A/N. Hello to you all... The new week is upon us. I hope you all had a safe weekend. Take care and thanks for your continued support..

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"Who's Antonio Garcia?" asked Liam. Murphy's father's expression was curious as he observed the name Kaitlyn was pointing at. "And why do you both look like you've seen a ghost?"

Murphy ran his fingers through his short hair and exhaled loudly. "Mac soith!"

"Watch your tongue, I brought you up better than that!" exclaimed Molly as she reached up and slapped Murphy across the back of his head.

Murphy threw his mother a - 'Really mom, did you have to do that?' - look and turned back to Kaitlyn. He was just in time to see the tail end of a smirk that was attempting to hide behind an innocent look. She was unable to keep it up, and a light chuckle escaped as her eyes crinkled in mirth.

"I don't believe in coincidences," he said, his no-nonsense tone letting her know he wasn't impressed.

Kaitlyn bit her bottom lip, and sifted through the information, little though it was, on the Boston Detective. "The name is a relatively common one," she hesitated. "How do we know that it's the same person?'

Murphy pointed to the name printed above the one they had been looking at. "That's why."

Kaitlyn studied the branch of the family tree he was referring to and groaned. Sure enough, Antonio Francis Garcia's father was also called Antonio Garcia. While not proof positive, it clearly indicated that Tony was most probably the one on the chart. They already knew the detective had been named after his father.

Kaitlyn noticed that both Liam and Molly were looking perplexed and quickly explained the connection.

After she had finished speaking, Liam whistled. "What are the odds?"

Murphy let out a scoff. "Apparently quite good with the way my luck has been," he muttered under his breath.

"So what does this police detective have to do with all this?" Molly asked as she waved her arms at the giant family tree pinned haphazardly to the wall.

The four of them stared at the wall as if an answer would miraculously jump out at them.

"I think I'll make us a pot of coffee," Molly declared, breaking the silence. She headed towards the kitchen and continued speaking more to herself than the others. "And there's a container of muffins and cupcakes in the pantry that will need to be eaten."

Kaitlyn scanned the countless names, the longer she stared at the pages, the more blurred they became. She let out an impatient snort. This was getting them nowhere. They needed to work this through. "We know that Elijah has been turning people from this bloodline," Kaitlyn began as she took a step back to take in the entire wall. She turned to Murphy. "I'm assuming you would have known if Tony had been bitten?"

Murphy nodded. "Not straight away, but once his body had started the process, I would've detected it."

Kaitlyn made her way around the table and picked up a small whiteboard from off of the floor and rested it on one of the dining room chairs. After finding something to write with she drew a single line down the middle to separate the board in two. At the top of one column, she wrote 'Tony', and on the other 'Elijah'.

"Okay," she said, once this was done. "We think Tony is still human."

She then placed an 'H' under the detective's name, and an 'I' under the other.

Murphy began to pace the room. He was clearly sifting through the information he knew in an attempt to join the missing pieces. "I know he was lying when he said he believed that Patsy was the Boston Wolf Killer," he said, continuing to pace as he spoke. "That can only mean that he knows who did the killings."

"So he knows Elijah?" Kaitlyn asked.

Murphy halted and shook his head. "No," he said, as he pinched his lips. "If Garcia had been anywhere near him, I would have known it."

Kaitlyn crossed her arms over her chest and tapped the whiteboard marker against her chin. "Okay, so who does he associate with that might?" she said trailing off, frustration at not being able to see the pieces, evident in her stance.

She then remembered an earlier conversation with Murphy. "Other police officers!" she blurted, "We know he's got links to dirty cops. What's more, we know that he's not hold up with any of the local Werewolves. Maybe he's somehow made an alliance with Tony and the other corrupt cops."

Kaitlyn swung hopeful eyes towards her partner.

Murphy ran a hand over his stubble as he stared through the whiteboard. "I think we're missing something," he pondered, "We need to work out where this started and why."

Kaitlyn looked at Murphy with an odd expression, "This all began with Elijah starting up what he left off doing twenty years ago."

She was surprised when Murphy shook his head. "Actually," he said, "it didn't."

"What do you mean it didn't," she said, her eyes blinking rapidly.

Murphy looked directly at Kaitlyn, she could tell something had just occurred to him. "We didn't know it at the time, but Elijah began biting people well before the bodies started piling up."

She closed her eyes to think and lightly scratched her forehead. "Okay," she said opening them again, "So his original MO was what? Turn as many people as he could? But why? He'd have to know what he was doing was going to get him noticed - not to mention cause a catastrophic disaster for your race."

"He didn't care," Murphy broke in as he recommenced his pacing. "He was pissed at Elise. Somehow, she knew we were coming that day. Instead of warning him, she left him there to get caught by the Alliance. He wouldn't have taken that lightly."

"But how would turning people into Immigrants piss Elise off? I thought she was even more psychotic and dangerous than Elijah - if that's possible."

Kaitlyn's head swung towards Liam, who until now had remained quiet. "Elise is many things," he ventured, "but the one thing she shares with the rest of us is the need for secrecy."

Murphy agreed with his father's assessment. "My guess is that he's pissed at her and it's his way of increasing the number of non-pure Werewolves. And to top it off, he'll be wanting to extract his revenge on the Alliance at the same time. Rushing from one end of the country side to the other for newly turned Werewolves is not our ideal pastime."

They were interrupted as Molly returned with a tray laden with cups, coffee and muffins.

"Help yourselves," Molly said as she placed the tray on the table. She picked up two cups and made her way to Liam.

Murphy's father gratefully accepted the offered mug and turned back to Kaitlyn. "We are naturally hardwired to keep our existence a secret from the rest of the world. It's part of the reason why there haven't been more sightings. The newly emerged wolf will resist exposure."

"I understand why he would be aching to payback Elise," said Kaitlyn before she paused to reach for the cup of coffee Murphy had passed to her. After taking a sip she continued, "But what's his issue with the Alliance?"

Liam scratched the back of his head and looked down at his mate. "He blames some of the packs for casting him out. But he was never right from the get go. The stories that I've heard whispered would stop you from ever sleeping again."

Molly's expression was dour as she added to Elijah's history. "Even as a young'un," she said, "he had a fascination with killing. In the end, the destruction was too much even for his pack to bear and they threw him out. I heard one story that he took off with one of the she-wolves from his pack, against her will mind you. She was never the same after that."

Seeing that his mother couldn't continue with the story, Murphy finished it for her. "For two months he had her chained up, he would spend each day slicing her just to see how better to cut her next time. He would wait until the wounds had healed and then started over again. Not one part of her body was spared."

Kaitlyn shuddered at the thought of the experienced killer being free to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting population. "I have to ask - why did none of you do anything about it? Couldn't you stop him when you knew he was a problem?"

"I think that's a discussion for another time," Molly broke in hastily.

Kaitlyn could tell from Molly's expression that she was imploring her to not continue with that particular line of questioning. At first, Kaitlyn was confused as to why, but then it hit her. That subject was part of the reason for the division between Murphy and his father.

Not wanting to be the person responsible for setting back their reconnection, she guided the conversation back to its original discussion. "Okay, so he was happily creating Immigrants within this family tree, and then one day he wakes up and decides it might be a great idea to start slicing up humans again. This time, he picked on people with ties to organised crime. Why the jump? Why start killing low and mid-level Crims?"

"He wasn't just killing them," Murphy pointed out.

"Well, they looked pretty dead to me," Kaitlyn threw back at him, "I don't know of anyone who can survive being cut up like that."

"No you misunderstood what I meant," he clarified, "he was torturing them. He wanted information that only they had." A stunned expression then overtook Murphy face as his eyes widened. "That's it!" he shouted. His abrupt movement resulted in a splash of coffee erupting out of the cup he was holding and spill onto the floor below.

All eyes snapped to Murphy.

"He was working his way up. He was after a specific person or group of people. He knew exactly who he wanted. He just didn't know how to find them. The killings stopped because he found who he was looking for. And I lay odds that person was smart enough to know the Boston Wolf Killer needed to die to keep us from finding him and them."

"Oh my God!" Kaitlyn exclaimed, following his train of thought, "We've been looking at this all wrong. He's gotten in bed with the Mafia. Someone on that list is the Don of the New England Mafia."

"How do you know it's not one of the other Cartels?"

Kaitlyn strode over to the wall and pointed at the name that had started the discussion. "Him," she declared with triumph. "Firstly, until today I would have never picked Tony to have Italian blood. I honestly thought he was full Puerto Rican."

"Remember when we walked in on him and he was looking at that bloodbath case from the docks. They initially thought it was between the Mexicans and the Russians? I happened to overhear a conversation Pilkington had with Doug. The rumour mill was rife that the Mexicans had originally had a deal to supply the Mob. At the last moment, the Russians swooped in and made a better deal."

She now addressed Murphy directly. "Don't you remember how your spidey senses got all out of whack when you knew Tony was lying about what he knew about the case?"

"And?" he asked, his dubious expression telling her he was not sure where she was going with this.

"He bloody well knew what was going on because he was involved somehow. Do you know the biggest difference between the Mexican Cartels, the Russian Mafia and the Mob?" she asked, her eyes bright with excitement.

Murphy raised an eyebrow. "Surprise me."

"Family. The Mob are big on family." Kaitlyn indicated towards the wall, and its story of the single Werewolf whose descendants she believed were caught up in organised crime. "We need to find who's at the top of the Mob here in Boston. I bet you he - or she - is somewhere on this tree. And I lay odds it'll be close to Garcia."

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By the time Kaitlyn arrived home that evening she was both mentally and physically exhausted. After Liam and Molly had taken off for the afternoon, she and Murphy had commenced the long process of working their way through Tony's immediate and extended family to determine any connections to organised crime.

They had made an educated guess and very quickly eliminated many of the names due to age and gender. Both agreed that while many things had changed over the years, Americans hadn't yet warmed to a woman in charge.

The other problem was they needed to trail Tony. They knew at this would eventually lead them to the information they were after. The only issue - they had to assume Tony and the rest of the Mob knew of Murphy and what he was. This would mean that they needed to be careful on who was to be Tony's new shadow.

In the end, the solution was obvious. Joshua was due back the following day. He was unknown to Tony and the rest of his compatriots. So, if somehow he was spotted, he wouldn't be recognised.

Kaitlyn ran a hot bath, threw in some bath salts and raced to the fridge to grab a bottle of wine. After easing into the steaming water a short while later, she let out a satisfied and luxurious sigh. She took a sip of wine and leaned back into the tub, allowing the water to saturate into her skin and tense muscles. The tranquil sound of music from her playlist fell gently on her ears as she closed her eyes and relaxed.

As she soaked, her mind wandered as it ticked through what they needed to achieve the following day. Her grandfather was arriving in the early afternoon and they needed to find out as much as they could about Detective Garcia before then. She smiled as she remembered Murphy's pout when she had discounted any possibility of him trailing Antonio. To give him credit, she had to admit that once she had listed the many reasons he couldn't possibly risk their exposure, he had reluctantly agreed without too much argument.

As she was packing up, it had not escaped her that she was reluctant to leave. Her initial internal argument had been that she wanted to bid her farewell to Liam and Molly - who had rung to let Murphy know they were on their way, and that Molly had brought up a storm. However, grudgingly, she had to admit even to herself that she was - correct that - had - developed an emotional connection to their son that defied logic.

Murphy had followed Kaitlyn to her car. As they talked, it had dawned on her how much she had begun to take his presence for granted. She suddenly realised that she looked forward to seeing him each day. She enjoyed teasing him, arguing with him and, God help her, she even had begun to think his broodiness was cute - to a degree.

What was most disconcerting was the way in which her body responded to his. It was like he was due north and she felt an unconscious gravitational pull towards him.

Kaitlyn touched her fingers to her lips and closed her eyes, remembering how breathtakingly aware she was of him as he placed her bag on the back seat. When he had righted himself, his body had been so close to hers that she could feel the warmth radiating off him.

Without warning, he had pulled her towards him and moulded her body intimately against his. Their eyes had locked as his face loomed over hers. In the time it took for a heartbeat to pulse, desire had flamed within her. She still wasn't sure which one of them instigated the next move, but she didn't care. His tangy taste and male scent was all her world was reduced to a moment later, as their lips fused and held. With a need that defied reason, she had clutched fistfuls of his shirt as their kiss deepened, becoming almost primal in their need. If she hadn't been holding on to him she would have not had the power to stand. Her body was on fire with each thrust and parry of their very dangerous dance.

Kaitlyn had no idea how long their heady embrace lasted. But eventually, they had managed to douse the fire which threatened to ignite into an inferno if not careful. As they pulled away it was evident that neither was sorry for the moment nor embarrassed by it.

His parting words, 'Sleep well' were still playing on her mind. How, she wondered, was she going to be able to sleep at all after an earth shattering kiss with a man whom she knew would disappear as soon as he had found and killed Elijah. A man she knew had already found and lost the only woman he could ever love.

Kaitlyn wiped the single tear that had fallen. She took another sip from her glass and lay her head back down on the back of the tub, wondering how she had allowed herself to get this involved.

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A/N ... well they are onto Tony it seems... and they have worked out that the Mafia is involved.. Aren't they smart cookies??

... and what did you think of Kaitlyn's revelation???

-- Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed this chapter, and, as usual, feedback is always welcome.

As some of you may be aware, I have two stories on the go... Buried and Chameleon in New York. CiNY was originally going to be a short story and was supposed to be finished by now. As it turns out, it's not a short story afterall... and it has affected my writing schedule adversely.

In order to be fair to readers of both my ongoing stories I will be modifying my schedule. CiNY will move to midweek for it's cycle and Buried will remain with a publishing scheduled during the weekend. This way I can still get out regular updated without stressing myself out and making myself ill in the process.

I do apologize for the slippages. With the change, this should make my uploads on time. Thanks for your patience. See you all next weekend. Till then, take care.

M.