More Than Luck
By: Kadi
Rated: M
Chapter 7
Andy's first instinct was to call Sharon, to drive over there and see for himself that she was still in one piece. He was just about to press her name in his contact list when he thought better of it. If she were not okay, surely he would have heard about it by now. Rusty had round the clock police protection. There were officers stationed outside the condo, and a patrol car outside the building. That did little to slow the wild beating of his heart.
Especially when he realized that their letter writer now knew where he lived. Andy pulled his gun from the back of his jeans and went through the house, securing it first. Then he slipped the letter into a ziploc bag to further preserve it. He didn't want to alarm Sharon, not tonight, not when she had her kids with her.
He called Provenza instead.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" The older man groused into the phone. "It's Christmas Eve for crying out loud."
"Yeah, I'm aware of that. There's been another letter," he quickly cut off anymore complaining. Once Louie got started, he would be on a roll for at least a good five minutes before Flynn would get a word in. "It was on my front door."
"What do you mean it was on your door?" That had his attention. Provenza sat up in his recliner, where he had been snoozing while listening to some holiday movie or another play too cheerful music.
"That's what I said," Flynn ran a hand through his hair and paced the length of his living room. The letter was there, on the bar that separated the room from the kitchen, an eyesore against his deep green counter top. "I got home from Nicole's and the letter was taped to my door. I took it down, I thought it was from one of the neighbors. It's happened before, I let the grass get too high out front a couple of months ago. I checked the house, no sign of entry, nothing outside to give any clue, just the damned letter taped to the front door. Damnit!"
"Alright, alright," Provenza coddled a bit. "Flynn, what did it say? How do you know it's from our guy?"
"It's our guy alright." Flynn huffed another curse under his breath. He walked over and glared down at the offending object. "It says, Dear Andy, You won't be able to protect her. You won't always be hovering over her shoulder. When she's gone, no one will care what happens to the boy. When Sharon is dead, Rusty will know real fear. I'll come for him, and no one will be there to stop me. Enjoy her while you can. I'm coming for her first." He walked away from it, to the far side of the room, as if to distance himself would calm his frazzled nerves. "Then he signed it the way he signed the others. It's the same guy."
"Damn." Provenza hadn't wanted to believe it. "He knows where you live."
"He's watching us." Flynn braced himself against the doorframe leading to the den. "If he didn't know where to find Sharon and Rusty before, he could now. If he's followed me here, he's followed me to her place, hell, he could have followed me to Nicole's tonight. Louie…"
"Calm down." Provenza got up and began to pace as well. "It's doubtful he'd care about Nicole. It all comes back to Rusty. It's Rusty that he wants. He started threatening the Captain because she's connected. He thought it would force her hand, she would put Rusty back in a group home, or she would send him away. Now you're connected. He'll target you, to get to her, to get back to Rusty. Damn, damn, damn…"
"Yeah…" Flynn tipped his head back against the wall. He felt a cold trickle of sweat run down the back of his neck. "Louie, her kids are here. No one thought it would be an issue, since the guy couldn't know where to find her. All the other letters went to DCFS or the office."
"I was just thinking about that myself. She's not going to like this." He scratched the top of his head. If there were a way to not tell the Captain, he'd jump at it, but the situation was too serious - too dangerous.
"She needs to be told." Andy didn't want to do that to her. The longer they waited, the worse it would be. Sharon would flay their hides for keeping it from her. "Call the guys, get them in to the office, have someone come out and process my place. I'll pick up Sharon and bring her in."
"We don't cancel anyone's vacation," Provenza continued, picking up the thought where Andy left off. "We process the letter tonight, turn it over to the team working the case."
There was an SIS team working the threat angle, in conjunction with the DA's office, but Major Crimes always got first crack at the letters when they came in. They took care of their own, and the Captain, and Rusty were their own.
"Put extra protection on the Condo," Andy continued. "Send Sanchez over, when she realizes why I've pulled her out of there, she'll be pissed. She won't be willing to leave them. Sharon will trust Sanchez."
"And Sykes," Provenza admitted. The young detective was often annoying, but she had a steady gun. "They're good together. Tao and Buzz to the office, along with us and the Captain."
"Yeah." Andy sighed. "Okay, I'll call this in. I'll wait for SIS to show up, give them the statement, and then I'll pick up Sharon and meet the rest of you downtown."
"Good." Provenza paused. "Flynn. Take a breath. Nothing is happening to the Captain or the kid. This is what we do."
"Wish I was more sure about that." There was a churning in his gut. "I'm fine. I'll see you in a little while."
"Don't do anything dumb," his partner cautioned.
"Who me? Please. I quit doing dumb when the cute little thing in IA started handing me off to her assistant." He said it with more cheer than he really felt. All the good feelings the evening had produced had quickly evaporated. It was times like these that he almost regretted giving up drinking. Andy made a mental note to hit a meeting. Holidays like this, they went on, pretty much all night, all over town. He'd find one easily.
"The words cute little thing do not apply to certain people, Flynn." Provenza practically growled and wanted to reach through the phone and shake his friend. "I'm going to let it go, since I realize you've had a rough night." He hung up then, before his partner could say anything else that would irritate him.
It was over an hour before Andy was able to leave his house again. SIS had shown up and began processing the scene, while another team canvassed the neighborhood to see if anyone had seen anything odd. They would need to canvas again later, do to the holiday, but fresh perspectives were always the best bet in a case like this. Andy was able to hang on to the letter, citing chain of evidence, but SIS took photos of it and it was properly bagged into evidence before he left with it.
He called Sharon as he left, simply telling her that they had a situation and he was picking her up on his way to the office. He didn't want to tell her about the new letter, not in front of her kids, especially Rusty. It was hard enough on the kid as it was.
Sanchez and Sykes were already there. He spotted them in Sanchez's car and waved as he walked toward the Condo's lobby entrance. They would come in after he'd had a chance to brief the Captain. He texted Sharon when he was inside, and only had to wait five minutes for her to ride the elevator down to meet him.
She appeared, looking relaxed and casual in jeans and a deep amethyst sweater. When she spotted him she started to tease him about not needing to make up excuses about work to come and see her now, but the words died on her tongue before she could even give voice to them. Andy looked worried, and the way his body tensed when he saw her, relief and desperation in his gaze, set her on edge. Anxiety churned, knotting her stomach as she strode toward him, a jacket and her purse thrown over her arm. "Lieutenant, what happened?"
Her use of his rank grounded him a little. There was this part of him that wanted to drag her back into the elevator and take her back upstairs where he could wrap her up and keep her safe. Neither of those an action that she would appreciate. Not Sharon who could more than take care of herself. He still and the bean-bag to prove it. Andy's jaw clenched. He reached for her jacket and held it for her. "We need to go downtown," he said. "There's been another letter."
Sharon sucked in a breath. A chill went down her spine. "Me or Rusty?"
"Neither." His hands rested on her shoulders for a moment, slid down her arms before he forced himself to step away. "It was addressed to me."
The knot in her gut twisted tighter. "Are you—"
"I'm sure. Not here, come on." He cupped her elbow and drew her away from the lobby. "Sykes and Sanchez are outside, they're going to keep an eye on things while you're gone. We added an extra patrol car to the detail around the building. Provenza, Tao and Buzz are waiting for us at the station."
They stopped outside and the two younger detectives joined them. "Ma'am," Sanchez nodded. "How many people are in your condo right now?"
"Three." Sharon blinked. She was still reeling from the increased level of security and the tightly coiled emotion she could feel coming off of Flynn. "My son and daughter, and then Rusty." She pulled her phone out of her purse and quickly brought up a photo taken just that afternoon. She showed it to both detectives so that they could visually ID the pair once they gained access to the Condo. "I don't want you to alarm them."
"No ma'am," Sanchez shook his head. "One of us will stay outside, with Rusty's security detail, the other will be inside at all times. We'll tell them that you're being over protective."
"Rusty won't buy it," Sharon pointed out.
"I can handle Rusty, ma'am." Sanchez smiled a little grimly. The kid was a brat a lot of the time, but he was mostly a good kid. He turned out better than a lot of kids that Sanchez had seen in similar and worse circumstances.
"We've got this," Sykes said. "We've got eyes on your family, Captain."
"Thank you," Sharon folded her arms in front of her. "Both of you, I understand how inconvenient it must be, being pulled away from your families tonight and Julio…" Her gaze was apologetic, "Candlelight mass is starting soon…"
"It's okay, I went to an earlier service," he stated. "I'll go in the morning too. Really, ma'am, this is more important." Julio glanced at Flynn and shrugged. "No one messes with our people."
Sharon was taken aback for a moment. Outside of Flynn no one else from the team had really bothered to claim her yet. Moisture stung behind her eyes. She was so accustomed to being disliked by most of the LAPD that his words, simple though they might have been, meant more than he could possibly know. "Thank you," she said again, softer than before. She turned to Andy, eyes beseeching. She needed to leave before they saw her lose her usually impenetrable outer shell.
Andy smiled at Sanchez and nodded. Then he lay his hand against the small of her back and directed Sharon toward his car. He waited until they had pulled away from the Condo before he handed her the evidence bag with the letter in it.
She paled upon reading it. This one was a lot more direct than the first several that had come addressed to her. Sharon turned the bag over in her hands several times before she frowned. "Where's the envelope? We'll need it tested for trace and DNA?"
Andy's hands tightened around the steering wheel. "There wasn't one. It was hand delivered."
Her sharply indrawn breath made her chest ache. "What?" Sharon stared at him, wide-eyed and ashen.
"I got home from Nicole's tonight and found it taped to my front door. There wasn't an envelope." Andy pulled over and jerked the car into park. He turned sideways in his seat, looking at her. "It was just waiting there. So sometime between when I left for Nicole's late this afternoon, and when I got back at almost ten, the dirtbag showed up and taped that note to my door."
The car was spinning. She had to grip the seat to keep from teetering sideways. "That's why you sent Sanchez and Sykes to my Condo. He isn't just an anonymous creep trying to scare us anymore." It was too small a space, too confined. Sharon clawed at her seatbelt, and finally managed to release it. Then she pushed her way out of the car, only to twist and lean against the side, head bowed against the roof while she struggled to draw air into her lungs.
"Damn." Andy quickly followed her. He rounded the back of the car in just a few strides and pulled her to him. She was ice cold. He tucked her head beneath his chin and held her tightly. "Nothing's going to happen," he promised.
"I've been threatened before," she murmured. "Those don't matter. I'm used to that. When you have to end enough careers, the people you send down are usually dirty and immoral enough that they want to threaten you, scare you into losing your nerve, changing your mind. I've been hated before. The threats against me don't matter. But if he can find you, he can find Rusty. I promised I would never send him away, but how can I keep him safe?"
"The same way you are right now." One hand moved up and down her back, the other was buried in her thick hair. "You keep him where you can see him, and you trust us to have both your backs. I'm not letting anything happen to you, to either of you."
"It may be beyond our ability to control now," she replied.
"Hey." Andy pulled back enough he could tip her face back and look into her eyes. "We're going to take care of it. We'll catch the nutjob. He's not gonna touch either one of you. Okay? Tell me you believe that."
"I believe you'll try," she said. "That's the best that I can do. I want to believe it all."
"I'll take what I can get." He brought his forehead down against hers. "We're going to make this alright. We've faced worse odds."
"We?" Despite everything, that was the part that stuck out for her at the moment.
"Yeah," his voice was still thick, rough with emotion. "We. You got a problem with that?"
"We is pretty complicated," she reminded him. "We might want to think more about what it's getting itself into."
"We can kick complicated's ass," Andy smiled slightly down at her. The shock was receding, and she had started to warm through in his embrace. He cupped her head in both hands and continued to study her. "I'm not running away at the first sign of trouble, and I'm not going to let you push me away either, so don't even try it. I know you can do this on your own, I know that's what you're used to, but that isn't what's going to happen this time. You've got me and the rest of Major Crimes, so just deal with it."
"Yes sir." Her lips twitched, but she didn't smile.
Andy groaned quietly and bent his head, kissing her. He felt her against him, warm and real, whole and safe. He didn't let it go too far, they were both emotionally raw. He drew away from her after a moment. "They're waiting for us," he said it to remind them both.
"Yes." Sharon didn't move away from him immediately. She stayed there, in the circle of his arms for another moment before a sigh was wrought from her. She straightened, nodded, and moved back into the car.
He watched the transformation as it came over her. The Captain fell into place like the shield she often used it as. The emotion behind her eyes was still raw, but as he slipped back behind the steering wheel, he saw her smoothing her hair back into place. By the time they reached the station, the outward appearance had been carefully crafted and no one would be able to tell that Captain Raydor was anything but the no nonsense woman who seldom took prisoners.
"Gentlemen," Sharon strode into the Murder Room ahead of Flynn. "I appreciate you coming in on your day off. I apologize for the inconvenience."
"Nonsense!" Provenza rose from his chair. "Where else would we be?" She seemed more or less put together. He shared a glance with Flynn, the other man shrugged and nodded.
"Where is the letter?" Tao moved forward, eager to get his hands on it.
"Right here," Flynn handed it over and walked over to lean on the edge of one of the desks. "It needs to go down to the print shop."
"Right. After I get my copies." Tao carried it over to his desk and used his portable scanner to enter it into their system, along with all of the other letters.
Buzz sat at his computer, already entering all of the data as the images were taken. "Captain, I've had several texts from Rusty."
"Thank you, Buzz. If you'll just remind him that I will speak to him when I get home."
"Okay, all done." Tao straightened. "I'll take this downstairs." Provenza had already brought them up to speed, so he didn't ask after the envelope. With any luck, the tape that the writer had used to secure it to the door would turn up a print. Unfortunately, when it came to the letters, they were running short on luck.
"Copies are printing now," Buzz stood up and walked around toward the printer. He dropped the required number coins into the jar as he took the printouts. He had already read the letter from the digital image, so he handed the printouts to Flynn before moving back to his computer. "I also sent a request to traffic for the camera footage from the intersections around the Lieutenant Flynn's neighborhood. I'll start sorting through that as soon as we have it. I believe the hours we're concentrating on are between four and ten?"
"Sounds about right," Flynn nodded. "If anything, we might spot someone familiar on the footage, or Rusty might," he glanced at the Captain.
She nodded slowly. "As soon as you have the stills, let me know. I'll have Rusty look through them if we can't make an ID ourselves. What else?"
"Patrol will be sticking close to that neighborhood," Provenza stated, "in case he returns with another letter before we find him. We've also increased the security on you and Rusty. If you aren't with one of us, you'll have someone from patrol shadowing you." He pointed a finger at her. "No objections."
Sharon ground her teeth together. She understood the necessity, but now she could truly sympathize with Rusty. "Alright." She couldn't suppress all of the displeasure in her tone. "Let's run a scan of the traffic footage too, of any images we find of Lieutenant Flynn coming and going from his house, cross reference them with the footage from tonight. Perhaps we'll find the same individual at the time he was following him." Sharon's head inclined and she considered the content of the letter. "I would concentrate on the hours between five Monday evening and…." She turned to Flynn, brows lifted in askance.
"I don't know, about eleven?" The writer might have followed them on their date, or tailed him at some point after Flynn dropped her at home. "That's assuming he didn't ID all our residences weeks ago."
"Or didn't already know," Sharon stated quietly.
"It's worth a try," Provenza nodded. "It gives us more to go on than we had before."
"In other words, don't be pissed off the nut job is following me around town, be glad that maybe he finally screwed up?" Andy made a face at his partner. "Your attempts at optimism suck."
"It's Christmas, I'm trying," the old man shot back.
Andy snorted, grinning slightly. "Try harder."
"Gentlemen," Sharon sighed at them. "Your efforts are appreciated," she said. "Now then, is there anything that we are missing here?"
"Doubtful," Andy shrugged. "We hit every base we've got. SIS has the ball."
"Alright." She turned to Buzz. "It's unlikely that you will get the footage from traffic tonight. Forward the request to SIS for what we'd like to cross reference. You can check their work when we return next week."
Buzz's jaw dropped. "But Captain—"
"No buts," she stated. "I won't have you working on this on your vacation. I'm not trying to diminish the seriousness of the matter, believe me, but you've all more than earned this time off. The data will be there when we return, in the mean time, SIS can follow up. We've increased security. We've done our due diligence, gentlemen."
Provenza was looking skyward. "I cannot believe that I am about to say this." He took a deep breath, seemingly drawing strength. "The Captain is right." He grimaced, as though admitting it was physically painful. "There isn't a lot we can do right now. Wracking up more overtime following leads which may, or may not, lead us anywhere, isn't going to do anyone any favors. We'll wrap up what we need to do tonight. I will check in with SIS for a progress report each day."
Sharon exchanged look with Andy that might have been amused. He shrugged at her and shook his head before focussing on his partner. "You feeling okay?"
Provenza glared at him. "Do you want to go there now?"
"Probably not." Flynn folded his hands in front of him. "Okay so, I'll take the Captain home. Then see what kind of mess SIS made of my yard."
"We won't be here much longer," Provenza nodded. "Right Buzz?"
"I suppose not." The younger man looked unhappy at having someone else handle the video footage. "I'll get the requests filled out and sent to the proper individuals." He sighed. "This holiday season just keeps getting worse and worse."
"Thank you all." Sharon lifted her purse again. "I am sorry, Buzz," she stopped next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"No ma'am," he replied with a sad smile. "I'm sorry. This shouldn't be happening at all."
She gave his shoulder a squeeze before she joined Flynn again. "I'm trusting you to not let either of them stay too late," she told Provenza, speaking of Buzz and Tao.
"I'm not leaving until they leave," he stated, "and there's a comfortable chair waiting for me, so we will be out of here just as quickly as I can arrange it."
"I woke him up," Flynn smirked.
"Oh." She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. "I see. Hm. Then I appreciate your attention all the more, Lieutenant."
Andy chuckled as he led her out. "If nothing else, the two of you keep everything interesting."
Sharon waited until they were in the elevator to tilt her head at him with a small smile. "I didn't think I needed Lieutenant Provenza's assistance in making things interesting for you."
"That you don't, Captain. That you don't." He flashed a heated glance at her and winked.