Closer Than Your Shadow

Repressed Serendipity

Dick's POV
December 11th 9:27 a.m.
Gotham
Gotham City Police Dept.

"Hey, they're starting the briefing soon," Renne Montoya walked past my desk and placed a folder in front of my face.

"What briefing? We did Axley's yesterday," I answered as I took it from her.

"The Nightengale case. The FBI's here. Their jurisdiction now." She raised her eyebrows and went towards the boardroom slowly filling up with officers.

I looked down at the picture of Claire clipped onto the front of the folder. It was her senior photo with the cap and gown, I guess the most recent one on file.

It was her full-faced smile, crinkled eyes, and pink cheeks that curved up into soft cheekbones. She didn't have much makeup on, but her eyelashes were curled, and her lips shined.

"Grayson!" Gordon yelled from the open door.

I pushed myself up from the chair and leaned against the peeling doorframe while a woman and man laughed in the front of the conference room. Their coats were pressed, but the lack of professionalism waved off them.

"Alright. Alright. My names Hodge, this is Xanders." The small man put his hand between him and the woman as he laughed. "We're with the Criminal Justice IS division. We're here because our suspect, Claire Nightengale had 139 kilos of cocaine in her apartment off 9th street. There was a tip called in and your officers got clearance from Judge Carter for a search warrant. She's a 21 year old white female." He nodded his head back to her picture pinned to the wall. "So far she is still at large and it's our job to make sure she's found, therefore the city-wide lockdown."

Xanders, continued their spiel, "She has no priors, but we also have reason to believe she might be connected to the disappearances of two men by the name of Daryl Benton and Matthew Delvey."

"Those guys have priors for aggravated assault and arson. We've dealt with them before. There's no way she could've gotten the drop on hard cut criminals," Renee Montoya cut through their monotonous speech and looked back towards Gordon. "We talked to her neighbors. Then the people at her job. Nobody saw anything shady. The most illegal the complaints we've gotten against her is smoking pot. And Gotham's medical."

"We're going to go over everything again. Talking to her friends and people she used to know," Xanders reasoned.

"How do you explain the burned RV that was out in Greendale? Or the ties to the Maroni's?" Hodge crossed his arms as he stared Montoya down.

Good cop, bad cop. A game I was used to.

The pictures pinned on the board laid out the places I'd already bugged. First her apartment, then Pane because I figured Lindsay and Claire were too close for the agents not to investigate her.

I also set up new cameras around the homeless encampment. I gave May a phone incase she saw the van. But according to her it hadn't been around for more than a week.

"The anonymous calls led to missing suspects and a burnt down RV. There's been tips all around the city. Everyones seeing the same girl. You don't know Gotham and if you did, you'd know how fucked up-."

"Montoya," Jim called out and she rolled her eyes, but she still leaned back into the chair while Xanders stared her down.

"We understand you guys have been dealing with this and we're not here to battle over the case. We just want to help. We want the same thing as you."

"And the mob boss? You guys want us to even entertain the fact that that girl killed two crackheads then took out a don? Dom Maroni? By herself?" Ben Warren spoke over a few whispered conversations. He was a decorated Sergeant, and a sexist, yet known to be somewhat of a leader among the precinct's male officers.