Billy climbed into bed beside Miller and turned to look at him. He was staring at the ceiling, an expression of sad defeat marred the usual dopey face she had come to love.

"I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong. I took all those videos out of habit, Miller. When I worked as an escort, I needed something to guarantee my protection in case anything got out of hand. Granted, they were just audio, but the idea was the same."

"And I kept telling you to turn the damn thing off. The very thing that could win our case with the Feds."

"Lucky I didn't listen, eh?" She poked him in the ribs, and before he could answer, she rolled on top of him and kissed him hard.

****

"Still sorry we came?" Des asked, drying her hair from the shower, and strolling nude into the bedroom.

"Oh my God! The number of lines I could come up with for that opening . . ."

"It was a serious question, Parker, get your mind out of the mud."

"Well I can't say. Maybe – yeah. I mean, not many comedians get to silence their hecklers with an automatic rifle." There was no smile in the remark.

"They're going to hold that against us, aren't they. I mean even though it was self-defence." She wrapped the towel around her and sat on the bed.

"Trout will make it an issue, I'm sure. Although, I'd like to hear his explanation for how we got weapons."

"Westerbrooke seemed to be a little sympathetic. Maybe he could use his influence to help us."

"Westerbrooke's influence? That's as useful as a glass coffin. Remains to be seen."

Des slapped her hand on the bed and stood angrily. "Listen, Parker, I don't appreciate you making jokes about everything."

"I'd give you a nasty look, but you already have one – and," he continued quickly, "you should know by now that those jokes are a defence mechanism . . ."

Des slumped and looked at him affectionately, he was right and she knew it. Right from the beginning when they were running from people trying to kill them, his bad jokes filled her heart with love for the silly guy that helped her get her life back in order.

"Parker . . ."

"Just don't stop saying my name, Des."

****

"Everybody sleep well?" Deborah asked, her hotel manner kicking in when they all met in the hotel lobby to see if they would be fed.

There was a consensus and the noticeable absence of a Parker joke.

"Like a log," Gordon said.

"I was asking the others, I know how you sleep."

"Jessica spent most of the night on the phone and writing up a report," Jeff yawned.

"Mounties getting their man? How did you manage phone calls?" Hart teased.

"Scratching a big one off their list if we get out of this." She smiled, and rubbed Jeff's back. "It's a public hotel, not a Fed safe house. I just flashed my badge."

"You brought your badge?" Verna said.

"Don't leave home without it. I hope you will all forgive me if you get any calls down the road. Paperwork and details are the stuff of all Federal agencies."

Hart waved a hand. "No problem. Now that we have that drive, our chances should really improve."

"We need a copy of that." Gordon said.

"Good luck there . . ." Miller rubbed his chin and looked over at the hotel office, a germ of an idea taking root. He'd think bout it, keeping his thought to himself.

"I'm worried about Gretta," Verna put in. "She should be with us if she's okay now."

"I think, because of the alleged damage mentioned in that notebook, they're paying a lot more attention to her." Jessica tipped her head toward Arny, fashioning a small smile.

"It's not fair, Deborah said."

"She can handle it," Arny said. Half of Gretta's life has been spent reporting. The Congress," he made air quotes over the name, "are real devils for paperwork and debriefing."

"What's the Congress?" Verna asked.

"It's an organization she worked- works-," his grin was wry, "she's like Jeff, semi-retired."

"Retirement is that time in your life when time is no longer money." Parker's words brought a round of groans.

"Anyway," Arny continued, "to satisfy any more questions, those names Malcolm read off were all different operations she handled."

Nobody asked anything, they just ran over the list of names mentally and tried to imagine this odd couple being international crime busters.

"She'll be pretty happy to know we have the drive" Billy broke the spell, and they all began asking about food.

****

The start of the third day in custody had Miller huddled with Jessica, across the room from where the others had gathered. Their conversation appeared animated and curiosity prompted questions.

"What's your partner up to, Billy?" Gordon asked.

"What's Jeff's partner up to?" she answered.

"Hey," Jeff leaned across from his seat, "I don't stick my nose in to everything Jess does – too often it's official business, and I am not privy to any of that."

"With Miller?" Gordon snickered.

"Well . . ."

"When they are finished, we can ask," Billy said with a touch of annoyance, and at that moment they came over to the group.

"We have a suggestion to put to a vote. The drive is our ace in the hole with the Bureau, but we can't risk giving it to them, or it could go the way of Billy's phone." Jessica looked at Miller.

"Right. Okay. We can't copy it, but we might be able to bluff that we did."

"How?" Hart asked.

"I made a little visit to the hotel office when it was empty, and I found a box of thumb drives – all 8GB --"

"You what!" Billy gasped. "Miller are you crazy?"

He closed his eyes, patting the air toward her with his hands. "I took a couple, they can hold maybe three hours of video." He produced one from his pocket and held it up.

"What good does that do us?" Deborah asked.

"We tell them we did make copies, on drives like this. We made them when Gretta retrieved it on the island. They won't know whether we did or not."

"If Trout tries to continue with the terrorism bit, we trot out the hard drive. He won't be able to ignore the contents of that because it was Forrester who made the recordings." Jessica beamed. "And we let him know we have copies, just in case."

"That's a hell of a bluff, but he could just confiscate them." Hart pointed out.

"Well, no. I, uh- I got Mark to post an envelope for me at the post office and get a receipt – that's our bluff proof – the receipt. He isn't restricted to the hotel, so it was easy, and the guy is more than willing to help."

"What's in the envelope?" Verna asked.

"One of the blank thumb drives."

"That was impressive, Miller. How the heck did you come up with that?" Arny signalled a thumbs up.

"Saw it on TV once." He looked embarrassed, and Billy kissed his cheek.

"My guy." She grinned.

"Unless there are any other ideas or criticisms, let's vote." Jess held up her hand. "In favour."

It was unanimous.