Brenda gave Mendoza a call.

"Hi Mikki. I was wondering if you had some time today, so we could talk. I have a case, and I was hoping that you would be able to help me out. It's of a confidential nature."

"Sure thing, Chief. When do you want me to stop by?"

"Are you free for lunch?"

Mikki, liked the sound of lunch with Brenda; she's easy going on the eyes. "Yes."

"I'll pick something up. 12:30 work."

"See you then, Chief."

Brenda ordered lunch to be brought to the office for herself, Mikki and the team. This was not going to be an easy case and she wanted her team fed. There was no violence, but being an officer is hard enough. The last thing you need are the people you're supposed to trust with your life making it harder. If you can't trust your fellow officer, how can the public? Brenda hated cops who gave the others a bad name, and she wanted them to be exposed.

Brenda's team started making profiles of their younger officers. "Are these all of the current ones?"

"Yes."

"What about ones who transferred since Branson replaced Raydor? We should add them to the list. They might have found a new division instead of filing a complaint."

"I'll figure out who they are," Gabriel answered.

Brenda started going through the officers. She thought about who was most likely to be bullied, the ones who came from less affluent backgrounds, overweight, single, weren't as involved in the officers' extra-curricular activities. Brenda separated a stack of officers who fit her profile. "We should start here." Brenda handed Tommy the file. Jackie came back with full reports and they started using the process of elimination, who joined after a complaint was filed, who left before the incident had allegedly occurred, who was on vacation when, etc. Luckily, FID wasn't that large of a division.

Lunch arrived and so did Mikki. They went into Brenda's office.

"Thank you for coming."

"No problem." Mikki smiled. Brenda looked great today. She was wearing a new suit with a hip-hugging skirt and nice pump to finish off the outfit. Mikki didn't mind it at all.

"The reason I asked you hear is a sensitive one and …."

"Your secret is safe with me, Chief."

"Oh! You can call me Brenda. There are allegations that Branson has been inappropriate with his subordinate officers, taking advantage of them financially, making thinly veiled threats if they complain about it, and most recently, he mistreated an officer and her girlfriend at a restaurant."

"Her girlfriend?"

"Yes. None of the officers would give their names because they are afraid of retribution. We can't help them unless we know who they are, and I thought that …." Brenda didn't know how to say it. It now seemed presumptuous for her to assume that of course all of the LAPD lesbians know each other.

"All of the LAPD lesbians know each other."

"Well," Brenda blushed. "Yeah."

"Well we do," Mikki laughed. It was fun to bust Brenda's balls. "If he was nasty to her and her girlfriend, I'll hear all about it. A bunch of us are having dinner at Tammi's house on Thursday. I could figure out who he insulted, but I don't know if I could get her to talk publicly."

"If you could just tell her that she's not alone. That several officers have complained about his conduct and we are not going to let this get swept under the rug..."

"You're hoping if one comes forward, they all will."

"Yes. We're trying to figure out who everyone else is and make a solid case. If they see that this won't get swept under the rug, then maybe they'll come forward."

"Well, I can try, but I make no promises."

"Thanks, Mikki."

Brenda rejoined her team and Mikki went back to work.

"How was lunch?" Gabriel teased.

"Oh you hush!" Brenda turned a little red.

"What have we learned?"

Tommy started. "There have been 4 officers that transferred out of FID. One of them went to Hollywood, so he could move to a place that was closer to his kids. The other three left without any explanation. Raydor wrote their recommendations."

"They wanted to keep their transfers from Branson."

"It appears so."

Brenda had another call to make. "Anything else."

Gabriel added, "We know who Branson's goons are. They were at the bar last week."

"Oh Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb, let's look at their service records and find out if they've been written up before or have had any allegations filed."

Jackie snickered.

"Also," Chief continued. "Let's see if their former partners were talk to us. Every jerk starts somewhere."

"I wonder where Provenza got his start."

"He was born that way," Brenda laughed. She liked the old coot. Maybe he knows about these people. He knows all the gossip as does Flynn.

"Keep it up." Brenda retreated to her office. She made a phone call. "Hi, Sharon."

Why is she calling me? Sharon thought. Hopefully, this isn't about Bobby. I can't talk to his sister about him. "Hi Brenda. What can I do for you?"

"Thank you for asking. I was wondering if you could spare some time to talk to me about former insubordinates of yours."

"Former?"

"I have an investigation over a sensitive issue, and I need some background information."

"Sensitive issue?"

"Yes. I have an unusual case."

I wonder what is this all about. "Well you can stop by now if you want."

"See you in 20." Brenda got in her car and headed out.

As soon as she left, Taylor called the team room.

"Hi Chief Taylor. Chief Johnson just headed for LAPD. She's meeting Captain Raydor to try and get some insight into the case."

"She's on her way here. I'll see if I can talk to her before she leaves. Thanks Gabriel."

Chief will not be happy with me Gabriel thought. He decided not to worry about and text Eliza.

"How's your day going?" he sent. He didn't want to rush things with her. He just wanted her to know that he thinks about her. How to separate the two, who da fuck knows?

Major Crimes

Flynn and Provenza were at work telling dick jokes. Sanchez was cracking up. Sykes rolled her eyes and Tao was pretending to work but was secretly IM-ing the better jokes to his wife. She sent back some of her own jokes in Japanese. They were funny, but they didn't translate well into English. They had a lot of cultural implications that would get lost in the US.

Sharon came out of her office. "Whatever you are all doing right now?"

Taylor came down to Major Crimes. "I hear Chief Johnson's on her way here."

"She is!" The squad couldn't help but miss their southern belle.

"Yes. She wants to talk to me."

"And not me?" Flynn was a little offended. He's more fun than the Captain.

"Could you send her my way afterwards?"

"Sure, Chief Taylor."

"What is this bizarro world?" Provenza muttered.

"What was that Lieutenant?"

"Cough stuck in my throat."

"That's what I thought." Taylor went back to his office.

Flynn and Provenza looked at each other. This sounded like trouble.

"Whatever you are thinking, Lieutenants. Stop it now." Raydor did not need whatever foolishness these two were about to get into.

Brenda appeared. She got a resounding, "Hi, Chief" from her former team.

Well hello everyone. Sanchez, I hear your sister it now an executive Chef at La Tortuga, congratulation. Tao, send Kevin my congratulations about Stanford. Flynn and Provenza, I heard you have been staying out of trouble. I'm a little disappointed." Everyone laughed.

"Chief," Sharon interrupted.

"Oh, yes Captain." They went into her office, Brenda's former office and shut the door.

"So what's this about a sensitive investigation, and why is Taylor so interested?"

"Taylor?"

"He was just here, and wanted to speak to you after this."

"How did he know I was here?"

"I don't know. I'm not his brain."

"Well, where do I start." Brenda relayed the anonymous complaints that Branson has been getting.

"And you can't recommend anything without knowing who is complaining and without their testimony."

"Exactly."

"How do I figure in on this? I never worked with him."

"No, but 3 officers sought to transfer after you left, and you wrote recommendations for them."

"And?"

"And, they didn't ask Branson to write the recommendation."

"They worked for me longer. I would give a better recommendation."

"But most new supervisors would write a recommendation anyway and would note what your past reports on them would say."

"I recall your whole team sought transfers, and you threw them all in the garbage."

"I did that twice actually, but that's not the point. These officers didn't want Branson to know they were leaving. Maybe they feared retaliation."

"Why would they?"

"If he's been bullying officers, then they had a reason to flee and a reason to fear him. They didn't want to see his reaction when they asked him for a transfer, so they didn't ask. They just asked you."

"That's what you think happened."

"It's my best guess, and you wouldn't be so stubborn if I wasn't right."

"Oh! Really?"

"Yes. If they just left, then you would have said something like, oh! They wanted to move on to x opportunity, and they didn't know Branson that well. You weren't very forthcoming about what they told you when they asked you to write their recommendation."

"And?"

"Which implies that they told you something? Look, Sharon. I get that your loyal to your old team. It's admirable really it is, but if Branson mistreated them, then he will keep mistreating other officers until he is stopped. If officers are doing this kind of stuff to each other, who knows what they are doing to the public."

"I'm surprised to see you investigating officer misconduct."

"Shootings are one thing. If a cop shoots a thug, good riddance, but I have zero tolerance for bullies. They have no business here."

"I'm glad to see some rules matter to you."

Brenda gave her a stank look.

"Well, they didn't tell me why they wanted to transfer, but they all transferred around the same time. They said they wanted to go on to new opportunities, but they didn't take the most interesting jobs. One of them is doing vehicle inventory searches, one went to traffic, one is doing neighborhood watch. They also sounded nervous when they asked me for recommendations and were wondering when Branson would find out. I thought it was a little odd, but I hear he's a jerk. I assumed they just didn't like them. Why isn't IA taking this case?"

"Taylor didn't trust them. He thinks this is a part of a larger problem."

"But Branson was his guy."

"That's what confuses me. I don't know what to think of this. Do you still keep in touch with your old team?"

"Occasionally why?"

"Would you know, who if any of them, might talk to me about this? I am not expecting them to be the most forthcoming."

Sharon thought for a minute. "Sam McDonald. Buy him two stiff drinks, and he'll spill the beans, not that I am recommending interviewing a drunk officer."

"Of course not, Captain. Thank you for your help."

"Flynn, Provenza, would I be able to talk to you after I meet with Taylor."

"I dunno Chief. We might be causing trouble." Flynn chuckled.

"Not on my watch," said the Captain.

Flynn smirked. He could be bad still.

"We'll be here, doing nothing interesting," muttered Provenza.

"Great." Brenda went upstairs.

"Chief Taylor."

"Chief Johnson, thank you for coming."

"I am a little confused. I thought Officer Branson was your friend, but you asked me to investigate him."

"Our relationship is complicated."

WTF does that mean? Brenda thought to herself.

"Chief Pope wanted me to appoint him. He wanted the job. No one else really did. No one in Raydor's division had the requisite experience. We have golfed a couple of times, but …." Taylor liked it when people liked him. He didn't always like them back.

Brenda understood what Taylor meant. Everyone had a "friend" like Branson at one point.

"How am I supposed to investigate if I have a bunch of no-names? I can't just walk in there and ask, hey who has a beef with Branson?"

"I couldn't get HR to roll. If people don't feel safe talking to HR, then no one will, and they're like lawyers, can't get a peep out of them."

"So, assuming I can find out who these officers are and they are actually willing to talk to me, then what? What if they refuse to file."

"If I can figure out who they are, then I can offer them protection, a transfer, anything I need to get them to come forward. I can't protect no names."

"So my job is to get their names."

"That's a start. If you could get them to talk to me, that would be better and if you could get them to file an official complaint, that would be best."

So you want me to do your work for you? "I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, Chief Johnson. I know this goes without saying, but …."

"My lips are sealed."

Brenda went back to Major Crimes to steal Flynn and Provenza. Provenza was doing his best Sykes impersonation and Flynn was pretending to be Captain Raydor.

"Lieutenants Provenza and Flynn."

They froze at the sound of their Chief bellowing their names.

"With me, please!"

They were off.

"Where to, Chief?" Provenza knew she played no games.

"How about ice cream cones?"

"You're hauling us out of work for ice cream." Flynn was happy to go, but confused.

"Well, ice cream is the start." They got into Brenda's car, and she drove them to grab some cones. They took a walk towards the park. "I wanted to talk to you all, and I didn't want anyone to overhear me, so I thought this would work."

"007 is back," Provenza was wondering if this was more CIA stuff.

"There have been anonymous complaints about Branson from members of his division."

"No surprise there, Chief. He's such an ass he makes Taylor look like the Virgin Mary." Flynn laughed.

"Well, there's a concern that not only is Branson a bully but that this is apart of a larger problem in IA, that they have been mistreating officers, and these officers are either less able or less willing to put their best foot forward in IA investigations, and you all know what it's like to be on the wrong side of one."

"So Pope wants this guy out."

"Well, Taylor wants to get to the bottom of this."

"Taylor, sending a friend under the bus. I don't believe it." This sounded too familiar to Flynn.

"You have both been here a long time and are friends with a lot of guys on the force. I was hoping that you either knew something about what is really going on behind the scenes of IA or you would know who would know."

"Jake McCallister is a gossip queen," Flynn started "He knows everything about everybody. If there's a culture of thuggery in IA, he knows about it."

"He takes Scotch as payment or women." Provenza added. "Also, Betty's a secretary who handles FID paperwork. She's a chatterbox who talks to everyone."

"Thanks, I knew you guys would be helpful."

"Free ice cream. Well of course." Provenza saw a pretty lady walking her dog down the street. "Mrs. Provenza number 5," he declared.

Brenda and Flynn looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Maybe in 20 years," Brenda answered, laughing the whole time.

Brenda dropped off Flynn and Provenza and went back to work. She sent e-mails Sam and Jake, introducing herself and asking if they would be able to help her with a case, not mentioning what it was about.

She got a response from Jake right away. "Do you need me to stop by your office?"

She answered. "That would be great if you could spare the time."

He said he'd be over tomorrow afternoon, 4PM.

Brenda knocked on Andrea's office door. "What do you know about mid-range Scotch?"