RK9 - I hear ya - you don't have to apologise. I agree, and I also know I'm a little bit cruel...!
demolished-soul - She does need a break - I do pile a lot on her. And I have no idea where the Flack bit comes from, but I think it could be fun!
sparkyCSI - I didn't even think of it as a cliff hanger! That's what working too much does for ya! I had the earliest night ever - it was 11pm (and that's really early for me) so I've been up for a couple of hours - I think you'll be getting a chapter or two later!
meadow567 - lol, I think you'd be right! One day, I'm going to write something that you won't be expecting - that's going to be my new mission!
laplandgurl - Isabella looks more like Maddy (I have a twisted sense of humor, which will become slightly more apparent!) but yes, she will be around for a while! And thank you - I certainly wasn't ecpecting those results!!
brttmclv - He is certainly going to be a lot more understanding! I'm sorry about the ending - I actually didn't even think about it when I did it! I hope your heart recovered (:P)
princessg - I must admit, there was a smile on my face when I was writing that - it was quite satisfying!
Aphina - The assigment is done and handed in - I have my monday evenings back. Well, I say I do, but I'm sure William Hell will put a halt on that one. I don't care. I'm writing a letter of resignation and I'm determined to hand it in by the end of the summer!
What The Eyes Can't See
Chapter 186: All this time we finally know each other, Now that I've been leaning on your shoulder
'What are you doing?' Cory demanded, stepping into the evidence lab.
Danny looked up at her. 'Looking over the evidence,' he informed her, as though daring her to object.
She did. 'You can't do that, you're off the case,' Cory snapped.
'And you shouldn't be on it either,' Danny retorted. 'So why don't you take your federal ass back to your own place?'
Cory slammed her hands on the table, the effort making several things move, including Danny's pen to the floor. 'That is it!' she yelled. 'I have had it up to here,' she raised a hand above her head, 'with the members of this team defying me left, right and center. 'I am trying to do my job! I am sorry that your brother was killed, I really am, but I am trying to find his killer and with every lead that I get, there's someone trying to stop me, or breaking the rules.'
'You're sorry my brother is dead?' Danny repeated, stepping around to her side of the table. 'You're sorry? He was shot, bundled into the trunk of a car and then allowed to drown!' he shouted back at her, his voice breaking. 'You being sorry is not helping us to find his killer.'
Cory shut her eyes and stepped back. 'You're right.'
Danny, about to resume yelling, stopped. 'Excuse me?'
'Being sorry isn't going to help,' Cory shrugged. 'Doing my job is.'
Danny deflated, sinking onto a stool.
'Am I interrupting something?' Lindsay asked carefully, entering the room.
'No,' Cory told her.
'We think we have a lead,' Lindsay informed them. 'It might be related to Tanglewood. Stella wants you to look through the files of all known members of the gang, and their associates.'
Cory pursed her lips. 'This detective has been taken off the case.'
Lindsay nodded. 'Yeah, but unless you can get your undercover agent in here, Danny is the best thing we have.'
'And yet, that doesn't fill me with reassurance,' Cory told her dryly.
'Well what do you suggest?' Lindsay snapped.
Cory arched an eyebrow at her. 'Now why would I tell you that when y'all are hell bent on doing the complete opposite?'
--
'Hey, Mac,' Hawkes called as he hurried to stop the senior detective from entering the interview room. 'I think we found Louie's killer.'
Mac stopped and stared intently at Hawkes. 'What do you mean?'
'I pulled a body out of the East River,' Isabella informed him.
'And we found the person driving the car wasn't Taylor because she's too tall – this body matches the height of the driver,' Stella said, handing over a folder which Mac skimmed through.
'Wait here,' Mac told them before entering the interview room.
--
'Why do I feel like this is some attempt to keep me busy?' Danny asked, a touch of bitterness in his tone.
Stella gave him a reassuring smile. 'Mendes found this body in the East River, just downstream from where we found Louie. We're waiting on prints and dental, but Hawkes did a FastScan on her.' Stella handed over the computer generated image. 'Do you know her?'
Danny stared thoughtfully at the photograph. 'She looks like Ruby Cove. But she's a Bullet, not Tanglewood.'
Cory looked over. 'Who are her accomplices?'
Danny nodded in the direction of Cory's laptop. 'Does your database cover the Brooklyn Bullets?'
Cory nodded. 'Tanglewood, Brooklyn Bullets, Irish Mob and the Døds Forbannelse.'
Danny pulled the laptop over and began flicking through the pictures and profiles.
--
Flack hung up the phone after listening to Stella fill him in on what had been happening. 'Maddy?' he questioned quietly.
Maddy appeared in her brilliant white suit, accompanied by Louie. 'What's up chico?'
Flack looked over at the dead male ghost and shuddered. 'Ruby Cove, Louie? That name mean anything?'
Louie nodded.
A light switched on in Flack's head. 'Ruby. It wasn't about Taylor's ring, was it?'
Slowly, Louie shook his head.
'So we're on the right track,' Flack muttered as the two ghosts disappeared.
Taylor shifted in her sleep before awakening with a low moan. 'We're still in here?' she groaned.
''Fraid so,' Flack muttered.
Taylor suddenly sat bolt upright. 'Louie?'
Flack leaned forward. 'I'm taking care of it,' he told her gently.
'Huh?'
'Don't worry about it: you just sit back and let me handle it.'
Taylor bit her lip, staring into his deep blue eyes. 'Why?' she asked him softly.
'Because I think it was unfair of Them to land this one on you.'
Taylor looked down into her lap, shaking her head softly. 'No: why me? Even if we ignore the ghosts, I have got to be one the most scattiest, dysfunctional people on the island. Don't you think I'm just too much like hard work?'
'Where is this coming from?' Flack asked, sadly.
'I'm a mess, Don,' Taylor told him, her voice full of emotion. 'And the only thing that's changing is the fact that I'm getting progressively worse, and yet you keep putting up with me.'
'Taylor, I don't "put up" with you, and I hope you know me better than that then to think I would? But that doesn't mean to say I don't worry about you – that's why I've been pushing you to talk to someone.'
'Alright, I'll go,' Taylor finally conceded with the actual intention of going to see someone. 'Maybe you're right.'
Flack leant over and kissed her forehead. 'You know I am.'
Taylor sighed and leaned back against him, feeling momentarily at ease. 'But what about Louie?' The panicked feeling was back in her chest.
'Taylor, I've told you; I'm taking care of this one,' Flack informed her, holding her tightly.
Taylor looked up at him. 'What did I do to deserve you?'
--
'This is a waste of time. I killed him. I was the only person locked in that cell with him. I killed him.'
Mac nodded. 'And the evidence agrees with that.'
Victor Daly leant forward. 'So what else do you need to know?'
Mac remained sitting upright. 'I'd like to know how a man inside for a tax evasion charge decides to kill his cellmate midway through his sentence, which, until now, hasn't had a single mark against him.'
Victor just shrugged at him.
'Or how 100,000 cash was deposited into his account two hours after Sonny Sassone was pronounced dead,' Mac added, producing a copy of Victor's bank statement.
'Look,' said Victor, in a desperate tone, 'just add the fifteen years to my sentence and get me back to my cell.'
'Fifteen years?' Mac repeated calmly. 'A payoff shows premeditation, Victor. You're looking at the death penalty.'
The color quickly drained from Victor's face. 'Death penalty?'
It took only thirty seconds for Victor to confess everything. Minutes after that, Mac was walking into the lab where the entire team, Cory and Isabella included, were busy fixing pictures to the wall.
'What did you find out?' Stella asked him.
Mac calmly walked over to the table and began searching through the piles of profiles that had yet to be checked.
'Mac?' Lindsay questioned.
'This is one of the guys we're looking for,' Mac told them, finally, pulling out a photograph mug shot and sticking it in the centre of the display that had been created.
'Reggie Portwood,' Danny said, recognizing him instantly. 'He's Sassone's equivalent in the Bullets.'
Mac nodded. 'And this is the other one,' he said, sticking up a second photograph.
'Felix Bohr,' Danny continued.
'That's not Felix. That's Antony Carlisle. That's my undercover agent,' Cory told them calmly.
Danny shook his head. 'That's Felix. Felix and Reggie's father was the number one of the Bullets until he died and Reggie took over. I remember Louie telling me that it wasn't until Papa Portwood died that Reggie realized he had a brother.'
The color was slowly draining from Cory's face. 'I ran the background check on him myself. He would have been checked before he joined the bureau too.'
'Well clearly, you missed some key information,' Stella told her.
'No,' Cory said defiantly, heading towards her laptop, before sitting down and beginning a search. 'You've got to be mistaken. Antony has been supplying me with key information to bringing down Tanglewood for weeks.'
'Can we not see the flaw in that one?' Lindsay muttered dryly. 'If he's a Bullet, he's going to want to bring down Tanglewood for his own benefit.'
'According to Victor, Sassone was aware that there was a snitch amongst his men, even from prison. Too many convenient coincidences,' Mac explained, whilst Cory refused to look up from her computer. 'Victor overheard several conversations between Sassone and a few other gang members who are also in Rikers. When the whole thing with Taylor failed, Sonny decided to focus his attention on a partnership with the Irish Mob before the Brooklyn Bullets got in there.'
'But this makes no sense,' Cory blurted out, her voice strained. 'Why would Antony be bothered about setting a journalist up?'
Stella shrugged. 'She's only just been cleared for a drugs possession charge. A murder charge would focus our attention on her – that maybe we had been wrong the first time. Which would allow for him to move in on Tanglewood without any resistance.'
'And when he realized that wasn't going to work, he had Sassone killed,' Mac finished.
Cory looked around the room before pulling out her phone. 'You're wrong about my agent,' she told them as she rose to her feet and headed for the door.
'Is it wrong that that felt good?' Lindsay asked.
'A little,' Stella muttered, 'but it did feel good.'
'But why did he kill Louie?' Danny asked, his voice strained. 'And why did he try to stick Taylor up again? Surely, it would have made more sense to frame Sonny for Louie's…' he trailed off. 'It just seems like there's more to this.'
'I don't doubt that SSA Reid is going to get her agent in,' Mac said. 'Assuming he hasn't gone A.W.O.L.'
'I don't like this, Mac,' Danny told him.
'Me either,' Mac agreed, as Cory reentered the room, her face pale.
Cory looked around the room, keeping her head held high. 'Antony isn't responding to my calls, and he hasn't checked in all day.'
Mac turned to her. 'Maybe you should be more concerned about the integrity of your own team, before you worry about mine.'
'I will get to the bottom of this, Detective Taylor. I promise y'all that,' she told the room before walking out.
'Too good,' Lindsay muttered.
--
Cory walked into her loaned office, shock still radiating through her body. Sitting heavily in her chair, she pulled her laptop to her, wanting to prove that they were wrong about Antony, but in her heart, she knew they were right. She was the one that was responsible and she was furious at herself for it.
What was making her even angrier was that she had no clue how he had slipped past her. Despite what the crime lab thought, she was extremely thorough when she ran her background checks. How the hell did I miss something that big? How?
She opened up her file with the background check and reviewed it. Everything was legit. She had even traced back his family two generations to make sure none of them had ever been involved with Tanglewood or any other major gang in the city. He was clean.
Sighing as she took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes wearily, she mentally put together every action she had taken since she had gotten the call almost a year ago. The one call she couldn't turn down. Her mind drifted back, and logically she knew that she had made a rash decision in coming to New York: Running from her past.
Shaking her head, she tried to push the painful memories back whilst she thought of a good way to apologize to the crime lab. Slipping her glasses back on, she bent over to extract the long unopened pack of cigarettes from her briefcase before deciding to go to the roof, needing the air and the view of the sky to clear her mind.
--
Hours later than promised, the lift was fixed and Taylor walked out of the lift and turned to Flack. 'I'll be back,' she muttered. 'I just need some air.'
Flack looked at her, worried. 'Are you sure?'
Taylor nodded and headed for the stairs. As soon as the door banged closed behind her, she ran, up the stairs, pushing her legs to work, through the burning pain that was shooting up them and in her lungs until she slammed into the door for the roof where she stopped in the rain allowing it to pour freely over her.
Doubled over, she tried to fill her lungs with oxygen which seemed to be eluding her, and sank heavily to her knees, ignoring the new sensation of tearing flesh as she allowed her hands to grate over the asphalt on the roof just that bit too heavily.
'You look like you need one of these,' a voice with a southern accent announced.
Taylor hastily pulled herself to her feet and turned to face a shorter woman who was offering her a packet of Marlboros.
'I don't smoke,' she told her, her voice gravelly.
'I don't either.' The woman shrugged and pushed the packet back into her pocket before taking a drag from the cigarette she was holding. 'Personally, I think some whiskey would go perfectly with this,' she sighed.
'Bad day?' Taylor asked her, joining her under the small shelter on the roof.
The woman nodded. 'You could say that.'
'Tell me about it,' Taylor muttered, staring out across the rooftop over the graying skyline. 'One of my good friends was killed and some fed decided to blame me,' Taylor sighed. 'She might have been right in a way.' She leant back against the wall.
'That fed was just trying to do her job,' Cory muttered, busying herself with taking another drag.
Taylor nodded. 'I know. It just feels like she was right.'
'Why?' Cory asked her curiously.
Taylor sighed and allowed herself to sink down the wall to the floor. 'It doesn't matter,' she mumbled.
Cory dropped the cigarette to the floor and stubbed it out with her foot. 'I know this doesn't feel like much now, but that fed is sorry,' she told her as she disappeared inside the building.
A very short time later, the door opened and Flack poked his head around. 'Tay, are you alright?'
Taylor shrugged at him. 'I don't know.'
'Did that agent say something to you?' he asked angrily.
'What agent?' Taylor asked, wearily.
Flack exhaled softly, eyeing the journalist carefully. 'Can we get out of here now?'
I just wanted to say a HUGE, HUGE thanks to everyone who voted for me - I logged on today and you've taken my breathe away -I am actually speechless, so seriously, thank you, from the bottom of my heart! If you're ever in Hull (maybe to watch our football team who just got into the Premiership (:D)) then the beverage is on me! Until then, you shall all have to suffice with the cyber stuff! THANK YOU!!