A/N: Please note, there were no dogs harmed in the making of this fan fiction.

Cory woke up with renewed ambition. Today, she would take Victor's advice and simply ignore him. It sounded simple enough.
When she got to work however, it was another story.
The instant Alastair saw her he was over to talk to her.
'Office McNamara, can I have a word?' The request seemed polite enough.
But Cory just held her head high and walked right on past him, although she secretly delighted in the shocked look on his face.
He followed her over to her desk. 'Cory, I need to talk to you.' He said in a low voice.
Cory again ignored him and walked off to get a file she was working on.
After that he didn't speak to her again. So far, the plan was working.
In fact, it worked right up until…
'Cory! My office! Now!' Palermo had shouted to her.
Chris cringed, Tc looked sympathetic and Victor just laughed. 'Busted.' He joked.
Cory made her way up the stairs and was faced with rather dignified Alastair and a very angry Palermo.
'What is this I hear about you being unco-operative and utterly rude to Detective Maguire? He is here on a case and you have been instructed to give him your assistance when he asks for it. Those orders didn't come from me; they came from the Chief! Now what is going on?'
Cory was shocked. So much so that she just stood there, not saying anything. She looked at Alastair but he wasn't making eye contact with her.
'Well Officer? Do you have a problem with assisting Detective Maguire with his case?'
Cory shook her head. 'No Lieutenant.'
'Good.' He thrust the file at her. 'I suggest you start reading.'
Cory took the file back to her desk downstairs.
Chris started to mouth something but Palermo came downstairs.
'Callaway, Kelly, shouldn't you be on patrol?'
'Yes Lieutenant.' They answered and jogged off to get their bikes.

Victor waited until Palermo had gone back upstairs before asking, 'What was that all about?'
Cory rolled her eyes. 'I took your advice.' She said quietly so Palermo wouldn't hear them talking. 'I ignored him and he told Palermo I was being rude and unco-operative.'
Victor pulled a face. 'Cory, when I said to ignore him I only meant ignore any rude things he says to you. Not snob him completely.'
'Thanks for clearing that up.' She replied sarcastically.
The phone on Victor's desk rang. It was Palermo's extension.
After a few yes-sir, no-sir's Victor hung up. 'I have to go pick up a suspect. Have fun.' He said and left.
Cory continued reading the file. There were used cars being sold were later discovered to have been stolen or had stolen parts put in them. So far all leads had turned up nothing. The car dealerships that they were being sold through had done their routine checks on all the cars. The problem was only noticed when the cars were being registered with the government departments that they realised there was something wrong. The dealerships had been extensively monitored but with no success.

Alastair came downstairs and saw Cory reading the file. He pulled a chair up next to her desk.
'I really didn't mean for you to get in that much trouble.' He said apologetically.
Cory nodded absently. 'So what the angle on this.' She held up the file for good measure.
'I was thinking you might like to go undercover in the main car dealership. Out of the eleven cars that we have identified as being stolen, five have come from Reggie's Auto Yard. The owner Reginald Wright hasn't been very helpful either. Getting any information is like pulling teeth.'
'Great.' Cory said, although even she admitted it seems to sound a little less than enthusiastic. 'You know who would be really good for this case. Tc. He loves cars. He restores them and everything.'
Alastair shook his head. 'No can do. Palermo's got them working on a case. And before you say anything, Del Toro is unavailable too.' He put a hand on her arm; not realising it was reminding her about their night together. 'It's just you and me.'

The phone rang at Cory's desk. 'Reggie's Auto Yard. Danielle speaking.' She answered.
'Hey it's me.' Alastair's voice sounded much deeper on the phone. 'Is there anything I should know about.'
'No sir, we don't have any of that model in stock at the moment.' Reginald Wright was standing near her talking with a customer.
'You have company?' He asked.
'Yes and we do a full safety check.' She answered chirpily.
'Call me if you have anything.
'Okay sir. You have a good day.' She hung up the phone. It was her second day on the job and she hoped that someone could find this guy guilty very soon.
The office was small, hot and dirty. She had sleazy men whistling at her all-day and staring at her chest. Although she realised how bad it was when she started to miss Victor. She shuddered at the thought.
Reggie, as he liked to be called, had finished with the customer and stood leaning on Cory's desk.
'This floor is filthy. Clean it up. There's a broom in the shed and the key is hanging in the kitchen.' Reggie tramped off leaving dusty footprints behind him.
No wonder the floor was filthy, Cory thought.
The key was hanging up on a hook above Boris's bed.
Boris was a huge boxer-cum-guard dog who had scared Cory to death the first time they met. It was on her first day and the dog had come charging out of the office at her the second she'd walked through the gate. That was when she met Reggie who'd stuck is head out the door and threatened to give the dog a hiding if he didn't shut up.
Boris was fast asleep and Cory was careful not to make a sound as she retrieved the key.

The back shed was huge and very very hot. It smelled like something had died in there. There were spiders handing in the corners and rodent excretion on most of the surfaces. Cory made a mental note to wash and disinfect her hands thoroughly.
There was also something else she noticed – a filing cabinet. She'd been told yesterday that all the files she needed were in the office.
She opened the draw carefully. Inside the manilla folders were quotes, invoices, receipts for modified engines and chassis that she could only presume had been obtained when the identification numbers of the stolen vehicles had been changed.
In the next draw, there were files for about twenty or so cars and included before and after snapshots. Some vehicles had a complete colour change as well as a few other features such as different wheels in the hope to make them look less like what they came in as.
The final draw had lists of contact numbers for suppliers and tradespeople that obviously had been the ones to do the work on the cars.
Reggie might be a crook but at least he's an organised one, she thought as she grabbed the broom and locked up the shed.
She'd tell Alastair about her find later but for now she had a floor to clean.

Cory crept into the office the next night. She'd left Alastair outside so she could do battle with Boris. She would have no chance of getting the key to the shed if she brought someone that the dog had never smelled before.
The pooch was asleep in its bed under the key. As she reached over to unhook the key the dog gave a deep-throated growl.
'Hey Boris. It's me.' She whispered in her happiest voice.
The dog growled louder.
'It's okay.' She assured the dog. She'd come prepared and handed the dog a cooked sausage.
Boris took it with delight and Cory was able to get the key and get out of the office.
She locked the door behind her in case anybody came whilst they were in the shed.
'How's Boris?' Alastair asked.
'Hungry.' She replied. 'You know, I've never seen the dog been fed.'
'In that case, you've just made a new best friend.'
They made their way to the shed. Cory shut the door after them. She didn't want another encounter with Boris.
Alastair started looking through the draws with a flashlight and Cory looked around the shed.
It was hot in here. The heat from the day they'd had hadn't escaped, probably because there was no windows or ventilation. It had been like an oven when she'd been in here today.
'Do you think you can get a warrant to seize this stuff?' Cory asked, anxious to be relieved of her post.
'Definitely. We already had enough links but if we needed something concrete. If we raided the wrong place it would alert everyone else.'
'Do you think we can get one tomorrow?' She asked but was cut off.
'Shh.' He said.
Cory listened. She heard the dog bark and someone telling it to shut up.
'It's Reggie.' She whispered.
Alastair turned off his flashlight and ducked down behind some boxes, pulling her with him.
Reggie walked up to the shed and opened the door. He couldn't see anything in the dark. However, Boris could smell in the dark and trotted right over to them. The dog came around behind the boxes and sniffed Cory.
She froze. But instead of biting her as she'd expected Boris to do, it licked her face and pushed her hand to be patted.
'Dog, let's go.' Reggie ordered but the dog didn't move. It just stood there.
'Boris, come here now!' Reggie was getting annoyed.
Alastair put his hand into the pocket of Cory's pants. It took her a few moments to realise what he was doing.
Alastair found the bag that the sausages were kept and broke a piece of for the dog.
Boris took the sausage and walked back over to Reggie.
'This is no time to be chasing rats.' He was muttering something about 'mongrels' and trading Boris in as he shut the door and fastened the padlock on the outside.
After she was sure they'd gone; Cory looked at Alastair and breathed a sigh of relief.
'He didn't catch us.'
'Yeah but he also trapped us in here.' Alastair wandered around the shed pressing on the walls to see if there was any give.
'Down here.' She called and pointed with her torch to a rusted hole bottom of one of the walls. It was enough to put her fist through.
'See if you can find something to separate the metal.' He said.
Cory scoured the shed and Alastair started kicking at the hole.
She was over at the other side of the shed when she heard him cry out in pain.
She ran back over to the area of the hole.
He was sitting on the ground with his hands wrapped around his leg just above his ankle and he had a sour look on his face. A quick check with the torch showed that there was already blood dripped down his shoe and onto the ground.
'What happened?' She said and pulled his bloodied hands away from his ankle.
'I was able to kick a few pieces of metal from the edge of the hole. Then the wall split and when I brought my leg down a piece cut into me.'
Cory looked at the wall and saw what he meant. There was a jagged triangular piece of metal attached to the ground. The tip of it had blood and pieces of cloth on it.
She pulled the leg of his pants up and revealed a nasty wound. It had cut half way around his leg and, she guessed, probably to the bone.
It needed to be wrapped in order to keep it clean from the dirty, dusty yard they were in and to help stop the bleeding.
Cory had no choice. She pulled off the shirt she was wearing and folded it up to make a pad. She pressed it around his leg.
She also started unbuttoning his shirt.
'What are you doing?' He asked.
She peeled the shirt off his shoulders. 'I'm going to use it to make a bandage to keep this pad on. I'm not going to be able to carry you out of here.'
Cory wrapped the shirt around his leg and paused for a moment. This was going to hurt him. She pulled the shirt tight into a knot and Alastair groaned in pain.
'It really hurts.'
'I know.' She said quietly and rubbed his calf muscle. The area was already warm and the muscle was knotted.
He'd created a fair sized space in the wall to crawl through but in his condition it was going to be a hard and painful exercise to get him out. Unless…
'Wait here.' She said. Cory bent the metal enough for her to squeeze through and with the key in hand; she went around the opened the pad lock.
'Good thinking.' He said struggling to his feet.
Cory put an arm around his waist and eased his arm across her shoulders and Alastair limped out of the shed. He was barely putting any weight on that leg at all and already the blood had seeped through the pad and the bandage.
The made it to their car hidden amongst other cars in the car yard. She unlocked the passenger door and helped Alastair into his seat. She shut the door with a bang.
She walked around the front of the car and was unlocking her door when she heard, 'Hey, what are you doing?'
Reggie was running toward her. He hadn't left the site and had come out of the office when he'd heard the car door close.
She ripped her door open, started the car and sped away.

Cory drove fast for a mile or two until she was sure she wasn't being followed. The she relaxed
'How's it feeling?' She reached across and put a hand on his arm. His skin was cold and clammy.
Alastair had his eyes closed was resting his head against the back of the seat. 'It hurts really bad. I feel dizzy.'
'Hang on.' She said. 'I'm taking you to the hospital. Cory pressed her foot harder on the accelerator.