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[Ace Darren Granburn]

WHEN I'M TOO DAMN OLD TO SIT A HORSE, I'LL STEAL THE WARDEN'S CAR
BREAK MY ASS OUT OF THIS PRISON, LEAVE MY TEETH THERE IN A JAR

CASE FILE: LIST OF THE MISSING

POLINA SMIRNOV --- ARUNA HARYANA --- NIKOLAI GORBACHOV

It had been a grueling day.

They had been following the case of Polina Smirnov, a young fourteen-year-old girl that had been brought from Samara, Russia on the pretenses of becoming an actress. With light red hair that fell down to her shoulders, her wide blue eyes had crinkled with laughter from the photo that they had been given. A young dreamer that had her dreams snatched by the cruel heartlessness of humanity and sold into the waking nightmare of child prostitution slave trade. His partner, Daniel, had been on the case of another young girl who had been bought around the same time as Polina. Together, Ace and Daniel had hoped that they would find the girls in the same circle by one of the dealers who had them. While the other girl that his partner had been after had disappeared off the map, Ace had gotten a lead on to Polina. A lead that led him to the gruesome discovery of her lifeless body laid at a crooked angle on the streets.

She had jumped.

Three stories.

Ace had watched the proceedings around the body and crime scene with disinterest trying to hide the turmoil of emotions that raged inside of him. Anguish that he had not been able to save the young woman and the fact that another life had been stolen. Pure hatred and anger at the men involved with the destruction of her life. Most important of all, paranoia, paranoid that one day it would be the pale lifeless face of Ezra or Elijah that he would see on the coroner’s table as the victim of one these heinous crimes. Even though he would be going back undercover with Daniel’s widow, Abigail, he had vowed that he would try to keep an eye on the twins as much as he could. Like clockwork, every day at their recess, Ace would be there waiting and watching from a safe distance making sure he was unseen to the public eye. The only time he would leave was when they were safe inside the building – it was the only time he knew they were safe.

Ignoring the looks from the young woman at the counter who was scrunching her nose at distaste at the cigarette dangling out of his mouth, Ace cleared his throat as he flipped casually through a magazine. It was a quiet little coffee shop in between the darker side of town and the more well off areas, a haven in a place where the darkness and light divided. Often it was joked in the early days that it had been a cop haven as many of the officers would retire to there on their days off. Lately, a swarm of new age college students had taken over the area leaving many of the cops uncomfortable in the area. Ace was not such a cop. He was the old man who was yelling at the damn students to get off his fucking lawn. It would be their last day as Mr. Granburn and Miss Watson. Tomorrow, they would be going undercover – new names, new places, and possibly whole new looks.

He would be a buyer.

Hearing the bell of the door ringing, he glanced up to see who it was – a small smirk crossing his features as he noticed the familiar bounce of Abigail’s hair as she walked. He would have been blind not to see that she was an extremely attractive woman. However, his heart was too far bitter to even begin to think about his new partner in that manner. Not after what had happened with her husband. After he had left him to his death because of a damn sickness that he was unable to fucking control. Biting onto the cigarette, he cursed underneath his breath as the taste of ash burned into his mouth as if a bitter reminder that he was the one who was still alive. “Watson.” He nodded his head in greeting at his partner giving her a rather cheeky smirk. “How’s it goin’? Got any new leads?” It was casual small talk. Something he could do. Anything to keep his mind off their last meeting when she had screamed at him asking him why he hadn’t been there to save Daniel. Something his mind replayed constantly. Why had he gotten drunk that night – why had he gotten drunk the night after – he was a fuckin booze.

He had killed Daniel.

Even if he hadn’t pulled the trigger himself, he had left his partner alone.

He had fucking killed Daniel Watson.

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words: 763
notes: it was rambly

credit to ryker of dane university & image credit to tumblr

[abigail olivia watson]

Abbie had no fucking idea how the department thought it’d been a great fucking idea to pair her up with the man who let her husband die. It might be unfair of Abigail to pin this on Ace, but in her mind, he had dropped the ball. The blonde had tried to keep it as straight as she could in her mind, but it was difficult to keep her emotions controlled around Ace. In the precinct, as well as around other cops, she reined in her anger, because it wouldn’t do her any favors. If they got wind that she was holding a grudge against the man or that she was still investigating Daniel’s death on the side, they’d toss her behind a desk and find a reason to get rid of her all together. She wasn’t going to allow that to happen. The blonde had worked very hard to get to where she was today and her petty feelings weren’t going to get in the way of getting Daniel some justice. When the blonde calmed down though, she had to remind herself that it had been Daniel’s choice, for whatever reason, to go deeper into this alone. Her husband had chosen to walk into the lion’s den without his partner and it didn’t make any sense to her at all. Unless there was extenuating circumstances, which she wasn’t aware of… When she got in the force, she started hearing things about Ace. He was a drunk. Spent his time in bars, working up a buzz bad enough to kill his liver at a young age if he kept it up. That was the reason she thought Daniel hadn’t been with his partner that night… and for that, she blamed Ace. It wasn’t right of her to do so. She knew that there was a possibility that Ace would have ended up dead along with Daniel. The man did have children…

Yelling at the man hadn’t gotten her anywhere. It hadn’t helped piece things together in her mind and she certainly didn’t feel any better for it. After their ‘talk’, when she got home, she thought about everything for hours and hours. Deep down, she had always known that one day, she’d have to forgive the man. It hadn’t been his fault that Daniel was dead. The bastard who pulled the trigger was the one responsible and she was going to find out whoever it was and empty the clip in him. No trial, no jury, no judge. She’d be his executioner. It was for that reason that she didn’t request a change in partners. Ace was still working the case that had gotten Daniel to an early grave and it could lead her, them, to his killer. For all that was said between them, she knew one thing for sure, Ace wanted to catch these bitches just as much as she did. Dan had been his partner for years. She used to tease Daniel that Ace was his ‘work wife’. They were both grieving over the same man and she’d use that to catch his killer. The blonde hadn’t told Ace that she’d kept her own investigation into Daniel’s death. She hadn’t brought him in, because… Well, she wasn’t so sure the man wouldn’t turn her in. Maybe he’d join in the efforts, maybe he’d try out of some crazy loyalty to Daniel’s memory to ‘protect her’ and push her out. So, she didn’t risk it, not until she knew where his loyalties lie.

As she was walking on the sidewalk, moving around people, her eyes were sharp. She never would have thought that she’d end up a cop. Her family didn’t approve, but then again, they had never approved of anything she did in the beginning. It took them a while to settle into her life choices, just as it had been when she married Daniel. Abbs was an impulsive person by nature and her family was more of a lists and pros-cons kind of people, who thought things over thoroughly until they’d thought up of everything and made contingency plans for their contingency plans. If it was one thing she’d learned from them was to have a backup for the backup plan and it had served her well… when she used it. Being a former schoolteacher, one of the skills she’d retained was noticing everything. She couldn’t very well handle a group of little children if she wasn’t attentive. Kids could get into all kinds of mischief if they were left to their own devices. Her knack for memorizing things quickly and the way she could perceive the little things, those skills had served her well in the force. Everything else, she had to learn, to work at, to study in order not to fall behind. Hadn’t been easy… but that was the reason she could notice the scrawny-looking guy, at this very moment, bumping into an unsuspecting lady and picking out her wallet from her purse.

She was a good twenty paces from the man, who was apologizing to the lady for bumping into her and walking away rather quickly. Smooth, she thought to herself, but not as smooth as you like to think, jackass. She picked up the pace and when she was close enough to grab him, identified herself. ”Police, hold it there, buddy.” The man’s survival instinct kicked in, sprinting forward, but Abbs had been expecting that. They all tried to run, even when there was no point to it. Grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt, she pulled the man back hard, causing him to trip on his own feet and fall backwards. ”Let’s have it, then.” He started talking fast, claiming his innocence. ”Yo, lady. Whatchoo doin’? I ain’t done nothing wrong. Just walkin’. Can’t a feller walk around here without being harassed by you cops?” She narrowed her eyes and pulled him up. ”Look, I’m not having the best of days and you’re not making it any better. If you give me any more lip, you’re going to be making me angry. You know what happens to you if I get angry? Hand over the wallet.” She was stern, the attitude came with the job. At the beginning, it hadn’t been that easy to be tough, not when her life had been surrounded with little children. The worse they did was spill food or write on a wall. But humanity had made sure she’d lost most of her compassion. Rifling around in the guy’s pockets, she procured the woman’s wallet and handed it to the woman. ”Oh my,” the old woman started to say, but before she could say anything else, Watson cut her off. ”Save it, lady. Be careful were you’re going next time.” The old lady stammered and then said something about youth not being courteous. A couple of beat cops had been walking by and ran over to see what the commotion was about. Abbs tossed the guy at them. ”Take the statement from the woman. Read him his rights; get him back to the precinct,” she told the fellow officers as she straightened out her uniform. They nodded and continued handling the idiot, who still claimed his innocence. Mentioned something about how the wallet must have fallen into his jacket pocket.

She tuned him out, turned on her heel and walked towards the coffee shop. Abbs had no idea why Ace insisted on meeting in this place. There were so many kids around, talking about things that hardly mattered to her and frankly, gave her a headache. She didn’t care about Selena Gomez sleeping with Justin Bieber or whatever the youngins talked about nowadays. ”Oh, I’m having a fuckin’ great day, Ace.” she replied casually, grabbing the cigarette out of the man’s lips and taking a drag. Daniel would probably kill her if he could see her now, smoking. Then again, there were a lot of things Daniel wouldn’t approve of in how she’d led her life after his death. This wouldn’t be what he wanted for her, Abbs was sure of that. Didn’t matter, he was dead. He had gotten himself killed. Didn’t have an opinion now, did he? Looking down at the cigarette, she furrowed her brow. ”You’re not supposed to chew on these things, partner.” The emphasis on the word, it came out all on its own. She couldn’t help it sometimes. The blonde didn’t mean to make it difficult for them to work together. In the end, she knew that Ace had her back, they were partners after all and if anything because she was Daniel’s widow. Just as she had his back, because of the job, because he was Daniel’s partner, a man who broke bread with them for years. He was a friend. Rolling her head on her shoulders, she slouched back against the chair and quirked a brow. ”You seemed to be in a cheery disposition,” she said, ignoring his question for now. Given that today would be their last day as normal people, he looked… like he always did. Then again, it wasn’t his first time, unlike her. The blonde wasn’t giving that much thought though. It didn’t matter if she had to assume another identity, go undercover. She was actually eager to spend her days living as somebody else.

[Ace Darren Granburn]

WHEN I'M TOO DAMN OLD TO SIT A HORSE, I'LL STEAL THE WARDEN'S CAR
BREAK MY ASS OUT OF THIS PRISON, LEAVE MY TEETH THERE IN A JAR

His first thought when Abigail had strode through the door with an angry jaunt in her step was anything but pleasant. With an amused look on his normally stern face, Ace raised an eyebrow and chuckled at her response. “Shoulda known better to ask you that question, Watson.” A smirk crossed his face. “You seem to be on constant PMS. I think you should talk to that quack of yours about prescribin’ you somethin’.” Tugging his forelock in response in mock respect, he grinned devishly at her. While the rest of the precinct seemed to hide and wear cups around Abigail, Ace didn’t. Sure, he knew that Abigail was somewhat of a loose canon and he had to watch his back around her. However, he wasn’t unmanly enough to go around wearing a cup around the woman. Fuck, if she wanted to play bitchy, he’d play right back with her. Kept things interesting in his humble opinion.

His mood changed when she snatched the cigarette out of his mouth. The fuck if she was going to start grabbing his shit. With a growl, he grabbed her hand pulling it back towards him as she tried to take a second drag. “I think that’s mine, darlin’.” Picking up the cigarette with his other hand, he gave her wrist a light warning squeeze before letting it go. “Now if you had asked nicely, I would have given you one.” His voice was terse and tense causing the waitress who was waiting impatiently for their order to decide that waiting on another table would have been better. At the comment of chewing, his jaw twitched slightly as he gave her a tight-lipped smile. “Point taken, Watson.” At her comment of his cheery disposition, he relaxed his shoulders some leaning forward in the seat. “Wouldn’t do the public much good if I came in cussin’ and screamin’ up a storm about some sick fuck on Main Street who likes to shove his dick up pre-pubescent pussies.”

Motioning the waitress back to the table with a single finger tilt, he gave the woman his order. “Black Coffee. Straight up. None of that fancy sugary shit, sweetheart.” The girl nodded quickly in response swallowing as she nervously looked at Abigail next. Once the terrified young woman had left, Ace leaned forwards towards Abigail again. “Smirnov is dead. Found her this morning on the sidewalk. She jumped three stories.” He didn’t go into details about the scene – a bit of compassion on his part as he knew Abigail was still getting used to the job. “Leaves us with Haryana who Daniel was following – said he lost his lead on her.” He paused for a moment to catch his breath. Had the Indian girl been the reason Daniel had been killed? “And Gorbachov. No one has heard a lick of the boy since he was brought over.” While the slavery of the young girls bothered him, it was Nikolai’s prostitution that bothered him the most. The fourteen-year-old boy from Eastern Europe. A boy barely older than his own sons.

“Chief wants us to focus on Haryana for now. He thinks that her case was somehow connected to – “ He paused. “Daniel’s murder.” Another pause. “I think its bullshit. I think both girls were involved. Daniel found something down there. He said he had found something two days before he was killed. We have to find what that is.”

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words: 570
notes: catfight over a cig. what next? donuts?

credit to ryker of dane university & image credit to tumblr

[abigail olivia watson]

There were a lot of things that Abigail thought Ace would do to remember. One of them was no asking questions before getting coffee. He really should do to remember such things, Abigail thought. They seemed pretty simple to her. Her eyes narrowed dangerously when he mentioned the shrink. The jab about PMS she didn’t care about, it was actually expected of him and every other guy out there who got their balls busted by Abbs. But, she only went to the damn doctor because it was mandatory, to make sure that her mental state was fit for the force. ”What can I say? You just bring out the best of me,” she replied sarcastically, but then she smiled. ”I’ll have to ask what he can do for you, since I’m sure PMS in men isn’t normal.” The blonde really had no idea how they succeeded to get shit done with all the constant bickering the both of them did. Somehow, when it came down to it, both of them managed to put that shit back where it belonged and get the job done. The victims were always first.

She liked to remember things about him as well. Such as how he hated for her to snatch his cigarette, which was why she wasn’t surprised when the man grabbed her wrist to reclaim what was his. In Abbs mind, he let Daniel down, so he didn’t deserve boundaries. It might get her shot one day or him shot, but that was just the game they played. ”So touchy. Did our cycles sync up already?” she grinned, shrugging back against the chair. Sometimes, Ace could be such a fucking drama queen. ”Just gimme a fucking cigarette and get over it,” the woman said exasperated, before adding with a smile. ”Please.” Leave it to Ace to get his feathers ruffled over her taking his cigarette. The blonde wondered sometimes how it was that women got the wrap of being overemotional, when men pulled stunts like these all the damn time.

”Same,” she said to the waitress after Ace’s perfectly worded order. She couldn’t have put it better herself. Back when she was a preschool teacher, the blonde used to get frothy stuff. Iced coffee with whipped cream, caramel and fudge inside of it. Being a cop, one learned to get their coffee wherever they could find it. With the long hours they had to put in, coffee straight up was the best way to get through, in Abbs’ opinion. The blonde listened to Ace run down the their current case. One dead, two to go until they lost all tangible leads, all connection to Daniel’s murderer. ”Autopsy in yet? Did she just decide this fine day to up and jump or was she helped along?” she asked her partner. Even if the coroner hadn’t delivered a cause of death as of yet, Ace still had his gut instinct. He’d been on the job for a long time and even though Abbs was still developing her deductive skills, she knew Ace was a fine detective in his own right.

The mention of Daniel had her eyes lowering, her sight catching glimpse of the sugar packets and finding them incredibly interesting at that moment. She hated that, having to say his name and talk about his murder as if it was just another victim, part of the job. But that’d been the reason she’d gotten into this, wasn’t it? Her eyes snapped up at Ace when he mentioned the chief thought this girl could be connected to Dan’s death. Maybe. It was possible. Then again, with how little they had, everything and anything was fucking possible. ”Right so,” the blonde cleared the throat, stopping as the waitress came back with their order. She nodded at the woman and waited until she was gone to keep talking. ”After Daniel, I know they canvassed the area, talked to everybody that could have been there, looked for Haryana, but she was gone. It’s been two years. She could be dead like Smirnov. If they were hiding her until the smoke cleared after Dan’s death, then they might be putting her out to her old haunts. If they sold her off to private use, it might get trickier. We should go back, show her picture around, search clubs nearby… if nothing hits, widen the net. I think it’s time we put those hookers to use. They might have seen her since then.”

Daniel had something… Something he hadn’t thought to share with Ace yet. Maybe it was time to bring Ace in on her own investigation. Taking a sip of her coffee, she mulled over the possibility. The blonde didn’t know exactly how Ace would react… No, she had an idea. ”Daniel kept some things back home.” Things she should have turned over when he died, but didn’t. Still, she’d gone through all that stuff, nothing had popped out at her… A fresh pair of eyes though.

[Ace Darren Granburn]

WHEN I'M TOO DAMN OLD TO SIT A HORSE, I'LL STEAL THE WARDEN'S CAR
BREAK MY ASS OUT OF THIS PRISON, LEAVE MY TEETH THERE IN A JAR

At her jab at his own moody behavior, Ace gave Abigail at tight-lipped sarcastic grin in return to mirror his irritation at the woman. Besides his ex-wife, Abigail had been one of the few women in his life that could honestly send him into a flying rage within seconds. The women knew what to say to get him riled up and were smart enough how to avoid the consequences of his wild behavior when he was. The most dangerous sort of female, he had learned was the female who knew how to control men yet never presumed upon her talent. There was a reason that female serial killers were just as terrifying if not more than their male counterparts. No one ever expected the sweet housewife on Dogwood lane to be killing her neighbors’ sons and burying their corpses underneath her flowerbeds. At this point, he wouldn’t have put it past Abigail to have a few literal skeletons in her closest herself. “Touché, Watson, Touché.”

His eyes narrowed at her question as he muttered something inaudible underneath his breath before turning his attention back to Abigail. “Didn’t you get the memo from Mother Nature? Or what is it that you women call it?” He stopped to ponder thoughtfully for a few seconds before leaning back in his chair. “Auntie Flo? Why on Earth you freaks want to name your period an Aunt is beyond me though. Never hear a man call the mid-life crisis Uncle George.” To be honest in his personal opinion, it was somewhat creepy that some woman had come up with a cutesy name for her period. Who wanted to name that? It was utterly disgusting in his opinion. An opinion coming from a man who didn’t get disgusted by much of anything, after all, he bought deer urine and smells to further his hunting game every season. He was damn sure that was not on any of the “top favorite smells of the world” list for anyone but deer.

Ace opened his mouth to retort that she would have to ask nicely before she responded with a please. Nodding his head, he released her hand with a “that’s better, Watson.” Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed the second to last cigarette making a mental note to stop by the gas station to pick up more on his way to work. Not that he’d be smoking Marbellos anymore, those wouldn’t be the type of cigarettes that his buyer persona would buy. Dropping the cigarette into Watson’s hand, he tossed his lighter casually onto her side of the table ignoring the odd look from the waitress who had been watching their discussion. One thing he didn’t like about the new influx of college kids in the place was that they were all damn nosy. Wanted to know everything about everyone and what they did. Too fucking bad for them, Ace wasn’t going to let them.

After a little wave of his hand in the direction of the coffee makers, the waitress seemed to understand that Ace wasn’t going to allow her to eavesdrop on the conversation. Not to mention, Ace had given her a rather stern look that would remind most young women of their fathers in hopes he wouldn’t have to verbally ask the waitress to get his fucking coffee. “They’re working on it. You know how it is, those fucks take forever analyzin’ that shit.” He responded in response to her question about the autopsy. Not that he wasn’t grateful that the men in question took their time to analyze the bodies backwards and forwards to make sure that they hadn’t missed anything. But this particular case, he wanted to know everything he could right away. To avenge Daniel and ease his guilty conscience. “They’re claimin’ she jumped. However, you and I fuckin know that’s a load of bull. I’m bettin the entire check that whoever killed – well it’s connected.” He had almost referred to Daniel’s death once again as if it could easily slip off his tongue as casual as talking about the weather. However, his gut feeling knew that they were connected – somehow. Perhaps not in the way that he thought but the connection was there.

Ignoring the waitress as if she wasn’t there, he grabbed his coffee from where she had laid it down taking a rather large gulp of the liquid. His eyes closed for a moment as she began to talk about the case using Daniel’s nickname as if it hadn’t bothered her to talk about him either. His mouth twitched for a moment at the sound of it before he opened his eyes rubbing his head as if to divert the attention from his physical slip. “Rivera and Rowe could be of use in this particular part. I’m fuckin postitive those two could get into the more private areas of the club without question. If we –“ he pointed to Abigail and himself “ were to show up asking questions – even subtly – our covers would be blown. I’ll try to get what I can out of the other buyers and the traders…” He paused for a moment thinking of his disguise – a young man that was working for a higher up trafficker who was interested in young men and women from Western Europe. It wouldn’t help with Haryana but it certainly could find a lead to Smirnov. “You on the other hand have a bit of leeway, you can ask questions about the kids without sounding too much like a ‘cover.” It was one of the perks of being a Madame. She could get the information without seeming like she wanted it for police reasons.

His body froze at the mention that Daniel kept things back home. His first thought was confusion and slight anger that his partner had kept things from him. His own investigation away from Ace. Hadn’t Dan trusted him to do the job right? A slight bitter taste burned in his mouth from where the coffee had singed his tongue. Fuck, had Dan thought he was too much of a barfly to complete the job? His second thought was suspicion that Abigail was hiding something from him as well. His eyes narrowed as he straightened himself in his seat trying to retain his composure. “What sort of things?” He asked casually as if the mere thought of the idea of hidden information hadn’t set his mind whirling and his emotions reeling.

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words: 1075
notes: this was rushed because it's before work but Ace is like "RAWR" at the last part.

credit to ryker of dane university & image credit to tumblr

[abigail olivia watson]

She had no idea why women had all sorts of names for their periods. Probably because if they said they were gushing streams of red out of their vagina’s men everywhere would die of heart attacks… their brains would explode right then and there. It wasn’t her fault society had to find a polite way, a less messier way, of saying things so that other people weren’t offended by the imagery. Anyway they sliced it, periods were still fucking gross and a bane on women everywhere. But, as it was part of the circle of life, they learned to deal with it early on in their existence, or else they’d lead a very miserable life for at least 40 years or so. ”That’s because Uncle George’s dick doesn’t bleed every month. If not, you men would have some sick fucking name for it as well,” the blonde pointed it out casually. And if Ace doubted the fact that men came up with the nastiest names to describe things, all he had to do was look at the names they had for porn related things. Porn was a male driven industry and all the terms and such that were associated with it were most likely coined by men. Creampies? Ew.

Rolling her eyes when he let go of her wrist, Abbs took the lighter from the table, lit the cigarette and took a long drag, letting the smoke fill her lungs for a moment before exhaling. God that felt good. Dan had to be rolling in his grave. ”Thanks,” she muttered, placing the lighter on the table, before flicking it in his direction. ”I swear to God, I’m going to slap obstruction of justice or some other bullshit charge on that woman if she keeps trying to listen to our conversation.” It was either that or she’d wait until the woman was near again and she’d start talking about cadavers, rotting corpses, maggots and every other disgusting piece of information her brain could muster, until the woman ran to the bathroom to throw up. It annoyed her when women acted foolishly; it gave them all a bad wrap. Then they bitched about how women cops were the worse, how they were cunts. It was behavior like that of the waitress that made it harder for hardworking women to overcome the stereotypes. Especially when partnered with rednecks.

Forensics always took forever. Even if the technology got faster, in police matters, in these types of investigations, anything other than instant information was a delay. It kept them from wrapping the cases quickly and in the most efficient manner. Sure, things had gotten faster, but with the budget cuts and the fact their forensic teams weren’t anywhere near how they were portrayed on TV, made things slow. So they had to wait. It was something that she had to get used to, but she’d never like it. Nodding her head, Abigail took another drag from the cigarette. She didn’t believe for one second that girl had jumped. If every person forced into sex slavery were to take a head dive into the pavement, the streets would be covered in brains and guts. That was the sad truth of the matter. Her brown eyes snapped to Ace when he nearly mentioned Daniel. It was hard on both of them to talk about her late husband and she knew that, but it didn’t stop her anger from bubbling each and every time.

She’d been thinking about her cover for a while. She wondered just how well she’d be able to pull off being a madame. Everything had been set up, between the Chief, Ace and herself. No one else in the department had any idea about the progress of their case. It had been suspected, ever since Dan’s death that there was a leak in the department and that was just one of the many things that they had to try and figure out when they went undercover. It gave the whole operation another layer of complications. If they were spotted by whomever was the dirty cop or heavens forbid there was more than one, which was probably the case, they could lose their lives just as Dan’s had lost his. All for nothing. She didn’t like dwelling on those types of thoughts though. Ace and her were the backbone of this whole operation as of right now and the lives of their informants were in their hands as well. Couldn’t lack for confidence now. ”Gotta be careful with those two. It’s a junkie and stripper.” she said with a shrug of her shoulder as she took a drink from the coffee the waitress had placed in front of her. It wasn’t even about what kind of trust they could put on those two, but if they could even keep it together to get any kind of information from the targets.

The blonde shifted in the chair, placing the cup down on the table, her eyes meeting Ace’s. He wasn’t amused by her little tidbit. She had expected as much. ”Stuff.” She shrugged a shoulder and looked away for a moment. ”Look, I didn’t know what kind of backup I would have on this. I have to cover my ass on this or else I get kicked out of the force and I won’t be able to find his killer. This means everything to me as I’m sure you understand. So before you start getting your balls twisted, calm down and listen.” Abigail waited a beat before she went on explaining how she’d started her own investigation the moment that Daniel had died. It’d been her own investigation into his death, outside the police force. ”He had this hiding place. When I.A. came around the house asking if he ever brought work home, I lied, said no… but they searched around anyways, didn’t find anything, obviously. I knew they wouldn’t. Once I was in the clear. I laid it all out in a room that’s under lock and key.” She knew that if anybody that wasn’t from this cop life ever saw it, they’d think she’d gone mad… But Ace, he would understand. He’d be angry. He’d bitch and whine like he tended to do, but he’d understand. ”I’ve pieced some things together, but nothing solid… Maybe you could make more sense of his notes.” she said offhandedly. Even though Daniel was her husband, he didn’t talk shop with her while they were married. His job had always been separate. So she didn’t always understand his shorthand. Ace might be able to.