There's Nicki and that detective

After visiting Usha and Kat, Rick decided it was time to follow up on Nicki's suggestion that he ask her out. If anyone had an insight into what had happened to her mother, it was probably either Dan or Nicki. Rick trusted Dan about as far as he could throw the Empire State Building. He didn't trust Nicki much more but he did trust his ability to see through her lies. With Dan's bio-DNA active, Dan could control any involuntary muscle reaction and lie with impunity.

Nicki protested happiness at hearing from him but allowed as she was not really in the dating mood. "Call me in a week or so, after the funeral," she suggested. "I do want to see you. It's just so..." she had broken down then and Rick hadn't gotten much else out of her.

The last couple of times anyone had tried to ally with Rick in finding out what was really going on at bio-DNA, they'd gotten themselves killed. Which is why Rick had told Eliza, in no uncertain terms, that she was to steer clear of anything regarding the company. But Detective O'Sullivan was a cop. If anyone could protect herself, it was a cop. The big question was whether she'd take what he said seriously or simply blow him off. Who, after all, wants to believe in a huge corporate conspiracy when they can simply blame some minority hoodlums and move on?

Then again, she'd probably want to blame him. Although Rick had no motive to kill Olivia, she would believe he did if he tried to persuade her to go after bio-DNA.

Deciding that he'd been passive long enough, Rick called her and suggested that they meet at Pride Burgers, a place he'd found on Yelp.

She was obviously wired when she arrived and he noticed a couple of cops outside, pretending to be eating their burgers and really waiting to see what happened.

"You know, I thought we sort of hit it off," Rick said when Detective O'Sullivan sat down in the booth across from him. "Now it seems I was wrong."

"What are you talking about."

"Well, there's the wire and the other cops outside waiting to grab me."

"You have to admit you sounded suspicious."

At least she wasn't denying what was obviously true. "Okay, here's the scoop, Detective. For many people, personal trainers are more than just exercise drill sergeants... we're friends. And Olivia was my friend. I don't know if Dan told you that their marriage was on the rocks. I don't know if he told you that the company hired a security company, Black Hat, Inc., supposedly to watch over executives and their families. But Olivia told me both of those facts. Without that information, I'm not sure you'll be able to manage a complete investigation."

Detective O'Sullivan's expression changed from one of suspicion to one of suspicion mixed with anticipation when Rick shared those facts.

"So you're saying that Dan Hughes would have had to pull off security for his wife to be killed?"

"I'm not saying anything about Dan. I'm just trying to make sure Olivia Hughes gets some justice. Yeah, she's like 'poor little rich girl,' with first world problems of having to figure out how to keep the husband from banging all the maids and crap like that, but she didn't deserve to get killed for that. The day she was killed, she told me that Dan didn't have murder in him so maybe he didn't. But someone did and I don't believe it was a botched kidnapping."

"Why?"

Rick shrugged. "I don't know anything about the crime scene. I don't know if she was shot or strangled or poisoned or whatever. All you told me was murder. I don't think kidnappers are going to murder their hostage and leave her body. Maybe they'd murder her and hide the body so they could send ransom notes and nobody would know the truth but nobody said anything about a missing body."

"You sound like you've thought about this a lot."

"Yeah, I kind of have. Getting hauled into a police station and put on the spot tends to make a person start thinking."

O'Sullivan stared at him, clearly trying to read him.

He put on his most honest expression but didn't think he impressed her much.

"Okay, Detective," he concluded, "that's what I had to tell you. I'm leaving now. If you want to talk to me, you know my number but don't bother calling about the case. I've told you everything I know."

"So, what would I call you about?"

"Uh, like I said, I thought we had some chemistry going. My bad if that was off-base."

"Completely inappropriate," she said.

"Okay, I'm heading out."

Rick wasn't sure if he would make it out of Pride alive or if the cops watching and listening on O'Sullivan's mike would decide to shoot him on the way out but he was going to chance it. From what he could see in O'Sullivan's nerves, anger and frustration were mounting faster than curiosity and sexual desire. He'd shot his bolt and he just had to hope he could move on.

Two brilliant leads handled. Complete failure the result.