Title: When the Heat Is On (14/?)
Rating: PG-13
Author: Angela Penfold
Email: AngelaPRPiaol.com
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters (except for Amelia), not going to make any profit by writing about them.
Notes: This story takes place the summer after the end of season 2, and has Bobby in it, having survived the gunshot.
Chapter 14851 matches found. Three hours of searching on half a dozen different databases and even after another hour cross-referencing and picking out the impossible matches they were still only down to 851 files. Tossing another of her folders on the case down on the desk Amelia let out a frustrated sigh. The hope she'd felt when Boscorelli had provided their first detailed description of the suspect had slowly been fading away until it'd almost entirely been warped by desperation and misery. By the time they weeded the right file out of the bunch the guy could've burnt down half of New York.
Lifting her head Amelia smiled wearily at Jimmy. He looked as exhausted as she felt. Dark shadows arced under his eyes, the rest of his face pale and creased. "Welcome to my world. I expected this to be tough, ninety-nine percent of my cases are, but it's worse than I anticipated. There're so many tiny differences between each of these guys. Sometimes plugging in a piece of data'll discount a hundred possible suspects from the pile but this time, it's like the guy knows every common characteristic and he's sticking to them. It'll take us weeks to discount these results one by one."
Jimmy nodded slowly, his expression grim. "By which time the guy'll probably kill someone else, maybe disappear too." If the guy altered his playing field, headed away from New York, they'd probably never find him. He'd disappeared underground for three years before, there wasn't anything stopping him doing that again.
Returning the nod, Amelia flopped back in her chair, legs stretching out to brush against his under the table. "And there's a chance he'll find out I'm still investigating him before we track him down. This guy's a smart son of a bitch; he's arrogant too though. After what he did to Boscorelli today he probably thinks I'm going to back down but he doesn't know me, never has and while he's still underestimating me I'm going to keep fighting. I'm not giving up Jimmy."
"None of us are giving up on this," Jimmy said firmly. Reaching across the table he settled his hand over Amelia's and squeezed gently. "We've all got a stake in this now and that means we work together. How much quicker's this gonna go with an entire task force working on this?"
"A task force?" Amelia asked doubtfully. She shook her head, jaw tightening as determination set in. "If I go to my boss asking for extra help on this, he's going to think I can't handle it. He'll take me off the case." For a moment her voice wavered. She'd come too far, come too close to catching the man who'd tried to kill her to give up now. "I need to do this without the arson team's support." They'd realise how much of a personal stake she had in it, would call it a conflict of interest and pass all her hard work onto somebody else, someone who wouldn't give a damn about who it was they were catching.
The corners of Jimmy's lips twitched upwards, briefly displaying his dimples. "I wasn't talking about an official task force, I've got a better one of my own, the cops, paramedics and fire fighters of the 55th. They've all been drawn into this. We get them all here and we've got a chance at getting this guy fast."
Doubt remained in Amelia's eyes, the idea of backup on the battlefield still new to her. After the building collapse she'd become a lone wolf, not wanting the pity of others around her as she struggled to get back to the job she loved, now there were people there who wanted to give her the support everybody needed, whether they knew it or not. "How many people are we talking here? A few'll help but too many and it'll just get confusing."
"Nine," he said quickly. "Bosco and Yokas were nearly killed today, they'll fight to get in on this, Kim and Bobby too. Going through all this might make something click. Sullivan and Doc've worked around here for years, they've got knowledge and connections I couldn't even dream of. Their partners'll have to be part of the deal. Nieto's an asshole but even assholes have their uses. I want Alex Taylor here too, she'll back you up on the technical details."
"She's got arson training?" Amelia asked, raising a brow in disbelief.
Straight white teeth sank into Jimmy's lower lip for a moment. "Not exactly but she's got the smarts Mac, and her family's been on the force forever."
Raising a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, Amelia let out a sigh. Allowing nine extra people into her investigation was taking a huge chance with her career but if she let the guy slip through the net again things would be over for her anyway.
"At some point I know this is all gonna turn round and kick me in the ass. Make the calls and I'll get all this stuff into some kind of usable set-up. They are all computer literate right? We won't have time for me to start explaining the joys of database use."
"They use them in the squads." Jimmy shrugged as he eased himself to his feet and shifted easily around the table. "Bobby got into that whole net thing last year too. You're not going to regret this baby." Smiling, Jimmy bent and kissed the lines a frown was etching into her brow.
Somehow Amelia knew this was a decision she'd probably regret bitterly.
Amelia scowled at the young man who stood in the hallway outside her apartment door. He wasn't the first to arrive, was actually the second last getting there but out of the eight people she'd now opened the door to, he was the one that looked least like an emergency worker. The backward sweep to his dark, ruffled hair and his battered leather jacket spoke more of trendy bars and college students than the pace and gore of working as a paramedic.
He obviously wasn't letting her spiky attitude ruin his excitement though, if anything the grin only widened as he offered her his hand. "I'm Carlos," he announced as she warily shook it. "Nieto."
"Nice to see you again," Amelia muttered. She'd recognised everyone who'd swept into her apartment, had spoken to or run into them at some point in her investigation. So far all had been gracious and polite, more than ready to help but she'd still felt awkward with the team growing like this, especially when she'd opened the door to find Jimmy's ex-wife and her paramedic partner lip-locked on her doorstep. She took a step back, gesturing Carlos through the door and towards the study. "The others are in there, work's set up."
Jimmy's voice boomed out as they moved into what had become a temporary headquarters. The room was bordering on crowded but even in a group Jimmy made himself stand out. "Nieto! You're late." A playful grin had his dimples flashing as he tossed a stubby white item towards Carlos.
The younger man caught it easily, and then stared in confusion at the Sharpie marker in his hand. "I was out getting something to eat. What do you want me to do with this?"
"Write," Jimmy said simply, laughing even though he didn't take the bait Nieto's question had so blatantly offered. "You wanna take your time getting here, you get the shittiest job. We need all the details we call out put on the board."
"Man," Nieto whined. Grumbling but still clutching the pen, he stripped off his jacket and weaved his way over to the large sheets of paper stuck to the bookcases in lieu of white boards. "I'm not even the latest, Sully's not here yet."
For the first time since people had started flooding into her home Amelia found herself smiling. Nieto had sounded exactly like a spoilt child. According to Jimmy, note taking was the best task to deal out to the paramedic; at least he'd had the most recent experience of it at college. The buzz of the doorbell through the room had her taking a step backwards towards the front door. "That's him now. I needed him to pick up some computer supplies for me on the way." Networking her computers was going to make compiling everyone's work far easier.
The conversations going on in her study faded back into a muted hum as Amelia marched back to the living room to let Sullivan in. They'd already started zooming in on the arsonist's identity; with the full nine helpers it would hopefully make the entire process faster. Sullivan made his friendly greeting and handed the cables that she'd requested over to her as they moved through the apartment. The guy was friendly enough to put her at ease and certainly seemed intelligent enough.
Amelia could feel his solid presence behind her as she stepped back into the crowd and was quickly met by Bobby. "Fax finally spat out the artist's impression Bosco gave earlier," Caffey announced.
"Thanks," Amelia murmured. She took the thin sheet of paper into one hand, staring at the grainy image printed on it. Somehow the picture should've been ringing a hundred bells for her, this was the guy who'd tried to kill her for Christ's sake but the recognition just wasn't there. When Sully's voice emerged behind her she barely reacted, it wasn't until the words had sunk in that she span around, her fingers convulsively clutching at the fax paper. "What did you say?"
Sully glanced back and forth between Amelia and the rest of the group, slight confusion in his eyes. "I could've saved you guys a lot of trouble if I'd realised it was Jake Nova we were after," he said, gesturing to the artist's impression. Magically their break had finally come.