Bluest of Grey Skies

Chapter Fourteen

"How?" Regina asked, intrigued. "He'll already question about you and your partner being related to me seeing as I don't have any male cousins in the family."

"We're a few steps ahead of him, Regina, just like we have been from the beginning. It's no secret that Robert Gold is a master manipulator and very clever, very cunning. He's already sent men after the dummy team we had set up in Portland this very morning. They're the men behind these photographs that were taken late last night," Tom Chapman said, careful to keep his voice low. He tapped on the folder when Regina went to open it. "We need more of this kind of evidence. This alone isn't enough to arrest and charge him."

"Gina!" Henry's voice called out from inside. "Where Gina?"

"Look Tim—"

"Tom."

"We'll discuss the case tomorrow morning, okay? I don't want to talk about this around her son. Robert Gold might be a bad man, but he is that little boy's grandfather and the less he knows about the truth of who his grandfather is, the better."

"Of course. Ahem, I'll leave you and your...partner alone for tonight. Perhaps there can be proper introductions in the morning," Tom said, his face reddening slightly. "Good night, Sheriff."

Regina nodded and slipped back into the house as the agent walked out of the backyard. She locked the door and turned on the back porch light just as Henry came running across the kitchen and wrapped himself around her left leg. Regina barely had the folder safely on the counter before Henry was trying to crawl up into her arms. She picked him up and tickled his bare belly since all he was wearing was a pair of pajama bottoms.

"Henry," Emma said firmly as she stormed into the kitchen carrying the matching top. "It's time for bed, Henry."

"No."

"Now, Henry."

"Why aren't you listening to Mama tonight?" Regina asked and she sat him on top of the counter and took the shirt from Emma. "You know it's important to listen, especially to Mama."

"Okay, Gina," he said with a pout and lifted his arms so Regina could pull his shirt on for him.

"How come you listen to her and not me?" Emma asked as she wrapped her arms around Regina from behind and laid her chin against her shoulder. "You totally like her more, don't you?"

"No, I love you Mama and Gina too."

"No, I think you love me, but you love Gina more," Emma chuckled throatily. "Is it because she calls you Deputy all the time?"

"Yep!"

"And it's because she gave you that hat and the badge too, isn't it?"

"Yep!" Henry grinned and Regina shook her head, laughing lightly. "And Gina beautiful."

"So, you're saying that you don't think Mama is beautiful?" Emma asked, feigning hurt. "My poor, poor heart is breaking into a thousand pieces."

"No, Mama!" Henry laughed and he reached out for her and Regina at the same time. "Beautiful too! Like Gina."

Regina lived for these moments now because they filled her heart with such warmth and so much love, filling a missing piece she hadn't realized was missing until she had them both in her life. She moved to the side to allow Emma to pick Henry up from the counter, declining the offer to join them for a bedtime story and pointed to the folder on the counter near the back door. With a nod of understanding, Emma took Henry off to bed and Regina grabbed the folder and sat down at the table.

Inside the folder was a seventeen page report along with more than two-dozen photographs that had been taken around and inside the cannery. With every photograph she went through, she saw with her very own eyes of the complexly detailed and hidden operation within the cannery. Every illegal drug out on the streets was being packaged alongside legitimate cans of tuna, cod, and haddock and shipped out along the eastern seaboard and abroad. A few photographs showed men loitering around the workers, toting rifles they had strapped over their shoulders.