Robbery In Progress

*Kelsey*

Matty and I were in his car waiting to meet up with one of our informants. Her name was Elizabeth, but everyone called her Liza. She was twenty-two now, but we first met when she was nineteen. It was Matty and my second year working together and she was a part of a bust we had been working on with the drug unit.

The only thing she was guilty of was a crime of circumstance, wrong place wrong time. But she helped us secure the convictions we needed, so we've stayed in contact with her. Since her family was all crime all the time, she was a good resource to have around.

When Matty turned off the music, I looked up from my phone and checked our surroundings, "you see her?"

"Not yet. I wanted to talk to you about something before she got here." I rolled my eyes at that and turned to look at him.

"Am I going to get another Matty lecture? Because I already got one this week and I'm pretty sure you've hit your quota." I started to pull my phone back out and unlock it but he grabbed it from me before I could get too far. "Hey!" "Nope, no hey's. What happened between you and Emma before our meeting today? I thought we decided that we were going to work well together and then you went all ice princess on her in the meeting." "It's dumb. I probably shouldn't even be mad. No, I shouldn't be. But that doesn't change the fact that I am so leave it alone." I tried to grab my phone back but he held it out of reach. "Give it back."

"It's good to know you are already aware that you're being ridiculous but I still want to know what's going on, so spill." I crossed my arms and glared at him from the passenger seat.

"You're insufferable." I often called him insufferable so the name didn't really mean much to him anymore. I should start looking up synonyms to that word or something. *Gotta change it up,* I told myself. He smiled at me and shrugged, "what can I say? The detective in me must know all."

I don't know why I was even holding back from him. Matty was my best friend, I'm sure he would understand. *You're being dumb and he's going to agree with you, that's why*, I rolled my eyes at my inner thoughts. Okay, so maybe I was being a little dumb. I mean, I was the one that asked her to come back to my apartment, so it was technically a one night stand. But it just felt like maybe it was going to be more than that after everything happened. But I guess she didn't agree with that. Whatever, I was fine before I met her, and I would be fine after we finished this case and she disappeared again.

"Fine, but only because I know you won't leave me alone until I tell you." There was no use trying to fight him and I already resigned myself to the issue. However, at that very moment, the car door of his back seat opened and Liza hopped in, quickly shutting the door behind her. I smiled and looked back at him, "saved by the car door." He glared at me, clearly saying without words that this *was not over*, before turning to Liza.

"Thanks for coming," Matty said to start the conversation off. Liza loved to gossip so she always had some good intel for us, even though it was usually buried beneath a bunch of not so useful information. But, nonetheless she was a good informant and we knew it was risky for her to meet us. We always liked to thank our informants for meeting with us because of that.

Liza shrugged as she pulled her cap down farther on her face, "you said it was urgent. But, look, you've got like 3 minutes before I gotta get outta here. I've got places to be, ya know." Liza *always* had places to be. If she wasn't stuck in the world of crime, Matty and I were convinced that she'd be some sort of socialite.

"No problem," I replied, "have you heard anything or see anything about a new crew being in town? Specifically working in robberies, but any lead might help." I couldn't technically tell Liza about on going investigations so I had to keep my questions broad, but Liza was smart. So I was not shocked when she put two and two together relatively quickly.

"That's those bank robberies, right? I haven't heard anything helpful. Just that they are happenin', same as you guys. But, you know what, my brother's friend Marco might know something from his ex girlfriend Sheila. 'Cause her new beau's been working with Jackson from accounting and he's got family back in Boston and I think that's where I heard one of them was from on the news." Matty and I just started at her for a minute.

"How do you...never mind," I stopped myself from asking her how on Earth she keeps all those people straight because it was a waste of time. She truly never ceased to amaze me. But this is what you get when your informant is a gossiper at heart. It's not a quick one and done, here's your information sir situation. It's a long line that she will walk you through every step of before you get to the information that actually matters. And in this case the information that mattered was that she had a connection to someone who might know our robbers.

"Could you try to put some feelers out? Discreetly? Let us know if you hear anything useful." I definitely wanted to get my hands on this information, but I didn't want to put Liza at risk either. Being an informant to the cops was not a good look for criminals, they are labeled as snitches and removed from any and all circles faster than they can blink. People will do pretty much anything in order to protect themselves, and that includes cutting off anyone, and I do mean anyone, that could be informing on them. Crime is a paranoid business.

"Yeah, yeah. Sure thing. Anyway, your three minutes is up. Which is just in time because Alex's sister's kid is having a birthday party tonight." I checked my watch suspiciously.

"Isn't it kind of late for a kid's birthday party?" I mean, it was only eight thirty, but I was pretty sure that was a kid's bedtime or something.

"He's turning twenty one tonight. It would be weird if it was earlier. Bye." With that she slid out of the car and disappeared into the night. And that was so Liza. She comes and goes as she pleases and while she's around it's always interesting. *Oh, Liza.*

"Can I have my phone back now?" I asked, hoping he forgot about the conversation we were having before Liza graced us with her presence.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on with you and Emma?" He retorted as he threw the car into drive and headed towards the highway. Taking my silence as an answer he continued on, "you should probably apologize to her. I don't know what's going on -- since you won't tell me -- but I'm getting the feeling that you've done something you should apologize for." I sighed because I knew he was right, she didn't really say anything wrong, and I just flipped out on her based on feelings I probably shouldn't even be having. But regardless, those feelings weren't her fault and she should not have to be held accountable for them. *Being an adult sucks sometimes*, I thought to myself as I looked out the window.

"Any chance you know where she lives?" This seemed like something I should do in person, and even though I did have her number now, thanks to the card she gave me and Matty, that just didn't feel like the move. "Not off hand, but we are detectives. I'm sure we could find out pretty quickly," Matty replied.

"While that is extremely convenient, that's also a little terrifying." Matty finally gave me my phone back and I smiled as I took it from him. He returned my smile and even laughed at my response. This was good, joking with Matty would help me keep my mind off of what I was going to have to do later tonight when I showed up at Emma's door. And I needed all the distraction that I could get.