Echoes from the Past

1 - Revelations

Rosa Diaz, no one knew much about the dark-haired detective with whom they had worked with for the past 4 years. It had always bugged Jake Peralta to no end, they were friends, right?

"I don't know Charles, but I think today is the day we get some answers. Besides, there isn't anything to do around here." Jake was bored, it was a slow day at the Nine Nine and he had just witnessed Rosa take a bite of an apple. "And look, we now know four things about Rosa, she likes apples."

Jakes best friend Charles Boyle was trying not to make eye contact with him. No matter how much he loved to goof off with Jake, he was trying to catch up on paperwork. "Bad idea Jake, do you want to die?"

"No, I do not, but I'm bored, and I say we do this. Operation Break into the Secret Life of Rosa Diaz is a go." Jake knew a code name for their operation would get Charles on board, and he was right.

"Fine, Jakey, but I think the name is too long. And mentioning her by name might get us caught might I add."

Jake pondered for a moment until he saw Rosa throw her apple across the room, hitting Hitchcock square in the chest. "See! Now we are back to knowing three things about Rosa, she hates apples. Or does that count as a thing?"

Charles smiled and rolled his chair closer to Jake. "I say it counts. Operation Splattered Apple is a go."

"No, Charles, we aren't calling it Splattered Apple," Jake said in disgust. "Oh wait, I kind of like it. Operation Splattered Apple is a go!"

Their task was proving to be a lot harder that they had previously thought. Even the police database wasn't giving them much about her personal life. Her address seemed to change almost constantly, which explained why no one ever knew where she lived. A normal person would have given up long before they did, but the mystery intensified when they couldn't uncover anything at all.

"Jake, I don't like this," Charles said uneasily as he watched his best friend get even more into his search. "Why don't we just go and ask her some things?"

"Because, Charles, that wouldn't be half as fun. And besides, she's never budged when I've asked before." Jake was starting to get frustrated. The detective in question was sitting less than 15 feet away and he knew almost nothing about her. They were supposed to be friends; they braved the police academy together for Pete's sake. "I do have an idea, but I don't think you are going to like it."

Charles seemed to know what Jake was thinking before he even said it. It was the end of the workweek, so they did have the next two days off. "Does it have anything to do with having two days off?"

"Bingpot! My good lad," Jake celebrated. "One of the things I know about her came from one drunken night many moons ago. She mentioned attending a ballet school when she was younger before being kicked out. I've already looked it up, here, look." He turned his screen to Charles who saw an address for The American Ballet Academy. "I would bet my left shoe that they have records there that could give us more information. We ride at midnight!"

Charles high-fived Jake and the two got a few concerned stares, mostly from Amy who had grown jealous of the secret talk that they told her was none of her beeswax. To be truthful, Amy could never keep a secret and would have run to tell Rosa the moment the two had their backs turned.

"Could we leave in the morning though? It's only a few hours away," Charles begged.

"Oh, we are," Jake returned in a mocking voice. "It just sounded cooler to say, 'we ride at midnight!'"

Over the next two days, the two couldn't believe their luck. They found Rosa's old records at the school, but her name was different. She went by Nyssa Rivera, and they only caught it because of the photo ID on the front of the file. Why would she have changed her name? Their search then led them to Rosa's old hometown where they spent an entire day questioning old neighbors and diving into old public records. When searching the name Nyssa Rivera, they found out what high school she had attended, old run ins with the law, and then they found their most surprising piece of evidence...she had been married.