Chapter 88: Are You With Me
Fortunately for their partnership but less fortunate for the citizens of New York, the start of the next rotation was filled with active cases for the two homicide detectives. While neither of them were getting much sleep, Gus didn't have to follow Flack from bar to bar at the end of shift, as both were too exhausted to do anything but crash out.
They also didn't have much time to talk, not that either of them was willing to. Strained silence filled the car on the way to and from calls, hunting down suspects, etc. The elephant sat firmly between them, though it was often drowned out by loud classic rock blaring through the speakers.
Flack almost opened his mouth to apologize to her a thousand times, but he couldn't make himself form the words. He couldn't handle her forgiveness, that had been his issue all along. She was willing to forgive him getting with Jess, still loving a dead woman, killing Cade, being an asshole to her continually, nearly punching her in a fit of rage, drinking himself halfway to death…
Gus was somehow able to look past all of that and love him, more than he deserved. Yet he still wasn't able to forgive her for leaving him, for fracturing him last year. He couldn't help but wonder if he wouldn't be so shattered now if she hadn't started those cracks when she ran away.
Either way, it didn't matter, he didn't deserve to have her back, he had too much to atone for. Plus, judging from a few things he overheard in the locker room, Jimmy Doyle was looking to take his place in her life.
Gus kept wanting Flack to open up, to say anything. She thought about being the first to bring it up, but she worried about setting off his anger again. Yes, he punched a hole in a wall and kicked her out because she tried to help him, wanted desperately to save him but that didn't stop her from loving him.
She knew she didn't deserve for him to love her back, she had ruined that chance by rejecting him and running away. He would never forgive her for that, she just wanted him to forgive himself.
She desperately wished she could absorb his pain, it was an albatross she was willing to carry forever if only he could climb up out of that desperate pit and become Don Flack again.
"You gonna sit in the car all day? I mean it's cool, but could you at least clean it out?" Flack asked, standing by his open door, staring down at Gus who was staring out the window.
She jumped, unaware they had pulled up to the precinct. "Sorry, guess I need more coffee or something."
Flack just nodded, wanting to suggest that what she needed was to eat and sleep, both of which looked like things she had skipped on a regular basis, but once again, he didn't know how to bridge the divide. Instead he closed his door and walked into the precinct.
Gus sat for a moment, feeling like the world was spinning out of her control, and it many ways it was. Everyone else was moving along, leaving her behind. She was partly responsible, since the shooting she had separated herself from the team, and before that she had been medically separated.
Gus knew it was unreasonable to have people continue to outreach her when she was spurning them at every turn. She was so tired, not just physically but emotionally drained. She knew she couldn't stay in this state for much longer, but she also knew Flack couldn't either. Something was going to have to give, and soon.
She had just closed her car door when she saw Flack walking back out towards her. She cocked her head to the side, questioningly. "Get back in the car, they want us to check out an accident scene on the GW bridge."
"An accident scene, as in a 1099 traffic accident?" Gus wrinkled her brow, but still got back in the car.
The scene on the bridge was gruesome, car versus tractor-trailer where neither vehicle seemed the winner. "Are we here because they are worried about a homicide happening in the traffic backup?" Gus asked, stepping over hunks of broken concrete barrier.
"I don't know, I'll go see," Flack wandered off to talk to the uniforms on the scene, while Gus stood back, not sure where was safe to step.
She grimaced as the first responders cut the driver of the car out. He obviously had not survived the crash. Flack came back, extending his hand to help her step over the debris.
"Thanks," she said, trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach with something as simple as touching him.
"I feel like I am getting my Mac on this morning with this one," Flack said as he led her over to a barrel.
"Excuse me?" she asked, wondering what he was talking about.
Flack motioned to a barrel removed from the truck. "Mac, Taylor, related to you by marriage? Think he might be interested in what is in here."
Gus peered over the edge of the barrel, shuddering at the twisted form of the dead young woman inside. "Yeah, interested is a word, I'll call him now," she said, quickly moving away from the barrel.
After getting in touch with Mac, she walked the scene, moving carefully among the wreckage. She peered in to what was left of the car, taking in the empty bottles on the floor.
She wondered what vehicle had caused the accident, while moving to question the uniforms and see if they had identified the driver of the car or had any idea where the driver of the big rig had disappeared to.
While she was gathering information, Stella and Mac arrived, Flack filling them in. She gave him a nod, moving on to where Danny and Lindsay were starting to process the cab of the rig.
"Hey, Gus, how's it going?" Danny said giving her a smile.
Gus returned the smile, "nice to see you out in the field, Messer."
"Nice to see you at all," Lindsay quipped, "you still owe me that girl's night and to tell me all about you and-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, bad friend, what do you have in here?" Gus cut in, not wanting her to say Doyle's name in front of Danny just in case it got back to Flack. She really didn't want any more complication in her life, romantic or otherwise.
"I got a wife I realize I never took on a honeymoon, and blood on a hula girl on the dash," Danny said, looking between Lindsay and Gus.
"Sounds like you two will be here awhile, I'll go see what else we got happening," Gus said climbing down from the side of the rig.
She had just started to walk away when Danny popped back out, "Mac, you wanna come see this!"
Gus waited for Mac to come over, peering over his shoulder as Lindsay pointed out the essential holding cell in the sleeper compartment of the rig. Gus tried to suppress a shiver.
"I think he was transporting human cargo, Mac," Lindsay remarked, shining her flashlight at scratch marks on the walls.
"Nothing seems to indicate that the victim didn't survive the crash," Lindsay pointed out. "I call that lucky," Danny replied.
Mac gave a slight shake of his head, taking in Gus' pale face, "not if she is still with the driver." He paused, studying Gus who was staring at the cell like sleeper compartment, lost in thought.
"I'm going to see what Sid gets from the post. You two keep processing, Gus, go get some coffee."
"What, coffee, yeah, sure," Gus said, wandering off, shaking slightly.
Gus leaned against the car, blowing on her steaming coffee. She wasn't sure why she had reacted so much to the truck, all she knew was it brought her right back to that back tiled room with Shirazi, and she had been lucky.
"You okay?" Flack asked coming up to the car and taking in Gus' expression.
"I'm fine, just needed some coffee. Where are we at?"
Flack didn't believe her, but unlocked the car, climbing in, "we need to head out-of-town because we have an eyewitness to the crash. Get in, buckle up and try to not spill that coffee."
Gus pulled up the picture of the identified driver of the rig on her phone, Casey Steele, turning it to face the man in the hospital bed, "Mr. Winston do you recognize this man?" she asked, looking at Flack, wondering if the man recovering from a gunshot wound would remember anything.
"Yes, yes I do, that is him," he replied, his voice shaking.
Flack pointed to the picture of Steele, "Mr. Winston, you sure that's the guy who carjacked you?"
Winston nodded, "I should have just minded my own business and kept on driving. I saw the accident as it happened, I stopped, to see what I could do and this guy, the one in the picture, he comes out of the truck. He pointed a gun at me and he was dragging this woman behind him, she looked so scared. He shoved her in the backseat of my car, she was as scared as I was. All this time he is waving this gun around, he points it at me and tells me to drive. I do, until we are down the road in the middle of nowhere and he yells at me to pull over. He keeps pointing that gun at me, telling me to get out of the car and to give him my cell and wallet. I begged him to not hurt me, told him I wouldn't tell anyone about it, but he shot me anyway. If it wasn't for someone driving by seconds later, I would be dead. He's an animal, God help the woman that is with him."
As soon as Winston got his story out, his eyelids became heavy, the retelling of his story obviously more than the injured man could take.
"Thank you for your time, sir, and sorry this happened to you," Gus said, her voice shaking. She quickly exited, leaving Flack standing behind.
Flack looked at her retreat and back at Winston, "the NYPD will do everything they can to find this man, you have my word."
"I hope you find that girl before he kills her," Winston replied, before closing his eyes.
Gus stood in the hallway, leaning against a wall for support, trying to catch her breath.
The world had started to fade to black as Winston was talking about the girl. She could practically feel Shirazi's breath on her, the cold steel of the blade against her neck.
She absently traced the scar on her neck, barely visible above her collar. She didn't even notice Flack standing in front of her until he spoke.
"You need to catch some free time, sunshine?" his voice full of concern for the first time in a long time.
Gus shook her head, adjusting her posture to full height. "I'm fine, just another case, right?" She strode off, leaving Flack with a frown on his face.
She walked into the lab to brief Mac, finding Lindsay already briefing him on the identity of the kidnap victim.
"Her name is Madeline Briggs, report was filed 5 days ago by her mother, see went missing from Miami. There were traces of sedative in her urine, and something else. She's fighting for two, Mac, she is pregnant," Lindsay said, looking downcast.
"Winston, the carjacking gunshot vic, said she was still alive when Steele forced him out of the car," Gus added, praying the poor girl was okay and realizing how lucky she had been to not have been moved out-of- state when working the Shirazi case, or worse.
Adam came in, his expression clearly troubled. He looked at the trio, studying Gus carefully before starting to speak. "I ran the rest of the prints. I found evidence of more than one woman in that sleeper," he said, worry furrowing his brow.
"How many?" Mac inquired.
Adam kept his gaze locked on Gus, knowing what she had been through working undercover and guessing it was still effecting her based on how she had reacted to the shooting.
"A lot," he said finally.
He was visibly shaken as he pulled up his results on the screen. "This hits are all from prints in the truck from Namus. There are lots of results from all over the US," he explained, photographs of missing women filling the screen.
Gus ducked out just as Lindsay was identifying the Jane Doe from the barrel.
She felt like the walls were starting to close in and couldn't get the image of her blood spilling on that putrid green tile out of her head or the masked man empty his clip into her vest on the day Jess died or the flood waters creeping up over her feet, carrying her shoes away as a drowning man tried to pull himself up by grabbing on to her leg...
"Gus, Gus, look at me, are you with me?" Adam implored in front of her, gently cradling her face.
"I need you to breathe, you are having a panic attack," he said, leading her from the hallway to the break room, waving several techs out.
"I'm fine, Adam," Gus said, between nearly hyperventilating breaths. She didn't believe herself even as the words came from her lips, her heart felt like it was in a vice and she couldn't seem to focus.
Adam sat with her for a few minutes until her breathing returned to normal and she stopped shaking enough to hold the bottle of water he offered her.
They were sitting on the couch when Doyle entered, looking for Mac.
"He's on a video conference with a CSI from Vegas who was working a case in Miami," Adam answered, standing up and trying to get rid of the other man before Gus broke down again.
He motioned to the room where Stella and Mac were standing.
Doyle instead took the seat Adam had vacated next to Gus, "you alright, kid, you look like you've-"
"Been rode hard and put up wet?" Gus finished, cutting him off. "I'm fine, I'm being stupid. I take it you are looped in because it looks more and more like a human trafficking ring?"
"Yeah, Mac wanted to talk to some of my informants. Looks like we have everything happening, moving up from sex trafficking to forced surrogacy to organ harvesting. Quite the operation, I am sure the Feds will be on it in a heartbeat, even sooner if I can set up the deal I am working on."
Doyle studied Gus as she played with the cap on her bottle. "Thought I told you to take care of yourself," he said, looking up to see Adam staring at them with a mixture of concern and something he thought might be territorial.
Gus flung a hand up, "you and everyone else. I am taking care of myself, and now I would like to help take care of finding this poor pregnant kidnapped woman before Steele does something stupid. Would you care to tell me about this deal you are working on?" she stood up, towering over Doyle's seated figure. Adam left hastily to tell Mac about Gus' reactions.
Chapter 89: All I Really Want
"Like hell I am staying here!" Gus said, following after Doyle a few hours later.
"Gus, it is a simple prisoner transport, Marshall's are on protective duty with Mac, me, and this Ray guy there to question her, we don't need you and I don't think you should be there."
Gus blocked Doyle's path, squaring off, "I want to hear what she has to say, I've met her, I might know if she is lying!"
"You know her because she was one of the assistants of an Iranian sex trafficker that almost killed you, I don't think it is the best situation for you to put yourself in, considering."
"Considering what, Jimmy? I'm a delicate flower? Didn't you tell me the other night you would sign the paperwork for me to transfer to your department in a heartbeat? Wouldn't I have to work sex trafficking cases then seeing as it is special freaking victims?" she rapid fired the questions at him making it clear she wasn't planning on standing down.
Doyle heaved out a breath, not having time to argue with her. "Fine, you can come, but you keep quiet. I mean it Broussard, one word and I will cuff you to my steering wheel."
Gus stood behind Doyle, next to heavily armed Federal Marshalls, watching as Mac and Ray Langston questioned Jamileh Azizi.
She told them what she knew from having been cellmates with the sex trafficker from the case with Whitford however many months before.
"I wasn't taking notes. Different kind of operation than what we were running. Bigger, more lucrative, but also harder to control," Jamileh said, nodding her head almost in awe.
Gus gave a shudder, wondering how a woman could ever reconcile selling other women. Doyle set a hand on her shoulder. "I'm fine, Jimmy," she said, shaking him off.
"Everything happens to the girls, the more use you get out of one girl, the more money. The truck drivers job is to keep the girls alive, otherwise, no one is making any money. That girl you are looking for, she should still be alive unless she is trouble. If she is trouble," at this Jamileh locked eyes with Gus, making it clear she recognized the other woman, she raised her cuffed hands to her throat, making a cutting motion, her eyes never leaving Gus'.
Doyle put a hand out to steady Gus and to shield her from Jamileh's view. "Get her out of here, now," he barked at the nearest Marshall.
He walked Gus over to the memorial behind them. "This is why you should have stayed behind, kid," he said, cupping her chin as she bent forward, fighting off waves of dizziness.
"Stay here, I have to fill out some paperwork," he said, shaking his head as he walked off.
Gus didn't mean to eavesdrop on the conversation between Mac and Ray, but she felt rooted to her spot behind the stone column.
Ray's voice dejected as he said, "I've seen what they do to these young women, body parts strewn by the highway, left as food for animals. You said Madeline put up a fight."
"Doesn't mean she isn't alive, Ray, she's pregnant, means she is valuable," Mac replied.
"Do you have kids?" Ray asked.
"No," Mac said, though Gus could hear the questioning in his tone.
"Suppose we both spared ourselves the stress of this nightmare."
"I don't know you well, Ray, but you don't look so stress free to me. And that female detective that was here, that's my niece. She's how we knew about Jamileh. She got caught up undercover with a trafficking ring little less than a year ago. I sometimes wonder if she still isn't trapped by that experience."
Gus' eyes filled with tears at this revelation, but she wiped them angrily away as Ray said, "it never gets easier does it?"
Gus could practically hear Mac shaking his head. "No, it doesn't, but you still have to make that phone call."
She heard Ray walk away and Doyle approach Mac, but didn't hear anything else as Doyle led Mac away.
Daddino was waiting on her when she got back to the precinct, and judging by his expression she was certain someone had sold her out. She turned to glare at Doyle, but he had already disappeared.
"Broussard, office now!" Daddino barked.
"I am fine, sir, really, I just forgot to eat breakfast and lunch."
"Yeah, for the past few months it seems. Forget it, I don't want to hear it, you are off the case and if you as so much go within fifty yards of it, I take your badge and put you back on modified duty until you can pass a full psych workout with the head shrinker of my choosing. Are we clear?"
"Crystal, sir," Gus snapped, storming out to her desk. She held her palm up to Parker as he opened his mouth.
"Not a word, not now," she snarled.
Her head snapped up at the sound of Flack's voice later, following him and Hawkes walk someone into the interview rooms.
She walked over, about to step into the observation room when she heard Daddino clear his throat behind her.
"I suggest you stay right where you are, Broussard," he said, his tone heavy with warning.
She couldn't her what was going on, but she could tell that neither detective was happy with the interview. She was slightly taken aback when Sheldon all but punched the guy out and could only guess that the man was in the medical profession, few things got Sheldon so steamed.
Gus guessed they must have done some tracking with the organ taken from the body in the barrel.
"They find the driver?" asked Doyle as he looked over her shoulder.
"I don't think so, but I don't know since I can't get any closer than this. Did you call my Lieutenant on me, Jimmy?" Gus didn't even turn to look at him, though he could clearly see the anger radiating from her.
Doyle sighed, "I told your Uncle I was worried about you, because I am, Gus. I thought we talked about you forgiving yourself and focusing on healing yourself the other night."
"We talked about a lot of things the other night," Gus retorted.
Doyle hated not being able to clearly see her face, only her slight reflection in the glass, as her tone gave nothing away.
"I need to check in with Mac, but let's catch up, later, okay? I swear, I didn't call Tony and I wasn't trying to get you in trouble. It isn't such a horrible thing to care about you, Gus."
"Yes it is," Gus mumbled as Doyle walked away.
Gus watched as Flack paced in front of his desk, waiting for information on the other end.
"Yep, got it, I'll grab some guys and be right there."
She all but tackled him as he tried to move past. "What is it, Flack?"
He didn't answer right away, checking to make sure Daddino wasn't watching. "Adam got a real-time hit on Winston's phone that Steele took. Apparently he is at a pharmacy, tapping into their security cameras confirmed it. Sheldon and I are going to go try to pick up Steele now."
"What about the girl?"
Flack shook his head, "not on the feed, but hopefully. And no, you cannot come with me, Daddino already warned me. Stay here and get your head on right," he said, giving her arm a squeeze.
"That is real rich coming from you," Gus retorted.
Flack closed his eyes for a second, "I am not getting into this now, I gotta go, we'll catch up later."
Gus sat sullenly at her desk, even after Daddino had ordered her home, "I'm off the clock, sir."
"Go be off the clock somewhere else," he said, knowing she wasn't going to listen and would stay at her desk until Flack got back from the pharmacy, hopefully with Steele in custody.
"What happened?" Gus implored as both Flack and Hawkes came limping back into the precinct, a gash clearly visible on Flack's forehead.
"What happened was we friggin' lost Steele. Found Winston's car, Madeline Briggs wasn't inside. Crime scene is going to take all night to process it, so you may as well head home."
"What about you?" Gus implored, trying to check out Flack's wound as he brushed her off.
Flack swatted at her, "what about me? I'm going to do the same as you, go home and crash out for a few hours, we have been on this for two days solid."
He paused, "stop looking at me like that, it is barely a scratch."
"You swear you are going home?" Gus asked, worry clear on her face.
"You want to come with me to make sure I do?" Flack replied as he leaned back in his chair, his devilish dimpled grin almost enough to make Gus swoon.
"I didn't think we were doing that anymore," she finally spat out from her perch on his desk.
They were interrupted before Flack could reply by Daddino all but dragging Gus away from her desk.
"See, he is in one piece, now get your ass home! And Flack, I want that incident report now!"
Gus arrived back at the precinct to find a large tactical team being put together to capture Steele.
"Apparently you got something from the car," Gus said to Danny who was looking as forlorn as she was about not being able to join in the take down.
"Soil samples, EDNA matched them to a place out in Corona, junkyard, over by Citi Field, hence the troops," he wandered off in search of Lindsay leaving Gus to observe the team meeting.
"You better not be trying to sneak in on this dressed in full tactical gear, kid," Doyle said as she tried to hide in the back of the room.
Gus shot him a glare, "I am planning on keeping my badge. It still sucks being benched for this, though."
"Yes, you seem like you're staying completely separated from the case, following your CO's orders to a T," Doyle smirked.
Gus caught Flack glaring at them and decided to retreat before there was a scene.
Doyle had a point, Daddino had warned her well away from the case and sitting in on tactical planning probably wasn't the best idea.
"This sucks," Gus moaned, pacing around the lab later. She had brought up some cold evidence for them to run while they were all waiting for word.
"You're telling me," Danny agreed.
Lindsay patted her husband's back, "you'll be back out there making me worry soon enough, baby," she said with a smile.
"I got a case to case hit, but still no ID, sorry, Gus," Adam said, coming toward her holding a printout. He studied her carefully before handing it to her, "how are you feeling?" he asked, chewing on his lip.
Gus gave him a half-smile, "I'll be fine, Adam, don't worry about me." She was about to continue to reassure him when Mac came back in, looking frustrated.
All eyes on him, he shook his head. "We got Steele, but he isn't talking and Madeline wasn't anywhere around. Our best guess is, she has already been transported out-of-town. Commissioner said it is no longer an NYPD case. Ray is still chasing it down."
Everyone gave their support, though Gus hung back until they were alone. "Did you tell Daddino to pull me off the case?" she asked, trying to keep the anger out of her voice.
Mac looked at her intently. "You didn't seem well, Augusta and I'm concerned about you."
Gus knew he wasn't going to say anything more on the subject, so she was surprised when he continued, "why don't you come over for dinner tomorrow night, we can catch up."