"Sit, Casey," he said, motioning to his guest chairs.

"Is everything all right, Lieutenant?"

He rubbed his bald head, and she could see perspiration glistening on his skin. She sat opposite him, waiting.

"Fine, O'Connor. In fact, I have some good news."

"Really?"

"Yes. You finally get your own team."

She raised her eyebrows but said nothing.

"You're getting a new partner," he said. He opened a file on his desk, reading. "Leslie Tucker. She's transferring in from Assault."

"I see. You know, I worked in Assault for a few years before Special Victims. I don't recognize the name."

"She's been there less than a year. Comes from Fort Worth Homicide. Has an impeccable record. I think you'll like her."

Casey tapped her fingers nervously on her jeans, then stood. "You know, I've never had a female partner before. Are you sure? I mean, if we're doing partners, me and Tori, we get along really well," she said. "Maybe you could give the new partner to Sikes."

Malone laughed. "No way. Sikes can't handle working with a pretty face. Besides, I like Sam too much."

"What does Sam have to do with it?"

"Well, you and Tori," Malone said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. "You're together all the time, both...well, you know. Anything could happen."

Casey laughed. "Are you suggesting Hunter and I might become involved?"

"It's a possibility."

"No, no. Definitely not." She sat down again. "It's like, you know, every relationship needs a yin and yang, you know what I mean? And Tori and I, well, we're both pretty much yangs, if you get my drift."

11.

*Malone blushed and looked away. "Well, yang or not, I'm not pairing you two. In case you're not aware, Hunter's history with partners is legendary. And we've finally got one big happy family. Well, ever since Sam came aboard. So when Tori's happy, the squad is happy. And she and Sikes, as surprising as it is, are working out, so I don't want to upset the applecart. You get the new partner, O'Connor."

"What if I don't like her?"

"She seems nice, about your age. She put her time in. Why wouldn't you like her?"

Casey shrugged. "Why'd she leave Fort Worth?"

"Her fiance works in Dallas and they live here. She got tired of the commute."

Fiance? Great. We'll get to plan a wedding, she thought with dismay. "When is she coming on board?" she asked instead.

"Today."

"Didn't want to give me much advance warning, huh?"

"You'll be fine, O'Connor. Like I said, she seemed real nice."

Casey nodded. "Okay. So you got something new for us? Or you want us to work with Tori and Sikes on their college student?"

"Work with Hunter and Sikes. You've started with it. Donaldson and Walker just wrapped up their case so I gave them the grandmother who was found this morning."

"What grandmother?"

"Found in her car. Shot once in the head."

"Damn."

"Yeah. Crazy times we live in." He looked out the windows in his office, nodding.

"Perfect timing."

She followed his gaze, an eyebrow arching in surprise. This was her new partner?

Dark hair, nicely layered, reaching nearly to her shoulders framed a tanned, smooth face with only a hint of makeup. Oh, damn. If she was being paired with a straight woman, at least she could have been a dog. Not this...this beauty walking through their squad room. How fair was that?

But Malone was standing, moving to his doorway. "Detective Tucker? In here." He stepped aside, motioning for her to enter.

Casey stood, offering her hand politely. "I'm Casey O'Connor. The lieutenant was just filling me in."

12.

*"Leslie Tucker, nice to meet you." She slipped an errant strand of hair behind her ears, her smile confident, showing no hint of nervousness. "I hope you don't mind, but I asked around about you. You still have friends over at Assault."

"I don't mind as long as they lied to you," Casey said with a grin, noting the amused expression in the woman's dark eyes.

"They had very nice things to say about you. Were they lying?"

"Well, since we'll be working together, I guess you'll find out sooner or later."

Malone was the one who gave a nervous laugh as he looked from one to the other.

"I'm sure you'll-"

"Hey, sorry to interrupt," Tori said as she stuck her head in the door. "Mac called.

They've got results. He had a hit in CODIS."

"A name?" Casey asked.

"He didn't go into it. We were about to walk over. You want to come?" Then she glanced at Malone. "Sorry, Lieutenant. I'm assuming she's still working the case with us."

"Yeah. And this is Detective Tucker."

"Leslie," she said, offering her hand to Tori.

"Tori Hunter. Welcome aboard." Tori stepped back out of the doorway. "Let's walk over. Have you met Mac and his team before?"

"I know who he is, yes. One of his guys, Emerson, was the one who worked with Assault the most."

Casey followed Leslie Tucker out of Malone's office, then stopped and turned back with a grin. "Dang, Lieutenant, couldn't find someone old and frumpy I guess?"

"I was about to warn Sikes to keep his hands and eyes off her. Do I need to warn you as well?"

"No, no. I learned a long time ago never to mess with straight women. Don't worry. I won't pull a Tori and Sam on you."

Leslie sat around the small table with the others, her gaze moving over them one by one. John Sikes, ladies' man and resident pretty boy. She'd been warned about getting too friendly with him. He was always looking for a date, they said. And Tori Hunter, she'd heard all the horror stories from pushing her partner out a two story window to punching out a lieutenant. But she seemed pleasant enough. Of course, she'd heard those other rumors too, about her affair with Samantha Kennedy. Samantha, like Casey O'Connor, had started out in Assault. The guys there had been only too happy 13*to share what they knew about both women. She let her eyes drift to Casey, her new partner. She was tall and thin, her dark blond hair an unruly mess, as if the wind had blown it dry this morning. Everyone she asked had practically the same thing to say about her. She was a good person who genuinely cared about her job. She was friendly and likable and very popular on the force. All-around good gal, to which Leslie was thankful. She'd never been partnered with another woman. How hard would it be if it ended up being someone like Tori Hunter? She was still staring when Casey turned, catching her eye. She smiled, then looked away as Mac came into the room.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I wanted to pull the post Jackson did on this previous victim."

"What previous victim?" Tori asked.

"The DNA hit matches a crime scene about three months ago." He looked at his notes.

"Donaldson and Walker had the case. The girl was found in her apartment. Cause of death was strangulation. Her throat was cut postmortem."

"Raped?" Casey asked.

"No. Just like your vic, tied to the bed. Semen was found on the sheets and on the victim's legs. That's it."

"And Donaldson and Walker had the case?" Tori stood, pacing behind their chairs.

"Goddamn."

"Don't overreact, Hunter," Sikes said. "Read the file first."

Leslie watched them, wondering if she was about to get a Tori Hunter moment. She looked across the table at O'Connor with eyebrows raised, but Casey only gave her a tell you later look.

"We're running all the prints now," Mac continued. "No hits in AFIS from the first crime scene, but we might be able to match prints from both scenes. Not that it's going to help you much with IDing our guy."

"Okay. Did Spencer find anything on her post of our vic?"

"Tox is not back. COD was a severed carotid artery." He looked up from his notes.

"Of course, we already knew that. No trace. There was an unusual fiber that didn't appear to match anything in the bedroom. My guys are trying to find the origin on that."

Leslie listened, curious about the case she was being thrust into. She'd hoped to start fresh, not in the middle. Of course, it would help if she'd at least had the opportunity to read the file. As it was, she had no clue as to what case they were working.

"You want me and Tucker to pull Donaldson's file and go over it?"

14.

*Leslie was surprised when Tori flashed a smile at Casey. "What? You afraid for me to do it?"

"No sense in someone getting shot, that's all."

She was even more surprised when Tori Hunter laughed.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea, O'Connor. Besides, she needs to get up to speed on our case," Tori said, tossing a glance her way. "Fill Malone in. Don't just pull the file."

Casey stood and grinned. "Why? You'd just pull it."

"Yeah, but I don't have any qualms about shooting Donaldson. You might."

"Okay. We'll meet you back there." Casey looked at her and motioned to the door.

"I'll fill you in on the way over."

Leslie stood, not sure what to say, so she said nothing, and just followed O'Connor out the door. Despite what she'd heard about Tori Hunter having mellowed in the last couple years, she never heard anything about her having a sense of humor.

"Our victim is Dana Burrows," Casey said when they walked outside. "She was found in her apartment. No forced entry."

"Wait." Leslie stopped Casey with a light touch on her arm. "Why was Hunter upset about Donaldson?"

"Bad blood between them. A few years ago, there was a serial killer. Turns out the first victim was a case Donaldson and his partner had. Transvestite. They hardly worked the case, turned up no leads and let it go as a cold case. When Tori found the link between that case and her serial killer, she went ballistic. She refuses to work with him. She doesn't trust him."

"What about you? Is he a good cop?"

"From what I hear, yeah. He was fairly new at the time, paired with an old guy who couldn't get past the transvestite thing. And well, there was some personal stuff, but I don't think Donaldson had a whole lot of say on the case."

They continued walking and Leslie was surprised at how close the new crime lab was to their squad room. Much more convenient than driving downtown to the old building. "Okay, how do you normally do this? I've never worked a case where there were four detectives on it. I'm assuming Hunter is the lead?"

"We don't normally have four, no. But I've been here less than six months and haven't had a partner, so Malone has had me tagging along with Hunter and Sikes, learning the ropes."

"You were Special Victims, right?"

15.