Dangers in the Dark

Dying and Alone 17.3

Third Person POV

G.C.P.D. Precinct

Keeping to his word, Jim ensured that Mr Chaing had all of his parking tickets sorted out and dealt with and boy, he wasn't kidding when he said he had a lot. It had taken him and Harvey the entire night to go through all of them and also to bring in some suspects from their files for a good, old-fashioned line-up. Though he was trying to hide his excitement, Jim could see the small smile on Harvey's face as they called in the five possible suspects. Harvey was a right sucker for a line-up.

They had called in six different men who fit the profile that they had built up. Each of them looked seriously different so it would hopefully be easy for Mr Chaing to pick out the correct one. Harvey couldn't help the smile that graced his face as they lined up, thinking to himself that they looked like a passed their sell-by date boyband.

"Harvey," Jim said, gaining the older cop's attention, who was standing by the mic that would then play out into the line-up room.

"Right," Harvey nodded before he leaned down and pressed the play button. "Alright, back to the wall. Hold your numbers up. No talking."

After he let go of the button, they moved to the side to let Mr Chaing do his analysing.

"I thought they would be similar types," Jim muttered to Harvey, staring at the vastly different men.

"Similar doesn't have to mean physical," Harvey countered, and Jim couldn't argue with that. "They're similar in other ways."

"Look closely, Mr Chaing," Jim instructed their witness who was currently munching on a bagel with a coffee in his other hand.

"I know how this works," Mr Chaing assured him, staring out ahead of him. He was only looking at them for a few seconds before he nodded to himself. "There, number four. The short fat one."

"You're sure?" Jim asked.

"That's your red hood," Mr Chaing confirmed. "Threw all that money away and I didn't get a cent."

Harvey peered down at number four's file and started to read from it.

"Clyde Destro, 47. Conviction for assault and robbery of a convenience store three years ago," Harvey read. "Let's book him."

"Wait a minute. All we have is one witness outside of the crime scene, that's it," Jim reminded him. "Now, Floyd was killed, so we know they're turning on each other."

"Let Destro go," Harvey realised.

"And tail him," Jim nodded. "He takes us to the others, we use them against each other."

"We catch the Red Hood Gang red-handed," Harvey said.

"That's right," Jim confirmed his theory.

"Can I get a ride home?" Mr Chaing asked through a mouthful of bagel. "My girlfriend will freak out if I turn up in a patrol car."

Nodding his head in understanding, Jim arranged for Alvarez, who was less than pleased to have to take a man who insisted on eating yet another greasy bagel and cup of coffee in his car, to drive him back home. While Alvarez begrudgingly led Mr Chaing away, Jim and Harvey let all six men go, watching the evident relief fall across Destro's face. Could he look more guilty even if he tried?

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Holly POV

Wayne Manor

For dinner tonight, Reggie was going to be joining us and Bruce and I had even managed to convince Alfred to actually sit with us rather than doing his own little thing. It was nice actually, seeing Alfred relaxing with an old friend of his. He seemed happy and after all that he had done for me since knowing him, he definitely deserved it.