I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I didn't have much time for writing while we were away, and Internet access was limited. But I'm home now, so here you go:

Chapter 64.

I felt great that evening to go home and find Jess already there. She was busy in the kitchen, preparing meatloaf.

"Dinner should be ready in an hour," she said, sliding the pan into the oven, along with some potatoes. She wiped her hands against each other. "Did you want anything while you wait?"

"You?" I wiggled my brows at her.

She laughed. "I think that can be arranged." But then she was serious again. "You didn't really mean the things you said about me this afternoon, did you?"

It suddenly struck me that she'd been affected the same way I had by our faux bickering. "No more than you meant the things you said."

"Maybe I did," she said with a smirk. But when she saw my eyes cloud over and my lips turn down, she sighed. "Of course I didn't mean it. Everything we said was all part of our grand plan to throw people off."

I nodded, but it still rankled. "Same here."

"I knew that..."

"But?"

"But no one likes to be belittled, especially not in front of people they like."

"You like Ellie and Chase?" I made it sound as if it was a stupid thing to do.

"Yes." Her voice was teasing. "And you do, too. As you said, my boyfriend is sensitive, even if he doesn't show it." She put her arms around my waist and smiled up at me.

It was only natural to reciprocate. We stood there, arms around each other, eyes locked, for a few moments, the hurt I'd felt earlier slowly subsiding. But I had to look away and change the subject. "I didn't tell you, but I talked to Angela Rogers this afternoon."

"Who?"

"The reporter who's still pursuing Jared's case even though the others have moved on to other stories."

Now I had her interest. "What did she say?"

I told her the little I'd learned from Angela. "She says she'll keep in touch."

"What I don't understand was why she was so willing to talk to you."

"You don't think I can be persuasive?"

"Sometimes your methods are, shall we say, unorthodox."

"I just stretched the truth, telling her that I worked with Jared's doctor."

"Jared's doctor?" When she said it I realized I hadn't told her that part either.

"His mother said he was seeing Dr. Daily at PPTH. Daily's a rheumatologist, the kind of doctor who specializes in certain diseases, primarily autoimmune ones."

"And I'm sure what she told you only whetted your appetite to play detective."

"Isn't that what I always do? Instead of searching for a human culprit, I try to uncover a medical one." I shrugged. "I guess it's the one thing I'm good at, solving puzzles."

She slipped her arms around my neck and purred, "You're good at a few other things, too."

She said it with such sincerity that I had to smile and ask, "Would you like a little demonstration of that?"

"It'll have to wait for later or the meatloaf will burn."

"Let it." I pulled her closer and we headed for the bedroom and some first-class hanky-panky.

Our dinner was only slightly burned when we returned to the kitchen forty-five minutes later, but it was worth it. And once all of my appetites were sated, we settled down on the couch together. All in all my kind of evening, the kind I hoped I'd have a lot more of.

–

Before I arrived at the office late the next morning, Jess texted me that she'd be able to close on the condo in five days. That brought up a few questions. Would the Philips family be there? Should I attend, since Jess had applied for the mortgage in her own name? Would Bonnie be at the closing? Despite all of the unknowns, I was excited that we'd be moving so soon. Yes, me, Gregory House, excited about something other than a puzzle.

But speaking of puzzles, my phone rang soon after I arrived. It was Angela with news.

"You may have been right about a mob connection. The cops found that Sal Manucci has a beef with our Mr. Dan Philips."

"Let me guess. They each have construction companies and are bidding on the same job."

"Right again." She laughed. "And this one is a biggie, the new city office complex."

"But with his connections, Manucci should be able to undercut Daniel Philips."

"Guess not. The lieutenant in charge of the case seems to think Manucci put out a hit on the kid to scare Philips off. He's done worse in the past."

"What's worse than killing an innocent kid?" But somehow this mob connection didn't ring true in this case. "I'm sure they can't prove anything. And now that they have a theory, I bet they're dropping any other leads."

"Yeah. They've stopped questioning Jared's friends, never did talk to the brother."

"Do you really think Zach had something to do with his brother's death?" Stranger things have happened but I didn't think so in this case.

"I think he knows something he hasn't told anyone. Same goes for Jared's friends. He was a teenager. They lead complicated and often secretive lives."

"And yet they reveal all in the social media." I was getting an idea of what I could do next. "Angela, why are you being so cooperative?" I knew the reason I'd given Jess wasn't enough. "I could be anyone, just pumping you for information."

She laughed. "You forget. I'm a reporter, Doctor. I've done my research. For the record, I know you don't work with Dr. Daily, but you are head of a department at PPTH. I think I can trust you."

It was my turn to laugh. I liked this frank young woman. Or was she so young? I'd have to check on that. She'd done her homework on me, it was time I did some on her.

"We should get a drink sometime," she suggested.

"I'd like that."

"I should warn you, though, I'm a happily married woman."

"That's OK. I've got someone, too."

Once the call ended with us both agreeing to share anything more we learned, I went back to Jared's Facebook page. There had to be some more clues there. There was nothing obvious, but I sensed an undertone of...something. I'd have to think about it. I also checked his friends' pages, and Zach's. All of the older kids were careful about what they disclosed, but Jared's brother didn't have their savvy. Still, all I learned was that he had a secret crush on Jared's friend Misty. He said she was 'hot', and a smile from her made him expand on that as only a prepubescent boy could.

There was one other thing on Zach's page that struck me. He was into all of the same things as Jared. Jared played chess, so Zach joined his junior high chess team, although there was no indication about how well he did. I'd already established that Jared had worked on the high school newspaper, so I wasn't surprised that Zach listed his school paper as one of his activities.

The only difference between the two brothers, in fact, was that Zach was a gamer. I hadn't found any indication that Jared played more than an occasional round of online scrabble with his friend Jon. The younger Philips boy must have loved video games to play them when his brother didn't.