Alex POV

"You're wasting my time. Why don't you try again when you have a little more evidence?"

"Which means there's more evidence to be had," Yuille stated confidently. "Right?"

"Wrong. It just means you don't have squat, Junior. So let's call it a day."

"Let's not," Yuille replied as he scooted a chair closer to Marion and then sat in it backwards, propping his arms on the back of it.

He almost reminded me of Bobby, the way he was using his physical presence as part of the interrogation, and I was glad to see that my suggestion had paid off.

He'd obviously been watching and learning from Bobby.

Now if only I could get his ex-girlfriend off my back.

Maas called me earlier to apologize once again about the incident with Ross last night, and he'd mentioned to me that his friend had offered to file a slander suit on my behalf.

"You think it'll work?"

"Traci seems to think so. And she's a lawyer, so…I don't know. I guess she knows about this kind of stuff. It can't hurt."

"Okay, although I think my way of dealing with her might have been a little more fun," I joked.

He laughed and then fell quiet again and said, "Alex, really…I can't believe I didn't check the peephole. And I just…I mean, who answers the door in a pair of boxers? I can't believe I did that."

"It's fine," I assured him. "Just…next time put something on first because it might be me who's knocking."

I knew he felt bad about it, but really, it was so much better than if Ross had run into me and Bobby somewhere.

That would've been difficult to explain away.

This, all we had to do was state the reasons as to why Maas was at my apartment.

And Moran knows about his impending divorce, and the fact that Maas has been living in a hotel, so he'd completely buy into the fact that I loaned him my place while I was housesitting.

So yeah, it could've been a whole lot worse.

What if Ross showed up while Bobby and I were clearing out the little bit of my remaining personal items? That's what we'd planned on doing later today, although now I was going have to go over there by myself.

I couldn't risk having him show up again.

It was kind of odd that he wanted to talk to me urgently enough to show up at my apartment late at night, and yet here it was almost noon the next day and he still hadn't called or come by the office.

Had he changed his mind about whatever it was he wanted to say?

Or was he coming over there to spy on me…to see what I was up to in my off hours?

He knows Logan is dating Liz, but would he still think there was something to that rumor about me and him?

Probably.

Liz told me that Ross referred to Logan as cheating.

What would make him think that, I don't know. He doesn't know much about Logan, but I guess after walking in on that hug, he probably thinks he's right.

Logan had caught me off guard with that.

And not because he doesn't hug me, because he does from time to time, but just not normally at work.

But apparently the news that Bobby and I might get married made him forget about protocol.

And I don't blame him for that.

I'm pretty damn excited myself, and I never thought I'd say that. I honestly never considered wanting to be married again, and yet now that it's a very real possibility, hinging on Moran's decision, I find myself thinking about it at the most unsuitable times.

Like now, when I'm supposed to be paying attention to an interrogation, I thought, chastising myself.

"How long have you lived in Michigan?" Wyatt was asking as I refocused on the suspect and my two detectives.

"Probably since before you were born."

"When did you come to New York?"

"Which time?"

Wyatt looked at Yuille and shrugged casually, and I liked how they were trying to play off of each other.

"Any time. Pick one. Hell, pick three. We've got time."

Good.

This latest tact seemed like it might get her to talk. She looked amicable enough at the moment.

For the past three hours, she'd been sticking with one word answers that weren't getting them anywhere, but maybe now they had something going.

Logan was right…I desperately wanted to go in there and bring the hammer down, but I also really needed for both of them to get back on their game.

This whole twin mix-up had shaken their confidence, and since it was at a time when I was facing down a firing squad on a daily basis, they were feeling even worse about their perceived failure.

"1962," she said with a cocky smile. "And then again in '63. Let's see…1968…"

"How about this century?" Yuille posed. "Was it last week? Or three weeks ago? Or maybe a few years ago?"

"At what point did you decide that you wanted your sister's husband?" Wyatt added, just as she settled her gaze on Yuille.

She shifted uncomfortably for a moment and then plastered on a smile.

"Were you jealous of her?" he continued. "She was married to a successful, well-respected man, and you were all alone."

"Did she taunt you with tales of her life?" Yuille added. "I bet it just drove you crazy, didn't it?"

"George was a horrid, little man. I told my sister to stay away from him, but she never listened to me. That's one reason why I left and didn't ever come back for a visit because I couldn't stand to be in the same room with that man. I'm happy to say that despite their long marriage, I didn't have anything to do with him."

"You mean other than killing him."

"I did no such thing."

"No, that's right. You had him killed. You conspired with Misty Hahn."

"I conspired with a hooker," Marion stated. "Right, because I routinely associate with that type of…filth."

"Routinely? Probably not. But you did this time because you found out George had a standing appointment with her, right? And that Misty was charging him a weekly fee to keep it under her hat."

"Martha told me about it. He was addicted to sex, you know. He was a perverted miscreant."

Finally.

At least she was going to admit that she and her sister knew about Misty's relationship with the judge.

"What did she have to say about it?"

"What do you think? She found out that her husband was being blackmailed by a prostitute! She was furious!"

"So that's why you came to New York this time. You wanted to help her deal with George."

"No. I came to New York after he was killed to help her through her grief."

My phone buzzed and I paused for a minute, almost not wanting to look since I was expecting a call from Moran or Zaring at any moment because surely Ross had already started spreading the rumor about me and Stanley.

But it wasn't either of them.

It was Bobby.

"Coconut," he said when I answered.

"Hawaii," I replied playfully, relieved that it was him.

"What?"

"Aren't we playing a word association game?"

"No," he said on a chuckle. "But last night, you said Liz made a good catch. Something about coconut lotion."

"She smelled it on Misty Hahn," I said, immediately shifting gears back to the serious. "It was on her neck as though it was transferred there from her killer's hands."

"I smelled it on Martha Schuler when I made the notification, the night Judge Schuler died."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. It just clicked with me."

"Wait, where are you?"

"We're parked outside Jared's apartment, waiting for him to come home. Wyatt and Yuille still working Marion over?"

"Uh huh. But if you smelled the lotion that night…you know, I'm not sure if that helps. Maybe both women use it."

"Or Marion does and she was already posing as Martha."

"Or Martha does, and we don't have Marion," I said, the idea suddenly occurring to me. "How the hell are we supposed to know for sure which one we've got when there aren't any prints on file?"

"You think Martha only pretended to be Marion because she got caught?"

"It's possible. I mean, we checked out the twin story and it was authenticated. And the person we brought in had ID that showed Marion's information, so we had to let her go. Besides, Marion's credit card records started showing purchases in New York about the same time that Martha's activity stopped."

"How are you going to prove who you have?"

"I don't know, but if we don't, we'll never get a conviction. There will always be reasonable doubt that we've got the wrong damn twin."

"You need to find the other one."

"Yeah, but if our theory's right, and the other one's dead…"

"You've searched the judge's property?"

"Well, yeah, but for evidence, not corpses."

"Get the dogs out there," he said firmly. And then he added, "I mean…ma'am, you might want to send some cadaver dogs out there."

"You're going to ma'am me?" I asked him in amusement.

"Well, that's probably better than giving my captain an order."

"You were giving me a suggestion. And my name's not Ross. I don't mind when my detectives have good ideas."

"You're damn right your name's not Ross," he replied quickly. "Give it another month and maybe…"

"Uh huh," I said with a smile.

Maybe by then it'll be Goren.

"Uh huh?" he questioned. "So you haven't changed your mind?"

"Are you kidding me? You're not getting off that easily."

He laughed out loud and then said, "You know, I think I've been hanging around Logan too much because I almost said something…"

"Yeah, don't forget I can read your mind," I joked, knowing exactly what he'd been about to say.

And he can blame it on Logan if he wants to, but Bobby's mind is just as dirty.

"Sorry, Captain," he said without remorse.

"Yeah, yeah," I deflected. "I've got to run. Text me when you're on your way with Jared Thomas."

I hung up with him and then knocked on the window.

"You'd better go, boys. The boss is tugging on your leash," Marion said smugly.

They both wisely refrained from responding, and instead left the interrogation room and joined me in the observation room.

"I know," Yuille said, shaking his head. "We're not getting it done."

"You're doing fine," I told him. "We just need to take a step back and regroup. Listen, Goren said he smelled coconut lotion the night he gave the notification to the judge's widow. Now it might've been Martha or maybe it was Marion, I don't know, but either way, I think it's the same woman, and I'm pretty sure that woman in there is our killer. We just need to know whose name to put on the formal charges."

"So wait, now you think this might be Martha?"

"Wyatt, I have absolutely no idea," I admitted. "But we need to find a way to distinguish one from the other. We need to find that other twin. I want you two to get with the K-9 unit and go back to the property."

"You think she's dead?"

"Maybe. It's a place to start."

"How long can we hold the murdering granny in there?" Yuille asked in annoyance.

"We can stall the arraignment until Monday. But we need to know which name to use or we're going to look like a bunch of idiots."

"Hey, what about hospital records?" Wyatt asked suddenly. "If one of them had a surgery or something, we can use that to definitively make an ID, right?"

"Uh huh," I agreed with an enthusiastic nod. "Great idea. Order those, head out to the property, and hopefully by the time you get back, you'll have the records."

"Yes, ma'am," they both said immediately.

"I hope you didn't have plans for the weekend."

"Oh, yeah," Yuille said. "Big plans. We're going to sort out this mess and make our captain look good, right, Wyatt?"

"That's right," Wyatt agreed quickly. "That guy Ross won't have a leg to stand on when he meets with Moran on Monday."

"You know about that meeting?" I asked him curiously.

I mean, I'm familiar with the department rumor mill, but still…

"Um…yes, ma'am," Yuille said. "It's…um…everybody knows about it."

"Everybody. Great."

"Don't worry about a thing, Captain," Wyatt said. "You've got our backs…we've got yours."

TBC...