Author's Note: Sorry for the delay guys! I have been writing like crazy for several of my stories lately and it has pushed the release of this chapter as well as several other stories' chapters. Hopefully, now that I am caught up with some of my other stories and with the near ending of another, I should be able to focus on finishing this story. Now with that out of the way... here's the chapter!
"So, what do we do now?" Holly asked as she stared at Gail out of the corner of her eye. After the meeting, Gail's mother had told the two women that they were to take the rest of the week off since they were considered inadvertent victims in an ongoing investigation. "Do you want me to take you to your apartment?" The blonde noticed slight hesitation in her lover's words as she had asked her last question.
"Just so I can pick up a few things," Gail responded with a smile. "I don't exactly have a lot of clothes at your place. Also, maybe we can look in Chris's room..." the officer paused as she stared at the red traffic signal ahead of them. "Maybe there is something there that Epstein didn't notice."
"Gail..." Holly began as she glanced at her lover in the passenger seat. "You do recall that your mother told us to not get involved. I don't know how she talked my supervisor into it, but she is right. We..."
"Chris disappearing is not part of this investigation, Holly," Gail retorted as she continued staring out the window. "He's my friend and Dov was right. Something is going on here and I want to find out what it is. Maybe he left a message and Dov and Chloe didn't see it."
"Like a note on the mirror while one of them was in the shower?" Holly asked playfully trying to lighten Gail's mood.
Even though the lame attempt at a joke was a long shot, the pathologist realised it worked when she saw the blonde smirk. "He wasn't always the sharpest tool in the shed..." The smirk disappeared and the officer's brow furrowed. "I have noticed a few things wrong with him lately though. He seemed a bit stand-offish and a bit angrier."
"What do you mean?" Holly asked as she turned left at the next intersection and drove down the sun dappled street toward Gail's building.
The blonde shrugged ran her hand through her short hair. "The usual stuff I guess. He just seemed so secretive ever since his break up with Denise. I know the whole situation of finding out Christian wasn't his really shook him up." She sighed at stared at Holly. "Maybe it is just my mind going into overdrive."
"Well, a lot of people would become a different person after finding all of that out." She pulled the car up to the curb and cut the engine. "Just think about it, for over five years, he thought that Christian was his. He put so much into that idea... he even left to go back and assume responsibility. Then to find out, after your son was abducted, that he wasn't yours all along..." She ran her hand through her long dark hair and sighed. "I surprised he didn't go postal."
"That's the thing," Gail said as she unbuckled her seat-belt. "He didn't. He still wanted to be apart of Christian's life, but not Denise's. He took it better than I imagined, but you could tell that it hurt him."
"So, what is it that makes you think he was stand-offish?"
"Something else happened to him, I feel. Something that Dov suspects, but doesn't know for sure." Gail opened the door to the car and stepped outside. A breeze caused the leaves to stir on the trees along the street. The sudden coolness made Holly shiver as she stepped out of the car and closed the door. "Maybe we can find evidence as to where Chris might be."
"If we find anything, don't touch it. We have to report it," Holly said as she followed the blonde up the few steps leading to the front door.
Gail rolled her eyes and smiled as she slid her key in the lock. "I seriously doubt it is as bad as that."
Dov rubbed his eyes as he stared at the monitor in front of him. He lifted the Styrofoam cup beside him to his lip and grimaced. Cold, he thought as he set the coffee cup back down and ran his hand down his face. Just like Chris's trail it seems.
"You do realise that is your fourth cup of coffee, right?" A voice said over his shoulder.
"How can you still be perky after being up over twenty-four hours, Chloe?"
The female officer sat down beside him and shrugged. "I guess I have a normal perky disposition." He glanced at her to see her cast a quick smile his way then suddenly her smile disappeared and she sighed. "Okay, maybe I caught a little nap in the break room, but all of this is just really getting to me. First that homicide, now Diaz is missing."
"I don't think he is really missing, Chloe. Maybe he went to pick up Christian and left his phone at the apartment?"
"You don't really sound that sure of that, Dov," Chloe replied as she settled down in the seat beside him and stared at the computer screen. "Has Nick spoke to you about our suspect?"
"No," Dov said with a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I have been so focused on finding Chris that I actually forgot about the real reason we had spent the whole night at the precinct. What has happened?"
"He wants to cut a deal," Nick said behind them startling them both.
"Shit, Nick!" Dov exclaimed as he turned in his seat and stared at the man. "Don't ever do that! I thought Chloe was creepy when she would sneak up on me like that, you make it terrifying!"
Collins smirked at Epstein's response. "Gregory decided, or shall I say, his lawyer, decided that it was time to come clean about what happened. Our suspect paints himself as a real boy scout in the whole situation, blames the whole thing on his wife's brother; a drug dealer named Jaime."
"Were you able to get a last name?" Chloe asked as she moved to another computer to check if the name popped up in the system.
"That's the thing," Nick huffed as he sat down on the side of the table. "He wouldn't budge on the last name, but he did mention his wife as well. Said that she was trying to help her brother, who was strapped for cash. He said he didn't know a thing about what they really intended to do."
"That's bullshit and you know it, Nick," Dov retorted as he rolled his eyes. "We already told you about the phone conversation we listened in on last night. If he wasn't the mastermind of the whole thing, he was at least a willing participant."
"Hey, I know that and you know that, but that doesn't mean that what he is telling us isn't at least partly true. Traci and Steve are finishing up with our suspect as we speak. Hopefully, we can get an address on this cabin and see if we can turn anything up there."
"I don't understand a few things though," Chloe mused out loud. "Why did they have to kill Dr. O'Neal in the first place? Also, what does a drug dealer have to do with the whole thing? Did they honestly think she had drugs in her house? Or did they think she had a lot of money just stashed around her house?"
Dov put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "We'll find out more once we get the rest of his group... that is if there really is a third person in all of this."
"Well, Sam and Andy are at the Schlenz's house now. They went to see if there was any more evidence to tie Gregory to the crime and they are trying to get more information on his wife Anna," Nick replied as his phone started to go off. "One minute guys.
"Hello?" he had stepped away from the couple, turned his back to them, and answered his phone.
"Hey, Nick?"
"Yeah, Gail?" Collins said her name so Dov and Chloe could know who he was talking to.
"You might want to get in touch with Epstein and Miss Perky. Also, let Oliver in on it as well."
Nick frowned at his phone and turned to face Dov and Chloe who were still sitting at the desk in front of him. "Gail, what's going on? I have Dov and Chloe right in front of me. Are you okay? Did you find Chris or something?"
"Or something is about right. I don't want to explain anything over the phone, but want you and the Nerdy Duo to come to the apartment. It's best for you to see this instead of me telling you over the phone."
"Okay, Gail," Nick said as he glanced at the couple again. "We'll see you in twenty minutes." He ended the call and shook his head.
"What the hell was that about, Nick?" Dov asked as he stood up from his chair.
"Gail wants us to come over to the apartment you guys all share," he said as he walked over to his desk to pick up his jacket. "She said that we need to tell Oliver where we are going and to meet her there. She said she would explain when we got there."
"That's it?" Chloe asked as she reached for her keys on the desk and stood up as well. "That doesn't sound foreboding at all," she added sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. "Why do you think she wouldn't tell you over the phone?"
"I don't know, but she sounded pretty worried. I'll go speak with Oliver, you two get the car ready and I will meet you out there," Nick said over his shoulder as he walked towards the Staff Sergeant's office.