All The Pretty Things

by Magdon, Rae D

  "When is she coming?" Tess called out, ignoring Samantha as she rummaged through the closet. "What time is it? I didn't check the clock."

  "6:28. She'll probably show up in another two minutes."

  Tess could practically hear her friend's grin as she answered, and she turned around quickly, brandishing a pair of stockings in one fist and clutching the waistband of a dark skirt in the other. "What?"

  "You'd better put that on unless you've changed your mind about taking your handsome FBI agent to bed." Unable to find words to express her frustration and stress, Tess settled for shoving her foot in one of the stockings, nearly unbalancing herself. "Wow. I've never seen you so disoriented before. It's kind of cute..."

  "Get out! Go watch for her or... or something!"

  Samantha gave Tess a final smug look as she approached the door. "All right, but if it were me, I'd keep the skirt off."

  * * *

  "You're still here," Robin stated in a controlled monotone as the door opened to reveal Samantha's smirking face. "And you're not wearing clothes."

  "This counts as clothes," Samantha said, gesturing at the oversized t-shirt she had stolen from Tess's closet. "You're lucky I'm wearing underwear this time. Speaking of clothes, Tess is scrambling around the bedroom looking for some right now."

  Robin's expression was carefully guarded, and Samantha suspected that she didn't want to seem too interested at the mention of Tess in a state of undress. "She mentioned going to Springdale today," Robin said, deliberately ignoring the bait and changing the subject. "As long as we leave in the next ten minutes..."

  "We can leave now." Robin and Samantha turned to see Tess exiting the hallway, fully dressed in a dark grey skirt that ended just above her knees, a matching, form-fitting jacket that allowed the collar of her blouse to peek out, and an impressive pair of heels. Her hair was pulled back and her purse was draped over her elbow, but the glasses were the finishing touch. Robin opened her mouth, and then closed it again, struggling to respond until Samantha spurred her into action with a not very subtle kick to her foot.

  "Oh, sure. Let's go."

  Tess nodded and turned for the front door. "We can finish this conversation in the car. Samantha?" She looked back to give her friend a soft, slightly awkward smile. "Thanks."

  "You won't be thanking me when I eat everything in your fridge," she said, but she smiled back as she turned around. "But you're welcome." That brief exchange seemed to settle things between them, and after a quick glance at the television clock for the time, Tess headed out the door with Robin following behind her.

  The first half of the drive to Tess's campaign headquarters was mostly silent. The two of them occasionally stole glances at each other, but quickly looked away once they realized they had been caught. Finally, Tess broke the silence. "I'm... sorry... about last night, Robin. It was wrong to put you in such an awkward position by drinking so much. From what you've told me, you were probably in it more times than you care to remember."

  As she stopped at a red light and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel, Robin tried to ignore the hurt she felt. "I'm not going to lie. It wasn't a nice side of you to see. Maybe it's my past talking, but drinking to avoid problems isn't a good habit to get in to. I hope you don't try it again."

  "I don't plan on it. Alcohol and I are going to be staying away from each other for a while," Tess said, chewing on her lip. "Thank you for taking care of me. And... for not freaking out when I – you know..."

  "I actually enjoyed that part," she said, partially out of a desire to shock Tess out of her comfort zone, and partially because it was the truth. "Of course, I would have enjoyed it more if you weren't completely drunk off your ass." Her blunt, honest statement made Tess do a double take, and it was a good thing she wasn't driving the car, because she barely noticed the light changing.

  "You enjoyed it?" Tess repeated numbly, unsure what else to say in response.

  "Yes. Is that really so difficult to believe?"

  Tess thought about it for a moment. To her horror, she realized it wasn't difficult to believe. Her memories of last night were fuzzy, but Robin hadn't seemed upset or disgusted by anything she had done. She did recall one thing Robin had said: "I'm not sorry you kissed me, but you need some space." Those words echoed over and over again in her brain, overlapping and bouncing together until all that was left was, "I'm not sorry you kissed me..."

  "Well. Anyway, it was wrong to pressure you while I was drunk. I'm sure dealing with intoxicated people isn't something you enjoy doing."

  Robin sighed as she pulled into a parking space near the front door of Tess's campaign offices. Tess's car was still in its space from the day before, with a little bit of frost on the windshield, but otherwise untouched. "Yeah, well, I've dealt with worse. Like I told you before, I had to get used to handling drunken binges because of my Mom."

  Tess had the decency to be ashamed after that, and she was quiet for several moments as they sat in the parking space, neither one of them moving to open their doors. "I'm sorry..." she finally said, and although the words weren't anything special, Robin sensed that the sentiment behind them was true this time.

  "Don't worry about it for now." Before she could think better of it, Robin placed her hand over Tess's and gave it a brief squeeze. "We can deal with this mess between us later. You have work to do and a campaign to win, and I have a blackmailer to find."

  "You know, you never told me why you're really in Cincinnati," Tess said as she opened her car door, looping the strap of her purse over her shoulder as she stepped out into the cold. Momentarily, she regretted making the choice to wear a skirt, and wondered if she had done it subconsciously for Robin's benefit.

  "Thanks for reminding me about the job I've been neglecting," Robin joked, reminding herself to spend the afternoon updating her ADIC on her almost nonexistent progress and check in with Slade at the field office. "Maybe I'll tell you someday. But like I said, I'm not investigating you or your campaign."

  "Well, that's something, at least." As Robin started off toward the building's front entrance, Tess caught her hand briefly, ignoring the agent's cold fingers as she pulled the taller woman back a few steps. "Robin? Thank you for helping me. And saving my life in that car accident. And keeping my secrets."

  For the first time that morning, Robin gave Tess a genuine smile. "You're welcome. Now come on, I'm freezing my ass off and you're going to be late."

  * * *

  They were almost late, as it turned out, and Tess barely had enough time to drop off her cell phone with Louph before she had to run off to meet Brian. While they hurried back to the parking lot to drive to the nearby city of Springdale, Robin remained in Tess's office, watching Louph work his magic. "So, how are you going to get Tess's phone to forward calls to you?" she asked, staring over her friend's shoulder as he began hooking up the large hard drive he had brought in to Tess's computer.

  "It's very simple. I've already created an anonymous phone number with one of the many VoIP programs online and changed the settings so that all their calls are forwarded to me. I can answer their calls on this computer, or ignore the call and redirect it back to their cell phones. If the blackmailer is using a prepaid mobile phone, I can triangulate his location with some of the nearby cell towers. If they're making calls with their computer, I can find their IP address and go from there."

  "Voip?" Robin asked, wrinkling her noise. "That reminds me of the sound effect bubbles in a comic book."

  "You probably use it all the time. Voice over Internet Protocol. It's just the technical name for programs that let you talk in real time over the Internet."

  "That seems simple enough. So, we just give Tess back her cell phone and have you screen her calls until something comes up?"

  Louph nodded. "Exactly. The blackmailers implied that they would make contact again soon in their last communication, so I don't think we will have long to wait. We will also need to program Brian's phone once he returns from their tr
ip. They did call his number last time instead of Tess's."

  "Good." Robin breathed a sigh of relief. "What's the extra hard drive for?"

  "The program I designed to triangulate unknown cell phone locations takes more processing power than Tess's computer can handle by itself." He smiled. "I am currently in the middle of patenting it for the FBI's use. It is designed far more efficiently than the one they and the cell phone companies currently use."

  "You just do everything, don't you?"

  Louph nodded as he finished hooking up the extra hard drive and sat in front of the keyboard. "Yes," he said, completely missing the teasing tone in Robin's voice. After finding the new hard drive, he clicked on one of the icons and brought up a map of the city. Small red dots marked what Robin assumed were all the nearby cell phone towers in the area. "Now, all we have to do is wait."

  Chapter 23

  Robin entered the Federal Building and stood in line to go through security. She had left Louph behind in Tess's office, her guilt driving her away after only a few minutes. She had been neglecting the investigation that the FBI was actually paying her to do, and decided to spend the rest of the day making up for lost time. It was the morning rush, with everyone trying to get to work on time, and she smiled when she saw SAC Slade a few bodies behind her. She caught his eye and waved, dropping back to let the people between them cut in front of her. They were surprised, but didn't waste any time taking her spot. "Hey. I was just coming by to update you. Nothing much so far, something else sort of got in the way these past few days."

  Slade seemed amused by her excuses instead of irritated, which should have been a relief, but actually compounded her guilt. As much as she liked Tess, she couldn't keep letting the attractive woman’s problems take precedent over her job. "Are you sure about that? I heard a different story from the two cops that dropped by the other day asking about you."

  Robin groaned. "You heard about that? Shit."

  "I heard you were in a car accident and took out some lowlife who tried to draw on you. Is that the incident that 'got in the way' of your investigation?" Slade asked as he emptied his pockets and dumped his keys and wallet into a small bin. Behind him, Robin began toeing off her shoes.

  "Sort of. Not really. Anyway, a friend of mine – computer guy, does work with us sometimes – did some poking around, and he wants us to look into our target's PAC, People's Voice."

  "Anything to do with the 501s you asked my guys to dig up? I got a look at those. A couple of the credit card companies were using their donations to People's Voice as tax write-offs." He rolled his eyes as he passed through the scanner and headed for the belt on the other side. "Idiots."

  "I know, right?" Robin said, following him and retrieving her shoes and purse. She had never been fond of carrying purses, but couldn't deny that they were useful. She had no clue how men managed without them. "Anyway, the next step is pretty clear. They use Bank of America, so I figured I would head over there and ask for a peek at their records. With any luck, we'll find personal withdrawals for the same amounts and at the same times as the 'donations' from QuikSilver and GateCard."

  "Mind if I tag along once I clock in?" Slade asked as he grabbed his jacket and slung it over a broad, muscular shoulder. "I've got a mountain of paperwork on my desk and no way to avoid it. Sometimes I really hate being the SAC."

  Robin nodded as she followed him to the elevator, hopping on one foot briefly to fix the heel of her shoe. "You got it. Hey, hold the elevator, would ya?"

  As the two of them made their ascent, Robin checked her cell phone out of habit without really processing the time. "This is all just coming together too quickly and too easily. I don't like it. It's almost like someone wants us to figure this out." She sighed and put her cell phone back in the pocket of her jacket.

  "I guess we'll find out when we go to the bank," Slade said as the elevator dinged and arrived at their floor. "Let me grab a copy of those 501s from my office. Then we'll head out."

  * * *

  Robin stared at the bank's computer screen in disbelief, unable to comprehend what she was seeing: withdrawal after withdrawal from the 'business expense' bank account of People's Voice. She glanced down at the 501s. Only a day or two passed in between donations and withdrawals, and the amount were nearly identical. This had to be the stupidest attempt at money laundering – if it could even be called an attempt when it was so blatantly obvious – that she had ever seen. It was so pathetic that it was almost depressing.

  "I can't believe he didn't even try to cover his tracks," Robin muttered. "Is he really this stupid, does he think the government is stupid, or is he just too damn greedy to resist? This guy is an arrogant prick!" She sighed, downloaded the bank's records onto her laptop to check over later, e-mailed copies to her work address just in case, and CCed them to Slade and ADIC Greely. Her boss was going to flip out.

  Robin knew that Harkiss would be equally surprised by the news when he found out, and he would probably have a much more positive reaction. Dirty politics sold papers, after all, although he probably would have preferred a juicy sex scandal to grace the front page. Unfortunately, Robin couldn't release the information to Harkiss until her boss had a chance to look it over.

  "Depressing, isn't it?" Slade said, peering over Robin's shoulder. "People watch all these TV shows about FBI agents and police detectives, but none of them realize just how stupid most criminals are."

  Robin stood up, sliding her laptop back into its case. "Tell me about it," she muttered as she stood up, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "So, how many people do you think are going down for this one?"

  Slade shrugged, burrowing slightly deeper into his coat. Even though summer was long gone, the bank still had its air conditioning pumped up as high as possible. He reached down for his own bag. "Saunders, definitely. The personal withdrawals are a smoking gun. It helps that they happened right after the deposits, and were all for the same amount. It establishes a regular pattern of behavior. I'm sure once we interview his staff, more evidence will crop up... all-expenses-paid vacations, cars, dinners out, things like that. Think Governor McDonnell."

  "Do you think the CEOs will weasel their way out of jail time?" Robin asked, even though she suspected that she already knew the answer.

  "The IRS will go after them, but you know how that goes. Someone lower on the totem pole will probably end up taking the fall, and they'll claim no prior knowledge."

  Robin rolled her eyes. "Yeah, or their lawyers will. They'll probably end up spending more on legal fees than they ever did bribing Saunders."

  "It won't be any worse than the pissing contest the Washington Bureau and the Cincinnati Bureau are about to get into," Slade said.

  Robin held up her hands defensively. "I'm not getting involved in a turf war. You and my ADIC both have the same information now. It's up to you and him to figure out who gets credit for the bust."

  "I just want our names on this thing. Groundwork might be boring, but it's important."

  "Hey, no argument from me. Tell it to Greely. I'll put in a good word for you. Between Saunders and the CEOs, I'm sure there will be plenty of blame to go around. The IRS is going to want its pound of flesh, too."

  "You know, you really are the most agreeable Washington agent I've ever met, Hart," Slade said, turning to head for the door. Robin followed a step behind. "If there were more agents like you out there, maybe the different Bureau branches would start to get along."

  Robin held open the door so that the two of them could step back out into the bank. "Yeah. Well, live in hope. Maybe then we can start getting along with the CIA and local law enforcement, too."

  Chapter 24

  Cincinnati, Ohio: October 13th

  Tess stared at Louph, who was currently hunched over her desk and typing away at her keyboard. For a man with such large hands, his fingers moved quickly, and she couldn't help being impressed. "How many words per minute can you type?" she asked, only half-expecting an answer since Louph see
med absorbed in his work.

  "A hundred forty," he answered without looking away. Tess blinked. She wouldn't have thought that was possible before watching Louph type. She had timed herself out of boredom a on a few occasions, and her own efforts had never gotten past one hundred and twenty. After a moment, Louph stopped typing and sat forward in his chair, lacing his fingers together and crackling the knuckles of both hands. "Your computer has been wiped of all spyware and malware, I've updated your security and your antivirus programs, installed the same call forwarding app I downloaded onto your phone, and started running my cell tower triangulation program. If the blackmailer tries to call you, we can record him making his demands and find out who he is."

  "We still need to ask Brian for his phone, since they called him the first time," Tess said. "We were so busy visiting Springdale yesterday that I didn't have a chance to ask him." It was only a small lie. In reality, Tess had been afraid to bring up the subject. Even though Brian was already aware of the blackmail attempts, discussing them meant discussing her sexuality, and she had fallen into the habit of avoiding that subject whenever she could.

  Before Louph could respond, there was a knock on the side of the already-open door, and Tess looked up to see Robin leaning against the door jamb. The sight of the dark-haired agent made her stomach twist and her heartbeat speed up, but aside from a smile, she tried to keep her expression pleasantly neutral. Their kiss two days ago still haunted her, even though Robin had absolved her and even confessed to enjoying it.

  "Good morning," Robin said, holding up a cardboard tray with three cups in it. "Thought we could all use a pick-me-up."

  "You're a saint," Tess sighed, setting her purse on the edge of the desk and stepping forward to take one of the cups. She gave Robin a grateful smile. "Thanks. I haven't had my morning fix." Honestly, thoughts of Robin, combined with the threat of exposure, had made Tess so jittery that she had skipped her usual morning coffee.