Facets
by Lucifuge5
Disclaimer: All the characters are the property of the two Pauls and Alliance. Written for fun, not profit.
Author's Notes: RayV wanted to tell me a little bit about getting the Armando Langoustini gig. I pulled up a chair and listened. Many thanks to Exbex for her lighting quick betaing. Any remaining mistakes are my own.
Story Notes: No warnings. Set a few days before
Burning Down the House.
Unlike all of those books he had read as a kid or all of those movies he still saw as an adult, Ray Vecchio got his undercover assignment in the middle of the afternoon during one busy day for the Major Crimes Department.
He had been interrogating a scrawny-looking guy with heavily tattooed arms and a rep sheet the size of the old school Encyclopedia Britannica. Ray had been giving him the Vecchio stare, trying to break through a wall of shaky--if stubborn--silence, trying to get something that would put the punk behind bars.
"You might not know me, Marco," Ray said as he rearranged the perp's files with Fraser-like efficiency. "So I'll let you in a little secret: I know right now you are trying to convince yourself that there's nothing to worry about. But I also know your alibi is worth shit without even having to look at it too closely." He leaned forward and showed his teeth. "You were in that room while your partner raped and killed Mrs. Roarke. I'm just giving you a chance to come clean. Maybe there could be something in it for you." The vibe in the room began to shift from tense to a feeling of resignation and so Ray eased back on his chair and waited.
It felt strange to be working without Fraser, not having a `well-mannered good cop' to balance his `subtle-yet-bad cop'. Still, if there was anyone who needed a vacation it had to be Fraser. On the plus side, Ray hadn't found his detective badge in a box of cereal. He had earned it the hard way. Being on his own for nearly three months reminded him of that.
In any case, Benny would be back in the States the day after tomorrow.
Marco stared at his handcuffed hands like the answer lay in between the links before looking back at him. If eyes were the window to the soul, Marco's must be tired of everything. "He wouldn't stop talking about how the old lady held enough dough to last from here to kingdom come. Jamie, you see, has always been a greedy son of a bitch."
Ray did a slow nod. He could have been pushing the writing pad and the pencil toward Marco, but that weariness rolling off Marco made Ray think that maybe Marco needed to say things before scribbling them down. It was four p.m. He could get home just in time for dinner and enjoy some of Ma's lasagna.
"I--I was only there to back him up. Things had gotten tight at home and I--"
A knock on the door startled them both.
Ray fought the effort not to roll his eyes. He gave Marco a non-smile. "Hold up a minute, okay?" He spread his hands on the table before he rose up from his chair. Chances were it was going to take some more work to get Marco's full confession once he sat back down. He walked out of the room ready to bitch at whoever had interrupted.
Elaine was standing almost as straight as Benny when he does statue duty. Her face was so serious it made Ray bit back the this better be good he was about to grumble.
"What?" He didn't like her down-turned mouth to begin with, but what really made him worry was the sadness in Elaine's eyes.
"Welsh wants to see you A.S.A.P."
"I'm in the middle of an interrogation, Elaine." Ray said in a flat tone of voice as he pointed at the door for Interrogation Two. "Tell him I'll be there as soon as I get Marco's full confession."
"No, Ray," she said and her mouth twisted to the side. "He wants to see you right this minute. Huey will continue with him," she said nodding at the door.
Ray's Spidey sense was tingling. He had the feeling that his life was about to get turned upside down. "Okay, sure, Elaine. Let me, uh, let me get someone to stand guard."
*****
Marco had gotten way more upset about the detective switch than Ray could have expected. What had really surprised him was the pair of Feds in Welsh's office. He had gone through a quick flip through his open cases and not one of them involved Federal crime. It had been the Feds' collective gasp, however, that made Ray figure out that whatever was about to be put on the table was big.
Welsh tilted back in his chair, the scrape echoing in his office. "So here he is. One of my finest detectives."
Ray didn't like the inside-out feeling in his stomach any more than he liked the so-serious-you-might-as-well-be-talking-about-cop-killers-expression on Welsh's face.
"Lieu?"
Welsh shifted his gaze from the still-speechless Feds to Ray. "These gentlemen," he said with barely concealed sarcasm, "are here today, Vecchio, so that you can serve your country." He clucked his tongue and stared hard at Ray. "It seems like you have more than a strong resemblance to an individual who is involved with the families out West."
Families meant the Mob and Ray couldn't help thinking of Irene and Zuko and Gardino. He nodded his head a few times, trying to get the growing unease inside of him reined in. "So talk," he said switching his eyes from Welsh to the Feds.
And talk they did for the next three hours. Ray had wanted to laugh when the shorter agent stammered as he began what looked like the presentation of a lifetime. His urge to laugh died pretty soon though. The Feds had photos, files and a non-stop stream of crimes including extortion, racketeering, murder and definite arms dealing.
Later that day, the bullpen empty save for the janitor, Ray started the process of becoming Armando Langoustini. He felt every little piece of what made him Ray Vecchio being stored away somewhere inside of his mind as he signed his name on dotted line after dotted line. There went his Ma's recipes and the first time Frannie lost a baby tooth and Maria's happy face when she announced that she had gotten engaged to Tony. He thought of his first arrest and kissing Irene and marrying Angie and finding Benny amongst the patrons arrested at that weird club almost two years ago.
Ray stopped flipping to the document's next page. "Lieu?"
"Having second thoughts already, Vecchio?" Welsh's tone was warm. To Ray's knowledge he had never done undercover, but what did Ray know right?
"What about Fraser?" He had promised him that he would pick him up from the airport. He had promised.
"He'll be briefed. Don't worry about it."
Ray didn't like the sound of that. He hadn't liked that out there was some other cop who would soon be playing at being best friends with Fraser either. Cracking through Fraser's so-called Mountie mask took the kind of skill not everyone had to begin with.
Even though it was a brother cop, Ray couldn't help feeling sorry for the poor son of a bitch for not knowing what being partners with Fraser meant. Destroyed cars, wacky cases, a deaf lip-reading half-wolf and the most polite yet stubborn man in the world was all part of the package labeled Ray Vecchio.
On top of that, Fraser and the other cop had to pretend, if not be, buddies from the moment Fraser came back to the 2-7. A false note or a wrong move would mean Ray being made too far away to get help from anyone. He shuddered at the possibility.
Welsh's forced cough brought him back to the present. Ray looked at the clock on the wall--he might have a chance to warn Fraser somehow--and then, turned to the next page only to find that he had gotten to the end of the packet.
"There you go, Lieu." Ray said as he closed the file and put the pen down.
Welsh's eyes got a little shiny and Ray felt a strange sort of pride rise above the nervousness.
He could do this.
End Facets by Lucifuge5
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