April 4, 2011 (3:30pm)

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” the woman demanded once again.

She was quick to recover from the shock, Sean thought as he watched her place the phone she was holding back on the receiver and said with a sweet smile, “Oh, I’m sorry! Judge Simons told me I can use his phone.”

“He did? He didn’t tell me,” the stout lady said, her voice doubtful.

“Yes, he did,” he watched Phoebe walk towards the lady, “I’m Karen, a friend of his,” she said in a way that the lady should be able to figure out by now who she was.

The lady looked her up and down and finally understood what’s happening. “That dirty old man…” Sean heard her mutter under her breath.

“Well, don’t worry, I’m not going to tell him you know about us,” Phoebe said in a whisper, looked at him over the woman’s shoulder and signaled with her eyes.

Understanding dawned on him and he quickly backed away and walked down the corridor. He did not realize he had been holding his breath. He looked back and saw Phoebe walking out of the judge’s office door with the stout lady glaring after her with face full of disapproval before disappearing back inside the office.

“I’m not ever going to do this with you again,” Sean whispered under his breath when she caught up with him.

She chuckled, “I knew you’ll say that,” she said.

“Were you able to do it?” he asked.

“Of course.”

“What took you so long then?”

“I looked through his office, trying my luck with the tape.”

“Didn’t you say Simons doesn’t have the tape?”

“I just wanted to be sure.”

“And what did you find?”

“Nothing,” she answered.

“Just what I thought,” he muttered.

After that incident at the Hall of Justice, Sean needed a moment to calm his nerves. They went out to grab some beer.

“You really need to change,” he said, looking at her skirt.

“I’ll do that later,” she gulped down beer.

“Hey, slow down,” he held her by the wrist.

Her green eyes snapped irritably. “Why are you being such a nagger?”

“I’m just concerned, okay?”

“No, it’s not okay. I don’t need you caring for me, you understand? If you start getting lovey dovey after one night of sleeping together, don’t expect me to climb back in bed with you.”

He laughed out loud, holding up his hands, “Okay, okay, whatever you say, boss. Just don’t kick me out of your bed—I’m liking if so far.”

“Then stop acting like a mother,” she snapped.

He leaned across the table and kissed her mouth, “Sure. I’m not your mother anyway.”

“Good,” she finally let off a small smile.

(4:00pm)

Lawson and Tanaka waited for Senator Stuart to come out of his office, and when he did, they approached him with their badges.

“Senator, we’re from NYPD,” Lawson announced, “can we talk to you for a minute?”

“What’s this about?”

“It’s about the Peter Thomas case in 1996,” Tanaka barged in.

Senator Stuart’s eyes looked at them with ire, “I don’t want to talk about that case. My wife is already dead and justice has been served,” he said before walking around them with his guards.

“We believe something happened in that case that is connected to the green-eyed killer, Senator,” Lawson said at his back. “We believe that there was a cover-up.”

“No, we don’t believe there was a cover-up,” Tanaka said beside Lawson, “We know there was a cover-up and you, Senator, is involved.”

Stuart stopped on his tracks, whirled around, his face flushing with controlled fury, “Are you accusing me of something, detectives?” his voice told them they were on dangerous grounds here.

“No, we’re not, Senator, but we are very much willing to hear your side,” Lawson answered, staring back at the senator, his eyes steady.

“I can’t talk now,” Stuart said.

“But it’s important that we know what happened in 1996, Senator. Lives are at stake here,” Tanaka urged.

“Your life may be in danger if our analysis is right about the green-eyed killer’s MO,” Lawson added.

Stuart looked at them and at his guards and said, “I can handle my own safety, detectives,” he held up his hand when they were about to argue his statement and continued, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. But I don’t see how that might help.”

“That’s good enough for us,” Lawson said, finally deciding they should accept the inconvenience of postponing the interview, “We’ll be at your office by eight am.”

“No, come back here the same time as today,” the old arrogant man said and turned around to leave.

Tanaka and Lawson just looked at eachother and shrugged. They tried.

(6:00pm)

Sean helped her set up the tracing devices.

“How do you really do this? And where did you get all these?” he looked at the equipment on the table.

“You really don’t want to know that,” she answered, typing quickly on her computer.

“How do you trace the numbers?”

“This device is programmed to trace and record everything. Don’t try to understand it. You won’t. I studied it for almost a month.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” she said. Finally, she stood up and smiled in contentment. “Done. All we have to do is wait for Simons to make a call. It’s possible he’ll make one tomorrow morning.”

He placed his hands on her hips and started kissing her, “Then I suggest we do something useful while we wait.”

(8:00pm)

Judge Simons waited for his secretary to leave before making the call. She had been acting weird since she came back to get some file for him this afternoon. He shrugged the thought away. He was about to fire her anyway, he thought while waiting for the call to connect.

“What?” the voice answered.

“Stuart said you have the tape?”

“Yes, of course I have the tape. Did you call me just to ask that?”

“Destroy it,” Simons almost begged.

“Are you kidding me? It’s what keeps me safe from Stuart. I hold him in my hands because of it, there’s no way in hell I’ll destroy it. Don’t call me again.”

“Wait,” Simons said, but it was too late. The man already clicked off.

(8:05pm)

“What is it?” Sean asked over by the bed. “Come back to bed.”

She ignored his warm invitation and continued to look at the screen. “Simons made a call,” she finally said. “I traced the number and it was easy to find.”

Sean moved up on one elbow and asked, “Who did he call?”

“The man I’m looking for,” she said. “The one who got the tape.”

“The question mark guy,” he said.

“Yes, and you won’t believe who it is,” she answered.

He waited in silence for her to announce a name and when she did not say anything, he couldn’t help it any further and asked, “Who is it?”

He didn’t know why his heart hammered as he waited in anticipation.

“Phoebe,” he called her attention again. She just continued to look at the screen. He got up and walked towards her to see for himself.

“I finally found him,” she whispered as he peered lower to look at the screen.

“Holy Shit, you must be kidding me,” Sean uttered in shock and horror when he finally saw the name on the screen.