Participants:
| Scene Title | Acton Reed, Red Herring. |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Dante with Flora, descend on Homesec to interview/interrogate Acton Reed, and find their list of suspects, go down to Zero once again. |
| Date | August 15, 2010 |
Homeland Security Building
Acton Reed. Chief suspect in the Hunter COmmunications murder. A twenty-something, short short hair, an attitude that might very well rival Isabella's and a slouch that goes on forever as he sits in the seat of a home sec interrogation room. Arms crossed, he's been waiting for things to get started since he was called down here. Foot tapping, irritation on his face, he's not sure why he was called down, but he showed up none the less.
Outside the door, an Evo test in hand, and looking to Dante, Flora looks in through the mirror that provides a view for all. "You think he did it? Or is he really just unlucky enough to have no concrete Alibi?" Flora passes over the evolved test so she can open a file. "He's been to Florida, visited though, not lived there. Spring break"
Since he arrived, Dante has had his eyes locked mostly on the man in the room beyond, a look of fierce concentration on his hawkish face. His trenchcoat hung over one arm, he stands beside Flora, frowning through the glass as she gives him a brief rundown. When he's offered that Evolved Test, he finally peels his gaze away from the one-way mirror and takes the evo test from her, carefully fingering the materials as he turns his gaze back to the man. "It's hard to tell," the hyper-attentive Agent mutters, "He's pissed that he's here, obviously, but that doesn't tell us anything. Top of the suspect list /and/ no alibi is very damning for him in our eyes, at least. … At a guess, I'd say he's going to be a hard nut to crack. Since he doesn't seem to be showing any fear, perhaps that'd be a good motivator."
"Fear manifests as anger sometimes though" Flora shrugs her shoulders. "Manifests as a whole lot of different things" A brief deep inhale and she's striding out of the adjacent room after making sure the camera is running, leaving it up to Dante to ensure that he's on her heels.
The door handle turns and the door opens, FLora letting Dante enter first, followed by herself.
"Mister Reed! Hello there. Thank you for coming in, This is Agent Lupinetti, and I'm Agent Anderson"
Reed only smirks at that. "My names not neo"
Dante hmmmms lowly, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully at Reed, dropping his trenchcoat over a chair. He lingers just briefly behind Flora, test kit in hand as he adjusts the lay of his jacket to make his underarm holster more visible. He enters the room silently, blinking in the brighter lights before taking up a standing position near the wall to Reed's left. Just barely within his peripheral vision, while he's looking at Flora. "You might wish it was, after all this," he mutters dryly, that same ice blue, piercing stare on the man's profile.
"Damn, where's a spoon when you need one. you got one Lupinetti? All I got is a bobby pin" A gesture to her hair and it's intricate style. "Listen, your badge, was missing, day of the murder. You're the only one who doesn't have an alibi, and we got one dead pretty high up and up. Not to mention" The file folder in her free hand is put down. "We got you having been to Florida same time as another murder, and you were on the guys floor the day of"
He bristles under the assault of information, looking to Flora before glaring at Lupinetti. "I was at home, on my computer, I was playing world of warcraft and watching television. You're both so high and mighty why don't you go and see if you can't get Blizzard to let you poke your god damned fingers in there and see" He sneers. "And I was in florida for spring break, wiht about fifty other college kids and I was on his floor to fix Mister Wallace's computer before he popped a vein in his head. Man can't figure out how to plug in a computer"
"I might have one somewhere. Where do you want me to /stick/ it?" Dante replies in a low growl, matching Acton's glare with an equal one of his own. His head quirks to the side, cracking his neck loudly. The sound echos briefly in the mostly bare room. "You're mighty mouthy for someone who's being questioned about a murder, Reed. Might want to watch that." The athletically built agent leans back against the wall, kicking one ankle over the other.
'That's cause I didn't do it Agent Lupinetti. If you'd do your job you'd find out that I wasn't anywhere near that guy. He knew how to work his computer, he didn't need us in IT. Why the hell would I kill the guy? I didn't even know him!" The young man snaps off at Dawson, still bristling. Flora just smirks.
When Reed starts getting snappish, Dante steps forward off the wall, hands coming down to his hips. The gesture opens his jacket even more, putting the gun in its holster on prominent display. He slowly approaches Reed…and I mean slowly, each step careful, measured, and purposeful with his eyes locked on the suspect's. He's frowning deeply as his shoes squeak softly on the floor before he's standing right before the seated man, looking right down at him. "You a detective, Reed? You have experience with interrogating suspects?"
"No, but I seen CSI. Evidence is everything and I wanna know what evidence other than I can't prove that I was in my apartment, and a ticket to Florida, that connects me to the murder of that guy" Reed sits up in his chair, eyeballing the exposed weapon.
"Are you evolved Mister Acton?" Flora asks from her spot on the other side of the table. "You can lie about that, but Agent Lupinetti and I here, we got a test, that we need to do on you"
'That's bullshit. You can't test me, I'm not one of those freaks. I'm fucking human"
"You believe everything you see on TV?" Dante asks, a derisive sneer curling his upper lip. When that gaze falls to his weapon, Dante slowly reaches back, unbuttoning the holster and laying his hand over the grip. "Evidence is for the courtroom, Reed. We don't need evidence to make your life miserable. All we need to reason to suspect you, and your life will turn into weeks, probably months, of cramped jail cells and dreary court dates. At best, you'll go home with a tarnished reputation as a "suspected murderer". At worst, we'll find some evidence that /does/ tag you to the murder. Circumstantial, maybe, but with how uncooperative you're being, a jury wouldn't hesitate to use it to label you as a murderer with it."
Slowly, this whole time, he'd been leaning closer to Reed, getting in his personal space. "We /have/ done our homework, Reed. You're not as clean and clear as you may think." True? Doesn't matter at this point. It's all about getting the suspect to cooperate now.
As Flora speaks up, Dante leans back and, buttoning his holster back up, brings the test kit forward to dangle in front of Reed's face. "We can, and we will. It's mandatory even, in this case."
Up comes a hand to swipe at the evolved test kit. "Get that shit out of my face, I ain't evolved!" he nearly spits back in Dante's face, pushing his chair back so that Dante's not in his face.
Flora though, does something, a flick of her fingers and the room transforms into the office at Hunter Communications, replete with crime scene even. Dead body slumped over the desk where the table used to be, the potted plants, the air vent, everything. As the blonde looks around, little things smooth out into finer detail. Exactly as the pictures paint the scene that lay in the folder. The perks of being an illusionist really.
In front of Dante, Reed pales, eye's looking this way and that, going a little green around the gills and a tremor in his hand.
Dante pulls the evo test kit out of Reed's reach, taking a step back. As the world changes around them, Dante's attention on Reed's face sharpens further. Watching his expressions, following where his eyes go. Looking for microexpressions, hints of guilt or anything out of the ordinary. The jock is really straining his brain, here. Reading humans isn't his forte, so much as reading crime scenes.
The fear he wanted is there, true shock on his face as the guy backs away from the body as fast as possible, eye's going to the splash of red on the desk, the body and then the pools of blood that just drip from the body to desk to floor. Flora's taking a small bit of creative licence with her ability, the blood a bit more red than it would have been.
"Like what you see Reed?" She asks, arms folded.
"Fucking freak, which one of you is doing this? Fucking evo freaks, your messing with me!" His hands going to his hair, both of them, running his fingers through as he backs up against the wall. Anxiety riddling his body, but not a trace of guilt.
Time to press a little. As Reed backs up against the wall, Dante follows, staying just barely outside his space bubble. Looking from Reed out to the scene, Dante leans in just slightly, muttering quietly to the man. "Who's the freak, Reed? I'd say the real freak is the person who'd do that to a man." He points at that prominent dead body.
"That wasn't me man!" His volume at odds to Dante's low voice. "That wasn't me, I didn't kill anyone man! Just in Video games! That, that right there's that's.. that's some fucked up shit, Turn it off!" Voice getting high and panicky, shoulders flattened against the wall. His eye's keep flickering between Dante and the dead body, never staying too long on the corpse before looking away, steadily turning more green as time marches on.
Nadia has connected.
"Really? That wasn't you? Because right now, with all the /evidence/ put together? It sure looks like it was you." Dante is steadily getting closer to Reed, eyes on him once again. "Now, we've got nothing against you personally, Reed. That's the truth. I'd be /happy/ to get on track to the right killer. My job is to put the most likely suspect on the stand. If you cooperate with us…" He holds up the Evo test kit once again. "Then it'll be easier for you to convince us that that suspect isn't you."
"Fucking do it" A look to the test when he says it. "Just drop the fucking.. whatever, Get the fuck out of my head" Flora doesn't say whether it's her or whether it's Dante who's doing it, just standing in her navy suit and heels, a glance to the one way mirror. "I'm not Evo man, you gotta believe me" Reeds not resisting, just thrusting his arm out, hand working his sleeve up. He's nto very cognizant of how the tests are done obviously.
"I believe you," Dante says as Reed puts his arm out, his voice softening as he straightens, getting out of Reed's face. Got to reward the suspect when he starts cooperating, after all. "But it's not about that. Let's prove to the paperwork that you're telling the truth."
Opening the test kit, Dante pulls out the lancet and holds it out to Reed. "Prick your finger with this," he says, getting out the collection pad.
"They can't prick their own finger Lupinetti. Chain of evidentiary custody" Flora comes around the table, making sure to keep in view of the camera, taking the lancet from the other agent. No warning, she's grasping Reed's hand, pricking the pad of his middle finger quick as can be. The finger squeezed, producing the requisite welling of blood, a gesture for Dante to produce the little cardstock they need. Dab, dab, dab and dab, down goes the guys finger four times as they wait the result.
Blue.
Flora looks to Dante. "Negative"
Dante glances over at Flora when she says this, and rolls his eyes, his professional demeanor faltering for a moment. "Shit. Right. Forgot," he mutters, sheepishly handing the lancet and test kit off to Flora and letting her take over. In the meantime, he adjusts his suit, tucking the gun away again. Flora's news is taken in with a placid smile and he looks over to Reed now, folding his arms. "Congratulations, Reed. You're not a "freak"," he says, adding a little extra pronounciation to the last word, "Now, ready to prove to us you're not a murderer either?"
His hand taken back when the test is over and done with, visual relief on his face at the blue result. The upside to it all is that in two days, he'll get his registration card in the mail. Downside is… "I can't prove it, I was at home, playing on my computer and watching TV. I don't got a girlfriend or anything. I wasn't near.." he gestures to the illusion which drops partway through, the room returning back to normal."I don't know what to tell you man, I ain't ever been arrested for anything, I keep my nose clean!"
"Then just talk to us." Dante gestures to one of the chairs, moving to take a seat himself. "We've got questions for you. You just answer them, truthfully and without any attitude, and you have the best chance of clearing your name. Are we clear?"
Dragging his feet, Reed moves to the chair while Flora touches Dante's shoulder with a murmur of going to take the paperwork and make sure it's handed over. This leave Dante and Reed alone in the room, in as much as one can be alone in an interrogation room. "Ask your questions, but I didn't do it. I didn't kill nobody"
Dante is in the middle of sitting when Flora touches his shoulder. He tilts his head into the murmur, giving her remark a brief nod as he settles into his seat. Arms folded over his chest and legs hanging wide open in a comfortable, confident posture, Dante just quietly inspects Acton for a bit. "Your security badge wasn't turned in the night of the murder, Mr. Reed. What can you tell me about that?"
"I lost it. Maybe it got stolen. I couldn't find it when I woke up in the morning and took off for work, so I reported it to security so that I could get a temp badge and a replacement. That's all." His arms crossed, some of the attitude he exhibited before is gone, though tension and stiffness still rides his spine. But the attitude has lessoned.
"Do you remember the last place you saw it?" Dante looks down at his jacket, picking a little bit of lint off his sleeve. "If it were me, I'd keep my badge on me at all times. There must be a good number of people who would want access to the company with your name on all the records."
"I went out with some guys, we went to some clubs. That's the last time I remember seeing it. I went home, got on my computer, watched some television. Seriously. And sure as shit, the stuff they do in that place? They're big shit, this is a fucking dream job. It looks good on the resume. But I didn't kill that… guy" Reed goes green again. "I haven't found my keycard and it's useless once I reported it that morning. They de-activate it"
Dante nods slowly along with Acton's story, showing no sign of disbelieving his words. "Tell me about your trip to the clubs. Did you meet anyone interesting that night?" There's a brief glance towards the mirrored window and a raise of his eyebrow. Dante's jaw works slowly along with his thoughts.
"No one man. Just chicks and guys, and just non-stop partying. Tosn of Jello shooters and beer" He shakes his head, hackles lessoning as time creeps on by, though still on edge from the illusion trick. "We hit up three places, Todd went off with a girl, leaving just Frank and I. We danced some, got some numbers and I called it quits and got a taxi home. I don't think of Hunter OCmmunications when I'm off work. I don't like bringing work home and the idiots there who don't know what not to do to a computer"
"What do you usually do with your security badge after you leave work?" Dante asks, scratching idly at the underside of his chin, looking a little more relaxed himself, though his brow is still deeply furrowed in thought. "Does anyone outside your circle of friends know where you work?"
"I put it in my car, in the glove compartment. So it's there when I get in the car. But it wasn't there and I ripped my apartment apart looking for it that day. But I was gonna be late so I took off to work. When I came home I looked again, nothing. It's lost" There's a slightly insolent shrug from Reed.
"Was there any sign of someone breaking into your car when you returned from your night at the club? Were the doors to your car unlocked?" Dante asks, his face tightening in a brief frown at that hint of insolence from Reed.
"Nothing man. Nothing at all. My place wasn't broken into either. I seriously had nothing to do with this. Not at all. I never even met the guy" Reeds getting disgruntled and Flora's knocking on the door as a pre-cursor to her coming in. "Hey, Lupinetti, out here for a moment?"
Dante is about to ask another question when the knocking steals his attention, his gaze sweeping off Reed's face to the door. He stands silently, tucking his hands in his pockets and heading out with Flora. Without so much as a how-do-you-do to Reed! What nerve.
Door closes behind Dante and a new folder is presented to the man. "Blood at the scene, not belonging to Renner, is SLC positive. Guy in there, not our guy. Not even the same type. They want us to cut him loose"
As soon as he's through the door, Dante has a folder in his hand. Flipping it open, he glances through the contents, nodding along to Flora's assessment. Does nothing surprise this man? "He didn't act at all like a guilty party when you confronted him with the murder scene. Seems more like an absent-minded slacker than a murderer, to me." At her last comment, he looks up at Flora with a frown. "Do we have other leads to go off of?"
"Just looking into the families. The two murders in Florida with the same names. Maybe a connection there, but this guy, this guys like you said, slacker who just… lost his keycard. It'll teach him better next time. There's still Dawson's ability we can hope will give us something more on the blood. Renner has family in the area too. Got a brother who's in construction. A Donald Renner. We've got clearance for some agents to go to Florida and interview the families down there that survived. They're all related, familial wise, though"
Dante flips the folder closed and drops it on a nearby table. "Good to hear. If Reed here were the only lead, we'd be in sorry shape. You wanna give him the good news? It will put you in his good graces, in case we ever need to talk to him again." Because Dante rarely manages to get in anyone's good graces.
"Can do. You go get us signed out so we can blow this place. Say, I'm in a mood for Mexican" She starts towards the door again, the heel of her stiletto's clacking on the ground as her hand settles on the doorknob. "I'm dying for a good Tamale. I can even make it look like Me-hee-co!" a waggle of blonde brows.
Dante watches Flora go, his hands on his hips, a look of bemusement on his angled face at her words. Though there is the slightest of quirks of the corner of his mouth when she waggles her brows at him. Giving his head a quick shake, he turns to finish up the paperwork and get them released from their professional bondage. "I could go for a burrito, sure."
"Faaaaabulous!" The door opens and Flora disappears inside, the door closing, "Mister Reed…" is heard before it closes shut behind her. Erased from the imaginary white board, Acton Reed is no longer a suspect. Which leave the question…
Who killed Justin Renner?