A Danger That Lurks In The Darkness | A TPQ AU |

XV | Put Him To Justice

MINI
Another sleepless night led to her stumbling into work the next morning (well, the same morning, but she’d begun losing track of time). She’d been poring over the old casefiles, and, by the time her alarm had begun to ring, her eyes had been burning, and she was almost on the verge of collapse. 

Sliding into her chair, she glanced at the empty seat opposite her. 

“Detective Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez!” She heard Shakuni call. 

She glanced tiredly in the direction his voice came from— which was at the door of his office. “My office, five minutes,” 

Giving him a perfunctory thumbs up, she began drinking her black coffee, leaning back in her seat, trying to wake herself up. 

Five minutes later, she was seated in ‘Uncle Boo’s’ office, as he asked her: “What’s the progress in the Lawtons kidnapping?” 

She began: “We… have a suspect, who we think is behind Patricia Lawtons’ kidnap, the murder of her sister, and several other women— Mark Daniels, an attorney in the DA’s office,”

His face was impassive. 

“...Do you have evidence that ties him to the kidnapping, or the murders?” 

She lifted a shoulder: “Most of what we have is circumstantial— or it would get thrown out during trial, but last night, I was doing some thinking… and trophies,”

Subconsciously, her hand reached to the dip in her collarbone, where the pendant rested. She tugged at it, and listened to Shakuni: “You think he’ll have trophies of the murders?” 

“It's most likely— the girls’ bodies which were found were dumped in sewers, there were bruises on their throats— but with no DNA, and they were all roughly the same height, colour, and had the same build and hair colour. Which leads me to believe he has a type— and that he’s a serial killer— and, each girl had a ring missing when her body was found,” 

Shakuni sighed. “But how will we get the trophies? How will we tie the trophies to him?” 

“I… don’t know,” 

He sighed, once more. “Take Rudy’s help with it,” 

She tugged at the pendant once more. “He’s not in, today.” 

“Why?”

“He’s… sick,” Her lips twitched at the ridiculousness of the lie. 

His eyes narrowed, as his pale-grey gaze bore into her. “Really?” 

“Mm-hmm,” 

It felt ridiculous: him interrogating her about her co-worker’s whereabouts. 

“...Okay. Don’t push yourself, though. The night shift sergeant told me that both of you stayed here till 1 A.M. last night,” 

His eyes were still narrowed. 

“We’re two full-grown adults. I don’t think you need to worry about our sleep schedules,” 

“Dismissed,”

“That’s not how you end a conversa—”

“Dismissed.”

————

She’d been just about to open the case files again, to see if there were any other known places Mark Daniels could have hidden the trophies, when a text popped up, from Rudy: Did you like it?