PARTNERS IN CRIME - JAKE PERALTA

Tonto

"All right, here's where we stand." Jake gestured towards the board, "This nightclub is the base for the Maric crime syndicate. I've been- Charles can you please stop hassling Val while I'm laying it all down up here."

Charles looked up from the scrapbook he was holding between him and the female detective with wide eyes, "Oh, sorry, Jakey!" He brought his fingers up to his lips, acting as if he was zipping his mouth closed and throwing away the key.

Charles had greeted Valerie with banners that morning, despite Captain Holt requesting a calm welcome back. But, for Charles, that was pretty calm. Valerie was just glad she didn't receive any unnervingly warm presents from the man.

She appreciated the welcome nonetheless.

"As I was saying, I've tracking the club owner, Vladimir Drogic, aka The Dragon, aka my first perp with a cool nickname."

"What about El Baboso, The Dagger?"

"Yeah, turns out Rosa was lying about that. El Baboso actually means 'The Slug'."

"Haha, tonto. That means 'dumb dumb'."

Valerie let out a quiet evil-laugh, turning to Rosa, who was sitting behind her, the two sharing a high-five.

"It was very cruel. I referred to myself as El Baboso to several beautiful Latina ladies. Anyway, The Dragon is involved in several counts of human trafficking as well as..." Jake trailed off as two men appeared behind him, taking the board off of the stand, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Drexel with the Organised Crime unit. I'm here for the Maric case materials."

"Oh, are you?"

Valerie crossed her arms over her chest, "We're in the middle of our morning briefing. You can't just come in here and-"

"Actually we can."

Jake turned to the man with narrowed eyes, "Well, we'll see what my Captain has to say about this."

Turns out Holt did not have much to say about it, but rather aided the two in collecting the materials, Jake's objections leading to a long rant about cleanliness of the workspace.

Valerie was honestly looking forward to getting some work done, but before she could say otherwise she was being dragged into the evidence lockup with the rest of the squad, courtesy of Jake.

"What is going on? Holt's been in a bad mood all week. Did somebody do something to set him off?"

Valerie raised her hands in a defensive stance, "I don't know what you guys have been up to but I just got here."

"Well maybe that's the problem." Rosa spoke in her usual bored tone. Noticing the looks everyone was giving her, she turned back to the detective in question, "I'm kidding, you're the one person in this room I haven't wanted to punch."

Valerie held her hand over her heart in response, pursing her lips in a slight pout. "You have such a way with words."

"Don't push it."

"Alright."

"Jake, are you seriously the one asking why Captain Holt is mad?" Terry asked with raised eyebrows. "The Wednesday incident?"

The vagueness of Terry's words left Valerie confused, but Amy seemed to notice this, leaning in with her hands folded in front of her, "I'll explain it to you later."

"No, no, no, I was the first one in on Wednesday."

"His story's already full of holes." Gina spoke in an accusatory tone, eyes narrowed.