Intersecting Lines Book 2

44 Driving Miss Sharon

Brenda's viewpoint

We were heading home, I don't know about Sharon but I was tired and happy to be calling quits to a long day spent fruitlessly chasing down leads in the Carpenter case. Honestly, we'd hit a dead end, we had no leads on people who might have wanted him dead which was a surprise in his particular line of work. Their stupid feuds had left more than a few of them dead, but in this case it seemed he wasn't personally offensive enough to have made any particular enemies. It was a sign of the rap industry that he'd been described as too much of a pussy to have enemies, as if not having them was a sign of weakness. It surely was a messed up world when having enemies was a seen as a measure of respect and success.

Sharon's day hadn't been much better following a domestic involving a drunk patrol officer taking pot shots at his ex-wife's house last night, so we were both happy to be calling it quits. We'd decided to crash at my place tonight and I was giving Sharon a lift as her work car was in being serviced, which was fine by me, it meant we got to spend some extra time together, which had been helpful as I'd had the chance to bring her up to speed on the Carpenter case to get her insights, she came at cases from a different perspective, sometimes she saw a different angle which helped, unfortunately not this time, so our discussion turned to other, more pleasant topics.

We were chatting about potential places to go for a weekend out of the city when I got a bad feeling, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I wasn't sure why so I started looking round, trying to work out what was getting to me. Sharon picked up on it quick smart and turned to look at me.

"What's up honey?"

"Not sure Sharon, hang on" I turned off my normal path and headed west, keeping an eye on the rear view mirror. Sure enough a dark blue sedan turned behind us. While I'd never been a field agent, as a senior Agency officer I'd been put through the usual courses for our own safety, in particular counter-surveillance, escape and evasion and defensive driving techniques.

Our instructors were very thorough, in particular one older man named Clark, quietly spoken, he had quite the reputation about him in the Agency and his manner was such that when he spoke you listened. He'd taken a small group of us through a long lecture and some extremely practical examples of recognising when we were being followed and the appropriate counter-surveillance techniques.

Right now I was thanking Mister Clark for driving his lessons in deep. It may have been years ago but my subconscious had picked up the signs.

"Uh Brenda, you forget something?" For a moment I'd forgotten Sharon was here with me.

"Hmm, maybe" I muttered distractedly, my attention in the mirrors. Turning north again I started looking round for a gas station, finally seeing one up ahead as the dark blue car followed us round the corner, maybe a quarter mile behind us.

I looked across to see Sharon watching me. "I'm pulling in to the gas station ahead, do me a favour and go inside and buy us two drinks" I glanced in the mirror again. "Take your time" I caught her frown.

"What's up?" I smiled.

"Probably nothing, but I want to make sure" I pulled into the gas station and stopped, turning to look at her. "Take your bag and your weapon" Sharon's eyes widened then narrowed. Before she could speak I shook my head.

"I'm probably being paranoid but I think someone's following us, so this is one way of finding out" I reached out and placed my hand on her arm. "Just in case, be careful" Sharon nodded at me and then leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, whispering in my ear.

"You be careful too"

I pulled back and nodded, before turning to get out of the car, pulling my big bag out and slinging it over my shoulder so my Glock was close at hand. Opening the tank I started filling it, before looking round as casually as I could. Our shadow, if that's what it was, had pulled up a fair way back, but as far as I could tell no one had got out. I leisurely filled up, then cleaned the front and back windows, before walking inside to pay.

Sharon was waiting and handed me a bottle of Diet Coke, passing it with a raised eyebrow. I preferred the real deal but Sharon was always on my case about the amount of sugar I was having, Coke being a good example. I shrugged at her, not prepared to argue given she was doing it for my own good, before walking to the cashier and paying for the gas. On the way out I leaned in and spoke quietly.

"We may have a shadow, I'm pretty sure there's a car following us, so I'm going to find out if it is or if I'm just being paranoid" Sharon followed me back into the car and nodded.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Let's see if they're serious" I gave her a smile and a wink before driving out of the gas station, waiting for a break in the traffic before turning and driving back the way we came, pointing out the car I'd spotted. "Dark blue sedan parked on the other side of the road, can you see how many are in it"

As we drove past, I flicked my eyes towards it; I thought there was only one person inside, something Sharon confirmed a few seconds later. As we drove past I saw it pull out and drive in the opposite direction before turning into a driveway, then backing out into traffic and following us, it was pretty obvious, something I passed on to Sharon.

"We've definitely picked up a shadow Sharon" She nodded.

"In a Crown Vic too; the only people I can think of who'd be interested in following us right now would be Kennedy and Powell, if they know we're on to them" I nodded.

"I was thinking the same; specially given it's a Crown Vic. Can you call Jane and Ana and see if they can help us out here"

"Sure, what do you want them to do?"

"Get into their non-work cars and meet up with us somewhere closer to home. Maybe they can get close enough to get a tag number" For the next few minutes as she spoke to them both, I carefully made my way through traffic, our shadow following at a discreet distance before I finally pulled up in front of our dry cleaners. Sharon looked at me.

"What now?" I smiled.

"Head inside like you're picking up dry cleaning, buy the girls some time" She nodded, helpfully not pointing out that we had no dry cleaning in at the moment.

I sat there for a few minutes, until Sharon returned; her cell to her ear.

"Ana's a few blocks away, Jane's a few minutes behind" I nodded as she got in, fishing out my own cell phone with one hand as I peered into the rear view mirror.

"Who are you talking to?" She put her hand over the phone.

"Ana" I nodded and speed-dialled Jane, who picked up almost instantly. It was tricky pulling out into traffic with only one hand while I waited for Jane to pick up.

'Rizolli'

"Jane, its Brenda, Sharon's talking to Ana on her phone, we're heading towards Silver Lake Shopping Centre, heading north on South Alvarado Street, passing under the Hollywood Freeway. You're looking for a dark blue Crown Vic"

'Got it Chief, be there shortly'

The next few minutes passed quickly as we gave our movements to Jane and Ana, before Sharon turned to me.

"Ana has the other car in view, definitely a Crown Vic" I glanced back at Sharon and she nodded, they were standard LAPD issue after all. Jane's voice came though as well.

'I have Ana's MGB in sight, I'm a few cars behind her' I passed that on to Sharon and spoke to Jane as Sharon listened in.

"We're going to pull into the shopping centre, park and head inside, can you try and see where the other car parks and who might be in it if you can, 'specially if they get out. Just don't be seen"

'Right'. I could hear Sharon pass on the same info to Anastasia as I made my way into the traffic around Silver Lake's shopping district.

We pulled into the car park and drove around for a minute, looking for a spot close to the doors, before finding one and parking, getting out and locking up. I tried to see our shadow but couldn't see anything without being way too blatant about it so we headed inside and wandered around for a bit before ducking into a coffee shop where we had a view of the entrance.

We must have been there for a good ten minutes, drinking coffee and speculating for a while then sitting in silence, waiting to hear something, before Sharon's phone rang, it was Ana, the other car had left but she'd got the tag numbers. I asked Sharon to get her to come inside before ringing Jane and asking her to join us as well.

A couple of minutes later they were both seated and the waitress had their coffee orders, leaving us alone before Ana started.

"Dark blue Crown Vic, single Caucasian male, dark brown hair, late thirties, maybe early-forties, wearing a red tie. I didn't recognise him" She shrugged. "No surprise there" A post-it note was pushed across the table. "There's the plate number, it was an Exempt plate" Jane nodded, dropping a torn out notebook page with the licence number on it on the table top as well.

"Definitely an unmarked, I could see the radio aerial inside the back window, plus the hidden disco lights in the grill" She nodded over to Ana. "I didn't recognise him either, but that's hardly surprising" I looked over at Sharon as she frowned, then looked at them both.

"Could you identify him from a photo?" They both nodded, before Sharon looked at me. "What's the bet he's from Robbery / Homicide?" I shook my head.

"I don't bet against a sure thing" Jane wild curls bounced as she shook her head too.

"Me neither" I pursed my lips.

"We'll run the number tomorrow but I'm pretty sure it'll turn out to be a Robbery / Homicide car" They all nodded, before Ana spoke.

"Wonder why they'd feel the need to follow you though, your addresses are on file with the department and surely all they'd need is to run a check?" Sharon put her cup down carefully and spoke.

"Given the nature of the job, my address isn't in the usual databases, too many angry cops have access to them so my address is listed as the New Parker Centre for work, DMV, all the other usual agencies" Ana nodded.

"Makes sense, they must have gone digging and found that, so they're looking to follow you home" I said nothing, but the sense of dread that ran through me was chilling. They'd only need our addresses if they wanted to find us outside of work. I was about to say something when Jane spoke.

"Y'know, they aren't stupid, following you means they want to find out where you both live, where you are out of hours" Ana nodded slowly.

"I'm surprised that they need to follow Brenda though, your address must be in the database" I shook my head.

"I was giving Sharon a lift, we were heading back to her place and if they were following Sharon they would have seen me pick her up. They weren't following me, they were following her" Everyone was quiet for a moment before Jane spoke.

"Good chance they know you're together if they didn't already, so you have to watch out for each other" She shrugged. "Not that you don't do that already" I nodded slowly as I felt Sharon's hand slide into mine on the table top before she spoke.

"Well, they missed us and we know what to look for, so we'll head back to my home tonight" She turned those deep green eyes on me. "From now on you're staying at my place, they must know where you live by now, so we keep away from there, especially at night, until this is wrapped up" I nodded, it made sense.

"That'll be hard to take, won't it?" I looked up at Ana's teasing voice. "Brenda in your bed seven nights a week" I was about to say something when Jane spoke.

"Maybe if it's every night the novelty might wear off" I looked up at Jane and smiled, a little nastily.

"Like you and Maura?" She flushed and looked down as Ana sniggered. I chuckled as Sharon raised an eyebrow at Ana.

"Has the novelty worn off for you and Natalie yet?" Ana grinned, completely shameless.

"Took us a couple of months of pretty much constant sex before the novelty faded, it was about then the education started, working out exactly what we liked. That bits still going on actually" I smirked and looked over at Sharon.

"Looks like we've skipped a few steps, rolled it all into one sweetie" Sharon smiled before she spoke.

"My girlfriend, the overachiever" Jane shook her head.

"Ok, I'm pretty sure I don't need to hear how good my boss's sex life is, not really" Sharon cocked her head at Jane.

"Oh, I'm sure Maura would, in the name of scientific research of course, establishing a baseline for comparison, that sort of thing" I schooled my face into a serious look as the teasing began in earnest.

"Ours is pretty amazing actually. Sharon's a very, very good teacher" I saw the mirth dancing in Sharon's eyes as we turned the screws a bit more as she looked over at Jane.

"Maura did tell me a few things you and her do, some of which we've tried out. I'm sure she'd love to have our experiences to compare against yours" Jane's cheeks reddened even more.

"Ah no thanks, I don't want to know what Maura's been telling you, honestly I'll sleep better not knowing that my boss and her girlfriend know all about our sex life" Sharon smiled.

"Oh come on Jane, from what Maura's told us you have nothing to be modest about. Besides, you forget we've heard it all anyway" If anything Jane's blush deepened as she found her coffee fascinating

"Like I said, I don't need to hear it"