Disclaimer: The property of the characters belong to the brilliant minds of Nolan and Abrams. I'm just borrowing for mine and others entertainment. Thanks SWWoman for continuing to look over my stuff.
Chapter 5 - The Call
It felt like she had aged decades as she battled the forceful pounding in her head. Joss continued to filter through mountains and mountains of paperwork. She had requested anything that was related to the case. She spent the better part of the day calling in favors to get reports and photos of the crime scene.
She scanned through different types of files she had acquired, whether it was on paper or digital through databases. She wanted to figure this out with all her heart for Lauren's sake. The wheels in her head were in overdrive as she tried to put the pieces together to this massive puzzle. She had parts here and there, but she just couldn't find the one thing to fit them all together.
She knew that her answers lay with Beecher's CI. There was no doubt in her mind that he was involved in all of this one way or another. She was so stupid to have tried to continue the relationship with him. Then again, she found that her head wasn't really in the relationship to start.
She had been hesitant to do anything physical with him, to move things forward and bring things further for one reason. Her thoughts had been distracted by another man. More specifically, it was the 6'2 blue eyed vigilante that she now considered a close friend.
She had noticed weeks ago that they hadn't spoken since that day he almost killed himself to protect others, including herself, from the bomb vest. She had found her only communicating with Finch who usually required information and she couldn't get any real details from him on what was going on. She wondered if he was alright.
She knew it was a crazy thought, but she was worried that he became more fragile somehow. Before she could dive into other scenarios for this sudden separation, she shook her head.
What was she doing? She was supposed to be solving this case, not daydreaming about a man who caused more trouble than most criminals that she arrested. Her eyes went back to her desk and got back to work on the evidence she managed to scavenge up. She had the slugs that were dug out of both Alonzo Quinn and Bill. There was something wrong with this. It all seemed too staged to her.
When she looked at pictures from the scene, she looked at the table where everyone was sitting. It was eating away at her that the chairs weren't even tipped over. She knew that police officers cordoned off the scene as soon as it was reported so everything was the way that they found it.
She had her suspicions, but now it was too late to act on them because by the now the scene would have been cleaned up and the evidence washed away.
She sighed sadly to herself. The promise that she made to Lauren was sincere. She deserved closure from this more than anyone else and Joss was coming really close to believing that she would have to break the bad news to her.
"Damn Carter, get up on the wrong side of the bed today?" Fusco greeted with his usual sarcasm as he took a seat across from her with his lunch. They had been busy with other things so this was the first time they ran into each other so far.
"It's just this case with Szymanski. Something in my gut is just telling me that something's not right with any of this."
"Apart from the fact that you helped the guy get out of jail only for him to be gunned down a few hours later?"
"Yeah, it just seems too close, too convenient. The case on those Russian brothers is going to get thrown out without the testimony."
She suddenly saw a sandwich enter her view. She took it gratefully since Fusco could clearly see her distress.
"Look Carter, you tried your best. You can only do so much on one case before you have to call it quits." He saw as she put her elbows on the table and place her chin in her hands. "Have you tried talking to Wonderboy yet? Maybe him and glasses can help you out with this."
She shook her head. "I'm sure that they are too busy doing their own thing. Besides I don't think that they want to be bothered with something like this. Us cops have been doing this since before they showed up anyway."
"Are you sure it's not because of a certain thing that happened between you two lovebirds a few weeks ago?" She gave him a warning with her eyes, telling him to close the subject quickly. Fusco held his hands up in defense. "I'm just saying that I've been noticing I've been hanging around him a lot more even though you usually have nothing to do. You are really are missing out."
"Just drop it Fusco."
He returned back to his desk. "Okay, I'm just saying."
Before she could continue to scold him, her phone began to ring. She picked it up immediately. "Detective Carter homicide" there was just silence at the other end. "Hello?" she was about to hang up when a male voice spoke up.
"Hello, I'm going to make this quick. I may have some information for you."
"If you are going to help sir just called the local hotline."
"I have a tip about that guy that got killed, that cop that has been on the news." This caused her ears to perk up.
"What is it that you can tell me?"
"You have to meet me. I'm putting myself in danger just talking to the cops. I'm just a guy that hears things. Please you have to meet me. I need protection from my wife and kids too. The guys I work for would make us disappear. Please?"
"Okay, okay where do you want to meet?"
"Major Mark Park in Queens, be there once it gets dark so no one sees you" then the line went day.
"Hello? Hello?" she gave up and hung up the phone.
"What was that about?" Fusco asked, overhearing her side of the conversation.
"Some guy called saying that he knows something about the case. I'm going to go meet him later today." She got up and began to move some things around on her desk again.
"You don't want any back up or something?"
"I'll call it in once I check to see if the guy is for real." She would do her best to keep busy until later.
When Fusco decided to let the topic drop, he watched as she scrambled through all the stuff on her desk. She would have her bulletproof vest on and her service pistol in her holster. There was no question that she wasn't going to take any chances. She also knew that it was dumb to go by herself, but she wouldn't want to draw any attention, especially if this tip panned out and the man's life was in danger.
It had become dark by the time John made it back. In the library, Finch and Reese looked at the series of pictures that have now been arranged to focus on the discrepancies that John had seen when he was there. Next to it were pictures of all the people that were involved and their associates. The first was Alonzo Quinn and his large list of friends.
"I guess being the political advisor has its perks" John commented noting that there were at least fifteen people in his bracket.
The next was Szymanski and everyone in the department that he knew. Finch decided to avoid placing Detective Carter's photo up, not wanting to incite another confrontation like earlier. He would get back around to the subject again if he needed to.
The final group consisted of the Russian Brothers that were supposed to go to trial next week. The affiliation they had would have shook things up in the criminal underworld if they had been convicted.
"The status with these gentlemen is that the trial will be thrown out. Unfortunately without the testimony from the deceased detective, they will be out in a matter of days."
"So obviously this is all connected but how does a political advisor to the mayor fit in all this. He's just pretty much a right hand man right?"
"Even a second in command can wield quite a bit of power Mr. Reese. That is the nature of politics."
"That is the reason why I don't like to get involved." His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he continued to look at the board.
While their attention was on the case, Finch computer beeped.
"Expecting a message Finch?" He joked.
Finch walked back over to his chair and began typing furiously. "No, I am not expecting any sort of incoming information." He continued to examine the computer. While performing his examination, he saw a notice on the upper right hand corner of the monitor. He recognized it immediately. "Mr. Reese I believe that we have another problem. The machine just gave us another number."
"Let's just hope that we can actually find them alive this time."
"It doesn't appear quite right. It's assembling the number at a slower pace then normal." When the Dewey Decimal System was assembled, Reese could see the panicky look in his eyes.
"Aren't you going to look up the numbers?"
He looked to be distraught which worried John. It took a lot to make Harold nervous.
"I don't have to. This is not the first time we've had to protect this person." He faced the monitor towards John. His eyes widen in surprise when the portrait of Carter was on the screen. "It appears that she has attracted the wrong kind of attention once again Mr. Reese."
"I'll call Fusco to keep an eye on her" he suggested quickly. The normal routine was clearly not happening with these last two numbers.
"Mr. Reese, I do believe that she made need better protection that Detective Fusco will not be able to provide. Do you not recall the first time her number was up?"
John turned his eyes towards him, the vision of rage at the memory engulfing him. "You don't have to remind me." How could he ever forget what happened that time? He had done all he could to protect her only to have her almost die in that alleyway because of his negligence. He could never forgive himself for letting her get hurt.
"I just can't bring myself to see her yet" he said simply before pulling out his phone. Dialing the number, he began to pace as he waited for him to pick up.
"Miss me already?" he answered after the third ring.
"Lionel, I have no time to chit chat. Is Carter with you?"
"No, she just took off to a park in Queens to follow up on a tip that called in a little while ago."
"Why are you not with her?" he tried to keep his cool, remembering her stubborn nature.
"She told me that she would call for back up when it looked like the coast is clear. What's going on? Is she in trouble again?"
"What do you mean again? Has something else happened to her lately?"
"Well she's been working on that Szymanski case all day today. She managed to get the guy's name cleared earlier when they brought him in on charges of bribery."
"That's why she's in trouble. Lionel I'm going after her. She may be walking into a trap."
"Damn it, what should I do?"
"If I know Carter, she going to suspect something is wrong and call for back-up the moment she gets there. Just wait till then. I'm going to head to her location since I'm closer and I'll have enough time to get her out before the cops show up."
"Well you better get there fast because she's been gone for about 15 minutes" then the line went dead as Reese hung up the phone, preparing to bolt out the door.
"Finch, get me a location on her phone. Fusco told me she's heading to a park in Queens to meet an informant."
"Do you really believe that she's walking into a trap?"
"This case is connected to her because she had helped the man earlier. The threat sees her as someone they need to get rid of to proceed. I've got to find her before these guys do." He turned around and rushed out the door to head to the park.
Hopefully this time the machine wouldn't be too late.
A/N: I'm so mad that it's only been a month since the finale. I don't think I can last much longer, even with all the sexy photos being posted on the Facebook groups. Anyways now that I got that out of my system, SWWoman big thumbs up from me. I really love seeing the red marks when you give my stuff back because I know that you are awesome at catching those stupid mistakes. To everyone else, please enjoy this chapter with my love for this great show and the rage at how slow the summer is going^^