The view from below was nothing short of magnificent.
J. D. Diamond lay on her back on the cold floor, gazing at the intricate scrollwork on the vaulted ceiling above, trying to get some hint as to why she needed to be here. If she closed one eye and looked at the ceiling slightly askew, she could have sworn she could see some sort of mythological images beckoning here.
"Excuse me?"
J.D. looked to the side at a pair of uniformed legs, then looked up at the police officer standing above her. "Yes?"
"Can I help you?"
"No," she said breezily. "I'm fine."
"Let me reword that, then," he said. "Get up and show me some identification."
J.D. sighed as she quickly sprung to her feet and pulled her long dark brown jacket to the side, showing a badge similar to the one the officer was wearing, but bearing a different emblem.
To the officer's credit, he didn't flinch at the Canadian Internal Security Agency Lieutenant. "What are you doing lying in the middle of a crime scene, Lieutenant?"
"Getting a different perspective," she told him as she crossed her legs and lowered herself back down to the floor, then leaned back so she was looking at the vaulted ceiling again.
The officer watched as she raised a hand, and traced an imaginary line on the ceiling. "Did they check the roof yet?" she asked, still tracing.
"Just finished."
"Find anything?"
"No."
She stopped at a certain spot on the ceiling and stared as she brought her arm up to her mouth and spoke into a small transceiver on her wrist. "Soul Patch?"
"Go ahead," a voice replied back.
"Can you see me?"
"Lying down on the job, as usual?"
"See where I'm pointing?"
"Yes."
"Check the roof in that general area."
"I'm on it."
The officer turned to see a tall man in an expensive looking suit head for the elevators with a uniformed officer and enter. He turned back to the CISA on the floor. He shook his head and walked away.
~~~~~~~~
Francis "Soul Patch" McQhyn shone his flashlight around the area he figured to be over the spot his partner lay. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, and rubbed his free hand over his chin, his fingers brushing against the small patch of hair below his bottom lip that had earned him the moniker 'Soul Patch'.
"Find it?"
He brought his wrist to his mouth and spoke, "What am I looking for?" He asked as he continued to graze the surfaces with his flashlight.
"A difference in..."
"Texture," he finished for her as the light caught something a shade darker than the surrounding area. He knelt on the roof, and placed his face near the spot. "Smells clean," he told her through the radio, then looked behind him at the officer he had brought with him. "Call up your crime scene."
He waited, not touching anything, until the crime scene specialists arrived, then he simply walked off the roof and rode the elevator back to the main floor. He went to where his partner was still lying on the floor and joined her.
"How'd you know?" he asked.
She pointed to the left, at a particularly intricate area of the scrollwork. "Shadow's off there."
"Ahhh... I see," he replied in a voice that showed he obviously didn't.
"Hear anything from the hospital?"
He glanced at her. "Two died in the ambulance, and the other isn't expected to make it through surgery."
"Well...hell." She sat up, then stood, shaking the dust of her long coat as she did. "Statements?"
"No two people saw the same thing." He stood. "You want to claim ownership?"
She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. She didn't want to deal with the paperwork that taking a case over from the local authorities would involve. "Let the locals handle it. No sense stepping on toes we don't intend to break." She started to walk away, but turned back. "But, it would be nice..."
"...to have copies of everything," he finished for her. "Yeah, I know. I'll get them and meet you at the car. I'm driving."
~~~~~~~~~
J.D. sat in the passenger side of the ME Four-Twelve, reading through various reports on the small computer screen. Five hours earlier, someone had walked into an opening night of a new museum display, and opened fire with a gun. Thirteen people had died at the scene, three more where badly injured, while dozens more were injured either by gunfire, or the panic that ensued.
"Nice hair, by the way."
She glanced over at Francis as she ran a hand though her shoulder length hair. J.D. had a habit of continuously changing her hair color, with this week’s being a rich burgundy with frosted tips.
She glanced at the report in her hand, wondering why they were even involved in this. CISA didn’t run after murderers, even if they had just killed that many people. Her agency specialized in governmental issues, and making sure that a few of those ‘issues’ never made it into general public knowledge. "Why were we called there?"
"Look through the killed list," Francis said as he stopped at a light, and glanced at the screen in her hand. He pointed at a name, then pulled his attention back to driving as the light changed to green.
"Aw, fuck," J.D. said as she saw the name of the Deputy Minister of Security on the list. "Great, just sweet fucking great."
"Now," Francis said as he drove, "this begs the question of whether she was in the wrong place, wrong time, or wrong place at the right time."
"You thinking hit?"
He shrugged as he pulled into the alley beside a coffee shop and into the small parking lot behind. "Haven't seen the layout of the bodies yet, so it's hard to say. Haven't gotten an ID on the shooter yet, either. Military issue weapon, though."
J.D. leaned back in the seat and sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Grabbing a coffee from the store in the front, the two made it through the kitchen area to the main portion in the back, and entered a busy office area teaming with other Canadian Internal Security Agency officers. Francis tossed the keycard for the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve at a man who looked to be barely out of his teens. "Detail it and get back to me."
"Bit me, Soul Patch," he replied, not moving from his spot. "Get a chance to test her out yet?"
"Not yet."
"Dude..." the young man stood in disbelief. "That baby goes from zero to sixty in 2.9 seconds, and has a top speed of 248 miles per hour...or, for your Canuck brain, that's 399 kilometers per hour."
"I know what it is, smartass," Francis said. "How about next time I take it out, I wrap it around a tree, then let you know how it handles?"
"That would be one way to test the airbag."
J.D. motioned Francis to the side before he could continue his discussion. "Why do you even bother?"
"Because he's an annoying little fucktwit."
"I heard that," the other said. "I'm telling mom."
Francis rubbed his hands against his gray eyes. "This is what I get for working with family." He turned to his younger brother. "Reports on the shootings?"
"On her desk," he said, pointing at J.D. before turning to ignore them.
J.D. took her long brown jacket off, placed it on the back of her chair and sat at her desk. "Okay," she said as she put the small computer chip in the reader at the front of her computer. "Let’s see what we got to add."
Francis wheeled his chair over and sat beside her, reading the screen silently as both digested the additional information. "I'll have to take another look at the place, but judging by the initial reports it seems that this might have been a planned hit." He leaned forward slightly as he studied the reenactment of the events based on security footage, and the crime labs initial report. "Yeah... see. The Deputy Minister was standing near the back of the room, so either a very lucky stray bullet or she was targeted."
"According to the crime lab, that irregularity with the ceiling and roof was a small hole drilled, and a pinpoint camera imbedded."
"Easy for someone to spy on the crowd below."
"Yeah." J.D. rubbed her forehead as a headache started. "I'm thinking we might have to take this one from the locals. Run the rest of the names of those at the museum, and see if anything looks suspicious. Seems like a lot to go through to get just a Deputy Minister."
"I'll cross it with out files, and then shoot through a request for us to take over." He glanced at her, frowning slightly when she started to rub her temples. "Another headache?"
"Small one."
"Book a doctors appointment, and get that checked out."
"Yes, dad."
"I'm serious, Janet."
"Whoa...hold on there, Soul Patch. The using of the first name is verboten, dig?"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied with a smirk. "When was the last time you got laid?"
She shot him a dirty look. "What?"
Francis held out his hands in defense. "All I'm saying is that your headaches might be caused my sexual frustration." He smiled slightly. "I could help you with that."
If she hadn't known him for years, she would have either killed him, or punched him. As it stood, she knew he was only teasing her. "One day, I'm gonna take you up on your offer...and you're gonna wish I didn't."
"Why? You a vampire or something?" he asked in a spooky voice.
"Well... I have been known to bite when I suck."
Francis swallowed and squirmed slightly in his seat, suddenly glad that the desk hid the wood he was now sporting.
J.D. smiled sweetly, then got up and walked away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Got another one."
J.D. looked up. "Another what?"
"Shooting," Francis said as he grabbed a small case off his desk. "Art gallery, opening night."
"Bad coincidence?"
"Unlikely." He walked to the desk at the front, and tried to grab the car key card from his younger brother, who objected slightly, then glanced up as J.D. joined him. "From the reports just coming in, sounds like the same weapon used."
"Dead?"
"Eighteen," Francis said as he made another grab for the key card. "So far. Six are on their way to the hospital and a helluva lot more are wounded. For fuck sake's Jake give me the damn key card."
"You gotta sign it out." His younger brother, Jake, pointed at the computer pad on the other side of his desk.
Francis ground his teeth slightly as he reached over, stabbed his thumb against the reader, and then grabbed the key card when his print was verified. "Satisfied?"
"Thank you, Soul Patch," Jake replied in an artificially sweet voice that was laced with sarcasm.
"You're welcome twenty-one year old virgin." Francis turned and walked away.
"Virgin?" Jake replied, righteous indignation heavy in his tone.
"Jake..." J.D. sighed. "Give it up." She walked after her partner, catching up with him as he closed the driver's door to the ME Four-Twelve and started the engine. She went to the passenger side and got in, the seatbelt automatically going over her body as they drove away.
She settled back as they drove, and glanced at Francis, then looked again. The streetlights were making his short honey-blonde hair darker than usual, and the shadows that were cast over his face made him look like an Adonis sculpture come to life.
"You're staring," he said with a small smile.
"Yep." She looked a little closer. "I just noticed that your eyes are the color of storm clouds on a summer day."
He rolled his gray eyes at that. "We've been partners for... what?...nearly five years, and you're just now noticing my eyes?" He gave her a frown. "I'm hurt," he said in a fake wounded voice. "Hurt to the very core of my being."
"I can tell."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J.D. glanced up as soon as they entered the Art Gallery, and stopped. The ceiling was vaulted, and a near replicate of the one in the museum. She made a mental note to check out who had done both, and took a slow look around as the Emergency Medical Technicians were finishing up.
"We got called in early," she said in a low voice. "Usually not here until after the fact."
Francis shrugged. "I prefer it that way." He spotted what looked like someone in charge heading their way. "Your turn to schmooze the cop in charge," he said and took a step away.
J.D. took her badge off her belt as the person arrived and held it up.
"Taking over?" he asked.
"Depends," she replied. "If this is in any way related to the museum shootings, then yes, we're taking it."
"And if it's not related."
She smiled slightly. "Break it down for me, please."
He sighed and looked around, frowning as he noticed a man in an expensive suit wandering around. "He with you?"
"Most times."
"My guys don’t like people wandering around their crime scene."
"He’ll be fine." Although Francis looked more like a playboy than a government agent, she knew he could beat the hell out of someone without even wrinkling his own suit.
The detective shrugged and turned back to her. "About an hour ago, an lone armed assailant walked in, opened fire with what we're assuming is a military grade automatic weapon, then walked back out."
"Cameras?"
He pointed. "There, there and there. Already at the lab."
J.D. nodded. "I'll need a list of the guests, the contractors who did the ceiling, the caterers, and all reports done by every officer, EMT and reporter on this."
"Anything else?"
"Coffee, splash of milk." She stared at him as he looked blankly at her. "No, that'll be all." She watched as he turned and walked away.
1
Author notes
Thanks to Kari for help with J.D. Diamond's name (Janet Donovan Diamond)
In a list
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 9 of 9
-
Christ on a crutch, Barb, This is professional!
This reads like a script from a televisions special or a full length, big screen film, expertly crafted, fast moving, humor, repartee...absolutely great...but I must re-read to learn the personalities of the main characters as I but scanned for the story first time through.
Excellent work!
amicus...
-
-
Thank you!
There isn't that much 'personal description' in it right now. I'm editing it in once I tie up some loose parts in other chapters so that it all melds together nicely and makes sense.
-
-
This was a great read, I loved this. I guess what drew me to it was the sarcasm and humor that you did such a great job of putting into words... Your description was great and your flow of words was just so...Flowing lol. The only thing I would like to see more of is description of the characters themselves, but I am going to guess that comes in the later chapters?
Now for my favorite part...
If she hadn't known him for years, she would have either killed him, or punched him. As it stood, she knew he was only teasing her. "One day, I'm gonna take you up on your offer...and you're gonna wish I didn't."
"Why? You a vampire or something?" he asked in a spooky voice.
"Well... I have been known to bite when I suck."
Francis swallowed and squirmed slightly in his seat, suddenly glad that the desk hid the wood he was now sporting.
J.D. smiled sweetly, then got up and walked away.
That was awesome! Cryptic-Haze was right, the dialouge makes everything so likeable and more believable. Keep up the great work!
Ana
-
-
Thanks
I am going to do a little rewriting with some description... just have to wait until the kids go back to school after spring break. I didn't realize until later that I hadn't given physical descriptions. 
-
-
ooohhh,... something new!
I looked up a ME Four-Twelve, and all I can say is I WANT ONE! What a asskicking car.
I like the dialogue in this. Makes it believable and likable, and the characters feel like they've known each other for years and are comfortable with a little naughty teasing.("Well... I have been known to bite when I suck."... hahahahahaha I'll have to remember that one)
Should add a little description of the people; how they looked, ages, things like that.beginning: 4, language: 5, plot: 4, ending: 4, dialog: 5, characters: 5.
-
-
I added a wee bit of description....
-
When you get that car, I fully expect you to pick me up so we can cruise for guys
-
-
Hmmmm I have read it a few times and trying to think of a name for it..I can think of like Diamonds Road...or..something but idk..hmm.....
-
-
Got a title
Not sure if I like it, but...it will make sense a little further inthe story 
-
Adding your comment:
1 - 9 of 9
