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bedlamsbardEr, very short. I think I need to work on my description, because otherwise it's mostly dialogue.
God, I forgot how much fun these characters are to write.
“Look,” Danny said concilitatingly, spreading his hands out in front of him. “We weren’t actually, like, naked or anything –”
Flack snorted something that sounded a lot like not yet, but gave him a frustrated glare when Danny glanced over at him.
The two beat cops exchanged amused looks. “Look, man,” one of them said, “I see what you’re gettin’ at, but the city’s really been cracking down on this sort of thing lately, what with that flasher creep goin’ around. I’m gonna have to take you both in.”
Danny squinted at his nametag, raised one hand to adjust his glasses. “Yeah, yeah, but like – couldn’t we just get a warning or something? It won’t happen again, I swear.”
Flack coughed. It sounded a lot like the hell it won’t.
“Look, pal,” the other cop said. “Stop trying to argue your way outta this. It ain’t happenin’. Maybe we should put ‘em down for resisting arrest,” she added to her partner. “See how loverboys feel after a night in jail.”
Flack’s eyebrows arched upward. “Oh, no fucking way,” he said. “Look, Sergeant – with all due respect, this is really fucking dumb. You tell the college kids over there it’s illegal to make out in a public park now?” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at a bench in the distance, where there was a faint shape that could have been two people wrapped around each other.
The female cop opened her mouth to reply, but the quick beep-beep of Danny and Flack’s pagers going off simultaneously cut her off.
“Don’t you dare,” she said flatly as Danny put his hand to his waist. “Keep your hands where I can see them, pal.”
The other cop coughed discreetly. “Colleen,” he said.
She turned her glare on him. “What?”
He nodded toward Flack’s hip, where he’d pushed back his jacket to get at his pager. The gold and blue of the detective’s badge gleamed in the light of the setting sun. Flack gave them both a bright smile.
“Oh, hell no,” the sergeant said. “Oh, hell – fuck you, detective,” she spat. “Just – fuck you.”
“It’s been nice knowin’ you,” Flack said to her partner. “Edgar Mendez, right? Look me up sometime, you ever find a body. Don Flack, Homicide.” He held out a hand toward Mendez, who took it with a slightly bulldozed look in his black eyes. Flack cocked his head toward Danny. “Hey, Messer,” he said. “We’re wanted uptown. Someone found a body in the Empire State Building.”
*
“ID in wallet says our vic’s a lady name of Anna Dove,” Flack said. He flipped through quickly. “Cash and credit cards are all here.”
“I coulda told you the lady part,” Danny snorted. “Doc? You got COD yet?”
“It looks like a single gunshot wound to the back of the head,” Hawkes said. He touched the corpse’s blood matted red hair one last time, as if it would uncover some hidden secret, then sat back on his heels. “Beaten pretty badly – bruising’s developing on the arms and the face, you see?”
“Yeah, I see it. Time of death?”
Aiden tapped the broken glass of Anna Dove’s watch. “Watch stopped at five forty-five,” she said. “Could have happened before she died, but not by much, probably.”
Hawkes nodded. “She’s already gone into rigor,” he added. “Five forty-five, six o’clock seems like a decent estimate at the moment.”
Flack noted it down in his notepad. “Anythin’ else?”
“She wasn’t killed here,” Aiden said immediately. She looked at Hawkes.
“The pattern of lividity on her back doesn’t match the surface she’s currently lying on. I would say –”
“So it’s a body dump, then,” Flack muttered to himself. “We’re lookin’ for a primary crime scene still. How the hell d’you manage to get a body all the way up to the forty-fifth floor of a landmark like the Empire State Building without anyone seeing?”
“You don’t know that yet,” Danny said. “Maybe someone saw something, just didn’t call it in.”
Flack shook his head. “People,” he said disgustedly.
“Are pigs,” Aiden finished. “No newsflash there. What, somethin’ happen before you came here?”
“Well, we almost got arrested,” Danny said.
“Uh-huh. Dare I ask why?”
Flack grinned. “Indecent exposure. And, uh – what was it, resisting arrest?”
“Yeah.”
“And you got outta this by –”
“You paged. Oh, and badges are wonderful things.”
Aiden bit her lip like she was trying not smile and shook her head. “You two are somethin’ else. You finished up here, Doc?”
“I can take her away, if you’re done with the body,” Hawkes said.
“All yours.” Danny glanced distractedly at Dove’s open eyes. “Let us know if anything interesting shows up, all right?”
“You got it.” He motioned over his shoulder, and several officers ducked under the crime tape to help lift Dove onto a stretcher.
Danny clapped Flack on the shoulder. “Witnesses are all yours, pal. Me and Aiden’ll take the scene.”
“God, you suck,” Flack said, rolling his eyes. He grinned at Danny for one bright moment, lips stretching in something half a leer, half a smile, then he patted Danny’s arm and swaggered off.
Aiden muttered something under her breath.
“What was that?”
“Didn’t say anything,” she said, but she was grinning. “Indecent exposure, huh?”
“We weren’t actually exposing anything so it’s not really fair to say –”
“Danny,” Aiden said, glancing up from the floor.
“What?”
“Were you about to get naked?”
“Well, yeah, but that’s no real reason to –”
“Maybe you should stop while you’re behind.”
“You might have a point there.”
*
“Nada,” Flack said an hour later, strolling back into the elevator with an extremely unhappy expression look on his face. “Zip. Zilch.”
Aiden glanced up from where she was crouched with lifting tape pressed precariously over a fingerprint on the wall. “Let me guess: nobody found a damn thing.”
“Give the lady a prize!” Flack rumbled dangerously. He flipped through his notepad. “The janitor observed nothing out of the ordinary, except that he caught a couple of tourists making out in a storage closet. He chased ‘em out, of course.”
“Of course,” Aiden said, straight-faced. She peeled the tape away carefully, then pressed it down onto the square of cardboard. She waved it at Flack. “Got a thumb print. No way to tell if it’s the perp’s or the vic’s or some random tourist’s, but it’s somethin’. They closin’ the building down?”
“Christ, I wish,” he snorted. “I’ve been arguing and arguing to try and get the fucking floor shut down. Not that that helps, since the vic was found in an elevator, but it’d be something. Where’s Danny?”
Aiden waved a hand. “Around somewhere. Looking for the primary scene.”
Flack’s eyes narrowed. “Alone?”
“The place is crawling with police, Flack. Not to mention security. He’s fine, I’m sure.”
“Yeah, but what if –”
She let an sigh that stirred the motes of dust in the air around her. “He. Is. Fine. Flack. He’s on a crime scene. They’re the most tightly protected places this side of the White House.”
Flack rubbed a hand over his face. “Jesus, Aiden,” he said. “He coud be –” He turned, and took a startled step back as Danny threw up his hands.
“Hey, watch it there, Detective!” he said. “You got anything?”
“Ha. I wish,” Flack retorted, taking a deep breath. His eyes fixed on Danny’s, and he smiled a little goofily in relief.
Aiden rolled her eyes. “I got three prints,” she said. “And a dozen partials. ‘course, seein’ as this is an elevator in a public building and tourist attraction, that doesn’t say anything, but it’s more than we had when we walked in here. You?”
Danny held up empty hands. “Almost got arrested for the second time this evening, this time for trespassin’. What, do I got a sign that says ‘criminal’ on my forehead or somethin’, no one told me?”
“What, honey, you didn’t know?” Aiden leered. “Flack, you asshole, you never told him?”
“Jeez, and here I was thinkin’ he knew…”
“Enough, enough,” Danny said, shaking his head. “Christ, you two, oughta go on a comedy tour in the Berkshires or somethin’....”
Aiden bowed from where she was crouching. “Thank yew, thank yew, we’ll be here all week. I’d like to thank the Academy, and my parents, and –”
“What part’a enough didn’cha get?”
“I think it was the ‘nough’,” Aiden told him, wide-eyed and innocent. She leaned over and dropped the print card into her kit, then stood up, massaging her legs. “This scene ain’t telling us a damn thing right now. Some prints, some fibers, some trace, some possible DNA – that’s all we’re getting out of here.”
“Time to head on back?” Danny asked.
“Hell yeah. We can have some of the techs go over the place, see if there’s anything we missed, but right now we’re just gonna be wasting our time.”
“You got a date,” Flack said.
“No, but I’d like to get a full night of sleep. I’m startin’ to forget what the meaning of the word is.”
Flack shrugged. “Couldn’t tell you. Don’t know myself.”
“Right,” Danny said, unslinging his camera from around his neck and sliding it into his kit. “Back to the lab then, where the real work starts.” He patted Flack on the shoulder. “Try and find the murder weapon, why doncha?”
Flack groaned. “Christ, stick me with the hard work…”
Danny gestured around him, taking in the whole of the building and the surrounding blocks. “All yours, pal.”
“Christ, I hate you,” Flack muttered. “Slavedriver.”
“Maybe later, when we got more time.”
“All talk and no action, that’s what I say. Maybe later my ass.”
“That’s kinda the plan,” Danny grinned, and kept grinning even when Flack flipped him off.
God, I forgot how much fun these characters are to write.
“Look,” Danny said concilitatingly, spreading his hands out in front of him. “We weren’t actually, like, naked or anything –”
Flack snorted something that sounded a lot like not yet, but gave him a frustrated glare when Danny glanced over at him.
The two beat cops exchanged amused looks. “Look, man,” one of them said, “I see what you’re gettin’ at, but the city’s really been cracking down on this sort of thing lately, what with that flasher creep goin’ around. I’m gonna have to take you both in.”
Danny squinted at his nametag, raised one hand to adjust his glasses. “Yeah, yeah, but like – couldn’t we just get a warning or something? It won’t happen again, I swear.”
Flack coughed. It sounded a lot like the hell it won’t.
“Look, pal,” the other cop said. “Stop trying to argue your way outta this. It ain’t happenin’. Maybe we should put ‘em down for resisting arrest,” she added to her partner. “See how loverboys feel after a night in jail.”
Flack’s eyebrows arched upward. “Oh, no fucking way,” he said. “Look, Sergeant – with all due respect, this is really fucking dumb. You tell the college kids over there it’s illegal to make out in a public park now?” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at a bench in the distance, where there was a faint shape that could have been two people wrapped around each other.
The female cop opened her mouth to reply, but the quick beep-beep of Danny and Flack’s pagers going off simultaneously cut her off.
“Don’t you dare,” she said flatly as Danny put his hand to his waist. “Keep your hands where I can see them, pal.”
The other cop coughed discreetly. “Colleen,” he said.
She turned her glare on him. “What?”
He nodded toward Flack’s hip, where he’d pushed back his jacket to get at his pager. The gold and blue of the detective’s badge gleamed in the light of the setting sun. Flack gave them both a bright smile.
“Oh, hell no,” the sergeant said. “Oh, hell – fuck you, detective,” she spat. “Just – fuck you.”
“It’s been nice knowin’ you,” Flack said to her partner. “Edgar Mendez, right? Look me up sometime, you ever find a body. Don Flack, Homicide.” He held out a hand toward Mendez, who took it with a slightly bulldozed look in his black eyes. Flack cocked his head toward Danny. “Hey, Messer,” he said. “We’re wanted uptown. Someone found a body in the Empire State Building.”
*
“ID in wallet says our vic’s a lady name of Anna Dove,” Flack said. He flipped through quickly. “Cash and credit cards are all here.”
“I coulda told you the lady part,” Danny snorted. “Doc? You got COD yet?”
“It looks like a single gunshot wound to the back of the head,” Hawkes said. He touched the corpse’s blood matted red hair one last time, as if it would uncover some hidden secret, then sat back on his heels. “Beaten pretty badly – bruising’s developing on the arms and the face, you see?”
“Yeah, I see it. Time of death?”
Aiden tapped the broken glass of Anna Dove’s watch. “Watch stopped at five forty-five,” she said. “Could have happened before she died, but not by much, probably.”
Hawkes nodded. “She’s already gone into rigor,” he added. “Five forty-five, six o’clock seems like a decent estimate at the moment.”
Flack noted it down in his notepad. “Anythin’ else?”
“She wasn’t killed here,” Aiden said immediately. She looked at Hawkes.
“The pattern of lividity on her back doesn’t match the surface she’s currently lying on. I would say –”
“So it’s a body dump, then,” Flack muttered to himself. “We’re lookin’ for a primary crime scene still. How the hell d’you manage to get a body all the way up to the forty-fifth floor of a landmark like the Empire State Building without anyone seeing?”
“You don’t know that yet,” Danny said. “Maybe someone saw something, just didn’t call it in.”
Flack shook his head. “People,” he said disgustedly.
“Are pigs,” Aiden finished. “No newsflash there. What, somethin’ happen before you came here?”
“Well, we almost got arrested,” Danny said.
“Uh-huh. Dare I ask why?”
Flack grinned. “Indecent exposure. And, uh – what was it, resisting arrest?”
“Yeah.”
“And you got outta this by –”
“You paged. Oh, and badges are wonderful things.”
Aiden bit her lip like she was trying not smile and shook her head. “You two are somethin’ else. You finished up here, Doc?”
“I can take her away, if you’re done with the body,” Hawkes said.
“All yours.” Danny glanced distractedly at Dove’s open eyes. “Let us know if anything interesting shows up, all right?”
“You got it.” He motioned over his shoulder, and several officers ducked under the crime tape to help lift Dove onto a stretcher.
Danny clapped Flack on the shoulder. “Witnesses are all yours, pal. Me and Aiden’ll take the scene.”
“God, you suck,” Flack said, rolling his eyes. He grinned at Danny for one bright moment, lips stretching in something half a leer, half a smile, then he patted Danny’s arm and swaggered off.
Aiden muttered something under her breath.
“What was that?”
“Didn’t say anything,” she said, but she was grinning. “Indecent exposure, huh?”
“We weren’t actually exposing anything so it’s not really fair to say –”
“Danny,” Aiden said, glancing up from the floor.
“What?”
“Were you about to get naked?”
“Well, yeah, but that’s no real reason to –”
“Maybe you should stop while you’re behind.”
“You might have a point there.”
*
“Nada,” Flack said an hour later, strolling back into the elevator with an extremely unhappy expression look on his face. “Zip. Zilch.”
Aiden glanced up from where she was crouched with lifting tape pressed precariously over a fingerprint on the wall. “Let me guess: nobody found a damn thing.”
“Give the lady a prize!” Flack rumbled dangerously. He flipped through his notepad. “The janitor observed nothing out of the ordinary, except that he caught a couple of tourists making out in a storage closet. He chased ‘em out, of course.”
“Of course,” Aiden said, straight-faced. She peeled the tape away carefully, then pressed it down onto the square of cardboard. She waved it at Flack. “Got a thumb print. No way to tell if it’s the perp’s or the vic’s or some random tourist’s, but it’s somethin’. They closin’ the building down?”
“Christ, I wish,” he snorted. “I’ve been arguing and arguing to try and get the fucking floor shut down. Not that that helps, since the vic was found in an elevator, but it’d be something. Where’s Danny?”
Aiden waved a hand. “Around somewhere. Looking for the primary scene.”
Flack’s eyes narrowed. “Alone?”
“The place is crawling with police, Flack. Not to mention security. He’s fine, I’m sure.”
“Yeah, but what if –”
She let an sigh that stirred the motes of dust in the air around her. “He. Is. Fine. Flack. He’s on a crime scene. They’re the most tightly protected places this side of the White House.”
Flack rubbed a hand over his face. “Jesus, Aiden,” he said. “He coud be –” He turned, and took a startled step back as Danny threw up his hands.
“Hey, watch it there, Detective!” he said. “You got anything?”
“Ha. I wish,” Flack retorted, taking a deep breath. His eyes fixed on Danny’s, and he smiled a little goofily in relief.
Aiden rolled her eyes. “I got three prints,” she said. “And a dozen partials. ‘course, seein’ as this is an elevator in a public building and tourist attraction, that doesn’t say anything, but it’s more than we had when we walked in here. You?”
Danny held up empty hands. “Almost got arrested for the second time this evening, this time for trespassin’. What, do I got a sign that says ‘criminal’ on my forehead or somethin’, no one told me?”
“What, honey, you didn’t know?” Aiden leered. “Flack, you asshole, you never told him?”
“Jeez, and here I was thinkin’ he knew…”
“Enough, enough,” Danny said, shaking his head. “Christ, you two, oughta go on a comedy tour in the Berkshires or somethin’....”
Aiden bowed from where she was crouching. “Thank yew, thank yew, we’ll be here all week. I’d like to thank the Academy, and my parents, and –”
“What part’a enough didn’cha get?”
“I think it was the ‘nough’,” Aiden told him, wide-eyed and innocent. She leaned over and dropped the print card into her kit, then stood up, massaging her legs. “This scene ain’t telling us a damn thing right now. Some prints, some fibers, some trace, some possible DNA – that’s all we’re getting out of here.”
“Time to head on back?” Danny asked.
“Hell yeah. We can have some of the techs go over the place, see if there’s anything we missed, but right now we’re just gonna be wasting our time.”
“You got a date,” Flack said.
“No, but I’d like to get a full night of sleep. I’m startin’ to forget what the meaning of the word is.”
Flack shrugged. “Couldn’t tell you. Don’t know myself.”
“Right,” Danny said, unslinging his camera from around his neck and sliding it into his kit. “Back to the lab then, where the real work starts.” He patted Flack on the shoulder. “Try and find the murder weapon, why doncha?”
Flack groaned. “Christ, stick me with the hard work…”
Danny gestured around him, taking in the whole of the building and the surrounding blocks. “All yours, pal.”
“Christ, I hate you,” Flack muttered. “Slavedriver.”
“Maybe later, when we got more time.”
“All talk and no action, that’s what I say. Maybe later my ass.”
“That’s kinda the plan,” Danny grinned, and kept grinning even when Flack flipped him off.