DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.
Chapter 6
Provenza and Mike were in the bank's vault looking at the bonds that the bank had listed on their report. Erin, the bank teller, eagerly helped them locate everything that they needed. "There's over 500,000 dollars in bonds missing from the vault" Erin said to the detectives. "Yes, we think your boss and Robert were involved in it together" Provenza said to Erin. Erin looked at both of them. "Did you know anything about this?" Provenza asked her. "No, I had no idea that this was going on here" Erin said to them. "I just started working here about two weeks ago" Erin added. "Okay Erin, we appreciate your help in the matter" Mike said to her. "We need you to let us know when Mr. Weston decides to come back to work" Provenza said to her as they left the vault area. "We are seizing all of the bonds as evidence though, so we need to place them in these bags" Mike said to a patrol officer who was with them. Buzz found them as they were leaving. "Do you want me to look at the surveillance footage from the vaults sir?" Buzz asked Provenza. Provenza looked back at Mike. "That could show us exactly what has been going on here and who the players are" Mike said back to Provenza. "Okay Buzz, go ahead and do that" Provenza said to him. "Oh and Lieutenant, the bank employee, Debbie, ran from us but Amy was able to catch her and now they are waiting to take her downtown, I guess she is willing to talk" Buzz said to Provenza as he walked to get the footage from the bank.
Provenza walked up to where Andy was standing by the bank counter. "Why didn't you tell me we had a runner and new player in the game?" Provenza said to him as he joined him at the counter. "You were busy with Mike in the vault, besides we have this new development under control" Andy said back to him. "We are going to take her downtown to the office, she's willing to tell us everything" Andy added. "Buzz is just getting the surveillance footage from the cameras" Provenza said back to him. "The Captain already knows about this" Andy said to him. "Good. We'll leave two patrol officers here to wait for Mr. Weston to arrive. They can bring him downtown to us then instead of us waiting. In the meantime, let's bring Debbie in and see what she has to say" Provenza told Andy as they walked towards Amy, Julio, and Debbie. "Alright Debbie, you are coming in with us" Andy told her as Amy led her out of the bank in handcuffs. A few feet away, Eric Weston was watching the whole scene unfold and knew that he could not step foot near the bank. He decided to turn around flee the area before he was recognized. Andy then texted Sharon to let her know they were on their way back to the office.
The team arrived back at the PAB with Debbie in tow. Amy was escorting her up to their floor and as they walked through the Murder Room, Sharon was outside of her office waiting for them. Sharon pointed to the interview room that was next to electronics and Amy directed her in there. Julio followed her in to the room as well. Sharon waited for Andy and Provenza to join her before heading to the room. "Well, Captain, this is certainly a twist in events" Provenza said to her as they walked up to where she was standing. "Yes it certainly is. Have Julio run a background check on Debbie" Sharon told Provenza. "Yes, Captain" Provenza said as he looked at Andy and then went to join Julio and inform him of what the Captain wanted. Andy squeezed Sharon's shoulder as she seemed to be staring at the Murder Board. "Everything okay?" Andy asked her. She turned to him and smiled. "Yes" she said quietly to him. He smiled back at her. They started to walk towards the interview room. "We need to know who else was involved in this, there should be a total of four people, and we only know three of them" Sharon said to Andy as they came up to the interview room. The door was open and Sharon and Andy both walked inside. "Thank you detectives" Sharon said to both Amy and Julio and they both left the room leaving Andy and Sharon to talk with Debbie. Andy closed the door and joined Sharon at the table.
"Hello Debbie, I am Captain Sharon Flynn. I understand that you were read your rights before coming down here, is that correct?" Sharon asked Debbie. "Yes, yes that's correct" Debbie said to her. "Okay, and you are waiving your right to counsel?" Sharon asked her. "Yes" Debbie said back. "Alright then. What can you tell us about what's been going on at your bank?" Sharon asked her as she sat across from her. "Eric, the bank manager, and Robert were in a side job dealing with bonds from our bank" Debbie started to say. "They were stealing government bonds a few at a time at first, but then Eric started to get greedy and they pulled out more and more bonds from the vault" Debbie said but before she continued she paused for a brief moment. "Debbie, are you okay?" Sharon asked her. "You could get me a deal, right? If I continue to tell you everything, I can get a deal?" Debbie asked them. Andy looked over at Sharon. "Yes Debbie, we can speak to the Assistant District Attorney and see what they can do for you" Sharon said to her. "Okay" Debbie said and then she began to relax while she told the rest of the story.
"A couple of days ago, Robert sent out an email to Eric, myself, and Chase regarding the bonds. Robert thought that someone might be on to them and he started to freak out" Debbie continued. Sharon looked back at Andy and wondered the same thing he was wondering, who was Chase. "Wait a minute, hold up. Who is Chase?" Andy asked Debbie. "I don't know. I never met him but from what I heard, he's a friend of Eric's" Debbie said to them. Sharon turned her head to look at the camera. Provenza and Amy were in the electronics room along with Buzz. "I'll get on that" Amy said as she left the room and headed for her desk. "Then what happened?" Sharon said to Debbie, encouraging her to keep talking. "Yesterday morning, Robert went to the locker at Union Station where we had deposited the bonds over the past month and he placed the bonds that they took out the night before inside. Robert was getting nervous about them being there and he confronted Eric in his office that afternoon" Debbie said to them, as she fiddled with the sleeve of her shirt on her left hand. Andy noticed the same tattoo on her wrist like the others. He didn't want to interrupt the flow of the interview so he continued to listen.
"Well, we have motive, now all we need is Mr. Weston to show back up at the bank" Provenza said to Buzz as he looked at his watch. It was nearing 4 in the afternoon. He rubbed his face with his hand and continued to watch the interview with Debbie. "Did you hear their conversation?" Andy asked Debbie. "No, but there was shouting and then Robert exited Eric's office and went back to his desk. I was behind the counter helping out a customer" Debbie said to them. "A couple of minutes later Eric came out of his office and they both acted like nothing happened" Debbie concluded. "How did you get involved in this?" Sharon asked her. "When they started this about a month ago, I had walked in on them inside the vault and saw them doing something with the bonds. I asked them what was going on and Robert freaked out again. Said for me to leave but then Eric told me to stay and that if I kept quiet about the whole thing, they would let me in on a cut of the money" Debbie answered. "Okay Debbie, now I need you to write down all of the information you just told me and Lieutenant Flynn on this paper here and we will be back" Sharon said to her as she handed her a pad of paper. Debbie nodded and started to write everything down. Sharon and Andy exited the interview room and two patrol officers watched Debbie.
"She's lying, Sharon" Andy said to her as they walked out of the room. "Why do you say that?" Sharon asked Andy as she stopped him in the hallway. "Because she has the same tattoo as Robert and Eric do. You don't just get that if you are forced like she said she was" Andy said. "Hmm, perhaps she was more willing than she's led on" Sharon said back to him. Sharon and Andy then walked in to the electronics room and saw Buzz and Provenza sitting down behind the monitors. "Captain, I have Amy looking into who this Chase person might be" Provenza informed her. "Good, hopefully he is the last piece of this puzzle" Sharon said back to him. "Any news from patrol yet? Has Eric Weston returned to the bank?" Andy asked Provenza. Provenza shook his head. "No, nothing yet" he said to Andy. Sharon looked at both of her Lieutenants. "When Debbie is done writing down her version of what happened, have patrol take her down to holding and process her. We can hold her for 24 hours" Sharon said to Provenza. "Captain?" Provenza looked back at her and wondered what she was thinking. "I'm buying us time, Lieutenant, that we don't have" Sharon said as she walked out of electronics and Provenza and Andy followed her out. "We need time to find Eric Weston, I don't want to release Debbie yet. Andy is right, she knows more than she's telling and maybe a night down in holding will change her mind" Sharon continued speaking as she walked with her Lieutenants towards her office. "It will also give us time to find out who this Chase person is" Sharon added as she walked in to her office with Andy and Provenza.
Her office phone rang and she answered it. "Captain Flynn, Major Crimes" she said into the phone. "Yes Chief" Sharon said. "We are making progress on it, we currently have one person in custody and she will be going down to holding in a couple of minutes and we are still waiting for the bank manager to show back up at his bank" Sharon explained to Chief Howard on the other end of the phone call. "Thank you Chief" Sharon said and then she hung up her phone. She sat down on her chair and looked across her desk at Provenza and Andy. "Chief Howard is buying us more time with the Mayor and Chief of Police" Sharon said to them. "See, perhaps Fritz Howard has a better knack for dealing with politics than he said to us a couple of months ago" Provenza said to Sharon. "Maybe" Sharon said as she glanced at the papers on her desk. The paperwork regarding the new chief's position was hidden among other paperwork from this current case on her desk. "I want everyone to cut out at 5 tonight. We've been working on this non-stop since early this morning" Sharon said to them. "Okay Captain. But what about patrol? Eric Weston is still out there and we all know he's not going to show back up at the bank tonight" Provenza said to her. "Have patrol stay there till the bank closes and we will put out an APB on him. If patrol sees him, they can pick him up and call us back. In the meantime, I want everyone to get a decent meal and some much needed rest" Sharon said to the both of them. "I'll let the team know Captain" Provenza said as he stood up and proceeded to exit her office.
Andy looked back at Sharon as she was sitting at her desk. "We'll need to contact the DDA's office about this case and see what they want to do" Sharon said to Andy as she looked at him. "Do you want me to do that?" Andy asked her. Sharon shook her head. "No, I'll do it" Sharon said back to him. "We have a half an hour before I want everyone to leave here, let's see what else we can gather regarding this case" Sharon said to Andy. Andy stood up from his seat. "Yes ma'am" Andy said and gave her a wink as he left her office. Sharon smiled back at him and then picked up her phone to call DDA Hobbs.
"Alright everybody, the Captain said for us to leave at 5 o'clock tonight, head home, get a decent meal and some sleep and come back tomorrow to continue the investigation" Provenza said as he returned to his desk. "So, that gives us a good thirty minutes before leaving here" he added. Amy was still trying to locate this Chase person but was not having any luck. "I have some more information on Debbie, sir. Apparently she was also in a lot of debt" Julio said to Provenza as he got up to collect the printouts. He placed a quarter in Provenza's jar as he came back to his desk. "Debbie is going to be spending some time down at holding overnight, so that will give us more time to figure things out with her" Provenza said to Julio.
5 o'clock came and the team said their goodbyes and headed out. Andy walked over to Provenza's desk as he was getting ready to leave. He never told him that Cynthia had called Sharon back. "So, Cynthia called Sharon back while we were at the bank. The person is not a relative" Andy said to him. Provenza looked back at his friend and smiled. "See, nothing to worry about" he said as he patted Andy on his shoulder. "Go pick up the boy, take him to see Santa, and enjoy" Provenza said. "Oh, patrol said they would call me if they run into Mr. Weston tonight" he added as he started to leave. "Have a good night" Andy said back to him as he walked out of the office. Andy turned around and headed in to Sharon's office.
"Are you ready to go?" he asked her, leaning up against the doorway. Sharon stood up from her desk. "Yes, let's go pick up Matthew and we will go right away to take him to see Santa" Sharon said to Andy as she gathered her things and then closed the door to her office. "Everything okay?" Sharon asked him as they headed to the elevators. "Yes, Patrol took Debbie down to holding and they will also call Provenza if they run into Weston tonight" Andy said to her as they stepped on the elevator. "Good" Sharon said as she leaned her head on Andy's shoulder as the elevator took them down to the parking garage. Sharon's cell phone alerted her to a text message from Rusty. 'Just picked up Moxie and Gus and I are headed home with the dog' the message said. Sharon texted Rusty back with a big thank you. "Rusty picked up Moxie already so we don't have to worry about that" Sharon said to Andy as they walked towards their car. "How did Rusty know to pick Moxie up?" Andy asked her as they got in the car. "I spoke to him earlier today on the phone and asked him, this way we can pick up Matthew and take him straight to see Santa without going home first" Sharon said to him. Andy looked at her and smiled, grabbed her hand and brought it up to his lips and kissed it. "You're amazing, do you know that?" Andy said as he started the car and drove to Matthew's school.
TBC