Part 8

Sam paced up and down the parade room, he had pictures of Damien Wolf and Gail Peck up on the board along with recent pictures of other known and unknown associates, ranging from club workers to people that had been caught with either Gail or Damien during surveillance operations.

"We have to bring her in for questioning at the very least." He told Frank as he eyed the rest of the room.

Detective Jo Rosati was in the back sat with Callaghan listening and she glanced uncomfortably at Luke. Chris, Dov and Andy were also sat in the room.

Frank Best had listened to Sam continue on about his theory that Gail Peck was somehow one of the individuals that had robbed the morgue of a dead body all morning. He had also listened to Superintendent Elaine Peck chew his ear off after a letter of complaint over Officer Collins' treatment of Gail had landed on her desk first thing. She had strongly suggested that he handle his officers properly or someone else would be there by the end of shift today to do it for him.

"Come on Frank, you know she's involved." Sam added as Frank remained in his seat.

Frank sighed and got up. He strode to the front of the room and took Gail's picture off of the board.

He gave Sam a look then dropped the picture onto the desk where his three uniformed officers were sat. "Actually I don't." He answered Sam before looking around at the rest of the faces in the room. "What we do know is that a body has been taken from the morgue and that a member of the forensic team interrupted 'them' and as a result was tied to a chair and gagged for hours."

Frank lifted a hand up to Sam. "Tell me you have finger prints, camera footage of her going in there, a witness statement placing her in the building, something Sam, I need something!" He told his friend with a scowl.

"I've had her god damn mother on the phone this morning threatening my job over Nick's stupid stunts and a lawyer that'll have my pension if I bring her in once more without cause!" He shouted into the room, and slammed his hand down onto the desk beside him. "So you give me something to place her there, and I'll have the ETF break down her fucking front door and drag her in here. Until that happens I don't want to hear Gail Peck's name one more time in connection with this case!"

He glared at everyone with steely eyes. "Am I clear?!"

There was a few mumbles and a sigh of defeat from Sam who waved his hands into the air before taking his own seat again.

"Right," Frank took a deep breath and glanced down the row of desks at Jo. "Let's take this from the start, with a fresh pair of eyes," He motioned for Jo to come out front. "And a little less assumption."

Jo cleared her throat and took Frank's place as he sat down. "Okay, so what do we know?" She asked moving to the white board and using the duster to clear it. She picked up a pen and started writing her own thoughts down of the case as she saw it.

"Let's start with the timeline shall we?" She wrote down 3.30am, followed by 4.14am, and then 5.35am. "The security guard is on camera doing his rounds in that hallway at three-thirty, and we know from the computer system that Dr Stewart submitted her report at exactly four-fourteen." She eyed everyone then tapped her pen at the final time point. "But she wasn't found until after rounds at five-thirty, what does this tell us?"

Chris frowned and glanced down at the sheet Sam had handed out. "What happened to the four-thirty check?" He muttered almost to himself.

"Exactly!" Jo smiled and circled the times from 4.14am to 5.35am. "From the evidence that we have and Ms Stewart's statement, she literally bumped into the intruders moments after she sent that report, so why the gap?"

Chris shrugged, his cheeks flushed as he felt under pressure to have the answer to that as the blonde detective stared at him.

Andy frowned. "The static leaves the security cameras around that time, four-twenty eight maybe… maybe he was in the control room and switched them off from there?" She offered timidly, having no idea if that was even possible.

"Good, I like that!" Jo smiled, she needed alternative theories, not just Sam Swarek's insistence that it was all Gail Peck. Jo remembered the blonde from when she first transferred to 15 and Jo hadn't been overly impressed, at the time Andy McNally had been the clear stand out rookie.

"Have we checked into him, what's his name?" She asked, wanting to have it down on the board.

Chris glanced at the sheet again, eager to help but the security guards name was not there.

Frank gave Sam a disapproving look after checking the information on his own sheet.

Sighing Sam shifted in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's Darren something…" He trailed off as he didn't remember hearing a second name and Sam hadn't actually spoken to the guy either.

This was starting to look sloppy work by him even to Sam.

"I've got it." Dov said as he looked down at his memo book. He hadn't interview the guy but he had gone with him to collect the tapes. "Darren Ritchie, been working there for about three years now."

"Okay then," Jo wrote all of that down. "Now I want a thorough check on this guy, bank accounts, employment history, the works." She told the uniforms who all noted it down. "If we find anything on him it'll give us a reason as to why they knew where to go and why we don't have them on tape."

Frank took a moment and then nodded, it was a strong foundation to work from. Much better than Sam shouting about Gail to everyone. He got up from his chair needing to get back to his own work now that he had Jo starting over with the case. "Get to it then." He told them before catching Sam's eye. "My office."

Sam watched Frank leave and pulled himself to his feet, he went over to Jo. "I'm telling you, you connect that body to the drug bust at the Dock and you've got Gail Peck involved." He told her. "I don't even care if she was the one at the morgue or not, she's all over this, I know it." He maintained.

Jo shrugged. "I've read the report on that Sam, and you have one, one person who might have saw Peck there. From over a hundred and fifty feet. Looking directly into sets of headlights. And that one person happens to be her ex-boyfriend." She snorted at Sam and shook her head. "Forgive me if I don't hold my breath on anyone else ever saying she was there."

Sam shook his head in denial.

Jo sighed and stepped closer and lowered her voice, Sam might not have been her friend but he was a colleague, and for that alone she thought he deserved a bit of advice. "You got to stop this thing with Peck, Sam. We all miss Jerry, but you've got to move on."

Sam eyed Jo hard for a few seconds then smiled at her. He started to form a response but it stuck in his throat. His best friend was dead and Gail Peck had to answer for that. That's just the way it was.

He spun on his heel and left them to it.

Jo watched him go as Luke joined her. "If he isn't careful Collins won't be the only one facing suspension." She told him.

Luke shrugged. "He's Sam, he'll do it his own way no matter what anyone else tells him." He said as he nudged her shoulder and smiled at her. "Don't you think she's messed up in this?"

Jo shrugged back at him. "I don't really care if she is or if she isn't, I only care about what I can prove and we have nothing to place her at the scene and until we do, we follow what we do have."

Luke grinned at her. He knew she loved being in charge of cases like this, especially given how high profile it'll be if she manages to nail down some suspects. Arresting someone for this case with the possibility of pinning them to the dock shootings and the death of police officers would give the lead detective a free ticket to any job on any task force they wanted.

He knew Jo was professional and wouldn't go after Gail unless she had enough for a warrant, so maybe it was better that she took over from Sam. He watched her go over to the Andy and the others and tell them what she wanted.

Whatever the outcome, they'd do it right.

xxxxxx

Romi looked up from his computer as Gail paced around her apartment. "You're starting to make me nervous Bravo, try sitting down, yeah?" He even patted the cushion beside him but he knew she wasn't going to sit down.

Gail scowled at him then finished the beer in her hand before heading into her kitchen for another.

She twisted off the cap and took a swallow before moving closer to Romi again. "Are you sure you can't be traced?" She asked again. She watched him roll his eyes and continue typing. She frowned at him, even as she knew how good he was at this stuff, she just hated thinking that he could somehow get into serious trouble by doing this for her. She sat down across from him and ran her hand through her hair.

"Look I can get one of Dieter's guys to do this! I shouldn't have even asked you." She said as she shook her head at herself. She hadn't wanted him near this type of thing yet she'd let him come with her on her last job and now he was off somewhere in cyberspace for her, possibly being traced as they were sat there.

Snorting Romi smiled at his friend. "You really want to do something for me, I could do with a beer."

"No." Gail replied with a frown. It was bad enough she let him work in her bar, she wasn't going to encourage his drinking.

"Spoilsport."

Gail sighed and tried to relax as he continued to work. He really did know what he was doing, he'd been offered several jobs with high tech computing companies already, not to mention financial companies that wanted him to develop software algorithms for them.

"Do you know the amount of jail time you would do if you got caught doing this?" She asked him.

Romi looked at her over the screen of his laptop with a twinkle in his eyes. "You going to hand me in?" He asked, clearly amused by her comment. He watched her roll her blue eyes. "You know what they say, once a cop always a cop? Aren't you tempted?" He teased her.

"Shut up." She told him as she tried hard not to laugh. So maybe she did worry too much, but she couldn't help it.

"Hey! I'm in!" Romi told her in surprise as he sat up straighter.

"Already?" Gail asked as she shifted over to see the screen and the information for herself. As she looked over his shoulder there it was, account details with bogus names, assorted bank accounts, stateside and further abroad, it was all there. She nodded to herself, this was some of the information that had been on the cell she had received with her belongings at the station.

Things were definitely moving along now.

"That's a lot of money." Romi said as he checked the figures and did the math in his head.

Gail grinned. "Yeah well, easy come easy go." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper, she carefully unfolded it and put it in front of Romi. "I want these amounts deposited into these accounts, this one," She pointed to the only one that had been circled by her. "You need to do this one on midnight okay?" She stressed.

"Sure." Romi pulled up another window to work from on his computer. "You want me to use more than one of these accounts?" He asked her. "It'd take longer to notice."

Gail was already moving to pull on her jacket, with this taken care of she had something else to go see about. "No, just use one. I want them to notice." She grabbed her cell phone from the table and her keys. "Don't wait up, and remember…"

Romi kept his eyes on what he was doing as he answered, "Midnight, yeah, I got it." He'd given up asking where she was headed to but he had his suspicions. He stuck his hand up and waved it in her direction just before he heard the front door closing shut.

"Not sure what you did to piss off Bravo Mr Hill, but say goodbye to some of your hard earned cash!" Romi muttered as he started emptying one of the accounts on his screen.

xxxxxxx

After making several passes around the apartment building Gail finally entered and made her way to the emergency staircase, using that instead of the lift. While it didn't look like there was anyone watching the building she'd learned not to take chances.

She got off a floor above where she needed to be and had a walk around. The hallways were deserted, which she expected given the time, but it helped her relax. She went down two floors and checked that as well, again it was quiet and nothing set off any alarm bells for her.

Happy she made her way back up the staircase and out onto the floor Holly's apartment was on.

She knew where it was and how to get in, she'd checked the place out a couple of times before when she was checking into Dr Holly Stewart. This time however she was a little more invested.

If Holly had given up her name, she'd have some hard choices to make.

Glancing around once more as she stopped at Holly's front door, Gail pulled out her pick set and quickly set about gaining access to the apartment as quietly as she could. She hadn't spotted Holly's car outside but she wasn't sure how much that meant. She doubted Holly would have been in much state to drive herself home anyway.

Gail hadn't wanted to do what she had to the pathologist but her choices had been very limited at the time and she'd gone with the best idea she had to deal with their unexpected meeting.

She was sure the woman probably hated her and Gail wouldn't be surprised if she had confessed to knowing Gail had been the one to tie her up.

The door clicking open pulled Gail from her thoughts. It was time to start dealing with reality.

Gail slowly eased the door open and stepped in, closing it back over behind her.

The apartment was dark and if it wasn't for the two suitcases Gail spotted beside her she would have thought no one was home, but now she started forward, taking careful steps and keeping her eyes open.

As she came out of the hallway into the living space she noticed the blinds had been opened to let as much street light in as possible. Part of Gail's brain wondered if there was anyone positioned in the building across the street looking in. It made her stop in the shadows, her feet reluctant to continue.

A glance down the corridor and she saw the door to the bedroom. She wondered if Holly could sleep after this morning but maybe she'd gotten some medical help in that area, she was a doctor after all.

A noise from the couch made Gail still and hold her breath, but after a few seconds the blonde was stepping closer, not further away.

Just as she could see over the back of the couch Gail spotted Holly curled up asleep with a throw pulled tight around her. Her glasses were still on her face and her expression wasn't relaxed at all.

Softly Gail moved closer, her eyes cautiously flicking to the windows directly in front of her but she'd already come too far into the room now. If anyone was watching Gail had already been seen.

Carefully Gail kept coming, stopping every time Holly shifted restlessly, only to start moving again seconds later when Gail was sure the other woman hadn't woken.

Eventually Gail found herself stood in front of Holly looking down at her.

She sighed, thinking back to the suitcases out in the hallway. It was clear to the blonde that Holly had every intension of leaving the apartment tomorrow. Gail just had no idea if that would be for good or not, maybe Holly was going to stay with a friend or at a hotel?

But one thing it did mean was that Holly hadn't given her name to the police, not yet anyway. If she had they would have burst in here the moment Gail was close enough to cause real harm to the pathologist.

Gail took a seat on the coffee table and watched. She wandered what was going through the woman's head right now, and why she was out here instead of in her bedroom.

Holly shifted again, this time bringing her hand up to her face before turning onto her side with a groan.

Gail winced at how awkward the brunette looked. Carefully Gail reached over and gently eased the glasses off of Holly's face and set them down on the table beside her.

She needed to talk to Holly but maybe that could wait a few more hours.

Holly shifted again and it made Gail sigh, she hated that the woman was obviously having trouble sleeping and that she had been the cause of that distress.

"You weren't supposed to be there." She whispered to Holly before softly moving a few strands of hair out of the way of Holly's face as she stared at the other woman.

Waking her could wait for now Gail decided, as she got to her feet carefully.

First she had to look for some sort of clue as to where Holly was taking off to. If Gail couldn't do that tonight she'd have to get Romi over with her car and she'd have to follow her wherever she went.

As Gail stepped away from the couch and Holly she decided to leave the suitcases alone for now and try finding Holly's purse first. And as the hall table was empty Gail turned and started for the bedroom.

Something caught Gail's attention then, a noise or a shift in the air maybe. It made her start to turn back around just as she was struck on the head with enough force to knock her to the ground. The pain from the hit made her head spin but Gail shifted as quickly as she could onto her back just in time to raise and arm to deflect the second swing of a baseball bat.

Cursing herself for not bringing a weapon Gail did the only thing she could when Holly looked ready to take another swing at her, she kicked out with her feet. And she got lucky, catching Holly off balance and causing her to drop the bat and stumble away from her.

As the bat rolled passed her, Gail struggled over onto her hands, trying to get to her feet but a sharp pain shot up one arm causing her to bring it up to her chest. She got on to her knee and used her good arm to push up from the floor, but she was hit with a wave of nausea that made her collapse against the wall and do everything she could not to throw up.

After a moment she opened her eyes and looked across to see Holly on the floor a few feet away, staring back at her with terrified eyes. It made her clench her jaw tight and slump down. If Holly was going to call the cops, Gail was in no position to stop her, she probably wasn't in any condition to stand anytime soon either.

She groaned pitifully as another round of nausea hit her. She heard Holly move but Gail kept her eyes shut as tears stung them from the pain ringing in her head. She cradled her sore arm to her chest and then lifted her other hand up to the back of her head, not surprised at all when she felt blood.

"I fucking hate baseball!"

xxxxxx

AN/

Did you guys see the pics of Gail/Holly Aliyah/Charlotte?

Awesome or what?

Go check them out on tumblr or twitter if you haven't already!