Any hope of reaching his desk without drawing further attention to himself was completely obliterated by Skalany's yelp. "Partner! You're back!" She flung her arms around his neck and embraced him fiercely before planting a resounding kiss on his cheek.

Peter smile was more of a grimace as he acknowledged greetings from his other co-workers. He scrubbed at his face with the back of his hand, effectively smearing the imprint of bright red lips. "For crying out loud, Skalany, I've only been gone two weeks."

She grinned at him happily. "We're just surprised to see you, Peter. Didn't think you were coming in for quite a while yet. Kacie must be out of the hospital?"

His shoulders sagged and he shook his head unhappily. "Not for at least another week."

The smile faded from Skalany's face and she regarded Peter soberly. "But she's going to be all right, isn't she? What are you doing here if she's still there?"

Jody and Kermit joined the pair at Peter's desk.

Peter's lower lip drooped. "She kicked me out. Told me I was hovering, and it was driving her nuts." Lifting his head, he earnestly beseeched his friends, "I don't hover, do I?"

Someone snickered, and Peter's head whipped in Kermit's direction, eyes narrowing.

Kermit raised both hands in surrender. "Sorry, Kid, but where your lady is concerned, you don't just hover. You're like a mother hen protecting her only chick."

Peter's eyes darkened in misery as he berated himself, "I sure do a hell of a job of protecting her, don't I?"

Blake spoke up unexpectedly. "Don't even go there, Pete. There's not a one of us here who's going to let you beat yourself up over this."

Peter reached for the framed picture sitting on the top of his desk. Tracing a finger around the familiar blue-eyed face, he spoke softly. "I'll never be able to repay you all for everything you've done." His voice wavered. "For finding Kace." He glanced up at Blake, and the two men shared a long, meaningful look. "For saving my sorry ass." His voice thickened with emotion. "I owe you all so much..."

"Well, then --" Kermit shrugged offhandedly. "-- You can take the Baker case I've been working on for the past two months."

"You can take my place on the stakeout I've been assigned to for the next week," Jody offered.

"You can loan me the Stealth since my car's in the shop," Mary Margaret suggested brightly.

"You could just get started on the caseload that's been gathering dust on your desk," Frank growled. "Plus these five." He slapped several thick manila folders on top of the pile already strewn over Peter's desktop.

Peter laughed and set down Kacie's picture on his desk. He looked around the group, shaking his head and throwing up his hands in defeat. "Here I was, having a Hallmark moment with you all, and you go and ruin it by being yourselves."

Simms's commanding voice interrupted the reunion. "Detective Caine? My office."

Peter stiffened at her tone and shook his head in amazement. "I feel like I've been in the Twilight Zone and I never was gone at all." Swiveling his head, he made eye contact with Simms. "Right away, Captain."

Peter squared his shoulders and strode into Simms's office as his friends scattered in various directions.

Karen Simms, sitting at her desk scribbling furiously on a stack of forms, glanced up only briefly as Peter entered. "Close the door, Detective."

Raising one eyebrow at his captain, Peter obeyed the directive. He stood quietly before her desk until she waved a hand in the direction of a chair. "Sit down."

Easing himself into the proffered seat, Peter cleared his throat and spoke nervously. "I-I want to thank you, Captain, for being so understanding about my-my situation. I appreciate the compassionate leave, and I assure you that now that I'm back to work, I'll catch up quickly."

"What makes you think you're back to work?" Simms speared him with a cool stare. "I seem to remember finding a letter of resignation from you."

Peter's jaw dropped, and he stared at his captain in open-mouthed surprise. "I-I forgot about that." Closing his mouth, he swallowed at the sudden dryness there and slowly rose to his feet. "I...well, in that case, I guess that I have to..." He stopped speaking and shrugged helplessly. "I guess I don't know what I have to do."

Simms rested her arms on her desk and folded her hands calmly. "Am I to assume you were not sincere in your desire to quit the force?"

"It-it seemed like the thing to do at the time," he confessed. "I-I didn't know how things were going to play out, so I..."

"So you figured that we here at the precinct weren't going to be able to help you, and rather than give us that chance, you went out on your own to do your Lone Ranger thing, and let the chips fall where they may?"

"It wasn't like that! It wasn't like that at all!" Peter snapped, eyes blazing.

"Then tell me, Detective. What was it like?"

Peter paced the small office area like a caged tiger, his anger growing. "It seemed like the only way," he insisted. "The things that Kermit and Blake were doing with their Internet connections were questionable, at best. If this thing was going to blow up, I didn't see any reason to ruin anyone else's life but my own."

"So you went out there, planning to kill Sara?"

"Yes. No! I-I wasn't planning anything, other than to stall for time. To-to-to see if I couldn't convince Sara to let Kacie go." He halted abruptly and shuddered, remembering the scene at the motel. "But when-when I saw her, the way she was that day --" He sucked on his lower lip, releasing it with a faint click of his tongue. "--I knew she was strung out. I knew there'd be no reasoning with her."

"And that's when you planned to kill her?"

Peter's head shot up and his eyes blazed furiously at his captain. "I didn't have a plan," he snarled. "Even when she was all over me, I didn't have a plan. Come on, Captain. You must have listened to Blake's tape. What do you want from me? A play by play? You want to know exactly who touched who and how? You want to know exactly what she did that made me knock her off the bed? You getting some kind of cheap thrill from all of this?"

"Sit down, Detective Caine," Simms hissed, slamming the top of her desk with both hands. "I'm going to forget that last comment, and attribute it to the fact that I egged you on. But what I was doing is mild compared to what could get thrown at you. A situation has developed over the deaths of Rezac and Jason Fischer."

"Situation?" Peter's lip curled into a snarl. "What? The city couldn't find a toxic waste dump that would take the bodies?"

"Attitude won't help, Detective."

"Attitude?" Peter's laugh was harsh. "I nearly lost my family because of those two slime balls. Just what do you expect my attitude to be, Captain?"

"I expect you to be a professional!" Simms snapped back. "We have two dead bodies and a felony kidnapping case that was not handled according to procedure. All this involving a high-profile detective who is not exactly known for his conventional methods of dealing with crime."

Peter relaxed only slightly. "So just what is the 'situation'?"

Cocking an expressive eyebrow at her top detective, Simms stated simply, "Fischer's sister is a well-to-do, highly respected investment counselor in the St. Paul area. She's demanding an investigation into his death, accusing this department of covering up the murder of her brother."

Peter's eyes widened. "She's claiming the precinct was involved in the bastard getting himself killed?"

"No. She's claiming that we know who killed her brother and that we are doing nothing to bring the murderer to justice."

"That's bullshit! Kermit said the guy was dead when he and the others got there, and there wasn't anyone else around."

"Except for your wife."

Peter was on his feet in an instant, towering over the top of Simms's desk as he spat, "Unconscious and nearly dead!"

Simms went on as if he hadn't spoken. "The autopsy done on Rezac showed long-term damage to internal organs, and death was due to a massive stroke. Fischer, however, was killed by the severance of his spinal cord. The murder weapon was a four-inch metal star. The type a martial arts expert would use. The kind of thing your father --"

"Wait just a God-damned minute. Now you're trying to say --"

Simms's anger flared to match Peter's. She was out of her chair and leaning forward nearly nose to nose with him before he could finish his sentence. "What I'm trying to say, if you would shut your mouth long enough to listen, is that there is going to be an investigation. No one has been implicated in anything, and no suspect has been accused of anything, at least not officially. Now do you suppose we could sit down and discuss this like two rational human beings?"

Pushing himself away from the desk, Peter raked a hand through his hair and forced himself to sit down again. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand and sighed before speaking. "I'm sorry, Captain." He looked over at her, his jaw set in grim lines. "Every time I think about that bastard touching my wife, being responsible for nearly killing her and my baby..." His strained facial features mirrored his mental anguish, and he closed his eyes before taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly. "You said investigation. By whom? And when? I assume IA?"

"You assume correctly. They want to meet with you as soon as possible. I told them I would contact them when you came in to work."

"I thought you said I wasn't working here. What about my letter of resignation?"

A glimmer of humor shone in Simms's eyes. "I put it in the file Captain Blaisdell started with the other letters you have submitted in the past. Since I never officially accepted it, you never officially resigned." Pursing her lips, she paused to gather her thoughts.

"Something else you wanted to say, Captain?"

She stared at him solemnly. "A word of advice, Detective. When IA conducts their interview with you, I hope to hell that you can control yourself better than you did with me. I would hate to see a career like yours go up in flames because you shot your mouth off once too often."

He watched her a moment, then grinned crookedly. "Point well taken, Captain. I expect IA to play dirty. You blind-sided me."

She killed an answering smile before it fully developed. "You want me to sit in on the interview with you?"

"Baby-sit me?" He laughed. "Thanks for the offer, Captain, but I'll be a good boy."

"I'll be right outside the window, if you change your mind."

"I appreciate the thought, Captain. All right, I'm ready to be thrown to the wolves. How soon?"

She checked the clock on the wall. "Downstairs in half an hour."

"Oh-kay." He stood up and gave her the three-fingered Boy Scout salute. "I promise to be on my best behavior." He turned on his heel and exited her office.

Staring after him, Simms muttered, "I certainly hope so."

To Part 3

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