Conspiracy

Chapter Twenty Nine

J

That had to be Justin. He was worried about Amy but what worried me was the message he wanted to send to her. To me it sounded like a goodbye. I waived Bailey over to see it, "What's up?" She said looking over my shoulder at the screen. "Oh," she said after she read it. "Are you going to tell her?" I closed the email and spun the chair around, "I don't know. I should, but I don't want to worry her. I'll decide when I see her." Angelica came over trying to find out what was going on so I showed her the email. "We better figure this out quick, it sounds like he's in danger." I nodded, "Are we set for the location?" She gave me a thumbs up, "I'll go and set it up tonight and we can head there in the morning before we come into the station." It sounded like it was all coming together. "B?" she nodded, "A few of our friends are coming into town in the morning to give us a hand." I had never been more thankful for the friends that we had made in the last few years. They both looked at me and nodded towards Cap's office. "She's in." Bailey gave me a look, she didn't seem convinced, "She told us not to get killed." Bailey laughed out loud, "Ok, that sounds right." It was then that Amy answered me.

Am: "I'll be here with bells on. Just bells."

She was bad, but it was nice that during all this she was still able to have a little fun. I honestly didn't know if I could concentrate on anything else today. I didn't think that we would get any new information, we had been stuck for days not hearing anything else. The video footage from my dad's bar didn't tell us anything and other than the paper connection to Justin we didn't have any idea who these people were. Justin was nowhere to be found and I was pretty sure if I responded to this email I wasn't going to hear back from him. I needed to tell Amy about her dad. I needed to talk to my dad. We didn't know how any of this was going to play out tomorrow and I wanted to make sure that all loose ends were tied up.

"I'm coming now, meet me outside in 15."

I looked at Bailey and Angelica, "I've got to take care of a few things. Let me know if you hear anything else." They didn't say anything I think they both understood that I had a lot going through my mind that was beyond just the case. I was getting in the car when Amy text back saying ok.

Fifteen minutes later I pulled up in front of the hotel and she was waiting outside. She got in and we headed off. "Not that I'm not happy to have you here babe, but where are we going?" She seemed a little concerned but I reached over and grabbed her hand and held it in my lap. "You'll see." Five minutes later we were pulling up to my dad's place, and Amy was silent, looking at the house reluctantly. I turned towards her so she could look in my eyes to reassure her. "Am, I have to tell you something." She looked confused but I just continued, "I got an email today.... From your dad." I felt her hand squeeze mine, likely because she didn't know what was coming next. "He told me to keep you safe. That he was sorry and he loved you." She looked instantly sad but swallowed it quickly, "We'll find him babe." She nodded and looked back at the house, "I have to tell him and I know he'll want to see you." She put her head down, "You know that this will put him at risk." I knew that was a possibility, but I also knew that there was a chance that tomorrow could go very bad and I needed to see him before that. Even if I was still mad at him for the stuff about my mom. "Come on let's go in." I held her hand as we walked to the door. I let us in and called for him, "Dad. Dad are you here?" I heard him laughing in the kitchen and it started to move towards us, "You just can't cook your own food can youuu?" He stopped in his tracks and dropped the spoon he had in his hand. "Hi Pop," she said because it's what she used to call him. He slowly started walking towards her, "Holy shit it is you." He wrapped his arms around her and almost picked her up off the ground. He kept pulling back to look at her almost like he didn't believe what he was seeing and then pulling her close again. "Ok dad, I know you're surprised but she kind of needs to breathe if we are going to keep her around."  Amy started laughing as she wiped a tear away from her eye, "I missed you too. Did you say something about food?" That snapped him out of his trance, "Ya, ok come into the kitchen. We clearly need to talk." He was taking it better than I thought he was going to considering the information he was getting. "So your dad and his mom were working with criminals and you had to fake your death because you helped them unknowingly?" It was over simplification but that was a way to explain it. "Something like that," she said knowing the more he knew the more danger he could be in. "So are you staying around?" This was the reason we were here. Of course she was staying, unless something went wrong tomorrow. I didn't want to scare him but I needed to make sure he knew that things were about to get a little crazy. Well crazier than it already was. "Yes, that's the plan." I stopped her because this was my part, "Dad, tomorrow we have to do some things to bring all this to an end." He knew me well enough to know what I was saying and if he didn't the tone of my voice would have told him. "It's dangerous," it was a statement not a question and I told him when I became a cop I wouldn't lie to him or sugarcoat things. "Yes, it is. But you know me, I always have a plan." He halfway laughed and I put my hand on his across the island, "Dad, it's going to be ok." Amy knew how hard this was for me and she spoke up to try and ease the moment, "Come on Pop, you think you can get rid of me that easy?" My dad smiled for real this time and I looked back and forth between them and a tear started to come down my face. I closed my eyes to record this moment in my mind. Amy broke my thought with a typical Amy moment, "Alright, enough of this. What's for dinner?"