From Chapter 3
Ellie tried so hard to come up with anything that she can say to ease her mother's pain, but came up with nothing. She did not tell her that 'it's going to be okay' because she knew that it would take a long time before her mother will eventually be okay. So she just said the next best thing to say at moments like this, "I love you so much mom".
"I love you too baby" Jo said, and then she kissed the top of her head before releasing her. She wiped a single tear with her finger and forced out a smile.
Life goes on for Jo Danville.
Chapter 4
Jo woke up the next day feeling a little bit relaxed ever since 'that night'. Her still-weary mind drifted to the conversation she had with Ellie the night before and she felt a little bit resolved. Before she went to sleep and after Ellie left her to go to bed, she had decided to stop being so childish and just be professional. That was what she was told to do anyway - to just be professional. She went to the crime lab determined to act maturely –she will not avoid Mac anymore and will just continue to function as his second in command. She thought they would just be civil to each other.
-Crime Lab-
Mac saw Jo waltzed her way from the elevator to her office with sudden lightness in her movement, as compared to how she was these past few days. He could still see a trace of gloom, and the lackluster of her eyes; and he hated to think that he was the reason behind those. Truth be told, he would give anything just to bring back the 'old Jo', the one he was accustomed to. The 'Jo with the golden touch' as he would like to describe her. He missed the Jo that cheers everybody up, the Jo that lightens the mood when everybody's feeling the burden that goes with their job, the Jo that everybody turns to for comfort, the Jo that always has a smile for everybody and anybody. He missed… Jo. And whose fault is that again? Oh right, yours! nagged his conscience.
Mac let out a big sigh. He wanted to make things right but did not have any idea how. He just hoped that things would go back to how they were, soon.
A moment later, Jo knocked on Mac's open office door, files in hand. This is the first time that she went to him alone since 'that night'.
"Melissa Cario's case might not be as simple as we hoped Mac. Flack and I went to every souvenir shops around town that sold her works. As opposed to the norm of showing her works on display for potential customers to see, Melissa's paintings seldom find their way to the front of the shops for everybody to see. In fact, if you want to purchase any of her works, you would have to have an Order Slip before getting your hands on them. And, they were sold with frames already included, and you cannot opt out." Jo stated, straight to the point.
"And why is that?" Mac asked her, his curiosity piqued.
"As it turned out, Melissa's paintings were not just paint on canvass. The reason why you have to purchase the painting including the frame that comes with it is because there is a little extra when you take the canvass out of its frame." Jo handed Mac the tablet for him to see before continuing "heroine. She is using the paintings to sell drugs."
"And the shopkeepers did not have any idea that there were drugs in these paintings of hers?" Mac asked, doubt clouding his face.
"We are still verifying some statements but so far, there is a high possibility that they really did not have any idea about the drugs. Each and every one of them said that her 'agent' told them that Melissa had set up an online shop for her paintings but instead of meet ups or delivery, she preferred for her clients to get their purchases from several pick-up points, the souvenir shops being the pick-up points. In return, they were given five percent off the painting price."
"And how did they give the payments to Melissa?" Mac furrowed his brows, still suspicious of the shop owners' knowledge of the drugs hidden in Melissa's paintings.
"Apparently, the paintings could sometimes be sitting in their shops for a few days before someone actually comes to pick it up. After which, the 'agent' would come to collect the payment without them informing him. He seemed to know when the customers would drop by." Jo felt like a school kid reciting.
"What do we know about the 'agent'?"
"They call him Bruno. No last name. None of them knew how to contact him either. We already have a sketch of Bruno and Flack's already had it circulated in the entire city." Jo answered feeling the 'recitation' finally coming to an end.
"Okay, let me know if there is some progress." Mac simply said.
"Sure thing." Jo answered before leaving Mac's office. Way to go Jo. It wasn't too bad right? Jo sighed wondering how long she could keep this act up.
That was awkward. Mac thought. He was not used to talking to Jo like that. Even in grave cases, Jo would always talk to him about the case with full-on expressions, facial or otherwise. She would at the very least offer him a small smile or an intense gaze depending on how they were doing on the case. But what happened a few minutes ago, it was as if they were in a classroom, and she was reciting her answers to his questions about their lesson. Mac looked down to what he was reading before Jo entered his office, and tried hard to focus on it while pushing the nagging guilt to the back of his mind. I'll deal with you later when I know how to do it he thought grimly.
Mac was on his way to ask Hawkes for an update when he saw Jo walking towards the same direction as his. She nodded to him before entering the lab where Hawkes was and he followed suit.
"Do you have anything on the… uhh… the uhh…" Mac stammered, his hands suddenly going cold.
"You're the one on the shoeprints, right? Or was it Lindsay?" Jo asked Hawkes with a smile, before frowning. "Sometimes it gets confusing who's got what" Jo chuckled.
Mac glanced at her before forcing a tiny smile on his lips when he realized Sheldon was not taking any notice on the slip-up.
"Yeah, shoeprints are mine. Lindsay's got the fiber. Anyway, I checked if we can match the sole print from anything in our database but it was smudged so much that finding a match is not possible. I also found a trace of blood and it matched to our vic Melissa. Other than that, it simply was a dead end for me." Sheldon explained oblivious of what had just happened.
"Boss, I pulled up the list of calls that Melissa had made and received on her mobile and I found one particular recurring number. I tracked it down and it's been giving off signal from this location." Adam entered the lab as he talked before handing the tablet to his boss.
-Crime Lab 9:15PM-
"Bruno Cortez confessed to the murder of Melissa Cario. He said Melissa wanted out but he won't let her, they've been doing it for two years now. He went to her apartment that day to pick up a few paintings only to find out that Melissa did not include any heroine inside. She said she did not want to do it anymore, said she was afraid to get caught after she saw on the news that the Mayor vowed to intensify the battle against drugs. Melissa tried to run away but he had managed to grab her hair and that's when he stabbed her in her living room floor." Don announced lengthily when he entered Mac's office, shaking his head after a while.
"She had been doing it for a long time. When she finally built up the courage to go against Bruno, it was already too late for her." Mac said, looking up to Don.
"You want to join us for dinner? Danny has been dreaming about the burger from the diner around the corner for weeks now since Jo told him how good it supposedly was." Don asked Mac, silently hoping for him to say yes.
Mac's heart pounded wildly on his chest at the idea of going out with them. He wanted to know if Jo's going to join them but he knew better not to ask. He waited for Don to say anything, a hint maybe, if Jo would indeed be there. When he realized Don was not going to say anything more, he hesitated for another moment.
"Okay. Burger instead of granola bar for dinner." Mac said smiling at Don thinking, how high is the probability of Jo refusing a big, juicy burger for dinner with the team? Next to zero.
"You made the right choice, man." Don said laughing. Hoping to high heavens their scheme will work out as planned.
"Hey Jo, are you done? Would you want to join us for burger?" Lindsay asked Jo when she saw her shutting down her computer.
"Burger?" Jo repeated to Lindsay, eyebrows raised.
"Yeah, Danny just would not stop bugging me about the burger he said you highly recommended." Lindsay said, rolling her eyes, smiling at Jo.
What are the chances that Mac would leave his office to have dinner, let alone a burger? Too slim. Jo thought. "Sure. Perfect end to a stressful day." she told Lindsay, smiling.
-Diner-
Why didn't I use my Detective instinct?! Someday, my weakness for food would kill me." Jo thought annoyingly. The whole team, except Sid, was on their way to the diner and Jo did not expect Mac to join them. She wanted to back out but it was already too late. If she tried to give them an excuse at that point, they would surely call her bluff. Damn it.
They took the booth at the far end of the diner, beside the window. It has a three-seater on both sides of the table and Don had dragged a chair from the table behind theirs and put it at the edge of the table, where he sat down. Jo slid first to seat at the end of the three-seater, next to the window, without realizing that Mac had done the same so they now are sitting in front of the other. Lindsay slid next to Jo, Danny following her. Sheldon sat next to Mac, and Adam sandwiched between Sheldon and Don.
After placing their orders, they all chattered quite loudly, save for the two senior detectives. Both of them had only smiled once in a while, sometimes adding a thought or two but mostly, just listening to the whole conversation of very diverse topics. Unbeknownst to them, everyone at the table was very aware of the awkwardness between the two of them. Both of them seemed to let out their breaths only when the foods arrived.
Everybody was still chattering about while starting to dig in their burgers when Mac spoke up,
"Would anyone please pass me the… umm…" Mac pointed to the direction of the ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles, desperately trying to remember what the term for the red condiment is, but failing miserably.
"Yeah, a little bit more ketchup would make it yummier" Jo said a little too cheerily before looking expectantly at Danny, while holding her hand out for the ketchup bottle.
Danny grabbed the ketchup beside him and passed it to Jo, clueless of Mac's real battle. He just thought that Mac was confused between ketchup and mustard.
Jo squirted some ketchup on her burger patty before passing the bottle to Mac, without looking at him. She then directed her full attention on eating her burger, looking up only once in a while at her colleagues, with the exception of the one sitting directly opposite her.
For the rest of the night, Mac tried in vain to catch Jo's eyes. He wanted to express his thanks to Jo for saving him again but Jo was determined not to glance at his direction. The night ended with their stomachs full but Mac felt hollow.
Every day, the guilt of how he treated Jo when he knew she was only concerned about him, kept on getting stronger. And every day, through Jo's own little ways, though Mac knew it was not deliberate on her part, he would be reminded of what a jerk he was for lashing out at her.
What's irking him more is that as headstrong as Jo was, she was actually following what he had 'ordered' her to do. She was actually terminating all personal connections with him, save for the times that she had saved his ass from getting caught red-handed for covering up his memory problem.