"Well, you look like you had a good evening," David couldn't resist needling Colby when he arrived in the command center. Colby tried to ignore him, pulling out the search warrant from a stack of files on his table, and putting it into the inner pocket of his jacket. They had made their appointment to be at the bank at 9 am.
Robin couldn't resist joining in, grinning in mischief as she said, "You should hear the way Hannah talks about him, David. Anyone off the street would think Colby was perfect. But we know better, don't we?"
"Now, wait a minute! Does that mean you don't talk about me the same way?" Don cut in, before Colby could protest.
Robin rolled her eyes at him. "Spoilsport! We're picking on Colby here."
"Well, thank you for bailing me out of that one, Don!" Colby started to head out the door, "There was no good way out of that conversation!" He and David left the command center, both of them laughing. David was still teasing Colby, as he lightly punched Colby on his upper arm.
Don and Megan left as well, to check out some other details of the homicide investigation. Rilla noticed that Robin was watching them leave. She thought Robin looked a little wistful. "So, who is this Hannah?" Rilla asked, more to bring Robin back from her thoughts than out of any curiosity.
Robin looked at the older woman and smiled. "She's Colby's girlfriend. We've become pretty good friends over the last few months." She told Rilla about how the five women met, and how they sometimes got together. "I like Hannah a lot, but some days I alternate between envying her and, well, hating her."
Rilla's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Robin had been speaking affectionately of the five women. The last remark was unexpected.
Looking a little embarrassed now, Robin continued, "It's kind of silly, I suppose. It's just that Hannah seems to take everything in stride. Colby works a lot of hours, similar to the ones Don works. It never fazes her. And he always looks happy after he's spent time with her. They never argue, they never fight. It can't be normal. And it's extremely aggravating to me, because it bugs me a lot when Don has to work late. Plus, Don's been looking very strained lately, but he won't tell me what's wrong. Nothing I've done has eased that strain." Robin sighed, then shrugged. "Just ignore me. I really do like her a lot, and that was uncalled for."
Rilla nodded. She liked Robin, but thought that the ambitious woman was worrying a great deal over very little. She'd only been there a few days, but the agents looked like a dedicated bunch. Working long hours might not be healthy for them, but she certainly understood their rationale. Robin had to have known what the relationship would be like, going in.
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Colby and David arrived at the bank at 9 am sharp. Katelyn had to laugh when she saw Colby swagger in, waving the search warrant in his hand. He grinned at her. "I told you it was a no-brainer for the warrant."
"Well, let me see this search warrant." Katie replied, grinning back at him when he raised his eyebrows. "I have to compare it against the fax you sent, and our security department has told me what I need to be looking for."
"What, you don't trust FBI agents? We're the good guys!" Colby protested.
"Just following protocol. You do know how to follow protocol, right?" Katie responded. Colby sighed theatrically and handed her the search warrant.
Katie checked to make sure the search warrant was in order. She filled out an entry ticket, called Jenn, and the four of them went into the safe deposit box area. They unlocked it, and David pulled the box out. Katie decided to use the back room in the vault area. It gave them a little more privacy, and there was more room to spread out so they could do the inventory. She dreaded the inventory, because it was one of the bigger boxes, and from the way David was carrying it, she thought it looked pretty heavy.
Jenn groaned when David opened the box, and Katie wasn't very far behind with her own groan. There were stacks of currency in it. They were going to be here all day inventorying just that currency alone. David grunted, the only sign that he'd heard them.
"What else is under there, David?" Colby asked.
"CDs, lots of them. Just numbers written on them. Could be anything on them. Here's a list of numbers, looks like coded descriptions. Papers. Oh, some of these look like those claim forms that Rilla was looking at. Alright, let's inventory these CDs and papers. I'll sign a receipt for them, Katie, then I'll run them back to the FBI office. Colby will stay here and help you two inventory the currency." David grinned at the look of disgust that Colby threw his way. The agent, senior only by a year or two, knew that Colby much preferred action over paperwork. But he liked to yank the younger man's chain once in a while, just to keep him on his toes.
"Yeah, it's going to be a real hardship, locked away in a bank vault with two beautiful women, handling more money than I'll ever see in my life," Colby shot back, sarcastically. "Bring some lunch, will you please? Rib-eye steak, rare, baked potato."
Katie couldn't help laughing at the disgruntled look on the younger agent's face. Despite his light rejoinder, he looked like he'd had a fate worse than death handed to him.
"No time like the present. Just show me what I need to do," Colby said to Katie, still looking morose. He looked incredulous when she explained that he had to write the serial number from every bill, and showed him where to write it on the inventory form. He heaved a huge sigh and started writing. Jenn quickly finished the inventory on the CDs and papers, and David left.
The two women exchanged amused glances. Colby was working diligently on the inventory. Undoubtedly, he'd had to rely on this same dogged patience before. There wasn't a single word of complaint, but there was a cute almost-pout on the man's sexy lips. Katie wasn't sure if she was going to make it through the day without a hot daydream about this man. She glanced over to see Jenn with a transfixed expression, eyes focused on Colby's lips. She grinned and went back to inventorying her own stack of bills.
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"Don, we have 20 CDs from Hague's safe deposit box, and a stack of papers. I'm going to get a tech and go through the CDs, see what's on them. There's a list, but it looks like it's in code, maybe Charlie could take a crack at them." David was briefing Don and Megan on the events at the bank. "Colby's still at the bank, inventorying the currency that was in the box. There were stacks there, looks like several tens of thousands of dollars. These papers, some of them look like claim forms, I don't know what the others are."
Don nodded, as Megan said, "I'll take the papers, go over them, see if I can identify what they are. I'll take the claim forms to Rilla as well."
"Make sure the tech makes a copy of those CDs before you get started," Don reminded David as he headed out the door. David waved in acknowlegement.
"These look like papers from off-shore accounts, Don," Megan said thoughtfully, "I've seen them before, in a previous case. I'll start running down information on them."
"Alright. I need to run something else down. I'll be back in a while."
Megan looked surprised. She couldn't think of what Don could be running down for the Hague case, but she didn't comment. He was in charge, after all, perhaps he had something for the Assistant Director that she didn't know about.
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Don finally admitted to himself that he was lost. It was a quiet desert road and he had no idea which way to turn and he didn't want to waste time heading back the way he'd come. He looked up quickly at the sound of an engine, and saw a Chevy Nova pull up to the same stop sign he'd stopped at.
"Hey! Do you know which direction I would turn to get to Gary?" He shouted to the woman in the Nova. She rolled the passenger window down, and he leaned in, showing her his badge.
She grinned at him. "Lost, are you?" And laughed at the expression on his face. "Well, I'm headed that way. You can follow me, if you think you can keep up. Otherwise, you just turn right. You can't miss the sign."
Don gazed at her, drinking in the sight of a beautiful woman with shoulder length red hair and grey eyes. "And why wouldn't I be able to keep up with you?"
She laughed. "Want to find out? Last one there buys the beer."
"You're on!" Don hopped back into his Suburban as fast as he could, because she'd already taken off. He laughed out loud at the exhiliration of driving at top speed through a desert road, trying to catch up with a beautiful woman who had the sass to race a federal agent. And she was good, too, he realized, as he discovered with each passing mile. He wasn't falling back, but he wasn't gaining either. He suddenly realized that the only time he'd gained on her was when she slowed down. Damned if she wasn't toying with him! He grinned like a kid, and stepped on the gas in a bid to gain on her.
She was leaning on the hood of her car at the roadhouse in Gary when he finally pulled up. Her lips were twitching in amusement. He sighed and asked, "What kind of beer?" She burst into gales of laughter at that, and Don had to smile. "So, are you going to tell me your name?"
"Regina Wise. You can call me Reg, or Reggie. But I'll hurt you if you call me Gina." She threw over her shoulder as she headed into the roadhouse. Don enjoyed the view for a second before following her in.
They talked and laughed over the beer. And Don broke down and asked for further directions to his destination. He looked at his watch, then asked if there was a motel nearby.
Reggie nibbled on her lower lip as she pondered that. Don couldn't take his eyes away from that lip. Finally, she said slowly, "Well, there's always my place..." She caught her breath as he flashed her a bright smile.
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