Sailing in the same boat

More than twenty minutes had passed since their return to the IB and Kate helped Laura in sorting the details she had collected while they were gone. Meanwhile, Bradley continued to watch the video from the club on the laptop, trying to find anything important they might have overlooked.

"What an ill-tempered man!!" Cole's outburst was heard even before he entered the meeting room and Kate and Laura gave each other a look before Laura passed a bottle of water to him.

"Was it the Senator?"

"Who else can it be?" Dominic entered after him and gritted his teeth.

From their expressions and fury, it was evident that the meeting had not ended in peace.

If these two men were like this, what about Chief? Kate wondered and shivered. The man was bound to be having a worse mood than these two, a ticking time bomb ready to explode on them.

"What happened?" Laura gave the two men her entire attention and Kate joined her. Bradley had a bored look on his face. But his eyes were trained on the two men as well.

"Well, that bull..... Does anyone here support him?" Cole changed his words and scrutinized the three people. It was as if he waiting for their response. A shake of a head, they'd be spared. A nod, then be prepared to be scolded along with the Senator.

"I used to a few years ago," Laura replied and Kate noticed Cole preparing himself to drown her with verbal attacks. 

"But after he used the mass shootings in schools as his election propaganda, I stopped. What a shitty man!" She huffed and Cole's expression eased.

'Agreed.' Kate's thoughts resonated with Laura's. Senator Foster was utter thrash and she had her own reasons for having him on her hate list.

"This big, ol' grump will barely say anything." Cole glanced at Bradley before turning towards Kate.

"What about you?"

"Well, let's say. I have my reasons to not like him." She replied, not giving away much but just enough to make her stance clear.

"Perfect. We're all on the same boat then." Cole clapped.

"Now, will you tell us what happened?" Laura brought everyone back to the topic.

"That bull crap of a man didn't even respect us. He kept making a fuss and answered none of our questions properly." Cole sighed and chugged down the bottle of water to calm himself down while Dominic took over.

"He was being unreasonable with us and I assure you Chief was just short of punching his face." 

"It's surprising that Chief held back. I thought he'd have exploded the moment our capabilities were questioned." Cole added as he ran his finger around the rim of the bottle.

"That'd have been an interesting sight to see," Bradley said all of a sudden, surprising Kate with his unexpected remark.

"And look who's back? What a sucker for good fights!" Cole commented while Kate kept staring at Bradley, making the man turn towards her. Lifting his chin slightly, he nodded at her as if he was acknowledging all her thoughts about him.

"Too bad it didn't happen." Dominic shook his head and tapped his fingers on the table.

"Our capabilities were questioned?" Laura's eyes widened and it seemed she was about to spit fire. 

Kate understood her sentiments. It felt terrible when their abilities were questioned, especially when they were doing their absolute best.

"More so than less. Senator Foster asked Chief why we were unable to crack the case and find the murderer by now." Dominic leaned back and stretched his legs, only for them to hit Kate's ankles.

"Sorry." He was quick to apologize and gave her a sheepish smile.

"No worries." Kate moved her chair back, giving him more space.

"Fucking hell! We got the case yesterday night. It's not like we're omniscient that we'd capture the murderer right away." Laura argued and Cole agreed with her.

"Chief said the same and you should have seen the Senator's face then. It was fucking hilarious. The man gave up arguing and started doubting his intelligence."

"Do you have a pic?" The words left Kate's mouth before she could stop herself and everybody turned to her, staring at her in shock.

"You too??" Laura and Cole were overwhelmed while Dominic and Bradley looked at her in astonishment.

"Am I bad for being like this?" Kate gave them a rueful smile and ran her eyes around, meeting everyone's stunned gazes.

"Awesome. Welcome to the team. Laura and I welcome you wholeheartedly." Cole chirruped excitedly. "I couldn't take a pic. Chief was right beside me and I'd be six feet under by now if I had taken the risk."

"What a bummer!" Kate sighed, ignoring the looks everyone was giving her. 'Hey, you can't blame me. I'm a sucker for entertainment. Okay?' She screamed in her mind.

"Where's Chief?" Bradley finally broke out of his trance and questioned.

"He's gone to blow off some steam and I'm glad he did. Otherwise, we'd all be having a hard time." Dominic glanced at the closed door behind him and gave Cole a look before masking his expression.

Kate noticed their subtle exchanges but didn't question them about it. 

"How was it in the club? I'm sure it went better than ours." Cole finished the bottle of water and threw it into the bin, making a perfect parabola in the air. "Found anything worthy?"

"Oh, we found a lot of things alright," Kate replied and glanced at Bradley who seemed to sleeping with his eyes wide open. Other than the moment when he had reacted to her words by being astonished, he barely showed any emotions.

"That's awesome. Just answer me. Has the case become simpler?" Cole held an expectant look and Kate just gave him a wry smile in return.

"Shit!" That was all he could manage to say before the door burst open and entered Chief Morgan.

Kate noticed that her Chief had a penchant for sudden appearances and the poor doors usually bore the brunt of his dramatic antics.

"Okay, team. Let's go over all that we have uncovered. I'm sure Agent Pierce and Agent Nelson have given a small update as to what happened at Senator Foster's mansion." He clapped his hands and held them behind as he fixed his attention to Kate and Bradley first.

"Chief, we did find a few things at the club," Bradley answered and played the video on the projector. "Everyone, focus on the camera outside the corridor that leads to the washroom."

He increased the speed of the video until Hannah appeared and then slowed to the normal pace.

"Hmm. Interesting. So the club workers are included in the suspect list as well." Dominic mused loudly.

"Not just them. We should include everyone who attended the party on the suspect list." Kate clarified. "Even if they didn't kill Hannah themselves, they're at least an accomplice." 

While Dominic, Laura, and Cole gave her a questioning look, Jason looked at her with admiration.

"None of the women who attended the party used the washroom for four-five hours. Mind you, there are only two washrooms and one among them is for staff only."

Realization dawned upon them and they gave her a thumbs-up.

"Did you get the list of people who attended the party?" Jason held a poker face as stretched his palm.

"Already done." Bradley handed him the paper. "And it includes the club workers' names as well."

"Agent Rodriguez, now it's your time to shine. And Agent Reyes," Jason smiled. He fucking smiled again much to everyone's disbelief. "Good job!"