Dr. Melinda Warner walked into the Manhattan Special Victims Unit with a feeling of unease. She had just been pulled off the autopsy of a reporter found strangled in her car, in an under car parking garage.

She had been pulled off of it and was told that Captain Don Cragen wanted to see her. Melinda smiled a hello at Elliot Stabler, who was on the phone. He nodded back. Melinda approached Captain Cragen’s office door and gave three quick knocks. When she heard him say ‘come in’, Melinda stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

Detective Olivia Benson was also in the room. Melinda was surprised by her friend’s presence but certainly not alarmed. She looked from Olivia to Cragen.

“Captain Cragen...what is this all about?” Melinda asked. Don Cragen motioned for her to sit down and she did. Don gave Olivia a look, then spoke.

“It’s about that reporter that was killed last night.” he said. Melinda nodded.

“Yes, in the underground garage. I was just going to open her up when I was told to come here. Actually I was pulled off of the case. Why?” Melinda asked, a bit perplexed. But as she stared into the Don and Olivia’s faces, she knew she was about to hear something unpleasant.

“We thought it would be a conflict of interest.” Cragen finally said. Olivia folded her arms and looked down. Melinda stood back up.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on here?”

“Melinda,” Olivia began, “you know A.D.A. Ron Carver, don’t you?”

Melinda shrugged slightly.

“Just to say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ to. Why?”

Cragen took over.

“That reporter’s name was Lanelle Ferguson. She worked for the New York Times. Let’s just say that we believe she was getting ready to write an unflattering story about A.D.A Carver.”

Melinda now folded her arms.

“What kind of story?”

Olivia spoke.

“One that said that Carver’s real name was Eric Carver and not Ron.”

Melinda shook her head slightly.

“Ron Carver changed his first name and that’s a story?”

“Ron Carver had a twin brother that was a gang member named Eric Carver. This Lanelle Ferguson was getting ready to allege that Eric Carver, when he was 22 years old, tried to get out of this gang. The gang members chose to assassinate him. They did, supposedly. But there is now reason to believe that it was Ron Carver that was actually killed and that Eric assumed his brother’s identity, took his place in law school and...”

“Wait a minute!” Melinda cried out, holding up a hand. “That theory is...quite fantastic. This dead reporter knows this how?”

“We’re looking into it,” Olivia said, “but so far Stabler has found out that Lanelle Ferguson was a girl gang member gone good.”

“So she knew because she actually knew Ron and Eric Carver?” Melinda asked. Olivia and Ron nodded.

“That’s right. Look, D.A. McCoy wants this handled very carefully.”

“Yes, I would see why. So what does any of this have to do with me?” Melinda asked.

Don just decided to come out and say it. Olivia turned away slightly.

“There is reason to believe, that one man might know of a way to prove that Ron is really Eric. Melinda, we’re talking about a lot of cases being overturned if any of this is true. And yet we cannot allow someone to practice law under a stolen identity.”

“I get that, Captain Cragen, Olivia. Again, what does this have to do with me?”

“The person that we think might know something for sure,” Olivia said, “is a prisoner at Oswald State Penitentiary.”

Melinda knew what they were going to say and she was not having it! She turned and began to walk out of the office, but Olivia ran to cut her off.

“Melinda! Just hear us out!” she pleaded.

“What is there to listen to? You want me to go to OZ and try to get information out of Kareem Said.” Melinda said knowingly. Don picked up a file off of his desk and read it aloud.

“Prisoner 975444 Kareem Said, member of the Muslims. Convicted June 6, 1997. Arson in the second degree. Sentence 18 years. Eligible for parole in 5.”

Melinda glared at Don.

“I know what Kareem did. I see he never became eligible for parole?”

“He refused to leave,” Olivia said matter-of-factly. “And he won’t tell us a thing.”

“Because you’ve asked him?” Melinda probed. She could see by the guilty looks on their faces that they had not.

“You used to be involved with him...” Don began but Melinda cut him off.

“That was back in college! A lot of people don’t know that he actually attended Boston University, until he fell in with the Muslims. Suddenly I was too high falutin’ for him. He became just a little too angry for me. I felt like I didn’t know him anymore.”

Olivia touched her arm.

“Do you think he still cares for you?”

“How would I know? I haven’t seen him in years! Over twenty!”

“But do you think if you went to see him...” Don began again. This time Melinda shook out her hair wildly!

“No. He would think it was odd that I was coming to see him after all of these years. And he would never tell me anything if I asked him directly.” Melinda sighed. Olivia looked at Don.

“Could you give Melinda and I a minute? Please?” she asked of her captain. Don nodded and left his own office, closing the door behind him. Olivia focused on Melinda.

“Melinda, I know that the idea of seeing Said again makes you uncomfortable. But I’m going to lay it on the line here: we found all of this evidence in the toilet tank in Lanelle Ferguson’s bathroom. Her apartment had been broken into, as if someone had been looking for something. Said is mentioned as someone that threatened to expose Carver if he didn’t drop the case he had against him. Carver didn’t, for whatever reason and Said did apparently try and reach other officials, but was ignored.”

“So Said never actually got the chance to tell anyone because no one would see him? How did Said even know Ron Carver?” Melinda asked.

“The Carvers grew up in the same neighborhood as Said. Ron, or Eric Carver, made some kind of slip up. There is something about the real Ron Carver that made Said know that he was not looking at him. We need to know what that is, Melinda.”

Melinda walked over to a window and stared out.

“Olivia, he is not going to tell me that in one visit. We both know that.” she said, then turned around. Olivia bit her lip.

“We’re prepared for that. If you’re willing.”

“You want me to do what in Oz?”

“We already have the position of coroner set up for you. You won’t be twiddling your thumbs, Melinda.”

“Let’s say I agree to this: unless Said dies, how am I ever going to see him?”

“We have contacts inside. Let’s just say that the word will get to him that you will be working there. We’ll also send Detective Tutuoula undercover as a guard. You’ll be alright.”

“Will I? We both know why you sent Captain Cragen out of here, Olivia. What you really want is for me to use any feelings Said may have for me, against him...and Ron Carver...Eric or whoever he is, right?”

Olivia looked down again. Melinda looked away from her. There was no way Olivia could understand that her biggest fear was not the prison, or the prisoners. It was testing how powerful her feelings still were for prisoner 975444... Kareem Said. Melinda took a deep breath. This was about more than her past with Kareem. If Ron Carver was really his twin brother, then a lot of criminals would have a ‘get out of jail’ card. And her work on some of the cases would be tainted as well.

But if there was NO truth to this, and it got out, well Ron Carver’s reputation could still be messed up forever. There would be people that would demand proof. Melinda bit her lip. She knew what was next. If she did find something damning out from Kareem, then that would give the Jack McCoy cause to run a DNA test on Ron Carver by exhuming the remains of his brother, Eric.

“I’ll do it.” Melinda told Olivia brusquely.

****

Melinda nodded slightly to Detective ‘Fin’ Tutuoula as she entered Oz State Penitentiary. It was not long before she chatted with Dr. Gloria Nathan in the infirmary. Believe it or not, except for a couple of elderly prisoners, it was rather quiet.

“So, where did you work before you came here?” Gloria asked, straightening up some medicine bottles.

“Oh, in Boston mostly. In the Coroner’s office in Baltimore.”

Gloria raised a brow.

“What are you on punishment or something? Why would you leave a job like that to come here?”

Melinda really wasn’t cut out for this undercover crap! She was about to give yet another lame answer, when an inmate was rushed into the infirmary! Melinda sucked in a breath, for some reason, thinking the man could be Kareem. But it wasn’t. It turned out to be a handicapped inmate named Augustus Hill. He died almost a second later and Melinda knew that she had her first case.

As she began to lose herself in poor Mr. Hill’s wounds, she scarcely took notice of someone sweeping up around her. Melinda sighed heavily. The last thing she needed was janitorial staff around her while she was working. How did this guy get in...

Melinda looked at the man. Kareem set the broom against the wall, did the sign of some prayer that Melinda vaguely recognized as Muslim over Augustus, then looked into Melinda’s eyes.

“Hello, Mel.” Kareem said quietly. Melinda couldn’t break her stare even if she had wanted to. He was obviously older but looked...good. As if prison had given him some sort of peace that he would’ve never been able to find on the outside.

Melinda motioned for Kareem to step into the next room, away from the body. He did so, looking around. There were no other guards outside, probably the way Fin had arranged it.

“What are you doing here, Mel?” Kareem asked in a no nonsense voice.

“I transferred from Boston...”

“You work in Manhattan.” Kareem corrected matter-of-factly. Melinda folded her arms.

“Look, I’m no good at this. I need for you to tell me something.”

“About Ron Carver?”

Melinda eyed him.

“How did you know that?”

“We do get papers and television in here, in case you didn’t know.”

“Don’t be so defensive, Kareem! I know that! But there isn’t a story about Ron Carver out yet.”

“No, but I saw that Lannie had been killed.”

Lanelle Ferguson.

“You knew her?” Melinda asked. Kareem reached for her hands and squeezed them.

“You’re right. You’re not very good at this. Leave this place, Mel. Leave before one of Carver’s minions finds out that you’re here.” he said, turning away from her. It was taking everything in him not to throw her onto the cot and fuck her endlessly. That’s what it had been like for the two of them. When they had been young and in love...

“Well, well, well,” a voice said in a sing song tone, “if it isn’t Kunta Kinte and another affirmative action hire.”

Melinda stared into the eyes of Aryan Brotherhood member, Vern Schillinger. Vern smirked at Said.

“I brought mail to the new Black chick here and find you all over her. And why are you doing clean up detail...”

“Leave, Schillinger. Leave before you get a fist down your throat.” Said warned. Vern put his hands up in a mock surrender.

“Okay, okay. I’ll leave so you two can get your groove on or whatever negroes like yourself do. Though I have to say...if your girlfriend there ever wants a taste of White cockmeat...”

There were many things Kareem could and had had to tolerate, in prison. Disrespect of his self and his person. But he would not allow his Mel to put with it. Not from this Aryan piece of trash.

Kareem rushed Vern and the two fell back against a wall! Melinda screamed and whipped open the door, yelling for the guard! Fin and two other guards hurried into the room, just as the two prisoners had knocked poor Augustus Hill’s corpse off of the table! Melinda wanted to yell out to Kareem, to give him some comfort, but both men were dragged out in a quick and orderly fashion.

Fin touched her shoulder.

“You alright?”

All Melinda could do was nod.

“Look, let’s get you out of here.”

Melinda shook her head.

“No.”

“Melinda...”

“No, Fin! Look, Kareem is...pliable. Not the same hard man that he once was. He said that Carver had minions in here. He’s afraid for my life.”

“So am I!” Fin hissed.

“All the more reason for me to stay put. Where was Kareem taken?”

“To solitary. Same as Schillinger.”

“For how long?” Melinda asked.

“I’ll try and find out. You going to be alright?”

Melinda took a deep breath.

“Just help me get poor Mr. Hill back onto the table, and I’ll be fine.” Melinda told him. Neither of them saw a shadow near the door. The person had heard every word and was on his way to a telephone...to let A.D.A. Ron Carver that a nosy doctor and guard were in his business.

    Melinda met with Cragen, Olivia and Fin in Cragen’s office the next day. Cragen eyed her.

    “How did you sleep?” he asked.

    “How do you think? Kareem does not belong in solitary.”

    Fin and Olivia gave one another a look, before Fin spoke up.

    “He’s not in solitary. I kind of forgot the rules. He’s actually in the hole...the Aryan is down there too but in a separate cell.”

    “The hole?” Melinda asked.

    “It’s kind of like solitary confinement...only your butt naked.” Fin said matter-of-factly. Melinda threw up her hands with disgust while Olivia decided to ask some real questions.

    “Melinda, Fin here said that you thought Kareem had softened after all of these years. Does that mean you think you can find out what he knows about A.D.A.Carver?”

    Melinda took a deep breath.

    “I think Fin told you a little more than that. Kareem knew I was there because of Carver. He knew I hadn’t worked in Baltimore...it was as if he had been keeping up with me the whole time. He also...”

    “What?”Cragen asked.

    “He also spoke of Carver having people in Oz that would know if someone was trying to look into anything about him. Kareem seemed concerned for my safety. My point is, I don’t think he’ll tell me anything. Not if he thinks it’s dangerous.”

    Cragen sighed.

    “Well that’s it then.” he said. Olivia nodded but Fin shook his head.

    “I disagree. I mean, yeah, Melinda wasn’t very good at trying to get the information out of Said. But really she’s all we’ve got. If there are people on the inside that know that questions are being asked about Carver, then Carver is going to find out and cover his tracks.”

    “Which means Said could be in danger,” Melinda said quietly, “since he is the only one that has proof that Ron is really Eric Carver.”

    There was a silence, one that Melinda didn’t appreciate as she looked at everyone.

    “Okay...so what are we going to do?” she asked. Cragen looked puzzled.

    “About?” he asked.

    “About Kareem! His life in Oz is already dangerous enough, but now my visit has put him in Ron Carver’s crosshairs! We have to get him some protection or something.” Melinda insisted.

    “If he’s willing to play ball with Jack McCoy, then yes, we will protect him, Melinda.” Olivia said. “But other than that...”

    “Are you kidding me? Tell me your kidding?” Melinda asked in disbelief. Fin looked down, his arms folded.

    “Melinda has a point. I mean chances are Carver knows already. If Said is the only one that can identify him as his twin brother, he’s already a dead man.” Fin agreed.

    “Hey, I don’t like it anymore than you do. But unless he cooperates with the D.A., we can’t get him protection.” Cragen said with a note of finality. Melinda walked out of the office, then stopped short.

    A.D.A. Carver was walking towards her. Melinda felt Fin’s presence behind her and Olivia and Cragen stepped out of the office as well. Ron gave them a friendly smile, staring at Melinda.

    “Dr. Warner, nice seeing you again,” he said, looking around her at Cragen and Olivia, “Captain Cragen, I’m just here to see where you are on the Lanelle Ferguson case?”

    Melinda stared at Ron Carver. She was probably looking right at the man that had killed Lanelle Ferguson! If he could calmly walk into a police station and be so bold, what else could he do?

    To Kareem.

    “We don’t have any leads.” Cragen said in a level tone. Ron looked surprised, or at least pretended to. He then looked at Olivia.

    “Now that is very odd. I was told that you all were working on a lead at Oz.”

    Melinda’s stomach tightened. Fin rolled his tongue around in his mouth.

    “Where’d you hear that?” Olivia asked. Ron nodded at Fin.

    “Your detective here was there questioning a lead...or so I heard.” Ron said.

    “Heard from who?” Fin asked. Ron now folded his arms.

    “Was I misinformed? Were you not at Oz yesterday questioning a witness in the Lanelle Ferguson investigation?” Ron countered.

    No one said anything. Ron Carver was being cagey, devious and smarmy at this moment. He was as much as telling them that he not only knew Fin had been at Oz, and not as a police officer, but that the investigation was all about him now.

    Ron looked at Melinda.

    “I understand you were pulled off of the case. Why was that?”

    Melinda cleared her throat.

    “I took myself off of it. I’m taking some vacation time.”

    “Oh. May I ask why?”

    “It’s personal.” Melinda said almost coldly. Ron nodded and tore his eyes off of Melinda and rested them back on Cragen.

    “So do you plan to update me or what?”

    “There’s nothing to ‘update’. You’re mistaken about any witnesses to this murder being connected to Oz.” Cragen said.

    Ron blinked.

    “I hope so,” he said, now looking at Melinda, “because if an Oz inmate has even the slightest involvement with this...well...that would be quite the messy can of worms, wouldn’t it?” he quipped then turned and walked away. Olivia shook her head in disgust!

    “I can’t believe him! He just came up in here and dared us to investigate him any further!”

    “And he knew damned well that Melinda and I had been undercover there. Said was right. Carver does have people on the inside.” Fin said.

    “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now. Carver now knows we’re on to him. If we’re going to stop him than Kareem Said is going to have to give us something...pronto.” Cragen said. Melinda faced them.

    “I’m going back in there.” Melinda told them. Before they could protest she held up a hand.

    “We might not have a day...KAREEM might not have a day left. I have to just put all I have into him, and see if he won’t tell me the truth. But I need to reassure him that he will be protected.”

    “He will, Melinda,” Olivia promised, “but I still think it’s risky. I mean just what happened your first time in there could’ve went badly.”

    Fin spoke up.

    “I’ll go back in too to watch over her. But Melinda’s right. For all we know Said could be shanked in the hole or something. We need to break it down to him. If he doesn’t go along with us...”

    “He will.” Melinda insisted. Cragen nodded.

    “Alright then. Fin, Melinda, you’re going back to Oz.”

    Melinda nodded and looked at Olivia, who rested a hand on her arm.

    “Be careful.” Olivia said. Melinda knew that Olivia was not just referring to her personal safety, but her heart as well.

                                                                     ****
    Fin discovered that Said was still in the hole, by the time he and Melinda returned to Oz the next day, albeit separately.

    Melinda had been busy that morning looking over the body of an inmate that had been executed, named Cyril O’Reily. Once she finished confirming that he had died of electrocution and nothing else, Melinda removed her visor and began to make notes.

    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a female, correctional officer twirling her stick as she casually walked into her office. The woman was not very good looking and had auburn colored hair. She also chewed her gum loudly. Melinda eyed her.

    “Hello. Can I help you?” Melinda asked politely.

    “I’m Officer Howell. I just a...came by to see if you needed anything. I would shake hands but you’ve been touching body parts...you know.”

    “Hmmm, yes.” was all Melinda said, looking her over curiously. Claire looked around for a bit, then focused on Melinda.

    “I’m here just to make sure no one else bothers you. With that Nazi Schillinger hanging around...and Said making a pest of himself...”

    “Said wasn’t a pest.” Melinda said, deciding that she’d had enough of this woman. She didn’t know what it was exactly, but she suspected that ‘Officer Howell’ was not here to make sure she was safe.

    “Yeah, I guess Schillinger can be one. I’ve seen him in the shower though. He’s got a bigger cock than most people would think.”

    “Did you need something, Officer Howell?” Melinda asked, looking her up and down. Claire Howell moved closer to her.

    “Yeah...you see...there’s a rumor running around that Said and you are close.”

    “We’re not. We were just making polite conversation.”

    “Good.”

    Melinda now set down her clipboard.

    “Why is that good, Officer Howell?”

    “Well because then you can put in a good word for me with him.”

    “Excuse me?”

    “I want to fuck Kareem Said. I know the Muslim thing won’t permit him to do a White woman like myself, but I figure you can put in a good word for me.”

    Melinda’s mouth dropped open!

    “I can’t believe you’d actually have the nerve...”

    Claire closed the space between them.

    “And I can’t believe the cops would send some coroner in here undercover. You don’t think I hear things? All I have to do is let the wrong person into Said’s cell in the hole, and that’s it for him.”

    “Claire?”

    Melinda and Claire both turned to the sound of Tim McManus’s voice. Melinda vaguely knew that Tim was the Emerald City Administrator.

    “I know I didn’t just hear you threaten to have an inmate killed?”

    Claire rolled her eyes.

    “F**k off, McManus.”

    “Why don’t you find some work to do.” Tim said impatiently. Claire tore her eyes off of her former lover, then smiled at Melinda.

    “Think about what I said.”

    Melinda said nothing and watched as Claire left her office. Tim closed the door loudly behind her, then walked over to her, extending his hand.

    “I’m Tim McManus, Em City Administrator.”

    Melinda shook  his hand.

    “Mindy West.” Melinda told him her fake name.

    “Mindy, I’m sorry about Claire. She’s just...”

    “Disturbed.” Melinda said, removing her plastic gloves with a snap. She covered Cyril’s body with a sheet. Tim shook his head.

    “Poor Cyril. He never stood a chance in here.” he said. “his brother is a prisoner as well.”

    “Really?” Melinda asked.

    “Yeah, Ryan O’Reily. Listen, do you want to get some lunch?”

    What Melinda really wanted was to see Kareem, but she said nothing about that.

    “Sure. Thanks.” Melinda replied with a wan smile. What she really needed before lunch, was to get to Fin and tell him that Claire Howell knew her real identity...and probably his as well.

                                                                      ****

    “Pardon my saying this, Tim, but I don’t get the point of this whole thing.” Melinda said.

    “I don’t understand?” Tim asked.

    “Well the point of this place is rehabilitation...but really what it looks like is that you let a select group of prisoners live in a nicer part of the prison. I mean they’re acting the same way as they would in general population, right?”

    “Well I wouldn’t say that...” Tim began but was cut off by Fin, who had entered the staff breakroom. He told Tim that Warden Glynn wanted to see him. Tim thanked Fin, as ‘Frank’.

    “How is everything going? Keeping the prisoners in line?” Tim asked in a conversational tone.

    “I’m doing alright,” Fin replied, “you know the rule: you have a day to make the inmates respect you, otherwise it’s over. I made Keller eat a piece of bread off of the floor with a shoe print in it.”

    Tim smiled and stood up.

    “Maybe we can continue this later, Mindy...over dinner, tonight?”

    Melinda rubbed the back of her neck.

    “I’ll get back to you before the end of the day.” Melinda replied and Tim walked out of the break room. Fin looked around, then closed the door.

    “Okay, we don’t have long. I’m bringing Said out of the hole today. I’m bringing him down a hallway near Sister Pete’s office. You’ll have to make your pitch to him, quick.”

    Melinda nodded and bit her lip.

    “Fin, I’m worried about you. That Officer Howell seems to know who I am...which means she knows you.”

    “I’ll watch my back. Let’s just hope Said agrees to protection and we can make this our last day here. By the way, are you really going out with McManus tonight?”

    Melinda shrugged.

    “I don’t know. We’ll see.”

                                                                  ****

    It didn’t take Kareem Said long to realize that the new guard was not taking him directly back to his cell. Since he had never seen his face before, Kareem assumed he was a Ron Carver lackey.

    “If you’re going to kill me, then do it out in the open. Where everyone can see.” Kareem said coldly.

    Fin looked around the darkened hallway, then pushed Kareem down another, darker hallway. Kareem was more than a bit startled to see Melinda waiting. Fin nodded to her, then walked off to make sure no one disturbed them.

    Kareem assessed the relationship between the new guard and Melinda and took her to task.

    “Mel, what are you doing here? I told you to leave.”

    “Kareem, there’s no time! Ron Carver knows that we’re here.”

    “Are you surprised?”

    “Kareem, Jack McCoy will help you! He will put you under protective guard, if you just tell him how you know that Ron Carver is not who he says he is! Please!”

    Kareem began to laugh. Melinda sighed impatiently!

    “There is nothing funny about any of this!”

    Kareem stopped laughing abruptly.

    “No, there isn’t. There’s nothing funny about Ron Carver, or your naiveté, in thinking that he won’t kill me anyway...even under ‘protective guard’. And to be blunt, I don’t care anything about him anymore.”

    “You don’t care that he’s sending men to jail...many Black men, when he’s not even who he says he is?” Melinda challenged him. Kareem said nothing to that and she knew she was getting to him.

    “Kareem, if you do nothing it’s a death sentence. If you help McCoy there’s hope...”

    And then Kareem Said did something that caused a rush of fire to burn throughout her entire body. In one fluid motion, he grasped her hips and welded her loins to his. Melinda could feel how much he wanted her and tried to stifle a moan in the semi-darkness. He moved his lips to whisper into her ear, still gripping her tightly.

    “No, Mel. My death sentence is never being with you again. Somehow helping Jack McCoy isn’t enough. Now if you don’t leave here today, I will arrange conjugal visits with women I knew on the outside, for everyday that you stay in this prison...leave here Mel. Leave.” he rasped, suddenly letting go of her and walking away.

    Meanwhile, Melinda fell back against a wall. She hadn’t felt such a rush of passion in years...for anyone. It was all beginning to come back...how hurt she had been when Kareem had changed...or seemingly so. Their life paths, their wants and needs just moved in different directions.

    But she had wanted him just now. Just as much as he had wanted her. And now she had to deal with an ultimatum that was on the surface, unacceptable. If she left here, Kareem would die. If she stayed, he would be having sex with women that had come here of their own free will, right within the very walls she worked in.

    Suddenly an alarm went off and Melinda saw red lights going off! Fin hurried back to her.

    “Oz is on lockdown and...where is Said?”

    “He won’t help and he walked off...why?”

    “Walked off?! I was supposed to be escorting him back to his cell! Now I have to come up with a reason why I wasn’t with him.” Fin huffed. “Never mind! I’ll think of something. Let’s just get to the staff area, okay?”

    Melinda nodded uneasily and Fin and herself made their way out of the darkened hallway. Neither saw A.D.A. Carver’s mole show himself from down another shadowy hallway.

    It was Poet. He nodded to himself. That mutha***ker Ron Carver said he would make sure his parole went through this time...and that he got a book deal for a new set of poems...and that he would get him a house in his neighborhood, if Poet kept tabs on Kareem and that fine azz new coroner lady.

    He would have plenty to say when he made his phone call to Carver this afternoon. But first he’d better get own azz back to his cell for the lockdown. He wondered who the f**k had been killed this time?

    To answer Poet’s question, the ‘f**k’ that had been killed was an Italian named Salvatore DeSantos. Once Poet heard who the victim was, he relaxed. It was an outright lie he told to Burr Redding that had caused this particular death. And if he not told it, his azz would be lying on a slab in the coroner’s office.

    Meanwhile, Fin was more than a bit agitated, not only to discover that Melinda could not leave because of this newest death, but also, Officer Sean Murphy wanted to see him in McManus’s office. Apparently Kareem Said was spotted walking around an area with a guard to accompany him. The records were checked and Fin was discovered to have been that guard.

    Now, while Melinda had to look over the newest murder victim, Fin was getting dressed down in McManus’s office by both him and Murphy.

    “Look, Said got away from me. I would’ve called for back-up but Dr. West looked upset.” he lied. “I mean I didn’t expect to see her down that hallway, and I didn’t expect Said to try anything with her. I felt I had to protect our staff.”

    Murphy said nothing but McManus looked concerned.

    “This is the second incident I’ve heard of regarding Said and Mindy West. What’s going on with Said? I mean, he’s never been like this with any of the other female staff that works here.”

    “Well,” Murphy admitted, “Dr. West is pretty good looking. Maybe Said can’t help himself.”

    McManus said nothing to that. Said had better fucking learn to control himself, since he was interested in Dr. West himself! And he was still waiting for her answer about dinner tonight.

    “I understand ‘Frank’. And I agree. Given the choice, you had to look out for a staff member. But if Dr. West is hassled one more time, she’s likely to quit. And she’s doing good work so far. I’ll pay her a visit to make sure she’s alright.”

    “Uh,” Fin hedged, “she’s probably doing that autopsy on DeSantos.”

    Murphy nodded.

    “Yeah, Frank’s right. She probably won’t want any interruptions.”

    McManus nodded.

    “Fine. I’ll see her later. But I am going to talk to Said.”

    Fin refrained from sighing! Damn! He doubted Said would back up his story. Then again, he did seem to care for Melinda. Maybe he realized that blowing his cover would be bad for Melinda as well.

    “Hey, don’t worry about it,” Murphy said to him, “I mean if I had a choice between the two, I would make sure that a fellow staff member was alright. But McManus is right. Said, for the most part, is pretty low key. It makes me wonder if there isn’t more to this.”

    “What do you mean?” Fin asked, keeping his tone level.

    “I mean it’s almost as if Said thinks he has a right to be fresh with her, you know? Like she was an old wife or girlfriend. But I doubt a woman like that would’ve ever given a guy like Said the time of day.”

    Fin said nothing to that. He could feel this undercover assignment going down the crapper! Even Murphy thought that Said and Melinda could’ve had a past. And even though Murphy seemed to be pushing the thought out of his mind now, one more incident that put Said and Melinda together, and people would start talking.  And there was Officer Howell to contend with as well.

    He was going to recommend to Cragen that Melinda not come back here tomorrow. She tried to get Said to see the light and he refused. Whatever happened to him was on him. They would have to find another way to prove that Ron Carver was not who he said he was.

                                                             ****

    McManus opened the glass door to Said’s pod. Motor mouth Omar White was  going on about nothing and Said was massaging his temples. He almost looked relieved when McManus came in.

    “Omar, take a walk. I need to talk to Said.” McManus said gruffly.

    “Take a walk? And do what?” Omar asked. McManus, who’s eyes had been on Said, now looked directly at Omar.

    “I don’t know, Omar. Why don’t you go down and watch TV?”

    “Because that puppet shit is always on! How come y’all never have any soap operas on up in here? I liked that one called ‘Days Of Our Lives’ before I got locked up in here.”

    “Omar, I need to talk to Said.” McManus repeated.

    “Are you going to get Days Of Our Lives up in here or what?” Omar countered. Said stopped massaging his temples and walked over to Omar, resting a hand on his shoulder.

    “Why don’t you go to the library and look online, Omar? Don’t they have updates on those things?”

    “What things?” Omar asked.

    “Soap operas.” Said replied in a tired sounding voice. Omar nodded.

    “Yeah, they do. I guess I’ll head over there.” he said, walking out of the pod and closing the door behind him. Said sat down on his bed.

    “What do you want, McManus?”

    “I want to know why you keep harassing Dr. West?”

    Said raised a brow.

    “Who?”

    “Oh don’t give me that crap, Said! Mindy West!”

    Said nodded to himself. Melinda.

    “Has she said something?”

    “No, she’s too classy to say anything! But I know that you managed to get away from one of the C.O.’s so you could harass her in a dark hallway. This is so unlike you, Said. What’s going on with you?”

    “So the C.O. told you this?”

    “Does it matter?” McManus argued. Said turned and stared out of his pod window.

    “Maybe she should find work elsewhere, if she’s too scared to even answer a friendly ‘hello’.”

    McManus’s eyes widened! Was Said admitting that he had indeed been harassing the new doctor? McManus moved so that he was standing within Said’s peripheral vision.

    “Kareem, just so you know, if anything happens to Dr. West, courtesy of you,  not only will I make sure you are returned to gen pop, where the majority will not be so enamored with your leadership, but you will never get out of here.”

    Said turned to look at McManus.

    “That’s a very strong threat coming from you.”

    “If you must know, I am very interested in getting to know Dr. West. And I think she feels the same way.”

    All Said could do is slowly smile. McManus didn’t care for that!

    “What?!”

    “If you think so. I mean, I will stay away from her.”

    “See that you do. We’ll probably be going out to dinner tonight so...”

    Said blinked hard!

    “Excuse me?”

    “You heard me. Said, look, you just need to get it out of your head that any staff member, especially an accomplished woman such as Dr. West, would be interested in pursuing a relationship with a convict.”

    “You’re going out with Mel...Dr. West, tonight?” Said asked.

    McManus realized he may have said too much. He should’ve never said anything to an inmate about his personal life. Then again, everyone’s personal life, seemed to be common knowledge in Em City anyway.

    “Just stay away from her.” McManus answered, turning to leave the pod. What was he doing? He had just had lunch with Mindy West, asked her out, where in which she had not given a definitive answer, and already he was willing to lock Kareem Said away in solitary if he even looked at her sideways. He shook his head and walked back to his office.

    Meanwhile, Said felt free now to glare at McManus’s back! Melinda was actually going to go out with that man? McManus had been lying, right? He had to be.

    Then again, McManus had dated a lot of female staff here in Em City. But Melinda? His Mel? No. No, he had to know if Melinda was even considering dating that...that...Said did some breathing techniques, then got down on his knees to pray. He dropped a little too quickly and his cock, which always became hard at the thought of Mel, almost slammed to the floor inside of his pants.

    He emitted a small yelp, just as Omar came wandering back in.

    “Man, all the computers were used up and there’s a 35 minute wait, can you believe that? You ever watched ‘Days Of Our Lives’? There is a bad azz dude on there named Stefano DiMera, who has come back from the dead like 20 times. I remember the first time was back in 83’ or 84’ back when I was...”

    Said inhaled again, praying for strength.

                                                                            ****

    Ron Carver hung up his phone and leaned back in his leather back office chair. HE should be District Attorney, not Jack McCoy.

    To send a former lover of Kareem Said’s into Oswald State Penitentiary, especially one, according to Poet, that still had feelings for him, was too stupid to be believed. It wouldn’t matter what Said said if Dr. Warner had sex with him.

    Poet had said he had overheard Said talking about conjugal visits. Ron closed his eyes. Perfect.

    He opened them again and leaned forward. He then picked up the Lanelle Ferguson file. That stupid bitch. She was the damned reason his brother was dead in the first place. The gang he had been a part of, seemingly a life time ago, The Ice Scorpions...Lanelle had been the leader, Kendrick Coleman’s, girlfriend. He, Eric, had been a revenge fuck for Lanelle. Kendrick had stepped out on her with someone else. Kendrick had found out about him and Lanelle the weekend his twin brother, Ron, was home from college.

    Ron borrowed his coat to go around to the store to get something for their mother. Kendrick and the other gang members followed him in their car and shot Ron dead. Eric knew that if Kendrick and the other Scorpions knew they had killed the wrong Carver brother, that wouldn’t stop them from making his mother childless.

    Eric slipped into Ron’s role, which had not been easy. Schooling had always been boring to him, but he had found that he was smart when he applied himself. And Eric had been forced to do just that. His very life depended on it. If anything that Ron did, suddenly seemed off, then it was over for him.

    The hardest person to fool had been their mother, Irma Carver. Not because she didn’t instantly believe he was Ron. But because it was a low thing to do. That and it had secretly hurt him to realize how relieved she was that her ‘good’ son had been spared, instead of the bad, gang member.

    Had what he did been so bad? He took Ron’s place, graduated from college, graduated from law school, then went on to put away bad guys. Now he was being treated  like he used to be treated. Like a gang member. A criminal.

    And it began with that goddamned Lanelle  Ferguson showing back up in his life again! He had been surprised to see that she had cleaned herself up as well, went to college, graduated with a degree in journalism and got a job with the New York Times. He had made the mistake of going out with her and drinking just a little too much.

    When he awoke, Ron was in her bed and she was calling him ‘Eric’. He could’ve kicked himself! Sleeping with the whore was what got him almost killed before. His brother actually died because of her. The idea of it brought the pain back again. Then, when Lanelle began hinting that the two of them should marry, well, Ron knew he had to get rid of this bitch, pronto!

    Of course he didn’t do it himself. For McCoy and those dumb azzes that were undercover at the prison, to think they’d ever find anything physical to connect him with Lanelle’s murder, was pathetic. Of course, if they were smart, they might find a connection between a recently paroled inmate and her killing...

    He was Ron Carver now. And he was going to keep that identity, this job and his aspirations to unseat Jack McCoy. His thoughts were forced elsewhere, when his cellphone rang. He pulled it out of his inside suit pocket and looked at the number. He then smiled coldly and answered.

    “Officer Howell. Any news?”

    “That’s kind of formal, lover. Are we getting together tonight?”

    Hell no, Ron thought, but kept his tone light.

    “I wish I could, pumpkin, but I have a previous engagement. I need you to do something for me though.”

    “Uh, hold on. I’m not getting much out of this arrangement here. I mean, I thought we were an official couple.”

    Ron smiled on his end.

    “Claire, I have reason to believe that you’ve been cheating on me with Said. I told you to watch him...”

    “No! No, he practically tried to force his dick in my mouth! I’m the victim here, baby, you have to believe that!”

    “I do...I guess. But I’m still hurt that you hid this from me. I need to be alone this weekend, okay?”

    “I guess.” Claire responded quietly.

    “Anyway, I need for you to do something for me. Something to get back at Said for trying to force himself on you. I need for you to doctor the records, so that it looks as if a woman named Lanelle Ferguson was at Oz for a conjugal visit with Said.”

    “Uh, okay....I guess.”

    “Oh and another thing: make sure that the ‘new’ coroner finds out about it.”

    There was a silence. Claire finally spoke.

    “Why?”

    “Weren’t you the one that told me that you thought Said had a thing for her? Wouldn’t you like to see his heart broken? After what he tried to do?”

    “Yeah...I suppose.”

    “I’ll send you the information as soon as possible. Love you.” Ron said with as much sincerity as he could muster, before hanging up. The shit he had to do to keep his secret from ruining his life! Hmmmph!

    But his real plan was to force some kind of altercation between Said and Melinda Warner. One that would end in her giving up her plans to get information out of him, or fucking him a jealous frenzy. Either would work in Ron Carver’s favor.

                                                                    ****

    Melinda snapped off her gloves. Salvatore DeSantos had died from a massive overdoes of LSD that someone had slipped into his food. She couldn’t even begin to imagine why anyone would do such a thing. She shook her head as she began making notes. One of these days Kareem would end up in this very room. Probably.

    Melinda looked up to see C.O. Howell saunter into the room. One of her least favorite people here in Emerald City.

    “Hey there! I just came by to apologize for what I said earlier. That was really shitty of me.”

    Melinda said nothing. Claire Howell was carrying some paperwork or something. But she did answer in a tight voice.

    “It’s fine. Did you need something?”

    “Oh no. Well, maybe just to rest this load.” Claire said, walking in and setting the paperwork on top of DeSantos body! Melinda glared at her.

    “Get that off of him!”

    “Why? It’s not like he’ll mind.”

    But Melinda gave Claire a death stare, so she scooped up most of the pile...save for the paperwork on Kareem Said’s ‘conjugal’ with the late Lanelle Ferguson.

    “Sorry about that. I guess I’d better be going.” Claire said in a cheery voice. Melinda glared at her back, then turned back to the body to cover it up. She noticed that the C.O. had forgotten some paperwork. She picked up the piece of paper, intent on just sticking it in the guard’s mailbox. She certainly didn’t have any plans to speak to that woman if she could help it.

    But her eyes fell upon the contents of the paper. It was some sort of form for...

    Conjugal visits??? And this one said that Kareem Said had had one with Lanelle Ferguson, the day before her murder!

    Melinda stared at her now closed door. It was no accident that C.O. Howell had left this behind. And Kareem was full of it! Claiming that he was now going to have conjugal visits because he couldn’t have her...when he’d been having them all the time! Melinda shook her head. What kind of case would McCoy have against Ron Carver, if it looked as if there was an intimate, on going relationship with the murder victim and a witness?

    She crumpled up the form and looked at her watch. She had been about to turn down Tim McManus’s dinner invitation, but now that she thought about it, maybe a night out is what she needed. Just to get this whole thing off of her mind. Melinda looked around and began the process of cleaning up her lab before Fin came to get her so they could leave for the day.  

    Meanwhile, Fin had just rounded the semi-lit corridor to go and check up on Melinda, when Chris Keller stepped out of the shadows and put Fin in a chokehold! Fin immediately began to struggle, as Keller pulled him onto a storage room of sorts. As the door closed to that room, Said, having stolen Schillinger’s mail cart, made his way to the morgue. Melinda looked up when he entered, giving him a cool stare. Said closed the door behind him, shoving the full cart against a wall.

    “We need to talk.” Kareem said pointedly. Melinda, who was done for the day, took down her hair and checked her reflection in a compact. Said caught his breath at the sight of her locks tumbling down. Melinda, oblivious to it, put away her compact and glared at Said.

    “I think you made it clear that you have nothing pertinent to tell me, Kareem. Fin and I risked our necks to get in here and help you, and all you do is lie to me.”

    “Fin? That would be the guard that calls himself ‘Frank’?”

    “Anyway,” Melinda went on, not answering that question, “you’ve made it clear that you’d rather die in here than take my help.”

    “Melinda, you’re not offering help. You can’t speak for Jack McCoy. You have nothing tangible to work with.” Said said in a level tone of voice.

    “No, but you do, Kareem. You know at first, I came here under the impression that you knew how to out Ron Carver. How to prove that he was really his brother Eric. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on here.”

    Said folded his arms.

    “Are you angry with me, Mel?”

    “First of all, it’s Dr. Warner to you.”

    “Oh Lord...”

    “And secondly...”

    “There’s a secondly?” Said asked, moving closer to her. “I remember that tone well enough to know when you’re about to explode.”

    “Not over you!”

    Said moved even closer.

    “Yes, MEL, over me. Something has changed.”

    Melinda folded her arms and took off her white lab coat, holding it in front of her.

    “I saw the conjugal visit form. The one you had with Lanelle Ferguson.”

    Said gave her a blank stare.

    “Excuse me?”

    “Oh stop, Kareem! Just stop! The woman came here and you slept with her! Now it doesn’t matter what you know! All Carver has to do is bring up her little ‘visit’ and it’s over! And you had the gall to make me think you had been longing for me all of this time! Get out of my way! You make me sick!” Melinda hissed. But Said was not about to move out of her way. He slow smile formed on his face.

    “You’re jealous.”

    Melinda’s eyes widened.

    “No, I’m not jealous, Kareem. I’m angry that my time was wasted! You should’ve told me!”

    “No....whoever sent you in here should’ve told you. But they didn’t, did they? And why is that, Mel? Because it never happened. Because Ron Carver is fucking with your mind!”

    Melinda said nothing. She had not thought about it like that. Cragen and Olivia should’ve known that. Before her and Fin would’ve been sent here, they would’ve found that out and dropped this angle. Now, in her mind, she had to choose between Howell and Said.

    Said tentatively reached out and cupped Melinda’s chin.

    “I take it you believe me?”

    Melinda slowly removed his hand from her face, struggling to hide how much his very touch affected her.

    “Okay. You have a point. But unless you tell me something I can use, this is going to be my last day here, Kareem.”

    “Tell me, are you going out with McManus?” Said asked, changing the subject. Melinda looked a bit confused.

    “Excuse me?”

    “You heard the question, Mel. Are you dating McManus?”

    Melinda sighed.

    “He asked me out. I’m thinking of going out with him this evening, yes.”

    Said rolled his eyes and turned away from her for a second, before turning back.

    “Doesn’t that figure.”

    Melinda began to grind her teeth slightly. That tone reminded her of their last fight before they broke up, years ago.

    “I’m not even going to ask what that means. So are you going to tell me something I can use or what?”

    “Oh, I’ll tell you something you can use, ‘Mel’. You’re dating McManus because you were always career conscious...looking to date within your class and professional circle. You never cared anything about the plight of our people! That’s why we couldn’t make it work!”

    Yep, that was the tone alright! The one that got on her damned nerves! Still holding her lab coat in front of her, Melinda walked up to Said.

    “We couldn’t make it work because I knew that one day you’d end up here, Kareem. There are other ways to help the plight of our people besides violent acts. Look at where you are. Your way worked out so well, didn’t it? Well, Kareem, I’m walking out of this penitentiary tonight. I’m going out with Tim McManus. Maybe he might spent the night. Meanwhile you’re here. So think about that, the plight of our people and whatever else gets you through your time here!” Melinda snapped, then moved to walk around him.

    But Kareem blocked her way, then snatched her white coat from her, throwing it onto the ground.

    “No, Mel. You think about this before you consider fucking Tim McManus.” he said with a soft growl, as he pulled her to him, his lips almost smothering hers! He groaned into her mouth as he tasted her again, after more than 20 years.

    Melinda pushed her hands against his chest for two seconds, then wrapped her arms around him, clawing and unclawing his shirt. Kareem’s lips left hers and moved to her neck, while his hands moved to the back of her skirt, unhooking the closure. Melinda’s own hands released his shirt and tugged at the back of his pants. What was she doing? What was she doing? Where was Fin? Just one knock on the door from Fin would bring her to her senses! Or someone throwing a glass of cold water on her!

    Meanwhile, Fin had just barely managed to knock Keller out, but had gotten stabbed in the ribs for his trouble. Keller had still been pissed about Fin’s making him eat that dirty sandwich up off of the floor! It was crazy, but Keller looked a hell of a lot like Elliott Stabler. FIn shook that thought off and hit an alarm. He looked over at Melinda’s morgue office door. She would probably be the first to get to him....

    Fin’s world went black as he fell to the ground.

                                                                    ****

    Melinda thought the alarm was in her mind. Part of the haze of passion she was enduring, courtesy of Kareem Said.

    They were both naked, with Melinda sitting on Vern Schillinger’s mail cart, letters and packages irritating her ass with small papercuts. The cart slammed back and forth against a brick wall, while both of Melinda’s hands gripped an old metal pipe above her. Her legs were splayed open at an angle that coincided with the wideness of Said’s hips.

    “Oh God...God...” Melinda moaned as Said knifed his cock into her with short, hard thrusts. His powerful arms encircled her while his hands clasped her waist tightly. Melinda’s breasts shuddered against his chest with each movement.

    Oh Allah! Said thought with pleasure, as he continued to plunge into Melinda’s inviting depths. What had their fight been about anyway, all those years ago? He couldn’t remember. He didn’t want to remember anything but this moment right now.

    Melinda’s head had been thrown back and now she pulled it up and stared into Kareem’s eyes as he pumped her steadily.

    “This...this will ruin the case. This will ruin the case...” she moaned.

    “I don’t care, Mel. Do you care? Do you care?” he asked hoarsely. Melinda shook her head and closed her eyes, throwing her head back again. Said buried his face in her neck and sped up his penetrating thrusts with a velocity that Melinda thought was so perfect, that she removed one of her hands from the overhead pipes and clawed at Said’s muscular buttocks. She could feel them contracting in and out.

    Meanwhile,  Emerald City went on another lockdown as Fin and Keller were taken to the infirmary. McManus looked around, then noted ‘Mindy’s’ closed door. He listened against it. There was a noise...like something slamming into something. He tried the door knob but it was locked.

    “Mindy? Mindy, are you in there? It’s Tim? Are you alright?”

    Said and Melinda had both exploded together and were now trying to catch their respective breath’s. Said cupped Melinda’s buttocks and helped lift her off of the now, not so pristine mail cart. Melinda managed to disentangle herself from Said and answered.

    “Yes, I’m fine! What’s going on?”

    “A guard was stabbed across the hall from you here. Frank, the new guy? Listen, you sound kind of funny...”

    “I’m fine, really. I’m just finishing up for the day.”

    “Okay...say, I hate to ask this through a locked door, but you never did answer me about tonight.”

    Melinda closed her eyes. Fin had been stabbed. She had to get to him. And she had to shake off the lingering passion she felt at this moment for Kareem Said, who was standing behind her, so close that she could feel his cock caress her her ass cheeks. Just as she was about say something, Said reached around her and cupped her breasts slowly.

    “Mindy?” McManus called out again. Melinda closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. This thing that had happened with Kareem couldn’t happen again and would go nowhere. She removed his hands from her breasts, turned to give him a look, then turned back towards the door.

    “I’d love to. I just want to visit with Frank in the infirmary. He’s been nice to me...with my being new and all. After we can decide on the where and when.” Melinda called out. She felt Said’s caressing cock, all but disappear. Melinda bit her lip in disappointment.

    “Okay, well then I’ll be waiting. We’re going to have a good time tonight, Mindy.”

    “I know we will, Tim.” Melinda replied, then heard his footsteps walk off. She turned and began to pick up her clothes, ignoring Said. He spoke.

    “I wonder what ‘Tim’ would think if he knew your name wasn’t ‘Mindy’, among other things.”

    Melinda looked him dead in the eye.

    “Kareem, either tell me what you know about Ron Carver now, or you will never get the chance again. Fin has been stabbed...we won’t be coming back tomorrow. Please.”

    “Are you going out with McManus tonight?”

    “What does one thing have to do with the other?!”

    “Are you going out with...”

    “You heard me say ‘yes’, Kareem!”

    “Then I guess I’ll still have my conjugal visit tomorrow. Her name is Kateefa. She is very much like me.”

    “Meaning angry?” Melinda asked sarcastically. “Whatever. Kareem, I will say this one last time: I am NOT coming back...”

    Suddenly Said grabbed her still bare shoulders and shook her slightly!

    “No, Mel! You’re not hearing me! I don’t want you to come back here! I have no intention of telling you, or Jack McCoy, anything and I will deal with Ron Carver myself, are we clear? Don’t come back here, Mel.”

    Melinda said nothing, but looked down. Kareem had not said that to be mean. He was worried. And he was determined to bear the deadly secret of Ron Carver’s true identity alone.

    But unfortunately, their ‘morgue lab fuck’, would end up being a very big problem. A New York Police Detective working undercover had been stabbed. Said would not be in his pod, yet again, during the lockdown and there would be people, specifically Warden Leo Glynn, that would want answers...
                                                          

    TWO DAYS LATER

    Detective Olivia Benson walked into the Medical Examiner’s office and found Melinda working at her desk. Olivia closed the door causing Melinda to look up.

    “Hey, Olivia. What’s going on?”

    Olivia folded her arms.

    “Fin’s report. It doesn’t quite jibe with yours.”

    “Report?”

    “The one about your time at Oswald State Penitentiary? Melinda, Warden Leo Glynn is PISSED!”

    Melinda put a cap on her pen and stood up.

    “Well, we didn’t inform him of what we were doing. Tim McManus wasn’t too thrilled to find out my name wasn’t ‘Mindy’.”

    “No one told you to go out with him!”

    Melinda peered at Olivia.

    “Just tell me what’s happened?” Melinda asked.

    “No, Melinda, you tell me what happened when Fin was shot.”

    Now Melinda folded her arms.

    “What do you mean?”

    “Melinda, Fin said he was coming to get you so you could both leave Oz for the evening. Something about how you had to do another autopsy or something. He was then waylaid by a prisoner named Chris Keller. After fending him off and getting stabbed for his trouble, he collapsed in the hallway outside of your lab.”

    “That happened, yes. What is it that you don’t understand?” Melinda asked, her tone brimming with irritation.

    “Fin sounded an alarm before he collapsed in that hallway. The guards came running...then the lock down signal went off. And yet, Tim McManus said that you stayed in your locked office.”

    “Olivia, I didn’t have time enough to learn what all of those alarms meant. I didn’t know if someone had escaped...if it was a riot or what. I just thought I would be safer in a locked room by myself...and the body I was working on. That’s all there is to it.”

    Olivia said nothing for a moment but she did give Melinda piercing look, as if she could see through her. She then spoke again.

    “You know that Said is in the hole again.” she told her, watching a look of distress cross Melinda’s face.

    “Why?” Melinda asked.

    “During Fin’s attack, all of the prisoners were put on lock down. Said had either been hiding or God knows what, because it took a while to find him and put him in his pod. Keller is now saying that Said helped him plan the attack on Fin.”

    “That’s not true.” Melinda said in a quiet voice. “If Warden Glynn would just investigate...”

    “He has, Melinda. And all he’s come up with is Keller’s word. Said refused to say anything. That’s why he’s in the hole along with Keller.”

    Now Melinda was angry! Said was covering for her. And Leo Glynn, idiot that he was, was too lazy to do any real investigating. Melinda sighed.

    “I don’t have any choice but to go back to Oz and clear Said.”

    “So you were with him?” Olivia asked.

    “Yes, I was trying to get him to tell me what he knew about A.D.A. Carver. I told him that this was his last chance and that I would not be coming back. He told me he didn’t want me to come back.”

    “Okay...so Said is the reason you didn’t open the door for McManus?”

    “Yes. I didn’t want to get Said in trouble. He surprised me in the lab.”

    Olivia stared at Melinda. Melinda was now unnerved!

    “What is it, Olivia?”

    “Melinda, if he surprised you, then we really don’t know that Said wasn’t part of this whole thing.”

    “I don’t get what you mean?”

    “He was in the area. Keller was in the area. Maybe they knew Fin was coming to get you and they were working together.” Olivia speculated.

    “No, Olivia. I mean come on! That makes no sense! None! Why would Said be working with someone that first of all, is not a Muslim and secondly, I doubt Kareem would’ve had any use for someone like that. Besides, Keller attacked Fin because he made him eat some bread off of the floor or something.”

    “What I’m saying, Melinda, is that maybe Said asked Keller to buy him some time with you. And Keller jumped at the opportunity for payback.”

    “Time with me?”

    Olivia touched her arm.

    “The Oz mailcart...the mail specifically, had semen on it. We know it was Said’s, Melinda...I know you don’t want to remember the incident, but if he forced himself on you then Kareem Said should be charged with more than just arson. He could do extra time.”

    Melinda looked down and exhaled.

    “Wow. The mailcart. I never even thought about that.”

    “What happened was our fault. We should’ve sent a real officer in there...”

    “Kareem didn’t rape me, Olivia.”

    Olivia Benson stared at Melinda for a long while, then found her voice.

    “Uh...I knew you had some unresolved feelings...”

    “Olivia, they grew stronger and stronger with each moment I spent with Kareem in Oz. I know my having sex with him ruins the case. But I can’t let anyone think that he raped me. And he was with me when Fin was stabbed.”

    Olivia frowned.

    “That we’re unsure of. Said isn’t saying nada. Keller is saying they were in it together. The hallways around there are so dark that there are no cameras. We  need to prove that Keller pulled Fin into that storage room, before Kareem came to see you. What we really need to prove is that the two don’t have an alliance.”

    “What about Fin? Can’t he help?”

    “Help how? We need to prove that Keller didn’t try and keep Fin out of Said’s way so that he could have sex with you.”

    Melinda shook her head.

    “So I guess Ron Carver is one more step away from unseating Jack McCoy, hey? No thanks to me.”

    “Not necessarily. Said isn’t going to talk. It was a nice try but it didn’t work out. We’re working another angle. One that’s hush hush.” Olivia answered.

    “So what do I need to do to clear Said?”

    “We need to pay Warden Glynn a visit.” Olivia said solemnly.

                                                         ****

    District Attorney, Jack McCoy was not pleased. A.D.A., Ron Carver was sitting across from him wearing a grin that only a mad clown would wear. He said nothing while Carver spoke.

    “If this slander of my character does not end, Jack, I have already obtained top defense counsel from the NAACP to end it for you.”

    “You’re going to make this a race issue? Ron, Lanelle Ferguson was about to write a story alleging that your name is really Eric Carver and that your brother Ron was killed in a drive-by shooting while wearing YOUR jacket. Instead of admitting to your mother and everyone that knew you  back then, that Ron had died, you assumed his identity and his place in college, then went on to law school as him. I have no problems with the work that you’ve done. But you know as well as I, that if that story had come out, every defense lawyer that had went up against you would have had a field day.”

    “Well she would’ve been sued.” Ron replied calmly. Jack eyed him.

    “But the allegation would’ve still been out there. Look, I just wanted this investigated quietly so that if or when it did come out, we could say there was nothing to it. That the right Carver brother worked for the D.A.’s office.”

    “And now you can, Jack.”

    “No, I can’t. The undercover assignment at Oz got botched. Look, YOU can end this by providing permission to exhume your brother’s body. Otherwise I can go to your mother...”

    Ron stood up!

    “What I’m telling you, Jack, is that if you persist, I’ll go to the papers myself and spin it so that it looks as if you’re trying to run me out of a job.”

    Jack leaned back in his chair.

    “Why would I do that?”

    Ron smiled.

    “It’s no secret that I’m thinking of running for your job, Jack. I have a lot of support. This smear tactic of yours is nothing more than some trumped up nonsense.”

    “Ron, you’ve lost your mind. Really. If Lanelle Ferguson had lived to write that story, I honestly would’ve been more inclined to believe you. But she was murdered and a copy of the story was found in her computer. Plus there are witnesses that put you in a restaurant with her, only a week before. AND she’s supposedly the reason Kendrick Holmes tried to kill Eric Carver. Because ‘Eric’ was sleeping with his girl. There are too many coincidences here. And I think the public will see that too. So spin away, Ron. But you’ll lose.”

    Ron turned and walked out of the office. He didn’t bother closing the door and he did not calm down until he was in the elevator by himself. Goddamn Jack McCoy! He was right. He was right...Ron could not afford a whiff of impropriety if he planned to unseat McCoy.

    He decided he was tired of fearing Kareem Said. He would call Claire and tell her to kill Said.

                                                                     ****

    Claire was not interested in killing Kareem Said! At least not before she fucked him first! Then she would ask one of the other inmates to do it. Like one of the White Supremacists or something. Her face looked sad for a moment. Adibisi would’ve done it for a blow job, of that she was sure.

    Claire whistled, looking around the dark hallway of the hole. She peeked through the window of one cell and saw a naked Chris Keller inside. He gave her the finger and she licked the glass window! She would pay him a visit in the middle of the night...

    When she arrived at Kareem’s cell, Claire saw that he was naked and on the floor praying. Jesus! He suddenly rose and looked towards the door as if he sensed her presence. Claire gave a small wave, eyeing the elephant trunk that served as his cock. She unlocked the door and stepped in, closing it behind her.

    “Hey there, Kareem!”

    Said refrained from rolling his eyes.

    “It’s Minister Said to you.”

    “Uh yeah...sure.  So...how about I let you out of here?”

    Kareem looked her over.

    “And what would I have to do to earn this ‘honor’?”

    “Let me suck your cock.”

    Now Said rolled his eyes!

    “Okay...how about I just fuck you outright?” Claire tried again.

    “Would I have to participate?”

    “What do you mean?” Claire asked.

    “Would I have to move at all?”

    “Well...yeah!”

    “I don’t think so.” Said said, coughing and looking away.

    “Look you muth**f**ker! Who are you to think you’re too good for me?! And it’s the only way you’re going to stay alive ‘Minister Said’! There’s a hit out on you! Now...are you going to fuck me like a good buck or what?”

    Kareem made full eye contact with Claire and smiled. He opened his arms wide.

    “Come here.”

    Claire jumped excitedly into his arms...but not before he spun her around and wedged his arm tightly against her throat...just long enough for her to pass out and drop to the ground! He then began to undress her.

                                                                      ****

    Warden Leo Glynn shook his head. This was a goddamned shame.

    He was listening to more revelations from the woman that he thought was named Mindy West, and Detective Olivia Benson of Manhattan's Special Victim’s Unit. There was a part of him that thought that he should just be happy that the woman that had now revealed herself as Dr. Melinda Warner, had not been sexually assaulted by an inmate in here.

    No, Melinda Warner had not been assaulted. She had FUCKED KAREEM SAID ON PURPOSE!!! Why?! Oh for the love of Jesus, would a woman as FINE as this, fuck some non-stop talking Muslim?! Why? A professional woman such as this...how the HELL did she even know the man?

    But Leo kept his tone level, looking from Melinda to Olivia.

    “Pardon me, but it’s my understanding that you deal with cases that involve rape. This Lanelle Ferguson wasn’t assaulted, was she?”

    “No...but Jack McCoy knew that Melinda here worked closely with us. He wanted us to convince her to come to Oz.”

    “Lovely. And you all don’t have anything better to do?”

    Melinda interrupted.

    “Warden Glynn, I understand how upset you are. You have every right to be. But there is no way that Kareem had anything to do with Fin’s assault.”

    “How would you really know that, Dr. Warner? I mean Said isn’t saying anything. He steals the mail cart that Verne Schillinger usually works on, to sneak off to see you and...”

    “He wanted to know if I was going out with Tim McManus. He did not come to me to...it just happened. I honestly think that if Said had come around a second earlier, he would’ve seen that Fin needed help and assisted him.”

    “Oh, you think so? Well...”

    Glynn was cut off by the loudest alarm Melinda had heard to date! The Warden’s door opened and Murphy rushed in!

    “It’s Said! He’s escaped!”

    “What in the hell are you talking about?! He was in the hole!” Glynn yelled.

    “He must of lured C.O. Howell in there because we found her, naked, wearing his Islamic cap! He must have put on her uniform and took her keys!”

    “Well he couldn’t have gotten far! Put the prisoners on lock down again and let’s do a search. Dr. Warner, Detective Benson, thank you for stopping by.”

    But Melinda put a hand on Leo’s arm.

    “Warden Glynn, please don’t hurt him! If he’s escaped then it has to be for a reason!”

    “Oh yeah, there’s a reason alright, Dr. Warner! It’s called ‘freedom’! Now please leave!” Glynn shouted. Melinda was about to go after him, when Olivia pulled her back.

    “It’s over, Melinda. Said has made his bed now. We can’t use anything he says, now that he’s assaulted another officer and escaped. Let’s get out of here.”

    Melinda wanted to say that she highly doubted that Kareem had ‘assaulted’ C.O. Howell. She wanted to say that if Kareem escaped, then it was because he learned something awful...something that made it worth taking such a chance for. But what?

                                                                   ****

    Melinda and Olivia had taken separate cars to the prison, which Melinda was grateful for. She needed to be alone with her thoughts, as she turned on the radio and listened to any news on Kareem.
    
    The authorities were now sure he had escaped the prison entirely. How?! Had C.O.
Howell’s uniform fit THAT well that he could fool someone into buzzing him outside?

    It was just getting dark as Melinda rounded a corner of the road that seemed deserted. She still had quite a long drive if she wanted to get home before eight tonight.  She went back to thinking about Kareem and what things had been like for them when they were younger, when fingers reached between her seat and the passenger’s side, and turned off the radio!

    Scared shitless, Melinda drove her SUV off of the road, and careened down a hill, slamming into a tree! Stunned, she sat there trying to get her bearings until she heard Kareem’s voice in the darkness, ask if she was alright?

    How this man had known what her car looked like was beyond her. But she would not harbor a fugitive. Even one that she had loved once. Melinda managed to reach over for her purse and pull her cellphone out, but Kareem’s hand snaked around her wrist and forced her to drop it! She then jumped out of the car, or tried to, but Kareem grabbed the back of her hair! Melinda pulled herself free(or either Kareem let her go) and tried to run, but Kareem grabbed the back of her blouse to keep her from running and it ripped!

    Horrified as hell, Melinda began to try and run through an area that she could barely see, that was some kind of thick forest. Even though it had to be a little after five-thirty, it was already dark and there was a light sheen of fog. Melinda ran, unsuccessfully because of her her shoes and managed to get herself caught on some kind of tree branch! What was wrong with her? She came out to crime scenes all of the time in woods much thicker than this, and now she couldn’t even navigate?

    “Mel!” Kareem called out, sounding closer than Melinda had originally thought. She stopped and looked around. There was was another small hill nearby but she did not see a road anywhere.

    “Mel! Mel, get back over here! It’s cold out here!”

    “You should have thought about that before you escaped, Kareem!” Melinda called back behind her and decided that now was the time to look for some kind of road or home or something! If she knew her way around here well, she could double back through the woods and try and see if her car worked. But Melinda couldn’t take the chance of becoming more lost.

    She began to run again, but she got tangled in a myriad of small, thin branches with some kind of prickly things in it! Melinda squeaked loud enough for Kareem to find her through the fog and untangle her from the branches. Instead of thanking him, Melinda shoved against him and tried to run again. Kareem reached out to grab onto her arm and got the latch on the back of her brasierre...ripping it off.

    Melinda could not believe this! There was no way she could get help looking like this! Melinda clawed at Kareem, angry at him for putting her in this situation...something she would not have been in, if he had just told the truth about not being involved with Fin’s stabbing! He always had to be the goddamned martyr, didn’t he? Melinda did not stop running, even though her bra was gone and her blouse was flapping at the waist.

    Kareem caught up with her as she reached the small hill, about to run down it. He wrapped an arm around her waist to stop her, but they both began skiing down that hill, Melinda’s breasts bobbing all the while. The sight of them bouncing was more than Kareem could stand, as he struggled to undo Howell’s uniform!

    Melinda now began to scream at him.

    “DAMN YOU! YOU WOULDN’T TAKE MY HELP IN THAT PRISON AND NOW LOOK WHERE WE ARE!!! LOOK WHERE WE ARE???”

    Kareem silenced her tirade by feasting his lips on hers, while they both continued to slip and slide, while still standing, down a hill that was just slightly muddy. One arm was still locked around Melinda to give her support, while his other hand managed to get the uniform off and down to his knees. Melinda couldn’t stand it anymore and managed to dig her heels into the ground, so that she could stop and help him get his clothes off! His hands moved to yank her skirt down without unzipping it and her underwear was snatched off like an unwanted rag.

    Melinda grabbed the back of Said’s head with one hand, and her other grasped his buttocks as they fell down to the ground on that dark, foggy hill. In the next second, Kareem was thrusting vigorously between Melinda’s widely spread legs. She arched her back in response to his back and forth rhythm. Soon, a searing heat began to flare deep within her recesses and she tingled from head to toe with passion.

    Melinda’s breasts rotated in quick, small circles against Kareem’s chest. Kareem had been unable to think of anything else during his time in the hole, except the thought of being with Mel this way again. Of taking her again in a powerful, erotic way...a violent tremor erupted within him as he filled her with a liquid heat that Melinda felt all the way up into her belly. Their moans, to the casual listener, could only be described as wanton.

    After, Melinda and Kareem laid very still on that hill, her legs now wrapped around his. His cock still deeply embedded within her. They were both trying to catch their respective breath’s as cold reality began to set in. Kareem Said had escaped from Oz and the authorities were looking for him. Melinda had had intimate relations with this man for a second time. She couldn’t think to ask him, at that moment, why he had escaped.

    “I’m going to go and find Kendrick Holmes, Mel. He’s the only person left that can provide proof that Ron is really Eric Carver. Then I’m going to turn myself back in.”

                                                                ****

    Meanwhile, back at Oz, Warden Leo Glynn was about to have a shit fit! The guards had just tossed prisoner 988242, Agamemnon Busmalis’s cell.

    The man had built yet ANOTHER tunnel!

    “I was getting ready to leave tonight,” Busmalis said sheepishly, “when Said kind of came in here quickly, dressed like a guard who’s uniform had shrunk up. Anyway, he insisted on using the tunnel.”

    “Christ! You’re going to solitary!” Glynn yelled, motioning for a guard to remove Busmalis from the cell. He then shook his head. Damn! Well, Said still wouldn’t get far. But he should call everyone that Said might pay a surprise visit to...including Dr. Melinda Warner.

The morning after Kareem Said’s escape, a small, little known paper called ‘The New York Paper’, put out a story by a reporter named Cassidy Cape.

The crux of the article said that A.D.A Ron Carver was really ‘Eric Carver’ and that he had stolen his brother’s life to escape gang members.

This paper circulated in the old neighborhood that Eric and Ron Carver had come from and now, Letty Carver was being asked the most curious of questions about her sons. And they scared and horrified her.

People had been calling her all morning, asking if it were true that Eric wasn’t killed in that drive-by like everyone thought. That it had been Ron, and that Eric had stolen his identity.

No. That wasn’t possible. No. She would’ve known. She knew her boys. They used to try and fool her like that when they were little, one pretending to be the other, but Eric would never do that.

Then again, it had been Eric that fell in with the bad crowd. That got sucked into drugs, guns and God knows what else with that awful Kendrick Holmes that the rest of those people. Was it possible that he had done such a thing?

No. Because Ron was ‘her’ Ron, and hadn’t behaved any differently from the moment they had discovered Eric had been murdered, until now. And once he became affluent and well known, he bought her a small house in a nice part of suburban New York for her to live in.

Eric would’ve never done that if he had lived. He certainly wouldn’t have risen to Ron’s level of prosperity. And as much as she had loved both of her boys, in her heart, she knew that she had favored Ron over him. And maybe had been a slight bit relieved that if God had had to take one of her sons, it would be Eric over Ron.

Letty, who had driven home from the market, had been walking in a daze. She didn’t come out of it until she looked up and saw a pair of boots on her porch. Her eyes traveled the whole way up. Good Lord!

“Kareem? Kareem, what are you doing here? I thought you were in prison?”

Kareem could not find Kendrick Holmes. He had taken a small ride down into the old neighborhood and found out that Kendrick was locked up in California. So he decided on a different plan of action instead.

Kareem took the grocery bag from Letty and followed her inside, his eyes darting around the neighborhood, before following the elderly woman into the house. He set the bag down on a table, then turned to her.

“Mrs. Carver, I escaped. Ron’s in trouble.” he said solemnly.

“Trouble? Kareem, let me call him. You’ll get caught but if you turn yourself into him...”

“It wouldn’t count for anything because I’d be turning myself into Eric.” Said said firmly. Letty gave him a stunned look. Actually, she looked rather hurt.

“Did you give that interview, Kareem? To that trashy paper?”

“Yes, Mrs. Carver. But it was bound to come out. Eric murdered Lanelle Ferguson, you know that? He did it or had someone else do it.”

“Ron told me all about that awful woman. Her mother had been awful too. She brought all kinds of men into the house on Lanelle and her sister and turned them into nothing but little whores! Lanelle hadn’t changed. She saw my boy as some kind of ticket out of working for a living.” Letty sniffed proudly. Kareem Said stepped forward and gently took both of the old woman’s hands within his own.

“Mrs. Carver,” Said began slowly, “I was at the corner store that day when Ron was killed.”

Letty snatched her hands from his!

“Stop saying that! Ron was not killed! Eric was! Stop saying that!” she cried and moved away from Said, and over to a framed picture she kept of the boys when they were children. It was taken right before their father died. After that, everything seemed to go wrong in their lives.

Letty turned back to face Said.

“You were at the corner store that day, so what? What does that prove?”

“Mrs. Carver, I spoke to Ron moments before he was killed by Kendrick’s gang in that drive-by. I SPOKE to him. I said ‘hey Ron, what’s up’...he walked over to me, wearing Eric’s jacket, for whatever reason...maybe he just grabbed the first thing he could find to go out into the cold with...I don’t know. But I KNEW it was Ron I was speaking to. He told me he was having some trouble with an English class. A professor thought he had plagiarized a paper...”

Letty Carver gasped and reeled back! How in the hell did Kareem Said know about that? That weekend Ron had told her that a professor accused him of cheating on a paper because it was ‘so well written’. The assumption being that ‘Black Ron’ couldn’t have written such an A+ paper without lying about it.

Letty had wanted to go to the university herself, but Ron insisted on handling it like a man.

Maybe he had told Kareem about it the day before or something. That was it. Just because he knew about it didn’t prove anything. Her heart began to slow down the race that it had begun when Kareem revealed that to her.

“I remember.”

“So how it work out for Ron then? Did the professor believe him?”

Letty stared at Kareem.

“I don’t remember...ERIC had been killed. We weren’t thinking about college papers at the time.”

Kareem decided it was time to leave. And he was not unmindful about how much he had just hurt this elderly woman. Because there had to be something in her that was now replaying everything in her mind, from the day Ron was killed, to the day Eric took over his identity. There had to be an iota of doubt now.

Kareem reached for Letty’s car keys that she had set down on the table.

“I’m taking your car, Ms. Carver. It will be found soon at a certain address. I’m sorry if I’ve caused you any distress.”

Letty Carver’s expression turned hard.

“You haven’t, Kareem. You don’t know what you’re talking about. And if you think lying on my boy is going to get you out of the trouble you are in, think again.” she said coolly. Kareem just nodded and left the house. Letty didn’t waste anytime calling 911.

****

Olivia and Elliott were questioning Cassidy Cape at the New York Tribune. Actually, Cassidy thought it felt more like harassment.

“We’re going to ask you this one last time: where did you get this story? How did you find out that there was an investigation going on in the D.A.’s office?” Elliott asked the young woman. Olivia took in the surroundings. Clearly, the paper was on a shoestring budget, since she caught sight of three typewriters! She returned her attention to Ms. Cape’s latest denial of actually speaking with Kareem Said.

“Ms. Cape, you provided information that we could never get out of Mr. Said,” Elliott told her. “It says in your article that the real Ron Carver told him something about an event in his life moments before he died. We had no idea up until then, that Mr. Said had ever spoken to the victim moments before his murder.”

“Clearly you people did a bad job of investigating the shooting then. Or you would’ve known Mr. Said was your star witness.” Cassidy sniffed. But Olivia had had enough of this little wanna be journalist.

“Why don’t we take a ride down to the station, and you can tell us what time Kareem Said approached you about this story? Or did you approach him? Either way, you’re going to tell us what you know either here, or downtown.”

“Power to the people!” Cassidy yelled, shoving a fist into the air. Elliott rolled his eyes! Oh Brother!

Olivia took out her handcuffs, as the few workers that were there gaped in shock. One nerdy looking boy, with glasses thicker than hell, hurried over!

“Cassie, it’s not worth it! Just tell them!”

“No! A reporter never reveals their source!” Cassidy protested.

The boy turned to the detectives, waving off Cassidy.

“If she’s arrested then we won’t get paid and I’m almost two months behind on my rent! Kareem Said hit our ‘contact us’ button at the bottom of our online site. Cassidy met him early this morning around here. Isn’t that right?” he asked huffily. Cassidy rolled her eyes!

“Fine. Yes. I met him around 5:15 this morning.” she sighed. Elliott eyed her.

“And?” he asked.

“He told me everything that I wrote. You shouldn’t be bothering me. You should be trying to protect him and clear his name. You know he’s doing an awfully long prison stretch for just arson.”

“He could’ve killed someone.” Olivia said brusquely, “that’s why his stretch is so ‘long’. Now, did he say where he was going after he left you?”

Cassidy shook his head, just as Elliott’s phone rang. He spoke briefly, then hung up.

“We have to go. Kareem paid Letty Carver a visit and stole her car.”

Elliott told Cassidy they would be in touch, then he and Olivia left the dinky newspaper office. Once inside the car, Olivia shook her head.

“You know that the person he’s going to go and see is Melinda, don’t you?”

Elliott started the ignition.

“She’s well guarded.”

“But does she want to be?” Olivia retorted. That whole escape was very strange. His showing up in the back of Melinda’s car. Then they skidded off the road. And then Kareem took off and didn’t bother to take Melinda’s cellphone so she couldn’t call for help? It would’ve made his getaway a lot quicker if he had.

And...Olivia strongly suspected that maybe Melinda had had another encounter with Said, before he took off. She wished she knew where her friend’s head was at these days?

****

Ron Carver was livid.

Kareem Said had told his mother all about this shit! And now, as he stood in his living room and listened to her voice on the phone, begging him to come over so she could ‘look into his eyes and see if she was really looking at her Ron’, he knew he wouldn’t be able to pull it off. He was fearful that his own mother would see his lie for what it was, after all of this time. But what to do?

This whole thing was now public news, no thanks to Kareem’s escape and big mouth. He should’ve been killed in prison.

And that article...God how it gave him a headache! Because it brought to mind something that he at the time, hadn’t realized had any significance in the least.

Professor Edmund Otto. An old ass English teacher who had asked him to stay after class the Monday he had begun assuming Ron’s identity in college. Something about plagiarizing a paper or something.

At the time, he could’ve given a rat’s ass. He was trying so hard to be Ron, that he hadn’t fought it, not knowing what his deceased twin and done or hadn’t done.

But his mother had been babbling about it. She had been sure that he had fought the racist teacher.

But he hadn’t. And if old ass Otto was still around and had any memory of any of this, then his mother would believe the shit Kareem told her earlier.

Oh...and Ms. Melinda Warner. Ron breathed deeply. He wanted to beat the living shit out of her and Kareem! They had done this! They had fucked up his life and aspirations at unseating Jack McCoy as D.A..

He would have to scale back his goals quite a bit now, damn them. All he wanted now was to stay out of prison.

There was no point in killing anyone. Kareem had told one too many people. His mother had enough doubt, that it would indeed take exhuming his brother’s body to assuage her mind.

Then he would be found out for the fraud he really was. Eric Carver. Gangbanger and Ron Carver wannabee.

He decided that his best option was to run.

****

Melinda Warner paced in the living room of her small home. There was a squad car out front with two officers inside. They both seemed to be laughing and having a good time.

Which meant they weren’t paying careful attention to whether Kareem Said was around. And Melinda desperately hoped he was!

She had been watching the local news. Jack McCoy held a press conference which revealed the investigation they had been conducting. He also admitted that A.D.A Ron Carver could not be found at this time, and that they considered him a ‘person of interest’ in the murder of journalist, Lanelle Ferguson.

Letty Carver was seen talking to a reporter. The poor woman was babbling, saying her son Eric had died, then saying that when Ron arrived and she looked into his eyes, she’d know if the ‘right son’ was in his grave. For a brief moment, Melinda felt a wave of pity for Faux Ron a.k.a. Ron Carver.

Melinda was hoping that maybe a deal could still be made for Kareem. It was his information to that little paper, that had gotten the ball rolling here in regards to this case. Surely McCoy would take that into consideration, wouldn’t he? He had to.

Melinda closed her eyes. She should have never taken this undercover assignment. Never. Never, never, never. Because after making love to Said twice now, she couldn’t imagine seeing him locked up in OZ again. She couldn’t imagine never seeing him again. And she couldn’t rid herself of thoughts that if things had just worked out differently for them when they had been younger, they wouldn’t be at this point in time now. Hoping and wishing.

Well, she was really the only one hoping and wishing. Melinda had no real idea how Kareem felt about her or anything else. He HAD been in prison this whole time. Maybe their encounters were nothing more than that. Just encounters. Just...just sexual gratification.

Melinda opened her eyes again, when she heard a noise coming from the garage. Frowning, she walked over to the front window. The uniforms were still engaged in some kind of lively conversation. They were not watching the house at all. Both neighbors on either side of her worked during the say, and her neighbor behind her, Melinda did not really know. Plus, there were tall bushes that obstructed their views of one another.

Melinda frowned, knowing in her heart of hearts, that Kareem had somehow gotten into her garage either by the side window, or the back door. But what if it wasn’t him? What if this was just her bad luck and she was being burglarized during the middle of the day? If that was the case, then the only thing keeping her from realizing this nightmare, was the garage door that lead into the kitchen.

The doorknob was slowly turning back and forth. What if that was A.D.A Ron Carver out there? What if he had decided to skip going on the run and decided to kill up some people before being carted off to prison? The ‘people’ being herself and Kareem and God knows who else!

It was Kareem. It had to be. He could not just escape from OZ, do all that he had done and not try and see her. He couldn’t.

Melinda slowly walked towards the twisting doorknob. Then, with a loud, audible gulp, she turned the lock on the knob, so whoever it was could come in. To either slaughter her or...

Make love to her.

The door opened and a wary looking Kareem stared at her in surprise. Before he could get a word out, Melinda pulled him inside and into her arms, holding onto him for dear life! She then slowly let go of him.

“This isn’t going to work, is it?” she whispered against his lips.

“I’m turning myself in.” he whispered back, as he held her even tighter.

“Then we have to make most of the time we have.” Melinda whispered, smothering her mouth over his. Kareem’s tongue leapt with shock at the touch of hers and then hungrily entwined with it, his evermounting ador when it came to this woman, insatiable. Melinda let go of him briefly and pulled him towards her bedroom down the hall. The curtains were drawn as they shed their clothing and fell onto her bed, both of them knowing that this would be the last time they would ever be together like this.

The eroticism of their encounter, caused their mingles bodies to leap and crackle with electricity, as Kareem lay on his back, his legs closed while Melinda sat astride him on her knees, her legs spread and slowly rode him using a slow gait, chugging back and forth on his member while kissing him at the same time. Kareem’s hands massaged her buttocks while he himself sank further and further into their hopelessly erotic vortex of passion. And when it was over and Melinda lay on top of his body, kissing his eyelids, she had no way of knowing that Kareem had decided that the minute she went into the bathroom, he would be calling the police to surrender himself.

****

Just as suspected, there was no deal for Kareem Said. There might have been if he had not escaped.

Thus, he was returned to OZ. He would be killed one year later by some crazy ass.

Melinda had been prepared for that outcome. Not that she had much time to ponder Kareem, or the tragedy that could’ve been their life together. A.D.A. Ron Carver was found in the Bahamas. The man buried under the name Eric Carver had his remains exhumed, with Letty Carver’s permission, since Ron refused to confess.

It proved that Kareem Said had told Letty the truth that day he had waited on her porch. Ron tried to say the evidence was botched...he tried to say anything and everything.

But Letty Carver didn’t want to hear any excuses. Actually, she couldn’t stand them. She promptly died of a heart attack two days later after the big reveal.

The state was having a hard time tying Ron a/o Eric to Lanelle Ferguson’s murder. But there were bigger problems.

Every criminal that had been convicted by him, now had a chance at a new trial. And Melinda was up to her eyeballs in re-examining evidence so that many of these prisoners could stay where they were.

It was as she was working on a child molester/murderer’s conviction evidence, that Olivia showed up at the morgue shortly before lunch. Melinda gave her a wan smile.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I just came by to see how you’re doing. You know...with all that went down.”

“I’m fine, Olivia. Really.”

“Melinda, this is me, okay? We asked you to confront not only an old lover, but you had to confront feelings that I guess hadn’t died like you thought they had, had they?”

Melinda closed a file and stood up.

“Kareem will probably die in prison. I don’t know when or how, but I feel it in my bones. I’m doing my mourning early and moving on.” Melinda said so matter-of-factly, that Olivia was a bit stunned. She decided not to address Said anymore, but another topic. One that could be potentially touchy.

“So, listen, I really came by because the brass has us kind of entertaining a CSI investigator from Vegas for a week. I’m taking him to dinner with a date...I was hoping maybe you would come along? I think you might like him.”

Melinda folded her arms.

“You’re trying to fix me up? So soon after Kareem’s...”

“What, Melinda? Eventual death? Murder? You’ve closed the door on him. You had no choice. Instead of moping about it, how about giving a man a try that is on your level and that I think you would like?”

Melinda looked away for a moment but still didn’t say anything. Finally she stared at Olivia.

“I’m going to do this for you. But since he lives in Vegas, don’t think that you’re going to rope me into some long distance romance.”

Olivia smiled and put an arm around her.

“Like I said, Dr. Raymond Langston is only here for a week. Unless the two of you have instant chemistry...which I think you will...there won’t be anytime for you to begin a romance.” Olivia said slyly.

THE END