Mia swallowed a smirk as Zach sat down on his bed without another word. She turned to Joel, soberly. "Joel, help me find who did this. When did you last see her?"

"Saturday night. Seven o'clock or so. She said there was a party at TriEpsilon that night but she needed to study. I told her to stay here, but she said if she did we'd… well, she wouldn't study. She didn't want to give her father the pleasure of seeing her fail." He closed his eyes. "This is all my fault.'

"Why do you say that, Joel?" Solliday asked.

"She partied with me too much. I should have backed off like her father said."

Either this kid was innocent or he was a damn fine actor. Mia was pretty sure it was the first one. "Did you hear from her at any time that night?"

"She IM"d me at eleven. She said she loved me," he ended in a ragged whisper.

Mia glanced over at Solliday, saw they were in agreement over this kid. "Where were you all evening, Joel?"

"Here until eleven. I IM'd her back, then met some friends at the arcade." He rattled off six names and she had little doubt they'd corroborate his story.

Mia hated to press him at this point, but it was necessary. "Did anybody else want to hurt her? Anybody following her? Anybody making her uncomfortable?"

He sagged against the wall, dropping his chin to his chest. "No. No. No."

"One more question, Joel," Solliday said. "When you didn't hear from Caitlin all day yesterday or today, weren't you worried?"

His head snapped up, fury in his eyes. "Of course I was. But I thought she'd gone home. I couldn't call her at her parents' house. She'd told them we were through. I figured she'd call when she could. When I didn't see her in class this morning I asked around. Nobody had seen her. I called her parents, frantic. Left two messages on their answering machine. But they'd rather see me in jail than tell me that she was dead," he finished bitterly. "God damn them."

Under the circumstances, Mia could see his point of view.

Back at Solliday's SUV she shook her head. "If I ever have kids, I'm not going to interfere."

Solliday opened her door for her, as he'd been doing all day. "Never say never. I can understand both sides. Father wants the best for his daughter. Daughter wants to run her own life. I don't think Joel's involved."

"Neither do I. I think our guy chose the Doughertys' house. Either he stalked her there, or he happened on her and took advantage of the opportunity."

"And Burnette could still be the real target." He closed her door, then came around to his side. The engine was roaring to life when she heard his deep chuckle. "'Bully named Bubba who wants to be your best buddy." It's poetic. Can I use it?"

She smiled at him, oddly at peace for the moment- "Be my guest."

It was quiet during the drive back to the precinct, both using the time to check their voicemail. He stopped the SUV next to her car. "Wow," he said. "Nice."

Mia looked at her little rebuilt Alfa Romeo fondly. "It's my one splurge." Then she slid down to the ground, turning to look at him. "Barrington made Caitlin's ID official."

"And the lab found an instant message in the cache of the Doughertys' computer. Time corresponds with Joel's story."

"Then we make some progress. How about meeting at eight tomorrow in Spinnelli's office? He has this thing for eight o'clock meetings."

"I'll see if I can get the lab report on the samples I took before then," he said, "and I'll meet you at your desk. The Doughertys left me a voicemail saying they were getting into O'Hare at midnight. We can talk to them after we're done updating Spinnelli."

"I'll ask Jack to come to the meeting tomorrow, too. He can tell us what he found when he analyzed the carpet. At least we'll be able to better picture where things occurred." She was quiet for a minute, then sighed. "I was seeing my partner go down."

It took him a second. "You mean this morning when you were staring in the window? What happened that night?"

"We wanted these guys for a homicide in South Side. Getts and DuPree. It was a drug thing that got out of hand and they killed two women caught in the crossfire." She sighed. "Anyway, we got a tip they were hiding out in an apartment, but they weren't."

"It was a setup."

"Looks that way. But I saw them. And they shot Abe."

"And you, too," he said and her lips curved sadly.

"Just a scratch. While I was gone Spinnelli reassigned the case."

"To the two guys he sent this afternoon. They stood back while you took DuPree."

She smiled at the disbelief she heard in his voice. "It was… a gift, actually. They let me have the collar. They knew how much it meant to me."

"I guess I understand that. Look, I'm sorry about this morning. It's just that the jacket and the hat made you look… unsavory."

"Unsavory?" she asked with a grin.

"Don't laugh at my adjectives," he said, his voice light.

"Okay." She sobered. "My good jacket had a rip where the bullet hit my arm and it was nasty with blood." Mostly Abe's blood. "I have to get another paycheck before I can afford a new coat." Her smile was self-mocking. "Spent all my cash on the car."

One brow lifted. "What about the hat?"

"Sorry, the hat stays 'cause it's comfy. Just hope it doesn't rain. See you."

She'd started to swing the door closed when he stopped its path. His eyes held sympathy, but they also held respect. "I'm sorry about your partner, Mitchell. And your father." He leaned back, settling himself behind the wheel once again. "Eight o'clock."

She closed his door and got into her own car, feeling calm and keyed up all at the same time. She started the engine, cursing the cold air the heater spit out at full blast. She still had to see Abe. What she'd say when she got there was anybody's guess.

Monday, November 27, 6:40 p.m.

"This was fun." Brooke had nursed that one beer for an hour and a half.

"Told you it would do you good," Devin said smugly.

Brooke's heart fluttered, but she was determined the beer would not make her lose her good sense. Devin had laughed and joked, but no more with her than with the other teachers they'd met at the bar. Brooke was surprised just how many teachers gathered for happy hour. Evidently she wasn't the only one stressed over the job.

"When do they all go home?"

He looked surprised. "It's Monday night. We stay and watch the game."

"The game."

"Monday Night Football. The game. Please tell me you're joking."

"Nope. My family didn't do sports."

Devin slid down in his chair, getting comfortable. "So what did you do for fun?"

"Scrabble. Risk. Trivial Pursuit."

His lips twitched. "And I thought I was a nerd."

I don't think so. The thought left her light-headed and she mentally scrambled for words to untie her tongue. "The librarian says you're using your math powers for evil."

He threw back his head and laughed. "She's just mad because I keep winning the pool." He lifted a brow. "You should join the pool. I could make you a fortune."

His laugh made her warm all over. "A fortune, huh?"

He shrugged. "Well, at least you'd only lose five bucks."

She sighed. "Five bucks is a fortune."

He looked philosophical. "Nobody gets rich being a teacher. You knew this, right?"

"That I knew."

"But other stuff you didn't?"

"I had dreams of helping kids learn to love books. It's not working out that way."

"Manny and the fire really has you worried, doesn't it?"

"I hate the thought that I could be pushing him to do something terrible."

Devin sighed. "Brooke. You can't make anybody do what they don't want to do. All of these boys have issues. For Manny, it's fire. For Mike, it's stealing."