Chapter 43: Sharing Suspicions

Franco's alarm went off the next morning at nine. When he rolled over to wake Christina she was already gone from bed. He shook his head and reached for his phone. Just as he was about to grab it and call Christina, he heard the front door open and then shut again. Chris walked into the bedroom in a tank top and joggers, sweating and drinking from a bottle of water. She took of her damp top and threw it in the laundry basket. Now in just her joggers and a sports bra, she went over to the dresser to get some clothes to wear for the day.

"I thought we agreed you didn't do morning runs" Franco said looking at her.

"We didn't agree on anything". She took her clothes and headed into the bathroom to shower.

"What if you had been late?"

"Am I?" she asked stopping just inside the bathroom door.

"No, but…"

"Then what's the problem, Franco?"

"Nothing. Nevermind" he said tossing back the covers. Chris shut the bathroom door and undressed for her shower. When he heard the water turn on, Franco grabbed his phone and called Monte. "Yeah. Is everything ready?" He listened for a minute as Monte gave him a rundown of the plan. "Good. That's perfect" he said pleased. "Yeah, we're getting ready now. We'll be there by ten thirty. Bueno. Hasta luego" (Good. See you later). He hung up the phone then got up and went to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. He poured a bowl of cereal and opened the frig to get some milk. That's when he saw the box of Chris' left over pizza. He figured that's where she must've gone on her "date". He grabbed the milk poured some over his cereal and returned it to the frig. He took his bowl and went back to the bedroom just as Chris was coming out of the bathroom. "So you went to Alicia's yesterday?" he asked sitting on the bed eating his breakfast. "For your date?"

"Yep" she answered nonchalantly.

"With who?"

"A new friend".

"Who?"

"Why?" she asked turning to look at him. "Why do you wanna know?"

"You're making me look bad".

"How am I doing that exactly?" she asked folding her arms over her chest.

"The guys are asking me why you're going out with other guys. They're laughing at me; they think I'm a joke because I can't control my woman" he said angrily. "How do you expect me to get any respect in the crew? To move up the latter, get some status?"

"You seem to be doing just fine despite your….lack of control of your woman".

"What's that supposed to mean?" She shrugged her shoulders. He sighed and shook his head before getting up from the bed. He set his bowl down on the night stand and went into the bathroom. Chris rolled her eyes and headed to the kitchen. She made herself a cup of coffee from the pot that Franco had put on. When he came out of the bedroom fifteen minutes later, she was sitting on the couch on her phone. "Who you talking to?" he asked.

"None of your business, Franco?" she snapped. "Stop asking me questions". She got up from the couch and headed out of the apartment. She went downstairs and waited on the front steps for him to come down. Franco made himself a cup of coffee to take with him and headed out. They met up with Ernesto and Monte at Ernesto's apartment. From there, they drove to the house that Chris had gone to the night before to supervisor the girls. They loaded Monte's car with cash and drugs and then took it to the club. They unloaded all of the cash and some of the drugs and Monte locked it in the safe. From there, they drove to another house and unloaded the rest of the drugs. There, Christina met the rest of the crew. There was Adrian, Richie, Gabe, Rosita, and Marisol. She could see that Franco was already known to them. Even though it was Ernesto and Monte doing all the talking, they all looked to Franco. It was obvious the orders were really coming from him.

They got to work unloading each package and dividing them up between all of them. They double, triple and quadruple checked everything. They unpackaged, reweighed and repacked every bag to make sure they were all right. Franco watched as Chris continued to check her watch every five to minutes. He wondered where she had to be to keep checking the time. He went over to Monte and talked to him for a minute then Monte left the room. He came back a few minutes later with a package and went over to Christina. He gave her the package and another note with a new address and a name on it along with the keys to his truck. It was now twelve thirty. He said she had an hour to deliver the package and get back to the club. She gave Franco a look that he was all too familiar with before taking the note and the package and storming out the back door. Once she was gone, Franco started speaking more freely, taking a more active role in their preparations.

Chris pulled up to the address that Monte had given her. It'd taken her almost thirty minutes to get there. She walked up to the door, knocked and waited for an answer. A pregnant girl answered the door. She asked for the person whose name was on the note and said that Franco sent her. She said Franco's name on purpose, just testing her theory that it was really Franco, and not Monte or Ernesto, who was in charge. The girl didn't hesitate to let her in the door. She went inside to the back room where she got a contact high as soon as she walked through the door. She exchanged the package for a different package. She looked inside and saw cash. She fingered through the bills and guessed it was five thousand dollars, at the very least.

"Usted no confía en mí" he asked as she quickly counted the money. (You don't trust me?)

"Nada personal" she said closing the bag, "Es genial hacer negocios contigo". (Nothing personal. Nice doing business with you). She turned to leave when he called after her.

"Te llamas?" he asked. She stopped and turned back to look at him.

"Christina" she answered.

"Ah. Eres la chica de Franco". She nodded her head. "No estaba mintiendo" he said leaning over and nudging his friend with his elbow. His friend agreed. "Franco talks about you…..a lot" he added. (You're Franco's girl. He wasn't lying).

"Así que he oído" she said arrogantly. (So I've heard)

"Dar a Franco mis saludos. Dile que me debe una cerveza" (Give Franco my regards. Tell him he owes me a beer). Chris smiled and nodded then headed out of the house and back to the club, speeding all the way there. She got back to the club at one thirty five. She took the package inside and tossed it into Franco's lap before tossing Monte back his keys.

"Dante dijo que le debes una cerveza" she said standing in front of him (Dante said you owe him a beer). He picked up the package she'd just thrown at him and tossed it to Ernesto. He caught it and took it over to the safe, locking it in with all the cash that'd been put in earlier. "Are we done?" she asked looking at Franco. He looked up at her for a minute before looking to Monte.

"¿Somos?" (Are we?).

"Si" he said with a nod. Franco turned back to her.

"Si" he repeated. Christina scoffed and rolled her eyes before leaving out the back door again, slamming it on her way out. She walked a couple blocks away and got in a taxi. She had fifteen minutes to get to a pay phone and make the call in to her squad. She saw a pay phone that she thought was far enough away and told the cab driver to pull over. She gave him a twenty and asked him to wait before quickly getting out of the car and going over to the pay phone. There was someone already using it so she had to wait. She checked her watch and saw that she had only six minutes left before she'd be late. She waited impatiently for the man in front of her to finish his call. Meanwhile, the SVU squad was gathered in Sergeant Benson's office waiting for her call. It was three minutes until the deadline she'd given them and they were all on pins and needles.

"We should call Captain Hawes now" Amanda said breaking the silence. Olivia looked at her watch.

"She still has a couple minutes, Rollins" she said not wanting to rush.

"We really think two minutes is gonna make a difference?" Carisi asked. Olivia looked to Fin and he gave her a nod. She picked up her phone and started to dial Hawes' number. Just as she hit send, Amanda's phone started to ring. She quickly hung up the phone and Amanda answered hers.

"Hello" she said putting the caller on speaker.

"Hey, it's me" Chris said into the phone. They all breathed a sigh of relief.

"You cutting it pretty close there" Nick said, "had us worried".

"Yeah, the Sarg was just about to make the call".

"Well, don't" she said firmly. "I'm fine".

"So what's going on" Fin asked, "What took you so long to call?"

"I had a….we" she corrected herself, "had a job today".

"We" Amanda repeated. "So Franco went with you this time".

"Oh, he did more than go with me" she said.

"What do you mean?" Amaro asked confused by her statement.

"I think….I think Franco's dirty….." she said voicing her concerns out loud for the first time, "and I think he might've had something to do with what happened to Elena" she continued.

"You think?" he asked. "Or you know?" She thought carefully before answer.

"I know" she answered, "I know he's dirty and I know that's why Elena is gone. I don't know how much he had to do with it but he plays a part in it".

"Does he know that you know?" Fin asked.

"Yeah, he knows" she answered without hesitating.

"Alright it's time for you get outta there" Fin said quickly.

"No" Chris argued.

"Christina" Amanda said but Chris didn't give her a chance to say anything.

"I'm not coming in" she said firmly. "Not yet" she added. "I want….I need to find out what happened to her and what Franco had to do with it. I'm not coming in until I do".

"How do you know for sure that his hands aren't clean?" Nick asked. "Lay it out for us". She took a deep breath before starting to explain.

"My first job was to deliver a package to a guy named Alonzo. He knows Franco".

"Why is that weird?" Carisi asked. "Franco should know anyone who was involved with Elena, right?"

"Yeah, he should know them. But they shouldn't know him. And Alonzo, he's not in any files we have. Elena didn't put him in her notes and he's not in any intel we have on the crew she was working with. But he knows who Franco is". She looked over her shoulder to make sure her cab was still there. It was. "And he knows who I am" she added. "I met another guy today, Dante, and he knows me too. They both said that Franco has been talking about me. Franco wasn't under with Elena so the only way that they could know is if he's a player in the drug ring".

"Chris, don't be stupid about this" Fin said. "You gotta come in and let IAB handle it".

"Yeah" Carisi said agreeing. "I mean, I don't know as much about this whole undercover thing as Fin and Nick do but it doesn't sound smart for you to stay in with him. Especially if he had something to do with Elena's disappearance".

"They're right, Reyes" Benson said speaking up. "You need to end this now. Call Schiller and tell him what's going on".

"No. I can't" she said shaking her head. "I need to finish this".

"Hey mamacita" they heard on the other end of the phone.

"Que pasa?" Christina said obviously not talking to them. They heard the man's voice again but couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Chris?" Amanda said into to the phone. "Christina?"

"Sí. Sólo déjame terminar esta llamada" she said with the receiver to her ear. (Yeah. Just let me finish this call). "Hey" she said talking to her girlfriend and teammates.

"Who's there with you?" Nick asked.

"Yeah. I got it. I can pick it up later" she said telling him she couldn't answer his question outright.

"Someone you already met with?" he asked.

"Mhm hum" she mumbled.

"Dante?" he asked.

"No, not that one".

"Alonzo?"

"Sí. Que debería estar bien". (Yeah. That should be fine).

"How does he know where you are?" Fin asked.

"I have no idea. Let me look into it and I'll get back to you".

"Christina, you have to get out of there" Amanda said worriedly.

"No, it'll be fine. Just give me some time to check it out. I'll talk to you soon. Bye". Before they could say anything else, she hung up the phone.

"We have to go in for her" Amanda said.

"How?" Amaro asked. "We don't where she is or who she's with. Going in without that info could get her killed".

"He's right" Fin said in agreement. "We've gotta know when and where if we're gonna get her out. She's gotta call it, not us".

"So what do we do? Just sit around and wait for her disappear like Elena did?"

"There's nothing we can do?" Carisi asked.

"We wait for her to call back" Nick said. "That's all we can do right now". Amanda took her phone and stormed out of Olivia's office.

"Amanda" Fin said calling after her.

"Let her go" Olivia said. "You both know undercover, how it works" she said looking at Nick and Fin, "how long should we wait?"

"Well she has to check in with Schiller next week" Nick said.

"So we wait a whole week?" Carisi asked. "What if she's long gone by then, like Elena?"

"It's the only option we have" Fin said. "We wait for her to call back or to hear from Schiller, whichever comes first".

"Alright" Benson said with a nod. She dismissed them and told them to get back to work. She told Fin to keep an eye on Rollins, make sure she was okay. He assured her that he would. She was just as worried about her detective as the rest of her squad was. She hoped she wasn't making a mistake by waiting and not calling in to Captain Hawes immediately about the possibility that one of his detectives was dirty. All she could do now was wait and hope that her detectives' experience with undercover work was right.