TA DA! Chapter 3
Buzz and Agent Osmond walked towards the Priority Homicide squad room together. The hallway appeared to be abandoned so they had no qualms about holding each others hands. In his free hand Buzz held the breakfast that they had picked up on the way to the Parker Center and Agent Osmond held her special sketch book in hers. They spoke softly to each other and held back smiles and giggles. That was, until Agent Howard and Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson stepped into the hallway from the murder room. Buzz stopped dead in his tracks and Agent Osmond turned away from him to see their superiors staring at them.
Buzz leaned into Rebecca and quickly whispered into her ear, "I think they know."
"The both of you, my office now," Chief Johnson ordered and then turned and briskly walked to her office, with Agent Howard right on her heals.
Agent Osmond and Buzz quickly put some space between them and entered the squad room, where the rest of the Priority Homicide Division and Agent Peters watched them until they entered the Chief's office. Brenda closed the blinds as they entered and then sat at her desk, Fritz stood next to her.
"Now, what is going on between you two?" Chief Johnson asked leaning over her desk.
Buzz and Agent Osmond turned to each other and then back to their bosses. Chief Johnson stood up, sighed, and rubbed her brow.
"How are we supposed to have a productive investigation with you two love birds flying around each other all day, I want answers right now. Buzz," Brenda leaned over her desk in Buzz's general direction.
"Rebecca," Agent Howard leaned towards Agent Rebecca Osmond.
"OK," Buzz sighed and took Rebecca's hand in his, "We've been dating for a while."
"How long is a while?" Chief Johnson asked.
"Six months," Rebecca answered.
"You just transferred to LA last month," Agent Howard stated.
"But I was here six months ago. Then I was transferred to San Diego, then New York, and then Miami. We managed to stay in contact and I put in a request to come back to LA, and now here we are," Rebecca smiled and turned to Buzz.
"Since it's apparent that you two can't be in the same room together without flirting with each other, Buzz stay in the electronics room, and Agent Osmond stay with my team, and out of that room," Chief Johnson ordered and let out a sigh.
Buzz and Rebecca nodded and left the office. Brenda put her face in her hands and closed her eyes.
"I'll go check on how things are going," Fritz started to the door.
"Thank you, thank you so much," She looked up as he exited the room.
When she looked back down she noticed that Agent Osmond, Rebecca, had left her sparkly sketch book behind. She waited for a second and then walked over and picked up the sketch book. She walked back to her desk and then as discreetly as possible she opened the book. On the front page it read Happy Birthday, Love Buzz. The first few pages had amazingly accurate sketches of normal everyday things, birds, trees, nature stuff. But then the Buzz sketches began. She caught him in every possibly way, happy, bored, and even sleeping. After that Chief Johnson learned that Agent Osmond was not only a brilliant sketch artist but a cartoonist as well. There were these cute little cartoon drawings that were very simplistic, yet it was easy to identify who the subject was. In a few of the caricatures, that was what she believed they were called, Rebecca had given Buzz a little video camera or a laptop or a bubble with a sentence in it. Next came the detailed sketches again only this time they were of Fritz, and Agent Peters, and FBI Agents that Brenda had seen in passing. But there seemed to be a lot more of Fritz than any other FBI sketches. And then again with the cartoons. Brenda couldn't help but smile at the little Fritz's. But when she reached the end of the FBI caricatures her smile quickly disappeared.
Brenda saw her own face on the paper, and on the next page and the next. Her expressions too varied, serious, smiling, stressed, and so on and so on. Every once in a while another member of the squad would have their face on the paper but Brenda was alarmed at how many times she had been captured on the paper, and at so many angles. But never veering from her pattern the cartoons followed the sketches. Brenda had to admit that they weren't as bad as she thought they would be. She was depicted in a simple sweater or blazer and a flowing skirt. There were even a few where she had on a little sun hat. And in every little caricature she was holding her big black bag. Then she saw one where she had a small bubble coming from her mouth with the words Thank you. Brenda had to admit that, that one was cute. She even got that small grin back on her face. But then she turned the page and her smile went away. It was a sketch of them together, her and Fritz. The picture looked so familiar. Brenda turned around and saw the picture. It was taken for their Christmas card and it had come out so well that she'd framed it and now it sat on the table behind her. Brenda had seen enough. She closed the book and as she walked through the murder room she slipped it onto the desk that Agent Osmond had commandeered for the investigation.
Brenda and Fritz clumsily moved around their kitchen trying to set the table for lunch and read the case files simultaneously. Just as the table was set and their lunch was warmed in the microwave the two collided and dropped their files. They each bent down quickly to pick up their respective papers. They each looked down at the mess of papers and then up at each other.
"You're investigating Buzz?" Brenda asked as she picked up her files.
"Rebecca is a child, I wanted to make sure that she's not getting in over her head," Fritz said to Brenda as they both stood up.
"You think that Buzz, my Buzz is trouble?" Brenda questioned Fritz growing more and more irritated.
"You know what I mean, he's young man, in LA, he's-" Fritz looked down at the files that he'd picked up, "Why do you have Agent Osmond's employee records?"
"I was just checking up on her," Brenda put down the papers she was holding.
"Brenda, how can you possibly prosecute me for looking into your team, when you're looking into mine?" Fritz angrily put his papers down on top of Brenda's.
"I was just trying to watch out for Buzz," Brenda glared at Fritz.
"And I, Rebecca," Fritz retorted.
"Why are you suddenly calling her Rebecca? She's now Rebecca," Brenda leaned in towards Fritz.
Fritz took a deep breath and the let it out slowly, "Why don't we both just admit that we were wrong and try to have a nice lunch together."
Brenda nodded and then got a wicked smile on her face, "Or we could, look through their files together," she picked up Agent Osmond and Buzz's employee records as she flashed Fritz the sweetest, most charming face she had.
"Did you know that she went to art school in New York?" Brenda asked as Fritz drove them back to the Parker Center.
"Yes," Fritz answered.
"And the FBI paid for it?" Brenda turned to Fritz.
"Yes," Fritz sighed for this must have been the hundredth question by now.
"And," She paused.
"What?" Fritz asked as they pulled up to a red light.
"They're living together," Brenda pulled out Buzz's file and pointed to the current address slots on both his and Agent Osmond's papers, in which the same address was listed.
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