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 11

Andy and Matthew made their way downstairs to breakfast already waiting for them on the kitchen table. Sharon was standing by the island counter, cutting up fruit when they came into the room. Andy smiled at Sharon and she returned his smile as he came up behind her. "Good morning," he whispered as he kissed her neck.

"Hmm, good morning," she said as she cut up more fruit and placed them in a bowl. "Go, eat, before it gets cold," she told him and grabbed the bowl of fruit, placing it on the table. "Um, actually, I need to talk to you about something," Andy scratched his head and Sharon nodded, leaving Emily and Matthew at the table. She followed Andy towards the den.

"What is it?" she looked at him, concerned. "Did Matthew speak to you last night about his session with Doctor Joe?" Andy asked her. "Oh, yes, he told me that he thought he had broken our trust, but I told him that he did not," Sharon glanced at the kitchen and then looked at Andy. "Hmm, he said the same thing to me this morning," he told her.

"What else did he tell you last night?" he asked her. "Well, he doesn't want me to die, because his birth mother died and left him and he doesn't want that to happen again," she whispered to him and wrapped her arms around her body. Andy rubbed his hand on her right arm and then pulled her in for a hug.

"He told me this morning that he doesn't want us to think that we made a mistake about adopting him," Andy told her as he nuzzled against her ear. Sharon shook her head at that thought. "Hmm, I thought we worked through that already?" she said as she started to pull away from him and glanced down the hallway. "Come on, your breakfast is getting cold," she grabbed his hand and led him back to the kitchen.

It was 7:30 by the time the plates were being cleared off the table and Andy walked over to the sink, where Sharon was standing. "Thank you for breakfast," he said in a low, husky voice as he leaned in for a kiss. "You're welcome," she said, patting his arm as they broke from their shared kiss. Sharon watched Matthew grab his backpack and his lunch.

"Remember, Emily and I are going to pick you up after school today and take you over to Doctor Joe's office again," Sharon told him and pulled Matthew in for a hug. "I love you, sweetie," she whispered. "I love you too, Mommy," Matthew muttered and then broke from her hug. She turned to Andy and gave him a smile. "Good luck, and remember that I'm going to meet you at the office once he's done. Emily's going to take him home while we go to your meeting tonight," she walked him to the back door.

"You know I can come back here and pick you up," he sighed but knew she wanted to feel included. "You'd be going out of your way if you come pick me up here. This way, maybe we could grab a bite to eat before going?" she suggested and raised her eyebrows at him. "Okay," he muffled as he kissed her good bye.

Andy drove Matthew to school and then headed downtown to the office. The team was going to have a busy day in front of them. As he drove down the street, he thought about Sharon and the current case they were dealing with. He pulled into the parking lot of the PAB and parked his car.

As the elevator came to a stop on the first floor, Andy hoped that no one was getting on so that he could be alone with his thoughts. Unfortunately, when the doors opened, Winnie Davis stepped on the elevator and pressed the button for her floor. "Chief," Andy muttered as he stood there watching the numbers. "Lieutenant," Winnie stated as the doors closed.

There was silence inside as the elevator stopped at Winnie Davis's floor. The doors opened and she stepped out. Andy simultaneously reached for the button to quickly close the doors again and he let out a deep breath as the elevator took him to the ninth floor.

He stepped out and walked down the hallway to the office, opening the door and overhearing some sort of conversation Provenza and Mike were having. "Hey Flynn!" Provenza waved him over to his desk. "What'cha got?" Andy joined the two of them.

"I did some digging around and according to this credit card receipt, I think this might be where our hockey player got frozen," Mike stated and handed the receipt to Andy. "Los Angeles Cold Storage?" Andy stated as he looked up at Mike and Provenza. "Did we call this place yet?" Andy asked as he went to put his stuff down at his desk.

"Haven't had a chance to," Provenza stated. "Okay, so this place is located where?" Andy asked them as he walked back over to the Murder Board and looked at the map that was pinned up. "In the warehouse district off South Central Avenue," Mike stated and pointed to the location on the map. "That would make sense with what Billy told us," Andy muttered.

Amy and Julio walked in and sat down at their desks. "Did you two find this Frankie person yet?" Provenza asked them. "No sir," Julio stated and Andy began to wonder when everyone had shown up this morning. "Uh, what time did you guys all get here?" he asked them. "I dropped Mark off early at his school and came here around 7:15," Julio answered Andy.

Andy glanced at Provenza. "So we started an hour or so before you got here," Provenza shrugged his shoulders. "If we were starting early today, I could have had Emily drive Matthew to school," Andy told him and Provenza shook his head and waved him off. "It doesn't matter when we started, Flynn, let's just solve this case so that it doesn't ruin our weekend," he told him and Andy sighed.

Andy shook his head and walked back to his desk. Amy hung up from her phone and looked at Provenza. "Lieutenant that was Barry Harding, the head coach of the Ontario Reign. He's downstairs and an officer is showing him up here," she told him and he nodded. Andy heard and turned around. "So we're not going to Ontario then?" Andy asked as he looked at Provenza.

"No Flynn, we are not going there when the head coach can come here," Provenza grinned but Andy seemed upset as he walked over to him. "Do you mind telling me what's going on here? Because I walk in to work this morning, and find out that the rest of the team has been here an hour before me, which you neglected to tell me, and now the head coach of the team is here?" Andy gritted his teeth as he spoke to Provenza.

"Flynn, Flynn, just calm down! Nobody's keeping secrets from you, alright? Ye gods!" Provenza threw his hands up as he walked over to the Murder Board. "Does this have anything to do with me telling Sharon about this case?" Andy followed him and Provenza hung his head. "No Flynn, it doesn't," Provenza answered and they both saw a patrol officer bring the head coach into their office.

Amy turned around at her desk and gestured for the coach to follow her. She glanced over at Provenza and he pointed to the conference room and she took the coach to that room instead. "Now, are you going to come with me to interview the coach or do I need to get someone else?" Provenza asked Andy as he started to walk towards the conference room. Andy took a deep breath to center himself and followed Provenza to the room.

The two of them joined Amy and Barry Harding and all four of them had a seat at the table. "Coach Harding, very sorry for your loss of your player," Provenza stated as he sat down. "Thank you," Barry told him as he folded his hands on the table. "Do you know if there was anyone who would want to hurt Michael?" Amy started off the interview.

"Um, no, not that I can think of. I mean, Michael was a good player, his teammates liked him, he got along with them, and I don't understand how this could have happened?" Barry stated, shaking his head a little in disbelief. "Did he owe anyone money that you knew of or was he hanging out with people he shouldn't have?" Andy asked him.

"Um, he did show up to practice one day driving a fancy sports car, which I knew he couldn't have afforded on his salary. I asked him about it but he just stated that he had come into some money recently and decided to buy something," Barry answered Andy's question. "Look, what's going on here? I mean obviously this is something more than just an untimely death of one of my players," Barry added as he sat there looking at them.

"Coach Harding, we have reason to believe that Michael was murdered the night after your game in Bakersfield," Provenza told him. "Oh my gosh! Really? Who'd want to do that?" Barry sounded shocked at Provenza's statement. "Look, Coach Harding, have you ever heard of sports gambling?" Andy asked him. "Sure, who hasn't?" Barry answered and shrugged his shoulders.

"We arrested someone of interest yesterday that was involved in some sort of sports gambling ring. We found betting slips on your team's hockey games throughout the season," Andy explained to him as Provenza showed him the photocopies of the slips. Barry looked them over in shock. "Who would want to bet on an AHL game?" Barry asked. "You'd be surprised sir," Amy answered him.

"We also believe that Michael here may have been paid to through some of those games," Andy added and Barry looked up at him. "Wait! Are you serious?" Barry lashed out but before he could continue, Provenza showed him the bank account info they had on Michael. "We're pretty sure," Provenza told him as he looked at the sheet of paper.

"We need to know if anyone else on your team is involved," Andy stated to him as he sat across the table. "No, I would know if anyone wasn't playing up to their abilities," Barry stated and tossed the piece of paper he was reading back onto the table. "Just like you knew about Michael here?" Andy stared at the coach.

Provenza glanced at Andy before he spoke to the coach again. "Coach Harding, we would very much like your cooperation in this investigation," Provenza said diplomatically. "What do you want?" Barry answered after letting things sink in. "Good," Provenza said as he looked over at the window and saw Mike standing there holding up something. "Uh, Detective Sykes here will gather some information from you," Provenza stood up and Andy followed him outside the room.

"What is it Mike?" Provenza asked as Andy closed the door. "That cold storage facility is owned by Victor Rocco," Mike informed them. "The same guy who owns Rocco Construction?" Andy asked. "Yes," Mike nodded. "Well, there's another connection," Andy muttered. "Mike, secure a search warrant of that cold storage facility, I want to take a look around," Provenza told him and Mike walked back to his desk.

"What are you thinking?" Andy asked him as they stood outside the conference room. "I'm thinking it's time we met with Mister Rocco," Provenza answered as he glanced at Andy and then back at the coach. They made their way to the Murder Board and Julio was writing some information on it. There were a bunch of numbers and names.

"What's this Julio?" Provenza asked him as he walked up to his desk. "I went through all of the betting slips that we found at Billy's house and listed them down by amounts and the names written down on the papers," Julio explained to Provenza and Andy. Andy looked at the list that had compiled and shook his head. "There's at least twenty different names listed here, some are repeat offenders too," he stated, shaking his head as he walked back to his desk.

Meanwhile, Sharon was helping Emily with her audition portfolio. "When did you have these filmed?" Sharon asked her daughter as she watched some of her performances on her laptop. "I guess through the years?" Emily couldn't remember exactly. "How come I've never seen these before?" Sharon wondered as she looked at her daughter.

"I sent you some of them," Emily defended herself as she moved pieces from the flash drive to her laptop and then to a blank flash drive. Sharon hummed and then turned her attention to the portfolio book that Emily had made. She paged through it and stopped at almost every page, just smiling at every one of them.

Emily saw her mother and laughed. "What?" Sharon turned to look at her. "Nothing, Mom, it's just, I'm happy that my work as a dancer makes you smile," Emily told her. "Well, I'm very proud of you. I'm proud of all of my children," Sharon stated and squeezed Emily's shoulder, and grunted a little bit. "Mom?" Emily turned in time to see Sharon grimace. "It's nothing, just a little pain again," Sharon assured her as they sat at the dining room table and continued to go over Emily's dancing.

Back at the Murder Room, the team was going to divide up to cover more ground. Mike, Amy, and Buzz went to the cold storage place, while Provenza, Andy, and Julio went to the construction company. They needed to find this Frankie person that Billy had mentioned and time was running out on their ability to hold Billy without formal charges.

Mike, Amy, and Buzz all stepped out of their vehicle and walked towards the entrance of the facility. They were met by a couple of patrol officers. Mike explained to them what they were looking for and everyone walked into the facility's office. "Can I help you?" a man said at the front of the office.

Mike walked over to him. "Yes, I'm Lieutenant Tao, LAPD, this is Detective Sykes, we have a warrant to search your premises," Mike showed the warrant to the man and he read it. "Be my guest," the man gestured for them to come in and held the door for them.

"Are you the owner of this place?" Mike asked as Buzz, Amy, and the patrol officers started to look around. "No, I just man the front desk area," the man stated. "You want to talk to Victor Rocco, but he's not in," he added. Mike glanced down the hallway and kept an eye on Amy and Buzz. "And where would we find Victor?" Mike asked him.

"He's at his main office, downtown," the man answered and handed a business card to Mike. "We'll need to see the storage area of the person who purchased this," Mike handed the receipt to the man. "Block 23, that's down this hallway, then make a right, out the door and you'll be in the warehouse portion. 23 is the second row from the left and it should be open," the man informed him.

Mike nodded to two patrol officers and they stayed in the office with the man while everyone else followed the directions to the area.

At the downtown office, Victor Rocco sat at his desk and was reading the newspaper when he heard a knock at his door. "Come in," he said and the door opened. "Sorry to disturb you sir, but you have three detectives with the LAPD outside waiting in the lobby," his secretary told him. "Thank you Irene, uh, wait about 10 minutes and then send them in," Victor informed her and she closed the door.

Victor picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Yeah, do you know why there would be three LAPD detectives at my office?" he asked. "Does it have something to do with that task I asked you about?" he asked the person on the other line. "Go find Billy and call me back!" Victor stated and hung up his phone.

He had taken over the business from D'Angelo after he had been arrested and changed the way things were run. He knew sports gambling was illegal and that was why he made sure they routed everything through a small town just across the border in Nevada, even though they held there secret meetings in the warehouse district here in LA.

He was pretty low in D'Angelo's organization so that the feds didn't even bother to stop him. When D'Angelo got arrested and then sentenced to his jail term, Victor stepped up and took over little by little over the past year. His uncle would have been proud.

Meanwhile, in the office lobby, Andy and Julio were getting a little restless. "He's in a meeting right now? How convenient!" Andy muttered under his breath but Provenza still heard him. Julio looked around the lobby. Even though it was in the same building as where D'Angelo's place was, this was a different floor.

"Sir, I think somehow this guy is tied into that D'Angelo guy," Julio stated as he walked up to Provenza. "Why do you say that?" Provenza lowered his voice as he glanced at the secretary. "Well, there's a picture on the wall of D'Angelo and Victor," Julio stated and pointed to the far wall. "Hmm," Provenza grumbled.

"Detectives! He can see you now," Irene stood up from her desk and showed them to the office. They all stepped inside the office and Victor greeted them. "Victor Rocco?" Provenza asked and Victor nodded. "I'm Lieutenant Provenza, this is Lieutenant Flynn, and Detective Sanchez, LAPD," he flashed his badge and Victor nodded again. "What can I do for you?" he asked them as he stared at Andy.

His uncle had mentioned to him about a Lieutenant Flynn as they all gathered in his office. "Well, we are investigating a murder of a hockey player who played for the Ontario Reign hockey team," Provenza explained to Victor. "Oh, really? I'm sorry to hear that," Victor stated as he gestured for them to take a seat. "How can I help you with your investigation then?" Victor asked as he sat down behind his desk.

"We were able to track down some information that led us to your office, an IP address to a computer that's located here," Andy cleared his throat as he told Victor some information. "Uh, you're going to have to be more specific about that, Lieutenant Flynn is it? My company has a lot of computers. Every business has a lot of computers, so why the interest in mine?" Victor sat back in his chair.

"Well, you see here, Victor, we ran into someone who says they work for you, on the side, in a little gambling ring," Provenza informed him and Victor's demeanor on his face changed. "Gambling's illegal isn't it? Unless, you're in Nevada, am I right?" Victor asked and looked directly at Andy. "Right," Andy stated and met Victor's gaze at him.

"Well, I'm sorry detectives but I don't know about any sports gambling of any kind. Just who was this person you ran into, may I ask?" Victor told them and Provenza glanced at Andy before he spoke. "We arrested Billy Genovese last night for murder and he told us that he worked for you," Provenza leaned forward in the chair he was sitting on.

"I assure you Lieutenant, I don't know what you're talking about, or who this Billy person is," Victor said and smiled at them. "Do you know D'Angelo, Ricky D'Angelo?" Julio asked Victor as he stood behind the lieutenants. "He's my uncle," Victor answered him and stood up from his chair. "Listen, gentlemen, I'm afraid I can't help you, but I wish you well on your investigation, a pity that someone who played sports died," Victor spoke and showed them all out of his office.

"Ah, wait just a second," Andy said as Provenza and Julio stepped ahead of him. Andy turned around and looked Victor in the eye. "We already know what you're running here, only a matter of time before we link you to it," Andy stared at him and then walked away with Provenza and Julio. "Irene, please cancel my 11 o'clock appointment," Victor stated as he watched them leave the lobby.

TBC