A Birth day

Jack and Jessie sat listening as they ate now watching Owens place pins on a map as he spoke Jessie looked to Evan and chuckled " sure we could go to the bank" he said as he finished his last bite of food. Jack watched and listened more as he saw the pins and movement as Owens placed them in the map he looked over at Angus and nodded " sure just say when" he told him. Every ne sat and listened to Robert as he spoke threw the floo and Jack was glad Jess was helping.

Ruby cleaned up Abby and then went to help Sam placing down sone hot soup bedside his bed as he slept . quietly she headed back down to the living room and sat down " thank goodness there sleeping now" she said and saw Caprice giggling as she played with her blocks by building them up and knocking them down. She smiled as Caprice looked up at her from her play pen.

When the floo conversation with Robert ended, Owens gave Jessie and Evan a rather odd looking business card about boat repairs.

"When you go to the bank, ask to see Gisele St John and give her this business card. That will tell her that you're with us. It's a dummy corporation but she'll recognize it as identifying that you're with us," Owens said to them. "She'll probably take you aside, but please do your best not to blow her identity. I'm sure she's probably already checked on Gelding's accounts, but what you want to know is any recent transactions, like within the last 24 hours. if she can give you names and dates and times of when those transactions happened, that woujld be great."

"And we'll go prowl the streets around the ritzy muggle neighborhood near Geldings' place and see if we can turn up anything," Angus said. "I'm ready when you are, Jack."

"Stay in touch, you lot," Owens said.

"We will," Angus said. When he and Jack left, they apparated into a wealthy neighborhood that had been putting up some expensive hotels, shops, and restaurants near some of the most expensive houses in town. It not the sort of place that Angus wanted necessarily to hang out in. It wasn't a matter of not being able to afford it. it was just flaunting wealth, and Angus didn't like doing it. He was far more comfortable in his jeans, working on the grounds or in a kitchen somewhere. He was not the sort of guy that needed to live in five star luxury all the time. He liked his simple life. He liked working.

"I have to tell you," Angus said to Jack. "This is so not my style. I don't think its yours either. A little luxury now and then is fine, but there's a lot to be said for just living simply. All this is just way too much. I think we want to see if we can pick out aany of Gelding's thugs. I think I could recognize some of Gelding's most frequent repeat muggle customers too--I think. You probably could too."

Jack listened to Angus and nodded "Try our best to be professional" he said then looked as Owens passed Evan and Jessie a business card. Standing up he let Angus port them to where they needed to be and looked around as he heard Angus talk "Yeah best not look conspicuous" he said transfiguring his clothing to a tailored suit to blend in. " thats better, and I agree, too much wealth is unseemly" he said and chuckled softly " okay, we should get moving, " he said and motioned to their left. As they walked he listened to Jack and he chuckled "You and I both mate" he said looking around as they walked. Taking a breath in he suddenly gave a sneeze " I smell at least two but not close by" he said as he walked next to Angus "it's unseemly seeing all this weath, knowing they could put it all to good use as you do" he said as they walked along the pavements in front of the shops that held glistening bauble of jewellery and finery.

"How about I just tag along and let you take the lead in talking to the bank since you're the senior operative of the two of us?" Evan asked Jessie. He was experienced with talking to executives and muggles and bankers, but this was not about finances for sone of Edward's companies. This was about finding out if Gelding's money was moving in some manner. He presumed Jessie had done thiese sorts of interviews before, so he was proposing that Jessie take the lead, and Evan would follow and assist if he could.

Angus glanced in the jewelry store windows, and he saw a necklace that struck him as truly a gawdy piece. He believed it was maybe the ugliest necklace he had ever seen in his life, and it had a horrendously high price tag. He thought about what Ruby's reaction would be if he purchased it on impulse for her, and it made him laugh out loud.

"Ruby would kill me if I bought that ugly thing for her," Angus said, laughing out loud. "I mean, honestly, Jack, where would any woman in her right mind wear such a thing? I can't imagine Jess would be seen dead in it. Hey, maybe, if it weren't so expensive I could buy it for Suzanne and make up some hilarouls story about it holding some sort of mystical powers. I bet she'd actually wear that hideous thing. That might actually be funny..." He glanced at Jack and then he saw something in the next block. "Hey, this way. Quick." He yanked Jack by the sleeve into the doorway of the jewelry shop. "Look. The couple with the pram across the street, in the next block. They're coming this way. Isnt' that guy with that woman that same dude we ran into a couple years ago that we tracked because he ate all that stinky, funky cheese during his stakeout duty for Tom? Didn't we find him by that funky cheese smell? I bet you that's Ruby's sister in that pram."

Jessie heard Evan and turned to look at him surprised "what! Me?" he said surprised at Even's words "Well..I..I have never done this without Angus or some one else before" he said but paused " but. I guess I could give it a shot" he said then transphigured his clothing and that of Evens into suits. Pausing he looked at Even and shook his head straigtening Evans's tie. " how in the world your tie becomes crooked is beyond me" he said then chuckled as he sorted his cuffs. " okay we look for the woman give her the card and explain" he said simply.

Jack looked at the necklace and scrunched his nose up "Yeah gawdy" he said " Jess would skin me alive if I bought that for her, then she'd make me wear it as a collar in wolf form" he said chuckling "But I guess one mans gaudiness is another perfection" he said then felt Angus pull him into the doorway looking at the man and woman he nodded " yep I can smell him from over here." he said then looked at the pram " yep there's a young one in there."

As they walked in the bank, Evan was sizing up people the moment they went inside. He heard some odd music playing, and he saw some customers that Evan believed were actually muggle, but they didn't even seem to notice that many of tellers were goblins.

"There's something weird about that music," Evan told Jessie. "The muggles should be flipping out, and they're not. I'm betting there's a spell in it." He looked farther to see a woman in an office that had a window in it so she could look out at what was happening in the bank lobby. She was probably the most beautiful veela Evan had ever seen.

"Veela straight ahead," Evan told Jessie. "I bet you that's Gisele. It certainly isn't those goblins." Evan walked towards the back of the bank, and the woman happened to glance up at him. She smiled at Jessie and Evan, and Evan smiled back, nodding very slightly. For some reason, that brought the woman out of her office. "I think we get to introduce ourselves."

"So, we know we have Tom's people in the neighborhood," Angus said. "Let's see where they go." He watched them turn and go into a high end liquor store. "Doesn't that just figure? Take a baby into a booze store. Idjits. Wonder if there are any other thugs in the neighborhood."

Jessie walked with Evan to the bank and then inside he heard the music and it kind made his head fuzzy a little. " You right, my head fuzzy" he said and looked where Evan motioned "Wow, definatly veela." he said and followed him over to her booth. when she smiled and moved from her booth Jessie sliped out the card. " Jessie Tyler and this is my assosiate Evan Donohue." he said holding out his card to her face up so she could see it and smiled politly at her. " we'd like to discuse an issue of ..a sesative nauter so if we could reture to a private room that would be perfect." he added trying to sound like he was a fellow investor to the bank.

Jack scowled and nodded to Angus " stupid fools, and as you say where theres two theres bound to be more, right?" he asked and smirked at him. " shall we follow them when they leave, might take us to where there hiding?" Jack lent against the store front as he watched the shop with his arms crossed.

Gisele took the card, read it, and motioned them to follow her. She led them into her office and closed the door.

"Please, sit," she invited them.

"Might we speak frankly?" Evan asked.

"Yes. In here, we're safe," she said, "Are you two new to the organization? I don't recall seeing either of you before. And...Donohue. Are you related to Angus?"

"I'm his much better looking younger brother," Evan teased. She laughed. "Tell Angus I said hello, won't you? He saved my bacon the first time we were out. I went dashing down a street after one of Gelding's men, spun around a corner, and one of his men threw a fireball my direction. It caught my clothes and my hair on fire, and I panicked. If Angus hadn't been there, I might have died right then and there. So, how can I help you?"

"We're following a money trail," Evan said. "Three of our rescued kids have been taken again, and we believe it was Gelding..."

"No!" she was immediately outraged. "After we rescued them?..."

"Can you tell us if there have been any new deposits into Gelding's accounts here in the last 24 hours?" Evan asked.

"One moment. I'll find out. Wait here." She got up and left the room to go check the bank records.

"Yes," Angus agreed with Jack. "Let's stay at a distance if we can manage it. Hopefully, they won't notice us, especially if they're his typically stupid gorillas. Tom doesn't like them to be too smart. If worse comes to worse, I can try to create a distraction, I suppose."

It wasn't more than about ten minutes when the couple came out of the liquor store, and they stopped to talk to a man on the street. The man reached in his jacket and got a thick envelope out and handed it to the woman, and she tucked it down into the pram.

"And there's the payment for one of them," Angus said. "If we catch them, we'll find that envelope is chuck full of muggle money. That man that paid it is the muggle buyer, I'm almost postive."

Jesie smiled at her as they were taken to a back room now with the door closed he relaxed a little but not much more than that. He sat and listened to Evan and rolled his eyes at Evan " Shesh, give it a rest." he said softly but then heard him talk about how she had met Angus and he chuckled "Yeah mine was in a dumpster in a back alley" he said then watched as she headed to check the accounts.

Jack watched and moved when Angus moved he saw the exchange and nodded " I can smell it from here" he said then looked at Angus "Yes muggle money smells like sweat and well coke, not the one you drink" he added " so who do we follow the buggy pushers or the buyer?" he asked " money could lead us to Gelding, but the buyer could lead us to the kids." he sumised as he looked to Angus.

"You're just jealous," Evan teased Jessie. he frowned as he hard Jessie talk about a dumpster. "So, wait. One of you was bin diving, were you? I didn't figure Angus as someone who was a bin diver. Or was it you?"

She wasn't gone long, and she came back with a bank file. She sat down at the desk and opened the file.

"As of this morning, there were three separate deposits, made in cash. Each one was in excess of nearly 200,000 pounds, all muggle money, Small, unmarked bills, anonymous deposits, all of them. I mgiht have something that is perhaps of more value. Since we also serve muggles here, we are required to keep muggle video records, so I ran you copies of these." She handed them three photographs. "I don't know who they are, but they are the men who made the deposits. You can take those with you. I hope they help you get the kids back. Can I be of any further help?"

"If you can, we'll let you know," Evan said. "Have these men come in before?"

"Not that I'm aware of," she replied.

"If anyone else makes a deposit today, please let us know straight away, would you?"

"Absolutely," she nodded.

"As I understand it," Angus replied to Jack, "muggle money smells like that because so much of it has passed through the hands of criminals." He listened to Jack's question. "You know, since Irene has a team at the house, maybe we follow the muggle. Eventually, the muggles are supposed to end up with the kids anyway, right? Maybe we should follow the muggles. What do you think?"