Thursday the 6th – 4:14 pm – En-route to Laurel street

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"I'm sorry Lieutenant Tao, could you repeat that please?" Sharon asked as she put a finger in her ear.

When he repeated himself, and she still couldn't hear what he had said, she turned to the Chief with a scowl, and held her cell phone to her shoulder. "Could you turn the radio down?"

The other woman took her eyes of the road long enough to give her a smirk. "Certainly, Cap'n."

Urgh, she was like a child.

When the music was turned down to a decent volume, she put the phone back to her ear and said, "Could you repeat that again please?"

"Sure Captain. Provenza says he thinks he remembers a junk yard. But…"

"Thank you Lieutenant." She answered politely. She knew the 'But' meant that Provenza had been drinking and was a little fuzzy on the details. "I'm sure we can figure it out from here."

"No problem, Captain." Tao replied amiably.

She hung up the phone, and cradled it in her lap; enjoying the almost peace she was experiencing. They'd been on the road for about thirty minutes, and for most of that time she'd had to put up with country music at an unsociable volume level. It wasn't that she disliked country music; it was that she hated everything single thing about it, and it caused in her, an overwhelming urge to bang her head on hard objects. The other woman must've figured that out somehow. Maybe it was an unconscious facial tick, or a leg twitch, or maybe it was that as soon as the music assaulted her ears – she swore under her breath.

That was probably what gave her away.

Damn it.

And Brenda Leigh Johnson had to pay her back for sending Gabriel away, and taking his place.

Not surprisingly – being stuck in an enclosed space with the other woman was even worse than their usual dealings.

"Well?" The Chief asked impatiently.

"He thinks we're looking for a scrap yard."

The blonde hmm'd and turned the radio back up. Sharon groaned and rested her head against the back of the seat, and stared up at the ceiling; telling herself that they were almost there.

How could this woman inspire such blind loyalty from her squad? It amazed her. How did her husband put up with her? How did anyone? She knew she wasn't the only person Brenda Leigh Johnson had rubbed the wrong way, but it seemed like sometimes the Chief was especially focused on making her life utterly miserable.

Five minutes later she was jolted forward as the car came to an abrupt stop. "Was that necessary?"

"I only just spotted the junk yard!" Brenda Leigh barked back.

"Well maybe you should've been driving slower."

"Or maybe - instead of sleeping - you could've helped me!"

"I wasn't asleep! And I didn't even know we were –" Sharon stopped herself when she heard her voice getting shriller. There were times when interacting with the Chief, was like being a teenager again. She took a deep breath. "Shall we, Chief?" She asked, poised to exit the vehicle.

"Certainly, Cap'n." The blonde answered; oozing contempt.

Sharon rolled her eyes as she opened the door and stepped out on to the sidewalk. The street was fairly deserted, but not suspiciously so and she waited for the other woman to make her way to the entrance of the yard before she followed. No matter how she felt about the woman – Personally and professionally – She couldn't deny the Chief had a knack for sniffing out things that were out of place. Things that other people may not notice. When she had shadowed Major Crimes to see if Brenda Leigh would be a suitable Chief of Police, she had seen first hand how impressive her skills were. And Sharon allowed herself to respect the other woman in a way. Even if she was stubborn, wilful, antagonizing, manipulative and petulant.

"Yoo hoo." The Chief waved; standing at the threshold of the scrap yard, and when she caught up with the woman, she could see why the blonde wasn't going in any farther. She eyed the dog warily as she stood next to the other woman, and at the sight of the owner, her anxiety wasn't lessened. "Oh, hello, I'm Deputy Chief Johnson of the L.A.P.D, and this is Captain Raydor." The blonde smiled.

Sharon nodded at the burly man, and he spat in return. Did he really need to spit? She wondered. Or was that just for their benefit?

"Whadda you want?" He snarled.

"We were wondering if you remember a taxi coming to this location, around six hours ago?"

"Nope."

"Are you sure? There would've been two, uh, older gentleman in the back."

"Are you deaf lady? I said no." He took a step forward, and the Chief straightened herself up to her full height.

"Oh, well, I'm so sorry to disturb you. I had to ask. Could you tell me your name?" Sharon smirked; it always amazed her that people fell for that ditzy Southern shtick. But maybe it was because she knew that there was a sharp mind behind those innocent doe eyes.

"Says right there on the sign." He spat again.

Sharon stepped back a few feet and looked at the hand painted piece of wood. "Javier Cruz."

"Thank you so much for your time Mr. Cruz. Sorry to bother you." Brenda Leigh said in a sweet voice, and spun on her heel to join the Captain.

"I don't really want to tread the murky waters of racial profiling, Chief." She said as they walked back to the car. "But –"

"You don't think the large white man with a Nazi tattoo is called Javier?"

"No." She answered slowly; shaking her head.

"Me either. I saw a suitcase in the office that looked just like Lieutenant Provenza's." The blonde said as they entered the silver sedan.

"Really?" Sharon asked in surprise, as she recalled what Provenza's luggage looked like.

"You doubt me Cap'n?" Brenda asked with some indignation.

"No. I'm just shocked to discover there could be anything that even resembles Lieutenant Provenza's suitcase."

The other woman let out a small chuckle as she pulled out her phone. "It is… distinctive isn't it? Could you do me a favour, Cap'n Raydor, and keep an eye on the entrance while I call my squad? Just in case our 'Mr. Cruz' decides he needs to be somewhere else."

"Certainly, Chief." Sharon rolled down the window and adjusted the wing mirror, and smiled to herself. Internal affairs had its moments, but she did miss the thrill of chasing down criminals - that weren't corrupt police officers. Her colleagues of the L.A.P.D were supposed to be the good guys, and she never really felt satisfied if she proved their guilt.

"If I didn't know any better Cap'n, I'd say you were enjoying yourself." The Chief said as she held the cell to her shoulder.

Sharon quirked a brow at the woman and gave her a flash of a smile. "It's possible."

The blonde gave her a smug look as she drummed her fingers against the wheel, and then held the phone back to her ear. "Lieutenant Tao?"

While the other woman gave her team orders, she went back to lookout duty. It should've been boring, but she'd always liked stake-outs; there was something calming about being focused on one thing - it was sort of like meditation like that. And honestly she'd rather this than paperwork right now. Eventually she'd have to join her team to help deal with Flynn and Provenza, but she could afford to put it off for an hour or so.

She listened in to the blonde's conversation and picked up a few details. Morales had come back to inform them that the victim in the suitcase was male, late teens to early twenties, and had been dismembered post mortem. Chief Johnson exclaimed her annoyance at the fact that they didn't have a conclusive cause of death, because there wasn't an entire corpse. Sharon grimaced at the memory of the contents of the suitcase, and rubbed her lips as a distraction.

"Lieutenant – We need to find the rest of that boy! Yes. Thank you Lieutenant." The blonde threw her phone into her oversized bag, and groaned in frustration. "If we assume that the suitcase is actually Lieutenant Provenza's, that means that it was swapped here. So why did they make two other stops before the airport?"

"Maybe the driver was dropping something off. Perhaps the rest of the body?"

"Maybe Capt'n. But why spread it out, if that's the case?" The Chief went into her bag and pulled out a pack of M&M's. Sharon found that she liked seeing this side of the other woman. She had such a pensive look about her when she had her mind on the case, and not on avoiding F.I.D. She imagined the blonde was picturing a puzzle in her head, but didn't have all the pieces, and didn't know what the whole picture looked like. The Chief stared out of the window as she chewed on her chocolate, and twisted her wedding ring around on her finger.

A noise got Sharon's attention, and she spotted the man leave the scrap yard with the suitcase in his hand, and make his way towards a green Oldsmobile. "Chief!"

The blonde turned to her with a frown, and then look behind out of the rear window to see the suspect get in the car. "Here." She handed Sharon the half eaten bag of M&M's and started the engine.

There was very little time to argue, and so she just grabbed the nearest thing she could, and held on for dear life as the Deputy Chief began her pursuit. She could feel her heart pound in her chest. It didn't take long for her to start to feel nauseous from the constant swerving. But it was that or plough the sedan into another vehicle. Or worse – into a pedestrian.

She didn't miss this kind of chase though. She'd been involved in vehicle pursuit a number of times; and she was good at it. But, oh boy, it was it stressful. This was the point where she regretted taking Gabriel's place.

After a few miles, she noticed the direction the Oldsmobile was heading, and a memory sparked. "We're heading to the warehouse district."

"I know, Cap'n."

"It's probably where your Lieutenants went." There was a nod of agreement from the blonde. And at that moment she realized she had forgotten to follow protocol. "I'm going to call it in." She said.

"Maybe, should've done that before now Cap'n." The Deputy Chief snapped. "And considerin' there's a high speed chase goin' on, I'm pretty sure they already know."

"Right." She shook herself. Ordinarily she wouldn't let anyone speak to her like that – whether she was in the right or not. But she was rattled, in more ways than one and went to pick up the radio; forgetting she had the chocolate in her hands, and cursed as they scattered onto the floor. "Damn it."

Once she'd given dispatch their location, she felt consoled that they would have back up soon – The way the perp was driving, and the way Chief Johnson was driving, she wasn't sure she was going to survive this ride.

Unfortunately for them - the black and whites didn't catch up with them in time.