Bobby POV

All I could think, as I made my way up the narrow aisle with Stanley hot on my heels, was that if it actually is Ross outside, he's going to be a dead man.

And it would probably happen before I even got outside because Logan had put up with about all he was going to tolerate.

So when I pushed open the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk, my surprise had me pulling up short, causing Maas to run into the back of me.

"I know," Logan said, catching my expression as he nodded his head. "Nice, huh?"

"It does run deep, doesn't it?" Theresa from Channel 7 said with a victorious expression as she took in the sight of me and the deputy chief. "I was half-expecting Captain Eames to come out of there, too. Or is she too afraid? Is that it? Is she hiding in the dark recesses of the bar rather than face me?"

"Considering that none of us were expecting you, I'd say that's unlikely. Besides, if the captain were in the bar, she would've been the first one out here to send you on your way," Stanley spoke up.

"So you've taken to tailing the medical examiner now?" I questioned. "Why?"

"I wasn't tailing her," she corrected with slight embarrassment. And then as we all continued to stare at her, waiting for a better explanation, she added, "Okay, so I did. But that wasn't my intention. I was trying to catch Dr. Rodgers when she came out of the morgue, but she got into her car too quickly, so I figured I'd catch her when she got out."

"Because she doesn't work enough hours for the city," Mike said. "She doesn't deserve a private life, right?"

"I just had some questions," Theresa insisted.

"To which I already gave you the answer," Liz fired back. "No comment. And yet you still wanted to follow me into the bar."

"Hey, I'm a reporter. We're curious by nature. And now I'm even more curious, and I'm starting to think the Italian ties run even deeper than just Captain Eames. Detective Logan, you and your partner here went to see Enzo Lettiere yesterday, and now suddenly he's been released and charges have been dropped. What kind of pressure did you apply to the precinct captain to make that happen?"

"Don't answer that," Maas said firmly to us and then he glared at Theresa. "This isn't a press conference. You can ask your questions tomorrow morning in front of 1PP."

"You really want me to ask that question? Isn't the captain having enough trouble hanging onto her job?"

"You need to get better sources," Logan scoffed.

"I've got sources in the mayor's office," she retorted. "So don't try to tell me I don't know the score."

The four of us stood on one side of the sidewalk, staring at Theresa as she stood alone on the other side.

And despite being outnumbered, she still appeared cocky, which almost made me more nervous than I'd been earlier today, facing down an armed Delaney.

The only good thing about this confrontation was that there wasn't any camera crew, although I had no doubt that she had a digital recorder going full bore in her purse.

"Now what's the deal with Lettiere?" she continued. "Is he the reason why Eames is getting bumped out of Major Case? He and Bisetti?"

"No one's getting bumped," I insisted firmly.

But she just gave me a reproachful stare and then turned her focus on Logan as she lowered her voice and added, "Or is it her inappropriate relationship with one of her detectives?"

"Lady, you're so far out there," Logan said as he shook his head. "You're so dead set on trying to take Eames down. Why is that? You can't stand to see a woman more successful than you? All you'll ever be is a two-bit hack reporter while she's running the most prestigious department in the NYPD. Is that what gets you?"

"Is that what gets you?" she countered. "Going, I mean. Do you like powerful women, Detective?"

"Yes, I do," he said. Then he stepped closer to Liz and said, "This one."

"Look, this is highly unprofessional," Stanley spoke up as Theresa stood speechless staring at Mike and Liz. "You followed an ME from her office like a common stalker. And for the purpose of what?"

"She asked me if I'd found evidence on the body of Christian Newman that would back up Captain Paulson's decision to drop the charges against Enzo," Liz told him.

"There you go," I said. "Captain Paulson's decision. Are you saying he's in bed with the Italians, too? Is it the entire NYPD?"

"No, I'm saying that the two of you went down there yesterday on the orders of Captain Eames. You threw your weight around, or rather her weight, and now miraculously today the charges go away. What am I supposed to think? Especially now that I know you two are hobnobbing with high-level brass."

"I'll tell you what you're not supposed to do. You're not supposed to stalk MEs to get them to release confidential information. So let me say this one last time. Any NYPD-related questions that you have need to be conveyed to Captain Eames during her daily press conference."

"Are you threatening me, Deputy Chief?"

"I'm saying I can get your press pass pulled with a one-minute phone call."

Stanley's assertion got Theresa to back down slightly.

"No need to get nasty," she said as she hiked her purse up onto her shoulder. "I'm just trying to get to the truth."

"No, you're trying to smear the name of a good cop by tossing out theories for which you have no facts to back up."

"Then get her to sit down with me," she suggested earnestly. "I want to hear her story."

"You want to make her look bad."

"No," she insisted. "I really don't."

She reached into her purse and pulled out a business card and held it out in front of her, but none of us made any move to get it.

"I want the real story. She can either talk to me, or I can keep digging around until I find it."

"Now who's making threats," Logan said.

"It's not a threat. It's just…the public wants to know more about her, okay? She's emerged as this powerhouse on the NYPD scene and there's very little information about her. That's why people keep speculating on her love life and on possible improprieties because once someone achieves a certain level of publicity, the masses just want to know…you know? So it may as well come from her as opposed to various sources who might not have her best interests at heart."

She had a point.

As much as I loathed her just on principle, she was right about the fact that public faces had to expect to lose a certain level of privacy. As popular as she's become, we're actually pretty lucky that we've been able to maintain a modicum of secrecy thus far.

I wasn't sure how much longer that would last.

"I'll pass along the message when I see her at work tomorrow," Stanley said as he finally plucked the card from Theresa's fingers. "In the meantime…"

"Go," she said, waving us towards the door. "I've got no problem with tireless cops enjoying a little downtime."

"And no more stalking," Logan added pointedly. "Next time I'll just arrest you. It might not stick, but I'll sure as hell have a good time trying."

She smiled and nodded at us and then turned and crossed the street, going back to her car.

"We're never going to be able to leave here," I remarked as we went back into Pete's. "How will we know she's not watching?"

"We're going to have to find a new place altogether," Logan said. "We won't be able to risk coming back here. If she'd walked in and seen you and Alex…"

"This is crap," Stanley said. "The two of you have to skulk around in the shadows and hide from the likes of her…why? Because of archaic regulations that treat you guys like you're twelve?"

"It is crap," I agreed. "But that's what it is until we can get Moran to sign."

"Maybe he needs to hear how long you've been together," he continued, his face red from anger. "It's obvious that you have no problem working together. Hell, as much as people are trying to speculate about who she might be sleeping with, no one's guessed you. She's fair and professional at all times, just like you, Bobby. So what's the big fucking deal?"

"I think we're all on the same side, Stanley," Liz reminded him as we got back to our table.

Alex walked up from the other direction with a look of worry on her face.

"Ross?"

"Channel 7," I corrected.

"Even better," she said cynically. She eyeballed the front door for a minute and then I tugged on her hand, encouraging her to sit down, so she did. "We know she's gone?"

"She drove away," Logan said with a shrug, and then he stood back up and said, "Switch sides with us. If I see her come in the door, I'll play gatekeeper."

"This is what I'm talking about," Stanley mumbled. "We can't even sit and relax."

"I'm going to relax," Alex argued, and then she signaled to the waitress. "We're in here having an informal discussion on the events of the day. If the barracuda wants to come in here, then fine."

She ordered a double vodka martini, which belied her indifference to the situation, and then she took a deep breath and looked at Liz.

"So what happened?" she asked.

"I know. I'm sorry. I…didn't realize I was being followed."

"Why would you?" I questioned.

"I didn't mean it like that," Alex added quickly. "This isn't your fault. I was just asking what she said to you."

"Well, Paulson must have dropped the charges on Enzo. She wanted me to confirm that it was based on evidence found in the autopsy. I told her that if she wanted a quote, she could get in touch with the NYPD."

"Yeah, we're a little behind on this thing with Enzo," I said.

So Alex and Liz tag-teamed the explanation of the finger marks on the victim's arm, along with the fact that Enzo was one finger short of being the killer.

"I didn't ask Paulson to drop the charges," Alex concluded. "I only told him what we'd discovered, and suggested that he release him while his detective continued the investigation. And I recommended that Lipscomb make a call to Wyatt and Yuille."

"And?"

"Lipscomb called. And he actually listened while they brought him up to speed, and then Liz was able to match up Angela's prints to those on the victim. Or at least, close enough for cause on a warrant."

"Wait, how'd you get her prints?"

"Oh, she spit on Wyatt," Alex said with a smirk. "Don't you love it when a suspect does that?"

"I do when it gives me a reason to arrest them," Logan agreed.

"So that's Enzo. What about Justin Delaney? Did you find anything useful at his apartment?"

"An assortment of guns…muddy shoes that we might be able to match up to prints found in Corlears…and pictures of four girls."

"Four?" Alex asked in surprise.

"Uh huh. One of the other Jane Does that Scott found in the Automator file. Justin hadn't even bothered to try to delete them from his phone. He didn't consider that he'd ever get caught."

"Yeah, and it'd all be great to get a conviction if he was alive to stand trial," Logan said. "But none of it helps us catch the guy who started this. And nothing we found gave us any indication as to the identity of either Jane Doe."

"So tomorrow, we're going to call every female friend from Justin's Facebook page," I concluded.

"Did we get any response to our bulletin about the girls?" Alex asked.

"A detective in Paramus is sending us a file. One of the Jane Does is his case from almost three weeks ago," I said, and then I looked at Liz and added, "Oh, and he'll be sending you the autopsy report."

"That's fine," she agreed. "So Alex said there are twelve altogether?"

"Uh huh," Mike agreed.

"Well, I can get the word out to other ME's offices, too. It's not every day we run across acid on the fingertips."

"And it's only been three weeks," I added. "It's not like we're going back years."

"I'll see what I can find out," she said with a nod.

"Good, okay, so that's out of the way. Now does someone want to tell me how things ended with Theresa?"

"She wants you to call her," Stanley said as he slid the business card across the table.

"I bet she does."

"She insists that she wants the straight scoop."

"Well, did she also mention that Detective Coleman gave up Logan on a silver platter?"

"What?" Mike said loudly.

"It's what I thought," Alex told him. "The LUDs traced back to her desk. Paulson said he put the heat on her, and she broke down and admitted to making the call. She told Theresa that you were stepping on toes in an effort to spring a mobster. And that she only did it so that you would get kicked out of Major Case because she knew she was next in line."

"Oh, well as long as that's all it was," Logan said as he rolled his eyes.

"So if Coleman told Theresa that Mike was paid for, then why did she turn it on you?" Liz asked Alex.

"It's like she said," I responded. "Alex is the one people want to know. And Theresa had to figure that if Mike was at the 7th then Alex knew about it, especially since she was buying into the lie that the two of them are together."

"Hopefully we got that straight," Logan said.

"I think you should do it," Stanley said suddenly.

"The sit-down? Why?"

"Because. Her accusation about you being on the payroll is what stalled the mayor's decision. After seeing that stack of resignation letters, he was ready to stick with you, but the question of impropriety and how that might affect his re-election campaign…well, that was turning point. If you can talk to her and get her on your side, then the frontal assault will stop, and maybe we can even shift the momentum around."

"So use her to our advantage as an asset rather than a liability," I said.

And I have to admit it.

As much as I didn't like the idea when he first said it, now I was starting to realize that he had a point.

"Exactly," he agreed. "Let's face it. Holt won't tolerate more bad press. He was eating it up when you made him look good, but like every politician, he's a fair-weather friend."

I turned and caught Alex's eye, knowing what she was thinking.

This had turned into more than just saving her own job.

Now she had nearly three dozen careers riding on her success.

"Okay," she agreed. "I'll call her first thing. And I'll win her over."

TBC...