Brenda walked into the murder room a totally different woman from the day before. Where she'd been devastated yesterday, today she was angry. She shouldn't be angry at Fritz, but she was. And that spurred her on today, to make things as normal as she could. She met the eyes of her squad, and could see from the look they gave her that word had filtered through to them about the job offer. Questions were in their eyes whether or not they'd still have her as boss, so Brenda decided to put them at ease, getting it out of the way.
"Gentlemen, I know you may have heard some rumours floating around this building, and I just wanted to let you know, I will be staying as your Chief. So, whatever you've heard, forget about it. For the foreseeable future I am not going anywhere. Now, what do we have new on the case?" Brenda moved on fast, wanting to settle into work.
Gabriel stood up and reported on what he and Sanchez had learned yesterday when they'd tried to bring the victim's business partner in. The guy had lawyer-ed up, and they'd waited to talk to the Chief before arresting him. Of course, in the last 24 hours, the prints on the murder weapon had been matched to the partner, so they had enough to bring him in to talk now. Arresting would have to wait, because as his partner, there could be a good excuse as to why his prints were on the weapon. The complicating factor was there was an unidentified set on the scissors too, so that left some doubt as to whether he'd killed his partner or not.
"I think you and I will take a little trip out to visit him later, Sgt. Gabriel. I think we can manage to get him to talk, but at this point, we may have another suspect. Lt. Flynn and I received information from the vic's wife that he was having an affair with his assistant. We need to bring her in and question her, she may have had motive and means to do away with him, considering he was found in his office. We should have brought her in for questioning earlier, we're getting sloppy here, people." Brenda stated.
"Lt. Provenza, did you find anything useful on those security tapes? Anyone going into the office that wasn't suppose to be there?"
"Only two going into the office were his partner and his assistant. We need to get them in here and talking. They were both at the scene of the crime." Provenza sat in his chair, arms back, watching the Chief.
"Well, we'll do that as soon as we can get Mr. Davies over his little aversion to talking to us. Flynn and Provenza, you bring the assistant in, one Christy Hudson, if you can find her. Sanchez, you come with Gabriel and I. Tao, see if you can clean up that video, see if you can get anything else out of it. Somethings missing and I don't know what yet. Give me a few minutes, and we'll head out." With that, Brenda turned toward her office. "And oh, yes, Lt. Flynn, I have to speak with you. Could you join me please?"
Flynn watched her go, wondering why she wanted to speak to him. After he'd felt like he'd embarrassed himself and her last night by asking after her, he'd figured she'd avoid him. Hopefully it only had to do with the case. He got up to follow her, the teams eyes following him. He shrugged it off and kept going.
Flynn entered her office, standing there unsure of himself. This woman always managed to upset his equilibrium. She could upset his balance with just a look, had from the day he met her. Where once he'd been angry, trying to get rid of her, in the end, he found she challenged him, made him want to do his job better. They'd had run ins here and there, but she made him proud to do his job, a feeling he'd lost somewhere in his years on the force. He waited for her to speak.
"Lt. Flynn, I appreciate you phoning last night, and seeing how I was. I don't have many close friends, and I'm sure you've heard many things about Agent Howard and I by now. Please know that most of it isn't true. I will only say that yes, he's going to Washington and yes, I'm staying here." Brenda busied herself with a file, stuffing it in her purse, getting ready to leave.
Flynn watched her do it, taking in her words. "Well, you normally don't come to work like that, Chief. I know it won't make you feel any better, but both my exes left me because I was too involved in my work. So, I understand."
"Well, I don't know what's going to happen, Lt. Things are up in the air, we're at an impasse right now. I'm not going, he's not staying, and I don't know if we'll work things out. Just know that I appreciate your concern. And, thank you." With that, she went to leave the office, opening the door to let him out. She followed him, meeting up with Sanchez and Gabriel.
"Come on, Provenza, let's get this over with, see if we can track this woman down. Do you have a home address yet?" Flynn said, getting down to work, and trying to ignore the questions in his mind about the Chief. This wasn't the time, or the place for it. He just knew that when he'd heard she'd decided to stay here and the husband was leaving, he felt a sense of relief, like he'd been holding his breath since first hearing the rumours.
Provenza got up, shrugging his coat on. He'd acquired an address for the assistant and they set out to bring her in. Flynn was unusually quiet on the way over there, he couldn't stop thinking about the Chief. Although he felt bad for her break up, he was also happy about it. He had never liked the "FBI guy" that much, but the Chief had been head over heels for him. Now, with him gone, he was kind of hopeful, he admitted to himself. He shook his head, trying to shake off the feeling. He shouldn't feel happy about a marriage breaking up, especially the Chiefs. Nope, better not to think along those lines.
Meanwhile, Brenda rode in the back of the car, Gabriel driving. She stared out the window, determined. She wanted these suspects in to question, get this case put away. And when it was done, she was going to sit back with a big glass of Merlot and just relax. Her thoughts again drifted to Flynn. He was right, they did seem to understand where they were each coming from. You work hard to get the bad guy, and when it happened, the satisfaction was a big rush. The pursuit kept her going. Giving this up would be impossible, and she realized that Flynn seemed to be the only one who understood. Maybe that's why he sympathized with her. They were more alike than she'd ever imagined. She really should have went with him to pick up the assistant. Something about his demeanour in the last day seemed to help calm her. The thought occurred to her that she missed him.
The realization shocked her. She missed Flynn? No, that couldn't be it. It had to be Fritzi she was missing. The only reason she was relating to Flynn was because he was being unexpectedly nice to her at this time. The only reason, she told herself. This breakup with Fritz had really done her in, she thought to herself. She definitely wasn't thinking straight. When they pulled up in front of an elaborate and very fancy home, she shook her head to clear it. Enough with thinking like she was, she told herself. She got out of the car to follow her detectives to the door. They rang the bell and waited.
Finally, a middle-aged man opened the door, looking less than pleased to see them. "Officers, I told you yesterday, I have nothing to say to you about the death of my friend. I have no information to help you with. I never seen him on the day of his death."
Brenda looked at him, knowing that they had video that contradicted the fact, seemingly. That was one strike against this man. "Sir, I'm Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson. I'm the head of the Major Crimes Unit, and I would like to say, I think it would be in your best interest to accompany us downtown, and chat about what you know about the vic. Now, I know you say you didn't see him that day, but we have direct evidence to contradict that fact. We know you were in his office the day he was murdered."
The man looked stunned. He shook it off, deciding to bluff them instead. "Look, unless you're going to arrest me for his murder, I'd like you to leave. This is done." He went to shut the door. Gabriel held his hand out, stopping it.
"Fine, sir, you want to play it that way, we will. Detective Sanchez, cuff him." Brenda directed.
"What are you charging me with? You've got nothing!" The man protested.
"Oh, if you like, I can book you on suspicion of murder. We have enough evidence to support that theory. It would have been easier if you'd just talked to us, sir. Save a lot of time and aggravation on both parts." Brenda said, in that sweet, fake voice she reserved for those that really pissed her off.
"When we get there, I want my lawyer. I'm not saying a word to you people." the man ranted.
"Sir, when people protest as much as you do, they have something to hide. So, we'll see if an acquaintance of yours protests as much when she's brought in for questioning. If there is as much stalling from her, as is from you, I'm beginning to think we'll have a conspiracy. And I look so forward to finding out what it is you two are hiding." She watched as the man's face turned white, never thinking that they'd be bringing anyone else in. And Brenda suddenly had one of her ideas, figuring out exactly what had happened to have this man's business partner end up dead. But first she had to talk to the assistant to help prove it. She really hoped that Flynn and Provenza had located her. She wanted to wrap this case up and crash for a day.