Chance and Reason

Chapter Thirty

A/N: Back again! I am sorry there has been a bit of a lag with updates. It's been a bit of a struggle to find the time recently, but I've managed now. I hope you are well, and thank you so much for every read, vote and comment. It is amazing to see such support for this story, and I'm over the moon.

Head Office reinstated Lauren's original role at the police station just as quickly as they had taken it away. When she came into work the morning after the hearing, her old office was ready and waiting for her, just as she had left it. Her team in the Intelligence Department was returned to her command, and she was as thrilled to see her colleagues again as they were to see her.

It was odd to walk back into the office, and not feel the crushing pressure of the upcoming trial weighing down upon her shoulders. Word travelled fast around the station, and it seemed that virtually everybody knew the outcome of the hearing. A number of officers and staff stopped Lauren in the corridor to offer congratulations, and several even gave her a hearty handshake and slap on the back.

"Good to have you back, Jauregui!"

"Lauren, you've been missed!"

"It hasn't been the same without you, Agent J,"

Although she wanted to settle back into her job as quickly as possible, and pretend that she had never been away, it was nice to bathe in the compliments for just a little while. Seeing such genuine affection from her co-workers was sweet, and made her happy.

One of her first orders on return was to have the team that had been investigating Austin Mahone's list of gang associates transfer the case to her own team. She was determined to have the investigation carried out under her observation, and her colleagues understood and were only too pleased to oblige.

The information that had been collected and processed already in the short space of time was highly promising. Austin had managed to give a fairly comprehensive list, and a few of the names were already identifiable against police files. At least five were already known to the police, with long histories of criminal activity, even jailtime, and another three were mentioned in intelligence records for alliance in gang affairs.

However, there were a few names given that were drawing total blanks. Using her experience, Lauren worked out that this could be for a variety of reasons. She doubted that Austin had given fake names, but it was possible that the gang members themselves had used fake names around him to protect themselves. Another possibility was that they had changed their identities, and in doing so had erased their tracks, making it harder to follow them.

With so much encouraging data though, Lauren decided that she should honour her promise to reward Austin. Hopefully, if he was sweetened with a prison transfer and shortened sentence time, he might just be coerced into giving up some more information on his old gangmates. Nothing would herald in the arrival of Lauren Jauregui quite like busting one of the biggest gangs in the city's history, and the taste of victory, for both her and Camila, drove her onwards.

She was just typing up an email to a senior officer, requesting Austin's transfer, when a knock at her office door disturbed her. Looking up, she gave a warm smile to the uniformed member of her team at the door.

"Hello, Vero,"

"Hi, Lauren. Good to see you back in your rightful place at last,"

"How can I be of service?" Lauren asked her, offering the other woman a seat.

"Well, we've been surveying CCTV footage across the city, and last night, we saw two people that Austin Mahone listed as being involved with his gang out together,"

"I see," Lauren spoke slowly, "But that's not exactly concrete evidence of their guilt regarding this specific case, is it? Two old friends of Austin's just hanging out?"