The Jester's Court

Chapter 2: How Do You Catch a Jester?

It took about three hours for the Jester moniker to be leaked to the press. Typically, one person pullin' a prank like he did wouldn't even hit the radar, but what with the spandex and all, well, apparently, it made for good news from April Fool's Day. The Chief was havin' to prepare for a press conference about him already.

The Chief was not pleased.

He didn't care for press conferences. It made him get dressed up in uniform. He bitched about that a lot, but he was always impeccable. I think he secretly liked it, he just didn't want to be known as "that guy". But, his shoes were always polished to a mirror finish, his buttons were always upright, and his badge was always shiny.

I think he just didn't like public speakin', honestly. He always did well, despite the bitchin', but I think he practiced a lot.

Of course, because he didn't like press conferences, that meant that the Lieutenant, Danny, and I had to make an appearance. I tried to stand in the back 'cause I was rumpled. Danny, with his really nice suit, and the Lieutenant with her really nice uniform, far outshone me and made the department look good. I was lucky I didn't have a coffee stain on my tie by now.

"No, we do not have any leads as of yet. What we know is pretty much what the public knows at this time," the Chief was sayin' to the reporters.

"How long do you think it will take to arrest the Jester?" one enterprisin' young reporter asked.

You could tell she was new; no one asked the cops that after one incident. They only asked that after it became serial. Homicide was typically involved on a serial case. Honestly, this was a guy in a weird costume who pulled a prank on April Fool's Day. I contemplated why they didn't decide to call him "The Fool" rather than "The Jester", but I wasn't in charge of such things.

"Well, Ms...." the Chief tried to peer at her name tag, but couldn't read it.

"Rodriguez," the woman provided.

"Ms. Rodriguez, it is hard to tell. I would like to say that we would be arresting him today, and if I were a less scrupulous man, I would. But I do not lie to the public. We have yet to see a pattern of behavior. In fact, we do not know if this man will even repeat the behavior. So, it is unclear when an arrest might be made. Rest assured, however, that we are following up on every lead in the most timely manner possible."

Huh. I'd never noticed that the Chief didn't use contractions before, even though I'd known him for years. I tried not to pull at my too-tight tie and contemplated the realization. Maybe it was a press conference thing. I'd have to pay attention later when he spoke to the division. 'Cause, I was sure he would.

Now, despite the fact I'd never caught his speech pattern, I'd like to say that I know the Chief. We all do. And, we all know that what he'd just said was little white lie; there are times when the police are forced to lie to the public, for a wide variety of reasons. We might need to hold back information. We might need to help quell unrest. Hell, we might just need to buy a little more time. But, he was right; he was a man of a high moral standard and he only did that in the line of duty.

I wanted to be the Chief when I grew up.

That, and I wanted to wear Danny's suits. I wondered briefly, to distract me from my tie, if they were bespoke. I'd bet they were. I could just imagine him and his perky, rich wife in some shop somewhere gettin' him measured up. Just like I could imagine them pickin' out the Harley and the Hummer. Lucky bastard.

"What do you expect him to do next?" Ms. Rodriguez asked. Again, rookie question.

The Chief stared at her for a heartbeat. I could tell he thought it was a dumb question, though, we all knew she was just tryin' to make a name for herself. I was bettin' she was as sharp as a tack. In fact, I'd take a bet that she knew they were rookie questions and she was just askin' them to get attention. Attention can make or break a reporter.