2020-09-18 - This Won't Hold Up In Court

Typically if Dahlia ever reached out to Ruiz it was just to check in but also always via text. In general, calling people wasn't really something she did. It was just easier to type things!

So it might be a little strange for him to see an actual call coming through from her. And if he doesn't pick up this first time, she immediately calls again.

He doesn't pick up immediately; four rings and then it starts to go to voice mail. If she does call back, he'll pick up on the second, and there's a pause before she hears his familiar rumble, "Hello?"

There's a beat of pause of her own, like she was expecting it to go to voicemail again and readying what she was going to say. But he'd picked up. "Hey Javier...Sorry to bother you but, uh. What's your schedule looking like today?" She elaborates, "There's something I need to talk to you about in person. Related to one of the recent murders in town."

"My schedule?" A beat, like he's still adjusting to the fact that Dahlia's speaking to him. Dahlia his ex, who hasn't texted him, much less called him in.. months. Dahlia whom he ran into briefly a couple of weeks back, and barely gave him the time of day. "Uh, busy. I'm at the precinct until about eight or nine. Unless you feel like meeting me here."

There's a few moments of silence again. It felt strange for her too. Some things used to come so easy but maybe it just never felt like they were on the same page. With anything. Not anymore. Or maybe it was just a mutual misunderstanding. She cleared her throat a bit, "Right. Uh. I can come see you, sure. It shouldn't take too long. But it does involve me bringing an....animal. Small one. Not sure what the precinct policy is on that but, it's important to what I have to tell you. I'll come by in about...an hour? Does that work?"

There's a pause at that. "An animal? The fuck, Dahl? Fine. An hour." He sounds harried. Tired. And more than a little irritated when animals are mentioned. "Anything else I should be aware of?"

He can't see it, but she does wince a bit. But this needs to be done so, "Nope, that's it. See you in an hour. Bye Javier." She hangs up a beat later.

Then right around an hour goes by when the receptionist calls up to Ruiz. The same one that had to deal Dahlia all that time ago, yelling about her neighbors at the Trailer Park. A receptionist never forgets. She gives Dahlia a skeptical look at the small picnic basket.

"Chief, you have a visitor, she says you're expecting her."

Dahlia, to her credit, remains quiet and mostly polite. Taking a seat while she waited.

He's not long in coming down. Which may be surprising, given his workload at the moment, and the fact that not one but two separate officers try to snag him on his way out the blast-proof door that leads up to the second floor. He claps one on the shoulder, tells him he can have his report in the following morning, but it better be clean. The other, a tall redhead, needs his help with something of a sensitive nature, and he promises her ten minutes of his time later over coffee.

Then those dark eyes zero in on Dahlia seated over there with her basket of.. whatever the hell that is, and he strides over, hands shoved into the pockets of his uniform. She probably rarely sees him like this, dressed like an actual fucking cop instead of a grungy cholo. Captain's bars on his collar and everything. "Hey," he greets, after clearing his throat.

Dahlia looks up as Ruiz approaches, studying him for a beat in his uniform. A smile briefly ticks up at the corner of her mouth before those bright green eyes meet his dark ones. "Hey." She shifts a bit in the seat before carefully standing up. "Thanks for seeing me...I know you're overloaded." He may or may not hear a soft mewing sound coming from the basket when she stands. "I just didn't know who else to go to with this." She pushes a hand through her hair as she draws in a soft, shallow breath and then waits for him to lead them to wherever so they can talk.

A beat of something almost appropriating awkwardness ensues. And then the cop rubs at his nose with an inked thumb (most of his tattoos are hidden today beneath long sleeves) and attempts a wan smile. "You, uh. That's fine. Don't worry about it." He goes to buzz back in to the door from which he just emerged, and hauls it open, gesturing Dahlia through ahead of him, and up the stairs. "First door on the left," he explains gruffly, gaze going briefly to the basket with a slight furrowing of his brows, then back to the dark-haired girl as he waits.

Almost.

Dahlia follows him towards the doors, glancing down at the basket when he looked at her. "First door on the left." She repeats, looking back to him without commenting on the basket. That was for behind closed doors. Dahlia walked past him and started to ascend the stairs. Once inside the room, she set the basket carefully in one of the chairs and sighed. At least he'd be able to see past whatever crazy thing the Veil did to people who didn't Glimmer. Once Ruiz is inside the room she asks, "...Do you still have that man in custody? The guy that supposedly killed his wife and tossed her in that dumpster?"

His office is a fairly spartan, non-descript affair. Has she been in here before? Maybe, maybe not. There's little resembling a personal touch to be found. No photographs of loved ones (he wouldn't dare), nothing save a cheeky mug with a cartoon donut on it and some clever saying in Spanish, currently empty of coffee. A couple of overstuffed filing cabinets, a desk with a laptop and a pile of paperwork, some medals and awards and commendations lining the walls, and a potted cactus sitting on the little windowsill overlooking the police impound lot.

"I can't comment on the case, but yeah, he's being held without bail," the captain murmurs, settling onto the edge of his desk and folding his arms across his chest. "So what's this about, Dahl?"

She's been here exactly once. When she first found out he was in town and he had found out she was here too. She does a quick, cursory sweep of the office before those eyes settle on him again. "This." She finally lifts the basket and picks up a mackerel tabby kitten. He looks around curiously and yawns. Ruiz can see the ridiculously sharp rows of teeth. A totally normal kitten, except the teeth. "It's going to sound ridiculous. But...I found this little guy and two others...in an Amazon box...addressed to the dude. And there was like a...cat? Uncat...some kind of Veil creature I think I don't know but it..." Dahlia trails off.

"It's hard to explain." She sighed. "But I guess their mom had them in a towel closet? Wife got mad, man went to take them all to the shelter...mom darted from the car and. Well. I honestly don't know how the damn kittens ended up in an Amazon box. But they destroyed a nylon dog bone thing." Dahlia lifted a plastic Safeway bag out of the basket too and offered it to Ruiz. Inside - just shards of dog bone. Fine, tiny shards. "They definitely chewed up that woman. Her husband didn't kill her."

His gaze travels to the basket, and remains there as the little bundle's lifted out. Brows creased, dark eyes slivered; an abundance of caution that has him reaching reflexively for his holstered weapon, when he sees those tiny, sharp teeth. It isn't drawn, but his hand simply.. rests there. Ready.

And then a sigh funneled out his nose, when she mentions that the kittens chewed her up, and he releases the grip of his weapon and scrubs his hand over his face. "For fuck's sake."

"Don't give me that face, Javier." Dahlia said as he sighs. "I know it's ridiculous. But it's the truth. I know you've seen pictures, you've had to have seen them. And the guy that found her body confirmed that it looked like she was chewed up." Ruiz can see and feel that this tiny kitten has a very powerful Glimmer. "And got a read on the kittens too..." Her brow furrowed. "Listen. I know this won't stand up for shit in a court." The Safeway bag is set back down in the basket as the kittens squirms a bit. Curious about this new surroundings and the new human. Dahlia held it closer for a moment. "All I'm saying is that maybe if there's an ME like us they can do something. Like a second consultation report or...something so this guy doesn't get screwed over by this stupid town's shenanigans."

That face? What face? says his face. He remains where he is, settled against the edge of his desk with his arms folded across his midsection. His radio goes off somewhere in the midst of her talking to him, and he reaches up to turn down the volume while keeping his eyes on her. "I can try to catch a word with the ME, and the forensics specialist. I can't promise anything, you know how these cases go, Dahl." He runs his tonguetip along his teeth, glances to the window, then back to the basket and its strange contents. "You mind if I.." He taps his temple, hitches his chin toward the kitten. He means he wants to try to link with the thing.

Dahlia nodded. "Go a head." The kitten mewed again, managing to wiggle out of Dahlia's arms to, instead, perching on her shoulder. It's curiously looking around the office it seems and then first thing Ruiz picks up on is chewing. Look at all these things to chew. It doesn't seem to be aware that it can't chew on most of these things. Or shouldn't be able to.

Must be nice, only having the laws of physics apply if someone actually remembers to tell you that they exist.

The kitten is content, curious. A well fed and cared for kitten. They like the humans. They like their pen -- it is a safe, well explored place and sure -- some day they decide they're ready to leave it they're absolutely going to chew right through the fence and go exploring outside, but right now? Pen is good, pen is safe.

It has a name, Crowley. Names are good. Names make kittens more real.

Real.

It's hard, for someone touching little undefended minds with such ease, to not pick up on that particular sensation. It's a very important sensation.

Real matters.

The little monster isn't quite convinced that they are real. But getting names and being treated like a kitten -- makes you a kitten. Right?

Go ahead, so he does, turning up the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows, ink revealed slowly as he goes. Dark eyes on the 'kitten' throughout, though he must know by now that it's anything but.

Then he reaches out with his mind; a little brush at first, like a wolf circling a smaller, though no less deadly predator. Sniffing at it, hackles up, everything about him alert. Crowley, the scent of the animal tells him. The taste of it, the feel of it. He pulls back once the little mind realises he's made contact, and draws a breath. Releases it steadily. "Are there more of these?" is what he asks, low voiced.

Dahlia watched carefully, quietly. Crowley's head tilted a little at Ruiz but then his attention was quickly on other things in the room as he snuggled against Dahlia's neck. "At least 2 others, because I have them au home. I feel like there are more out there, I just haven't heard of or seen any. " She explained. "But these guys are adapting...like Aidan put a second bone in their enclosure after showing them that biting into it was difficult. And they couldn't chew it up nearly as easily as the first one."

There's a slow nod from the cop, dark eyes narrowed slightly as he contemplates all of this. Then, "You know none of this can go in my official report, yeah?" Because she must know that. His fingers are run through his hair, breath guttered out of his nose in a heavy, weary sigh. "I'll go through the evidence on the husband, again. See what I can do with the prosecution and the ME." Then he pushes off the edge of his desk and goes to rifle around in a filing cabinet abruptly.

"Yeah, I know it can't." Dahlia agreed. "I just...someone here had to know the truth." She shifted a bit to lift Crowley again and may or may not have nuzzled him a little before telling him it was time to go back into the basket. "I appreciate it, Javier." She said as the kitten is settled back into the basket and the lid closed for now. Her brow raises as she watches him suddenly start rifling through one of the filing cabinets. Her lips part as if she's going to ask what he's looking for, but then she decides against it and just waits to see what happens.

Nothing happens, though, beyond a file folder being withdrawn, opened up, and its contents rifled through briefly. Then it's tossed onto his desk, followed by a what looks like a set of keys to an evidence locker. "I'll see what I can do," he repeats, in the sort of tone of voice that implies, why are you still standing there? He meets her gaze, too, for a moment. It's brief, and there's some sort of emotion that's summarily smothered before it has a chance to see the light of day.

A touch of pink flushed her pale skin at his tone, maybe embarrassed as she gathered up the basket and the Safeway bag. "Right. Thank you." She started over to the door, though paused to look back at him, "...It was good to see you Javier. I'll see you around." And then she opened the door and started to head out.