Folks, meant to put this in before I posted it. There is a discussion of the killer's victims in this chapter. Nothing you wouldn't see or hear on Rookie Blue itself but just wanted to mention it just in case.

Gail walked into the detectives' offices at 15 to find Oliver and Traci locked in a discussion. One look, and she knew what they were discussing. The fact that they fell silent as she approached was just icing on the shit cake.

"You both knew," she stated, feeling betrayed by the two people she trusted most in the world.

Oliver looked down at his shoes and then looked her in the eyes, "yeah," he breathed out, "yeah, I knew. We knew."

Traci started, "Gail…"

"When did you find out?" Gail asked them both.

"The Superintendent let me know right before she requested I send you on the undercover assignment. The reasoning was that you'd be safer away from your real life for the time being and you wouldn't have to know," Oliver replied.

Gail looked at Traci. Traci closed her eyes briefly because she knew her answer wasn't going to calm Gail down, and steeled herself for Gail's reaction. "I knew right after they found the first victim. I called Holly, and she told me. She asked me not to tell you," she finished quickly.

"So, someone that you've known for a fraction of the time you've known me, causes such loyalty in you, that you'd lie to me," Gail squinted her eyes at Traci.

"Gail, that's not fair," Oliver starts.

"No! Neither of you get to tell me what is and is not fair…my 'partners'…how ironic is that?" Gail kicked a desk.

"Detective Peck, calm down," Oliver said.

"Well, Staff Sergeant Shaw, I just found out that the only two partners I have ever trusted, both have been lying to me. My mother knows, which means my father knows, and most likely my brother. Plus the little added bonus of a homicidal freak hunting women who look like me, who's connected to my favorite freak of all, and…and…Holly," Gail cut herself off before she could say any more. She looked hard at both of them, and made up her mind. "Tell Callahan to courier the files over to my apartment. I'm taking a personal day." She began to walk out of the room.

"A what?" Oliver asked.

"A fucking personal day! I deserve it." And with that she walked out of the room.

Oliver looked over at Traci. "Do you think she'll ever forgive us?"

"No," Traci said sadly, "I don't."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few hours later, Gail was in her apartment waiting on the files to be delivered and shooting tequila. She thought briefly about the bourbon in her liquor cabinet but decided against it quickly. She was not drinking bourbon today. She probably wouldn't drink bourbon again for some time. Drinking bourbon with the coolest chick ever.

The doorbell rang pulling her out of her memory. Gail carried her spare service weapon to the door as she looked out the peephole. Ryan Parker stood on the other side holding a file box that had a brown bag on top of it. Gail got a better look at her. She had a wide generous mouth, full lips, high cheekbones, a jawline that could cut glass, and eyes that were a deeper shade of blue than Gail's. She was gorgeous. Wasn't that just gravy? Gail put the gun in her waistband and opened the door slowly.

"Hey, Peck. I got elected to bring the files over since I didn't have a dog in this fight."

"Fucking what?" Gail made a confused face as she adjusted to Ryan's drawl.

"Sorry. I'm from Texas. It means that I don't have a history or vested interest in this. Callahan thought you'd need someone to walk you through it. It would be faster, and you could ask questions that hopefully I have answers for. I also have it on good authority that you can be bribed with food. I brought Vietnamese." Ryan lifted the box a bit as if to show Gail the bag of takeout better.

Gail gestured with her arm into her apartment stepping back slightly. "Fine. Come in."

Ryan walked in and looked around. It was…nondescript. This was not a living space that had a lot of personal touches. She wouldn't be surprised if the pictures on the shelves still had the photographs that came in the frames. She looked to the kitchen counter. There was a bottle of tequila and a lone shot glass.

"A tequila girl. I can get behind that. Limes?" Ryan asked as she put the box on the counter.

"No limes."

"Alright. That's fine. Can I have one? Like I said, I brought you a late lunch. I figured you've been undercover and your fridge would be bare. I've got bahn mi sandwiches and avocado shakes."

A look crossed Gail's face, "Holly."

"Yeah. I hope you don't mind."

"My stomach has no pride. Let me put this away." Gail took the gun out of her waistband and walked toward her bedroom. When she came back, Ryan had put the box on the living room coffee table and had the sandwiches and shakes out of the bag on the kitchen counter.

Ryan pointed, "That one is yours."

Gail opened it and took a bite. She moaned. "She remembered."

Ryan laughed. "She warned me about that."

"Wha'?" Gail said around a mouth full of sandwich.

Ryan gestured with her sandwich. "She said you had a special relationship with food."

"Really. I love being discussed by people. It's my favorite thing," Gail said sarcastically as she took another bite.

"I wouldn't call it a discussion."

"How did you know I hadn't already gotten food?"

"Don't be coy and pretend you didn't see the tail this afternoon."

"I finally spotted it. I can't believe I didn't see one before," Gail said as she continued to eat.

"Don't feel bad. They had you under surveillance when you were undercover but no more so than on a normal op. There were three cars they used this morning as part of the tail. Your mother insisted. Said that you could spot a tail since you were eight or something."

"Yeah, well, she should know. She taught me."

"So, I understand you're mad at Oliver Shaw and Traci Nash. Anyone else?"

"Are you asking for Holly?" Gail arched her eyebrow.

"No," Ryan shook her head. "I was thinking about your mother, your family."

"Eh, I'm used to it from her. What I don't understand is why my father helped me this morning, whether he did it behind Superintendent Mom's back or with her approval." Gail walked to the cabinet by the sink, took out another shot glass, and set it down in front of Ryan. She filled it and then said, "So, why are you here?"

"I told you. They thought…"

"No. I mean in Toronto. Why now? Six months into it." Gail filled her shot glass and gestured with it.

Ryan picked hers up and they clinked them together and then did the shots. Ryan grimaced, "I'm going to buy you some decent tequila, Peck. God, that was like rubbing alcohol."

"I thought you feebies were tough."

"I'm a Texan before I'm a 'feebie'. We take our tequila very seriously."

"Nice try. Why are you in Toronto?"

"Honest to God, I wasn't trying to distract you. That tequila is criminal. I'm surprised you have any stomach lining left. Do you have anything else?"

Gail pointed to a cabinet. "There's some bourbon in there if you want it."

"That'll work." Ryan walked to the cabinet and took out the bottle. She smiled to herself when she examined it. She found a glass, got some ice out of the refrigerator, and poured herself what her father would have called "two fingers" of whiskey.

Ryan took a drink and began speaking, "We're out of ideas. We have four victims so far, and are expecting a fifth sooner than later. The time interval has shrunk with every murder. Holly and her team have done their best but the bodies are washed before they're dumped which so far has removed any evidence from them except the type of soap and shampoo the killer uses to clean them. The investigators, myself included, have looked at this every way we can think of, and we've hit a dead end. All the victims were abducted and drugged with Ketamine and ACP. Kept for a period between 24 & 48 hours, and their bodies dumped in wooded areas wrapped in plastic. Just like Perik's victims. Holly recognized the pattern immediately.

"I pushed for them to involve Perik, involve you. I know it's what the killer wants, but I didn't see another way around it. Sometimes you have to play the game by their rules for a while. I couldn't stand in front of another mother and tell her 'I'm very sorry for your loss.' I just couldn't.

"I felt like this…this Hail Mary, my boss calls it, was our only option. Perik threw a wrench in it when he said he'd only meet with Holly. She refused. She flat out refused. But when the last body showed up two weeks ago, she finally relented."

"Do you know why?"

"I think it had to do with the fact that the killer had superglued your fingerprints on the victim. So when we ran her ident, it came back 'Gail Peck.'"

"No shit?"

"No shit," Ryan said without humor.

"Why all the effort around keeping me out of it?"

"You'll have to ask your mother and Holly that. Like I said before, I don't have a dog in this fight."

"Dogfighting? Really, Parker?"

"It is kind of a barbaric expression isn't it?" Ryan smiled. "I'll watch it from now on."

"Do that. C'mon, walk me through these files. You're right it'll be quicker, but no editorializing. I want to see it through my eyes not yours."

"You got it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There were four victims. The first one was Brittany Lynn Roberts- street name Candy-, a twenty-five year old prostitute with a meth habit. She had been drugged with a mixture of Ketamine and ACP, kept for a period between 24-28 hours, sexually assaulted, and her body, wrapped in plastic, dumped in a public park. She looked enough like Gail to be her sister.

Victim number two was Lily Broussard, a twenty-six year old escort who was working her way through vet school. Same M.O. as the first victim. She was dumped near a walking trail. Killed two months after Brittany. She also resembled Gail. She had apparently made an appointment with her killer. Still, even knowing that, they had come up empty.

Victim three was Barbara Bennett, a twenty-eight year old car salesman. She threw a wrench into the prostitute theory. She was killed just shy of two months after Broussard and kept at least 48 hours. Otherwise, the M.O. was the same. She looked enough like Gail to make a casual observer look twice.

Victim four was Julie Hammond, an Oakland police officer. She was killed a month and a half after Bennett. Hammond had been off-duty and when she didn't show up for her shift, her co-workers had found evidence of a struggle in her apartment. She had been abducted around two a.m. She had been texting prior to that and never responded to the return text.

"They're all me," Gail said, as she rubbed her hands over her face. She and Ryan had moved to the couch so that Ryan could walk her through the case files.

"Yeah, I know. It's gotta be creepy seeing people who look so much like you dead."

"No. That's not it. I mean, I've been all these women. My first undercover assignment I was a street prostitute. The one where Perik abducted me I was an escort. We ran a warrant scam and I was supposed to be a car salesman." Gail picked up the photos of Hammond's apartment. "I've seen the crime scene photos of Andy's apartment after I was taken. These are almost a dead-on match. Tell me that you guys noticed this."

Ryan blew out a breath. "Yeah, that one we got. We missed the hooker and car salesman though. So this is tied to you more closely than we even thought. The killer is killing you over and over."

"Awesome."

"Gail, I'm sorry…"

"Don't. Don't start. It's shitty and it sucks but I'm not dead. It's not my fault. All I can do is deal with what is, and what's under my control."

"That sounds…surprisingly healthy."

"Yeah. Three years of therapy. Who knew the shit worked?"

Ryan laughed. "Yeah. Who knew?"

"So the last one…Hammond. She had my fingerprints."

"Yeah. We got called out early that morning around six. She couldn't have been gone more than 28 hours. I drove Holly to the crime scene," Ryan said, and didn't miss the hurt that flashed briefly on Gail's face but continued, "By the time we got there, the task force techs were processing. They hadn't moved the body but one of the other detectives asked them if they had an ident yet and the idiot tech hadn't been on the taskforce long and he just yelled out 'Gail Peck.'"

"I know some people who'd be pleased to hear that."

"Yeah, well, Holly Stewart isn't one of them. I've never seen her that angry. She walked over and examined the body and demanded that he run it again. When it came back the same. She found the false fingerprints herself. In the field. Dressed him down like he was a wet-behind-the-ears rookie."

"I'm sorry she had to go through that. I'm sorry she's going through any of this."

"What was that you just said? Deal with what is. Deal with what you can control. None of this is in your control. Believe me, if it was, I'd have arrested you by now."

Gail laughed a hollow laugh, "Well, I guess we better find you a target for your aggression."

"Damn Skippy."