Gabriel and John pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the office building that contained John's law firm. 

"Look, maybe I should go in there alone?" Gabriel offered. 

"What the hell for?" John wanted to know.

"One, you still work there and two, if Angel is there, I don't know if she'll want to see you right now." 

"If she's in trouble, I really don't care if she wants to see me or not. She's going to get my help and because I work there, I can get you in the building much faster than if you tried to go it alone." 

"Fine," Gabriel conceded. "We'll go together, but if we find her I get to talk to her first." 

"Fine," John said, "I don't think we're on speaking terms anyway at the moment." Both men approached the glass door entrance with retribution on their minds.

Gabriel had to reach Angel before something drastic took place if she were removed from this world, it would irrevocably damage too many lives. Gabriel knew he must keep this from happening. 

John wanted answers. Like why were Veronica's clothes aboard his boat? And why were they after Angelique? There was no way they were going to lose this case. This seemed personal. 

"Hey, Charlie!" John waved to the security guard as he entered the building. 

"John!" A veteran turned security guard waved back. 

"Charlie, you didn't see a young woman around 5'3, nice build, shoulder-length ashy blonde hair, and blue eyes pass through here, did you?" 

"Can't say that I have? But I only came on shift about half an hour ago. Why? Did your latest conquest give you slip?" Charlie asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah," John said. "You could say that." 

"I keep telling you, John, life is much simpler when you settle down." 

"Charlie, one of these days I just might take that advice." 

Charlie just snorted in disbelief. "Yeah, well, I won't hold my breath waiting for that wedding invitation." 

Gabriel cleared his throat as he stood behind John. 

"Oh, Charlie, I need a visitor's pass for my friend here. He's a colleague of mine." 

"Sure, John, no problem." 

John handed Gabriel a plastic badge. "Ready to go, Gabe?" 

Gabriel just glared at John and headed for the elevator. 

"Old college buddy." John winked at Charlie. "Works for the state. Thought I'd show him how the other half lives." 

"Jealous type. Got ya." Charlie winked back. 

John punched the number for the thirty-fourth floor and as the elevator doors closed, Gabriel spoke. "Were you serious? What you said back there?" 

"What? About settling down?" John asked. 

"Yeah," Gabriel said. 

"I'm serious about it," John replied. 

"I hope so," Gabriel warned. 

"Tell me something, Gabriel why do you care? You told me yourself you only wanted to get Angelique into bed." 

"To answer your question," Gabriel said, "Angel is an incredible woman. Special in the extreme, and her feelings are not to be trifled with. Is that a clear enough picture for you, counselor?" 

"You love her," John said. It was not a question, but a statement. 

Gabriel just stared straight ahead.

John shook his head in disbelief, saying more to himself than to his company, "Every man she meets." 

"Yeah," Gabriel said, making eye contact with John, "but you're the only one she wants." 

John didn't have time to think about Gabriel's words because they reached their destination. John approached the receptionist's desk. 

"Hey, Jill, how are the hubby and the kids?" 

"Fine. Where have you been? I don't think I have ever seen you get in here after nine." 

John smiled at her. "Rough night."

"I'll bet," Jill said, handing him his messages and mail for the day. "So who is she?" she asked with a teasing grin. 

"I'll fill you in later. Is he in?" John asked, shrugging his head towards Henry Caldwell's office. 

Jill looked perplexed by John's question. "No, he and the Mrs. left on a plane yesterday morning. They wanted to soak up some rays and margaritas in San Juan. It's good to be the boss. He didn't tell you?"

"You know what, Jill," John said, "he did. It must have just slipped my mind." 

"Wow, all I gotta say is whoever she is, if she's got you this muddled, I want to meet this woman." 

John chuckled at Jill's joke. "Thanks, for the info, Jill. Oh, can you still hold my calls? There's a tough case I'm trying to crack and I need some quality time with the books." 

"Yeah, sure. You got it, but aren't you going to introduce me to your adorable friend over there?" 

"Jill, shame on you. You're a married woman."

"Married, not dead. I can look, can't I? I have it on good authority that my hubby does it all the time."

John laughed. "Gabriel, come here."

Gabriel came over to John. He understood John had to make things appear normal, but did he have to chat it up with everyone he met?

"Gabriel, Jill. Jill, this is Gabriel. Now I really have work to do and unfortunately, I have to bring him with me. So you can fantasize about him later. Right now, hold my calls?"

"Yeah, scram. Nice to meet you, Gabriel!" Jill hollered after them as John lead Gabriel to his office. 

John looked around briefly before opening the door to his office. He threw his messages and mail on his desk.

"Well, with daddy away, there is no one to reign in junior," John pointed out. "But lucky for us, I know who's assigned babysitting duties." 

"Who?" Gabriel asked. 

"Veronica," John supplied. 

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Gabriel asked. "We have to find her." 

"You stay here and I'll go do just that," John said. As John went to approach the office door, Gabriel leaned his hand against it to shut it. 

"I thought we decided we do this together." 

"Great idea, Gabe! Only one slight flaw to your logic. Veronica knows who you are. She's the lawyer from the hearing. She'll have security called so fast they would throw us out of here before I find out anything." 

"Fine," Gabriel conceded, "but what am I to do until you come back?" 

John opened the door and stepped through. "Well, there's always the filing," John said, grinning at him, right before he closed the door tightly behind him.

---------------------

"Deacon, are you okay?" Officer Ryan asked, worried about the expression on Michael's face.

"Yes, I'm sorry. My mind is a little preoccupied. Thanks for the lift. Officer..." 

"Call me Mary, please," she interrupted. "You know I'm sure your wife will be fine." 

"My wife?" Michael questioned. 

"Isn't Angelique your wife?" Mary asked, now a little embarrassed by making such an assumption.

"No," Michael wondered how she came to that conclusion. 

Shyly, Mary grabbed Michael's left hand and tapped his ring finger. "Wedding band," she said lamely. 

"Oh," Michael now understood where the confusion came in. 

"I'm catholic," Mary explained, "and the deacon at our church is married. When I watched the two of you together... I guess I botched that up." 

"No, no. That's okay really," Michael said. "I'm not married. The wedding band was my father's. It's the only thing I have of his. We already lost just about everything we owned when they shut down the steel mill he worked for. My brother sold anything else of value we had left to pay for my tuition so I could finish High School. Well, whatever he had to sell and several months of his salary." 

"I'm sorry about your dad. What about your mom is she still around?"

"If she is, I wouldn't know. I never knew her," Michael said. 

"She left my dad when I was a baby. Neither my dad nor my brother talks about her. I found a picture of her, though, along with this ring among my father's belongings. My brother looks a lot like her."

"Gee, is there anymore more painful memories I can bring up for you?" Mary asked with an awkward chuckle. "Perhaps a dead pet? Maybe we can talk about that. I suck at small talk. Sorry." 

Michael thought briefly of Saint and it pained him, but he shook it off. "So, how about you? What's your story?"

"Me? I ... uh, um." Mary looked genuinely surprised by Michael's interest and was about to answer when a notice came over the scanner. 

"All units in the vicinity of 17th and 23rd streets please report to Haverstraw Marina. There are reports of a possible homicide." 

Mary picked up her radio. "Sorry Michael. That's us. I'm afraid we're in for a brief side trip."

___________________

As John round the corner to approach Veronica's office, she was coming around the other way. He had the element of surprise. Veronica had her nose buried in some report. He was practically right on top of her before she noticed she wasn't alone in the hall. 

"Well, hello Veronica," John said. He grabbed her elbow and ushered inside her office, shutting and locking the door behind him. 

"John!" She said his name as if she expected never to see him again, but she quickly recovered her demeanor. 

"I want answers Veronica and I want them NOW!" 

"I have nothing to tell you, John."

"Oh no. Let's start with an easy one." John had Veronica cornered against a bookcase. Knowing full well he had to keep her from the silent alarms in the office.

"Where's Danny?" John questioned. 

"How should I know? I'm not his keeper," Veronica drawled. 

"Ahh," John said, "but that's where you're wrong. I know Henry left for San Juan yesterday. So that make's him your responsibility today." 

Veronica's eyes flashed with fury at being trapped like this. "What is this, John? Some kind of cross-examination? I haven't seen him, end of story. Now let me go." Veronica tried to push past, but John was more than adept at keeping her in place.

"It's a simple question Veronica, but if you don't like that one, then maybe you'd like to tell me how your clothes came to be in my closet?" 

Veronica looked nervous. 

"I'm waiting," John said with a slight edge to his voice. He didn't have time to play cat and mouse games with her, especially if Angel was in trouble. 

Knowing John had a short fuse and not wanting to provoke his anger. She decided it was in her best interest to answer him. "Henry gave me the spare key to give to you before he left for his trip." 

"Go on," John prompted. 

"I put my clothes there a few days ago." 

"It's the why I am interested in," John stated plainly. 

"Well, Henry said that if we did well on the case that he'd allow us to use his hideaway at Lake George near the Million Dollar Beach. I thought it be fun to spend some time together and didn't want to waste time packing, so I put the clothes I wanted to take with me on your boat." 

"If that's true," John said, although he highly doubted it, "then what was your suit from the hearing doing there. Surely you didn't think I was still in a romantic mood after court." 

"No, you weren't," Veronica pouted. "She ruined everything."

"You leave HER out of this and answer my question." 

"I still wanted to celebrate. Even if you didn't," she said, poking her pointy finger into John's chest, "but when I got home, what I wanted to wear was at your boat. So I drove over there and got changed. I didn't have the time to pick up all my clothes, so I left them there until it was more convenient. I came back last night, but I saw the lights on. Although you have your apartment in town, I know you never go to your boat alone, so I left."

"Was SHE there with you?" Veronica asked through clenched teeth. 

"In fact," John took delight in telling her, "she was." 

Then a most delightfully wicked idea crept into her head. "She found them, didn't she?" Veronica cooed. 

John narrowed his eyes at her, warning her not to proceed with this any further. 

"She did!" Veronica exclaimed, clasping her hands in pure enjoyment. "You'd have no reason to go into that closet. You never use it. That's how I knew I could get away with surprising you like that. Tell me, was she jealous? I know she'd recognize the suit to be mine. She was, wasn't she?" 

"You never know when to quit," John growled at her, pinning her roughly against the bookcase. "You may have caused me to lose the only woman I ever loved, and if I have... I don't want to be you." 

Veronica felt the rage John held barely in check. It came off of him in waves. There was only one other time she had feared him like this and that was when she disobeyed him at court. She dared not do it again. 

"Look," she began, wanting to be free of him, "I know very little. I really don't know where Danny is. The last time I saw him he was gloating about now that he's got the girl, everything else will fall into place. I asked him what he meant, and he said if things went right, neither of us would have to worry about our cases with O'Bryan. I told him to explain but all he said was once she gets his message at the shelter all our worries will be over and he left before I could ask him anything else." 

"When was this?" John asked. 

"Yesterday, I guess sometime after six. I'd seen him here in the office."

"Thanks for the help." John let her go and stormed out of the office.

"Gabriel, we need to move fast," John said as he threw open his office door, but Gabriel wasn't there. 

Damn it! Where the hell was he? He went to see Jill. "Did you see that guy I came in here with?" 

"Yeah," she said, "He mentioned something about you both being hungry and asked where was a good place to eat. So, I sent him to the deli around the corner. Why?"

"No reason, only that the bum is trying to get out of doing any of the legwork on this case. I have an appointment at court and I think he took off for the day." 

"What makes you say that?"

"He never asked me what I wanted to eat. The worst part is, he's my ride."

"Why not take the company car? I got the keys right here and with Mr. Caldwell on vacation he won't be needing it." 

"Jill, you are a lifesaver," John said, as she tossed him the keys. 

"Hey," Jill said, as John was about to get on the elevator. He held back the door. "Veronica's tripped her silent alarm." 

John rolled his eyes. "She's always setting that thing off. At least once a week." 

"Some times twice," Jill giggled. 

"You had better get the key and reset it for her before she's got a swat team in her office." 

"Ooh geez, you're right. Take care, John."

"Bye, Jill." 

As soon as Jill rounded the corner. John hit the button to every floor on the elevator, watched the door shut, and then took the stairs.