The call of a residential explosion came over the radio just before Traci and Juliet could see the smoke rising against the darkening sky. They both knew in their gut where it was coming from before the address was confirmed. Traci and Juliet shared a brief glance before Traci pressed down harder on the accelerator and Juliet flipped on both the siren and flashers. Then she grabbed her phone and punched up Frankie. No answer.
"Anderson's not answering," Juliet said and reached for the radio. "Guns and Gangs one mobile. Be advised, Homicide Detective Anderson was on scene at explosion. We're just down the street." Despite the pressure and adrenaline, Juliet wanted to remain calm on the radio so as not to add any confusion to the situation.
Traci pulled up to a stop kitty corner to what used to be the house rented by Phillip Brock. Now, the porch and entire front entry way was blown off and there was a gaping hole in the front siding. Along with a fire that was steady but not really spreading. They got out of the car and told the onlookers to please keep their distance. Frankie was nowhere to be seen. Juliet looked around and then she saw it. "Traci, other side of the street, down the block." Traci looked that way and noticed it too. Frankie's car.
Traci turned to the crowd, "Hey any of you see another officer here before us, a detective? Plain clothes?"
Muffled "No's" and shaking heads was the response of the group. A patrol car came speeding up and screeching to a stop, lights flashing. Traci told them to set up a perimeter and to have further responding units follow suit until further notice. Traci set Juliet to ask the other clusters of people if anybody saw Frankie. The fire department would be here soon and get a grasp on the fire. Until then, there wasn't much anybody else could do. Except sit and worry.
Traci's phone rang, it was Shaw.
"Nash," she answered.
"Nash, I just got off the phone with Jarvis. One of Bailey's ETF guys didn't make it. The burns were to extensive, I guess. So, our act of terrorism has a cop death with it. Where are you guys at on that?"
"Well, we're at that residential explosion near the university. The resident was our suspect for supplying the explosives."
"What?! Why didn't I know this? I saw it pop on my system but figured it was a gas line or something. I'm leaving now, I'll meet you there."
"Wait, Oliver, there's more." Traci explained how they got onto Brock in the first place and their conversation earlier. Then she transitioned to them coming to meet Frankie here to bring him in for the murder of Starks."
"But he's gone, I assume."
"Yeah, but the thing is Frankie was waiting for us here. Her car is here, but, uh, we can't find her."
When Oliver got on scene, the fire was out and the fire department said there was nobody, dead or alive, inside. They had some interesting information however. The lieutenant, who was in charge on-scene, told Oliver that judging from the burn pattern and other indicators, he was confident that there was a device positioned right under the porch. Directly under where you'd stand to ring the doorbell.
"So, somebody may have triggered it?", Oliver asked to make certain he understood.
"That would be my bet. If so, they were dead right away, no suffering," the firefighter said. He placed a hand on Oliver's shoulder. "I heard you're missing someone."
Oliver nodded but didn't know what to say. Frankie still hadn't turned up and the officers were all beginning to draw their own conclusions. Oliver wasn't interested in jumping to that yet, but the evidence was looking grim. Juliet told him that if they could access Frankie's dash cam, they might get some more information. So, he grabbed the Toughbook from his truck, gathered Traci and Juliet, and they went to Frankie's car. It was unlocked and Juliet got inside and connected the computer to the dash cam.
The footage pooped up on screen in a bunch of different clips. The camera is set to record all the time but only save footage from when the sirens and flashers are on. Or in other extreme conditions that the system interprets. It would also save some video from just before to show what may have led up to the event. Juliet was hoping that the explosion triggered it and the footage went back far enough. She browsed through the clips, there weren't many since a detective didn't engage in too many things like traffic stops. That let her locate the day more quickly.
"Okay, this is from the Starks death scene so it should be just after this." Juliet skipped through that quickly and the screen blacked for a bit then came back and was looking down the same street they were on. "Here we go." Juliet hit play and they all watched.
They heard a door close and then Frankie walked into the frame, in her vest. She drew her Glock, checked it and re-holstered it. "What is she doing? We told her to wait for us," Traci said. The on-screen Frankie then got to the corner and turned towards the house. "Oh, no," Juliet almost whispered. They all knew what was coming next and their guts told them the same thing. When the sound of the explosion followed by the cloud of smoke and dust came, they all tried hard but unsuccessfully to not break down.
Gail was sitting alone in her room at Dov and Chris' place. They were out in the living room, probably in their dress blues and ready to go, but not about to rush her. The outfit was laid out on the bed next to her, but she didn't want to put it on. Doing so would bring her closer to going to the church. And going there was one step closer to the finality of it all.
It had been a week since the explosion. Five-and-a-half days since she was told Frankie had been killed. She had worried and known that was probably the case since she heard Frankie was there and missing. But there was always a hope. A chance that Frankie would pop up with some crazy explanation. Then a person that lived down the street brought a copy of a video from their personal surveillance camera on the front of their house. It was pointed so that it also had a view down the street, including the Brock house. Oliver initially wasn't sure that Gail needed to see it but he relented upon her insistence. So, he and Gail, along with Traci, Juliet and Inspector Jarvis gathered in Oliver's office and watched Frankie turn the corner from where they knew her car was parked. She climbed the porch and a heartbeat later it blew up. In that moment, everyone realized that Frankie's impulsiveness saved the lives of Traci and Juliet. Gail didn't immediately break down. That came later. Instead she just went away, mentally checked out. She wasn't sure how she got home that day, Chris had probably driven her but she couldn't remember.
Somewhere between friends-with-benefits and a true relationship, it was undeniable that Gail and Frankie cared about each other and losing that support was going to take a while to get over. Different people had tried to be there for her before, but nothing ever lasted long when it got more serious than friends. And just when a causal relationship was working for both sides, some asshole comes around and takes it away.
Now here she was, the day of the funeral. The day to close another chapter of Gail's story. She shook herself out of her reverie and finally began to put on the black ensemble. When that was done, she exited her room and found Chris Dov and Chloe all patiently waiting. Nobody said anything but they all gave Gail a hug. Gail was too out of it to put up any resistance and even returned the embraces. Then they climbed into Chris' Jeep and away to the church they went.
An APB went out on Brock the night of the explosion. Originally, he was a suspect in the terrorist act downtown that killed one of Bailey's guys and wounded several others. Since, it had been updated to include the murder of Detective Anderson. The OPP, SQ, and all the other provincial police services, as well as the RCMP were on alert. The border was also aware and authorities in America were informed of the situation in case he had already crossed over sometime before. Effectively it was out of Toronto's hands which left a sour taste in the mouths of everyone. They desperately wanted to give closure to Anderson's family, but couldn't offer anything more than condolences.
The church was crowded when Sam and Andy got there. Andy had been feeling unwell the last couple days but wasn't going to miss a cop funeral. Especially one that hit so close. All of 15, with the exception of Gail who was by Frankie's family, was seated in a large clump. Most of the church was divided up in to Services from around the province and country. All coming out to pay respects to a sister-in-arms.
Sam and Andy squeezed into a row that included a lot of their platoon. Nobody said much to anybody, besides to acknowledge them. The Chief said some words speaking to Detective Anderson's heroism and distinguished record. Oliver stood up and shared some stories that were a bit more personal in nature. Focusing not only on the officer but the person. A lot of officers could have stood up and said similar things but Oliver captured all of their sentiments. Her family had a couple of members go up and tell stories from the past, there were laughs and more tears. In the end Gail didn't say anything, but those that knew her understood.
A week after the funeral, there was still no hint of a clue into Brock's whereabouts. He was effectively off the radar. And with each passing minute, it was more and more likely he wasn't going to get caught soon. Sam and Dov tried to keep on it as best they could but their own cases as well as the cases they inherited from Frankie were taking a lot of their attention.
Plus, for Dov, the wedding was only a couple of weeks away and his mind was understandably elsewhere sometimes. Chloe had talked with Gail about postponing the wedding for a bit, but Gail told her to go ahead. She didn't want to cause those kinds of problems. Besides, Gail was back to work and trying to move on in her life. Her new approach, outside of the few friends she already had, was to not let anyone close to her. Somebody always got hurt.
A/N: I want to apologize for taking a little longer than usual to post this chapter but I kept going back and forth on what was happening. And then once that got squared away, writing and re-writing several parts took extra time. But I wanted to make sure the story was at it's best. I don't know if everyone liked Frankie. I know there are a lot of Gail/Holly fans out there, of which I am, but I liked Frankie's character from as soon as she showed up on the show. She was something Rookie Blue didn't have and I'm sad the show didn't last longer to explore her character more. But, with the show setting up some connection between her and Gail in those last episodes, I wanted to play it out. And in the end, I wanted to give her character a good sendoff but also not drag it out. With that being said, when I'm writing, the story takes over and I follow where it takes me. When I started writing this plot line, I had no intention of killing off a character. I didn't even know how each chapter was going to play out. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story, despite the sad chapter presented here, and stick around for future ones. There are bright spots to come!