ACT III

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, but Jill was more than a little reluctant to exit.  What she was about to do could be career suicide.  Denise could be a bear on the best of days.  Jill wasn’t sure she wanted to deal with her drunk and hurting.  Her boss might just maul her to pieces.  But if Maggie had been accurate in her phone call about Denise’s condition, then Jill knew someone had to be brave and make sure the woman was okay.

 With a sigh, the attorney pushed off the rail and left the elevator, stepping out into a long hallway with beautiful cherry wood floors.  Denise lived in a nice part of the Bay area, and Jill was silently impressed with the converted warehouse apartments.  She would have been more than curious to see the inside of Denise’s apartment on just about any other day but this one; however, it appeared that this was unfortunately going to be the day she got an uninvited peek into the secret life of Denise Kwon.

 Jill found the right apartment and took a deep breath, squaring herself to knock.  It took a moment for her courage to find its way to her hand and force it to rap on the wood surface.

 A silent minute slipped by as Jill waited.  She was just about to knock again when she heard locks being thrown and curses being muttered on the other side of the door.  Denise was so going to kill her, she decided.  At least Claire knew where she kept her will.

 Denise flung open the door, frowning when she saw her subordinate on the other side.  “I thought you were the pizza guy,” she grumbled.

 Jill opened her mouth and just as abruptly closed it.  Denise’s normally tame hair was a wild, but rather appealing looking, mess.  Her blue silk shirt was un-tucked, the top three buttons undone to reveal an impressive amount of cleavage.  Jill swallowed.  It was clear her boss was wasted, but a little alcohol obviously did wonders for Denise’s sex appeal.  “Did you order pizza?” she finally managed to ask, figuring security would never let a delivery person past the lobby.  She only got by because she had a badge.

 “No,” Denise said after a moment of consideration. “What do you want, Bernhardt?” 

 “I came by to see how you were doing,” Jill finally confessed, figuring honesty was the best approach.

 “Your girlfriend told you I was boozing it up and suggested you drop by, huh?” Denise guessed.

 Even wasted, Jill realized, Denise was still a force to be reckoned with, maybe even more so.  “I was worried about you,” she admitted.

 Denise’s eyebrows climbed halfway up her forehead.  “I see,” she replied, only the faintest trace of a slur to her words belying her intoxicated state.  “Go away, Jill.  I’m fine.”  With that, Denise slammed the door in Jill’s face.

 Pivoting angrily away from the door, Jill headed for the elevator only to hesitate in the middle of the hallway.  Good sense told her to keep moving, to put one foot in front of the other until she got on the elevator and was whisked away to a waiting taxi and her date with Maggie.  Slowly, she turned and walked back to Denise’s door, laying her hand flat against the cool wood.  It felt wrong to leave the woman alone like this.  Denise might be a bitch on wheels, but she was still human, and Jill had seen the thinly veiled anguish in the other woman’s eyes.  She knew that feeling oh so well herself after a year of hurts and losses, and seeing it reflected in Denise’s gaze was upsetting Jill more than she wanted to admit.

 Her hand closed into a fist.  Jill’s chin came up as determination settled on her shoulders like a blanket.  With a quick breath, she knocked, vowing to make up the date she was about to miss with Maggie somehow.

 It took a few moments for Denise to reappear, and Jill wondered if her boss was on the other side of the door, sizing her up through the peephole.  Just in case, the attorney stared straight ahead, keeping her face benignly neutral.

 “Forget something?” Denise sniped when she yanked open the door, but she couldn’t hold Jill’s gaze.

 “As a matter of fact, I did,” Jill answered lightly.  She brushed past her boss and sauntered into Denise’s apartment, missing the shell-shocked expression on Denise’s face but imagining it with satisfaction nevertheless.

 “Bernhardt, what in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Denise demanded as she shut the door and turned to face her subordinate.

 Jill took a breath as her eyes skimmed over the earth tones and tasteful furnishings of Denise’s apartment.  They had surprisingly similar tastes.  She turned and met Denise’s anger head on.  “Returning a favor.”

 “A favor?” Denise spat.  “What favor?”

 “Pick one.”  Jill came closer to her boss.  “How about the time you figured out the Hallelujah Man was David Arnold in time to save my life?  Or being there in court when it was all said and done and reminding me of what’s important?  Or the time you figured out the connection between Pete Raynor and the Kiss-Me-Not case…”

 Denise shook her head and took a step back, surprised and thrown off kilter by the clear gratitude she could hear in Jill’s voice.  “I was doing my job.”

 “Cindy and Lindsay told me how hard you worked to help find me when Arnold had me,” Jill answered simply.  She smiled mischievously.  “You have a heart, Denise Kwon,” she teased before sobering.  “And I know it’s hurting right now.”

 Denise swallowed, the only outward sign that she’d been affected.  “You trying to curry favor with the boss, Jill?” she asked coldly.

 Jill bit down on her first response and shook her head.  “No,” she said through her teeth.   “You trying to pretend like Kelly’s death isn’t cutting you up like knives inside?”

 Denise’s gaze held Jill’s for a moment longer before dropping in defeat.  Wearily, she moved past Jill and into her kitchen.  Since she hadn’t been ordered to leave, Jill followed, discovering a bottle of wine breathing on the counter.  A single glass sat half empty next to it.  As she watched, Denise fetched one more from the cupboard. 

“You like Shiraz?” Denise asked in a resigned voice.

 “Never met a bottle I didn’t,” Jill answered as she accepted the glass from Denise with something close to relief.  She held the stem as Denise poured her a generous amount that had her eyebrows lifting in surprise.

 They sipped their wine in silence for a few minutes.  Jill was relieved at how comfortable it felt.  There was no awkwardness.  No desperate need to fill the quiet with conversation.  She waited Denise out, deciding her boss would share if and when she was ready.  It was a trick she’d learned watching Lindsay in interrogation, and it didn’t take long for Denise to give in.

 “Kelly bought me this bottle,” Denise finally spoke.  “It was after the Dow trial, in fact.”  She smiled, just a fraction of an upturn to her lips.  “She was in the galley that day Thomas went after opposing council.”

 Jill smiled against the rim of her glass.  There were bad memories associated with that day now, but she chose to ignore them in favor of remembering Cindy’s fierce defense of her when she’d been on the witness stand.  “You know what Lindsay’s family calls Cindy?” Jill asked, deciding to share a little something with the other woman.

 Denise glanced at her, curiosity clear in her dark eyes.

 “Spitfire,” Jill drawled, adding a little Texas twang to it for fun.  She watched as Denise tried not to laugh and felt charmed by that.  “Fits, doesn’t it?”

 “Aptly,” Denise replied before taking a sip of her wine.  “They’re quite a match,” she said softly once she’d swallowed.

 Jill didn’t have to hear Lindsay and Cindy’s names to know they were the ones being discussed.  “They are,” she agreed warmly.

 “You ever wonder what it would be like?” Denise asked.  “To find something like that?”

 Jill’s head came up at the hint of yearning in Denise’s voice.  Her blue eyes jerked toward the bottle once more, and Jill realized Denise had made more of a dent in it than she’d realized.  “I…”  She shrugged as she searched for the right words.

 Denise snorted.  “Forget it.  I forgot who I was talking to.”

 “What is that supposed to mean?” Jill demanded.

 “Love ‘em and leave ‘em Bernhardt.”  Denise took another sip of her wine.  “Everyone knows what you’re interested in.”

 Was that a note of hurt Jill heard in her boss’s voice?  The attorney frowned with confusion and tried to tamp down her immediate angry reaction.  Denise liked goading her, and Jill was coming to realize that some of Denise’s iciness was, in fact, a defense mechanism.  “No,” Jill said with determination as she set down her glass and reached for Denise’s, taking it away.

 “No what?” Denise practically growled.

 “No I am not playing this game with you tonight.”  Jill stepped closer to her boss as she set Denise’s glass on the counter.  “Like it or not, Denise, I’m going to be your friend tonight.  You can be as nasty as you want to be to me if it makes you feel better, but I am not going to-” Jill’s words ended abruptly as Denise closed the distance between them and kissed her.  Long fingers threaded through Jill’s short hair, tugging her closer and the blonde stumbled into her boss, her arms circling Denise’s waist automatically.  Some distant part of her was screaming at her to stop this, but the rest of her was suddenly consumed by the taste of Denise’s wine-flavored tongue as it teased and tangled with her own.

 “You want to help me tonight?” Denise whispered against Jill’s lips when they parted.  “Then help me forget for a little while.”  She closed the distance again and kissed the attorney once more, her fingers pulling insistently at Jill’s shirt, freeing it from the waistband of the lawyer’s skirt.

 “Wait,” Jill gasped as she felt Denise’s hands brush her stomach, sending fire racing through her veins.  “Wait.”  Dizzy with the sudden heady and unexpected rush of desire, Jill staggered backward, nearly falling onto the tile floor.  She caught an edge of the counter, keeping herself upright on shaking legs.  Her fingers came to her lips, as if the touch would make the last few moments any more real.  “Wait,” she blurted one last time.

 Her cell phone chose that moment to ring, chirping out a happy tune that sounded completely ludicrous in the sudden thick silence that had settled between herself and Denise.

 Denise snatched up her glass of wine.  “Better get that,” she practically snarled as she walked away.  “Could be a musketeer… or maybe your girlfriend.”

 Shaking her head in a daze, Jill could barely believe what had transpired just moments ago.  She fetched her cell phone from her pocket and flipped it open, bringing it to her ear.  “What?”

 “And hello to you, too,” Claire drawled with humor.  “Where are you?”

 “Um… I’m at Denise’s apartment,” Jill admitted as her fingertips grazed her bottom lip once more.  It still tingled, still tasted like wine.

 “She all right?” Claire asked with genuine concern.

 “I have no idea,” Jill admitted as she watched Denise kick off her high heel shoes in the next room.  Her blue eyes were drawn to the toned calves of her boss’s legs and the attorney licked her lips.  “I…” She shook her head again through a deepening fog of lust.  “What’s up?” Jill hoped Claire didn’t hear the husky tone to her voice.

 “I think you need to come to my office.”

 Jill scrubbed a hand over her face as she realized Denise was unbuttoning her blouse.  The silk slipped from Denise’s shoulders and fell into a light blue puddle on the floor.  Jill swallowed hard.  “Why?” she almost squeaked.

 “Nikki is here.”

 Jill’s attention snapped back to the conversation instantly.  “What?”

 “You heard me.  Now get down here and say hello.”

 ****

 

A booted foot tapped a nervous tempo on the morgue room floor.  Claire glanced up from her computer where she was typing up her final report on Kelly Yung’s autopsy and gave her friend a look that made Nikki’s toe stop in its tracks.

 “Sorry,” Nikki murmured with a hint of her southern drawl.  She tucked her long black hair behind her ears.  “This seemed like such a good idea when I was on the plane.”

 “Not so much now?” Claire guessed with a sympathetic smile as she leaned back in her chair and regarded her old friend.  “Time has been kind,” she said gently.

 Nikki’s head came up and she smiled bashfully.  “To both of us.”  She winked.  “At least time has been.  I know all our cases sure haven’t.”  She studied her fingernails.  “I kept tabs on the whole Kiss-Me-Not thing.  I should have called.”

Claire felt a twinge of guilt.  Nikki had kept up with them even if they hadn’t kept up with Nikki.  All those years they thought Nikki was at fault for the end of their friendship… Claire realized in that moment that she and the others were just as much to blame if not more so.  “Lindsay saw the flowers you sent to her father’s funeral.”

 “Yeah?” Nikki sighed and slid her hands into the back pockets of her worn blue jeans.  “Seemed like a copout.”

 “It meant a lot to her, Nik,” Claire promised, the nickname slipping out without conscious thought.  “It meant a lot to all of us.  I know we didn’t end on good terms…”

 “What a polite way of putting it,” Nikki teased.  She turned and sat on the edge of Claire’s desk.  “Still… I should have been here for Marty… for Lindsay.”

 They sat in silence for a moment, each thinking about the past and how many different ways and times they could have fixed the damage between them.  Nikki sighed again.  “It was… big of you… to let me know about this case.”

 “You’re a good cop, Nikki.  Even when we haven’t been the best of friends, I always knew that.  If you can help us bring down this bastard before he claims another life…” Claire trailed off, remembering Denise’s shattered composure and the tiny wail that had caught in the attorney’s throat.  She closed her eyes.

“My daddy eventually jerked a knot in my tail when I got home.  He helped me clean up my life.  Get my head on straight,” Nikki told her in a quiet voice.  “It was just… when mom died… I….” Nikki swallowed, remembering how she’d unraveled in the weeks and months following her mother’s death.  She could barely believe she’d come that unhinged when she looked at her life now.  The only thing that could send her spiraling that out of control now would be if something happened to Nora, and that was a thought she couldn’t bear to dwell on. 

 “I know.”  Claire reached across the desk and captured Nikki’s hand, squeezing it gently.  They looked at each other, hesitant smiles on their faces, and Claire felt time fall away.  It was like it had been eight years ago when they had been young and idealistic.  So much like Cindy was now, all fresh faced and full of enthusiasm.  Raynor and Arnold had worn away some of that shine, Claire knew, but Cindy was still just as determined, if not more so, to see justice done.

 Nikki squeezed back.  “I’ve missed you.”

 “We missed you, too.”

 Jill paused in the doorway, taking a deep breath when she saw the two women holding hands.  Nikki seemed to have barely aged a day.  She remembered that last night they were together.  The screaming, the crying…  Nikki had stormed out a mess, shouting the most hurtful things she could imagine.

 And Jill knew she’d chosen to be righteously angry and to nurse her hurt rather than see through it to understand what hell Nikki had been in when she’d said what she did.  They’d never spoken again.

 Jill cleared her throat and warm, familiar brown eyes shifted their attention onto her.  Jill couldn’t help the smile that split her features.  Despite the way they ended things, it was damn good to see the face in front of her.  “Hi, gorgeous.”

 Nikki’s eyes teared as she got up from the desk and crossed the room, throwing her arms around Jill and squeezing hard.  “Hi, beautiful,” Nikki answered, recalling their favorite nicknames for each other.  She leaned back and studied Jill’s face.  “Looking damn fine after having one hell of a year.”

 “I moisturize,” Jill deadpanned and earned a sexy, southern chuckle from the dark-haired woman.  “You look good, Nikki.”

 “Better than the last time you saw me,” Nikki joked with the truth.  “I hope this is okay… me crashing the party.”

 “Whatever it takes to catch this guy.  His latest victim was someone important to my boss.”

 “How is Denise doing?” Claire asked.

 “She got drunk and hit on me,” Jill confessed breezily, trying to forget what Denise’s heat and curves had felt like pressed up against her.  She’d barely been able to think of anything else in the taxi.

 “Whoa,” Nikki muttered.  “Still a magnet for that sort of thing, huh?”

 “She did what?” Claire got to her feet and came around her desk before leaning against it.  Crossing her arms, Claire waited for Jill to continue with obvious curiosity.

 “Denise was drunk,” Jill said as if that explained everything.

 “And libidinous, apparently,” Nikki added with a wicked grin.  “You go, girl.”

 “We didn’t have sex,” Jill hastily added in case her friends got the wrong idea.

 “Was it because I interrupted?” Claire drawled knowingly.

 Jill pursed her lips and glared at the medical examiner, earning another chuckle from Nikki.  “It was Denise,” Jill reminded her friend.  “My boss.”

 “Who you were dreaming about this morning as you slept at my desk,” Claire added, taking a wicked delight in making Jill fidget. 

 “What is the world coming to when Jill Bernhardt turns down sex?” Nikki wondered.

 “Hey,” Jill replied with heat but still amused.  “You aren’t exactly known for your restraint either, missy.”

 Claire started laughing.  “Lord.  The more things change the more they stay the same.  You two are still like a pair of squabbling siblings.”

 Nikki scratched the back of her neck self-consciously.  “Yeah, well… I’m showing more restraint these days… at least… you know… it’s just one person…”

 Claire and Jill gaped.  “You settled down?” Jill asked in surprise.

 The detective shrugged jerkily.  “I’m figuring the whole thing out.”

 “And how’s that going for you?” Claire asked cheekily.

 “Better than you two obviously think it is,” Nikki fired back with a tinge of amusement. 

 “What’s his name?” Jill demanded.

 “Or her name,” Claire added, remembering that Nikki had a fondness for women as well as men.

 “Are there pictures?” Jill asked before sidling up to Nikki again.  “I’ll bet there are pictures.”

 “You so haven’t changed,” Nikki claimed as Jill tried to snatch the detective’s wallet residing in her back pocket.  “Still nosey and still trying to grab my ass.”  She swatted at the blonde woman, but Jill still managed to seize her prize.  “Give me that.”

 Jill spun away and raced toward Claire as if the medical examiner had ninja skills that would protect her.  “Let’s see what we have here.”

 “Jill…” Nikki practically whined as the attorney flipped the wallet open and she and Claire leaned in to have a closer look.

 “Wow,” Jill murmured when she got a look at the honey-blonde woman with the jade green eyes that stared up at her from Nikki’s wallet.  “Who is that?”

 Nikki grabbed the wallet away from both women who looked up at her expectantly.  “That’s my partner,” she huffed.

 “Partner?” Claire asked.  “It’s developed that far?”

 “My partner,” Nikki reiterated.  “On the force,” she qualified only to wince when she realized that was the way Nora tended to clarify their relationship to other people in case they got suspicious.

 “Too bad,” Jill said sincerely.  “She’s beautiful.”

 “So the case,” Nikki said to get them off the hunt.

 “She changed the topic,” Jill noted.

 “Mmhm,” Claire agreed.  “Highly suspect.”  She tilted her head and looked at Nikki.  “What’s her name?”

 Nikki sighed, not sure why she wanted to keep her relationship with her partner a secret, maybe it was just habit by now.  “Nora,” she confessed.

 “Seriously?” Jill asked.  “Nikki and Nora?”  She remembered that Cindy had mentioned Nora Delaney to them, but she hadn’t connected the humor in the names until now.

 “Like I’ve never gotten that one before.”  Nikki stuffed her wallet in the back pocket of her jeans. 

 Nikki was saved from further grilling about her love life as the door to the coroner’s office swung open and Cindy came bounding in with Lindsay trailing closely behind. “Hey,” Cindy greeted Claire a little breathlessly.  “Glad you’re still here.  We needed to chat with you a second.”  Cindy smiled at the newcomer and started to apologize for interrupting when her eidetic memory kicked into hyper drive and she went still.  “Oh.”

 Lindsay hung up her phone after listening to Claire’s voicemail, suspecting what had made her lover go quiet.  Her gaze moved from Cindy to Jill and Claire and finally to Nikki, locking onto her old friend’s warm brown eyes with a sense of shock.  Seeing Cindy and Nikki in the same space was like watching the past and present collide.  “Hi,” Lindsay greeted everyone when she could think of nothing else to say.

 “Hey, Linz,” Nikki greeted cautiously.  Her brown eyes moved onto the redhead.  “And you must be Cindy,” she said hesitantly as she sized the younger woman up.  Nikki offered her hand and noted that it took Cindy a moment to take it.  “Nice to meet you.”

 Jill and Lindsay exchanged glances wondering if Cindy would behave.

 “You, too,” Cindy managed, hoping she sounded more sincere than she felt.  She let go of Nikki’s hand and stepped back to stand next to Lindsay.  Nervously, Cindy tucked her hair behind her ears.  “I take it you’re here about the case.”

 “I am.”  Nikki noticed the tone seemed to have changed in the room.  Her gaze went to Lindsay who gave her an apologetic smirk.  Nikki wasn’t sure of the reason for Lindsay’s expression, but at least her old friend wasn’t reacting with anger at her presence.  “I’m sorry to just show up like this,” Nikki told them.  “But this case has haunted me for a long time.  I’d really like to see if I could do something to close it.”

 “You really think this is the same case?” Cindy asked.

 “Claire let me look over everything.  It’s the same case.  You got a serial killer who uses a drug as his weapon of choice.  He killed seven kids in New Orleans and then vanished.  We figured he must have fallen off his boat somewhere and died.  The coastguard found it abandoned in the Gulf of Mexico.  Now it looks like he was just biding his time.”

 “And moving across country,” Jill added.

 Nikki went to the bag she’d dropped in the doorway when she’d first arrived and fetched a folder.  “The suspect we were looking at was Brian Renollet.  He was thirty-seven at the time.  A rich boy who very much liked to party.”  She handed the folder to Cindy first; sensing that including the reporter right off the bat was a good idea.

 Cindy looked at her in surprise but took the file and glanced down at his picture.  “Handsome,” she admitted when she saw his wavy brown hair and green eyes.  She handed the folder to Lindsay who gave it a cursory glance before passing it on to Jill and Claire.

 “Yeah.  His looks got him places when his money couldn’t.”  Nikki shook her head.  “I knew in my gut it was him, but we never could pin the guy down.  No one was talking and the underground parties he was throwing were always so damn secretive.  Apparently all the attendees had to wear masks.  After a time, when we had the information out there about magnolia… people would still take the damn stuff because they knew that they were in for a hell of a sweet high as long as they didn’t get the random tainted pill.”

 “Wait,” Claire spoke up.  “You’re telling me people at these parties knew some of the drugs were tainted and they took them anyway?”

 “Like Russian Roulette,” Lindsay murmured with a frown.  “Supposed to make you feel more alive when you cheat death.”

 Nikki nodded.  “Something like that.  I still say this guy is a serial killer, though.  He killed seven in my neck of the woods, and I heard he’s up to four here.”

 “Eleven people,” Jill said with a shake of her head.  “All dying in a quest for the perfect high.”

 Lindsay sighed and held up her phone.  “As much as it pains me to do this… I should call Snow and Tom, let them know about this.”  She knew Hollywood would get her ass chapped to have this info handed to her on a silver platter courtesy of the NOPD, but a lead was a lead wherever it came from.

 “Tom Hogan?” Nikki asked with a knowing smile.

 Lindsay gave her old friend a version of her laser vision and left the room.

 “Um… they’re divorced,” Jill pointed out to Nikki.

 “Really?” Nikki drawled.  “Please tell me she wised up and went looking for better pickings.  Tom is cute as a button and all, but not exactly stimulating in the conversation department.

 Cindy bit her lip to hide a smile.

 “Actually, Tom left Lindsay,” Claire informed Nikki.  “But…” Her eyes slid to Cindy’s and locked gazes with the reporter.  “Lindsay’s taste has definitely improved.”

 Nikki did a double take when she saw where Claire was looking.  She opened her mouth to say something, wondering if she was imagining things when Lindsay came back into the room.

 “He’s putting out an APB.”  Lindsay focused her attention on Jill.  “And Maggie seems to think I’m horning in on her investigation.  She had some very lovely adjectives for me.”

 “Sorry,” Jill sighed.  “I think she’s really feeling the heat on this one.  She hasn’t been able to find Kelly’s boyfriend… and I haven’t called to tell her I won’t be joining her for dinner,” she remembered out loud.  “Shit.”

 “Um… I think I might have filled her in on that,” Lindsay admitted with a grimace.  “Because then she had a few choice words for you and Denise.”

 Jill rolled her eyes and slipped her phone out of her pocket.  “I should call her and smooth things over.”

 Lindsay bit her lip as she looked at Cindy.  “Want to go get a jump on the pack, Lois Lane?”

 Cindy hesitated, her gaze darting to Jill before swinging back to Lindsay.  Her lover gave her a faint nod.  “Yeah,” Cindy said without enthusiasm.  “I guess I better.  Let me know if you guys hear anything.  I want to get this guy for Denise.  I think we owe her one.”

 “That we do,” Claire agreed with a glance in Jill’s direction.  Her friend was staring at the floor, a funny look on her features, her cell phone cradled between her palms.  Claire frowned, wondering what to make of Jill’s distracted state.

 “Nice meeting you,” Cindy managed for Nikki.  “I’ll catch you all in a bit,” she informed the rest before heading out, her hand stroking down Lindsay’s arm as she passed.

 Nikki watched the touch in surprise but her face remained neutral.  Silence reigned when the reporter left as the original members of the club were left alone.  The detective cleared her throat, sensing a sudden undercurrent of tension that had nothing to do with her.  “I’m going to check in with my partner,” she announced as she slipped her cell phone from her jacket pocket.  She hooked her thumb toward the hallway.  “Be right back.”

 They all watched her leave before Claire and Jill focused on Lindsay.

 “What’s wrong?” Claire asked.

 Lindsay wasn’t even mildly surprised that Claire had read her so easily.  “I need to talk to Jill for a second,” Lindsay admitted, finally deciding that she wasn’t going to play Pete’s mind games anymore.

 Jill blinked in surprise.  “Is this about…”

 “It’s not about Maggie,” Lindsay promised quickly and with a hint of exasperation.  “Although we should probably have a long talk about that soon.”

 “Whatever it is you have to say,” Jill told her best friend, “you can say in front of Claire.”

 Nodding distractedly, Lindsay sighed, mentally cursing Pete’s name once more for messing with all their lives.  “I have some information about William Carter.”

 Claire stood up from her desk, her gaze worriedly darting to Jill who’d gone frighteningly still.

 “Hopefully you’re going to tell me someone found him dead in a ditch somewhere,” Jill said after a moment, her tone cold.

 “Jill,” Claire admonished.

 “Sort of,” Lindsay admitted.  “Pete claims he killed him.”

 Jill could only stare at Lindsay.  She felt Claire’s touch ease around her shoulders, offering her wordless comfort and much needed support.  “Why?” Jill hissed.  “Why would he tell you that?”

 “He didn’t tell me.  He told Denise,” Lindsay explained.  “She came and told me.  Denise was trying to do the right thing by both of us.”

 Blue eyes closed and Jill swore viciously.  “The bastard won’t tell you where he hid the body.  He wants to see you…”

 “Yes.”  Lindsay didn’t bother to deny it.  Her friends knew her too well.  “But if you need this…” Lindsay began.    

 Jill shook her head.  “I’ll handle it.”

 “Sweetheart,” Claire murmured.

 “I’ll handle it,” the attorney vowed.  “You are going nowhere near that man,” Jill promised Lindsay with conviction.  “I’m through with him playing games with you… with all of us.  I’ll handle it. ”

 Lindsay felt guilty for the relief that swept through her, but when Jill stepped forward and wrapped her up in a fierce, hard hug, it didn’t matter.  Sometimes you had to let your friends protect you instead of always trying to protect your friends.  It had been a hard lesson to learn, but she was making progress.  “I love you,” Lindsay murmured into Jill’s neck.

 “I love you, too,” Jill whispered as Claire looked on.  “You let me take this round with Pete.  I have a thing or two I need to say to him anyway.”

 ****

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