Cyber Antics chapter 12
By Penelope Downs, AKA Doc
Disclaimer: The characters are mine and I own the copyright. Use without my permission is prohibited. Any resemblance to a person, dead or alive, is unintentional. If you under 18 years of age, are offended by same sex romances, or it's illegal to read about it where you live, stop now and read no further.
Chapter 12
It took fifteen minutes for Torrey to calm down. While holding the younger woman, Catherine had begun to wonder whether she should have her work on anything that was remotely related to the case. She didn't like the prospect that Torrey could be subjected to more traumatic events that day. She was certain that the self-defense briefing that the litigation team was to receive later in the day, although necessary, would upset young attorney again. Catherine was roused from her thoughts by the tickling sensation of the woman's breath against her neck. It was then that she realized that Torrey had stopped crying. She looked down at her and was met by beautiful, but bleary blue eyes.
"I'm sorry to be such a burden. I don't know what's gotten into me today. I'm usually more controlled than this." Torrey said, embarrassed.
"There's no need for you to apologize. Anyone would have reacted if they had been through what you've been through today, and it's not even near noon." Catherine tried to smile, but she wasn't sure that it looked very sincere. She wasn't really in the mood to smile, but wanted to put Torrey at ease.
"Well, I should contact my friend at the lab to see how much information they have for us. If we're lucky, maybe it will be enough to warrant a trip out there. Then you can contact the AUSA and fill him in." Torrey stirred, planning on getting up, however, her movements only caused Catherine to tighten her grip on her. Catherine didn't plan on letting her do anything.
"No. I'll contact the lab. There's some legal research that needs to be done. I'd like you take charge and work with Thomas to do it." Catherine's unspoken thought was that Torrey needed to take it easy and do something less stressful.
The blonde seemed to sense it and responded defensively. "Please don't treat me as if I'm made of glass and will break. Yes, I was upset, but I've calmed down. I promise there won't be anymore outbursts from me. Let me work with you. Thomas is fully capable of handling the legal research on his own."
Catherine looked at Torrey for several seconds before she spoke. She saw the wounded look in the woman's eyes and decided to relent. "All right, get your friend on the line. I want to speak to him. If the lab doesn't have decent results yet then we're going to have to request that they expedite their work. I don't want to wait much longer to notify Jack Matthers. I suspect that he'll call me today once he's notified by the DCPD that Edwardo is dead. If I can't tell him about Neil's find today, I'd like to be able to within the next forty-eight hours."
Catherine released her grip on the smaller woman, who immediately got up and moved to Catherine's desk to use her phone. Torrey didn't need to look up the number; she punched buttons on the keypad and then waited; on the third ring, a tired-sounding voice answered. "George Connors speaking."
Torrey smiled as she punched the speaker button and then spoke to her friend. "Hi, George it's Torrey. Do you have any news for me about the material we left with you last night?"
The voice at the other end of the line suddenly became animated. "Hey Pines, I hope you appreciate the fact that I worked most of last night. Yeah, I have some information for you. The passports are all fakes, but high quality ones. Whoever produced them has had experience in forging documents. They'd pass as the real things if you just eyeballed them. However, when you examine the inks and papers that were used closely you can tell they're not the real things."
At this point, Catherine spoke up and made her presence known before asking the man a question. "George, this is Catherine Ellis here. I'm the attorney that Torrey is working with. Can you tell me, would many people be able to forge documents of this quality?"
"Well, it's not an extremely short list, but here are a number of specific candidates who would be capable of producing such documents that come to mind." George replied.
Catherine continued. "Are we talking more than one hundred people?"
"Yes, more than a hundred, but less than 300. You could probably narrow that number if you had a way to determine whether any of those individuals are incarcerated and, therefore, out-of-commission."
"Would you please provide that list to me."
"Sure, I can e-mail it to Torrey if you'd like."
Catherine looked into the young blonde's eyes as she replied, "Yes, please do that. One more question for you George. How long will it take your lab to finish reviewing the rest of the material? You see, I really need those results no later than close-of-business tomorrow."
George didn't reply immediately but took a few seconds to respond. "Well, I think COB tomorrow is doable. I'll confirm that. If there's going to be a problem, I'll phone Torrey."
Catherine replied curtly. "Good, we'll expect to hear from you tomorrow." By this point in the conversation, Catherine had moved to her desk and was standing by Torrey. She reached down to press the speaker button again to end the conversation. Torrey quickly spoke before Catherine broke the connection. "Bye, George. Thanks."
George only managed to get out a quick goodbye before Catherine ended the call. She then turned toward Torrey and, smiling, simply asked, "Pines?" Torrey chuckled and responded. "It's a nickname he likes to use. You see, I took him home with me one Thanksgiving when he couldn't afford to travel back to his family. My mother told him all about her pregnancy with me and how she decided to name me after the tree because they were living in California at the time and she had loved looking at those trees."
Catherine laughed. "Well, I'm happy to learn that your mother is a nature lover."
Torrey feigned anger. She swatted playfully at Catherine's arm and was surprised when Catherine grabbed her hand. Holding it gently between both of her hands, Catherine gently squeezed it. She then said. "Let's get the litigation team members that are here together. I'd like to give them a heads up on what's happening. I would like you to sit in on the meeting, if it won't bother you too much." Torrey nodded her head in agreement and simply said. "Okay."