Chapter 7

By Cindy and Walt

At the end of the last shift before my break, and after I made the dead drop at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, I just wanted to get out of town for my two days off. Since I was sure that I was being tracked electronically, going back to visit old friends was out of the question. My calls were most likely being monitored as well. All thing considered I decided to stay in Capitol City and just rest. I didn't even want to have sex with anyone at that time. Martin had left me pretty well fucked up, and fucked out.

I spent both days sleeping late and riding my little bike all over town. I went to Heidi's one night, but stayed only a very short time. It was just long enough to make my presence known. If anyone had anything to say to me I wanted to show that I was available. And yes I had long conversations with Liam. Lisa called me a couple of times but I didn't answer. It was, all in all, a pleasant waste of two days of my life.

When I returned to work it was 11 PM Sunday night. I would be working all night long for the next five nights straight. I was sure it would be most trying on my body and on my mind. I could remember staying awake a few nights during the time I worked for The Arm. What I remember most about them was that they always kicked hell out of me. I could never understand why. I always felt like those days ran together with the ones before or after. I just couldn't imagine what five all nighters in a row would be like.

Stonebridge was waiting when I arrived. "What?" I asked as he stared at me. "I'm not late or anything."

"No but there is a rumor you were seen having breakfast with Martin. What were you thinking? He is married to an ADA (Assistant District Attorney). She can always find something to nail your ass with," Stonebridge said.

"Okay, it was just breakfast. It won't happen again," I said. I did process the fact that Martin was married to an ADA. That could be the link. I was sure the Geek and my Controller knew about it even before I got back to my apartment from the dead drop.

I found out that night the pattern of midnight shifts. There was a flurry of activity from 11 PM till 2 AM and then it was just process the evidence from the earlier part of the evening until 5 AM or so when people began arriving at the restaurants and industrial plants. That is when they began to find the break-ins from the night before. It was a pattern that was to hold more or less through the whole rotation.

When I got home Monday morning, after having stopped for breakfast, I checked my messages from the Controller. My instructions were just to lay low while they were evaluating Martin. If I had a chance to approach Louise I could but I was not to force a meeting as I had with Martin.

I didn't even try to think what all that meant. I just went to bed and slept ten hours from 10 AM till 8 PM. I got up twice to go pee but I didn't eat either time. That being the case I was starved at 8 PM. It was a quick shower for me then off to the Family Steak House on north Main Street. I didn't like to eat alone which was part of why I ate most of my meals in either a fast food restaurant or in a family style cafe where people knew each other. After a half dozen visits people say good morning and even sat down at my table to finish their coffee. Yeah a lot of it was the way I looked but it wasn't all that because the sweat suit covered the boob job almost totally. Well some of the old men seemed to stare as if they knew, so I smiled at them as I walked by.

So the point is when I have to eat alone in a real family restaurant I feel so out of place. Not only that I tend to get depressed easily on those night. I only did it because I needed really good beef for a change. God only knew where the meat came from, even in those days. Probably last week's loser at the race track. The dog or horse track loser was equally possible.

It would be much harder to tamper with something like a sirloin or T-bone steak, probably still possible but harder. So every now and then I went to a family steak house to have one. When I ate steak I ordered the steak, bread, and a salad, nothing else food wise. I'm just not a foodie. The basics are fine with me as long as it doesn't float in grease, I am quite happy with southern cooking of most any kind. No I'm not above a pizza but those are southern cooking now. Just south side of New York or Chicago, I suppose.

Since I was such a simple eater, and since I had it drilled into my head at Church Camp I found ways to be like the chameleon. I almost never ran into people I knew while having dinner. Running into Martin and his wife set off bells in my head for that, if no other reason. The other reasons were pretty simple even the best hacker could set off alarms. If they were guilty and figured out I was tracking them they could be dangerous.

I know it sounds paranoid but then I planned to stay paranoid as long as I was undercover. "Well imagine running into to you here," Martin said.

And right after you screw me, I thought but said, "Small world huh? So is this the Mrs. Martin you are always talking about?"

"I'm Mrs. Martin," the slightly pudgy but well dressed and made up woman about forty said to me. "Though I doubt he talks too much about me. We try to keep our personal lives personal. He did however mention you."

"Then to be honest I know very little about either of you. Want to sit down and fill me in?" I asked.

"Another time maybe," Martin said as the moved on to a booth several feet away.

"Well you have to at least tell me what gossip Martin is spreading about me," I demanded with a grin.

"Oh just that you seem to be an interesting person, one we might want to have over for dinner sometime," Mrs. Martin said.

Now that was truly strange, I thought. He could have ignored me and I would have done the same. For some reason he made of point of introducing us. Maybe the two of them were into group sex or more likely they had someone they wanted to set me up with. Just to be sure there was no repeat of the morning but that made no sense either. I didn't want to drop my guard but maybe it was a coincidence, I thought.

That night at work I mentioned that I had run into Martin and his wife Debbie at the Family Steak House. "That doesn't seem like the kind of place they would be," Stonebridge said.

"Yeah I thought that as well. I mean with the car he drives and all. I would have thought if they wanted steak it would be at the Gramercy." The Gramercy was a fancy inn near the airport.

"At least The Outback," Stonebridge agreed. "Well I guess it shows all people are multi faceted."

"I guess it goes to show something," I replied with a smile.

"You screwed him didn't you?" he asked.

"Now you know I'm not going to cop to that," I said.

"That means you did," she said smiling.

"No it means, I'm not going to discuss my sex life with you and also is none of your business," I said just as the phone rang. I waited till Stonebridge made note of the address and other information.

"Bar fight, we need to go pick up the bodies and you need to shoot a shot of everyone present at the scene," Stonebridge said.

He was a fast but competent driver so we arrived in just a few moments. I got out of the SUV with camera at the ready and began to shoot the crowd before anyone left. After I shot the images of anyone on the scene I began to shoot the crime scene in as much detail as possible. I made several shots of the weapons involved, then shots of the evidence tags which Stonebridge attached to the plastic bags.

Once back in the lab I processed and copied my images to make sure they were easy to find in the folder therefore easier to use. I did that while Stonebridge checked the weapons for prints, then placed them into the evidence locker.

After that it was 2 AM and there was a backlog of DWI cases to be processed. I worked on the tapes of the Breathalyzer Tests while Stonebridge administered them. The tapes most likely would not end up in court but the test results would. My tape would only make it to court if the bozo plead not guilty, which didn't happen all that often.

The last part of the shift we ran around collecting evidence from two commercial burglaries. We didn't take a call that came in at 6:45 AM. We held it for the day shift since there were no victims leaving the scene. The first shift workers found the break in at the electrical warehouse waiting for them.

I put on my horse blanket parka, then walked from the station to my pickup truck. The horse blanket parka hid my boob job as well as most every other part of my body. I loved that parka but the men all hated it. Maybe that was why I love it so much. It was the total opposite of sexy.

Once the sun got up a little the temperature wasn't so cold. By the time I got to the cafe it was warm enough to go without the parka the short distance from the truck to the door of the diner. I was shocked to see Martin in the place. I looked to be sure Debbie wasn't with him before I sat down.

"So where is that cute little wife of yours?" I asked.

"Doing her job that allowed her to lease that fancy car for me. It was a birthday present," he said. Obviously he suspected me of investigating him.

"So?" I asked. "Why are you telling me this?"

"After our morning together someone ran a credit check on me. I just figured it was you," he said.

"Attack," Liam said in my head.

"Why you arrogant son of a bitch. What in the world makes you think you are more than a one night stand to me? I have no fucking interest how much money you have or where it comes from. I would say you are paranoid and now maybe someone should look into your finances," I said in a low but menacing voice.

"Well done," Liam said. I nodded to him but not enough for Martin to see.

"Well it is just to much coincidence," he said.

"Well don't worry, when I charge your ass with harassment, that won't be a coincidence either," I said still on the attack.

I got up and walked out, even though Martin was calling after me to stay. I got home quickly and sent the draft Email. I explained that the Geek had tripped a cyber dead fall in his pursuit of Martin. After that I found some cereal and milk that hadn't gone bad yet. I ate that while I waited for some contact.

Go to bed now. I will check to see if you are being watched and if you don't hear from me go to dinner at the CiCi's Pizza Buffet tonight a 9 PM. I'll talk to you there, the reply read.

Nine PM found me at CiCi's Pizza Buffet but I was also ready for work. I wore the parka that was either made for a horse blanket or a cheap Mexican throw rug. I never knew which but I did know that I liked it. I took off the parka and looked around. I had no idea who I was looking for so I decided to act as though I weren't looking for anyone. To do that I paid the cashier and then went through the buffet. I loaded up a plate since I really do like pizza.

I was sitting with a coke and a plate full of pizza when a woman sat down. "Well Rose how you doing?" she asked.

"Sorry you must have me confused with someone else, my name is Naomi," I said.

"Of course I am sorry," she said but she didn't move. "So I almost hate to tell you that your instincts were good. Jonathan Martin and his wife Debbie seem to be spending a lot more money than they make salary wise anyway. We haven't tied them to any off shore accounts but I'm sure there are some. We are just going to keep looking. If we find them before we figure out how they did it we can probably get them to roll. If we can prove they are tampering with evidence then we can get them to give up the money as part of a plea deal. What I'm saying is we need to attack them from both angles."

"And what part do I play in all this," I said.

"You lay low unless they approach you. If they do, then play it by ear. Don't do anything too dangerous, but do follow any reasonable lead," the woman said.

"She's setting you up and giving herself an out," Liam said into my ear.

"Yeah, I know," I said to Liam but the women thought I was talking to her.

"Okay just make yourself available but don't overdo it. It will do more harm than good, if they get suspicious," she said.

After the less than stellar meal, I drove to the Capitol building. There I just sat in the parking lot to think. I felt like with all the security so close by there was less chance of a roving car jacker.

"Just like you planned nothing has happened," Liam said.

"If I am being followed it will give the watcher an hour of nothing, so maybe he or she will get tired of it," I whispered.

"One can only hope. So what's the plan," Liam asked.

The plan according to the handler is to go about my business while they do background investigations. If Jonathan Martin or his wife Debbie contact me I'm just going to play along and see where it leads," I suggested.

"What about the ME investigator Lisa. You know you want to see her again," Liam said.

"No I don't know that I do. If I run into her, I guess I will play that by ear as well," I suggested. I started the car's engine. For now I should get to the station before I freeze. It was after all 12 degrees outside the poorly insulated pickup truck.