A couple days into his time off from work, Sam found himself making the drive to Hamilton. He had arranged to meet Marlo and Mia at a diner for breakfast before Marlo had to go to work. Walked around and into the diner plan was to take her back to Toronto and they'd spend the day at his place.
He located the diner with relative ease and, in the lot next to it, spotted Marlo's car. He pulled in next to it and walked around and in the door. Marlo and Mia and staked out a booth by the windows on the other side of the door.
"Mia, look who's here. It's Dada!", Marlo excitedly said when Sam walked in. Mia looked where Marlo pointed and her face lit up when she saw who was approaching. Sam picked her up from her high chair, kissed her on top of the head and held her for a minute, making faces and interesting sounds. Marlo smiled and took a sip of her tea.
Sam returned Mia to the high chair and sat down across from Marlo. "It's good to see you two are looking well."
"Yeah, we are." Marlo smiled and they both watched Mia play with the pieces of cereal on the tray in front of her. Turning her attention back to Sam, "Uh, how have you been holding up? I'd say you look well but we both know that doesn't mean a whole lot when it comes to you and your feelings."
Sam grinned and nodded. "I'm holding it together. I have my therapist appointment in a couple days. Hopefully, I'll be cleared to get back. But today, I'm just happy to be with this little one."
The waitress came buy and dropped a coffee off for Sam and a couple of menus. "I'll be back in a bit for our orders."
"Speaking of which, what do you have planned?"
"I don't really have plans. You know me. I just figured I'd take her back to the city and we'd hang out at the apartment and chill."
Marlo laughed a little. "If all you're going to do is watch TV and play games with her in between naps, why don't you just use my place? Save some gas and time, you know."
"Are you sure? It's no problem-"
"Sam, it's fine, you wouldn't be inconveniencing me. I have a spare key," she reached into her purse and slid a key across the table. "Let yourself in, make yourself at home. Mia has a go-bag just inside the door by the table that's there. That should have everything you'd need. And I'll just see you there after work."
"Well, Marlo, that's very generous of you."
"Don't mention it."
The waitress returned and Sam and Marlo realized they should probably look at the menus.
Sam opened the door to Marlo's place and immediately noticed the bag of supplies. Sam carried Mia into the living room and placed her in her play pen. Sam played games with her and entertained both of them until Mia made it clear she was ready for a nap. Sam placed Mia in the crib in Marlo's room and made sure the baby monitor was on. He grabbed the remote and shut the door quietly behind her. He went back to the living room and flipped around on the TV looking for something good to watch. He landed on some hockey news program and figured for the middle of the day that was good enough.
A little while later it occurred to him that Marlo's place was in great condition. Well kept, uncluttered, very clean. No signs of anything untoward happening with Marlo. That paired with her manner in person really cleared Sam's mind, and he'd be happy to tell Andy about it later. Once the commentators had him convinced that next year the Maple Leafs would make a playoff push he turned the tv off. Making sure the volume on the baby monitor was up all the way, he laid his head back for a nap of his own.
He was awoken by the sound of his phone ringing. Not sure how long he'd been asleep but groggy nonetheless, he looked at the screen. It was Andy. He sat up on the couch and answered. "Hey Sweetie. What's happening?"
"Oh, the usual. Had a car stalled on a railroad track. So, I sat on it with some other units until the tow truck got there."
"Wow, heavy stuff. And here we were just enjoying a relaxing snooze. What time is it anyway?"
"About 11. I was calling to see if you two would be interested in meeting for lunch somewhere."
"Well, McNally that sounds great. But you'll have to give us some time. We're down in Hamilton."
"What are you doing down there?"
"Marlo offered to let us hang out at her place, for convenience sake."
"Oh, I see. How is everything down there?"
Sam knew what she really wanted to know with that vague question. "It's good. Marlo and Mia are great. Her place is pretty nice too. A nice comfortable couch."
"Really? No photo arrays from investigations and mountains of files?"
"McNally, there's not even a single dish in the sink."
"Wow, okay. So, all seems well."
"Yes, it does."
"Then I guess you're right. Whatever may have been going on has passed. Well, as long as they are both doing well that's what matters."
"My thoughts exactly."
"About lunch?"
"Right, give me a minute to get her ready and we can meet you somewhere. An hour or so?"
"Sounds good. Just let me know where."
"I love you, McNally."
"I know."
Dov and Frankie were knocking on doors again, as they had been doing on and off for the last couple days, hoping for something that could help make some inroads on this case. To this point, they were coming up empty. They met back at the car.
"Anything?", Dov asked.
"Nada."
"We're close, I can feel it. We just need that one piece to break this thing wide open."
"We need to sit down with the other detectives on this thing. Put all of our notes together and try to piece something. Doing this all separately is getting us nowhere."
"Okay, I'll call Nash and tell her."
"Do that, Blackstone tried to call me, maybe he's got something. Tell them we'll meet back at 15.
Dov pulled out his phone and called Traci.
"Nash."
"Hey Trace, you getting anywhere?"
"Not really. None of our files have either of the roommates linked to any of the major players. And according to Ward, Reese hasn't been on the radar since before the Dowling Crew fell apart after we busted Jackson Irving."
"So, whatever he may have been a part of seems to be in the past."
"Yeah, pretty much. What about you two?"
"We've got less than you. Absolutely nothing. Either nobody's seen anything or nobody wants to talk. Detective Anderson is calling in drug squad, maybe they've heard of these guys. Either way, she wants a sit down. Us, you two, and them back at 15. You know put everything together and try to find a link somewhere."
Frankie, who was still in the car, honked the horn a couple times.
"Trace, I got to go. See you in a bit." Dov hung up and walked over to the car.
"Get in," Frankie reached across and popped the door for Dov
"What's happening?"
"Blackstone said Drug squad knew of these guys." Frankie peeled away, living up to her reputation as a maniac when driving. "Apparently they've been on the two for a little bit now. He said Fisher and Parker were dealing in narcotics, mainly meth. Which is what we thought. What Drug Squad was working on is identifying their supplier."
"Interesting. That could maybe explain a few things."
"Yeah, it could. Detective Blackstone is meeting us at 15. You get Nash and Ward?"
"Yeah, they'll be waiting for us."
They met upstairs in the Guns and Gangs Office. There was a conference room up there were they set out all of the files and notes and hung up the pictures.
Blackstone walked in a few minutes after they got it all set up. He walked up to the board and tapped on the photo of Parker. "This guy, Marshall Parker, we know was dealing. We suspect the roommate, Billy Fisher, was as well. But what we really wanted was to pin down their supplier. Now they're dead and we got nothing."
"What we do know," Dov spoke up, "is that Matt Reese came to Parker and Fisher's house prepared to kill. Detective Anderson and I believe he was in fact planning on it."
"And we know," Juliet said, "That Reese use to have ties to the Dowling Crew, but those were all in the past. Before the Crew collapsed after the Irving arrest."
"Then he aligned with somebody else," Blackstone said.
"Maybe, but he hasn't even been on the radar since then," Traci pulled the Reese file to her. "This is a guy with a long record with the Dowling crew. Would he really be silent after that with a new crew?"
"Let me see that," Blackstone grabbed the file and glanced at the relevant information. "All of these arrests are for things like possession with intent. Nothing personal on his own. So, maybe his new crew has him doing different work."
"Then how come we haven't heard of him?", Traci asked.
"I've got a theory," Frankie said. "Let me know what you think. I think somehow Parker and Fisher found out you're on them. Work on the street maybe, I don't know. However, they find out and Parker goes to Fisher tells him they should take their money and split. Fisher instead calls their boss and tells him or her Parker's plan, hoping to gain favor and be spared. Instead, Parker takes off without Fisher, leaving him without the money. Meanwhile their supplier sends in Reese to eliminate both loose ends and hopefully recover the money but he didn't quite get there in time. He kills Fisher. At the same time Parker kills himself knowing that he's dead if he goes back to jail or even if he doesn't because he talks. Dead either way."
"That's quite a theory there, Detective," Blackstone said.
"It works for me," she said.
"Problem is, how do we prove it?"
"Well, it would help if we got a look at the case notes you guys have on the two, maybe see were the leak could have happened."
"That's not going to happen."
"What do you mean?", Traci stood up.
"Detectives, Drug Squad is not in the habit of giving out their ongoing case info, just in-case something were to leak to the wrong people or the wrong eyes were to see it. You can understand that, right?"
"No, I can't," Dov said.
"Ward, you used to work I.A., right? You can appreciate the need for keeping things close to the vest. Especially when information is already leaking.
"Maybe, in some cases. But I'm not sure I'd qualify this as one of them," she said.
"What do we do to get past this?", Anderson asked
"What about phones. Have you guys been able to trace any of the three guys' calls."
"Most of the common numbers trace back to a couple burners. Others are sporadic and unrelated," Dov said.
Blackstone let out a deep breath he'd apparently been holding. "Well, I'll take all of this, look through our stuff. And if anything comes up that could be useful to either of your investigations I'll let you know. Until then, leave this in the capable hands of the Drug Squad." Blackstone walked out of the room and made a call.
"So that's it," Dov said.
"For now," Traci said. "But I've heard that 'capable hands of the Drug Squad' line before and it didn't work out well. I'll bring Staff up to speed. Maybe he's got some ideas."