Sunday
Charlie was back in DC, ready to make the last push before finals. Jimmy and Frank were off on their next adventure. Susan implemented her new schedule, so she could finally have some time to herself again.
Monday
Marcus was back in school. Travis was showing everyone pictures of his new dog. He wasn't expecting one, but Molly was great.
Rusty was exhausted. John had his way with him all night Saturday and he had to stay up on Sunday and do all of the homework he neglected over the week. Kyle had senioritis. He was awaiting news on colleges. He was disinterested in school work.
No one wanted to be back at work. David wanted to be in bed with Eliza. Jackie and Tommy would rather be partying with Rachel. She had a job interview, however, and might actually need to start working soon. Brenda wanted to spend more time with Fritz. Flynn and Andrea enjoyed having the weekend alone. No murders. No hassle. Lots of love making and a newly, painted house. Sharon needed a vacation after her vacation with the Johnsons. She was amazed at how well adjusted Brenda is, considering her family. Bobby had a great time, drinking all day and plenty of weed. Time to get serious.
Atlanta, GA
The judge would be ruling on the consent decree any day now. Jacob was enjoying his smoker and had made great food all weekend. Smoked turkey, pulled pork, brisket. He brought some of it to the homeless shelter. It really brightened up their day.
Joyce was racking up her credit card, not knowing that Michael's business wasn't as good as he projected. What would she do when she discovered the problem?
Washington, DC
Charlie found an apartment for the spring. There was a group of juniors moving out of the dorm. They had a friend who was spending the spring semester abroad, so she would move in after Charlie moved out. They were sharing a house near the university. Charlie would have her own room. They were 420 friendly, and they were all 21, which would make life easier. She could also afford the rent on the stipend she was getting.
Afternoon
It was a rough football practice. Most of the kids were still feeling the effects of too much turkey and pie. Marcus was doing better than most, but he was tired too. This was the first practice without Brian. Everyone was too tired to notice.
Major Crimes
Estelle found a dead body when she went to get her car from the garage. She backed over it, and then noticed it was there. She was a quite difficult witness. She always interrupted before they could ask her a question. She didn't want to be there. She needed to get her nails done. Why was her car evidence? This was ridiculous.
Sharon tried to interview her.
"Were you screwing Pope too?" she had the nerve to ask.
Chief Taylor watched, shaking his head. He let Chief Pope know of the difficulty. He sighed. He knew she would be calling him. She called him during the interview, yelling and claiming she was being harassed.
"Believe it or not, Estelle. This isn't about you. A man is dead and these officers are just trying to figure out who killed him."
She cursed him and hung up. Eventually, Sharon cut her loose. She didn't know the guy and hadn't been in the garage in days. The man didn't have a car parked there. They didn't know why he was there. The video footage didn't show him with anyone who came in with a car.
"Why would someone be in a parking garage with no car?"
"Clandestine meeting," suggested Provenza.
"Or maybe they planned on riding with someone who had a car," added Flynn.
"Or maybe the body was dumped there and came in someone's trunk," said Sanchez
The trunk idea sounded promising but how to prove it.
"Tao, how many cameras were there in the garage."
"There is one when people enter and another when people leave. They are angled to show the driver, to try and make sure the person who brings in the car is the same person who leaves with it. There are also some cameras on the turns in case of a collision around the bends, but there aren't any other angles. I checked, but there was no footage of someone taking a body out the trunk."
Sykes had an idea. "In the Italian Job, they figured out which trunk had gold by seeing which trunk was weighed down the most. Do you think we could do the same for the body?"
"Bodies are a lot lighter," Tao answered. "But I can try." He got a program to measure the height of the trunk of the car as the car came into the garage and as it left. He ran the program in the day leading up to Estelle's running it over.
There were three cars that were measurably lighter leaving the garage. Tao used the license plate numbers to figure out who owned each car. Hopefully, they could connect one of the drivers to their victim.
FBI Office
Rachel came in for her interview. She borrowed Jackie's dress clothes because work was more informal in Germany. The outfit fit fine, but it was a little tight on her chest. The men definitely noticed. Rachel was a little nervous when she answered questions, but she excelled on her written test. She could translate quickly and more importantly, she recognized idioms and colloquial language, so she could help find hidden meanings behind the text.
She was very impressive. Fritz noticed her on the way out. "How'd it go?"
"It was great. Thanks for giving me a good word."
"Not a problem." A friend of Brenda's was a friend of his, not to mention she was sexy as hell.
"Are you busy right now?"
"No."
"Wanna grab lunch." They headed to a taqueria down the street. Rachel peppered him with questions about his life in LA, how he met Brenda, when did he know she was the one. He admitted she had him at hello. They were both with other people in DC, but he got a second chance when she moved to LA, and he went for it. She thought it was sweet.
"So how was life in Germany."
"It was really nice. The food was awesome. The architecture, culture and beer all great, but it's not home. The people were pleasant, but they kind of keep to themselves. I'm more outgoing."
"Tell me about it. My dad was an aloof man." Fritz's father was very serious man. He worked hard and provided for his family, but he kept to himself. He was a very private man. He didn't show a lot of emotion, unless he was mad. He was pleasant a lot of the time, but never very warm.
After lunch, Fritz headed back to the FBI office. Rachel headed home.
Tuesday
Bobby had a setback on his new building. The subcontractor fucked up the flooring and it needed to be redone. The guy didn't think it was so bad, but Bobby knew his client wanted perfection. He told the guy to either a. fix it or b. he would hire someone else to do it, and deduct it from the guy's final check. Bobby wasn't paying him until the job was done right. They got into a bit of a stand off, and Bobby hired someone else. He didn't play. Do your work or be gone. The new guy would need some time to get ready for the job. Bobby had to work around it as best he could.
Prosecutor's office
Brenda had to mediate a standoff between the health inspectors, the mayor's office, and a caterer. Apparently, the mayor had a big Thanksgiving dinner and lots of people got sick. The caterer insists it wasn't the food. The health inspector wants to shut them down. The mayor's office was afraid of a lawsuit. Toxicology was being rushed, but the results weren't back yet. Brenda agreed to investigate discretely and to resolve the matter quickly.
She had Jackie join the restaurant as a new cook. She would wear a little camera, so they could see what was going on inside the kitchen.
Marshall looked into the servers. Brenda and David interviewed the people who got hospitalized, figuring out what they ate, how long it took them to get sick, if they had any modifications.
They deduced that only the people who ate the chicken papaya salad with the papaya seed vinaigrette got sick. No one who ate the soup or got a different dressing got sick. Brenda contacted the chicken supplier. No one else got sick. The same went with the papaya, and the only other ingredients were rice flour, garlic, oil and other non-perishable foods. It was easy to see that the food sources were not the problem.
Jackie checked out the restaurant. It was very clean. They had organized cutting boards, so the meat didn't touch the vegetable boards. The floor was clean, behind the fridge was clean, the freezer had been cleaned out. The chefs all seemed professional. She had trouble imagining that the kitchen was the problem. They could have scrambled to clean after people got sick, but it took up to 48 hours for people to get sick; there was not enough time to make a rathole into a top quality kitchen.
This left intentional poisoning as the only other option. Brenda had some questions for the executive chef.
"When did you make the dressing?"
"I made it Thursday morning. I always make it the morning of."
"And how did you make it?"
"I took papaya seeds, mustard, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cilantro, mint, parsley, salt, pepper, and brown sugar and put them all in the vitamix. Then I run it through a sieve, so it's all smooth. People love my dressings. They're quite good."
"It sounds delicious, but only the people who ate the dressing got sick."
"There was nothing that could have gone bad in that dressing."
"Doesn't sound like it. When do you dress the salad?"
"Right before plating. You don't want the greens to get soggy."
"Where is the sauce kept between the time you make it and when you actually use it."
"I pour it into a glass bottle and store it with the other oils and vinegars until we use it."
"So anyone, the other chefs, the servers, could have tampered with it?"
"I guess, but who would do that? You don't think it was an assassination attempt, do you?"
"Probably not, since no one died. It might just be someone who wanted to embarrass the mayor, unless you can think of anyone who would want to harm your business."
"I have no enemies. I mean, I have a lot of competition, but I earned my work fair and square. I never cheated anyone in my whole life."
This woman sounded really honest.
"Thank you for your help. You are free to go."
The mayor called for an update.
"This appears to be an intentional poisoning."
"Intentional? Why would you say that?"
"The kitchen is pristine. We checked with all of the food suppliers, and no one else got sick and the only thing that could have gotten people sick was the salad dressing, which didn't get added until right before dinner. Anyone could have spiked it with something, causing the problem."
"Do you have any suspects?"
"Not yet. I don't know what the poison was, which would tell me if someone was trying to commit a murder or just make people sick. I also don't know who the target was?"
"Isn't it obvious that the target was me?"
"I meant why. It could be someone who dislikes you or it could be someone who wanted to get the restaurant shut down."
"I see. Well, please hurry. The health department is riding my ass on this."
Brenda found that rather odd. She did some research. Usually, it took weeks to get a reaction from them.
Brenda asked David to look up the health inspector's office and see if he could find any connection between an employee and the restaurant or the mayor's office. She wanted to see who was friends with whom, and who were potential enemies.
Wednesday
Eventually, David found a connection. The woman running this investigation for the health inspector was the sister of one of the servers. They both had a brother who ran a restaurant that used to cater for the mayor's Thanksgiving dinner.
Brenda called the mayor and asked him why he switched companies. He said the previous caterer used to be very good, but booze got to the best of him. He was messing up dishes, forgetting to bring everything he needed. He just got outdone by a better company.
She looked up the brother. His business was failing, and the mayor used to provide a lot of business to him.
Brenda needed to know the poison. She needed to make a connection between the poison and the sister at the restaurant.
Eventually the lab had it. It was undercooked cassava pureed with water. "What an odd poison?"
Surely enough, the restaurant run by the brother served fried cassava, and they messed up a cassava dish for the mayor the last time they catered for him. Poetic justice?
Brenda asked if there was a way to match the cassava in the restaurant to what was found in the victims' stomach. They said no, but the sister wouldn't know this.
Brenda called back the mayor and gave him her theory of the case.
"You are telling me that a health inspector conspired with a server to poison my dinner."
"It all adds up. How else would cassava get into the salad dressing? The restaurant that catered your dinner doesn't serve it. The health inspector rushed to shut down the restaurant, even though it's protocol to wait until the investigation is over before making a decision on closing. If they were closed down, their brother could try and win back his job. His restaurant is failing and the sister who was a server just started working for the company before the dinner and quit promptly afterwards."
"I hope you're right."
Brenda called in both sisters, making sure each of them didn't know the other was here and giving them different stories.
Brenda told the sister who was a server that she suspected that this was a planned attempt to kill the mayor and that the consequences would be quite serious. She told the other sister that the mayor was scared to use the company again and was thinking of canceling the contract. She then let them both go. The health inspector called her brother, telling him to get ready and try and win back the mayor's bid.
The other sister called the first sister, freaking out about going to jail for attempted murder. Brenda got a warrant and listened to their phone calls. The conversation gave it all away. The drunk brother didn't seem to know anything about it. Apparently, both sisters had lent him money to put into the restaurant, and they needed it to be a success, so they could get their money back. The police arrested them both the following morning.
Major Crimes
Three different car owners had a connection to the victim. They had an estranged wife, a best friend, and step-father all going to the garage that day. The wife said she always parked her car in the garage because her husband was behind on the payments, and she didn't want it to get repoed. The best friend said he parked there because he needed to bring sound equipment to the building upstairs and the step-father said he was there to sell old stuff at the street fair, but there was no parking, so he parked in the garage and brought his stuff up. It had to be the wife. Her going to work didn't explain why her trunk was lighter when she left. She was never seen leaving the garage with anything. She eventually confessed.
Thursday
Brenda got a text from Mikki.
"A bunch of us are going to Lucky Bar tonight. You in?" Brenda had no plans. She didn't have a case yet, so as long as she could wake up in time, she was good. She poked her head into Andrea's office. She was going. Brenda texted Mikki to say she'd be there too. She texted her husband to say she was going to a girls' night out.
"On a Thursday, is this undergrad?"
"Oh hush."
FBI Office
Fritz was reading his papers, nothing very interesting was in them. He went to get more coffee. He overheard the following conversation.
"Did you see her knockers?"
"She was out of this world. I got a woody just looking at her."
"I hope to see more of her."
"I hope she's single."
Fritz ignored the chatter and kept going. What pigs.
Thursday Evening
Flynn was planning a holiday gathering before everyone scattered for the break. He settled Tom Wattson's Bar. There was a pizzeria next door, and they had pool and Foosball if you wanted to do something other than get stupid drunk.
Andrea said she'd help him with the invitations tomorrow. She put on a blue tank top and dark jeans. She had on a button down sweater, in case it got chilly. "Sure you don't want me to drive you?"
"Knock Knock"
"I'll be fine." She kissed him on the lips and then went to answer the door.
"Ready to go?" It was Brenda and Sharon. "Flynn, this place looks cheerful. Are you sure this is your house?"
"Brenda," Sharon scolded. "It looks lovely."
The three girls left. Sharon drove. Rihanna started playing. Brenda sang along. "Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake! Cake!"
"What are you doing?" Sharon was perplexed.
"I like this song."
"Of course you do. You do realize this song is about sex and not cake."
"Why can't it be about both?"
Sharon and Andrea laughed.
They got to the bar. There were a lot of people already there. Mikki and Katie, Sue and Amy, Rachel, Jackie and Eliza. They all said their hellos. Mikki noticed Brenda's outfit. She always looked great, but today she had these hiphugger jeans on. She wasn't the only one to notice, however. There were plenty of chicas looking the Chief up and down.
They started with a round of drinks. Sharon and Sue were the designated drivers, so they got water and everyone else got either a margarita or a beer, the happy hour choices. They chatted about their weeks, and their vacations.
Mikki was chuckling.
"What is it?"
"I just can't imagine Brenda and Sharon on a shared family vacation."
"She was the least of my problems," Sharon said. "Her brother Clay is crazy."
"When am I ever a problem?" Brenda said slightly drunk.
Everyone chuckled. "I like problems," said Jackie. "They're fun."
"See! I'm fun." She started to dance. Of course Rihanna was back on.
"You like the trashiest music," Sharon commented.
"Trashy music is the best. The beat was made for you to wriggle your butt."
Everyone laughed at that. "I guess it's dance time."
People started making their way onto the floor. Brenda had a way of speaking with her hips. Her body said, "I'm sexy and I know it."
Plenty of women took notice. This was, a lesbian bar, after all. Mikki and Katie were all over each other. Jackie and Rachel were getting sloshed. Andrea and Amy were chatting about Virginia Woolf or something, and Sue and Sharon were still talking, the only sober ones, seemingly in the bar.
More and more people packed into the club. The announcer got on the stage. Apparently, there was a contest for Queen of the rodeo.
Brenda said, "Damn! I would have dressed up."
Sharon laughed at her. "What are you nuts?"
"I still got it," Brenda insisted.
Sharon said, "maybe last decade."
Brenda pouted. It must have been the tequila talking because she went right up to the announcer and put her name on the list. She had a show to put on. She went to a room in the back and found some costumes. Brenda swiped a new cowgirl had and changed into a pair of boots. She found a belt buckle that said cocky and put it on. She was already wearing a pink, shimmery top. Next was makeup. She reapplied it carefully, and took her hair out of its ponytail.
While she was getting ready, the contest began. Most of the girls were pretty alright, in their underwear, dancing about. There seemed to be more booze than coordination, but most of the crowd just wanted to see the clothes come off.
Sharon thought this was all ridiculous. "Brenda is jealous about missing out on this?" Wait! Where did she go.
The next thing they knew, "Cowboy Take Me Away" was playing. Brenda strutted out. She slowly started to move her hips. When the chorus hit, she jumped up, perfectly swinging around the pole. She tossed her jacket aside as she slid down. The crowd was loving it.
Well, I'll be damned! Sharon thought. Mikki was in heaven. She was not alone. Brenda slid down on her knees and tossed her shirt aside. She did a simple body roll, a wave with her hat, and left with a smile. The crowd was wild, screaming cheering. She was the real thing.
Brenda put her shirt back on and headed to the bar to grab herself a drink. Not surprisingly, it was on the house. They voted by cheers and it wasn't a surprise that Brenda won. "Dancing Queen" played and she got a silly sash and a trophy. She also got drink offers left and right.
Andrea was stunned. "Flynn's going to be so mad that he missed that."
Jackie was cracking up. "So's Tommy. I'm going to text him now."
Rachel said, "I wish she were my boss."
"I told you I still got it," Brenda told Sharon as she resumed her place with her friends.
"I stand corrected." Sharon couldn't stop giggling.
Brenda smirked. "Now who want's some tequila!" Everyone went for shots. It was time to dance. Brenda chose Rachel for a dancing partner. She moved quite well to the music, and she was quite nice to look at. Rachel stole her hat and put it on.
"Hey!" Brenda pretended to be mad.
Mikki and Katie were grinding intently. Katie knew this was going to be a good night.
Eventually, it was time to go home. Sharon and Sue dropped off the drunk ladies. Fritz looked at his wife. "Why are you wearing a sash?"
"Because, I'm the Queen," she told him. He shook his head and brought her to bed. He left a glass of water and an Advil, just in case.
Sharon finally got home to an awaiting Bobby. "You wanna stay up one more hour?"
"I gotta work."
"Me too. How about a half hour?"
She smiled. He was very sexy. He hit the music and began to dance as he took off his clothes. What is with the Johnsons and stripping?
Katie and Mikki got to her apartment. It wasn't long before they were both naked and getting intimate on the couch. Mikki liked it when Katie rode her. The couch was perfect for giving Katie the leverage she needed. Katie was gorgeous, blonde curls bouncing, young perky body. Mikki was a sucker for blondes. It wasn't long before Katie found her rhythm. She moved quite gracefully. Mikki's hands found her round ass and began to grope it. Katie moaned for her. It wasn't long before Mikki took control. She rolled Katie over and started to pound her. Katie squealed with delight.
Rachel was having trouble sleeping. She was distracted, fulled with lustful thoughts and kept waking up to find her fingers rubbing her furiously. She would finish the job and go back to bed, but it wasn't enough. She really wanted to get fucked, and she knew just who she wanted for the job.