Participants:
| Scene Title | A Dick By Any Other Name |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | …would be Richard. |
| Date | March 9, 2009 |
NYPD Headquarters, Forensics Lab
The forensics lab of the NYPD Headquarters is a massive collection of seperate laboratories and testing room. This entire basement level of the building is interconnected with the ballistics lab and its own morgue. The facilities, while stocked with state of the art technology, show obvious signs of wear and tear that have not been repaired. Ceiling tiles are stained brown from leaking pipes, concrete walls show stress fractures, paint is peeling and it seems like every other fluorescent light flickers with old age.
"The term, is shitstorm."
When the elevator doors open to the matte white walls of the forensics lab floor, Richard Myron is already moving, adjusting his tie with one hand, and pulling off his fedora with the other. He barely castsa a glance over his shoulder to Detective Ezra Grimes as he starts striding towards the lab, like a man on a mission, like a man possessed with some higher purpose.
March 9th, 8:25am
It had seemed as though most of the leads in the homicides seemingly connected to a man named Tyler Case had gone dry. Flint Deckard had provided some information to the NYPD after his arrest, but nothing that was concrete enough to move on. However, the phone call from the forensics lab that awoke both Ezra Grimes and Richard Myron from their sleep this morning promised something else, something wholly unexpected — a lead.
Day 19
"That's exactly what this is going to be, a fucking shitstorm." Pushing open the doors to the main lab, Myron strolls in with a toss of his hat onto one of the unoccupied tables. The phone call briefly explained that the DNA on the bone chips found inside of the dead Triad member in Chinatown had been positively identified, and to follow up with Rebecca Nakano who has been assigned to the case. But the point that surprised both Myron and Grimes, was that according to the phone conversation, the DNA evidence does not belong to Tyler Case…
Ezra rides the elevator in near silence. That is, it's completely silent except for Ezra, quietly singing 'Hit Me Baby One More Time', in the way people might do while they're waiting for someone. Until, that is, Myron shoots him a dirty look over his shoulder after the doors pop open. "Sorry," he begins, cheerfully, before strolling after Myron. Myron walks like a steamtrain; Ezra not so much.
In fact, at one point, Ezra stops to drink at a water fountain without making so much as a peep; trying to bait Myron into walking away from him while still talking — to, at that point, nobody in particular.
It's early in the day. He's got to get his kicks.
For the first time in.. days, the Forensic lab actually sparkles. There is not one trace of soot anywhere. Everything has been put back in its intended location and all is right in the world of NYPD's analyst, Rebecca Nakano. She seems a little disturbed regardless, as she actually snaps out of her deep thoughts at the sudden outburst of the detective that storms her sanctuary. In reality, this whole case has been a baffling experience, in which nothing at all makes any damn sense. Her view of reality is severely being tested, along with a few personal issues that seem to have her attention, she's holding up at least. Barely.
She turns to Myron and peers at him. "I'm afraid I'm not going to make it any easier for you either, sir. I'm only going to cloud this entire case even further." she shakes her head as she pulls up some of her records on the case he's inquiring about.
"I'm used to cloudy in whatever swirling heap of crap this whole case has become," Myron mumbles, making a direct approach towards the coffee pot far across the lab, one hand scratching at the back of his head. "Don't wait on me to caffeinate, what've you got for us, darling?" His strides are long and quick, it's evident now he wasn't so much in a hurry to get down to the lab, as he was to get to the Mr.Coffee sitting at the far corner of the lab near the lab technicians' desks.
"I got a lovely wake-up call sayin' you might'a cracked this whole case open like a coconut," the old detective rambles, hastily pulling a paper cup out from a stack of others, sending the whole tower of cups falling onto the countertop, one rolling to the edge to fall on the floor with a soft clatter. "Lay it on us," the pot is pulled off from the burner with a clunk of the glass, the hours old coffee sloshing like molasses in the bottom, "who's our mystery man?"
Ezra sips from a coffee mug. It's bright pink and it says 'World's #1 Mommy' on it. He slurps, long and steady, while staring at Rebecca and the Forensics Lab behind her. "You ever keep track of how many fecal-themed metaphors you make in a given day, Myron? It might be… Telling. I'd pass that on to your therapist, Dr. Everything's-Gonna-Be-Alright," he explains. He doesn't so much greet Rebecca aside from a bug-eyed sort of look. "So. Onwards to the parlour scene?"
Becca doesn't drink coffee, so she pities the detective since that was probably brewed last night and left to rot over night. It was there when she walked in this morning and she doesn't drink coffee. She's about to say something to him about it when he asks her about the case, which immediately peaks her interest and she focuses back on the case.
"It's taken some doing but we finally have a hit on the DNA of those bones from the first 'incident'" — for the lack of a better term at the moment. She pulls up a photo of Tylar Case. "Case was the common link in all three1 however, the DNA of those bone fragments actually belonged to.." she taps a few more keys and another photo pops up. "Chang Ye. Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you'll recognize him as the head of the Chinese Triads and NYPD and other law enforcement offices have been trying to years to snag him." She inputs a few more keystrokes before she announces. "And looks like Mr. Ye was an unregistered evolved."
It is only Rebecca's revelation that forestalls the icy glare Myron is giving Ezra while he pours his coffee. The old detective nearly forgets to tip the pot back up once he hears the explanation of who the bone fragments belong to. He swallows, dryly, and looks from Rebecca to Ezra and back again, "You're serious," he deadpans, setting the coffee down entirely, "Old man Chang?" His eyes track to Ezra, one hand rubbing across his mouth.
"Harrison and I followed up on that Fish Market guy, the one who called in about Han's body, he was terrified about the identity of the devil he said he saw, and both me an' Harrison were pretty sure he was hiding something, but — " He rubs his mouth again, slowly, "Damn. Maybe that explains the phantom ambulance we heard about going up to his place on the night of the murder… Christ."
"Oh." Ezra says, leaning back. "Great." Ezra looks at Myron; if there are any doors open in the room, Ezra shuts them, quietly. "So, nobody else knows about this but you, and you, and me, right? And I'm not asking so that I can sell it to the paper as an exclusive." Ezra's head tilts skyward. Or, ceilingward, anyways.
"So now we know how a devil got to the scene and away from it… the ambulance makes a whole lot more sense. … Hey, expand that picture, would you? Can you get a look at his hands?" Ezra's looking for a wedding ring.
She glances at Myron, "I haven't informed anyone of any findings yet. I knew you would want to see the results for yourself." At Ezra's questions, she shakes her head. "Not this photo, but there are more." she flips through, one by one from surveillance photo to surveillance photo until she finds one and pulls it close on Chang's hand and.. like magic. One ring. "I take it that's what you're looking for?" Rebecca glances back at Ezra. "This mean something to you, detective?"
"Yeah. We found a ring at the scene," Ezra says. "Split in two. It's been bugging me. I had a feeling it might been split by pressure from the inside, not the outside." He makes some gestures with his hands. "Wedding rings look like wedding rings look like wedding rings, but it's something…" Ezra looks over his shoulder at Myron. "And, y'know. Between the ring and the DNA, we can place Chang Ye at the scene — as a suspect. Forget trying to nail him for criminal conspiracy and extortion. We'll get him for murder two, in his Lou Ferrigno form."
Myron whistles immediately when he sees the ring, "Son of a bitch Grimes, you're one sharp cookie." He doesn't directly answer Rebecca's question, but clearly it does mean something between the two. He moves from by the coffee pot, entirely forgetting what he had wanted so badly, now, as he moves over towards Ezra and Rebecca rather conspiratorially. "We've known for a few years that Chang's got eyes and ears in the NYPD, but we ain't never been able to fish them out."
Myron looks towards the door, then back to Rebecca, "If you're sure this is just between us, we might actually have a head start on nailing his ass to the wall for this. Grimes, if we can actually make this stick, we might be able to bring down Chang's entire operation." Myron's eyes track to the picture, head tilting to one side, "This still doesn't explain the other murders though, unless Chang here is a lot trickier than we thought…"
The old detective straightens, rubbing at his chin as his eyes cast to the side at Ezra, "We're gonna have to keep this one close to our chest, if we ain't wanting Chang to hop ship to China in the interim. You got a short-list of people you know you can count on to be on the up and up?"
Becca takes a few more keystrokes and closes the file. "I left it checked out to me for the time being. Meaning, off limits to everyone except me unless you have clearance over mine." Which limits it to only a handful of individuals, really. Nothing she can do about that. "That's about the best I can offer you." she notes. "It should buy you some time, unless someone is specifically looking for this file."
Myron's life was probably saved by not drinking that coffee. In fact, she stands and walks over and pours what's left down the sink and rinses out the pot and tips it upside down on the counter to dry. She lets the detectives talk. She hasn't been taken out to a crime scene as of yet, so she's pretty certain she'll not be needed at this point. She slips back over and takes a seat in front of her computer, and turns off the projector.
Grimes looks back at Myron. "No, there's nobody," he says, deadpan, before he leans back over to stare into the projector.
A few beats pass.
"There's Damaris. I'll bring her in. We've got his DNA on the scene, and the way in which it was left suggests that he's Evolved. That's enough to bring him in as a suspect, but I don't like it. Cases don't get built on DNA alone. The wedding ring'll place him at the scene for sure it it's his. If I have to ask him some questions… I'll check his ring finger. Poor bastard probably wants the thing back."
"For now, we need to fill the holes in our case. We need a motive. Doesn't make sense that he'd axe the vic himself using his super-secret space alien powers."
"Damaris, yea…" Myron nods his head slowly, standing up straight before circling around Grimes, his eyes wandering the lab, flitting back to Nakano after a moment. "You got a point, what with the lack of motive. It doesn't make any sense for Chang to off one of his own men for no good reason, and not even dispose of the body." Rubbing one hand over his face again, Myron stops by the upturned coffee pot, "Case, yeah, he's got all the reason in the world… but Chang…"
There's a heavy, tired sigh, and Myron turns to look back at Ezra, "I'd say Harrison and our FBI liason Ivanov would be on that short-list too. I've worked with them on this case, and both of 'em seem on the up and up." Tilting his head to the side, Richard looks down to the floor. "We're in a pickle, we gotta' move quick before any advantage we got on Chang dissolves, but we gotta' be able to pin something on him that'll stick too."
Myron looks up to Ezra again, brows furrowed together, "If we bring him in on suspicion of murder — which we've got enough to do that with — that'd buy us some time to snoop around while he's in holding, maybe to find something to make all this stick to him. But it's a risk…" He doesn't sound entirely assured of it.
Feeling the eyes of the older detective on her, Rebecca swivels away from him for a moment while sitting in her chair and when his attention is drawn away she glances back. "If you think there might be something to be found, I could possibly be of assistance. Otherwise, I'm not much good to you unless you find something to bring me." She's a knack for finding the hidden among the clutter. "Just let me know what you need me to do." she ensures as she leans back against her desk.
"We need to figure out what the connection between Case, Chang, and the vic really is," Ezra reasons. "If we bring Chang in, we can hold him for 24 hours. After that… even if we charge him, he's got the money and the lawyers to walk. And if he thinks the jig is /really/ up, we can't stop him from fleeing the country on bail. And good luck getting him extradited from The People's Republic." Funny. He knows a whole lot about the big picture for a small-time cop.
"Well. I guess we've got to talk to Mr. Body," Ezra says. He sort of double-takes. "—it's a Clue thing. Case."
"Only people who're gonna' know that, are Case, Chang and…" Myron's eyes narrow slightly, "Maybe we could bring in one of Chang's men? Harrison and I heard a rumor flying around Chinatown that the Dragons are offering a metric ton of money for Case's head on a silver platter." He glances over to Rebecca, an idea beginning to form, then looks back, "You think the apple falls far from the tree, Grimes?"
At first it doesn't make much sense, "Song and Liu Ye, Chang's kids. You think they might be like good ol' dad?" He flicks his eyes back to Rebecca, "If we can get our hands on two test kits, we might have some leverage for them. It's no small secret that Chang's little boy and girl are lookin' for a reason to replace dear old dad," Myron looks back to Ezra, a smirk spreading across his lips, "You think we might wanna' play dirty on this one?"
It's like watching a ping pong match. Her eyes move from one detective to the other as they hash out their plan to take down Chang. Becca's mind absorbing it all like a sponge. She may need it in the future. Soft brown eyes, move back and forth, both ears open and listening.
"We're sure as shit gonna need you," Ezra says, to Rebecca. "You're the only lab tech we know we can trust. Well, we don't, but you already /know/ and you're telling us this in the first place, so—" It's a logical conclusion. "Point is, you're our go-to gal," Grimes specifies. "Yeah. We can test anybody, anytime, right? On account of that whole fuck-the-Constitution thing HomeSec gets to do? Let's figure out how to get them tested, and /then/ we can talk to them about Pop."
"Yeah, we're going to be coming directly to you, Nakano." Myron gives an affirmative nod, "We can't even be sure if we can trust the CSI teams, which means we might be calling you out if any more of these unexplained deaths crop up." Myron sighs, deeply, then looks over to Ezra. "We had some of the tests roll in to my precinct in Chinatown last week. They're blood tests — you prick your finger and stick it on this pad. Turns red you're normal, turns blue you're — one'a them." He rolls one shoulder, "Or was it the other way around?"
With a helpless shake of his head, Myron saunters over to Rebecca, slapping his hands gently down on her shoulders, "Miss Nakano here can probably pull two tests for us — off the record — and we might just be able to use them to leverage Song and Liu, if the opportunity arises. Just the threat of them might work," he casts a side-long glance to Ezra, "How do you want to go about this? We've got a few trustworthy hands."
"Yeah. Especially if they know about Daddy." Ezra scowls. "He's old. Chang. Older than a lot of them…" The skittish man shakes his head. "… not that it matters, anyways. Whatever. Let's do it. I'll wake up Damaris and we'll see about catching the Brothers off-guard for their compulsory tests."
Test. All this talk about the test. The girl tenses as the hand is placed on her shoulder. Yeah, she'd never make a good poker player, that's for sure. She never takes risks, so she would always play the game by the book. "Whatever you need. Just let me know. I'm here to help." All this talk about moles and folks working on the inside. It's one of those things that she never really imagined happened in real life. Just part of novels and crime dramas on TV. She definitely doesn't want to talk too much about evolved testing.
"Right, I'll grab Ivanov and Harrison and see if we can shake down anything in Chinatown about Case." Myron grins broadly, slipping away from Rebecca to move over to where his fedora is, plucking it up from the haphazard angle it sits on the edge of an examination table. "Nakano," he turns sharply to the forensics investigator, "good work — really." There's something grandfatherly about the cantankerous old detective's smile, "We wouldn't have been able to do this without you."
Stopping by the door, Myron slips on his hat and looks over to Ezra from Rebecca, "You do some damn fine work, kid." Myron's lips creep up into a smile, contorting his stubbly gray beard, "Let me know what comes up with Damaris an' you," he adds as an afterthought, pushing the doors to the lab open before quickly moving out into the hall.
For a minute there, he actually looked excited about all of this.
"Well, *I* might have figured all of this out without you," Ezra says, before pointing an index finger. "Don't crack under pressure. If you mess up, everyone in this room could get dropped off the Williamsburg Bridge." And then he slaps Myron on the back and heads out of the room.
Dick.
 March 9th: Can You Tell Me If She's Alive? |
Previously in this storyline… Next in this storyline… |
 March 9th: Beacon |