A/N: I'm very sorry it took me so very long to upload this next chapter. I hope you'll still enjoy it. Special thanks to TheNaggingCube for the encouraging review.

Finding

A kiss on her forehead. One last quick glance before he closed the bedroom door.

She opened her eyes and lay wide awake but still she waited another ten minutes before getting up. Last night's dinner had stirred a long repressed doubt that had made her not want to share breakfast with her husband this morning, like they normally did. Was Aaron all the things he said he was? The question had crossed her mind many times before but she had never been convinced to be able to find the answer. Today she would.

Hathaway tried to work. He was at the station for a good two hours now but hadn't got much work done. His thoughts kept wandering off to last night's dinner and especially to Elenora. It didn't matter where he was or what he was doing because she never really left his thoughts. He sighed and closed the file he was supposed to be working on. He seemed to be miles away when all of a sudden his brows went up and his eyes grew big. He sat up and started typing; only this time he didn't have an internal conflict pressing Enter.

"Good morning, sergeant. You're in early."

There were so many things he could have said - "good morning" would have been enough - but he was too stunned by the results of his search to answer. He rose to his feet, still staring at the computer screen.

"Could you spare me for an hour or so, sir?" he said turning around.

"You have a lead?" Lewis asked pointing to the computer. He was about to put his coffee down and follow his sergeant in the pursuit of truth when Hathaway finally answered:

"I might... but it might also be unrelated."

Lewis searched Hathaway's sleep deprived face for a clue as to what this was about. Although his tone of voice had indicated hesitation, his face showed determination. With a short nod he let Hathaway go, alone.

Elenora knew Aaron was the one with all the answers but she thought it unlikely he'd just answer her questions truthfully now when he'd been lying to her all these years. She needed other resources. Her parents seemed like a good place to start.

Her mother came down the stairs just as Elenora walked in.

"Elenora, what a surprise!" Sophia smiled.

"Good morning, mom" Elenora said matter-of-factly.

Instantly Sophia Hartley's cheerful tone disappeared. She now faced her daughter who was clearly nervous.

"Are you okay? How was dinner last night?"

It was the opening Elenora had hoped for. All the way to her parents' house she had thought about the best way to ask her mother what she knew. Nothing had seemed appropriate. This was.

"How did you know we had a dinner appointment yesterday?"

Sophia looked at her daughter who clearly meant it.

"Aaron told me."

"When?"

Sophia didn't take time to think. "Last time you were here, on Christmas Day." Looking at Elenora she realized her mistake. "What's going on?" she asked in an attempt to control the damage.

It turned out to be too late. Coolly Elenora said:

"That's not possible; I only made the appointment after Christmas."

She didn't smile. She didn't shout. She didn't accuse. She just looked straight at her mother with such determination that Sophia had to sign defeat.

"Let's sit down for this, okay?"

Elenora nodded and followed her mother to the kitchen table. A pregnant pause filled up the room. Elenora spoke first.

"Whose idea was it, the dinner date?"

"Aaron's."

"Why?"

"He was worried about you, as was I." Sophia's pitch went up. "What's going on?"

"This is not about me, it's about him" Elenora responded sternly. "Why was he worried?"

"You were digging in the past, he thinks it unhealthy."

"And you?"

Sophia looked at her daughter's expression and recognized it from her research days, from before she had the accident.

"At first I agreed with him: your search for the past was eating you." She sighed. "Now, I don't know."

Elenora smiled ironically.

"What is there to know about the past that I don't need to know?" She purposefully put the emphasis where it had been before.

Sophia slowly hung her head.

"You don't know either" Elenora concluded a bit surprised.

Sophia raised her head again. "I'm sorry, Nora" she said remorsefully.

For what? Being ignorant, like me? Believing him, like me? Elenora could have said it but she didn't. Instead she placed her hand over her mother's and smiled. It was returned.

In a different, calmer tone Elenora continued her questions.

"Did you know Aaron Norton before my accident?"

"No, definitely not" her mother answered shaking her head.

"Did you know of him?"

The question surprised Sophia. Nevertheless, clever and subtle as it was, it could only have come from Elenora.

"I don't think so, no."

"I never mentioned him?"

"Not to me, you didn't. I remember you talking about Tom and James but not Aaron."

"James, as in James Hathaway?"

"Yes."

Elenora got up. She knew exactly where to find her answers.

"Do you think Aaron is afraid you'll run of with this James person?"

Elenora looked at her now also standing mother.

"No. He's afraid of his own truth." She turned and walked toward the front door.

"What are you going to do?"

"Find it" Elenora responded before closing the door firmly behind her.

Lewis still wondered what it was Hathaway had found. Eventually his curiosity got the better of him and he walked over to Hathaway's computer to see what he'd been doing before Lewis had entered the room. The screen showed a search for Aaron Norton. Results: an eighty-seven year old man that had died under suspicion and a toddler with abusive parents. So Aaron Norton was certainly not someone's neighbour, protective of his wife.

After she had left her parent's house, Elenora went home. Actually she wanted to drive over to Cambridge but she knew she wouldn't make it back in time. So she settled for her phone and computer to get her information. She'd now spent most of her afternoon 'working' on them. It had been worth it: a very friendly and compassionate university clerk - she had for once used her amnesia in her benefit - had helped her to the information she needed. Putting it into the computer had made the picture complete: Aaron was definitely not who he said he was. He had never been a Cambridge student of whatever faculty. Nobody there had ever heard of him, he didn't show on any of the yearbook photos and his name was nowhere to be found in the archives. The city he said he grew up in didn't know of a Norton family ever living there, let alone of Aaron Norton being born there. Because he said he had no family left, there was no one to verify his place of birth with. But even if that wasn't true, she didn't know where to find them. The pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place: the Aaron Norton she knew didn't exist.

She was married to a ghost.

All energy left her as she woke up to this fact. She felt exhausted and had to lie down on the couch, being completely blown away. Surprisingly enough she fell asleep.

Aaron was home early. She woke up from his voice yelling:

"I'm home."

In her drowsy exhausted state she didn't realize all of her research was still on the table for him to see. When she did, it was too late.

"What's this?" he asked, noticing she was on the couch.

Nothing much. Everything. Research. You. All these answers passed her thoughts as she got up quickly but none seemed to fit the situation. Besides, he would check: he was closer to the table than she was, there was no way she could stop him now.

He looked at her written notes and his expression immediately changed.

"Why have you been researching me?" he asked in a low, threatening voice.

She looked at him. His face showed nothing but pure anger. She wanted to answer him, to throw the facts in his face, to be angry too. But she wasn't: she was unable to speak and unable to think. Unable to see what was coming.

In a split second her grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall, choking her. She was dazed by the blow but he didn't loosen his choke hold on her. She would betray him. She had not listened. It was a mortal sin to him.

On the edge of consciousness she looked into his eyes, praying for his love to let her go. There was nothing but merciless darkness. It was the last thing she saw.

Hathaway had been gone most of the day, compiling a file on the man he felt had something to hide from the moment they met. Lewis had tried to call him multiple times but all he'd answered was: "I'll explain later." Now he was ready to fill him in.

"Aaron Norton" he stated, holding out a file.

"Donna Smith's neighbour?" Lewis asked a bit surprised. "You think he has something to do with it?"

"I know" Hathaway retorted. "He's not Aaron Norton."

"Not a computer glitch then, hea, the search?" Lewis nodded to the computer.

It surprised Hathaway Lewis had checked it, he wasn't that good with them. On the other hand, he'd given him so little information he'd almost pried Lewis into it.

"Go on."

"Everything he told me is a lie: his name is definitely not Aaron Norton, he was never a Cambridge student and he seems to not even have been born" Hathaway recited the highlights of the file Lewis had in front of him.

"Back it up." Lewis raised his head. "Where do you get that he should have been a Cambridge student?"

He looked his sergeant in the eye suspiciously. There was something about him these last few days that worried Lewis. He'd been distracted, thoughts miles away. And it had something to do with the Norton couple, he was now sure of it.

"Sergeant..." he said warningly.

"I had dinner with the pair of them last night, I..."

Lewis rose to his feet. "Have you learnt nothing? How many..." he practically yelled but got interrupted by Hathaway.

"I know her, I studied with her."

"And how do I know this" and he held the file in his hand without changing his tone of voice, "is not just your personal vendetta against a man whose wife you know and lose sleep over?"

"Gurdip found evidence on Smith's computer. She was definitely researching Aaron Norton and stumbled on the same inconsistencies I did. Besides, some of the neighbours reported Aaron and Donna didn't get along. He didn't mention that when I interviewed him" he answered decisively nodding to the file Lewis still held out.

He gave Lewis a second to let it sink in.

"I'm going to talk to him, no matter what you say. A woman was brutally murdered; maybe over this. You don't stop me."

Lewis heard the determination in Hathaway's voice, though it wasn't the stubborn variety his sergeant normally displayed when he was being called out on a, according to Lewis, wrong judgment. And whichever way you put it, Aaron Norton had lied. There was effectively no reason not talk to him.

"I'll ask the questions, sergeant."

Hathaway just nodded and followed Lewis out.

A car speeding away was the only thing disrupting the peace of the quiet residential street. Lewis parked their car in front of the Norton house and got out. Walking toward the front door, he noticed it was left open. He turned and exchanged a look with Hathaway. Something was wrong. With his sleeve he opened the door a little further and called for "Mister Norton" through the empty hallway.

"Oxford police."

Inside nothing stirred. He looked at Hathaway.

"Elenora?"

Again no response came. They went in.

Sprawled out on the living room floor they found Elenora Hartley, barely alive.