Montoya watched, with just the slightest hint of a grin on her face, as Bullock interviewed one of the girls. He was not having an easy time of it, from what she could tell. Rehearsals has just started when he came in for the 'official' investigation. She hoped that he could get something of value from the employees. After speaking to him earlier via her cell phone, she knew that he was up to speed with everything that she knew so far.
When the bodies of the missing women had been found, they all realized that having her on the inside was not going to be enough. Now, with solid proof of foul play, they were free to investigate from both outside and in.
Just then, Morley came over to where she had been sitting and handed her a stack of papers. Taking them, she saw that they were lyrics to various songs, most of which she already knew.
"You're up next, Belle." He started to walk away, then turned back around to face her, eyeing her up and down. He continued, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "Oh, by the way. You might want to think about dropping at least ten pounds if you want to make it around here, love. Also, do something with your hair. There is a salon right down the road. You could use some spicing up!"
Montoya sat there in stunned silence as Morley walked away. Her cheeks flushed red despite her best efforts to remain calm. She had not been told that she needed to loose weight since middle school, and had taken pride in the fact that she usually worked out every morning, current situation excluded. She was torn between feeling anger, embarrassment and a small bit of self-doubt, even though she knew it was foolish.
"Hey! Leave the girl alone. She looks fine to me!" Bullock and his big mouth. Montoya put her head in her hands and wanted to crawl in a hole. Undercover or not, it seemed that Bullock was not about to let anyone berate his partner.
"You work her, Detective?" Morley got into the larger man's face. "Didn't think so. How about you do your job and I'll do mine!"
Renee was about to get up and go die of embarrassment when Summer sat down next to her. She looked like Hell. Obviously, she was not over last night's drinking binge yet.
"Don't worry. Bob can get like this. It's the control freak in him. Just wants us all to be the best we can. The cop's not helping either. Makes him nervous…makes us all nervous, I think. Can you belive? All those girls are dead?" Summer's eyes were wide as she leaned in and confided to the undercover detective. "I'm kinda freaked. I'm the only girl here, besides you, who's not from Gotham. I'm afraid I could be next. But Morley, he says he'll protect me."
Montoya did not think that Morley could protect himself, let alone another person. However, she kept her mouth shut about her opinions. It was obvious that, despite his rough demeanor, Summer liked the man. She decided to offer up a bit of advice to the girl.
"Maybe you should take some self-defense classes. They might make you feel safer."
"I…I don't think so. I don't have the time." Summer's eyes drifted away, downcast. "I'm sort of in a relationship right now."
Montoya bit her lower lip in concern. She had seen the look on Summer's face a thousand times over, if she had seen it once. It was the look of a woman in a bad relationship. She was torn between being a cop and doing her job, or trying to be a friend to this girl who seemed to need a good one. Then she thought of a way where she might be able to do both.
"Well…if you want, I could teach you a thing or two. I took some classes down in Florida and could show you some moves. Just tell your boyfriend that you are with a girl from work. Come to my place before rehearsals tomorrow. I think the floor should hold."
Summer looked back over at Montoya and smiled softly at Renee's attempt at humor.
"Maybe. We'll see. Thank you for the offer. Well you should start looking over your stuff and I have to go get my roots touched up before work. See you around?"
Summer got up to leave, and Montoya glanced over her songs for the night. She had seen the vindictive look in Morley's eye when he handed her the music, and swore that Morley was giving her songs that he didn't think she knew. She flipped through the sheets of Avril Lavigne, Pink, No Doubt and TATU. TATU?!?! Not the typical songs for the young detective to sing, however, her musical tastes were wide and varied and she had all of the artists CD's at home. Out of the twelve songs, she would only have to learn two of the song lyrics, and those she at least knew how the songs were to go.
Morley giving her such a hard time puzzled her, but if this was the way he treated all the girls, so be it. If he thought he could rile her with a few snide comments, he had another thing coming. She brushed off his earlier comments about her weight and held her head a bit higher. He was on borrowed time, she reminded herself. She was going to put him away when this was all done for embezzling the club's money.
***
An hour later, she was seated back in Morley's office. Things were not going well. She had managed to convince TwoFace not to kill Morley, when she informed him of the manager stealing funds. Still, he was not a happy man. Neither was Dent for that matter. While TwoFace merely wanted to kill Morley, Dent was torn between anger and hurt. They had not been willing to listen to her, and were ready to go after him when Montoya had put her foot down. She had used the only card she had to deal. The "you wanted this solved, now let me do this my way" card.
Dent had been reluctant, but she had reminded him that they had flipped for it, and now they had to deal with the consequences. This was just a distraction. They had had this conversation once before, back in No Man's Land, so it was not that hard to convince Dent to go with her on this. She had told him that she would handle it personally once the case was closed.
It had been about then, when thy heard someone approaching, about to enter the office. Montoya was not sure which one had decided to be the opportunist, but she suddenly found herself locked in his arms, in a close embrace. He had just leaned down to kiss her, when Celine opened the door.
"Oh! Sorry, I need to get…" Her eyes darted around until she spotted a large duffle bag. "Chris is loaning me some clothes…well, at least we all know how you got the job now, Belle!"
With that said, she grabbed the bag and quickly left the room. Montoya pushed at the wall of his chest the moment the door had closed, but he did not budge. Glaring, she looked up at him. Part of him looked pensive and nervous, the other half looked happy…well cocky was more like it.
"Thank you SO much!" She pushed at him again, yet he still refused to relinquish his hold on her. Her words trailed off as a grin spread on Dent's face for a brief moment, before he wiped it away. Abruptly, he let go. Montoya, for the life of her, could not figure out why she felt disappointed.
"Sorry, you needed a good 'why I got hired' story. Now you have one. You're with us."
"Thank you so much for deciding for me!"
"You should be happy. I didn't even flip for it. I'll have your things gathered and taken to my place. I'll be back to pick you up after work, Belle."
Before she could respond, he had quickly exited the room, leaving her in stunned silence. Somehow she had been played and she was still no close to solving the case than she had been from the beginning.
When the bodies of the missing women had been found, they all realized that having her on the inside was not going to be enough. Now, with solid proof of foul play, they were free to investigate from both outside and in.
Just then, Morley came over to where she had been sitting and handed her a stack of papers. Taking them, she saw that they were lyrics to various songs, most of which she already knew.
"You're up next, Belle." He started to walk away, then turned back around to face her, eyeing her up and down. He continued, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "Oh, by the way. You might want to think about dropping at least ten pounds if you want to make it around here, love. Also, do something with your hair. There is a salon right down the road. You could use some spicing up!"
Montoya sat there in stunned silence as Morley walked away. Her cheeks flushed red despite her best efforts to remain calm. She had not been told that she needed to loose weight since middle school, and had taken pride in the fact that she usually worked out every morning, current situation excluded. She was torn between feeling anger, embarrassment and a small bit of self-doubt, even though she knew it was foolish.
"Hey! Leave the girl alone. She looks fine to me!" Bullock and his big mouth. Montoya put her head in her hands and wanted to crawl in a hole. Undercover or not, it seemed that Bullock was not about to let anyone berate his partner.
"You work her, Detective?" Morley got into the larger man's face. "Didn't think so. How about you do your job and I'll do mine!"
Renee was about to get up and go die of embarrassment when Summer sat down next to her. She looked like Hell. Obviously, she was not over last night's drinking binge yet.
"Don't worry. Bob can get like this. It's the control freak in him. Just wants us all to be the best we can. The cop's not helping either. Makes him nervous…makes us all nervous, I think. Can you belive? All those girls are dead?" Summer's eyes were wide as she leaned in and confided to the undercover detective. "I'm kinda freaked. I'm the only girl here, besides you, who's not from Gotham. I'm afraid I could be next. But Morley, he says he'll protect me."
Montoya did not think that Morley could protect himself, let alone another person. However, she kept her mouth shut about her opinions. It was obvious that, despite his rough demeanor, Summer liked the man. She decided to offer up a bit of advice to the girl.
"Maybe you should take some self-defense classes. They might make you feel safer."
"I…I don't think so. I don't have the time." Summer's eyes drifted away, downcast. "I'm sort of in a relationship right now."
Montoya bit her lower lip in concern. She had seen the look on Summer's face a thousand times over, if she had seen it once. It was the look of a woman in a bad relationship. She was torn between being a cop and doing her job, or trying to be a friend to this girl who seemed to need a good one. Then she thought of a way where she might be able to do both.
"Well…if you want, I could teach you a thing or two. I took some classes down in Florida and could show you some moves. Just tell your boyfriend that you are with a girl from work. Come to my place before rehearsals tomorrow. I think the floor should hold."
Summer looked back over at Montoya and smiled softly at Renee's attempt at humor.
"Maybe. We'll see. Thank you for the offer. Well you should start looking over your stuff and I have to go get my roots touched up before work. See you around?"
Summer got up to leave, and Montoya glanced over her songs for the night. She had seen the vindictive look in Morley's eye when he handed her the music, and swore that Morley was giving her songs that he didn't think she knew. She flipped through the sheets of Avril Lavigne, Pink, No Doubt and TATU. TATU?!?! Not the typical songs for the young detective to sing, however, her musical tastes were wide and varied and she had all of the artists CD's at home. Out of the twelve songs, she would only have to learn two of the song lyrics, and those she at least knew how the songs were to go.
Morley giving her such a hard time puzzled her, but if this was the way he treated all the girls, so be it. If he thought he could rile her with a few snide comments, he had another thing coming. She brushed off his earlier comments about her weight and held her head a bit higher. He was on borrowed time, she reminded herself. She was going to put him away when this was all done for embezzling the club's money.
***
An hour later, she was seated back in Morley's office. Things were not going well. She had managed to convince TwoFace not to kill Morley, when she informed him of the manager stealing funds. Still, he was not a happy man. Neither was Dent for that matter. While TwoFace merely wanted to kill Morley, Dent was torn between anger and hurt. They had not been willing to listen to her, and were ready to go after him when Montoya had put her foot down. She had used the only card she had to deal. The "you wanted this solved, now let me do this my way" card.
Dent had been reluctant, but she had reminded him that they had flipped for it, and now they had to deal with the consequences. This was just a distraction. They had had this conversation once before, back in No Man's Land, so it was not that hard to convince Dent to go with her on this. She had told him that she would handle it personally once the case was closed.
It had been about then, when thy heard someone approaching, about to enter the office. Montoya was not sure which one had decided to be the opportunist, but she suddenly found herself locked in his arms, in a close embrace. He had just leaned down to kiss her, when Celine opened the door.
"Oh! Sorry, I need to get…" Her eyes darted around until she spotted a large duffle bag. "Chris is loaning me some clothes…well, at least we all know how you got the job now, Belle!"
With that said, she grabbed the bag and quickly left the room. Montoya pushed at the wall of his chest the moment the door had closed, but he did not budge. Glaring, she looked up at him. Part of him looked pensive and nervous, the other half looked happy…well cocky was more like it.
"Thank you SO much!" She pushed at him again, yet he still refused to relinquish his hold on her. Her words trailed off as a grin spread on Dent's face for a brief moment, before he wiped it away. Abruptly, he let go. Montoya, for the life of her, could not figure out why she felt disappointed.
"Sorry, you needed a good 'why I got hired' story. Now you have one. You're with us."
"Thank you so much for deciding for me!"
"You should be happy. I didn't even flip for it. I'll have your things gathered and taken to my place. I'll be back to pick you up after work, Belle."
Before she could respond, he had quickly exited the room, leaving her in stunned silence. Somehow she had been played and she was still no close to solving the case than she had been from the beginning.