"Do you mind if we look around a bit? We don't have a warrant but it's important we do."

She slowly acquiesced with a nod. Will and the detective moved further into the house while I decided to stay with Helen, offering her somewhat of a silent comfort.

"Do you need anything?" I asked after a prolonged while.

She declined then her shoulders fell. "I wish I had done more for her. She lost her closest friends within months of each other and after Elise died, she was shaken which was a given since they fought just before,"

"Elise and Irene fought?" I caught on. "Do you know about what?"

"I never knew what it was when it came to them."

"They must have been all very close."

"Very and they just died like that, all of them," she broke into another sob and I gently patted her back. I wanted to know more about the trio but waited it out instead.

"She didn't even have this place for long." She shook her head.

"Really?" I shifted.

"I called her crazy when she got it. She had to be. The mortgage on this place alone but she kept saying everything would pan out, and in a few months, I'd see. I'm not seeing anything Irene." She cried.

Will walked in before I could make ask any more questions. He slightly shook his head. There was nothing here either.

"Thank you very much for your cooperation, Helen." Detective Shaun said.

"I need closure detective. Irene was fine one minute then she wasn't and they're all claiming it was a suicide which I just can't believe."

"Soon miss." He gave her an encouraging nod and we left the house. It was silent until we were by the cars and out of Helen's earshot.

"Another new development." The detective leaned against his car.

"They were all in on the plan," Will said.

"Helen mentioned the house mortgage. I think Irene was confident about getting money from somewhere to keep the house," I divulged.

"Well, we know where that somewhere is," Will responded.

"She also said Irene and Elise fought just before Elise died."

"Cases like these, it's a world of things they could have fought over." The detective said.

"Like the memory card."

"I'm going to go over everything again. There's something we could have missed earlier that might make much more sense now and point us to where this card is."

"Alright." Will gave him a short nod. We exchanged goodbyes with him and finally parted ways. Glancing at Will minutes into the drive, he had a calculative look about him.

"What's on your mind?"

"A lot," he sighed. "There are too many possibilities now."

"With the collaborators all dead."

Will stole a look in my direction, "Today must have been stressful, all that searching around."

"I'm bursting at the seams, remember?" I shrugged. I think he smiled after.

"How about dinner then?" He posed.

"I'm all for food these days. I might end up looking like a whale by the start of my second trimester."

"You'll be a very beautiful whale." He said and I scoffed a laugh.

It only took a few minutes to arrive at a restaurant, New York was brimming with them after all. It was a little fancier than I expected with some Frank Sinatra playing in the background, like those restaurants you needed reservations to get into.

"Ophelia,"

"Hm?" I looked up from my menu expectantly.

"Let's just have dinner tonight. Keep the crime-fighting till tomorrow."

"Like a date?"

He coughed and I found it amazing. I flashed. Lunch at work had almost become a ritual but there had never really been a lunch without talk of Runo and what next. I maintained my mocking smile outwardly but inwardly felt eager to just have plain old dinner with William Illston.

***

I stared at the shirtless man in front of me. Damn.

It was Saturday morning and instead of sleeping in like every other normal human in the vicinity would be doing, I trudged over to Will's place. Turns out he was like every other normal human because when I got there, he was still sleeping. He ruffled his hair and yawned. I took in the sight like a hungry vulture. It was the hormones I swear.

"How can you still be sleeping?"

"I went to bed two hours ago." He stretched.

"Oh," I murmured and sat on the closest surface I could find—the bed. Bad idea, now I wasn't thinking of anything else asides from Will and all the times we'd had sex on it. He went into the bathroom while I had an internal battle with myself. Was it already time to battle a new phase of pregnancy? Horniness overload? Did it have to be today? I groaned.

"You look constipated." Will mused when he came out. I could smell the minty flavour of his toothpaste on him. He was still shirtless and heading straight towards me.

"Are you okay? Is it your belly?" His amusement was replaced by worry and his stare lingered on my abdomen.

"I think." I absently replied. His eyes widened and I quickly backtracked. "I mean no, not that way anyway."

"What way then?" One of his brows lifted in question. He was so close and I just noticed his hands were on either side of me against the bed. I bit my lip and watched as his eyes followed the movement for a second before they jumped back up to mine. It wouldn't take much to...stop!

"I'll wait for you downstairs." I stood up and he moved back. "And I'm fine."

I practically ran out of the room and cringed my way to the living room. I wanted Will, after everything and all the years between, I still wanted him. But that was the easy part. The intricacies of all the other emotions I felt when it came to him? Those were the hardest.

I sank onto the couch. It was barely past eight meaning too early for those types of thoughts. When Will finally came down, I was halfway into a random show that looked promising. He sat right next to me.

"You bailed out on me before. Are you sure nothing hurts?"

"Yes, nothing hurts." Just trying not to jump you and swallow your face you know.

"Okay, think you can stomach down anything then?"

"Not unless you want me puking on your expensive carpets."

"I don't mind the carpets."

"Ah, yes. Hotshot billionaire."

"I don't mind because it's you."

Don't be sweet dammit.

"The hack," I motioned to the laptop he brought along with him, "it should be done soon."

"In a few hours, maybe by noon. Part of me is still hoping we'll find something behind that firewall."

"But it won't be there."

"No, it won't. I wish it would. Mark and I always thought the moment we finally broke through the firewall would be glorious." Will yawned. A tinge of guilt lingered for waking him up. I remained quiet leaving him to hopefully succumb to clutches of sleep.

"I believe the end will be glorious regardless," I let out once he was fast asleep.

__

All I could see was grey. I couldn't move either. Well, I could move, just not as much as would have pleased me. I remembered sitting vertically on the couch, now I was lying horizontally while trapped between the grey and a solid wall with complementary arms?

Gathering my head, it slowly became clearer. I must have fallen asleep some time into the show I was watching and the grey was the couch and the solid wall was Will. I was snuggly tucked between him and the couch with one of his arms serving as a pillow—that had to be numb now, while the other encircled my waist holding me against him. How we got into this position was beyond me. I gently turned till I could see his face. He stirred but his eyes remained closed.

I imagined a hundred different ways I could be a total weirdo and trace his lips or kiss his eyelids. I snorted and his eyes fluttered open then.

"What time is it?" His voice was all groggy and sexy as his arm drew me closer.

"I don't know, all I know is I'm suddenly craving deviled eggs and Nutella."

"Together?" He looked alarmed and my shoulders shook with my laugh.

A phone started ringing and he turned. "It's mine." He sat up completely and the warmth disappeared. Rather than bemoaning the loss, I straightened as well. I glanced at the wall clock seeing it was a few minutes to noon. That was one long nap.

"Okay," Will said ending the conversation he was having. "It's done, the hack."

"What's there?" I asked warily.

The screen of his laptop came alive and I saw it.

"A fucking recipe on how to make fucking tortillas." He swore then passed a look at me. "He's going to know we've come this far."

"He's going to have even more eyes on you now."

"On all of us. Things are about to get more dangerous and we are no closer to finding the memory card than we were yesterday." He let out a deep breath.

Slanting forward a bit, I placed my face in my hands contemplating different ideas.

"Has the detective found anything new?"

"He's still at it with Twain's stuff." Will dragged the laptop closer and opened a different folder with only two files inside: TY and IS, Twain Yanus and Irene Simone.

"They must have thought they had it all figured out. Blackmail Runo, get a lot of money, share it."

"They," Will murmured, "someone's missing here."

Someone was missing. There was no file named EL- Elise Lynette. We'd nearly completely forgotten about her and the part she possibly played. FBI had said she didn't know where the card was hidden but that was before we knew what we knew now. All possibilities were now open.

"There's also one more apartment we haven't checked," I added.

"What'd you say? Should we cross it off our list for the sake of?"

I nodded. It wouldn't hurt to check. I got up feeling tingly all over. I suddenly had a good feeling about searching the apartment. Or you were seated for too long.

"You up for this? It's your old place." Will, ever the gentleman asked.

"Peachy." I smiled.

All through the ride, I fiddled with my fingers. Even Will kept tapping the steering wheel. We weren't exactly hopeful for the place and yet the nerves ate. The car came to a halt and I glimpsed out the window at my old complex. It was still the same; not better, not even worse. Some kids were playing with a soccer ball across the road while the junkies were outside smoking up a storm.

"I wonder where that old bag is," William said as we hit the stairs.

"Passed out drunk somewhere." I shrugged. When we got to the apartment that had once been closed off with yellow police tape, I started questioning our impulsive move.

"How are we going to get in?"

"That's a good que—

"What are you two doing peeping at my door?"

We both pivoted and found a woman eyeing us suspiciously. She had a toddler by her side and put a protective arm around him.

"You stay here?" I asked.

"Yes, and you are lurking."

"We are sorry, we'll leave now." Will took my hand and only let go when we got to the top of the stairs.

"Well, there's that. Irene probably had Elise's stuff packed and donated to freewill too." His expression was light but the disappointment was laced in his words. I was disappointed too. I guess that feeling I got earlier really turned out to be nothing.

"It's not the end though."

"It can't be, not when there's too much I love at stake."

The modicum with which he said those words wrapped around me like a vice and I would have stuttered through my next words if a loud obnoxious voice didn't interrupt.

"Blondie's back with her boyfriend."

It was Jiggy, my former dipshit landlord and he looked as awful as ever. His teeth were browner too.

"Fuck off," Will warned.

A sneer entered his beady eyes and he looked down the hall in the direction we just came from. "Ain't you two here for what the other blondie left behind?"