Disclaimer—I do not own Harry Potter, the Closer, nor any of the characters therein. And, sadly, I do not earn any moneys from the posting of this fanfiction.

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Chapter Ten

Brenda was back in her office again when Gabriel found her. He stopped in the doorway, when he saw how upset she looked. He gave her a moment before knocking his knuckle against the doorframe. Her head snapped over to where he was standing.

"Sergeant Gabriel, come in and close the door please?" she ordered. "What were you able to find out?"

"Miss Granger was able to discover that Jack Green, the last employer of our victim Mr. Gunderson, is currently in a rest home in a rich area of Sherman Oaks in what his doctors' think is a permanent vegetative state." She thought that over, even as he went on with his report. "His medical condition is as a result of an overdose of pills—this time it was ecstasy—and booze. He regurgitated the contents of his stomach while face down on the floor of his limo, causing him to suffocate on his own vomit."

"This time?" she asked.

He nodded. "Mr. Green had a very long history of drug and alcohol abuse." He handed her the report he made up. "He's been to rehab five times that we know of. The first two times it was paid for by his very well off father, the next two times by his own insurance, and the last time by his nephew—though how he managed it on his pay, I'll never know."

Frowning, she asked, "What does the nephew do for a living?"

"Assistant manager at a juice bar."

Brenda only nodded to this, as she went on reading over the report. She took off her reading glasses as she thought. "Get in contact with the father. He doesn't have to come in, but if he could that would be nice. I want to speak to him."

"Yes, ma'am," he said with a nod. "Would you like to speak to the sister and nephew as well?"

"Yes, but not until I speak to the father," she told him. "Something tells me that the man will be able to give us a clearer picture of his son and ultimately why someone may have wanted Mr. Kurt Gunderson dead."

"So you think either Jack Green's sister or nephew killed our victim?" he asked her.

"According to our witness statements that were gathered by the uniformed officers from the people who lived in the area, someone chased Mr. Gunderson down five blocks away from the limo that we were able to identify as the new car he was driving for the job he just attained at a different limo service. He then proceeded to bludgeon him to death with a good sized pipe wrench that we weren't able to find at the scene of the crime. The murder weapon was something that we now have confirmation from the coroner's office of. According to the onsite report, there was at minimum twelve strikes to the man's skull alone." Brenda looked over to him, saying, "Whomever we're looking for isn't just angry, but is furious. We need to find what we can first before seeing just how far either of these people would go to blame someone other than their brother or uncle for what they themself did wrong." She stopped and said, "Find out who were his staff before this point. Everything from maids, cooks, and other drivers…" Gabriel took down the instructions. "They would know who was angry and about what."

"Yes, Chief." And he went on his way to see it done.

Looking at the time, Brenda knew that the work day was coming to an end. She got up and went over to Gabriel's desk, looking at the clock.

Once he was done with the phone call he was making, she said, "It's after five. Anything else can be finished up tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" he asked her, as he was hanging up the receiver.

"Chief Pope has been getting on my case again about overtime," she grumbled. "So yes, I'm sure. Go home." She looked around. "That goes for the rest of you as well."

Sanchez looked from Brenda over to Hermione and back again. But before his boss could say anything Fritz came over, kneeling down next to her.

"Hey, kiddo," he said, waking her up. "Do you have a place to stay?"

"I'm sure I do, but I would have to make some…"

"No, you'll be staying with us," he said quietly, helping her to her feet. "You must be hungry again and we have a serviceable guest room you can use."

Normally Hermione would have protested, but she was too tired to do much more than nod in agreement. Another thing that past her notice was how Fritz looked over to Brenda with a gaze that was in essence asking if that was okay. Looking over to the younger woman, she saw that Hermione was half asleep on her feet. Looking back over to her fiancée, she nodded and he ended up taking their new guest over towards the elevator and ultimately his car.

When Brenda arrived home, it was to find Fritz and Hermione setting out plates and speaking catching up with what they've been up to since they last saw each other.

"A Ph.D. in Mathematics?" Fritz let out a whistle. "How is it that you use it with MI6?"

"I've done everything from simple accounting to attempting cryptology for them," she said with a grin, looking over to Brenda. "Chief…"

"It's Brenda at home," she said to her, as she set down her purse. "We're getting delivery?"

"From the little Chinese place," Fritz told her. "I'll be going to get it in a moment." He looked over to Hermione. "Something to drink?"

"An iced water would be lovely. That or if you have club soda?"

"We have milk, orange juice, and ginger ale," he informed her.

"Then make it that ginger ale, please," she answered, looking over to Brenda.

"I'll be having a wine," the other woman told her. "That isn't a problem, is it?"

Hermione shook her head no, saying, "I was never one to drink wine. I was much like my father and my grandfather, both of whom were very much men who liked their whisky." She took the ginger ale from Fritz. "I know I swore I wasn't going to ask about the case, but there's something niggling at my mind."

"And that would be?" she asked, even as Fritz rolled his eyes.

"Has the family of the victim been spoken to yet?"

"One of my detectives along with a uniformed officer did the notification of the family of his death. I called later on in the day," she told her. "I'm going to be speaking to them tomorrow in person. What with everything moving so quickly today and what was going on with Mr. Weasley that was the soonest that I could arrange a meeting with them."

"That's good," she murmured, but then frowned and asked, "What else was going on with Ron?"

"Your friend Harry showed up," Brenda said to her.

"He didn't start up with the whole, 'Do you know who I am' business?" When the other woman nodded, Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered, "I swear Harry never used to be like that. It makes me wonder at times if he drank the proverbial punch and started to believe everything ever spoken to him about himself."

This had the other two laughing.

"What I want to know is how you end up in MI6," Brenda said.

Hermione thought over the question before asking, "Did you hear about the underground war going on in the UK and in some of the European continent?"

Brenda sat up straighter. "But you must have been only a teenager when that was going on!"

"Oh believe me when I say that I know," she murmured, and proceeded to tell her the approved story and her supposed roll in it.

TBC…

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Another chapter has finished and is making its victory lap around the Internet. Thank you for reading and I hope that you're having a grand day.