'Constable Camden, I'd like a moment if you have one to spare?'

Being addressed so formally in a male voice meant Winnie didn't even have to turn around to know the conversation wouldn't be a pleasant one. Still she pasted a polite smile on her face and turned to face Halloran. 'I can talk sir, but I can't leave my post at present.'

'Understood.'

Halloran moved around to the front of Winnie's desk and held up the tell-tale teal and ivory card she recognized as her and Spike's wedding invite. 'I noticed the date has been significantly changed. July in Italy should be nice. It also means I'll be down my best team plus Teams Three and Four will be short as well.'

'I...didn't think of that. And we already moved the date once, and our people overseas are...' Winnie felt sick inside, then fought swearing when she saw Halloran's smirk. 'Sir, what is it these days that makes me so easy to tease?'

'Just trying to distract you, but I do have a serious matter aside from the wedding. Have you put in your paperwork to HR?'

'About the wedding leave?'

'About your name legally changing once you and Constable Scarlatti are officially a legal mister and missus.'

'Oh, that yeah, I talked to them in HR and they said once I receive my official items from the government like my driver's license and SIN card, give them the paperwork.'

'Excellent. As well, have you and Spike registered anywhere for your wedding gifts?'

'No, we, ah...we sent a list included in our invitations lists of ideal gifts since we have such an international group attending the wedding. Makes things simpler.'

'And what happens if you get duplicate items?'

'Knowing our families, they'll be burning up the phone and wifi across the globe to make sure that doesn't happen.'

'I see. Are you averse to gifts of cash?'

Before Winnie could answer her phone rang and she immediately turned to her desk to give the call her full attention. 'SRU.'

'SRU, Constable Morales from nine-one-one, one of my dispatchers has a suspicious call about from a woman at an office building near Union Station, said the man had a gun. We traced the call and the building houses the OLG offices for South Central Ontario.'

'Patch me in,' Winnie replied, smoothly, heard Morales inform the caller she was now speaking to an SRU officer. 'Can you tell me what's going on right now?'

'I'm...I'm in the break room and I just saw a man get off the elevator in a suit with a gun. It's not unusual to see guns and suits here because of the lottery jackpot stuff here but this guy isn't one of the regulars, plus he didn't have an ID badge.'

'Is the gun out and in use?'

'I don't know, he-'

A sudden blast of noise Winnie knew to be gunfire, quickly followed by shrieks had her hitting the red button. 'Team One, hot call, shots fired, OLG offices at Yonge and Wellington. Ma'am are you still there?'

'Yes!' The voice was a squealy whisper. 'I'm here, I'm in the break room, I'm our office first aid manager, I should-'

'No, stay where you are and stay talking to me, what you tell me will be heard by the officers on their way to you,' Winnie told them, as Ed informed Winnie through her earpiece they were less than ten minutes away after wrapping their morning fake-bomb call at a high school - thankfully not Aaron's this time - and she called up information on the building and the offices under seige. 'Can you give me a description of our man with the gun?'

'He's ah, about five-ten, i'm not good at guessing weight, but he had a Vin Deisel kinda look, like um, bald and shiny with dark eyes and his skin is um...oh god, I think he's talking, he is asking for someone!'

There was a pause, and in the gap both Team One and Winnie heard the subject's voice muffled but asking for someone named Audrey. It was all Winnie needed to get started on a profile of the subject's target, as the woman came over the phone once more.

'Officer, they want Audrey to go with them. She's a single mom, she's got a little boy-'

'We'll get it taken care of,' Winnie replied, 'Ed, can one of you guys take her while I work this thing?'

'You bet Winnie.'

Winnie flipped her mic to mute and dove in depth into the employee files, cross referenced them with birth records and came up with one Audrey Taylor, born November tenth nineteen eighty, graduated from U of T with honours, double major in mathematics and international business studies and was subsequently headhunted by the number crunchers of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and worked in the Toronto office until August of two-thousand-ten when she transferred to the Kingston branch. Winnie frowned as she thought it over while pulling up information on any of her family and came up with a jackpot, har-har, when she came across her brother.

'Ed,' she said, cutting off the conversation between Ed and the rest of Team One getting ready to storm the building. 'Audrey Taylor is your subject's target, her brother Jeremiah Taylor. He lives at twenty-one Allen Road in Etobicoke, and he is in deep with the wrong kind of people.'

'What makes you say that, Win?' Jules inquired.

'His financial records indicate he barely makes twenty-five grand a year, yet he had a Master-Card, two Visas, and a personal use loan for fifteen grand all of which are almost maxed out, and all are being used for their cash only, no payments from a job or payments towards a major purchase like a car or boat.'

'Can we get a location on Jeremiah?'

'Employment is working as a call-centre IT guy a stone's throw away from Woodbine race track. Sending you their contact information now.'

'Minimum-wage bum with a taste for the ponies and there's a shooter at his sister's place of business? I can smell the sharks a mile off,' Moise agreed. 'So we've got Jeremiah in over his head with the sharks, how's he afford a place in Etobicoke?'

'According to the data, the house belongs to his sister, Audrey.' Winnie scanned her screens. 'Audrey took ownership of the house after her mom retired on a fixed income. According to this information, Jeremiah is listed as a renter since October of last year.'

'Sister tries to help her brother out and gets taken hostage.' Leah shook her head, then shouted, 'There!' as she saw the woman matching the photo Winnie had sent of Audrey struggling against a man matching the description of the nine-one-one caller and forcing her into a black panel van. 'What's the move?'

'Alpha car take the hostage, Bravo car find the son.'

'We're not moving on

'I see them, shit we can't get close enough, fucking move!' Ed bellowed, laying on the horn to clear a path in the stubborn downtown traffic. '

'Nine-one-one mentioned she's a mom?' Spike inquired, and right away Winnie could sense something weighing heavy on her man's mind. 'A son?'

'Yeah, she-'

'Constable Camden, switch to channel two for a moment.'

Spike clicked the dial on his headset for the private line to talk to Winnie. 'Babe, do me a favour, tell me where we can find the kid right, he's gotta be at a babysitter's or day care or something.'

'You think they'll go after Jeremiah's niece or nephew?'

'Yeah, I do but there's more.'

'What am I looking for, Mike?' Winnie asked as she called up information on the possible hostage.

'You'll know when you find it.'

'Copy that.'

Winnie clicked back to the rest of the team, fingers flying over the keyboards to find what she could on this woman that had suddenly piqued Spike's interest.

'Okay, Audrey, Audrey, Audrey...Taylor bingo here we are,' she muttered to herself with her headset on mute, reviewing the details she'd already accumulated wondering what Spike could possibly have meant.. 'Audrey Taylor, parents are Ellen and Richard, the latter deceased nineteen eighty one. Cause of death, smoke inhalation...pops was a firefighter. Educated at University of Toronto, double major mathematics bla bla bla, employeed by Ontario Lottery yada yada yada...no marriage on record but...yep here we are. Spike you there?'

'Yeah, Win, what did you find?'

'Audrey has one son, born January seventeeth twenty-eleven, and he is a junior kindergarten student at Jack Layton Elementary.'

'Same as Issy, they might even be classmates,' Ed added.

'Could be,' Spike said absently as he fished out his cellphone to text Winnie - check the birth certificate, is the father named?

Winnie saw the message light up her phone and frowned as she pulled up the information on the son.

What she found made her clap her hand to her mouth that had gone slack from shock.

'No way,' she breathed as her eyes drank in what she saw; fumbling for her phone she texted Spike back. Yeah, he is...is this right? Am I reading this right? She added about a dozen surprised faces with the note and Spike felt the weight settle in his stomach. He had no idea what to do with it - if it wasn't relevant it was a waste of time on the job, if it was how bad would he look for keeping it to himself?

Fortunately, the decision was taken out of his hands as Ed barked out the orders. 'Moise, you're the point man at the school to explain the situation. Find out if the kid is in class with Issy, you can use me as an excuse. I was supposed to go to her show and tell day today but duty called me off so you're my replacement.'

'She knows me, she won't get suspicious,' Moise agreed. 'And we can call the backup caregiver right from the school straight away.'

'Exactly.'

'Jules, hang back and get the info on Jeremiah, I've got Leah and Spike with me,' Ed went on, 'any chance of bringing in a boyfriend or husband?'

'Winnie, is there any sign of a father in the picture for the kid?' Jules inquired. 'Child support payments, court papers saying a lack thereof?'

'No, but...but the dad thing might not work,' Winnie informed them with the slightest tremor in her voice.

'Why's that?'

'Because he's listed as deceased on the birth record,' Spike cut her off; he knew it would be easier for him to handle and explain to the team if it came from him. 'The kid's father died June fourth, two thousand ten.'

'How do you know that, Spike?'

'Because I will never forget the day I watched my best friend die and had to tell his pregnant girlfriend that he was gone.' Spike heaved a sigh. 'The kid...Lou Young was his father.'