I'm sorry I didn't get to update yesterday, real life has been rather hectic... late nights at work... sick pet... but hey got there in the end.

Thank you to everyone who has taken time to review or add this story to alerts, your support is fantastic. I just hope I don't disappoint.

Have a great day,

Sairs


To protect innocence

Chapter 6 ~ Truth and lies


Andy had texted Sam the night before asking for a lift from home, she was still angry with Luke and he obviously still felt hurt, because he'd kept his word and hadn't returned home. She hadn't wasted precious time wondering where he'd slept; if he was that dedicated he probably had slept at his desk. As she thought she finished filling two travel mugs with coffee, sealed them, then grabbed her bag and headed down to wait for Sam.

A few minutes after she'd locked up the house, Sam pulled up, she hurried over, opened the door and climbed in, "Morning," she said as she handed a cup of coffee to Sam.

"What's this?" Sam asked grinning, "Trying to get on my good side?"

She returned his smile, "Do I need to be on your good side?"

He shook his head, taking a sip of his coffee, "No, just wondered why I was honoured?"

"Can't I just bring you coffee, isn't that what partners do?"

He smiled, "Just wondered if there was a reason, that's all."

"No, no reason, well other than to say thanks for the lift to work," she glanced out of the window. "So…"

"So what?" Sam asked as he started the engine.

"We still going to suggest we look into medical care providers today?"

"Your idea, Andy, I'll back you up, it's as good as anything else we've got. And you made a valid point; someone is delivering these babies and administering the lethal injections that are killing the girls."

She smiled, "I just hope Jo agrees."

Sam glanced over at her, "I'm sure she'll listen."

Andy fiddled with the hem of her shirt, wondering how she should pose her next question.

After a few minutes, Sam couldn't put up with her fiddling and silence any more, "Okay, spill."

She glanced at him, "What?"

"If you keep fiddling with your shirt you're liable to put a hole in it. You're worrying about something, so spill…"

She sighed, "Well, it's something that Luke said."

Sam rolled his eyes, "Might have guessed it had something to do with Callaghan," his tone contained a slight edge to it.

"It was something he said last night."

"I don't really need to know what Callaghan says for pillow talk."

It was Andy's turn to roll her eyes, "He'd have to have stayed at the house for there to have been any pillow talk."

Sam glanced at her as her words sunk in, "But you left the Penny together."

She nodded.

"Well?" he asked when she didn't answer.

"We got home, we fought; he left," she summarised.

He shook his head, knowing he would probably regret asking, but curiosity was getting the better of him, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"What did you fight about?"

"Two things, us being selected for the task force," she paused.

"Callaghan, jealous?" he asked astutely.

Andy nodded, "I don't think he liked having me…" she glanced at him, "and you, working on a task force without him."

Sam sighed, when would Andy realise that Luke really wasn't the good guy she seemed to think he was?

"But I don't think he left because he was jealous," she added.

Sam's eyebrows rose, "So what sent him over the edge?"

"Jo Rosati," Andy stated, studying Sam intently watching for his reaction.

"Jo?" Sam asked schooling his features and suddenly taking an extra interest in the morning traffic.

"Yes, Jo. Luke made some snide comment about the lead Detective not knowing what they'd done by selecting me for the task force, then he asked who it was," she explained to Sam, noticing that he wasn't daring to glance at her, appearing to be concentrating on the traffic, "So I told him. He lost the wind from his sails, turned a funny shade of green and hurried out of the house, announcing that he wouldn't be home."

Sam swallowed, "And?"

"So…" she started, "You weren't exactly open with what happened with Jo at the Fifteenth."

Sam sighed, "Isn't my story to tell, McNally."

She glared at him, "So whose story is it to tell?"

"Why don't you speak to Callaghan," Sam stated.

"So you're not going to tell me?"

"No."

She sighed, "I thought partners shared stories."

"They do, when they're involved, but this isn't my story and I'm not a gossip," Sam replied as he pulled into the parking lot.

"Didn't accuse you of being one, but I need to know what's got Luke antsy apart from his jealousy," she stated as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

"You need to speak to him," Sam stated looking at her intently.

She nodded, knowing for now he'd won the battle, but not necessarily the war, she was going to find out what happened, one way or another.


Andy headed to her desk and placed her jacket on the back of her chair, she noticed, or rather felt George looking at her from his desk across the room; she ignored him and the feeling that crept from the hairs on the back of her neck to the slight churn in her stomach. She could deal with George. She glanced over at Sam, who she noticed was glaring at George; she shook her head as she sat down.

At that moment the door opened and Jo walked in, she briefly smiled before heading to her desk, Andy glanced at Sam and he nodded at her when she met his eyes, she took a deep breath and walked over to Jo's desk.

"Andy," Jo stated as she noticed Andy hovering near her desk.

"I've been thinking about the case and I wondered if I could check out health providers, because someone is delivering these babies and helping to…" Andy paused pulling for the words, "kill the mothers."

Jo sat back in her chair and looked at Andy, appraising her, "Well," she started, "It's worth looking into, but do you know how many different health care providers there are?"

Andy shook her head, "Quite a lot."

"And the health provider isn't going to be blatantly advertising their involvement in human trafficking and murder."

Andy's heart sank as she listened to Jo's speech, she wasn't going to give it the go ahead, she thought.

"But as it's the only idea anyone's managed to come up with yet," she glared at the desks of the other officers, "I suggest you and Sam get to it, you never know what you might find."

Andy smiled, "Thanks."

"You don't need to thank me, it's a valid idea and if we're going to catch this group to we need to have ideas," Jo smiled.

Andy returned her smile, then turned and headed to her desk.


Wiktoria walked around her small room; she was feeling increasingly nervous, she had been in the room for nearly two days and had only seen Jakub once on her first day. There was hardly any food left and she was becoming sick of the four walls, she wanted to be outdoors, smelling the fresh air. She sighed and slumped on her bed, rubbing her stomach and talking to her baby, the sound of her own voice calming her slightly as it broke the almost deafening silence of the room.

A grating sound in the lock jarred her from her thoughts, she glanced nervously towards the door, waiting. Slowly the door opened and Jakub walked in, carrying a brown paper bag.

"Here," he tossed the bag towards her, "Food. You must eat for the baby," he demanded.

She nodded, "When do I get to work?"

Jakub looked at her, "Your job is to have a healthy baby."

"But how will I be able to pay you for our upkeep?"

He grinned, "Don't worry about that. A healthy baby is all we need," he handed her some bottles of water. "Tomorrow, we will go to the Doctor, to check that your baby is okay."

She nodded, "Thank you," she said quietly as she accepted the water.

"You are welcome, now rest, relax and take it easy," he replied, before turning and heading out of the room, locking the door behind him.


Andy looked at the list of health providers that she'd gathered, she folded the list in half and ripped the paper into two, she leaned over and gave half to Sam, "Here's your half," she stated smiling.

Sam took the list, "Let's see what we can find."


The day passed slowly, but at least Andy felt like they were making some progress, she had narrowed down her list to a three practices that had been on the Health Board's watch list.

"How many have you got, McNally?" Sam asked.

"Three. You?" she replied.

"Four possibles that meet our criteria. That's better than the list we had this morning."

She nodded, "Seven possibilities."

Jo walked over, "So Andy, what have you got?"

"Seven possibilities, at least one Doctor working at each of the practices have been investigated by the Health Board for bending the rules," Andy explained.

"Well seven we can check out reasonably easily and maybe we just might find what we're looking for. Why don't you and Sam check out half the list and George and Tom can take the other half and see what we find," she suggested.

Andy nodded, "Okay."

Jo glanced at her watch, "How about we all go to the Crown and Dragon and get to know each other a bit better?" She asked the room.

Andy looked at Sam, he shrugged his shoulders, "Okay," she smiled.

George instantly replied, "Count me in."

Andy looked at him and George winked back, Andy sighed.

"Tom? Ben? Jack?" Jo asked, they all nodded, their assent, "Okay then, let's go," she walked over to her desk.

Andy grabbed her purse and stood, before she had a chance to take on step, she knew George was standing next to her, "George," she said quietly.

"Andy, would you like a lift to the Crown?" George asked as he stepped into her personal space.

She shook her head, "No thanks, Sam's my designated driver."

George glared at Sam, "Okay, but maybe you'll let me buy you a drink."

Andy turned to look at George, she straightened her back and looked at him directly in the eye, her voice calm and firm, "Thank you, but I buy my own drinks. I have a boyfriend and I am not interested."

George glowered, "All I was doing was offering to buy you one drink."

She smiled, "And as I stated I buy my own drinks. Whether it was you, Jo, Sam or any other team members offering to buy, I buy my own drinks. So don't be offended, George, but thanks but no thanks."

George turned and stalked out of the room, as he left she heard a soft chuckle from Sam's desk, "Way to go, McNally," he said.

She looked over at him, "Why do I think he still hasn't got the message?"

"I think he's pretty determined, but he does seem a little ticked that you turned him down," he grinned.

"You think?" she smiled thinly.

"Well any man would be gutted to be turned down by you," he winked, "You're a pretty good catch, even if Callaghan doesn't recognise it."

She shook her head, "Couldn't resist the dig, could you?"

"He's just a prime candidate at the moment," he replied standing, "Shall we go to the Crown?"

She nodded, "Come on let's see how the other half lives."


Andy and Sam walked into the Crown and looked around the bar, Sam nudged her when he spotted Jo and Jack standing at the bar and they walked over, "Jo, Jack" Sam said," as they approached.

Both of them turned and smiled, "You upset George?" Jack asked Andy.

She nodded, "Didn't want to take no for an answer."

"He's not exactly the most housetrained detective, but he is good at his job," Jo stated.

Sam chuckled, "Glad to see you've still got a sense of humour."

Jo smiled, "Never lost it, it just disappeared for a while."

"I take it you and Jo know each other?" Jack asked as he leaned against the bar.

"We were Rookies together at the Fifteenth, we even partnered for a while," Sam admitted.

Andy's eyebrows rose at Sam's statement and she couldn't help but glare at him, he hadn't mentioned that Jo had been his partner.

Jack nodded, "Before she got promoted out."

"Something like that," Sam said.

"Yeah," Jo agreed, "The grass was definitely greener…"

"So what made you want to be a detective?" Andy asked.

Jo looked at Andy for a moment before answering, "Something happened on patrol, a bit like you and Sam, we lost someone we shouldn't and I threw myself into the investigation, but got nowhere with the case, but I was recognised for promotion because we managed to solve another big case along the way."

"We?" Andy asked, she could feel Sam's eyes staring at her, almost burning her cheek with the intensity

Jo nodded, "Me and my partner at the time. You might even know him; I think he's still a Detective at the Fifteenth."

"Maybe," Andy replied a small smile creeping over her lips as Sam almost choked on his drink at Jo's comment.

"Luke Callaghan," Jo stated; a contemplative look on her face, "Do you know him?"

Andy nodded, "Yes, I know Luke. You do too, don't you Sam," she looked at him, her eyes daring him to say something.

"Yes, Callaghan's still at the Fifteenth. Still as dedicated as ever to his job," Sam replied.

Jo nodded, "He changed after what happened."

Andy's interest piqued further, she was getting closer to the truth and she could almost feel it, "What happened?"

"It was a long time ago, but her face still haunts me…" Jo was quiet for a moment, "The bad ones always do."

Andy nodded, the blue eyes clouding her mind, "Yes, I know."

"Zoe Martinelli will be the one case that haunts me forever," Jo replied.

It was Andy's turn to almost choke on her drink, Zoe Martinelli? That was the case that still had Luke twisted in knots.


I hope you enjoyed that installment ~ I will hopefully get the next part up tomorrow.

Sairs