Chapter 4:
Sue decided to play it safe with a nice blouse and dress pants, rather than a dress. After all she had never met this guy and didn't want to give him the wrong idea but she trusted Bobby. She was looking forward to having a nice night out. She stepped out of her car, her hair half up, almost wet with the humidity in the air. She was supposed to meet him at the back of the restaurant. Lucy seemed slightly skeptical about her going out with another guy, but she knew she was biased because Lucy had been trying to set her up with Jack for ages. Actually the fact Bobby wanted her to go out with another man was quite surprising to her. She decided to not think about it anymore. She took a deep breath, and though, well here goes nothing and stepped into the restaurant.
"Where's Sue and Lucy?" asked Jack. Bobby quickly answered.
"Sue wanted the night off, she was pretty tired." Jack looked at him suspiciously, wondering why he answered so quickly and why Sue hadn't talked to him about wanting to not stay late with the rest. "I'm not sure about Lucy, from what I understood I think a friend of hers broke a leg and she went to see her." The rest of the team seemed satisfied with those answers.
"Well, Sue could use the break, she's been pretty tired lately" added Tara. Jack just decided to change the subject before it got more awkward for him. Sue had been acting slightly weird lately and he didn't really understand what she was hiding, and why Bobby knew and not him.
"What do we know about our 2 suspects?" Jack questioned his team. Myles answered in his usual sarcastic tone,
"Well Joshua Cain is deaf. Definite drug dealer but never caught. He's sneaky and good at using his deafness as an excuse to get out of things, the low life. He doesn't speak or read lips from what we know, only uses ASL. On the other hand, Brendan Pratner – there is not much record of him before the last 5 years. He's never actually been caught, but has been suspect many times in recent drug dealings in Washington, Dallas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. We know he doesn't sign, or at least is lying about not being able to sign, because in his pretend "I'm not a drug dealer" life, we talked to a stock broker he was dealing with, who happened to be deaf and he hired an interpreter."
"Well I guess we can assume they have a plan for communication at the drug deal in less than 4 days. Cain and Pratner have not talked to each other directly yet, only going through other people. Thanks to the transcripts Sue wrote up this afternoon from the surveillance tapes, we saw some of Pratners cronies talking about the arranged time sent in an anonymous email to Cain. We need to find out more about who this Pratner guy is, and what their plans are for this deal – most importantly where so we can head them up," Jack sighed and continued on, "We still have a few more workable hours, lets get going people and get these guys behind bars."
The night pressed on until the wee hours of the morning for the agents in the bullpen, finally calling it quits well past two. Sue returned home from her evening, unlocked her door quickly, and shut it just as fast, securing the deadbolt. Looking desperately for Lucy, she went into the kitchen to make herself some chamomile tea, where she saw a note:
Hey Sue, hope you had a good evening. I'm staying over at my friends tonight – hope you don't mind. I took Levi, didn't want to leave him alone. We'll be back in the morning to make sure your up for work, don't worry! Call me on my cell if you need me. Lucy.
Sue trudged over into her bedroom, pulled on her most comfortable pajamas, and cuddled into bed, unwilling to let the tears flow down her face any longer. Of all the nights I needed someone here; it would be the one where I'm all alone, she thought as she drifted into a restless sleep unknowing what to do next.