Logan and Wheeler had called Ross while he was waiting for Goren. They had the surveillance footage from the bank, along with the FBI's notes and were headed back to the squad room. Ross told them to meet in the conference room, and plan for a late night. He also called Eames and asked her to plan on being back at the squad room within the hour. He also asked her to pick up food for the weary crew. They finally all converged back, in the bull pen, files, pictures and food scattered out over the conference room table.
"What is it about cops and Chinese food?" Mike answered as he shoved in another mouth full of lo-mein.
"I don't know," Goren replied, "Maybe it's brain food."
"Here, Mike." Wheeler shoved a box of egg rolls his way, "You need all the help you can get." The five Major Case detectives laughed a little more before they got down to the business at hand.
"Here's the footage from the bank's lobby camera," Wheeler began after the plates were cleared. "Based on everything you told us from Jaycie's statement, it matches almost scene for scene." They watched as the bank robbers burst in, the camera time stamped at almost 2 pm. The shooter never took his aim off Jaycie. After the last teller handed the pillow case back across, it was obvious that the gunman said something that made Jaycie's head jerk up. Then, he lowered his weapon and fired.
"Every teller on the line and the two witnesses closest to the shooter heard and saw almost the exact same thing." Logan went on, looking at his notes, and the FBI's. "He called her name and when she looked up, he lowered the weapon and fired twice."
Eames shook her head, "No doubt about it, she should be dead."
"But, again, what's our connection?" Ross demanded in frustration.
Goren paced the room nervously. He knew the connection was right there, just out on the nether regions of his brain, but he couldn't pull it together. He continued to look at the pictures: the bank robbery photos, the pictures of the destruction of Mr. Odabe's shop, the crime scene photos from Mr. Cho's murder. The link was in those pictures, wasn't it? The other detectives continued to throw out possible scenarios but again, Bobby went back to the pictures.
Suddenly, he slammed his hand on the desk, startling the assembled group. "I take it you have something, Goren, or are you just trying to scare the bejeesus out of us?" Eames asked her partner.
"Logan, do you have IA's reports?" Goren asked.
"Yeah, right here."
"Do they make any mention of Jaycie's employer?"
Mike quickly scanned the gathered reports. Wheeler took another handful and also looked for the reference. "No, nothing," she replied.
"Same here," Mike answered.
"The only time we ever mentioned Jaycie was a banker…"Goren began.
"Was at Mr. Cho's crime scene when you told the uniforms where to pick her up." Eames finished.
"Wait, where is the Cho crime scene report?" Mike picked up on the thread.
"Here," and Wheeler handed it across to her partner.
"My God! How could we have missed this? It's right here in front of us in black and white." He handed the report to Ross. "The four uniforms on the scene are Officer Beadles and the other three on trial. The only two missing…"
Ross finished for him, "Are our shooter and his partner."
"Once it got turned over to Internal Affairs there was no reason for us to search more thoroughly. We thought it stopped with the uniforms." Goren spoke up, shaking his head.
"So were thinking this goes higher up?" Wheeler asked.
"It makes sense." Eames added to the scenario. "There had to have been reports from others involved. When they came in, they were conveniently misdirected or ignored by senior staff. It was only when they didnt get results that Mr. Cho and Mr. Odabe took it outside the precinct. When it got back to the captain from outside channels, that's when matters escalated."
"Hold on," Ross tried to stop the train before it got too far out of the station, "we're assuming that the lead detective at the scene, Upshaw, is involved. But, we're indicting their C.O., too? We better make damn sure before we go that route."
"Give me that crime scene report," Wheeler reached across to the captain as she pulled out her cell phone and punched in a number. She shushed the group as the other end of the call picked up. "Hi, my name is Dede and I'm with the paper. We've been trying to get a comment from your detective; Upshaw's his name, about this trial day after tomorrow. We haven't been too successful. Do you think his higher up would want to say something? What's that name? Costa?" She nodded at the others. "No, I don't think I can print that comment, but thanks for the info." She smiled as she hung up.
"Not bad, Wheeler. Not bad at all." Mike nudged his partner's shoulder.
"Costa, right?" Eames said. "Lupe Costa?"
Wheeler nodded.
"I know that name." Logan spoke again, "Got her captain's bars when she helped bust a drug ring with known ties to the Mexican mafia."
"And our bank robbers just happen to be Hispanic." Goren added with a smile.
"Again, people, circumstantial. We need a name to tie all of this back together." Ross rained on the parade once more.
There was a knock at the conference room door. A uniformed officer opened the door and handed a note to the captain.
"Guess what?" Ross smiled as he looked up at the detectives. "We've got a purple man in the emergency room at St. Eligius."
"A what?" Wheeler frowned as she spoke.
Goren smiled, too. "A purple man. Bank bait money usually has purple dye packs."
"Seems a purple dye bottle exploded into his eyes, all over his face and hands. Says it got on his money too because he was dying his pants."
Logan stood up and took the note from Ross. "Come on, Wheeler. I'll bet you a month's pay Purple man is our key. Wonder if he knows that discharging a weapon during the commission of a bank robbery is a really big problem with the Feds."
Wheeler stood and grabbed her coat.
"Guys," Ross stopped them. "I want all of you back here by 2 pm tomorrow. I want to make sure we have our dots firmly connected. If this does play like we think, I want us to know exactly what we're doing Friday when Mikey gets to that courtroom." Wheeler and Logan both nodded and left.
Ross then turned to Goren and Eames. "How is Mikey, really?"
"Well, he's scared and he misses his mother." Eames said, "And I really believe he thinks it's his fault that she got hurt."
"OK. The two of you be there when Mikey gets up in the morning. I think that will be a big help to him to see you, Goren. Then, get him in to see his mom. I know Jaycie will handle it from there."
"What makes you so sure?" Goren asked, curious to hear the captain's response.
"She's his mom. This sense to do right was rooted from her, make no doubt about it. She'll make sure he's ready for what he has to do Friday. Now, get out of here while I go make a call to Captain Jeremiah in Internal Affairs. He's going to be so thrilled about this new development. No reason he should get a good night's sleep when we won't." Ross smiled as he took his coat and left the squad room.
"Come on," Eames said, standing and stretching. "Let's get to Dad's. If nothing else, we'll at least get a few hours rest."
"Yeah. It's going to be a rough two days." And with that they headed to the parking garage.