Face Tattoo

Chapter Two-The Scene.

"It took you long enough." Joyce Petty, said to her partner as he stepped out of his car. She had dark skin that was highlighted at her cheekbones by her makeup, her black hair had so much volume in the curls that it sat on her shoulders without help. Her eyebrows were tidy and perfectly symmetrical.

"I was having breakfast." Leroy Prince, her partner, said as they walked towards the small supermarket. His skin was slightly darker then hers and his hair that was barely a stubble started by a perfect straight line near the top of his flat head. His eyebrows started where his clear eyes did and he had a moustache that mimicked his top lip and a goat beard that was no longer than the moustache to go with it.

"Alone I guess." Joyce said mocking that fact that he lived alone and wasn't in any sort of relationship unlike herself, who was happily married with a two kids.

"So fill me in." Leroy said ignoring her comment and fixing the collar of his jacket that said NYPD on the back and crinkles as it had not been ironed after he rolled it in a ball and dumped it on his floor last night.

"So a man decides to rob this place this morning with his shotgun, I doubt he had any expectations of hurting anyone because there was only a few bullet holes in the roof." She started as if she was telling a fiction story.

"Anyway, everyone hits the ground as you do." she rolled her eyes as if it was a typical thing she would never do because she was too smart a brave to sit back and watch but it was her job not to.

"But one girl doesn't." she said, holding up her index finger.

"One thing led to another and she kills him, taking his car after she left." She stopped when she finished and they stood outside the shop.

"Did we get it on video?" Leroy asked.

"Yup, the whole thing." Joyce said as she smiled creating a line from each side of her small nose that ended at the tip of her smile.

"Any dominant features that we can trace?" Leroy asked folding his arms.

"She had a tattoo on her face." He raised her eyebrows in amazement of how unusual that was.

"Well it shouldn't be hard to find her then." He nodded, think this was going to be easy.

"Detectives." Officer Allen waved to them as they walked into the shop. "I guess detective Petty has updated you." He said to Leroy.

"She has." Leroy agreed looking over at her.

"Did you find out who the victim is?" Joyce asked the young officer, not even waiting for Leroy to take a breath after he had finished before she changed the subject.

"Yes, I scanned his face and..." he paused as he tapped on the screen of a small thin devise he was holding. "Our victim is 31 year old Daniel Peter Glen, currently unemployed, living in a rented apartment in Hell's Kitchen. He was arrested for petty theft last year and obviously was starting up again today." He said, reading off of the device and not looking up until he was done.

"Any family?" Leroy asked as Joyce stepped towards Daniels body.

"He's not married, there's no ring." Joyce said, kneeling next to the body and looking at his hands.

"Yes, he is not married and he has no children." Officer Allen said, agreeing with Joyce and sticking his thumb up at her like it was a huge accomplishment for her. "He has parents, obviously." He said quickly correcting his mistake before either of the detectives could ask.

"Send someone to his parents, we will need them to identify the body." Joyce said standing up and wiping her knees.

"I'm one step ahead of you." Allen said and tapped the screen again.

"Why do we even need people to identify the body, the DNA results and the facial recognition is enough don't you think?" Leroy moaned frowning at the thought of more work.

"I don't know and I don't care, as long as it's done." Joyce said, checking her watch.

"Allen, you got anything on the girl with the face tattoo?" Leroy said, turning to him as he was about to leave.

"Oh yes, I meant to say that there was a problem with that." He pointed his eyebrows down.

"What?" Joyce asked, stepping towards him.

"Well I couldn't just scan her face like I did with him." He pointed to the dead body. "So I went into the video of her killing him and a got a pretty good image of her face and scanned it but..." he paused and screwed his eyes.

"But what?" Leroy said, wishing he would got to the point already.

"Nothing came in." Allen gulped.

"Did you try again?" Joyce said, as if he was a child with a broken phone.

"Yes and I tried a different image but there was no results." He stood, trying to think of something he did wrong.

"Take a copy of the video and try it back at the station, maybe it will work there." Joyce said, walking past him as Leroy followed, hitting him on the back as he did.

They both walked over to Captain Williams who was talking to one of the witnesses, hunched over and wrapped in a blanket.

Captain Williams had been working for a while, he was in his fifties and his hair was already grey, well the very ends of his hair was, the rest was pure white. But he was incredibly tall, taller than both Joyce and Leroy in fact and he kept good care of himself, with no pot belly that older men had. Although the overflowing hair in his ears didn't seem so healthy.

"Captain, can we talk to you." Joyce said as he finished his conversation with the witness and guided them away from her.

"Yes?" He said as Joyce and Leroy stood shoulder to shoulder, staring at him like it was two against one.

"Allen told us that nothing came up for the girl." Joyce said, almost whispering as she leaned forward with one shoulder.

"I know what you're thinking detective and I don't want you to say it. That was a long time ago when you were barely a child." The Captain said firmly to her. "It is a malfunction that he will fix back at the station, that's it."

"Of course it is Captain, right Joyce?" Leroy widened his eyes to get her to agree.

"Yes." She sighed.

"You two are interviewing the witnesses, so get back to the station." He pointed to the both of them and walked away.