Part 40

When it was all laid out bare in detail, there really wasn't much to be happy about. Certainly not enough to bring charges to anyone let alone justify warrants or searches anywhere.

A blown take down at the dock that was supposed to be a huge drug bust, yet after the dust settled and the drugs dogs had been through what was left, there wasn't a single hit of illegal drugs to be had.

Luke was still scratching his head over that one. "Do we have any talk on the streets?" He was a homicide detective and yeah, sometimes he took part in bigger operations, but he didn't have a lot of ears on the ground when it came to Wolf's gang.

What they had been suspected of doing at the docks with the Russians that night had all come from Steve Peck and a snitch in Wolf's gang that turned up shot to death and dumped in the lake. The day after the bust.

Jo shock her head. "Not even guns and gangs had anything but Peck's drug haul. That was the only chatter."

And when Mikka Kutzkov, a Russian mobster, had been flagged entering the country Steve Peck had got the green light for the take down. With the where and when given to Peck by his snitch 15 Division, ETF and even the water patrol had been drafted in for the operation, only for it to turn into a shootout that left them with dead police officers, dead Russians and ton of questions no one had found answers to. Yet.

"What about your contact at the boarder?" Luke asked, remembering that Jo was supposed to be having a meeting days ago about their mystery figure photographed with Gail and Wolf during surveillance on them.

Jo took the pen out of her mouth and shuffled through some of her note that were spread out on the table in front of them. "It was a dead end. Literally." She found the paper she was looking for and handed it over to Luke. "He got flagged at the Peace Bridge crossing for his car being unregistered. They ran his ID and everything checked out and they let him in from the US. Except my contact was nosey and something about our mystery man bugged him, so he dug a little deeper and found out the ID he'd been given was of a kid that had died nearly forty years ago."

"Say what?"

Jo grinned. "Yeah, fake ID, and a good one too."

Luke snorted and looked at Jo's notes. "Declan Thomas."

"He had a drivers licence, a passport, and they both passed." Jo explained. "Said it was his friends car that he was driving it up to him and that it'd be registered in a few days." Then she shrugged. "Border patrol gave him twenty-eight days or it'd be impounded."

"And they let him in." Luke knew that border crossings were high pressure and high volume. If they weren't any other indicators and this so-called Declan had a Canadian passport that was genuine enough to pass inspection, you'd let it go.

"Sure. When I got in touch they were wanting to chase up the registration fee, maybe take it to court." Jo shrugged. "Told them it was a lost cause, and we've got bigger fish to fry with this one so…"

Luke made a noise and looked at the photocopies of the fake ID. "Maybe not. Tell you what, why don't I kick this over to Fraud and see what they can dig up. The name and address might be fake but the IDs are quality if they passed at the border, and quality like that isn't easy or cheap to come by."

"Whatever." Jo didn't care it wasn't what she wanted, sure it might be a way to arrest the guy but they still had little to link him or even Gail to any serious crimes.

And that was the sticking point, no matter what they thought they knew, without someone coming up with the physical evidence linking it all together all they had were parts of the puzzle. Parts that didn't even fit with each other.

Luke pushed that to the side for now, he'd hand it off when they were done. "Okay, what next?"

"Let's start with the morgue, there we actually have some leads, they don't get us any closer to Wolf's gang but it's the best we have." Jo went over to the stack of boxes holding all their notes and evidence files from the dock bust and the morgue break in. She lifted one of the marked boxes and placed it on the table next to Luke and then retrieved another before sitting back down. She pulled out the first few files and skimmed them.

"Let's start with the security guard. Darren Ritchie. Worked there three years and takes off soon after the break in." Luke said before Jo could start with any theory she'd listened to from Sam Swarek. "Just stick with the facts."

Jo rolled her eyes but pulled up her information on where their disappearing night guard. "Ritchie is still in the States as far as we can know, left two days after we interviewed him. And by 'we' I mean a uni because why would a detective bother with the guy with full access to the morgue and cameras, right?" She asked with a fake smile.

Luke sighed. "Did the financials come back on him yet?" Because they had nothing else to go on, the guy had no connection in Toronto, no roommates, no significant other, no friends or family.

Jo could believe her eyes when she pulled open the financial report. "Wow."

"What?" Luke asked as Jo slapped down a sheet of the report down in front of him.

Jo snorted. "Half a million dollars just popped into his damn bank account." That was what.

"No kidding?" Luke asked picking the report up to read the details for himself. "How the hell did we miss that one?"

Jo shook her head as she reached for the phone beside her. "Don't know, and don't care right now. What I want is the details on that transfer and to see where that gets us."

Nodding along Luke saw that money had been taken out from Ritchie's account since his departure from Toronto.

"If we're lucky it might even lead right back to Wolf himself." Jo said with a grin.

Luke ignored her, happy for the moment that they at least had a new direction to take the investigation. He doubted it would be as easy as Jo thought to make the connection, you don't get far as a criminal if you do everything using your own personal bank accounts.

But it was a lead, one he'd take and run with, because at the end of whatever account or company that did make that deposit into Ritchie's bank account was a name.

A name they were going to add to an arrest warrant.

xxxxx

"Oww, that hurts!" Romi complained at the stinging of his face.

"Then hold still." Gail muttered trying to stem the bleeding above his eye as a waitress silently placed down a stack of napkins. "You'll live." She told him as she replaced the blood soaked ones with fresh napkins and saw the worst seemed to be over. "Doesn't even need a stich."

"Who's the kid?" He asked glaring at the girl that had punched him moments earlier.

Gail stared at Emily, standing nervously at the exit as she and Romi stood by the counter trying to fix Romi's face. "She's not that much younger than you, and you shouldn't have spooked her."

He only now noticed the girl at the door was paler than Gail and that was a feat in and of itself. But she also looked ready to bolt. "Didn't mean to, I was just coming over to you." He'd been late because he'd had to get the bus and spotted Gail seated inside the café already.

He hadn't even saw the girl as he slid into the booth across from Gail and inadvertently right in to a fist to the face.

"Mm, well her name is Emily and you can go apologise now." Gail told him before dropping a hefty tip on the counter for the hassle from the blood and yelling. One of the regulars behind the counter gave her a smile as she scooped it up. Gail winked at her and turned to face her friend.

"Me? She's the one that hit me, why should I be the one saying sorry?" He asked, slightly indignant, as he wiped the remaining blood from his face. She'd caught him on the corner of his right eyebrow.

Gail gave Romi a serious look. "Then take off, because she doesn't need to deal with your attitude right now." She told him before heading over to Emily, shaking her head in disappointment as she went.

"He okay?" Emily asked in a whisper as she followed Gail out of the café and onto the street.

With a snort Gail headed in the direction of her apartment. "Yeah, nice hook by the way, got him above the eye."

Emily swallowed down her nerves, glancing back but not seeing the guy she'd hit following after them. "I was aiming for his nose."

Gail grinned at her. "Really?"

Emily shrugged. "Is he okay?"

"He's fine, I told him to go though." Gail said, explaining his absence. "He had the morning off so I didn't think hanging out would be a problem." She went on. "Sorry about that, I should have warned you he was coming."

Glancing behind them one last time, Emily finally started to relax knowing they weren't being followed. "Is he mad?" She asked softly.

Gail stopped cold on hearing the hint of worry in the girl's voice. She leaned closer to Emily but the girl kept looking away. Gail gently laid her hand on Emily's shoulder. "No he's not mad. I'm mad, at myself for even telling Romi he could come for coffee." She'd thought given he was the closest person in age to Emily that Romi might be able to help her keep the girl entertained for a few hours while Holly was at work.

"I didn't mean to hit him." Emily told Gail with a blush to her cheeks. "I just-"

"You just reacted." Gail finished for her. Because Romi hadn't seen Emily sat there and his sudden appearance had frighten Emily. "You did good." Told her and started for her apartment block. At least in her apartment Emily could relax and just Netflx or something, maybe play Death Domain with her. She should have thought of doing that first but then Romi had texted her and the idea of coffee had made up her mind.

Emily didn't look convinced as she walked beside Gail. "Yeah?"

With a chuckle Gail guided the girl through the front of her building. "Yeah." She agreed then offered, "But your technique needs so work, we can fix it so you hit where you aim."

Emily huffed and crossed her arms, lowering her head slightly as they made their way past a doorman and stopped by the elevators. "Where are we going?"

"You only thought to ask now?" The car arrived and they both got on and Gail pressed the bottom for her floor.

"You live here?" Emily asked. It was that or they were going to see someone else, and after the incident in the café Emily was sure that wasn't going to happen.

They got off when the car stopped and Gail walked Emily down a corridor before moving to a door with her keys. "Behold, my humble abode." She said, bowing with a flourish as the door swung open.

"You're an idiot." Emily muttered but stepped inside anyway. She looked around the front room, the TV was huge and the place looked nice. Expensive actually. "Sweet." She said taking a cautious seat on the couch and switching on the TV with the remote she saw on the coffee table.

Gail locked the door behind then and pulled off her jacket, tossing it at Emily as she passed and headed for her bedroom. "Yea, well don't be too impressed. If you want to eat we'll have to order in." Because as usual she had little in the kitchen in the way of food.

Gail left her bedroom door ajar as she quickly took the opportunity to change her clothes. She'd showered at Holly's but she didn't have a spare clothes and Holly's weren't really her style but they had done in a push. Even Emily had ended up borrowing an old sweatshirt from Holly.

"Gail, hey Gail, your jacket is buzzing!" Emily called out from the couch.

Throwing her dirty top and jeans in the wash basket, Gail headed back into the front room. "Thanks." She said as she searched her jacket pockets for her phone. It was probably just Romi but it might have been Holly and Gail didn't want to ignore her girlfriend's call.

The number on her screen wasn't as familiar as Romi's or Holly's but she did recognise it.

Oliver Shaw was calling her. She found a grin and answered the call. "Tell me the good news."

xxxxx

Andy almost choked on her sandwich. "What?" She couldn't have heard that right.

"Oh my god, you are pregnant." Traci said on seeing the panicked look on her friends face.

"I, what, who told you that?"

With a look of sympathy Traci laid her hand on Andy's arm. "Sam told SIU." She explained, glad they had the staff room to themselves for break.

Andy closed her eyes. "Of course he did." She muttered.

"He gave that and your break up as part of the reason for his recent behaviour." Traci explained. "It looks to have got him out of losing his badge and he'll be transferred to another division instead. After his suspension."

"He's blaming me?" Andy asked, angry at being used to get Sam out of trouble.

Traci gave her a helpless look.

Andy sighed and slumped in her seat. "I don't know why I'm surprised, Sam only cares about Sam after all." She said with a snort as she picked up her food again. She was done letting Sam make her feel guilty.

Traci gave her friend a few moments before asking again with a grin edging onto her lips, "So you are?"

Andy narrowed her eyes as Traci smiled widely at her. "Yes, Traci but it's still early and unlike Sam this isn't something I wanted everyone to know about yet." Not for another few weeks at least.

The only person she thought knew besides Sam was Nick and she knew he wasn't going to share her news with anyone. Not when he'd just been released from hospital and was facing his own problems at work.

"Did you know Sam wanted me to get rid of it?" Andy said quietly, her hand automatically dropping to her stomach. She gave Traci a defiant look, the same one she'd given Sam when she'd left him.

"And yeah, this wasn't in my plans right now, especially not on my own… but it is what it is." Andy said. "We'll be fine without him."

Traci reached over and covered Andy's hand laid on the table. "Of course you will be. And you have me, and Dov and even Chloe if you want her."

Andy laughed. "Maybe." She liked the idea that her friends would be there to support her, even Chloe, but it was still a scary prospect. She'd grown up in a single parent household and see first-hand how difficult it could be watching Traci with Leo.

"Hey, don't knock Chloe yet, you just know she'll offer to babysit anytime you need." Traci said having already witnessed Chloe fawn over children and offer to watch any if there was a reason to interview parents privately. The girl loved kids.

Silently Andy agreed with her friend but right now she had other worries. "Are they really not going to do anything to Sam?" She asked lowering her voice, conscious that anyone could walk in on them.

Traci sighed and shook her head. "It doesn't look like it. He'll have all of this on his jacket and it'll probably prevent any promotion chances he might have had."

"But he still keeps his job."

"Yeah." Traci replied. "They're reviewing a bunch of his recent cases but if they don't find anything wrong he'll be back. Just not here."

Andy shook her head. Of course Sam had talked himself out of it. "Gail's not going to react well to that, is she?"

"No, probably not." Traci didn't think the news would be welcomed by Gail any better than it was by Andy. Except Gail had more reason to be angry. "Oliver is going to let her know today." About Sam's transfer and his use of her garage key.

They were both left to ponder what the consequences of Sam's actions would be.

"You do know none of Sam's actions have anything to do with you, right?" Traci asked her friend. "Sam was only going to stop going after Gail if he could arrest her or if someone made him stop."

Andy shrugged. He might be the father of her unborn child but she knew how stubborn Sam could be, even if he had lost his job she wasn't sure that would make him see sense when it came to Gail Peck. "He's still going to be a detective Trace." After everything he had done, the harassment, the arrests that never held up, pulling Nick into his scheme to prove Gail guilty of something. Anything. "He's like a dog with a bone when it comes to Gail."

Traci shook her head. "Sam's already lost you, this child, and only barely held on to his job. You really think he'll risk losing the one thing he has left?"

Andy didn't know for sure, but the man she'd fallen for hadn't been acting very rationally for the last few weeks. "Let's hope for his sake that he lets it go."

But even as she said the words, knowing Sam the way she did, she didn't think that it would be that easy.

And no one knew what Gail would do either, even if Sam was going to end it there it wasn't a guarantee that Gail would.

Traci knew it was Oliver that was left to try and defuse the situation, spin it to Gail in a way that made it seem like Sam was being severely reprimanded for his actions. Gail could still press charges if she wanted, maybe that would be enough of a threat to keep Sam on a leash.

For a while at least.

xxxxx

AN/

Thanks for reading. Holly returns next chapter.

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