Secrets

6 weeks later

Rachel had never been so excited to return to work. Even though she loved her children, her husband had been driving her crazy. He took over the President position at his father's company shortly after the babies were born. Then proceeded to do a full company evaluation... from home. As grateful as she was to have him there, she was frustrated as well. His worry about her wellbeing was attractive, however, the non-stop part needed to stop.

The click-clack of her heels against the tile flooring brought a smile to her face. It was nice to get out of the house by herself even if it was just to work. The funding for her research may have been pulled but she had a feeling it would return shortly.

Lillian and her father were arrested for embezzlement and attempted kidnapping. The police commissioner himself came to their home and issued a formal apology to both of them. Even offered Dean his position back, to which he told the commissioner he would think about it.

Their home... gosh, their home! Dean surprised her with a beautiful European style home. Three bed four baths with a soaking tub and built-in office in the master suite. Oh, and the kitchen, she thought she had died and gone to Home Depot it was something right of a catalog.

Dean assured her when she left this morning that he had everything handled, there was no need to hire a nanny he was their father and could take care of them. Rachel was apprehensive but he insisted.

So here she was walking the familiar halls she missed so darn much. Slipping her key into the lock on her office was like coming home. It was bittersweet though, she hadn't even been here a minute and she couldn't wait to be back home with her little family. A sound behind her made her turn to see who was joining her for work this morning.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"You're in early Detective."

Ben just nodded his head, keeping his gaze on the five files in front of him.

"Back on that cold case, I see."

Again, Ben just nodded, his new partner wasn't his favorite person in the world but he wasn't the worst either. He likes to talk a lot.

Ben scowled at the case files, it's like the answer to all of his questions were right in front of him but he couldn't see it. He couldn't believe this case had gone cold so quickly. It was the last case he and Dean had worked on as partners. He was eager to get justice for the victims.

He felt like he was letting them down though because he couldn't find one thing that linked them all together.

"Well, let's have a look then, partner," Manny Hansen said holding out his hand for the files.

Ben shrugged and handed him one.

Manny started flipping through the file and sighed, "I can't work like this."

He stood up and grabbed their case board and flipped it to the empty side where he proceeded to tack up everything about the victim David Pierce. He did the same with Alyson Jones except on the opposite side and Britney Green's as well. He proceeded to tack up pictures and information on all the victims until the made a circle on the board. He then got a pack of sticky notes and a sharpie.

"Alright, so we know they all work at the same hospital," Manny said writing it on a sticky note and putting it smack dab in the middle of the circle.

"These two were nurses," Ben pointed out. Manny wrote on the sticky note and place it between two women.

The two kept at it for the next hour coming up empty, they have links between two victims but not all five.

"Do you have their financial reports?" Manny asked.

"Yeah, Dean was working on them when he got fired," Ben said with a sigh and pulled out the reports from another file.

Manny looked over them for a few minutes, "Hey, didn't you say your old partner was gung ho on there being a werewolf connection?"

"Yeah," Ben said with a nod of his head, "obsessed with it actually."

"I think I found why," Manny said placing down five separate papers. "He highlighted a transaction for each of them. It looks like they each made a donation to "Wild Wolves" about a month before the first murder."

"I know them!" Ben said moving to his computer, "My wife's best friend is an ambassador for them, they're a werewolf conservation charity. They raise money to help orphaned children who have the curse."

Ben pulled the website for the group up on his computer.

"It looks like they had a rally that day," He said, "there are photos from the rally."

Manny stood behind him looking at the site with him, "Looks like our victims were at the rally, does it say who ran it."

Ben clicked on a few more things before he mumbled, "shit," and stood up quickly grabbing his gun from its safety storage in his desk and holstering it quickly.

"What's going on?" Manny asked following his lead.

"Remember that best friend of my wife's?" he asked but didn't wait for an answer. "She's like a little sister to me, she ran the rally the victims attended, and I think she's the next target."

"What, how?"

"Because the murderer was in the photos too."