Rewards and Repercussions

“Jules, I’m sorry,” Sinead said as she opened up the drawer of her desk and started sorting through all the crap she had in there.

“Babe, I know it’s not your fault, but fuck you anyways,” Jules groaned as she sat down at her own desk and looked across at her partner.

Or former partner.

“I didn’t think-” Sinead started, but stopped herself and sighed. “I thought it would be both of us, not just me.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I should have let you give me a little of the credit,” Jules grumbled.

“You were being a good friend and partner,” Sinead sighed. “The best. I couldn’t have done it without you covering for me.”

“And I could have been more helpful on the actual case,” Jules said. “I should have done more with you.”

The arrests that had come out of Sinead’s deal with Marc hadn’t exactly been sweeping, but it had been surgical. Using the data Marc had dug up, and taking his hints, Sinead had been able to track down the accountant that had been behind the whole shell game scheme. This time she’d been in the room when Financial Forensics started their interrogation, and she’d even been able to lean back on her usual interrogation skills to help.

“It still should have been both of us,” Sinead said. “I need a partner for this - I can demand that they bring you over with me. I might have that leverage.”

Jules shook her head. “You’ve got some political capital now, don’t spend it on me right away. I mean, fuck you still, but you’re also still my girl and I’m not letting you turn a career-maker into a dud.”

Sinead packed up her desk. When the transfer had come in she’d been excited at the acknowledgement and challenge. She would be able to see if the tiny Financial Forensics department was actually dirty or not, and she could keep chasing the Le Francais case as she worked backup for the other, actual accountants. The fact that Jules wasn’t joining her had dulled that excitement significantly, but as she filled up the cardboard banker’s box in preparation for the drive downtown she still felt a little surge at the challenge in front of her. She’d be working out of the HQ now, which made for a worse drive to work, but the opportunity she saw was huge. Most cops would have probably seen the Financial Forensics unit as a dead end, if not a punishment, but after everything just to pick up crumbs on the edges of the Le Francais criminal enterprise she was quickly realizing it was work that could really lead somewhere.

Sinead loved being a detective, and she wasn’t looking to move on any time soon, but it would be nice to stick a couple of big profile arrests in her hat if she ever did decide to try and move up the ranks.

And there was the other thing. The piece of the puzzle that she hadn’t told anyone about. Not Jules, not the Captain. She could barely think about it herself without trying to find something else to occupy her thoughts because it worried her. Deep down she knew there was a little spark of excitement that sooner than later she would need to go see Marc again.

What he’d done was vile, making her trade a sexual experience for evidence. She’d hated every minute of it. She’d… done it willingly. More than willingly, she could only admit in her weakest moments late at night when it was just her and her vibrator and the sheets were twisted around her legs.

As she stood and put the lid on her banker’s box and looked around the office area she’d worked with Jules in for the past three years, Sinead couldn’t help but still feel guilty. Partnering with Jules, they’d made a ton of cases together and they’d been able to do it their way. Jules wasn’t just a friend or a good cop. They jelled well together, and that was harder to find than Sinead would have thought when she first joined the ****.

“Drinks tonight?” she asked Jules.

“Yeah, definitely,” Jules nodded. “And this weekend. I’m going to get assigned some new partner that I’ll need to complain about.”

Sinead smirked a little. “Well, just make sure they’ll have your back.”

“I will,” Jules said and winked at Sinead. “I’ll see you later, partner.”

“Fuuuck,” Sinead groaned under her breath.

It had been a full week since she’d gotten her desk deep in the middle of the Police HQ building. The building itself was nice, and it was located in a great area of the city that was bustling with business and university students and the provincial government. Unfortunately, the tiny Financial Forensics department was assigned to a conference room worth of space that had no windows, stains on the carpet that she was mostly certain was coffee, and a light in the far corner that flickered every once in a while. And it smelled like old, damp printer paper.

Her two new coworkers, Hal and George, were both middle-aged and seemed to be opposites of each other. Hal was a tall, skinny black man with a thick moustache and a head of hair that was solidly silver at the temples. George was a portly white guy with a chinstrap of a beard and not a single hair on his head. He also wore old, wire-frame glasses and tended to sweat a lot as he bent over the shitty laptop at his desk. She’d met them before during the Accountant interview but hadn’t gotten to know much about them. After a week in the office, she still didn’t.

Sinead could have brought in her crappy, out-of-date iPad from home and it would have had more processing power than the three laptops they were working with put together. She was almost surprised they actually got internet.

Still, she was pretty much being left alone. The two ‘veterans’ of the unit weren’t passing on any work to her, and the Captain in charge of them hadn’t shown his face in the dismal office since the day he’d shook her hand and led her to her desk. That meant she was free to pull on leads from the Accountant, and now she had one.

She had a thread. Now she just needed to pull on it.

Breakthebar erotica is powered by Patreon, where early chapters are released ahead for all of my series. Le Francais is a Commissioned Work. PM if interested in helping fund the series, or if you are looking to commission a story of your own!