Chapter 66: Maggie Don't Two-Step
Gus woke up, her phone buzzing next to her head. She rubbed her eyes, seeing her uncle's number come up on the screen. She answered, listening as Mac asked about Dunbrook's financial records. "Yeah, I pulled them all, it's a lot of information though Mac, like a LOT. I flagged a couple of things, but nothing panned out. I'll send it right to you."
She yawned and stretched, quickly realizing she was not going to be able to get back to sleep. At least she had gotten a few good hours. She showered and changed, heading back to the precinct as the sun was setting and everyone else was leaving work. Such was the life of a homicide detective.
Gus was attempting to peer into the pit to see if Angell was around without being seen.
"You're safe, Princess, Angell got called out hours ago, saved Donnie boy from getting his ear bent," Parker said, coming up behind her.
Gus jumped, but quickly thanked Parker for the info. She entered the pit seeing Flack already sitting at his desk.
"You are wearing a different suit, so I think you went home, but did you give me a lecture on sleeping and not do so yourself, Flack?" Gus asked, walking up to his desk.
"I got a couple of hours, all I needed. You look better."
"What are you saying about how I looked before?" Gus teased.
Flack grinned, "nuh-uh, not touching that one with a ten foot pole."
Gus was about to retort when both their phones started buzzing. "Damn it!" they swore in unison as the message popped up on both their phones.
"Johnson was in an accident and is asking for Mac, are you freaking kidding me?" Gus yelped.
"Call Mac, let's get out there," Flack said, already pulling on his jacket.
Gus knew from the second they arrived on scene that Johnson wasn't going to make it, but Mac was able to get there in time to speak to the man. She had felt out of the loop since arriving at the original scene, so much of what was happening involving Dunbrook and old cases had happened while she was undercover.
"This case sucks!" she said on the way back to the precinct after Agent Johnson had been pronounced dead at the scene after the first responders pulled him from the car.
"All I know is that way too many things are connected and we aren't figuring out much through good old fashioned detective work. Hopefully the lab rats are doing better than us," Flack replied as they pulled around back, "and until then we wait."
"I think I miss my cold cases," Gus whimpered as they waited to hear back from either Mac and the FBI or Stella and the gun that had been found in Dunbrook's office earlier in the day.
"What and miss out on all this excitement?" Flack said sarcastically, gesturing to the empty pit.
"Oh wait, Stella has something for us on the gun!" Gus exclaimed looking at her phone, "she needs us to track down Dunbrook's alibi for the night what's that property clerk's name, Kevin Cross was killed. Apparently she got a ballistics match."
Flack was already on it, looking a little to forward to waking up the media mogul in the middle of the night. Gus felt worse about waking up the poor maid who answered the door and looked like she had just been to bed and smelled mainly of silver polish.. Dunbrook let his annoyance show clearly with both of them, attempting to threaten both their jobs, but Flack stared him down.
"You might not like his kid, but I can't say I am Dunbrook's biggest fan," Flack said with a scowl as they left empty handed.
"Of course he was over in Connecticut giving a talk at Yale, of course he was and had a million photographs to prove it. I am going back to hating this case now!" Gus grumbled.
Flack couldn't help but laugh, Gus' irritation when cases didn't go their way was something he still found more than a little endearing.
She had this innate belief that good should always persevere over evil in everyone else's world except her own. Despite her misconceptions that her own life would always be riddled with bad things, Gus had an eternal optimism for the good guy always winning when it mattered.
Flack believed that this, however misguided, was what gave her seemingly endless drive on cases, how else could anyone explain all the hours she clocked in New Orleans?
"Are you laughing at me, Don, are you really laughing at me right now?" Gus scowled at him across the car.
Flack had to close his eyes in order to not lean across the front seat and kiss the scowl off her face. Nope, definitely not out of his system, despite Jess' earful earlier. To say she wasn't happy with him having anything to do with Gus was a massive understatement. Why couldn't he just have a nice normal relationship with just one calm and simple girl?
"Once you are done with your solo vacation over there, can we get back to the precinct?" Gus grumbled, wondering why Flack was shaking his head.
"More useless leads, more useless paperwork, more useless waiting around," Gus grumbled at her desk.
"Why is it you call her sunshine again, Flack?" Parker shot across the pit.
"I know what I'm going to start calling you, Parker!" Gus growled, hating feeling useless.
Flack sauntered over, "I'll show you why, Parker. Hey Gus, guess what?"
"What, Flack?" Gus glowered.
"Lab looked a little closer at that DNA they found on the gun. Turns out it belonged to your favorite Dunbrook asshole, Connor, and guess who just got a copy of the warrant for his arrest?" Flack held up his phone.
"Connor, it was Connor? I knew I didn't like that weasel! Can I please be the one to cuff him, Flack, maybe he'll resist arrest or make some nasty little comment and I'll just have to-" she stopped when she realized both Parker and Flack were looking at her with smiles on their faces over how much her demeanor had changed, and despite the less than pleasant topic, Gus had lit up like sunshine with excitement.
"Are you two laughing at me?" she squeaked.
"Nope, wouldn't dare laugh at you Princess, I've seen your left hook," Parker replied.
"Come on, Gus, and yes, you can cuff him, but don't forget to Mirandize him first."
Gus served the warrant for Connor's arrest, while Flack and a team of uniforms served the warrant to search for the much lauded flash drive Gus had been hearing about for months. Judging by Flack's expression, it still wasn't found.. Connor was well behaved until it came time to walk out, when he made some pat remark about wanting to be cuffed to Gus.
The fire in her eyes was enough to Flack to take over for the remainder of the perp walk. He escorted Connor to booking, leaving Gus to her usual task of paperwork.
Gus was just finishing up said paperwork when none other than Jessica Angell came in and stood over her desk.
"We should talk," the brunette beauty said, leaving little room for argument in her tone.
"Sure, but maybe, um, in the locker room?" Gus said, looking around and realizing several other detectives were looking at them like they were waiting for the women to dive into a pool full of jello.
Angell nodded, striding off, leading in such a way that Gus knew the other woman was attempting to assert dominance. Gus was willing to concede, hoping to ratchet down the fury and annoyance clearly radiating off the other detective.
Angell entered the locker room, slamming the door open with both her palms, waiting for Gus to enter.
Gus did so, debating if she should sit on the wooden bench or stand. She decided to remain standing as Angell waited until the door closed and stood in front of it, arms crossed and blocking the exit.
"You probably shouldn't shank me in the middle of a police station, Jess," Gus attempted to joke. Gus merely got an eye slit in return.
"You can't just swoop back in and get him back like nothing happened, you know!" Angell protested.
"I am guessing this is about Flack?" Gus asked sheepishly, moving back a couple of steps until she ran into the row of lockers.
"Don, it is about Don, and how you are still in love with him, don't think I don't know it, it is so obvious!" Angell took a step forward, gesturing with her finger but stopping short of being menacing.
"Yes, Jess, I still love Don, as I did in fact inform him. However I am well aware, darling, that that ship had done sailed and he is with you now." Gus crossed her arms across her chest, even though she knew it made her look uncomfortable and defensive.
Angell narrowed her eyes again, but dropped her hands to fists at her sides. She wasn't quite sure what Gus meant, all she knew was that she was tired of her seeing the way Don looked at Gus like she was the only woman in the world or seeing how seamless and easy their interactions could be despite the fact that the other woman had broken his heart.
Jess had been quiet in her approach to Don, reaching out to him as a friend and fellow detective first, working diligently to keep things light and drama free. She wouldn't say she set out to ensnare the tall, handsome detective, but she certainly hadn't missed a single golden opportunity either.
"I was there for him when you ran back to your precious New Orleans and he could barely get out of bed. I was the one who helped him find a new apartment on short notice because he couldn't handle waking up in your place without you in it. *I* was the one, because his best friend was recovering from being tortured in a warehouse and the woman who supposedly loved him left him for a broken city." Angell closed the distance between them, leaving Gus nowhere to go except to press against the lockers.
Gus was tempted to lash out, but she knew this was a long time coming and she also felt not so deep down that she deserved this. "I am glad you were there for him, Jess, I really am."
Some of Jess' anger subsided as Gus didn't react the way she was expecting. She stepped back slightly. "I was there when Don was at his most vulnerable, but I didn't move in, I knew he wasn't ready to get into another relationship, I didn't know if you were coming back or not. I wasn't about to move in on him because he belonged to someone else. I didn't go after him, and what is going on between us is happening because it is what we both want and I am just asking that you don't try to come in and split us up before we even really have a chance to get together." She looked at Gus, on equal eye level with the other woman.
Gus looked back, too many thoughts and emotions swirling in her mind. She did still love Don and spent many waking moments trying to figure out if she would ever get him back or if she even deserved to. One thing Gus knew was that she didn't want Don back if there was even the slightest chance he would be wondering 'what if' regarding Jess.
"Hey, Maggie don't two step, okay?" Gus finally replied, holding her palms up in innocence. "I am not going to make a move on him. But that being said, Don is a grown man who gets to make his own decisions on who he wants to be with. If he is he is happy with you then I am happy for him, just keep making him happy Jess, you hurt him and all bets are off, you hear me?" She shot the other woman a warning look.
Angell held her chin up an inch higher, "that's rich coming from you, I could never hurt him like you did."
Gus was wounded by the truth in this statement, she sighed heavily. "I truly hope nobody ever will again, he was the last person on the planet to deserve what I did to him, and that's my burden to bear. Regardless, we all need to work together as professionals. I am trying damn hard to be a good cop and a good partner to whomever I happen to be working with on any rotation."
"Don't talk to me about being a professional, Broussard, your personnel file probably has its own drawer. I know how to act at work, how about I worry about me and you worry about you?" With that Angell shot Gus one more glare and stormed out of the locker room.
"Well that's just great," Gus sighed, taking a minute to gather herself before heading home.
Chapter 67: The Avenue
Gus spent the next couple of days ruminating over her discussion with Angell, vacillating between proud that she had remained relatively calm and kicking herself for not fighting to get Don back.
She was on edge to say the least, Flack asking her over and over again what was happening with her, but she blew him off every time, figuring Angell must not have said anything to him about their little chat.
Lack of active cases was giving her too much time to think, so she attempted to look over a couple of more cold cases even though she didn't have to.
Finally, one afternoon that announced spring might actually be there, she hadn't even had a chance to make it to her desk, was just about to pull her jacket off when her phone started buzzing. It stopped once she looked up and saw Flack coming towards her.
"Afternoon, Gus, we gotta go," he said, twirling the car keys around his finger. "About time, hot damn!" Gus exclaimed, "where to?"
Flack rushed them to the car, "Madison Avenue auction house, apparently guy came out in the middle of bidding and dropped dead in the aisle. I know they say competition at auctions is fierce, but come on!"
Gus groaned at Flack's wit as they weaved over to the auction house. Uniforms had secured the scene and the EMTs were leaving, pronouncing the vic dead at the scene. Gus looked around at the remains of the high priced jewelry auction and whistled.
"Lawdy, lawdy, look at this ice. Wonder how many fat cats we'll have to listen to whine about how they don't have time to talk to us?" Gus drawled, flipping through an auction catalog.
"Not many, I'm afraid, though we prefer to call them clients, detective," a well appointed man said, coming up to them. "Felix Marshall, this is my auction house. Dreadful, dreadful day."
"Indeed," Flack snarked over Gus' shoulder.
Felix cleared his throat, "anyhow, most of the clients left as soon as poor Xander dropped, thought perhaps it was some sort of robbery. I was too busy calling 911 to try to keep any of them here. It has been chaos since. How long until this mess is cleaned up?"
Flack and Gus exchanged a look. "Until it is no longer an active crime scene, sir," Gus said, her voice on edge.
"Now this Xander, he work for you or was he a fat cat, I mean client?" Flack asked, flipping open his notebook with force.
Felix nodded, "yes, Xander Greene, one of my best appraisers. As I said, dreadful-"
Gus interrupted him, "dreadful day, we got it, now how about you give me a list of everyone that was here today and we can work on this chaos." Gus wandered off with Felix as Flack went to go join Mac and Hawkes by the body.
"Got the list, scary long as it is. Uniforms talking to the few people that stuck around. What about you?" Gus asked as Flack hung up his phone.
"Xander was nice enough to be making a phone call when he got offed, running down his phone records now, waiting on a subpoena now."
"You want me to go get it?" Gus asked, continuing to flip through the list.
"Nah, I got it, looks like you are going to be busy with some phone calls," Flack raised his eyebrows and pointed at the sheaf of papers in her hand.
Gus groaned, "are you telling me I am going to have to call all these people by myself?"
"You know how to play nice with Richie Rich better than me, sunshine. Get a boot to help you, now I gotta go get this subpoena, I'll drop you back off at the precinct on the way."
Gus spent hours on the phone trying to track down information from those with enough disposable income to attend an auction where the minimum bids were a 100K. What none of them seemed to have was disposable time.
She received more than her share of curt hangups and more attitude than a debutante ball. She decided to head up to the lab for a coffee break and to see what had become of the scene and the phone call Xander had been on.
Waiting on the elevator she was almost run over by a bleary eyes looking Sheldon, exiting in a rush on his phone. She was curious as to why he had changed into a suit.
"No, I need the next flight, yes to DTW, I don't care how much, yes, yes, no, yes!" He brushed past Gus without even looking up, heading for the door of the precinct. Gus changed her course and followed after him, it was clear that something major had happened to her friend.
"Shel, what is it?" she asked as she found him slumped against the building.
He looked at her with tears in his eyes, "it's my uncle, Gus, he just died of a heart attack and I am trying to get on the next flight out of here and I just found out it is delayed three hours."
"Oh, Shelly, I'm so sorry, I know how much you loved him, Frank, right?" Sheldon nodded, unable to speak and Gus pulled him in for a hug. "I'm sorry, sugar, can I do anything?"
Sheldon drew away, wiping his eyes, "no, but thanks. I just need to find some way to not go crazy waiting on my flight."
"I was just about to head up to the lab to see if Danny had gotten anything from that phone call, I needed a break from getting hung up on by rich people, you wanna come?"
"I just came from there, he was talking with Mac and running the voice mail file, but sure, work will at least give me something to focus on."
This time, Gus actually made it up the elevator, when Danny almost bowled her over entering the elevator from the lab floor.
Danny looked at Sheldon quizzically, "I thought you were leaving."
"Flight is delayed. Though work would be better than sitting in an airport."
"I'm going to get some coffee, you get anything on the phone call?" Gus asked, looking at Danny.
He nodded, "yeah, was about to go talk to the guy now." Danny shifted his weight from foot to foot, looking more twitchy than usual.
Gus wondered what was going on, but decided to not press him if he wasn't giving out information. She shook her head, "alright then, coffee awaits. If you need anything, day or night, Shel, call me."
She gave Sheldon one more quick squeeze and a peck on the cheek before turning for coffee, the sound of Sheldon pressing Danny for information following her down the hall.
Gus wandered around to try to see if the lab had anymore luck with the crime scene then she had with phone calls. She tracked no one down except Adam who told her about the murder weapon seemingly being an old gun while she had a brief tussle with the cappuccino machine.
"It's just so weird, Gus, he had a bullet wound and a stab wound, that's total overkill right?"
"Maybe someone really didn't like him?" Gus suggested, sipping on her coffee and wincing as it burned her mouth.
Adam laughed at her, "you need a lesson on how to work that machine."
"At least I learned to make sure it was plugged in," she shot back.
Adam smiled, hesitating slightly. "Hey, uh, Gus, I have a couple of tickets to the Animal Collective show next week, ya wanna go?"
Gus smiled at his sudden nervousness, but thought back to her discussion with Flack on the way to Providence and the implication of her spending time with Adam, she didn't want to string her friend along, even if he was great companionship, something Gus needed right now.
"Um, that sounds awesome, Adam, I love them but..." she scratched behind her ear, "wouldn't you rather take a girl that would sleep with you after?" she choked out finally.
Adam turned several shades of crimson and started stammering, "Well, yeah, but you see it was like this, I was in the lab and Danny's cell kept ringing and ringing and it was Lindsay so I picked it up finally because it was like whoa stop ringing I am trying to work here and she and I started talking and I told her I was between girlfriends and why do I keep telling people that and she mentioned that she had talked to you and that you sounded like you needed, well I won't say what she said but she suggested that I maybe...um...call you because, well, yeah, and you are cool and we like the same bands and you don't think I am weird even though I have all these weird things and you are so pretty, like way too pretty for me, I know that, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to try because Lindsay-"
Gus tried to take in what all he was saying, finally placing it together. "Adam, are you asking me to the concert because you are trying to sleep with me because Lindsay told you I needed to get laid?"
Adam just stood there looking like he wished the ground would swallow him up. He nodded finally.
"I am going to have to kill my friend. I am going to have to fly to Montana and kill my pregnant friend." Gus crushed her coffee cup slightly, not caring that it was sloshing over the side.
"So it that a no?" Adam stammered, running his hand through his hair.
"It's an excuse me while I go make a phone call and yell for a while!" Gus growled, storming over to the garbage and throwing her coffee away, shaking the rest off of her hand.
"Okay, well, I'll just clean this up then, tell Lindsay I said hi," Adam said, gesturing to the puddle of coffee before retreating for a mop.
She stormed back downstairs pulling up short as she saw Danny and Sheldon standing outside an interview room. "Messer, you better tell your wife that it doesn't matter she is about to pop out your demon spawn, I am going to kick her cute little ass from here to Baton Rouge and back!"
Both men turned to stare at her and Gus realized they had been in an intense conversation. She looked into the interview and was surprised to see Flack questioning a familiar face, the Neo-Nazi from the Eco-terrorist case where she had almost gotten blown up with none other than Adam.
Feeling as embarrassed as she had left Adam, she cleared her throat, "I'm just going to uh, go help, Flack, interview this scum bag, I mean Elgers.
She entered the room as Flack was pacing, both turned to look at her.
Elgers spoke first. "What, you come in to play good cop? Think I'll talk to someone with blonde hair and nice tits? Nice try, but look at you, brick house."
Flack started in from the corner he had retreated to, but Gus cut him off with a look, moving in beside Elgers.
"Excuse me?" she said, standing beside the skinhead, hands on her hips.
Elgers motioned in the air, exaggerating Gus' curves. "Don't get me wrong, you look white enough, but someone in your family definitely went down to the woodshed," he leered, "was it your mother or further back?"
Flack was at the table in a flash, but not quick enough.
Gus reared behind Elgers, kicking the chair out from underneath him so he went flying face fist into the hard metal of the table. Elgers was up in a flash, looking ready to take a swing at Gus as she was screaming, "you frigging, scum, you talk about my mama or me being fat, we are fighting!"
"I wasn't raised to hit girls, sweetheart, even if they are half-breeds." Elgers righted the chair himself, sitting back down with the grin, "now I really want my lawyer."
"Detective Broussard, take a walk!" Flack ordered, looking at both of them in bewilderment. Gus glared at him, taking in Elgers' bloody nose as she did so.
"Fine," she snarled, almost colliding with Mac as she exited.
"What the hell was that?" Flack yelled as he entered the pit after Mac motioned for him to leave the interview room.
Gus was on her feet in a flash, "that was some asshole getting less than what he deserved, Flack, I know you think he is lower than scum too, I can't believe you are defending him!" She poked him in the chest with her finger.
Flack grabbed her arm and held it, realizing that the entire pit was staring at them. "Not here," he growled under his breath, "but I am not defending him, I am trying to protect you!"
Daddino was already out of his office, glaring at them. "You two, in my office now!"
Gus stormed off, Flack following, slamming the door behind them.
"What is going on out there, are you two starting WWIII?" Daddino roared from behind his desk.
"Some piece of shit skinhead ran his mouth off to Slugger over here and she decided to give him a new seating arrangement and possibly a new nose," Flack hooked his thumb toward Gus, his jaw working overtime.
"He, uh, provoke you, Broussard?"
"That miscreant had that audacity and stupidity to run his mouth off about both my mamma and my ass and he damn well deserved way worse than falling off his chair!" Gus kept her arms across her heaving chest, tapping her foot furiously.
"Anyone else see?" Daddino asked Flack.
Flack shrugged, "think the lighting was bad, interview room two, you know." He looked pointedly at Gus warning her to be quiet with his eyes.
Daddino raised his eyebrows, "yeah, been meaning to get maintenance on that. Flack, keep working this case, you," he pointed at Gus, "clear out of here until you simmer down, until I figure out if Brass wants to do more. Jesus, Broussard, I thought you were finally starting to calm down."
Gus stormed out past Flack, angrily cramming things into her tote bag.
Flack came up behind her, leaning in close. "Gus, come on, he could have given you LWOP or worse."
She spun, not realizing how close he was, her chest pressing into his, heat radiating off both of them, anger and something closer to passion in his blue eyes.
Gus jumped back at the tension between them, recalling her conversation with Angell. She knocked into her desk with enough force to knock off her coffee mug, it landing on the floor and breaking.
She looked down at the jagged ceramic pieces and back up at Flack, who was reaching out for her.
Gus swallowed rapidly, "I have to go, I have to get out of here, I'll get that later," she gestured to the broken mug, grabbing her bag and jacket as she rushed out the door.