A/N The wonderful characters of 'The Closer' and 'Rizzoli and Isles' belong to their respective rights holders, no infringement is intended, but as always, thanks for letting us have our way with them, if only for a moment.
A quick thanks to Kyra Sedgwick, Mary McDonnell, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander for the warmth and depth you bring to the portrayals of our favourite detectives.
Natalie goes undercover
Natalie's viewpoint
To say I was surprised was an understatement. I'd never accompanied an officer on an investigation before, so Brenda's invitation came out of nowhere and left me shocked.
I rationalised that she felt there was no risk involved, even though it was obvious that her squad was a little concerned that she was walking out without proper back up. Hell, I was concerned about the same thing.
As we walked down to her car, I looked across at her, where she was smiling happily.
"Ok Brenda, I'll bite; why me?" She looked across at me and her smile slowly widened.
"Oh, a couple of reasons Natalie, for one I doubt there will be any problems. This way we get to cover all of the potential leads without wasting time, which is important, as we're on the clock. It also mixes the squad up a bit, gets them working with different partners and avoids them getting too used to only working with the same person all the time. It also means Jane and David work together, which is good for both of them"
As we got into her car she smiled at me again.
"Besides, it gets you out and about, plus a bit of hands on police work" I looked at her with an 'oh really' expression. Her smile got even wider.
"Finally I'd like you to ring Anastasia and get her to join us there. I have complete confidence in her as our back up" I smiled in relief. Brenda had put me completely off balance, though I was struggling to not show it. I dug out my cell and arranged for Ana to meet us at Rodeo Drive.
We made small talk on the way to the gym and standing around as we waited for Ana to arrive. She finally got there a few minutes after we did and we quickly brought her up to speed on why we were here.
Aphrodite's Ladies Health Centre was a very nice looking gym, I made a mental note to check it out as I hadn't settled on a permanent gym here in LA and this one might be ok.
We wandered in and chatted to the receptionist, who upon being told that three police officers were here to see the manager, quickly conveyed us through into a glass walled office, probably where they signed up new members as it gave a good view over the gym.
I heard Brenda sigh, as she looked out over the women working out on the various exercise equipment. I went to speak but Ana beat me to it.
"You ok Brenda?" She looked around.
"Oh yes, I was just thinking this must be where the beautiful people come to stay that way"
I had to agree, there were a lot of good looking women there, especially the instructors; some of them had the sort of hard physique that comes from long hours of dedication to their body. It made sense though; an instructor's body was their best advertisement, holding out the promise that with commitment you too could look like them.
For all too many it was false advertising.
I heard Ana laugh behind me.
"Well, for someone with a serious chocolate addiction Brenda, you look very, very good"
"I should hope so. I spend enough hours in a gym working out" I turned to stare at her, seeing Ana do the same. I barely beat her to it.
"You, in a gym? I heard you can't stand them"
"Yeah, that you had some freaky metabolism that allowed you to stay looking like that"
She let out a happy laugh.
"Oh no, I have to work at it, I eat too much takeaway and chocolate to stay this way. I do have a fast metabolism, but if I didn't burn it off I wouldn't look like this I can assure you"
"How did you keep it secret?" I asked. Brenda shrugged.
"I'm vain enough to want to stay looking good. I have an absolute bitch of a personal trainer I go to three times a week, who beats me into the ground unmercifully. Beating her has been my primary motivation for the last two years. When I'm not having her humiliate me, I spend time in a quiet gym near my home two or three times a week" She looked back out over the glamorous surrounds of Aphrodite's. "It's nothing like this, but it's quiet and no one from work would ever go there, so I can keep it my little secret" She glanced back at us both.
"I'd like to keep it that way please" We both nodded.
"No problem Chief"
"Sure thing"
There was a knock at the office door as an attractive brunette in her late thirties dressed in branded gym clothes and a casual jacket stood looking at us uncertainly.
"Hi, I'm Kim Palmer; I'm the manager on duty today. How can I help you?" Brenda and Ana both flashed their badges at the newcomer.
"Deputy Chief Johnson of the LAPD, my associate Natalie Dearing and Special Agent Anastasia Romanov of the FBI; Ms Palmer we have some questions about several of your clients"
"Of course, whatever you need"
I understand that Marianella Chiarino, Shannelle Henning and Kelly Connolly were all clients of your establishment" She nodded.
"I remember Marianella Chiarino's name, but not the others, let me look them up" Palmer walked over to the desk and opened the computer up, typing in a password and then searching a database of names.
"I have a Connolly, Kelly and a Henning, Shannelle" She spelt it out. "Is that the spelling?"
"Yes it is"
"Yes, they're both members, though Ms Henning's not been in for a while, in fact..." She typed another name into the computer. "In fact neither Ms Chiarino or Ms Henning have been in for a couple of weeks" Brenda nodded.
"I see. Could you check several other names please?"
"Sure, what's this about?" Brenda smiled.
"We're conducting an investigation into their activities Ms Palmer. Could you look up Virginia Tennant, Crystal Williams, Crystal with a Y and Tiffani Tang, that last is Tiffani with two i's" For a while there was only the tapping of keys as she entered the names into the search fields.
"Hmm, nothing on the last two, but yes, I have Ms Tennant here. She was last in here more than a month ago" Brenda looked at Palmer with her head cocked to one side.
"How was Ms Tennant paying for her membership?"
"Oh, it seems she paid cash, paying three months in advance" I nodded, that made sense and explained why she didn't show up in Michael's search. Anastasia was staring at Palmer from one side.
"What do they have in common? Did they take classes together?" Ms Palmer frowned.
"Hmm, let me check, this might take a bit of time"
In fact it took more than an hour, as we cross checked printed sheets for each of the four women going back over the last year. Some of them had shared one or two classes, two or three had shared an instructor, but nothing seemed to connect all four of them. I sat back and thought about it for a moment, before an idea hit me.
"Kim, you had no hits for the two missing names, Tang and Williams, correct?"
"Yeah, sorry, nothing showed up" I nodded.
"Is that all members, or only members with active memberships?" I saw the same expression appear on both Brenda and Ana's faces. Anastasia nodded quickly.
"Nat's right, I fell off a membership database a few years ago because of some credit card stuff up and when I went to get back on, they couldn't find me on the register. Some databases drop you into a 'dead file' if you're not a current paid up member" I smiled.
"That's what made me think of it, I remembered that it took a couple of days to get it fixed"
"I was checking current members. Let's look at former members. What were those names again?" The Chief leaned in.
"Tiffani Tang and Crystal Williams" We waited, all leaning forward as she entered the names.
"Yes! Williams was a member but has been inactive for over a year, well, almost two in fact. If a membership's been inactive for over a year, it gets shifted to a different database. Sorry" Brenda smiled.
"No harm done. Could you please check another name for us?"
"Sure, which name?"
"Iris Park"
"Yep, here we go, she was last in three weeks ago. She also paid cash in advance.
Can we get a printout similar to these and printouts for the other women covering the same period that Ms Williams was a member? Let's see what they may have in common with the others"
Twenty minutes later we had our match. All had been clients of the same personal trainer; Charlotte 'Charlie' Weaver.
"Does Ms Weaver still work here" Brenda asked, as we looked at each other. It couldn't be that easy could it?
"No, she finished up here over two years ago. She had to go away with her other job" I couldn't help myself, I jumped in.
"Go where?"
"Iraq, she was sent to Iraq" All three of us exchanged glances, before Ana spoke in a studiously neutral voice.
"Didn't think there was much call for personal trainers in Iraq"
I was watching Ana and saw the tension in her face as she stared at Palmer from where she was standing behind her. I noticed Brenda step back; looking at Ana as well. Kim swivelled in her seat to look at them both.
"Oh no, she went with the army, she was in the National Guard"