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Harvey inserted his key into the lock and turned it before tapping on the door. There weren’t any lights on when he pulled up so he wasn’t expecting any response, but he was still concerned. Rachel hadn’t answered the phone all morning and she was usually up by then. “Rach?” he called out as he pushed the door open. No answer.

He took note of the photo albums scattered about the living room and the aroma of coffee still lingering in the air. She had been in bed when he had left the night before and he wondered what had roused her. He sighed heavily. “What were you working on this time, McCabe?” he asked softly as he started down the hallway to her bedroom. He doubted that the photo albums were just a stroll down memory lane. His guess was that she was still trying to track down Samuel Chon since he hadn’t deemed it necessary to meet his own mother.

Even though she hadn’t said anything, he could tell that she was disappointed that Samuel hadn’t come to visit her in the hospital. It had been obvious from the way her eyes would dart over to the door every time it opened, then he would see just a glimmer of disappointment before she greeted her visitor.

In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, he knew that she would be pushing to get back to work soon. Nothing was better for forgetting your troubles than delving into work. She was as bad as the rest of them when it came to having the SIU in her blood.

“Rach?” he said as he tapped on the bedroom door. He paused for a few seconds before slowly turning the handle. He had barely gotten the door open, then slammed it shut again when he saw the phone flying in his direction. He heard it crash against the door, then the floor and he had to chuckle. She was just fine.

He dared to take another peek and saw that she was burrowing under the covers once more. “I see you’re still not a morning person,” he teased as he stepped inside. He had discovered that the hard way when they had been on stake out together.

“Do you know what you can do with that phone Leek?” she asked pointedly.

“I’ll bet I can guess,” he chuckled.

“Go away!”

He knelt down next to the bed and gave the covers a slight tug only to have them jerked back out of his hand. “Late night?” he asked in return. When she abruptly changed positions under the covers, he moved back slightly. He knew that it was “enter at your own risk” when Rachel was still asleep. “Working on anything interesting?” he tested.

She sighed noisily. “Harvey? You haven’t forgotten that I have a gun, have you?” she asked from beneath her comforter.

He smiled as he rose again. “All right. I’ll leave you alone this time, but only because I’m running late to work. I would say that I’d give you a call later, but your phone seems to be out of order,” he commented as he picked up phone and placed it on the dresser.

“You must have a death wish.”

“No really. Don’t get up,” he said sarcastically. “Thanks for the warm welcome sweetie. I’ll see myself out.”

When she heard the front door lock, she tossed the covers back. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying most of the night and her head hurt so bad that she felt like she had a hangover as she crawled out of bed to make her way to the shower. Harvey’s repeated phone calls had been pure torture for more reasons than one. She had tossed for most of the night trying to decide if she should tell Harvey what had happened with Samuel. She had picked up the phone at least a dozen times to call him. But, each time she did, she hung up without even starting to dial. When he began calling her that morning, she questioned her decision to remain silent all over again.

She wasn’t even really sure why, but she wanted to keep Samuel’s visit to herself for awhile longer. She would tell Harvey eventually, but there was so very little that she could call her own where her son was concerned. She didn’t want to discuss the visit or analyze where it was going or why Samuel had decided to stop by. She wanted to remember the laughter, the way his eyes looked when he knew that he had embarrassed her, and the heartbreakingly innocent expression he had when he talked about how Hyun had hurt him.

She knew that she was remembering the visit with the colored vision of a mother and not as a trained police officer, but she didn’t care. That was how she chose to remember him at that moment. She knew that she would have to deal with “family” business eventually, but not that day. That was part of the reason that she wasn’t ready to tell Harvey just yet. She knew that he would see it through the eyes of a cop.

* * *

“Nash,” he said succinctly into his cell phone as he sped toward the SIU.

“It’s Babcock. I’ve got a hit on the cross reference in the blackout burglaries. Three of the five families have the same lawn care company. Owner Jason Borders.”

“Alright. Make sure you double check with the other two and see if you can hunt down Jason Borders for questioning. My guess is that he’s not the missing link, but he may know something. Is Harvey in yet?”

He wanted to ask Nash why he suspected that Jason Borders wasn’t their guy, but he wasn’t sure how his new boss felt about being questioned. “He’s walking in right now.”

“All right. Take him with you as backup with Borders, but tell him that I want him on the hospital hackers case as soon as he gets back in.”

“We’re on it,” Antwon returned, then hung up the phone.

Harvey had just caught the end of Antwon’s conversation as he glanced over the files on his desk. “Have I been volunteered for something while I had my back turned again?” he asked his new partner.

Antwon smiled. “Of course! We need to have a chat with Jason Borders concerning the blackout burglaries and Nash volunteered you to assist. Oh! He said that he wants you on the hospital hackers case when we get back.”

“The what?” he asked blankly. He had been out of the SIU for less than twelve hours and he was already falling behind.

Antwon easily spotted the file on his partner’s desk and pulled it out of the stack. “Someone’s breaking into San Francisco General computers.”

“Lovely. Probably some college pledge trying to score a cadaver or something equally grotesque.” He took the folder with him as he followed Antwon out of the SIU and read through the brief report as they headed across town. “Who would want to mess with patient records?” he asked aloud as he read in disbelief. “You’re talking about putting someone’s life in serious danger. Several someone’s.”

Antwon looked over at him from the corner of his eye. “A pet peeve of yours?” he asked, unsure if his mood was personal or professional.

“You could say that,” he admitted. “It’s just that stuff like this can have repercussions for years to come. The people who have no idea that their medical records have been tampered with, can go into the hospital for a simple procedure and end up dead because their information has been changed. It’s like an unwritten rule, something you just don’t do.” He sighed heavily to stop himself before he climbed up on his soap box. “So what do we have on this Jason Borders?”

“His lawn care company takes care of three of the estates that were hit during the blackout. It’s weak, I know, but it’s the only common denominator so far.” He gave Harvey another glance. “Hey, can I ask you something about Nash?” he tested.

Harvey gave him a surprised look, then he smiled. “Let me guess. Nash doesn’t think that there is a connection with the burglaries and Borders.”

Antwon’s mouth dropped open slightly. “How did you know that?”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry man. You’ll get use to Nash being one step ahead of everyone else. I’ve worked with him for years and I still can’t figure out how he does it.”

* * *

Nash looked out over the SIU from the upper level. He had a great staff of hard working men and women. He knew that everyone was breaking their backs to keep up with the case load, but they were so understaffed. The city was throwing more and more work their way, but it wasn’t giving him the people that he needed to handle it all. Which was nothing new.

“Barb?” Nash stopped the policewoman when she would have descended the staircase. “Will you ask Ronnie to come up here please?”

“Anything for you, Nash,” she returned with a smile, then trotted down the stairs.

Nash shook his head. Barb never missed an opportunity to flirt. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he joked before taking a sip of his coffee. Once Barb had delivered the message, Ronnie looked up at him and Nash pointed to the top deck before going up himself. He didn’t have to wait long for Ronnie to join him.

“Yeah boss?” Ronnie said as he walked up to Nash leaning over the railing.

“Can I ask you a personal question, Ronnie?” Nash began as he turned to look up at the burly officer.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Sure boss. What do you want to know?”

“Why haven’t you ever taken the inspector’s exam?”

Ronnie smiled as he thought for a moment. He was flattered that Nash was interested enough to ask. “I can give you a whole list of reason’s, boss, but it basically boils down to the fact that I love the uniform,” he said honestly. “Even when I was a kid, I always knew that I was going to be a cop. After watching you and Joe and Harv over the years, I’ve considered taking the exam, but the thought of never putting on the blues again, just doesn’t appeal to me.”

Nash returned his smile. He knew that Ronnie’s decision was more involved than that, but he knew where he was coming from. “I can understand that. I fought being promoted to Captain for quite awhile simply because I didn’t want to give up being an inspector.” He tipped his head to the side as he studied the officer. “What would you say about occasionally working in plain clothes?” he tested. He knew that Ronnie would do anything that he asked of him. His loyalty had been proven repeatedly. Because of that instead of in spite of it, Nash would rather give Ronnie the choice.

He thought about it for a moment. “I’m honored that you think I’m capable.”

Nash waited, but Ronnie said nothing further. “But?” Nash asked pointedly.

“But nothing, boss,” he said a bit confused. “I’d be honored.”

Nash chuckled. “That’s what I like about you, Ronnie. You’re hard to read. No one is ever sure what you’re going to do next and that’s a real asset in the field.”

* * *

“Jason Borders?” Antwon began as he and Harvey stepped into the office. “I’m Inspector Babcock and this is Inspector Leek from the Special Investigations Unit of the SFPD.”

Jason shook both of their hands. “Gentlemen.” He gave them an uneasy look. “What can I do for you today?”

“We’re investigating the blackout burglaries and several of your clients...”

“Say no more,” Jason interrupted and picked up a file from the corner of his desk. “Here is a list of all the men working at each of the homes, their access, time with the company, etcetera.”

Harvey and Antwon exchanged a surprised glance. “Do you normally keep that kind of information on your staff at your fingertips, Mr. Borders?” Antwon asked skeptically.

“I work for a very exclusive clientele, Inspector,” he explained as he folded his arms over his chest. “And my prices are not cheap, so my employees have to be above board. If they’re not, they’re history. It’s as simple as that. My loyalty is to my clients. I have no problem giving you that information because you’re really doing me a favor by checking them out.”

“And what about you, Mr. Borders?” Antwon said skeptically. “Where were you during the rolling blackouts?”

Jason smiled, but there wasn’t any warmth behind it. “Working.”

“And any number of people can verify that, I suppose,” Harvey added.

“Of course.”

Harvey started for the door. “Thanks for your time, Mr. Borders.” He held the door open, waiting for Antwon to pass through, then he followed.

“What’s the rush?” Antwon asked as they walked out of the building.

“We’re not going to get anything useful out of him,” Harvey returned. “He’s probably been working on his answers all night.”

“We could have at least found out who had tipped him off,” he argued.

Harvey shook his head as he slipped his beret into place. “He already said that his loyalty was to his customers. He wasn’t going to give up that kind of information.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Antwon admitted. He would have spent the next ten minutes questioning Jason Borders to no avail. He liked the way his new partner’s mind worked. It was efficient.

* * *

“Looks like you’ve got a visitor, Nash man,” Joe commented as he stepped up to his partner’s desk.

Nash glanced up at him, then in the direction that he was staring to see his sister striding into the SIU. “Stacy?” Nash said with surprise as he rose from his chair. “How long has it been since you’ve been here?” he asked as he gave her a peck on the cheek.

“Too long, apparently,” she shot back. “I was just looking for Dad’s reading glasses in the back of the Cuda and one of your patrolmen acted like he was going to arrest me.”

Nash chuckled. “Wasn’t there anyone around to tell him who you were?”

“Yeah, Barry eventually did once he was able to stop laughing,” Stacy said as she glanced around for the officer. She knew that she was going to be the straight-line to the new joke around the office. But she didn’t really mind because the memory of the look on the new recruit’s face was priceless. She wanted to laugh herself when he started falling all over himself to help her once he realized his mistake.

Nash shot Joe a glance. “Looks like we’ve got a new prankster in our midst,” he said ominously. “Competition bubba?”

“Not a chance,” Joe returned smugly. “I am and shall remain king for many years to come.”

“I don’t know about that, bubba. Harvey and Rachel actually had you convinced that you were getting taller. I think they are the reigning royalty around here.”

“They didn’t have me convinced,” he argued. “I was just playing along. I wanted to see how far they would go. Having my pants altered was a nice touch.”

“So what’s up, sis?” Nash asked as he looked at Stacy across his desk. “Are you just here to pick up Dad’s glasses or am I finally going to find out what has been going on with you and this recipe thing?”

“It’s actually kind of exciting,” Stacy returned exuberantly. “I’ve been kicking round the idea of doing a family cookbook for years. When Cassidy said she was getting married, I thought that it would make the perfect wedding gift, so I really started to put some effort into it. You know, going back through old recipes of Mom’s and Grandma’s and a few of my own. Then, when the wedding was called off, it fell to the back burner again.”

“So what moved it back to the front burner?” Nash prompted, hoping that she would eventually get to the point.

“Well, I was telling a friend of mine about it and the fact that I was starting to receive recipes from other people in the family like Aunt Sylvia and her Romanoff dressing. And our cousin Katie and her chocolate torts. Lisa even gave me a few of her recipes. Anyway,” she shook her head and closed her eyes for a second to get her focus back on the reason she was there. “My friend offered to put it together for me, so I started working on it again. Then, out of the blue, she calls me up,”

“This nameless friend,” Nash interrupted.

Stacy’s eyes grew slightly in irritation. “Yes, and her name is Ginny. She calls me up one day last week and says that a major book deal fell through and she wants to use my recipe book as the replacement.”

“Wow!” Nash returned in genuine surprise. “That’s wonderful sis! Congratulations. But what’s the catch?”

“The deadline,” she returned. “Everything has to be ready by this weekend.”

“Ouch. Why the hurry?”

“Because they already have the materials necessary and they are going to be taking a huge loss if they don’t get a book out soon. The printing company my friend owns is small and she’d rather take a chance on the Bridges Family Recipes, that’s the title, by the way, than to leave her assets sitting in storage.”

“Bridges Family Recipes?” he asked and received a nod in return. “So what do you need from this Bridges?” he asked suspiciously.

“Now what makes you think...”

“Stacy.”

“Your catfish jambalaya recipe and your signature on a release form?” she said sheepishly.

“Is that all?” Nash asked and received another nod. “Well why didn’t you say so? You’ve got it, sis. I’ll have to dig up the recipe, but I can get it to you by tomorrow morning.”

“That would be perfect,” she returned as she circled the desk to give her brother a hug. “Thank you so much. Dad can take care of the rest. He has a story picked out about you and a catfish.”

“What?” he said in confusion as he watched his sister walking away once more.

“He’s already looking for the picture. Thanks bro!” she said, tossing a wave over her shoulder.

“Hey! What picture?”

Joe chuckled. “I’ve got a feeling this one is going to be good.”

“Nash!” Harvey interrupted.

“What have you got?” Nash asked as Harvey approached his desk.

“It’s not good, boss,” Harvey warned. “At first it looked like the hospital hackers were just some kids going in and screwing around with patient files for kicks, but when I started to dig a little further...” he shook his head. “It’s definitely a professional job. They were looking for something specific and trashing the files was their way of covering up.”

“And what are they after?”

“Donor organs,” he said succinctly as Joe leaned on Nash’s desk. “Specifically a kidney.”

“Okay.” Nash looked at him suspiciously. “Now tell me that they didn’t get one.”

He nodded. “There’s a recipient waiting at San Francisco General for a kidney that never showed.”

“What about the second kidney?” Joe asked. “Last time I checked, we do have two.”

Harvey shook his head. “The donor died in a car accident. There was only one viable kidney. The second was damaged.”

Nash sighed. “What’s our time table?” he asked.

“Normally, we would have up to forty-eight hours before the organ was irretrievable, but because of the hackers, we’re down to thirty-six.”

“It’s been missing for twelve hours?” Joe asked incredulously. “How can no one miss a kidney for twelve hours?”

Harvey shrugged. “San Francisco General didn’t even know it was coming. It was being flown in from Arkansas. I figure that the hacker intercepted the initial message, then used the blackout to cover it up. But, your guess is as good as mine.”

“And at this point,” Nash interrupted, “it doesn’t matter. We’ve still got to find it.” He looked up at Harvey again. “What are the chances that it’s still in the city?”

“Pretty good at this point. Bad weather had kept the plane grounded for several hours before they finally drove it to an airfield outside of the storm’s radius.

“Please tell me you already know what airline it came in on,” Nash asked. He was so tired of all of the foul ups because of the rolling blackouts.

Harvey nodded. “According to SFO airport officials, the plane arrived an hour ago, but it has already been unloaded. Cargo searches are underway.”

“That’s not going to help if someone drives it out of town,” Joe said.

“For now, we’re going to have to work with the assumption that it is still in San Francisco,” Nash said as he paused a moment to think. “We’re going to need all the help we can get on this one.”

“The media is probably going to want a statement from you,” Joe warned him.

Nash nodded. He hated having to do the politician thing in front of the camera, but he knew that they needed it. “Go ahead and set it up, Joe. Harv, have you had any luck finding out who the hackers are?”

“I’ve got a couple of names to check out,” he returned. “There aren’t many people who can do that kind of work locally.”

“Good. Stay on it,” Nash ordered, then looked back at Joe. “Why don’t we see if we can track down Mr. Bones,” he suggested.

“Mr. Bones?” Harvey said curiously.

“Mr. Bones is a modern day grave robber.”

Joe let out an amused burst of air. “He calls himself a techno vampire.”

“Sounds gruesome. So why haven’t I met this guy before?” Harvey asked.

“We haven’t been able to get anything solid on him yet,” Nash responded. “With his type of work, it’s more a matter of switching routing schedules rather than actually obtaining the merchandise.”

“He’s not a material ghoul,” Joe interjected.

“Could Mr. Bones be our hacker?” Harvey asked curiously.

“I doubt it,” Nash returned skeptically. “He usually deals with skeletons or things like blood for the gothic set. Not exactly legal, but not life threatening either. I’ve never known him to go after something like this.”

“But, even if he’s not involved, not much happens in the gore sect that he doesn’t know about,” Joe concluded.

“Looks like we’re getting all kinds of visitors today.” Nash glanced at his watch quickly when he saw who was walking in the main entrance. “Okay, who’s got eleven-thirty today?”

Rachel shoved her hands into her jeans as she strolled into the SIU. At first, no one even gave her a passing glance, then everyone started to greet her warmly. It had been far too long since she had walked onto that barge. She hadn’t realized how much she missed it until that moment. Her grin grew when she saw Harvey shaking his head.

“Tell me that you didn’t drive down here,” he insisted as she walked up to him at Nash’s desk.

“Relax Harv. I took a cab. I figured that the least I could do was take you to lunch after the welcome I gave you this morning.” She glanced at Nash when he grabbed his phone and moved it to the other side of his desk, then looked back at Harvey.

“Ooo. Busted!” Joe said with a snicker.

Harvey nodded at their antics as he nervously rubbed his ear. “Thanks guys.” He knew that he would pay for that one later. “I’d love to go to lunch with you, but can’t,” he returned. “The clock is running on this case,” he explained, holding up the file in his hand. “There’s a kidney missing in the city.”

“You’re kidding?” she asked in disbelief.

“I wish I was.”

“I was wondering when you were going to show up here,” Nash interrupted as he gave Rachel a smile. “How are you feeling?”

She reached up and rubbed a hand over her mending wound. “Still a little difficult to take a deep breath, but other than that, I’m fine.”

Nash looked at her a little closer. “You look tired. You haven’t been working on one of your off duty cases, have you?”

“She definitely had a late night last night, but she not saying what she’s working on,” Harvey informed their boss.

Rachel’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Harvey. “I can’t believe you would rat me out like that,” she said in feigned shock.

“Sister, if I find out that you’ve been working against doctor’s orders...”

“Relax guys!” she insisted. “I’m not doing anything that I’m not suppose to do.” She looked at Nash. “If you’re so concerned about what I’m doing, put me behind a desk and you can keep an eye on me.” She smiled as her eyebrows rose in challenge.

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” Nash said as he looked over at Harvey. “If we put her to work tracking down the hacker, it would free you up to do the leg work.”

Harvey barely managed to stifle a smile when Rachel’s eyes gleamed at the prospect. “I don’t know, boss. She’s a schemer. She’ll take advantage of the situation if she’s hanging around here.”

“Good point,” Nash said.

“Oh you are so going to regret this, Leek,” Rachel warned him, then she looked back to Nash. “I’ve got everything that I need on the computer at my desk. I’ve got a trace program on there that’s even better than the one out on the market currently.”

“Actually,” Nash began, then grimaced. “No you don’t.” He glanced at Joe for support, then at Harvey. Both moved away slightly, pretending to do busy work. He was on his own. “I was trying to run a search while you were in the hospital and crashed your computer. Harvey had to reformat everything to get it working again.”

“So the trace program...”

“Gone,” Nash returned concisely, then waited for the backlash.

“That was a prototype,” she told him in a calm voice.

“I know.”

“I spent two years perfecting that program,” she added.

Nash nodded. He wasn’t even able to look at her anymore. “I know.”

“It was also the backup copy.”

Nash looked up at her again, then at Harvey and Joe. “That wasn’t the original?”

Rachel gave him a disbelieving look. “Do you really think that I would keep the only copy of a prototype program here where you and Joe can get a hold of it?”

“Hey!” Joe interjected. He wasn’t saying a word and still got tossed into the mix.

Nash chuckled. “Well that’s a load off my mind! But you’re still working at home.”

* * *