A/N: This takes place during Season Three. Fritz and Brenda have been living together for over a year but they are not yet engaged.

Chapter 1:

"Fritz, please find Jerry and come to my office right away."

The urgency in Dave Martin's voice instantly had him on the alert so he hung up the phone and immediately went looking for his partner. Jerry wasn't in his office or the break room so he opened the Men's Room door and called out. "Jerry, are you in here?" No answer. His next step was to check Tom Benedict's office since he and Jerry had a friendly rivalry going about NHL games and they enjoyed pushing each other's buttons. Sure enough, Jerry was listening to Tom waxing eloquent about how the Toronto Maple Leafs were about to annihilate the Anaheim Ducks. And Jerry's expression bore the tell of a man who had just had to empty his wallet.

Tom looked up and saw Fritz stopping at his door and said, "Fritz knows that the Maple Leafs can pluck the Ducks' feathers, don't you, Fritz?"

"I've won money betting on both teams, Tom, so I'm not going to pick sides here," Fritz smiled. Then he turned to Jerry. "Dave wants to see us in his office right away."

They knocked on their boss' door and were waived in. When they were seated, Dave presented a new case, "I don't know if you're aware but there have been seven bank robberies, all by the same man, in six different states over the past eighteen months." As he spoke he handed photos across his desk. "This man apparently works alone and his MO is always the same. He enters a small branch of a local bank and robs only the working cash. He avoids the money with dye packs or GPS markers. Then he orders all the staff to lie face down on the floor behind the counter and he kills them all with a 9 millimeter shot to the back of the head."

"Is it always the same gun?" Jerry asked.

"Yes. A Beretta. The security tapes show him handing the tellers notes saying that he has a gun but he doesn't draw it until after he has the money."

"You said that he orders the employees behind the counter. What about the customers?" Fritz asked.

"He always robs the bank when there are no customers inside. These are low volume branches of small local banks in remote locations and we suspect that he watches the bank until it's empty before he makes his move."

"What about security guards?"

"He chooses small banks that don't have security guards."

"We don't get a good look at his face but I see he's wearing a heavy beard in each of these pictures," Fritz commented, "But it looks too heavy. Fake."

"Almost cartoonish," Jerry agreed.

"Everyone who has seen those pictures agrees," Dave replied. "But we can't say with any degree of certainty that the beard is a fake."

"It's effective," Jerry observed. "Between the baseball cap and the beard we can't get a good look at him."

Fritz looked up. "What about the outside security cameras?"

"There's nothing. We assume he figures out how to avoid them."

"Where have these robberies occurred?" Fritz asked.

"In this order: Tampa, Pensacola, Mobile, St. Louis. There were two there. Then Las Cruces and Phoenix. All suburbs or nearby small towns. The Phoenix job was seven weeks ago so he could be getting ready to strike again soon."

"So he's making his way west."

Dave nodded at Fritz's conclusion. "It appears so. We're thinking he might strike San Diego or Los Angeles next, which is why I'm assigning this case to the two of you." Dave handed each of them a sheet of paper as he continued, "This is a list of agents assigned to the case in each city this guy has robbed and the agents in San Diego, as well. See what you can come up with."

"Yes, sir."

As both men started to rise, Dave said, "Fritz, I need to talk to you about something so hold on a minute." After Jerry had left, Dave turned back to Fritz and said, "I want to make it perfectly clear to you that this is an FBI case. Your girlfriend is not to be involved."

"Dave, I can assure you that if this guy murders people in Los Angeles, Brenda will be involved. The only way to prevent it is to tell Will Pope what you just told me. When it comes to work, he has more influence over her than I do."

Dave sighed, nodded, and then asked, "Are you sure you want to be involved with that woman?"

Fritz's jaw hardened and his eyes narrowed. But he bit his tongue and only replied, "Don't go there, Dave." Then, still fuming, he returned to his own office. He knew he had to set his personal feelings aside so he pulled up the information on each of the robberies on his computer. As they were printing he picked up his phone. "Jerry, how do you think he managed a clean getaway each time?"

"Well, he killed all the possible witnesses so maybe he didn't think he had to be in any hurry so he just calmly walked away as if nothing was wrong. He apparently was so smooth that he didn't catch anyone's attention."

"But in almost every case there were other people nearby who should have seen him leave, yet no one saw anything at any of the murder sites. Do you think he had an accomplice waiting in a getaway vehicle?"

"Dave said he works alone," Jerry reminded him.

"What if Dave is wrong? What if he works with a partner?"

"But these reports say that none of the security cameras showed a man with a heavy beard in the parking lot and none showed the same vehicle."

"Yeah. You're right. So where did he go?"

"I don't know, Fritz. This guy has to be a magician."

"He's got a great disappearing act, that's for sure," Fritz replied as he continued to study the photos.

His thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone buzzing. He smiled when he saw that it was a text message from Brenda. "Picked up a murder. Probably working late."

I am so glad her work is limited to the City of Los Angeles.

Fritz was sitting on the sofa poring over the paperwork he'd spread out when Brenda walked through the door. She smiled and said, "It must really be important if you shoved your baseball thingy aside."

He returned her smile, got up and gave her a kiss. "Your dad called. He wants you to call him back."

"What did he want?"

"He didn't say. I told him that you were working late tonight and that was the extent of our conversation."

She nodded, "Well, it's too late to call him back tonight. It's after midnight there. I'll call him tomorrow. Besides, I don't feel good and I'm exhausted so I'm gonna go to bed. You comin'?"

"In a little bit. I want to finish reading these reports first."

"Whatcha workin' on that's so important?"

"A string of bank robberies across the country." He deliberately didn't mention the word murder or the fact that they anticipated an eventual strike in LA.

"Oh. Well, I guess I can't help you there. Good night," and she kissed him again and disappeared into the bedroom, followed by Kitty who felt she was also entitled to some attention.

Fritz settled back down onto the sofa and read through the reports he'd printed off from NIBRS, the National Incident Reporting System that the FBI had recently initiated. As he finished reading he mumbled, "There's not enough here to go on. I wonder if the old Uniform Crime Reports system has anything else." Since there was nothing more he could do, he turned off the lights and went to bed.

Fritz awoke to the sound of water running in the shower and Brenda humming. She must be feeling better, he thought as he got out of bed. He pulled the shower curtain aside and stepped into the warm spray and into Brenda's arms.

"Well, did you solve your case?" she asked as she put shower gel on her washcloth and began to lather his chest.

"Not yet. I need more information from the other agents involved. How do you feel this morning?"

"I feel fine. You'll solve your case. I have faith in you," she smiled as she continued washing his torso.

"Such faith in my ability deserves to be rewarded," he replied as he backed her up to the shower wall and kissed her. She responded with kisses that fueled their desire.

When Fritz got off the elevator he passed Trudy Desmond in the hallway. "Good morning, Trudy."

"Mornin', Agent Howard." Trudy flashed him a big smile, revealing a gold tooth. Mmm mmm. Dere he goes wid 'nother satisfied smile. Dat man sure get a lot of those, she chuckled as she grabbed her cleaning supplies and hung a "Closed for Cleaning" sign on the Ladies' Room door.

After opening his briefcase and retrieving the NIBRS files he went to Sally's desk just as she came from the break room with a full "World's Best Mom" mug. "Good morning, Agent Howard. What can I do for you?"

"Good morning, Sally. Do you still have the UCR system on your computer?"

"I think so. They're removing it but I don't think they've gotten to mine yet. What are you looking for?"

"Some information on these bank robberies and murders," he replied as he put his reports on her desk.

"But these are NIBRS files. Do you think UCR will have anything different?"

"I don't know, but I'd like you to check and see."

"I'll look, but anything they'd still have would be old. They stopped uploading new material to UCR when NIBRS went online."

"It's probably futile, Sally, I know. But I'm desperate for more information."

She nodded, "I'll run these and see what I can find."

An hour later Sally knocked on Fritz's door. "Agent Howard, I don't know if this will help but I did find this. It's not much, though," and she handed him a short UCR form.

He eagerly accepted the brief report. "This said that there was an armed robbery in Louisville two years ago with a similar MO."

Sally nodded, "The robber wore theater makeup."

"Thank you, Sally. Would you please print another copy of this and give it to Agent Oakes?" When Sally left, Fritz called the FBI agent handling the investigation in Kentucky to see if he had any information that was not included in the UCR report.

"Well, I appreciate it. Thanks," he concluded as Jerry entered his office.

"Do you think this old robbery is by the same guy?"

"I don't know, but I think it might be more than coincidence that the robber wore theatrical makeup and our guy is wearing what could be a theatrical beard."

"But this report doesn't indicate any murders."

"No. I just got off the phone with the agent in Louisville and he said that there were no injuries or deaths. He did flash his gun and he ordered everyone to lie down on the floor behind the counter, but he didn't hurt anyone. Agent Adams is going to fax me the composite sketches and the witness statements. He said that they were published in the paper and they got lots of tips but none panned out."

"Let's suppose that this is the same guy. He got away with it, so why did he decide he had to start killing people?"

"Maybe the composites are too close to his real appearance for comfort."

That night at dinner Fritz asked Brenda if she'd returned her father's call.

"Yes, and he wants to come here for a visit."

"You don't sound like you want that to happen."

"Yes and no. Of course I want to see them but we're both really busy right now. Besides, I'm not gettin' over this cold and I just don't feel like entertainin'."

"Are you sure you've got a cold? You don't have any symptoms – no runny nose, sneezing or coughing."

"That's because I'm gulpin' cold medicine like crazy."

"Well if it's just a cold you'd be over it before they'd get here, and I think it's about time that your father and I met."

"I don't want to talk about that right now. How's your case comin' along?"

"Slow, very slow. We found an old robbery in Louisville that happened over two years ago. There might be a link but there's not much even remotely connecting that one with the recent string."

"You'll crack it. I know you will."

When they had cleaned the kitchen she turned to him and asked, "Honey, would you mind if I took a look at your case?"

"Brennddaa."

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Fritzi! I know it's an FBI case. None of the robberies even happened in Los Angeles. I just thought I might be able to help, that's all."

He looked at her for a moment then said, "Well, another pair of eyes might help. Okay, but you've got to remember that this is an FBI matter," he cautioned.

"I know, I know," she replied in an irritated tone, "Jeez, you accuse me of bein' territorial." Then she grabbed his file and sat down on the sofa, spreading its contents out on the coffee table. "Let's put everythin' in chronological order."

Fritz took all the reports and laid them out in order for her. "The old case took place in Louisville and it was just a bank robbery – nobody got hurt." Then he told her what they knew about the rest of the cases.

Brenda studied the still shots and said, "This guy certainly knew how to hide his identity without hidin' his face."

"The press refers to him as 'The Bearded Bandit'."

"Now that's a really corny nickname," Brenda sneered.

"Don't look at me. I didn't give it to him."

"Well it's a really dumb media nickname, no matter who came up with it… Wait a minute. I just thought of somethin'."

"What?"

"Well, all of these recent robberies follow a southern coastal route. See how they hug the southern border?"

"But two of them don't, maybe three if the Louisville robbery is by the same man."

"That's it! Why would he start in Florida and work his way west along the Gulf coast and then suddenly head north, half-way to the Canadian border?"

"Do you think the St. Louis robberies were by someone else?"

"No, Fritzi. They were all by the same man. Don't you see?" When she saw Fritz's confused expression she continued, "He went home for some reason. He's from the St. Louis area. Either that or his accomplice is."

"You're right! It was right in front of me and I didn't see it. You're a genius, honey," he said as he kissed her forehead.

"I'll bet his identity can be found in St. Louis."

As she spoke, Fritz got up and retrieved their road atlas. "And Louisville is only four hours from St. Louis."

"It's beginnin' to look like that first robbery was a practice run."

"You really think he worked with an accomplice?"

"Yes, he had to. Someone had to drive the getaway car. He wouldn't have dared walk across the parkin' lot to a vehicle. It would take too much time and attract too much attention. Besides, he would have to know he'd be spotted on the outside security cameras." She continued to study the maps. "It must be the same person because the MO is the same all across the country. So if it's the same person, chances are the accomplice is a wife or a girlfriend."

"Thanks, honey. You are wonderful!" Fritz said as he took her into his arms and gave her a big hug.

The next morning, Fritz walked into Jerry's office and briefed him. "Now, let's go talk to Dave," he said.

When they were in his boss' conference room, Fritz spread everything out on the table. As he briefed Dave on the Louisville robbery he spread out a USA map and showed him the path of the robberies. Then he explained the theory about St. Louis being home to the robber and the theory about a wife or girlfriend acting as the getaway driver.

Dave studied the map for a few minutes, then turned to Fritz. "It makes perfect sense. You made quite a breakthrough. Great work, Fritz."

"Well, thanks. But I didn't come up with this theory. Brenda did."

Dave's face turned dark. "Didn't I give you specific orders that Brenda was not to be involved?"

"She isn't involved, Dave, and she won't be unless this guy kills people in LA." When Fritz saw skepticism on Dave's face he continued, "She accepts that this is an FBI case. She just wanted to help. And we've all just benefited from her genius in working cases. Hell, she got farther in one evening than anyone in the Bureau has gotten in weeks."

"It's not that I don't appreciate the insight. If you want, I'll even write her a thank you note. But we simply cannot lose control of this case."

"If we don't catch this guy before he gets to LA, aren't we going to lose control of it anyway?" Jerry asked.

"It seems to me that Brenda just helped make a giant leap toward catching him before he gets here," Fritz added. Dave sighed but didn't reply. He just looked annoyed.

When they left Dave's office, Fritz turned to Jerry and said, "Thanks. I know you don't care for Brenda so I appreciate your support. It helped a lot."

"You're right. I don't like Brenda because she treats us like yesterday's dog shit. But what I do care about is catching this guy before he kills again. If she can help us do that and we have to share credit with her, so be it," Jerry explained.

To Be Continued…