2019-10-21 - Drugs and Reservations

Putting in a few extra hours, detective Sergeant Andy Géroux sits at his desk muddling through paperwork while a grease-bottom bag of 'food' from Arby's cools on one of the few clean spots on the second desk he's commandeered for storage. His desk is about as personalized as someone who has only been around for just over a month could be expected to be. A few pictures, some tchotchkes and a rack of hats, including caps for the Red Sox, Boston University, the Portland Trailblazers and a blue hat with FBI in yellow type. The place is as busy as usual, which is to say about five times as busy as any PD of a town this size has any rights to be, but Andy's ignoring most of it as he compares two different sets of notes from a vice collar in June and fills out an excel spreadsheet. Now and again he grumbles to himself about one detective or another, then reaches back to pull out a few spicy fries which get shoved into his mouth with an inattention that borders on the anhedonic before going back to his task. The flash of a beat cop's shield catches his eyes and he looks up, waves to the passing officer and says, "Do you know where Detective Fontana is? Well, find him and send him my way. I can't read any of his notes."

No Arby's for her. Charlie popped out to get herself a salad from somewhere, and is strolling back through when she spots Andy at his desk. There's zero subtleness about it as she heads in his direction, "Got a minute, Sarge?"

Word around the precinct is that de la Vega's been looking for Sergeant Géroux. It's likely not too hard to figure out why. The captain's just ducked out of his office to snag a cup of coffee and a donut from the break room, and spots the pair on his way by. He backtracks, flashes both a slight smile that doesn't linger. "Just the people I wanted to see." That doesn't usually bode well.

Andy looks from his paperwork up to Charlie and then back to the illegible notepad. "Did you know that we have someone on staff here who spells methamphetamine with an f?" He squints and adds, "Two fs. And there's a p in here too, but not where you'd think." Tossing the pad down onto his desk he sits back and returns his attention to Charlie. Though before he can address her he nods to Ruiz. "Cap'n."

"I'd love to say that surprises me...but, no. I'd be lying." Charlie points out before she moves to find an edge of a desk to park herself on so that she can pop open her salad container. Which is handy, since her ambush has turned into a Ruiz's ambush, and she's going to have to settle down to enjoy this ride, "Cap. I was just about to ask him about the Foster stuff."

Ruiz gestures to Charlie to continue, and prowls on in through the office door before taking a lean against the jamb with one bulky shoulder. He's got a donut to finish anyway, and washes down bites with sips of coffee while he listens.

Andi pokes her head in looking for the Captain. It's a rare thing though that she searches out anyone. She leans in and notices the group there and gives a cursory nod to the lot of them. It's not exactly anything private so she rests her eyes on the Captain after looking up from the donut he's finishing. "I handed over everything I've collected to uh.. whathisface. Gabriel, last name starts with Q."

Andy looks from the captain back to Charlie. "Okay, detective, go ahead and ask me about the Foster stuff." He reaches open and tears open the top of his bag, dumping a brisket sandwich, the remainder of his fries and a few packets of Arbysauce out on his desk. "I went out to the casino to ask around on behalf of a friend. She figured I could get people to open up since I grew up out there." He uptilts his chin toward Charlie. "So what's the story?" A glance toward Andi when she pops in. "Quintanilla." Pronounced all Keentaneeya like he's about to take an 8th grade Spanish test.

"Well now I'm eating." Charlie points out before she shoves a bite of her salad into her mouth, which doesn't actually stop her from proceeding. But she does chew and swallow, because she's not actually rude. "Pretty thing, tall, dark hair?" She's got a pretty good guess who that friend is, afterall. "So we're looking into Foster in connection with the Kruger case, wanting to know if this guy is on the up and up. More that I am seeing I'm feeling there is more going on, but I can't prove anything yet. But it's looking like the Kruger's were working for Monaghan, it doesn't make sense he'd off them...and the fish thing that's holding up construction is bullshit. So...why a professional hit on some poor motel owners? Well, theory I've got is someone's sending a message to Monaghan, or someone is worried that they were going to provide testimony of something they saw that had jack all to do with the environmental shit."

Ruiz doesn't interject for the time being. He seems content enough to let Charlie drive this conversation. When Andi sticks her head in, he turns slightly, flashes her a slight smile. "Hey, Johnson. Anything worth discussing there?" Probably, he hasn't seen her notes yet.

"Yeah, that's the one." Respect given Andy's way, pronouncing it all right and everything. Andi sees the food the others have and checks her watch, realizing it was past time for her own lunch. Walking over to her desk, she opens a drawer and pulls out a plastic container and opens it. A pasta salad, looks to be homemade. A bottle of Snapple follows suit and she parks herself down to half listen, half eat. Hearing about the casino has her lips twist almost derisively but she doesn't add anything to it. Instead, she gives a shake of her head. "Something tells me that was settled the day of that fucking funeral." Yep, that was her there all cursing the deceased and punching his casket.

"I don't know if I'd say Foster's pretty, but I guess he's got a sort of weathered handsomeness to him." Andy bolts down his sandwich with the practiced ease of someone who knows he's got too many other things to do than to enjoy himself with food. "There is more going on, yeah, but unless you can tie it to the murders none of us have the authority to do anything about it. Foster traffics drugs through the res. It's something of a secret everyone seems to know. Nobody loves pills, opioid crisis, but they love money and he's brought it in. Unfortunately that's federal jurisdiction." Andy wrinkles his nose. "Up to the DEA." He says DEA like he's saying fart wizards.

"I meant Miss Reede." Charlie replies when Andy assumes that she's talking about Foster, glancing over at the other Andi with a bit of a curious look at the mention of a funeral. But she she glances back, taking another bite from her salad before she frowns, "I thought res stuff would be the jurisdiction of reservation police, I didn't think the DEA could storm that castle.." She shakes her head faintly, starting to close the salad container, "Alright, so...Yeah." She gances towards Ruiz, "What do you think, Cap? Foster offed the Kruger's to make a point to Monaghan that new blood was coming in?"

"If Foster's pulled anything indictable off reservation, if he's so much as farted in the wrong direction, then we'll get first crack at him," the captain points out in between bites. "We need a paper trail. And a subpoena on his financials." A flick of his eyes to Charlie as he sips his coffee. "How's that going, by the way?" As for theories, he shakes his head slightly. "Rather have more evidence before I start making guesses."

Charlie just gets a look when she corrects the sarge. Nobody gets his sense of humor. "Quinault public safety are a good group of people, I think my mom went to high school with the new chief out there, but they're a dozen people with jurisdiction over an area a third the size of Rhode Island. They're more about public safety than chasing rumors about someone who benefits all of them." For just a moment Andy looks juuuust a little uncomfortable, then he says, "I should probably admit that I financially benefit from the Quinault casino as well. As a member of the Quinault Nation I get a regular check." Ruiz gets a nod. "GHC sheriffs would probably want a bite too, so if we can tie him, or his people, to bad behavior in the city we're definitely going to want to do that. And while catching the bad guy is always the top priority, it would be good if we could do that without me burning my bridges with that community. Someone else will take over for Foster. At this point it's too big to be allowed to fail. But plenty of people still like him."

Andi just goes quiet and eats on her pasta salad using her Snapple as a chaser. She is listening though, but she doesn't input anything into the conversation. A moment comes when she checks her messages on her phone but she taps out a response before tossing it lightly back on the desk.

"Workin' on it, Cap. So far I don't have access to them, yet. But I'm working on it." Charlie taps her fork against her container, nodding at Andy, "Sure, I can respect not wanting to burn bridges, besides, never know when we'll need help from that corner of things next, anyways."

Ruiz squints a little at Andy as he processes his words. About the casino, and about Foster. He tips his coffee cup toward his mouth, draining the thing to about half, then finishes off his donut and licks some icing off his thumb. "Understood," he replies once he's done chewing and swallowing. "Well, let's see what we can dig up on him, then. I'll put a call in to the FBI and DEA, and see if he's on their radar." Charlie's given a brisk nod, a moment's eye contact, and then he steps past without another word. Not the most personable sort, but they don't keep him around here for his social skills.

Meanwhile, Andi had passed along her information so all she had to do was finish lunch, which she does in silence. Then she heads out to run some patrolling, opting for street duty while she's still recovering from the flu and that Gohl business. A brief wave is offered to the others on her way out to her car.

There's a quick nod in response to that nod, then Charlie is hopping to her feet, picking up her salad, "Right, well, I think that means that I need to be getting myself back to work."