyance.

"You're not giving up, are you?"

"No, but you know…we've got cases to solve. I'm not going to let him walk in and disrupt the flow just because he's got visions of hitting the rewind button. And this bit tonight, acting all smug because he thinks he's caught me in some kind of scandal? That's just…"

"Petty?" Liz supplied. "Juvenile?"

"Prickish," I corrected.

"Is that a word?" Alex asked me, now with a grin on her face.

"It is," Bobby assured her. "It's defined as one who acts like or assumes the characteristics of Danny Ross."

"It's in the dictionary," I added with a nod.

"Yeah, well, he can be prickish all he wants. Tomorrow, you two are going to narrow the search for FBK while I help Wyatt and Yuille get the truth out of the slippery twin."

"You really think the one took the place of the other and had the husband killed? Why would she do that?"

"I don't know. Maybe he was getting suspicious."

"No, I mean why take over her sister's life."

"She wanted what her sister had," Bobby answered for Alex. "Sibling rivalry at its worst."

"Makes me glad I'm not a twin," I mused. "You know, you'd think someone would've noticed."

"You mean like her husband? That's probably why she killed him."

"Yeah, but how long have they been married? And when do you think they made the switch?"

"All good questions," Alex agreed. "And that's what I'm going to find out tomorrow."

"This'll be another good case for the press," Bobby pointed out. "It's movie material. The press will eat it up."

"Don't remind me."

That was last night.

This morning, Bobby and I were sitting in a conference room, entrenched in the world of Facebook. We'd pestered CCS until they kicked us out, promising to call if they found anything of interest, so for now we were taking it upon ourselves to do a little electronic legwork.

We'd both arrived at 1PP around nine o'clock this morning, the later hour being our only concession to the fact that it was the weekend.

While we worked in here, Alex was locked in her office, waiting on Wyatt and Yuille to show up so that they could begin the interrogation on Marion Black.

"Their whole lives are on here," Bobby muttered. "High school, activities, hometown..."

"Everybody wants to feel important," I replied. "Like they think people actually care what they're having for breakfast, or what movie they watched last week. It's self-aggrandizing and narcissistic."

I felt Bobby's eyes on me so I looked up and met his gaze.

"What?" I asked with a shrug.

"Nothing," he said with a smirk that reminded me of Alex.

And since I was thinking about her…

"So did you get her a ring?"

I still found it hard to believe that the two of them were going to get married. I mean, of course, I can't imagine two people better suited for a life-long commitment, but still…

"Alex?"

"Unless you asked some other woman to marry you. And you know, if you did, then you might want to start wearing a bullet-proof vest."

"Ha ha," he replied smartly. "And no, I haven't gotten a ring yet. I didn't exactly plan on asking."

"You asked on a whim?" I asked in surprise. "What, the ten years you've been in love with her didn't give you enough time to plan it out?"

"I don't mean like that. I mean, I just didn't think she'd want to be married again. You know her. She's pretty independent. And her marriage to Joe wasn't exactly story book."

He trailed off for a moment as something on a printout captured his attention, and then he flipped to the next page and continued.

"So anyway, she mentioned that if it wasn't for our jobs, she'd want to be married to me, so I asked."

"Sounds like you really swept her off her feet," I said wryly.

"I'm going to do it again when I get the ring."

"You mean after Moran signs on the dotted line?"

"Yeah, assuming he does."

"You think he won't?"

"I don't know," he admitted.

He thought about it for a minute and then added, "But if he doesn't, then he doesn't. It won't really change anything for us. I mean, it would make it easier, but either way, we'll still be together, married or not."

"So maybe you should go ahead and get a ring."

"But if he doesn't sign, she won't be able to wear it."

"Sure she can. People will just think it's from me."

"Uh huh," he said, narrowing his eyes at me. "Brilliant idea. You're just as off-limits as I am, remember? Besides, I'm not sure I like everyone talking about the two of you sleeping together."

"Afraid she's going to start calling out my name instead of yours?" I joked.

"Not remotely," he replied with a grin. "I just think it's inappropriate for people to be discussing her sex life at all."

"She's in the public eye. With today's media, that means everything about her life is fair game. In fact, you know, you two might need to start being a little more careful in your off-hours. It wouldn't be unheard of for some eager young reporter to try to get the skinny on what Captain Eames does in her down time."

He nodded thoughtfully and said, "Yeah, you're right. I didn't really think of that."

I shifted my focus back to the computer in front of me. I had Kaleigh Marquez's Facebook page up and I was clicking on each of her friends, one at a time, and glancing over their walls.

"Hey…the fish cells," I said suddenly. "Kaleigh?"

Bobby tossed down his papers and reached for the lab report.

"Um…yeah. Why?"

"She's got a friend, Jared Thomas. And guess what he said he did last week?"

"Went fishing?" he asked hopefully.

"Uh huh," I replied, turning the screen around. "Look, he even posted a picture of his catch."

"When?"

"Last Friday morning…and hey, listen to his next post. Throwin' my hat all up in the shit tonight, so look out bitches."

"What?"

"I don't know, but tonight would've been Friday night, when Kaleigh was killed. And it's the same day he went fishing…"

"We need to pick him up."

"I'm pulling him up now," I said as I switched screens and entered the boy's information into the database.

"He's not friends with any of the other girls though," he muttered as I skimmed the records in search of the right Jared Thomas.

"Friends of friends?" I suggested. "I don't know, but let's ask him. Hey, this is him."

I flipped the computer around again, showing Bobby the DMV photo of Jared Michael Thomas, age twenty-one and a resident of Long Island.

"No record?"

"Nope."

"So…he goes from nothing to murder? Hey, read off his list of friends."

"There's like…eight hundred."

"Males only," he amended. "We know he's not on our victims' lists."

"What are we looking for?"

"Like you said. Friends of friends," he said. His phone started buzzing, so he pulled it out and looked at the display and then told me, "It's CCS."

I waited while he talked with the techie, using Bobby's print-out of Samantha's friend list and comparing it to Jared's friend list.

No hits.

Not one.

"Send it to me as soon as you can," Bobby was saying as he finished his call.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"They found a post with instructions on how to eradicate finger prints."

"Seriously? Where? How can we find the guy who posted it?"

"They're trying to trace the IP now, but he said something about it having bounced through six different countries…anyway, get this. The post has over two hundred thousand hits so far."

"Oh, that's great. Let's go get 'em," I said, rolling my eyes in frustration.

"They're monitoring it now, so they can keep track of future hits," he said with a nod. "But the post went up last Tuesday."

"The day before the first murder."

"Right. Scott's sending me the list of comments related to the post."

"And the post explicitly talked about battery acid?"

"Uh huh. And using a knife first. I'm telling you…this is where our killers got their initial information."

"But why? I'm not getting the purpose of the murders."

"Let's go find Jared Thomas and see what he has to say for himself."

We left the conference room and went to find Alex. She wasn't in her office, which probably meant she was watching the interrogation of Marion Black, so we headed for the observation rooms.

Just before we went in, Bobby stopped me.

"You're right. I'm going to get a ring whether Moran signs or not. She can't wear it when she's at work, but…she needs to have one. And I need to ask her the right way."

He made the statement in an confident tone, but when he finished he looked at me expectantly.

"Are you waiting for me to tell you if that's the right thing to do?"

"You're my partner," he said with a shrug. "Back me up."

"You're exactly right. Get the ring, take her out for some fancy dinner, and knock her socks off."

"Okay. Thanks."

"Just do me a favor and keep an eye out for those reporters, okay?"

He nodded and then we went inside the observation room where Alex stood watching through the glass.

"Any luck yet?" Bobby asked her as we stepped in and closed the door behind us.

"They're just getting warmed up," she said, keeping her eyes on the suspect. "Is it just me, or does she look cold?"

"It's not just you," I answered. "What's your guess? Did she steal Martha's whole life, or just the end of it?"

"Just the end," Alex answered. "I think she swooped in when Martha called her, crying about her cheating husband."

"So good twin, evil twin?" I posed.

"I'm thinking evil twin, dead twin," Bobby corrected.

"You think Martha's dead?" Alex asked, turning around to look at us.

"Uh huh. Don't you?"

"Probably," she agreed.

"Wait, where are you getting that from?" I asked.

"Call it a hunch. Did they pull the sister's financial activity?"

"Yeah. Slow and suspicious over the past two weeks. Lulls broken up by periods of rash spending."

"Like someone trying to make it look like someone else is alive and well," Bobby said, looking at me pointedly.

"Or somebody who doesn't get out much," I countered.

"Want to bet on it?"

"What are the stakes?" I replied challengingly.

"Boys," Alex admonished. "Are you in here for a reason or did you just want to flex your muscles in front of me?"

"I can flex if you want, Boss," I joked.

"We're here for a reason," Bobby corrected. "Logan found a friend of Kaleigh, a guy who was fishing on the day she was killed."

"And?"

"And she was the one with fish guts on her fingertips," I clarified.

"Does he have a sheet?"

"No, he's clean. But he made mention of look out bitches in his Friday post."

"What about afterward?"

"Nothing."

"And none of the friends match up to the other girls' lists?"

"Nope."

"Okay, go get him," she said. "Nothing official, just ask him down for a chat."

"We know how to play nice," I assured her.

"I know you know," she replied with a smile. "It's just getting you to do it that's the challenge."

"We'll be nice," Bobby promised. "Because right now, he's all we've got, so we're hoping he'll accidentally give up something that'll shed light on the others."

We started to leave, but since Alex was standing there, chomping at the bit to jump in on Yuille and Wyatt's meandering interrogation, I stopped and said, "Why don't you go in there and show them how it's done, Boss?"

"Because," she answered vaguely, her eyes once again focused on the activity in the other room.

I raised my eyebrow at Bobby, but then she finally spoke again.

"They need this," she explained. "They think they let me down on this case, and they need their confidence back. If I go in there, it'll tell them that I don't trust them to get the job done. So I'm going to watch and wait…they'll get it."

See what I mean?

She's a great boss.

And Ross doesn't have a damn thing on her, so he's going to need to pull one hell of a rabbit out of his hat if he thinks he's going to steal her office.

TBC...