Undercover Rose
Chapter 5

Copyright© 2013 by carniegirl

I went home and as promised fell right into bed. I was asleep just moments after my head hit the pillow. Nothing happened from 1 AM till 8 AM, so I slept like a baby.

When I woke I went into the small bath to pee and brushed my teeth. After that I heated the last cup of yesterday's coffee and put on a fresh pot while the microwave worked it's magic.

I walked around the bike as I drank my coffee. Everything appeared to be where it was supposed to be, not that I would have noticed any subtle changes.

"You might want to buy yourself a small can of WD-40," Liam suggested.

"Yeah, I was just thinking that myself," I said.

"It would go a long way to keeping that rust from coming back," Liam suggested.

"Yeah, I know. So where do you want to go for breakfast?" I asked.

"I know you like that place you found yesterday, why not go there again," he suggested. "There is a lot to be said for routine."

"Like the bad guys knowing where to find you?" I asked.

"Like the waitress lying for you while you slip out the back," Liam said schooling me again.

"I can see that being helpful. Okay so it's the grease pit," I agreed. The grease pit was one of those places with no real kitchen. There was a wall of appliances a few feet behind the counter where customers sit. The cook worked his butt off to keep up with the orders.

I rode the rambling route to the restaurant. I covered at least three miles before I got to it. I noticed the sign for the first time. It read, Jack's Grill. I wondered if one of the cooks was named Jack.

The waitress was middle aged and a little chubby. It was something I never noticed till I got the new body. The one that prison and a couple of months at Church Camp created. I realized upon my release on the world that women mostly fit in two categories. They were either too chubby or too skinny. There were some fit women, but not that many.

"It means nothing you know," Liam said.

"What?" I whispered.

"The term fit. It has no real definition. It is one thing to one person and another to a second person. It's like middle-class there is no real definition. In Tempe Arizona it is one thing and quite another in New York City,"

"Aren't you just full of it this morning?" I asked my lips barely moving.

"Full of what?" he asked.

"Why philosophy of course," I replied.

"You need something else honey?" the waitress asked. I suppose she saw me talking to myself.

"No thanks, I was just talking to my ghost," I said.

The waitress laughed. "I talk to my dad a lot he has been gone five years now. I thought I was the only one," she said.

"Mine gives me lots of advice," I said.

"Yeah, it's always things you knew, but weren't listening to right?" she asked.

"Exactly," I replied.

"Girl you must be Creole," she said.

"Nope, WASP all the way," I said with a grin.

"Well does your ghost want a plate too?" she asked.

"Hell no, let him buy his own breakfast," I said still laughing.

"Good idea," the waitress said.

"Now she would lie for you while you slipped out the back," Liam said. I didn't answer.

On the bike ride home I got cut off by a young man in a small econobox. I gave him the finger and he pulled over. I was almost looking forward to showing him what Killer had taught me.

"You are right. I am so sorry that I cut you off. I can only say I didn't realize how close we were to the intersection and I am late for work. I'd like to make it up to you," he volunteered. The words all came out in a rush.

"Would you be as nice, if I weren't a blond chick with big boobs?" I asked.

"I hope so, but I really can't say," he agreed.

"Just don't do it to anyone else. Now go and sin no more," I said.

"A Jesus complex good god," he said.

I finished my bike ride and felt better when I got home. I was cold but I felt pretty damn good. I knew I had been a little hard on the driver of the car. I mean I was wearing my hair down and my sweatshirt was a little tight, even though it was cold out. I should have been in a parka and dressed in heavier body disguising clothing. What the hell my guilt in no way excused his behavior, I thought.

I took a long and very warm shower. The 12 unit apartment building had one water heater which never seemed to run low on water. It also had modern radiators for heat. They did an excellent job even if it was a bit chilly once in a while.

I was wearing a pair of panties with a towel wrapped around my blond hair when I opened the email. "Have you no shame woman?" Liam asked.

"Suddenly the sight of my boobs bothers you?" I asked.

"No I rather like it. I was talking about the tongue lashing you gave that young man today. He most likely didn't realize how close he cut it when he passed you to get a better look. A perfectly understandable action, I might add."

"And one that might have gotten me killed. Just another example of how boobs can be dangerous," I said with a smile.

"So you would choose to go back to the flat chested version of yourself?" Liam asked.

"I wasn't flat chested, 34b is a perfectly acceptable size," I said.

"I asked if you would rather go back to it," Liam said.

"No, I guess not," I admitted. "So now that I made that admission can I open the email."

"Please do," Liam said standing behind me. A sudden breeze came from nowhere and blew across my chest.

"If that was you Liam stop it," I said. He laughed so he knew what I was talking about.

"So suspicious," Liam said.

The email was from my controller or her nerd I wasn't sure which. It read simply. Subject of no interest try again.

That was no doubt short hand for there was no money trail leading to anyone in the case or their lawyers. It also meant there were no unexplained deposits or purchases in the last year. I knew that it was easy to follow the trail of electron from his smart phone to his bank accounts. Since the controller or her nerd hadn't asked for more information they had made the connections that it just meant nothing. I had to trust them. Shame that I went to all that trouble for nothing.

"Well at least you got his phone back without blowing your cover," Liam suggested.

"Yeah, but it could have went sideways all for nothing," I said.

"True but you better start seeing the glass as half full or you will go crazy on this job," Liam said.

"Okay the bright side is I don't have to cultivate Stonebridge," I said.

"See that's a half full kind of thing for sure," he said.

It was 2:50 PM when I walked into the lab. Pete the Geek was packing his evidence kit away for the day. He was also headed to the evidence locker. It was no more than a metal cabinet with smaller metal boxes inside. It is where the Techs store evidence that either needed more processing before it went into the evidence room, or it was evidence gather to close too shift change to be logged in without going into overtime.

It was already sealed and labeled against tampering but just haven't been turned in to lockup. Lockup was what everyone called the large evidence cave across the hall. From there, after a couple of years, it went to a warehouse across town never to be seen again. Some got destroyed and some went into long term storage.

All that to explain Pete locking a large brown envelope in his box in the evidence locker. The system was a weak link in the overall evidence handling system. It didn't look as though it was a fatal weak link but one just never knew.

The controller and her nerd were still looking for a common element in the cases that went south. So far they had nothing that the evidence locker could easily be that common link. All the lab evidence could have passed through the locker without anyone noticing. I just had no way of knowing. If the so called geniuses couldn't find the common link I was going to just concentrate on ripping off information that might find the connection from the tail end.

"So get your camera we are about to get called out," Stonebridge said.

"I swear I didn't hear a thing," I said.

"One day you will begin to process all that noise on the radio. In the meantime lets head to the truck," he said. He suddenly stopped, looked me in the eye and said, "Oh shit."

"What's the problem?" I asked. "It's a homicide. They just called for the ME. That may mean a full scale processing of the scene." Stonebridge did not look happy.

We headed out to the van even faster. Once we were in the van the call came for the crime scene team. "Since they didn't call for 721 but the team, it mean we are going to be standing around waiting for the experts from the SBI to show up before we do anything. They will manage the crime scene not us," Stonebridge said.

"Do we turn around and head back to the station?" I asked.

"No but we are going to be gophers more than investigators on this one," he said.

"Hey we get paid by the hour, we are not on piecework," I said.

"I know but it pisses me off to be called, hey boy," Stonebridge said with a smile.

When he pulled up on the civilian side of the yellow tape we approached the patrol sergeant. "What you got Ed?" Stonebridge asked.

"We got a body of the day shift clerk. She was found by the swing shift employee. Looks like a robbery gone bad," he said.

"Shit lot of brass coming down for a robbery gone sideways," I said. I really didn't know any better but I didn't imagine there were this many people at a plain robbery homicide.

"You the pretty blond photographer?" the sergeant asked.

"Guilty," I said.

"We take whodunit homicides seriously," the sergeant replied.

"Well I'm sure you do. So who done it?" I asked smiling.

"This is a Salvadorian gang's turf. Most likely it was one of them. Probably shot her and got scared left before they could get the register open," he explained.

"How many gang bangers would be scared before the cops showed up. Somebody killed her with no plan to get the money. It had to be an after thought," I said.

"I agree, but they are looking for the easy answers. It is our job to process the scene not figure out whodunits," Stonebridge said.

I went back to the truck for my camera case.

The state crime lab people showed up in two Cadillac SUVs. I followed Stonebridge over to speak to the boss. "I'm the Capitol City Police Crime Scene Supervisor," he said. "Name is Stonebridge."

"How nice for you Mr. Stonebridge. Now you are dismissed," the woman with the stick up her ass said.

"Remind her you have the responsibility for the Scene and you need to process the scene but you promise not to touch anything. You are going to need photographs for your detectives. Her job is to preserve the evidence for prosecution. Yours is to aid the detectives in making an arrest," Liam suggested.

I made that argument quietly to the woman in charge of the Medical Examiner's team. She was also the investigator from the last death case we worked. "Alright sweetie I'll clear it for you, but you are going to owe me," she said.

"Coffee from the station's vending machine?" I suggested.

"No way, but I bet you make a wicked cup," she said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Deal but work your magic now," I said smiling.

She talked to the States Crime Scene Manager who made some kind of half assed argument then cleared me to shoot the evidence if I wore a bio suit and booties. I looked like shit in the bio suit. The suit hid the twenty thousand dollar boobs for sure. And the hairnet hid my long blond hair pulled into a bun. Gee I was almost back to being me, I thought.

I walked around photographing everything, the bullet casings on the floor, the access to the open areas. I also made shots of the bathrooms even though no one was treating them as evidence at that time. When I was finished outside I made photos of everything I could see. I knew they would have footage from the owner's cameras. Well they would if there were any cameras. I had no idea if there were cameras or not. I worked on the assumption that there might not be and just shot everything.

The Medical Examiners Investigator came to me while I was working outside. "You want to come to the hospital and shoot her body. It would help your detectives to know what she looked like post mortem," she said.

"Let me tell my partner we are going to the ER," I suggested.

"Tell the receptionist you are part of Lisa Evan's staff. I will tell her to expect you."

 
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