Joey & His Cat
by JoeyPare

Joe didn't dare move. He didn't know how long he'd been awake but he was conscious of the woman curled next to him. He and Catherine had been together for the last twelve hours, and the more he talked with her, he had the strangest feeling that they had met before. But where, he didn't have the foggiest idea.

Catherine woke slowly, to a soft flickering light off to her side. At first it didn't bother her. She and Joe were curled together like two Siamese cats and it felt so good to be in someone's arms again. Thinking Joey was teasing her with something she opened her eyes into a strand of light coming through one of the thread holes of the blinds behind the bed. She slowly uncurled herself from Joe's arms and turned quietly so she wouldn't wake him. She smiled at how beautiful he looked ... well muscled chest, strong cheek bones, and his eyes. His eyes were captivating.  She was so attracted to him at the Court House yesterday. It was almost like they had known each other in another life. "Just like Jo-Jo," she whispered in a barely audible voice, as she proceeded to take her hand and push back the curl that cascaded down into his eyes.

Joey, already awake, didn't dare breathe as Catherine moved. He stayed still as a hunted mouse on the prairie. The name 'Jo-Jo' brought him into full alert. He hadn't been called that in years. And only a few people on earth knew him by that name. As Cat's hand brushed his cheek, his eyes opened and he drank in the beauty of the woman staring back at him.

"This 'Jo-Jo' – is he someone I should be jealous of?" Joey rasped, stretching out his legs.

Cat stared at him. Thinking about the time in Chicago when she and her friend 'Jo-Jo' sat on her grandmother's porch playing Go Fish, Canasta and other card games. She knew he hadn't been there by choice, at first anyway. But when he was there waiting for her three summers in a row, she knew the 'my aunt sent me,' had turned into 'I'm here because I want to be.' His Aunt had told him to come because his aunt and her grandmother were the best of friends. She wore a brace on her leg then.....

"Catherine? ... Are you still with me?" Joey asked quietly, concerned that something was going down that he should know about, but not wanting to disturb her thoughts.

"Jo-Jo was ... a childhood friend," she began. "We used to sit on my grandmother's ....."

"OH – MY - GOD!" LaFiamma exclaimed, sitting upright, blankets falling to his waist. "You're... you're Limp Along Four Eyes!" He gaped at her, seeing the girl on the porch that he remembered as well as the woman he already loved.

"Limp Along? Four eyes?  Oh god, are you him?!" She yelped slapping his bare chest with the back of her hand. "You said you would rescue me! Come and find me and we'd get married!"

Taken aback by the outburst, Joey snatched her hand in mid-air, and responded. "I sat on Mrs. Baracotta's porch every day for two weeks – but you never showed that summer... or any summer after that. Your grandmother knew I was there. Hell, she almost broke her hip one afternoon tripping over me."

Catherine didn't know - he had waited for her! No one told her he had waited for her! Moving closer, she answered, "Remember I wore a brace on one leg. That summer we had agreed to elope, I had surgery on it to straighten out the bone. The following summer my folks sent me to softball camp in Ohio. I found out later, the only reason I was sent to Grandma Baracotta's was because my folks didn't know what to do with their 'crippled' girl."

They stared at each in silence and then broke out into uncontrollable laughter. "Found you Catherine," Joey chuckled, "and this time I'm not letting go!"

As they rolled together on the bed, that strand of sun again crossed Cat's face. "How can you stand having this sun shine in your face so early in the morning?

"Sun?" LaFiamma muttered, knowing what she meant but not wanting to answer for he knew it would break the spell of renewal they were both under.

"The sun, silly," Cat giggled pointed to the strobes of light peeking through the blinds.

"Oh, that sun!" Joey answered smiling. "If I miss the alarm, which should be going off by now, it helps me get up," he continued swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

"Ah, Sergeant LaFiamma" Cat began looking at the back of the alarm clock.... "It might go off if you had remembered to turn it on last night. Do you always get up at five-thirty in the morning?"

Standing he stretched, and answered yes. "I usually go for a run in the morning before breakfast." Moving towards the closet his hand stopped in mid-air as she asked, "You wouldn't, by any chance, wear blue shorts and a sleeveless white tee shirt, would you?"

Joe stared at her in disbelief, "How the hell you know that?" He croaked as she moved to the edge of the bed. Several things conjured up in his mind and he had no weapons to defend himself if she was an enemy.

"Because, my love, I'm the lady that stretches by the pond every morning - that you wave to and say Good Morning to, the one that always wears blue."

Joey finished his reach, and as his arm retracted from the closet she watched as he tossed out onto the chair next to the bed, his blue running shorts and sleeveless white tee shirt.

"It is YOU!" Cat cried springing off the bed. "Twice around the pond and then you do the obstacle course!"

"Huh? Wha?" Joe yelped, moving backwards as she came off the bed toward him, not wanting to get punched a second time.

Catherine said joyfully. "I vowed someday I would have the nerve to come to you and say more than just 'Good Morning.' "

"Well Limp Along, I think you definitely said more than good morning, this morning." Joe replied pulling her in for an eager kiss. Letting her know that he also was planning some way to meet her.

"So... will you wait for me if I go back to my place and change? It will be wonderful to run with someone besides myself. Though I'm not sure I can do your distance." Catherine said, touching his hip before it disappears under blue shorts.

Pulling on his shorts and jock strap, Joey nodded as he watched his Cat dress, thinking how great a boring day at Court turned out. He wouldn't push her into distance running. He'd been doing it for a long time; it wasn't something you could start in one day.

**********************

Catherine knew Joe was holding in his stride as they ran around the pond first time. He told her a little about his life since they had last seen each other. He started law school after college because his father had been a lawyer. But after the first year when hints were dropped by 'the family' about how good it would be to have a lawyer in their pocket, he dropped out and went into the Marine Corps for a couple of years.

She told him a little about her marriage, mostly that it wasn't good. She didn't understand the pain that crossed his face when she mentioned she witnessed her car exploding in front of her with her mother and husband inside.  

Now she pushed all that out of her mind and just watched him run. She loved watching him run, and fended off the second lap saying she wanted to do yoga stretches instead. Her eyes were glued on him as he took off. Like a gazelle he runs, she thought.

Joey watched Cat get into position than lost her in the trees as he looped up around the back of the lake to pick up the obstacle course. God, both she and Lundy lost their spouses to car bombs. I need to get more information on that, don't want anyone hunting her done if they figure she is alive after all. Need to know who they were after in the first place. I just hope she's still there, he mused to himself. It's been one hell of a night, and I don't want to lose her again.

Joey came around the end of the pond, sweat pouring down his back. He stared at the spot that Catherine should be, but she was nowhere to be seen. He was so intent in finding her he almost missed the curve in the sidewalk. Landing in the pond would not be a good thing. LaFiamma slowed as he approached the statute. "Catherine! Cat!"

"Shit! Shit. Shit." Joe growled as he jogged back to his apartment. //What the hell happened? Everything was going so smoothly.//

As LaFiamma approached his apartment he looked down at his shoes and discovered the Velcro for his key case was wide open. Which meant he never put the key in, in the first place? / /Damn, she had me so rattled this morning, I even forgot that. //

Exhausted from the run and the search for Cat, Joe knew he wouldn't have time for breakfast, just a shower and out of here. As he stepped out of the elevator, he sniffed the air. // Someone was cooking and it smelled pretty darned good. I won't have time to make something like that, going to the statue and looking for her, used up more time than I have to spare. //

Joey approached his front door wondering how he was going to get in, when it opened and there stood his lost Cat. "Damn, Catherine, I thought I'd lost you! Don't ever do that again. It's not nice to scare a cop like that!"

"You always leave in the morning, and leave your apartment unlocked," she answered with a smile.

"Woman, you had me so hoodwinked this morning, I'm surprised I wore the right clothes."

"Well, the reason I left ... was ... because watching you run turns me on something fierce, and I wanted to be able to go back to that park and run again. If you had come at me, for sure, I would have thrown you to the ground and had you right there."

LaFiamma burst out laughing as he walked into his apartment. "Maybe we'll have to take up a different sport. Sex in the park is frowned upon. I'd have to arrest myself!" He kicked the door shut, slipped his arm around her waist and escorted her to one of the kitchen bar stools.

"Mmmm, looks good. So you can cook too?" Joey mused going into the laundry room to get a towel to wipe himself down.

"Hope you don't mind, I found one of your cookbooks and used a recipe that had a star by it. Figured it must be one you liked."

Catherine leaned over and kissed Joe lightly on the lips, "Your phone rang, and the message machine picked it up. The call was from Lundy. He's picking you up early. Some case broke wide open last night. Better hurry up and get your shower while I clean up the dishes."

"Ya, but, Houston's trying to conserve water, it'd be...." Joey began, then stared at her hand pointing to the shower, he left wondering which case broke during the night.

// Out of the shower and upstairs to dress. Ah, just in time to see Catherine slipping into her underclothes. She was right about us not showering together. Don't want Lundy walking in on that! Poor boy would get hot flashes. //

Joe and Catherine stand facing each other, both ready for work. "Damn, I'd love to call in sick today and just spend the day with you," Joey mutters pulling her close.

Downstairs the front door starts to rattle as Joe's obnoxious cowboy partner bangs on it demanding entrance.

// Damn you Lundy!. Can't I have any peace away from you? Going to talk to you about parking outside my apartment half the night! Don't need no nursemaid! //

Joey and Catherine walk down the spiral staircase and get to the bottom of the stairs just as Levon bursts into the apartment. Cat is visibly shaken by Lundy's brash entrance. Joe feels the tremor of fear that races through her.

"He was raised in a barn. No need to be afraid," LaFiamma says gently, keeping his arm of support around her small waist.

"It's not him, Joe. It's... Its ...my late husband would go out drinking with friends and storm into the house stone drunk demanding sex. He'd throw money on the floor saying he deserved it and I'd better come across with what he wanted."

Lundy was speechless. Ashamed that he had startled her, surprised that she is even still here.

"Apologize to the lady, Lundy! You scared the shit out of both of us!" LaFiamma demanded, giving his partner an icy look.

"Sorry ma'am, didn't mean to scare ya." Levon replies tipping his hat to Catherine.

"Well, how about it? You ready? Got things to do?" Lundy urged backing up toward the door.

Cat touches Joe on the shoulder and they kiss. It could have just been a light kiss, but Joey moves it into something much more. // Let Lundy get his own girl. He sure the hell needs one. //

This time LaFiamma makes sure he locks the door when he leaves!

****************

The trip to Reisner is silent. Lundy's mad because 'that girl' was at Joe's place this morning. Joe's mad because his partner camped out on the street checking up on him. 

As they rounded the last corner before Reisner's parking lot, Joey questioned, "Why'd you park on my street last night?"

When no answer came, Joey continued, "You really need to get a life Lundy. Spending nights in the Jimmy watching your partner make out with his new girl isn't the way to spend an evening."

Lundy waited until he parked the Jimmy before he answered, "Don't you think you're rushing things a bit. I think this is happening too fast. You don't even know who she is. You're a cop, LaFiamma! You need to do a background check...."

"Background check? Gimme me a break, cowboy. I know her. A lot more than I'm ever going to tell you." LaFiamma opened the passenger door and stormed out of the vehicle, slamming the door hard.

"One thing I will tell you ..." Joe started, leaving his partner's face hanging in the breeze with wonder. "She's the woman you always make comments about, the one who does yoga down at the pond near my place. The one you said would be good for me. And let me tell you cowboy, she is!"

Lundy was out of the Jimmy in a rush, and jogged past Joe before Joey knew what was happening. // Got to get to the computer and get info on her. Can't let her take him out of my life. //

Joey shrugs and mingles with some of the beat cops as they come in for change of shift. He learns a few things about the murder last night that won't show up in any police report. Things like - it was a clean kill. Shooter or shooters were in and out fast. Nothing was disturbed in the house, no prints, and no leads.

LaFiamma continued into the building, meeting Sergeant Annie Hartung at the elevator. He wondered sometimes how she felt about being confined to that wheelchair of hers. Joey takes the handles of the chair and pushes her into the elevator car, turning the wheelchair so it faces the front.

"Joey, what's this about you having a cat?" Annie asks innocently.

"Wha? A cat?" LaFiamma mutters, startled at the question.

"Levon rushed by me saying something about getting information on your cat. What kind of a cat is it?"

LaFiamma took a deep breath, silently cursing his partner. He mustered, "Well Annie, I picked up this stray at the Court House yesterday. She came and sat right next to me on the bench. Long hair, reddish gold, that shines in the morning sunlight. Most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Aim to keep her too, no matter what Lundy says. She curled up next to me all night and purred, man it was good."

// Annie's giving me that look. She could always see right through me. I better confess if I know what's good for me. //

As the elevator stops and the door opens, Joey pushes Annie's chair into the hall. Bending low, Joe whispers, "Her name is Catherine. She's a deaf translator and instructor at Rice University. When she stops in today, I'll introduce her. You'll like her Annie, you really will."

Suddenly Sergeants Carol O'Brien and Estaban Guiterrez see LaFiamma and holler down the hall asking about 'his cat.' Annie bursts out laughing and wheels toward her office. Joe ignores the two detectives and heads for the Major Crimes Unit squad room, only to have Joe-Bill McCandless ask the same thing. 

Joey stares at their expectant faces. // Wait until I get that cowboy alone. He'll be eating fur balls for lunch! //

Finally, LaFiamma replies, "I found her at the Court House yesterday while Lundy was snoozing. Being the better looking of us two, she just naturally climbed up next to me. Nobody claimed her all day, so I took her home with me. Most gorgeous thing I've ever seen - plan to lay claim to her. "

Before Joe could finish, Lieutenant Joanne Beaumont walked over to him and handed him a slip of paper with an address on it. "Find Lundy. Head out to this place, might be a witness to last night's shooting."

Joey asks around about Lundy and finds him in the computer room standing over a printer spouting out paper. // Background check on Catherine what do you bet. //

Levon looks smugly at his partner. Obviously the cowboy found what he was looking for.

Joey holds up the address and tells his partner what Beaumont told him. Together they head for the elevator.

LaFiamma is mad at his partner for doing this. As the elevator door closes on them, Levon tells his partner that his woman was born Catherine Marie Smith. She married someone named James John Jerome who died in an alcohol related car accident two years ago.

"I could'a told you that much," Joe blasted. "Does it say she went to the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana? Does it tell where she was born? Does it tell how many times her husband was arrested for drunken brawls in a local bar? Hell, Levon," LaFiamma screams. "I know more about her than your little piece of paper!"

An evil grin began to spread across the Texan's face. "Did you know she was related to a Chicago family?"

Joey's mouth dropped. He grabbed the paper out of Levon's hand and scanned it until he found the name at the bottom listed under 'mother's maiden name.' Baracotta!

The elevator door opened as Lundy yelped, "Told you so! A mob family!"

Joey was quiet as they walked to the Jimmy. He said nothing as Levon gloated over the fact that he'd found out that Joey's new woman was bad.

Slowly getting into the Jimmy, Joe waited until his partner had turned the ignition, then he said, "Remember the case with the blind woman who was assaulted. I told you about a lady in my neighborhood, Mrs. Baracotta, who used to pick us kids up when we had scraps and cuts, and bandage us and send us on our way. That's who she is related to. In fact, that is her grandmother! Sorry Lundy you lose. They are not a mob family! Never have been; never ever will be! One of her sons is in the Foreign Service, State Department, I think. A daughter is a fashion designer. Paris, last I heard. And her other son was killed in 'Nam. The mob. No way!"

"The fact is Lundy - Catherine is the girl I fell in love with when I was twelve years old. Mrs. Baracotta played bridge with Aunt Theresa. Cat had an injured leg when she was young, wore a brace. Aunt Theresa designated ME to spend time with Cat whenever she came to see her Grandmother. We vowed we'd marry one day, and presto here she is back in my life. I'm not letting her go again Levon. Live with it!"

Silence reigned in the Jimmy for several seconds. Then Levon grabbed the slip of paper out of Joe's hand, read the address and gunned the engine, almost running over the Police Commissioner in his haste to leave the parking garage.

"Nice going, Lundy - kill the boss of us all. Hey, you wanted to find out about her and you did. It just wasn't what you thought. You gotta get a life, partner. You know darn well Caroline would have gotten married again."

"Yeah, I know, but I ain't her." Lundy growled.  "What Joanne say about this address?"

"Only that someone there might be a witness to the shooting last night?"

"Well this is an upscale address. This is where someone might live who PAID the shooter!" Lundy growled.

"Coming in this morning, beat cops going off shift said it was a clean hit. No prints, no break-in, nothing disturbed in the house. They walked in, did the job and walked out."

"Sound familiar LaFiamma? Maybe it was a mob hit and they missed your place by a mile." Lundy answered sarcastically.

"It don't make no never-mind to me," LaFiamma growled imitating his partner's favorite expression. "Actually it is more like a CIA hit."

"CIA? What makes you say that?" Levon quizzed, his interest perked.

"Have some cousins in Special Operations. They go in and out and don't even disturb the flies on the wall." Joey answered, a sick feeling starting to grow in his stomach.

"You sayin'?"

"I'm just saying, Lundy, we better look close at who was shot and what he was into. Could be our own government didn't want him around." Joey spotted the house, "Hey, here we are."

As Lundy pulled to the curb, Joe took out his cell phone and dialed Catherine's number at Rice. "Hey Limp Along, how you doing? What? Yeah, that was Lundy. He pulled your jacket this morning. Sure, be glad to meet you later."

"Thought she was deaf," Lundy said wondering why his partner was calling a deaf girl.

"She's not deaf, Lundy. She signs because she is a deaf translator. She was notified that someone pulled information up on her. She wants to meet us later to find out why you needed information on her."

"And just why would she be notified if someone pulled information on her, huh, LaFiamma? I tell you something's still not right with her." Lundy croaked, not yet ready to let go of his idea that she was bad for Joe.

The two detectives emerged from the Jimmy and started up the front walk of an elegant two-story house with huge white pillars in the front, the front door opened and a man in black jogged toward them. Behind the man ran a woman, screaming, "WAIT, STOP!"

Lundy immediately pulled his gun and was flabbergasted when LaFiamma grabbed his wrist and said "Put it away Lundy, he's one of us."

The man stopped in front of LaFiamma, "The witness is dead and it wasn't us. The hit wasn't us either. Don't let Catherine out of your sight; she's a material witness ... but ..."

"But what?" Joey questioned stepping sideways to block the man from leaving.

"Can't explain now... just stay with her at all costs." With a pat on Joe's shoulder the man disappeared around some bushes and was gone.

"Who the hell was that?" Lundy asked as the woman from the house reached them.

Joey heard a noise he hadn't heard since being in The Corps. Suddenly he grabbed the woman and shouted to Lundy, "G E T DOWN!" Seconds later there was a zinging noise and tufts of grass ripped apart near where they had been standing.

"So that guy gives you a word and then tries to kill you, nice friends LaFiamma." The Texan said as he helped up the woman.

"He wasn't the shooter. Cousins don't shoot cousins unless they are face-to-face and there is no other way. No, we have to find out who this witness was and who the hit was last night." Joe said walking with Levon and the woman back into the house.

"Well, your friend Blackie," Levon remarked with a grin figuring since he was dressed in black that that was a good name to give the guy, "didn't explain much."

"Catherine said her husband went on drunken binges and then would be jailed for one or two months."

"Long enough to go on some job and get back home......" Lundy ventured nodding yes to the woman as she explained that the person killed there was not the owner but a renter.

"Yeah." Was all Joe could answer, his brain was racing backwards to special operations training and ahead to all the police cases that were outstanding.

The two detectives waited until the coroner came and the Forensics team arrived. Joey watched the crime lab technicians with interest. He stared at the sticks they stuck into the ground indicating where the shots in the grass came from. His eyes followed the directions to a line of trees on the other side of the street.

"Hey," someone called walking from the street up the driveway. "I found these shell casings under the trees over there. It's got to be some gun and some shooter to hit a target from there."

Lundy was disturbed by LaFiamma's interest in what the crime lab guys were doing. Levon wondered, how the hell did Joe know when to duck before those shots which were never heard happened.

As the two detectives walked down the sidewalk, Joe asked the Lab Tech if he could look at one of the shell casings. This ex-Marine had a raw feeling growing in his stomach for the hit was inches from where he stood. But it wasn't because of being a cop or a LaFiamma, it was because of who talked to him as he left this house.

"Well, LaFiamma," Levon replied jokingly, "you gonna tell us now what gun it came from?"

".270 Weatherby," Joe replied seriously, his face showing no emotion.

"Yeah... like you know," Levon chortled taking the Jimmy keys out of his pocket.

"You sure about that LaFiamma?" One of the Forensics' team asked.

"Seen enough of these to know – yeah." Joe answered walking to the Jimmy opening the passenger door he slid in. Is it cousin against cousin, Joey thought, or is it just to get our attention on the seriousness of the situation. Either that or a really good frame is being made.

Arriving back at the station, the boys were met by a very irate Catherine Smith Delgado.

"You're the one – who is accessing me! Why?" Catherine asks roughly pushing Lundy up against one of the walls in the hallway outside the Squad Room. She spouts in rapid fire about watching her husband and her mother die in a car explosion. About waking up in a hospital, about going home two months later and finding someone else living in HER house ... everything she owned gone!

Her hand pushed hard against Levon Lundy's chest. He felt the pressure of her hand against his rib cage, and the wrath that he had provoked. He had lost most of what she said after hearing her say her husband and mother exploded in front of her.

Cat shrugged off Joe's hand on her shoulder and continued her attack against Lundy.

It was Joey's soft words of, "Yes Cat, he knows how you feel." That stopped her barrage of words.

She backed off and just stood staring at Lundy. "How would you like it if I went to your computer and pulled up everything about your life? Say from the time you were born until now?"

The cowboy's face paled. "No way! Not on your life!" It was as if Caroline had slapped him in the face. He was suddenly aware of what he had foolishly done. All because he was afraid this woman would take his partner away.

"I'm not going to take him away, if that is what you are worried about. He is still going to be your partner. What I would really like you to do is put your energy into finding out who killed them. And why no one checked around to see if my mother survived. You see, she sent me back to the restaurant to retrieve her purse, and as I walked back to the car, Ed keyed the ignition and them – boom."

Doctor Tom Fraser, the police shrink who had an office opposite the Squad Room, stepped up to the three and told them to use his office for a more private discussion on the matter.

The door of Tom's office was barely closed when Catherine began her tale. "I went back home when I was released from the hospital and discovered someone else living in my house. MY house. Everything was gone! All the furniture! All my clothes! Even my car."

She pushed off Joe's hand from her shoulder offering her a chair. "I talked to several neighbors who were surprised as hell to see me! It seems I was declared dead in the explosion. They just figured the woman in the car was me. Yet, no one has ever inquired about the whereabouts of my mother whose purse I was sent back into the restaurant to retrieve."

It was Levon who ventured to ask, "Was her purse there?"

Cat stared at him unable to speak. For the first time, she realized that had not found her mother's purse in the restaurant.

Joey picked up on the silence and offered, "Was the purse there? It wasn't, was it? She sent you looking for it because she knew the car was going to go."

"Right, Joe, we...." Levon replied getting to his feet.

"No, please let me finish here first." Catherine answered franticly. "The house was sold in only two days! Everything but a few things were packed up by a company named Apex Trucking. The rest was sold at a garage sale and many of my neighbors bought the things just because they wanted something to remind them of me. Joey.... I have to find out what happened to my stuff? Remember the horses? I have to find my horses!"

"Horses? You had horses?" Lundy blurts out not wanting to admit he was starting to like this woman.

"It was a horse collection. Hundreds of them. No two the same," Joey offered, his mind going in circles. He knew who Apex Trucking was, now all he needed to know is how to approach them.

"What about the cops in that town? Did they come to any conclusions on the bomb in the car?" Lundy quizzed.

"We were living in Nashville then. It was the third place we'd lived in a year. My next door neighbor – my best friend – just said a plain truck with Illinois plates and the words 'Apex Trucking' came two days after and took everything."

Joey gagged at the repeat of the name, not really wanting to know if his family had a hand in this or not.

Levon and Catherine turned to look at LaFiamma. Joey swallowed hard and asked, "What did your husband ... your mother do for a living?"

"You know who Apex is, don't you LaFiamma?" Lundy growled now feeling he had to defend Catherine.

"It's owned by a 'family' in Chicago. I don't know who, Levon. Honest I don't! But I sure the hell aim to find out."

LaFiamma had been arguing on the phone in Italian for better part of an hour when Catherine gasped at a word he suddenly said. She watched Joey drop the receiver down with a bang.

Turning to his new love, Joey asked, "Do you still carry your grandmother's phone number with you?"

The two detectives watched as Cat rummaged through her purse and came up with a card folder. She opened it to expose several pieces of paper cut to business card size. Showing Joey one, he read it, and then dialed the number.

After the initial 'Hi, how are you' Joey began asking Mrs. Baracotta questions about Catherine. "..Did anyone ever consider that Catherine's mother was in the car? Has anyone heard from her since the accident? Did anyone check the injured bystanders to see if Catherine was among them?"

Joe stood mutely next to Tom Fraser's desk listening to the aged woman on the other end of the phone tell him she thought it was funny that the accident was covered up so fast and no one checked hospitals for any others.

When the woman asked if he knew if Catherine was alive, Joey responded, "Yes Ma'am. She just happens to be standing right here." Joey nodded to Cat and handed her the phone.

Joe and Levon quietly stepped back and listened as Catherine once again related her tale about being sent back to the restaurant to retrieve her mother's purse, realizing now it was just a scam to get her away from the vehicle. She continued, and the detectives, not hearing this part before exchanged glances as Cat said she woke up in a hospital three weeks later being called by her mother's name. It was only upon her insistence of being fingerprinted that they found out who she really was. Then she thought for sure her family would visit her, but no one did the whole two months she was in the hospital.

"No, Grammy, don't cry," Catherine gasped listening to her grandmother cry on the other end of the phone. "It's okay. I'm okay now. I found Jo-Jo."

"Jo-Jo," Lundy chortled his eyes bright.

"Quiet, Little Levon, don't even go there!" Joey replied solemnly.

"Grammy... it's my horse collection that I cry about. I worked so hard to collect those ... but everything is gone. The house, all the furniture, even my clothes!" Catherine rasped, tearing flowing down her cheeks.

"Wha? What? You have the horses? B-but how?"

Catherine turned slightly and looked at Joe as Mrs. Bellacotta explained that she was so upset after receiving the news of Catherine's apparent death, that her bridge partner Theresa LaFiamma stepped in and handled everything. Covering the phone, she quickly told Joe what her grandmother had just said.

"Wait! It sounds like Theresa LaFiamma has just walked into Grammy's house."

Cat listened to the two women and then was surprised when Theresa LaFiamma got on the phone and began to attack her. She gathered up all her strength and cut the LaFiamma matriarch off. "Did it ever occur to you Mrs. LaFiamma that when my mother never surfaced anywhere that the person who died might have been her? All you had to do was call the Nashville police and they would have told you everything! My question is – why did your family want my family dead? Or wasn't it you who planted that bomb? You just came along and cleaned up the mess!"

Joey stepped back away from Catherine as she ranted at his aunt. A thousand words streamed through his head. Words his aunt had told him about being too friendly with Baracotta's granddaughter, words he realized now were to isolate him and keep him within the family. He had tried to get away from the family by going into the Marines, but even there she pulled strings to get him out early. He just now realized that being shipped to Texas probably saved his life.

Then he heard Catherine say, "However, I'm not holding what you did against Joey – '4-eyes and Jo-Jo' are back together again and nothing or no one is going to separate us."

Boldly Joseph Anthony LaFiamma stepped up to Tom's desk and took the phone away from Catherine. He merely said, "Aunt Theresa, it's over. No more controlling little Joey's life. You took me in when my parents died. You watched over me. You raised me. But you never allowed me to grow into my own person. Even in the Marine Corps when I was desperately trying to prove who I really was and was getting somewhere, you killed that too. You killed my freedom to do what I wanted when I wanted. You saw to it that I was discharged early. You pulled me back into the family, hoping beyond hope that I would become part of it. What happened when I shot Rick was a lifesaver. I hated Texas at first, but now I realize being here has actually saved my life. Your intrusion into my life is over Aunt Theresa, over. Catherine and I are getting married and buying a house. You have her stuff. I will expect it to be delivered down here by the end of the month."

Joe took a deep breath as his Aunt began to lambaste him with words he laughed at .., "you took me in when I was 10...11... I have seen you do things that Uncle Mikey doesn't know about. That he would be damn upset about if he knew you were the one responsible – so is this a threat? If you want it to be, it is! Let me put it this way. That shark bite you made the summer I went into The Corps ... you could be in those buckets instead of the man you put there. Her furniture – all her worldly goods *will be* down here by the end of the month! It is over Aunt Theresa, over."

LaFiamma quietly hung up the phone and just stood there. It was like the ton of the world was lifted off his shoulder. Like the cocoon he'd been living in had just cracked to a million pieces. He turned to look at the shocked faces of his partner and his woman.

"Are you crazy LaFiamma?" Lundy growled fiercely. "That was... I mean, she can have you killed!!!"

Joe snapped his fingers, turned back to the phone and dialed Uncle Mikey's 800 number. "Uncle Mikey! Hey it's Joey. Just wanted to let you know I finally found the girl I want to marry. Yeah, really. It's Catherine Smith – Mrs. Baracotta's granddaughter. What? No, no, that was her mother in the car, not Catherine. She was one of the bystanders hurt by the explosion. Whoever told you it was Catherine never checked with the Nashville police or any of the hospitals to see who was really in the car. Several people on the sidewalk were injured and she was one of them. Uncle Mikey, I need to know who owns Apex Trucking. Catherine's neighbors have said that is who came and took all her stuff - furniture, clothes, everything – out of the house she owned. They even took her car. If they are holding it in storage anywhere, we want to put it into the house we're buying. Thanks Uncle Mikey. Thanks. I know you've waited a long time to hear me say that. Thanks, love you too."

"Did he tell you who owns it?" Cat asked anxiously as Tom Fraser walked back into his office.

"He didn't exactly tell me. But the word he uttered in Italian told me it was his wife. Come on ... Doc needs his office back." Joey said putting his arm around Catherine and pushing her toward the door.

"His wife?" Levon gasped staring at his partner. "You mean your Aunt Theresa?"

"Yes, it appears she had something to do with the cleanup anyway. He is going to check on the full ownership of the company." Looking at Catherine, Joe continued, "He was elated to know that you were alive. He said he always hoped something would come from our summer meetings."

In the hallway, Joe asked Levon to call his Fed friend. "Something big went down that day, and is still hanging out there. I would bet Cat's stuff was taken so they could filter through it. And if what my cousin said about keeping her close to us 24 and 7, that tells me after all these years they didn't find what they were looking for so they will be coming after her."

"Do you know Sebastian George? The man who was killed the other night?" Levon asked Catherine as the three walked into the Major Crimes Squad Room.

"Don't know anyone by that name," Catherine answered sitting down in a chair next to Joe's desk.

Sitting at his desk, Joey opened a folder and unclipped a picture of George and handed it to Catherine.

She took the photo then dropped it onto the desk and stared at it. "It's ... it's ... Ed's brother. His name is Francis Perry Smith. My god, what is going on Joey? What?"

Before Joe could answer a voice in the doorway said, "We'll take her now!"

Joey and Levon jumped to their feet, their chairs spinning fast as they leaped forward.

"She's not going anywhere!" LaFiamma shouted into the face of the first man who was showing him his ID. "Let alone with the C.I.A who can't even protect their own witnesses."

Levon cut Lieutenant Beaumont off as she emerged out of her office.

"Ha! You think we are going to turn her over to the Criminally Inept of America who have lost two already. I think not." The blond detective challenged.

The two detectives watched as the men introduced themselves to Beaumont and then explained that Mrs. Smith was a material witness and was being taken into their custody. Beaumont however saw the hostility her two detectives had towards these men and knew identifications can be forged.

"She has been in this city for quite some time, why haven't you picked her up before?" Joanne asked briskly, unmoving from her stance in front of Catherine. "It would appear that you gentlemen came out of nowhere...

"Wait a minute!" LaFiamma barked, "Let me see that ID again." This time he took it from the man's hand and examined it more closely. But as Joe started to slide the paper ID out of its holder the man lunged at him.

"What the hell you think you are doing? We're C.I.A, and we're taking her!" The man barked fiercely, his ears turning red in anger.

"ARREST THEM!" LaFiamma shouted, then laughing as he looked at the back on the identification card.

As Joe-Bill and Estaban came forward to disarm the two men, Joe read from the back of the card, loud and clear for all to hear. "Made especially for the Acme Toy Company, Chicago, Illinois."

Joey turned his attention to the two men being handcuffed. "Your one call better be to her, and tell her would you, that this is Texas and she ain't gonna win!"

"Wait a minute," Cat gasped getting up from her chair. That man has a tattoo that looks like leaves on the back of his hand. "Sabrina, one of my neighbors, said one of the men emptying my house ...... "

Joey turned his attention to that man. "Why? Why would Theresa LaFiamma go to so much trouble?"

Nodding toward Catherine, the man answered, "She knows why."

"But she doesn't. She never knew what her husband did." Joey replied calmly.

"Husband? You mean her father, don't you. The dude that was wasted was her father and his new wife!"

"It was her husband – and her mother." Joey said, emphasizing the word 'mother.'

The two men looked at each other, obviously shocked by what they were being told. "Your husband? Your mother?" The two men forgetting or perhaps not knowing who LaFiamma was began speaking in Italian for a few minutes.

But Joe cut them short. "You want to make a deal? Don't want to return to Chicago? You afraid you are going to end up as shark bait?"

The man with the tattoo, who's ID card gave the name of George Kaufman, said, "you know Italian?"

"Theresa is my aunt." Joe simply answered.

"But – you're a cop!" Kaufman replied in astonishment.

"Yeah, now tell me in English what she's looking for and why it was necessary to kill for it."

"She was kind of ... sort of a snitch for a federal investigation that was going on when she took you and your brothers into her family. She got so she liked being a mobster's wife. She didn't want to come out from being undercover. She liked the lifestyle and the power she had. She refused to leave. She cut herself off from all previous lives. No one in the LaFiamma family knew who she really was, and even if they had tried to find out they would have hit a dead end. They did send someone in to try and reason with her but she ..."

"The man in the barrel cut up for shark bait?" Joey asked quietly.

"How'd you know about that? .... Anyway, yeah, she had him killed and he was cut up in a meat packing plant and sent down for bait for deep sea fishing. She told her contact that if they sent anyone else the same thing would happen to them. When she got you out of the Marines, she figured you would fall right into the family and become a shooter like the Marines had trained you to be."

Joe swallowed. That was information he didn't want anyone to know, let alone those he worked with.

Standing in the Squad Room with the Major Crimes detectives eagerly hanging on every word the man identified as George Kaufman continued. "She hated it when you went into the Marine Corps, but when she found out what they tapped you for, she was elated. She figured she could pull you into the family as her personal assassin. After all, she figured you owed her for taking care of you all those years. You really pissed her off when you told her you were going to become a cop. Anyway... when her husband," nodding toward Cat, "agreed to be a shooter for the C.I.A., somehow he discovered Theresa LaFiamma's involvement in a disappearance of an agent. Not only an agent but one of her own husband's brothers."

"Brothers?!" Joey choked, "which brother?"

"Franco. He caught her giving orders to have someone put down, who we found out later should never have been killed." Kaufman replied, deciding to tell Joey everything.

"Wait a minute! Frank was killed by a drunk driver." Joey stated, a fact he had always believed. What was transpiring here was beyond what he even thought his aunt was capable of.

"Frank was killed by a driver in a heavily armored car, who pushed his car off a cliff so there would be no way he could survive. The car found at the scene with the liquor bottle was a plant."

"Oh, Jesus." Joey muttered, slipping back into his chair. It was too much, too fast.

Carol O'Brien's voice broke into his thoughts. "Joey. Phone. He says it's important."

Joe reached for the phone and asked, "LaFiamma."

"Yeah. Yeah." Then he broke into Italian and told his uncle about the death of his favorite brother Frankie. "Yeah, Yeah... I'll be sure to invite you to the wedding. You bet. Thanks Uncle Mikey. Love you too."

It was Catherine who plucked the phone from his hand and hung it up. It was Catherine who was smiling at him as he lifted his head. "Hey babe, it's been one hell of a day, hasn't it been. And this is only the first week of us being back together again."

Joey took a deep breath, gathered himself together, and stood up. Turning he faced the group who stood around the desk, but his eyes were on the two men handcuffed in front of him.

"What about Catherine's furniture? Is it retrievable?" He asked.

The men looked at each other. "Some might be. But most everything was broken apart ... ripped opened. All the couches, chairs, mattresses were slashed and the insides torn out. There are some knick-knacks boxed up in Apex's warehouse, but that is about all. Theresa wanted the tapes Catherine's husband found of Theresa killing that agent. And.. actually ... we got some tapes of our own if that will help us and bring her down."

"It might help you," Joey replied slowly, "but Theresa ... is already down, though I think Uncle Mikey would like to have anything you have on her." Joey replied his voice laced with remorse and sadness. "Were you supposed to call in?"

"Yeah, in fact we ..." looking at the clock up on the wall, the man gasped. It was an hour past the time they were to call. The boss would know they failed.

"How long ago were you supposed to call in?" Joey asked the man.

"Sixty-five minutes ago." He responded nervously.

"That explains Uncle Mikey's call then. Theresa was found in a house she owns ... where her bridge club meets every Thursday ...near death. She's in surgery now."

Turning to his desk, Joe picked up the photo of Sebastian George, and asked, "Did you kill this man?"

The two men studied the photo, and then said, "NO. Don't even know who he is?"

"He was Catherine's brother-in-law. Her husband's brother." Lundy offered.

"Naw, that can't be right. We met Edward and Francis Smith, and that ain't him." The second man in custody replied.

"But that can't be true," Catherine gasped, "Ed introduced this man to me as his brother!"

"He might have introduced him to you as his brother to cover up who he really was, but his brother for real ... no. His brother wears his hair really short -- like a military man. And ..."

"Oh shit!" LaFiamma growled turning to look at the picture again. Taking a piece of paper and a scissors out of his desk drawer, he cut a round circle out and discarded the circle. He laid the other part of the paper over the man's head and stared, cursing in Italian under his breath.

Turning to his Lieutenant, he said quietly, "Lieutenant, the rest of this conversation needs to be in private. Can we put these men in the holding cells for now?"

Lieutenant Beaumont so ordered, and told Estaban to close the double doors to the Squad Room and to keep everyone out.

Joey surveyed the room. His eyes roaming over Joe-Bill McCandless, Carol O'Brien, Lundy, Catherine, and a couple other detectives he knew and liked, and definitely didn't want to see taken down.

Joey swallowed two or three times before he pointed to the picture on his desk and said, "This man is a paid assassin who works for our government. His job is to take down anyone, and I mean anyone that he is ordered to. That could be the head of state of another country, it could be someone's brother in the back country of Louisiana."

Looking at Levon, Joey continued, "the shots in the grass this morning. Those were meant for me. Not a hit, not against a cop ... but because 'Blackie' stopped to talk with me. When you go out, you are always a two man team. One man backs up the other. When I side-stepped Blackie, his partner in the trees saw me as a threat. You are trained to eliminate all threats! It doesn't matter who that person might be. If you think he is a threat to your partner or your operation – he is terminated."

Looking back at Catherine and his Lieutenant, Joey continued. "This means that Cat's husband was a hired assassin for someone or some department in our government. It means this man was Ed's partner. In fact, I am surprised the Feds haven't already called on us to say the case has been closed."

"But from what Blackie said to you," Lundy remarked. "He said we were to watch Catherine 24 and 7. That means someone out there still thinks she is important and has something."

"But what?" Joey questioned, a light suddenly going on in his head. "Wait a minute! We are all forgetting Cat's mother. She knew the car was going to go! She sent Catherine for a purse that didn't exist. She didn't want Cat killed. We have to find out how she knew."

"Because they traveled together," came the soft answer from the woman who had sat back down in the chair next to Joe's desk.

"Many times Ed would call me and say he would be passing through Buffalo on his way home and why didn't he just pick up my mother and bring her for a short visit. I never really thought anything about until now. She would come for a long weekend but have luggage for a month."

"Maybe she is the one who recruited him in the first place. I mean, I'd never figure on a woman being a killer," Levon Lundy said as he watched Catherine watch Joe.

"This is all fine and good," Lieutenant Beaumont answered. "We still have a killer out there, and two men who were in the area but who say they didn't do it. Who is this Blackie you and Lundy keep referring to?"

"That answer, Lieutenant, will have to come between you and me in your office." Joey replied.

"Hey, you ain't keepin' me out of the loop!" Lundy growled. "I want to know how you knew to get down when no sound was made."

"But a sound was ... made...." Joey answered, his voice trailing off to a whisper, realizing the sound was a warning whistle from his cousin not from the whine of the first bullet.

LaFiamma just stood there saying nothing. He knew he couldn't tell Joanne who Blackie was without first getting permission to do so. And who the hell would he call to get that permission; he'd been out of the loop for seven years.

The constant ringing of a telephone broke through the tension of the room. It was Catherine who actually ended up answering it. "Major Crimes," she said sweetly. "Sergeant LaFiamma? Yes he's here, just a moment please."

Joey stared at the phone being handed to him. He already knew who it was. How they knew when to call was beyond him. It was like ... they had a bug in every room in every house or building in the world.

"LaFiamma." Joey answered curtly, not wanting to talk to the person he knew was on the other end. "Sir!" he answered sharply, acknowledging the officer on the other end of the line. "I need permission to tell them! Why? ... Sir... Because they have the right to know what the hell is going on down here! ... then you better get your buns over here and tell my Lieutenant ... SIR!"

Joe handed the phone back to Cat and looked at Joanne Beaumont. "You will be notified in short order that the murder we are working is off limits and has been taken over by the Feds. All information will shortly be confiscated by ...." Joe stopped in mid-statement wondering is *69 for reverse calling worked in Houston. Grabbing the phone he tried it, smiling when he heard Colonel Guthrie's voice answer 'Guthrie."

"It's LaFiamma. What about Catherine?"

LaFiamma did not like the long pause on the other end of the phone. Nor could he believe what he was hearing when his former Colonel said, "Son, the woman in front of you is not your Catherine. Your Catherine died with her husband and two children when their car exploded. Your Catherine is part of a highly sophisticated gang that has been involved in fraud and murder for a number of years. We have been tracking her for two years. She has married two men in the last five years, and they all died within the first six months of marriage. She exhorted money from their families – all wealthy and in one case, a mob family who didn't want their name in the papers. We do not know who she really is. ... And Joseph, your Aunt Theresa was never, ever an agent for us – ever! If you can break your lady down, contact Blackie. Good luck, son."

Joey heard the click of the phone in his ear, and still stood there listening to the dial tone ring in his ear. Until this phone call, he was happy. Elated to have found a long lost love and now he had heard that his long lost love was dead and this person was a stranger. And... and ... // oh god that means someone tried to kill Aunt Theresa, but why? //

Joey slowly dropped the receiver down, took a deep breath and turned around.

Looking at his partner, LaFiamma said quietly, "You were right, Lundy, she's not who she says she is."

LaFiamma stared at Catherine. He wanted to throw her over his shoulder and take her to bed. At the same time, he wanted to thrust his hand in her chest and rip her guts out!

Beaumont interrupted his thoughts. "While you were on the phone, the Chief called." She said staring straight into LaFiamma's intense blue eyes. "The murder case has not only been taken out of our hands but has been closed. Do you want to tell me why?"

Slowly Joey's eyes met hers. Further words Joanne was going to say caught in her throat as she saw great sadness in her detective's eyes. Whoever that call was from, was not good news.

"I can't tell you why, Lieutenant. If I told you I would be shot. What I can tell you is ... we would hit dead ends at every curve ... we would be stonewalled by the Feds. We would be running in circles and getting nowhere. The identities of these men have been sealed. Anything Carol would try to find would come up with 'Access Denied.' "

Taking a deep breath, he looked from Joanne to Catherine. "But Lieutenant, we have a bigger problem. This woman that I am in love with ... is not ... who she says she is. The real Catherine Smith is dead. She died in a car explosion along with her husband and two children."

The silence in the Squad Room was deafening. You could hear the gasps of surprise as Joey's remark hit each person present differently.

"So, whoever you are," the Italian began....

"Jo-Jo, come on!" Catherine said standing. "I don't know who you just talked to but what I told you is true. Surely you believe me."

"The man on the phone was Colonel Charles Angus Guthrie. I served under him in the Marine Corps. I have never known him to be wrong. And he said my Aunt was never... never an agent or a spy." LaFiamma answered his jaw tight.

"Come now, Joey! Your aunt cut her own throat! That certainly has to say something about her guilt." Catherine stated harshly.

The murmur around the group in the room startled Catherine. Had she misjudged something? The plan was going so well. She is sure Joey mentioned what happened to his aunt.

"Cut her own throat?" Joe-Bill McCandless chortled, "Lady that is near impossible!"

Joey grabbed Catherine's wrist and forced her up against his desk. No one in the room stopped him. "I said my aunt had been taken down. I did not say how. So, Catherine! Or whoever the hell you are, how did you know her throat had been cut?! A friend of yours maybe? They should have checked her out more thoroughly. She is left-handed. It is pretty hard to cut from the left to the right if she did it herself. She is just dam lucky someone arrived before she bled to death!"

Catherine shoved Joey backwards. "Theresa Antonia Serena LaFiamma WAS an agent! I know that for a fact!"

Joey started laughing, this day had been too much he'd reached the wall. His laughing turned to tears, and they streamed down his face as Lundy and Carol came up next to him to support him. 

"Whoever did your research lady ... got it all... wrong. While Theresa might have used her power to get rid of some people, it was Tessa Antonia LaFiamma Serena who had government contacts. And she wasn't an agent. She was in protective custody as a material witness. She witnessed a gangland killing on her return home to Chicago after visiting family in Italy. Being the upstanding law and order woman that she was ... she agreed to testify. Two days after the bastard was sentenced she died along with two Federal agents, her mother and her husband's mother in a fiery car crash. My Aunt Theresa married into the family. Tessa was born into the family. Her husband lost his wife, and was left with a ten-year-old son, and a year old daughter. So this big play you are involved in is going to come crashing down around you... "

"Not possible! You are lying!" Catherine spat out vehemently. "You are just trying to get out of marrying me! But you won't – you said in front of these witnesses..."

Suddenly the Squad's double doors that had been shut were flung open by the fumbling public relations man, Scully. As the doors opened Catherine made a dash for freedom, but her flight was cut short by Sergeants Carol O'Brien and Estaban Gutierrez.

"Oh no, baby," Carol said curtly, "you aren't going anywhere. And hurting Joey like that – ain't no one in this building going to take your side."

LaFiamma watched his lover being handcuffed and led away. Beaumont softly touched Joe's shoulder and told him his uncle was on the phone again and to take the call in her office.

Joe walked into his Lieutenant's office and closed the door. With a heavy sigh, he collapsed in one of the chairs in front of her desk before reaching for the phone. "LaFiamma."

Joey listened intently to his uncle who explained that Aunt Theresa's wound was not as serious as they first thought. Then Joey filled his Uncle in on everything that had just transpired here. When Uncle Mikey found out that Tessa was the intended target, he suggested to his nephew that Joe call Colonel Guthrie and turn Catherine and the two men over to them. Joey protested until he heard that Tessa's husband had been trying for years to find out who had killed off half his family. That's when Joey realized just who – in the family line – Tessa's husband was. He was the butcher who worked for the largest slaughter house in Chicago. He supplied the best prime beef for all the annual LaFiamma gatherings. Joey also remembered two uncles who were being harassed by a neighbor, and they complained about it to The Family. Tessa's husband said, 'he would talk to them,' and they were never seen again. In fact he remembered.... God no... no matter who she is we can't have used as shark bait.

Joey reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He opened it and reached in to pluck out a small piece of paper that had been folded four times. He read the number, refolded the paper, put the paper back in his wallet, and his wallet back into his pocket before calling the number. He explained the reason for his call, and why his uncle suggested it. 

Hanging up the phone as he stood up, LaFiamma looked out the office windows and discovered that the Squad Room was back in business a'buzz with people. He left Joanne's office and went to his desk to wait for the Marines to arrive. He knew it wouldn't be long.

As he began to sit, or tried to, one after another officer stopped him to say how sorry they were about Catherine. Frankly he didn't think anyone would care about his feelings, and he was truly surprised how many did.

His body was just relaxing, ready and willing to wilt into his desk chair when he saw Lundy's astonished look, staring at someone or something behind him. Turning to see what was going on, Joe heard his name pronounced in true military fashion – "LOU-TEN-NET LA FEE—AMA!"

It was not who he expected at all. It was his cousin... 'Blackie' to Lundy, and Murphy – the shooter who missed him thanks to Blackie's warning. Only they were no longer dressed in midnight black. Blackie, whose real name was Burton, Burt for short, was dressed in Marine blues, and Murphy was in boots and fatigues.

"Dang if you don't look sharp, cuz!" Joey exclaimed, throwing his arms around the man and giving him a huge bear hug. "So – what brings you here? It had to be something to get you all gussied up in your best shirt." Joey said laughingly, ignoring the stares Lundy, Estaban and Carol were giving him.

Burt laughed, said a few words in Italian that brought another chuckle from Joey, and remarked, "Colonel said you have a couple of three pickups for us. Brought the van ... just in case anyone is combative."

"Yea, we do," Joey replied tightly. "That lady I told you – the one I was going to marry. Seems she likes to marry 'em .., kill 'em .., and collect. Whoever she is working with – they thought Aunt Theresa was Tessa."

"OH SHIT! Are you kidding me! You mean Tessa's husband is gonna come looking for her and these dudes? Joseph! Who the hell told you to ask the Colonel to do this?" Burton James LaFiamma exclaimed, no way did he want to come up against that family butcher.

"Uncle Mikey." Came Joe's simple answer.

"You going to ride shotgun?" Murphy asked quietly.

"Can't. I'm a cop now." Joey replied slowly.

"Hell, if that is all that is stopping you ... I can get the Colonel to authorize you..." Burt began.

"NO! No. No!" LaFiamma barked back before Burton finished his sentence.

"Authorize Joe for what?" Beaumont asked, curious of the dialogue between these two men.

"Authorize Joe back into The Corps for temporary duty. He can do that if a sharpshooter is needed." Murphy replied without thinking.

"Joe's ... a sharpshooter?" Lieutenant Beaumont asked, looking from the Marines to her detective and back again.

"Oh great Murphy, you just got us all killed!" Joey barked harshly, picking up movement in the hall that told him someone important was approaching. When he saw an officer, who was a Reservist, salute, he knew just who it was.

Joey watched Colonel C.A. Guthrie make a square corner from the hall into the Squad Room. "LaFiamma." The name rolled off the Colonel's lips as soft as morning dew drops upon a rose pedal.

"Colonel," LaFiamma replied, staring into the man's crystal blue eyes.

Murphy muttered, 'oh shit' and stepped back, allowing his commanding officer to pass in front of him.

"You're looking good." The man continued, his stare not wavering from Joe's eyes.

"As ... are you, Sir." Joe answered his voice barely a whisper.

Even Beaumont could feel the electric charge passing between these two men, yet Joanne did not feel it was sexual. It was something far more intimate than that.

"Listen, Colonel ... Murphy didn't mean that remark. It just sort of slipped out."

"And which remark was that?" Guthrie questioned, turning on his heel to face Murphy. Guthrie looked from Burton to Murphy and then said, "The prisoners are being loaded now. You two had best be on your way."

The two came to attention, clicked their heels, saluted and disappeared into the hall.

Guthrie turned his attention to Joanne Beaumont. "Lieutenant Beaumont, may I speak with you and LaFiamma in your office please? There is something of great importance I need to discuss with both of you."

LaFiamma held the door open for Beaumont and Guthrie as they walked into her office. Then he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He stood at the door in semi-parade rest with his hands behind him resting on the doorknob.

Guthrie motioned LaFiamma into the office, yet Joe did not move. Guthrie nodded and turned his attention to Beaumont. "LaFiamma is one of the best sharpshooters I've ever had under me, and I need to borrow him for a few days. Don't ask where he is or when he will be back because I can't tell you."

"Sir..." Joey began, not wanting to be whisked away to some jungle again.

"Joseph – Tony's been captured by Chief Baalugah."

It was a simple statement, but it brought LaFiamma off the door in an instant, with a shout for an answer, "OH MY GOD, NO!"

Estaban was sitting on the edge of Joe-Bill's desk discussing a case when Joe shouted. They heard the shout and the look of horror on their fellow detectives face but had no idea what caused it.

"You're skills up-to-date, son."

"Matter-of-fact they are Sir. All I need is someone to take care of my cat."

"I thought she was arrested?" Guthrie quizzed, not understanding his Marine's statement.

"That one has Sir, but my real cat is probably still hiding under my sofa where she ran when Lundy stormed into my apartment this morning like a herd of buffalo."

"Give me your keys, Joe. Carol has cats I'll see that she takes care of it." Beaumont replied. Then in an attempt to keep her detective, she added, "Whose authority do you have to come in here and take LaFiamma without first notifying us?"

Guthrie looked shocked, and then realized she had no idea that he could take LaFiamma whenever he needed him. "Why ... the President of the United States!" Colonel Guthrie answered. "He also gave Joseph LaFiamma the authority to kill anyone who is a threat to this country and its government. Joseph was one of my best assassins. And his brother Tony is another one. I thought you were informed of this when he was transferred down here." Guthrie stated looking into the woman's shocked face.

"No sir, she wasn't." Joey answered quietly. "No one down here even knew that I was in the Marines – until today. I was told not to inform anyone, and ... under no circumstances was I to say what I did, should they find out I was in."

"Balderdash! That is nonsense! You were a sharpshooter, and they do many things. You were just better than anyone else and were used more wisely."

"Shouldn't we be after Tony sir?" Joey pleaded, worried that his brother might already be burning at the stake.

"Yes! Thank you Joseph. We must be on our way. I'll have him back in a day or two ... a week at the most." Guthrie replied pointing LaFiamma towards the door.

Joey dug his house key out of his pocket and toss them to Beaumont. As Joe and Guthrie exited Beaumont's office, Lundy and Carol approached but Joe waved them off saying, "See you in a week ... I hope."

"Wait a minute! What do you mean – see you in a week?" Lundy shouted as the two men left the squad and walked toward the elevators.

Joey motioned the Colonel to the stairs where they pushed open the door and disappeared down the steps. They were outside in minutes and Joe could hear the sound of a helicopter hovering close by. He was surprised as hell to jump onboard and come face to face with his brother Tony.

"What the hell is going on?" Joe questioned as Guthrie slid the door shut and the bird lifted upward.

"It's Aunt Theresa, Joe. We figured this was the only way to get you into the hospital safely and out again."

"But Uncle Mikey said it wasn't as serious as they first thought."

"His phone's been bugged for a couple of months. This Catherine whoever she is has been trying to get any information on all of us. He couldn't tell you the truth. Whoever tried to cut her throat did a bad job, and she put up one hell'va fight. She's been asking for you since it happened. I called the Colonel and asked if there was a way to get you safely into Chicago and out again. I figured Rizzo wouldn't take on the Marine Corps because we'd bury him."

"Is she going to die?" Joey asked, vividly remembering her smiling face and the constant embrace of her arms after his mother died.

"No Joe, she's not going to die... but she would have if you hadn't sent Tessa after her." Tony answered.

"Tessa? Tessa's dead!" Joey gasped, wondering what the hell was happening.

"You didn't know? God, doesn't anything about the family get passed to you any more? This Tessa is Aunt Tessa's daughter. She said she heard you plain as day say -- 'Tessa get Aunt Theresa.' So she hopped in her car and raced to the rental where she knew Theresa was, because she and her husband were going to be renting it."

"Tony, I don't even know this Tessa! I've been involved with Catherine all morning. I haven't called anyone other than Uncle Mikey."

"Perhaps it was the dead Tessa she heard." Guthrie said breaking the astonished silence between the two. "You two do know that the dead can help you when you are in a real pinch, don't you?" Guthrie asked, his eyes burning holes into Joey's blue ones. After all it was Joe's grandmother, who forced them both awake and kept them moving safely in an area where they should have been captured and killed. Joe was bleeding badly. There trail should have been easy for the enemy to follow, yet... "If you grandmother kept us alive Joseph ... could not Tessa do the same for Theresa?"

Tony and Joe looked at each other. Their family had some strange heritage, and now even their colonel believed the story.

"Joanne! What the hell is going on? Who was that guy? Where's Joe going?" Lundy lambasted one question after another into Joanne's face.

"I don't know where he is going, Levon. I don't know when he'll be back. The man was Colonel Guthrie. Joe served under him in the Marine Corps. Joe was a sharpshooter in the Marine Corps – and the President of the United States has need of him. That is all I know." She turned on her heels and walked back into her office closing the door as LaFiamma had done earlier. Standing there, she stared into her office amazed at how fast things change around here.

The Marine Corps, Joanne thought. Of all the military service branches to chose from she wondered why he picked that one. Walking to her desk, she figured LaFiamma probably learned early on how to handle a gun which is probably why he was so good at it. Got other things to think about ... oh shit, Joe's cat. Turning she walked back into the squad room.

"Carol! I told Joey you would take care of his cat. Feed it and such." Joanne said tossing Carol the keys.

"But I thought..." several said at once.

"No, this one is from the Humane Society. Orange tiger I think he said. He said it dashed under his couch this morning when Levon stormed into his place unannounced. You'd better go over and have a look. See if you can find him.... Or her."

Joey looked down at the security around the heliport of the hospital. You would have thought the President was landing with all the Marine guard around the place.

He stepped off the copter into a group of six men. They walked in unison to the elevator where six more were already inside, and he was passed to them. And so it went all the way to Aunt Theresa's room. Inside the hospital room was Uncle Mikey and a couple of uncles and others he didn't recognize. They parted for him as he entered and Joe walked to the side of her bed.

"Jo-Jo," Theresa whispered, hoarsely.

Surprise – shock registered across Joe's face, then he realized Catherine could have talked to anyone in the family to find out the name he was called while his father was still alive. Instead of Big Joe and Little Joe, as Levon was called Little Levon, his father was Joe and he was Jo-Jo. He realized then that Theresa was still talking to him.

"No, no. I'm okay," he said repeatedly. "Really Aunt Theresa I'm okay. We've arrested her. She had a grudge against Tessa Serena ... she thought you were Tessa. She didn't know you weren't until this morning. No, no.... I'm okay. Really."

The two Marines at the door had eyes only for LaFiamma, and they didn't waver to anyone else in the room. Probably none of Joe's family realized that the Marines standing inside the door and out were special forces, some of whom had worked with Joey. Had anyone made a move on Joe, they would have been dead before they hit the floor.

Tessa LaFiamma moved away from his father and walked toward the hospital bed. Out of the corner of his eye Joey saw one of the Marines move off the door. He looked up at them and then the girl moving toward him. 

Just as the Marine produced a hand gun from his belt, Joey raised his arm, his hand holding them off. "It's okay. She's okay." He said firmly, stopping the man in his tracks. "She's not a threat. At ease."

Uncle Mikey watched the play before him. He hadn't really noticed the men at uniform at the door, now he looked them over. Their eyes were glued to his nephew yet they were aware of every movement in the room.

Uncle Mikey was a short man but the presence he carried within himself made him ten feet tall. He edged over toward the door and told the two men they could wait outside. That there was no threat to Joe here. The Marine who had stepped off the door turned his head and looked down at Michael LaFiamma who was about a foot shorter than he was.

"Our orders are to protect our Lieutenant at all costs. We have done so in the past and are doing so now. We go where he goes. If he has to pee, we are there."

Tessa extended her hand to Joe. "I'm Tessa. I'm new to this LaFiamma telepathy thing, but I am so glad you ..."

'It wasn't me. It was your mother." Joe replied in all seriousness. "Theresa probably talked to Tessa as she got your house ready for you. I can't tell you how I know – but I know that is who it was. It wasn't me."

Tessa stared at him. "My mother? My mother is dead Sergeant LaFiamma."

"Yes, and so is my grandmother. Yet my grandmother is responsible for saving my life and my colonel's life when we really should have died. It takes a while getting used to, but you'll find out when you move into the house Theresa was preparing that it was her."

"Excuse me Lieutenant LaFiamma, it's time to go." The second Marine at the door said, moving two steps off the door. "The copter is leaving and we need to be on it."

Joe looked up confused at first and then realized there was no way he could stay there for two or three days. He would be a threat to his own family. He bent low and gave his Aunt Theresa another hug telling her in Italian that he'd found a cat at the Pound like her Georgie. Joe said a few words to Uncle Mikey, gave the man a lingering hug then was gone.

Back into the six to the elevator, and so on back to the copter whose rotors were already turning. This time only Guthrie was in the copter as it took off.

Guthrie waited until the copter was airborne before he asked, "Was it your grandmother again?"

"No Sir. This time it was the aunt that our 'Catherine Smith' was trying to kill. Checking into that case file might come up with who she is."

"Consider it done." Guthrie reached across and touched LaFiamma's hand. "Can I talk you back into The Corps? You're really needed, son. You really are."

"No sir. You know the reason I left. That reason hasn't changed."

"I can activate you any time, you know that. There are still three years left on that agreement you signed. If the President asks for my most qualified man, I would have to tell him you are it."

LaFiamma swallowed. He didn't have to be reminded that he still had three years left on the contract he signed when under pressure from the Secretary of State to do what was right for 'his' country. Every day he woke up wondering if he was going to be called to be transported away to lay in the bush or on a building roof to kill someone the government thought was a threat. He had drawn the line when asked to kill a woman he knew. Yes she was a subversive but she was also a mother of three and he didn't want orphaned kids on his mind.

"Colonel, I'm sure a lot better men have come along in the last few years that can out shoot me." Joey said knowing there had to be someone who had bettered his score by now.

"Actually Joseph – your scores on the range are still the most accurate of any class we have had." Colonel Guthrie boasted proudly.

"You're kidding, right?" Joe answered, staring at the colonel not knowing if he should believe the man or not.

"No, I am not kidding. Call the base Information Officer. Ask her the name of the highest scoring shooter that has ever trained there. It will surprise you ... ask for the score. In fact, she's tried to beat your score for the last three years and hasn't broken it yet," Guthrie mused, opening his wallet and producing a business card, then handing it to LaFiamma.

"I think you know her." Colonel Guthrie said with a chuckle.

Joey gawked at the name on the card – 'Catherine Young Smith.'

It was well after midnight when the copter dropped him outside Reisner and he jogged into the parking garage to pick up his car. He couldn't believe everything that had happened that day. It had started out beautifully with a woman in his bed and ended in Chicago viewing what Catherine whoever was responsible for.

Joe got into the Cobra and headed for his apartment, fishing around in his glove compartment trying to find his spare key as he drove. He was surprised to see Lundy's red GMC parked outside his apartment building. He found the key stuck between some insurance papers. He locked up the car putting the rain cover over it, and walked into the building.

He smiled as he entered his apartment. There on his couch was his cowboy partner, hat over his eyes, feet propped up on an arm, and fast asleep ... an orange ball of fur lay curled on the cowboy's belly just above the Texan's Texas belt buckle. Joe quietly, silently locked the door and went up the spiral staircase to the loft bedroom. Undressing, he looked over the railing at the two sleepers on his couch. //This is one cat you ain't takin' from me Lundy! I'll fight you for this one. // Tomorrow he would field Lundy's questions; right now all he wanted was sleep.

THE END

February 2005