Lost in the Night

[Tati]

“Lost in the Night”

Summary: The team reinvestigates the 1990 murder of a hooker, found in a dark alley with deadly hit on the head. Also, Lilly is visited by someone from her past.

Spoilers: Season 1, possibly early Season 2.

A/N: This fic takes place in a happy world in which Christina has never come to Philadelphia. Lilly and Scotty’s friendship is as perfect as it used to be.

Thanks to Andrea for beta-reading this! I love you girl *big hug*.

***
Chapter 1 – “The Case”

Philadelphia, January 15th, 1990

The night is cold, and so dark one can barely see two inches ahead. In a desert street, a young woman walks by the sidewalk. She’s all dressed up, but wearing less clothes than she should in a winter night. A few other girls are there too, and anyone can easily tell this is a hooking point.

She spots a familiar face and runs to the person. “I told you never to come here again.”

“You destroyed me.” The person yells, between angry tears.

At a close-by dirty alley, a young woman’s body is laying dead. Her face is bruised and with dark marks, and the right side of her head is covered in blood.

A few weeks later, at the Police Headquarters, a box is labeled and shelved among the unsolved cases: “Witter, M. - Jan 15th 1990”

Philadelphia, March 2005

Detective Lilly Rush arrives at the Police Headquarters. She’s in a hurry, indicating that she’s late. She tosses her suitcase on her desk, and takes off her jacket. “The damn alarm didn’t go off,” she says to her partner, Detective Scotty Valens, who’s already sitting at his desk.

He smiles at her, “Good morning to you too, Lil.”

Lilly is still so agitated by hurrying up to work, that she doesn’t even notice Scotty’s little joke. She glances over at Lieutenant Stillman’s office and notices he’s talking to an unknown man. “Boss got something for us?” She asks, sitting down.

Scotty shrugs and says, “I just got here.” He glances over at Detective Nick Vera’s desk. “Do you know who Stillman’s talking to?”

Nick shakes his head. “Guy came in here 15 minutes ago. Showed Stillman something in a plastic bag, looked like some sort of jewelry, and Stillman took the guy to his office.”

Detective Will Jeffries joins them and adds, “He looked pretty shaken up, scared and on the verge of tears.”

As the detectives reflect on the possibilities, Stillman and the unknown man come out of the office. Stillman begins, “Detectives, this is Allan Welsh. He’s got an interesting new lead on a case from 1990. Mr. Welsh, these are Detectives Rush, Valens, Vera and Jeffries.” They all nod as a form of greeting.

“What is the new lead?” Lilly asks, already grabbing her notebook.

“I received this in the mail yesterday – it was my birthday.” Allan hands Lilly a plastic bag with a jewel in it.

As Lilly studies it, Scotty asks, “What’s that?”

“Looks like a bellybutton piercing,” Lilly says, still studying the jewel. Each end of it has an almost blinding shine. She looks up at Allan for confirmation.

Allan nods, “Yeah, it is. It belonged to Mary Witter. She was murdered in January 15th, 1990.”

“And your relationship with her was?” Lilly asked, noticing Allan’s wedding ring.

“We were lovers,” Allan answered, slightly embarrassed. He sighs, and goes on, “Mary was a hooker. I picked her up one day, about a year before she was murdered. I never used a hooker before her – and I never used another one after her.”

“You two got emotionally involved,” Lilly says.

“We were in love. But I was married and with a kid, Mary had her own kid too, and everything was too complicated. We were trying to work it out.” Allan tells, tears dancing in his eyes.

“Any special reason why the case went cold?” Scotty asked.

“They couldn’t find any suspects.” Allan answered.

“A hooker is murdered, and there’s no suspect? Now that’s unbelievable.” Nick shakes his head.

Allan nods, “I guess no one is really interested in the death of a hooker.”

“Well, we are.” Lilly says. “Now, tell me Mr. Welsh, can you think of anyone who could have sent this to you?” She asked.

“Or why they waited so long to do that?” Scotty added.

“I was the one who gave this piercing to Mary, so I guess that’s why it was sent to me.” Allan shakes his head. “But I can’t think of anyone who could have done it.”

Stillman turns to Allan and says, “It’s fine for now, Mr. Welsh. We’ll pull out the case file and have the crime scene unit take a look at the piercing, and then we’ll probably go back to you with some questions.”

“Thanks. You can talk to me at any time.” He hands Stillman a business card, which indicates he’s a financial advisor. “Please do your best. Mary deserves it.”

Later, Lilly and Scotty are looking at the case’s file. Lilly stars to read, “Mary Witter, 29 years old, found dead in an alley, near St. James’ park. Cause of death, head trauma, caused by a strong hit to the head. Weapon undetermined.”

Scotty reads on from another sheet of paper, “Mary had been arrested twice for hooking, and one time for marijuana possession, three years before, but nothing out of the ordinary.” He stops for a while, reads a bit more, and goes on, “according to other hookers on that street, it was a regular work night. A stranger was seen talking to Mary a few minutes before she disappeared, but no one could identify the person, not even tell if it was a man or a woman.”

Lilly shakes her head, worried with the lack of information to work on. “Mary had one son, Brian, 15 at the time, who believed his mother was killed by one of her clients.” Lilly goes through a few sheets of paper, looking for something. “Well, that’s weird. I can’t find Allan Welsh’s statement here.”

Lilly and Scotty share a look. “He didn’t give a statement.” Scotty says, also surprised.

“Probably didn’t want his dirty secret to come out.” Lilly adds. A sound of footsteps announces that Nick and Will are joining them. Nick has a satisfied look in his face. “What have you got, Nick?” Lilly asks, hopeful Nick has some good leads.

“I looked over Mary’s three arrests. In 1989, she was arrested with marijuana.” Nick starts. Scotty and Lilly are pleading with their eyes, so he goes on, “She was then linked to a very famous drug dealer of the North area – Dan Smith. Mr. Smith, on his turn, has been also accused of dealing not only drugs, but also girls.” He finishes.

“So, this guy is her pimp. She owes him money, doesn’t pay, he kills her.” Scotty offers.

“And then fifteen years later he sends Mary’s piercing to her lover.” Will says.

“Maybe to send him some kind of message.” Lilly replies, thoughtful. “Let’s check if Mr. Welsh was ever involved with drugs. He failed to mention he wasn’t interviewed back in 1990, maybe one more thing slipped his mind.”

“We’ll look at that.” Will says, nodding.

Nick and Will start to leave, but Lilly calls out, “Oh, CSU got back to us on the piercing?”

“They only found traces of the victim’s blood in it.” Will answers. “I’m going to see if someone ever pawned it in these 15 years.”

Lilly holds up a picture of Mary. She had long black hair, and sad dark brown eyes. She wasn’t stunningly beautiful, but she was far from being ugly either. “The file says if she had any family other than her son?” Lilly asks.

Scotty searches around quickly and answers, “She had parents, but they refused to give a statement. Said they didn’t have a daughter anymore. Her neighbor said they kicked her out of their house when she got pregnant, at age 14. The kid’s parent is unknown.”

“14, pregnant and all alone.” Lilly shakes her head, still looking at the picture. “She was lost.”

***

To be continued

[TVFan]

This sounds like it's going to be an excellent case Tati! I'm really looking forward to the next chapter. I loved your closing line:

“14, pregnant and all alone.” Lilly shakes her head, still looking at the picture. “She was lost.”

[Disasterfreak]

I already posted a review on fanfiction.net, but I'll leave one here, too. This is a really good beginning, Tati. Your victim is so real, I can almost see and hear her. Hope you can update soon :clap: .

[Tati]

“Lost in the Night”

Spoilers: mid-Season 2.

A/N: As I’ve mentioned, Christina hasn’t come to Philadelphia, but it doesn’t mean I can’t play with any info she gave on the show.

Again, thanks for AndreaB for beta-reading.

***

Chapter 2 – “The Son”

A little later that morning the detectives were finishing the reading of the case’s file, and going through the statements from 1990. Then, they would start visiting the people related to the case.

“We have very little to work with, Boss,” Scotty said, leaning back on his chair. “Nothing is very useful from these statements.”

“We could toss all those papers in the garbage,” Nick began. “I mean, the girl is a hooker, and her fellow workers only say nice things about her? I don’t buy it.”

“It was definitely not a random murder.” Will said, getting off the phone. “No one tried to pawn the piercing in all those years. An ordinary thief wouldn’t miss the chance of making a few bucks out of a jewel like this.” He said, pointing to the evidence bag in which the piercing was.

“She lived in a dangerous world.” Scotty said. “People can’t speak the truth or don’t want to be related to her.”

Lilly just watched their discussion, analyzing each of her co-workers thoughts, along with her own.

“You got any theories, Lil?” Scotty asked.

“She was living a life of lies,” Lilly began. “Neighbors, her son’s teachers, friends... no one knew what she did for a living.”

“Probably someone couldn’t deal with the truth.” Stillman finished her thought. He nodded, “We need to compare the stories she told around. Lil, Scotty, you go talk to the son, see where he leads us. Jeffries, Vera, you go pay a quick visit to Mary’s parents. Don’t push them, and try to read something from their silence. And then, go have another talk with Allan Welsh.”

The detectives nodded. Lilly got up and started putting all the papers back into the case’s box. Meanwhile, her desk phone rang, and Nick answered it for her. “Rush, it’s the reception. There’s someone here to talk to you.” He said, holding the phone.

“You expecting someone?” Scotty asked, putting on his coat.

“No.” Lilly answered, and turning to Nick, “Nick, can you say I’m leaving and I’ll meet this person on my way out?”

“Sure,” Nick said, going back to the phone.

Lilly grabbed her coat and started to leave with Scotty. Then she quickly turned back and said, “Nick, did you get a name for that person?”

“Yeah,” He answered. “Patrick Anderson.”

Lilly had no reaction for a few seconds. Then, her eyes widened and her whole body tensed up. “Lil,” Scotty called, surprised with the effect that name had on her. “Shall we go?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lilly answered, faintly. She began to walk to the elevator, “Let’s go.”

***

The ride on the elevator was incredibly quiet. Scotty figured he shouldn’t ask anything yet. Maybe it wasn’t anything serious or bad, and Lilly was just surprised. It wasn’t like he could expect her to react like most people when she was surprised. Or in any other situation.
As they left the elevator, Lilly headed to the reception. Her eyes wandered around, looking for a familiar face. But the last thing you could say was that was an eager search.

“Lilly!” A voice called out from near the entrance door. A tall, dark-haired man, apparently in his mid-thirties, walked up to Lilly. “Hey,” he said. Out of his green eyes came an undecipherable glow.

“Hey,” Lilly said back. She was trying to sound normal, but a more perceptive observer would notice the brush of sadness on her voice.

An uncomfortable silence came next. “I’m going to go get the car,” Scotty said, thinking maybe he was standing in the way of their conversation.

“Oh, sorry,” Lilly said, and sounding a bit more like her usual self. “Patrick, this is Scotty Valens, my partner. Scotty, this is Patrick Anderson.”

Scotty kept his eyes on Lilly for an extra second; hoping to hear Patrick’s qualification, like his own was given. As this wasn’t going to happen, he shook Patrick’s hand, and left.

After Scotty left, Lilly turned to Patrick and gave him a cold look, “What the hell are you doing here?” All her sadness seemed to have been replaced by anger.

A little shocked by Lilly’s words, it took a while for Patrick to formulate an answer. “I wanted to talk to you. I moved back to Philly,” He said, offering her a tiny smile.

If the news affected Lilly, you couldn’t tell. “And?” She shrugged.

“And I was hoping we...” He hesitated at Lilly’s persistent cold stare. “...that we could talk.” After a silent pause, he added, “After all, we never did.”

Lilly sighed. Dealing with her past wasn’t in her plans for the day. Or for her whole life. “I don’t think this is a good idea.” She took a few steps around, and glanced outside, where Scotty was already waiting for her. All this time she could feel Patrick’s eyes all over her.

“Look, I can’t...” His pleading, puppy dog eyes. “I have to go to work.” Patrick took a step closer to her, but Lilly took one step back. “There’s a cafeteria at the end of this street,” she said. “I usually go there for lunch around 1 p.m.” She then walked to the doors and left the building.

Patrick stood there at the reception, smiling like we do when we look at an old picture, from a happy moment of our past.

***

[Tati]

***

Scotty was very curious about Lilly’s visitor. But she, as usual, wasn’t really open for personal questions. Maybe, if the interview with the son was productive, she’d be in better mood later.
They parked the car in front of the house. Brian still lived in his mother’s house. The house was now looking old and neglected, contrasting with the fresh painted houses around it. It was a low class neighborhood, but it didn’t look like a bad place to live.

Lilly and Scotty walked up to the door. They knocked, and as they waited they noticed the lawn that probably hadn’t been mowed in a long time. Lilly’s attention was caught by the black drapes on the living room windows, which were all closed up. She felt the sunrays on her skin and imagined how hot it would be inside that house.

Brian opened the door, seeming surprised that he had any visitors. Lilly and Scotty flashed their badges and Scotty said, “We’re Detectives Valens and Rush, Homicide. We want to talk about your mother.” Brian looked extremely bothered, but let them inside.

According to the case file, Brian was 30, but if Lilly and Scotty didn’t have that information, they’d say he was at least 40. He wore and old jeans and a t-shirt, and he had an irregular grown beard. His eyes bore the same sadness that his mother’s eyes did.

“I can’t believe someone remembered a poor hooker, after all this time.” Brian said, sitting on the couch, and grabbing a can of beer. “You guys are thirsty? I got more in the fridge.” He offered.

“Thanks,” Lilly shook her head, and so did Scotty. Lilly then began, “Brian, we re-opened your mother’s case, and we want your help.”

“It’s been 15 years...what happened?”

“New evidence came along,” Lilly said. She wasn’t going to let him know about the piercing.

“What can I do?” Brian asked.

“Let’s start with enemies. Did your mom have any?” Lilly asked, grabbing her pen and notebook.

“Not that I knew of.”

“What about a boyfriend?” Lilly asked.

“Again, not that I knew of.”

“Did you notice any changes on her behavior or on her routine, on the days prior to her death?” Scotty asked.

“No, nothing special.” Brian answered, taking another gulp of beer.

Brian’s nonchalant attitude was starting to get on Scotty’s nerves. “Are you sure you lived on the same house as your mother? Did you at least say good morning to her when you woke up?” He asked in an angry tone. Lilly looked at him, ready to intervene if he crossed the line.

“Look, my mother lived a double life.” Brian asked, putting the beer can down. “She could be acting weird, she could be normal, I can’t tell. I don’t feel like I really knew her.”

“Just give us anything, Brian.” Lilly said, trying to get his attention off Scotty. “A name, a strange fact, anything.”

Brian thought for a few seconds. “In the last two weeks before her death she was strange, I guess.”

“Strange how?” Lilly asked, her attention totally focused.

“Too happy,” Brian answered.

Flashback to 1990

Brian is arriving home from school, while Mary is at the kitchen, making lunch. She’s singing a song, happily. She’s so caught up in her thoughts she doesn’t notice Brian walking in.

As he enters the kitchen, he’s about to say something but he glances at few papers on the table. Among them, there’s what looks like to be two passports. He walks near the table but as he’s about to pick them up he kicks the chair in front of him, and the noise brings Mary back to earth.

“Bri!” She says, quickly picking up all the papers from the table. “You’re already home, honey, how nice.” She finishes to put everything in an envelope. “We’ll have lunch together.”

“What are these papers, Mom?” Brian asks.

“Oh, nothing important, honey...work stuff.” Mary says, checking up the food, and not letting go of the envelope.

“But one of the passports had your picture in it.” Brian pushes.

Mary laughs. “Oh, Bri. That would’ve been nice, I’d love to go on a vacation. But you know we can’t know, with the house mortgage to pay.” She smiles at Brian. “These are the passports of Mr. Smith and his wife.”

Mary then puts the lid on the pot and says to Brian, stroking his hair. “Keep an eye on the food, will you baby? I’ll be right back.” She then disappears and Brian can hear her steps on the stairs, while she’s humming the same song from before.

Back to 2005

“I looked for that envelope several times, but I couldn’t find it.” Brian said.

“You still think one of those passports belonged to your mother?” Lilly asked.

Brian nodded. “But I couldn’t see who the other passport belonged to.”

“And you don’t think it belonged to you? That maybe your mom had plans of moving somewhere else?” Scotty asked.

“Like I said, I didn’t know my mom that well. Maybe the passport was really for me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t.” Brian said, and then got up from the couch. “You see, my mom, she... she looked like she had found someone. And later, she was paying less attention to me. She didn’t even check my homework anymore.” He sighed. “I don’t think I belonged in her plans.”

Lilly and Scotty thought they had gotten enough for now. They got up and Lilly glanced around the living room. On one corner, there was a bunch of computers and electronic devices. “You work here?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Brian nodded, glancing at the computers. “I build websites.”

Lilly nodded. She and Scotty shook Brian’s hands and left.

“Well, it seems like our St. Mary is history. The unlucky girl, hard-working woman, was a sloppy mother.” Scotty sighed.

“Well, no one is perfect.” Lilly said as they reached the car. “But I think you’re jumping to conclusions.”

“I don’t know, Lilly,” Scotty said as they were already seated in the car. “With the life she had, she probably is responsible for digging her own grave.”

Lilly shrugged, looking outside the window. “We’ll see.” She then turned to Scotty, “You, on the other hand, are very negative about her.”

“I just don’t want you to get disappointed later, if she doesn’t turn out the way you thought she was.” Scotty said, starting the car.

“Well, I appreciate your concern, Scotty. But I’m a big girl and I think I can get over it.” She smiled. “If that happens in this case.”

Scotty realized Lilly was very satisfied with the results of their interview. As they drived, she was looking outside the window, very concentrated in her thoughts. Occasionally, she would smile her “winning smile”, the one she smiled whenever she felt she was on the right track during an investigation. One moment, when she looked like she had returned to Earth for a while, Scotty said, “You seem happy,” He glanced at her, “is it about Brian’s interview?”

“Yeah, I really think he gave us something to work on, with the passports. If she was thinking about running way, it could have something to do with her death.” Lilly said.

“Makes sense,” Scotty nodded. “Brian might be hiding something, though. He seemed too suspicious about his mother’s intentions.” He thought for a moment, and added. “But he didn’t seem to know about his mother’s romance with Allan Welsh.”

“Everybody seems to be hiding something so far.” Lilly sighed. “Well, they can make it harder for us. But not impossible.”

***

To Be Continued

***

A/N: So, what do you guys think? I’m curious to know your opinions about Patrick, and the case.

[r2k]

Excellent!!!! I have some competition here. Keep it going!

[TVFan]

I really like the direction you're taking with the case Tati. You definitely have my interest piqued with Patrick. If Patrick did show up, I imagine Lilly reacting just the way you wrote her. Great work!!

[Tati]

A/N: Thanks R2K and TVFan! I'm glad you're enjoying! Here's the next one.

***

Chapter 3 – “The lover”

Earlier on that same morning, Nick and Will are driving to visit Mary’s parents. They still live in the same house they did when Mary lived with them. It’s in a calm middle-class neighborhood. They park in front of the Witter’s house, which has a beautiful front garden, with several flower-beds. As Nick and Will walk to the front door, they notice an elderly woman working on the garden, in a flower-bed of red roses.

“Laura Witter?” Nick asks. The woman gets up and nods. Nick and Will show their badges. “Detectives Vera and Jeffries, Philly PD.”

“How can I help you?” Mrs. Witter asks, looking a little scared.

“We’re investigating your daughter’s death,” Will explains. “We know you hadn’t talked to her in a long time, but we hoped you could have some information about Mary that could help us out.”

Mrs. Witter’s eyes and voice fill with bitterness. “No one had asked me about Mary in a long time.” She shakes her head, “I can’t believe someone still cares about that ungrateful girl.”

“New evidence has showed up in her case.” Will offers.

“I don’t know anything about her death. I can assure you neither me or my husband killed her.” Mrs. Witter says and leans back at her flowers.

Before they can ask her another question, an old man comes out of the house. “What do you want with my wife?” He asks, in an angry tone of voice.

“I suppose you’re Carl Witter.” Nick says. Again, he and Will show their badges. “We’re investigating the murder of your daughter.”

“Our daughter died to us in 1974, when she embarrassed our family getting pregnant, and refused to do the right thing and get married.” Mr. Witter says, even more bothered than his wife to talk about this subject. “It was clear that she couldn’t have a good future.”

Nick and Will exchange a look. This is being as hard as they thought it would be, but they won’t give up. “Did you have any kind of contact with Mary close to her murder? A phone call, anything?” Will asks.

Mrs. Witter gets up again, and looks at her husband, who just nods. “Actually, she called us, about a week before she got killed.” She says. “We were very surprised. She hadn’t tried to contact us in the fifteen years that she was gone.”

“What did she want?” Nick asks.

“She wanted us to take care of her son.” It’s Mr. Witter who tells. “She said she was being threatened, and that she was afraid of what could happen to her and the kid.”

“Did she tell you who was threatening her? And why?” Will asks. They are getting more than they could ever expect.

“No, and we didn’t ask her.” Mr. Witter goes on, always with a dry look in his eyes. “I told my daughter had died 15 years before, and hung up the phone.”

Nick and Will are speechless at Mr. Witter’s words, and at the fact that neither he nor Mrs. Witter seems regretful of doing that.

“That’s all we know.” Mrs. Witter concludes.

“Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Witter.” Nick and Will say and begin to leave. “Be careful with the thorns,” Nick adds to Mrs. Witter, who’s cutting off red roses.

The woman laughs bitterly. “That’s good advice. These flowers were first planted by Mary. Considering that, I wouldn’t be surprised if they hurt me badly.” She said, getting up and heading to the house.

One more time the detectives are speechless. They stare for a few moments at the red roses, the most beautiful ones in the garden, before leaving to their car.


***

Later, Lilly and Scotty are having lunch together. “So,” Scotty begins, “can I ask about your visitor?” You can tell by his look that he’s dying of curiosity.
Lilly shrugs. “You can ask anything, Scotty.” She answers. Then, with a smirk, she finishes, “Only I may not answer.”

Scotty smiles, “I’ll take my chances.” He takes one more sip of his soda and asks, “So, who’s Patrick Anderson?”

Lilly thinks about the question, like she’s predicting that with her answer, a bombing of following questions will come. She looks at Scotty, and finally says, “He’s my ex-fiancé.”

“You were engaged?” Scotty says; his eyes widen with surprise. Immediately he realizes his reaction maybe wasn’t appropriate, but Lilly with a fiancé just seemed impossible to picture.

“Hey, don’t be so surprised I was engaged!” Lilly replies, bothered by Scotty’s reaction.

“Sorry, Lil.” Scotty says, “It’s just that you never mentioned anything, and...” He stumbles for words, “Don’t get me wrong.” He scratches his head and looks down, a bit embarrassed.

“It’s fine, Scotty.” Lilly can’t help smiling at Scotty’s reaction. “Anyway, we broke up a long time ago. 9 years.”

“What happened?” Scotty tries, knowing this one Lilly probably wouldn’t answer.

Lilly sighs. “Lots of things.” She pauses. It’s clear that she’s uncomfortable. She tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear. “And then there was this night, and an incident... with my sister, and...,” she stops. She has reached her limit, and she looks down, not able to face Scotty and any other question he might ask.

“Oh.” Scotty said. He’s speechless. Lilly never even mentioned that she had a sister. Awful possibilities come to his mind, and he regrets making Lilly share even this little bit of a painful memory. “I’m sorry, Lil.” He reaches for her hand to make her look at him. She looks at him and her face doesn’t show any signs of hurt or pain, but her blank expression says a lot. “If you need someone to punch this guy on the face and tell him to disappear, I’m here.” He adds.

Lilly can’t help but smile at Scotty’s offer. She knows he means his offer, and it gives her a nice feeling. “Thanks, Scotty. I don’t think I’ll need it, but keep working out after work, just in case.”

Scotty laughs. “I’ll be prepared, whenever you need.” He asks for the bill. They are leaving the restaurant, when he says, “Just one more question, Lil.” He’s worried he’s asked too much for the day, and looks at her. She nods, and he asks, “What does he want after all this time?”

“I don’t know yet.” Lilly answers, not wanting to share her earlier talk with Patrick.

“Are you giving him another chance?” Scotty insists.

Lilly laughs, “Like I said, I don’t know what he wants.” She pauses, shakes looks at Scotty, “Well, I can’t stop him if he wants to talk to me.” She grabs the car keys from Scotty’s hands and finishes, “Doesn’t mean I have to listen to him.”

Scotty just nods. They get in the car and head to the office.

***

[Tati]

After visiting the Witters, Nick and Will visit Allan Welsh, who works in a fancy and beautiful office building in downtown Philadelphia. According to the information the detectives dug up on Allan Welsh, he works as a financial advisor for companies who are looking for new business opportunities in the city. Among his clients, are some of the most famous and powerful companies in the country.
When Allan learns that Nick and Will are there, he asks if they can meet in the building’s cafeteria, which is in the first floor. Nick and Will are waiting for him there, when he arrives with a worried face. “Sorry, detectives. I just didn’t expect you to show up here unannounced.” Allan says, taking a seat on the detectives’ table.

“Is this investigation causing you any trouble?” Nick asks.

“Not yet, because no one knows.” Allan answers. He speaks with a very low voice all the time. “But my clients won’t be pleased to know I’m involved in a homicide investigation. And worse, the investigation of a hooker’s murder.”

“I thought it was the investigation of the murder of the woman you loved,” Nick replies, sarcastically.

“And it is!” Allan raises his voice for a moment. Then he lowers it again, “But there are other things and people involved, so I need to be the more discreet as possible.”

“You know, Mr. Welsh, in an investigation sometimes it’s hard to be discreet.” Will begins.

“Dirty secrets come up...” Nick continues. “Lies come up too.”

“Like when someone doesn’t mention that he didn’t give a statement in the original investigation... even though he was clearly involved with the victim.” Will finishes.

Allan shifts in his chair. He’s feeling uncomfortable. “Look, my wife had found out all about my affair. Mary was gone, and my family was all I had left. My wife’s condition to stay with me, and keep it all quiet was if I didn’t go to the police.” Allan explains. “Besides, I didn’t think I had any useful information.”

Nick laughs. “Mr. Welsh, you were in contact with the victim near her death. You had an affair with her. You don’t really think you didn’t have anything to do with what happened.”

“I didn’t, I really didn’t.” Allan sighs. “Actually, I hadn’t talked to Mary in over a week prior to her murder.”

“What happened?” Will asks. He and Nick are paying attention to Allan’s every expression and word.

“She broke up with me.” The detectives see a tear balancing on Allan’s eyes as he says that. “Because I didn’t want to follow her in the new life she had planned.”

Flashback to 1990

Allan and Mary are in a motel room. Outside, you can see the sun rising. They are getting dressed and talking happily.

“We need to talk about something.” Mary says, walking to Allan and putting her hands around his neck. “I have a proposal to make.” She adds, but through her smile a trace of concern is visible.

Allan, however, sees nothing but her smile and just says, “I’m listening” before giving her a quick kiss.

“Do you want to run away with me?” She drops directly, as if this was a casual think to ask.

Allan is speechless and his previous smile is glued to his face. As he digests the question, however, the smile fades away and their embrace gets loose. “What?” is all he manages to say.

“You know, how we planned, that we would go away, make a fresh start? I think this is the moment.” Mary says, caressing his cheek.

“I thought we were going to plan this with a little more advance.” Allan says, breaking from their embrace and walking around the room, confused. “There’s so many things I need to think about, my job, my family... when are you planning on leaving?”

“I’m looking for tickets to the 20th.” Mary answers.

“Of this month?” Allan exclaims. “That’s two weeks! You can’t expect me to quit my job and leave my family in two weeks.” He notices Mary is getting upset and walks to her, and grabs her hand. “Give me a couple of months.”

“I can’t, Allan. It has to be now.” She’s clearly sad and disappointed, but doesn’t look surprised.

Allan takes a deep sigh. “What about you and Brian go, and I’ll stay here for a couple of months, working everything out. And then I’ll join you.” He smiles at her, glad to apparently have found a solution.

“No, Allan, you have to come with me now.” Mary insists, serious. “If you don’t come, you won’t hear from me again.” Her voice is waving as she says that.

“Are you hiding something from me, Mary?” Allan asks, holding her hands tightly, so she won’t escape from him.

“I’m not hiding anything, honey.” Mary shakes her head, looking down. “It’s just the way things have to be.” She looks at him, with pleading eyes, clearly her last try.

“You can’t do this to me.” Allan says, knowing what’s coming next.

“I’m sorry, Allan.” Mary says, as she picks up her purse, and heads to the door. “Have a good life, baby. Wherever I am, I’ll always love you.” She opens the door and leaves.

Back to 2005

“I know I should have run after her, but I was so lost and confused at that moment,” Allan tells, his voice cracking with emotion. “I thought I could talk to her before she left... maybe work things out... but I she never picked up my calls, and I couldn’t find her in the places she used to go.”

Nick and Will are surprised at Allan’s emotional reaction, but they don’t show anything. Will finally asks, “Do you have any idea of what could have happened to Mary take this abrupt decision to leave?”

Allan shakes his head. “No. We had seen each other a few days before that and everything was perfect. I should’ve pushed to know what was going on, but like I said, I was caught completely off-guard.”

Nick nods, checks his notebook. After a while he asks, “Do you know a guy named Dan Smith?”

Allan nods. “Mary’s “boss”, wasn’t he? I never actually met him, but Mary always spoke fondly of him.” The mention of Dan Smith makes Allan even more bothered.

“Do you think they were involved?” Will asks.

Allan shrugs. “Mary never said anything to indicate that. Call me naïve, but I always felt they had some sort of a father-daughter relationship.” He pauses, and then goes on, “Which doesn’t mean it didn’t bother me, but I tried not to think about the other men in Mary’s life.”

“What about your wife? For how long did she knew of your involvement with Mary?” Nick asks, as he takes notes.

“We never really talked much about it, but she said she knew for a couple of weeks. When Mary was killed some newspapers ran the story, and that’s when she came to me and said that if I went to the police, I’d never see my son again.” Allan explains.

Nick and Will share a look and decide that Allan has given them enough leads for now. “Thanks, Mr. Welsh,” Will says, as the detectives get up. “We’ll be in touch.”

Allan nods and stays at the table, watching his untouched cup of coffee.

Nick and Will are walking to their car. “Now this is getting interesting.” Nick says, with a somehow pleased look in his face.

“Mary’s abrupt decision to leave makes sense combined with the threats the parents mentioned.” Will replies. After a pause, he goes on, “The first time the girl’s got something good in her life, she sees everything slipping through her fingers.”

Nick shrugs, and with a plain look offers, “One thing I’ve learned in this job is that some people just aren’t meant to be happy.” The detectives get in their car and drive off.

***

To be continued

[TVFan]

Great installment Tati! I have no idea who killed Mary. I'm dying to know what happens between Lilly and Patrick when they finally get a moment to talk. Nice scene between Lilly and Scotty at lunch.

[Tati]

A/N: Good news can never be repeated too much: this is a fic where Christina has never come to Philadelphia.

And thanks to AndreaB, my lovely beta-reader.

***

“Lost in the Night”

Chapter 4 – “The Betrayed Wife”

***

Later that day, the team is at the office, discussing the info they gathered on that day. “It looks like Mary was really scared of whoever was threatening her.” Lilly says, after finishing her coffee. “It’s weird, though, because the son told exactly the opposite about her last days of life.”

“Maybe she was putting up an act to her son, to protect him.” Will offers.

“Lil, did you check if Mary issued any passports on the weeks before her death?” Stillman asks.

“I’m waiting for the answer on that.” Lilly answers.

Stillman nods, “OK.” He looks around. “Where’s Scotty?”

“He’s getting the phone records of the Welshs.” Nick answers. “After Allan told us his wife was aware of his affair, we thought it would be interesting to see who she called on the weeks before the murder.”

“Here they are,” Scotty says as he arrives, holding out some papers. “We got some work ahead. These people really liked to talk on the phone.” He adds, showing what looks like about 50 pages of phone records.

The four detectives make almost desperate faces. Checking out phone records was one of the most boring parts of detective work. Stillman laughs at them. “Fine, we’ll do that tomorrow morning, before visiting Abby Welsh.” He sits on the edge of Lilly’s desk. “How we are on the alibis?”

“Parents were in a charity dinner.” Nick answers, checking the papers on his desk. “But the son and the whole Welsh family don’t have alibis. The son claims he was alone at home like every night.”

Will jumps in and finishes, “Allan claims he was drinking at a bar, while Abby says she was at home with their son Doug.”

Lilly then points out, “We can’t forget Dan Smith, Mary’s boss.”

Scotty shakes his head. “This will be a problem. At the original investigation, he showed a strong alibi, but being who he is... he’ll always have a strong alibi.”

“Ok, guys,” Stillman interrupts. “I think it’s enough for today. It’s getting late, so let’s call it a night.” He gets up from Lilly’s desk. “Tomorrow I want Lilly and Nick visiting Abby and Doug Welsh, and Will and Scotty tracking down Dan Smith.”

Scotty looks bothered. “Why the switch?”

Stillman looks surprised at Scotty’s question. “Well, Nick talked to Allan Welsh, so it’s interesting that he interviews Abby too. And I want a woman talking to her, so...”

Scotty nods, apparently satisfied with the explanation. Everyone grabs their things and start to get ready to leave. “Why did you ask Stillman about the change?” Lilly asks Scotty, as he puts his coat on.

He shrugs. “Today when we were out doing an interview, we had a nice talk. I thought maybe we could do it again.”

Lilly looks at him with a sarcastic smile. “And they say women are too curious.”

Scotty makes a mocking offended look. “Who told you I wanted to know more about your ex? Maybe I wanted to share a secret with you.” He says, as they walk out of the building.

“Yeah, right.” Lilly says, laughing. “Don’t worry, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of time. Good night, Scotty.” She says before taking her way home.

***

The next morning, all the detectives arrive early at the office. Nick and Lilly are going through the Welsh’s phone records, while Jeffries is digging information on Dan Smith and Scotty is making some calls.
“Well, look at this,” Nick begins, reading from the paper in front of him. “There are infinite calls from the Welsh house to Mary’s, two weeks before her murder.”

“It was her boyfriend’s house,” Scotty ponders. “It’s not so weird.”

“I don’t think Welsh would be so stupid to call Mary from his house,” Lilly says.

Nick nods, and adds, “Besides, the calls are all during the morning and the afternoon. Welsh was probably at his office.”

Scotty nods. “That’s easy to check out. I’ll make some calls to his company.”

“So, Abby was calling Mary.” Lilly says. “Threatening her?”

“Seems likely.” Will says. “Doesn’t make her the killer, though. We still have to look up Dan Smith, very carefully.”

“You already got something on him?” Scotty asks.

“Oh, yeah.” Will answers, pointing to a huge pile of papers in his desk. “That is the man’s record sheet.” Scotty looks at the pile, his eyes widen. “We’re going to have fun tonight, Scotty.” Scotty smiles weakly, while Lilly and Nick hold a laugh.

“I see things are going well here.” Stillman says, as he approaches the detectives. He’s holding some papers as well. He shows the papers to the detectives and begins, “The Immigration Department sent us this. Mary issued passports for her and her son Brian, and requested visas to Canada.”

“Permanent visas?” Lilly asks, surprised, as Stillman hands her the papers he brought. “But you need to prove you’ve got a permanent job for that.”

“And she did.” Stillman says. “She got a job as a secretary in a big fashion company. And, the most interesting part is, that she did all of this two months before her death.”

“That’s way before the threats started.” Will points out. “She was going to leave anyway.”

“It doesn’t make sense. She issued passports for her and her son, and at the last minute, she wanted to leave him here.” Scotty says. He’s as confused as everyone in the room.

“But something made her rush her plans.” Lilly says. “She started to get the threats, and then she decided to use this plan she had. Do we know if she had bought airplane tickets?”

Nick searches around in his desk, and picks up a paper. “She had made reservations for a flight to Montreal on the 20th of that month, two seats.”

“OK, we won’t get anywhere from this. Nick, Lil, go talk to Abby Welsh. Maybe if she threatened Mary, Mary told her something about leaving the country.”

Lilly and Nick nod, and leave. Stillman looks at Scotty and Will and says, “Now you two, see if you find anything interesting in Dan Smith’s records.”

“I think we can say he had a pretty interesting life,” Scotty mutters, bothered, as he picks up the first sheet of the pile on Will’s desk.

***

[Tati]

After over half an hour of driving, Lilly and Nick arrive at the Welsh’s house. It’s a beautiful house, and extremely big for a family of three people.
The detectives walk to the front door and knock. A woman in her early 50’s opens the door. She’s dressed in fancy clothes and her hair is perfectly styled.

“Detectives Vera and Rush. Philly PD.” Nick says, showing his badge. “Abby Welsh, I presume?”

The woman nods. “How can I help you?”

“We’re looking into an old homicide.” Lilly answers. “Mary Witter.”

“Oh.” Abby mutters. She looks disgusted at the mention of that name. “Well, come in, detectives.” She leads Nick and Lilly to the living room, as she says, “I don’t have anything to do with that woman and I don’t see how I could help you, but since I don’t want to be accused of not talking, you can ask anything.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling cooperative, Mrs. Welsh. Let’s go straight to the point, then.” Nick says, as he sits down and pulls out his notebook. “So, can you explain the several calls made from your house to the victim’s house on the weeks before her murder?”

“You looked into our phone calls?” Abby exclaims, surprised. “Well, that’s invading our privacy!”

“No, it isn’t, Mrs. Welsh.” Lilly explains, calmly. “Your husband gave us permission to look into all your personal data, such as – bank accounts, phone records.”

“My husband?” Abby looks shocked. “What does he have to do with that?”

“Your husband was the one who asked us to reopen this case, Mrs. Welsh.” Lilly says.

“You’re still feeling cooperative, Mrs. Welsh?” Nick asks, sarcastically.

Abby takes a few moments. “Of course I am. It seems like you already know about my husband’s dirty activities, so it can’t get any worse.” She says, back to her cold attitude again.

“So can you explain to us why you were threatening Mary Witter?”

“Threatening? No, dear, I was just warning her of the dangers of stealing other people’s properties.” Abby answers, with a cynical smile.

Flashback to 1990

Mary is at her house, it the middle of the afternoon. Her phone rings. “Hello.” Mary answers the phone, casually.

“Hello, Mary Witter.” Abby’s voice comes out intimidating on the other hand of the line.

“Who’s talking?” Mary asks, suspicious.

“The wife of the man you’re seeing.” Abby answers. Mary is speechless. She holds the phone for a few seconds and hangs up.

After a few seconds, the phone rings again. “What do you want from me?” Mary asks.

“Do I really need to say?” Abby asks. “I want you to leave my husband.”

“I’m sorry,” Mary answers, in a brush of confidence. “We love each other, and you can’t do anything about it.”

“I don’t think you understand this, my dear,” Abby replies, with a sarcastic laugh. “You see, I know who you are. And I know there are a lot of people who don’t know what you do for a living.” She makes a pause, and you can hear Mary’s breath on the other side of the phone. “And I know there’s an special someone, that you’d rather die than see that person finding out the truth.”

“No, you can’t...” Mary mutters.

“Oh, yes I can.” Abby goes on, knowing she’s winning. “And it’s going to be easier than I thought, since that person goes to school with my son.”

Mary hangs up the phone, crying, while Abby is smiling triumphantly.

Back to 2005

“That was mean.” Nick says.

“Well, love is war.” Abby replies, calmly.

“So, did you go through with your threat?” Lilly asks, shocked but relieved to apparently be on the right track.

“I didn’t have to.” Abby explains. “I talked to her a couple more times; she said she was going to leave the country anyway, in less than a month, and make a fresh start for her and her son. I had my private investigator look into it and she really had asked for visas to Canada, so I decided to wait.” She pauses. “And then she got murdered.”

“And you don’t feel bad about destroying a woman’s life?” Lilly asks.

“Hey, wait a second.” Abby says, offended. “I know she’s your victim, but she was definitely not a saint. Besides that, I didn’t murder her. And she wasn’t even going to leave because of me. My investigator said she applied for the visas before I called her for the first time.” She watches Lilly and Nick for a few moments. “And for the look in your faces, you already know that.”

“Did you tell anyone about Mary?” Lilly asks, ignoring Abby’s last comment.

“No, no one knows, even until today.” Abby answers. “It’s not something I like to brag about.”

“One more thing, Mrs. Welsh.” Nick says, “Was your son friends with Brian Witter at school?”

“They were in the same class, so they knew each other.” Abby answers. “Once I asked Doug about Brian, just to check what story the woman was telling around, and Doug told me Brian said his mom was the secretary of the president of some company.” She laughs. “You may not believe it, but I felt sorry for that kid.”

“Talking about kids, where’s your son?” Lilly asks.

“He’s working. He’s a lawyer, and his office is here, but he’s in court now.” Abby says, her eyes glowing when talking about her son.

“OK. Thanks, Mrs. Welsh.” Lilly says, getting up.

“We might be in touch.” Nick adds.

“I’ve got nothing to hide.” Abby replies with a confident smile.

The detectives are now outside the house, walking to their car. “Now, that one is too confident, in my opinion.” Nick says, with a smirk.

“That’s true, but I tried to pick up hints of lies in her face and I couldn’t.” Lilly says.

“You’re buying her story?” Nick asks, surprised.

“I don’t know yet.” Lilly answers, thoughtful. “I don’t think she murdered Mary, but I think that she was somehow responsible for her death.”

“I know what you mean.” Nick nods. “I hope you’re wrong, though. It would be much easier for us if she simply killed her.”

Lilly can’t help a small smile as they get in the car.

***

[Tati]

Now, Lilly and Nick are heading back to the Police Headquarters. Nick is driving, and as they’re about to turn the corner on the Headquarter’s street, Lilly says, “Nick, drop me off here.”
“You’re not going back to the office?” Nick asks, surprised.

“I’ll go later. It’s just that’s already 1:50 p.m. and I’m a bit hungry.” She explains, trying to sound casual.

“Hm. OK.” Nick says as he parks the car in front of a small restaurant. He’s curious, but keeps his mouth shut. “Here you are. You want me to tell anything to the boss?”

“No, thanks, Nick.” Lilly says, as she opens the door and gets out. “Just tell him I’ll be back in an hour, probably less. If you need me, I’ll have my cell on.” Nick nods, Lilly closes the car door and he drives off.

Lilly walks into the restaurant. It’s crowded, and she searches around for an empty table. “You didn’t come yesterday,” a voice surprises her, coming from a table by her side. It’s Patrick.

Lilly jumps up, caught off guard. “Oh, you’re already here.” She says, still standing up.

“Yes, and I was here yesterday too.” Patrick answers.

“Something came up.” She offers, mentally kicking herself for feeling she owned him an explanation.

“Aren’t you going to sit down?” He asks, gesturing towards the chair, his eyes never leaving Lilly.

Lilly then realizes she’s still standing up and takes the chair facing Patrick. A moment of silence ensues until a waitress approaches them. “Are you ready to order?” She girl asks.

“Let me try,” Patrick says, with a smile. “A vegetarian burger and a bottle of water.”

Lilly nods, slightly bothered, and simply says, “Sounds fine.”

Patrick turns to the waitress and says, “Two veggie burgers, one bottle of water and one soda.” The girl writes down her order and leaves to get it. Patrick turns to Lilly, “I guess some things never change, right?”

“I don’t have time to waste, Patrick.” Lilly says.

Patrick nods. “Well, this is a progress from the last time we were in the same room. We’re been civilized and you’re giving me a chance to speak.” Patrick says

“Maybe the years made me a softie.” Lilly says, sarcastically. She can feel her anger starting to take over. They’re interrupted by the waitress, who brings their burgers and drinks. Lilly stops, presses her fingers against her forehead and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. “I’m starting to think this was a bad idea.”

“No, it wasn’t, Lil.” Patrick says, reaching for her hand. Se tries to pull it, but without much effort. “We can’t keep living the way we are now. Without talking. Not with what we had.”

“You’ve hurt me, Patrick. In more ways than you know.” She shakes her head. “You can come here, say and do whatever you want, it’s worthless. Because it’ll never be real again, Patrick. This, us being here, two people who used to be together having lunch, it’s very up-to-date, but it’s a lie. And you know it.”

Another moment of silence. They stare down at their untouched food. Lilly looks around for a while at the people in the other tables. She wants her eyes to be everywhere but looking at Patrick. “Lilly, I know I screwed up. But I want to make it right.”

Lilly laughs. “Can you erase the past?” She looks at him and there’s a tear waving in her right eye. Suddenly her cell phone rings and she’s back to normal. “Rush.” She answers the phone. Her face now has a worried expression. “OK. I’ll be right there.” She gets up quickly.

“What happened?” Patrick says. “You can’t go now.”

“The important things never change,” she says, with a smile. She tosses a ten dollar bill on the table. “This should cover my part.”

She runs off the restaurant, and takes the direction of the Police Headquarters.

About ten minutes later, Lilly arrives at the Police Headquarters. Scotty is waiting for her near her desk. “Where’s everyone?” She asks.

Scotty points to Stillman’s office. Lilly looks and sees Stillman, Nick and Will there. “You missed all the excitement while you were gone.” He says, making a gesture for Lilly to follow him inside the office. “Allan Welsh came by. He’s at one of the interrogation rooms right now.”

“What happened?” Lilly asks.

“Apparently he was sent another gift.” Scotty answers, as they walk towards Stillman’s office.

When they get inside, Stillman hands her an envelope. “We were just waiting for you. Allan Welsh found this in his car’s window about an hour ago.”

Lilly opens the envelope and takes a paper from the inside. She unfolds the paper, and reads from it, “You’ve got your first warning. Wasn’t it enough? Stay away from anything related to her, or you’ll have the same fate she had.”

There’s a moment of silence while the detectives digest the content of the letter. “It looks like Mary’s murderer is pretty close.” Scotty says.

“And he’s angry.” Lilly adds, staring at the paper.

***
To be continued

[TVFan]

This is getting very intense Tati, and I'm not just talking about the case. I could feel the weight of that scene between Lilly and Patrick. Great stuff!

[Disasterfreak]

Tati, this is really good. I had to read it very fast cuz I've had a lot of work lately, plus I've been sick and a little out of it, so I've probably missed some important details. Anyway... the suspense is building up nicely. I think I may know who the killer is... but not sure. And if I do guess, don't be discouraged--I've been watching and reading whodunits for years, so I've got a monstrous amount of practice. Can't wait to see more Patrick stuff. My more uncivilized side would kinda like to watch them have a good ol' fashioned blowoff, Lilly-style--but any sort of interaction you think proper will be good. Congrats!

[Tati]

A/N: I don’t get tired of saying it: in this fic, Christina Rush hasn’t come to Philadelphia recently.

A big thanks to my beta-reader, AndreaB.

***

“Lost in the Night”

Chapter 5 – "The Boss"

***

The detectives are now watching Allan Welsh in the interrogation room, through the glass mirror. At the other side, Allan is sitting down, leaned down on the table, his head in his hands.
“Who do you think did this?” Scotty asks Lilly.

She shrugs. “Someone directly related to Mary. Someone who’s passional about this whole situation.”

“We’ll need to revise all our evidence and interviews, and see where we missed something.” Scotty says.

“Let’s take one step at a time,” Stillman says. “Maybe we didn’t miss anything yet, so far, let’s stick to our previous plans. You and Jeffries go visit Dan Smith. Lil, Vera and I can handle this situation here.”

“OK.” Will and Scotty nod, and leave.

“Lil, let’s go talk to him.” Stillman says, opening the door from the observing room. Lilly nods and follows him outside, leaving Nick alone to watch the interview.

“Hey, Allan.” Lilly says as they enter the interrogation room.

“Why am I here?” Allan asks, and he looks scared. “You don’t honestly think I had anything to do with this, do you?”

“Calm down, Allan.” Stillman says, as he and Lilly sit down, on the opposite site of the table where Allan is sitting. “We just need to ask you a few questions, because this letter is the closest we’ve been to this killer.”

Lilly nods in agreement and turns her gaze to Allan. She says in a very calm voice, “Tell us what happened today.”

Allan sighs and begins, “It wasn’t much out of the ordinary. I was going to spend the whole day with a client, but I forgot one report and had to go back to the office. I usually use the company’s parking lot, but since I was making a quick stop I left my car on the street. I was back in less than 15 minutes, and found the letter in my car window. I asked the people nearby but no one saw anything.” He runs his hand through his partially gray hair. “That’s it.”

Stillman and Lilly reflect on Allan’s story. It doesn’t give them much to work on. “Anything unusual happened, since you came here and asked us to reopen the case? Phone calls, stalkers?” Stillman asks.

“No, nothing.” Allan answers. “And I have been paying more attention to everything.”

“This letter was written in red marker ink.” Lilly points to the paper. “Does this mean anything?”

Allan nods, “Well, red was Mary’s favorite color, so I suppose it means something.”

Lilly nods, as if Allan confirmed her thoughts. She watches Allan closely and notices the dark circles around his eyes have grown bigger since the last time she saw him. “The person who wrote this probably knows where you live. Do you have anywhere else you can go?” Lilly asks, trying to offer him an encouraging smile.

Allan shrugs. “I’ll go to a hotel. I can’t go back home anyway, I heard you talked to my wife today.”

“You think she’ll bring you any problems?” Lilly asks.

Allan smiles. “No, but it doesn’t matter. I won’t live that lie anymore.”

They get up and leave the interrogation room. “We’ll have a police officer standing outside your hotel, just for precaution. Call us if anything strange happens.” Lilly says before Allan leaves. Nick joins her and Stillman.

“Be careful, Lilly.” Stillman says in a warning voice. “He’s still a suspect.”

“He didn’t do it.” Lilly says.

“Says who?” Nick asks with a smirk.

“My gut.” Lilly answers dryly, as she takes her place at her desk. “You always say a good detective must be able to trust their gut.” She says to Stillman.

“Trust your gut, Lil, but don’t believe in it blindly.” Stillman says as he goes to his office. Lilly doesn’t reply, only nods, as she bits her lower lip worriedly.

“You know,” Nick begins, as he sits down at his desk, “Jeffries told me that the phone records from Dan Smith showed calls from the Welsh house in the last weeks. They’re going to question Smith about this.”

Lilly leans in her table, in Nick’s direction, interested. “How come this didn’t show up before, when we were looking at the Welsh’s phone records?” She asks.

“The calls came from a different line. The one in Doug Welsh’s office.” Nick answers.

Lilly smiles. “Well, the son. This is interesting.”

“You had any luck with Mary’s job in Canada?” Nick asks.

Lilly shakes her head. “What I could find out is that she was going to be the secretary of the president of a clothes’ factory. But since here she told everyone she was the “secretary” of a big business man, I have a feeling there’s something dirty behind her new job.”

“Maybe she was still under Dan Smith’s wings.” Nick offers.

Lilly nods. “Question is: was it because she wanted, or because he didn’t give her another choice?” She glances at the papers in his desk. “So, what are you looking into?”

“Brian Witter and Doug Welsh.” Nick answers. “Just checking if they were friends back in 1990, and if they kept in touch after high school.”

Lilly nods, and both detectives concentrate in their work.

***

[Tati]

Meanwhile, Scotty and Will arrive at Mary’s old neighborhood, where Dan Smith still lives, not very far from the house Mary used to live and where her son Brian lives now. Smith’s house, however, is at least three times bigger than Mary’s. The size of the house, along with its vivacious-colored, freshly-painted walls, contrast with the old and humble houses around it.
The detectives walk up to the front door, on a beautifully decorated porch. As Scotty is about to knock on the door, it swings open, to reveal a tall black man, with a self-confident smile and eyes that glared street-experience. “You must be the detectives.” He says.

“Yes,” Will answers. “Jeffries and Valens.”

He signs for them to get inside, “I’m Dan Smith. Please come in.”

Scotty and Will, knowing Dan Smith is probably in his late 60’s, are surprised with the man’s joviality. The three men sit down on Smith’s office. “So, you’re looking into Mary’s murder. I’ll help you with everything I can.” He pauses, and sighs, “Poor Allan, I knew one day he would go back to this. He won’t have peace until this is cleared out.”

Scotty and Will are caught by surprise that Smith knows it was Allan who reopened the investigation. “How do you know-?” Scotty can’t help asking.

Dan Smith waves his hand to Scotty in a “never-mind” gesture. “Well, detectives, I had to do some research on your work. Needed to know where I was getting myself into.”

“We’re homicide detectives, Mr. Smith. We’re not here to busy you on anything.” Will says.

“Unless you killed Mary, of course.” Scotty adds, with a smirk.

“I could never have done that.” Smith says, seriously. “Mary was like a daughter to me.”

“A daughter?” Will asks, suspiciously. “You encourage your daughters to prostitute themselves?”

Smith shakes his head. “I don’t encourage anyone to do anything, detective. Most of these girls already made their choice, or better, already resigned to their lack of choice. I only offer them a helping hand.”

“And that’s what you did to Mary?” Scotty asks.

“I found Mary in a street not far away from here, when she was fifteen, with a newborn baby in her arms, and she had just been beaten up by her first client.” Smith explains. “I took her in, taught her a few life lessons, and gave her a chance on my business. That’s everything I could have done for her.” He has a nostalgic smile as he remembers this.

“So your relationship was purely professional?” Will asks, in a slightly ironic tone of voice.

“If you’re asking me if I ever slept with Mary, then no, I haven’t. Like I said, Mary was like a daughter to me. And I don’t say that of all my girls.” Smith answers with an offended expression.

“So,” Scotty goes on, “What can you tell us about Mary’s last weeks of life? Anything unusual in her behavior?”

Smith nods, thoughtful. “As a matter of fact, yes. Mary had been nervous and scared for a few weeks.”

“Did she tell you why?” Scotty asks.

“No, and that got me worried.” Smith answers. “In a business like this, my girls have to tell me when anything weird is going on with them. Because even the most innocent fact or person can bring you trouble.”

“But Mary was being secretive.” Will notes.

“Yeah,” Smith says, leaning back in his chair. “She came here one night, and we had a talk I never thought we would.”

“What did she say?” Scotty asks.

“She came here to charge me for a promise I had made fifteen years back.” Smith answers, looking outside the window.

Flashback to 1990

The rain is pouring outside when Dan Smith opens the door of his house. It’s a different, smaller house than the one he lives now, but comfortable nevertheless. He’s surprised with whom his sees standing outside. “Mary! Oh my God, get inside.” He takes her rain-soaked coat and leads her to the living room. “What happened?”

“I’m sorry, Dan.” Mary begins, nervous. “I know I should be working, but the rain is heavy, and I... I really need to talk to you.”

“Well, you could come here tomorrow morning, and have spent the night at home, with your son.” Smith says, sitting next to Mary on the couch.

“No, this is really urgent.” Mary says, tucking her wet long hair behind her ears. “And anyway, Brian thinks I’m in an office, making calls to your business partners in Japan. Rain is not exactly an excuse to go home.”

Smith nods, with a faint smile. It was always hard for him to see the effort Mary did to hide her real job from her son. “What do you need, Mary?”

Mary sighs deeply, and begins, “You remember the night we met? When you found me in the street and brought me to your house?”

“Of course I do.” Smith answers. “The rain was pouring, just like today.”

“Do you remember the promise you made to me that day?” Mary asks, her words always rushed with nervousness.

Smith thinks for a few seconds, and studies Mary’s face. “That I would help you whenever you needed?” He offers.

“That if one day I wanted to get out of this life, you would help me.” She says, seriously.

Smith stares at her, taken aback by her words. “You want to get out?” He asks, getting up and starting to pace the room. “How soon?”

“Doesn’t have to be immediately.” She answers, calmer with Smith’s apparently positive answer. “Just in time to work everything out properly.”

“OK. I’ll see what I can do. Do you want to leave Philadelphia?” He asks, with a twinkle of sadness in his voice.

“Yes.” Mary nods. “I want to go as far as possible.” Smith just nods. Mary gets up and hugs him. “Thanks, Dan. I know you wouldn’t disappoint me.”

“Now, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” He asks, not completely letting go of the embrace.

Mary’s smile fades away and she answers, “It’s nothing. I just feel it’s time to make a change in my life.”

“Mary...” Smith begins, warningly.

“It’s the truth, Dan. There’s nothing else behind it.” She says, trying to convince him with a smile.

Dan smiles back, but he doesn’t look convinced. “OK. You want to eat something?” He asks.

“Great idea!” Mary says, taking the way to the kitchen. “I’ll cook.” Dan stays in the living room, with a worried look in his face.

Back to 2005

“When did this conversation happen?” Will asks.

“I don’t know, about two months before her murder... maybe less.” Smith says, clearly affected by all the memories.

“It’s a really beautiful story, between you and Mary...” Scotty begins. “But, you see, there’re some things we need you to explain to us. For instance, the phone calls between you and Doug Welsh in the last weeks.”

Smith laughs. “That? Doug is an old customer.” He says calmly. “Heroine is his favorite.”

Scotty and Will are a bit shocked with the naturalness that Smith talks about this subject. “You do know that he’s Allan Welsh son, right?” Will asks.

“Yeah.” Smith answers. “What, you think I’d spare him because he was Mary’s sort-of son-in-law? Business is business my friends. You don’t refuse any clients.”

“You mean Doug Welsh was already your client back in 1990?” Scotty asks, clearly surprised.

“Yes, he had been for about 6 months before Mary was murdered. His father wasn’t though.” Smith answers. “Doug stayed clean for a while, but I guess he couldn’t resist it, so he started calling me again in the last weeks. I usually have other people handle small clients for me, but since Doug dates back from a long time... I take care of him personally.”

Scotty and Will are speechless for a while, after hearing Smith talking about his business as he talked about a bakery shop. “Did Doug know about Mary’s activities?” Will asks.

Smith shakes his head. “Probably not. Doug never solicited girls. Not my girls, at least.”

“OK.” Will says. “And what about Mary’s request? Had you figured out how you were going to get her out of that life?” He asks.

Smith nods. “Yes, I got her a job in Canada. A friend of mine owns a clothes’ factory in Montreal, and he needed a new secretary.” He answers, and upon seeing the detectives suspicious looks, adds, “It was a clean job. You can call him and confirm that.”

“Oh, we will.” Scotty says. “So, I guess it’s all for now, but you might hear from us soon, Mr. Smith.”

Smith gets up to take Scotty and Will outside. “Like I said before, I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

The night is already starting to fall when the detectives leave the house. “Whatever he can do to help.” Will mutters, shaking his head. “What a saint.”

***

[Tati]

About half an hour later, Scotty and Will arrive back at the office, to find Lilly and Nick still working. “So,” Lilly asks when she sees them, “Anything interesting?”
“Oh, yeah.” Will begins, sitting at the edge of Nick’s desk. “It turns out that Doug Welsh and Dan Smith are old friends. Doug buys drugs from Smith since before the murder.”

“Could he and Mary have...?” Lilly asks, not needing to finish the sentence.

“According to Smith, Doug never solicited girls, so he probably didn’t know what Mary did for a living.” Will answers. “But I wouldn’t exclude that possibility.”

“You got anything on Mary’s new job, Lil?” Scotty asks.

Lilly nods. “I talked at the new company she was going to work. I mentioned Dan Smith’s name and they quickly put me in touch with the company’s president. He remembered Smith requesting a clean job for Mary. She was going to be his secretary.”

“Checks out with what Smith told us.” Scotty says, slightly disappointed. “He said Mary asked him to help her out of that life, about two months before her murder.”

“That’s before Abby Welsh’s threats.” Lilly notes. “What else was going on with her?” She asks, rhetorically.

“We might want to take a closer look at Brian Witter.” Nick says, jumping into the conversation. “His records show several arrests for harassing hookers, until about 5 or 6 years ago.”

“Did any of those arrests happen before his mother was murdered?” Scotty asks.

“No, but it’s very likely she would cover for her son if she could.” Nick says. “Then, after she was killed, he didn’t have anyone to cover for him anymore.”

“What else did we find out on Brian Witter?” Stillman, who was watching the whole conversation, asks.

“He works with web designing.” Nick answers. “He manages several websites of his own, I’m about to check the nature of this sites now.”

Stillman nods. “It’s already 7:30 pm, so, after you finish that, let’s call it a night.” He says. “Good night, everyone.”

Scotty, Will and Lilly stare silently at Nick. “You think you’re going to take long, Nick?” Will asks, and the three of them hold a laugh.

“You don’t need to wait for me,” Nick says, casually. “I’m in no hurry to go home.” That’s what the other detectives needed to hear. They start to grab their stuff to leave.

“You tired?” Scotty asks Lilly, as he sees her stretching her arms, still in her desk.

“Yeah, you know, the usual. The last days have been pretty busy.” She answers, getting up and putting her coat on.

“I brought my car to work.” He says. “I can give you a ride home, if you don’t have other plans.”

Lilly chooses to ignore Scotty’s indirect question, and simply answers, “No, I’m going home. And I’ll accept the ride. Thanks, Scotty.”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Here you are,” Scotty says, as he parks his car in front of Lilly’s house.
“Thanks, Scotty.” Lilly says, motioning to get out of the car. She looks at Scotty’s questioning face and answers, a bit bothered. “Yes, Scotty, I had lunch with him.”

“I didn’t ask anything,” Scotty says, not looking at Lilly. He turns to her, “But I don’t know why you’re wasting your time with a guy who hurt you.”

“I never said he hurt me,” Lilly says, looking ahead.

“Well, you didn’t, but...” Scotty stumbles, surprised with her remark. “But you said there was an incident with your sister, so I figured...” Lilly remains silent, so Scotty adds, “Sorry, Lil. I never meant to invade your personal space or anything.”

“No, it’s ok.” Lilly says, shaking her head. “And you figured right. Though there’s more than that to the story.”

Scotty just nods. “If you ever need to talk..”

“Yeah, I know.” Lilly says, opening her car door. “I need to go now. Thanks again for the ride, Scotty.” She gets out of the car, and waves to Scotty as he drives away. She then gets inside, eager for a night of rest, unaware of the bright green eyes watching her from behind a tree, on the other side of the street...

***

To be continued

***

A/N: Not much on the personal side, because I’m saving it all for the next chapter, which will be the last. I have a feeling the case is getting a bit complicated to follow, I hope it’s just me...

Disasterfreak - Who do you think did it?? I'm curious to see if you got it right.

[Disasterfreak]

Hi, Tati. Waited too long to read chapter 5... I've mixed up the characters! Need to read the fic all over again before I can make a proper appreciation... sorry . As for the murderer, I remember whom I THOUGHT it was, but this last chapter seems to have killed my theory. I'll PM you as soon as I've made up my mind ;D.

[Tati]

Oh, I knew this fic was getting too confusing. I'll be waiting to see your guess.