Cat, Mouse, and a Shiny New Penny

Looking at the icon identifying a newly arrived message, Abel swiped the screen.

“Hello Abel,” read the message.

“You said you were going to let Gil go today??? Where is he???” he typed.

“Please, civility suggests the least you can do is offer a girl a proper salutation before making such demands,” chastised the response.

“You want play it this way, I’ll tell you what, you tell me where Gil is right now, then you and I can get all nice and chummy, hell I’ll even take you out for dinner and a movie tonight,” he offered.

“Alas, Gilbert is no longer with me, I released him almost an hour ago,” she answered, adding a little frowny face emoticon.

Grabbing his desk phone, he immediately called up to Tom’s office.

“Trager,” came the voice of his supervisor.

“I got her on the phone again, she says she let Gil go about an hour ago,” he said while typing, “If you cut him loose, where is he?” he queried, shaking his head and hoping like hell she would at least give him a district or starting point to initiate a search.

“Get me her phone number, we’ll run another trace,” Tom instructed.

Looking at the ID, “Her number is blocked,” Abel replied, shaking his head.

“I honestly have no idea where he might possibly be right now,” Lily answered.

“Where did you release him?” he asked.

No response.

“GODAMMIT LILY! WHERE DID YOU RELEASE HIM?”

No response.

“Fuck!” Abel yelled, cocking his arm back as if to throw his cell phone against the paper laden bulletin board with the colored pushpins in it.

“What is it?” came Tom’s gravelly voice through the receiver of the desk phone.

“She’s fucking gone again. She wouldn’t say where she turned him loose,” Abel explained.

“I’ll get the word out to local law enforcement from Baltimore to Alexandria and Arlington, if he’s out there, we’ll goddamn find him,” Tom avowed, hanging up.

Taking a moment to focus on his breathing, Abel looked down at the cell phone in his hand. “You are a fucking CUNT! How’s that for your goddamn salutation!” he snarled through clenched teeth.

“Um, excuse me,” said a soft sounding female voice from the doorway of his office.

Looking up from his desk, Abel blinked a couple of times, trying to process the woman standing in the doorway. She was medium height, youngish, slender, long dirty blonde hair pinned back in a utilitarian fashion. She was wearing a light grey pant suit, cardboard box in her hand. “Ah,” he said, uncertain what to say and letting the uncomfortable silence hang in the air.

She smiled. “I’m special agent Peribo, Penelope, everyone just calls me Penny. I was told to come down and report to special agent Stafford for temporary assignment?” she said, grinning as she raised her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders.

He smiled weakly back at her. Tom hadn’t said anything about assigning him a new partner. Given the current state of affairs, the timing couldn’t be any more inopportune, “Um, sorry about the, ah, you know the C word, it wasn’t directed at you,” he offered abashedly.

“I have to say it wasn’t quite the welcome I was expecting,” she said, an amused expression on her face.

He chuckled and then shook his head. “I was yelling at my phone,” he said, holding the device up for her to see, a touch of crimson still in his cheeks.

“It’s okay,” she forgave, shaking her head, “I’ll take the hit, I sort of snuck up on you.”

“Where are my manners,” he said, setting the phone on the desk and rising to his feet. “I’m Abel,” he said, moving forward and extending his hands to take the cumbersome looking box from her.

“It’s not that heavy, I’m able too,” she grinned, thinking he was saying he was able.

He shook his head, “No, sorry, my name is Abel, Abel Stafford,” he clarified.

“Oh,” she said, elongating the word, comprehending the homonym confusion and nodding her head.

“Here,” Abel said, scooping the box out of her hands, “there’s a vacant office just over here,” he added, nodding with his head.

Stepping out of the way, she let him pass and lead her to the unoccupied room, setting the box down on the desk.

“Thanks,” she said, smiling, eyes moving about the interior of the small room.

“I know, the splendor is almost underwhelming,” he said with a grin. “You must really have antagonized someone to get banished down here.”

“It’s kind of funny, Cold Case and it’s so hot down here,” she said, touching her fingers to her brow.

“Welcome to the bureau,” he said with a grin. “I’ll let you get situated, then I can bring you up to speed,” he stated, walking passed her to the door.

“Thanks,” she said.

Nothing against the girl, but why the hell did they send her down here now? Returning to his office, he called Tom.

“Trager,” Tom answered.

“I just got a little blonde chick down here telling me she’s been assigned to Cold Case,” he said.

“Shit, sorry. Yeah Peribo, just graduated and green as she is cute. With all the shit with Gil, I just forgot to forward you the memo. This is just a temp assignment and I figured putting her down there with you would keep the other wolves up here at bay until she moves on,” he explained.

“That’s fucking great, what am I a goddamn babysitter?” Abel growled, not happy.

“Stow it, you’ll rein that attitude of yours in while she’s on loan to us,” Trager ordered.

Scowling, Abel hung up the phone. No sense getting in a pissing match with Tom. Looking at Gil’s copy of the files piled on his desk, he let out a sigh. At least he could keep the girl out of his hair. Getting up, he opened the metal filing cabinet where he kept his own copies of the files and pulled them out before going over to Penny’s office, rapping his knuckles on the jamb of the open door.

Looking up from her desk, she smiled, “Yes?” she said.

“In case I come across like an asshole, let me bring you up to speed on the status of our current investigations,” he offered, half smile on his face.

She nodded, and he spent the better part of the next hour giving her a rough overview of the active cold case files before divulging information he thought might be relevant to Gil’s disappearance.

“Aren’t we supposed to be hands off on special agent Caine’s case?” she inquired, frowning slightly.

“Gil thought they were all related, so as long as we are focusing our energies on our cases under that presumption, then we’re not overstepping the ongoing efforts relating to his disappearance,” he justified.

Looking at the files, her frown deepened, “But?”

“For now, I want you to continue to familiarize yourself with the files,” Abel instructed before exiting her office and returning to his own.