A Blade of Glass

Chapter 26

"Wha...What are you doing?" Mary stuttered. "This....this isn't funny."

Nickie wondered why the first thing everyone seemed to think when they were getting arrested, was that it was some kind of joke. Did they really think that the cop was going to make a fake arrest, just to prank someone? Especially when they knew that they'd committed a crime.

No matter the reason, Mary was looking around the room in a bit of a daze, at the three detectives, all with their guns leveled at her. She tried to put a smile on her face, but it ended up a twitching mess, as she said, "Come on guys, enough's enough."

Quickly realizing that no one was kidding, she turned towards Captain Merra's office and nearly shrieked out, "Captain, do something about your men!"

Merra stood in his office door-frame, phone in hand, observing the scene in front of him and after a long moment, called out in his deep voice. "Drake."

When Julian tilted his head a few degrees to indicate that he was listening, Merra continued. "You got this?"

As Julian nodded ever so slightly, Mary's face collapsed, disbelief in what was happening clearly written all over it.

"Mary Tate," Julian repeated. "You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, and multiple counts of kidnapping."

Mary shook as he listed off the charges and for a second, Nickie was worried that she might go for her gun, but she seemed to decide against it as she slowly raised her twitching and trembling hands up and away from the gun on her hip.

"Place your hands on your head, fingers interlaced," Julian continued.

"You're making a big mistake," Mary countered, voice pleading, as if to tell them that there was still time to rectify it before it was too late.

"Walk slowly towards the wall," Julian said, voice flat, ignoring her comments. When she got close, he continued. "Stop. Lean forward till your forehead is resting against the wall and spread your legs."

When she got into position, Julian made a motion for Nickie to frisk her.

As she complied, stripping the weapon from her, she asked Mary, "Do you have any other weapons or items I should know about?"

"Ankle holster," came the terse reply. Nickie relieved her of the weapon and then did a check of the rest of her, emptying her pockets of everything in them, which didn't amount to much. After she set them on the nearby desk, she cuffed Mary and led her to one of the open interrogation rooms before returning.

She got back to find the other two still standing around, going through Mary's affects and cataloging them. Behind the glass window of his office, Captain Merra was on his phone, listening intently.

As they stood around, waiting, Julian's phone rang, which seemed to calm him as he answered it. No one said anything while he listened, not even him, until he said "Got it," and hung up.

The other two leaned in, faces expectant, so Julian nodded.

"So," Matt asked, "It was all there?"

"There was enough."

"Good," came the deep rumble of the captain as he left his office. "Because I just got off the phone with the commissioner, and we've rounded up everyone that you named."

"So, what's next?" Matt asked.

"Next? Next we see which one breaks first."

"I doubt it's going to be Mary," sighed Nickie, throwing a glance back towards the interrogation room.