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 Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2016 5:59 pm
Jeremiah much preferred the days outside of his office but there had been too many days of him not being in and following up on leads in regards to the missing teens. Most of the time he would have sent out a lower ranking officer to deal with it but he had taken a personal interest in the case.
Something was not right, just how not right he was keeping to himself for now.
Courtesy of seniority and rank, Jeremiah did have his own office. The door was currently open, the detective in his hair and working on a report. His hand reached for his cup, an actual tea cup, to take a drink and start typing again at the computer. cibarium short opening is short ;;
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 1:43 pm
A presence such as Leila was often one heard rather than seen. Rapid, scuffing footsteps, starting up then stopping again office after desk after office -- finally getting in reports to people who've been hounding her for weeks. Then, snatches of a voice like a viola played with a dry bowstring, muffled and then bright as a door would momentarily open and then close behind her. She was asking a buddy in forensics if they wanted a San Pellegrino to "brighten up their desk time." Marked by the misty click of a soda can being opened, the steps went out the door, back through the hall, until a thin silhouette in creamsicle-orange appeared on one side of Jeremiah's doorway, then strode over to the other-- She stopped. Smiled. Well, she was already smiling, but it widened and fixed itself back into place. "Detective Mercer! You're in! I didn't see you at the corpse party yesterday," (she was talking about an investigation), "where've you been?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 3:01 pm
Jeremiah was regretting his decision to leave his office door open but it needed to be in case there was someone who wanted to talk to him, needed something. A closed office door from him meant leave him alone OR ELSE.
He heard her, saw the shadow as it went by and then paused and turned ...
"Townhome." Jeremiah did not sigh. He did not sigh but he did frown at the corpse party comment. "I've been at court. The Wagner shooting." The husband that shot his wife, the one that had the local defense attorney scrambling.
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 3:25 pm
"Ohhhh, right, the one with the tryhard DA?" Leila just barely knew the face Jeremiah was talking about -- it had been her birthday just last week. She'd bought her a cupcake, and she turned out to be allergic to something in the cupcake. Probably the chocolate. Or the milk. Or both. "Only heard the snippets version, but I'm surprised that's still going on." And there she was, fully in the office now, not seated but still leaning against one of the detective's office walls. "Hey, you want a-- oh, you got tea. One more for me, then." She cracked open a San Pellegrino. Grapefruit. The six-pack dangling from her hand was down to two. "I had someone try and get ahold of you 'cause it was another college kid, over near that part of town." The smile, at least, simmered down to a more respectable half-smirk when she got into the details, and there was no need to explain what ' that' part of town was to the guy who had taken the most responsibility for the missing persons cases. "Didn't match any of your profiles, but I ballparked the DOD to a little while before the time the reports started coming in. Could be coincidence, but," she half-shrugged, "y'know? Also could've known one of those kids." azuredreams ((fyi this is legit just a coincidence and i'm not trying to force anything but more IC drama for poor Jer-bear ;D))
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 5:22 pm
"Mm, she's been adding in every witness she can but it's not really working. The ADA is in a far worse mood than I am about it." Jeremiah disliked when they started to drag people through the dirt for what was very cut and dry. He did not assume people guilty unless there was insurmountable evidence against them. Like this case.
People like Aleksy Spektor were not liars and he got offended for them when people implied they were. Jeremiah managed to not wince when she popped open the bottle.
He glanced over to his cell that was turned upside, not even bothering to flip it over. Certain numbers were set to a silent ring tone for a reason. If it had been truly important, someone in the department that wasn't set to silence would have gotten a hold of him. "I saw the report." Jeremiah straightened up, actually turned away from the computer to look at her. "Glad it wasn't one of them, to be honest. I honestly expect that ..." He trailed off and shook his head. "They're together somewhere, I'm sure of it."
Then, because clearly she had put work in it and he would never not appreciate that. "Thanks for that." cibarium should ttly give me her full title so i can list her as an employee on the guide book bit with the PD.
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 5:51 pm
Right on top of things -- shouldn't have expected less of ol' Mercer, Leila thought to herself. He probably liked the drudgery of paperwork. She visibly brightened a bit to see he was in the loop, and a bit more upon the earnest eye contact. Progress!! Not on the case, but on their friendship. "Hey, no problem. I hate seeing twenty-somethings get killed as much as anybody." She took a sip of her drink, quietly (thankfully). "I can't tell if your confidence there is due to intuition, or evidence. Either way toxo's gonna have a report up by... Wednesday? Think they said Wednesday." 'Toxo' was what she called the toxicology specialist. Some folks in forensics were starting to suspect drugs were playing a role in the disappearances, as well as the recently-discovered deceased. azuredreams i'm not sure what it would be besides that she's the Forensic Entomologist (and has a ph D)
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 6:24 pm
Jeremiah loathed paperwork before computers had become more mainstream. Mostly because he had to take his time to write neat and tidy to make sure it was readable. With computers? He knocked it all out in a timely fashion. The detective was already regretting his eye-contact, especially with the way she brightened up.
"Evidence. I went down to the morgue." The face had not been so unrecognizable that he couldn't use one of the pictures of the kids. Some part of him perked at the mention of drugs but then knew better to suspect that a certain other twenty-something was involved. He was never involved. "Drugs is far better than what I've been hearing," he snorted, picking up his tea to take a drink. There might have been an extended pink before he caught himself and stopped. cibarium i added her in, when she's approved and you make a journal thing, i'll link her *u*
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 6:40 pm
"Riiiiiight, Detective," said Leila, openly perplexed, spectacled gaze almost wandering over to the stray pinky before it was bent back and away. "I wasn't talking about that poor kid, though -- your little bit about how sure you are the missing ones are together somewhere? That's pretty faithful unless you got a lead." Was she curious? Absolutely. Was she going to press? Probably.
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 6:50 pm
Sometimes there were the old stray rumors about Jeremiah, about why he was in the Ashdown and not back home. Rumors like disowned or b*****d child of some official back none of them where true.
He blinked a moment, a look flickering across his face. The lack of a good night's sleep was catching up with him. "I may but nothing concrete." Immediately regretting even admitting that because he knew her, knew she was going to fish, and that was the exact opposite of what he wanted. cibarium tiny tags are a-okay ~ never be sorry
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 7:03 pm
Ashdown was full of rumors, of course. A lot of the time Leila was even interested in them... up to the point where they started involving urban legend-style spooky s**t. Those she didn't know what to make of. She was used to college town rumors being more of the mundane campus scandal types. "Nothing concrete, huh?" She was already helping herself to a chair across from Jeremiah's desk. "Sounds like you've been working yourself to the bone. Maybe talking about it some will help solidify some bits." A sympathetic move, and for sure there was at least a touch of sincerity there, but there was also the much more robust touch of eagerness on the edges of her face. Hey, she was an academic.
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 7:26 pm
Campus scandal was much preferred to the world that Jeremiah found his eyes opened to. His fingers were closed around his tea cup, lips pressed to a thin line before he raised it to take another drink.
He truly had not slept well, his dreams unsettling and sleeping in street clothes not helping. At least he had gone home and showered and changed before he had come into work. Jeremiah always looked well put together, never anything out of place (except when his hair clearly needed a cut, as it was getting a touch too long; that he forgot frequently).
"I get phone calls from two of the mothers daily. Of course I am." The detective took cases far too seriously sometimes and this case, above all others, had seemed to strike a cord with him. "There isn't anything to talk about yet. Nothing more than a few loose ends that need to be chased down to see if they lead anywhere."
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:36 am
Leila leaned back, contemplative, peering down through her specs at the detective's condition. She was gifted with the ability to make multiple facial expressions with just one smile. The latest one -- still bursting with curiosity, but tethered a bit back down to earth. "Hah... s**t, Mercer." Her drink emptied, she gingerly placed it on the desk (with no coaster, albeit) so she could cross her arms. "You're holding this case so close to your chest it's about to suffocate, aren't you?" she asked plainly, with a bit of a head tilt. "Always slips my mind, how that can happen with you folk." You folk meaning the regular detectives and police force, those more directly concerned with the ongoing stories of the still-living. That may or may not have actually come across, though. "I might be speaking out of line here, Detective, so feel free to send my superiors after me for this, but as good as it is you're keeping contact with the next-of-kin here, you're gonna have to step back eventually, and look at whatever evidence you have as the data points they are instead of drinking it in as feelings-fuel."
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 12:54 pm
Whatever sense of camaraderie Leila had built up was shot. Jeremiah's eyes went hard, his fingers twitching briefly around his tea cup. "Townhome," this was the voice that people did not want to hear from him, this was the Detective Lieutenant, this was the man who could have been Captain if he hadn't decided he didn't want to deal with that bullshit and stuck behind a desk more, "if I thought for a moment that this was too much, that I was about to suffocate or using this as feelings-fuel," the look on his face when he said that was something else, "then I would remove myself from the case. That means I am too involved and cannot maintain a certain level of professional distance necessary to look at the situation. To ascertain facts and data with an impartial eye." The man took a breath, palms spreading out across the top of his desk as he pushed himself up to stand at his full height. "While I appreciate your interest in the case, it is currently on going and on a need to know basis. You are not on the need to know list." His lips twitched upwards into a smile, the one no one wanted to see. "Furthermore, if you have any concerns with my performance or otherwise, take them up with the, Captain." Not that it would go anywhere. Jeremiah was as professional as they come. "So if you would kindly get the ******** out of my office and let me get back to work, I'd be delighted." cibarium you poked the bear, i'm so sorry
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:43 pm
******** Friendship Train had left the station, and neither of them were on board. But past that, Leila was having the unfortunately delayed notion that her general conduct here may have, in some sense, been kind of a d**k move. And not the 'd**k' as in outdated slang for 'detective,' but as in 'unwanted d**k pic from a total stranger.' So she wilted a fair bit, like a-- well, Jeremiah had punched a couple holes in her composure. Seeing her with an expression not lifted by confidence was rare, which meant the contrast was almost comical. You know what isn't helpful at all, dumbass? Stressing out the stressed out guy even more!She stood up without a word, gathered her things, almost -- almost moved to say something, but dropped it before it could form into a syllable -- s**t, that smile could eat someone alive. "R-right, my mistake. I'll... get... outta your hair, Detective." Four steps, and back through the door. "Take care of yourself." Gone, like a ghost, and quiet in the hallway, for once. She'd probably rebound eventually, but for a handful of days she was pretty scarce. azuredreams a wrap! unless you have last thoughts
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