larisa lt1

Unknown

Produced by calibre 0.6.44

~ Lover's Tryst ~

by Larisa

Top 25: Aug. 12, 2002

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah I know who they remind ya of. These women are al mine! Xepher and Brian are back in this sequel to

Body Parts. GRAPHIC VIOLENCE!!!!!! Not as bad as Body Parts but some parts are gross!

Violence: Yep.

Language: Yep.

Sex? Of course there is!

The rest of the story: If you're to young to buy beer, go have a yahoo and come back in a couple years! If you live in a State

that outlaws this, then you live around a bunch of pricks.

Thanks to Lesia, Ri, Maggie, Thorie and the WebWarrior. Couldn't have gotten this done without al your help.

Lover's Tryst

By Larisa

Hecate3366@frontiernet.net

Salano stood next to the grieving woman, her large hand supporting her at the elbow as she led her to the viewing room at the morgue. She hated bringing relatives and other's

to this room, there was no teling how the person would react once they saw the deceased. Even though it was a picture on the monitor, some people wanted to look through

the window as this woman did. Salano tapped on the adjoining window and watched as the curtain was puled back by an unfamiliar figure. The man was young, maybe early

twenties. His hair was a chestnut color that reached below his shoulders and hung across his face from a side part. Right off Salano didn't like him. Turning back to the

distraught woman next to her, she asked her if she was ready to identify the deceased. At the nod of her head, Salano had the young ME pul the sheet back.

"That's my husband!" The woman screamed and fel into Salano's side sobbing. "He didn't come home last night; I thought he stayed at his office." She went on in hysterical

sobs, Salano was not good with the sensitive chat stuff, and she had no idea what to do with this poor woman.

"Ma'am I need to ask you some questions about your personal life with your husband." She ran a hand across her face and mumbled to herself. "Please take a seat and let me

get the ME in here to explain some stuff to you." Leaving the woman in the viewing room, she ran down the hal to the smal office where she hoped the Chief ME would be

hiding. Rounding the corner near the viewing room, she ran into the young ME.

He shoved her in the chest and gave her an angry look. "You're not supposed to be back here!"

Feral blue eyes driled into the muddy brown eyes of the man, a low keening growl came to her lips as she lifted a fist before him.

"What in the Hel is going on here?" Was yeled from behind Salano. "Xe, if you plow his ass into the tile I'l have to do al the work myself." The Chief Medical Examiner said

close to her ear. "Now play nice or I'l eat al the lunch I brought myself."

"How about if I just hit him a little?" Salano growled.

"I'l leave ya the crumbs from the lasagna. Edwards take care of the body in there and then go to lunch."

"What about her, she's not supposed to be back here." He was not about to let the tal woman before him get away with almost knocking him down and embarrassing him.

"Edwards, this is Lt. Xepher Salano of homicide. She can come back here as often as she likes, now get to work." She roled her eyes at the egotistical man; she had nothing

but problems since he started that morning. "Come on ya big bad cop, lunch is waiting." She hooked her arm through Xe's.

"I don't like him Brian." Xe whispered close to her lover's ear. "Gives me the creeps."

"You said the same thing about me once upon a time."

"You're different, you're my little creepy ME." She placed a kiss on top of Brian's head. "Before we eat lunch would you talk to the dead guy's wife and explain to her how he

died."

Green eyes roled, Brian hated talking to relatives as much as Xe did. "OK, I'l tel her he was a kinky bastard and should have stayed away from rope."

"Ya know baby, maybe they have one of those Sensitive talk books for Dummies. I'l get ya one."

Brian stopped and pushed her lover against the wal and pressed their bodies tightly together. "I know plenty about sensitive talks, for one, I know al I have to do is whisper

sensitive little words in your ear and you get al hot and bothered."

"Bri teling me you want to eat me is not a sensitive talk." She picked her lover up and held her at eye level. "And saying something like that to a grieving woman may get you a

black-eye and a spot on the couch."

"Soo you're saying that you'l punch me and she'l make me sleep on her couch after we have sex?" She gave Xe a rakish grin. "Never know maybe an older woman can teach

me something?"

"Bri I am older and you're impossible." She kissed Bri deeply until they heard a cough come from behind them. "And we're busted." She mumbled against her lover's lips.

"That woman is stil in the viewing room." Edward's gave them a dirty look as he walked past them and mumbled something about filthy dykes.

"I realy don't like him now."

"Come on studly; let's go talk to that woman."

@@@@@@@@@@@

"Ma'am I'm Chief Medical Examiner Meadows, Lt. Salano has asked me to explain some things to you."

"Al I want to know is what happened to my husband, he just had a company physical and passed."

Xe took a chair next to the woman and sat down beside her; she took a deep breath and looked to Bri before she started to tel the grieving widow what she knew. "Ma'am,

your husband was found in a motel room by a prostitute this morning. What I need to know is did your husband ever ask you to perform any kind of unusual sex acts with

him?"

The woman's face paled, her mouth worked a few times before she shook her head no. Both Brian and Xepher sighed; they knew that this was usualy the case with older

couples. Brian placed her hand on the widows and gave her a smal smile.

"Let me explain what happened to your husband, have you ever heard of autoerotic asphyxiation." She continued to explain. "Some people believe that they achieve a better

and longer orgasm by ways of strangulation. The only problem is that sometimes it's taken too far and accidental death occurs. I believe that's what happened to your

husband." Brian watched as the woman's jaw clenched and anger filed her tear-reddened eyes. "This practice should be performed with a trusted and experienced partner."

"He's dead because he wanted to experience kinky sex with some hooker?" As her anger flared, her voice got louder and shriler. "That stupid bastard! How am I supposed to

tel our kids that their father was a pervert?" She got up from the chair and stormed out of the room.

"Wel that was another happy customer." Xe sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"Good thing I didn't tel her that I found semen in his rectum huh?"

Xe's eyes widened at the information. "You found what? And here I thought he was alone."

"Nope, I'd say you have someone to look for. I found a huge amount of ilegal narcotics in him and Viagra."

"Great! Here I thought I had an easy accidental death case and now it's turned into something else." Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes for a brief minute before

connecting with Bri's. "Anything else I should know about this guy, I got to the scene after he was already taken away…"

Brian was now pacing the floor; she knew her lover was going to be one pissed off cop when she found out. "Come on let's talk in my office, too many damn ears around

here."

@@@@@@@@@@@@

After the last case they had worked together, Brian had decided to turn the smal on-cal room into her office. It was larger than the original and she could actualy sit behind her

desk without feeling as if she was in the halway. She had also brought in a futon and gotten rid of the smal cot that had been there. She felt more comfortable in her area now

that Xe had put new locks and deadbolts on the doors. The first problem she had with Edwards was that he wanted a key to her office. She told him that there was no reason

what so ever that he would need anything from her office. Al pending files would be kept in the smal office and both PC units were linked so that he could pul up anything that

he would need. He argued with her until she threatened to fire him before he had even been there for a day. His face had turned a bright red, his jaw clenched hard enough that

she swore she could hear his teeth cracking. If he insisted on causing her problems over the privacy of her office, she told him to speak to the hospital administrator. Before

she could say another word, he was out the door and down the halway.

An hour later, he was back in the morgue and had not said one word to her about anything. It was fine by her, she hadn't hired him or been asked to speak with him before the

hospital administrator had hired him. She was under the impression that she being the Chief ME, it was her place to find assistants and not anyone else's. She found out that

morning that it had been taken out of her hands by some pencil pushing dickhead and there was nothing she could do about it. If he caused further problems for her, she would

let Xe knock the shit out of him and dump his body out the loading dock door. Closing her office door and locking it, she puled Xe over to the futon, pushed her backward on

to it and then crawled on top of her. Snuggling her face against a warm neck, she sighed and played with the dark locks that fel across the pilow.

"How about we hide here until both our shifts are over with?"

"I could only hope that neither one of us is needed, ya know that wil never happen. My luck, Boggs wil pound on the door looking for me." She wrapped her arms around

Brian and roled them over so that they were face to face. "Tel me about the dead guy before I fal asleep."

"Now ya have to promise me that you won't get mad." She held pale blue eyes with her own until Xe nodded. "I sent Edwards out to the scene, I told him to wait until the body

was released by the officer in charge, which was you."

"I was in charge but Boggs held me up, when I got there the body was gone and only the hooker was there for me to question." She closed her eyes and tried to think of who

else was on the scene who could have released the body. "I'l find out who went over my head, now what's with the stiff?"

"Asshole Edwards brought the guy in, he walks up to me with a manila envelope with an evidence sticker on it. I think nothing of it, thinking you sent it over to me. So I opened

it and inside was a couple lengths of rope, used condoms, pantyhose, a silk scarf and a pack of Camels."

"Son of a bitch! I'm going to kil someone, who the fuck…" She was stopped by fingers pressing over her lips.

"It gets better; none of the items were in plastic bags. It's al contaminated." She could tel that her lover was ready to go on a rampage. "Baby, I think we have a cover up

here. That stiff is some big shot public official going up for election or some bulshit."

"Just fucking great, I have a dead official, a hooker that by chance found him, a pissed off wife and someone screwing with the crime scene and the evidence." She wiggled

down towards the foot of the futon so she could bury her face in her lover's breasts. "Hate my job."

"I know baby. Now for the bad news on the stiff, the ropes that were in the envelope were untied so there are no knots to run through the VICAP. But I do know that he had

his hands bound behind him because he has rope burns on his lower back and a few marks on his ass from his fingernails. "I don't see it as a kinky sex thing, I think someone

kiled him."

"But we told the widow that it was most likely accidental death, she's gonna be realy pissed when I have to tel her that he was murdered."

"I don't think so; I think she'l take him being murdered easier. She can save face amongst her peers that way. Her saying that he strangled himself getting off wil make her the

laughing stock of Maryland."

"And me the laughing stock of the precinct." She mumbled and buried her face further in her lover's breasts, what she did then brought a low moan from Brian.

"Keep that up and we'l both be laughing stocks." She pinched Xe on her ass and roled away from her when she yelped. "Come on I'm hungry for lasagna and garlic bread."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Boggs was ready to go through the ceiling after Xe told him of the screwed up crime scene. He got on the phone, caled the dispatcher, and asked for al the names of the

officers who were at the scene. Scribbling them on a piece of paper, he handed it to Xe and asked her if she remembered any of them stil being there when she got to the

scene.

"Who's this Officer Vance, I've never heard of him before?"

"That's a new guy that just started last month; he transferred in from the West Coast. Said his family is here and his mother's il or something and that's why he came back home.

"Can you get them al into the conference room and find out who the Hel released the body? If we find him, then maybe we'l know who screwed up the evidence."

"Sure thing, just promise me you won't shot anybody."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

"Edwards get in here NOW!" Brian was fit to be tied; it seemed that every time she turned around something was being screwed up. She had done the preliminary report on

the dead city official Davidson and saved it in a file under the man's name. Now when she puled up the file folder al she found was an empty folder.

"Is there a problem?" Edwards asked from the doorway.

"Where's the preliminary report on Davidson?"

"How am I supposed to know, you're the one who did it not me."

Brian was getting closer to embalming the punk; she had never had any problems before he came along. "It's not in the folder where I put it and I want to know what happened

to it and I want to know who gave you the evidence envelope at the crime scene." She noticed the worried look in his eyes. "That evidence is no good, it's al contaminated!

How the Hel is Lt Salano supposed to solve a murder with no evidence?"

Edwards held up his hands. "No one gave it to me; it was lying on the bed next to the body. It had a note on it to give it to you."

Brian rubbed the area between her eyebrows trying to release the pressure of the on coming headache. "Who released the body to you?"

"Some cop that I passed going into the motel, when I turned around he was gone. So I just loaded up and came back here."

"Son of a bitch!" Brian tossed the files she had in her hand onto her desk and waved for Edwards to precede her from the office. "I'm going to the police station and talk to

Salano and Capt. Boggs. Page me if we get anything urgent."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

"I want to know who fucked up my crime scene! Either someone starts talking or I start playing Russian roulette!" She reached for her Glock and stopped when everyone

started talking at once. "Hold on you dumbasses! One at a time." She pointed to an officer and told him to go first.

"I didn't go inside; I was keeping bystanders from getting near the scene."

"Anyone else with him?" She asked as she looked around the room. Three hands went up out of the six officer's present. "What about you three, where were you at?"

The new officer raised his hand to get her attention. "I was first on scene, I checked to see if he was alive and then I stood outside to cal it in."

"When you checked him was he stil tied up?"

"No ma'am, he was just lying there on his back."

"Who released the body to the ME's office?" She watched the officer's look to each other and then everyone shook their heads no. "Just great! I have someone releasing the

body and screwing up the evidence and no one did it!" Xe spun on her heel when she heard the door to the conference room slam open and saw Brian struggle to get past an

officer.

"Either you let me past or I'l have you tiny nuts in a jar!"

"What the fuck is wrong with everyone today?" Xe walked towards the officer. "You had better let my wife past or she'l make good on her threat." She took Brian's hand in

hers and puled her into the room. "The last time she used one of those plastic sporks, and let me tel ya, it wasn't pretty." She wrapped an arm around a pissed off Brian and

kissed her temple. "What brings you to the most screwed up police station in Maryland?"

"I need some tiny dicks to go with my shrunken head colection." She narrowed her eyes and let them travel around the room of pale faced men. "Who's fucking with my

office?" She puled a plastic Spork from her pocket and waved it around. When no one said a word, she raised an eyebrow at Boggs. "Boggs, when I find him and I wil! Do

you want his head made into a keychain?"

Boggs gulped and nodded his head. "Sure Doc, can always use a new key chain." He waved the frightened officers out of the room and dropped into the nearest chair. "You

two should do the interrogations here. In minutes you two would have them confessing to just about anything. Now what is going on here?"

The three of them sat down at the table, Brian told her lover and Boggs the information she had gotten from Edwards and then learned what they had found out in the meeting

with the other officers. So far, they had nothing.

"I think that who ever did Davidson in is the one who set the scene up. Now to question everyone in the area and see if they saw someone go into the room at some point."

Boggs leaned back in his chair and looked between the two women. "I'l get some uniforms on it as soon as I get back to my office. Now you two get out of here and don't kil

or maim anyone on the way out."

Once he was gone, Xe turned to Brian and wiggled her brows at her. "Would we do that?"

"Hel yes! Come on good cop, let's go home."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Bear had a colection of their clothes in a pile at the end of the couch; she had placed everything to her liking so that she had a nice comfy little bed to lie on. She had just

formed this habit as of late and Xe thought it was because she was left alone so much since they were back to work after a short vacation. She had an idea of what would help

the poor little dog but she didn't know if Brian would go for it or not. Al she could do was ask and see what she'd say; her problem was she was a chicken shit when it came

to broaching new subjects. She looked over her shoulder and saw that Brian was heading for their bedroom, now would be her chance to talk it over with Bear. Brian stil

found it strange that she asked the little dogs advice on something's but she came to realize, that for so long Bear was the only one her lover had to talk to. Xe dropped down

onto the couch and lay on her stomach facing Bear, she did her usual baby talk and grinned when Bear started to whine and show her teeth at her.

"I know you feel neglected since we went back to work, and you've been stealing stuff so that we notice you're around." She rested her chin on her folded hands and stared

into little brown eyes. "I was thinking that maybe we could get you a baby sister to keep you company. But you'l have ta ask Bri."

"Xe, I think you need some serious mental help." Brian dropped down to lie across her lover's body; she rested her chin on a strong shoulder and whispered in her ear. "If you

wanna get another dog why didn't you just say so?"

"Because I'm a chicken shit when it comes to you."

"Only with some things." She reached out with her tongue and traced the edge of Xe's ear. "You are defiantly not a chicken shit in bed and now I know that I'm double

jointed." She chuckled at the deep moan rumbling in Xe's throat. "I'm just glad your cast is off, damn thing left more marks on me than your teeth do." Being the evil little

seductress that she was, she roled her hips into Xe's. "We'l talk about another dog after you take me to bed and I ravage you for a good six or seven hours." Roling off Xe,

she took her hand and puled her off the couch. "Which reminds me, where's my ring? You caled me your wife today so you better make good on that." She slapped her

blushing lover in the stomach.

Xe had been looking for a ring for her lover, which was one of the reasons she was late getting to the crime scene. She had asked the help of Boggs and his wife. She had a

ring design in mind but didn't know of any jewelers who did custom work. Now al she had to do was sneak away and get it taken care of with out Brian knowing about it.

@@@@@@@@@@

The rustle of leaves came to no ones attention as the dark dressed figure wove their way through the trees and brush towards the convertible parked at the top of the local

look out area. At the top of the mountain, you could pul over to the smal area and see out over the Shenandoah River and to the old part of Harpers Ferry. The light from the

bel tower of the Catholic Church is a focal point, it's part of the history of the siege of Harpers Ferry during the war-between-the states. It's the only church that survived the

war without being damaged beyond repair. There is a ghost story that says that at certain times, a priest can be seen walking towards the side of the church and then

disappears through it. No one is for sure but they think at one time that side of the church had a door and was blocked off during the war for added protection. That was not

what the couple in the convertible was concerned about that night. Low moans and groans came from the back seat as the couple moved against each other in the age-old

dance. Sweat glistened on their bodies from the tendrils of light from ful moon hanging overhead. Lost in passion and each other, they never saw or heard the figure step

beside the car and aim the spear gun at them. A soft click and a whoosh broke the stilness of the air and then silence.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@

The chirp of a cel phone and then the buzz of two pagers went off at almost the same time. A long fingered hand reached out from under tangled sheets and searched the

nightstand for the annoying noise. Finding the phone and knocking the pagers to the carpet covered floor a low thick voice growled into the phone.

"Salano."

"Hey Xepher this is Boggs, get your ass out of bed and get to the junction of RT 65 and 34. We got a weird one for you and Doc. Bring the meat wagon with you."

Xepher roled into her lover's body, pressed her face into the center of her back, and whimpered. They had just falen asleep no more than an hour before sunrise. Xe knew it

was getting close to that time of the month for her lover, she became insatiable a week before and Xe paid for it by way of no sleep and sore muscles. Now with sandpaper

for eyelids and a tender area between her legs, she would have to face the gargoyle Brian became when she didn't have enough sleep. She would be sure and make Boggs pay

dearly for it later.

"Bri we have to get up, that was Boggs on the phone."

"Tel him to bite my left ass cheek." She mumbled and then puled her pilow over her head. "Can't people kil each other later in the day, like at two o'clock in the afternoon?"

"I'l send out a memo to al the murderers later." She nipped the tender flesh before her and felt Brian push her rear back into her. "Later baby when I can do something about

it." She roled out of bed and cringed at the stiffness of her back and legs. She was getting too old to be bent into Gumby like positions. Picking up her clothes from the day

before, she puled her faded Levi's on and then her wrinkled button down shirt. She knew that the minute Brian saw that she wore not T-shirt or bra, she would be al over her

about it but she was too tired to look for them or get clean ones from the drawer. Slipping her feet into her tennis shoes, she grabbed the edge of the blanket and sheet and

yanked them off her lover.

"Come on baby, I'l take ya to Cindy D's when we're done."

"You're working your way down my hate list." Brian lifted the pilow, opened one bloodshot green eye and held Xe where she stood beside the bed.

"I'l make it up to ya later. We didn't try that new love gel we got the other day." She bent down and gave her a lingering kiss.

@@@@@@@@@

Boggs stood back from the picnic area and lit up a cigar, he would never admit to anyone that the stench of blood and decomposing bodies stil turned his stomach after thirty

some years on the force. He had made sure that no one not even his own officers got anywhere near the crime scene, he knew that the two women would be in foul moods

after being woken at five o'clock in the morning. And there was no way in Hel that he was going to add to their meanness. Especialy Brian, she maybe smal but she could

knock the biggest man down with one punch. Watching the road in the direction that they would be coming from, he hoped that they made it there soon before the area traffic

picked up and caused al kinds of trouble. Puling his cel phone from his pocket, he was about to cal them when he heard the siren and then the flashing blue gril lights of

Xepher's car. What he didn't expect was for Brian to be the one driving or Xepher covering her eyes as they came to a screeching halt beside his car. From the wide evil grin

covering Brian's face, he knew that she had scared the living daylights out of her lover. He couldn't help but laugh when Xepher got out of the car on shaky legs and cast a

raised eyebrow at Brian.

"Where'd you learn to drive?"

"That's right! I never told you, I don't have a driver's license." She laughed at the shocked expression on Xe's face. "Guess ya never looked in the glove compartment of the

county car huh?"

Xe leaned over the roof of the Crown Victoria. "Knowing you there's probably some forgotten body parts in there."

"Nope just forgotten speeding tickets."

Boggs waved at them and started to walk away. "Al right you two, come on so we can get out of here." He had never seen Xepher act the way she did around the Chief

Medical Examiner and he thanked anyone who would listen for the day the women had met. Brian brought meaning to his Lt's life and it was something that the tal woman

drasticaly needed.

He stopped just outside of the yelow crime tape and pointed. "A trucker stopping to get some sleep found them. He caled it in on his cel phone and waited around so no one

would disturb the scene. He's back over in the parking lot sleeping in his rig."

Xe looked around the smal park just outside of the Antietam Battlefield. In a couple of hours, the place would be flowing with tourists trying to take a piece of history and

make sense of it by walking the trench lines and climbing to the tower that overlooked the surrounding area where one of the civil war battles took place. Her attention was

puled away from the picnic area by a pair of rubber gloves being dangled in front of her pale blue eyes.

"Come on Xe; let's get done so I can spend your paycheck on breakfast."

"You are such a generous lover; I know you'l eat like a pterodactyl!" She held onto Brian's arm as she puled a booty over one tennis shoe, stepped over the tape and then

puled the other one on.

"Got that right, after last night and this morning, I could eat a whole cow."

"And ten pounds of chocolate." Xe mumbled to herself, she knew al to wel that PMS caused chocolate cravings in her lover.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Brian snorted at the sight before them; she had never seen anything like it before. "Guess the whale hunting expedition didn't quite work out the way they wanted." She touched

the tip of the spear that was pinning the two people together.

"Hey Bri, are they stil connected in the biblical sense?" Xe was trying her best not to be crude in front of the other officers, since she was promoted to Lt. she tried to tone

down her gutter mouth.

Brian looked between the legs of the man and snorted. "Yep, dicks stil in the game." She looked up and wiggled her brows. "Not as big as yours but…"

"Brian!" Xe growled from between her clenched teeth.

"Gotcha!" She gave her lover a huge smile and went back to taking notes. "OK, let's bag their hands and feet in case there's some trace evidence. One thing is for sure, they

weren't kiled here." She pointed to the picnic table and the ground. "Not enough blood for two people, that means someplace there is one huge puddle drying out. And more

evidence that we won't get."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@

After taking pictures of the couple, Brian puled the microphone down and touched the pedal on the floor to turn it on; she and the ambulance crew had a Hel of a time getting

the couple into the ambulance with the spear sticking out of them. A body bag was out of the question since she wanted them transported as is. Al kinds of crude things were

running through her mind as she looked at the joined lovers. She cracked a slight grin and looked at Xe.

"Brian you're a sick pup."

"I wasn't gonna say anything; she turned her attention back to the stiffs. Just wondered if he's stil hard in there?" A deep chuckle erupted from her as she bent over to get a

better look at where the spear had gone in through the man and out through the woman's back. "Autopsy case number 41264, July 21 2002 Frederick town hospital. Chief

Medical Examiner Brianna Meadows. Two people, stacked with what appears to be a three-pronged spear entering the males back at the fifth rib, 3 centimeters from the left

side of the spine. Entering at approximately a 33-degree angle. The male appears to be in his late twenties to early thirties. No apparent struggle prior to assault. 'Cuz his main

brain was the only thing functioning."

"Does anyone ever listen to these tapes?" Xe asked close to her lover's ear.

She looked up from below her brows. "Depends, you know you're getting me wet." She looked down the front of Xe's shirt at the bare breasts clearly on display.

"Ya know you're gonna get it when we get home."

Brian turned her body so that she was facing Xe's side, stepping closer to her; she rubbed her self against a hard thigh. "I hope so, and then I'm going to hide al your

underwear." Xe shuddered and stepped back from her horny lover, she didn't know how much more she could take before she either ran screaming from the room or made

use of one of the autopsy tables. Her mind changed gears when Brian waved a smal hand held saw in the air.

"Can you help me rol them on their sides so I can cut the spearhead off? I want to do the exploratory with the shaft in place."

With the spear cut and the couple now ready to be separated, Brian extracted the penis from inside the female, her bladder released and urine splashed onto Xe's legs and

shoes. Jumping back, she gave Brian an evil look.

"I don't get into golden showers." She growled.

Brian pointed to the female. "She realy didn't have a choice in the matter." She couldn't help but notice the pale coloring of her lover's face. Puling her gloves off, she took

Xe's hand and led her away from the tables. "You don't look to good, why don't you go tel Mrs. Davidson about what we found and I'l finish up here and meet you at home

later."

"Are you sure? I could stay and help if you need me."

"Baby, Edwards wil be here in fifteen minutes. I'l put his sorry ass to work."

"How about putting him in a storage drawer?"

"I think that's where he sleeps." She puled Xe's head down and gave her a kiss that had them both breathing heavy. "I'l see you later, love you Xe." With one last quick kiss,

Xe puled back. "Love you Bri."

"Disgusting!" Edwards said from the doorway before he walked in and started to gown up. "Uncivilized heathens." He stepped back towards the door when low growls came

from his boss and the Lt. "Not you two, there's two people in the ER with huge meat hooks through the flesh on their backs. I over heard them saying something about having it

done at some night club."

Xe looked to her lover and grinned. "Kinky sex might be a lead on Davidson. Where better to find someone who would be the other part of the autoerotic asphyxia scene."

She kissed Brian quickly and ran from the autopsy room.

"Come on Edwards we have a lot of work to do."

@@@@@@@@@

It wasn't hard for Xe to find the couple; they were dressed in leather straps hiding only the essentials, body, face piercings and hair three different colors. She took a seat

across from them and held out one of her cards.

"I'm Lt. Xepher Salano of the homicide division, could you give me some information on the night club you were at last night?"

The young guy looked at her as if she was crazy. "No one was kiled there."

"What I need is information on what goes on there, do they have certain rooms with themes, people who are wiling to act out sexual fantasies, that kind of thing." She took a

deep breath and looked between the two people. "Listen, its research for a case I'm working on."

The female puled a plastic chip from her pocket and handed it to Xe. "The address is on there." She gave Xe the once over and shook her head. "If you want information you

won't get any looking like you do. You have to dress the part."

"Just great." She mumbled to herself. "Bri wil love this." She stood, thanked the couple and left for her office. The whole way there, she ran scenarios through her mind as to

what happened with Davidson and the new one with the spear. She knew she would have to ask Mrs. Davidson some questions pertaining to the sexual part of their life

together and chase down al his friends and employees for the info his wife wouldn't know about. She knew that not everyone's relationship was like her and Brian's, they had

no secrets between them and that's how it would always be. Secrets caused problems and mistrust, trust was the main part of a good relationship, with out it you had nothing.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Xe puled her car up the long driveway of the widow Davidson, the house was one of those fake Tudor type mansions with the huge crescent shaped driveway, manicured

lawn and every flowering what ever that could be stuck into dirt. The only thing missing was the little lawn jockey holding the lantern in his outstretched hand. But knowing the

rich assholes of Maryland, they probably had a midget run out at sundown and stand there al night with a lantern blazing in the yard. She climbed from her car and groaned

when a sharp pain radiated from her hip and shot into her lower back. Grabbing the afflicted area, she pressed on the pressure point and saw stars form before her eyes. A few

minutes passed and so did the pain, she would have Brian work on her hip and back later that night, mostly because it was her fault she hurt that day. She was too old to doing

some of the sexual acts they were doing almost every night. Walking up the marble stone walkway to the front door, she looked at the huge knocker and grinned. Taking it by

the edge, she beat the hel out of the door with it until some opened the door and glared at her.

"Once would be enough to get my attention, you don't have to destroy my door." Mrs. Davidson said as she blocked the doorway with her immaculately dressed body. "What

do you want Lt. Salano? I'm grieving for my husband and I wish to be left alone."

You really look like you're grieving you bitch. Xe wanted to tel her but held her tongue between her teeth. "It's about your husband ma'am, upon further investigation from

the ME. It's been determined that he was murdered." Xe stopped when she saw a light flicker across the woman's eyes. "I need to know if your husband had any enemies."

Mrs. Davidson stepped back from the door and motioned for her to folow, at first sight of the foyer, Xe sucked in a breath. The place was filed with antiques and had more

gaudy paintings than she had ever seen.

"We'l talk in my parlor, it's quiet there and the servants won't disturb us."

"Yes ma'am that would be fine." What she was saying to her self was. That you are nothing but a slave owner and you should clean your own fucking house. Taking a

seat on a chair that looked like it was made of toothpicks, Xe tried to look comfortable in the dainty uncomfortable thing.

"My husband was a politician, he had many enemies. It would surprise me that he didn't; I can't see anyone hating him that much that they would want him dead."

"People don't need much of a reason to kil someone these days Mrs. Davidson. I need to know any one who your husband was associated with before his murder, a business

partner, friend, mistress?" She held back the snort that wanted to escape when the woman's face turned a horrid red, she would swear that the temperature in the room

dropped 50 degrees in a matter of seconds.

"My husband was faithful to me, we were happily married and neither one of us strayed from our vows. Now I want you to leave before I cal your superior and report you for

harassing me during my troubling times."

"Let me ask you one last question and I'l be out of your way. Was your husband bi-sexual? The ME found sperm in his rectum." Xe couldn't help herself, she hated when the

uppity rich assholes thought that they were at the top of the food chain and she never passed up a chance at a cheap shot.

"GET OUT!" The angry widow screamed as she swung her arms at Xe's retreating body. "CHARLES THROW HER OUT!" An elderly man in his 60's came shuffling into the

room; he took Xe by her upper arm and led her away from the woman who was now throwing a temper tantrum to rival al two year olds.

"You wil have to excuse Mrs. Davidson, Officer; she's been under a lot of stress since the Councilman died." He stopped and waited for Xe to step outside the door.

"Charles can I ask you something?" She held out one of her cards to him. "Were they as happy as she said they were?"

The elderly man shook his head and looked over his shoulder. "I can't say anything about that, I need this job. I'm sorry."

"It's OK, if you think of anything that might help me, please cal me."

"Yes ma'am, I wil." He closed the door quietly and watched as Xe went back out to her car with a slight limp to her gait.

Xe sat behind the wheel of her car and looked up at the huge house, she knew that there was something going on with the widow Davidson and she was going to find out

what. The uppity bitch just made her way on to the suspect list.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Brian was standing in the kitchen bent over at the waist peering inside the refrigerator. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and signaled that her lover was now

standing in the doorway watching her. Being her normal evil self, she swung her hips back and forth. Reaching back with a smal hand, she ran it down her bare ass and

moaned deeply. She peaked under her outstretched arm when she heard a loud thump come from behind her. Snickering under her breath, she closed the door with a pop and

walked to where Xe was laying spread out on the floor with her eyes closed tightly. Placing her feet on either side of her lover's hips, she dropped down so that she was sitting

on Xe's hips.

"Are ya dead?" She thrust her hips downward and grinned when Xe moaned. A pale blue eye peeked open and looked into mischievous green.

"Give me a minute and I wil be." She reached up and puled Brian down to her waiting lips, for what seemed an eternity, she explored her lover's mouth and tasted the mint of

their toothpaste. When they parted, Brian was gasping for air. "Why are you running around naked?"

"Feel…like it." She colapsed on top of Xe and just lay there trying to catch her breath. "I've been thinking about you al day and what I wanna do to you."

"Wel, your ideas are going to have to wait a little bit."

Brian lifted her head up from Xe's breast and glared at her. "You are dropping down my list at lightning speed ya know."

"Ohh I'l redeem myself by the end of the night."

"Ohh you sound so sure of yourself Salano."

@@@@@@@@@@@

Brian was lying with the top part of her body across the smal kitchen table with Xe behind her on her knees. Her hands were gripping the edge of the table until her knuckles

showed white from stress. Low rasping moans bounced from where her face was pressed to the tabletop. A deep rumbling growl came from Xe's chest, she pushed her tongue

deep inside of her lover and felt her muscles clamp around her tongue. Pressing on her engorged clit with her thumb, she pushed her over the edge with a deep cry of her

name. Not one to give her lover a breather, she puled her tongue out and captured Brian's stil twitching clit between her lips and sucked. The vibrating of her cel phone on her

hip distracted her for a second, puling it from her belt; she slid it across the tabletop and continued with what she was doing. The noise was driving Brian to distraction; she

grabbed the phone and flipped it open. "OHH GODS YEEESSS!" She screamed as another climax tore through her body.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Boggs mouth dropped open so that his jaw was touching the top of his desk; he puled the phone away from his ear and looked at it in confusion. Placing it back to his ear he

listened to heavy breathing and then heard a deep moan join in. He felt his face turn a bright red and felt sweat trickle down from his temples. He was about to hang up thinking

he had the wrong number when he heard an unmistakable growl he knew to be Xepher come over the phone. He clamped a hand over his mouth and continued to listen.

@@@@@@@@@@

Xe stood behind Brian and thrust her hips against her lover's stil bent over body, she was so wet and swolen that she knew it wouldn't belong before she lost the battle and

crashed into oblivion. Resting her face in the center of Brian's back, she heard her pleas.

"Come for me baby."

Her body started to shudder, muscles tensed and then al Hel broke loose when her climax hit her. She cried out Brian's name against her sweat dampened back and fel with

al her weight onto her lover's body. Her eyes flew open when she heard a distant voice coming from the table.

"Baby the phone!"

"Ohh shit Xe I forgot."

@@@@@@@@@@@

Boggs was gasping for air; he was going to kil both women the next time he saw them, that is if he survived.

"You perverted bitches!" He rasped over the phone and hung up after he heard laughter.

@@@@@@@@@@

"Think he's mad?"

"Don't care, let's go to bed."

"Xe I can't walk." She felt her lover's body shake against her with laughter.

"Neither can I, I think I broke something."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@\

Edwards had come into the morgue three hours before shift to get things done that he felt were important to running the morgue in an efficient way. Hearing the squeak of shoes

on the tile floor, he quickly hung the phone up before Brian could overhear his conversation. It was none of her business who he talked to on his phone but he didn't want any

problems with her. He needed this job and was wiling to ignore the fact that she was nothing but a disgusting dyke in his eyes, and should not be chief of the Medical

Examiners office. In time, he would show the hospital that he was more than just an assistant and should be the Chief. He spent long years going to school and studying for just

that spot and he would have it no matter what. He would expose Dr. Meadows for what she was. An incompetent Medical Examiner and a pervert. He had already copied al

of the files in the smal office and had been going over them during his off hours. He would find her mistakes and once he had enough evidence, he would go to the hospital

administrator and turn everything in. Shoving the file folders into his briefcase under the desk, he strode from the room and walked with an air of superiority past her in the

autopsy room.

"Edwards where's the bodies they brought in the other day?" She looked at his haughtiness and wanted nothing better than to beat the shit out of him. "The ones that had the

spear shot through them, where are they?"

"Gone, a funeral home came and got them yesterday after you left." He held back the smirk that was fighting to split his face.

"What? Who the FUCK!" She ran from the autopsy room, unlocked her office and reached for the phone. She had to get those bodies back ASAP, she was nowhere close to

releasing them to anybody and besides they were not even identified. She waited until the first click of the phone being answered before she started yeling.

"Salano get your ass over here now!" She hung up the phone and went in search of the clipboard that would tel her who signed the bodies out and when. She tore the autopsy

room apart and then headed for the smal office that Edwards was sitting in. "Where the fuck is the sign out log?"

His muddy brown eyes roled at her. "Where it's supposed to be, by the back door. I left it on the hook after the driver signed for the bodies." With out a word to him, she

went back into the autopsy room and searched next to the door. Al she found was the clipboard and no sign out sheet.

"Motherfuckinggoodfornothinggoddamnstupidsonofabitchinasshole!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and waited for the echo to stop before her next terrette syndrome

outburst.

@@@@@@@@@@@@

Xepher tore up the street towards the hospital; she had the lights going, siren and was screaming out the window like a maniac for the slow driving people to move. "God damn

Virginia assholes get off my fucking road, go home and stay there!" She hit the siren button so that it made a whooping noise at the car in front of her. When al the driver did

was go slower, she got up to their bumper and started pushing them. Grabbing the microphone and flipping the switch to the PA system. She barked over the loud speaker, "To

get the fuck out of her way!" A huge evil snarl came over her face as the driver now scared shitless swerved off the road and stopped along the side. With in five minutes she

was whipping her car back behind the hospital and to the morgues bay doors. She no sooner opened the side door than she heard Brian's voice screaming out in her normal 'I

won't breath until I'm damn ready way.' The string of curses that came from her lover's mouth and the banging and clanging noise made her grin. "The PMS Gargoyle is

pissed." She said to herself before she eased down the hal to stand outside the door and watch Brian mangle a steel bedpan by bashing it on the floor numerous times. She

looked over her shoulder at the frightened face of Edwards.

"What did you do to her?" She growled in a deep voice.

"Nothing…she…I'm leaving." He ran down the hal away from al the commotion and the two crazy women. His first stop would be the cafeteria to get two cups of coffee, one

for himself the other for the hospital administrator.

Xe walked into the room, bent over, took the pan from Brian's clutching hands and then puled her against her chest. "Calm done baby I'm here now." She swept Brian up into

her arms and carried her to her office, laid her down on the futon; and locked the door before she sat down next to her. "Here take these." She dumped three Midol's into

Brian's hand and handed her a bottle of water. She knew that they were no miracle cure for the PMS but every little bit would help her survive the next four or five days. After

Brian swalowed the pils, she dropped back onto the pilows and growled.

"They're al on my list! I'm gonna kil every single god damn man who comes within 50 foot of me!"

Xe cringed at the rough voice coming from her sometimes-sweet lover; she was waiting for the Linda Blair set of emotions next. Brian sat up in the bed and got to her knees to

be closer to Xe, her dark green eyes burned with flames of insanity. "Give me your gun!"

"Uuuhh aaahh nope can't do it. I left it at home."

"I'm gonna kil Edwards!" She tried to get up from the bed but found herself pinned beneath her lover's heavier body. "Please Xe; just let me kil him a little!" She wrapped her

arms around Xe's neck and buried her face in her hair as the sobs tore through her body. Xe held Brian until her emotions calmed and she was able to ease off of her. She

knew of women having serious PMS, but Brian was down right scary as Hel when she got it. Her hormones were so screwed up that she could go from complete insanity to a

sobbing mess in a matter of seconds.

"Baby are the cramps bad?" That brought a pouting look from Brian and more sobs. Picking her up, she cradled her in her arms and rocked her until she quieted down. "I'l get

you one of those heat packs and you…" Her cel phone vibrated against her hip causing a low rumble to come from her throat. "This better be good!"

"Ohh it is Xepher." Boggs said of the phone. "We have the car the couple were kiled in; they found it at a junkyard in Harpers Ferry."

"Shit! I'm on my way."

"Hey bring Doc with you to colect evidence. Our CSI crew is out at another scene."

"Uuhhmm Boggs, Bri is…" A low keening growl and crazed green eyes driled into her. "Coming with me." She closed the phone and gave her lover a bright smile. "Ya know

you're sexy ass hel when you look insane."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Police cruisers crowded the smal junk yard and prevented Xe from getting any closer with her car. She swore under her breath and puled her car up onto a smal hil alongside

a cruiser. Looking down to her lap, she ran her fingers through Brian's messy hair and sighed. She hated to wake her from her sleep, she knew that she was in pain and only

sleep would give her the peace everyone walking the earth needed. She decided to leave her in the car until she saw the car; they may not be able to get any evidence from it if

it had been exposed to weather. She eased out from under Brian and headed towards the crime tape that was strewn across the back area of the junk yard. Seeing Boggs

standing next to a smal ancient man, she walked over and stood just behind her boss to listen.

"So you have no idea how the car got here, none of your men towed it in."

"Nope, asked them already. I think it was brought through the back there and just left." He pointed to an area where the fence was rusted and pushed down into the dirt. The

car sat no more than fifteen feet from the opening and wel hidden behind an old rusted out panel truck.

"Sir just how did you find the car?" Xe asked and snorted when Boggs jumped, spun around and gave her a look that made her grin at him.

"I was looking for a transmission for a customer, I knew we hade the car back here so's that's how I found it. Didn't think nothin of it until I saw al the blood in the back seat."

"Thanks." She turned to Boggs and motioned with her head to folow. "Is there anything that can be taken as evidence or was the car cleaned?"

"Wel, there's some dirt and stuff on the floorboards that can be sent to the labs, maybe we can get some hair or something." He scratched the razor stubble on his chin. "Plates

are stil on the car so we can trace that to the owner."

"You're teling me that who ever kiled the couple stole their belongings but left the plates on the car?"

He grinned at her and shook his head. "Never said criminals were smart. Where's Doc at?"

"Sleeping in the car, she's ahhh…" Xe blushed and lowered her head.

Boggs eyes grew wide. "She's not naked is she?"

"What? Gods nooo, she's got the curse."

"Oh…oohhhh!" Boggs draped an arm over her shoulders and gave her a hug. "Do like I do, lock myself in the garage for a week. It's safer."

"I had to rescue the entire hospital today. On the way here before she fel asleep, she told me that some funeral home came and got the couple that were in that car."

Boggs groaned and rubbed his face. "It gets better; the sign out log sheet is missing, so she has no idea who took the bodies."

"Son of a bitch!" He then turned and yeled over his shoulder to one of the uniforms. "Get a couple of the guys and hit every funeral home in a 25 mile radius of the hospital,

we're looking for a couple that were picked up from the morgue yesterday sometime." He started walking towards the car and motioned for Xe to folow. "Take a look and see

if you think Doc can find anything."

@@@@@@@@@@@

Xe took a deep breath and ran her fingers across her lover's cheek. "Bri I need your help." Kneeling down outside of her car, she leaned over Brian and whispered into her

ear. "Baby, we have some work to do then we can go home."

"Hate work, hate the world, and hate you."

"I know baby and you can hate me al you want when we get home."

They puled the equipment that was needed from the trunk of the car and went under the crime tape to start colecting the trace evidence. Xe placed a smal shop vac near the

rear door of the car and readied the evidence bag inside of it. While Brian worked in the front of the car, she would vacuum the floor and seats of the rear and then switch

with her lover. They didn't expect to be able to pick up any fingerprints since the top had been left down and nature had destroyed any oils left behind. An hour later, with Bri's

hormones turning her into the exorcist, they decided that they had everything that could be taken from the car. Placing al the evidence bags into one large manila envelope,

sealing it and then signing both their names across the sticker covering the flap, Xe placed it with the evidence-colecting box and waited for Brian to finish packing up her stuff.

"Baby I'm going to give this to Boggs and I'l meet you back at the car, OK?"

"OK." She turned with pleading eyes to her tal lover. "I'm hungry; can we stop and get something to eat?"

"Sure baby, anything you want." She leaned forward and softly kissed Brian before going to look for Boggs.

@@@@@@@@@@

"Hey Boggs me and Brian are al done and I want to know when I get my raise for being a CSI officer." She handed him the envelope, crossed her arms over her chest and

glared into his tired eyes. "Ya know I'm the only cop that does everyone's job, why is that?"

Boggs grinned at her and shrugged his shoulders. "Cuz you're sooo good Xe that's why." He held up a finger and told her to wait a second that he would be right back. She

roled her eyes at him and did as he asked. A few minutes later, he came back into the smal office where she stood and handed her a smal furless animal.

"What the hel is this?" She held it up and looked into pale blue eyes like her own.

"Your raise, no need to thank me." He clapped her on the shoulder and walked from the office.

"Oohh geez, you are the…ugliest dog I have ever seen in my life!" She went nose to nose with the puppy and grinned. "Bri's gonna love you." She put the tiny little puppy inside

her shirt and left with a huge smile on her face.

@@@@@@@@@@@

When she got into her car, she found Brian stretched out across the seat asleep. Taking the puppy from inside her shirt, she placed it up against Bri's chest and snickered when

it curled up against her and yawned before it fel asleep. "I know you're gonna kil me when you wake up." Easing the car down off the smal hil, she turned out of the junk

yard and headed to the only place she knew that would have enough food to satisfy her lover's appetite. It was a new restaurant in Charlestown caled the Spice Garden; they

had just about any kind of food that you could have an appetite for and that's where she would get back into her lover's good graces. Puling her car up close to the front door,

she cracked al the windows a good eight inches and set the air conditioner to low. The puppy may not have any hair but the inside of the car would stil be too hot for the smal

thing. Ready to face the Gargoyle, she brushed blonde hair away from Brian's forehead and trailed her fingers across her cheek.

"Baby time to wake up, foods waiting."

"Hate you Xe."

"I know, and you'l hate me even more when you open those ferocious green eyes." She held back a snicker when Brian growled at her. Brian was the only person that she

could be sarcastic with and it mean a compliment. Most people cringed when they heard the two of them toss insults at each other. What they didn't know was that it had

always been that way between them and if they didn't act that way, then someone was pissed off and walking on eggshels would do nothing to help. 20 lb. of chocolate and

slave labor were the only things that worked when Brian was pissed. Covering her ears for the onslaught of road rage language, she squinted her pale blue eyes in readiness for

when Brian went off on her about the ugly little puppy sleeping against her chest. Green eyes flickered open and as her usual habit, Brian stretched her back and went to

scratch her chest and stomach, but stopped when her hand landed on something warm and funny feeling. She tilted her head up and grinned at the way her lover was watching

her with her ears covered. An eyebrow cocked when she noticed that what she was feeling was not part of Xe. A smal hand explored the strange thing until a smal warm

tongue licked her finger.

"Uuhmm Xe what in the hel is this ugly little thing?" She looked down into pale blue eyes and snorted. "Looks like your baby pictures."

"Gee thanks baby, you do wonders for my ego." She couldn't help but smile when Brian lifted the puppy up to look at it.

"Xe it's bald and the ugliest damn thing I've ever seen." She turned pleading green eyes to Xe. "Can we keep it?"

"You can have anything you want." She leaned forward and got a kiss from both Brian and the puppy. "Let's go eat, I'm starving."

"I'm taking Fugly with me." She lifted it up and looked for spare parts. "She's too little to stay out here and where did you get her from?"

"I asked Boggs for a pay raise and that's what he gave me."

"You're cheap labor Xe and this had better not be a replacement for a ring."

"I never said I was getting you a ring, why would I want to make an honest woman of you when I like you kinky, perverted, sex slave material…"

"You better stop while you're ahead there studless; I now have two dogs to keep me warm." She smacked Xe in the stomach as she walked past her into the restaurant.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@

An hour later and with numerous empty plates scattered on the table, Xe settled the bil with her Visa card and left a tip of twenty bucks because Brian the Gargoyle had

harassed the poor waitresses with her PMS and her appetite. When they had first sat down at the table, Brian asked for a booster seat and got a funny look from the hostess.

She went on to say, that their daughter was too smal and couldn't reach the table. Xe covered her face and dropped her head to the table.

"Now listen here." Brian narrowed her eyes at the hostess and pointed to Xe. "My wife just happens to be a Lt. in the homicide unit and she has this realy big gun. If I don't

get a booster seat, I'l take her gun, shoot you and get it my self! And believe me I know where to shoot you because I look at dead people al day!"

During their meal, Fugly sat in between them on the booster seat getting handouts from both women. At first, the other customers were going to throw a fit until Brian growled

and threatened to castrate men with her fork. Xe was wondering if they would ever be able to return to the restaurant ever again. On the way home, Brian laid down across

the seat with her head on Xe's thigh and Fugly sleeping in the center of her chest. Xe took one look at the bald little puppy and sneered.

"That's my spot you…I can't believe I lost my pilows to a bald puppy." An evil grin split her face; she narrowed her eyes at the snoring puppy. "Just wait until Bear sees you!"

With the new puppy settled in and now the boss over Bear, Xe and Brian fel into bed exhausted from lack of sleep from the night before. Hours later Xe woke to being poked

in her stomach and whimpering noises near her ear. Opening one eye, she looked around their dark bedroom and latched onto tear-filed green eyes.

"Xe it hurts." She dropped her face against her lover's neck and cried.

"OK baby, I'l get you some drugs and the heating pad." Xe was whipped when it came to Brian being in pain, she would move heaven and earth to help her. Even if it meant

getting up half a dozen times in the middle of the night. After giving her three Midol's and the heating pad, she ended up rubbing her stomach and singing close to her ear before

Brian fel back to sleep. Xe would be so thankful when five days were up, then she would have her ornery lover back with out the exorcist personality.

@@@@@@

The sun shone in to the room and directly into Xe's bloodshot eyes, she roled over looking for Brian and found a cold spot in the bed. A low groan came from her; she knew

her lover was up to no good if she was up before her. Crawling from the bed, she crawled through the house on her hands and knees. Listening for noises, she was drawn to

the kitchen where she found Brian making breakfast and both dogs sitting on a kitchen chair. She wondered if her lover was cooking for them or the dogs.

"Baby help." She mumbled as she pressed her forehead into Brian's thigh. "My hip hurts." She whined and looked up with pleading eyes.

"We're both faling apart at the seams, ya would think that we're in or 90's." She knelt on the floor beside Xe and pushed her thumb into the pressure point on her lover's hip.

She grimaced when Xe let out a howl and crumpled to the floor. "Sorry baby, I know it hurts."

Xe roled over onto her side and puled Brian down on top of her, giving her a soft kiss she then asked. "What's for breakfast baby?"

"Warmed up pedigree and scrambled eggs."

"I think I'l pass on the pedigree, how the kids doing?"

"Better than us, I think I need a blood transfusion."

A worried look crossed Xe's face but lingered in her pale blue eyes. "Wil you please for me go to the crotch doc?"

"I know what's wrong; I kinda…stopped taking my birth control pils." She shrugged her shoulders and grinned. "Like I needed to worry about getting pregnant. So now my

bodies screwing with me."

Relieved, Xe wiggled her dark brows. "Can I brag to the guys that you have to take the pil because I'm a stud?"

"Why not, I brag to the nurses that you're a stud."

@@@@@@@@

With the phone resting between her cheek and shoulder, Xe caled the precinct and arranged for some detectives to go door to door to see if there were any neighbors who

would tel what they knew about the Davidson's home life. She had already checked with Boggs about the missing bodies and so far nothing had been found, her next thing to

accomplish was to have an officer run checks on any other crimes that matched what the were facing with the speared couple. Her job was quite different now with the

promotion, she had an entire office at her beck and cal and didn't have to do al the work herself anymore. One thing she needed to do would be to check out the nightclub

she had learned about. The only problem would be to convince Brian that she was only going there for information. At first, she thought about taking her along but with her

female problems, she didn't want to over stress her. Leaning back against the warm body of her lover who had tried to sneak up on her, she finished her phone cal and spun

her chair around.

"How ya feeling Bri?"

"Like I want to donate my uterus to science. What are you doing?"

"Being a bossy bitch." She grinned evily. "I sent out the troops to do al my legwork, tonight I have that nightclub to go to so I can find out if Davidson ever visited the place.

Brian dropped down into her lap and wrapped her arms around her neck. Bringing their foreheads together, she shook her head no.

"Baby I have to, I might find some answers to my questions."

"You're not going anywhere without me."

Closing her eyes, Xe counted to ten. "Bri, you're not feeling good and I don't want you to get any worse by tromping around in a nightclub."

"And if you don't want to sleep outside in your car, you'l take me with you." She bit Xe's chin and growled at her. "You wear the colar I hold the leash."

"Hey that's not fair! I'm taler!"

"I know, that means you get to crawl on the floor." She kissed her quickly and ran from the smal office laughing hystericaly.

"I am soooo screwed." Xe mumbled to herself. "I wonder if she has any Prozac?"

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

"If I had known you were this kinky, I would have wore leather the second time I stepped into the morgue!" Puling the leather vest every which way to keep her assets from

faling out, Xe gave Brian a raised brow. "If my pants get any tighter my lips wil turn blue from lack of circulation."

Brian stepped up close in front of her and pressed their bodies close together. "It wouldn't have mattered; it's the chase and run that turns me on." She pressed her breasts into

her lover's and ran a hand between her legs.

"Ohhh geez Bri, stop or else!"

"I thought you needed some CPR."

"It's not those lips I was talking about and I wil if you keep that up, I can barely breathe." Her breath caught in her throat when Brian captured her lips in a kiss that turned her

knees to jely and had her pulse pounding between her legs.

"Come on Stud, let's get in the club before I loose control and throw you on the hood of the car." She leaned in close and whispered into her lover's ear.

"Ohh Gods stop!" Xe clutched her chest and shivered. "I am on soo much trouble!"

"Damn right you are!"

Brian had gone on a shopping spree during her lunchtime and caled in some IOU's to the police department correctional area. What she came up with was nothing short of Xe

being the submissive partner to her. Xe wore a tight black leather vest, her motorcycle boots, and skin-tight leather pants tucked inside the tops. A thick leather dog colar

around her neck, an inmate's waist belt and a leash attached to the dog colar that Brian held.

"Baby I don't like you wearing that skirt out in public." She jumped back from the rakish grin on her lover's face.

Brian lifted one side of the skirt to show the thin leather G-string she wore underneath. "Why is it too long?"

"Aaahh…no." She moaned and whimpered. "It's gonna kil me."

"Good, I like dead things." She yanked on the leash and puled a stumbling Xe after her.

@@@@@@@@@

Inside the club, both women let out smal gasps at the crowd. Never had they seen such things except on TV and that was nothing compared to this place. People walked

around in practicaly nothing except for maybe a piece of leather strap to conceal private areas. Xe felt better knowing that Brian had on a leather Bikini top, she knew that if

she had on any less and if anyone even looked in the area of her lover's breasts, she would send them to the ER. Their eyes scanned to the set of spiral stairs that was across

the room. People walked up and down the stairs in al manners of undress, sounds of clinking metal and whipping noises came from another area of the club. Puling Xe closer,

Brian leaned up to her ear and yeled.

"This place is fucking scary!" Xe nodded her head and stepped closer behind Brian. "Let's go talk to the bartender, maybe we can find out what goes on in here besides being

a meat market." Xe had to folow behind Brian; she just hoped that she hadn't forgotten the cuff keys in the car.

Pinhead had nothing on the bartender who looked like he had been attacked by a nail gun. Xe looked closer at the top of the man's head and cringed when she saw the pointy

horns sprouting through his flesh. She felt Brian jump back into her body and looked to see the man smiling at them, what scared Brian, were the sharp canine fangs hanging

over his bottom lip.

"What can I get you two?"

"Uuhhmm…a case of holy water and some stakes?"

"Fresh out." He grinned and shrugged his shoulders

Brian nodded her head and smirked. "OK, two bottles of Kilians red." She handed one to Xe and motioned for her to kneel at her side, she ignored the raised eyebrow look

and turned back to the bartender. "Is there someone here that can give me some tips on autoerotica?"

"To be honest with you, I don't realy know too many of the people that come here, I've only worked here maybe two weeks. You might try asking one of the people upstairs,

that's where they have the specialty rooms."

"Thanks, I appreciate your help." Giving the leash a gentle tug, she had Xe rise to her feet and folow behind. She held back a grin when she felt blue eyes burning a hole in her

back. Making her way to the stairs, she stopped when she was two steps above Xe. Turning to face her, she ran her fingers across the tops of her breasts and whispered in to

her ear. "Love you Xe."

Xe knew she was in trouble; the glimmer in her lover's eyes scared the living Hel out of her. She hoped that no one was there that knew her as a tough ass cop; the way she

was now, would kil her reputation quickly.

"Let's go see what we can find out; remember my tal dark love slave, you drop when I stop." She placed her fingers across Xe's lips to stop her from speaking.

They walked up the stairs, looked into each room and flinched. Neither one of them had ever thought of some of the things that were going on in them. One room did look

promising to Brian; it gave her some ideas of what she could do to Xe when they got home. They came to the last room and saw two couples in the middle of an autoerotic

sex act. Both women shivered as they watched.

"There is no way in Hel that can help." Brian whispered down to Xe who was on her knees at her side. "If someone tried to strangle me I'd go balistic and kil them."

"Baby you'd have to beat me to it."

They continued to watch until one of the couples was through. When a dark woman came to the door, Brian motioned to her.

"Can I ask you some stupid questions about what you were doing?"

"Sure, better to know how to do it than screw up."

"It's not that I don't know what I'm doing, it's that I'm looking for someone." She puled a picture of Davidson from inside her skirt and showed it to the woman. "Have you

ever seen him here?" The woman looked at the picture and held up a finger, she walked over to the man in the room and showed him the picture.

"You're looking for him?" The man asked.

"Yes and no, I'm trying to find out if he came here and if he came with someone or alone?"

"Used to come in here sometimes with an older woman dressed like Elvira, last time I saw him he was with this short dark haired woman dressed like a catholic school girl."

Xe snickered from beside Brian and received a smack on top of her head for it.

"Catholic school girl? That's different, is there anything else you can tel me about these women?"

"Nope sorry, if I were you I'd forget about them and keep what you have." He winked at her and walked down the stairs.

"Would you put on a plaid skirt for me Xe?"

"Hel NO! I don't do skirts, dresses or any other girlie thing."

"I know one thing you'l do." She gave the leash a tug and led Xe to one of the rooms with chains hanging from the wal. "Up against the wal baby."

"You're not gonna chain me up and run off are you?"

"Depends on if someone better looking comes along."

"WHAT!" Xe yeled and then lowered her voice. "You wouldn't would you?"

"Only one way to find out." She pushed her lover against the wal and cuffed her. "Now that you can't run away or get any phone cals from Boggs. Where's my ring!" She ran

her hand up between Xe's legs.

Xe pushed her hips towards her lover and groaned. "I'm…Gods do that again."

"Nope, not unless you give me a ring. You're cut off until then."

Blue eyes grew wide with the information, she stuttered and fought for words but found none. She nodded her head and whimpered. "Love you Bri."

"Ain't gonna work Xe." She wiggled her ring finger in front of her and pinched a nipple. "I get my ring and I'l ring your bel." She walked away leaving Xe struggling against the

wal.

"BRIAN! Don't you leave me here!" She yanked and puled as hard as she could until she turned and put both feet against the wal and pushed off. A loud creaking and then

she was lying on the floor looking up into smiling green eyes of a very strange looking woman.

"Guess maybe you should be tied down instead of chained up. Come with me and I'l tie you down for the next week."

"Don't think so she's mine." Brian pushed past the woman and clipped the leash on Xe's colar. "Find your own slave." She puled a grinning Xe past the woman and al the way

down to the bar.

"Thanks baby I could have gotten some." She jumped back when insane green eyes bore into her. "Just kidding baby." She dropped to her knees and buried her face against

Bri's breasts.

"Ohh my Gods! A catholic girl!" Brian pointed to the door and caught a glimpse of a woman dressed like a catholic schoolgirl going out the door. Xe jumped to her feet and

tried to break through the crowd to catch the woman before she disappeared. Brian ran after her lover and caught up with her as she stood outside.

"Do you see her?"

"Nope, God damn it!" She looked both ways and saw tailights in the distance. "I think she got in that cab."

@@@@@@@@@@@

"What was Lt. Salano doing at the club?" Mrs. Davidson asked Edwards.

"I don't know al I know is that they were upstairs and asking about your late husband."

"Son of a bitch!" She turned to face Edwards. "Get rid of her bitch, I don't care how but you do it soon or else."

Edwards nodded his head, he knew the bitch would take him down in a heartbeat and there was nothing he could do about it. She had too much on him and if she talked, he

would be put away for a long time. He sat silently playing with his pigtails and looking out the window.

@@@@@@@@@@@

Xe rushed through the halways of the precinct towards Boggs office; he had caled her on her cel phone while she was just five minutes away. He had said that he had some

information from the Santa Monica Police Department about a couple of unsolved murders in their area. She didn't understand the significance until he said that they were

couples that had been kiled while in the act and that out of the three murders, two of them had been at a place known as make out points. Rushing past officers, she burst

through his door to find him looking at crime scene photos with a jely donut hanging out of his mouth.

"Here." He mumbled as he slid a folder across his desk to her.

"Lover's Tryst cases?" She read off the label. "Sounds like a movie or something." She scanned the files and when finished looked up at Boggs with a pale face. "They were

kiled with a whale harpoon."

"Yep, and this is the part that has me a little weirded out. Officer Vance is from the Department that investigated the murders. They haven't had another case since he left and

came here."

"And al of a sudden we have a Lover's Tryst case and Vance is in the area." She pinched the bridge of her noise and groaned. "Guess we had better find out where he was

when the couple was kiled, anything on finding their bodies?"

"Wel…uuhhmm, there's this place that seems to have had a problem with their crematorium. This helped us out, since the bodies were found lying outside the back of the

building."

"So you're teling me that who ever took the bodies were just going to cremate them without the family's knowledge?" She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "Gods

that realy sucks. Who found them?"

"Officer Vance." Boggs watched the red crawl up Xe's face. He reached across his desk and grabbed her hand to keep her from going on a rampage. "I have two internal

affairs officers investigating him now."

"A lot of good that does since he may have already kiled a couple of people." She went on to tel him of her and Brian's findings from the night before. When he asked how

she got the information, she dropped her head and told him.

"I would give a months pay to see you with a dog colar on!" He laughed so hard that tears streamed down his face. "You're whipped Xepher, and by a tiny little blonde."

"Shut-up Boggs I am not." She knew damn wel that she was but would never admit it to anyone.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Edwards looked into the Brian's office and watched her work on files for a few moments before he walked quietly to the autopsy room and out the side door. Looking for her

car, he spotted it sitting towards the end of the building. Puling a screwdriver from his pocket, he walked over to it and forced the lid to the gas tank open then broke the

locking gas cap. Taking a 16oz plastic bottle from his coat pocket, he dumped it into the tank and closed everything up.

"May not be the most professional but it'l have to do." He said to himself before returning to the building.

Brian grabbed her cel phone and grinned at the caler ID read out. "Dead things 'R' Us."

"That's sick baby." Xe replied from the other end.

"OK, how's Queen bitch, can I chain you up?"

Xe's face turned an unhealthy red; she cleared her throat before she spoke. "Baby don't remind me. Can you bring over the files you have on the spear gun couple."

"Sure, what's this about?" She searched her desk, found the file and stuffed it into her backpack.

Xe went on to tel her about the other cases in California and about finding the missing bodies at a crematorium. She also asked her to find out what she could on the lab results

so that they could compare them to the ones they had from the other cases.

"I'm on my way, I'l bring everything with me and then we can al sit down and go over them." She hung up her phone, set it on the desk and colected everything she needed

before leaving her office. She had just started her car when she remembered leaving her cel phone on her desk. Taking the key for her office, she left her car running and ran

back into the building to get her phone. Brushing past Edwards on her way back out, she gave him a quick glance and saw an evil glare in his eye. She was getting closer to the

point of firing his ass just because he gave her the creeps. Jumping down the four steps near her car, she reached out a hand to the guardrail and felt an enormous amount of

heat blast into her.

The sound of the explosion rattled al the windows on that side of the hospital, employees ran for the doors to see what happened. Debris was stil faling from what was left of

Brian's car, flames licked at the bent metal and burned from spiled fuel on the pavement. The hiss of the fire extinguishers trying to put out the fire and the yeling of voices to

get back never came to the crumpled body dressed in hospital scrubs and a white lab coat. Brian lay against the stairwel with her body slumped at an angle, blood dripped

down her face to soak into the colar of her lab coat.

@@@@@@@@@@@

Xe shot up from the chair she was sitting in across from Boggs' desk, grabbing her phone she hit the speed dial to Brian's and received no answer except for a message from

an mechanical voice, saying that the number she was trying to reach was no longer working. Her face paled as she looked down at her phone and dialed again.

"Xepher are you OK?" Boggs asked as he got up from his chair and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Brian…" Was al she said before she ran from his office with Boggs on her heels.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@

The fire department puled up and started extinguishing the flames; it was then that one of the firefighters found Brian. Yeling over the noise of the fire and the sirens, he got the

attention of a police officer and one of the hospitals doctors. Easing Brian on to a stretcher, they took her around the building and into the ER. The nurse that accompanied

Brian, grabbed a doctor from one of the triage rooms and dragged her with her to the room that the firefighter and officer had just went into. Giving the specifics of the case,

she grabbed a plastic covered triage tray as they walked into the room.

"Cal X-ray and get them down here with a portable, get the burn unit down here to." The doctor said as she started examining Brian. What she saw made her wince, Brian's

one arm had sustained first and second degree burns from wrist to elbow. With further examination, she saw that she had second-degree burns on her leg. She pushed the

officer and firefighter from the smal cubicle and started cutting Brian's scrubs from her body, low moans alerted the doctor that she was coming around.

"Don't move doctor, you're in the ER and you've been hurt," She placed a hand on Brian's shoulder to hold her down. "Just lay stil for me."

Green eyes fluttered open to look at her. "Xepher…cal Xepher." She mumbled and then gasped when a burned area was touched.

"Who's Xepher?' The doctor asked as she gently peeled part of the scrubs away from Brian's hip.

"Lt. Salano…homicide." She groaned as she tried to sit up. "She's gonna be realy pissed at me."

"Don't move Doctor, I'l have the officer outside cal the Lt for you." Brian lay back on the table and passed out within seconds.

@@@@@@@@@@@2

Boggs screamed like a little girl and gripped the dashboard with white knuckled fingers. "You're gonna kil us both and I need a clean pair of shorts!"

"I have to get to the hospital so just shut-up and hang on!" She took her car up onto the sidewalk, ran along the edge of a building and jumped back down into the busy street.

"GETOUTTAMYFUCKINGWAY!" She screamed at a car in front of her. "Don't these people know what a siren is meant for?"

"Jesus Christ Salano!" Boggs screamed and dropped down in his seat as they jumped the curb and came to a screeching halt outside of the hospital. Fire trucks, Police cars

and ambulances blocked her from getting around to where the doors were to the morgue.

"What the Hel happened here?" Boggs asked as he stumbled from the car. "You go find Brian and I'l find out what happened." When he looked back over his shoulder, he

saw that he had been talking to himself. Xe was already through the ER doors and running down the halways looking into each triage room, she ran right into officer Vance.

"She's in the room down the hal Lt. Salano."

Xe's eyes narrowed as she pushed past him. "Get out of my way!" Barging through the doorway, she ignored the doctor and nurses and went to Brian's side. Brushing the hair

from her forehead, she mumbled close to her ear. "I'm here baby, it's al right."

"Hey you can't be in here." The doctor barked and reached a hand towards Xe's arm.

"Get your hand off me!" Xe growled and bared her teeth. "What happened to her?"

"They found her at the back of the building, you'l have to check with the police officer that brought her in. Now get out of here."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Listen lady…" The doctor reached for her again. "I'l cal the police and have you taken out of here."

Xe puled her walet from her pocket and tossed it to the doctor. "Go ahead, you'l need that so you can spel my name right." The doctor opened the walet and saw the gold

shield and ID with Xe's name in big letters.

"She wanted me to cal you but I didn't…"

"I'm here, now help her." Tears formed in her worried blue eyes as she looked at the angry red skin on her lover's arm and leg.

@@@@@@@@@@@

Brian was placed in a private room against her wil and Xe's, after she threatened to beat the Hel out of a nurse and doctor, she was given a shot that knocked her out. Xe sat

beside the bed until she knew for sure that her lover would sleep for a while. After kissing her forehead, she puled the sheet up to her chin and left the room to search for the

officer who had found Brian. Taking the stairs down to the bottom level, she went out a side door near where the explosion had occurred. What made her blood boil and rage

to build up to volcanic proportions was the site of what was left of her lover's car. Striding over to the fire chief and arson inspector, she flipped her walet open and showed

them.

"I want to know what happened."

The inspector held out a 16oz plastic bottle and waved it in front of her nose. "Smel that? That's a mixture of bleach and urea. It was poured into the gas tank of the car, when

it was started and the fuel made its way to the engine it blew." He puled the burned gas cap lid from a bag and showed her where there were pry marks on the metal.

"Someone wanted the owner dead." That's al Xe needed to hear, she took off to where Boggs was standing with a couple of officers.

"Boggs someone wanted Brian dead! I want the officer who found her."

"Xepher calm down a minute, Vance found her..."

Xe took one look at the officer next to Boggs, grabbed him by his throat and lifted him off his feet. Before anyone knew what happened, Xe had lifted him above her head,

thrown him onto the hood of a police car and started beating him senseless.

"Damn it Xe he didn't do anything!" Boggs jumped on her back and wrestled with her, he was no match for the younger and pissed off woman. It took four fire fighters to drag

her off the now badly beaten Vance. She found herself handcuffed and lying with her face being pressed into the wet pavement. "Do I have to take you in or are you going to

behave yourself?" Boggs asked from where he was kneeling beside her.

"I want his ass dead!"

"Xe he didn't do it, he was clear across town with his partner when it happened. He's been on duty since 11pm last night." He watched the strong face before him colapse, the

sharp angles became slack and tears slid down her face. "I'l let you loose but you stay away from Vance." She felt the cuffs being removed and then hands helping her up.

"He's not pressing charges against you and I'm not saying a word about what happened. Now go see Brian before I have to put up with her temper to."

@@@@@@@@@@2

Tears slid down Xe's face at the site of her lover lying in the hospital bed, a white bandage covered the right side of her forehead and one on her cheek below her eye. Sitting

on the edge of the bed, she leaned down and pressed her lips gently to Brian's. Her tears fel from her cheek to drip onto her lover's neck causing tired green eyes to flutter

open.

"Xe?"

"I'm here baby." She croaked out and buried her face against the warm skin of Brian's neck. Soft sobs tore from her throat as she cried out her relief.

"Xe I don't know what happened."

Xe hugged Brian and tried not to hurt her anymore than she al ready was; lifting her head up, they connected eyes. "Someone tried to kil you; they were hoping that you would

be in your car when it exploded."

"Just great and here I thought I'd be able to sue the car company." She ran her fingers through her lover's hair and puled her head down to her. Kissing her gently, she then

deepened it to assure Xe that she was stil alive and kicking. "I know you'l find out who did it." She gripped Xe's hand in hers and saw pain in her blue eyes. Looking down at

the swolen and bloody hands, she sighed and roled her eyes at her. "Who'd you beat up?"

"Uuhhmm…I sorta lost it on Officer Vance." She dropped her eyes. "I thought he did it because we were getting close to bringing him in for questioning."

"He wouldn't kil me, he'd go after you." She ran a finger across the bloody knuckles of her lover and smiled. "And you cal me a gargoyle." She chuckled at the shocked look

on Xe's face. "Didn't think I heard you huh?"

@@@@@@@@@@@@

Mrs. Davidson paced her parlor floor in a rage; she couldn't believe that Edwards had done something so damn stupid as to try to blow the Medical Examiner up in her car, let

alone right outside of the hospital. She stopped and pointed a finger at the young sheepish man; the glare in her eyes was enough to singe the skin on his face.

"You stupid little boy, what the fuck were you thinking? Ohh wait that's right you didn't, at least not with your brain!" She threw an expensive vase against the wal and kicked

over an ottoman. "Now what the fuck are you going to do, burn down the Hospital or maybe the Police Station?"

"How was I to know that she forgot something and had to run back to her office, if she hadn't, she would have been away from the hospital when the car blew up." He jutted

out his weak jaw at her. "I won't fail next time."

"You won't because you're not doing anything." She came to stand within inches of him and jabbed him in his bony chest. "Stay away from them, let me handle Lt. Salano."

She waved a hand at him and walked over to look out the window to the large back yard. "Stupid little twit!" She said to herself as she was trying to come up with a way to

get rid of Salano or at least get her off the case. Picking up the phone, she dialed and waited for the other end to pick up.

"Helo Commissioner, this is Mrs. Davidson the Councilman's widow. I've been having a problem with one of the officer's working my husband's case."

@@@@@@@@@@

Brian held on to Xe's arm for dear life, she had never seen her so enraged as she was right now. The rage seeping from every pore, muscles tensed and straining and the look

of pure hatred burning from her silvery blue eyes. If she got loose, the hospital administrator would be the victim of a murderous rampage.

"Where have you been keeping your fucking head…up your ass?" Xe asked in a low dangerous voice.

"I do not appreciate you speaking to me like I'm some criminal off the street." He wiped the nervous sweat from his brow.

"Excuse me!" She belowed. "You're wrong, I speak to them like they have brains!" She felt Brian wrap one arm around her waist and lean into her body.

"Xe let me handle this…please."

Xe lowered her voice so that only Brian could hear her. "I want his head on a pike!"

"So do I but I don't think we'l get placed in the same prison cel." She rubbed her lover's tight stomach in what she hoped was soothing motions. "I don't know who gave you

al that bulshit information, but I think you had better look at it again."

"I don't have to, it's obvious that you are incompetent and not able to perform the job as Chief Medical Examiner for this hospital."

Brian growled and had to be held back by Xe. "You realy are clueless aren't you! Look at the fucking dates on the files, I wasn't even working here at the time you stupid son

of a bitch!"

The administrator puled one of the files from the stack and looked at the date on top of the coversheet, he then puled others out randomly and looked up at Brian. With out a

word, he left the hospital room.

Xe sagged back into her lover's body and mumbled under her breath, roling onto her side, she buried her face between Brian's breasts and screamed.

"Can't we like buy an island out in the south pacific so we can be away from the miniscule brains of the male gender?"

Xe looked up at her lover and grinned. "I'l buy the island if you wear one of those tiny little leather breach cloths and nothing else."

@@@@@@@@@@

The night was humid, dampness hung in the air like a fine mist of rain. The surface of the smal parking lot glimmered like diamonds from the reflection of the single security

light hanging from the back of the building. Only one vehicle was in the lot of the smal 24-hour store, inside sat a man drinking from a bottle of purple MD 20/20. He had just

spent the last four dolars from his paycheck for a cheap drunk and nasty hangover. His gaunt face turned to watch rats running around a Dumpster looking for garbage to feed

on. What stepped from beside the Dumpster didn't faze him, he saw plenty of homeless in the area fighting the rodents for rotten food, or to go through garbage cans looking

for half-filed bottles of anything to drink. Leaning his head against the seat, he closed his bloodshot eyes and drank from his bottle. For the last time. A thwacking sound

echoed in the parking lot and then a thump. The man's eyes shot open from the pain in his chest, he looked down to see the feather tip of an arrow lodged in the center of his

chest. He tried to lean forward and realized that the arrow had gone completely through his body and pinned him to the seat. He opened his mouth but not a sound came forth

except a gurgling noise as he choked on his own blood. Seconds later, sightless eyes starred through the foggy windshield.

A crossbow was placed in the back seat of the car by a glove-covered hand that then produced a pair of side cutters and snipped the broad head off the end of the

Crossbow bolt. The victim was pushed over into the passenger seat and then roled to lie on the floor where he was out of sight. Within a couple of seconds the car puled

from the parking lot and headed out of town, the only sound coming from the car was the low murmur of a police radio.

@@@@@@@@@

Boggs kissed his wife goodbye and ran from the house they had lived in for over 20 years. When they had first been married, they bought the smal house, which back then

was considered huge with its three bedrooms and one and a half baths. Now the yuppie assholes that took over the area considered it a starter home and something that

wasn't worth their time or effort to look at. That was fine by he and his wife, it was paid for and al theirs. Climbing into his car, he headed to the hospital to find Xepher, he had

something for her that would haul her ass out of hot water. When he got to the room that Brian was in, he covered his eyes and groaned.

"Damn it you two, ever heard of locking your door or at least closing it!"

Blurry blue eyes peeked open to see a bright red Boggs hovering in the doorway. "Come on Boggs, we were just sleeping." She stretched her back and moaned when a sharp

pain jabbed her in her hip and lower back. "Son of a bitch." She mumbled into her sleeping lover's neck. Grabbing her lower back, she eased up in the bed and tried to swing

her legs over the edge without screaming. Boggs face took on a look of fatherly concern when he saw the pain that she was in.

"You OK Xe, you look like you're gonna pass out on me." He stepped forward and took her elbow to help her up. "Jesus Xe, I didn't know you hurt this bad."

"Everyday Boggs, every single day." She took a deep breath to chase away the swirling colors in front of her eyes. "Gets better when I start moving around."

"Or after I torture her for a few minutes." A sleepy voice said from behind Xe. "Come on baby, bend over the bed."

"Bri." Xe whined but did as she was told, Boggs cringed when he saw Brian use her thumb and push it deeply into Xe's hip. The paleness of her face told him of excruciating

pain she was in. Moments later a sweat covered Xe stood up with more ease.

"What did you do to her Brian?"

"Pressure points, it helps with her sciatica. She realy needs to stretch out before going to sleep." She cast a stern look to her lover.

"Like what you do to me doesn't stretch out muscles I never knew I had." She didn't need to look at Boggs to know that his face was bright red. "So Boggs, what brings you

here to the Gargoyles torture chamber?"

He ran a hand across his face and jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the door. "Top secret stuff here, the Queen has a message for you." He looked to see green eyes

narrowed at him. "Queen Boggs that is." Xe folowed him out into the hal, crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Out with it, what did I do this time?"

"The same thing you always do, fal down on the job." He puled a smal black box from his coat pocket and handed it to her. "My boss said to give you this and if I didn't I'd

be sleeping outside with the dog. I do not want to piss off mama."

She opened the box and gave Boggs the biggest smile he had ever seen come across her face. Inside were two matching rings, they were the capital letters of XB joining to

make up the circumference of the ring. With the X in silver and the B in gold and an alternating sapphire and emerald stone set in the center of the X.

"Wel what do ya think there Xepher?"

Blue eyes twinkled at him, a croaked grin came over her face when she snapped the box closed. "I think you just kept me from having to sleep in my car."

"Hey remember me!" Brian yeled from the room. "I know you two are talking about me!"

"Go on Xe before she kicks your ass." Boggs clapped her on her shoulder, turned and whistled a tune as he walked down the hal. Xe tried to wipe the grin from her face

before she went back in to Brian's room, it was impossible.

"You two are up to no good, what have you done now?"

"Ohh I think I just got myself out of the doghouse so to speak." She dropped to her knees beside the bed and took Brian's hand in hers. "I know I've been kinda slow in this

department but I have a good reason for it." Placing a kiss on Brian's ring finger, she looked up into questioning green eyes. "We exchanged our vows to each other in private

quite a while ago but we never exchanged rings." She placed a finger to Brian's lips to stop her from interrupting. "I had to find just the right rings and to be honest I had to have

them made." She puled the smal box out and flipped the lid open, taking the smaler ring out, she slipped it onto Brian's finger and smiled into misty green eyes. "I love you

Brian, now, always and forever."

Brian looked down at the ring and tears flowed down her cheeks, she puled Xe up to meet her lips. What started out as a soft gentle kiss turned into one of complete passion

and undying love. When they parted, al either one of them could do was stare into each other's eyes and try to catch their breath.

"Is it OK?" Xe asked hesitantly.

"It's beautiful baby." Brian took the box and slipped the other ring onto her wives finger. "I love you Xepher, now, always and forever." When they puled apart from another

long kiss, they heard sniffling noises at the door.

"You two are giant mushbals." Boggs said while wiping tears from his eyes. "Bad news Xe, we got a freaky one over by the truck stop on RT. 270. From what I've been told,

it's gruesome."

"I'm going with you Xe." Brian said as she climbed from the bed, rummaged inside the smal closet for her clothes and flashed Boggs when she tossed the flimsy gown on the

bed. Xe roled her eyes at her wife and stepped in front of her to keep Boggs from passing out from seeing her in al her glory.

"You two have no shame!" Boggs spun on his heel and faced the doorway.

"If you've seen one, you've seen them al." Brian mumbled as she puled a sweatshirt over her head.

"My wife has never looked like either one of you." Boggs groaned and slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Sounds like blackmail material to me. Right Bri?"

@@@@@@@@@

"What in the Hel?" Brian leaned over and tilted her head to the side.

"What I'm trying to figure is how in the Hel." Xe said as she stood behind Brian doing the same funny moves and almost faling on her head when Brian looked back at her.

"Ya have to give the sick fuck credit, he is getting quite inventive."

"Baby this is just plain gross." Xe said as she walked closer to where the two male bodies where being displayed. "EEEWWW! Brian!"

A large tree was used for the display of the two male bodies, one man was suspended upside down against the tree, and the other was right side up. What interested Brian and

grossed out Xe was the fact that they had been tied to the tree with their own intestines. A bloody gore pooling on the ground at the one man's feet. Brian snorted and looked

to her wife.

"This is definitely not the way we do 69's." Her grin grew larger when Xe's face turned a bright red.

"I swear you two are the most outspoken women I know!" Boggs knew his color matched that of Xe's, he was beginning to wonder if it would be his permanent shade.

Brian pointed to the tree and then to her and Xe. "We have never done anything up against a tree, now the kitchen table is different."

"Oohh geez, remind me to never sit down at your table again." Boggs continued to mumble as he walked away.

"Baby you are going to be the death of me yet." Xe said as she tried to take calming breathes, the picture that had formed in her mind of her and Brian was not something that

should be there considering where they were and what was in front of them.

"Let's bag, tag and load." Brian said while puling baggies from her pocket. She flinched when the tender skin of her forearm brushed against her scrub shirt, she knew that she

would catch holy Hel when they found out she had escaped the hospital. She didn't much care, Xe needed her and she would walk through Hades itself to be by her side. Xe

saw the pain shot through her wives eyes and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I'l bag their hands and feet, you go get the ambulance crew up here."

Brian's eyes blazed and then calmed when Xe leaned in and whispered in her ear.

"I know you hurt, you shouldn't be out here in the sun." She kissed Brian's neck and nuzzled against her for a few minutes. "Please baby."

"I'm whipped!" Brian mumbled.

"Makes two of us baby." Brian went to the parking lot to get the ambulance crew ready, she gave them specific instructions on how she wanted the bodies moved and if not

done her way, she threatened them with the wraith of Xepher.

Xe gagged when she got close to the bodies, the stench of open guts and stretched intestines was getting to her. What was different about this and being in the autopsy room

where there was ventilation, there was no breeze in the 90-degree weather or under the tree, she was sharing with every known insect. "Should have become a manager at

McDonalds." Xe looked closely at one of the men and had to turn and run, she made it outside of the crime scene and lost her breakfast. Bent over at the waist, she heaved

and shivered.

"Baby you OK?" Brian asked and rubbed her wives back.

"One of them was alive when he was put on the tree…he bit…the other guy's dick off." She heaved again, but nothing came up. Brian puled a towel from her pocket and

wiped Xe's face off and then led her away from the area to a quiet place. She eased her down against a tree, sat down next to her and puled her head against her chest.

"You know Xe, this world is ful of fucking freaks and it's our job to catch them. Some times the hardest thing I do, is to look at what someone wil do to another human and I

wonder why? Why do they doe such cruel and sick ass things?" She kissed Xe's temple and sighed. "There's no answer, no one knows except those sick fucks and they won't

say."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Flipping the overhead light on and puling down the microphone, Brian uncovered the bodies of the two men. Taking extreme care, she lifted the head of the man on top and

turned his head to the side. Noticing a deep purple bruise running along the area above his left ear, she palpated the area for any sign of fractures. Finding none, she ran her

fingers through his short blonde hair for any other injuries. At the crown of his head, she found a smal gash and dried blood. Titling the light down, she saw that there were two

smal gashes with a space in between, what came to mind was the end of a crowbar. Puling her camera from under the table, she took a couple shots of the wound and then

finished the rol off by taking shots of the bodies.

"Edwards! I need some help in here!" She yeled loud enough that the floor above them could hear. She waited ten minutes and then went in search of her assistant. "Where the

Hel are you?" She mumbled to herself.

"I fired him." Brian turned to see the hospital administrator coming down the hal towards her. "I caled the hospital that he used to work at and found out that he was trying to

pul the same thing here as he did there." The older man leaned against the wal across from her, removed his glasses and rubbed his bloodshot eyes. "I owe you an apology, I

should have known he was up to something."

"What do you mean?"

"Wel, I overheard one of the nurses in the lounge talking about him. He was seen coming in the hospital at weird hours and using the terminals upstairs. The next day, the head

nurse had to cal in the computer company to fix the computers on that floor. What ever Edwards did, he managed to delete half of the records for the ER, Morgue and

Pediatrics."

"Son of a bitch!" Brian tilted her head back and closed her eyes. "Are al the files on my computer missing now?"

"No, you computer is on a different server than the other ones, when you moved your office it was easier for the computer technician to run your PC lines to the server that the

surgical staff computers are hooked to." He stepped closer and held out his hand to her. "I truly sorry Dr. Meadows, truce?"

She opened her eyes and stared down at his hand. "Under one condition, I get to hire my assistant and the hospital buys me my own coroner vehicle set up to my specs." She

watched him fight with the numbers in his head. "Remember, my car was blown up in the parking lot, I was almost kiled and I could sue for lack of hospital security." A light

flush took over the administrators features, gulping he nodded his head.

"Anything you want, you let my secretary know and she'l get it for you. You pick out the vehicle you want and have the dealership send the bil to my office."

"Thanks, now I have to get back to work." She walked away from him and noticed that he had folowed her into the autopsy room. With one look of the man with a severed

dick hanging from his mouth, the administrator ran from the room gagging. "Love this job."

After pushing the gurney over to one of the tables, she roled the top body off and began her autopsy on the other. It would take her most of the day to do both of them since

she was now al on her own. Taking a bread knife from the tray of instruments, she started the Rokitansky method and hummed Beethoven's fifth piano concerto under her

breath.

@@@@@@@@@@@

Xe looked at the reports from the fire inspector and then the ones that came back from the fingerprinting department. The inspector had turned in the bottle found at the scene

for printing. What they found were numerous prints of one kind and then one partial of another. The first name was Agnes Bancroft, a 70-year-old woman who worked at the

hospital in the cafeteria as the cashier. "I can see her being pissed at Brian for the amount of food she would have to ring up." She snorted at the thought of the old woman

seeing Brian and running from the room. The other name was an EJ Holmes, numerous felonies, misdemeanors, assault and batteries and couple dozen counts of sexual

exhibitionism and indecent exposure . "Ohh great! I'm looking for some fucking pervert who likes to whip out his tiny ass dick and play with it." Dropping her head onto her

desk, she let out a low moan. "Hate this job, Burger King is hiring. I could clean fry baskets."

"And miss out on al the fun you have here?" Boggs sat in the chair beside her desk and dropped a folder on top of the already huge pile. "Take a look at that, just came in

from California. It's a profile that was done for the Santa Monica police department." She scanned the report and snorted.

"Boggs this doesn't mean anything, we know we have a sick bastard out there."

"That's not what I'm getting at, look closer at the personality of the perp. It's too perfect a fit for Vance, it's almost like the profiler knew Vance ahead of time and wrote a

report on him."

"Gotcha, I'l look into it. Right now I have to get over to the morgue and see what Brian came up with." She got up from her chair and was picking up the files she needed when

Boggs jumped to his feet and almost knocked her over. "What the…"

"The commissioner just walked into my office!" Boggs had sweat pop out across his forehead. He looked down at his shirt and tie and up to amused blue eyes. "Do they

match?"

"Hel no, you need help dressing in the morning or those little animal tags on everything. You know monkey goes with monkey, lion goes with…"

"I got it Xepher, you're no help." He jogged towards his office and came to a screeching halt when the commissioner stepped through the door. Xe could see them talking but

couldn't hear a single word. What she did pick up was that Boggs was pointing at her and motioning her to come into his office.

"Ohh shit, this is not good."

When she entered the office, she automaticaly felt the tension coming off the two men, she looked from one to the other and waited.

"Lt. Salano, I had a phone cal from a Mrs. Davidson." The commissioner said. "She has informed me that you are harassing her."

Xe roled her eyes and snorted. "You have got to be kidding, I spoke with her for about three minutes before she had me thrown out of her house."

Boggs knew what had gone on with the interview, he couldn't for the life of him understand why the widow had involved the commissioner after almost a week and a half had

passed.

"When exactly was the last time you spoke to her?"

"The day after I escorted her to the morgue to identify her husband, I had to inform her that the case was being investigated as a murder. I asked her some personal questions

and she got al bent out of shape over it."

"That's not what she told me." He rubbed his jaw with the tips of his fingers and nodded his head. "She told me that you've been sitting outside her house and folowing her al

over town. Not to mention that she thinks you broke into her house and tapped her phone lines."

"Come on John." Boggs shot a look to the commissioner. "The woman is not a suspect and that's not Salano's style. If we had her under observation, she would never know

about it."

"I think she's delusional, I'm more interested in who her husband was meeting at a kinky nightclub." She watched the commissioners eyes widen. "Guess you didn't know about

that huh?" She told him about her and Brian going to the area kink club and questioning the bartender and employees about the Councilman.

"You took the Medical Examiner?" He questioned.

"I take her everywhere." She gave him a look of 'don't fuck with my ways.' "She's more than the ME, she's trained in clinical psychology, forensic medicine, criminal sciences

and if I don't take her, she wil make my life a living Hel."

His mouth dropped open with the massive amount of credentials the ME had. "And why isn't she working for us in Homicide Special Units?" He looked to Boggs for his

answer.

"John, she works at the hospital as the Chief Medical Examiner, so in a way she does work for us, wel she works for one of us." He looked to Xe and received a nod of her

dark head. "She's married to…"

Who? I want his name." The commissioner was getting riled, he wanted the ME on his side. It would look damn good for him come election time, if he could get the murders

solved and the ME in his pocket.

Boggs raised an eyebrow, he knew damn wel what the commissioner was thinking. He and John had gone to school together and then joined the police department almost at

the same time. Where Boggs was for the department and protecting the people, John was for the political world, self-centered and a pain in the ass at times. "Lt. Salano."

"What! You're kidding right?" He looked between the two of them and sighed when he saw the glimmer in Salano's eyes. "Damn it to Hel Salano." He dropped his head in

defeat. "Just get that sick bastard off the streets." He left a grinning Boggs in his wake.

"Asshole." Boggs mumbled. "Thought he was going to get Brian in his pocket."

"Fat chance, even I can't do that and I sleep with her."

"Xe I don't want to know anymore than I already do about your sex life."

"I'l tel ya anyway, I'm going to get her and maybe something else when we get home." She wiggled her brows at his red face. "Later Boggs."

@@@@@@@@@@

"Ohhh you were a naughty boy weren't you?" Brian handled what would have been a normal liver had it not been pickled from years of alcohol abuse. She was afraid that it

would fal to pieces in her hand before she got it into the tray on the scale. She had seen the yelow tint around the deceased eyes and knew right off that he was suffering from

a liver condition, jaundice or maybe hepatitis. With further examination, she found no rectal scaring and knew that the man was not a homosexual and neither was the other

victim. She had a gut feeling that the men hadn't even known or been in the same area as the other and that it was two different kilings placed at the scene to be passed off as

something else.

She hoped that Xe would show up so that she could show her what else she had found in an unlikely place. She had in an evidence bag, a blood soaked business card that she

could just make out the gold foil of a police shield. She would have the lab see if they could clean it up and be able to make out what else was printed on the card. After

dictating the weight of the diseased liver, she placed it inside a plastic bag and put it into the man's body cavity. Taking out her stapler, she closed up the Y incision she had

made and closed the area that the kiler had done while gutting the victim. What ever he had used to gut the men was a sharp as her own instruments, and the way each man

was cut, she had a suspicion that the kiler had some medical training or was a hunter.

The bodies had basicaly been opened so that only the intestines could be drawn out from a smal incision in the abdominal cavity. She pictured in her head how the men had

been placed against the tree, the man on top was stil alive when he was cut open, and she believed that he had come around from being unconscious at the time his intestines

were being puled from his body. That was the reason he had bitten the penis of the other man off. The suffocating is what had kiled him though, a far better way to go then

slowly and in excruciating pain. In time he would have died when the sunlight dried his intestines out and from the shock that the body had gone through. Brian knew as soon as

she had examined the one man that he had been kiled in a similar fashion as the other couple, the entry and exit wound in his body were made by an arrow of some sort that

much she knew.

@@@@@@@@@@@@

Continued In Part 2

The Athenaeum's Scroll Archive

~ Lover's Tryst ~

by Larisa

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah I know who they remind ya of. These women are al mine! Xepher and Brian are back in this sequel to Body Parts. GRAPHIC VIOLENCE!!!!!!

Not as bad as Body Parts but some parts are gross!

Violence: Yep.

Language: Yep.

Sex? Of course there is!

The rest of the story: If you're to young to buy beer, go have a yahoo and come back in a couple years! If you live in a State that outlaws this, then you live around a bunch

of pricks.

Thanks to Lesia, Ri, Maggie, Thorie and the WebWarrior. Couldn't have gotten this done without al your help.

Lover's Tryst

By Larisa

Hecate3366@frontiernet.net

Part 2

Edwards was walking out to his car when Xe puled in, she cast a look his way and caught the glare in his muddy eyes. Ignoring him, she went through the back door to the

autopsy room and looked around. Everything was clean and shinning in the dim light from the overhead cabinet lights over the smaler work areas. From a distance, she could

hear whistling. Her wife only whistled when she was working or knew something. Silently she walked down the hal to Brian's office and stood in the doorway watching her, the

smal wicked grin on her face gave way to a ful-fledged smile when she saw Xe.

"Hey baby you're late."

"I got puled into the office on my way out, the commissioner wanted to talk to me about Mrs. I'm a bitch Davidson." She sat on the edge of Brian's desk right in front of her

and told her everything that had happened that day once they left the crime scene. She tried to ignore the fact that Brian was running her hands up the insides of her thighs.

"Sooo what happened to you, I heard you whistling?"

"Later, right now I want to go home and try something." She puled Xe down for a deep kiss that had both of their pulses racing. "Plus we have the kids to check on; they may

even let us in the house." She slapped Xe in her stomach and waited at the door for her. "Come on stud."

Xe counted on her fingers while walking towards Brian, when she finished a huge grin covered her face.

"What are you grinning at?"

"Ohh lets just say that you're no longer a danger to society." She was happy as Hel that Brian's monthly curse was over with.

"That doesn't mean that you're safe."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

"BEAR YOU ROTTEN LITTLE SHIT!" Xe picked up a pair of Brian's underwear from in front of the door and continued to pick up clothes al the way through the house.

"Where ya hiding ya little rat bitches." She looked under the bed, chair and dresser before she went out into the living room and found Brian down on her hands and knees

looking under the couch. An evil grin came across her face, sneaking up behind her; she dropped down to the floor, crawled on top of her back and nipped her neck.

"Whatcha doin?"

"Taking our toys from the kids." She dangled a chewed vibrator in front of Xe's face. "At least it's not our favorite one."

"Wonder where they're hiding?"

"I'm afraid to even think about where they could be." Brian colapsed on the floor and roled so that she was facing Xe.

Blue eyes grew huge when a thought came to her. "Please don't let them be in the office!" She jumped to her feet and hauled Brian up; they took off running to the smal office.

With one look, their worries were confirmed. Papers were everywhere, file folders that at one time were on the desk were scattered across the floor and a pile of their clothes

was in the center of the desk with two little dogs cuddled together in them. "Rotten little dogs." Xe whispered and watched as two sets of eyes looked up at her.

"Guess you better take them to work with you in the morning." Brian chuckled when Bear roled onto her back and offered her bely to Xe.

"Ain't gonna work you destroyer of homes and you Fugly, picking up her bad habits." She gave in and rubbed her dog's bely, she was whipped by both women in her life.

"IF I rol over wil you do that to me?" Brian growled close to Xe's ear.

"I'l think about it."

"Ohh you'l do more than think about it." She slipped her hand up between her wives legs and ran her fingernails across the seam of her Levi's. "You'l do a lot more than think

about it, I can feel how wet you are already." Xe moaned and fel forward to rest on the palms of her hands.

"You better believe it Bri." She turned around, swept Brian up into her arms and carried her to their bedroom.

After hours of reacquainting themselves with each other and taking a few more shingles off the roof, they lay wrapped in each other's arms.

Xe roled them over so that she was looking into green eyes. "You gonna tel me about what happened at work today?"

"You mean the part where the administrator apologized and fired Edwards?" Brian had just finished teling Xe about her day, when her soft even breathing signaled that she had

falen asleep. Puling the sheet up over their naked bodies, Xe was careful not to get it near the burns on her wives arm. Brian's leg was stil covered in gauze but she refused to

have her arm swathed in anything. The burns weren't as bad as they were but with wearing pants, she kept her leg covered to keep the material from irritating the tender skin.

Snuggling closer to Brian, Xe closed her eyes and surrendered to sleep.

@@@@@@@@@@

Brian mumbled in her sleep and ran her hands across the bed searching for the warm body that was normaly beside her. Not finding Xe, she opened one eye and gasped.

Looking down towards the foot of the bed, she saw a lump between her legs and two sets of eyes looking up at her. "Gods I hope that wasn't one of…Gods!" Her back

arched when she felt a warm tongue lick at her center. "You evil bitch Xe!" She groaned and flipped the sheet back to see her wife lying between her thighs.

"Morning baby." Was al Xe said before she went back to licking the wetness from Brian. Soft moans and groans came from her lips and vibrated against Brian's engorged

shaft. Using her thumb, she pressed it against the throbbing shaft and slipped her tongue into Brian's center. Puling her tongue out part way, she pushed it back in and felt

muscles clamp down around it. Flicking Brian's clit with her thumb, she felt her arch against her and go over the edge with a deep groan. With juices dripping from her chin, Xe

crawled up to lay her head on a warm breast and sighed deeply. Brian's body was stil quivering with the effects of her climax, she lay taking deep breaths and rode them out to

the very end. She watched as Xe yawned, took a deep calming breath and fel asleep. "I don't believe you." She grabbed an ear and wiggled it and got no response from her

lover. "You wake me up like that and then fal asleep?" She used al her strength and roled them over so that she was lying on top of a sleeping Xe. A wicked smirk came

across her face as she thought of paybacks. Looking down at the dogs stil sitting on the foot of the bed, she wiggled her brows at them and grinned. Moving so that she was

kneeling between Xe's legs, she slipped a finger between her nether lips and felt the wetness gathered there. Doing something that her wife would never think she would ever

do, she pressed a finger to her tight opening and slipped her finger part way in. Watching a blue eye pop open, she grinned and dropped down to lick at her center.

Xe's back arched as a smal finger entered her, she gripped the sheets in her hands and gasped when the finger was twisted inside of her. Bracing her heels against the bed, she

raised her hips and pumped against Brian's face. "Bri…an…harder." She begged and felt her muscles clench and colors float before her eyes. "Com…ing!" She screamed out

as she went over the edge and colapsed limply on the bed. Brian licked the last of the juices from her wife and crawled up her body to stare down into her slack face.

"Xe? Don't tel me you fel asleep again." She watched for a few seconds and saw no signs of normal sleep. "Baby?" She caressed her cheek and then checked her pulse.

Tapping her cheek gently, she saw eyelids start to flutter open. "Baby are you alright, I didn't hurt you did I?"

"It was sooo peaceful there."

"Huh, where?"

"Where ever I was…nice and warm, quiet and al the little tinkling of bels." Xe had a dreamy look on her face as she described where she was.

"You passed out on me!" A huge grin formed on Brian's face, she was damn proud of herself for what she did. "Damn I'm good!" She placed a sloppy kiss on a shocked Xe's

lips and chuckled at her expression.

"I did not pass…on second thought I may have." She gave Brian a sheepish grin. "Damn you're good." She roled them over onto their sides and then she snuggled her face

against Brian's breasts. "Love you baby."

"Love you too stud." She ran her fingers through dark hair and grinned some more. "How come you bury your face in my tits?"

"Cuz their nice and soft." She mumbled and sighed.

"OK. Xe, I've been thinking about seling my apartment." She looked down as a dark head popped up and blue eyes looked at her.

"I was thinking the same thing about this place, how about if we sel both places and buy a house away from the city. There's this farm about 20 minutes from here for sale."

"You want to live on a farm?"

"We could raise fugly little dogs and maybe get a horse" The look on her face was like a little kid at Christmas.

"A horse, you want a horse?" She raised an eyebrow and for some strange reason could see her wife riding a horse across an open field with her dark hair streaming out

behind her. "You gonna get a tiny little Shetland pony that puls a cart for me and the kids?"

"Nah, I'l just stick you and the kids in the saddle bags." That got her a smack on top of her head.

"I'l remember that when it comes time to clean the stals."

@@@@@@@@@@

Xe was at her desk going over al the files that the other officers had dropped in her in box during the last couple of days that she hadn't been into the precinct. What she had

was a running list of people that knew Davidson but refused to say anything about the man or his bitch of a wife. Even people that had come out during the election and

opposed him, had nothing to say. That gave her a feeling that someone was shutting everyone up and she didn't like it one bit. Puling another folder open, she looked down at

the lab results from al the victims and the evidence reports. What interested her, was the fact that the hair found in the first car did not match any of the victims nor anyone who

was a friend or family member. The same hair was found at the other crime scene on one of the victims. The police had yet to identify the two men and were working on

sending out pictures to al the area police department's missing peoples units besides having the press help them by showing composite drawings on the news. The break that

Xe was waiting for was the business card that Brian had found stuck to the one victim's body. She had told Boggs about it and asked if they could bring Vance in for

questioning. His answer was no that the man had an iron clad alibi. He and his partner had been at the hospital visiting his mother on their lunchtime and were together the entire

time that the bodies would have been placed at the truck stop. What irritated her was that there had not been one witness to either of the crimes. She found it hard to believe

that no one saw anything. It was like the murderer was invisible.

Taking a sip of her coffee, she frowned when she realized that it was empty. Closing the folder, she pointed to Bear who was in her in box.

"Guard this and don't let anyone near my desk." Bear stood up, stretched and walked over to lie down on the folder. "Fugly, you guard my donut from Bear." The pup tilted her

head sideways and looked at her with blue eyes. "OK, just sit there. Can't believe I talk to them like I do." She mumbled on her way to the Juan Valdez crude container, the

coffee at the station was bad enough that the EPA had issued a buletin against pouring it down the drains and the health insurance carrier refused to pay for ulcer treatments.

Filing her cup with half milk the other half crude, she dumped in sugar and prayed that the spoon didn't deteriorate in her cup. Hearing a low growl and a yipping noise, she

turned and looked over to her desk to see Officer Vance standing there. Dropping the spoon on the coffee stand, she calmly walked up behind him.

"What can I help you with Vance?" She sat down in her chair and looked up at him with cold eyes.

"I wanted to talk to you about the case you're working on." He fidgeted with his hat and tried to make eye contact with her. "I know that you're looking at me as the prime

suspect."

"And how do you come to that conclusion?"

"It's happening al over again." He sighed and motioned to the chair beside him.

"Have a seat and tel me what your thoughts are." She was interested in what the young man had to say on behalf of himself.

"It started when I was in High school; a good friend of mine was murdered and hung from the one of the showers in the locker room. At first, they thought it was a suicide until

they saw that his hands had been bound behind his back and had bruises around his ankles. The coroner determined that he died from manual strangulation and not from being

hung." He paused to take a breath and looked into her eyes. "I was the last person to see him alive; they took me in for questioning but couldn't do anything because at the time

of death, I was playing footbal three counties away."

"What kind of footbal game was it?" Xe asked because he could have been just playing with a group of friends.

"I was the quarterback in the State conference game. Two more friends were kiled before the end of my senior year. Each one was worse than the last."

"When you got out of school did the murders end?"

"For a couple of months, I left home and went to California to attend USC on a footbal scholarship. After I was there for six months, my roommate was found lying on the

hood of my car with his intestines wrapped around it." His face paled and he took a hitched breath.

"Let me ask you something." She leaned forward in her chair and connected eyes with him. "Can you think of anyone who would want you to be blamed for these murders, is

there someone that has folowed you from your home town to California and now to here?"

"No ma'am, I don't have any friends. Who would want to take a chance on being my friend when they could end up dead?" He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm an only child, I

have no relatives except my Mom and she's in the hospital being treated for cancer."

"Hold on a minute and let me check something out." She placed Bear back in her in box and puled Vance's file and the one with the evidence report from the first crime out.

She scanned both files until she found what she was looking for. "What's your blood type?"

"B negative."

She nodded her head and then puled the file on Davidson; she had a hunch but didn't know if it would pan out or not. "Would you be wiling to give a blood and semen

sample?"

"Wil this help clear me of any suspicion?"

"Yeah, at least for two of the three cases." They had the semen from Davidson and a couple samples of blood not belonging to either of the first two victims. She believed that

the perp had accidentaly cut them selves on the spear while moving the bodies.

"I can give you a blood sample…" His face took on paleness. "But I can't give a semen sample."

She tried to make him feel comfortable. "Vance, no one wil be in the room when you give that sample."

"It's not that Ma'am…I don't have any testicles, they were removed when I was eighteen. I had testicular cancer and al I have now are artificial implants." He puled a wrinkled

business card from his pocket and handed it to her. "That's the cancer specialist that treated me; you can cal her if you want."

She leaned back in her chair and looked at him. "Can I ask you why you came to me?"

"I love being a cop; I don't want to loose my job because someone has a grudge against me. I want to help you, so you can clear me and get this person."

"This is what I want you to do." She handed him one of her cards. "I don't care what time of day or night it is, I want you to cal me if you see anyone folowing you during shift

or off duty. Take down descriptions of people around you; if you see the same person twice for no reason at al, we might be able to get to the bottom of this. Before I forget,

I need your mother's ful name and that's including maiden name.

"My mother was never married to my father, her name is Meredith Vance."

"OK, if I find out anything I'l get a hold of you. Watch your back Vance."

"Yes Ma'am and thanks."

Xe sat in her chair with thoughts running through her mind as to why he had waited so long to come to her. She was happy that she didn't have to fight Boggs about talking to

Vance but she knew he would be curious as to why no one had questioned Vance when he applied to the police academy about the murders during his years in both High

School and Colege.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Throwing her feet up on her desk, Brian leaned back in her chair and mumbled under her breath. She had caled three car dealerships and not found what she was looking for

in a vehicle. She wanted a 4x4 truck with the extra cab for the kids. So far, she had found zip, then, it jumped out at her under the used vehicle heading. A 1999 fire engine red

Chevy Tahoe, fuly loaded for on and off road driving. Taking up her phone, she caled the number and thought she had dialed wrong when the area fire chief answered. After

fifteen minutes, she hung up the phone, jumped from her desk and gave out a yel that had the ceiling tiles shaking.

"YES!" She screamed and punched a hand in the air. The fire chief had bought a newer model and was seling the red Tahoe for practicaly nothing. He had even offered to

come by the hospital to show it to her. Searching through her backpack, she puled out her keys and checkbook, slung her backpack over her shoulder and locked up her

office. She had just stepped out the back door when the Fire Chief puled up. A huge grin split her face when she looked over the Tahoe; it was exactly what she wanted.

"I'l take it! Can you run me by the bank and I'l get you the money?" An hour later, she was puling in the police parking lot and parking next to Xe's Crown Victoria. The

biggest thril of her life was hitting the button on the key chain and hearing the three beeps of the alarm system. "Al mine!" She ran gentle fingers across the hood and jogged to

the precinct doors.

@@@@@@@@@

"Don't you two move or eat my MM's." Xe pointed a finger at the dogs and narrowed an eye a Fugly. "I saw that little grin."

"Wanna see a bigger one?"

Without turning Xe remarked. "I'd rather see something else grin."

"Later, right now you'l have to settle for my pearly whites." The second Xe turned around; she found her arms ful of a grinning lunatic wife. "I got my truck!" She plastered

sloppy kisses al over Xe's face not caring who saw them. "I have my own lights and siren!"

"What no rifle rack?"

"On order, come on I'm buying lunch."

@@@@@@@@@@

They stood in the parking lot looking at Brian's Tahoe; Xe had to admit that she got a very good deal on the truck. Ten grand was theft as far as she was concerned. "You did

good baby." Xe wrapped an arm around Brian and kissed her temple. "You driving?"

"Yep, we're going to Ruby Tuesdays to celebrate my new truck. The administrator said that he'd buy me a coroner wagon, but I decided to pay for this out of my own money.

Once the insurance company cuts the check for my car, I'l be over what I spent on my truck." She grinned up at Xe. "When you catch the guy who blew my car up, I want to

shake his hand before you shoot him."

"You know Bri, you're strange." She hugged her tightly to her and kissed her gently. "One of the reasons I love you, now come on the kids are starving. Plus, we have to go to

a sign shop and see about getting the Fire Chief removed and what ever you want on the doors."

They got into the truck, put the dogs in the back seat and headed out of the parking lot; Xe knew that Brian's fingers were itching to hit the lights and siren on. She sat with one

hand on the ready to keep her from doing just that. "Don't even think about it Bri."

"What? I wasn't gonna do anything?" She cast an innocent look at Xe. "OK, so I wanted to hit the siren and stuff, meany won't let me scare anyone." She stuck her tongue out,

heard Xe groan, and saw her slid down further in the leather seat.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Their waitress shook her head and stumbled with the weight of the dish-covered tray, she had never seen two women eat so much in her life and then order food to go. She

would need hernia surgery before long if they kept eating. Dropping the tray onto the sculery table, she headed to the desert case and puled out two New York cream cheese

cakes and then a goblet of French vanila ice cream. She was tempted, to just push the display case over to their table and be done with it.

Brian was armed with two spoons in her hands and she was getting ready to start banging the utensils on the table like a Viking Warrior. The look on her face was that of a

crazed lunatic and her language was of a petulant child.

"Where's my food!" She chanted until Xe threw her napkin at her.

"Bri stop before they poison our food."

"Can't be any worse than my own cooking." She smirked and then shot her wife a briliant smile. "Ya know what I'd like to do?" She leaned forward and spoke in a seductive

voice. "I'd like to smear cheese cake al over you body and lick it off." A wiggle of brows and a chuckle came from her when Xe blushed.

"OK, ladies here's your desert. If you need anything just give a yel." The waitress said and then mumbled under her breath. "If you need shovels or a feeding trough I drag it

on out."

"I could use a spade!" Brian yeled to her and grinned when the woman's face turned red. "See if I leave her a tip." Taking part of her ice cream, she spooned it over one of

the pies and offered some to Xe. "Come on its good."

"Ahhh uuhh, it looks gross."

"Pussy." She waved the spoon in front of Xe. "Come on, try it."

Xe roled her eyes and opened her mouth, after swalowing; she took the rest of the ice cream and covered her cake. "I'm whipped, tied up and in deep shit."

"Why do ya say that?" Brian asked around a mouthful.

"Cuz I just realized that Boggs is right, I'm pussy whipped." She winked at a narrowed eyed Brian. "And loving it."

Just finishing off the deserts, Xe's phone vibrated against her hip. She looked at the number and sighed. "It's Boggs, can't be good." She flipped it open and closed her eyes.

"Salano."

"Get your asses out to Brian's house, one of the victims cars is parked in her driveway."

"What? You're kidding right?"

"Nope, now get you wives ass moving."

She clicked off her phone and gave Brian a look of utter confusion. "Ready to play with al those buttons in your car, there's a car in your driveway that they think belonged to

one of the last victims."

"What the Hel is the wack job doing, I mean why me?"

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Xe held on to the dashboard for dear life, her face was pale and sweat ran down from her temples. She now knew how Boggs felt when she was driving Hel bent to leather.

She prayed to every Goddess that she knew of that they would make it to Brian's house without an accident. When they slid sideways in front of the smal house, Xe fel from

the truck on shaky legs and pointed a shaky finger at a grinning Brian.

"You're giving me grey hair!"

"And you'l look good with it too." They walked to where the crime tape was blocking off her driveway and found Boggs talking to one of the neighbors that she had yet to

talk to.

"Boggs what's going on?" Brian asked the older man.

"About an hour ago, someone parked this car in the drive. Your neighbor noticed it when he was leaving for work, what clued him in that it didn't belong here is al the blood on

the trunk and bumper."

"Have any gloves and baggies in your car?" She asked after remembering that they didn't have Xe's car.

"Yep, I have everything you guys wil need. I tried to get the evidence crew out here but you guys are better than they are." He shrugged his shoulders and handed Brian his

keys.

Brian donned a pair of gloves and stuck evidence baggies in her back pocket. Looking through the window, she saw blood stains on the steering wheel, seat and window.

Gripping the door handle, she was just about to open it when she felt Xe come up behind her.

"Whatcha think Bri, does it take away from the neighborhood?" She looked over her wives shoulder and shuddered at the thought of the kiler parking the car in Brian's

driveway.

"Hope not, I was hoping to get a Queens ransom for my tiny ass apartment." She puled on the handle and heard a click too late, the explosion sent her back into Xe. They

were tossed a good twenty feet away. A blast of heat roled over them and pinned them where they lay, Xe could feel her clothes burning and roled both of them across the

grass and away from the inferno of heat. She got to her knees and looked down into Brian's slack face, picking her up; she stumbled to a safe distance before laying her down

in the grass. Placing her fingers to her wives neck, she felt her pulse beating.

"Baby wake up!" She screamed but couldn't hear her own voice. Green eyes fluttered open and smal hands pressed against Xe's cheeks.

"Are you alright?" Brian yeled at her.

"What the fuck happened?" Boggs dropped to his knees and wiped a trickle of blood from his cheek. "Why the Hel are you two screaming at each other?"

Xe cupped a hand to her ear and yeled. "I can't hear you!"

Boggs threw himself across both women as another explosion came from the car, when the debris stopped faling around them, he pushed himself back up and blushed.

"Did I squish you two?" He puled Xe up from the ground and waved a hand in front of her startled face. "Come on you two are going to the hospital." After fighting with both

women and feeling it in his back and shins, he dropped down in the seat of his car. "Damn why the Hel did I try and pick Xe up and put her in the ambulance or let Brian get

close enough to kick me?" He rubbed his sore shin and grimaced. "Fuck! Al the evidence is gone!" He looked to the charred remains of the car.

@@@@@@@@@@@@

"I don't give a flying fuck Boggs! I want the asshole who keeps trying to blow my wife up!" Xe paced the smal waiting room in the hospital; she refused to be seen by the ear

doctor and now was trying to cause Boggs to go deaf right along with her.

"Damn it Xepher stop your holering, I can hear just good…wel maybe not now but." He rubbed his ears and glared at her. "How are we supposed to find this person, is it the

one kiling al these people or some sick fuck who just wants to try and make you a widow?" He thought of what he just said to her and raised a hand to her. "Sorry Xe, you

know what I mean about the bombs."

"I know Boggs." She dropped down into a chair and let her head fal into her hands. "I want complete background checks on Vance, Edwards and Mrs. Davidson." She

looked up at him with a worried expression.

"Why those three?"

"Because, Edwards is a dick, Vance has prior experience with numerous murders and I can't stand rich bitches."

Boggs chuckled at her reasons, he had to hand it to her; she had a way with words. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, get a hold of that FBI Profiler. I want to know what made him think it was Vance kiling al his friends."

"HEY XE!" Brian yeled as she came from the examination room. "DOC SAYS IT"S JUST TEMPORARY!"

"I'm outta here before you two make me completely deaf and insane. I'l drop your kids off at your house and tel them to hide." He covered his ears to block out their

conversation. "Damn crazy women."

@@@@@@@@@@@@

Boggs left the precinct with his arms ful of folders, he didn't know how she did it but Xe was scaring the Hel outta him. Worse than she did with the body parts case, he had

the FBI run the backgrounds on the three people she wanted and checked on the profiler. What he had was going to make her one happy cop, now if he could survive being in

the same room with them both yeling at the tops of their lungs. Taking a few shortcuts to their house, he made it in less than fifteen minutes, now he knew how she got to work

so fast and without breaking any laws. It took him some fancy talking to get her out of al the disturbing the peace tickets from the last time she decided to break the law. Going

up to the door, he pounded and heard the dogs barking. Remembering the other times he caught them in the middle of something, he covered his eyes and walked in.

"Hey Xe I got something for you!"

"Wil it make me al hot and bothered?"

He took a chance and peeked between his fingers to find her standing in front of him with a huge grin on her face.

"Depends on if you get that way about work." He handed over the files and cringed when Brian came charging into the room in a robe.

"Just for you Boggs!" She went to whip the robe off and saw him cover his eyes. "For the love of the Goddess wil you look?"

"I'm afraid to, you know I'm an old man and seeing you naked might kil me."

"Boggs I'm not naked."

Taking her word for it, he uncovered his eyes and busted out laughing. "Where the Hel did you get those boxers?" She modeled her Deputy Dawg boxers for him and did a

little bow afterwards. "Hey wait a minute, you two aren't yeling."

"Walmart and it was only temporary, good thing too, the dogs hid al night long."

Xe pumped a hand in the air and let out a war cry that had Boggs dropping to the ground and the dogs running for the bedroom. "I knew there was something freaky about that

little fucker Edwards!" She handed Brian the file and sat down on the couch to look at the others.

"This says that he's not realy Thomas Edwards but Edward J. Chalms? How did you get this Boggs?"

"I had the FBI run his picture from the hospital employment records. Seems Mr. Chalms is not who he appears to be."

"You're teling me!" Brian chuckled then wondered what she was chuckling about. "He has a record longer than his dick…Hel that would be about one traffic ticket. Anyway,

he has at least 20 arrests here for everything under the sun."

"What I want to know is why no one has ever run his background? Or figured out that he never finished high school let alone went to colege." Xe handed another file to her

and started on the last one. "What I want to know is Vance told me that his mother never married his father but she put his fathers name on his birth certificate."

Brian snorted and waved the copy of his birth certificate at Boggs. "I'd say this right here is enough to bring him in for questioning. Wiliam J. Davidson, man did definitely got

around."

"Take a look at Chalms birth certificate." Boggs wiggled his eyebrows.

"Let's see…Ohhh this is good! Seems our number one bitch is his mother, but they have never claimed to having a son."

"I did not give birth to that freak of nature." Xe threw a pilow at her wife. "That would mean that I had to fuck a rat and I don't do rodents."

"Does that mean you do other animals? Sorry Xe but you left yourself wide open…," Boggs cringed when he received 'The Look.' "Uuhh forget I said anything."

"Son of a bitch!" Xe handed the file to Brian and pointed out one section to her.

"What the Hel? Is this like a family thing or something? Davidson is Edwards/Chalms mother and Vance's aunt. Did the councilman sleep with their mother to?"

Boggs shivered and rubbed his arms. "That I don't want to know."

"Can we get al three of them in to the precinct and play them against each other?"

"Al we have to do is the paper work." Boggs waved goodbye and headed out the door, he would get the bal roling and have al three suspects picked up and brought in. It

would realy get him in hot water but he had murders to solve and didn't give a shit.

@@@@@@@@@@@@

Brian and Xe were leaning against the headboard of their bed reading files. With the concentrated looks on their faces, they looked like bookends. Xe flipped through a file

and came to the last page; her left eyebrow buried itself in her bangs.

"Bri, do you carry your business card in your scrub pocket?"

"Baby." She turned to face and irradiated Xe. "My patients don't need a business card to cal me after I'm done to ask questions. If ya haven't noticed their al dead, so why

would I give them one?"

"Because the lab sent back this." She handed her the plastic enclosed business card.

"When we catch this fucker, I want to know where they had this made up." She handed it back. "Nice style and easy to read, to bad the dumbass put the wrong middle initial

on it." She leaned over and pointed to the F. "My initial is a D."

"What's the D. stand for?" Xe knew she would have to beg and plead; she had tried numerous times before to get her wives middle name out of her and had never succeeded.

"Come on baby it's important."

"Xe it's just D. no other letters behind it, I had it changed years ago because I didn't like it."

Roling onto her side, Xe buried her face in her wives breasts and sighed. It was a losing battle and she didn't have the energy to fight. "OK."

Brian roled her eyes, she was hoping for the pleading begging thing that was so unlike her bossy lover. "OK it was De De, and if you ever repeat it I'l deny the entire thing and

cut you off for a month."

"EWWW!" Was vibrated against her breasts. "Thought Alanda was bad." She raised her head to look at the shocked expression on Brian's face.

"Alanda? Why in the Hel would your parents…same reason mine named me Brianna De De. So we need to find out what the F…ohh my Gods!" She jumped from the bed

and rummaged through her backpack. Finding what she was looking for, she handed a business card to Xe.

She took one look at the card, jumped from their bed and yeled over her shoulder. "I gotta cal Boggs!" A half-hour later, she came charging back into the room and found

Brian dressed. "You scare me sometimes, let me get dressed and we'l get out of here." She roled her eyes when Brian held up some clothes for her. "Wack job."

@@@@@@@@@@@

Xe went into the computer files and found where Dr. Patricia Franks was listed as the Psychiatrist for the Cleveland PD. Until she had quit, she was now consulting for the FBI

in Quantico Va. "Assisting the profilers?" Xe looked around her office for Brian. "Helooo did ya hear me? Guess not." She shrugged her shoulders and went back into the files

to trace al known areas where Edwards/Chalms had lived. What she was doing was ilegal but she realy didn't care if she was infringing on peoples lives. Two hours later, she

had an entire list of places he had lived along with his juvenile record. It was enough to have him brought in and held for suspicion of car bombing.

"Hey Xe I've got our paperwork, lets go bust some assholes!" Brian waved the papers at her and ran for the door.

@@@@@@@@@@@

Brian sat in the passenger seat of the Crown Victoria looking over the arrest warrant for Edward Chalms. Boggs had arranged for two cruisers to pick up Mrs. Davidson and

Officer Vance. She had offered to have Xe arrest Chalms because she wanted to see his face when his world fel around his ankles.

"Ya could have waited on me, I'm not as young as I used to be and chasing after you…"

"Xe after what we did al last night, do you realy think that I would even believe two words of what you just said?"

Xe ran a hand across her jaw and smirked. "Noooo, but I had to try. Where we going first?"

A huge grin split Brian's face, her nose wrinkled at the sides giving her a mischievous look. "Were gonna bust Chalms!" Xe dropped down into the seat beside her and gave her

the eyebrow.

"We?"

"Yep, you don't think I'd miss this do ya, after al I had to put up with that asshole."

"Under one condition, don't shoot at him until I'm out of the way."

"How do you know I'm packing?"

"Brian, you sat at my desk and spun the cylinder on your .38 until I thought you wore it out."

Brian said just one word "Ooohh." And then hit the lights and sirens on. She and Xe fought over the buttons and switches al the way to the smal apartment building where

Chalms lived.

@@@@@@@@

The apartment building that Chalms lived in was in the poor section of Frederick. Junky cars lined both sides of the littered cluttered streets, garbage cans sat over flowing at

the curbs with rodents and stray dogs and cats fighting over scraps of food. Filthy children played in the aleyways with the occasional passed out drunk of drug addict. To

make the area even more appealing for someone to consider it a place to cal home, were the drug dealers standing on the sidewalk advertising what they had to sel. The area

was known for its reputation of being filed to the brim with cop kilers, a cop would rather loose his job than make a cal to this part of town. Xe flipped a switch under her

seat that disabled the ignition from working, checked her weapons and made sure that Brian was ready before she opened her door.

Brian stuck to Xe's side like glue, it wasn't that she was afraid of where they were, it was Xe's wraith she didn't want to play with. "Baby can we buy a house in this

neighborhood?"

"Only if you run the serpentine wire and walk a twelve hour shift of guard duty." Xe rubbed at her burning eyes, the stench of urine in the halway was kiling her. If she had

known it was this bad, she would have worn a bio suit. "How can these people live like this?"

"I have no idea but I think we should cal in a missile strike when we leave, have the entire place flattened and turn it into a state park." They went up the stairs and down the

halway looking for apartment five. The sight of the door made them stop in their tracks. The framework was chewed up and the doorknob was lying on the floor.

"Shit, we would have a BE to complicate things." Xe puled her phone from her belt and caled in to the precinct to Boggs. She wanted him to know of everything they were

doing to protect themselves from getting screwed out of a conviction if they found evidence in the apartment. After hanging up, she motioned for Brian to get on the other side

of the door and wait. Puling her revolver, she held it at shoulder height and with the other hand, she reached low on the door and eased it open. Listening for sounds coming

from within, she heard nothing but the purr and rattle of the refrigerator. Motioning for Brian to stay, she swept the living room/kitchen with her eyes before going down the

short halway where she thought the bedroom and bathroom would be. She was no sooner down the halway than the over powering stench of decomposing flesh hit her like a

brick wal.

"Mother fuck." She mumbled and covered her mouth and nose with her hand. Easing down the halway, she looked into the smal bath and saw nothing. The only place left was

the bedroom and she knew without opening the closed door what she would find.

"Son of a bitch!" She mumbled and closed the door. "Brian I need you!"

Brian peeked into the room and cussed a blue streak. "Just fucking great! I wanted to see you bust his ass now I'm gonna have to…Oohhh boy!" A wicked grin crossed her

features. "Think the family wil notice if I cut his bals off?" She looked to her wife.

"Bri take a closer look, someone as sick as you are already did that."

After going back down to the car, getting their gear and caling Boggs to have him send out a couple units and the meat wagon. They went back in to the bedroom to start

colecting evidence. The late Edward Chalms had a little bit more trouble than usual when he shaved his legs. That was one thing that grossed out both women and made them

a little envious.

"Damn freak, look how smooth he shaved around his knee caps." Brian ran a gloved finger over the area. "Not one single nick on his legs and here we practicaly need to cal

911 when we shave our legs." She looked further up between his legs and chuckled. "I can see why whoever didn't cut his dick off with his bals, they couldn't FIND IT!" She

pointed to the tiny flaccid member. "He was a real stud!"

"Brian you are the sickest person I know, here I thought I was bad but you've got me beat by a long shot." She looked closely at where his hands were tied to the bedposts

and grunted. "How in the Hel are we gonna get him moved without damaging evidence?"

Brian leaned over her shoulder and handed her the camera. "Take a couple shots and don't worry about it. The knots are the same as the other murder. Although this is a little

more gruesome." The murderer had gutted Chalms and used his intestines to tie his hands and feet to the bed. Brian could tel that he had stil been alive when his testicles were

cut off from the spay patterns on the wal. The arcs started up high and lowered as his heart slowed. Guessing, she figured that was when his gut was opened and he was tied

to the bed. She would know more once they got him back to the morgue and she was able to do a preliminary to establish the pattern of death. She was thinking that maybe

he had been knocked out and then kiled. It would fit with one of the other murders.

"This realy sucks Xe, I was hoping that he was the one kiling everyone but now."

"I know, we only have two suspects left. Let me cal Boggs and…," At that moment her phone vibrated against her hip, she flipped it open and barked into it.

"Salano!"

"Damn it Xe do you have to break my ear drums?"

"Sorry Boggs, whatcha got for me?"

"I have Mrs. Davidson in an interrogation room and Vance has been at the hospital since last night. I need a guess at the time of death on Chalms."

"Hold on and I'l put Bri on." She handed the phone to Brian and finished with bagging the hands and feet.

"I would guess at about eight hours of so, I can't take a liver or rectal temperature because he was gutted and that would cause the body to cool faster than normal." Roling

Chalms to his side, she looked for levidity and got back to Boggs. From what I see right now, it's a good guess, no rigor has set in yet and the bruising isn't deep. Why did you

need this?"

"Because our other suspect just got a clean bil on an alibi, Officer Vance has been at the hospital since before shift end yesterday. His mother took a turn for the worst and he

hasn't left her bedside since. I have al the nurses and doctors to back it up. That leaves…"

"The widow bitch."

"Exactly, she has no alibi for the last two days except for herself. We've got her in a room and she's cooling her nasty mouth off."

"OK, as soon as the meat wagon gets here and I get a better look at Chalms I'l know more." She hung up and handed the phone back to Xe. "This realy sucks the big one,

this would have been my first bust."

Xe puled off a glove and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Baby we have a big problem." She handed over another business card that she had found under Chalms head. "We

need to find your ex and soon."

@@@@@@@@@

Xe paced in front of the widow Davidson, she knew the caged animal act wore on suspects nerves, especialy if she stopped and then jumped at them. More than one guy had

pissed himself with her doing that. The cleaners weren't too happy and neither was the officer who had to take the person down to lock up but it gave her a cheap thril.

"Ooohh come on! You can do better than that!" She leaned over the table and glared at Mrs. Davidson. "Your baby boy was gutted, his nuts cut off and shoved in his mouth

and al you can say is 'I don't know why someone would not like him?' He was a prick! He tried to blow up my wife not once but twice! When the first time didn't work, he

parked the car that someone was murdered in, in her driveway and rigged it to blow!"

"Edward was only responsible for the first one, I told him to leave Dr. Meadows alone. He didn't do the second bombing."

"Am I supposed to believe that? He had a record for being arrested for making bombs, arson, aggravated assault, assault and battery with a deadly weapon, stalking and so

many other things that I can't remember al of them. And you're going to sit there and say he didn't do it? Get real lady, your son was a nut case and should have been put away

years ago. But because of your husbands influence, al Edward ever did was a little bit of community service and pay a fine or two." She went back to pacing behind the

women and mumbled and growled under her breath. "Fucking rich assholes don't have to abide by laws!" Tossing the spare chair across the room, Xe started yeling close to

Davidson's ear. "Guess who just became the number one suspect in his murder? And if I can, I'm going to pin al the murders on you, because we found a notebook in

Edwards's apartment." They didn't but she would try anything to get the woman to talk. "Interesting reading it is and right now it's with the district attorney and she's writing up

al kinds of papers to make sure you hang! How's that for retribution for being a bad mother?" Xe looked up when the door opened and saw Boggs motion for her to come

out.

"Xe, get over to the morgue right now. Brian found skin under his fingernails and a couple strands of hair that is neither his, Vance's nor Davidson's."

"Shit! Who the Hel can it be if not one of the remaining two? Wait, I found another business card. It might be Brian's ex doing al this, we need to find a Dr. Patricia Franks.

She's working for the FBI in Quantico."

"I'l cal out there and see if they know where she lives, we can pul her in and question her."

Xe shook her head no. "Just find out where she's been for the last twelve hours or so. The woman is deranged but I can't see her doing something like this. Plus I don't want

her anywhere near Brian. She tried to kil her once and I don't want to risk her life." Xe ran her fingers through her hair and sighed, there were so many thoughts running

through her mind at that moment that she couldn't think clearly. "Boggs, I think the widow bitch knows something."

"Leave it to me." He gave her a puppy dog look. "Time for the good cop to play with the mouse."

@@@@@@@@@

When Xe walked into the autopsy room, she saw that Brian had tears running down her cheeks. Going over to Brian, she puled the face shield off and puled her into her arms

and held her tight. Caressing the nape of her neck with calused fingertips, she heard a low growl at the back of her throat.

"Why are you crying?" She asked in a low soothing voice.

"I wasn't realy crying." She puled back and looked into concerned blue eyes with tear filed green. "I've been laughing my ass off for the past hour. My stomach is kiling me

and I almost pissed myself."

Xe's brows drew down over her nose, she was hoping that her wife wasn't loosing her mind from al the stress she was under.

"Why?"

"Because, when I started to do the exploratory on asshole there, I found some things that are so bizarre that I thought they were hilarious." She took Xe by her hand and led

her over to Chalms. "OK, now look real close at the genital area, especialy the tiny little dick."

"I realy don't want to look at his dick, I hate dicks, there the reason the world sucks."

"Humor me Xe and you'l see why I was laughing so hard."

"If I'm not amused, Bear sleeps on my side of the bed."

"Deal. Now look and tel me what you see." She tilted the overhead lamp down so that Xe could see better.

Pale blue eyes widened and shoot up to catch green. "Tel me that's not a vagina."

"OK, it's a weird looking snatch. Look some more."

"Eeeeww Baby this is gross!" She wrinkled her forehead and went back to looking. "What the fuck is that?" She pointed to what could pass as a penis."

"Something that the other guys would laugh at. Seems to me that Edward could also have been caled Edwina."

"A hermaphrodite?"

"You got it baby, It looks like at one time the doctors tried to do a sex change but stopped and then years later it was tried again but going in the opposite direction. Edward

wanted to be Edwina."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

"I'm sorry if Lt. Salano was a little rough with you." Boggs said in his most regretful voice. "She gets real testy when someone tries to kil her wife."

Mrs. Davidson narrowed her eyes at him and snarled. "Those kind should al be kiled, they are unnatural."

Boggs narrowed his own eyes, his face took on a light redness from anger. "Those two women have never hurt anyone by them loving each other."

"Would you think that way if one of your own children was like them?"

Boggs leaned forward towards her and held her eyes. "I love those two women as if they were my children, so no, it would not bother me and I would treat them no different

than anyone else. Why do you have a problem with Gays and Lesbians, was that what Edward was?"

"I wil not discuss my son with you or anyone else." She sat back in chair and examined her fingernails.

"Ohh I see now, Edward was gay and that's why he was never mentioned at al."

"It wasn't because of that, he was always in trouble. Right up until he was kiled." She took a deep breath. "My husband always treated Edward like a freak of nature and

swore up and down that he was not his. Red headed stepchild had nothing on the way Wiliam treated him. When he turned six, he was sent to boarding school after boarding

school. He would last maybe three or four months and be kicked out."

"At the age of six he was thrown out of school?" Boggs rubbed his chin and shook his head; he had lived through the terrible twos with his daughters but never had a problem

after that. He had a hard time believing what she was saying.

"Captain, Edward was born a hermaphrodite. When he was a baby, the doctors tried to make him a male but the surgery was botched. He did not look like a normal boy.

Back then, they did not do the hormone testing that they do now. Later, he went to other doctors and tried to become a female but once again, the surgery was a failure."

"As I understand it, they have excelent doctors that do those procedures. Couldn't he have sued for malpractice?"

"Captain, Edward was cut off from his family. He went to quacks because that was al he could afford. To get money, he did al sorts of ilegal things not to mention he worked

at jobs that he was nowhere qualified to do."

"So you're saying that the reason he tried to kil Dr. Meadows was because he was a hermaphrodite?"

"He wanted her job."

Boggs knew that was only part of the reason and suspected that he and Mrs. Davidson had something to do with Mr. Davidson's death along with the others. "I know that he

tried to discredit her job performance and failed. Now tel me about Officer Vance, what is it with him?" He watched as her face paled and her hands twitched on the tabletop.

"He's my nephew and Wiliam's ilegitimate son; Wiliam slept with my sister before we were married."

"Would he kil your husband?"

"I don't know, I don't realy know the man. It's been over twenty years since I spoke to my sister."

"Then I think you should know that she's in the hospital dieing of cancer."

He watched tears form in her eyes, before she lost her composure; he helped her from the seat and to the door. "Mrs. Davidson, don't leave the area, we may need more

information and thank you for answering my questions."

@@@@@@@@@

Xe sat at Brian's desk going over the coroners reports from the other victims, she knew it had to be the same person responsible for al of them but she couldn't figure out

where or if Wiliam Davidson fit into the picture. She knew from Brian, that Vance could not have been the one that had left semen behind as evidence and neither could

Chalms. What she needed were al the personal effects from Chalms apartment, her gut was teling her that he was involved in the whole scheme some how.

"Brian, I need to go back to Chalms apartment and look through al his papers and shit." She leaned back in the chair when she felt Brian step behind her. Resting her head on

her wives chest, she groaned when strong fingers dug into the tight muscles of her shoulders.

"He's involved in this some how huh?" She asked as she ran her thumbs against the base of Xe's neck and caused her to drop her head forward. "If we find woman's clothes in

his closet, I'm taking them to his bitch of a mother."

"OK, just hope that's the weirdest thing we find. Who knows maybe he had a strap on for when he was trying to be a man." She tilted her head back so that she could look

into Brian's eyes. "What did the lab results say about the semen found in Davidson?"

"Not much, the person was a non-secretor. Just like milions of males, I sent off the fingernail scrapings with an urgent on them, hopefuly they'l get it back to us with a DNA

typing and Blood type in the next couple of days." She gave Xe a sneaky looking grin. "I put your name down as the contact and put a note on the bottom of the forms that

you'd kick ass if they didn't get them back ASAP."

"Like that's going to make them rush? Those people hate me." She pouted and yelped when her ear was twitched.

"I also put down my name hyphenated, if that doesn't get them, I wil."

@@@@@@@@

Mrs. Davidson sat in her smal parlor and waited for the phone to be answered on the other end. She had tried getting a hold of both her daughters earlier that day but reached

their answering machines. Even though neither one of them realy knew Edward, they were family and should know of his murder. In less than a month, she had lost her

husband and her son. It couldn't get any worse, if it did she didn't know what she would do.

"Helo, Christine is that you?"

"Yes mother, what can I do for you?"

"It's Edward, he was found murdered in his apartment. I would like for you and your sister to come home for a week or so."

"I'll try but I have class and I don't know if my boss will give me the time off."

"Christine, he was your brother whether you liked him or not. Please do this for me."

"I'll try. Do you want me to get a hold of Cissy?"

"Yes, I've caled three times today and I haven't been able to reach her. I've planned Edwards funeral to be this Wednesday, can you both make it then?"

"Yes mother, as for the rest of the week I'll let you know then. I have to run, I'll talk to you later."

Mrs. Davidson was proud of her daughters, both were in colege in Boston and majoring in Medicine. She couldn't figure out where she had gone wrong where it came to

Edward, maybe if she would have stood up to her husband things would have turned out differently. She knew that Wiliam was a good father to the girls and would do

anything he could for his favorite Cissy. They were so much alike that it would seem that they were twins. Where Christian was dark and brooding like her, Cissy was fair with

shinning green eyes and long wavy blonde hair. She was the complete opposite of her brother and sister. A bit flighty at times but she was a fun person to be around and had

many friends, where Christine was a loner and preferred her studies to dating.

@@@@@@@

Xe searched through the numerous boxes of papers and notebooks that she had found stashed in a closet in the smal bedroom that was Chalms. Nothing so far had jumped

out at her and was becoming boring. She had never liked this part of an investigation, she preferred to let the uniforms or one of the other detectives, do this part. She was

more in to the adding up the facts from questioning suspects, friends, family and acquaintances of the victims. She was nowhere near being a people person but she was good

at reading people. Right now she was reading something very erotic in the way Brian was kneeling in front of her. They had left right from the hospital and Brian had not

changed from her surgical scrubs. She was glad that no one else worked with her because she would have to shot them.

"Baby where's your bra?"

Twinkling green eyes and a smal wicked smile sent shivers down her spine. Xe knew she shouldn't have asked because she knew she would get a smart-ass answer.

"Same place yours is, lost in the heat of the moment." She handed over a picture and pointed to two young women in it. "They al look related some how, doesn't the bitch

have daughters?"

Xe looked at the two young women standing on either side of a smiling Edward Chalms.

"I think these are his sisters, from what Boggs got from the bitch, they didn't like Edward." She handed back the picture. "I'd say that was a lie, they look awful damn happy to

be with him in that picture." Brian flipped it over and noticed that it was only two months old.

"I think he probably got along better with them than his parents. Maybe you can have them checked out, see where they are." She sorted through more pictures and gave out a

yel that had Xe jumping. "Look at this one!" She waved the picture in front of Xe until her wrist was grabbed to hold the picture stil.

"HE was our catholic school girl? Son of a bitch! So he was involved some how with his father's death." She looked closer at the picture and grinned. "I don't think his father

knew who he was, he looks completely different dressed like a women. To bad the councilman is dead, I would love to…,"

"Tel him he was fucking a man that just so happened to be his son?"

"Evil minds think a like. Come on baby lets get out of here, I feel…nasty." She wiped her hands on her thighs and stood up but not without looking down Brian's scrub shirt

again. "Realy nasty!" She lifted a corner of her mouth and winked.

"Soooo ya gonna dress like a catholic school girl for me?" Brian wiggled her brows and laughed at the sick expression on Xe's face. "OK, I'l settle for grape jely and peanut

butter."

"Huh? What are you…Ooohh, you're kinky Bri."

@@@@@@@@@

The day of Edwards funeral brought out a different side of Lt. Salano and Dr. Meadows. The entire way to the funeral home, Brian sat facing Xe and just stared at her. Her

chanting of "Mine al MINE!" was getting on Xe's last gay nerve and at any second she would gag her until they reached their destination. "What is wrong with you today?"

"Mine alll mine!!! Eat your hearts out boys!" She licked her lips as her eyes traveled over every inch of her wives black Armani suit covered body. "You need to dress like this

more often." She ran a finger over the black suit sleeve from wrist to shoulder. "Or a black tux!" She grabbed at her heart and fel over in the seat.

"Come on BD before Boggs kicks my ass."

Brian shot her a quizzical look. "BD?"

"Yeah, stands for what you are today, Brain dead." She gave Brian the once over and smirked. "You need to dress like that more often." She took in the dark gray suit jacket,

trousers and pale blue dress shirt. "Gilian Anderson has nothing on you baby."

"I know." She took Xe's hand and walked beside her into the funeral home that was lucky if it had a dozen people in the place. "He had a lot of friends didn't he?"

"Screws up our blending in thing that's for sure." They took seats as far away from the other people as possible. Xe's eyes scanned the room for the two woman in the picture

and finaly found them in a far corner on the opposite side of the room from their mother. "That's just too weird, talk about a dysfunctional family."

After the service, Brian and Xe made it out of the funeral home before the others, they wanted to get to the cemetery and be someplace that they could observe without being

obvious. It was a chance but, sometimes the murderer showed at the funerals for kicks. Standing a distance off, they watched as the two sisters stood opposite of their mother.

One would think that a mother and her daughters would be closer in a time of mourning. Not this family, they made the Adams Family look normal. Once the casket was

lowered into the ground and everybody left, Brian and Xe hung around for another half hour to see if anyone showed up. Just the grave keeper came by to rake the fresh dirt

over the grave.

"You know Xe, this is kinda sad." She looked out to where Edward now rested. "He realy didn't have anyone in his life. Granted he was a sick bastard but even Manson had

friends."

@@@@@@@@

Brian had gone in to the hospital to take care of some autopsies that needed to be done before the next day. She left with Xe working at her desk trying to figure out how al

the pieces of the puzzle fit in and who their murderer could be. Xe knew that there was no way that Mrs. Davidson could have kiled the other people. Her stature alone

proved that, she would be lucky to be able to pick up a five-pound bag of sugar let alone a dead body weighing over 180 pounds. Edward would be able to but with some

trouble, Vance would have no trouble at al, his body was of someone who worked out regularly at the gym, the only problem was that he had his partner as an alibi. She

would under normal circumstances think that the partner was covering for him. But she knew his partner and had rode with the twenty plus career cop. There was no way he

would cover for Vance no matter what. She had gone over the recent lab results on the evidence colected and noted that the hair found at one of the sights matched the DNA

of Chalms, the only problem was how the scene was set up. It would take a very strong man to hold a body upside down and tie it to a tree. It kept bouncing back and forth

to Vance.

"I need a break. Bear, Fugly wanna go for a walk?" She heard the sound of nails on the tile floor coming towards her.

@@@@@@@@@

Brian felt the air move around her, she looked back over her shoulder to see one of Edwards sisters standing in the doorway of her office. Closing the file she had been

working on she turned in her chair to address the young woman.

"Can I help you?"

"Are you Dr. Meadows?"

"Yeah I am." Brian replied while getting to her feet.

"I'm Christian Davidson, Edwards sister." She held out a large hand to Brian but did not move any closer to her. "You were his boss weren't you?"

"Yes I was, for a few weeks. Is there something I can do for you?"

The woman looked around the place she was and shivered. "Can we go someplace else to talk, I realy don't like being down here."

"It's not the dead that can hurt you, it's the living but I understand." She motioned to the door leading out to the docks. "We can go outside, I have a couple of chairs on the

dock."

"That's fine, I wanted to come and see you to…I want to know about my brother."

Brian opened the door and pointed to one of the chairs she had bought for her and Xe to sit in while they were at the hospital.

"I didn't know him at al, we saw very little of each other and then the administrator fired him."

Christine brushed her shoulder length dark hair back from her face and neck, her dark eyes looked down at the ground between her feet. Glancing back up at Brian for a

minute, she cleared her throat before speaking. "Edward was always looking for the easy way, shortcuts, you name it. When I would see him he would tel me of some scheme

he worked up to get a head in life. It very rarely worked, he falsified documents about his colege degrees. Edward never finished high school let alone attended any colege."

"Miss. Davidson, why was he doing al of this? I know about his sexual problems and the cost of surgery but why lie about so many things?"

"It was Edwards way of getting back at the rest of the family, he wanted to crash the high and mighty Wiliam Davidson's social reputation. He figured that if he got in enough

trouble, our father would have to acknowledge him."

"But it did the opposite didn't it, your father just turned a blind eye and continued as if he had no son." Brian leaned back in the chair and watched the shocked expression on

the young woman's face. "Can you tel me if Edward would have posed as a woman to embarrass your father…maybe have pictures taken and used as blackmail or some

other angle?"

Christine's face paled, her words came slowly as if to keep from stuttering. "Edward didn't know what sex he wanted to be, he dressed as a woman when he went out to bars.

As far as setting up my father, I never thought of it until I was told how he was found dead in a motel room under unusual circumstances. I know that Edward could not have

kiled anyone, he was strange but he had problems with death it's self."

"Why did he want to be the chief medical examiner or even work around dead people if that's how he felt?" Brian was confused, there had to be some other reason he had

tried so hard to ruin her career.

"It wasn't the job, it was being in a hospital where he could make contacts with doctors."

"I see, he wanted free consultation and maybe a surgery or two. Getting off topic here for a second, Edward and your father were customers of a nightclub that specializes in

kinky sex and other things. We were told by an employee that Edward was always seen with an older woman." She leaned forward in her chair and held the dark brown eyes

without blinking. "Did he have any female friends that you knew of or do you know who could have gone with him?"

Christine sighed and rubbed at her temples, she nodded her head yes. "He went with our mother, she was trying to teach him how to be a female." She looked unflinchingly at

Brian. "I think my mothers crazy, I think she had something to do with our fathers death."

"Why do you say that?" Brian was on a rol, Xe would jump for joy if she got some information on the rich bitch.

"My mother and father had one of those marriages that was for public only. They slept in separate bedrooms in different parts of the house. It was almost like they were

housemates, they were civil with each other but that was al. I often wondered why they had any of us kids to begin with."

"Is there only you and your sister left?" She watched a spark cut across the dark eyes.

"Yes, Cissy lives a couple of minutes away from me in Boston. Cissy is a…slut to put it bluntly. The typical loose female colege student that is the center of every Frat party or

has been known to have slept with the entire sports team roster. She pushed up the sleeves of her sweatshirt and watched as Brian's green eyes grew intense. She lifted her left

arm and indicated the scratches. "I teach a class on self defense at the colege, one of my students refuses to trim her nails so I suffer frequently from scratches and bruises."

Brian noticed the inflamed redness around them and became a little worried for the woman.

"Have you had that looked at, it looks like it's infected." Her green eyes continued to examine the area. "Would you mind if I take a look?"

"No go a head, I'd forgotten about them actualy." She held out her arm for Brian and winced when she felt tender fingers probe around the area.

"Does this woman have a filthy job or is around a lot of bacterial agents?" She was worried because it looked like a staff infection and could cause other problems if not

treated properly.

"Ohh shit! She works at a pet store near campus. Should I go in to the ER and get a prescription or something?"

"I can take care of that for you, just give me a minute and I'l be right back." Brian went back into her office and puled one of her prescription pads from her desk drawer, she

would tel Xe what she had seen and have her do a back ground on Christine Davidson. It was funny that the woman would come to see her and then to have defensive

scratches on her arm. She just placed the woman on her list as most likely to have kiled Edward. Returning to Christine, she handed her a prescription for a strong antibiotic

cream and Tetracycline pils. If that didn't kil what ever she had only amputation would.

Christine looked at the script and arched an eyebrow. "How many medical degrees do you have?"

"Just five." She grinned. "I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I knew it was a field in medicine."

"Excuse me for saying this but you don't look old enough to have even passed your internship."

"I guess taking colege courses when I was stil in grade school paid off in the end." Brian handed her one of Xe's business cards. "If you think of anything or just want to talk,

cal that number on the bottom. It's my wife's cel phone but she can get a hold of me." She noticed the funny look on Christine's face. "Does it bother you that I'm married to a

woman?"

"Ohh no not at al its just that not many people would address their partner like you did. I have no problem with same sex relationships and no one else should either." She held

out her hand to Brian. "Thank you Dr. Meadows, if I think of anything I'l give you a cal. I have to run, I'm meeting my mother for an early dinner." She searched through her

pockets until she found a smal leather carrying case. "Here's one of my cards in case you need to ask any more questions, thanks again." She gave Brian a smal smile and

jumped down from the dock to jog around the side of the building.

"Ohh boy Xe are we ever in some deep shit." She mumbled and then looked at the business card before sticking it into her pocket.

@@@@@@@

The dogs ran around the open field back behind Xe and Brian's house, it wasn't often that they were outside of the fenced in yard and now they thought they were in heaven.

Xe sat in the grass under a smal tree watching them chase butterflies and grasshoppers, poor Fugly, being so smal, she kept tripping over the grass or Bear would run her over

as she chased after something. Their little barks and growls were carried on the breeze back to the house where Brian was just getting out of her truck. A smirk covered her

mouth when she realized that Xe was playing with their kids out back. She looked into the back yard and saw nothing, confused, she looked around until she saw a cinnamon

colored fuzz bal jump up and charge towards her. Brian heard Xe yeling at her to get her little hairy ass back where she's supposed to be. Of course Bear was just like her

other mother and never listened. Clapping her hands, Brian urged the little dog on until Bear jumped into her arms.

"Let's go terrorize your Ma, she deserves it for skipping out of work today."

Placing Bear back down, she jogged towards where she had come from and found Xe chasing Fugly around the field.

"Come back here you ugly dog!" Xe yeled and made a tackling dive at Fugly. "Rotten little shit!" She lay on her stomach in the grass, and watched as Fugly stopped dead two

feet away and laid down to look at her on the same level. "Bad ass!" Brian couldn't pass up the chance to get one over on Xe, she quietly stepped behind her and fel forward

to land on top of her wife.

"Yes I am and there ain't a damn thing you can do about it."

"I know that Baby, but can you do something about our rotten kids?" She pointed a finger at Fugly and growled. "Especialy that one!"

"I'd rather do something with you but first I have this." She puled the business card from her pocket and held it in front of Xe's eyes. "I had a nice talk with Christine Davidson

at work today." She told Xe everything that she had heard from the younger woman, and told her about the infected scratches on her forearm. "She says she teaches a self

defense class and that's where she got them."

"Let me see that card." Xe looked it over and swore under her breath. "It's the same type of card that we found on the bodies." She pointed to a smal symbol in the lower left

hand corner.

"Ooohh shit! She could be the murderer."

"If she does teach self defense then she knows how to render someone unconscious quickly. I'l get on the computer and see what I can find out about her and her sister. If I

wait for the other detectives to run it, it might be too late."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

"Son of a bitch, she's mother Teresa! She doesn't even have bad credit!" Xe was getting frustrated with every passing second. She had puled up everything she could find On

Christine Davidson and came up with nothing. The young woman was on a ful scholarship to Harvard, on the Deans list for the past three years and seemed not to have a life

at al except for school.

Brain was leaning on Xe's shoulder and looking at the screen with her. "Baby how about her sister, see if she's at the same school. She said her name was Cissy." Xe went into

the search area and typed in the name, after a few moments it came up with nothing. She typed in every way possible that it could be speled and stil found nothing. Even just

putting in the last name only came up with half a dozen people and none of them was Cissy.

"Only one thing to do and that's to go to the bitches house and talk to her." Xe tilted her head back and rubbed her cheek against Brian's. "We don't realy have enough

evidence to bring her in but she might give away something if I trip her up."

"OK, let's go then before she skips out on us." Just before they were to go out the door, the phone rang. Brian looked to see Xe plugging her ears with her fingers. Roling her

eyes at her, she grabbed the phone and barked into it.

"I play with dead things!" A male voice hesitated on the other end for a second.

"I…uhhmm…I thought this was…Lt. Salano's number."

"It is this is Dr. Meadows can I help you?" She swayed her head to the side for Xe to come over to her.

"This is Officer Vance; I realy need to speak with her, its urgent!" He sounded very worried to Brian so she held out the phone to Xe.

"It's Vance."

Xe's brow shot up to her hairline, he was the last person she thought she would hear from that day. "Vance this is Salano what do you need?"

"Ma'am, I realy need to speak to you in person. I'm at the hospital down in the part that they don't use anymore. I think the boiler room is near by."

"We'l be there in twenty minutes or so."

"Please hurry!" Were his last words before the sound of a loud click and then the dial tone.

"Bri do you know where the old part of the building is that they don't use anymore?"

"Yeah it's down at the end of my halway, the doors always locked so I've never been in that section. Why?"

"Because that's where Vance is." A pensive expression came over her face. "He didn't sound right to me, like he was scared or something."

"Wouldn't you be if you were in an abandoned part of the hospital? What I want to know is why he's there?"

"Me too, time to vest up and hope he just wants to confess to murder and not commit two more."

@@@@@@@@@@@

Vance had sweat pouring off his face to drip down the sides and land on the old gurney that he had been strapped down on. His shirt was torn open and a gleaming surgical

bread knife hovered over his abdomen.

"Very good pretty boy but I lied when I said I wouldn't gut you." The voice was wispy as it traveled through the dark mask covered face. Vance had no idea who it was

besides the person who had been trying to send him to prison for most of his life. "You have some kind of guardian angel on your shoulder; I've tried getting rid of you for

years now." The blade lowered and just gently touched the skin beneath his nipple. He let out a forced breath when he felt the burning of his skin parting beneath its razor edge.

He felt his blood flow down his side and soak into the dirty sheet beneath him. "If you had only paid attention to me al those years ago, none of this would have happened. I

wouldn't have had to kil al those people." An insane hysterical laugh burst forth then nothing. "Now the councilman, was a gift to everyone, he was a royal ass and should have

been kiled years ago."

"Who are you?" Vance forced out between clenched teeth.

"You'l never know, it's my secret and not even in death wil you find out!" With a quick flick of a wrist, the knife came down and sliced open Vance's abdomen. His screams

rang out in the abandoned room and died out as he passed out from pain. The sound of a heavy door slamming had the masked person running from the room to hide in an old

supply room. Leaving the door opened part way, eyes pierced the darkness and waited for the next victims.

@@@@@@@@@@

"Xe I feel like I'm enclosed in a suit of armor here." She tapped the front of her body. "Why do I have to wear a Kevlar vest and you don't?"

"Because I'm wonder woman and bulets ricochet off my wrist watch."

"Bulshit! You carry a pocket watch." She pointed a finger at her and jabbed her in the chest. "If you get shot I am not caling 911."

Xe wrapped an arm around her shoulders and puled her close. "Yes you wil." She kissed her temple and grinned down at her. "Because you hate me."

"Damn." Brian mumbled and opened the door that had always been locked before. The sound of it slamming behind them made her jump. "You know I hate places like this, it's

almost as bad as that creepy ass house we went in." The halway was dimly lit with just the emergency lights and the red exit sign over the door they had just come from. Dust

covered the floor and cobwebs hung from the ceiling panels. And the skittering of rodents could be heard if the breath was held.

"Nothing can be that bad…what's that up ahead?" She saw a low gleam of light coming from underneath a door. "Stay behind me."

"Ohh so you can get shot first? NOT!" Xe turned and went nose to nose with her.

"Brian humor me wil ya? Vance is not going to shot me."

"Wel if he does, I'm stil not caling 911." Xe roled her eyes and stepped in front of Brian as she quietly moved towards the door. Placing her ear to its surface, she listened for

any sound coming from inside. When she heard nothing, she turned the door handle and eased it open.

"Xepher."

Not turning around Xe waved a hand behind her.

"Alanda!"

Xe turned and froze before the word 'what' could come from her mouth.

"After al these years someone has come close to catching me. But it seems that you won't get the chance." Brian was held at knifepoint, one thick arm was wrapped around

her neck and the knife was pointed at her stomach. Xe's eyes went icy cold as they locked on the mask-covered face of who she knew was the person behind so many

murders. "I expected you to come alone but I must say, this wil be more interesting and a huge thril to me. You see…," The knife moved up and down across Brian's

windbreaker, making a whisking noise as it scratched the surface. "This wil be the first time that I gut someone with a witness."

Xe's voice dropped to a dangerous purr. "Let her go and take me, she's not a cop."

"Her profession has nothing to do with this. You see, she knows Vance and al the others." A crazed laughing sent shivers up Brian and Xe's spine. "Vance spiled his guts

…twice!" More laughter and then it calmed to a low throaty voice. "But nothing like that weak Edward, sure he fought at first but once I cut him he cried like a baby and

begged me! I did the world a service, they were al weak!"

Xe took a smal step forward and stopped when the knife was pressed tighter against Brian. "You sick mother fucker!" She raised a hand and stopped.

"Ahhh aaahhh! Hand away from your piece of I'l…wel I'm going to do that anyway!" Xe connected eyes with Brian and tried to send her a silent message, al she saw was a

stoniness she had never seen before in her wives eyes. "Are you ready Dr. Meadows?"

Two voices rang out, Brian yeling 'Do it!' and Xe yeling 'NO!' as she lunged forward towards them. Brian bent at her knees as the knife was raised, tilting her head back, she

jumped upward and connected the top of her head with the taler persons chin. A loud click of teeth hitting together and a loud yelp came from behind her. She reached up

with one hand and grabbed the wrist with the knife in it just as Xe colided with them and took them to the floor. Bodies fought for purchase of the knife skittering across the

floor until Xe got to her knees and puled her pistol. In the dim light, she couldn't distinguish between Brian and the other person.

"Brian get out of the way!"

"I can't!" She yeled back and then a yelp of pain came from her. "FUCKER!" Then a loud cracking noise filed the halway and more cries of pain. Xe holstered her gun and

tried to pul the two bodies apart, a searing pain shot through her side as the knife flashed past her. She howled in pain and fel backwards gripping her side.

"You're dead!" More sounds of a fist hitting flesh and then Brian yelping in pain. "MOTHER FUCKER!" A loud banging sound erupted in the halway folowed by another.

Then al was quiet except for the heavy breathing of two women. "Xe wil I go to jail for this?" Brian asked as she roled off the lifeless body beneath her and holstered her .38.

"Only if I do." Xe holstered her .9mm and covered her side. "Uuuhhmm Bri I think I have a slight problem here." She puled away her hand to see it covered with blood.

"I told you that I'm not caling 911."

"But I didn't get shot."

"Sometimes I wonder what you would do without me, lets go in that room so I can see if I can fix it with duct tape."

"You are so generous, just make sure that thing is dead, I don't want it walking out of here."

"Oohh it's not going anywhere without part of its head. My aim was off a bit." She roled to her feet and helped Xe up. "From now on, you wil wear a vest and I won't argue

with you about it."

"But…" Was al Xe could say since a hand covered her mouth.

"You wil wear one, now get in there." Brian pushed the door open and ran into the back of her wife. "Why'd you stop?"

"Brian cal for help, it's Vance."

Both women walked over to the blood soaked gurney, Brian checked for a pulse at Vance's neck and looked up to Xe. "He's stil alive; help me get the gurney out of here!"

They pushed the gurney down the hal and towards the elevator near Brian's office, she took Xe's phone and caled the ER desk and told them to have the ER Doctor on cal

waiting for them. "He's a lucky bastard; I don't think his intestines were damaged except for a little bit of drying out."

"I have to cal Boggs and get a unit over here." Xe took the phone from Brian and made her cal, the entire time she was trying to staunch the blood flow from her side. The

second the elevator doors opened, the ER team puled the gurney out and rushed it down the halway towards the surgery wing. "Brian are you hurt anywhere?" Xe asked as

she spun Brian around to face her, she saw rips and tears in the front of the windbreaker and blood smears and splatters on the tops of Brian's smal hands.

"I'm OK, but my…I mean your jacket is trashed. I think I may have fractured my hand when I smashed the psychos face in."

"Come on lets have one of the doctors take a look at it." Xe turned and walked a few steps and stopped when she realized that Brian was not beside her. Looking over her

shoulder, she saw that Brian was standing behind her with her arms crossed over her chest and a foot tapping the floor.

"I don't even think so wonder dummy, I'm not the one dripping blood al over the floor." She pointed to an examination room. "Now get your ass in that room!"

"Briiian." Xe whined and found out it didn't work. "Oohh al right I'l go, but you better not use duct tape on me, I'm alergic."

"Big baby." Brian mumbled. She made Xe get up on the examination table, helping her remove her windbreaker and shirt; she then helped her pul her sports bra over her head.

Blue eyes narrowed and gazed into dark green. "Why couldn't I have left my bra on?"

"Because I'm a perverted doctor and I wanna drool al over your tits. Now let me see where al this blood is coming from." She had Xe sit sideways on the table, with gentle

fingers she examined the knife wound. "A couple thousand staples ought to close it."

"Haaa! Funny baby. Just put some butterflies on it and I'l be good as new." She looked up when the door opened and an older nurse stepped into the room and glared at both

of them.

"Excuse me but what are you doing in here, this room is off limits with the exception of hospital personal."

"Xe I want my credentials tattooed on my forehead!" Brian spun around and gave the nurse a leveling glare. "Which credential would you like, the one that says I'm a surgical

specialist in the reattachment of severed limbs, forensic pathology, abnormal psychology, general surgery or that I just so happen to be the Chief Medical examiner for this

hospital!" Brian was on a rol, her temper was flaring by the second and the only thing that saved the nurse from a sudden death was Boggs stepping into the room.

He ignored the fact that Xe was sitting there with an amused smirk on her face and topless. "Jesus Christ you two! I can't leave you two alone with anyone before you start

picking fights or shooting them!" Nurse if you wil excuse the Doctor and her stubborn patient, I heard a commotion in the waiting room and they need your help." The older

woman left with out a word but a backward glance at Brian. "You two have some explaining to do!" He pointed a finger at Xe and then turned a beat red from embarrassment.

Xe told Boggs the entire story starting with the conversation Brian had with Christine Davidson earlier that day, the similar business cards and then the cal from Vance saying

that he needed to speak with her.

"We left the body downstairs in the halway." She shrugged her shoulders and then flinched with pain. "Baby wil sew that up before I bleed to death?"

"After I scrub the shit out of it, that knife was probably taken from my autopsy room and used on Vance." She watched Xe's face match the paler of her own with worry. "Just

for precaution, I want to start the Meds to prevent AIDS on both of us and take blood."

"Gods Xe, I never thought of that." Boggs ran a hand through his thinning hair; his eyes showed enough worry for al three of them. "I'l send down the team to get the body

and take it into the autopsy room and them I'm going over to Mrs. Davidson's to have a chat."

"Hold on Boggs, we're going with you."

"Ohh no we're not Xe! We're staying right her and take our meds." She turned to Boggs. "You'l bring Davidson here for identification right?"

"Yeah, I'l see you two in your office in a little while. Brian take care of that stubborn ass wife of yours." He squeezed her shoulder and winked at a pouting Xe.

"I can't believe I'm gonna let a dead peoples doctor sew me up and what's this with al the credentials?"

"I wasn't always the party animal I am today." She grinned up at Xe. "At one time not so long ago I worked my ass off studying al kinds of medicine before I picked this one

as my career."

"OK Dr. Frankenstein sew me up but I like my parts just the way they are." She roled her eyes when Brian gave her a rakish grin and latched her eyes onto the bare breasts in

front of her.

"So do I. Now hold stil." Brian scrubbed up and donned a pair of surgical gloves before cleaning the injured area with a strong astringent. An hour later, Xe had 45 smal

sutures from above her right hip angling upwards towards her ribcage. It was time for their shots to help prevent any unwanted virus from invading their bodies. Xe couldn't

figure out why Brian was doing that since the knife hadn't cut her. Her eyes widened when Brian puled the windbreaker off and showed her the deep gash in her forearm.

"Ohh Gods Brian, I didn't know you got cut." She took Brian's arm and looked closer at the nasty wound. "Let me go get a doctor to suture that for you."

"Come on Xe, I can do this myself. Just hold the suture tray for me and help me tie the knots." Xe had to hand it to her wife; she was talented when it came to neat sutures.

Neither one of them would scar too badly from this altercation with evil. Now with Xe wearing a scrub shirt and Brian a long white lab coat, they went down to her office to

examine the murderer and wait for Boggs to get there with the head bitch Davidson.

@@@@@@@

Police officers stood guard outside of the autopsy room, they each nodded their heads at the women as they went through the doors and over to the blood soaked sheet of the

murderer. Brian took a corner of the sheet and puled it back to reveal the tattered black hood that covered the face. "Wel we have one bulet hole under the chin that's from

me and one in the throat that's from you." She looked up at a stil pale Xe and smiled. "I'd say they were both kil shots."

"Just tel me that you're not good with axes or other things that can hack a body up."

"Xe if I was a nut case and wanted to kil you, I'd do it in bed. Now help me here, I want this bitch ready for Boggs and her mother." She eased the hood off and stared down

at an unfamiliar face. "Who in the Hel is this?" Her confused green eyes locked with equaly confused blue.

"I have no idea." She ran her fingers down her face and swore. "Shit, I guess we'l have to run finger prints." She turned when one of the officers caled her name and handed

her his radio. "What's going on?" She asked him.

"It's Chief Boggs; he's been relayed through the switchboard."

"Go ahead Boggs what have ya got?"

"Bad news Xe, Mrs. Davidson is on her way to the morgue in a body bag and I'm bringing in Christine Davidson as soon as the paramedics give me the go ahead."

"We're going to need the fingerprint guy here; we have no idea who this woman is that attacked us."

"Don't worry about it."

"OK, later." She handed the radio back to the officer and sighed when Brian looked at her. "Can this get any more complicated?"

"Yeah if you don't sit down you'l pass out on top of nameless here." Brian stepped up to Xe, wrapped her arms gently around her waist, and leaned into her body. Tucking her

head under her wives chin, she mumbled against her. "Don't you ever scare me like you did tonight."

"Me? You're the one who was wrestling on the floor with a knife-totting nutcase. You scared the Hel outta me when you did that head butting thing." She kissed the crown of a

blonde head and then rested her cheek against the soft hair. "I couldn't let you get stabbed or hurt; if I lost you it would kil me."

"Don't you think I feel the same way? You were unprotected; I had on a SWAT vest. Al I could think of when you lunged at us was you getting stabbed in the stomach or

chest."

"From now on, neither one of us does anything this stupid again, deal?"

"Deal. Now let's go sit down and wait for Boggs. My adrenaline rush is long gone and I'm exhausted."

@@@@@

After the paramedic on the scene cleared Christine, Boggs drove the distraught young woman over to the hospital. He had gone over to the house to question Mrs. Davidson

and found Christine lying in the front yard unconscious. The side of her face was covered in blood and a deep purple bruise was forming from her temple to her jaw line. He

had immediately caled for back up and went into the house. After searching the entire downstairs, he was just about to head to the upstairs area when one of the officers came

through the front door. The two of them searched the rooms until they had come to the master bedroom and found Mrs. Davidson lying on the bed with a plastic bag over her

head, wrists tied to the headboard and her ankles tapped with duct tape. From the blue color of her face, he knew that they were too late. His only witness was the young

Davidson who was outside; he hoped that she could recal what happened. "I'm taking you downstairs to Dr. Meadows office; Lt. Salano is there right now. I know she'l have

some questions for you."

"Where's my mother?" She asked in a low shaky voice.

"I'm sorry, we found her upstairs. Some one suffocated her with a plastic bag."

"Who's kiling al of my family?" She broke down into tears and soft sobs. "I want this person found Chief! I may be next when they find out I'm not dead."

"Do you remember anything of what happened to you?"

She shook her head and groaned as a sharp pain shot through her temple. "I just got home from seeing a friend of mine, I remember walking towards the front door and that's

al." She searched her pockets for her phone. "Did someone pick up my cel phone I need to cal my sister."

@@@@@@@@@@@

Brian and Xe had falen asleep on the futon in the office mere minutes after lying down. The long day and the adrenaline rush had taken a lot out of them. The only way that

they could escape from the horrors of the jobs they led was in the land of sleep wrapped in each other's arms. Xe's eyes flickered open when she heard her name being caled

in a deep whisper. She squinted her eyes at the dark figure and groaned.

"Five more minutes Boggs."

"Sorry kid no can do, I have Christine with me. The girl is ready to go off the deep end. She can't get a hold of her sister and she thinks the kiler may have gotten her."

"OK, let me wake up Bri and we'l be there in a minute." She watched her long time friend leave the room and console the grieving young woman in the hal.

"Christine, Lt. Salano and Dr. Meadows wil be out in a minute." He placed a hand on her shoulder not knowing what else to do, with his own daughters; he would have held

them until they stopped crying. With this young woman, he didn't know how she would take it. Xe and a sleepy Brian coming from the office saved him. He gave them a smal

smile and stepped off to the side. He had to admit, seeing Brian stil half asleep brought out fatherly feelings in him. He could stil see as plain as day even though it had been

many years ago, his own daughters looking very much the same.

"Miss Davidson I'm LT. Xepher Salano, I believe you already know my wife Dr. Meadows." Xe wrapped a supporting arm around Brian and puled her close to her side. "I'm

sorry to hear about your mother, I believe we have the person who kiled your brother and your mother. Maybe you can identify the person for us."

Tear filed brown eyes looked between the three people; she nodded her head and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I'l try but I don't know if I'l be much good."

"That's al we can ask. Boggs would you take her to the viewing room and Brian and I wil get everything set up?"

"Sure no problem."

On the way to the viewing room, Christine asked Boggs a question he often wondered himself.

"Do they always cross over into each others professions?"

"Come to think of it, yeah they do, strange since Xe and Brian hated each other at first. Guess it's true about opposites attracting."

Boggs tapped on the window to the viewing room and saw Brian pul back the curtain a little and mouth the words 'monitor or real time?' "Would you prefer to see the person

on the monitor?"

"No Chief, I can handle this. I'm a Medical student; I see dead bodies al the time."

Brian nodded from the other side; obviously, she had read Christine's lips. She stepped back and nodded to Xe who removed the sheet. Christine's first reaction was to cover

her mouth, the next was to grab onto Boggs' arm and sink to the floor. Boggs bent down, picked the young woman up, and placed her in a chair near the back wal.

"Are you OK, can I get you some water or something?"

"That's…my sister Cissy!" She pointed to the window and let out a wail. Boggs puled the sobbing woman into his arms and held her as she cried out her pain. He didn't care if

she later brought charges against him for his conduct, he was a father and seeing young women like this hurt him. He looked up at Xe and Brian and mouthed the words 'Her

sister Cissy.' to them. They nodded and closed the door leaving them alone.

"Oooh boy Xe, this is a real fucking mess ain't it?"

"You're right about that, I have to check on Vance and see how he's doing."

"I'l stay here with Boggs and Christine."

Xe puled her into her arms and gave her a hug, puling back a bit; she captured her lips for a lingering kiss. "Love you Bri, I'l be back in a few minutes."

"OK, love you to."

@@@@@@@@

Xe talked to the doctor who had operated on Vance, from what she could understand, the surgery was successful and Vance had a very good chance of having a long and

healthy life. It would not be until the next day that she could speak with him, so she arranged for a police guard to be at his door until he was moved and safe from further

danger. With everything that had happened that day, al she wanted to do was go home and sleep for a week. She knew that it was an impossibility and that she had plenty of

paperwork to do. Taking a deep breath and stopping at the cafeteria for coffee on her way back, she found Brian and Boggs sitting with a much calmer Christine.

"I brought us coffee, I knew we would al need the caffeine by now."

"Since you've been gone Xe, we've solved some things concerning the time and place of the past murders." Boggs took the coffee and moaned with delight at the heat

penetrating his chiled hands. He hated the basement area because it was always so cold and dreary. "Christine has told us that they lived close to Vance when they were

growing up and had gone to the same school as he did. Francisca or Cissy as she wanted to be caled; had a crush on young Vance."

Christine cut in and relayed the rest of the story to them. When they had been younger, Cissy would folow Vance around and scare other girls away from him. She claimed

that they were dating and if she caught them, she would do horrible things to their families and them. Shortly before their sophomore year in High School, they moved to

California for a year before coming back. By then Vance was in his senior year and would leave for colege in the fal. Cissy never forgot him. When she turned 18, she took

off and was missing for months before she came back home. Her excuse was that she wanted to have some fun before she was locked away in school for another four years.

"So during those times that she was having fun, she was kiling the people close to Vance?" Xe was beginning to see a pattern, she looked at the calendar Brian had on the

nearby wal and saw that at the times of the murders, they had been on long weekends or during a holiday where the coleges would have had no classes. "Your sister went al

the way to California so she could kil Vance's friends." She rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "What about al the others? She told us that she kiled them because they

were weak. Any idea what she meant by that?"

"She was my sister but I didn't realy know her, she changed from day to day some times sooner than that."

Brian whispered into Xe's ear 'MPS' "Did she ever see a Psychiatrist or any other kind of mental health type help. That brought a chuckle from Christine.

"Every day, she was studying abnormal Psychology; she wanted to apply for either the FBI or Law Enforcement once we graduated.

"Interesting? That's strike two for me." Brian grumbled and got a pinch on her thigh from Xe.

"What's your major in colege?"

A brow raised across Christine's smooth forehead. "Pediatrics, I like kids." She shrugged her shoulders. "Are we done here, I have a lot to do." She glanced to where the

curtained window was and tears filed her eyes. "I don't even know where to start, I'm al alone now."

Xe and Brian saw the emotions run across Boggs face and knew what he was going to do.

"Christine, if you'l come with me I'l help you get things sorted out." She took his offered hand and said goodbye to Brian and Xe. "I'l give you guys a cal later if I find out

anything about Vance." He waved to them and escorted Christine from the room.

"He's gonna play the daddy to her isn't he?"

"Yeah, but he does a good job and it'l be the first time in that women's life that she's had a real one." Xe kissed Brian's temple and puled her close. "Speaking of kids, we have

two at home that are probably having a Hel of a time with your underwear."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

With the water in the tub cold enough to cause chattering teeth, blue eyes flickered open at that sound. After getting home, Brian had run a hot bath for them and they had falen

asleep quickly after submerging their aching bodies. Neither one of them gave a damn about their wounds getting wet they ached and this was the best medicine.

"Bri come on wake up before you get hypothermia." She eased Brian away from her body and swore when the cold water hit her chest. "You sleep like your patients, dead to

the world." With difficulty, she got them both out of the tub and carried Brian to bed. The sound of the telephone ringing next to the bed had Xe growling and cursing Bel for

inventing the damn thing, she couldn't get her eyes to open and fumbled for the receiver. "Salano you're dead meat!"

"Funny that's what my wife says about our sex life."

"Boggs what time is it?" She roled over and buried her face against Brian's back.

"It's going on ten o'clock, you two are still in bed huh?"

"I feel like a steamroler hit me. Why are you caling me anyway?"

"I talked to Vance this morning; he remembers Cissy stalking him but never thought she would kill people because he didn't pay any attention to her. He wanted to

know if you two were all right and wanted me to thank you guys for saving his life."

"Glad to hear he's going to be al right. Is his record going to be cleaned?"

"Yep, and he's asked for a transfer to Homicide and it's been approved. I think he'll make a good detective, he has that edge to him now."

"If you see him before we do, tel him we were glad to help and not to eat the meatloaf, it's hazardous."

"Got it, now get some sleep you have lots of paperwork to do tomorrow."

"Yeah right, more sleep no paperwork." She clicked off the phone, dropped it between them and went back to sleep.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Two weeks later with al the loose ends tied up on the Lover's Tryst case and Vance in the clear and a new detective in homicide. Brian and Xe were able to take a breather

from chasing maniacs. They sat on the back deck of their farmhouse and watched Fugly and Bear chase each other around the field behind the house. What brought a smile to

Xe's face was the 2-year-old strawberry roan fily running in circles around the playing dogs. She now had everything she ever wanted or needed, a loving wife, their own

home, two dogs and a horse. "Baby can I have some of that ice cream?"

"Nope al mine!" Brian said around a mouthful of butter pecan ice cream.

Wel almost everything.

Lover's Tryst

By Larisa

Hecate3366@frontiernet.net

The Athenaeum's Scroll Archive