The Devil's Guardian

2)Throat Lodger

"In the End" by Linkin Park 
********************

As she watched the thick brown liquid poor into her blue mug, Neve fiddled around with finding her caramel macchiato creamer she had bought the other day. When she finally found it hiding in the way back of the old staff room refrigerator, Neve let her mind wander over to reminding herself to look up the benefits of coffee over Google. Considering she had three cups almost daily, she was hoping there would be at least some type of benefit besides the caffeine rush. Hell, she deserved some type of health benefit from drinking so much.

Neve had gone the majority of her academic and professional career chugging the stuff. By now, she deserved every last beneficial gain to coffee drinking.

Neve took her time pouring the creamer in and adding a sugar cube from off the counter. It was solely thanks to her that the San Francisco police department was fully stacked on coffee supplies each week. She appreciated a well-made cup of jo. Before Neve came along to this department, everyone was suffering through a cheap store brand muck that cost maybe three bucks at best and tasted like dirt.

Neve upgraded to different kinds of fancy brands from French Roast to Verona. The result was becoming friendly with the entire department for their gratefulness over her saving them from God-awful tasting beans. It helped to make friends with cops and secretary's; they then helped if you needed a lab report or a file ASAP.

"Dude, cap wants us for something other than the mystery suicide," her partner Jakoby Decker said, clapping his dark hands together as he entered the room. This was his go-to word when referencing his partner of two years. He treated her just like one of the guys, and that was more than fine with Neve. She hated when the straight guys tried to flirt. It happened often enough. Luckily that wasn't the case with Decker. His mocha colored eyes lit up as he spotted the coffee Neve was preparing.

"New plan, you meet with the cap while I get a to-go cup..."

Neve snorted as she left her partner. She dumped her coffee-stirring stick in the trash as she pinned the lid down on her cup. Neve was looking forward to something out in the field. She and Koby hadn't seen anything new in nearly a week. The last three full days had been spent slowly and almost painfully investigating a daycare worker who killed a kid during an act of shaken-baby-syndrome. It was an open and shut case in Neve's opinion. The young twenty-something couldn't handle the ten-month olds wails of cries, so, she shook the kid rapidly to shut it up. It was all on camera, the proof was on three separate cameras so that the surveillance system caught her in the act. Tragically sad, but simple.

Still, the captain wanted to make sure they crossed their T's and dotted their i's. The woman's family hired a kick-ass attorney who ate bad police protocol like a delicious bag of jalapeno Cheetos. Every last person the woman knew was interviewed. Cameras had to be pulled to prove there was no one else shaking the baby on camera. All the T's were crossed as well as the i's dotted, case was closed, a guilty verdict was practically in the bag. Even still, the case was awful to work. Nobody likes dealing with cases of dead kids, and working them for three days straight was causing both Neve and her Koby to grow bitter. If someone threw her a dead ho-bo or a bad drug hit instead, she'd be a happy gal.

As soon as Neve opened the door to her captain's office, he looked pissed. For what, she couldn't be sure. Maybe it was pension cutbacks or too long of hours. Overworked and under paid cops weren't the friendliest bunch. Neve held up her hand that wasn't holding her coffee in a I-come-in-peace motion. "Sunnyside file was on your desk last night." She figured the Captain's pissed off expression had to be related to something to do with files. He couldn't be barking at her today; Neve made sure to fill out her three full pages of that damn daycare workers case already.

The captain was a tall man in his early fifties who aged well enough to still look in his early forties. Thomas Crutch was an okay boss if you were to ask anyone around the Homicide department. He was a hard-ass who liked to push buttons, but, he also had his detectives and officers backs when push came to shove. The captain nearly always wore a suit to work and more often than not wore a steely gaze as he watched everyone. This was something that Neve and Koby often laughed about when they weren't in their captain's presence along with his amusing name.

His last name was Crutch, providing a pretty semi-amusing time whenever someone would call the words 'Captain Crunch' aloud.

No one was dumb enough to snigger about the captain's name sounding similar to the cereal in front of him. Not since the captain made poor Detective Compton perform desk duty for six months after laughing about his name. After that, no one stupid enough to even whisper the words 'Cap'n Crunch' in the man's presence even if they were merely referring to the cereal.

Koby made his way back into the room while happily holding his own cup of coffee.

"Don't get comfortable," Crutch said sternly. "You two are goin' to San Jose to the main department out there. Address is right here," he said, nodding his head at the direction on his desk. "Got a call a half hour ago. Bad homicide that you two are going to be giving a little insight to until the SJPD either gives you the okay to leave or roughly kicks your asses out."

Koby and Neve shared surprised glances hearing this. Neve brought her cup of delicious coffee to her mouth, drinking down the warm goodness. She didn't need to question the captain on why they needed to assist in a homicide well over an hour away. Koby was the one out of their dynamic duo who usually questioned everything. Neve was quiet and usually nodded for the most part. She only provided semi-sarcastic commentary when necessary. Usually, the sarcastic commentary was only reserved for the people who she knew understood humor. Otherwise she remained completely silent similar to how she spent most of her adolescent growing up.

Right on cue, Koby's mouth started rolling. "A homicide out in Jose? What about Jenson and Parker? They usually do the homicides assists for out of county," he pointed out as he downed his own coffee with zero regard to how hot it was.

"Yeah, well. Special circumstances have me doin' somethin' different," the Captain said, pinching the bridge between his large nose. "Get your ass out there, identify the vic, and then come on back."

"How we gonna identify the vic when we don't know who the hell they are, Cap?" Koby pushed, cocking a dark brow.

"I'm guessing Stone knows the vic or previously met them," Captain Crutch said as he overlooked a few files on the desk. "At least, that's what SJPD feels."

Neve and Koby exchanged looks of wonder, not understanding what the vague captain was implying.

"Captain, why would San Jose think I know the vic personally?" Neve asked curiously.

The Captain sighed as he plopped down his file on the mahogany desk before him. He brought his hands together to cup before wincing. "Your card was found shoved down the victim's throat, Stone."
As she and Koby's eyes widened, Neve couldn't help but feel that was a damn good answer.