"Good morning, Leslie. It's Rebecca. I wanted to catch you before you started your day."

"Actually, I'm just ending my day. I worked the nightshift." She met Casey's gaze and mouthed Michael's mother.

"I'm sorry. Is this a bad time?"

"No. What's on your mind, Rebecca?"

"Well, what a silly question, dear. I guess you know what's on my mind."

"No offense, but really, this is between me and Michael."

"He's just devastated. I've never seen him more upset. Surely you can't just walk away from this engagement without trying to reconcile your differences."

She rolled her eyes, wondering just what it was Michael had told her. "There is no reconciling. You want me to be blunt, I will. I'm not in love with him." She glanced at Casey who was being polite and at least pretending not to listen. "I'm not going to marry him."

"And you think telling him you're gay is going to appease him? How could you tell him such a thing?"

169.*"So he doesn't believe I'm a lesbian? If I told him I was having an affair with another man, he'd believe that?"

"Oh, Leslie, what are you doing? Was it that bad that you need to ruin his life? What about all the plans? Why, I practically had your wedding arranged."

Leslie sighed. "Yes, you did. And I'm sorry. But things happen. I wasn't happy with Michael, and if he's honest with you, he'll tell you that he wasn't really happy with me. This is best, Rebecca."

"No, I don't believe so. I want you to reconsider. The least you can do is go to counseling like he suggested. You owe him that much."

"Oh, no. You're not going to guilt me into this. I don't owe him anything." She looked again at Casey. "We all deserve to be happy in life. I'm not going to settle.

Neither should he."

"I just don't understand why you-"

"Rebecca, I am extremely tired. Trust me when I say there is nothing either you or Michael can say that would change my mind."

"But-"

"Good-bye." She closed her phone and leaned back in the seat, eyes closed. It was a conversation she didn't need to have in front of Casey. She'd not actually told Casey about her talk with Michael yet. And after listening to her end of the conversation, she was most likely filled with curiosity.

But still, she said nothing, her eyes fixed on the street. Finally Leslie could stand it no longer. "I know you want to know. Why haven't you asked me?"

Casey laughed. "I was trying to be polite and mind my own business."

"After everything we've...well, shared the last few days, don't you think it's your business?"

"Everything we talked about before this, I knew you wouldn't come to me until you'd ended things with Michael. How you ended it, what you told him, I don't think that's my business. I don't know him. That part of things was just between the two of you."

She smiled. "And apparently his mother."

Leslie stared at her. "You're very trusting."

"I like to think I'm a good judge of character." Casey looked at her quickly, then away. "Am I wrong?"

"No. You're not wrong. I told Michael I wasn't in love with him and couldn't marry him. When he insisted we go to counseling to try and fix things, I told him they couldn't be fixed. I told him I was a lesbian." She smiled. "Of course he didn't believe me."

170.*"Was that hard?"

"Saying the word lesbian out loud? Yeah, it was. A little. But saying it out loud, especially to Michael, made it all real to me. It wasn't just something in my mind any longer. It wasn't just something I thought about when I was with you. Saying it out loud made it true."

"I don't imagine it's going to be easy. You have people in your life who have known you as a straight woman. A change like this, it's a shock to most people."

"Yes. And I'm hoping Sam will be willing to talk with me. She seems so strong about everything."

"She's strong about it because she's sure of their relationship. Tori was the one balking when they met. But then you'd have to know Tori. She had this idea that no one could love her."

"So she didn't trust Sam?"

"I don't think she believed someone like Sam would love her. Of course, the Tori we know now was not the same person back then. As Sam says, she had issues to work through." Casey pulled into her driveway and stopped. She smiled tiredly. "My issue right now is can I make it into the bedroom before I fall asleep."

They didn't say anything else as they went into the house and down the hall. In the bedroom, they stripped, but there was nothing sexual about it. Casey pulled the covers back and got in, holding them up for her. She climbed in beside her, letting Casey wrap her naked body around hers.

"I love sleeping with you," Casey murmured before her even breathing signaled she was fast asleep.

Leslie sighed contentedly, pulling Casey's arm more firmly around her and letting her eyes slip closed.

Chapter Thirty-Eight.

"There he is," Tori said, motioning down an alley where John emerged, hand held above his face as if squinting from the sunlight. "About damn time."

"Wait a minute. Dark hair." Sikes reached in the back and pulled out the folder with Tucker's spreadsheet. Inside was a shot of John from their interrogation. He held it up. "Blond. What did O'Connor say about the hair color?"

"Maria, the lady at the shelter, said John had dark hair the last time she saw him, but he didn't act like John." Tori drove slowly, keeping him within sight. "O'Connor's thinking Patrick has dark hair." She glanced at Sikes. "You want to pull him in?"

"Christ, Hunter. On what charge? We don't even know what Patrick looks like. This guy," he said, pointing, "looks like John with dark hair. So you pull John in again and 171*you get his attorney, Robert, breathing down your neck, then we're in the paper for harassing the homeless. No. I don't want to pull him in."

"We should call O'Connor. They've spent the most time with the guy. They'd know if this was him or not."

"They haven't slept in how many days now? No. Let's just follow him. That was the plan."

"I got a bad feeling, Sikes."

"Turn up here," he said.

"Can you still see him?"

"Yeah. I'm guessing he's heading to the shelter for breakfast."

"Okay, good. At least we'll have a fix on his location."

Tori turned, intending to meet up with him on the next block, past the clubs, when Sikes squeezed her shoulder hard.

"What?"

"There's a John in a dress too. My God, they look just alike."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" She sped to the curb, jerking the binoculars out of his hand. "Jesus Christ," she muttered. "They look identical." She lowered the glasses.

"Mac said they can't be identical. He said if their DNA is not identical, they're not identical twins."

"Maybe just from this distance they look alike. Up close, maybe not."

"Call for patrol units to back us up, then let Malone know. I'm going to wake up O'Connor. Who the hell knows which is which?"

"You think they'll know?"

"If not, we haul them both in and let the DA deal with a judge in getting DNA." She pulled her phone out and continued driving, hoping the two Johns would materialize at the opposite end of the alley.

"Oh, God no," Casey mumbled, fumbling for her phone, eyes still closed. I'll kill her.

"This better be good, Hunter."

"We got them spotted."

Casey opened her eyes. "Both of them?"

172.*"Yeah. They just cut through an alley behind the Rat Club. We think they're heading to the shelter. One of them is in a dress."

Casey sat up, ignoring the sheet that slipped to her waist. "Maria said she'd never seen them together. And she'd never seen either of them in a dress. Maybe assuming they're going to the shelter is too hopeful." She nudged Leslie with her leg, smiling at the groan she received in response. "You want us to come?"

"Yeah, I need you here. We can't tell them apart. Maybe you two can. Regardless of what Mac said, they look identical to me. And they both have dark hair."

Casey tilted her head. "John's got blue eyes. Blond hair, blue eyes."

"Okay, so you're assuming Patrick is naturally dark with brown eyes? Is that how we'll tell them apart?"

"I'm not assuming anything. I just know John is blond and blue." She stood, bending to pick up the jeans she'd discarded such a short time ago. "They could both be naturally blond and blue and Patrick just colored his dark for some reason. Or colored both of them."

"Okay. Head to the shelter. I'll call you back if it looks like they're not heading that way."

"We still have the radio, don't forget. Quicker."

"Yeah. With more ears. But keep it with you."

Casey struggled into her jeans with the phone tucked against her shoulder. "We're on our way." She sat on the edge of the bed, gently shaking Leslie. "Come on. We have to go."

"You're kidding, right?" Leslie asked, her face still burrowed into the pillow.

"Sorry, sweetheart. But they have Patrick spotted."

Leslie rolled her head, her eyes blinking. "For real?"

"They saw John and Patrick together. Both with dark hair."

Leslie sat up, shaking her head. "John has-"

"Blond hair, I know. They don't know who is who. I'm sure we can pick John out though." She got up, collecting her clothes from the floor. "I wish we had time for a shower, but we don't."

"We look like hell."

Casey laughed. "I'll be nice and say you're as beautiful as ever."

173.*Leslie tossed the covers off and stood. "And you'd be lying."

Casey stared as Leslie walked naked to the bathroom. "Not lying, no."

Chapter Thirty-Nine.

"Where the hell are you?" Casey asked as she scanned the street, looking for Tori's Explorer.

"Christ, O'Connor, are you blind?"

Casey pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it, then flicked her gaze to Leslie. "She's a smartass," she said quietly. She put the phone back to her ear. "I've had about six hours sleep in the last four days, Hunter. I shouldn't even be driving."

"Perhaps you should pace yourself then, O'Connor. You can have sex anytime. Take a night to sleep instead."

"You are so funny," she said as she whipped her head around, finally spotting them.

"You could have said you weren't on the street."

"Oh, yeah. We're in the Rat's Club parking lot."

Casey handed her phone to Leslie. "I can't deal with her in this mood. You can have her."

"Okay. But I'm not in much better humor." Leslie took the phone. "Hey, Tori. It's Tucker. You want us on the street or what?"