Chapter 6

“Sinead, Jules,” the Captain boomed as he crossed through the Detective’s desk area heading for his office. “Excellent fucking work. Here’s your reward.” The big man slammed down a stack of paperwork that needed filling out. “Silver and Vale and handling the retail interrogations, and Forensic Finance is handling the accountant.”

“Um, what?” Sinead asked incredulously. “Why do they get to swoop in and take a crack at our perp?”

“Orders from on high,” the Captain shrugged. “Everything you put together for the raid raised flags up the chain. High-ups think this might even get bumped up to CSIS in time if the banking shit ends up being international.”

“That’s not even CSIS’s job,” Jules said.

“The Mounties then,” the Captain said with a roll of his eyes. “Or someone Federal, at least. Either way, your names are on the arrests. Who cares what Forensic Finance gets out of the pencil pusher? You’re the ones that broke the case wide open. You want more glory out of it, you’re going to need to do more of what you were already doing.”

“Yes, sir,” both women grumbled, and the Captain stalked away towards his office.

“This is such fucking bullshit,” Sinead said under her breath once the Captain was far enough away not to hear it.

“Yeah, says the woman who mysteriously put together enough evidence to cobble together a multi-site raid,” Jules hissed. “What exactly were we doing to get all of that info, Sinead?”

“Nothing, just following the money like I said at the start,” Sinead shot back. “You bothered me for weeks about hounding it solo, and now you want to rag on me for you not following along?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Jules said. “It doesn’t add up, Sinead. Earlier this week you were running on fumes and couldn’t get your head out of your ass, and then in four days all of this comes together.”

“Just take it for what it is,” Sinead lied. “Hard, dogged work that should earn me back into your good graces.”

“Yeah, well pull your weight on this paperwork and maybe I’ll call us square,” Jules sighed, then smirked. “It’s only right considering all the paperwork I covered for you.”

“Fine, you got me,” Sinead said, holding her wrists out as if she was going to get cuffed by Jules. “I’m all yours, Detective.”

“Damn straight, Detective,” Jules said.

Sinead took in a breath and then grabbed the top sheets of the stack. What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Marc checked his watch again, frowning deeply.

“A drink, sir?” the waitress asked him politely.

“Excusez-moi, I’ll wait a moment longer,” Marc said with an apologetic smile. The waitress left him to himself with a simple nod.

Marc was being stood up. He wasn’t mad so much as ... disappointed. The Detective would have made an enjoyable dinner companion for a night, and working on her little case had been fun. Most of his work these days wasn’t actually with the numbers, he had people on his team for that. He worked on the people more than the raw data, so digging into it on her case had a nostalgic quality alongside the fun of knowing it was clandestine.