Part 5

Holly glanced at Traci as they sat down. She was dying to ask about the blonde from last night but she wasn't sure if she was crossing a line, she'd only been friends with the detective for a very short time.

"So how are things with…Sharon?" Traci asked as she opened her water and picked at her salad.

Holly grinned, Traci had got that almost right. And Holly had been very pleased when her sexuality, once out in the open with her new friend, became a non-issue. There was always that niggle of concern over what someone thought of her when she told them but so far her new friends were taking it in their stride.

"Karen." She corrected. "And they fizzed out the minute she asked what I did for a living."

Traci gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry."

Holly chuckled and shook her head, clearly not broken up over it. "I'm new to Toronto Traci, I wasn't looking for anything more than a bit of fun." She explained.

"Well good." Traci smiled back at her friend. "How did you find last night?" It had been the first time Holly had been to the Penny and met the gang outside of work.

Holly had her opening but she gave the younger woman and cautious look before replying. "Eventful." She started with. "I never knew Steve had a sister."

Traci sighed and waited to answer that while she ate. "That's a difficult situation, he doesn't like talking about it." And she didn't like thinking about it.

"When I mentioned her name back at the lab I couldn't stop people telling me about her." Holly confessed. "I was just looking for some facts to go with all the watering hole gossip." She gave her friend a wry grin.

Traci sighed and looked around the small café they were in. She was down at the labs waiting on a trace report that hadn't finished yet and stopped in to see if Holly had time to catch lunch while she waited to prevent her going back to 15 and having to come back for the report.

She had to concede that if Holly didn't hear the truth from her she'd have plenty of other people willing to give her their take on the events that left Jerry dead and Gail out of uniform.

"Jerry Barber was my fiancé, we were two weeks from getting married," Traci said, her voice quiet and steady. "He, Gail and Oliver Shaw were out to pick up one of his CI's who had missed a meet up with him the previous day. Jerry was planning on taking down a neighbourhood drug dealer, this guy was a junkie and gave up his supplier to keep himself out of a possession charge." She continued.

Holly watched closely as her friend spoke. She'd heard that Detective Barber's death had been the reason for Gail Peck's dismissal from the force.

"Three hours after they left for the arrest, Gail calls in, Jerry had been shot twice in the chest, Oliver in the chest and thigh." Traci was almost emotionless as she spoke. "Jerry died before anyone got there, Oliver was in a medical induced coma for over a week before he was well enough to be conscious."

Holly almost wished she hadn't asked, no one had mentioned that Traci had such a personal connection to Gail losing her job.

But she couldn't make herself stop the other woman.

"When the dust settled Gail had explained that she hadn't been on the scene when Oliver and Jerry were shot. She point blank refused to give an answer as to where she was and when Oliver woke up he had trouble remembering. She was put in front of the discipline board and asked to explain her whereabouts one last time. The Super Intendant gave her a choice, give an explanation or hand over her gun and badge."

Holly's eyes widened.

"She just took off her badge and gun and walked out the door." Traci continued.

"Wow." Was all Holly could say.

Traci shook her head and went back to her food.

"I'm sorry about your fiancé." Holly offered as she decided to leave the questions and follow Traci's lead by continuing with her lunch.

"Thank you." It was still hard for Traci but life went on. "The thing was that the Super Intendant was Elaine Peck,"

"Gail's mom?" Holly blurted out in shock.

Traci nodded. "Yeah, the sad thing about it was that Steve was sure his mom was bluffing, that they just needed Gail to give a full account of the events that left a detective dead and a very much loved senior officer fighting for his life."

"She bluffed?"

"And lost." Traci replied quietly. "We all lost I think." She added with her head down and her eyes on her food.

Holly let them both finish their food as she tried to take in what she'd just been told.

Traci wiped her hands and got up to put her rubbish in the bin, when she sat back down she could still see the questions in Holly's eyes.

"So, as you know, Steve works the guns and gangs side, about three months after Gail walked out of 15 she turned up on some surveillance shots for another investigation. She had got a job as club security for a well know criminal by the name of Damien Wolf."

That's when something clicked with what Holly had been told at the lab. "And that's when the rumour that she set them up started?" She asked.

Traci winced, she didn't believe it and Steve swore blind that his sister would never do that, but the rest of the division weren't so sure. Still aren't.

"Yeah." She replied. "Not that I think that for a second, I went to the Academy with Gail and we worked together for a couple of years, she was a cop born and bred."

"Where do you think she was?" Holly had to ask.

Traci shrugged. The only people that knew the answer to that weren't saying. "She could have said she'd gone for coffee and she'd still have her badge." Traci said as she played with her water bottle.

"Really?" Holly asked, as they both got up to head back to the lab.

Traci nodded as they left the café and walked out into the street. "Happens all the time, she was the lowest ranking officer which meant she was at Jerry and Oliver's beck and call."

"So her mother really had been bluffing."

"Yeah."

"Then why not just say that, why walk away?" Holly asked with a frown. "That doesn't make sense."

"You don't know Elaine Peck, Gail would literally shut down whenever she was mentioned or worse, when she turned up at the station." Traci paused as she opened the front door for Holly as they entered the forensic building that was just about a block from police headquarters. "That woman is a really piece of work."

Holly nodded. "I had the displeasure." She told Traci. "She came down on my second day, just stood there in front of me, when I asked if there was anything she needed she told me that if my findings didn't hold up in court that I should go back to whatever town I came from."

"Oh yeah, sounds about right." Traci said, unable to keep in a chuckle as she pictured Elaine Peck laying down the rules to the new senior pathologist in town.

"You Toronto folk do know Vancouver is a city now, right?"

Traci laughed at the bewildered look she was getting. And she had to wonder how Elaine Peck had reacted to Holly, who was always methodical and very intelligent in all of their dealings together.

"Right?"

xxxxxx

Chris was working the front desk when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. Checking to make sure his attention wasn't required elsewhere he took it out and answered it after checking to see who was calling him.

Aaron Samuels.

What an asshole.

"Hey buddy!" He said as he answered the call. He listened to the 27 Division officer as he mentioned their talk last night about pulling bodies out of the lake. Turns out Samuels just got called out to a body washing up. "No way! That's freaky…hey, it wasn't a kid was it?" He asked sounding concerned. "Homeless? Oh, probably never get any ID then, just another John Doe, poor bastard."

As he was talking to Aaron, Chris took a few coded notes on a spare sheet of paper nearby.

"Yeah, longer they take to find, the worse they smell, gross man." Chris spotted Chloe making her way over with his coffee. "Hey, listen I gotta go…yeah we're still on for tonight, yeah, see you then." He said before hanging up and smiling to his colleague.

"Here you go." Chloe said placing his drink into his hands as she moved over to her own seat and sat down with her own drink, herbal tea.

When she twisted in her seat she spotted the markings on the paper next to Chris, it looked almost like the shorthand they taught at the Academy but wasn't.

"What's that?" She asked shifting closer.

Chris looked up from his texting. "Hm?"

"That?" Chloe repeated as she pointed.

Chris tried not to react as he realised what she was looking at. "Oh, that." He picked it up and quickly folded it over and placed it into his notebook. "Just some," Chris came up blank but a civilian just walked in and he stood up, straightening his uniform.

"Hello sir, how can I help?" He asked as the man came over and told him his car had been stolen while he'd been in a shop. "Let me get my forms for that sir, and we'll see what we can do." He told the man with a smile.

Chloe watched, her eyes flicking to Chris' notebook but then the phone rang and her attention went back to her work. "Hello, this is Officer Price, how may I help?"

xxxxxx

Gail threw her hand down onto the table where she sat with Dieter, Kurt and two of Dieter's guys. Romi sat at her shoulder not allowed to join the game but with Anan busy he was free to stick around until Gail told him to go.

"I'm out." She muttered picking up a handful of nuts and throwing them into her mouth.

She glanced at Romi and shook her empty glass. He rolled his eyes but took her glass and wandered off to the bar. "That was a shit hand Dieter, you stacking the deck?" She asked him seriously as she was down to her last few hundred bucks.

Dieter only grinned at her as he continued the game, soon Kurt and Jason had thrown their cards down as well leaving him facing Alexander who pushed more money into the pot. A few back and forth increases between them and the pot totalled several thousand dollars.

"Let's see them." Alexander said turning his cards over.

Dieter winced and threw his cards face down. "Shit!"

The rest of the table laughed as Alexander pulled the cash closer to himself.

Romi came back and Gail took her drink. "Thanks." She took a drink then looked back at her table mates. "So are we doing this then?" She asked. It was getting late.

Dieter looked at Romi for a second then back at Gail. "Numbers?" He asked her.

Gail knew he was trying to tell her not to include Romi but Dieter didn't need to worry because she never had any intention of allowing him to go with her.

"Just me, Kurt to drive, and one other person." She replied. Then smiled at Alexander. "I think I'll take Lucky."

Alexander's eyes narrowed but then he smiled and gave her a nod. "No problem."

Gail then looked back at Dieter. "It wasn't a positive ID, so this might be a bust."

"And it might not." Dieter replied as he picked up his cards and put them back into their box. The fun was over and the real work was about to start.

"Here's hoping." She agreed and finished off her drink. They were going to a lot of trouble and getting it wrong was going to put a dent on Wolf's bid to get his hands on that last package.

Gail stood from her seat and so too did Romi. She eyed Kurt. "Pick up at 3?"

"Ja." He replied then lifted his drink to her. "Bravo!" Then the rest of the table lifted their drinks and echoed the salute before downing their drinks, smacking the empty glasses back onto the table.

Gail chuckled and turned to leave as laughter broke out around the table. "Fucking assholes." She muttered good naturedly as Romi joined her and they left the bar and walked over to her car. Given the amount of alcohol she had drank she planned on sleeping until she was needed.

Romi opened the passenger door for his friend then ran around to the driver's side.

"So I'm not going am I?" He had to ask.

Gail smiled, her eyes closed and her head back against her seat. "Oh, hell no!" She told him. "That's more than my life's worth." Not only would Anan actually kill her this time, she never wanted this level of crazy to be part of the boy's life.

Romi grinned at his friend. "Hey, I wouldn't have told him!" He said trying to convince the blonde to let him come.

Gail waved her hand around in front of her. "Gun's, dead bodies, it's not your thing Romi." Then she sighed and opened her eyes to look at him. "Besides, I need you on something else." She confessed.

"Yeah?" Romi couldn't keep the excitement from his voice.

Gail groaned then she looked at him, watched as he drove them back to her apartment where he'd be staying until she returned from the job sometime in the morning.

He reminded her so much of Chris Diaz.

"You need me to tail someone? Or drop off a payment?" He asked quickly, eager to know what his friend needed from him. With his brother away for the next few days he didn't have anyone to stop him.

Gail snorted. "Yeah sure," She pushed his shoulder as she shook her head. "No, you're going to sit in my apartment and play on my computer tough guy."

"Oh, come on!"

Gail grinned as they arrived at her apartment building and Romi took them into the underground parking lot.

"We all gotta start somewhere kid."

Romi frowned at his friend but he couldn't stay mad at the blonde. As he shut off the car he came around and slipped his arm around her shoulder as she leaned into him.

They looked very much like a couple as they giggled their way to the lift bank and made their way up to Gail's floor.

Romi smiled as Gail leaned into him tiredly as they waited to get to her floor. He put his arms around her and hugged her close.

He pressed his lips to her forehead just as the lift stopped and dinged before the doors opened.

He let Gail go and followed the blonde to her door.

As much as he wanted to listen to her and do what she wanted, he also didn't want Gail to walk out the door later tonight and for him to never see her again. Anan wasn't around to look out for her so maybe he could.

"It's just a body pick up." He tried again.

Gail chuckled, it wasn't just a body pick up, it was a little more complicated than that. "The answers still no." She said fumbling with the door.

"I can stay in the car with Kurt." He offered as they entered her apartment.

"No."

"Please Bravo?"

"Nope." Gail continued as she flopped face down on her sofa. If she could get an hour or two she just might have the brain function to get through her job later without getting caught.

Romi sighed and came over and sat down on the floor beside her as she placed her gun down next to him, still within reach.

"I'll go to summer school." He played his best hand, she'd been trying to get him to commit to graduate school after the summer but he wanted to come work with her and Anan.

Gail opened an eyelid and saw his pleading look. Kurt was a great driver, he knew what to look for and when to cut his losses and leave before he couldn't.

And he wasn't bad with a gun either.

Romi saw a smile creep over Gail's face. "Really?"

Gail turned her face back into the cushion to hide her grin.

"Maybe."

"Yes!"