A/N 1: Writing this fic is like solving a Rubik's Cube – a little shift this way, a little shift that way, two steps forward, one step back. I hope that nothing else in this fic is as difficult as the previous chapter (Chapter 8), although if it is, I (and you, my dear readers) can hopefully be comforted by the fact that finally figuring out that chapter has made the next several much easier to write.

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CHAPTER NINE: IN MEDIAS RES

Somewhere over upstate New York
4PM Monday afternoon

…subject Eames, a conference attendee, reports waking up at approximately oh-six-hundred hours to find the deceased Detective Ernestine Julia Carruthers (known as "Nina Carruthers"), her roommate and fellow conference attendee…

Why didn't the attending officers just let Eames write out her own statement?

Bobby was in an aisle seat in First Class, trying to sort out the reasoning behind the direction of the investigation from the notes Ross got to him just before he departed.

…upon attending the crime scene at oh-six-fifteen hours, Suite 2122 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, subject Detective Alexandra Jane Eames (known as "Alex Eames") was observed standing in the hallway outside the suite, in the custody of hotel security…

Detective First Grade, NYPD Major Case was 'in custody'? Of hotel security?

Bobby frowned as he looked over at the seat next to him, blessedly empty but for the crime scene photos he'd strewn about. He picked up an array of photos of the body and the room; he noticed Eames's bare right foot in one of them, pale and neatly manicured, with shimmery pink nailpolish. He shuddered slightly at his body's reaction to beholding this part of her anatomy, never before revealed to him, innocent though it was. Now was not the time.

…subject Eames' keycard used at zero-hundred hours fourteen on Monday morning. Subject claims to have been at the hotel bar. Credit card activity does not confirm…

Was she at the bar? Or was she… He couldn't think about it right now, even if it was pertinent to the case. Maybe he wouldn't be a help to her after all.

Goren shook his head to re-focus. It was difficult. Some of the crime scene photos showed Eames in the background, standing outside the suite looking small and fragile, alone. When he looked at the pictures of the vic his throat tightened. She'd slept in the bed next to that. She'd woken up to that. Maybe it would have been better if she had been with… him. And now she was a suspect. He resisted the urge to pound his fist into the array of photos next to him.

Forcing himself to put his emotions aside, Goren read the rest of the uniform's report. Halfway through the flight, Ross emailed him the video of Eames's interview at LVPD.

o.o.o.o.o

After the flight attendants had served and cleared dinner, he plugged in his laptop headphones and loaded the video.

The interview room was larger and darker than theirs at Major Case, but the walls were the same institutional grey. Eames was already seated; the video started just as the detectives and the ADA stepped in.

Watching her look up – composure, apprehension and resignation all showing on her face – he felt himself suffused with intense longing. He suddenly couldn't remember being angry or disappointed by her behaviour; all he felt was desire to show her his love, his loyalty. To protect both her strength and her fragility, rather than hiding his own. She was so beautiful to him it was almost painful. How could she be anything but his? Whatever she thought Phil Becker was giving her, it wasn't much, and it wasn't real. He was real. He was real, and they would fix this, like they always did. And then they'd figure things out.

"Please state your name for the record." A no-nonsense, middle-aged male detective was speaking.

"Alexandra Jane Eames, Detective First Grade, NYPD." Her voice was cool and steady, and Goren allowed himself to be lulled for a few moments into the comforting rhythm of her.

"Please just answer the question, Ms Eames. Your credentials are irrelevant to the investigation." That was the ADA Judith Dreyfeus. Goren paused the video for a few seconds, trying to intuit the reason behind her disrespectful attitude. What happened to professional courtesy? What did she hope to gain?

"Please state, in your own words, everything you recall regarding the murder of Nina Carruthers, starting with your arrival in Las Vegas." The other detective, a serious-looking Latina about Eames's age, asked the question.

"And keep in mind that we have all read carefully the statement you gave to the uniforms." The ADA again. Goren was starting to get irritated. And worried.

o.o.o.o.o

"…Is it your claim that the last time you saw the deceased Nina Carruthers alive was before dinner that evening, at approximately 5:45pm?"

Despite the many interruptions by the ADA, Eames had managed to get her story out, although she flinched more at each barked question, and seemed to wilt and shrink as those questions got more demanding, more personal. Bobby's heart ached for her.

"Yes," she managed. She seemed to have something in her throat.

"And you further claim that that interaction, which took place in your room, was acrimonious?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"Please repeat that for the record."

"Yes," she said more forcefully.

"Attitude isn't going to help you, detective." The two investigating detectives had a very good rhythm going in their interrogation; too bad Dreyfeus kept interrupting them.

Eames ducked her head down and to the side the way she did when she was uncomfortable. Other than that, she sat stock still.

"And what did you fight about?"

o.o.o.o.o

Goren closed the video window with a mixture of relief and resolve, despite Eames's precarious position. She loved him. He wasn't absolutely certain, but after that torture session of an interview and what she revealed (despite trying desperately not to), he was pretty sure.

When he'd realised she wasn't going to call him, his fear had been that she didn't want to turn to him because she thought he was weak. Because in his darkest moments, that's what he secretly thought of himself… He was weak and he couldn't be trusted, and the person who knew him best of all surely knew that, despite his taking great pains to hide it. His second thought was that she was punishing him for his many secrets. Turnabout is fair play. His third was that she simply had a better offer from a better man.

But after seeing that video, he realised the truth. She was ashamed, of the secret she thought she was keeping from him. She was ashamed. She wanted to hide what she saw as a weakness, an indiscretion, perhaps even a betrayal… and try to make her way back to him, as he had done so many times.

Even if she didn't love him, his path was clear. He wasn't going to allow her reticence to get in the way of clearing her, and he was going to work with her to fix things.

o.o.o.o.o

After carefully reading the casefile (watching Eames's interview twice), Goren read some of the ADA's old cases with a sinking feeling. As far as Eames's case was concerned, his course of action was fairly clear. The disturbing variable was Dreyfeus. What was her angle? What did she have against Eames? Goren had his suspicions, but he wanted more information. As the plane circled Las Vegas, he emailed Ross to ask him for anything he could turn up on the ADA's background.

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A/N 2: Reviews do not make me write more or try harder… they just make me happy.

WORDS: 1320 UPLOADED Monday, July 5, 2010