Eddie used to drink four, sometimes six, cups of coffee a day. Now that she was pregnant she had to be content with one cup and it was killing her. She would drink it slowly trying to make it last as much as she could. It didn't help that Detective Fieldman constantly had a cup on his hands. Recently he had been hiding them from her. She appreciated the effort. Eddie was put on desk duty and assigned to help the art division.
Eddie loved the place. Some of her fellow officers didn't share her love for the place and saw her assignment to the division as punishment. Not a single soul seemed happy for her and constantly would tell her right to her face the unfairness of it all. She often heard the whispers behind her back of 'what good was it to be the commissioner's daughter-in-law if he allowed things like this to happen'. It didn't matter that out of all the places she could have landed this was not only perfect but it was like a dream. Contrary to other places this division felt like a giant puzzle waiting to be solved.
This week they had all eyes on them. An apartment on the upper east side had been robbed. They had taken two paintings and one sculpture that was worth less than the paintings but somehow had the owners losing their mind over it. Fieldman had spent countless of hours tracking every lead to come up empty-handed. It seemed as if it was an inside job but everyone came out clean.
The case had everyone's nerves on edge. The owners were wealthy donors that contributed to several charities and everyone wanted the thieves caught. Even Frank had taken a special interest in the case making a point to call in and see how the investigation was going.
Everywhere she went it was the talk of the town. Sunday at the dinner table even Danny was talking about it. Shawn played sports with one of the kids of the family so even him had an opinion about the subject.
"Did you two check the staff and everyone that works for them." Danny said biting into his chicken.
"Fieldman checked everyone. I went ahead and ran a background even on the garbage collector. And yes I did actually do that. Learned a lot about garbage and led to garbage in the case." Eddie said biting into a roll.
"I am sure that it will pop in somewhere. It's not the first time it goes missing." Shawn added.
Eddie almost choked on the last bit of bread "What do you mean?" They had done at least a dozen interviews and nobody mentioned the piece gone missing before.
"Allan told us that a few years ago it went missing, but they found it a few days later."
"Was it stolen?" Something didn't fit in that story. There was no record of ever been stolen or lost.
"I don't think Allan knows. He was very small when it happened. He only remembers because his dad joked that someone was trying to find some treasure hidden in the sculpture."
The conversation carried on but Eddie wasn't listening anymore. Suddenly, she remembered in one of the reports there was information about the myth that there was some valuable inside. The family had obtained the piece on an overseas auction and brought it by sea. It had a sentimental value because their grandparents had been the one to acquire the piece. They had only found out about this when they had interviewed Mr. Simmons, and he volunteered the information. She remembered that nobody believed it was true but there was one person that seemed strangely interested in the story. Mr. Simmons, Allan's dad. Although he joked about the issue he seemed to know more than anyone else about the subject and the piece. It was rather odd he had 'forgotten' to mention about the sculpture gone missing before.
That's when she realized that when she looked at Simmon's financials he had recently suffered a huge loss on one of this business. She expected to see his finances suffer but it had made no difference. She dismissed it as them living off credit cards and extra cash but thinking back there was not much to go for. So where was the money going or coming from? Why had they not investigated them more?
"Eddie?" Frank said, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Yeah, sorry. What was that?" Eddie asked.
"I said that you'll get a chance to speak to Simmons about that since he requested to all information about the case go through him. His handling the family affairs now apparently."
Frank had not even finished the sentence when Eddie stood from the table.
"I have to call Fieldman," she said, not bothering to explain to her husband, or the commissioner, why she was rushing out of the dinner table. Before she reached for the door she remembered that she may need a warrant.
"Erin!"
"Yes," Erin answered cautiously.
"I need a warrant."
"Coming!"
A week later the case was closed and arrests had been made. Simmons, along with two other people had been arrested in a number of charges. The sculpture was back with the family and all was back to normal. Eddie felt terrible for the family and the ordeal of having one of their own arrested, but she was happy she was able to close the case.
Two weeks after the case was closed Eddie and Jamie were called to 1PP. Jamie didn't seem worried. Eddie on the other hand, was ridiculously nervous.
"I'm sure it's nothing bad. Eddie calm down," Jamie said softly.
"I keep on thinking on everything over the last month and I can't think of anything that will get us, or me, here." Eddie whispered.
Jamie grabbed her hand and rubbed it. "We'll be fine,"
"You know why we're here," It wasn't a question. She realized that he wouldn't have been that calm if he didn't know why they had been called.
"Maybe I know something. Now calm down or the baby will get upset."
"Sargent Regan, Officer Janko. He's ready."
They stood up and were directed to the conference room. When they got there Jamie didn't sit next to her. He went and sat next to Garret, Frank and Fieldman and two other people. She was surprised to see Fieldman but was too panicked to think about it. Eddie felt sick, so she had been right. This was about something she had done, and they had brought in Jamie because he was her superior. Before she could ponder the possibilities Frank spoke.
"Officer Janko, do you know why you're here?"
"I'm afraid not, sir" Eddie replied, her voice shaking a little bit.
Frank began "A few months ago you realized that an expensive painting thrown in a garage was a missing piece from a museum. Last week we were able to close a case about a stolen pieces. All of that has been made possible thanks to work you've done in the art division. As you know that division has been running with only detective for a while now. We think it's time to correct that. We asked you here because we are offering you the rank of detective in that division."
Eddie could have sworn she heard wrong. "Can you repeat that again sir?"
"The whole thing or just the last sentence." Frank asked amused.
"The last sentence to be honest, sir." Eddie said with her mouth a little open.
"We asked you here because we are offering you the rank of detective in that division." Frank repeated with a smile on his face.
"Oh, so this is real?"
"Commissioner if I may," Fieldman interjected. "Listen, the art division is not exactly known for being exciting. But I think I can safely say that having a partner that knows exactly what she's doing and knows the subject so well helps out so much. So far you have been the only person that has treated each case with the respect it deserves. You would be a great addition to the team."
Eddie wanted to ask someone to pinch her. She was getting her shield! She was going to be a detective!
"So what do you say officer?" Frank asked.
"Yes! Oh I'm so excited. OMG, you knew!" She turned to Jamie and pointed and accusatory finger.
"Maybe someone whispered something to me," Jamie said laughing.
