A/N I've been asked to give a better idea of what Natalie and Anastasia look like. I indeed have two beautiful muses who inspire me, so I thought I should post their images.
I am using images of these two women as story images; however FF's software is corrupting the addresses of the images on Photobucket so I can't link directly to them from the story.
If you make your way to Photobucket and search for Unicornff, you will be taken to my album which contains a selection of images of both Natalie and Anastasia.
I hope this helps the reader's enjoyment of the story.
Deceptive interrogation
Jane's viewpoint
I sometimes wonder about the Chief's background, did the CIA make her sneaky or was she like that originally?
This morning she'd breezed in, coffee in hand, wishing everyone a good morning in that southern accent of hers, dumped her enormous shoulder bag on her desk then turned right round and wandered back out into the squad room, where she stood in the middle of the room, happily chatting to everyone, teasing Flynn and Provenza about baseball and Tao about computers, she was so playful that it almost felt like she was gently verbally flirting with the team, which felt weird.
I got dragged into a passionate defence of the Red Sox, after she suggested that it might be time to change my allegiance to an LA team, much to everyone's amusement.
I was a bit surprised; Brenda wasn't normally this cheerful, leaving me wondering what the hell was going on. I noticed that the mood of the team had picked up dramatically as well; as if they knew something was going on, something was in the air.
I'd glanced over to Gabriel, caught his eye and looked the question at him, he'd leaned back and quietly murmured that when the Chief was like this it normally meant something good was about to happen.
After a few minutes of chatting Brenda had walked, no sashayed was a better word, her skirt swishing as she moved, over to the murder board, sliding the sniper stuff over to one side, revealing the second board behind it, covered in details of the warehouse attack.
"Lady and gentlemen, I do believe that it's time that we focused on something a little less intractable than the sniper, in this case our friends in the Blood Catorcies and their new best buddies the Los Zeta's" She looked around the room and smiled, no grinned, she was having fun, something was definitely up.
"As your aware, the Catorcie's new leader Darren Curtis, AKA Little Dog, has been playing both sides off against the middle, working with the Zetas, while still keeping in contact with the Sinaloa Cartel, the Catorcie's existing cartel partner. Now either he hasn't told his new buds the Zeta's about the arrangement or the Zeta's have agreed to let Little Dog keep stringing Sinaloa along until they feel comfortable in hitting Sinaloa and getting away with it" Flynn grinned.
"Gutsy play if he's not told the Zeta's, they won't take kindly to being played" Brenda smiled warmly at him.
"Exactly right Lieutenant and how do you think the Sinaloa Cartel will feel about it if they find out?" Flynn pulled a face.
"Well, the cartels have some pretty extreme methods of letting their unhappiness be known"
"And right again" She grinned happily. "So that suggests he thinks he can keep them both dancing to his tune" Sanchez smiled.
"Pretty gutsy, pretty stupid too"
"Either way, if the Zeta's know or if they don't the kicker here is that Sinaloa most definitely does not" She shrugged. "If they did well, what's left of Little Dog here would be decorating one of Doctor Isles slabs downstairs"
Gabriel looked from the board, covered in surveillance photos of Little Dog, back to the Chief.
"So what now?"
"Well, thanks to the excellent surveillance work done by our friends in the Gang Task Force, we know that Little Dog's been meeting with the Sinaloa rep on Monday afternoon's and the Zeta's rep on Thursday nights, which means we have about 24 hours before the Zeta's find out about us picking him up, if we do it quietly" Sanchez nodded.
"So we bring him in?"
"If you would be so kind, I understand he visits his sister and her new baby on Wednesday afternoons, so I'd like you, Sergeant Gabriel, together with Detective Sanchez and Detective Rizzoli to pick him up nice and quietly as he walks out the door" We all nodded.
"Quietly please, I don't want anyone realising we've got him. If he has anyone with him, grab them too and get them into isolation, I don't want Little Dog talking to anyone and no one knowing we have him, not until I have a chance to chat to Mr Curtis" She smiled as she looked around.
Lieutenant Provenza, could you please ask Agent Romanov to come and see me, this morning if at all possible. Lieutenant Flynn, could you see if Commander Reynolds from the Gang Task Force is available for a short meeting this morning, thank you. Tell him I need a small favour"
"Lieutenant Tao, could you please give my compliments to Commander Ruiz from SIS and see if he might be available for a few minutes sometime this morning, I have a favour to ask him as well" Brenda looked around the room, looking at each of us in turn, before coming back to me.
"Detective Rizzoli, you don't speak Spanish do you?" I shook my head.
"Sorry Chief, only the four t's"
"Four tee's?"
"Taco's, tamale's, tango and tequila" She smiled. "Not much call for it in Boston"
"Oh no, that's excellent, excellent. Detective Sanchez, would you be kind enough to come into my office please"
With a swish of skirts Brenda strolled into her office, a wary looking Sanchez in tow, leaving the rest of us wondering what the hell the Chief had in mind. When he emerged a while later he had a smile on his face, but refused to tell us why, saying it was on the Chief's orders and would say no more.
So it was that a few hours later we collared Curtis as he walked out of his sister's building, together with his driver, and drove them downtown. It went so smoothly that no one realised what had happened.
Gabriel took the driver down to Holding with instructions to keep him in isolation, while Sanchez and I walked Curtis into Interrogation Room 2 as per the Chief's explicit instructions before I went to tell her we were back.
As I walked into the Murder Room I could see Ana sitting in with Brenda, talking to the Chief as I walked up and knocked on the door.
"Chief, we've got Curtis in Interrogation 2 waiting for you"
"I take it no one's any the wiser that we have Mr Curtis" I shook my head.
"Nope, it went quietly, no one knows" I got the Chief's 1000 watt smile turned on me.
"Excellent work Detective, I don't 'spose we should keep Little Dog waiting" Brenda turned to Ana. "All ready Agent Romanov?" Ana stood, nodding at me.
"All set Chief"
We walked into the squad room, where Brenda paused next to Flynn's desk.
"Lieutenant Flynn, would you be kind enough to call Sergeant Garcia, Lieutenant Provenza, would you please call Detective Mendoza. Could you both let them know I need them ready to go in Interrogation Room 1 in five minutes please?" As they nodded, she turned back to me.
"Detective, could you please relieve Detective Sanchez, I just need to make sure he knows what he has to do" I nodded, not quite sure what was planned, but when the Chief's on a roll, who was I to get in the way.
I spent the next few minutes watching over Little Dog, who after the usual threats and come-ons lapsed into silence when he realised I wasn't going to say anything. I just leaned against the wall with my arms crossed and watched him, seeing the nervous tell tales under the supposedly calm exterior, the fidgeting, the jumpiness.
Truth be told I didn't like the layout of the interrogation rooms here, I don't like the tables, they allow the suspect to hide too much out of sight, the nervous shake of a leg, the hands, hidden under the table, the posture. I normally did interrogations in a room with just a chair for the suspect, while I stood back, watching their reactions with nothing to hide behind.
Here the table not only allowed them to hide, it was a psychological barrier as well, something they could put up between them and the interrogator, it wasn't my style but it wasn't my interrogation.
Truth be told, I was looking forward to watching Brenda do her thing. From what I'd heard, the Chief was at her best in here, enough so the rest of the squad was likely in the electronics room; they treated her interrogations as a spectator sport, complete with popcorn.
The door opened and the Chief strolled in, a file in her hand, followed by Ana, who looked at me as she turned to close the door, one eyebrow lifting, before she sat down next to the Chief. I walked around the room to stand behind Little Dog, just in case. Besides, it might make him a little more nervous.
"Hello Mr Curtis, I'm Deputy Chief Johnson, I'm sure you're wondering why you're here"
"All I wanna know is which of you three ho's is gonna suck my dick first, cause that's all I got for you, Dep-u-tee Jon-sahn"
"Well Mr Curtis, I'm sure your eagerness is understandable, given how little you're going to be getting on death row as an accessory to multiple murders"
"What you talking 'bout bitch? I didn't kill no one"
"Of course you didn't, that would require bigger balls than you have, wouldn't it, that's why you got your friends in Los Zeta's to do it for you"
"I dunno know what'cha talking 'bout bitch"
"Well, let's see what we might have to convince you why you're going to death row. Let's start with being an accessory to the murder of eleven people, including two police officers"
"Bitch, you wastin' my time, where's ma lawyer, I wanna lawyer"
"Yes, I'm sure you do" She smiled at him, watching him fidget, while Ana remained as still as stone.
"I do wonder though what your fellow Catorcie members will think when they learn that you were responsible for the deaths of nine of their fellow gang members Mr Curtis? Most gangs have strict rules about snitches and traitors"
"You got nothin' on me, you got nothin' I tell ya"
"That's not how it looks from here Mr Curtis. You have a rep, out on the streets, Little Dog, that's what they call you, isn't it"
"That's what ma people call me bitch" I could see his smirk in the mirror. "Tell you what, I'll let you call me Daddy while I fuck your fine lily white ass over this table" I took a step forward, but Brenda sent me back to the wall with a nod.
"Thank you for the offer Mr Curtis, but I suppose they call you 'little' for a reason. How did you get that name Mr Curtis, Little Dog" Her voice stretched the 'Little' out, pouring scorn over it.
"Doesn't sound like the name you'd give to a leader, Big Dog I can understand, but little?" Her eyebrow lifted. "When I think of little dogs I think of poodles, running round sniffing the asses of the top dogs. Are you a poodle Mr Curtis, sniffing the asses of the big dogs?"
"Fuck you bitch, I gonna fuck you up…" He started to rise from the chair, giving me the excuse to take a step forward and slam him back in his chair, hard. He twisted to look at me.
"Cunt, gonna fuck you too" I shrugged.
"Get out of the chair 'little' dog and I'll show you who's the bitch. My bitch" The Chief's voice dragged his attention back to her.
"Like I said, you have a rep on the streets, 'Little Dog'. A mid-level punk, not too bright, good at doing what other people tell you, not the sort of person to rise too high in the Catorcies, or anywhere else" Curtis said nothing, just staring back at her.
"Mr Curtis, I know you've been dealing with the Zeta's, you told them where and when all the senior people in the Catorcies would be, so they could kill them off, allowing you to take over. Promotion by assassination, isn't that what it was"
"Dunno, why don'tcha keep telling me, sounds like a good story"
"Oh it is; a story of a low level punk who got made an offer. Roll over on your fellow Catorcies, give them up to the Zeta's and they kill everyone above you, you'd end up in charge, while they held your leash" He said nothing.
"Tell me Mr Curtis, how long did it take you before you rolled over, gave your friends up? Five minutes? Three? Did it even take that long or did you give them up without a thought?"
"I ain't got nothing to say. Where's ma lawyer; I want ma lawyer and ma phone call" I watched as Brenda briefly reached up and massaged both temples with her fingers, before sitting back.
"I'm sure you do, they'll be here soon enough. So tell me 'little' Dog, what happens to you when the rest of the Catorcies find out what you've done? You expect the Zeta's to protect you? Honestly?"
Curtis sat there, his arms folded as he stared back at Brenda; obviously he's decided to say nothing until his lawyer arrived.
Brenda went to speak when the door to the room opened, as Sanchez leaned in. Behind him I could hear raised voices one male, one female, both obviously agitated, speaking, well shouting really, in Spanish
"Chief, we've got a problem"
"What is it Detective, Mr Curtis here and I have so much to discuss" Sanchez looked across at Curtis for a moment, before looking back at Brenda.
"The problem is that we have two people here. They both asked for him, then realised they were both looking for the same person; it's not pretty"
"Oh for heaven's sake I can hear that, what are they saying?" Sanchez stepped further into the room, allowing the door to swing wider. Down the corridor we could see an attractive Hispanic woman with dark curly hair dressed in a pants suit, a briefcase on the floor next to her, standing going toe to toe with a fit looking Hispanic male, a bit older, also dressed in a suit, his arms folded as he listened to the woman's tirade.
"Well, it appears that the woman, Ms Mendez, is here to see Mr Curtis. The guy, Mr Garcia also is here to see Mr Curtis, but when they became aware of each other, well as you can see, it got ugly" As we watched Garcia started talking over the top of Mendez, as she got visibly more riled.
"Mr Garcia seems to be demanding to know who Ms Mendez is working for, that seems to be the same question Ms Mendez was asking Mr Garcia" Their voices got louder as the body language got more hostile. Brenda turned to where Curtis was sitting, staring at the scene through the door.
"Well Mr Curtis, which of your new friends do you want to see? Do you recognise either of them?" He sat there saying nothing.
"Mr Curtis, yoo hoo, Mr Curtis. Maybe one of them is from the Zeta's; they'd send someone wouldn't they? I wonder where the other one's from. Who else would be interested in getting to you to stop you talking?"
"Chief" It was Sanchez, drawing Brenda's attention back to the two in the corridor. "It seems that they've worked out that each of their organisations has dealings with Mr Curtis here, they don't sound happy about it either"
"Don't need to speak Spanish to see that" Brenda muttered, before turning back to Curtis. "Well, you want to see them, Little Dog?"
"Oh oh" I couldn't help it, as the woman stepped into the guys personal space, screaming at the top of her lungs, poking her finger into the guys chest repeatedly to make a point. As everyone turned to watch, the guy took a step back and went to slap her in the face, only to have his hand grabbed by Gabriel while Flynn stepped between the two combatants.
Tao moved in and forced the woman back as well, as they screamed insults and abuse past Flynn at each other.
"Oh for heaven's sake, close the damned door" As Sanchez stepped in and the soundproof door closed, silence descended on the room. We all turned to look at Curtis.
"Well Mr Curtis, it appears we have two organisations that can't wait to get to you. Could one of them be the Zeta's and the other the Sinaloa?" The Chief calmly stepped back to her seat and sat down facing him. "I'll bet they just can't wait to tell their bosses about your other new best friends" She smiled politely at him, her hands toying with the file on the table.
"Do you want to see a lawyer Mr Curtis, cause I'm sure they'd love to see you. No doubt they've got lots of questions their just dying to ask you, particularly about how long you've been playing both sides off against each other"
Curtis didn't look too happy; in fact he looked downright rattled.
"Do you know what the cartels do to people they think betrayed them Mr Curtis? They don't stop at killing the traitor, though their very creative about how they do that. Y'know; mutilations, beheadings, leaving your head on a pole in front of the other Catorcie's to send a message, that sort of thing" Brenda flipped the file in front of her open and pulled out a sheaf of photos, slapping each one down as she spoke..
"No, they go after the families, your sister and her new born daughter, your mother who I understand is still alive, your younger brother, whose doing time inside, your pretty young girlfriend; they'll all end up dead, sending a message is how they put it" She looked into Curtis' face as he stared at the images splayed on the table in front of him.
"Well, you won't talk to me, so you just sit there while we work out whose lawyer you get to see. It shouldn't be too long" She stood up, as did Ana. I could see Little Dog's face; he wasn't so brave now, not with his family on the line.
"Wait…" The Chief turned back, a question on her face; damn she was good at this.
"Yes Mr Curtis?"
"I don't wanna see them, any of them. Can't you get rid of them?" She frowned.
"Why, I can only do that if you revoke your right to counsel. Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, they'll probably have you walking out of here with them in no time at all. Don't you want to go with them?" I had to work hard to keep the smile from busting out across my face. Brenda even managed to sound concerned for him; she was really, really good at this.
"No, I don't, I don't wanna see them, I want my family protected"
"Mr Curtis, I can only do that if there's a deal in place, and I can't do that without you revoking your right to counsel. Do you formally revoke your right to counsel?"
"Yeah, alright, yeah, I revoke ok?"
"Brenda sat back down, as did Ana.
"Thank you Mr Curtis. I can arrange for your mother, sister and her daughter to be protected. The same goes for your girlfriend. I can also arrange for your brother to be relocated to another facility"
"What about me?"
"This is Special Agent Romanov of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, she can help you there; Agent Romanov?" Ana spoke for the first time since she walked in.
"Mr Curtis, in return for your cooperation, your complete cooperation, the Bureau is willing to offer you immunity from prosecution and to relocate you elsewhere under witness protection"
I stared, WitSec? No way! That was a really big deal, the Bureau must want the Zeta's bad to offer it and for Brenda to give up Curtis. I knew she really hated to let a criminal go, to give up Curtis when he was an accessory to eleven deaths, including two officers must have been hard.
"So I don't go to trial, I go somewhere the Zeta's can't find me or my family?"
"Mr Curtis, the Bureau has extensive experience in providing protection from the cartels for people who they want to find. They won't find you. Plus we will relocate your family"
"Ok, what I gotta do. You want something right?" Brenda and Ana both smiled, as the Chief spoke.
"Oh yes indeed, Mr Curtis, indeed we do"
An hour later, Curtis had given his first statement and several of the Bureau's Cartel specialist agents were talking to him, as the rest of us gathered back in the Murder Room.
I heard Brenda ask Provenza to get Mikki and Jose back up, as we discussed what had happened. Flynn got the ball rolling.
"So the scumbag rolled on his friends?"
"Yep, pretty much immediately, they offered him a route to money and power, with the alternative being a bullet; he didn't think too long on the offer"
"So he just walks? That doesn't seem right. He was responsible for two officer's deaths"
"Lieutenant Flynn, it's not my preferred solution, but yes, he will walk. On the other hand, we have him where we want him, so we have a chance to flip him and get to the Zeta's" Tao nodded.
"So what's the plan?"
"Curtis has a contact point for the Zeta's. The Zeta's want to hit the Sinaloa Cartel's distribution arm hard to hurt their profits, disrupting supply and driving business to the Catorcie's. We get him to contact the Zeta's and point him in the right direction, we might be able to wrap up the Cartel's enforcers who did the warehouse job" Gabriel looked sceptical.
"You think they'll use the same people Chief?"
"Probably, or at least some of the same ones as before. They've proved that they can get into California, obtain weapons and carry out the hit, before getting away. That speaks of a well-trained and disciplined group, not even the Zeta's would have too many like that. They'd have to have a number of English speakers as well, just to get around, so it's likely to be the same people"
We spent the next 15 minutes kicking around options, when the man and woman who'd been screaming at each other earlier walked back into the office. The Chief got up and walked over to greet them, before bringing them back to the group.
"Jane, Ana, this is Detective Mikki Mendoza from SIS and Sergeant Jose Garcia from the Gang Task Force, AKA our cartel lawyers. Mikki, Jose, Detective Jane Rizzoli, formerly of Boston Homicide and Special Agent Anastasia Romanov, our FBI liaison"
I found myself looking into the warm brown eyes of a very attractive woman with thick dark hair, in turn being frankly appraised as we shook hands. She was actually very pretty, certainly worth a second look.
"Nice job there, you had our suspect believing it" She smiled in return as I shook hands with Garcia, much bigger build, a tough guy.
"Thanks, it isn't every day I get to wear pinstripe suits and carry a briefcases, all I need is the $200 per billable hour invoice to go with it" They shook hands with Ana as the rest of the team congratulated them on a good job. Ana smiled and asked a question I'd been wondering about as well.
"Won't the defence lawyers have a field day with this; maybe call his evidence into question. We're not supposed to misrepresent ourselves as lawyers?" Brenda nodded.
"Very true, but at no time did I or anyone else suggest that Mikki or Jose here were lawyers, Mr Curtis assumed they were, but no one said they were" I nodded slowly, sneaky, very sneaky.
A thought occurred to me.
"What were you two talking about that got so heated? It certainly sounded genuine" They shared a look before laughing.
"Mexican soccer teams, we're both big fans. The loser here supports Atlas, the Foxes, while I support the Blue Machine, Cruz Azul." Mendoza grinned. "It can get a bit heated"
"Loser? Look whose where on the ladder Mendoza; that says it all" Mendoza shrugged.
"See what I mean?"
"Looked real to me" Ana nodded.
"Me too" Brenda smiled.
"That's why I checked if either you or Ana spoke Spanish, which you didn't, so you wouldn't tip him off. I know Curtis didn't as the surveillance had overheard him complaining about his contacts wanting to speak in Spanish" She smiled around the room.
"All in all, well done everyone, now all we have to do is bag the hit team and we'll have wrapped this one up" Gabriel looked at her, a little sceptically.
"Easier said than done Chief"
"David, where's your faith? You just have to trust me. What could possibly go wrong?" Flynn just shook his head as Provenza smiled a little wistfully.
"Now where have I heard that before?"