Disclaimer: I do not own Person of Interest or its characters.
A/N: I'm so sorry for the long hiatus. I got a promotion at work which has been keeping me extremely busy. I haven't given up on my Careese stories and I've had a new story rolling around in my head. I am sorry for the infrequent updates. Special thanks to Devereauxpoi. Thanks for the PM of encouragement. I'm glad to know you still want to read this story. This is short but I wanted to get it out there. Please review and let me know you're still reading.
Chapter 4:
"Shaw, where are you? Where's Natalie?" Reese barked into the phone.
"I've been tailing her all afternoon, Reese. She's been walking in circles. She seems to be trying to figure out her next move. It's been extremely boring," Shaw responded.
"Well, we've got another player in the mix, Gina Belton."
"I wondered what happened to that idiot. I figured she was on some tropical island somewhere, never to show her face in New York again," Shaw stated.
"She's back and she's in the thick of this. She's working for HR and she's looking for some information HR is desperate to retrieve," John replied.
"I'm betting our girl has it. Seems she's Peter Yogorov's sister. I got to listen in on their little reunion and Peter was very interested in some information he thought Natalie had access to. . .Whoa, wait a second. So that's what she's up to?" Shaw said to herself.
"Shaw, what's going on?" John asked urgently. "Where are you?"
"She's following Carter," Shaw said matter-of-factly.
"What do you mean she's following Carter? Stop her, Shaw. Intervene now."
"Calm down, Reese. I've got the situation under control. "
"You don't tell me to calm down, Shaw," Reese growled into the phone. "Where are you?"
"Carter's already made her. This girl clearly was never taught how to tail anyone. And do you honestly think if she even looked at Carter funny, I would hesitate to shoot her? Besides the dog, Carter's the only one I like. I'll check in when I know something," Shaw said as she hung up her phone.
"Finch, where are they so I can go kill Shaw?" John shouted into his phone.
"I'm sending you their location now, Mr. Reese. John, try not to shoot anyone," Harold said.
"I'm not making any promises, Harold," John warned as he looked at Shaw and Carter's position on his phone.
Joss heard her phone buzz and reached into her purse, glancing at the caller id. "I'm kind of busy, Sam," she said in way of greeting.
"You know you're being followed," Sameen declared nonchalantly.
"I'm quite aware, Sam. I'm not new to this. Being pregnant doesn't make me stupid."
"A little sensitive are we? Must be those pregnancy hormones."
"Shaw, I've had a crappy day. Unless you want me to shoot you the next time I see you, lay off the pregnancy cracks and tell me why you're really calling," Carter exclaimed.
"You're almost as grumpy as Mr. Happy himself. Just letting you know, I've got your back. She makes any move, I'm going to shoot her."
"Try not to get trigger happy, Shaw. Let's figure out what this is all about before you send her to the ER," Carter said as she hung up her phone and turned a corner, disappearing into the light and safety of her usual coffee shop.
Natalie Jacobsen was rattled. Peter had done his job. She was terrified and didn't know what to do. She knew there was only one person she could trust. Wandering aimlessly within a five block radius of the Eighth Precinct, she obsessively checked her watch. If she was right, Detective Carter's shift should be ending right about now. Natalie spotted the detective as she walked down the sidewalk from the Eighth. As Natalie followed, she was startled when she almost ran right into her quarry. Detective Carter had stopped and picked up her phone.
Natalie continued to pursue Joss Carter through the crowd of professionals getting off of work and families heading out to dinner. The sun was starting to set and the street lights were about to flicker on. Suddenly, Natalie stopped, searching the street. Carter was gone. Natalie paced frantically, turning in every direction. She had to talk to Detective Carter tonight. There was no more time. Then she spotted the glow from the coffee shop at the corner. Quickly, she jogged across the street, repositioning her tote bag on her shoulder. As she opened the door, Natalie scanned the small café. She was startled when a voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Are you looking for Detective Carter?" the young blond barista with the Southern drawl questioned. Natalie gaped at the smiling woman standing at the counter, unable to answer as her heart pounded in her chest. "She's in the back," Laney gestured and Natalie spotted the detective calmly seated at a two person table, her chair facing the door. Hesitantly, Natalie approached.
"I think we need to have a chat. Why are you coming to the precinct asking for me and then stalking me on the street? Don't you know it's not a good idea to try to take a cop by surprise?" Carter questioned.
Natalie plopped in the chair opposite Joss. With tears in her eyes, she reached across the table and desperately grasped Joss's hand. "My name is Natalie Jacobsen. Please, Detective Carter, he said I could trust you. I need your help."
Serenely sipping her caramel macchiato, Gina Belton adjusted her black page-boy wig and lifted her phone to her ear. "It's got to be the little girlfriend who has it. I've been following her since she went to Rikers and met with Yogorov. I'm not sure what her connection is to him, but she's added another complication to the mix," she said quietly into the phone.
"And what is that Gina? It is not in your interest for there to be any more complications," the man's voice said in vexation.
"She's made contact with Joss Carter. If she stays with the Detective, I won't be able to get close. Detective Carter saw me the night Simmons died. She'll recognize me immediately."
"That sounds like your problem, Gina. You better make it work. I suggest you get ahead of Carter and figure out whether the girl is carrying it or if she stashed it somewhere. You know Gina that if we don't get it back before the Russians or Detective Carter, things will get very bad very fast for all of us."
"I don't know what you expect me to do. I don't even know what this flash drive contains."
"That's because you don't need to know Gina. I suggest you figure something out quickly or you will not like the consequences," the man warned before disconnecting the call.
Gina slowly took the phone from her ear and placed it on the table. She continued to watch the two women a few tables away. Unfortunately, she wasn't close enough to hear their conversation and she didn't dare try to move closer for fear of drawing Detective Carter's attention.
"Who is he? Who sent you to me? What is this about?" Carter demanded as she withdrew her hand from Natalie's grasp.
"Mikael said I could trust you. I'm in trouble and I have nowhere else to turn."
"Mikael?" Carter asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"You knew him as Mike, Mike Laskey. He was my fiancée," Natalie responded swiping at tears before they could roll down her cheeks.
"You're the fiancée who didn't want to have the big wedding," Carter said aloud as Natalie gave her a startled expression. "Sorry. What's going on Natalie? Why are you in trouble?"
"I know that he was working for HR, but he turned his back on them. He said he realized that what they were doing was wrong. He said you showed him the kind of cop, the kind of person he wanted to be. I'm not as brave as you Detective Carter or Mikael. I begged him to leave. I tried everything I could think of to get him to run away from here and never look back, but he refused. He said that he had a responsibility to help, to try to make things right. He said that if anything happened to him, I could trust you, but not to trust any other cop. Then he . . ." Natalie's voice broke and she took a deep breath as she tried to regain her composure. "Then he died."
"Natalie, HR or whatever is left of it, why do they have an interest in you? What did Mike do? What do you know that they don't want you to know?" Carter pressed.
Before Natalie could answer, a male voice interrupted the women. "I suggest we move this somewhere more private. You're both being watched," John said as he approached, placing a hand on the back of Natalie's chair. Carter glanced around the coffee shop and spotted a woman in a page-boy wig put her head down as she walked to the back door. Carter quirked her eyebrow at John as he discretely touched his earpiece, turning his back to the women. "I think it's Belton, Shaw. She's headed out the back."
"I'm on it," Shaw responded.
"John, what are you doing here?" Natalie gasped, alarm in her eyes. "You're working for them. HR is after me," she said as she abruptly stood from her chair, knocking it over and spilling Carter's tea on the table. The other patrons of the coffeehouse turned to stare. John and Carter sidled up on each side of Natalie, steering her towards the door as Laney approached.
Loudly, Laney said, "It's ok. Don't worry about it. I'll clean this up. Have a nice day." She gave Carter and John a wink as they exited the coffee shop with Natalie. Natalie placed a dishrag on the table and righted the chair. She took one last look out the window and saw that John and Carter had disappeared. She didn't understand what those two and their other friends did, but she was certainly thankful that they did it.