A/N~ The final chapter is coming up next and possibly an epilogue after that, depending on how it goes. I wanted to think everyone for reading. Truthfully only one favorite and not many reviews, kind of hard to keep going after so little feedback but I don't like to leave things incomplete. Hope you have enjoyed these stories, but I will be exiting this fandom for a bit and continuing elsewhere. Again thank you to the faithful readers who have viewed this story. That's what kept me going.~A
You Had to be There-Chapter 21
Once again all of the members of Second Squad and Nicole Brandt met up together. This time in a place they were pretty sure the Feds hadn't bugged and that actually had white noise generators to disable parabolic mikes. Casey's fathers offices downtown. The gentleman needless to say was furious that someone had broken into his home, assaulted his people, and that the government was trying to throw Jason in jail still.
He was waiting for everyone on the first floor near the elevators, the security guards actually had gear similar to what Banks had used previously, but more high tech. They scanned everyone coming in, confiscated phones and computers, before escorting them to Mr. Schraeger's location. The bearded man had developed a darkly, brooding demeanor but he still greeted everyone with a firm handshake and a grim smile.
This time there were only two bugs found one on Nicole and one on Brown, as well as a camera found on Nic's briefcase. Nicole cursed like a sailor, even Allison was impressed. The group noted the conspicuous absence of Walsh and Schraeger when Eric asked, "Shouldn't we wait for Walsh and Schraeger?"
Walter said with pride, "They're already here." He inserted a key into a discreet panel and a concealed elevator door slid open. Leo and Eric both geeked out about that and Leo said, "That's some Bruce Wayne kind of shit."
The senior Schraeger cracked a real grin as he said, "Bruce Wayne wishes he were me." before pressing one of the buttons on the panel and turned to face the group. "We are heading to my personal conference room. I've had security go over it already and Jason and Casey are set up in there." he turned back to the panel and commented, "I have to say, if I weren't so furious about the whole situation I might find all of the cloak and dagger stuff rather exciting."
"Not to mention getting to see your daughter in action is probably a bit of an eye opener," Eddie said thoughtfully.
Walter looked over his shoulder at the other man and said, "How did you know?"
Eddie shrugged nonchalantly as he said, "It was the same way with Nic's dad, when he first saw her in court. He wanted her to be a corporate lawyer, work for him. She chose a different path." He looked down at his pretty wife adoringly. As the elevator chimed and the doors slid open silently.
They stepped out directly into what was obviously Walter Schraeger's office suite. In front of them was a large desk made of dark wood and frosted pale blue green glass lit from underneath. Two men stood as Mr. Schraeger exited the elevators with his guests.
One was a very tall black man, muscular, bald and with intense eyes. The other a younger white man, about six feet tall, lean, shoulder length brown hair, pulled back in a ponytail.
The younger man stepped forward with a tablet and stylus, his denim jacket looking very out of place in the corporate surroundings of Schraeger Inc. He checked their names off a list on his tablet while the larger man began fiddling with a device that sat on the receptionist desk, his leather jacket stretching across his broad shoulders.
Casey stuck her head out of the door on the left and said, "You guys about done?"
The younger man called back with a grin, "All present and accounted for, Captain."
"Shields, up." said the black man in a decidedly deep and bass voice.
"Excellent." Casey said, "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Morgan and Murphy. One of the best private security teams on the East Coast. Let's get started."
Casey's father and the two men joined the group inside the conference room. Casey caressed her partners shoulder and began speaking as soon as everyone had taken a seat. "Someone in the feds are the ones who had them search Jason's place and then my parents place."
"Them who?" Cole asked in confusion.
"Government agents. Who else would be able to get body armor and the password to a level seven security system with sixteen bit encryption." said Murphy, the younger of the two security specialists, without looking up from his tablet.
"They had to have been watching my parents house to know their routine and the routines for Milla and Carl." said Casey as she paced in front of the wall of windows in front of the conference table.
"Carl wasn't supposed to be there." Walter said with some guilt. "Normally he'd be driving Estelle and I to our date night."
"Dad has a new sports car, an impulse purchase." Casey said with amused affection as she kissed her father on the top of his head before continuing, "I blame it on mid-life crisis. Anyway, Carl startled them and they shot him. They were probably supposed to make it look like a home invasion and when they shot Carl they knew they had to get in and get out so they skipped making it look like a home invasion and had to search for whatever they were hoping to find in my room."
Her eyes grew dark with anger as she explained, "Only I haven't lived in my parents house in years. Davis kept my address as living with my parents because of my trust fund for tax purposes."
"Insurance providers require you to give the type of security system you use and the FBI would have access to that information. Especially if they hinted around that they were investigating a homicide with possible money laundering ties." Morgan injected into the conversation.
"OK but why? Why go to all this trouble and what were they looking for?" asked Eric looking around the room at the others.
"Yeah that stumped me too. Then I realized that they had never subpoenaed or asked for warrants for anything. except Jason's arrest." Casey said drawing them along with her on her train of thought, "That leaves the one thing that if they had it even for a little while they could use to frame him for the murder. The only thing they didn't have to prove Jason killed Mihaylov, his weapon."
"The night they were searching the Stage, I couldn't figure out why they wouldn't have gotten a search warrant. I mean with Jason locked up it should have been their first stop. When they didn't find his gun on him, they assumed it was at his apartment, they didn't count on someone being there to stop them." she added, "They also didn't count on me taking the lockbox with Jason's gun and badge out of the apartment with me."
Nicole nearly had a fit as she said, "Casey, that's tampering with evidence."
"The Stage was not a crime scene, they never issued a proper search warrant or notice of seizure until after the box was taken. So technically there was no tampering." Casey said before getting back on track. "I couldn't figure out why they didn't bother with a warrant." she continued, "With Jason already locked up it should have been a slam dunk to get one."
"The reason was it would have left a paper trail. They would have had to explain to the judge what they were looking for, which would have shown that they didn't have the gun. They would have done a reverse ballistics test, shot the gun and exchanged the bullets found in Mihaylov for the bullets from Jason's gun. Only they couldn't find Jason's gun."
"So they figured I had it which was true but they followed the information they had which was false. They knew my father knew too much about the law to be fooled, so they pulled the whole home invasion thing. Only that at didn't work for them either. So now they're bugging and tailing everybody. Only we've pretty much been staying at the hospital or the precinct."
"Great but if we just go in and say the government is behind it, they'll label us as conspiracy nut jobs. We have no real evidence to prove any of this." Brown said running his hands over his scalp in frustration.
"Any idea who actually is behind it?" Murphy said, "The man behind the curtain so to speak."
Casey and Jason did that psychic partner thing they did, before Jason said, "Only one person comes to mind right off hand."