Chapter 6: Partially Exposed

"Let's go around back, Fraser. I don't see anyone guarding the door. You go first, I'll cover you," Kowalski said just above a whisper as he slowly pulled out his weapon.

They were sneaking towards the back of the building, not really needing to crouch down from sight as there didn't seem to be any security of sorts. There was just one door at the back.

Fraser nodded at the detective as he went ahead and cautiously tried the door. It pushed in without any difficulty.

He gradually manoeuvred inside the mostly abandoned warehouse. There was only one large room that reached from the ground to the ceiling.

They quickly but quietly ducked behind some wooden boxes to be hidden from the sight of Nicholson and three men that he was meeting.

Kowalski slowly replaced his gun as he realized he probably would not be needing it at the moment.

Collin's back was to Ray and Fraser, while the three other men were facing Collin the other way.

The one that seemed to be in charge, by his extra confidence and demeanour, was average height and with thick dark brown hair. He spoke to one of his men, who nodded and walked to the front door. Collin was now left with two individuals.

The man that was sent away was very thin and wiry with blond hair. He started to watch through the front door for any "visitors" through a very small glass window.

Kowalski noticed one staircase leading up to a second level platform that overlooked the whole space.

He motioned to the Mountie that he would go up for a better view of what was going on.

Fraser looked up to where the stairs lead and finally nodded for the detective to go.

As Kowalski pulled himself up as soundless as possible, Fraser found his way around to a closer eavesdropping spot. He started to pick up some of the conversation that their suspect was having with the men.

"…when you left the police station?" The brown-haired man questioned Collin.

Collin looked a little nervous but overall comfortable. "Well, Dan, I picked up the car and did random errands - went to eat, got gasoline-"

"Good, good. So if anyone was following you they wouldn't think anything of it. Nobody was following you, am I right?" Dan asked in a way where the answer had better be what he expected or there would be trouble.

"Yeah, I mean, we would've known by now, wouldn't we?"

Dan nodded in satisfaction at Collin's point. "Okay, so I'm assuming you didn't snatch what you were supposed to get. That's fine, for now. But I need my hands on that information."

The man next to Dan finally spoke up. He was about Colin's height, with light brown hair, and very built.

"We should have gotten that information the first time around. Now things are just getting messy," he stated in the sense that it was a large inconvenience.

"Michael, don't worry about it. Now that the police think that this is an open and shut case, they're distracted by Collin. Maybe it will work out better this way."

Fraser slightly turned his head and looked up at Kowalski. Kowalski was looking back at him. They knew that there were more obstacles in this case than they could have imagined.

Suddenly, the blond watchman just about jumped and everyone's attention automatically turned to him.

"What is it, Pete!" Dan exclaimed.

Pete gave a sheepish look. "Sorry. Thought I spotted something. But I think it was only a dog or something."

"A dog? Well, was it a stray?" Michael asked.

"Uh. Yeah." Pete seemingly also knew how to stay on Dan and Michael's good side.

Fraser could almost feel Ray's annoyance at the 'dog visitor' without turning around again. He slightly lifted up a hand in acknowledgement as he continued to watch what was going on.

Dan and Michael immediately forgot about Pete and turned back to Collin.

Colin said, "Isn't there another way of getting it?" He shifted positions, and now the detective and Mountie could see part of his face.

The other two looked at each other. Finally, Michael conversed easily.

"Ya, I already tried to beat it out of a couple people but they were…too injured to speak.

Or, maybe they just didn't know anything."

The shock was clearly seen in Nicholson's eyes but he chose not to say anything.

"Don't worry about it, Collin. No one was killed," Dan tried to reassure him like a mother reassuring a child who just got a 'booboo'.

Pete gave a yawn as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

"Hey, blondy. Ya think you can pay attention over there?" Michael spit out.

Colin took a deep breath as it looked like he was trying to gain confidence in what he was about to say. "Dan, you don't need my help. You are obviously more than capable." He took a breath and spoke more quietly. "You know I wanted to stay away from this."

Dan gave a nod as he mused over how to respond. "I know, Colin, and you know how I appreciate it. But your part here is done. So in a way, you got what you want. No more involvement."

"But that's just it," Colin continued. "I was involved whether I like it or not. And those people who got hurt-"

"Forget them. Don't think of them as victims. Like I said, no one got killed," Michael said flatly.

Collin finally fell quiet.

Dan gave Collin supportive shoulder squeeze. "Just get the trial over with. If you run into any problems, call me. I'll continue to let you know the progress we're making."

It seemed the meeting was about to close. Fraser stretched a little without moving from his spot.

Kowalski above tried hard not to move as the metal balcony would most likely squeak.

Michael strode up to Pete. "So everything's clear?"

"Oh, yeah. The sky's almost cloudless and you can see the moon-"

Michael almost smacked him on the head. "Not the sky, you idiot! The grounds!" He

rolled his eyes in disgust.

All the men finally filed out without taking a look back.

Fraser and Ray waited a couple minutes. When they were sure that the men wouldn't be returning, they moved and met at the back door.

The detective rubbed his back. "That was horrible, Fraser. I couldn't move or even take a breath."

The Mountie shook one of his legs. "My blood flow stopped for a while."

"Wait, maybe we should catch a license plate!" Kowalski said quickly.

They carefully headed out near front, but kept their distance. Neither was able to catch the plate number.

The two headed for their own car. Before Fraser could comment on anything they had heard, Kowalski cut in.

"What the heck was your wolf doing out there!"

Fraser paused. "Serving as a distraction?"