A/N-Thanks for all the reviews and I want to thank all of the fans for following these stories and hope everyone will continue to enjoy my writing. Thank you for your attention. Love you all. ~A
You Had to be There-Chapter 10
Detective Allison Beaumont was an excellent cop. She was used to sitting on stake out for hours on end. So waiting for a suspect like this was something she was used to. She had her coffee, she's had a good healthy breakfast and her bathroom break before she had started. It was a piece of cake to sit in a broom closet and wait for her partner. When Cole walked by on his way to the Second Squad she reached out and grabbed him by the collar and yanked him into the broom closet.
She pushed him up against the wall as she pulled the door closed behind them. "Ok Cole, this conversation is long overdue." she said heatedly, as her e been partner stared at her in stunned surprise.
"Allison? What in the name of…" Then as if realizing what he was about to say, Cole bit his lip and drew a deep breath.
"You've been avoiding me and I want to know why?" said Allison hotly.
Henry would have made a break for it, unfortunately his partner stood between the door and he wasn't about to try and get around her. He knew better, instead he went for avoidance of the issue. "What are you talking about, I've been here everyday you have for the past three weeks."
I'm not talking about work, Henry Cole." she said putting her hands on her hips.
Henry wished she wouldn't do that, the top while very appropriate for court or work, still showed off her beautiful complexion and her eyes. Eyes that were flashing fire because he still hadn't answered. "What, Allison we went to lunch together last week." he finally answered as he noticed she had lost a little weight if he was any judge. Weight she didn't really need to loose in his opinion, and he began to look with more critical eyes.
Yeah, and you don't think I figured out that Banks and Delahoy just happened to show up because you called them and invited them to join us? So you wouldn't have to be alone with me and we wouldn't be actually talking to each other. So we wouldn't be able to have…oh I don't know a semi-private and personal conversation between the two of us?" Beaumont said quietly but no less vehemently as he could see her begin to lose her temper.
Instead of getting angry though he was appalled to see her eyes begin to fill with unshed tears, Beaumont didn't cry, she never cried, and this drew attention to her eyes. Her eyes that while skillfully masked with makeup had dark circles under them and were a bit puffy. Her usually short and well-manicured nails were a little ragged and chewed down to the quick in some places. She had also definitely lost some weight he could clearly see her clavicles. Her pants were hanging on her hipbones instead of hugging her curves, and he paused at the thought, wondering when exactly he had started noticing these details about his partner and when he had become so… poetic about it.
"Allison…" he began only to be interrupted by the older woman.
"You know what, never mind, I must have misinterpreted." said his partner and now there was no mistaking the tears in her eyes. "My mistake, it won't happen again, Detective Cole." With that she slid past him and out of the broom closet. Cole stood there for a shocked moment before he followed her or tried to, when he came out there was no one in the hall.
He quickly stepped into the squad room hoping to find his partner at their combined desks. Only to find both desks empty, he started to turn to head back down the hall, and spotted Allison sitting in Browns office, leaning forward obviously in a heated discussion with their superior. Henry stomped down the urge lunge into the office and interrupt the discussion. Instead he headed to the desk with a sinking heart and a stomach that felt as though it were full of lead.
He couldn't help the sense of trepidation he felt, as though something were about to go very, very wrong. 'Like the squad needed anything else to go wrong.' he thought as he sank into his desk chair. It only takes another 10 minutes before Beaumont comes back out and slides into her own desk chair instead of speaking to him, she flips through her Rolodex and begins making phone calls.
Never even raising her eyes to meet Henry's she pulls out her favorite pen and a tablet of paper and begins to doodle as she talks to two people who apparently are giving her the run around. Finally grunting in frustration she dials a number from memory and asks for Special Agent Monroe.
Recognizing the name, Cole looks up sharply from where he is sifting through information on his computer. His partner tensed slightly, her shoulders hunching as she said in a tone of patent false pleasure, "Hi Kyle. Allison Beaumont here I was wondering if you could help me out. I'm trying to find out some information and I have to say I'm hitting a dead end."
Henry watches in awe and a little horror as his partner proceeds to verbally seduce and milk the agent on the other end of the phone line for information. She is now actually writing information down on the tablet. She then circles something she has written and underlines something else before giving her apologies and getting off the phone only to call another number out of her Rolodex.
He sees her relax as she talks to this new person and he notices that he has also relaxed right along with her. He is just getting back to what he was doing on his computer when Alvarez taps him on his shoulder and says its his turn to do the lunch run and asks if Henry would mind giving him a hand. Sighing heavily he looks up to try and draw Beaumont's attention only to discover her scribbling on a fresh sheet of paper in her tablet. Shrugging lightly he rises and leaves with the older detective.
Finally getting off the phone fifteen minutes later, Beaumont is actually rather relieved to find her partner absent from his side of the pushed together desks.
She had only been working for five hours and most of it on the phone but felt like she had overtime under her belt. She typed up her notes in a more neat and organized manner. Then she attached a Post-it Note to the report, telling in general where she got the information in the report and that she was taking a personal day for the rest of the day.
Putting the file on top of Brown's desk, Beaumont picked up her purse, her jacket, and headed out the door. Quickly making her way down the stairs and out to the parking lot. Unlocking the door she slid into the drivers seat and pulled out of the parking lot, already calling Casey and leaving the message that she was on her way over, on Schraeger's voice mail.
Hanging up the phone, she tossed the phone into her purse, and at the next light quickly undid her hair as she waited for the light to change. Rubbing her scalp with her fingertips, she was happy to be free of the tight hair style but not sure about what she was about to pass on to one of the few people she considered a friend.
Xxxxxxxxx
Allison knocked on the door for the third time, she was nearly ready to give up, when she finally shouted, "Come on Casey, I know you're in there, your cars in the parking lot and I have the bagels you like from Fausberg's. Which I will take and eat all by myself if you do not answer this door." In an admittedly facetious fashion she then waved the accompanying coffee in the sign of the cross in front of the apartment door. The coffee was also from Fausberg's and was a lot better than any she could make or any to be had at the station house. She was hoping the aroma would seep through the door and entice her friend to at least answer.
Beaumont would have sworn she felt a whoosh of air go past her as the door was suddenly yanked open and a hand reached out to grab the coffee out of her hand almost before she blinked. As she watched Casey drain at least half of the large Styrofoam cup of coffee in one go, she noted the unwashed hair, circles under the eyes and pasty complexion. With a smirk, she said, "Glad I got more than two of those. So you gonna keep me standing on the door step when I have manna from the bagel gods?" she said as she waved the bag back and forth in front of Casey's face.
"Loaded?" asked Casey in mock suspicion.
"Of course," responded the beautiful Latina with derision, "is there any other way?"
"Then you may enter?" Schraeger said with a flourish as she swung the door open wide and let her friend enter before following her in and kicking the door closed behind her.
Setting the bag and coffee down on Casey's dining room table and relaxing into the dining room chair across from her friend. Casey sat across from her draining the rest of the coffee from the cup. Before reaching for another cup and the bag at the same time, she dragged one of the fully loaded bagels out of the bag and stuffed it into her mouth as she flipped the lid off the coffee.
Casey chewed and after making several moaning noises, she swallowed and looked over the edge of the cup at the other woman and said, "So there has to be a reason you went all the way across town to Fausberg's for bagels and coffee. Spill?"
"Jason's late fiancé' was an agent for the FBI. Walsh never knew. She was apparently watching the gang that had threatened Walsh. Mihaylov killed her and went on with his life, but about eighteen months ago he apparently turned state's evidence. That's why the Feds and Federal Marshall's are involved." Beaumont said bluntly as she sipped her coffee. "They're accusing Walsh because they don't want to admit that a federally protected witness ended up dead while under their protection."
"But that means that they won't accept any defense. They'll just keep him in custody and…." Casey began going into a frenzy.
"They have to arraign him and give him counsel, and we're going to find out about the arraignment today in a few minutes I have a friend looking into it. They'll call. In the meantime, you go take a shower and wash your hair. No offense but you reek." said Allison with a smirk.
Casey still gripping the cup of coffee, lifting her hair, she sniffed it slightly and wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Ok you could have been a little nicer about that."
"But that just wouldn't be me." said Allison with a casual shrug, "Now go."
With a grumble Casey took the coffee and half-eaten bagel with her as she went to her bedroom and the bath she needed as Allison snickered quietly while pulling out her own bagel, while she waited for her friend.