DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 5

They pulled into the parking garage of the PAB and right away, Sharon's phone was ringing. She pulled her phone out of her purse and saw it was Chief Pope calling. She groaned and showed Andy who was calling before she answered it. "Commander Flynn," she stated as she waited for Pope to respond.

"I'll never get used to you answering your phone like that," Pope said as he sat in his office. That comment was getting a little old to hear, especially from him as Sharon rolled her eyes. Andy and Matthew got out of the car and waited patiently for Sharon to be finished.

Andy could hear her distinct tone as she sat there on the phone with Pope. He smiled and thought back to when she was in charge of FID. She had used that similar tone with him after he had shown up drunk at a crime scene. That was over 30 years ago and now look at him. Married to Sharon, a father again to Matthew. Andy sighed as he looked down at Matthew who was currently leaning up against the car.

He saw movement from Sharon and he knew she ended her phone conversation. Andy opened Sharon's door and she stepped out of the car.

"What did his holiness want?" Andy asked as she straightened out her jacket and grabbed her things. "The usual apology for calling us on our day off, then the run-around, and now he wants a meeting in his office this morning at 9," Sharon informed him.

"What did you tell him?" he asked her as they walked together with Matthew in front on them. "I told him I was in the middle of the case and if he needed anything from Major Crimes he knows where to find me," Sharon said with a straight face as they approached the elevators.

Andy grinned as they all stepped into the elevator. Matthew pressed the button for the 9th floor. Andy turned to Sharon and kissed her on the cheek as the doors closed. "So, Matthew, are you excited to be at work with us?" Sharon asked her son as the elevator stopped at the first floor. "Yes, plus I brought some things to keep me busy," Matthew answered as the doors opened and people started to enter the same elevator.

Andy saw her before Sharon did and placed his arm around Sharon's waist, clearing his throat. Sharon looked up and saw Winnie Davis step inside the elevator and she quickly grabbed Matthew and put him to the side of her.

Winnie Davis glared at them as she turned around and the elevator filled with more people. "I didn't know it was bring your child to work day today," she stated and Sharon bit her lip. Andy gripped Sharon's hand and she squeezed it instead of giving a response to Winnie Davis.

The doors opened on the 3rd floor and Winnie stepped out, not before getting another remark off. "Oh, that's right, the Major Crimes Division can do whatever they want," she said and walked away as the doors closed again.

Some officers were looking at Sharon and others were minding their own business and got off their respective floors. The elevator stopped at the 9th floor and Matthew stepped off followed by Sharon and Andy.

They made their way towards the office and Andy opened the door for them and followed them in. Sharon saw Provenza as she made her way into her office. "Good Morning Lieutenant," she said as she passed him by.

"Morning Commander," he grumbled and looked up to see Matthew walking in with her followed by Andy. "Ah, Matthew, good morning," he said to him as he placed his crossword puzzle on his desk and sat up.

"Hi Uncle Louie," Matthew greeted him and walked over to his desk. "That's a nice suit you're wearing," Provenza commented on Matthew's attire. Matthew smiled and placed his backpack on the empty desk. Andy thought it was too close to the Murder Board for him and told him to move. "Matthew, go put your things over by my desk instead, that way you don't have to listen to Provenza grumble about being here," Andy chuckled and Matthew moved his backpack.

"Why is the kid wearing a suit?" Provenza asked Andy as Matthew walked away. "He wanted to match everyone in the office," Andy told him. Provenza gave him a look. "What? I think it's great!" Andy told him. "Ye gods, Flynn! Now your kid is matching the Commander and you!" Provenza threw up his hands and sat down at his desk.

"You know, he's been looking forward to hanging out with his Uncle Louie all day so if you could be nice about it," Andy informed Provenza as he walked to his desk. "I'm always nice!" Provenza stated and watched Andy and Matthew at Andy's desk.

The rest of the team filtered into the office and by 8 o'clock, everyone was there at their desks working hard to solve their latest crime. Sharon gave them a half hour to get settled before she wanted to meet with them.

"Matthew, can you come in my office?" Sharon asked him as he was standing by Provenza. Matthew looked at Provenza as he was explaining something to the kid. "Go ahead, the most important rule is listening to the boss, and in this case, that's your mom," Provenza nodded to Matthew and Matthew walked towards Sharon's office.

"You can hang out in here while I speak to the team about our case, okay?" Sharon told Matthew. "Okay," he shrugged his shoulders and grabbed a few things out of his backpack and went into her office. He placed everything on her table and had a seat. Sharon closed the door and walked towards the Murder Board with Andy joining her.

"Okay, so where are we with the progress?" Sharon asked her team.

"I checked with local appliance repair businesses to see if they had sent any repairmen out to the address of the Millers, but so far, nothing," Mike stated. Sharon nodded and looked at Julio who rose his hand.

"I contacted the Rapid City Police Department, they did not have any information regarding those murders that took place in 2002," Julio stated and shuffled some papers around. "But, I don't think our killing is linked to the one that was there because Special Agent Richards was able to send me the crime photos from the case and the scene looks completely different," he continued.

"How so, Detective?" Sharon asked. Julio handed the pictures to her for her to see. "The bodies were not frozen and as you can see, the bodies were totally dismembered, ma'am," Julio said as Sharon looked and the past the pictures to Andy for him to look through.

Andy looked through the pictures and handed them to Provenza, who did the same and handed them to Mike. Mike stood up as he looked at them and walked over to Amy's desk so she could see them as well.

Just then Doctor Morales walked into the Murder Room. "Good Morning Commander!" he said as he placed his briefcase down on a desk. "Good Morning Doctor," Sharon said turning around to see him.

"I ran your murderer's M.O. in the coroner's system and I didn't come up with anything like we saw with the Millers but I did find out that there were frozen bodies discovered in Calexico," Doctor Morales stated and handed the report to Sharon.

She started to read it as the doctor summarized for the rest of the squad. "Basically, it says that authorities discovered several frozen bodies that were stabbed numerous times in a remote warehouse along the border. Border Patrol agents discovered it as they made routine checks. The bodies that were located in that warehouse were from Mexico, all had prior encounters crossing the border. Border Patrol, along with the coroner's office down there concluded that it was cartel," Doctor Morales finished.

"Well, I don't think the Millers here were murdered by the cartel," Provenza stated as he leaned back in his chair and pointed to the Murder Board. "I don't think so either, Lieutenant," Sharon agreed and handed the report to Provenza.

"Thank you, Doctor," Sharon turned to Doctor Morales as he closed his briefcase. "You're welcome and good luck everyone," Doctor Morales turned and left the room.

"Ma'am, this murder with the Millers and those other three bodies, that's not cartel like. The cartel would cut off their heads and burn their bodies," Julio looked at the pictures again on the board compared to the pictures that Doctor Morales brought.

"The ones at the border, yes that looks like cartel, they were trying to send a message. I bet you all those bodies found in the warehouse were former drug mules," Julio concluded and sat down at his desk.

"All right, let's get back on track with our killer at large here and focus on the Millers associates, who did they know, did they belong to any local organization?" Sharon got her team back on to focus on their case.

"Howard Miller was retired Navy, he belonged to the local VFW and American Legion groups. We should probably contact them to let them know, that way he can get a proper military burial, ma'am," Amy suggested and Sharon nodded in agreement.

"Patrice Miller didn't belong to any organizations but every Monday, a few housewives on the block where they lived would get together and play cards," Julio stated.

Sharon started to walk towards her office and peeked inside the window. She saw Matthew still sitting at the table watching a show on the iPad. She turned back around and took two steps before the door to the Murder Room opened again and this time Chief Pope along with Brenda walked into the room.

"Commander," Chief Pope stated sternly as he looked around the room at the rest of the team. "Chief Pope," Sharon acknowledged him and glanced at Andy. "Brenda, I have the files for you in my office, if you'd come with me, I'll get them for you and you can be out of here," Sharon said to her and she followed her to her office.

"Matthew, this is Brenda," Sharon made the introductions as she walked in and grabbed the files from the back of her desk. Brenda slightly waved at Matthew and Matthew returned her wave, getting back to his show.

"Here you are," Sharon handed the files to Brenda. "Thank you, Commander. I appreciate it," Brenda said, taking the files and followed Sharon out of the office. Sharon glanced to see where Chief Pope was and found him standing by the Murder Board, looking it over.

"Looks like you caught a bad one here judging by those pictures," Brenda said as Sharon walked her out of the office. Sharon smiled awkwardly as Brenda turned around and told her good luck.

Sharon took a deep breath before she walked back as she knew Chief Pope wasn't too happy with her defiance over the phone early.

"Commander, can I have a word with you in your office?" he asked her as she returned to the room. "Certainly," Sharon responded and walked back to her office. Opening the door, she turned to Matthew before Chief Pope followed her.

"Matthew, I need you to step out just for a minute or two because I need to have a meeting in here," Sharon asked him and he started to stand up from the table, pausing his video. "Okay," Matthew said and walked passed Chief Pope. "Hello!" Matthew said to him as he passed him by. "Uh, hello," Chief Pope stated and watched Matthew leave the room.

"You brought your son to the office today?" he questioned her as she sat down behind her desk. "He's on Christmas vacation from school, now I know you didn't come here to discuss parenting," she said as she watched him have a seat across from her.

"No, I didn't. I came here to discuss the current murder I assigned your team to," Chief Pope said as he looked at her. "Well, since we were cut short on our investigation yesterday, my team is trying to play catch up this morning," Sharon informed him as she folded her hands together on top of her desk.

"Yeah, about that, apparently there was a miscue on the budget and turned out there is enough money for overtime for your department," Pope sat there hoping that would smooth things over.

"Well, I would say that's hell of a miscue during an investigation," Sharon responded and Pope nodded in agreement. "It's already been addressed," he assured her. She nodded and thought that's maybe why Winnie Davis was so cold in the elevator, but then concluded she's always like that.

"So, Chief Pope, why did you call my team on their off day for this murder investigation?" Sharon asked him as they sat there.

Meanwhile, Matthew was sitting by Andy's desk, looking through his backpack for something. He took off his suit jacket and placed it behind his chair like his father's was. "Who's that guy in Mom's office?" he asked.

"That's the Chief of Police," Andy answered him as he worked on his computer. He was trying to figure out if there were any recent or unusual purchases of freezer chests in the area. Matthew walked over to him and looked over his shoulder. "What are you doing?" Matthew asked him.

Andy leaned back in his chair and looked at Matthew. "Something for this case," Andy gave a simple answer as he patted Matthew's back. He knew his son was bored but there was nothing he could do. Sharon was still in her office with Chief Pope and so was the iPad that Matthew was watching.

"Why are you looking up freezers?" Matthew asked him. "Uh, well," Andy started to explain but didn't know how to tell Matthew that their latest case involved a killer and frozen, mutilated bodies. "The bad person we are looking for froze bodies," Andy told him.

"Oh, kind of like Mr. Freeze," Matthew innocently told him as he stood next to him. "Mr. Freeze?" Andy asked, wondering who Matthew was talking about. Matthew rolled his eyes. "Mr. Freeze, one of Batman's nemesis," Matthew answered.

"Mr. Freeze had a warehouse for a lab where he liked to freeze everything in containers," Matthew explained. "Batman keeps catching him and putting him in the Arkham Asylum where they have a special cell for him," he continued as Andy listened.

Sharon's office door opened on the other side and Chief Pope walked out. "Keep up the good work," he said and waved as he walked out of the Murder Room. "Well what the heck was that all about?" Provenza waited until Chief Pope left before he mumbled that.

Sharon walked over to Andy's desk and placed her hand on Matthew's shoulder. "You can go back to my office if you want to finish your video you're watching," she smiled. "Okay," Matthew went back into her office and sat down at the table.

"Any new information while I was speaking with Chief Pope?" Sharon asked her team. "No, but why was he here?" Provenza boldly asked her as he sat at his desk.

"He wanted to know about this case and to also apologize for calling us out on our day off," Sharon told them, clasping her hands together as she stood to the side of Andy's desk. Andy knew that Sharon was holding something back from the team, he could tell by her body language. He wasn't going to push it now but he would ask her when they were alone.

"Did we run a check on any associates, neighbors of the Millers, maybe concentrating on anyone with a previous criminal history?" Sharon asked and suggested at the same time. Julio, Mike, and Amy quickly typed away on their computers.

"Some of their neighbors do have criminal records, but they're all misdemeanors, personal-use controlled substances, shoplifting," Julio stated. "All model citizens," Andy chimed in, moving his chair out from his desk.

Sharon stared at the Murder Board. They needed a break in this case and they needed it soon.

TBC