Part 43

Once Gail had lead Steve far enough away from Holly's car she spun him around. "What the hell do you want?"

Steve put his hands up trying to placate his angry sister. "Your help, believe it or not." He told her.

"I thought I warned you to stay away from Holly, or wasn't I clear enough." Gail said, not happy with Holly being used to get to her yet again. "I can be more direct if that's what it'll take for you to get it through your thick head." She warned.

Steve sighed and dug into his leather bag and pulled out a file. He handed it over to Gail, then waited for her to open it. "His name is Dieter Alstrom, 5 years with Vancouver PD, this was meant to be his last undercover assignment before taking his position with their gangs unit."

Gail leafed through the information with little interest and then held it out to her brother. "What. Do. You. Want?"

Steve took back the file and tucked it away. "His handler hasn't had any contact with him for nearly two weeks now. They've tried his cover house but no luck there either."

Gail kept her face expressionless as she crossed her arms over her chest. "What's this got to do with me? Or why I should ignore you giving Holly more problems?"

Steve stared at his sister for a long moment. "He's a cop Gail." He watched her shrug. "He's missing and he's got a family back home that don't want to be on the receiving end of a knock on the door."

Gail's eyes narrowed. Her brother was using family in the loose term of the word. She knew for a fact that Dieter didn't have family other than an older brother that worked in Alaska and a father he hadn't spoken to since he was a teenager.

This kind of undercover work was never offered to cops with wives and children at home.

"Sorry I couldn't help, now stay away from Holly." Gail said as she turned to leave.

Steve reached out and grabbed Gail's arm. "I know you know this guy Gail, I've seen the pictures Sam had taken."

Gail shrugged his hand off. "Why should I give a damn what some undercover cop is doing right now Steve, maybe he's off the grid because he stole something from his so-called boss and has decided to disappear. Ever thought about that?"

Steve hadn't and it showed on his face.

"How long has he been undercover Steven? Would you trust him to do the right thing?" Gail went on. "Would you put your life in his hands?"

That sent a shiver down Steve's back. He didn't know Dieter, and he didn't know if he could be trusted after so long undercover. Six months was the longest Steve had ever been undercover for a case and even then he had a partner right there alongside him to keep both of their heads in the right frame of mind when drugs, women and money were flowing all around them.

He knew it was easy to get caught up in that. It was one of the reasons he'd only done the bare minimum to get him to where he wanted his career to go.

"Is he dead?" Steve had to ask as his sister turned away again.

Gail paused and turned to face her brother. Once upon a time she trusted no one more than she trusted Steve. "And what if he is?" She asked. She genuinely didn't know if he was but she also didn't care.

Steve paled. However he imagined this conversation going, this wasn't it. He'd been hoping that by talking to Gail about Dieter he'd convince her that Wolf was too dangerous and had to be taken down. That Gail would now do what was right. "What's happened to you Gail?" He had to ask.

Gail stepped back towards her brother. "Dieter has been working this for how long Steve? You know him well enough to go to bat for him? Like you did Bibby?"

Steve winced at the name of his ex-partner.

From the look on her brother's face, the flash of doubt that she'd created, Gail knew she had his complete attention. And she didn't care if this was some game anymore and he had a wire on under his shirt.

Gail took another step closer and straightened Steve's lapel. "Dieter, whatever his last name is, found out about your little trap with Holly and went to Wolf with that information, which, how did he know that exactly?" She watched Steve frown before going on, "Which is besides the point right now, I get it, anyway, do you know what your friend Dieter told Wolf to do about having a snitch around?"

Steve's eyes widened and he swallowed thickly.

"He told Wolf that she should be killed." Gail explained then slapped her brother lightly on his cheek with her hand. "So forgive me for not giving a shit if he turns up alive or dead."

She then smoothed Steve's jacket down then turned and headed back for Holly. "And have a nice rest of your day Steven."

Steve just watched her go.

Blackstone had thought Steve would be wasting his time talking to Gail but he still gave him the file on Alstrom's undercover assignment. Because in the end there was a cop missing and right now Blackstone couldn't do anything about it, there was too much going on to raid Wolf's properties and try and pull Dieter out.

If he was still alive to save.

Steve wasn't sure what he'd say to Jacob back at 15, the fate of Dieter Alstrom was out of both their hands until he turned up on his own. Alive or dead.

xxxxxxx

Holly kept giving Gail looks as they drove but the blonde would only give her directions as to where they were going, nothing about what Steve Peck had wanted with her. They'd picked up Emily not far from Gail's bar but the girl was silent in the back.

Detective Peck had turned up asking Holly for help and after seeing a picture of Dieter, Holly had reluctantly agreed and allowed Steve to come with her as she met up with Gail.

She knew it was probably the wrong decision even as she was making it but did Holly really deserve the silent treatment.

"Park over there." Gail said, waiting for the car to come to a halt before getting out. "Let's go."

Holly looked over her shoulder to Emily but the girl just shrugged and did as she was told. Holly sighed but switched off the engine and got out as well. "Now what?" She asked as she moved to join the other two on the sidewalk.

"Keys." Gail said, holding her hand out for them as she pulled out her cell phone with the other and put it to her ear.

Holly handed them over with a frown.

"Come down stairs." Gail said into the phone before hanging up.

Emily went over and stood at the side of the building out of the way as Gail paced. She was nervous but didn't want to ask too many questions.

"Gail, what is going on?" Holly asked. "Gail?"

Gail rubbed at her face as she stopped pacing and walked over to Holly. "We'll go home and talk there okay." She asked, wanting to have her thoughts in order before she decided how to feel about this. Or more exact, how much she wanted to tell Holly about Dieter trying to get Wolf to take her out of the picture.

Gail knew Holly was dealing with enough fallout at work because of their relationship and Sam's meddling, not to mention her brother trying to get Holly to get some sort of confession on tape.

She'd already told Holly Dieter wasn't to be trusted and she already knew he was an undercover cop.

Holly folded her arms over her chest and scowled at Gail.

"Ah, you bring me presents!"

Gail rolled her eyes but was thankful of Kurt's arrival. Even if he did give Holly the creeps. Wanting to defuse any reaction from Kurt's sense of humour Gail quickly stepped between him and her girlfriend and held out Holly's car keys. "I need a full check on this, especially the back seat area."

Kurt pouted then accepted the keys. "Why no just replace car?" He asked. "I find you newer model ja?"

Gail took a deep breath, feeling Holly's outrage without having to look over her shoulder. And Emily's smirk didn't help matters. "No Kurt. Just this one time, can you do what I ask?"

"Boring. You ask for boring and time consuming, but for your pretty lady Bravo, I will do this." Kurt offered as he smiled over Gail to the brunette.

Holly looked away.

"Right. Great. Go." Gail told Kurt as he continued smiling at Holly and eventually gave him a little push to get him to go over to the car.

"When your pretty lady tires of you Bravo you send her my number ja?"

"Verpiss dich, bevor ich dich erschieße."

Kurt laughed hard as he got inside Holly's car and started it.

Gail sighed knowing she'd let Kurt get to her like he always did when it came to her private life. But he'd do as she asked and really that was all that mattered. Holly was already mad at her.

"Why'd he take the car?" Emily asked, once Kurt had driven off.

"We don't trust cops Emily, you know that." Gail replied before reaching for Holly's hand, letting out a breath of relief when the other woman accepted the move without screaming at her. "Even if that cop is my brother."

"Oh." Emily just looked between the pair not knowing what to say.

Holly however squeezed Gail's hand in sympathy. "So, what now?" She asked. Not wanting to consider why Gail was having her car checked out after Steve had been in the back seat.

Gail grinned and looked over at Emily. "What now Emily?"

Emily groaned and dragged her feet as they all started walking. "A bus?"

Gail chuckled. "To the bus stop." She proclaimed and gave Holly's a hand a little swing to get her girlfriend to smile.

Holly shook her head but didn't offer to call for a taxi, she knew by know that there'd be a reason from Gail as to why that wasn't the best idea.

"Maybe we do need a new car." Holly muttered to herself. She had no idea how long her car would be gone for and Gail still didn't have her car back.

With a grunt Gail agreed. "But until then we catch?"

"The bus." The other two replied.

Gail chuckled. She had them well trained. Even Kurt.

If only she could get Steve to fall in line as easily.

Or Dieter.

If he was still around.

xxxxx

Jacob Blackstone wasn't surprised when Steve Peck entered his office space unannounced.

"Let me guess," He started, closing the file he was reading as the other detective slumped into his visitor's chair. "It didn't go so well."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Actually she gave me reason to believe your undercover could be dead."

Blackstone straightened in his seat. "Come again?" He hadn't expected Gail Peck to say anything to her brother. Not when she was threatening to put her own mother in the SIU cross hairs.

Steve shifted to lean closer to Jacob. "Did you okay him talking to Wolf that Holly Stewart might be working with 15?" As he asked Steve watched Jake closely, looking for even the slightest twitch that he was about to lie.

Jacob tilted his head. "The pathologist?"

"My sister's girlfriend." Steve clarified.

Jacob sat back and the room fell quiet.

Now Steve would push CI's and undercover's when he felt it benefited his case, but he'd never outright try and have someone killed just because they were hindering his op.

But that's exactly what Gail was accusing Dieter of. And while Steve had no proof either way it'll be his first working theory should Dieter Alstrom's body turn up.

"Like I told you before, we haven't had contact with him for a couple of weeks. We thought it was just a precaution with the Dock bust on the horizon but I'll answer the question anyway." Jacob went on. "No, it's never been brought up. What had been discussed was getting your sister into a position where working with Dieter to bring down Damien would be in her best interest."

Steve snorted. They'd tried that themselves, and gone so far as to use Holly to do it as well but it had gotten them nowhere.

Jacob nodded. "Yeah, she basically told him to get fucked."

Steve couldn't help but grin a little at that. His sister was nothing if not stubborn. "But she didn't kill him for trying." He pointed out.

With a shrug Jacob opened his file back up. "No, she did not."

Knowing he was being dismissed, Steve got to his feet, pulling out the copy of Dieter's file Jacob had given him and tossed it onto the desk.

"I had to try." He muttered to himself then turned to leave.

Jacob watched him go. He couldn't use Steve for anything with this case, he was too well known. But he needed someone willing to ask some questions in and around the Wolf gang.

And he did know about a cop that was probably willing to take on just a role and look right at home mouthing off about Gail Peck.

He hesitated for only a second before picking up his desk phone and making the call.

"Swarek, my office first thing tomorrow." Then he hung up before his better sense could get to him.

Dieter knew the risks when he'd taken on this operation, knew that if they found out he was a cop they'd likely kill him. It was why he'd gone in alone.

Maybe that was on Dieter, or maybe it was on Jacob himself, either way when you danced with the Devil you had to either wait for the song to end or you learned to dance so the Devil didn't trip you up.

And Damien Wolf had been dancing to this song for a very long time.

Jacob had to wonder how Gail was doing in her own dance with the Devil. And if, in the end, she'd suffer the same fate Dieter had.

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AN/

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