Valerie stretched her arms in an attempt at grabbing the edge of her towel from the rack without having to open her eyes. It seemed as if the shower had gotten further away while she was enjoying herself under the hot water. With a frustrated grunt she wiped her face free of falling water droplets and walked out of the steamed glass shower, surprised to find her towel missing. 

Did I put it out she asked herself silently, knowing the answer was a most definite yes. She remembered distinctly grabbing a fresh towel from the closet when she walked into the bathroom. 

“Nick?” she called into the silence of her apartment, listening for any noise at all, “This isn’t funny!” she added, pulling on the t-shirt she’d been wearing before her shower. 

She reached for the door knob, feeling especially uneasy. The hairs on the back of her neck stood as she turned the cold knob to open the door, not expecting to see someone standing on the other side. Valerie let out a blood curdling scream, throwing herself back against the bathroom vanity, her mind immediately flashing to whether or not she’d locked up her gun when she came home. 

“Whoa, calm down!” Nick exclaimed, holding his hands out in defence, not thinking she would be so startled.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Valerie screamed, grabbing the soap dish from the counter, hurling the plastic dish towards the man.

“I’m sorry!” Nick defended, dodging the flying bathroom accessory out of instinct, “I didn’t think you would get so freaked out. Aren’t cops cool under pressure?”

Valerie blushed, “Not when they’re scared out of their minds,” she stumbled over her words, crossing her arms across her chest. 

“I really am sorry,” Nick stressed, taking a moment to look her over. He couldn’t deny that she was a very pretty woman. Not beautiful, but pretty, and definitely not what he would normally go for. He liked long legs, and despite being slender and shapely Valerie’s legs were short. Not stumpy or stubby looking but most definitely short…

“Hello?!” Valerie snapped, wondering where his mind was, “Would you stop checking me out and listen to what I’m saying?”

“What?” Nick asked innocently, moving his eyes back to hers.

“Did death turn you into a complete pervert?” she questioned irritably.

Nick shook his head, “No!” he defended, “I was a pervert before I died thank you very much. It’s always been one of my greatest attributes.”

“I can’t believe you,” she grumbled, self consciously pulling down the shirt she was wearing in the hopes that it would cover a whole lot more than she was currently.

“Sorry that I couldn’t stop being male when I stopped being alive,” Nick scoffed sarcastically, not surprised when Valerie simply rolled her eyes in response.

“Was there something you wanted or do you steal my towels and spy on me often?”

Nick shrugged, “You didn’t call.”

“I couldn’t find either of you,” Valerie defended, moving away from Nick so she could get dressed in private.

She moved into the bedroom and closed the door, leaving it open just a crack as she searched her drawers for clothes, aware of the fact that Nick was likely looking in. 

“We were busy,” Nick answered, stuttering slightly as he thought of what to say without revealing the fact that he and Brian were out doing exactly what they had promised they wouldn’t do. 

“You were busy?” She questioned mockingly, as he suddenly appeared next to her in the bedroom, “Doing what?”

“A little shopping...”

“SHOPPING?!” Valerie exploded; her dark brown hair bouncing wildly as she swung her head around to face Nick at breakneck speed, “I was busting my ass finding out information for you two and you were out like a couple of housewives giggling, gossiping, and shopping?”

“There actually wasn’t a lot of gossiping, and we didn’t giggle,” he corrected, flopping back on her comforter, “I imagine this is soft, you seem like the type of person who would buy something with a very high thread count. Is it Egyptian?”

Valerie ran a hand down her face with a long sigh, “It’s from Sears, and its average soft, it’s just a duvet cover, it came in a bed in a bag…why are we having this conversation?”

Nick stretched out on the bed, making himself comfortable as Valerie looked on. He liked Valerie, he sometimes felt as if he had known her before all of this, and he knew that they would be good friends if he were alive. They were obviously good friends now, otherwise she wouldn’t be helping him, but things would be better if it had been a year prior. He could see himself having a lot of fun with her. 

She sighed again, watching Nick curiously. He had moments where he would drift off into his own world, and he was desperate to know what was going through his head. She reached over and slapped his leg to get his attention anxiously, wanting to tell him about what she had found out about the list.

No response. 

“Nick?” she asked in an annoyed voice.

“What?”

“I’m trying to get your attention!”

“Well you could ask nicely,” he pointed out, sitting up on the bed.

“I tapped your leg,” Valerie explained, immediately realizing that he wouldn’t have felt it, “Sorry; I’ll remember to just say your name next time.”

“I appreciate it,” Nick chuckled, flipping his shaggy blonde hair back, “What did you want?”

“Did you change your clothes?” 

“Irrelevant,” he brushed off, “Is that all you wanted?”

“I wanted to tell you about the list,” Valerie sat down next to him on the bed, pulling her legs up to sit Indian style.

“What did you find out?” he asked, his interest suddenly peaked as he sat the same way to face her on the bed.

“Well, I’m almost certain that you were right about being killed in a warehouse,” she explained, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear, “The list is a shipping schedule. The finer details of what ships, what they are carrying, and how this has anything to do with your murder is yet to be determined.”

Nick nodded slowly, trying to put the pieces together in his mind, “Keeping that in mind, does the name Esposito ring any bells?”

Immediately Val straightened up slightly, surprised to hear that question, “Yeah, it might. Where did you hear that name?”

Nick looked at her quizzically, not sure why she suddenly seemed jumpy just by him asking a simple question. It was apparent to him that the name he had overheard that night in the warehouse before his death was more important than he had ever thought, “When I was…being killed, I may have heard the name mentioned. Who is he?”

“Well, if we’re both talking about the same Esposito then he is Dominic Esposito. Right now he is in the middle of one of the FBI’s biggest investigations. They have been trying to bring him down for drugs, and racketeering, and organized crime for years but they can never get anything to stick to him. The guy is more slippery than a greased watermelon. Also, which should come as no surprise at this point, his “legitimate” business is shipping and receiving. As the police have come to learn though he’s usually shipping drugs and receiving stolen property. The guy is nothing but criminal scum,” Valerie explained, “It would be pretty ballsy of him to go and kill someone as high profile as you though. That is kind of like putting a target on his whole operation.”

“Unless he has the police on his side, or unless he had no idea what was going down until after I was already dead. He wasn’t there when I was killed, I’m just sure I heard those guys mention his name,” Nick countered, raising an eyebrow in the woman’s direction. 

As much as she wanted to argue with him Valerie was after all in the business of putting cops behind bars and she had seen more than her fair share of cops doing dirty deeds for high prices, “The cops on his side? Those would be some cops who would be very nervous right now with the FBI sniffing around. They’d be vulnerable, and panicked, but most of all they’d be extremely dangerous for us to go chasing after. I would even go so far as to say they may be more dangerous than Esposito himself, so let’s try not to focus too much on the prospect of dirty cops being involved at this point in our investigation.”

“Understood,” Nick agreed, raising a hand to tap his chin thoughtfully, “I just wish there was a way I could be more helpful.”

Valerie smiled slightly, wishing at that moment that it would be worthwhile to give him a reassuring pat on the back, as if he would even notice, “You have been more help than you know. Right now we just have to sit back for a bit, wait to find out the rest of the information about the shipping schedule, and then I will start looking further into it. That’s not something that you and Brian can really get involved in without being noticed by someone else. I will go down to the docks as soon as I find out anything else and start asking questions. You are helping as much as you possibly can, especially under the circumstances Nick.”

“Thanks,” he nodded, lifting just the corner of his mouth into a smile, “I’ll let you get to sleep,” he added and left her alone in the bedroom. Once he was out into the main living area of the apartment he found himself searching for more answers in his mind, desperate to help with clues since he couldn’t help in physicality.