The Blue Diamond

Climbing tress is illegal

Shabina left Simon to the bar and walked back to the right wing of the house, where she had been before she heard everyone go suspiciously quiet.

There were a few tables set up, specifically for gambling. The place didn't have as big of a crowd compared to the room Shabina had just left. People were mostly just playing and drinking.

Shabina looked at one of the gambling tables, if she wasn't on duty she would have joined the game. But she tends to get too competitive and there by distracted when playing, just playing anything in general even if there aren't any stakes. Was it uno, chess, basketball, black jack, just pretty much anything and everything. At least she can turn this competitiveness into something useful, so far she has never given up on a case even for one second. Which is exactly why she was so worried about this one.

Valerie "whip-smart" Rose, she never knew about her powers or SOD but still somehow mastered them when they developed, she joined the mafia at a young age, succesfully escaped them (hence, she's still alive), started helping other mafia families and organized criminals for money while somehow managing to avoid SOD and annoying the previous investigator to the point of quitting. Shabina was worried that the same thing would happen to her. Was Valerie really that good?

Shabina continued to look around the room, either she's going to get some drunk idiot(s) to distract the guard for her or she's going to find another way to get upstairs.
Regardless of which option she's going to pick, she still continued to look around the house.

Shabina found just a few bathrooms and locked doors. The livingroom was at the back of the house. Two of the walls facing outside were both filled with glass windows, not counting the glass door to the backyard.
Shabina could see people outside by the pool despite the chilly night that made the water release steam into the air.

She pushed her way through a group of people standing near the enterance of the livingroom, and then continued to walk to the door. Shabina slided the door open and stepped outside.

She was immediaetly glad that she had put on a suit instead of a dress. She wasn't exactly a dress gal anyway. Not like there was anything wrong with dresses or people who wore them, she just didn't like to wear them herself.

Shabina looked around, gladly no one was paying attention to her so she sidled on to the side of the terrace and walked around the house to find the window to the room the diamond was kept in.
She eventually found the right room, probably, but at least the room she assumed to be the right one according to the floor plans of the house she had looked at back in the office.

The window was a bit too far away for her, this house was a mansion after all. Conveniently, there was also a big three near the window. At least it's worth the try.

Shabina untied her tie and placed it around the tree. Hoping that it would carry her weight she put her sole on the trees trunk to start climbing. She was quickly interruped by something touching her back.
Of course.
Of course someones pointing a gun at her.

"Turn around" a man's voice said behind her.
Shabina obeyed. She put her foot down and let go of her tie with her other hand, so she was still holding it in the other. After that she slowly turned around to look at the man pointing a gun at her.

"So climbing a tree is illegal now?" She said with no expression on her face, but her hands were still up in the air to show that she wasn't a threat. At least for now.
"Don't play dumb with me" the man said.
"I'm not" Shabina lied, even though she knew that he wouldn't buy it. No normal person just randomly starts climbing a tree at a fancy party with no ulterior motives. "Is it because I'm black?" She asked.
"Don't pull that card, I'm not that kind of a cop" he said.
He's a cop, huh? Probably not with SOD, they wouldn't send more people here without informing her or Simon about it first.
"Well we are in america after all" she said. "Could you please stop pointing a gun at me I haven't done anythint illegal"
"Yet" the man said, still pointing the gun at Shabina "I know what's in that room you were trying to get to" he continued.
"No no you have it all wrong, now if you'd let me slowly reach into my pocket I can show you that I'm not a criminal" Shabina said. She was pretty sure she had her fake FBI ID card on her in case something like this happens. Well technically it wasn't fake, SOD has plenty people in the FBI so every investigator get's their own "FBI" ID card. You can't exactly show anyone without powers your SOD badge and assume they know what it is. Though the fake ID card is official, the only thing that makes it fake is not being in the FBI (which may or may not be the definiton of fake).

The man nodded and let Shabina slowly reach into her pocket where she took out this previously mentioned ID card.
"FBI huh?" The man said, he put down his gun and offered his hand to Shabina "Lieutenant Marshall"
"Special agent Johnstone" Shabina said and shook his hand briefly.

"Now can you tell me why were you trying to climb a tree?" Lieutenant Marshall asked.
"You already know what's in that room, don't you? I need to get there before... a certain someone gets there first" she answered trying not to give him too much details.
"And then?" He continued.
"I'd wait for her to come there and then arrest her" she said. "Why are you here, Lieutenant, may I ask?"
Lieutenant Marshall looked around as if someone would be nearby listening to their converstation, then he turned back to Shabina.
"You know the host of this party is with the mafia right?" He said a bit more quietly than usual.
"I am aware" Shabina said "so you're trying to catch him?"she questioned.
"Not right now, I'm just undercover trying to gather information to do it later" he said, again, a bit more quietly.
Shabina looked at him for a few seconds clearly thinking about something.
Lieutenant Mashall puckered his eyebrow before Shabina finally said:
"We both want the same thing, right? To get criminals behind bars. How about you help me with this thing and I owe you a favor. It doesn't have to be helping you gather that information you need, you can save it for later"

Lieutenant Marshall thought for a second.
"Okay fine what do you have in your mind?"