The Usual Suspects Part 2

Mae set up at the motel, as best she could. She tried to pretend that she was working solo on the case, least she spend all her time worrying about Sam and Dean. The cops must have something on the boys for them to be held this long. It wasn't as if they hadn't committed a fair number of crimes. But not murder.

Maybe she could have Cal worm his way into their system and find out what they had on the boys. Maybe he could even try to not so innocently get rid of the electronic case files. That wouldn't solve all the problems, depending on what else other PDs had on him. And he would have to wipe out other records so it looked like an accident and not an intentional targeting of the Winchester boys' files. And Cal would be distinctly uncomfortable impeding other investigations just to save her friends.

She shook her head. There wasn't anything she could do for them right then. Mae sighed and slapped her cheek lightly. "Focus up, Singer."

The authorities hadn't taken all the information they had gathered. To those documents and pictures, she added what she had printed at the library and organized their files and notes. She started to look for crimes, almost any crime would do, that happened on Ashland. There was still something missing and right then, she had nothing but time on her hands to figure it out. Could be the wrong theory, she thought. Maybe they weren't dealing with a vengeful spirit at all. But nothing in the murder of Anthony Giles indicated some other creature.

With a sigh, she leaned back in the chair, tapping her pen repetitively on the edge of the desk as she thought. Mae's spine went straight when she heard the quiet turn of a key in the door. Most of her weapons were in the car, which was location unknown for the time being but it could be assumed the cops had it. She still had her boot knife and she wasn't a slouch when it came to fighting. Of course, if it was the cops at the door, things were far more complex. She stood from the desk and moved to the side of the door, so she would have the upper hand in seeing whoever was entering before they saw her.

When the door opened to reveal Sam, she visibly relaxed. "Sammy! Oh my God, it's good to see you again."

He didn't chide her for the name because she pulled him into a tight hug, tighter than he was expecting. Because he was relieved that she wasn't being held either, Sam hugged her back, a genuine smile on his lips. It was grounding to see her and know that she was similarly perturbed. "Hey Mae. Keepin' yourself busy?"

Mae let him go with a sharp, wry laugh, only to turn away and start to pace slowly. "I mean, the last time I saw you our door was busted down and we were arrested. So, not a great run so far. Dean with you?"

Sam shook his head regretfully as he gave a cautious look out the door before closing it.

"Then what did you tell the cops to convince them to let you go?"

He shuffled his feet, stuffing his hands in his pocket a moment. "Well... it's more accurate to say they didn't stop me."

A frown graced her lips but she chuffed. "You're on the lam? Naughty boy."

Sam smirked. "Yeah. They were trying pretty hard to get me to roll over on Dean for Karen Giles' death."

Mae stopped pacing and faced the taller hunter. "The spirit killed the wife?" Sam nodded. "So, they have Dean on murder charges and will be looking for you too then while we have to figure out who this vengeful spirit was and where to find a body?"

"More or less. What about you?"

"Oh yeah, they think I'm a hooker. But, you know, there was no proof of it. I guess they had more important things to deal with. And that might be the best part of this job."

"Yeah." Sam smirked a bit, then sighed, "Hey, Dean figures Ashland's a street, by the way. So maybe we have a bit of a lead and can start our search there."

"Yeah, I worked my way around to that too. I haven't found anything on Ashland that seems to fit a vengeful spirit yet. Could be an unreported murder or death, you know?"

"Let's hope we find something before we have to start guessing then."

The pair didn't waste more time and set to reassembling their notes and information to now look for any leads they could find around Ashland. That last resort, they both knew, would be searching building to building down the street until they found what they were looking for. They also knew that would take too long.

Sam and Mae exchanged a look at the knock at the door, both simultaneously hopeful and wary of who might be have tracked them down. It could be Dean, could be the cops. At least whoever had tracked them down wasn't breaking down the door down this time. They both stood and approached the door. Mae took a defensive position to the side while Sam opened it. There, he found the female detective who had been interrogating him earlier. He hesitated for a moment, his eyes flicking momentarily to Mae before he opened the door wider and let the other woman inside. She looked between Mae and Sam with narrowed eyes for a moment before she shrugged and said nothing.

Mae stood to Sam's side while he examined the bruises on the detective's wrists after she told them that Dean told her how to find them and why. "These showed up after you saw it?

She shook her head, still incredulous. She couldn't have seen what she thought she was seeing and she shouldn't have come here. These people were clearly liars, although they may have been insane. The detective knew she should have just done her job and put them both in handcuffs. And yet, she couldn't deny that something was happening that she couldn't explain. "Yeah, I guess."

"All right. You're going to have to tell me exactly what you saw."

"You know, I must be losing my mind. You're a fugitive. I should be arresting you. And I don't know how you fit in but you're clearly not just another working girl."

"I never said I was." Mae retorted in a clipped tone.

"But you still don't know these guys?"

"Just a lonely girl, looking for a friend. If you're here too, with those, you're maybe you're not just a cop trying to build a case either. Maybe you're more worried about what's actually going on than you are about whatever we may have embellished when you were talking with us." Mae said.

"All right. Well, you know what? You can arrest me later, all right? After you live through this. But right now you've gotta talk to us. Okay?"

The detective nodded.

"Okay, great. Now, this spirit. What did it look like?" Sam asked.

"She was, um, really pale, and her throat was cut, and her eyes, they were like, this deep dark red? It appeared like she was trying to talk to me. But she couldn't. It was just... a lot of blood."

"You know what? Here. We've been researching every girl that's ever died or gone missing from Ashland Street." He lead the woman over to the table, where he took a seat and picked up a stack of crime scene photos.

"How'd you get those? Those are from crime scenes, and booking photos." She asked, even more skeptical of the brothers and mystery woman.

"You have your job, we have ours. Here. We need you to look through these, tell us if you recognize anyone."

Still somewhat reluctant and displeased to had to put her trust in three people who were clearly some kind of criminals, she sat down on the edge of one of the beds. Mae stood behind her, arms crossed over her chest, looking over the detective's shoulder as she started going through the stack of photos.

The detective shook her head at the first few photos but landing on one, she paused. It was a booking photo of a young woman. "This is her. I'm sure of it." She handed the stack back to Sam.

"The spirit?" Mae asked and the detective nodded, "She looks a bit like you."

The detective looked back up at the redhead, who shrugged in return before Mae looked at Sam with a pointed expression. He nodded, an exchange that seemed meaningful to them but was lost on the detective.

"Claire Becker?" Sam asked. "Twenty-eight years old, disappeared about eight or nine months ago."

"But I don't even know her. I mean, why would she come after me?"

"Well," Sam said, "before her death, she was arrested twice. For dealing heroin. You ever work narcotics?"

"Yeah, Pete and I did. Before Homicide."

Mae and Sam exchanged a look again. Sam held the photo back up for the detective to look at again. "You ever bust her?"

"Not that I remember."

"It says that she was last seen entering 2911 Ashland Street. Police searched the place, didn't find anything." Sam handed the detective the arrest report. Sam gave Mae a nod. "Guess we gotta check it out ourselves. See if we can find her body."

"What?" She asked, alarmed.

"Well," Sam stood, picking up his coat, "we gotta salt and burn her bones. It's the only way to put her spirit to rest."

"Of course it is."

"Hey, you can always arrest us again and wind up just like the lawyer and his wife." Mae suggested.

To her credit, the detective didn't arrest them. Instead, she drove them to the warehouse that occupied 2911 Ashland Street. The area was sketchy and it looked abandoned, the perfect place to kill and hide a person without a lot of people snooping around. The three entered the building, with minimal supplies of flashlights, a sledgehammer, as well as gasoline and salt.

"So what exactly are we looking for?"

"I'll let you know when we find it." Sam said. As he scanned the room, he cast his flashlight up towards the second floor.

He headed up the stairs while Mae and the detective stayed on the lower level, but they headed in opposite directions. It wasn't quite accurate to say the building was abandoned. By the looks of the detritus and paraphernalia on the floor, it was a frequent crash pad and likely drug house.

As she searched for something, she wasn't sure what, the detective heard a sound behind her. Mae and Sam were drawn back to the woman however when she called out for Sam. They both ran towards her voice but when they met up with her, it wasn't clear why she called out. She didn't seem like the kind of woman who spooked easily, although finding out that ghosts were real might have done enough to shake her.

"Hey! Hey, I'm here, what is it? What happened?" He asked the detective. His eyes flicked up to Mae, "You see something?"

"Nothin'" Mae said.

"Claire..." the detective said, scared and uncertain.

"Where?"

"She, she was here."

"Did she attack you?"

"No. No, she was just like, reaching out to me. She was over there by the window."

To her credit, Mae thought, the woman walked towards the window. Sam and Mae followed, scanning around to see if they found anything out of place or perhaps even a sign of the spirit.

"Here, help me move this." The detective said, indicating the large shelving unit that partially covered the window.

"All right. I got you." Sam agreed and he and Mae helped the detective shove the shelves aside, revealing the window.

That was when the saw the lettering, faded and peeling but some of it still intact. ASHLAND SUP. At one point it would have said supplies but their ghost wouldn't have known that.

"Our little mystery word."

Sam turned and saw that the light coming through the window cast the words onto the wall. As if they needed more confirmation it was right there. "Now the extra letters make sense."

"Huh...well, maybe Claire was leading us to the right place. But why?"

Sam didn't answer Mae's question as he pulled an EMF reader out of his coat and walked towards the wall.

Ballard eyed the device. "What is that?

"Spirits and certain remains give off electromagnetic frequencies."

"So if Claire's body was here, that would indicate that?"

"Yeah. Well, that's the theory."

The EMF reader whirred and pinged as Sam moved to the wall. He turned, handing the device to Mae, and taking the sledgehammer from her. The women took a step back as Sam started smashing into the wall. With several forceful blows, he made a hole large enough to peer into, impressive given one of his hands was in a cast. He shone his flashlight inside, trying to see what he could see.

"Yeah." he turned back to look at both women, "Yeah, there's definitely something in there."

They stepped up beside him. The detective offered her light to help Sam see. He then started widening the hole using his elbows. "You know? This is bothering me."

"Well, you are digging up a corpse."

"Doesn't digging imply it's in the ground? We're...un-entombing." Mae quipped.

"No, not that. That's, uh, that's pretty par for the course, actually." Sam said, almost amused over it.

"Then what?"

"It's just, I mean, no vengeful spirit I've ever tussled with wanted to be wasted, so why the hell would Claire lead us to her remains? It doesn't make any sense."

Sam continued to try to bust out more bricks from the wall. From his side, Mae repositioned her flashlight, nodding. "Yeah, for a vengeful spirit she seems pretty laid back."

"Hasn't she killed two people?"

Mae contemplated but Sam interrupted, having opened most of the wall. "All right, here. Give me a hand."

Together, they removed what appeared to be a body, wrapped in a dark cloth, and secured with ropes. They placed it on the ground carefully and crouched next to the body. Sam took out his pocket knife to cut the ropes holding the shroud together, uncovering the nearly mummified woman with blond hair.

The detective held out her wrists, near Claire's. "Her wrists. Yeah, they'd be bruised just like yours?" Sam said.

"Well...spirits do often do to others what was done to them. But..." Mae shook her head, looking up and away from the body, scanning the room almost hoping to see Claire's ghost. But the room was empty. "I don't think that's what's happening here."

The detective's attention however was still focused on the body. She touched the necklace around Claire's neck.

"That necklace mean something to you?" Sam asked, examining the necklace.

"I've seen it before. It's rare. It was custom made over on Carson street." the detective's tone was all business but there was a tight emotion behind it. She reached into her shirt, pulling out a matching necklace. "I have one just like it. Pete gave it to me."

Sam looked over at Mae who again nodded in reply and they were both relieved on some level. "Now this all makes perfect sense." Sam said.

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah. You see, Claire is not a vengeful spirit, she's a death omen."

While it may have made sense to Mae and Sam, it made absolutely no sense to the detective. "Excuse me?"

"Claire's not killing anyone. She's trying to warn them. You see, sometimes spirits, they don't want vengeance, they want justice. Which is why she led us here in the first place. She wants us to know who her killer is. Detective, how much do you know about your partner?"

The detective thought a moment. "Oh my god."

"What?"

"About a year ago, some heroin went missing from lockup." she started to walk, slowly and steady as everything clicked into place for her. "Obviously it was a cop. We never found out who did it. But whoever did it would need someone to fence their product."

"Someone like a heroin dealer. Somebody like Claire."

The detective was quiet, at first, as she thought about the possibilities of what they had discovered. But, Mae thought, she was taking the death omen thing better than most would. Maybe she had her doubts about Pete and had simply pushed them down for the sake of the partnership. Learning that he likely had a relationship with another woman and had the audacity to give them the same necklace might have been harder to swallow than learning that ghosts were real.

She drove them, away from the warehouse but she needed to ascertain where her partner was. If he was at the precinct, she couldn't bring Sam and Mae there with her; they'd be taken into custody and certainly under greater scrutiny than before. That wouldn't help them get justice for Claire. She had to be careful though and not alert Pete to her suspicion or vague plan so she called the precinct first.

"All right. Thanks."

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"Pete just left the precinct. With Dean."

"What?" Sam asked, not masking his worry and distress.

"He said the prisoner had to be transferred, and he just took him. Dispatch has been calling but he won't answer the radio."

"Radio? He took a county vehicle?"

"Yeah."

"Well, then they should have a lo-jack, you've just gotta get it turned on."

Dean hadn't figured out how he would get out of this. This wasn't what he anticipated when he created the distraction to allow Sammy to escape. He had to hope that Mae hadn't been caught up in it but couldn't assume. For all he knew, she was still in police custody. But if he had any luck at all, Mae and Sam had already figured it out and put the spirit to rest. And they were now on their way to find him. Hopefully in time. Whatever this cop was up to wasn't good. But for now, he was on his own.

Unexpectedly, the armored van pulled off the road and stops. Dean scanned the area that he could see; it was dark, deserted, and a perfect place for a dirty cop to get rid him.

"Pee break? So soon? You might want to get your prostate checked." he jibed. Saying nothing, the detective got out of the driver's side of the van. "Son of a bitch." Dean muttered to himself.

When the back doors of the van were opened, Dean hoped he could talk this guy down or out of whatever idea he had. "Hey, I'm cool in the van, you go do what you gotta do."

The other man didn't respond verbally. Instead, he grabbed Dean, hauled him out of the vehicle and threw him to the ground. Cuffed and unarmed, Dean knew he was at a distinct disadvantage. He could run or he could fight but both options were likely to get him shot.

The detective loosened his tie as he stared Dean down. "You're a cocky son of a bitch." As if proving the point Dean showed his cockiest grin as he go to his knees. But the detective continued and his grin faded. "You think those people in St. Louis are gonna buy that crap you're peddling? Here's the thing. You're not gonna make it to St. Louis. You're gonna die trying to escape."

He pulled out his gun and pointed it at Dean.

"Wait! Wait. Let's, let's talk about this. I mean, you don't want to do something that you're gonna regret later." The detective cocked his gun. "Or maybe you do."

"Pete! Put the gun down."

They hadn't made a sound as they approached and Pete was genuinely surprised to see his partner, especially with two suspects in tow.

"Diana? How'd you find me?" He kept his gun aimed at Dean.

But Diana kept her weapon trained on Pete. "I know about Claire."

"I don't know what you're talking about.

"Put the gun down!" She ordered.

"Oh, I don't think so." His focus shifted back to Dean. "You're fast. I'm pretty sure I'm faster."

"Why are you doing this?"

"I didn't do anything, Diana."

"It's a little late for that." She countered.

"It wasn't my fault. Claire was trying to turn me in, I had no choice."

"And Tony? Karen?"

"Same thing! Tony scrubbed the money, then he got skittish, and then he wanted to come clean. I'm sure he told Karen everything."

While the detectives argued about what had happened, the three hunters exchanged discrete glances, trying to assess what their options were. There were still very few. They could rush Sheridan but one of them was likely to get shot. They couldn't make a break for it either. Dean shook his head. They had to wait it out. Sam gritted his teeth.

"It was a mess; I had to clean it up. I just panicked."

"How many more people are gonna die over this, Pete?"

"There's a way out. This Dean kid's a friggin' gift. We could pin the whole thing on him. Right? No trial, nothing. Just, just one more dead scumbag."

"Hey!"

When Dean protested the description, Pete raised his gun again and Dean backed off.

"No one will question it. Diana, please. I still love you." She lowered her weapon. "Thank you. Thank you."

This time, Pete really was going to shoot Dean and seeing his intent, knowing that her partner, her lover, had killed three people already to cover up his crime, she wasn't going to let him kill one more. She brought her gun back up and fired. Pete collapsed, hit in the stomach. As he fell, Dean took the opportunity to roll out of the way. Mae didn't think, she couldn't. She couldn't stop herself either. She ran toward Dean. It wasn't safe and she was just as likely to get shot as she was to make sure Dean was safe but she didn't care. She came to her knees next to Deal, wrapping her arms over his shoulder as if that might protect him.

For the time being though, neither detective seemed to notice Mae. "Then why don't you buy me another necklace, you ass?"

Pete tackled Diana at the legs, bringing her to the ground and knocking her gun out of her hands in the process. Sam moved to grab it but Pete got there first. "Don't do it! Don't do it!"

Pete aimed the weapon at Sam now. Sam stopped, then backed off, holding his hands up. He looked over at Dean and Mae as Pete swung his weapon back at them. Dean held his shackled hands up but still attempted to shield Mae as much as he could.

While they should have been worried about Pete, all their attention was on something else as they looked past the armed man. A low grunt drew his attention and he turned to see the Claire. Her bloody apparition glared at him before giving a small, vindicated smile before another gunshot echoed through the night air.

Dawn came quickly and after Diana unlocked Dean's shackles, she walked back to her partner, unmoving on the ground. She didn't say anything as she crouched down and looked over his lifeless body. It seemed inappropriate, not to mention an extreme test of any goodwill they had built with the woman to leave. So, Dean, Sam, and Mae stood nearby, watching, and waiting. But they knew this was not the scene they needed to be found at right then.

Sam was the first to speak after Diana stood and approached them. "You doin' all right?"

"Not really. The death omen Claire. What happens to her now?"

"Should be over. She should be at rest."

"She got justice. You help avenge her." Mae added, hoping it might go a little way to justify her letting all three of them go.

"So, uh. What now, officer?" Dean asked, almost hopeful that she would let them go but mindful of the fact that she could well lock them back up.

Diana didn't exactly soften as she spoke to them but she seemed more accepting of their story after what she'd seen. "Pete did confess to me. He screwed up both your cases royally. I'd say that there's a good chance that we could get your cases dismissed."

"You'd take care of that for us?" Sam asked.

"I hope so. But the St. Louis murder charges? That's another story. I can't help you. Unless... I just happened to turn my back, and you walked away. I could just tell them that the suspects escaped."

"Wait, are you sure?"

"Yeah, she's sure, Sam."

"No, it's just, I mean, you could lose your job over something like that."

"Look, I just want you guys out there doing what you do best. Trust me, I'll sleep better at night." She turned to go but stopped, "Listen, you need to watch your back. They're gonna be looking for all of you right now. Get out of here. I gotta radio this in."

Dean cleared his throat. "Hey, uh, you wouldn't happen to know where my car is, by chance?"

"It's at the impound yard down on Robertson." She replied, then, taking in Dean's scheming expression, continued, "Don't... even think about it."

"It's okay, it's all right, don't worry." Sam said, "We'll, uh, we'll just improvise. I mean, we're pretty good at that."

"Yeah. I've noticed." She said with a smile, deciding it was better not to know what they might plan.

Dean caught Mae's hand as they started to walk back to the city. They still had to get the car and any gear they could. She didn't say anything as he squeezed her hand tightened than normal, she only squeezed back.

"Nice lady." Sam said.

"Yeah, for a cop. Did she look familiar to you?"

"No, why?" Sam shoved Dean playfully.

"I don't know. Anyway, are you hungry?"

"No."

"For some reason I could really go for some pea soup." Dean said.

They drove further than they needed to, away from Baltimore and, for the time being, to a far less populous area. As Detective Ballard suggested, they needed to watch their back. They needed to lay low for a while, a week, maybe longer. But for now, they stuck to the back roads and put as many miles between them and Baltimore as possible. When they did finally stop for the night, they were bone tired and going on several days without proper rest, meals, or even a shower. Mae and Dean didn't discuss what they wanted to do first as the both dropped their gear and promptly stripped down, heading for the bathroom. If they were lucky, the motel would have good water pressure and plenty of hot water. Wearily, Dean turned on the shower to let it warm up.

To Dean's surprise, Mae stopped him before he could grab soap, shampoo and conditioner, her hands gliding over his body methodically. She lingered occasional over a bruise here and there as she checked him over. Despite his best intentions, his eyes drifted shut at her touch. It wasn't remotely sexual though. Even as exhausted as he was, he had no intention of turning Mae down if she decided she wanted more than a shower and sleep. This wasn't without its appeal though. Her hands were a little cold but they were soft and delicate against his skin. Her touch was soothing and calming this time. It was almost like a massage, but perhaps it was fatigue that made her modest scrutiny so hypnotic. He let her complete one pass before he caught her wrists in one hand and stilled her movements.

Dean watched the intensity in her eyes, the slight puckered frown on her lovely lips and he smiled. He didn't expect the concern, not for this anyway. Mae always worried about him, even when he didn't but he had certainly been hurt worse than this.

"Mae, hey. Hey. I'm fine."

Her lips turned down further, etching deeper lines on her face. "You almost got murdered last night Dean."

Her voice was surprisingly raw. He knew she had been distressed when they finally found each other in Baltimore. Had he underestimated how much? Dean lifted her hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "Yeah well... it's hardly the first time."

She shook her head. "It's a big deal. It was reckless."

"Not this time, babe. I was only picked up because I had gone back to check on Karen. I mean, if you had just gone back to the motel with me and messed around..." Her frown turned from concerned to annoyed now. "Okay, okay, maybe not but it's not like I did anything we wouldn't have done on any other job. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, mostly because the actual murderer was trying to clean up after himself and got lucky when he ran my prints. This mess wasn't my fault."

"Yeah," she sighed, "Except they know you're not dead and the cops think you're a murderer. I don't know how we fix that."

"C'mon, chicks dig bad boys." he joked, but it only made her brows knit closer together, "Don't get worked up over this, Red. Please? There's nothing we can do about it now. For tonight anyway, it's fine. We're all fine."

She tried not to react when Dean cupped the side of her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb. Her eyes closed as she leaned into his hand. She sighed heavily. "I need you to take this seriously."

He pressed his lips together a moment. "Can you just tell me what I need to do to convince you that I do? I'm too tired to guess what you want."

She shook her head. "I don't know. I just... I can deal with you getting hurt by a monster, a ghost, whatever."

"Oh, that's nice to hear," he said sarcastically.

"I-no, not like that. I accept that as a risk, okay? I'm not going to be happy and if there's anything I can do to stop it, I will but... now we have to be extra careful because if the cops catch you, even on something petty, you're not gonna charm your way out of it. That's not a small problem." she signed again and opened her eyes, "This was a shitty job."

"Yeah, you won't get any argument from me." Dean kissed the tip of her nose softly before pulling the curtain and guided her in the shower with him. "But we stopped a guy who killed three people. He probably would have killed his partner. And me. And Sam. And you. It's not like he wouldn't have tried to pin it on someone else and, no offense to that lady cop but she didn't seem to catch that her boyfriend was dirty as hell until the last possible moment.."

The hot water felt good as it hit her back as Dean pulled her into his embrace again. "Well... sometimes you're head over heels for a guy and you don't see the red flags."

"Hey." He said softly, kissing her forehead lightly.

Mae smirked at his feigned indignation. Dean leaned down and kissed Mae properly. His lips were delicate and warm. She let herself melt against his firm body more than she wanted to as she kissed him back. "I love you." He whispered against her lips when he finally pulled back.

With a small sigh, Mae relaxed a bit more into Dean's arm but she still frowned. "Hey, you can't just distract me with naked kissing. You're not getting off that easily." She said.

"I know, I know. Although, it's never that difficult to get off with you."

Mae rolled her eyes but couldn't fight her amusement. "Do you have to do that? Can't you just... I feel like the nagging girlfriend here and I just need to know that you get that this isn't good for us."

Dean wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her tightly against him. He leaned his head down and pressed his lips against her shoulder, leaving a slow sensual trail of kisses along her skin as he moved towards her ear. He knew her well enough that he could easily diffuse so many of her defenses, particularly when she didn't want to be upset with him. But it could just as well piss her off.

"I get it. We've already got enough bad on our plates with the demon and whatever is going on with Sammy and now we're not flying under the radar, okay?" He said, his tone softened. He stepped back, looking into her eyes as he gently ran his fingers through her hair. "I promise I'll be more careful. I promise next time a dirty cop tries to frame me for murder, my one call will be to you to tell you that you were right."

Mae laughed a little at this. Despite his joke, she could see the genuine concern in his eyes. She leaned forward, sighing a bit before pressing her lips to his in a slow and passionate kiss. "I love you too," she whispered against his lips.